NEBM Chapter 24.1: The Truth

Alarm flashed across the crowd like a chain reaction, turning the atmosphere tense enough to cut through.

After a brief silence, there was a noise like oil splashing into a pan, and countless skeptical eyes pierced like sharp knives.

Yan Jin shifted, as if he was about to stand. A glacial, indifferent chill emanated from him. Shen Zhixian, who stood close to him, felt the extraordinary and conspicuous foreign energy.

Gloomy and ruthlessly tyrannical.

It instantly reminded him of the sword strike that Yan Jin had used a long time ago, and he remembered how his eyes had taken on this same ruthless and indifferent mien.

Shen Zhixian didn’t look behind him. Instead, he accurately gripped Yan Jin’s hand behind him, passing a soft and gentle pulse of qi into his body.

Yan Jin subconsciously wanted to resist but Shen Zhixian was holding on strategically to his wrist, making him unable to break away.

There was no expression on Shen Zhixian’s face, but in his heart, there was a stormy sea.

A strand of devil qi was running wildly in Yan Jin’s veins, arrogantly staining the originally pure spiritual qi and turning it dark and gloomy.

Obviously, this demonic qi had been entrenched in Yan Jin’s body for a long time. It had grown so wild that, even if Yan Jin had no intention of entering the demonic path, he would be forced into it eventually.

Shen Zhixian gritted his teeth, and without hesitation, stripped the strand of demonic qi from Yan Jin’s spirit root, pulling it out of him and into himself.

Yan Jin’s hand shook slightly, and he suddenly tilted his head to look at Shen Zhixian, his lips trembling. “Master …”

He tried to retract his hand almost immediately, but Shen Zhixian tightened his hold, refusing to let go.

Luckily, there was not much demonic qi, and it was quickly absorbed into Shen Zhixian’s body.

Shen Zhixian slowly retracted his hand. The demonic qi raced through his body, turning his blood volatile. He clenched his hands into fists, kept them hidden in his sleeves, and endured the pain. His face was composed as he coldly said, “Yan Shen, you’ve made Master very disappointed.”

“Before, when you framed A’Jin at the Hidden Sword Pavilion, I turned the other way because you were young. In the past few years, you’d repeatedly embarrassed A’Jin time and again. And, still, I did not blame you much.”

This response was completely different from Yan Shen’s expectations. Shocked, he snapped his head up and opened his mouth, wanting to speak.

But, Shen Zhixian did not give him the opportunity to speak and continued to say calmly, “A’Jin has suffered enough grievances for the time being and certainly owes you nothing. But, now you’ve planted such a thing and endangered the sect. Not only that, you still wanted to frame A’Jin.”

Third Elder responded in a timely manner. “Hidden Sword Pavilion? Elder Shen suddenly mentioned this. Was it regarding that time when Yan Jin trespassed into the Hidden Sword Pavilion? Was there a secret ulterior motive? Furthermore, what about these demonic cultivators?”

Shen Zhixian said indifferently, “There’s no ulterior motive, just a gross injustice.”

He took a breath and flipped his wrist. A sword appeared in his hand from out of thin air. The sword emitted a faint aura. A light mist floated from the sword and gradually condensed into a sword spirit.

Seeing the sword spirit, Song Ming’s face changed slightly, but he immediately calmed down. Aside from the fact that he kept watching Shen Zhixian from the corner of his eyes, no one found him abnormal at all.

Shen Zhixian said, “When I took this sword back from the Hidden Sword Pavilion, it was alive. After many years of cultivation, it barely managed to take shape. What the truth of that year was, please take a look.”

When he lifted his wrist, the sword spirit quickly rose up toward an open space where it flashed before everyone’s eyes, displaying a blurry picture.

It was the Hidden Sword Pavilion.

Most of the new disciples present barely had any contact with swords, much less carry one themselves. This was the first time they’d even heard of such things as sword spirits. The regular disciples in the sect knew a little bit about sword spirits but only superficially. Therefore, they were all doubtful about Shen Zhixian’s words.

Because it was a sword without a master, there were no spiritual traces of a master to contend with. The sword spirit was very weak and the picture was faded. But, if one were to look closely, it was easy to see that someone had just secretly sneaked into the Hidden Sword Pavilion. Everyone thought it was Yan Jin.

A sharp-eyed disciple suddenly cried out, “Isn’t that Senior Brother Yan Shen?”

Yan Shen’s complexion underwent huge changes the moment he recognized his own figure—How could it be?!

How could Shen Zhixian find such a thing?! Didn’t Song Ming say that this incident would never be detected by anyone?!

He resisted the urge to look back at Song Ming and, instead, refuted out loud, “Master, this isn’t true!”

Everyone ignored him. Meanwhile, the image continued. Within the illusion, Yan Shen hid something and shortly after, Yan Jin appeared. The two seemed to quarrel. Yan Shen quickly left, leaving Yan Jin to search for the hidden object.

Then, chaos descended.

The unowned sword spirit was too weak to continue supporting the illusion. It ended the moment Yan Jin and the disciples on patrol began fighting.

The people within the crowd began to engage in numerous heated discussions about what they’d just seen.

Yan Shen’s expression was ugly, but he still bitterly persevered. “Master, Yan Jin is genuinely and truly a demonic cultivator. If you don’t believe me, let him come out! Let Sect Leader and the Elders investigate and see if he has demonic qi in him.”

As soon as his voice fell, the discussions all around went quiet for a brief moment, before it became even more heated. Suspicious eyes swept toward Yan Jin. Yan Shen had accused Yan Jin several times now. What if Yan Jin really was a demonic cultivator?

Especially due to the burly young man’s murderous act earlier, everyone was very sensitive to the words demonic qi. Although everyone had been making noises, there was still no follow-up. A young disciple from within the crowd boldly shouted, “Senior Brother Yan Jin! Come out and let the elders check you. If you’re innocent, the elders won’t wrong you!

The moment his words came out, it was immediately echoed by everyone. The scene almost became uncontrollable.

“Presumptuous!” Shen Zhixian sternly shouted. The groups of young disciples were stunned by his sudden outburst and became silent.

—What a good scheme.

As understanding dawned, Shen Zhixian frowned, suddenly realizing what was going on

Someone was using Yan Shen to scheme against Yan Jin! Sneaking a ray of demonic qi into him, just to later accuse him of being a demonic cultivator!

Over the past few years, the immortal cultivators had been working hard to crack down on demonic cultivators. If they were to find demonic qi on Yan Jin….

The black hands behind the scenes was not only forcing Yan Jin to a dead end, but as someone who was raising a demonic cultivator as a disciple, Shen Zhixian himself would also be implicated.

Shen Zhixian was expecting Yan Shen to do something today. He’d thought that with Yan Shen’s ability, he would probably harm himself and accuse Yan Jin of hurting him, crowning him as a blackguard who would hurt his fellow disciples without any conscience. Shen Zhixian fully intended to use this matter to turn over the old accounts and sever his master and disciple relationship with Yan Shen. However, he didn’t expect that Yan Shen would be so talented this time and actually involve demonic cultivators.

Shen Zhixian refused to believe that Yan Shen would be able to do such a trick without someone standing behind him.

Anyway, this matter wasn’t that big of a deal and the demonic qi in Yan Jin’s body was gone…As Shen Zhixian was thinking about it, he noticed that Yan Jin had stood up with a calm face and was about to step forward.

Today’s incident had developed unexpectedly. Shen Zhixian also hadn’t mentioned anything to Yan Jin and yet, although Yan Jin’s face was heavy, he displayed no surprises.

A thought flashed through Shen Zhixian’s mind. His eyes narrowed slightly and he moved forward in a calm manner, blocking Yan Jin’s way.

Yan Jin was barred by him and hesitated, saying, “Master.”

Shen Zhixian didn’t respond. He looked around calmly, his gazed stopping for a moment on the little disciple who took the lead, who, upon noticing his deep gaze on him, suddenly cowered. With a flick of his wrist, Shen Zhixian shot out a powerful strand of qi, pulling Yan Shen’s sword straight into his hand!

Immediately afterward, slender, jade-like fingers flew across the sword’s blade, repeating the previous motion. The blade suddenly trembled and a faint aura drifted out. A hazy sword spirit floated up again, this time displaying a new image.

It showed Yan Shen speaking to the burly young man!

The sword spirit inside Hidden Sword Pavillion was weak and could not broadcast any audio. Yan Shen’s sword was of better quality and the sword spirit was also strong. As a result, a faint voice could be heard.

“….This time, I’m going to make sure that Yan Jin can’t free himself!”

“Oh, this humble person should just roll back into the quagmire. What if Yan Jin….”

“Relax and don’t hesitate to kill. I assure you that I can let you leave safely.”

As he listened to the intermittent audio of the conversation, Yan Shen was astonished and horrified. He speechlessly watched the scene of himself laying out his plans and couldn’t help thinking: His sword, since when had it developed a sword spirit?!

Yan Shen’s plan today was actually very simple. Allow the young demonic cultivator to make some trouble and hold the pot over Yan Jin’s head. He will then appear as if he’d been injured by Yan Jin and, under everyone’s eyes, report that Yan Jin had become a devil.

Under everyone’s eyes and mouth, no matter how much Master respected Yan Jin, he wouldn’t be able to cover for Yan Jin any longer. Once the Sect Leader and the other elders checked, the demonic qi in Yan Jin’s body would be revealed, thus confirming his identity as a demonic cultivator!

At that time, the biggest winner would no doubt be him!

But why, why had things developed like this… His sword didn’t have a sword spirit! How could Master make a sword spirit come out?!

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Kleep
Kleep
4 years ago

Heck yes SX is so badass. Young YJ you better recognize how your master is helping you. I’m curious on the endgame though. Maybe YJ is just an unfortunate victim in the fight to get rid of MC?

Thanks for the great translation ♥️

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago

Wow. Yan Shen is really, truly ugly. And Song Ming is definitely trying to get rid of Shen Zhixian via Yan Jin. He knows he might one day have to give up his position as sect leader to the MC so he's trying to make him unqualified…
– XF

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago

Yan Shen what are you doi ng buDdy (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Benomora
Benomora
4 years ago

Thanks for the chapter ❤

katie_wanderingfujoshi
katie_wanderingfujoshi
3 years ago

Thanks for the chapter 😊😍

Carol
Carol
3 years ago

Ahhhjhh you deverse to die!!!!! Sure is Song Ming the head behind the scenes.

June
June
2 years ago

SZ is so cool here, Like a Master, knowing how to handle the situations

Illu
Illu
1 year ago

Ooohhhh the truth!!! Finally! And for certain Song Min must have had a hand in this dreadful scheming!