The courtesy Hu Gan extended

"Chief Steward Zhao can't come. Three days ago, I killed him and more than ten servants," Mu Zichen said calmly.

"You... you actually killed people inside the academy! That's a grave crime! And I suspect you deliberately killed Chief Steward Zhao so you could slander my mentor and me!" Feng Shaoyou froze, then nearly floated with elation.

He had learned of Chief Steward Zhao's disappearance the day before yesterday, but had thought little of it. Now that he considered it, the matter probably involved Mu Zichen, perhaps even Xiao Meng. He had suspected that Chief Steward Zhao was likely dead, but he had never expected Mu Zichen to admit outright that he had killed the steward and the others.

This was nothing short of a stroke of genius.

Situ Nan nearly floated with elation too.

Hu Gan and the other elders' expressions changed. Mu Zichen had not merely killed someone—he had killed more than a dozen people. That was indeed a grave crime. More importantly, no one could prove that he had been forced to kill in self-defense.

As for Xiao Meng, the words of an outsider carried little weight.

Mu Zichen glanced at Feng Shaoyou as though looking at an idiot and said flatly, "Don't worry. I still have a way to expose your ugly faces."

Then he turned to Hu Gan and asked, "Headmaster, when I was knocked off the cliff, Situ Nan had already taken the Storage Ring from my hand. If my Storage Ring can be found on him, and I can describe what's inside it, would that prove whether I'm telling the truth?"

Hu Gan furrowed his brows, somewhat puzzled, but still nodded decisively. "Yes."

"Mentor, you must have racked your brains trying to break the restriction on my Storage Ring, haven't you?" Mu Zichen