Chapter 442: Chapter 442 : Denial (2)

One by one, the cultivators from the ten great sects dipped down from the sky and landed before them.

Qiao Wei shoved Zhang Fengxi behind him.

"Fengxi, you can’t transform," he said. "Don’t waste Junjie’s energy. I am sure that I can still talk to them."

"It’s not like I can transform at will," Zhang Fengxi murmured. "Junjie has to determine whether the situation is urgent or not."

As he said those words, Zhang Fengxi’s heart lurched to the bottom of his stomach. He loved Xie Junjie dearly and admired him for all the things he inherited from Xie Jianyu, but that child was still a child, after all.

It is noon. He might be taking a nap currently. And when he was taking a nap, he couldn’t return Zhang Fengxi to his adult body.

Oh, these blasted cultivators, Zhang Fengxi cursed under his breath. Why couldn’t they show up after Xie Junjie woke up from his nap???

"Qiao Wei."

Bai Siyang’s stern voice boomed across the desolate landscape, echoing with undisguised authority. With Bai Ling shadowing his every step, he strode through the rows of startled cultivators, his gaze fixed on his most trusted disciple.

Qiao Wei lowered his eyes and bowed slightly before his shizun.

"Shizun, Disciple greets you."

"Hmph!" Bai Siyang flicked his sleeves angrily. "Are you still acknowledging me as your shizun??? What are you doing here, with a criminal???"

Qiao Wei grabbed Huang Taichen’s wrist and shielded him as well.

"Shizun, I already accepted Huang Taichen as my disciple. I planned to find a safe place for him to stay before I returned to talk to you."

"You...!!!"

Bai Siyang shook his finger at Qiao Wei, his entire body shaking in fury. "You dare defy me!!!"

Qiao Wei dropped to his knees, but his hand remained clammed around Huang Taichen’s wrist.

"Shizun, you have always taught me to be a righteous person and help people uphold justice. I lived my entire life by holding onto those principles. I refuse to shut my eyes before atrocities!"

"Funny that you speak like that, but act in a completely different way, Master Qiao Wei," Shang Zichen remarked. "Huang Taichen murdered my father, the late Tian’an Shang Sect Leader Shang Daoming, but you chose to side with the murderer instead."

Qiao Wei narrowed his eyes at Shang Zichen.

"I happen to be convinced that Huang Taichen is not the perpetrator but the victim here."

"Master Qiao Wei, you as the Venerable Sword Saint Of Wushan should know better than this," Meng Xijun furrowed his brows in confusion. "I already ascertained that Huang Taichen was involved in smuggling the three-headed lion into the Spiritual Mountain Competition venue. Why do you refuse to see the truth in the eyes?"

"Allow me a slight correction, Sect Leader Meng," Qiao Wei said. "What you ascertained through the demonic aura detection was that the murderer of Sect Leader Shang was the same person as the one who infiltrated your barrier at Mount E’ling, none of which pointed to Huang Taichen as the perpetrator directly."

Qiao Wei might be the only cultivator who sided with Huang Taichen at the moment, but he had a high standing in the cultivation world. Naturally, some cultivators started to doubt themselves.

"Master Qiao Wei isn’t wrong," one of them said. "We don’t have enough proof to accuse Huang Taichen."

"Then what about Huang Taichen leaving my father’s infested heart at Tian’an Jade Palace gate?" Shang Zichen asked loudly. "He practically threw my father’s heart at the two outer disciples, who at that time were guarding the palace gate. Do you need our outer disciples to testify to that event, Master Qiao Wei?"

"There is no need for any testimony, Second Young Master Shang. I am just curious. If Huang Taichen really was the murderer, why would he do that?" Qiao Wei’s brow arched in a silent challenge, his eyes locking with Shang Zichen’s.

Shang Zichen, in turn, met the unspoken question with a furrowed brow, his own gaze reflecting the growing puzzlement.

"I don’t understand the question. Why would he do what?" Shang Zichen retorted.

"I thought a lot about it recently," Qiao Wei slowly spoke. "Why would a murderer gouge out his victim’s heart, infused with dark energy, and show it to Tian’an Shang Sect’s disciples in the first place?

That is not a typical behavior of a guilty man."

Shang Zichen’s lips curled into a sneer as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Master Qiao Wei, are we discussing Huang Taichen’s mental state now? He is insane. Of course, he had to do that. He needed to show everyone that he was strong enough to kill my father!"

"Not that I do not believe anything you say right now, Second Young Master Shang, but your statement just now stemmed from your poor opinion about Huang Taichen and not facts. I, on the other hand, trust that Huang Taichen is being accused of a crime he did not commit."

Shang Zichen broke into a peal of ironic laughter.

"Really. Do you know other demonic cultivators running around, Master Qiao Wei?"

"Do you, Second Young Master Shang?" Qiao Wei asked in retaliation.

Shang Zichen tightened his grip around his weapon and glared at Qiao Wei.

"What, exactly, are you trying to say, Master Qiao Wei?"

Qiao Wei directed a condescending smirk his way.

"Second Young Master Shang should know what I am trying to say. But since you are making me say it, then let me say it.

Did you not trick Huang Taichen into smuggling the three-headed lion into Mount E’ling?

Did you not make him kill a beast during a night hunt together with Eldest Young Master Shang, only for its carcass to transform into late Sect Leader Shang’s body in the morning?

Did you not personally cut out your own father’s heart, in its disguised form, give it to Huang Taichen, and tell him to take it to Tian’an Jade Palace the next morning, when he was supposed to enter the sect?"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay