Does My Tang Clan Have No One?

"Lan Ming!"

"Xiao Ling'er!"

When Qin Zheng recognized the severed head and the corpse, he felt as though lightning had struck him and nearly bit through his tongue.

"Student Qi Lin..."

Master Fu staggered back two steps, his eyes trembling as he looked at the calm-faced youth.

He had been overwhelmed with guilt, yet now he saw that the dead were someone else?

All that guilt had been for nothing!

Before his eyes, the young boy in black set down what he held in both hands, his face earnest.

"Master Fu, I acted in self-defense."

At those words, deathly silence fell. Not a bird or crow made a sound.

"X-Xiao Chiyan..."

Qin Zheng turned his stiff neck to look back at the red-haired youth in the middle.

The red-haired youth radiated a bloody chill. His True Essence had locked onto Qi Lin like a sea of blood, surging toward him like a scarlet tsunami.

Mystic Sea Realm Fifth Stage!

Three stages above Qi Lin.

"Die!"

Seeing this, Xiao Chiyan had no desire to say another word.

A descendant of an evildoer had come to the Divine Strategy Manor to kill a Xiao Clan genius. He was so brazen-how could Xiao Chiyan let him live another breath?

His scarlet True Essence seemed to cover heaven and earth. Before he even struck, the vast blood-colored ocean had nearly crushed the breath from Qi Lin.

"The difference between frost descent and a tsunami can't be bridged by any means."

Besides, as Qi Lin was now, he truly didn't have many conventional means at his disposal.

Boom!

With the force of a sea of blood, Xiao Chiyan struck down at the top of Qi Lin's head with his palm!

Qi Lin gritted his teeth!

Grandpa said he sent a mysterious expert to protect me. Why hasn't he shown himself?

He had trusted his grandfather so much that he had come to the Divine Strategy Manor alone to face a Xiao Clan genius's killing intent head-on... Could that master of heavenly calculations have led his grandson into another trap?

Life and death hung in the balance in that instant, and Qi Lin had no other choice.

He would have to rely on himself!

Relying on himself, he actually had two trump cards left... One of them was right beside Xiao Chiyan.

Su Lianxi, whose True Essence was also a tsunami, had already stepped forward, her True Essence surging.

But Qi Lin wasn't going to let her act.

"Don't move!"

He gave a low shout. Apart from Su Lianxi, no one knew he was speaking to her.

As he spoke, Qi Lin thrust the little finger of his left hand toward Xiao Chiyan in a flash!

That was right!

Lately, the thing had kept spewing fire as though it were about to burst, and Qi Lin could barely hold it in anymore!

His decision to use it was purely instinct.

He had a strong feeling that releasing this fire would definitely work.

Hum-

A jet of crimson flame burst out, biting down on Xiao Chiyan in an instant like a great maw of the Heavenly Dao.

"Ah!!"

Xiao Chiyan cried out in pain. His True Essence shook as he was sent flying backward and crashed straight to the ground.

The sight shocked everyone once again.

"This is bad."

Qin Zheng's scalp went numb. With no time to think, he hurriedly flashed over to Xiao Chiyan's side.

Hum!

His True Essence was cold-attributed. He struck out with a palm and finally extinguished the strange flames on Xiao Chiyan's body.

But when Qin Zheng looked closely, he still drew a sharp breath!

Xiao Chiyan's once-flawless skin was now covered in patches of charred, bloody scabs, including one on his face.

"Brother Yan, how are you?"

The handsome youths and beautiful women of the Two Moons Pavilion hurriedly gathered around him.

"I'm fine. Just flesh wounds."

Xiao Chiyan sprang to his feet. With his face burned, he looked especially ferocious.

But this made it all the clearer that he was no pampered idler, but someone born with a ruthless streak.

"Hurry to the Medicinal Cuisine Hall. If you miss the chance to treat it, you could be disfigured," Su Lianxi reminded him.

"What use are looks to a man?"

Xiao Chiyan's voice was exceedingly low and brutal. He pushed the people around him aside and reassessed Qi Lin.

"What he just used should have been a forbidden technique. Be careful," Qin Zheng hurriedly warned.

"How could he know a forbidden technique at such a young age?" Xiao Chiyan's expression was venomous, though a trace of apprehension remained. He quickly suppressed it. "Forbidden techniques can only be used a limited number of times. He's bluffing."

With that, he stepped forward and pressed toward Qi Lin again.

"Come on."

Though Qi Lin was a few years younger, his bearing was chillingly composed. He raised his sleeve and stared fixedly at Xiao Chiyan.

Xiao Chiyan met his eyes... and ultimately stopped.

Forbidden techniques were unlike sword techniques and combat techniques; their killing power was hard to gauge. If someone burned their life to use one, he could well be buried alongside them.

"Punishment Master Qin, why haven't you apprehended this man condemned to death?" he asked, looking at Qin Zheng.

Qin Zheng had known it would come to this.

But he had no choice. He was an elder, after all, and far stronger than these young people.

Hum!

When the pressure spread from Punishment Master Qin, what Qi Lin felt was no mere suppression.

It was the crushing weight of ten thousand mountains!

"Punishment Master Qin, I am a student of the Divine Strategy Manor. The manor lord approved my admission, and Pavilion Master Jiang Xinghai personally authorized it. If you want to convict me, you must present evidence on the spot."

Qi Lin's tone was neither servile nor overbearing, making it hard for those present to believe he was a Three Stars Pavilion student.

"The evidence is right at your feet." Qin Zheng continued to press him until the bones throughout Qi Lin's body trembled and his flesh twisted. "You, Qi Lin, brutally murdered people in the National Law School! You have shown contempt for the law of the kingdom, a crime punishable by death."

"Wrong." Bracing himself against the pressure, Qi Lin picked up the Great Cang Kingdom Law. "Today, Xiao and Lan took the initiative to kill me. I warned them three times to no avail and was forced to defend myself, leaving me no choice but to kill them..."

He looked at Master Fu. "Master, I followed the kingdom's law. What crime have I committed?"

Master Fu stared at him blankly.

When he had left this academy, he could never have imagined this moment.

He had just lectured on self-defense!

And Qi Lin had already put it to use?

"According to the kingdom's law, in an area where fighting is forbidden, if you gave three warnings, then you are indeed innocent..." Master Fu's voice trembled slightly.

"The question is, do you have a witness to prove they attacked first, and that you warned them three times?" Qin Zheng immediately interrupted.

Certain that Qi Lin had no connections in the Divine Strategy Manor, he pressed him further.

"I do."

Just then, a youth somewhat taller than Qin Zheng walked out of the National Law School.

Though he was a Three Stars Pavilion student, he had grown a coarse beard and looked like an "uncle."

"I, Tang Biao, saw it with my own eyes. After Qi Lin said he was from Mystic City, Xiao Ling'er and Lan Ming joined forces to kill him. Qi Lin did warn them three times, but they wouldn't listen!" the youth said in a rough voice.

"Then the truth is clear..."

Master Fu spoke in a low voice, not daring to look toward Xiao Chiyan and the others.

"Tang Biao, you..."

Qin Zheng hadn't expected anyone to actually help an evildoer from Mystic City, and it threw him off balance.

"His testimony doesn't count!"

Xiao Chiyan suddenly spoke in an icy voice. "This descendant of an evildoer was recommended for admission by Tang Guochang of the Evil-Warding General Bureau. They're birds of a feather. How could his testimony clear him?"

He swept a cold gaze over the other Three Stars Pavilion students deeper inside the academy. "Anyone who steps forward to uphold justice will be richly rewarded by my Xiao Clan."

"Me, me!" Yan Dinghao scrambled out from inside. "I can prove it! Qi Lin was arrogant and overbearing. He claimed he came to the Divine Strategy Manor to kill everyone surnamed Xiao! Then he brutally murdered Ling'er on the spot!"

"I can testify..."

"I can prove it too! What Yan Dinghao said is true!"

Of the thirty-odd people in the National Law School, five or six spoke up in the space of a moment.

"My testimony doesn't count, but the testimony of your Xiao Clan's lackeys does?" Tang Biao sneered. "Enough with the act. You're just bullying people, so why dress it up in such high-sounding words? How shameless can you get? Hasn't your clan made a big enough laughingstock of itself in Mystic City? And you, Punishment Master Qin, you're playing favorites, aren't you? Do you think my Tang Clan has no one?"

Qin Zheng's head ached terribly when he heard this.

He didn't want the matter to escalate any further, so he hurriedly said in a stern voice, "All of you, shut up. In any case, Qi Lin is under grave suspicion of criminal wrongdoing. I will take him to the Blood Prison first and announce the results of the investigation another day."

With that, he used his strength to force his way forward. The people around him were only a group of young men and women, and indeed none could stop him.

Qi Lin, who had been silent for a while, suddenly spoke. "Punishment Master Qin, you know the Great Cang Kingdom Law better than anyone, and you know the truth better than anyone, yet you act against the law and your conscience! You wield Great Cang's laws as a weapon, serve as a dog for the powerful clans, and oppress the innocent..."

He stared coldly at the middle-aged man. "Let me ask you! By acting this way, above you, can you face the ruler of the Great Cang Kingdom who trained you? Below you, can you face the common people who trust you?"

"Shut up!"

Qin Zheng's expression twisted as the words struck a sore spot in his heart.

"Whether or not I can face His Majesty is none of your concern!"

With that, he suddenly flashed forward, reaching for Qi Lin's neck with a hand that could freeze heaven and earth.

But just then, a clear, cold voice came from within the National Law School.

"Then... is it my concern?"