Court strife, fierce and surging; three days to clarify his convictions, life and death decided [Extra update for the patron Most Innocent]

The Great Wei Capital.

With the appearance of two startling rainbow streaks of light, both the imperial palace and the Literary Palace received the news from Southern Yu Prefecture.

The fiercest reaction came from the Literary Palace.

Yan Ru's article arrived first, and much of its content made the scholars' eyes nearly split with fury.

Angry voices rose in its wake.

"Arrogant! Truly arrogant! A mere Confucian student dared to be so insolent! He wanted to destroy our Sage Intent and insult us as rotten Confucians?"

"Since Sage Zhu, every scholar under heaven has followed his teachings. Xu Qingxiao dared to insult us with such arrogance-wasn't he insulting the sage himself?"

"I thought Southern Yu Prefecture had produced a great talent. Who would have thought it had produced a Myriad-Era Mad Scholar! What a Myriad-Era Mad Scholar he is!"

"He holds the Sage Intent in contempt. This is a crime that reaches the heavens! The scholars of the world will never let him off."

Roars rang out from the scholars within the Literary Palace, with no shortage of Grand Confucians angrily joining in.

Yet a small number of Grand Confucians had their doubts.

"I've met Xu Qingxiao. He isn't such an arrogant person. Could there be some misunderstanding here?"

"No one between heaven and earth would dare utter such outrageous words. Perhaps this really is a misunderstanding."

Some voices spoke in Xu Qingxiao's defense. Grand Confucian Chen Xin, for instance, had met him and held him in high regard.

Thus, he did not believe Xu Qingxiao would dare be so arrogant.

Others felt that a talent renowned throughout the world might be proud, but no amount of pride would lead him to slander a sage. Perhaps the account had been exaggerated.

Most Confucian students, however, disagreed. After all, the man