The Scent of the Orchid in the Forest of Secrets (密林兰香)

Chapter Eight

"What's going on here?" Shu Haolin had just staggered into the medicine wards to get her wounds treated when she found, lying, lifeless and gray on a small bed, her little brother. After no response came from the small huddle of medicine disciples, she repeated, her voice growing shrill, "what happened?"

At her raised voice, the sounds of multiple people's rushed footsteps approached, and Chen Linfeng, accompanied by a couple of other senior medicine cultivators, entered the room. Chen Linfeng stopped in his tracks in shock before rushing over to Shu Haolin's side. "What happened to you? How did you get into this state? Come on, sit down, let me tend to your wounds."

Shu Haolin ruthlessly threw off Chen Linfeng's grip. "What happened to my little brother?" She demanded, pointing to his gray, pale face and shallow breaths. "What happened? If you can't give me an explanation, I'll raze this entire place to the ground!" She screamed.

A gleaming sword was gripped in Shu Haolin's other hand, still stained with blood from her fight with the demonic cultivators. Everyone shivered at her threat, and glancing at her sword, it seemed all the more real.

"Haolin, calm down, I'll explain it all to you." Chen Linfeng said quickly, pushing Shu Haolin's shoulders so she sat down at the nearest available bed. The corners of her eyes were red, giving her an almost bloodthirsty look. "It was all my fault, I hadn't been paying attention to him. He got overexhausted due to a combination of heavy work and a severe flare-up of the curse."

"Heavy work? What kind of heavy work? I told him already, he should leave that work to others and do some of the lighter chores."

"Yes, but..." Chen Linfeng trailed off, glancing towards the huddle of medicine disciples in the corner. Upon becoming the recipient of Shu Haolin's piercing gaze, they all pressed backwards, not daring to make a peep.

Chen Linfeng took a breath. "Many of the disciples bullied him for having no real place in the Yu Sect and assigned all of the tasks they didn't want to do to him whenever he's out of my sight, and he never said anything and did his best to do all their tasks, but one day he was too slow to bring in a tub of water and got punished by one of the older disciples and... and... passed out," he said quickly, as if it would relieve the impact of the words.

Shu Haolin was starting to shake a little, and her jaw was clenched tight. "So you're saying... you're saying that this group of useless bastards bullied Yang-er for not having any support in the Yu Sect and worked him to the point of exhaustion?"

"Well... yes." Chen Linfeng said quietly.

Shu Haolin's sword pointed straight at the group of disciples huddled in the corner. One of the senior medicine cultivators rushed to intervene, but Shu Haolin threw him off easily.

"Mercy, shijie, mercy!" One of them cried.

"Mercy? Did you think of having mercy on Yang-er when he was doing all of your hard work? Did you think of having mercy when you punished him for doing work he's not obligated to do? What a group of sniveling cowards who only know how to suck up to the powerful and trample on the weak," Shu Haolin sneered. "If you dare do this kind of cruel and vicious thing in the future, I won't show a single thread of mercy to you."

"We're wrong, shijie, we're wrong, please have mercy." Another whimpered.

"You're wrong? You're only saying that because you see that I'm powerful, that I could break your legs and snap your neck in an instant. Do you really know your mistakes?"

"Shu Haolin, you... you shouldn't act too arrogant," another voice stammered, barely mustering up the courage to speak, "you're only a ranked disciple of the Yu Sect, and your shifu is dead. If you really hurt us, who's going to defend you?"