Chapter 1022: I Won't Take This Smear for Nothing

What was happening? Everyone from the various factions watching beside the campfire shot to their feet in shock.

Niu Youdao had actually drawn his sword!

And pointed it at a steward of Misty Pavilion!

Everyone wondered whether they had seen wrong. They were stunned.

Fuhua flashed to Kunlin Shu's side and caught his arm as he was about to move over.

Kunlin Shu turned his head. Fuhua met his eyes and gave a slight shake of her head. The situation was unclear; she was telling him not to act rashly.

Xuan Yao was shocked as well. There was a reason he had displayed such arrogance before the cultivators of the various sects.

In the habitual thinking of the cultivation world, Misty Pavilion stood above everyone beneath Heaven. The sects might secretly do things against Misty Pavilion that could never see the light of day, but openly resisting it was rare.

Of course, it had happened before. Those who did so had all been crushed with overwhelming force, killed down to the last dog and chicken. Gradually, no one dared stroke the tiger's whiskers anymore.

And now someone audacious enough to defy Heaven itself had appeared. The man simply did not know the meaning of death!

The Misty Pavilion men surrounding Niu Youdao were more bewildered than angry. The purpose of this trip seemed to have changed abruptly—and with astonishing naturalness. They had come to interrogate him. How had it suddenly turned into an attempt to silence him?

Xuan Yao's cheek twitched. Ignoring the point of Niu Youdao's sword, he stared at him for a while, then suddenly ordered the men beside him, "Go ask how the questioning of those two is going."

He could no longer continue questioning Niu Youdao and hoped to find an opening from the other side. The moment he found a pretext, he would immediately move against Niu Youdao.

But he needed a reason. Otherwise, he could not afford to wear the label of "silencing a witness."

Without a justification, the moment he ordered an attack, even if he had never intended to silence Niu Youdao, it would look as though he had. Xuan Yao himself had mishandled the conversation and created that appearance. Under these circumstances, ordering his men to attack was no longer appropriate.

If they truly fought, the only safe outcome would be to capture Niu Youdao alive. If some accident occurred, or if Niu Youdao escaped, then the consequences the man had threatened might really come to pass. At the very least, Xuan Yao himself would probably be detained and interrogated.

At his order, two Misty Pavilion cultivators immediately withdrew and hurried toward Qin Guan and Ke Dingjie.

After a short wait, someone over there gestured to Xuan Yao.

Xuan Yao seized the opportunity to step away and flashed over to hear the results.

Qin Guan and Ke Dingjie had naturally seen what happened here. They too were deeply shocked. Elder Niu had actually pointed his sword at a Misty Pavilion steward. Neither could imagine the consequences. Yet the consequences they imagined never came. Faced with such provocation, the people of Misty Pavilion had actually done nothing.

The sight gave both men considerable confidence.

Xuan Yao first went to Qin Guan and listened to the report from the interrogator. Afterward, he personally questioned Qin Guan himself.

Then he went to Ke Dingjie and questioned him in the same way.

He learned nothing useful. The two knew virtually nothing about most matters, and what they did know matched Niu Youdao's account.

Both men said that the Demon Fox vertical eyes they had hunted at first were all handed over to Niu Youdao. Later, they had no idea where those eyes went. When they asked, Niu Youdao told them not to inquire and instructed them to act as though they had never hunted any Demon Foxes.

Both could also prove that when Chao Jing disappeared, Niu Youdao had indeed been with Fuhua and the others.

After wasting all that effort and failing to obtain the answer he wanted, Xuan Yao flashed back to Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao still held his drawn sword, confronting the three Misty Pavilion men surrounding him.

When Xuan Yao returned, he waved for his subordinates to lower their weapons. He stared coldly at Niu Youdao. "For the sake of this tempering being initiated by the Sacred Venerables, it is inappropriate for us to interfere. But remember this: sooner or later, you will pay for what you did today. Let's go!" He turned with a wave of his hand and led away the Misty Pavilion personnel who had come with him.

Under the night sky, the six men mounted three large flying beasts and rose into the air. Just like that, they left.

After Niu Youdao's maneuver, the investigation had become impossible to continue. He would no longer cooperate, and more importantly, Xuan Yao no longer dared do anything to him for refusing. Once the accusation of "silencing" had been thrown over his head, Xuan Yao could no longer follow Ding Wei's instructions and forcibly pry open Niu Youdao's mouth.

He had failed to complete the task Ding Wei had assigned him and returned in defeat.

Only after the three dark silhouettes vanished into the night sky did Niu Youdao flick his wrist.

His sword slid back into its sheath. He planted it against the ground again, both hands resting atop it, and stared expressionlessly at the campfire the Misty Pavilion men had left behind.

Everyone from the various factions watched him in silence, their eyes full of astonishment and uncertainty. They could hardly believe it. He had drawn a sword against Misty Pavilion, and somehow nothing happened?

Qin Guan and Ke Dingjie were the first to flash over. Still shaken, they cupped their hands. "Elder!"

Niu Youdao gave a quiet acknowledgment, then asked coldly, "You didn't say anything you shouldn't have, did you?"

"No!" they answered together.

Qin Guan added, "We answered exactly as Elder instructed."

"Same here," Ke Dingjie echoed. Then he cautiously asked, "Elder, is everything all right now?"

Niu Youdao said calmly, "What could possibly be wrong? Misty Pavilion isn't controlled by any single family. If someone wants to move against me, they still have to ask whether the others agree."

There was hidden meaning in those words. The two men exchanged a glance and understood immediately. Elder Niu really did have someone inside Sacred Realm.

When they killed those two Misty Pavilion men before, both had been terrified. At one point, they had even considered reporting the matter and trying to redeem themselves through merit. Now they were grateful they had not acted impulsively. Otherwise, they truly might have died without ever knowing how.

Niu Youdao had reminded them before: why had Luo Fangfei specifically escorted him out of Sacred Realm and no one else? The implication had already been obvious enough.

What had just happened seemed to prove his words beyond doubt.

As the two relaxed, following Elder Niu gave them even greater confidence.

Kunlin Shu came over as well and cupped his hands. "Master Dao, are you all right?"

Niu Youdao swept several pieces of dry wood from the pile beside him into the fire. "Nothing's wrong."

Kunlin Shu hesitated, then said quietly, "The people over there said some things that were unfavorable to you before."

Niu Youdao nodded. "I know all about it."

Kunlin Shu defended himself. "I didn't say anything."

Niu Youdao smiled. "You don't know anything. What could you have said?"

Kunlin Shu said, "After something like this, staying with them feels inappropriate. Starting today, I'll come back to your side."

Niu Youdao turned his head and looked at him. Calmly, he said, "It's already over. Nothing happened. Keep following Fuhua."

He still had no intention of hunting Demon Foxes afterward.

Unless forced into a corner, there were some things he did not want Kunlin Shu drawn into yet. No one knew what might happen later. The less Kunlin Shu knew, the safer he would be. Niu Youdao still valued him, and because of Kunlin Shu's feelings toward Tianhuo Sect, he would never sit by if the Tianhuo Sect participants in the tempering met with danger. That might create a contradiction impossible to reconcile. Niu Youdao did not want to be forced one day into silencing Kunlin Shu.

He had even considered whether he should have the Demon Fox race simply dispose of the Tianhuo Sect participants altogether.

Kunlin Shu said, "After what happened, staying around them feels awkward."

Facing the campfire, Niu Youdao bent down, one hand resting on his sword while the other picked up firewood and tossed it into the flames. "I'm not sending you over there to feel comfortable. Keep an eye on them for me."

Once given a task, Kunlin Shu fell silent. He said nothing more and turned back.

After watching him leave, Qin Guan asked, "Elder, they sold you out. Are we just letting it go?" His implication was obvious: shouldn't they teach those people some kind of lesson? Even Misty Pavilion had been unable to do anything to their Elder. Qin Guan could not help feeling somewhat emboldened.

By now, he and Ke Dingjie both knew that those people had betrayed their Elder.

Niu Youdao said, "Being betrayed doesn't feel good, but in some matters, how you personally feel isn't important. There's no need to brood and complain. That only affects yourself. Since you're following me, don't keep accounts like some petty-minded fool. If you want to settle accounts, learn to calculate the larger ledger. Keep your eyes on what lies ahead! Did they ever owe us their lives? Was it reasonable to imagine they did? What benefit would we gain by falling out with them in this damned place? The loss would outweigh the gain. Obsessing over this would only mean making trouble for ourselves. Act as though nothing happened. From now on, deal with them exactly as before. Understand?"

The two admired his breadth of mind. As the saying went, near vermilion one turned red, near ink one turned black. Spend enough time beside someone and some influence was inevitable. With the recent events as a living comparison, the two gained more than just an abstract lesson from his words. Together, they cupped their hands. "Yes!"

Niu Youdao raised a hand and beckoned toward the people from the various factions.

Some of them looked distinctly awkward, but they still came over together, each wearing either an embarrassed look or a forced smile.

Niu Youdao smiled pleasantly at them. They did not speak, and neither did he. He simply kept smiling at them, waiting to see what they would do.

In the end, the guilty side could not endure the silence. Fuhua forced a smile. "Little Brother, everything all right?"

Niu Youdao said, "Thanks to all of you, I'm fine."

Quan Taifeng spoke up. "Little Brother, I never said a single bad word about you."

You? Niu Youdao was amused. He almost wanted to ask what Quan Taifeng knew in the first place, and what bad words he could possibly have said. Instead, he raised a thumb. "Loyalty for the ages! Now that's how a sworn elder brother should act."

That only made the four leaders of the Four Seas even more embarrassed. Fuhua sighed. "Little Brother, we had no choice either."

Niu Youdao said, "I understand. Completely. It's fine. If I say it's fine, then it's fine. That said, you sworn elder brothers and elder sister of mine really are models of loyalty. I'm not blaming you. I only want to say that if our positions were reversed, I can guarantee I wouldn't say half a bad word about any of you. If trouble came, I would absolutely bear it together with you!"

Fuhua smiled apologetically. "We admit we can't compare with you there. You're a real man. Don't hold it against a woman like me, all right?"

Hong Gaitian scratched his head full of red hair. "Ah, Little Brother, don't keep talking. If you go on, this elder brother of yours will have to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it. This time, we were wrong."

"Good. Since you know you were wrong, then it's over. Brothers occasionally have disagreements. Once everything is said openly, it passes." Niu Youdao waved a hand broadly, ending the matter and winning smiles from the four leaders of the Four Seas.

Then he casually pointed at someone else. "Shen Yidu, you're really something. Saying I have an inside source in Sacred Realm was one thing. You even dared fabricate a claim that I extorted twenty million from Xiaoyue Pavilion. I can treat the other matters as ignorance and let them pass, but I'm remembering this account. When you go back, ask Mr. Yucang whether I extorted him. If I didn't, Xiaoyue Pavilion can prepare twenty million for me yourselves. I won't take this smear for nothing. Sound fair?"

Shen Yidu's expression was strained. "Little Brother, I just didn't understand the situation."

"You didn't understand, so you dared spew nonsense that could get me killed? You set me up and now you don't want to pay?" Niu Youdao gave two cold chuckles, then swept a casual look over everyone. "Elder brothers, your little brother suffered a grievance this time. You decide what ought to be done."

[End of Chapter 1022]