News of the Sect Leader being put on trial spread like wildfire, quickly reaching every corner of the Inquiry Sword Sect. A great many disciples came to watch.
The three elders sat atop the judgment platform, looking down at Chu Lu below.
Xiao Yichen and Liu Yan'er stood to the right as witnesses, while the watching disciples gathered at the entrance to the Disciplinary Hall.
"Luo Qingdie! Is it true that you killed your own direct disciple, Fan Bailu?" the Grand Elder asked sternly.
"It is."
The moment those words left her mouth, an uproar broke out.
The disciples who had come to watch only knew that the Sect Leader was being tried; they did not know the details. Upon hearing such a shocking accusation, their faces filled with disbelief, and they looked at Chu Lu with fear.
"The Sect Leader actually killed her own disciple?"
"No way? Has she gone mad?"
"That's terrifying. But why?"
"This is bad. She won't come after us too, will she?"
"Silence!" The Grand Elder slammed his palm against the table. His voice, carried by spiritual power, rang out. "Idle persons outside the hall are forbidden from making noise."
The disciples outside immediately fell silent.
Then the Grand Elder fixed his gaze on Chu Lu and continued, "Why did you kill Fan Bailu?"
"He defied his superior and sought to deceive the master and destroy the ancestors. He shouted that he would chop me to death and charged at me with his sword drawn." Chu Lu spoke calmly. "So I killed him."
The expressions of the three elders shifted slightly again, their attitudes softening somewhat.
They did not believe Luo Qingdie would lie, and it did sound like something Fan Bailu would do.
"I see." The Grand Elder nodded. "As a renowned Righteous Path sect, our Inquiry Sword Sect values respect for teachers and reverence for the Way above all else. Since he actually intended to murder his master, he truly deserved ten thousand deaths."
The disciples outside also began whispering among themselves.
"A disciple actually dared to kill his master. Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"No wonder the Sect Leader was angry. Who wouldn't be angry in her place?"
Chu Lu was somewhat surprised by the direction public opinion had taken. He said inwardly, They don't seem as bad as you described.
Yet Luo Qingdie answered in a complicated tone, "You'll understand in a moment."
At this point, after the three elders had huddled together to discuss the matter, the Grand Elder spoke. "Luo Qingdie killing Fan Bailu was understandable, so therefore..."
"Three Elder Grandfathers, please wait!" Just then, Liu Yan'er suddenly stepped forward. "Please do not punish the Sect Leader. The one at fault is actually me."
?
Question marks practically appeared over everyone's heads.
With a sorrowful expression, Liu Yan'er said, "Senior Brother Fan was of noble character. He would never do something like deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors. The reason he went to see the Sect Leader today was actually to seek an explanation for me—to ask why the Sect Leader had been targeting me. This was all my fault."
"If the Sect Leader had not held a grudge against me, and if I had not gone crying to Senior Brother Fan, he would not have sought out the Sect Leader. The Sect Leader would not have mocked him coldly or tried to drive him from the mountain gate, and Senior Brother Fan would not have been enraged to the point of losing his reason and drawing his blade against her."
"And if I had not been by his side, perhaps the Sect Leader would not have struck with lethal intent, and Senior Brother Fan would not have died. So this was all my fault. If the three Elder Grandfathers wish to punish someone, then please punish me alone and spare the Sect Leader. It was all my fault!"
By the end, Liu Yan'er was sobbing softly.
The atmosphere in the Disciplinary Hall abruptly changed.
The way everyone looked at Chu Lu changed as well.
The watching disciples all thought, What did she mean by saying that if not for Liu Yan'er, the Sect Leader would not have sneered at him and deliberately provoked Fan Bailu until he wanted to kill someone?
And what did she mean by saying that if Liu Yan'er had not been there, the Sect Leader would not have struck with lethal intent?
Could it be that the Sect Leader had killed Fan Bailu not because he had deceived his master and destroyed his ancestors, but because he had stood up for Liu Yan'er? So, in a fit of displaced anger, she had set him up and killed him?
As the disciples thought this through, their faces filled with fury.
Naturally, the three elders thought of it as well.
The Grand Elder thought, Now that she put it that way, it really was strange. It was not the first or second time Fan Bailu had become arrogant from being favored. Why had Luo Qingdie flown into a rage specifically this time? Whether he punched and kicked or swung a sword at her, what difference did it make to a Mahayana Stage cultivator? And she had even driven him out of the sect first, forcing him to act? That was nothing like what she would normally do.
So the drunkard's heart had not been on the wine after all?!
At that thought, rage rose in the Grand Elder's eyes.
The other two elders wore the same expression.
—Fan Bailu merely wanted to stand up for little Yan'er, and you killed him? You already hated little Yan'er this much? Little Yan'er was so adorable; how could you hate her so deeply? If one day it was my turn to stand up for her, would you kill me too?
In their fury, all three elders pounded the judgment platform at once.
"Luo Qingdie! You actually killed your own direct disciple over such a trifling matter? You are utterly vile and shameless, unworthy of being a teacher! You are not fit to lead this sect!" the Grand Elder roared. "There is no need for further trial. I shall pass judgment now. Strip you of your position as Sect Leader, confiscate all your possessions, and send you alone to the Endless Sea to suppress it for a thousand years!"
"No!"
Before anyone else could speak, Liu Yan'er suddenly cried out in grief again. "Three Elder Grandfathers, do not punish her—punish me instead!"
"Little Yan'er, say no more. I know you are kind-hearted, but the Disciplinary Hall stands for fairness and justice. The guilty must be punished, and the good rewarded. We absolutely cannot turn that upside down," the Grand Elder said, shaking his head.
"But... this matter began because of me. The Sect Leader surely does not feel good about it either. When she returns after a thousand years, then I..." Liu Yan'er began sobbing softly again.
The Grand Elder's heart jolted when he heard that.
—That's right. What if she comes back to take revenge on little Yan'er then? By that time, our lifespans will be nearing their end. Who will protect little Yan'er?
The Grand Elder looked at Chu Lu, and his eyes immediately filled with a sense of responsibility.
"I feel that the judgment just now may have been a little too light. What do you two think?" the Grand Elder suddenly said.
The two elders naturally understood his meaning and nodded repeatedly. "That's right, it was indeed too light. I think another punishment should be added."
"Then let us add a transfer of cultivation." The Grand Elder said, "Transfer Luo Qingdie's Mahayana Stage cultivation to little Yan'er."
"And her supreme-grade heavenly spiritual root as well, or she will not be able to bear that cultivation," the Second Elder added.
"Correct, that will do." The Grand Elder nodded. "This will also solve little Yan'er's problem of insufficient aptitude. As for you, with your talent, even if you lose your spiritual root and your cultivation falls back to the Tribulation Stage, you will recover after three to five thousand years of recuperation. It is no great matter."
"I agree." The Second Elder and Third Elder both nodded.
The watching disciples applauded and cheered as well. "Excellent! The three elders have judged well indeed, worthy of the fair and just Disciplinary Hall!"
Liu Yan'er, who had been crying and pleading to be punished herself, no longer called for that now. She merely lowered her head in silence.
As for Chu Lu, the person at the center of it all, he found the scene absurd.
Luo Qingdie's lingering sigh rang out in his mind. "Do you understand now?"
Chu Lu nodded slightly and thought, You female-oriented novel characters really are beyond heaven!
Leaving aside the fact that all of this was merely one side's story, they had accepted it wholesale without even asking a single follow-up question.
Even if all of it were true, how did these people dare pass such a judgment upon a Mahayana Stage cultivator? Were they tired of living?
That said, if Luo Qingdie herself had been facing this situation, they really would have succeeded.
Unfortunately, she was not.
Chu Lu looked at the three people before him and slowly said, "Have the three elders made up their minds? You will not change them?"
"Hmph." The Grand Elder snorted, assuming Chu Lu was begging for mercy. "It is useless. Our minds are made up. No matter what you say, we will not change them."
"Very good." Chu Lu nodded lightly, then walked toward the three elders. "Then I have nothing left to hold back."
Chu Lu took his sword from his Storage Ring.
The three elders were immediately startled and shouted, "Luo Qingdie, what are you trying to do?"
"Perverting the law for personal gain, scheming for personal gain with power—you deserve death as well!"
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