Chapter 227: Extreme Rescue! Senior Sister’s “Overactive Imagination” Upgraded Again!

"Slap!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang was clearly driven mad with anger. The soul-locking whip in her hand lashed fiercely at the open space beside the red sandalwood table, instantly carving a deep crack into the hard obsidian floor tiles as gravel flew everywhere.

Her usually seductive peach-blossom eyes were now wide as saucers, burning with a blazing fire of jealousy as she stared dead at Jiang Wanqing.

"It's one thing for the Cult Master, that Old Hag, to torment you. Her cultivation is high after all, so this Palace will endure it!"

"But what the hell is this foot-washing maid?!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang pointed at Jiang Wanqing, her voice so sharp it cracked slightly, "Are you really bewitched by her pitiful look? Today, this Palace will definitely scratch up that vixen's face!"

With that, she flicked her wrist, and the black soul-locking whip hissed through the air like a venomous snake, flying straight toward Jiang Wanqing's cheek.

Gu Lan's vision went dark for a moment, and his scalp felt utterly numb.

When this ancestor's temper flared, she was truly reckless! If that whip actually struck true, could Jiang Wanqing's proud bones endure it? In a matter of minutes, she'd draw the taie sword and fight her to the death! How could he keep hiding his identity as an undercover agent then?

"Stop!"

At the critical juncture, Gu Lan suddenly stepped forward and caught the incoming soul-locking whip barehanded!

"Screech—"

The Devilish Qi attached to the whip instantly slashed open Gu Lan's palm, seeping out a few drops of fresh blood.

"You're still protecting her?!"

Seeing the blood on Gu Lan's hand, Saintess Ji Wushuang not only didn't let go, but instead felt even more aggrieved and furious. Her eye sockets instantly turned red, and tears were swirling in them.

Meanwhile, Jiang Wanqing, standing behind Gu Lan, had a complexion so pale it lacked a trace of blood.

Yet her pallor was not because she feared Saintess Ji Wushuang's whip.

It was because of the words Saintess Ji Wushuang shouted when she rushed through the door just now—'Just crawled out of the bed of the Cult Master, that Old Hag'!

This sentence felt like a heavy hammer, fiercely smashing against Jiang Wanqing's heart.

Her icy gaze fell upon Gu Lan's somewhat disheveled collar, where a faint, suspicious red mark could vaguely be seen on his neck.

In an instant, Jiang Wanqing's brain began its frantic 'overactive imagination'.

"Junior Brother… actually got forced to this extent by that Female Demon Lord?!"

"In order to survive in the Heavenly Demon Palace, to protect me, not only does he have to bear the infamy of a traitor, but he actually has to… has to sell his innocence to pander to that brutal Demon Sovereign?!"

Jiang Wanqing's fingers clenched tightly, her nails digging deep into her flesh.

The gaze she cast at Gu Lan instantly shifted from icy coldness to endless pain and self-reproach.

Junior Brother had suffered such unimaginable humiliation, yet just moments ago, he had forced a smile to discuss countermeasures with her, and even covered up her betrayal of Righteous Path intelligence. He had carried everything all by himself, while she could only watch helplessly!

"I absolutely cannot let him suffer the slightest bit of grievance for me again! Even if it's an act, I must play it to absolute perfection!"

Jiang Wanqing swore inwardly.

Seeing that Gu Lan and Saintess Ji Wushuang were still locked in a stalemate,

Jiang Wanqing suddenly took a deep breath, bent her knees, and with a heavy thump, actually knelt directly at Gu Lan's feet!

"This maid deserves death!"

Jiang Wanqing kept her head lowered, her voice trembling, her tone exuding an extremely realistic terror and servility.

"Your Highness Saintess, please calm your anger! Sword-Wielding Envoy Lord was not having a tryst with this maid just now; Lord was… was torturing this maid to extract a confession!"

This single kneel and this single sentence directly stunned both Gu Lan and Saintess Ji Wushuang into a daze.

Gu Lan's eyes widened, his jaw nearly dropping to the floor.

"Holy shit?! Senior Sister, you picked up this act way too smoothly?! With this servile tone and these trembling shoulders, if the Oscars don't award you a little golden statue, it's a total rigged scam!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang was also momentarily stunned. She loosened her grip on the whip slightly and looked suspiciously at Jiang Wanqing kneeling on the ground.

"Torturing to extract a confession?"

Saintess Ji Wushuang sneered, clearly disbelieving it, "Does extracting a confession require standing that close? A lone man and woman sharing a room, do you take this Palace for a three-year-old child?"

"Shuanger! Your jealousy is completely unreasonable!"

Gu Lan immediately seized this straw of life, smoothly letting go of the whip. He turned around, grabbed the black scroll densely covered in Jiang Wanqing's markings from the table, and slammed it forcefully in front of Saintess Ji Wushuang.

"Open your eyes wide and see what this is!"

Gu Lan deliberately put on a straight face, making an angry expression as if he had suffered an injustice of monumental proportions.

"The Cult Master told me to take the lead at Sunset Plain in three days. Facing those Righteous Path Prodigy, could I not make some preparations in advance?"

"This woman is the Senior Sister of Qingyun Sect, and she knows the backgrounds and weaknesses of the elites from all the Righteous Path sects! I kept her alone just now precisely to use extremely cruel methods, coercing and bribing her into coughing up this intelligence!"

Gu Lan pointed at the annotations on the scroll, his voice rising by an octave:

"Look! Tianjian Sect Jian Wuchen has an old injury on his right leg, Wanfo Temple Monk Wuhua's Vajra Cover fears filth… If I hadn't used mental secret arts to torture her just now, would a self-proclaimed lofty Righteous Path Fairy like her obediently spit these core secrets out?!"

"For the grand cause of the Demonic Cult, to hold my head high at the Sword Trial Conference, I've been racking my brains interrogating captives here, yet you—the moment you walked in, you indiscriminately splashed dirty water all over me!"

The more Gu Lan spoke, the more agitated he became, finally even flicking his sleeve and turning his back with the posture of 'my heart is broken, and it's the kind that can't be coaxed back'.

Saintess Ji Wushuang was dazed by Gu Lan's rapid-fire output.

She lowered her head to glance at the classified scroll on the table.

The dense annotations, weakness analyses, and Cultivation Technique flaws were clearly written out, and the handwriting still retained a bit of panic and sloppiness (actually because Jiang Wanqing wrote it too fast).

These were definitely not core secrets that the Demonic Cult's Intelligence Hall could obtain!

Saintess Ji Wushuang's gaze instantly changed.

She glanced again at Jiang Wanqing, who was kneeling on the ground with her head lowered and trembling (actually, Jiang Wanqing was desperately holding back to avoid breaking character).

It all added up!

When Gu Lan stood so close to her earlier, he must have been using cruel methods like Demonic Sound Brain-Pouring or Soul-Searching to interrogate her! No wonder this woman was so frightened she didn't even dare raise her head, selling out her Righteous Path fellow disciples' trump cards completely clean!

"This…"

Saintess Ji Wushuang instantly felt guilty.

She put away the soul-locking whip and, like a child who had done something wrong, cautiously walked behind Gu Lan, reaching out to gently tug at the corner of his robe.

"Um… Dunderhead, don't be mad."

Saintess Ji Wushuang's voice softened, carrying a hint of ingratiation.

"I… I was just flustered out of concern. Who told you to stand so close to her earlier, and you had just come out from that Old Hag's place, so I panicked and…"

"Just because you panicked, you can suspect me casually?"

Gu Lan didn't turn back, his tone remaining cold and rigid, but inside, he was blooming with joy.

He nailed it! This wave of extreme tug-of-war was simply perfection!

"Aiyah, so what if I admit I was wrong?"

Saintess Ji Wushuang walked around in front of him, shaking his arm, her pair of peach-blossom eyes filled with coquettish spoiledness.

"The intelligence you interrogated out is indeed very useful. This time at the Sunset Plain grand competition, you will definitely be able to grind those Righteous Path hypocrites into the dirt."

"However…"

Her gaze swept coldly at Jiang Wanqing on the floor.

"In the future, leave such dirty and tiring work to your subordinates. Why must you interrogate her personally? And sharing a room with her alone, needlessly inviting gossip."

"Next time if she dares to step out of line again, this Palace will throw her straight into the Ten-Thousand Snake Pit!"

"This maid knows her wrong! I beg Your Highness Saintess to show mercy! This maid will never dare again!"

Cooperating to the extreme, Jiang Wanqing kowtowed to the ground, her voice even carrying a trace of a 'terrified crying sob'.

Watching Senior Sister putting on a wild acting performance on the floor, Gu Lan couldn't help but let his mouth twitch twice.

"Senior Sister, if your acting skills aren't used to be the top star in a mortal opera troupe, it's truly a waste of talent! Playing this pitiful little bullied punching bag image, you're acting so well even I'm starting to feel like I'm a heinous Devil Head!"

"Alright, get up."

Gu Lan forcefully suppressed the smile at the corner of his mouth and said coldly to Jiang Wanqing.

"There's nothing more for you here. Scram to the side room and sweep the floor clean; without my order, you are not allowed to come out."

"Yes, many thanks, Master."

Jiang Wanqing stood up tremblingly, keeping her head down with a submissive look, turned around, and quickly retreated into the side room, considerately closing the door tightly behind her.

Inside the entire grand hall, only Gu Lan and Saintess Ji Wushuang remained.

Crisis averted.

Saintess Ji Wushuang completely let down her guard. Her entire body hung on Gu Lan like boneless jelly, her hand restlessly drawing circles on his chest.

"Dunderhead, does your hand still hurt?"

She grabbed Gu Lan's left hand that had caught the whip earlier, looked at the bloodstain on his palm, and blew on it with some heartache.

"I didn't mean it just now, it's all your fault, who told you to block it for her?"

"If I hadn't blocked it and your whip had beaten her stupid, where would I go to ask for the subsequent intelligence?" Gu Lan gave her an unamused roll of the eyes and smoothly pulled his hand back.

"Alright, alright, I know you did it all for the bigger picture."

Saintess Ji Wushuang didn't mind at all; instead, she leaned even closer, even standing on tiptoes with her nose almost touching Gu Lan's chin.

"However, what you were doing at that Old Hag's place just now… what on earth did she do to you?"

A trace of sourness flashed through her eyes again, and her tone turned somewhat resentful.

"Why is the Devilish Qi on your body in such chaos? There are even bloodshot eyes at the corners of your eyes, did she force you into harvesting?"

Hearing this, Gu Lan almost spewed a mouthful of old blood.

Didn't these women of the Demonic Cult have any other normal thoughts in their heads besides harvesting and Dual Cultivation?

But looking at Saintess Ji Wushuang's small, caring face, a naughty idea suddenly popped into his head.

"Yeah."

Gu Lan sighed, put on an expression of exhaustion and helplessness, and reached out to rub his lower back.

"The Cult Master's cultivation reaches the heavens, how could my Half-step Golden Core physique withstand her tossing around. Look, I just crawled out of her bed, didn't even drink a sip of water, and rushed back to interrogate intelligence."

"Right now my legs feel weak and my vital essence is exhausted; I'm afraid I'll need to recuperate for ten days to half a month before I can recover."

"What?!"

Upon hearing this, Saintess Ji Wushuang predictably blew her top.

But this time she wasn't angry at Gu Lan; instead, she stamped her feet in fury and began cursing Ye Hongzhuang up and down.

"That shameless Old Hag! As a dignified Cult Master, she actually forced herself on her subordinate! Simply utterly shameless!"

"She's simply draining the pond to catch the fish! If you are really sucked dry by her, what's going to happen to the Sunset Plain competition in three days?!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang was anxious like an ant on a hot pan, spinning around the room twice before suddenly stopping her steps and grabbing Gu Lan's arm.

"No! You cannot let her ravage you like this anymore!"

"Come with me! To my Saintess Palace!"

"I have millennium-old jade-pith snow lotus there, along with various supreme-grade Medicinal Pills to consolidate your foundation and nourish your origin! I'll protect your Dharma and help you replenish your deficient primordial yang!"

Gu Lan was amused by her eager appearance.

This silly girl actually believed it.

"Forget it." Gu Lan shook his head, pulling his hand back, "The Cult Master just gave a strict order telling me not to go anywhere and to prepare for battle right here in the Hidden Sword Pavilion. If I go with you to the Saintess Palace, tomorrow morning she'll directly tear both of us apart."

Saintess Ji Wushuang bit her lip. Though unwilling, she knew Ye Hongzhuang's temper.

"Then… then you rest well by yourself."

She looked at Gu Lan with some lingering reluctance, exhorting him:

"For these three days, besides practicing swords, don't go anywhere, and definitely don't go provoke that Old Hag."

"When we reach Sunset Plain, this Palace will personally watch you from under the stage."

"If anyone dares to hurt you on the arena stage, this Palace will make sure he dies without a whole corpse!"

Dropping this murderous and ruthless threat, Saintess Ji Wushuang finally walked out of the Hidden Sword Pavilion, looking back three times with every single step.

As the main doors closed once again,

the entire Hidden Sword Pavilion restored its peace.

Gu Lan let out a long breath of turbid air and slumped into the grand master's chair, feeling even more exhausted than if he had just had a fight with someone.

"This undercover job is truly fucking not something a human being does."

Just at this moment, the door to the side room opened.

Jiang Wanqing had already shed her previous servile posture, reverting to her icy and aloof appearance. She held a cup of freshly brewed hot tea, walked over to Gu Lan, and gently placed it on the table.

She didn't speak, merely quietly looking at the exhausted Gu Lan, the pity in the depths of her eyes almost overflowing.

"Junior Brother, you've suffered."

Gu Lan picked up the teacup, looking at Senior Sister's serious gaze, momentarily not knowing how to reply.

He could only turn his head and look toward the gloomy Demonic Cult sky outside the window.

Three days later, Sunset Plain.

The true bloody storm was about to arrive.