Volume 3, Chapter 444 – Betrayal

Chi Xiyan looked utterly stunned.

She never imagined the girl before her would say something like this.

She yanked hard, pulling the corner of her sleeve free.

“Miss Chen, what do you take me for!”

She stepped back several paces, looking at Chen Axi with a stern expression.

“I’ll say it again, I already have a Dao Companion.”

“I’ve always thought of you as a friend. Please don’t make me start to dislike you.”

Hearing this, Chen Axi bit her lower lip, her expression twisting slightly. “Do you really care nothing for our relationship at all?”

“Huh?” Chi Xiyan looked utterly baffled.

Chen Axi continued, “All this time, I trained alongside you, gathered herbs with you, killed demons with you, went through life and death with you. Do you truly feel nothing for me at all?”

“…” Chi Xiyan’s eye twitched a few times. “I saved you.”

“That was faked!” Chen Axi sneered. “It was so I could get close to you!”

She lifted her head, gazing at Chi Xiyan with tender affection. “Miss Yan, I fell for you the very first moment I saw you.”

“So I got close to you, even at the cost of letting myself be gravely wounded by a demonic beast.”

“I accompanied you for an entire year. Why won’t you spend even a single day with me in return?”

Chi Xiyan’s face turned ashen. She snapped angrily, “You lunatic.”

With that, she turned and walked away.

Chen Axi’s expression shifted. “Don’t go!”

She chased after her.

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“I know what you’re trying to do. You want to refine pills, and for that you need a high quality cauldron and a place quiet enough.”

“Come to my home.”

“My Chen family may not compare to those top tier great clans, but we’re still a powerful house within the commandery.”

“Come back with me, and you’ll never lack for herbs or treasures!”

Chi Xiyan stopped in her tracks.

Chen Axi’s eyes lit up with joy. “Miss Yan? Have you reconsidered?”

Chi Xiyan took a deep breath, turned her head, and shot Chen Axi a cold glance. “Don’t follow me, or I might not be able to stop myself from killing you.”

With that, she left Chen Axi behind, calling on her body technique to swiftly vanish into the forest.

From far away, she could still hear Chen Axi’s furious shouting.

But Chi Xiyan didn’t take it to heart.

She knew all too well the temperament of noble young ladies from great families.

She simply hadn’t expected that this Chen Axi would actually set her sights on her.

She touched her own cheek. Being deep in dangerous, remote wilderness far from any town, she hadn’t kept up her disguise the entire time.

Once she’d judged Chen Axi trustworthy, she had let the disguise fall away.

If she’d kept up that unflattering appearance the entire time, even Chi Xiyan herself couldn’t have stood it.

“So, is this face of mine really that appealing to other girls?”

Chi Xiyan had always been confident in her looks, but that confidence had only ever applied to the opposite sex.

As for her own sex, she wasn’t nearly as certain.

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“Then, does that mean Muxue also…”

Chi Xiyan suddenly gave her own cheek a light pat.

“No, this isn’t the time to be thinking about such nonsense. I need to find a safe place to refine pills as soon as possible.”

Chi Xiyan recalled her current whereabouts.

Refining pills out in the wild was extremely dangerous. The commotion when a pill emerged from the cauldron, along with the fragrance that leaked out, could easily attract dangerous creatures.

Having dealt with these demonic beasts for two years, Chi Xiyan never dared underestimate their sense of smell.

“The best place to go is the nearest city, Heiyin City…”

Chi Xiyan pondered for a while.

Heiyin City was the nearest large city to this area, and due to its location, many alchemists gathered there to purchase herbs, refine pills, and sell all manner of healing medicines.

So many of the commerce associations Chi Xiyan was familiar with had built alchemy chambers in Heiyin City, to make it easier to conduct their pill refining business.

Chi Xiyan knew all this because the Chi family’s Lingbao Commerce Association had run into unprecedented resistance when trying to expand its pill business in Heiyin City.

This pressure came from a commerce association called Silver Bell.

The Silver Bell Commerce Association had long been one of the rivals of the Chi family’s Lingbao Commerce Association.

But in Heiyin City, the Silver Bell Commerce Association, relying on a far greater variety of herbs and an almost limitless supply, had thoroughly overshadowed the Lingbao Commerce Association.

Even now, Chi Xiyan had never figured out through what channels the Silver Bell Commerce Association obtained so many herbs.

“Although I can’t borrow the Lingbao Commerce Association’s alchemy chamber, in Heiyin City, I can borrow the Silver Bell Commerce Association’s instead.”

With that thought, Chi Xiyan made up her mind and set off toward Heiyin City.

Half a month later.

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Chi Xiyan, her disguise freshly reapplied, appeared travel worn at the edge of Heiyin City.

“Phew, finally out.” Chi Xiyan looked at the road ahead. “Once I cross this mountain, I’ll reach Heiyin City.”

In perilous lands overrun with demonic beasts, flying through the air was an extremely dangerous thing to do.

So Chi Xiyan had no choice but to rely on her own two legs, slowly making her way out of the forest on foot.

It took longer this way, but at least it was safe.

Suddenly, Chi Xiyan felt the small jade sword in her embrace tremble faintly.

Her expression shifted slightly.

‘Danger!’

This small sword was Muxue’s natal sword.

The natal sword of a Sixth Realm sword cultivator was extraordinarily sensitive to shifts in qi.

In the demonic beast forest, Chi Xiyan had relied on the small sword’s ability to avoid danger more than once.

The instant she felt the sword tremble, she immediately called on her body technique and dodged backward.

With a boom, a blood red, cross shaped blade qi slashed through the spot where she had just been standing.

In an instant, sand and gravel flew.

Chi Xiyan landed on the ground, her expression grave as she looked ahead.

Within the drifting dust, a figure slowly emerged.

One of them said, “No wonder you’re called the genius second only to the young lady among the Chi family’s younger generation. To dodge an attack like that.”

Chi Xiyan narrowed her eyes. “A Fifth Realm cultivator? An elder of the Chi family’s Punishment Hall? How did you find me?”

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Her disguise was one that ordinary people couldn’t see through.

Only two people had ever seen both her disguise and her true face.

One was Chi Ning, the other was Chen Axi.

But the man before her seemed to have known her route in advance, having lain in wait here early.

‘How had her whereabouts been exposed?’

“Chi Xiyan, your luck is quite bad.” The elder of the Chi family’s Punishment Hall said. “When that young lady of the Chen family sent word to us, I didn’t quite believe it. I didn’t expect you’d truly be here.”

“Surrender yourself. You should know just how vast the gap is between the Fifth Realm and the Fourth Realm.”

“So it was her who sold me out.” Chi Xiyan smiled helplessly.

In front of Chen Axi, she had used a false name, but her true face.

If it had been that woman, flying at full speed with her cultivation techniques, she could indeed have left the forest before Chi Xiyan.

The Punishment Hall elder’s brow furrowed. Chi Xiyan’s composed attitude made him suspicious.

How could a mere Fourth Realm cultivator remain this calm before a Fifth Realm cultivator?

“Enough talk. Come back to the Chi family with me and confess your crimes!”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll have no choice but to use forceful means to bring you back.”

As the Punishment Hall elder’s words fell, two shadow whips lashed out fiercely at Chi Xiyan.

‘A Fifth Realm warrior…’ Chi Xiyan closed her eyes.