Volume 3, Chapter 371 – We Were Acting in Self-Defense

Hearing those words, Cheng Yinyin felt a flame ignite in her chest.

A wild girl who had long since been driven from the estate, only to have stumbled back in through some stroke of ridiculous luck by the head of the family, and now she was playing the part of an elder sister in front of her?

“Throw them out for me!”

“I never want to see these two in this house again!”

The servants who had accompanied Cheng Yinyin did not recognize Chi Xiyan or Lu Zhuxin. They had served Cheng Yinyin for a long time and knew well that she was the most cherished daughter of Master Cheng. In this estate, she was the one to be deferred to.

With her command given, they closed in around the two women.

Lu Zhuxin stood at Chi Xiyan’s side. She swept her spiritual consciousness across the group.

Even household servants from prominent families carried some spiritual energy, but the ones Cheng Yinyin had brought along were, at best, First or Second Realm cultivators, only a thin step above ordinary mortals.

Even Cheng Yinyin herself was no more than early Third Realm, which could generously be called decent. Placed before a clan of the Chi family’s standing, it simply would not measure up.

Having assessed the situation on both sides, Lu Zhuxin let out a quiet, amused laugh.

“Elder Sister is right. It seems Yinyin has indeed been spoiled.”

Cheng Yinyin’s eyes snapped toward her. “And who are you?”

Lu Zhuxin blinked and gave her a sweet smile. “I’m your Second Elder Sister.”

“Second Elder Sister?” Cheng Yinyin looked her up and down. “What little potato crawled in here thinking she could say whatever she wants? Are you even as tall as me? And you’re calling yourself my sister.”

Lu Zhuxin’s expression froze for a moment.

What was wrong with this girl?!

She was really going to attack someone’s height?

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How outrageous!

160 centimeters was not short! That was perfectly fine, thank you very much!

“Elder Sister!” Lu Zhuxin clenched her fist. “Yinyin’s temperament really does need to be corrected.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the servants Cheng Yinyin had brought came rushing forward.

Chi Xiyan and Lu Zhuxin moved at the same time.

Without much effort at all, every last one of the servants was knocked down. Chi Xiyan was a Fourth Realm sword cultivator, and Lu Zhuxin had been training under Chi Xiyan for quite some time. With their combined strength, dealing with servants who were barely above ordinary mortals posed no difficulty whatsoever.

Cheng Yinyin stared at the two women before her, her chest heaving.

“You! You two are cultivators!”

Chi Xiyan and Lu Zhuxin exchanged a glance, then walked toward Cheng Yinyin from either side.

“Yinyin, are you really not satisfied?”

The color drained from Cheng Yinyin’s face. She had not imagined these two women would have such formidable strength.

“You’re bullying me!”

With that, tears began to spill from the corners of her eyes. She wailed through her nose, “I’m going to tell Father! I’ll have Father discipline you!”

The words had barely left her lips when Cheng Zhuo walked in, accompanied by a woman.

He took in the wreckage of the courtyard and furrowed his brow deeply.

“What happened here?”

“Father!” Cheng Yinyin threw herself into Cheng Zhuo’s arms. “They bullied me! Hurry and throw them out of this estate! I don’t want to see them!”

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Lu Zhuxin watched Cheng Yinyin putting on her act, her expression awash with exasperation.

Where had this little brat come from.

Chi Xiyan handled it with more composure. Her face betrayed very little, and she simply gave Cheng Zhuo a respectful bow.

“Master.”

Cheng Zhuo looked over at them. “Lixia, Lixue, what are you doing here?”

“Were these people beaten by you?”

Before Chi Xiyan could answer, Cheng Yinyin cut in.

“Father! It was them!”

“They barged into Mother’s courtyard and attacked Mother’s personal servants!”

“If you had arrived any later, I would have been at their mercy too!”

Hearing Cheng Yinyin’s tearful account, Cheng Zhuo’s brow furrowed further.

“Lixia, Lixue. What is the meaning of this?”

“Yinyin is your younger sister. You’ve only just returned, and on your very first day you’re treating your own sister like this?”

Chi Xiyan looked at the man before her, and something became clear to her.

She had been wondering what kind of man could leave his own flesh and blood abandoned outside for so many years without a second thought.

With a head of household this lacking, it was no wonder the Cheng family had so little standing.

She could only hope that such a family background would not drag down the selection process.

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Sighing inwardly, Chi Xiyan was about to speak when someone beat her to it.

“Master.” Lu Zhuxin turned a heated look toward Cheng Yinyin. “Why will you not hear our side of why we struck these people?”

Chi Xiyan glanced sideways and caught sight of Lu Zhuxin’s indignant, puffed-up little face.

It was the first time she had ever seen the girl this worked up.

Had Cheng Yinyin managed to stab her right in the heart?

Cheng Zhuo looked at Lu Zhuxin, puzzled. “Why, then?”

Lu Zhuxin pointed to the old woman tied up on the ground. “It was this woman who led us here. She told us that Madam was inside the room and asked us to wait in the courtyard for a moment.”

Cheng Zhuo was taken aback. He looked down at the woman on the ground. “Is that so?”

Madam Qian had been at his side from the moment she returned to the estate. There was no way she could have been inside the room. And besides, Cheng Zhuo had not seen Madam Qian send anyone to fetch the two girls.

“So you lied.”

A sharp, knowing light flickered in Cheng Zhuo’s eyes.

The old woman pressed herself flat against the ground, trembling. She did not dare breathe a word.

She had not lied. It was the Madam who had ordered her to do it. But something like this she could never admit. That would be signing her own death warrant.

At that moment, Chi Xiyan picked up where Lu Zhuxin had left off. “I noticed the room’s doors and windows were tightly shut and sealed with a ward. I grew suspicious that Madam had not actually returned to this courtyard.”

“My sister and I had only just arrived at the estate and did not know the situation inside. Seeing the woman behaving suspiciously, we worried she might have ill intentions, and so we detained her together.”

“It was at that point that Yinyin returned to the courtyard.”

“When she saw us, without pausing to hear any explanation, she ordered us seized and threatened to have us expelled from the estate.”

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“My sister and I only acted in self-defense.”

Chi Xiyan laid out the full sequence of events calmly, without embellishment.

Understanding settled over Cheng Zhuo’s face. “So that is how it was.”

“Yinyin, did I not tell you that I had brought your two elder sisters back home?”

“How could you treat your sisters this way?”

The expression on Cheng Yinyin’s face shifted to one of disbelief.

While everyone had been talking, the woman who had entered with Cheng Zhuo quietly stepped over to the room’s entrance. She ran her fingers along the door and found, on the lock, a faint trace of a sword mark.

A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes.

To have broken a second-tier talisman seal this cleanly, that girl was either an expert well-versed in talisman work, or at the very least a cultivator of Third Realm strength.

Her gaze shifted with quiet calculation.

When she turned back around, a gentle smile had settled over her face once more.

“It seems my poor management has allowed some of the servants to develop ill intentions.”

“This is my failing.”

“Still, today is not the time to deal with such matters.”

“More than anything, we ought to be celebrating the safe return of the two young ladies of our Cheng family.”

Lu Zhuxin glanced back at the woman briefly.