Demoness's Art of Vengeance

Chapter 53: Malicious Ke Xinwen

Translator: Minotauruz

In Ye Xiuwen’s eyes, Yao Mo was still a stranger to him. Therefore, Ye Xiuwen plodded on silently and did not say much on the road.

However, Jun Xiaomo had always been a go-getter when it came to matters of building relations. Therefore, even if Ye Xiuwen did not make conversation with her, she would break the silence and make conversation with him instead.

“Brother Ye, don’t you find the matters today rather strange? Logically speaking, it’s impossible to see Vampire Demonrats move in a swarm like this in broad daylight.” Jun Xiaomo walked beside Ye Xiuwen and looked at him curiously as she spoke.

“I also found that a bit strange. And then there’s also the matter with the Blackwind Sabretooth Tiger, whose natural habitat is deep in the forests. It is incredibly rare to find a Blackwind Sabretooth Tiger wandering to the edge of the forest.” Ye Xiuwen said coldly, adding, “Furthermore, these spirit animals were all in a frenzied state.”

“A frenzied state?!” Jun Xiaomo looked astonished. She naturally also appreciated how dangerous these creatures were in a frenzied state – their offensive powers could increase as much as tenfold or more.

No wonder today’s Vampire Demonrats were considerably crazier than the ones I’ve encountered in the past. Good thing this swarm wasn’t too big. Otherwise, with our cultivations at the first level of Qi Mastery and the twelfth level of Qi Mastery respectively, it might well have been a better idea to have escaped using the Escape Scrolls. Jun Xiaomo thought silently to herself.

“Yes, they were in a frenzied state.” A sharp gaze flashed across Ye Xiuwen’s eyes even as he spoke plainly, “I’m afraid someone might be scheming against me.”

If it were only one type of frenzied spirit beast, then perhaps Ye Xiuwen might just have been extremely unlucky. But now that they encountered two different types of frenzied spirit beasts, then clearly this was more than just a coincidence.

Jun Xiaomo stopped momentarily in her tracks as she gritted her teeth –

Scheming against martial brother! If Jun Xiaomo finds out who it was, she was determined to let him suffer a fate worse than death!

On the other side, Qin Lingyu and the others had finished their breakfast, visited a nearby marketplace, bought resources and other things before returning to the inn.

As the First-Seat Disciple of Dawn Sect’s Sect Leader, Qin Lingyu was able to gather quite a substantial amount of spirit stones and other resources. Apart from the allowance given by the Sect, several martial brothers and sisters would even give gifts to Qin Lingyu in order to curry favour with him; and Qin Lingyu naturally received all of these gifts gladly. Because of this, Qin Lingyu’s Interspatial Ring was filled with countless valuable treasures. Therefore, when they walked around the marketplace, he was able to splurge with extravagance on the things which piqued his interest.

Other martial disciples were naturally unable to spend with such extravagance that Qin Lingyu did. While they envied the insurmountable riches stored in Qin Lingyu’s Interspatial Ring, they continued to accompany him with a smile on their faces in order to curry favour with this First-Seat Disciple who had a seemingly limitless potential.

Zhong Ruolan was even more obvious. She was well aware of the fact that the was older than Qin Lingyu by seven years, and she knew that if she did not manage to bag Qin Lingyu during the travels, then she would lose Qin Lingyu to the countless sweet young things that would surround him once he returns to the Sect. Therefore, she applied a thick layer of make up every day and spared no effort in displaying all her seduction tactics towards Qin Lingyu.

Yu Wanrou witnessed how Zhong Ruolan was attempting to seduce her own man, and she was so maddened by her that she almost flew into a fit of rage. To make matters worse, Qin Lingyu had for the sake of keeping things under wraps continued to treat Yu Wanrou coldly and with indifference.

However, Yu Wanrou still had that Ke Xinwen about her who fluttered about her like an obsequious butterfly. Even though Ke Xinwen could hardly match up to Qin Lingyu in every single aspect, it was still a form of consolation to Yu Wanrou.

“Martial brother Ke, I’ve noticed that you’ve been rather generous today, haven’t you?” One of the male disciples who was rather chummy with Ke Xinwen put his arms around Ke Xinwen’s shoulder as he commented.

Ke Xinwen was not as cold and somber as Qin Lingyu, and he was also not as indifferent as Ye Xiuwen. Therefore, the martial brothers in the Sect who were of a lower cultivation level were still able to joke around with him – these martial brothers felt that Ke Xinwen’s warm and generous attitude was far better than Qin Lingyu and Ye Xiuwen’s attitude.

Ke Xinwen laughed heartily, remarking, “I’m in good spirits today, so I’m just buying whatever catches my eye!”

“Ah, I wonder what happened that pleased you so much, martial brother Ke?” Another martial brother asked curiously.

“Could it be...Martial sister Wanrou has agreed to let martial brother Ke pursue her? Hahahahaha...” The martial brother who had his arm around Ke Xinwen’s shoulder speculated as he glanced over at Yu Wanrou.

Ke Xinwen never hid the fact that he was fond of Yu Wanrou. Furthermore, Ke Xinwen had in recent times persistently solicited Yu Wanrou’s attention. Unless one was a fool, nobody would be oblivious to the fact that he was trying to pursue Yu Wanrou.

Of course, among the other disciples who were travelling with them, some of the male disciples were also fond of Yu Wanrou. But they knew that they could not match up to Ke Xinwen in terms of their cultivation levels, so they were resigned to the fact that they could only think about it and not act on it.

Yu Wanrou also overheard the tomfoolery of these bunch of brothers and how they were tying her and Ke Xinwen together. Therefore, she eked out a pretentious smile on her face as she responded shyly, “Naw, don’t make fun of us, guys. Ke Xinwen has been looking out for me only because I’m a female disciple after all.”

“Ohhh – It seems that martial sister Wanrou finds your gift of a necklace imbued with defensive abilities not expensive enough. Martial brother Ke you have to work harder at it~” The martial brother beside Ke Xinwen teased.

“That’s right, martial sister Wanrou looks like a shy person to begin with. Martial brother Ke, it seems that you will have to work much harder if you want martial sister Wanrou to warm up to you~” Another male disciple egged them on.

“Don’t worry about it. Whether it’s wealth or abilities, martial brother Ke has both. Furthermore, with his handsome and dignified appearance, how could martial sister Wanrou’s heart not be moved? Martial sister Wanrou is just being a little bit more reserved here...”

“So that’s how it is. I understand now.”

......

Yu Wanrou continued to listen to how these martial brothers built on each other’s words as they continued to tease her and Ke Xinwen, and she could only forcibly maintain that smile on her face, lower her head and act as though she were shy about these things.

As for how she truly felt, only Yu Wanrou knew in her heart.

Ke Xinwen was truly in great spirits today, so he was completely ignorant to the fact that Yu Wanrou was forcibly maintaining the smile on her face, while the other martial brothers were reaping the collateral benefits of his good mood. Ke Xinwen felt that all the other disciples within the entire Dawn Sect, apart from Qin Lingyu, should look up to himself.

As for Ye Xiuwen, Ke Xinwen felt that after today, this person would no longer be within his considerations. This was because he was going to forcibly tear this Chosen Disciple of the Frozen Sword Sect down from his pedestal, step by step!

That’s right, Ke Xinwen was still bearing that grudge against Ye Xiuwen for snatching his spot as a Chosen Disciple of the Frozen Sword Sect. Despite being well aware that Ye Xiuwen was far above him in terms of both talent and abilities, he still refused to accept the reality before him.

After all, he was the first one to eye that opportunity to become the Chosen Disciple of the Frozen Sword Sect that fateful year, but Ye Xiuwen had stepped ahead of him and seized the opportunity first. How could he just take this lying down?

All this while, even though Ke Xinwen had been fooling around with the other martial brothers and sisters, he had in actual fact been closely observing Ye Xiuwen’s actions and habits in the hope that he could find an opportunity to dispose of Ye Xiuwen.

Very soon, he discovered that Ye Xiuwen had the habit of leaving the group every morning to find a quiet place to practice his sword arts. This habit had been deeply ingrained in Ye Xiuwen’s marrows, and he would practice his sword arts every day at the same time in the morning, rain or shine.

Ke Xinwen knew that this was his opportunity.

Even though Ke Xinwen often acted like the class clown with his martial brothers within the Sect, he was nevertheless careful and conscientious when it came to matters of scheming against others. In the past, when Ke Xinwen first entered the Dawn Sect with ten other martial brothers and sisters, one of the other martial brothers who entered the Sect with him was discovered to be an extremely talented cultivator. Like Ye Xiuwen and Qin Lingyu, this other martial brother very quickly became one of the most important disciples to be nurtured by the Sect.

Ke Xinwen was extremely jealous of his talent, yet on the surface he maintained the appearance of being chummy with this martial brother.

Then, soon after they had all formally become disciples of Dawn Sect, that martial brother suddenly disappeared without a trace. The entire Sect was mobilized to look for this martial brother for a few days, yet no one could find a clue as to where he had disappeared to, and they could only return empty handed with bad news to the Sect Elders and the Sect Leader.

“Forget it. If he’s vanished, he’s vanished. If he doesn’t even have the ability to prevent this from happening, then the Dawn Sect doesn’t need such a disciple either.” The Sect’s Second Elder spoke coldly after hearing the reports, and this matter was concluded there and then.

At that time, Ke Xinwen could have sworn that he had seen the Second Elder glancing over at his direction as he spoke, and he was so scared that he began to sweat profusely.

But the end result was still favourable to Ke Xinwen. No one knew it was Ke Xinwen who had murdered that martial brother. And from then on, Ke Xinwen would also present little gifts to the Second Elder from time to time, hoping that they could leave this matter in the dust forever.

From this incident, one could see that Ke Xinwen was a two-faced, vicious person with an extremely narrow mind. He hated it when others were more talented or more capable than him. Qin Lingyu was Sect Leader He Zhang’s First-Seat Disciple, and naturally Ke Xinwen did not dare to make any moves against Qin Lingyu. In any event, Ke Xinwen also knew that he had no ability to deal with Qin Lingyu. But Ye Xiuwen was a different story altogether. Even though Ye Xiuwen’s stature was rather high as well, being the First-Seat Disciple of Heavenly Peak, but Ke Xinwen knew that Heavenly Peak only consisted of cultivation fanatics who were oblivious to the schemes and ploys of their martial brothers within the sect.

Coupled with the fact that Ye Xiuwen had become the Chosen Disciple of the Frozen Sword Sect, Ke Xinwen naturally viewed Ye Xiuwen as the thorn in his flesh and placed a bullseye on his back.

After observing Ye Xiuwen for some time, Ke Xinwen knew that his opportunity was finally here. He secretly bribed an attendant to lace Ye Xiuwen’s bathtub with a substance made from Frenzypani Grass.

This substance was colourless and odourless, and normal people would be oblivious to its existence. However, spirit beasts were extremely sensitive to this substance. When spirit beasts ingest or inhale the Frenzypani Grass, no matter how docile the spirit animal normally is, it would lose its mind and attack the nearest living thing that it sees. In particular, any person or entity that has come into contact with the Frenzypani Grass would immediately become the prime target of the frenzied spirit animal. Some beast tamers would even directly feed their beasts with a watered-down version of the Frenzypani Grass in order to induce a frenzied state during combat and increase their spirit beasts’ fighting abilities.

Even though Ye Xiuwen was generally a rather alert person with astute senses, his experience was lacking, and he never expected anyone to try and trip him up with this kind of tactics. Under Ke Xinwen’s instructions, the attendant had dumped copious amounts of powdered Frenzypani Grass into Ye Xiuwen’s bath water before courteously asking Ye Xiuwen to enjoy his bath as he took his leave.

Thus, Ye Xiuwen had also come to be tripped up by Ke Xinwen and fall prey to his schemes.

Ke Xinwen was certain that once Ye Xiuwen encountered spirit animals in a frenzied state, the consequences would either be death, or at the very least severe injuries. If Ye Xiuwen got lucky and came back alive, Ke Xinwen did not mind devising a few more traps to stumble Ye Xiuwen and send him on his way.

Ke Xinwen had indeed calculated everything very well. However, he missed out one important detail – that is, Ye Xiuwen’s Interspatial Ring would certainly contain some scrolls he could use for escape purposes.

Furthermore, Ye Xiuwen had fortunately encountered Jun Xiaomo who had come looking for him. Even though Jun Xiaomo’s cultivation level were low, the combat experience from her previous life more than made up for it. Therefore, Ye Xiuwen was able to return from his encounters with barely a scratch – and he even brought along a little addition to the entourage.

Ke Xinwen chatted heartily with the other martial brothers and sisters as they returned from the marketplace. Yet the moment they entered the inn and saw Ye Xiuwen sitting at the table drinking his tea calmly and waiting for them, Ke Xinwen’s face immediately froze in place.

How could Ye Xiuwen be sitting here perfectly fine? Could it be that the Frenzypani Grass was not effective?

It can’t be...

Just before using the Frenzypani Grass, he had even inquired with the attendant and learnt that the nearby woods were not safe, and there were frequently sightings of vicious beasts in that area.

After making further inquiries on his own, Ke Xinwen confirmed what the attendant said was true, and among all the beasts often sighted in that area, at least two of them were spirit beasts, namely the Blackwind Sabretooth Tiger and the Vampire Demonrats. Ke Xinwen could not believe that Ye Xiuwen, a cultivator at only the twelfth level of Qi Mastery, would be able to deal with these two types of frenzied spirit beasts.

However, no matter how hard it was to believe it, the truth was still before his eyes – Ye Xiuwen was completely unharmed, and he sat calmly before them, drinking his tea leisurely.

Because Ke Xinwen was so stunned to see Ye Xiuwen, he had completely overlooked Jun Xiaomo who was just seated beside Ye Xiuwen.

Even though he failed to notice Jun Xiaomo; this did not mean that Jun Xiaomo did not notice him. Although Jun Xiaomo had lifted her teacup, she done so in order to secretly observe the group of people that were entering right this moment.

The person who would scheme against martial brother Ye could only come from this group of people.

Thus, she immediately also noticed the anomalous reaction on Ke Xinwen’s face.

And she was not the only one who noticed it. Ye Xiuwen, whose face was obscured by his veiled conical hat, also caught a glimpse of Ke Xinwen’s momentarily stunned looks.