After Jiu Xiu Grand Scholar realized the crisis, he naturally stopped being courteous, and his tone turned stern. The situation had now completely challenged the authority of the Chief Grand Scholar.
His authority brooked no disagreement and would not allow anyone to challenge it. Not even two Purple Gold Ribbon Grand Scholars.
Grand Scholar Linghua, however, remained remarkably calm. Facing the Chief Grand Scholar's accusation, she simply smiled composedly. "Chief, although I've been coordinating the beheading operation all along, I wasn't the one who proposed it. I was only one of the people carrying it out. Besides, everyone knows why the operation failed. I don't think I need to repeat it, do I? So why would I stay on the Surface World and be afraid to return over a responsibility that wasn't mine? I can only assume the Chief is joking."
The beheading operation had effectively been doomed from the moment Elder Yin Qiao and the others were ambushed. This sort of operation had to be kept secret. Once exposed, the enemy would surely be prepared. Even if Grand Scholar Yin Qiao and the others had reached Great Zhang Country safely, failure would still have awaited them. The only question was how they would fail.
Elder Yin Qiao was the ancestor of the Treasure Tree Clan, and the Chief Grand Scholar of Taiyi Academy was also from the Treasure Tree Clan. He was even a blood relative of Elder Yin Qiao, whose bloodline was very close to his own. Elder Yin Qiao had seniority, but Jiu Xiu Grand Scholar's talent was the kind that appeared only once every three to five hundred years, even among the Treasure Tree Clan.
That was also the main reason he had taken the seat of Chief Grand Scholar at Taiyi Academy.
Grand Scholar Linghua's