Human Race Leadership Meeting

October 7, 8:30 a.m., Zi City time.

The annual All-School Alliance joint examination had officially come to an end.

As the joint examination ended, a fine rain began to fall, shrouding all of Zi City in an atmosphere of sorrow.

In Zi City's central square, crowds of mourners came carrying black umbrellas and bouquets of pale flowers.

At that very moment, numerous Human Race leaders had gathered in Zi City's core district behind the central square, where a tense and solemn meeting was underway.

It was an emergency conference of all council members. The Human Race had not convened an emergency meeting on such a grand scale in many years.

The last time all council members had been summoned on short notice had been more than 150 years ago, before the battle against the Ten-Thousand-Blade Demon Race.

An opulent cloisonné chandelier gazed silently down at the Human Race's most powerful and influential figures.

The conference room was spacious and bright, but the atmosphere was so heavy and oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Everyone present wore a grave expression, for they knew that the matters under discussion concerned the Human Race's reputation and future.

The meeting was to address how to properly handle the series of repercussions from the Bloody Unified Exam incident and do everything possible to minimize the damage.

After all, the incident had already drawn widespread attention and fierce condemnation from all sectors of Human Race society.

If it could not be resolved promptly and effectively, the losses to the Human Race as a whole would be incalculable.

Beyond handling the incident itself, however, the meeting had one crucial and unavoidable issue to address: accountability and punishment.

Who exactly should be held responsible?

Where had the oversights occurred?

And how should those responsible be held to account?

These were all pressing questions that demanded answers.

However, in keeping with a time-honored practice among the Human Race on Ruolan Star, such efforts to assign blame and exact punishment tended to develop in the same direction.

They became weapons and shields for factions to use against one another.

"More than eighty thousand outstanding examinees died in this incident! This is the heaviest blow the Human Race has suffered since the beginning of the star calendar!

"Those involved must be severely punished, or we cannot possibly quell the public's anger and resentment!"

An elderly man seated on the left made the proposal with righteous indignation.

Traces of compassionate tears still marked his face, but his sharp gaze had already locked onto the great aristocratic families on the right.

The leaders on the left caught his unspoken meaning. Like a pack of wolves spotting an opening in their prey, their eyes gleamed fiercely as they eagerly joined in the denunciation.

"Grand Speaker, certain great aristocratic families are suspected of secretly colluding with the Beastfolk. Their crimes deserve more than death!"

"Grand Speaker, enemies within are far more detestable than enemies without!"

"Grand Speaker, the Bloody Unified Exam was no accident. The Aristocratic Faction did it deliberately!"

"Grand Speaker, ..."

"Silence!"

The authoritative voice carried a heavy sense of pressure, instantly silencing the clamor in the meeting hall.

The Grand Speaker sat high on the central dais at the front, draped in a heavy, solemn speaker's cloak and wearing a weighty crown symbolizing the Human Race's twelve cities.

Slightly below him, five other speakers sat above the assembled council members.

"Council members from each side, please speak in order. Do not disrupt the proceedings."

As the Grand Speaker finished, the neutral speaker presiding over the meeting said, "Next, Council Member Fang Yuanmao."

On the right, an elderly man with graying hair but an undiminished presence rose briskly. He first bowed respectfully toward the speakers, then began to speak at a measured pace.

"I deeply sympathize with the examinees attacked by the Beastfolk. Our compatriots should not have suffered at their hands.

"At this critical moment, with an enemy invading from outside, the Human Race must unite as one and face the enemy together! We must send troops against the Beastfolk of the Spirit Resonance Rainforest and obtain justice for all the victims!"

With his opening words, Fang Yuanmao defined the nature of the incident. The upper-class aristocratic families had lived up to their centuries-old legacies, taking the moral high ground with righteous conviction and presenting their views from above.

"As for the cliques formed by some of our compatriots and the baseless accusations against my family, I trust that the council and the laws of the Human Race will prove my family and me innocent!

"Grand Speaker, I have finished."

Fang Yuanmao looked disdainfully toward the left. He could already imagine the impotent rage of those mudlegs who called themselves reformists.

Trying to go straight for the student intake did not merely strike at the aristocratic families' roots; it also cut directly into the main artery of those academic overlords and sects in the All-School Alliance!

As a result, more than half the council members present today would not support the Reformist Faction. Honestly, it would be good enough if they did not turn around and bite back.

But the anger and accusations he expected never came. Instead, there were only silent stares and mocking smiles.

Something's wrong! When things are this unusual, something must be afoot. Could something have gone wrong with the cleanup?

But before he could turn to question the other council members beside him, the presiding speaker called on the next member.

"Next, Council Member Fan Rongchang."

"Honored speakers, fellow compatriots from all walks of life," Fan Rongchang said as he rose and bowed at the same unhurried pace.

"Not long ago, new evidence emerged showing that some aristocratic families joined forces to attack the examinees in this year's examination."

That single statement instantly set the hall ablaze. The clamor erupted once more, prompting the speaker to call for order again.

"Silence, silence!"

"Council Member Fan Rongchang, please submit the new evidence."

Fan Rongchang glanced to the right, where it now seemed as though dark clouds had gathered and the atmosphere had turned heavy.

"Yes. Honored speakers, this is the statement taken from an examinee who was a victim of the joint examination incident. It records the examinee's experiences over two days in the Unified Exam Secret Realm."

"On the afternoon of October 5, a group of aristocratic family scions led by Li Jie of the Li Family attacked 108 people, including this examinee. More than half were killed or wounded."

"Afterward, Xie Wutong, Mu Li, and Gong Lingling arrived at the scene to provide support."

"But they were outnumbered. Before long, Mu Li and Gong Lingling were brutally killed."

"Xie Wutong then used the Spirit-Burning Art to launch a desperate counterattack, giving this examinee a chance to escape with their life."

Fan Rongchang recalled a conversation from before the meeting.

"Our Reformist Faction was already the target of everyone's ire."

"Without conclusive evidence that the Aristocratic Faction betrayed the race, the best course is to win over other forces and force the Aristocratic Faction to cut off one of its own arms."

"If the great aristocratic families are driven to desperate measures now, it will only split the Human Race apart and plunge it into civil war."

"If the Human Race is invaded by an external enemy because of a division, everyone sitting here will be a traitor to the race!"

Speaker Ke Jin, who was close to the Reformist Faction, had suppressed their original proposal.

Now, making the Aristocratic Faction bleed heavily would be enough.

He drew his thoughts back and delivered the final blow.

"Based on the statement, I have reason to suspect that some aristocratic families, including the Li Family, harbored sinister intentions and had been plotting this for a long time."

"They selfishly attempted to seek their own gain by attacking and killing examinees in the secret realm."

"They must be held responsible for the deaths of the many examinees!"

Either they protected the Li Family and the others who had carried it out, taking the blame for the Bloody Unified Exam themselves.

Or they abandoned the Aristocratic Faction's agreement to stand together and protected themselves.

Whichever they chose, it would not be enough to leave the aristocratic families unable to recover, but it would hurt them badly.

"The Fang Family seconds the motion. The Li Family was the chief culprit and led several other families into wrongdoing. Its crimes are heinous; it should receive the ultimate punishment, and the entire family should be executed!"

"The Shen Family seconds the motion."

"The Yang Family seconds the motion."

The council member representing the Li Family went red-eyed and prepared to argue back in a frenzy.

"Drag him away."

"Yes!"

Before he could say anything, the Grand Speaker gave the order in time to stop him from saying anything that might harm the unity of the Human Race.

A squad of soldiers exuding a terrifying presence entered and instantly subdued the Li Family representative, who was at the middle stage of the Earth Realm's Third Realm.

An Earth Realm expert revered by countless people in the outside world did not even count as a core figure here.

After all, the threshold for entering the core upper council was being one of the top experts in the Heaven Realm.

The atmosphere in the hall eased after the scapegoat was taken away.

The meeting continued.