“I’m all fine now,” Zhuo Yifeng said, walking up to Yun Ruoyan. “And I’ve broken through to eighth-rank.”

“Congratulations! In that case, you won’t have to consume that frightening spiritual pill to boost your cultivation anymore.”

“I also have to thank you for returning to save me,” Zhuo Yifeng continued. “I thought I would die there, all alone in another dimension.”

Yun Ruoyan stilled. “Actually, the one who saved you was Li Mo. Even if I wanted to save you, I wouldn’t have the skills to do so.”

“I know.” Zhuo Yifeng’s smile was brittle. “Senior Sister Guan told me everything.”

By then, there were already some girls cultivating together in the courtyard. When they saw Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng talking to each other, they all turned to the two of them. Because they had managed to defeat Guan Tianyu together with their combined strength, quite a number of students were familiar with their faces.

In addition, given that Yun Ruoyan was the main suspect for Guan Tianyu’s death during this expedition, Yun Ruoyan was known by one and all in the southern college.

“I still have a lot of things to do today, and I’m headed to find Li Mo now. Do you want to come with me?”

“You’ll have to deal with the second elder today as well, won’t you?”

Yun Ruoyan nodded, but didn’t reveal what she had found out through her investigation with Li Mo. First, everyone would find out in the afternoon, and there was no need to inform Zhuo Yifeng about it early. Second, she was truly in a hurry.

Zhuo Yifeng mulled it over for a moment. “Let me follow you.”

As they walked out of the courtyard, they met Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue, who had rushed out to find them. They had heard about the accusations leveled against Yun Ruoyan, and insisted on heading to the great hall with her. However, Yun Ruoyan refused, insisting that they go to class instead. In the end, they could only give in.

Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng went to the southern tower to find Li Mo, and all three of them then headed to the great hall. Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan naturally walked side by side, and Zhuo Yifeng followed behind them.

Zhuo Yifeng knew that Li Mo had saved his life and had even imparted to him a technique for condensing spiritual energy, tempering and confusing his feelings toward Li Mo. As for Li Mo, well, he didn’t seem concerned about this matter at all. Even after seeing him, his gaze simply swept coolly by, treating him as nothing more than a bystander as usual.

This sort of supercilious feeling Zhuo Yifeng could understand, but it still struck him hard. To be saved by one’s self-proclaimed nemesis, then to have that nemesis not care at all… Zhuo Yifeng felt slighted and humiliated, but what was he to do?

He lowered his head, tightly clutching the bow behind him.

By the time they reached the great hall, the second elder, Rong Tianhai, Rong Yueshan, and the other students from the northern college had already arrived. Guan Tianyu’s corpse had been left at the center of the great hall, but surrounding the corpse was an array of spiritual herbs, pills, and high-quality beast cores to prevent it from decomposing.

Li Mo, Yun Ruoyan, and Zhuo Yifeng walked by Guan Tianyu’s corpse and bowed to the second elder, who snorted in displeasure and glanced wrothfully at Yun Ruoyan. Last night, after returning to the northern college, he had intended on carefully inspecting the wounds on Guan Tianyu’s body. However, whenever he saw his grandson’s mutilated corpse, he was so overcome by grief that he couldn’t continue the examination.

As a result, until now, the second elder still didn’t know his grandson’s true cause of death. However, he had stared at Guan Tianyu’s burned eyeballs for quite some time. The fire-attuned spiritual energy that had caused the damage had been so strong that traces of it still lingered on his body. The second elder was initially somewhat suspicious at how a seventh-rank blademaster had produced such a strong attack, but Rong Yueshan’s group had witnessed it personally, and Yun Ruoyan herself had claimed responsibility for it.

Given that Li Mo was Yun Ruoyan’s master, and given that the second elder had never seemed to be able to get a grasp on Li Mo’s full capabilities, it wasn’t out of the question that it was a secret technique that Li Mo had imparted to Yun Ruoyan.

Rong Tianhai was shocked to see the second elder’s grief. He had been his disciple for over twenty years, and the second elder had always seemed to be cold and aloof. Despite his affection for Guan Tianyu, he would rarely display it at all. Even to his grandson, he was superficially sharp and severe.

As a result, it was completely beyond Rong Tianhai’s expectation that the second elder would be so overcome by grief that he resembled a different person entirely. Rong Tianhai had originally been looking for an opportunity to reveal the truth as he knew it, but he hesitated upon seeing the second elder’s appearance.

Since the second elder treated Yun Ruoyan as his grandson’s murderer, telling him that Yun Ruoyan wasn’t responsible for the affair would undoubtedly cause him to shift his attention elsewhere. In that case, his grief and anger would be acutely reflected in Rong Yueshan’s punishment.

“In that case, we’ll have to double down on the claim that Yun Ruoyan murdered Guan Tianyu. As long as Yun Ruoyan’s unable to come up with conclusive evidence, then she’ll have to take the blame for the entire affair.”

This was a contingency plan that Rong Tianhai had brought up to Rong Yueshan’s trio as they discussed what to do.

“Yun Ruoyan, you’ll suffer for what you did to Senior Brother Guan!” Yi Qianying shouted the moment Yun Ruoyan stepped into the great hall, her face a grieving, indignant mask.

Yun Ruoyan was quite shocked by Yi Qianying’s deception—despite being the culprit, how was she able to appear so sorrowful, so guileless? Even Yun Ruoyan had to marvel at her skill and shamelessness.

“Don’t worry.” Yun Ruoyan suddenly gave Yi Qianying a bright, sunny smile. “The true murderer will surely pay for this. Yi Qianying, you can’t run away from the crimes you’ve committed, no matter how well you think you’ve hidden from them.”

As she smiled, Yun Ruoyan glanced askance at Guan Tianyu’s corpse.

“You—what do you mean by that?” Yi Qianying appeared a little flustered, an emotion that she quickly suppressed.

Yun Ruoyan laughed coldly once more, then walked away and ignored her. If not for Li Mo wanting to catch the true mastermind who had orchestrated this entire affair, they would have caught Yi Qianying and brought her to the second elder immediately.

Yun Ruoyan’s smile caused Yi Qianying no small amount of unease. 

What’s going on? Could she have discovered the truth?

No… No, that’s impossible! No one realized what I did! 

Despite her confidence, she didn’t dare to stand out any longer. Instead, she hid behind Rong Yueshan and Pei Ziao’s backs, ready for any surprises that Yun Ruoyan might try to spring.

After about fifteen minutes, the other elders and provosts also gathered at the great hall. Except for the elders and provosts, there were also the students who had taken part in the expedition. 

“Junior Sister Ruoyan.” Guan Ruliu walked up to and stood by Yun Ruoyan’s side. As she did so, a number of other students from the expedition followed—ones who were generally friendly toward her, mostly from the central and southern colleges.

“Yun Ruoyan, we believe that you're not the culprit.”

“Right, we believe you.”

Although Yun Ruoyan was quite confident that she would be able to vindicate herself, she was still glad to have the support of her peers. In contrast, those students from the northern college were staring at her with hateful eyes, as if already having decided that Yun Ruoyan was the culprit.

“Why are there so many students here?” The first elder frowned.

“I had them come.” The second elder looked down at the gathered crowd. “I want them to see the consequences of harming their peers! Now, we’ll begin the trial of Yun Ruoyan!”

“Hold it!” Li Mo suddenly stood up, breaking him off. “Second Elder, you promised us a full day to find evidence to prove our innocence. You couldn’t have forgotten, could you?”

The second elder faltered. He 

had 

made the promise yesterday, but because he didn’t think the two of them could come up with any such evidence, he was a little shocked at seeing Li Mo bring the matter up. “Have you really found some evidence?”

“Yes! Not only did we find evidence that vindicates my disciple, we even found the true culprit behind Guan Tianyu’s murder!”

“Oh?” The second elder frowned deeply. He leaned forward, craned his long, slender neck, and stared unblinkingly at Li Mo. “Who is it?”

Instead of directly pointing out Yi Qianying, Li Mo stood up and walked over to Rong Yueshan and her fellow students from the northern college. By then, Yi Qianying had already retreated to the midst of the crowd, trying to lower her presence.

“Master Mo, what are you trying to do?” Rong Tianhai stood up from his seat as Li Mo walked closer and closer to the gathered students from the northern college.

Li Mo stopped and turned toward Rong Tianhai. With an outstretched hand, he made a grasping motion in the students’ direction. Along with a girl’s shrill scream, a gleaming golden pendant flew out of the crowd and landed in his hand.

Yi Qianying clutched her neck, staring at Li Mo with eyes of desperation. Her mind blanked. 

It’s over, it’s over! I’m dead! 

How had she been discovered so easily?!

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