Plagiarism

Hearing Nie Li say this, Shen Xiu was so furious that she laughed instead.

She then asked Nie Li to explain the Blazing Flame Burst Inscription in front of everyone.

Nie Li stretched and yawned. Looking at the inscription, he rattled off, "A low-grade fire inscription made up of thirty-eight basic inscriptions. It barely qualifies as Bronze Rank and has practically no power to speak of. Still, if you wanted to boil water with it, it might just do."

Everyone burst out laughing. The Sacred Family's inheritance was the Sacred Fire Inscription, yet Nie Li had actually said this inscription was only good for boiling water.

Naturally, Shen Yue and Shen Xiu immediately grew upset. How was this any different from belittling the Sacred Family to their faces?

Lu Ye, standing at the back, was also laughing at Nie Li, only to receive a lecture from Vice Principal Ye Sheng a moment later.

The Blazing Flame Burst Inscription did indeed consist of thirty-eight basic inscriptions, but with the understanding of people like Lu Ye, calling it thirty-six was understandable.

Anyone who had spent years immersed in inscriptions would know that two of the inscriptions within the Blazing Flame Burst Inscription were each composed of two other basic inscriptions.

Lu Ye hurriedly wiped the sweat from his forehead and stammered that perhaps Nie Li had merely guessed.

Ye Sheng watched the yawning Nie Li. He certainly did not believe the boy had guessed.

Beneath the sky screen.

Nie Li was actually an inscription master too?

They had always known of only sixty-six Sacred Fire Inscriptions. Who would have thought Nie Li knew there were over six hundred!

Could Nie Li have studied inscriptions in his previous life as well? And studied them for a very long time?

Nie Li's image grew even more imposing in their eyes.

However, this matter had only come to light recently. They only knew that this inscription of the Sacred Family's had been plagiarized. Although word of Nie Li's deeds had also spread, it had not left such a deep impression on them.

Now, things were different.

Seeing the admiring gazes of Lu Piao and the others, Nie Li gave a soft hum.

Just a routine performance. Don't get too jealous.

On the sky screen.

Shen Xiu merely thought Nie Li was playing to the crowd.

Nie Li had never shown this woman any courtesy. "This inscription was recorded in the Thunderfire Sacred Book. Its original name was the Thunderfire Flameburst Inscription, and it consisted of sixty inscriptions. Some idiot removed the lightning portion outright, then casually altered a few strokes, turning it into this neither-fish-nor-fowl mess."

Seeing Nie Li speak so naturally and with such certainty, Shen Xiu refused to let it slide. Wasn't he practically naming the Sacred Family's first patriarch and calling him an idiot?

"What nonsense! There is no such thing as a Thunderfire Sacred Book! Why have I never heard of it?"

"Instructor Shen Xiu, you truly are learned. Any book you haven't read must not exist."

Then Zhang Ming remembered it: a book from the Wind Snow Empire era that he had borrowed from the library.

Everyone was astonished. They had never expected such a book to actually exist.

However, it was a transcribed copy. Only the first volume had been translated; the rest was written in the script of the Wind Snow Empire era.

Ye Sheng sent Lu Ye to the library to fetch the Thunderfire Sacred Book.

Zhang Ming leafed through the transcribed copy. There were far too many diagrams inside, and he could not understand the text either.

Only then did Shen Xiu relax. What good was having the book? If they could not read it, wasn't it still useless?

"Hmph! You think you can frame my Sacred Family by casually picking out a book no one can read? If you cannot find the original inscription, I will go to the Temple of Sacred Judgment and charge you with insulting our ancestors!"

Shen Xiu pointed at Nie Li, looking utterly confident and overbearing.

Nie Li thought, Insulting you? Does your Sacred Family even deserve that? A pack of fame-seeking frauds who call yourselves inheritors of the Sacred Fire Inscription, endlessly claiming your ancestors saved Glory City from fire and flood. Yet when the entire city's survival hung in the balance... the survivors were slaughtered without restraint! To cover everyone's escape, Du Ze charged into the beast horde alone. All because your Sacred Family defected at the very first opportunity! Traitors! I will make everyone in Glory City see the true face of your hypocritical family!

He exhaled and identified the source of the original inscription.

Shen Xiu had not expected him to actually be able to name it.

And when they found it, it was identical!

Shen Xiu had never imagined that Nie Li could really identify it, or that the diagram actually existed!

She clenched her fists, her hatred for Nie Li deepening.

Yet even if that hatred grew tenfold, it could not compare to Nie Li's hatred-the hatred that made him want to strip the tendons and skin from every last member of the Sacred Family.

She hated him, but she still had to find a way to shake off the accusation of plagiarism. Otherwise, the Sacred Family's reputation would truly be ruined.

"Perhaps our first patriarch drew inspiration from it."

Nie Li immediately cited Article 161 of the Demon Spirit Master Code, which had been passed down for three thousand years: any inscription excerpted or copied from another Demon Spirit Master had to have its source clearly identified, and could not be publicly claimed as an original creation.

Wonderful. Now it was even harder to explain away.

"He took half of the Thunderfire Inscription outright and claimed it as his own creation. You call that drawing inspiration? Could the Sacred Family's first patriarch have had some unavoidable hardship? Have I misunderstood him?"

With just a few sentences, he blocked every escape route.

The whispers of the students below made Shen Yue and Shen Xiu feel even more miserable.

Beneath the sky screen.

The look in Nie Li's eyes gave everyone a terrible fright.

That hatred was horrifying.

Even meeting his gaze for a moment made their hearts instinctively quake.

Nie Li was not merely talking. What he wanted was to slaughter the Sacred Family from top to bottom, leaving not a single person alive!

Seeing that look, Shen Ming became even more determined to take his life.

Someone like this absolutely could not be allowed to live!

If this fellow discovered that they were also colluding with the Dark Guild, there really would be no way to salvage things afterward!

At the Holy Orchid Institute.

Lu Piao and the others could tell what Nie Li was thinking from the look in his eyes.

"Don't worry. You've still got us!"

Looking at the brothers beside him, men he could depend on in life and death, Nie Li nodded.

With them here, bringing down the Sacred Family was only a matter of time.

At the City Lord's Mansion, a large group of Gold Rank Demon Spirit Masters and warriors had already set out for the Heavenly Marks Family under the leadership of a Black Gold Rank expert.

Ye Zong certainly did not believe the Sacred Family would refrain from taking revenge.

They were all thousand-year-old foxes. Why bother playing at tales of fox spirits?

On the sky screen.

Shen Yue slammed the table and stood up, declaring that the Sacred Family was one of Glory City's three paramount families, with a heritage spanning over three hundred years. So much time had passed that it was only natural for their descendants, while compiling their ancestors' notes, to mistakenly believe the inscription had been created by their first patriarch.

What right did a lowborn wretch like Nie Li have to criticize them?

How many years had Nie Li lived? Was he going to indulge Shen Yue? Not a chance.

"A misunderstanding? You've certainly washed your hands of it neatly. Why go out of your way to stress that you're a paramount family? Trying to threaten me? When you're caught, it's a misunderstanding. When you aren't, it's your own creation."

Those words provoked Shen Yue into slamming the table hard.

Nie Li continued fanning the flames. "Oh dear, classmate Shen Yue certainly has quite a temper. Luckily, Glory City's laws are strict, or I'd really be worried. Still, the Sacred Family should be able to guarantee my safety, shouldn't it? Otherwise, people might think a family as great as the Sacred Family was deliberately picking on a commoner."