The Scum Is A

"Hah… hah… where's Ah Le?" Kang Ce asked from behind them.

They all turned and felt more tears fell from their eyes when they saw Kang Ce. "Da shixiong…" they called and cried.

They finally got their chance to turn the tables when Mu Rongrong suddenly had a heart demon after Kang Ce rejected her. They wanted to apologize to Xiao Le, only to find Xiao Le has been hanging out with Shu Mu. He leaves the sect early in the morning and returned only very late at night before the curfew. How can they find a chance to apologize to him? The elders and Li Nanzi had been ignoring him and his activities.

However, the one who regretted the most is Kang Ce. After all, they were the ones who are closest to each other before Li Nanzi could find them and take them into the sect. When they met Kang Ce, he's already been with Xiao Le. The two of them are the ones who had been together the most. However, their relationship was broken by Mu Rongrong who had fallen in love to Kang Ce.

Kang Ce is a handsome man with a righteous attitude. Xiao Le is a vibrant youth. The two complemented each other, yet they just had to meet Mu Rongrong.

As if it was fated for them to split apart. They could still remember Mu Rongrong's words to Kang Ce after he rejected her.

"If you're fated to be together, then you will end up with each other!" she said as she viciously glared at Kang Ce. "However, where is he now? Out there with another man!" she told him.

Kang Ce's hand raised, but he didn't hit her. Instead, to their shock, he slapped himself. "This one is for Xiao Le. I betrayed his trust." He said and slapped himself again. "This one is for doubting our relationship." He said and slapped himself again. This time, harder. "This one is for disappointing him." He said and slapped himself. His lip was cut and it bled. "This one…" he said as his tears fell.

They felt their heart broke from the sight. This is the first time they had seen him cry – their strong and reliable da shixiong.

"This one is for breaking Ah Le's heart." Kang Ce said as he lowered his head. "Get out." he told Mu Rongrong.

"You…" she said as she stared at him in disbelief.

"GET OUT!" Kang Ce roared as he glared at Mu Rongrong. Both his cheeks have gone purple and his lip is still bleeding. He could heal them with his qi, but he didn't to show his repentance for Xiao Le. Yet, the one he wanted to repent to isn't even there. "GET OUT!!!" he yelled at the stupefied Mu Rongrong.

This was the first time they have seen Kang Ce is angry. He looked like a child whose beloved toy was stolen.

Mu Rongrong who was always treated like a princess by everyone was mad. "Kang Ce! You're just a lowborn person! You should be grateful I favored you!" she told him. "If not for me liking you, do you think your life in the sect would be easier?!" she asked with her voice raised.

"Thank you for your favor. But I don't need it." Kang Ce told her and he smiled coldly at her. "I only need Xiao Le, not anyone else. Not even the sect." he said. "But, now I lost him. I really am grateful1 for this favor of yours. You've just broken two people." He told her and, to everyone's surprise, pushed her out of the door. "I beg you. Don't break anything more or you're the one who'll be broken instead." He told her before he shut the door on her face.

They said that a loud anger is scary. But a silent anger is far scarier. They didn't know Kang Ce has seen Xiao Le meeting with Shu Mu again that day, and became low in spirits. Mu Rongrong just had to provoke Kang Ce at that time.

Then, Kang Ce started to change. He became irritable. The next day and Mu Rongrong had developed a heart demon. Mu Yanshan had confronted Kang Ce. However, Kang Ce had told him coldly.

"The child's upbringing reflects the adult's behavior. The children's mistakes reflect their sins." He told Mu Yanshan who immediately erupted in rage.

However, Li Nanzi arrived in time and Mu Yanshan didn't manage to kill Kang Ce. Already had been dissatisfied with Mu Yanshan since before, Li Nanzi confronted him and told Mu Yanshan that it was Mu Rongrong who brought disaster upon herself. Mu Yanshan couldn't retort since he already lost his trump card – his daughter, Mu Rongrong whose cultivation had been flourishing before but now she was destroyed. Feeling humiliated, Mu Yanshan went into seclusion while Mu Rongrong was locked up in her room after she had gone insane because of her heart demon.

Although he had also committed a mistake for disrespecting an elder of the sect, but Kang Ce was only lightly punished. Kang Ce is the only one who performs well in their sect. They can only rely on him to bring back their sect's honor after Xiao Le and Mu Rongrong's incident. One could say, Li Nanzi had done right that time of protecting Kang Ce – the only talent remaining in their sect after Xiao Le lost his motivation to cultivate because he was wrongly accused.

It seems like time has stopped that day. When the Intersect Competition had arrived, they finally found the chance to apologize. However, they didn't know they will be interrupted by Xiao Le's decision to leave the sect, and will never had the chance to apologize to him again.

"Ah Le…" Kang Ce cried before he fell on his knees. More than a decade they had been together, only to be split apart when their life started to change. If they only hadn't met Li Nanzi… if they only hadn't entered the Huli Sect... Now, it is too late for him and Xiao Le.

Li Nanzi watched Kang Ce fall apart and he couldn't help but sigh. Where did things go wrong? Was this really all fated to happen? He thought. For now, all he knows that everything has to change.

Yunxiao Inn.

"I… I can't bring him to our inn since my father is there." Shu Mu explained and looked at Xiao Le who passed out after crying his heart out. If he wasn't holding him tight, Xiao Le would have fallen to the ground after he fainted without a notice.

"It's fine." Cheng Sheng said as they walked towards Xiao Le and surrounded him like a hamster inside its cage. "Is he already free?" he asked.

Shu Mu nodded. "Yes." he answered. "What?" he said when he saw Cheng Sheng's surprised expression.

"Well, I just didn't expect for Li Nanzi to let go of Xiao Le." Cheng Sheng answered. "I thought he'd try to use Xiao Le to gather fame for their sect." he explained.

"That's what I thought, too." Shu Mu smiled. "I was just mouthing off earlier, but I didn't expect for Xiao Le to really be free of their sect." he explained. When he saw the Huli Sect's disciples' shocked expression earlier, he confirmed Xiao Le really succeeded on breaking off of his sect.

"Poor child." Li Tian sighed as they watched Xiao Le sleep.

Sun Yi wiped Xiao Le's tears. "Should I tell my Yuan to adopt this kid…?" he muttered.

"…" their face was covered with dark lines. What dangerous thoughts is he having this time? They thought and remembered what happened in the third stage of the competition. Although they really planned to split their group from the start, but they didn't expect for Sun Yi's ad-lib to be that. 'looking for fun', huh? They thought.

Sun Yi is such an easygoing person, thus he and Cheng Sheng clicked together as like-minded people.

"Xiao Le has no parents." Shu Mu said. "Li Nanzi found him and Kang Ce, together with the rest of the Huli Sect disciples that were with them during the competition." He explained.

They were surprised. "You mean…" they said and looked at Xiao Le whose eyes are sore from crying.

Shu Mu nodded. "He and Kang Ce were childhood friends. Just that Kang Ce is older than Xiao Le." He said. "Xiao Le said Kang Ce has been taking care of him since they were kids. However, Mu Rongrong just have to…" he frowned.

"By Mu Rongrong, do you mean Mu Yanshan's daughter?" Chen Han said.

"The one and only princess of his." Shu Mu gnashed his teeth in anger. "It's all because of her Xiao Le has suffered." He said. "Mu Rongrong is a mage. She fell in love with Kang Ce and had become jealous of Xiao Le's closeness with Kang Ce. And also jealous since Xiao Le is better than her." he explained.

"What a spiteful woman!" You Rou said. Lei Qing nodded in agreement.

Lei Ling looked at Xiao Le with sympathy. "So, he's gonna be my shidi, right?" he asked and expectantly looked at Cheng Sheng.

"… Lei-shidi." Feng Mo called and also looked at Lei Ling with sympathy. "He'll be your shizhi after the competition." He told him.

"Eh? But…" Lei Ling said and looked at Cheng Sheng.

"Well, although we ignore formalities, but it is improper to transfer to another shifu." Cheng Sheng told Lei Ling and patted his head. "Shifu is originally our shifu, even if I had taught you and will become an elder of our sect soon together with da shixiong, Li-shixiong and Feng-shixiong." He told Lei Ling. "We'll still be your shixiong, okay? And you can still call Xiao Le shidi… well, only in private but definitely not in public." He told him and grimaced.

"Hahahaha…" they laughed at Lei Ling's confused expression. The heavy atmosphere earlier has been broken.