Throwing Mud
The abbot of Buddha Sound Temple immediately confirmed the Demonic Qi within the broken stone. After clearly seeing the broken stone, the Buddhist practitioners on one side of the main hall spontaneously began reciting the Rebirth Sutra.
With such compelling evidence, for a time no one dared to question Jimo Xuan's words except for Mara Gate.
But Elder Xu and the others weren't stupid; they immediately picked out the flaw in Jimo Xuan's words. "You yourself said that this formation preserves the Spiritual Power of both sides in battle. How can you be so sure that this Demonic Qi originated from my Mara Gate and not from Wan Ten Thousand Daos Born?"
Elder Xu glanced sideways at a corner of the crowd, his implication not too obvious.
Upon hearing this, Su Fuyun, whose face had been pale, immediately brightened up and looked expectant.
The young sect leader of the Beast Taming Sect, who never forgot to help the Mara Gate, couldn't wait to speak up, "Yes, the competition is between two people. You can't throw mud at Chi Yan just because he can't speak right now!"
His words seemed to awaken the Mara Gate disciples, who, as if they had finally found their voices again, immediately started arguing about the matter once more.
Even Sang Ying, whose innocence had already been cleared by Elder Rong Ji, was brought up for further speculation:
"It's quite possible that Sang Ying is colluding with the Devil Race. Because our Chi Yan discovered her secret, she devised a plan to kill him!"
"That must be it. Otherwise, how could a female cultivator like her possibly defeat our Chi Yan? I've long heard that practicing Evil Dao can rapidly increase one's cultivation level. That female cultivator is so young yet already possesses such abilities; she must have taken many Evil Dao!"
Once such talk starts, it will only escalate.
In order to prevent their senior brother from being smeared, the disciples of the Mara Gate naturally spared no effort to try to smear the enemy forces.
Ten Thousand Daos Born had been dragged into this for no reason, was naturally unwilling. Sang Ying, when Elder Xu tried to shift the blame, stepped forward and asked Rong Ji, "Elder Rong, did you hear what your sect's disciples were saying? Do you still believe that I killed Chi Yan?"
"If that's truly your opinion, then I suppose I have a few words I'd like to say to the elders!"
This blatant threat made Rong Ji furious.
Rong Ji was unwilling to let Sang Ying go in the first place, which is why he allowed Elder Xu and others to drag Sang Ying into the matter again, attempting to shift the blame back onto her.
But to my surprise, Sang Ying was so upright, clearly someone who responded better to gentle persuasion than force.
Even though he didn't know what Sang Ying had discovered, Rong Ji, not daring to take any risks, could only reprimand his disciples with a stern face.
However, he also said ambiguously, "After all, there is insufficient evidence regarding the Demonic Qi. Even if the death of our sect disciple Chi Yan is unrelated to Sang Ying, this Demonic Qi may not necessarily be Chi Yan's fault."
In short, Rong Ji felt that the evidence presented by Jimo Xuan was unclear and ambiguous. He now understood that with the protection of both Azure Feather Sect and Ten Thousand Daos Born, he was certain that he would not be able to take Sang Ying away today.
Even if he couldn't take Sang Ying with him, he still wanted to leave some filth on this female cultivator!
Unfortunately, he ultimately underestimated Jimo Xuan.
"If Elder Rong thinks my evidence is insufficient, then you'll be disappointed. Others may not be able to find its master through the remaining Spiritual Qi, but my Ji Mo family certainly does!"
That's right, how could they forget that the young man in front of them was not only a disciple of the Azure Feather Sect, but also a direct descendant of the Jimo Household!
Under the intense gazes of the crowd, Jimo Xuan turned to the still-open door and said loudly, "Brother, come in and let everyone see what the Ji Mo family is capable of."
Big brother?
Everyone looked over, their eyes fixed on it for a moment.
Sure enough, right after Jimo Xuan finished speaking, a section of a light blue robe, shimmering in the sunlight, slowly entered everyone's field of vision.
A handsome and refined young man, amidst the turbid world, walked in, drawing countless eyes from within the hall, as if carrying a gentle spring breeze.
"Greetings, elders and fellow Daoists." The young man bowed to the people in the hall, and didn't forget to secretly cast a friendly glance at Sang Ying.
Sang Ying naturally responded discreetly as well; the subtle exchange between the brother and sister, hidden in their bowing gestures, went unnoticed by anyone.
Jimo Qing's appearance silenced the entire hall for a moment.
It can be said that even if those present did not know Jimo Xuan's identity, they had all heard of the infamous Spirit Prefecture Blood Rain.
Those disciples who had only been in the sect for a few years never imagined that they would encounter this legendary figure so soon.
The other party was not as ferocious and terrifying as they had imagined; on the contrary, he possessed the unique temperament of a scholar and literati.
Perhaps not wanting to waste time, Jimo Xuan, after summoning reinforcements, stated directly, "My Jimo Clan has a long history and many secret techniques. One of them is to use residual Spiritual Qi to trace its master. Originally, I planned to secretly have my elder brother help me find the owner of the Demonic Qi, but unfortunately he arrived too late; the corpse of your sect's Chi Yan had already been cleaned up."
Jing He silently huddled in the corner, listening intently to the twists and turns.
"What did you say?!" Elder Xu's voice almost cracked. "What happened to Chi Yan's corpse?"
Seeing his surprised expression, Jimo Xuan's suspicions about Elder Xu lessened somewhat, since this man was really not good at acting.
Following Elder Xu's question, Jimo Xuan continued, "Does Elder Xu not know? This morning I secretly sent people to retrieve Chi Yan's body, but when they arrived, all that remained in the room where the body was kept was a bed stained with black blood and reeking of foul odors."
Chi Yan was completely destroyed long ago, leaving not a trace.
"Su Fuyun, what's going on? Isn't this your responsibility?" Elder Xu was the first to call out Su Fuyun.
The white-clad saintess, her face still red and swollen, quickly came out and held up her intact half of her face to the Ji Mo brothers.
She bowed gracefully, tears welling in her eyes. "Fuyun doesn't know anything about this either. Chi Yan's body was still safely placed inside the house last night! Medical Cultivator Chen even went with me to see it!"
Su Fuyun turned to look at Medical Cultivator Chen nodded subconsciously, as if to testify for Su Fuyun.
"How the corpse disappeared will be determined in time. But even without the corpse, there is still the soul stone that was once stained with Chi Yan's heart's blood, which can still be used to find out the source of the Demonic Qi." Not wanting to watch the Mara Gate group continue their act, Jimo Xuan quickly shifted the focus to the Demonic Qi.
Seeing his two nephews working so hard, the Sect Master Jimo naturally had no intention of not helping.
He didn't give anyone a chance to refuse and immediately made the decision to find a master for the Demonic Qi.
Having received the sect leader's instructions, Jimo Qing flicked his sleeve and cast several Method Formulas. In the blink of an eye, a Green Lotus appeared in mid-air.
Upon seeing this, Jimo Xuan quickly threw the piece of stone into the Green Lotus. The Green Lotus suddenly bloomed, emitting two beams of spiritual light.
A bluish light, faintly emanating a chill, emerged from the Green Lotus and plunged into Sang Ying's arms.
This is Sang Ying's Ice Spiritual Power.
The other one, as if kicked out by Green Lotus, emitted a strong stench as soon as it appeared and lunged at the soul stone in Elder Rong Ji's hand.
However, the radiant light, imbued with Demonic Qi, was abruptly dispersed by Rong Ji with a sudden raised hand halfway through its journey.
"Elder Rong, what do you mean by this?!" The Sect Master Jimo immediately slammed his fist on the table and stood up.
His angry appearance caused the cultivators below to lower their heads, not daring to look at him.
"No need to investigate further." Rong Ji glanced lightly at Sang Ying and the others, having to admit that his disciples had made a mistake. "This Demonic Qi must belong to Chi Yan."