Chapter 139 - It Really Wasn’t Me!
“What are you guys doing?!”
Bai Xiaochun’s expression changed, he backed up a few steps giving the gears in his brain enough time to work, searching for anything he might have done this time. After a long time of thinking, Bai Xiaochun failed to think of anything he could have done to enrage the North Bank once again.
Even though he didn’t figure out what exactly he had done, Bai Xiaochun was still panicking. After uttering those words, the disciples outside of the formation array all turned to him.
“Senior Uncle Bai, please deactivate the formation array. We need to go in and search the place thoroughly!”
“We’re not just searching here. Everywhere possible in the North Bank has been searched.”
“This past month in the north, a massive amount of female disciples’ undergarments have been lost — a great disturbance has emerged. Bai Xiaochun! If you’re not guilty of this crime, then deactivate your formation array and let us go into search!”
“Hmph! Even if it’s in your storage bag, we have methods to find it!”
As Bai Xiaochun listened, his heart relaxed and he let out a sigh of relief. After calming down, he instantly grew agitated, putting his hands to his back as he looked at the disciples from the North Bank.
“Absurd. I’m an Honourable Disciple, the junior brother of the Sect Head. I did not do this!” It was rare for Bai Xiaochun to not be the one responsible, so he would never back down. He put on noble airs and looked down upon the crowd.
“It has to be you. Looking at the entire North Bank, the only person who would do this can only be you!”
“True, this Bai Xiaochun is the most suspicious. He was actually able to deceive everyone and take away our combat beasts and dedicate them. This is the best example showing us that he has the ability to steal all those undergarments without the junior and senior sisters noticing!”
Looking at the crowd talk, Bai Xiaochun chuckled coldly, abruptly tossing his sleeve and deactivating the formation array.
“Whatever, I’ll let you guys search. I want to see how you people will owe up to your mistake after failing to find the undergarments!” Bai Xiaochun was deeply calm, and this time, he was brimming with confidence and not worried at all
Seeing how Bai Xiaochun was acting, the crowd started to hesitate. They didn’t even have evidence, but Bai Xiaochun actually deactivated his formation array, all of them looked at each other in dismay. The female disciples who had lost their undergarments clenched their teeth. After stepping into the formation array, they paid their respects to Bai Xiaochun and started searching. Suddenly, from one of the beast storage bags on a female disciple, a crimson squirrel jumped out.
The moment the squirrel came out, it gave a piercing cry, charging straight out and leaving the crowd stunned, causing a change in everyone’s expressions. The past few days, the main thing the crowd relied on to locate the missing undergarments was this special war squirrel, which had a very keen sense of smell. In a close proximity, anything it smelled before, even if it was stored in a storage bag, could be easily locate.
The crowd initially thought that they might have made a wrong decision, but at the moment, all of them had their eyes wide open, charging into the formation array with Bai Xiaochun watching blankly. Bai Xiaochun’s brain had gone numb as he followed them with surprise until they all reached a room inside the pavilion. The instant the door was opened, countless undergarments of different colors poured down in a flash, squeezing against each other as they fell. With a glance, there were more than a thousand of them…
“Bai Xiaochun! You actually dare to say you did not do it?!”
“So it was you!”
“Bai Xiaochun, you, you, you… How are you so shameless?!” The crowd all fixed their gaze on Bai Xiaochun; the male disciples furiously glared at him and yelled angrily.
Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath, his body trembling. He let out a sharp cry.
“Impossible!” The instant this word came out, the female disciples surrounding him all gave him a death glare, leaving his scalp numb as the glares landed. He quickly explained.
“It really wasn’t me! I don’t know…” He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, backing up a few steps, feeling extremely wronged. Yet, he didn’t know how to explain as the surrounding female disciples all stared furiously at him; some of them were even doing hand gestures in preparation to attack him.
“Damn it! How the hell did this happen?!” Bai Xiaochun was going crazy. He was in closed-door cultivation all this while, submerged in his cultivation without leaving the pavilion at all. He did not pay any attention to this room inside the pavilion. Just as he was panicking, outside the Hundred Beast Courtyard, the figure of Tie Dan suddenly appeared, and a red undergarment was hanging on its mouth. It quickly ran in their direction with an expression filled with bliss.
Before entering the formation array, Tie Dan stopped in its tracks, staring blankly at the people around him, dropping the red undergarment.
As it fell to the ground, the countless pairs of eyes all switched to Tie Dan.
Bai Xiaochun looked at Tie Dan, instantly feeling his head ache. To be able to enter and exit the pavilion at will and put down so many undergarments… Even if Bai Xiaochun was in closed-door cultivation, this was not something any outsider could have done.
Even the Nocturnal Beast would not be able to just enter and leave the pavilion’s formation array like that. The only one capable of doing so was… Tie Dan!
Tie Dan instantly began to tremble. It wasn’t afraid of the crowd’s rage; what it was afraid of the most was Bai Xiaochun getting angry. At that moment, it seemed that it was about to cry as it lay on the floor, letting out sounds of guilt.
The crowd had weird looks on their faces; the female disciples in particular, who had expressions of disbelief. Outside the pavilion, there was nothing but silence.
A while later, a female disciple’s mumbles could be heard.
“It couldn’t be Tie Dan, he’s such a good boy. There must have been someone who ordered it to do so!” It didn’t take long before many people started speaking in succession.
“That’s right! Tie Dan’s so cute, so innocent! It must have been bewitched; someone forced it to do that!”
“It’s Bai Xiaochun! He’s Tie Dan’s owner!”
In the end, almost all the female disciples thought Bai Xiaochun was the culprit. With even more rage than before, they glared at Bai Xiaochun. It was not that no one understood the possibility, but Tie Dan’s attitude every day was simply too cute, especially the look it was giving now — it seemed afraid, and that instantly earned everyone’s sympathy.
However, the fact was simply too strange, and while the disciples spoke that way, they didn’t cause any more trouble, only giving Bai Xiaochun death glares as they slowly departed.
Very soon, the place was at peace again. Taking in a deep breath, Bai Xiaochun raised his head and looked at the sky, wanting to cry. No tears came out as his eyes shone. Tie Dan knew it did something wrong, so quickly ran to Bai Xiaochun’s feet and rubbed around them.
“Tie Dan… you’re pretty smart usually. Why were you so dumb this time? You, you, you… You stole those undergarments, fine. However, you can’t make it seem like I did it… I created you; you could even say I’m your father… You can’t do that to your father…” Bai Xiaochun let out a deep sigh. He scowled as he squatted down in order to pat Tie Dan’s head.
“Remember, you must never implicate those at your own side… Those undergarments, you could’ve hidden them somewhere else! Why would you hide them in your own home? Tie Dan, you have to be smarter! You have to think before you act! What if you were exposed? What would we do then?” Tie Dan lowered its head and started whimpering, seemingly aware of his mistake.
Watching Toe Dan, Bai Xiaochun’s heart softened, causing him to stop scolding it. Turning back to the pavilion, he continued his cultivation in an extremely depressed state.
In the courtyard, Tie Dan made a few more whimpering sounds as it lay there. Viciousness was suddenly reflected out of its eyes as it turned to look at the direction of the disciples from the North Bank who were departing.
Late at night, it quietly climbed out, shaking its body and disappearing into the night, heading for the North Bank.
Dawn the second day, when the sky was just lighting up, a sudden scream of agony sounded out from the living quarters of the North Bank’s disciples.
“Damn it! Who did it? Who ate all my spirit beast pellets. It was hard for me to exchange for those; they were for the combat beasts’ evolution!”
Just moments after the first scream, a similar scream quickly sounded out, starting a ripple effect.
“Ah! My Ten Thousand Spirit Grass. I grew that for five years, there’s only roots left! It’s gone, it’s all gone… it’s all been gnawed to pieces…”
“A thief! This is too much. The food in my immortal cave I prepared for the combat beasts are all empty; that’s three years worth of food!”
“Oh god, the third stage Blood Beast’s bones I borrowed from Elder Li yesterday... I planned to observe the changes in the veins, it’s gone, it’s gone!”
Within both the inner sect and outer sect alike, the commotion grew louder and louder, and finally, there were hundreds of people angrily shouting. The victims, without any exception, were all men, and were the same men who went to Bai Xiaochun’s pavilion yesterday.
Just as the broken hearted disciples were roaring loudly and charging out in succession, they immediately saw Tie Dan with a blood-coloured bone in its mouth, running as it nibbled it, crushing the bone in the process.
From the crowd came a sharp shriek, and a disciple with disheveled hair rushed out like a madman, his eyes red with tears flowing down.
“Don’t bite, those are the third stage Blood Beast’s bones I borrowed from Elder Li… Ah… Ah… don’t bite on them…”
Crunch! Crunch!
Proudly, Tie Dan raised its head and shook its body, evading the incoming disciples, biting away in the distance. In just a moment, the entire bone was gnawed to dust, and after swallowing it, the disciple with disheveled hair felt his vision blur as he thought of the elder Li’s rage once he learned that he would never be able to return the bones. Raging in fury, he yelled and charged at Tie Dan.
Not only him, the hundreds of people all burned with rage as they charged after Tie Dan. Their speed, however, was lacking and they could only watch as Tie Dan ran away, going to the Iridaceae Mountain. As the crowd ran behind it, a harrumph with no hint of joy rumbled like thunder.
“What a disgrace, this many people scaring the good boy Tie Dan. Seems like you all have too much free time on your hands!” Following the voice, the ancestor of the Iridaceae Mountain, the old woman, slowly walked out, her eyes coldly fixed on the hundreds of disciples.
The disciples instantly shivered, and all of them orderly paid their respects as they saw Tie Dan behind the old woman. Its eyes were wide open as it obediently followed her, occasionally rubbing against her while making an adorable expression, as though it was aiming to curry favor.
This scene caused the hearts of all the disciples to burn with anger, however, none of them dared to open their mouths. Their hate for Tie Dan had already overflown the heavens.
“Didn’t he only eat some of your stuff, how big a deal could that be? What did it eat? I shall pay for it. Dismissed. Don’t ever bully Tie Dan!” The old woman gave the crowd a fierce glare, and lowered her head while instantly changing her face to a kind and gentle one, petting Tie Dan’s head with a motherly aura. Tie Dan had an even more adorable look as it stuck out its tongue to lick her like a puppy.
The disciples around them were all gritting their teeth, evidently dissatisfied. They didn’t feel that they were bullying Tie Dan, because in fact, it was Tie Dan who was bullying them.
Nonetheless, seeing how much the Iridaceae Mountain’s ancestor spoiled Tie Dan, there wasn’t anything they could do but endure their rage as they left, not wanting to cause any more trouble for Tie Dan. Thus, all their rage was directed towards Bai Xiaochun.
“It’s all Bai Xiaochun’s fault! It was him who created such a despicable combat beast!”
“This combat beast is way too despicable. A pervert who stole undergarments, and now it even stole our stuff to eat. Yet, those female disciples, elders and ancestors all treat it so well!”
Bai Xiaochun was just immersed in cultivation when he suddenly sneezed. Raising his head and looking at his surroundings, he regulated his breathing. The distance between his cultivation and the peak of the tenth level of Qi Condensation was gradually getting smaller.
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4th guaranteed chapter of the week. As for the fifth, it will be delayed since it has extremely important terms which are still being checked/retranslated by atte’s tl team.
Translated by: Marcus
Edited by: Cannibaloid, Arch, Mantoulnv
From XianXiaWorld