Chapter 1030: Taishu Shancheng Falls

Taishu Shancheng conjured two enormous hammers into his hands and swung them with the force of thunder. He carried the momentum of a man who would slay gods if gods blocked his path, Buddhas if Buddhas blocked it. For a moment, no one could stop him.

Boom after boom shook the summit. Five or six men were blasted away by the shadows of his hammers. Even under encirclement, Taishu Shancheng tore open a gap and fought his way out.

The people from the various sects were secretly alarmed—not by Taishu Shancheng's strength, but by the sheer nerve it took to openly fight Misty Pavilion.

By now, nearly everyone had concluded that Taishu Shancheng probably really had violated the rules.

"Trying to run?" Ding Wei sneered. "Alive or dead, take him!"

Taishu Shancheng had already broken through the encirclement at the summit and was fleeing at full speed. A crowd of Misty Pavilion cultivators pursued close behind him.

A piercing cry split the air. One enormous flying mount rose from the mountain.

Eight more followed immediately. Huang Ban personally led the pursuit, carrying men after Taishu Shancheng in the direction he had fled.

Standing high above, Xuan Yao looked into the distance. He could see people chasing Taishu Shancheng from behind while flying mounts shadowed him from the air. Wherever Taishu Shancheng fled, someone stayed locked onto him, refusing to let him shake free. The pursuit never stopped.

Ding Wei showed no interest in watching. He barely spared the chase a glance and instead fixed his eyes on Taishu Xun and Taishu Li.

Torment showed plainly on the faces of the two Qiyun Sect disciples. They had sold out Taishu Shancheng, and guilt weighed heavily on them. Taishu Shancheng was not merely an Elder of their sect; he was also of their uncle's generation within the clan. How were they supposed to feel?

The rumble of battle gradually faded into the distance, which only demonstrated how formidable Taishu Shancheng truly was. The sounds could grow farther away only because he repeatedly broke through attempts to surround and kill him.

No one from the various sects knew whether Taishu Shancheng could escape, but judging by Ding Wei's demeanor, Ding Wei did not seem worried in the slightest. Taishu Shancheng's prospects were probably grim.

Nearly half the Misty Pavilion personnel surrounding the summit had left to pursue him. The scene fell quiet again.

After a short pause, Ding Wei spoke. "Taishu Xun, Taishu Li. I keep my word. There will be no collective punishment, and the two of you are pardoned. Now tell me: was it truly as Ao Feng said? Did Taishu Shancheng kill someone, seize his possessions, and take another man's Demon Fox vertical eyes?"

"Yes!" Taishu Xun admitted it.

Taishu Li gave a difficult nod. "Yes."

Ding Wei asked, "Whom did he kill? Whom did he rob?"

The two exchanged a glance. Taishu Xun answered, "Myriad Beasts Sect Elder Chao Jing. When we encountered Chao Jing, he was already gravely wounded and completely incapable of fighting back. The Elder merely killed him in passing and took what he had. It was truly because there was an easy gain before us, not because we had deliberately gone out to rob him."

The moment those words came out, the sect cultivators erupted in astonishment.

So it had been Myriad Beasts Sect's Chao Jing. After all that commotion, Taishu Shancheng really had been the one who killed him.

Quite a few people looked toward Niu Youdao, remembering the argument between him and Taishu Shancheng earlier. Niu Youdao had asked how Taishu Shancheng could possibly know Chao Jing was dead. No one had expected the words to prove prophetic.

Ding Wei glanced at the perfectly calm Ao Feng. If this was true, then Ao Feng's testimony had been genuine. Ding Wei turned back to the two disciples. "Before Chao Jing died, did he say who injured him?"

Taishu Xun shook his head. "Chao Jing was badly wounded at the time. His limbs were gone, he was already at death's door, and he couldn't speak. He didn't... he didn't..."

Halfway through, he seemed to remember something and became hesitant.

"Hm?" Ding Wei gave a questioning sound, then looked toward Taishu Li.

Taishu Li's eyes flickered too. There was clearly something they were concealing.

Ding Wei immediately demanded, "At this point, are you still planning not to tell the truth? You've only just cleared yourselves. Do you intend to implicate yourselves again?"

Taishu Xun hurriedly said, "Presiding Administrator, it isn't that we don't want to tell the truth. We simply didn't dare say it."

Ding Wei said, "Things have already reached this point. What is there left to conceal? Speak. So long as it has nothing to do with you, you will not be blamed."

Taishu Xun hesitated, then said nervously, "Chao Jing may have known he was helpless after being gravely wounded. Before losing consciousness, he left behind a clue. It may have had something to do with the person who attacked him."

Ding Wei's attention sharpened at once. "Stop hesitating. What clue?"

Taishu Xun said, "Before Chao Jing lost consciousness, he left several words behind. Using his own blood, he wrote 'Misty Pavilion' on a stone beside him. We don't know what he meant."

Many people exchanged looks.

Under circumstances like those, how could anyone fail to understand what it meant? Chao Jing had obviously been indicating that the people who injured him were from Misty Pavilion. The two disciples knew that perfectly well; they simply did not dare state it openly.

Ding Wei's cheek tightened.

He had thought this would be another matter where the dead could no longer testify. Instead, evidence had suddenly appeared pointing toward Misty Pavilion personnel violating the rules and committing robbery.

He left behind evidence implicating Misty Pavilion before he died?

Ao Feng instinctively glanced at Niu Youdao, uncertainty stirring in his heart. He could not tell whether Niu Youdao had arranged this, or whether Niu had seen some clue beforehand and only then instructed Ao Feng to testify this way.

If it had been arranged, Ao Feng found it difficult to imagine. The Desolate Marsh Deadlands were a place where even finding a person was difficult. Yet Niu Youdao somehow knew two Misty Pavilion cultivators had died, knew the circumstances under which Chao Jing had been harmed, and had even managed to encounter Ao Feng himself and be robbed by him.

Until now, Ao Feng had assumed their meeting had been accidental and that Niu Youdao had merely been cautious enough to mark the things stolen from him beforehand.

Looking at it now, perhaps it had not been accidental at all. The whole affair might have been a trap aimed at Ao Feng from the very beginning.

But that was difficult to believe too. How could Niu Youdao possess so much influence inside the Desolate Marsh Deadlands? It was a place where even gathering information was difficult. How could he possibly have the ability to monitor events across such a vast area?

Ao Feng wondered whether Niu Youdao was colluding with the Demon Foxes. Yet he quickly found that difficult to believe as well. Niu Youdao had only just entered the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, while Demon Foxes were naturally suspicious. It seemed unlikely that they would trust an outsider and cooperate with him in such a short span of time.

His thoughts turned toward what seemed the greatest possibility: perhaps someone inside Sacred Realm was cooperating with Niu Youdao.

Anyone capable of helping him arrange matters across such a huge portion of the Desolate Marsh Deadlands would wield no small amount of power inside Sacred Realm.

Who could it be?

Ao Feng remembered the news that Luo Fangfei had personally sent Niu Youdao out of Sacred Realm. A faint chill rose in him. He felt as though he had been dragged into an enormous conspiracy from which he could no longer extricate himself.

After pondering for a while, Ding Wei suddenly asked, "Where is that stone? Surely you still remember?"

The two Qiyun Sect disciples understood what he wanted. He wished to recover the physical evidence.

Taishu Li replied, "Presiding Administrator, we don't remember the exact location. We only remember the general area. And after the Elder killed Chao Jing, he casually sank Chao Jing's body into the swamp."

No one found that surprising. After doing something like this, naturally one would not leave evidence lying around. Destroying the corpse and eliminating traces was perfectly normal.

Taishu Li continued, "The stone bearing the words 'Misty Pavilion' was also kicked into the swamp by the Elder. The writing was done in blood. Once it sank into the muddy water, and after all this time, the traces have probably already been eroded away."

Ding Wei asked, "How long ago did this happen?"

Taishu Li answered, "About a month ago."

Ding Wei frowned slightly.

Everyone looked at one another. A month had passed. The blood on the stone had surely been washed and eaten away by the muddy water. Forget the writing—by now, even Chao Jing's corpse had probably been gnawed by the tiny creatures in the swamp until little more than bones remained.

In other words, that line of evidence had been severed.

Yet no one doubted Taishu Xun and Taishu Li. At this stage, they had even betrayed their own sect Elder. What reason could they possibly have to lie about this?

The investigation had reached this point, and Ao Feng secretly let out a breath of relief. As long as it had been proven that his testimony contained no obvious problem, everything else became much easier. Every direct clue that might contradict him was now gone. Lesser inconsistencies could be explained away later. If necessary, he could simply claim he no longer remembered certain details clearly.

At least Niu Youdao had proven he was not someone who killed a man and then ignored the burial. Niu had not pushed Ao Feng forward and left him to fend for himself. The preparations made beforehand had been thorough enough to protect him considerably.

At first, Ao Feng had not understood why Niu Youdao insisted on dragging Taishu Shancheng's robbery into the matter. Would it not have been enough for Ao Feng merely to testify that Misty Pavilion personnel had robbed Niu Youdao? Either way, Ao Feng would still have to hold to the story. Why create another complication? Niu Youdao had never told him about blood-written words reading "Misty Pavilion" on a stone.

Now he understood.

Niu Youdao had manufactured corroboration proving Ao Feng's testimony true. It was protection for Ao Feng.

But why go to such lengths to protect him? Why go out of his way to create a stone pointing toward Misty Pavilion's rule-breaking?

Ao Feng had no idea what Niu Youdao intended. There were too many possibilities, and the more he thought about them, the more frightened he became.

He knew only that once he stepped forward, he had compounded mistake upon mistake. Committing robbery was already one violation. Now he had joined an outsider in smashing his own side's pot. There would be no forgiveness if he tried to turn back. He was trapped too deeply to pull himself free, as though an enormous net had tightened around him.

Ding Wei's gaze shifted toward Niu Youdao. "Niu Youdao, earlier you said there were other people who could prove Ao Feng saw you being robbed. Who were they?"

Niu Youdao cupped his hands. "Presiding Administrator, forgive me. There was never such a person. In truth, I didn't even see Mr. Ao Feng's face clearly. I invented that witness only to force Mr. Ao Feng to step forward and testify. The facts have proven the method effective."

Ding Wei's cheek twitched slightly.

Niu Youdao had used a small trick to uncover the truth. Strictly speaking, that was not a fault. If anything, one might even say he deserved a little credit.

The surrounding crowd showed sudden understanding. So Niu Youdao had invented the witness merely to bluff Ao Feng into appearing.

Ao Feng, however, whipped his head around and glared coldly at Niu Youdao, wearing the expression of a man who had just realized he had been deceived.

Inwardly, Ao Feng understood perfectly well that this was still Niu Youdao protecting him. Niu was giving him a face-saving explanation for why he had finally stepped forward, making sure he would not fall flat. Otherwise, voluntarily coming out to expose corruption within his own side would have been impossible to explain to the people behind him.

Taishu Shancheng returned.

More precisely, he was thrown down from a large flying mount passing overhead.

His entire body was covered in blood. Blood still flowed when he struck the ground. He was in miserable condition and no longer moved.

At the sight, Taishu Xun and Taishu Li looked grief-stricken.

The people from the various sects sighed inwardly. Taishu Shancheng had been so arrogant and domineering only a short while ago. No one had expected him to end up like this in the blink of an eye.

Huang Ban jumped down from the flying mount and cupped his hands to report. "Presiding Administrator, Taishu Shancheng refused to surrender and fought desperately. He forced our people to use heavy measures, and we failed to control the degree of force. We were unable to take him alive and accidentally killed him."

There was one thing Huang Ban did not say aloud: Taishu Shancheng had truly been extremely powerful. The men pursuing him had been unable to hold back and were forced to fight with everything they had.

More than a hundred Misty Pavilion cultivators had surrounded and attacked Taishu Shancheng, yet he had still killed or wounded more than twenty of them. Huang Ban had not brought those casualties back. He had arranged for them to be taken elsewhere, afraid that if the sect cultivators saw the losses, Misty Pavilion would appear incompetent and its prestige in the eyes of the sects would suffer.

Naturally, Huang Ban would not explain those details in public. He would report them to Ding Wei privately later.

[End of Chapter 1030]