Chapter 960: Niu Youdao, What the Hell Did You Write?

There was naturally a reason for his hostile tone and poor attitude.

What he intended to write could not be shown to the other Elders. A method that one person used might perhaps barely get past the test, but if too many people used the same method, he might be dragged down and suffer along with them.

Everyone who had been staring at him was speechless. Copy? You haven't even started writing. What are we supposed to copy?

Some were outright angered by Niu Youdao's rude words. It was one thing for Ding Wei to act overbearing, but who the hell did Niu Youdao think he was? Who was he swearing at, and who was he trying to act like a father to, daring to speak so insolently to them?

If not for the setting, some of the more hot-tempered among them might have jumped up on the spot to see whose fists were harder.

Yet Niu Youdao was not finished. He turned toward Ding Wei in the central seat and asked, "Presiding Administrator Ding, didn't you say what we wrote would be kept confidential? Are people still allowed to peek at other people's work?"

Ding Wei stared at him in silence, his face expressionless, though inwardly he found the whole thing rather interesting. It was not only the others. Ding Wei himself had been among those drawn by the sound of Niu Youdao grinding ink. Niu Youdao's behavior, together with the curses he had just thrown out, made Ding Wei mentally revisit the files concerning the Tiandu Secret Realm and the entire process by which this man had caused one disturbance after another before joining Zijin Cave and becoming an Elder.

He arrived at one conclusion: an extraordinary man truly did behave in extraordinary ways.

Ding Wei was no fool. Naturally he knew everyone's attention had merely been drawn by Niu Youdao's sudden movement. No one had actually intended to peek.

Of course, he could also understand why Niu Youdao did not want others knowing what he had written. He was afraid someone might leak it back to Zijin Cave.

Ding Wei himself said nothing, but one of his subordinates did. The man barked another warning. "I'll say it again! No whispering to one another, no looking around, no reading anyone else's work. Write your own!"

The Elders, inwardly cursing their mothers, all obediently faced forward and looked at the blank paper before them. That did not stop their eyes from occasionally sliding toward Niu Youdao or someone else to see whether anyone had begun writing.

Once the ink was ready, Niu Youdao lifted his brush and dipped it. After a brief hesitation, he put brush to paper and began writing with quick strokes.

Everyone's attention was drawn to him again. Quite a few sighed inwardly. An outsider was an outsider after all. Sure enough, he could not be trusted. The slightest pressure and he was already stabbing Zijin Cave in the back.

Everyone knew Niu Youdao had only joined Zijin Cave halfway through his career. Now it appeared he truly did not care much whether Zijin Cave lived or died.

Qin Guan and Ke Dingjie, the two Zijin Cave disciples craning to see, watched Niu Youdao genuinely begin writing and realized Elder Niu had really started selling out the sect. Among so many people present, Elder Niu was the first to betray his own sect. Both men were filled with grief and indignation, yet under circumstances like these, neither dared say anything.

Seeming to notice the gazes around him, Niu Youdao paused, pulled over another blank sheet, and used it as a screen before continuing to write.

Petty bastard! the other Elders cursed inwardly.

A faint smile, however, appeared at the corner of Ding Wei's mouth.

Now someone had taken the lead, and the one leading was Niu Youdao. After hesitating for a while, Shen Yidu of Xiaoyue Pavilion, Chao Jing of Myriad Beasts Sect, and Fuhua, Duan Wuchang, Hong Gaitian, and Lang Jingkong of the Four Seas also began grinding ink. One after another, they put brush to paper.

Once more people began writing, the remaining Elders continued cursing Niu Youdao inwardly and despising him for betraying his sect, but under pressure their own behavior was perfectly obedient. They all began writing as well. In the end, there was no real difference between them and Niu Youdao beyond who started first and who started later.

Ding Wei glanced at the hourglass on his desk. Since they had two hours, he had not intended to sit there doing nothing. He had someone bring him a book and began turning its pages unhurriedly from his central seat. Every so often, while flipping a page, he glanced across the room, looking exactly like an examiner proctoring an examination hall.

The disciples seated behind the Elders watched the senior figures of their respective sects bend over their desks and betray the sects in writing. Every face was complicated, and their feelings even more so.

Whether they could forgive it was another question, but they more or less understood the Elders' difficulty. Refuse to write? That probably meant death. Once inside Sacred Realm, did they really think they could escape?

They had barely entered Sacred Realm before being stripped completely naked, and immediately afterward they were confronted with this extraordinarily difficult demand without even being given time to breathe. Everyone felt deeply uneasy about what sort of tempering might await them next.

Swish!

Quite a few people could not resist glancing toward Niu Youdao again. They discovered the bastard had already filled an entire sheet. He turned it facedown to one side and immediately started writing on a second blank page, once again remembering to pull another sheet over as a screen.

Many sighed inwardly. One full page wasn't enough? Just how many of Zijin Cave's crimes was this man planning to enumerate?

Ding Wei raised his eyes slightly and looked over, inwardly quite pleased. Since he had personally come to preside over the matter, someone cooperating enthusiastically naturally pleased him. He approved of Niu Youdao's attitude. The man had also set a good example for everyone else.

It seemed Luo Fangfei's decision to specifically name this man had not necessarily been a bad thing.

Ding Wei naturally knew exactly how the Sacred Realm roster had been revised. Over at Daluo Sacred Land, Luo Fangfei had suddenly crossed one Zijin Cave disciple's name off the list and replaced it with Niu Youdao, an Elder of Zijin Cave. The change had caused a small amount of discussion at the time.

It was not that Elders were forbidden from participating. No rule said the various sects could not send Elders. The issue was simply that changing a submitted roster after the fact, when the sects had done nothing wrong, was somewhat inappropriate.

Inappropriate or not, no one was going to quarrel endlessly with Luo Fangfei over a single name on a roster.

But when the revised list circulated to the other sides, for reasons no one quite understood, the mood somehow became: if you change one, then I'll change one too.

By the end, the rosters of nine sects had all been altered. Eventually, in order to maintain an appearance of fairness, word came down from above to Misty Pavilion. Misty Pavilion then revised the rosters of all the remaining sects as well.

Naturally, no one outside would be told that one particular person had started the whole affair. The public explanation was simply that Misty Pavilion had comprehensively corrected every sect's roster...

One after another, people began finishing and setting down their brushes.

When more than half the Elders had finished, they discovered Niu Youdao was still writing. Was he already on his third page? Quite a few people could only marvel that Zijin Cave truly had suffered a calamity within its own gates. How had it produced a scoundrel like this? Was he trying to bury Zijin Cave completely?

The two Zijin Cave disciples could only watch helplessly, their grief and anger immeasurable. To think they had still been planning to protect that bastard with everything they had.

Even Kunlin Shu frowned. He felt Niu Youdao was going too far. It should have been enough to satisfy the demand in broad strokes. Even if he meant to betray the sect, did he really need to be this thorough? Was he planning never to return to Zijin Cave, or did he intend to bring the entire sect crashing down?

His junior sister, his own wife, was still in Zijin Cave's hands. Kunlin Shu worried that if Niu Youdao went this far, Zijin Cave might refuse to spare even her.

Niu Youdao's conscientious attitude left Shen Yidu and the others increasingly uncertain. Was this how they were supposed to handle the assignment? They no longer knew whether they ought to write more themselves. Brushes in hand, they hesitated indecisively and kept glancing at Niu Youdao, who remained bent over his desk writing.

Niu Youdao did not know what anyone else was thinking, nor did he care. He had his own plans.

At last he finished. He had originally intended to sign his name, but after thinking about it, he realized there was no need. No one had asked them to sign anything, and a signature would have been redundant anyway. Open a submission and see which sect it concerned, and naturally everyone would know who had written it. Who would dare write about someone else's sect? Misty Pavilion could verify it too easily.

So he set down his brush.

He had written roughly three densely covered pages. Niu Youdao checked them carefully once, then blew the ink dry.

Finally, he aligned the three sheets neatly, rolled them into a scroll, tied the roll into a tube with the black silk cord that had been issued to him, and placed it on the desk to wait for the end. Looking around, he discovered a few people were still weighing their words and had not yet finished.

If even a man who had written three full pages was finished, everyone else naturally wrapped up quickly as well.

Before the full two hours had passed, everyone was done. A Misty Pavilion member walked to Ding Wei's side, bent down, and reported, "Presiding Administrator, everyone has finished."

Ding Wei gave a quiet acknowledgment. "If they're done, collect them."

"Yes!" The subordinate accepted the order and signaled with a hand. People immediately came forward carrying trays. One tied scroll after another was collected and arranged neatly on them.

Once everything had been gathered, the submissions were carried forward and a tray was set on Ding Wei's desk. The man presenting it reported, "Twenty-eight scrolls. All present."

Ding Wei glanced at the tray of written submissions, then at Niu Youdao below. He closed the book in his hand, tossed it onto the desk, leaned forward from the back of his chair, and studied the tray. His gaze locked onto the thickest scroll. Reaching out, he pinched it between two fingers and drew it free.

He did not need to open it to know it was Niu Youdao's. The sheer thickness gave it away.

There were too many submissions for him to read them all on the spot without spending a great deal of time, and there was no need to do so. But Niu Youdao had somehow managed to write so much that Ding Wei's curiosity was aroused. He could not resist taking a look to see what exactly the man had written.

It was not only Ding Wei. Everyone seated below could tell at a glance that the scroll he had chosen should be Niu Youdao's. The thickness made it obvious. That bastard had written more than anyone else.

Niu Youdao recognized his own scroll too. Outwardly he remained completely calm, but inwardly he quietly let out a breath of relief. This was exactly the result he had wanted. All the trouble he had taken to put on a performance and attract Ding Wei's attention had not been wasted.

From the moment he entered Sacred Realm, he had raised his vigilance to the absolute limit. As long as there was any way at all, he would not allow himself to die here, nor would he allow everything he had painstakingly built outside to be destroyed. Before he understood the situation clearly, there was no chance he would turn against Zijin Cave.

Under everyone's gaze, Ding Wei untied the silk cord and opened the scroll. Three sheets unfurled. He flipped through them and gave a small inward exclamation. They truly were covered densely with writing, and the calligraphy was quite good too. His interest immediately rose. He began reading from the beginning, curious to see how many shameful secrets of Zijin Cave Niu Youdao had actually written down.

The hall was utterly silent. Everyone watched Ding Wei's reaction.

First, they saw Ding Wei's brows twitch.

After he finished the second page, one eyebrow rose.

When he turned to the third page, his brows drew together.

After finishing, Ding Wei gave the scroll in his hand a shake and said in a deep voice, "Niu Youdao, what the hell did you write? Did you write me a pile of stories?"

Everyone stared in astonishment, then turned toward Niu Youdao in unison.

Stories?

This bastard had been writing stories?

He actually dared openly fool Misty Pavilion?

Niu Youdao hurriedly rose and cupped his hands with utmost respect, his expression completely sincere. "Presiding Administrator Ding, these are absolutely not stories. They are facts. There is not a single false sentence among them. If I have written even one lie, I am willing to accept any punishment!"

[End of Chapter 960]