"You all don't need to be that sad or worried about me. On the contrary, you should hope that I will go quickly to Central Continent, arrive safely there, and successfully evolve into a Spirit Beast, so you three would have solid backing in the future." Instructor Mei Lan tried to cheer them up.
The mood of Tang Li Xue, Bing Yi, and Hei Yinghao did not change at all, and they still fell silent while staring at Instructor Mei Lan in sorrow.
The classroom atmosphere seems to become gloomy and depressing.
Even Instructor Mei Lan did not know what to say anymore to cheer her three students' gloomy mood.
Tang Li Xue did not like the current gloomy situation, so she quickly changed the topic of their conversation and asked: "Oh, right... Instructor Lan, did you manage to get the information about who hired the previous assassins to kill me?"
But Instructor Mei Lan's expression became much more solemn instead.
Instructor Mei Lan glanced at Bing Yi and Hei Yinghao, then said to them, "You two can go back home first. I still have something to discuss with Little Xue."
Instructor Mei Lan waved her hand signaling Tang Li Xue to follow her before she left the classroom and headed back to her residence near the Education Department Building.
Bing Yi and Hei Yinghao felt doubtful at Instructor Mei Lan's sudden serious expression. However, they still obediently said goodbye to Tang Li Xue and went back to Residential Building first.
Meanwhile, Tang Li Xue followed Instructor Mei Lan closely from behind after she bid farewell to Bing Yi and Hei Yinghao.
Yaya still sat quietly on the top of Tang Li Xue's head since the class started until now.
After they arrived at Instructor Mei Lan's residence, Instructor Mei Lan let Tang Li Xue and Yaya in and served each of them a cup of tea.
Tang Li Xue could not hold herself and asked impatiently again: "Instructor Lan, did you already know who hired those assassins to kill me? Is it someone powerful that I cannot touch yet?"
Instructor Mei Lan leisurely sat on the opposite seat of Tang Li Xue, and she slowly took a sip of her tea.
Then Instructor Mei Lan stared at Tang Li Xue and replied: "No... The hirer is certainly a powerful person, and it might even be someone you know very well."
Instructor Mei Lan took out several sheets of paper from her space pouch and gave them to Tang Li Xue to read.
Tang Li Xue took those several sheets of paper in bewilderment and read the content written on them.
"This is the contract copy between Assassin Tower and the hirer. As you can see from the contract, the hirer is actually someone from Immortal Sword Sect." Instructor Mei Lan explained clearer to Tang Li Xue.
"Based on the abundant bounty reward of cultivation resources, high-rank martial art manuals, and high-rank cultivation technique, the one behind it should be someone who holds very high authority in Immortal Sword Sect, it might even have a much higher position than any ordinary elders." Instructor Mei Lan gave Tang Li Xue another obvious clue.
Tang Li Xue's expression turned pale in an instant and shouted reflexively in disbelief: "Impossible~!!! There is no way he would..."
"Why is it impossible? Little Xue, I never forbid you to have any relationship with humans, but you should NEVER lose your logical thinking and only just rely on your heart." Instructor Mei Lan frowned in irritation and quickly interrupted Tang Li Xue's words.
Instructor Mei Lan softened her tone and gave Tang Li Xue some suggestions again: "Little Xue, I know that you become quite close to that Elder Yang from Immortal Sword Sect in Tang Feng City before, but humans are despicable and scheming creatures. You should not trust them so easily!"
"But Elder Yang should have not wanted to kill you suddenly without a good reason. Can you recall or think of any good reasons why he suddenly wants to kill you now?" Instructor Mei Lan began to interrogate Tang Li Xue carefully.
Tang Li Xue's mind was in a great mess.
The feeling of anger, sadness, disappointment, shock, and disbelief was mixed into one in her heart.
After hesitating for a while, Tang Li Xue started to talk again to Instructor Mei Lan: "Actually, he... already knew that I am not a human but a fox in human form. He tore off my hood and veil before and saw my fox ears and tail."
Instructor Mei Lan frowned deeply as she felt that this reason was not strong enough to hire those professional assassins from Assassin Tower to hunt Tang Li Xue.
"Anything else?" Instructor Mei Lan asked again with a suspicious tone.
"Then he also told me about..." Tang Li Xue almost blurted out Elder Yang's secret about his true identity and purpose to join Immortal Sword Sect, but the scene before she parted with Elder Yang at Tang Feng City flashed in her mind.
....
"All right. First, are you my Xiao Bai or not?"
"I... don't know..."
"I know it! You must be my Xiao Bai!"
"Why are you telling me this secret?" Tang Li Xue's perfect copy with a tone filled with suspicion.
Elder Yang replied with a comforting tone: "As I said before, it is to make you feel more secure because I do not want you to worry all the time about me disclosing your secret. At least it will make you feel safer right now after I told you about my secret, right?"
Then Elder Yang kissed Tang Li Xue's forehead gently before she disappear from Tang Feng City.
"Xiao Bai... I am looking forward to our next meeting. I hope we can spend more time together in our next meeting." Elder Yang's gentle but lonely voice drifted away with his carriage.
.....
Tang Li Xue suddenly found that she could not say any more words about Elder Yang's secret even to Instructor Mei Lan.
Instructor Mei Lan sighed in distress.
Instructor Mei Lan has excellent face-reading skills, and she could already guess many things just from Tang Li Xue's expression.
Instructor Mei Lan knew that Tang Li Xue probably already found the reason why that Elder Yang wanted to kill her, but she was in a state of denial.
Instructor Mei Lan wanted to forbid Tang Li Xue to meet or communicate again with Elder Yang in the future, but love and feeling were the most unpredictable things.
She was afraid Zuo Hongzhuang's tragedy would repeat once again.
At that time, she along with Zuo Hongzhuang's parents also rejected Zuo Hongzhuang's relationship with a human, but in the end, Zuo Hongzhuang ran away from home to marry that human.
No... Tang Li Xue's case was probably much worse than Zuo Hongzhuang's tragedy.
At least, Zuo Hongzhuang's human husband truly loved her, while on the contrary, Elder Yang hired veteran assassins to kill Tang Li Xue.
Instructor Mei Lan's expression also turned extremely cold as she thought that Elder Yang was actually toying with Tang Li Xue's feelings.
Tang Li Xue might be simpleminded, softhearted, and naive, but she was also the most talented student Instructor Mei Lan ever had.
d|
"Listen to me, Little Xue... No matter what you decide to do later, you must remember that you are no longer alone. There are me, Bingbing, and Silly Fox here that will accompany you." Instructor Mei Lan tried to comfort Tang Li Xue.
Instructor Mei Lan wanted to say that even if Tang Li Xue decided to kill Elder Yang later, then she, Bingbing, and Hei Yinghao would definitely help her to do it with all of our strength, but that did not seem the appropriate thing to said in this situation, so she did not say it.
Tang Li Xue smiled sadly as her cold heart became warmer and said: "I know... Thank you very much, Instructor Lan."
"Yaaaa~!!! Yayayayaaaa~!!!" This time, even Yaya flew onto Tang Li Xue's face and patted her chest, then hugged Tang Li Xue's cheek.
It seems Yaya also wanted to say that she would surely also accompany Tang Li Xue anytime too.
Tang Li Xue giggled as she gently kissed Yaya and muttered: "I know... I will accompany Yaya too."
Even Instructor Mei Lan also chucked at Yaya's cute reaction.
"Thank you, Instructor Mei Lan for the information." Tang Li Xue nodded politely at Instructor Mei Lan.
Instructor Mei Lan patted her head and said: "Don't worry about it. You are my student, so how could I keep quiet and ignore what happened to you."
Tang Li Xue held Yaya and stood up from her seat, then bid her farewell to Instructor Mei Lan.
Before Tang Li Xue left Instructor Mei Lan's residence, Instructor Mei Lan kindly have her one more reminder: "Oh, right... You better not use 'that' in Foxes Hunting Festival recklessly, especially in front of Qing Qiu's foxes."
Tang Li Xue nodded solemnly at Instructor Mei Lan.
She instantly understood Instructor Mei Lan's meaning, 'that' in Instructor Mei Lan's words meant her [Regalia of Desire].
Tang Li Xue absentmindedly headed back toward Residential Building.
There was seems two voices in her mind.
The first voice wanted her to believe that it was impossible for Elder Yang to hire those assassins to kill her.
While the second voice kept persuading that Elder Yang was only a despicable person.
'Elder Yang only told you about his made-up secret to let you believe in him and let your guard down at that time so you would not kill him to cover your secret!'
'You have already been deceived by him!'
'He held a grudge against you since you disguised as a pretty human girl to deceive him and play with his feeling!'
'So, he wanted to kill you so badly!'
'Why do you still want to protect him even now!'
When Tang Li Xue went back to Residential Building and entered her room, she held her head and screamed in annoyance: "Uaaaarghhhh~!!! Shut up... Shut the hell up~!!!"
"So what if he is the assassin's hirer, so what if he is not?! I no longer care about that! From now on, Elder Yang will have nothing to do with me, Tang Li Xue! I am me, and he is him!" Tang Li Xue shouted with a firm tone.
"Tsk~!!! Handsome man will only affect the speed at which I level up my level~!" Tang Li Xue clicked her tongue while using her [Twin Moon] divine ability to summon out her perfect copy.
She instructed her perfect copy to keep practicing [Essense Devouring Technique] while she prepared herself to break through to Foundation Establishment Stage.
'What? Did you expect me to cry like a distressed heroine in the romance drama?! Dream on~!!! I already fight against deadly diseases for many years in my previous life without giving up until the end! A bit of heartache like this is nothing to me!' Tang Li Xue thought disdainfully in her heart.