Proofreader & Editor: Lotas
"Is that Senior Sister Liu?"
Xu Taiping looked calmly towards the woman at the door.
"It's me!"
Seeing that Xu Taiping still recognized her, Liu Zijin's face immediately lit up with a smile.
After all, she believed that her acquaintance with Xu Taiping was limited to a brief encounter at the Green Bamboo Residence.
"Junior Brother Taiping, there's something I need to confirm with you."
Liu Zijin got straight to the point.
Xu Taiping gave Liu Zijin a deep look and then nodded:
"Please wait a moment, Senior Sister."
He guessed that Liu Zijin must have recognized him as the young man who had fought the Tiger Demon in the Red Maple Forest.
"Senior Brother Qingxiao, Senior Sister Linglong, I need to speak privately with Senior Sister Zi Jin about something. I'll explain the details to you later."
Xu Taiping said to Dugu Qingxiao and Zhao Linglong.
"Go ahead, we'll wait for you here and then go to the courtyard arranged for you together."
Qingxiao nodded his head.
He never interfered with his fellow disciples' private matters.
***
Outside the Wanjuan Tower, in a pavilion designed for enjoying the scenery.
"Junior Brother Taiping, you're the young man who descended from the sky in the Red Maple Forest, aren't you?"
Liu Zijin looked at Xu Taiping with a bit of trepidation.
Initially, she had never connected Xu Taiping from the Green Bamboo Residence with the young man from the Red Maple Forest, as the difference in their cultivation levels was too great.
It wasn't until the day of the Seventh Peak meeting, when she saw Xu Taiping use the same Green Bull Fist as the young man from the forest, that she made the connection.
"It's me."
Xu Taiping hesitated for a moment before finally nodding.
In the battle with the Tiger Demon in the Red Maple Forest, he wasn't afraid of being recognized.
After all, his victory over the Tiger Demon was largely because the demon was already severely injured, and he had caught it by surprise. So even if someone asked, he could explain it.
And even more so when the person recognizing him was Liu Zijin right in front of him.
"Indeed, I knew it was too much of a coincidence that the young man would appear just in time to help."
Liu Zijin felt a weight lifted off her shoulders.
Then, with a serious expression, she asked Xu Taiping:
"When you left that day, why did you tell me to be wary of Lu Chen? Does it have something to do with my sister's disappearance?"
Hearing this, Xu Taiping was slightly surprised.
He hadn't expected Liu Zijin's intuition to be so sharp.
"Yes."
In the end, he nodded again.
"I knew I wasn't wrong."
Liu Zijin's eyes suddenly brightened, and then with a trembling gaze, she asked Xu Taiping for confirmation:
"Was it my sister who told you to warn me about Lu Chen?"
With just these few clues, Xu Taiping couldn't help but see Liu Zijin in a new light.
"Yes."
He nodded once more.
"It really was my sister, it really was her!"
Liu Zijin was overjoyed.
"Then, where is my sister? How is she?"
Liu Zijin asked Xu Taiping nervously.
Upon hearing this, Xu Taiping fell silent.
And with his silence, the excitement in Liu Zijin's eyes quickly turned to unease.
"Senior Sister Zi Jin, when I saw your sister Qingmei, she had already become a Ghost Servant for an Evil Ghost."
Xu Taiping finally decided to tell Liu Zijin the truth.
Hearing this, Liu Zijin's body trembled violently.
"How is that possible? How could my sister become a Ghost Servant? She was about to break through to the Opening Realm. Xu Taiping, could you have mistaken someone else for her?"
Liu Zijin suddenly grabbed Xu Taiping's shoulders, somewhat hysterically.
But then, as if something dawned on her, she said with a dawning realization:
"Could it be, could it be Senior Brother Lu Chen? Was it him?!"
In the days following Xu Taiping's warning, she had also gradually noticed that Lu Chen seemed to be hiding something from her. Now, hearing what Xu Taiping said, she immediately linked the two matters together.
"Your sister was right; she has a very smart younger sister."
Xu Taiping nodded.
Seeing her suspicions confirmed, Liu Zijin felt as if she had fallen into an icy abyss.
"It's my fault, I'm the one who harmed my sister. I should never have allowed that scoundrel Lu Chen to meet her!"
Liu Zijin clenched her fists tightly, and large tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes.
"Here is a stick of Seeking Dust Incense, which Qingmei sister entrusted me to give to you. Once lit, it will reveal Lu Chen's crimes. You can hand it directly to the Elders of the Seven Rhythms Hall, and they will bring Lu Chen to justice."
Xu Taiping took out the box containing the Seeking Dust Incense from his gourd.
In fact, there were originally two more sticks of incense, but he was worried that Liu Zijin would lose control of her emotions after seeing it, so he deliberately said there was only one. This way, Liu Zijin would have to hand it over to the Seven Rhythms Hall.
About the Seven Rhythms Hall, he had learned during his recovery time; it was a place specifically for dealing with the transgressions of the disciples of the Seven Peaks, independent of the peaks themselves, with the hall master being on the same level as the Peak Masters.
According to Senior Brother Qingxiao, if the Seven Rhythms Hall couldn't uphold justice, it meant that the matter had exceeded what ordinary disciples could handle.
"Give me the other stick of Seeking Dust Incense."
Liu Zijin, however, shook her head and reached out to Xu Taiping.
Xu Taiping was surprised; he hadn't expected Liu Zijin to guess that he had another stick.
"There's no more."
Xu Taiping shook his head.
"You can't fool me, because this Seeking Dust Incense… it was me… I gave it… to my sister!"
At that moment, Liu Zijin suddenly spoke with a sob in her voice, her teeth clenched.
"There were four in total. My sister lit one, you lit one, so there should be two left."
Her voice trembling, she continued to reach out to Xu Taiping.
"…"
Xu Taiping let out a long sigh.
He still didn't want to give it to her.
"Xu Taiping, give me that one too! I can't not even know how my sister died…"
Liu Zijin looked at Xu Taiping with red eyes, her outstretched hand shaking.
"Alright."
In the end, Xu Taiping nodded.
He handed over the other stick of Seeking Dust Incense he had hidden to Liu Zijin.
"Senior Sister Zi Jin, I still want to remind you, don't look. Sister Qingmei surely wouldn't want you to see."
Xu Taiping couldn't help but give Liu Zijin one last warning.
"She's always like that, always keeping everything to herself, never willing to tell me anything!"
Liu Zijin's emotions became somewhat uncontrollable.
Xu Taiping didn't know how to comfort the emotionally distraught Liu Zijin, so he chose to remain silent again.
After a long while, when he saw that Liu Zijin had finally stabilized a bit, he handed a handkerchief to her, whose face was smeared with tears.
"Senior Sister Zi Jin, if you need help, you can find me at the Seventh Peak."
He then said to Liu Zijin.