I was still standing where I was. The candlelight in the ancestral hall flickered, casting half of Ji Hantian's face in light and half in shadow. He snapped his folding fan shut and tapped it against his palm. His voice was not loud, yet it carried an unquestionable pressure. "The evidence is right here. Do you still want to deny it?"
With a wave of his hand, a Law Enforcement Team member immediately stepped forward, holding a piece of cloth—the bloodstained corner of clothing found among the scraps of my old robe. The blood had already darkened, and its edges had curled, as though it had been through a fierce battle.
"This was left behind when you fought an outside enemy." Ji Hantian stared at me, his gaze sharp as a blade. "The Three-Eyed Blood Fox is a vicious beast raised by the Blood Demon Sect. Not only did you fail to report it, you fought it outside the Forbidden Ground and concealed your whereabouts afterward. If that is not collusion, then what is?"
I did not move.
Nor did I defend myself.
I merely slowly raised my right hand, my fingertips lightly brushing the edge of the altar table. I had already smeared a wisp of pale gold origin there. It was faintly hot now, like a coal buried beneath ashes. The moment they approached to inspect the cracks in the walls, the hidden layers of the incense burner, and other places containing traces of the Pseudo-Primordial Body, their spiritual senses would collapse upon contact.
But I knew I could not stall any longer.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ye Qingwan still hidden in the shadows beneath the altar table, the Green Jade Medicine Pestle resting across her knees, her fingers slightly tense. She had neither left nor spoken, but I knew she was waiting for the right moment.
And so was I.
Just as the Law Enforcement Team captain prepared to order a search beneath the base of the ancestral stele, I suddenly stepped sideways and blocked the front of the altar table. My movement was not fast; it even looked somewhat laborious, as though I truly were a person with Wasted Meridians barely holding on.
"Wait," I said.
The entire hall fell silent for a moment.
Ji Hantian sneered. "What? Are you finally going to confess?"
I ignored him and lowered my eyes to my palm. A thread of extremely fine golden light still lingered there, slowly seeping into my skin. The Heaven-Slaying Origin was accumulating, each fragment of Battle Intent silently converted by the system. The more dangerous the situation, the stronger the enemy, the faster it came.
I raised my eyes, my voice steady. "Article Seven of the Family Rules states that anyone implicated in a serious crime must undergo a joint hearing presided over by an Executive Elder. No one may be privately detained or judged. You have now led men into the ancestral hall and searched through ancestral relics. Without an official ruling, that is a violation of protocol."
Several observing elders had been standing outside the doorway. At this moment, they exchanged glances, and one of them had already frowned and taken half a step back.
Ji Hantian's expression darkened. "You still have the nerve to invoke the Family Rules? You have Wasted Meridians, achieved nothing for three years, and now you can suddenly refine ninth-grade pills and sneak into the Forbidden Ground at night. Rather than explain yourself, you dare lecture me?"
"I do not need to explain myself," I said calmly. "I only need due process."
The moment my words fell, a figure rose from beneath the altar table.
Ye Qingwan stepped out.
Her pace was unhurried but steady. Her Black Cloak hung to her ankles, and the ends of her crimson hair glimmered faintly. She walked to my side, neither too close nor too far, forming a shoulder-to-shoulder stance with me.
Then she crouched down, took out a layer of fine powder from her medicine pouch, and gently scattered it over the bloodstained corner of clothing. The powder was so fine it was nearly transparent. It landed without a sound, yet the entire cloth immediately began to emit a faint glow.
"Everyone," she said, her voice cold and clear, "the real issue is not who the blood belongs to."
Her fingertip lightly tapped the cloth. The glow moved with her gesture before finally gathering upon an almost invisible pattern deep within the bloodstain.
"It is that this blood contains Soul-Corroding Demonic Qi."
The air abruptly froze.
Several Law Enforcement Team members instinctively retreated. Even Ji Hantian's pupils contracted.
"Soul-Corroding Demonic Qi?" an elderly elder murmured. "That is the residual trace of a forbidden technique used by the Blood Demon Sect to refine souls... Ordinary contact causes poisoning, let alone having it stain one's clothing."
Ye Qingwan stood up and looked directly at Ji Hantian. "This demonic qi cannot attach itself out of thin air, nor can it arise naturally. It must seep into flesh and blood through the prolonged use of related artifacts or formations. In other words—" She paused. "Whoever carries this aura has had deep contact with the Blood Demon Sect."
Ji Hantian snapped his folding fan shut and shouted harshly, "Absurd! You are slandering the Direct Grandchild! By law, you should be executed!"
"Whether it is slander can be determined with a single examination." Rather than retreating, she advanced, lightly touching the ground with her medicine pestle. "Why not ask Young Master Ji to open his secret chamber right now and let us inspect that 'Soul Nurturing Cauldron' of yours? I hear you open it once every night at midnight, supposedly to worship your ancestors. Yet the aura seeping from the bottom of that cauldron shares the same source as the demonic qi on this scrap of clothing."
"You—!" Ji Hantian was enraged. The muscles in his arm tensed, and a line split open at his sleeve cuff, revealing one corner of a dark-red crystal beneath.
He immediately realized his loss of composure and forcibly suppressed the disturbance.
But that momentary panic had already been seen by everyone.
The ancestral hall fell deathly silent.
Several neutral elders exchanged looks. Two had already quietly left, clearly intending to report to the Executive Elder Council. The Law Enforcement Team no longer pressed forward. Instead, they lowered their halberds and withdrew, clearly unwilling to become entangled in this struggle among the upper ranks.
I remained where I was, one hand hovering in the air. I appeared weak, but in truth, the Pseudo-Primordial Body within me was already operating at its limit. The hostility, killing intent, and Battle Intent Fragments permeating the surroundings were all silently devoured by the system, turning into threads of pale gold origin that flowed into my meridians.
The scar on my left cheek faintly burned. It was a sign that the Heaven-Slaying Origin was about to break through.
Ten wisps formed the foundation of the Dao. I already had seven.
Just a little more, and I could take the next step.
"Fine." Ji Hantian finally spoke, his voice hoarse, as though squeezed through clenched teeth. "You joined hands to set this trap. It truly is seamless. Since that is the case—" He swept his gaze over everyone present. "Then we will confront each other at the Court Hall tomorrow. I want to watch with my own eyes as you carry your lies to the bitter end!"
He turned to leave, then stopped and looked back at Ye Qingwan, enunciating every word. "Miss Ye, your mother died in an 'accident' back then. But if you insist on stirring up these muddy waters, perhaps you may uncover something else."
Her body trembled slightly.
I did not look at her. I only felt her breathing stop for an instant.
Then she raised her head, her gaze colder than before. "Then we will investigate it to the end."
Ji Hantian gave a cold snort and waved his hand as he led his people away. The Law Enforcement Team gradually withdrew from the ancestral hall, their footsteps orderly, yet no one dared look back at us again.
After the doors closed, the ancestral hall returned to silence.
The incense flames burned again, smoke curling upward and winding between the beams.
I lowered my head and looked at my palm. That wisp of pale golden light had not dispersed. Instead, it had become even more solid. Heaven-Slaying Origin: 7.3/10.
That confrontation had involved no blows, yet it had been worth more than an army of a thousand.
"Was what you said just now... true?" Ye Qingwan suddenly asked, her voice very soft. "About my mother?"
I did not answer.
I merely withdrew my hand from the altar table, my fingertips passing over a faint crack—a trace left when the origin had overflowed just now. It would soon disappear, like all evidence that should never have existed.
"Do you believe in what I am doing now?" I asked instead.
She fell silent for a moment, then suddenly bent down and picked up a pinch of the remaining medicinal powder from the floor. It was the fluorescent powder she had scattered, not yet fully dispersed.
"I do not believe other people," she said. "But I am beginning to believe that you would not say those things without reason."
She looked up at me, gold glimmering in her eyes. "So tell me, was I the person you were waiting for in the Forbidden Ground last night?"
I did not answer immediately.
Outside, the wind swept past the eaves, stirring one corner of the door curtain.
Beneath the altar table, that wisp of pale gold origin was still flowing slowly, like a dormant river.
Her fingers tightened around the medicinal powder, her knuckles turning white.
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