Framing

"Why?! We have no grudge against you..." Ning Yuanfeng's heart and guts were torn apart. He desperately urged his Soul Power, and the Glazed Tile Pagoda glimmered as he tried to aid his companions' defense.

"Why?" The leader of the black-clad men stepped forward, the blade in his hand wrapped in sinister black Soul Power. His tone was filled with deliberate mockery. "Blame yourselves for offending someone you shouldn't have!"

"Someone we shouldn't have..." Ning Yuanfeng's pupils abruptly contracted. Ye Yang's cold, smiling eyes from earlier that day overlapped with the black-clad man's seething, murderous gaze! A horrifying thought struck his mind like lightning. He let out a shrill cry:

"It's the Crown Prince! Xue Qinghe sent you?! He only pretended to let us go earlier!"

"Clever. Too bad it's too late!" The leader of the black-clad men gave a feral grin. His blade swept down with a piercing whistle!

"No—!!!"

The despairing scream cut off abruptly.

The icy blade pierced Ning Yuanfeng's chest! Blood gushed out like a spring.

The other Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect disciples also fell one after another beneath the attacks of the other Soul Kings, like stalks of wheat. They didn't even manage to cry out.

As he hovered at death's door, agony searing through him, Ning Yuanfeng's eyes blazed with one last flash of hatred and understanding.

Summoning the last of his strength, he trembled as he used his bloodied finger to carve a twisted, savage character into the crack between the cold stone slabs beneath him—

"too"!

As he finished the last stroke, his head lolled to the side. He breathed his last.

Blood seeped along the grooves in the stone, slowly staining the incomplete yet unmistakable character red.

The leader of the black-clad men coldly surveyed the corpses strewn across the ground. His gaze settled precisely on the glaring blood character.

He didn't wipe it away. Instead, he deliberately covered it with Ning Yuanfeng's body.

"Mission accomplished." He gave a slight nod toward the shadows, his voice utterly emotionless. "The evidence is 'clear' enough."

A blurry figure silently appeared from the darkness. After glancing at the blood character, he gave a low, hoarse order: "Withdraw. Let the people from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect 'discover' this gift themselves."

The five black-clad men vanished in an instant, like specters merging into the night.

It wasn't until the next morning, when villagers went up the mountain to gather herbs, that they discovered the bodies.

The following morning, at the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, in Golden Throne Hall.

The solemn atmosphere of the morning court was torn apart by a tide of pent-up fury. Emperor Xue Ye sat high upon his throne, his face so dark it seemed ready to drip water.

He clutched a memorial in his hand, his knuckles white from the force of his grip.

"Outrageous! Utterly lawless!" Emperor Xue Ye slammed the memorial onto the desk before him with a thunderous bang. The sound made every official in the hall tremble and bow their heads in silence.

His voice rolled through the hall like muffled thunder, brimming with righteous fury. "The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect! A pillar of my Heaven Dou Empire! Their direct disciples were brutally murdered and left in the wilderness, right on the doorstep of my imperial city!"

"They have slapped me in the face! They have defied the majesty of the entire Heaven Dou Empire!"

His dragon eyes flashed as they swept over the officials, who stood trembling in silence. "Ministry of Justice! City Defense Department! What are you all good for?!"

"How could such a horrific massacre take place in the imperial capital?! Where are the murderers?! Where are the leads?! Have you found not a single trace?!"

A deathly silence filled the hall. Only Emperor Xue Ye's ragged breathing echoed through it.

Ning Fengzhi stood at the head of the civil officials. His expression was just as grim, and he closed his eyes briefly to hide his grief.

Although Ning Yuanfeng and the others hadn't been core disciples, they were still the face of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

If this matter wasn't handled properly, what would become of the sect's reputation?

Just then, the vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, a sharp-featured middle-aged official, took a deep breath. Bracing himself under immense pressure, he stepped out from the line and dropped to his knees, his voice carrying a barely perceptible tremor:

"Your Majesty, we... we inspected the scene through the night, sparing no effort and neglecting nothing."

"The scene was gruesome. The murderer was ruthless and left almost no traces... Yet the heavens have eyes, and the net may be wide, but no one escapes it!"

He paused, raised his head, and quickly glanced at Xue Ye on the throne. His gaze then skimmed over the Crown Prince, Ye Yang, whose expression remained impassive, before lingering for a moment on Prince Xue Xing, whose face had suddenly tightened. Only then did he continue:

"Beneath the body of the lead victim, Ning Yuanfeng... we found a crack in the stone slab that he had deliberately concealed with his body!"

"Inside the crack, a character had been hurriedly written in blood, using a finger... a single incomplete character!"

His voice rose sharply, heavy with the gravity of revealing a shocking secret. "It was the character '太'!"

The character "太" landed like a boulder in a placid lake!

The entire Golden Throne Hall erupted in an uproar!

The character "太"?!

In the Heaven Dou Empire, especially in the court, that character could only point to one thing!

Almost everyone instinctively turned their gaze toward the Crown Prince, standing at the very front of the court officials, his posture straight and his expression still calm and unreadable.

Emperor Xue Ye's pupils contracted. A chill rose from deep within him, displacing some of his anger.

His keen gaze, sharp as a blade, instantly fixed on his eldest son.

He absolutely refused to believe that the Crown Prince, in whom he had placed such high hopes and who was renowned for his benevolence, would commit such a foolish and vile act. But the character "太" undeniably demanded a reasonable explanation.

Ning Fengzhi also looked at Xue Qinghe, but there was no anger in his eyes. As Xue Qinghe was his disciple, he trusted his character. This benevolent Crown Prince would never do such a thing.

But why had the murderer framed Xue Qinghe like this? What was he trying to accomplish?

"Father, esteemed officials, why are you looking at me? That's the character '太,' not 'Crown Prince.' Why connect it to me?" Ye Yang raised an eyebrow and spoke evenly.

He turned his gaze toward Emperor Xue Ye, whose face had turned livid, and Ning Fengzhi, whose expression was grave. His tone grew more earnest.

"Besides, as I just said, even if Ning Yuanfeng and the others really did write the words 'Crown Prince,' their intentions would be obvious."

"I merely crossed paths with them on the street yesterday and got into a minor argument. Out of consideration for Sect Master Ning, I reprimanded them and let them leave."

"If I were to order the massacre of several direct disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect over such a trivial matter..."

Ye Yang's voice rose slightly, ringing with undeniable conviction. "Would I really commit such a cruel and unwise act, destroying our own foundations and plunging the empire into turmoil?"

"This is clearly a deliberate frame-up, intended to sow discord between the imperial family and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. The culprit's heart is black!"

[ Ding! Perilous rebuttal: eloquence +1, authority +1 ]

Ning Fengzhi's tightly furrowed brows shifted slightly.

The Crown Prince's words were clear and logical, and made perfect sense.

From what he knew of Xue Qinghe, he truly wasn't so short-sighted or violent.

He had also learned the details of yesterday's conflict through other channels. The Crown Prince had indeed shown considerable restraint.

If the Crown Prince had done it, why go to the trouble of letting them leave in public, only to kill them in secret and leave behind evidence? This looked much more like a clumsy frame-up.