Roaring Dragon-Chapter 101: The Poison Sect’s Whitewashing Campaign…

Outer City, Carefree Cavern.

Lin Wanyi was dressed in a black wide-sleeved gown and wore a black gauze veil hat. Her entire body was tightly wrapped, and only after confirming that no one on the street was paying attention did she step into a fur shop and head up to the second floor via a side stairwell.

Compared to the cluttered first floor, the upper floor was much tidier. A painting hung on the wall—scattered stars and a thin sliver of a crescent moon, symbolizing the New Moon phase.

The new moon was the insignia of Missing Moon Manor.

Bu Hanying, the Hall Master operating in Luojing, was currently wearing a pair of reading glasses as he flipped through a book at the desk. When he noticed Lin Wanyi coming upstairs, he immediately stood up.

“Wanyi girl, you finally showed up.”

Lin Wanyi took off her veil, revealing a face as beautiful as a national treasure.

“Uncle Bu, were you waiting for me?”

“Been waiting two days!”

Bu Hanying motioned for her to sit, his expression still showing a lingering sense of fear.

“You didn’t reveal your Witch Sect identity to Xie Jinhuan, did you?”

Lin Wanyi hadn’t intended to—it was Xie Jinhuan who figured it out on his own. She hadn’t even had the chance to report it to her sect yet. Blinking, she replied:

“Not yet. Why?”

Smack~

Bu Hanying slapped his thigh, face filled with the relief of a man who just escaped death.

“The night before last, right after I finished a discussion with the major sect reps, I was blocked by Xie Jinhuan on the way out!

“He’s on a crusade against demonic sects—moves like a blade slicing through knots! Less than an hour after talking to me, he beheaded that rogue cultivator on Antique Street!

“Luckily, your uncle here is wise and eloquent, managed to talk him down. Otherwise, if it had come to blows, there would’ve been real trouble...”

“......”

Lin Wanyi inhaled lightly. She thought Xie Jinhuan was being sneaky—using her martial uncle as bait?!

Still, given Xie Jinhuan’s usual behavior, if he really wanted to cause trouble, her martial uncle would probably be scattered across the room by now...

So he was showing her some face after all.

She didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she asked curiously:

“What were you and the other sects discussing?”

“Sigh, it’s about rehabilitating the Poison Sect’s reputation.”

Bu Hanying poured tea as he sighed dramatically.

“After Taishu Dan’s outburst, the court has been cracking down harder on poison masters. The people are scared too—if they see anyone selling sketchy medicine, they report it to the yamen. This makes it harder for us to spread the faith in the Central Plains.

“I’ve spent the past few days reading up on the founding histories of the big sects. I think the root problem ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) is... the names.”

“Just look at the Daoist sects—Hidden Immortals, Dan-Ding, Divination Pavilion. All sound otherworldly. Even Taiyin Palace and Zihui Mountain give off that ‘orthodox prestige.’

“But us? ‘Poison,’ ‘Gu,’ names like Chilong Cavern and Three Corpses Cave—we sound like back-alley villains with fake goods and rats in their pockets...”

Lin Wanyi honestly agreed.

“Uncle Bu, are you thinking of changing the names? How?”

Bu Hanying pushed up his glasses and launched into a serious analysis:

“‘Missing Moon’ carries a heavy yin aura. Even the sound has an ominous edge—doesn’t suit our rebranding. But we can’t lose the essence either.

“So I was thinking—what if we reverse it? ‘Missing’ becomes ‘Owed,’ and ‘Moon’ becomes ‘Sun.’ That way it’s rooted in our origins, but sounds less ominous...”

Owed-Sun Manor...?

Lin Wanyi sat up straighter. That name felt... incredibly off.

“Uh... and Chilong Cavern, Three Corpses Cave?”

“Easy—follow the same logic.”

Bu Hanying looked excited.

“‘Chilong’ means ‘hornless dragon,’ right? No horns means bald. So rename it Baldy Den.

“As for ‘Three Corpses,’ they correspond to the three dantians. ‘Tian’ pairs with ‘Mu’—so Three Mu Depot!”

Dear heavens...

Lin Wanyi thought these names would drive the Poison Sect into exile on the spot.

“What about the name Poison Sect itself?”

“Gu is insect. Poison is herb. So we’re the Witch Sect’s Insect-Herb Branch. Doesn’t that sound wholesome?”

“Heh! That one actually works!”

“Right? I’ll write to the Manor Lord about this later...”

...

The mention of herbs reminded Lin Wanyi of the actual reason she came. She pulled a slip from her sleeve.

“I came today to ask the Manor for help gathering some herbs. They need to be delivered within ten days...”

Bu Hanying glanced over the list.

“Hmm... no problem. But before we get to that, there’s another, more important task from the Manor Lord.”

Lin Wanyi’s brow furrowed.

“What is it?”

Bu Hanying stroked his beard.

“Last autumn, the Manor Lord ran into the head of Zihui Mountain in Fire Phoenix Valley down south—remember that?”

“I know. Nangong the Sword Immortal got hit with a love gu by Master.”

“Love gu? That’s just rumor.”

Bu Hanying lowered his voice:

“They were both after Phoenix Feather Grass to break into the transcendent tier. But there was only one stalk—and Nangong Ye found it first.

“Now, celestial treasures go to the capable. The Manor Lord couldn’t just back off. So they fought. Though she cultivates both Witch and Martial paths, she couldn’t match Nangong Ye’s Daoist lightning head-on... so she used Burning Immortal Gu.”

“What?!”

Lin Wanyi’s eyes widened. That was bad.

Love Gu might torment someone emotionally, but Burning Immortal Gu? That was a different beast.

A toxic gu of extreme yang, specially developed by Missing Moon Manor to counter Daoist and Buddhist cultivators. It ignites blood and marrow. If the victim’s Qi is pure yang, it’s like throwing oil on fire—almost impossible to suppress.

“What happened then?”

“Nangong Ye lost and fled. The Manor Lord got the Phoenix Feather Grass. She figured Nangong would come crawling back to make peace, but that woman’s more stubborn than a donkey. Instead of yielding, she’s chasing the Manor Lord down for revenge...”

Lin Wanyi frowned. “Isn’t it said victims of the Burning Immortal Gu can only survive for a year at most?”

“Exactly. And that’s the problem.”

Bu Hanying clapped his hands, frustration all over his face.

“The Manor Lord’s not made of stone. She hadn’t planned to follow up.

“But Nangong Ye is a disciple of Qixia True Person—she’s famous across Da Qian. She’s got more admirers than stars in the sky.

“Even if we ignore our plans to return to the Central Plains—if she dies by our hand, the entire realm’s cultivators will hate Missing Moon Manor. The Daoist world will demand blood.”

Lin Wanyi understood now.

Nangong Ye was hailed as the number one beauty of the Daoist world. Her cultivation might not top the charts, but her influence was elite-tier.

If the dream girl of every young swordsman died at the hands of Missing Moon Manor... forget others, even Xie Jinhuan might lose it.

But that wasn’t even the biggest concern.

Over 90% of Da Qian’s Daoist sects were branches of the Dan-Ding lineage. Nangong Ye was Qixia’s disciple—core Dan-Ding elite.

She was robbed of a treasure, then poisoned to death. If Lu Wuzhen didn’t retaliate, how could he face the rest of the sect?

Her master definitely couldn’t beat Lu Wuzhen, so making an eternal enemy over a single herb was... not wise.

“So what now? Celestial treasures belong to the strong. Nangong lost the fight—what, the Manor Lord’s supposed to beg her to stay alive?”

Bu Hanying looked helpless, but still nodded.

“Pretty much.

“Nangong Ye can die by anyone else’s hand—but not ours. If she dies and the blame lands on Missing Moon Manor, then even if Ancestor Sikong clears his name, we’ll still be stuck in the Southern Border hiding from beasts.

“The Manor Lord heard she returned to Da Qian recently after sensing demonic activity at Zihui Mountain.

“You’ve got some connections in Danyang. She wants you to figure out a way to... persuade her.”

“Me?!”

Lin Wanyi sat up straighter. “With my cultivation? What can I say that Nangong would listen to? I barely know Linghu Qingmo, let alone her mentor. How would I even bring it up?”

Bu Hanying sighed. “The Manor Lord knows it’s hard. But what can we do? Nangong’s as stubborn as they come. Last month the Manor Lord tried to make peace—Nangong snapped back: ‘Hand over the Phoenix Feather Grass, kneel, and apologize. Otherwise, we fight to the death.’

“Tell me that’s not unreasonable? Since when is poisoning a fair fight not considered skill? If the Manor Lord didn’t care about the bigger picture, she’d have ended it then and there...”

Lin Wanyi blinked. Honestly, the one being unreasonable wasn’t Nangong Ye—it was the entire Dan-Ding Sect.

Her master wasn’t preserving face—she’d snatched a treasure, poisoned someone to near death, and that someone happened to be the number one Daoist beauty. Of course the whole realm would hate them. That was suicide.

“How much time does Nangong Ye have left?”

“Two, maybe three months. But she definitely won’t risk flaring her Qi.”

Bu Hanying’s voice dropped to a solemn tone.

“Right now, the Manor Lord and Nangong Ye are in a standoff—seeing who’ll blink first.

“The Manor Lord’s the number two of the Witch Alliance. If she caves to the Daoists, how can she lead in the Southern Border?

“So this only works if Nangong Ye gives in first.”

Lin Wanyi blinked again. “And if she’d rather die?”

Bu Hanying glanced around, then whispered:

“Let’s keep this between us. If she really chooses death, the Manor Lord will have no choice but to come personally and apologize. We can’t let this blow up into a full-blown war between the Dan-Ding Sect and the Poison Sect.”

Lin Wanyi clicked her tongue.

“Then she’ll never back down. She knows we don’t dare kill her—so yielding would just make her look pathetic.”

“Exactly why I’m asking you to think of something.”

Bu Hanying sighed.

“If you can find a way to talk her down, the sect will give you top merit. From that day on, you’ll be Holy Maiden of Missing Moon Manor.”

Holy Maiden—meaning heir.

Lin Wanyi was currently an inner disciple. In status and strength, she had no right to become sect leader—and never imagined she could.

But now, this opportunity was dangling in front of her. If there was a chance, why not fight for it?

If Missing Moon Manor ever succeeded in whitewashing their name, her background wouldn’t be inferior to Linghu Qingmo’s...

“...Alright. I’ll think of something.”

“Good. Act quickly. The Manor Lord didn’t say it, but you can bet she’s anxious inside...”