The Side Character Who Wins by Doing Nothing

The sight of Lu Sangjiu’s innocent expression infuriated Qin Yu. He couldn’t help but sneer, ”Save me? It looked to me like you deliberately let them come over to gang up on me!”

Lu Sangjiu’s eyes widened slightly, brimming with shock and hurt. ”Senior Brother Qin, how could you think such a thing? We’re both disciples of the Seven Emotions Sect. Why would I ever help an outsider deal with you?”

”Isn’t it just because...” Qin Yu stopped himself mid-sentence. ’That was close.’ He had almost blurted out that he’d tried to kill Lu Sangjiu on Luoya Mountain.

Luckily, he stopped himself in time and changed tack. ”...it’s because you’re jealous of my junior sister, so you wanted to get us killed!”

Lu Sangjiu: ”...”

She really couldn’t help it. She looked at Qin Yu as if he were a complete idiot.

Her stare annoyed Qin Yu, and just as he was about to say something else, Lu Sangjiu suddenly clutched her chest, her face contorted in pain.

”I... COUGH COUGH COUGH!”

Spitting up blood, Lu Sangjiu said sorrowfully, ”I never imagined that this is the image you have of me, Senior Brother Qin.”

”I’ve known for a long time that you hate me, Senior Brother Qin... I shouldn’t have been in your sight. I’ll leave right now!”

With that, she turned to leave.

This time, Chi Yan could no longer stand by and watch. He blocked Lu Sangjiu’s path and furiously snapped at Qin Yu, ”Are you out of your mind? We were kind enough to help you, and not only are you ungrateful, but you’re also turning around and making false accusations?”

”Now, you must apologize to Lu Fairy!”

Lu Sangjiu started to sob. ”Please, Mr. Chi, don’t say any more. Senior Brother Qin possesses exceptional talent. How could I possibly deserve an apology from him?”

”Senior Brother Qin doesn’t like me, so I’ll just leave. Please, don’t get into a fight with him over me!”

She was a master at fanning the flames. Before Qin Yu even had a chance to explain himself, Chi Yan was already roaring, ”Bah! What’s the damn use of having talent if you don’t know how to be a decent person? I’ve never seen anyone so ungrateful! If you ask me, with a character like his, he isn’t even worthy of carrying your shoes, Immortal!”

Chi Yan had a vicious way with words. On the spot, Qin Yu’s face flushed a deep crimson with rage.

”Who the hell do you think you are? When people from our Seven Emotions Sect are talking, what right do you have to interrupt?”

Chi Yan sneered. ”Is the Seven Emotions Sect all that? Well, I’m Chi Yan of the Golden Elephant Sect, and I’m Lu Fairy’s friend. You are *not* going to bully her!”

Qin Yu gritted his teeth. ”You’ve got some nerve, Lu Sangjiu. Without Li Qiancheng by your side, you immediately hooked someone else to speak up for you, is that it?”

”I could tolerate it from Li Qiancheng, but do you really think you can let just *anyone* walk all over me?”

With that, he pointed his longsword at Chi Yan. ”Golden Elephant Sect, you say? Let’s see if your skills are as sharp as your tongue!”

Qin Yu lunged forward with a menacing thrust, but before his blade could reach Chi Yan, another sword suddenly shot out from the side to intercept it.

Qin Yu felt a jarring numbness in the web of his hand. His longsword flew from his grasp and plunged deep into the earth at his feet.

For a Sword Cultivator, being disarmed in the very first exchange was the ultimate humiliation, tantamount to being slapped across the face.

Qin Yu clutched his aching wrist, staring in disbelief at his sword embedded in the ground. For a long moment, he couldn’t process what had just happened.

But Gu Jue, as if deciding Qin Yu hadn’t been crushed enough, sheathed his sword and said nonchalantly, ”Exceptional talent? Hah.”

Nothing more needed to be said. That single ”Hah” was enough to completely demolish Qin Yu’s spirit.

His eyes instantly reddened. ”You!”

He looked ready to charge Gu Jue and fight to the death, but he had barely gotten one word out before Ye Zhiyao stopped him.

”Senior Brother, Senior Brother Gu, please stop arguing!”

She looked frantic as she first tried to placate Qin Yu. ”Senior Brother, at the end of the day, Senior Brother Gu and his party saved us. We can’t repay their kindness with hostility.”

Then she turned to Gu Jue to explain. ”Senior Brother Gu, please don’t be angry. My senior brother doesn’t have any ill intentions. It’s just... we had a small misunderstanding with Junior Sister Lu in the past, which is why he acted so impulsively...”

”I will apologize to you all on his behalf. Can we please put this behind us?”

Before Gu Jue could reply, Liu Xi chimed in sarcastically from the side, ”He drew his sword at the first opportunity, and you call that ’no ill intentions’?”

”Besides, you didn’t say a word to stop him earlier. Why are you playing the good guy now? He needs you to apologize for him? Is he a baby who still needs to be weaned?”

When it came to a sharp tongue, Liu Xi was truly in a class of her own.

Lu Sangjiu silently gave her a thumbs-up. ’I’ve found another teammate with perfect synergy,’ she marveled. ’This is great.’

Ye Zhiyao was rebuked into silence, her eyes welling with tears. ”I...”

She looked at Gu Jue with a pitiful expression. ”Senior Brother Gu, I just... I didn’t react quickly enough. My thoughts weren’t as sordid as she makes them out to be. You have to believe me.”

Gu Jue’s brow furrowed slightly, a look of genuine confusion in his eyes as he asked sincerely, ”From the very beginning, your senior brother offended Mr. Lu and Mr. Chi. Why are you continuously explaining things to me instead of apologizing to them?”

Ye Zhiyao: ”...”

Lu Sangjiu almost burst out laughing. ’This is a classic case of casting pearls before swine.’

’And somehow, Gu Jue’s sincere question seems to inflict even more damage, doesn’t it?’

Ye Zhiyao’s face alternated between pale and ashen. She bit her lip, unable to speak for a long moment.

Liu Xi watched this unfold with immense satisfaction. ”My senior brother is right. Why are you staring at him instead of apologizing to Lu Sangjiu and Chi Yan?”

”I’d advise you to give up on that idea. My senior brother would never fall for someone like you!”

Her intentions laid bare, Ye Zhiyao was utterly mortified. This time, tears genuinely welled in her eyes.

Qin Yu couldn’t take it anymore. ”It’s ’my senior brother’ this and ’my senior brother’ that. It’s obvious *you’re* the one who likes him, isn’t it?”

Liu Xi nodded, full of confidence. ”That’s right, I do like my senior brother. You got a problem with that?”

Qin Yu: ”...”

He hadn’t expected Liu Xi to admit it so frankly, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words.

After a long pause, he managed to squeeze out, ”At your young age... you have no shame!”

Liu Xi said with disdain, ”Oh, so you know about shame? You act like a lapdog in front of your precious junior sister, but when you watch her fawn all over another man, you don’t dare make a peep. I bet even a cuckolded turtle has more backbone than you.”

Liu Xi’s verbal combat skills were truly formidable, enraging Qin Yu to the point that he almost attacked her.

Lu Sangjiu was thoroughly enjoying the show from the sidelines, feeling utterly refreshed, when Gu Jue suddenly glanced over at her.

It gave her a start. She thought for a second that her gloating expression had been too obvious, but then she heard Gu Jue ask, ”Are you alright?”

Lu Sangjiu froze for a second before realizing he was asking about the mouthful of blood she had just coughed up.

So she shook her head weakly. ”I’m fine. I was just so overwhelmed by the misunderstanding earlier that it got the better of me. Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, I feel much better.”

Gu Jue grunted in acknowledgment and turned. ”Then let’s go.”

Lu Sangjiu hadn’t expected Gu Jue to leave just like that. Stunned, she instinctively glanced toward Ye Zhiyao.

She saw a flicker of astonishment in Ye Zhiyao’s eyes as well. But Ye Zhiyao reacted quickly, grabbing Lu Sangjiu’s hand.

”Junior Sister Lu, wait!”