Shi Sheng enunciated each word loudly, allowing everyone present to hear her words perfectly.
She summarised what had happened in a few short words: Yue Yao got drunk and ended up making a mistake, tying her and Cang Lan together, which nearly caused her to fail her tribulation to become a Highgod.
It was well known throughout the Heavenly Realm that Yue Yao was a klutz; she’d committed a lot of mistakes in the past. However, since people found her clumsiness rather cute—and her attitude when apologising was very sincere—no one really blamed her.
She’d only started making enemies amongst the female immortals after she became close with Cang Lan all of a sudden.
But no one expected for her to have committed such a monumental mistake—this wasn’t an issue that could be resolved with just a few words.
Everyone’s gazes towards Yue Yao turned strange.
“I didn’t mean to…” Yue Yao tried to defend herself in a small voice.
“If I kill you and then say I didn’t mean to, can you come back to life and forgive me?”
“But aren’t you perfectly fine?” Yue Yao still persisted with this belief.
Shi Sheng raised her brow. “What if I’d failed my tribulation? What would you say then? That I wasn’t worthy of being a Highgod anyway, that I can only blame myself for my failure—so it wasn’t your fault?”
‘I can’t take it! I(lz) wanna chop this FL up!’
The thought had only just formed, yet Shi Sheng already had her sword drawn.
“Qing Guan, what are you doing?!” Cang Lan immediately stood in front of Yue Yao, shielding her.
Shi Sheng flexed her wrists, a slight, malicious smile slowly forming on her lips. “I’m testing this theory of mine: if what she says is true, then she should forgive me after I kill her.”
Yue Yao trembled in fear. She was just a minor immortal; even 10 of her would not be a match for a Highgod. ‘If Qing Guan really wants to kill me, I won’t even have a chance to resist!’
Yue Yao’s eyes swivelled as her thoughts spun. She seemed to have thought of something, for her eyes lit up.
“All the Highlords of the Heavenly Realm are supposed to guard their own red strings! They’ll only hand them over to me when it’s necessary, so why would yours end up with me?”
“Idiot,” Shi Sheng coldly spat out her reply before her figure blurred and shot towards Yue Yao.
Cang Lan intercepted Shi Sheng. “Why don’t you explain why your red string was with Yue Yao?”
“Brains are nice to have. I hope you’ll grow one.” Shi Sheng’s blade swept towards Cang Lan and forced him to retreat, giving her room to leap towards Yue Yao once again.
“Do you have a guilty conscience?! You put your red string in my place yourself, so how can you blame me?!” Yue Yao anxiously cried.
Shi Sheng’s blade fell without the slightest hesitation. Having suffered under this sword’s might before, Yue Yao’s body lost all strength and fell to the ground the moment she caught sight of the coldly gleaming blade. Her limbs were frozen in fear. She could only watch, terrified, as the blade descended.
“Oof…” A muffled grunt sounded beside her ear.
She found herself in someone’s arms, her vision blocked off.
“Highgod Cang Lan…” Yue Yao’s voice was trembling. ‘He…blocked it for me.’
Shi Sheng hadn’t expected Cang Lan would use his body to block the blow meant for Yue Yao either. However, after her initial surprise, she simply continued stabbing down.
‘If you’re going to deliver yourself to me(bbb), wishing to be killed, then I’m not going to be compassionate!’
Shi Sheng’s ferocious manner left the crowd gaping.
‘Mommy, Highgod Qing Guan is too fierce! Why doesn’t Highgod Cang Lan fight back?
…We haven’t seen a battle between Highgods before.
Highgod Cang Lan, don’t be so passive!
Get up! Fight back!’
No matter how hard they wished it, Cang Lan didn’t show any signs of retaliating against Shi Sheng’s attacks.
Even after his robes were dyed red from blood, Cang Lan continued to hug Yue Yao and shield her from Shi Sheng’s blows.
At this point, Shi Sheng wanted to maim him. However, it was a pity Cang Lan had the power of a Highgod. Adding on the fact that he had protected all his vital spots, his injuries actually weren’t serious at all.
Shi Sheng suddenly furrowed her brow and stopped attacking.
Cang Lan turned to cast his cold gaze at her. “Are you done?”
“Nope,” Shi Sheng sincerely shook her head, replying with an arrogant and mocking expression. “You think this much is enough to call it even? I’ve got two words for you: No. Way. She made the mistake; she should pay for it. I’m not sparing her today even if you die.”
‘If you don’t suffer after you make a mistake, you’ll never learn from them.
It’s because no one ever gave the FL the memo that she never learnt from her mistakes. Instead, she started treating the forgiveness and understanding of others as an obvious thing.
Whenever she makes a mistake, all she has to do is say she didn’t do it on purpose and she gets off scot-free. If it was that easy in real-life, why do the police exist?
If you say you didn’t mean to take drugs or to kill people, are the police going to just let you off?
Idiot!’
“Don’t go overboard!” Cang Lan growled.
“Okay, okay, fine! I went overboard! Whatever floats your boat! But I just don’t feel like letting her off! What can you do to me?” Shi Sheng smiled arrogantly.
“Qing Guan, don’t forget that I’m a Highgod too!” There was a hint of a threat in Cang Lan’s words.
Shi Sheng appeared to not have noticed, remaining unmoved. “So what?”
‘Oh, you think you’re so awesome just ‘cos you’re a Highgod? You think that just ‘cos you advanced a few years earlier than me, you can be as domineering as you want? You think you’re fucking invincible? Idiot!’
Shi Sheng’s fearless arrogance angered Cang Lan to the point of being unable to speak.
“The Jade Emperor and Queen Mother have arrived—”
Someone outside the hall cried out, causing the spectating crowd to immediately straighten up and lower their heads to respectfully welcome the two.
The sight that greeted the Jade Emperor when he first stepped back into the hall was Cang Lan half kneeling on the ground, his back a bloody mess as he protected Yue Yao in his arms while Shi Sheng was holding her sword still dripping blood, an arrogant expression on her face and a wicked aura surrounding her.
Seeing such a shocking scene, the Queen Mother paled from fright. “What on earth is going on?”
‘Wasn’t everything peaceful when we left? How did such a bloody fight start all of a sudden?! And Highgod Cang Lan was actually beaten to such an extent!’
“Highgod Qing Guan, what are you doing?” The Jade Emperor struggled to keep a stern face, though heaven knows how much he felt like collapsing on the inside. ‘These two are both Highgods! I can’t offend either of them, dammit!’
“Resolving private grudges,” Shi Sheng spoke blandly. The wickedness surrounding her receded and she regained her calm aura.
‘Private grudges…?’ The Jade Emperor was stumped. ‘Someone come out and tell me what’s going on!’
The Jade Emperor looked at the immortal standing closest to him. The little immortal couldn’t afford to offend the two Highgods, neither could he afford to offend the Jade Emperor. This forced him into a corner with three people he couldn’t offend surrounding him. Wait, no, make that four {Queen Mother}!
Cornered by the Jade Emperor’s glare, the immortal could only grit his teeth and force himself to explain what happened. Once he was done, he shrunk back into the crowd out of fear of getting involved any further.
The Jade Emperor’s face was black by the time the man finished recounting. He hadn’t been aware that one of the red strings implicated by Yue Yao’s mistake had belonged to Qing Guan.
“Jade Emperor, she’s slandering me! Her red string should never have appeared at my place!” Yue Yao probably felt much bolder now that her backer was here.
However, the Queen Mother only frowned. “Before Highgod Qing Guan descended to the Mortal Realm, she entrusted an immortal child to deliver her red string to you. The Jade Emperor and I personally bore witness to this. Yue Yao, how have you forgotten this?”
It was already too late for the Jade Emperor to stop the Queen Mother from speaking. Besides, what she had said was the truth.
There were many people who had also witnessed the representative, who Qing Guan had sent, hand over her red string to Yue Yao for safekeeping.
This was the rule. Highlords could keep their own red strings normally, but they couldn’t bring those with them to the Mortal Realm without authorisation. This was why Qing Guan’s red string was handed over to the Moon Elder, Yue Yao, before her tribulation in the Mortal Realm.
But who could’ve known that Yue Yao would carelessly cause such a mess?