Published at 23rd of September 2024 12:17 am

Chapter 815: Measuring The Trend (3)

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Silk Destroying King looked at the nearby Qian Jun and coldly said, "I also saw some other things in Feng Ji's memories. Of course, as mentioned earlier, we can't take everything we see as the truth. Thus, further investigation is required."

Right that moment, a sigh rang out. Zhou Mingren abruptly smashed Qian Jun's head apart with a palm strike. That had been done right in front of everyone there. Silence descended. The three Invincibles watched silently. None of them said anything. And none of them bothered to stop Zhou Mingren.

With a regretful tone, Zhou Mingren said, "He deserves death. In truth, I was already aware of this a few years ago. I'm at fault for failing to bring myself to let go of him. I am guilty of shielding Qian Jun from his crime. Since the main culprit has died, I beg the three lords to punish me for my crime of shielding the criminal."

"Heh." Hong Tan sneered and said, "Old Zhou. Are you taking the blame for someone else again? When you did this previously, you lost your position as the vice principal. This time, you killed an intermediate researcher without solid reason. You do not have the right to do that."

This trial had developed in a way that nobody had expected. Feng Ji was fine. Chen Yong was only ordered to return and explain himself. Instead, Qian Jun was the one to die, with Zhou Mingren being the executioner. Of course, a lot of the people there still had some guesses.

It was impossible that the three Invincibles weren't capable of stopping Zhou Mingren. Clearly, they were allowing Zhou Mingren to do that.

As of that moment, Zhou Mingren seemed to have aged significantly more than before. With a regretful sigh, he said, "I lost control of my emotions. Please punish me for that, lords."

"Lost control of your emotions? You have been aware of this for decades. Why are you only losing control now?"

Zhou Mingren calmly explained, "He sent me a voice transmission begging me to save him. When I saw that he was unwilling to repent, I got so angry I lost control. Is this answer to your satisfaction, Elder Hong?"

"Heh." Hong Tan merely sneered.

Meanwhile, Silk Destroying King gave Zhou Mingren a deep gaze and said, "Faculty Head Zhou, you are not the judge or the executioner. You killed him before he was judged guilty..."

After a short pause, he continued, "Even if he was guilty, you did not have the right to kill him as you wished. You're a Sunmoon, not a nobody. Yes, he deserved death. But you are also guilty of shielding a criminal and murder. Go join Liu Wenyan at the Vanguard Regiment. You can only return after killing a Sunmoon."

"Yes."

Zhou Mingren accepted the punishment calmly. So be it. He would leave this place temporarily. Chaos would descend upon Great Xia soon. He was already prepared to face this punishment. He might be guilty of murder, but the crime wasn't serious enough to lose his life since the victim was also a criminal. Thus, an exile to the Vanguard Regiment was probably the heaviest punishment he would receive. And sure enough, he was right.

Silk Destroying King continued looking at Zhou Mingren with a mocking smile. Not far away, Yuan Qingdong and the others had unsightly expressions.

There were gathered here today to trial Feng Ji and declare Chen Yong as a criminal. But instead, Zhou Mingren was the one to be exiled to the Vanguard Regiment while Qian Jun was killed. Was this still a victory for them?

Zhou Pochong said, "Lords, Chen Yong is the prime suspect in these murders. Even if no proof can be found from Feng Ji's memories, we're still being too lax toward him."

Silk Destroying King thought about it and nodded, "Yes. That's too lax. It's currently June. He will be required to explain himself within six months. Otherwise, a kill order will be released on him for assassinating military officials. Is this acceptable?

"After all, we don't know where he is. It will probably take him some time to learn of the order. And he also needs some time to travel back. Half a year isn't that long of a time. If he remains in hiding after half a year, that will be an admission that he is guilty. At that time, everyone will be free to execute him."

At this point, there was nothing else Zhou Pochong could say. Half a year. If he remained in hiding after half a year, he would be deemed guilty.

"What about Feng JI?"

"Feng Ji?" Silk Destroying King looked at the unconscious Feng Ji and said, "Without knowing anything, he admitted to being the murderer and caused chaos in the military and the Human Realm. Thus, he is still guilty of a lesser crime. Due to his contributions as a spy in the Six-Winged Divine Sect, his punishment will be lightened. He will be prohibited from leaving Great Xia for three years."

Zhang Ying unhappily asked, "Lord, is that all?"

Silk Destroying King asked, "Is that not enough? I'm not interested in getting too involved. This is a matter between cultural researchers. Since Great Han King and Great Song King are remaining silent, I have no choice but to issue this judgment. If you're unhappy with that, you can get them to issue a new judgment instead."

A representative of the military questioned furiously, "Lord, with this judgment, those poor colleagues of ours had died for nothing!"

Great Song King said, "No. That's not the case. We will continue the investigation. From today onward, the three of us will start searching the Human Realm for the two Sunmoons of the Six-Winged Divine Sect. We will also take this time to search for Chen Yong. After all, the three of them are the suspects in this case. When all three of them are caught, we will naturally find out the truth."

Since the three Invincibles were going to personally search the Human Realm, the military was left with nothing to say.

Great Song King said, "Don't worry. We won't let this matter end like this. You will receive an answer. If Chen Yong is the murderer, he will die. We won't shield him just because he's an elder."

***

A conclusion was thus made.

Su Yu exhaled in relief. This was a much better result than he had expected. After all, he had believed that his martial uncle would have no way of surviving this. At the very least, his martial uncle had obtained six more months of freedom.

Of course, he wouldn't return since he was the murderer. Thus, he would still be deemed guilty after six months. But having six extra months was better than nothing. This was the best result they could ask for.

Hong Tan was also slightly relieved to hear that. Half a year. If Chen Yong was judged guilty today, he would be in great trouble. With six months, he could do more things. Hong Tan could see that Chen Yong had made some preparations for this. But was that enough to hide the truth from the Invincibles?

Hong Tan glanced at Silk Destroying King. Did this fellow make that judgment to smooth things over or was he biased toward them? After all, he was an Invincible of the War Shrine. Perhaps he was close to Great Xia King?

Hong Tan didn't know too much about the relationships between the various Invincibles. Nevertheless, nobody could deny that Silk Destroying King was smoothing things over. Both sides had suffered from his judgment. Chen Yong would be deemed guilty after half a year while Qian Jun was dead.

Hong Tan had nothing else to say. That would be pointless, anyway. This was actually an acceptable result for him.

Marquis Xia also seemed relieved as he smiled and said, "Thank you for this, lords. Finally, we have a result. If Chen Yong remains in hiding after six months, Great Xia will not help him anymore. At that time, you guys can do whatever you want to him."

He sighed and said, "But I was very surprised to learn about what happened in the Luminous Domain Mansion back then. Qian Jun was guilty, but Faculty Head Zhou was too rash. You should have controlled yourself better. Be careful when you're at the Vanguard Regiment. Don't worry, Great Xia will try to help you with your assignment there."

Zhou Mingren lowered his head and said, "Thank you, Marquis."

"You're welcome. Sigh. Things sure are chaotic in Great Xia nowadays. I blame myself for my inability to run the government. It is time for me to reflect on myself."

After rebuking himself, Marquis Xia said, "But it's no big deal. Great Xia will be fine again before long. The Multiple Character Faculty will be opened soon. The Foreign Students Faculty will expand. Great Xia has also been in decent shape financially with a healthy economy. I believe that we will return to our peak before anyone knows it."

Silk Destroying King suddenly asked, "Just what is the progress on the disassembly method?"

That one question attracted the attention of every single person there. Everyone, regardless of what they were thinking about previously, suddenly focused on Hong Tan.

After a short silence, Hong Tan said, "It works for Skysoars, but it's not perfect yet. I still need more time..."

Great Han King's expression changed as he solemnly asked, "Can the Knowledge Seeking Realm get a copy of this research? We won't be taking it for free. We are willing to pay for it. This is for the sake of preventing the loss of knowledge. We can even promise to not disseminate it to anyone. We only need to ensure the preservation of this knowledge."

Hong Tan lowered his head and said, "No. The research is not complete. We won't release any incomplete research."

"Hong Tan..." Great Han King gave Hong Tan a deep look and said, "You need to understand that...this will be very dangerous for you."

Yes. Being the only person with the knowledge would put him in great danger.

Hong Tan answered, "I understand. But this is the hope of our multiple character faction. I hope to release it only after more improvements. I don't want to give anyone the chance to ruin my progress in the research."

Silence enveloped the room. Hong Tan was essentially saying that he did not trust the Knowledge Seeking Realm. He would rather research it himself rather than give them the chance to mess with his research. He would maintain full control.

Great Han King gloomily asked, "When you're done with your research, will you release it?"

"I might need to pick a few people to test it out first." Hong Tan said, "But I can't say for sure. I need to complete my research first."

Great Han King said nothing else. Great Song King sighed and said, "Just be careful. As for Great Xia...try to watch over him. Sigh..."

He didn't know what else he could say. Innovation was a good thing, but this might not be the right time to produce the disassembly method. That might be the very thing that would fully ruin Great Xia's multiple character faction.

Then again, the more high-profile they were, the more eyes they could attract. Even the myriad races would pay more attention to them. That...might also not be a bad thing for them. In fact, that was also one of the reasons the fifth principal's characters were given to Liu Wenyan.

Hong Tan calmly said, "Thank you for the reminder. I'll take note. The disassembly method is currently only useful for Skysoar cultural researchers. It will only be more important when it becomes usable for Mountainseas or even Sunmoons."

The Invincibles sank into silence. None of them said anything. With that, the public trial came to an end. But it was still sending waves across the Human Realm as the voting result indicated that the pro-war faction was on the decline. In short, the Human Realm was more inclined to avoid war.

When words of what happened spread, even the myriad races would come to learn that the human race was currently afraid of war. There were so many people present during the voting. Who could guarantee that none of them was colluding with the cult?

***

At the same time, Wan Tiansheng exhaled in relief in the Heart Cultivating Pavilion. Fortunately, that damn brat had yet to reach the Cloudbreach Realm. He realized that it wasn't completely pointless to pry on a small part of the future.

At the very least, he could be sure that the big battle might only erupt after Su Yu became a Cloudbreach. He could essentially use Su Yu's cultivation level to measure the upcoming trend.

"I knew it! The big battle is not going to erupt anytime soon. Phew."

He wiped the imaginary sweat on his brow. Everything was still under control. After sacrificing a hundred years of his lifespan, how could he only see the events of several months in the future? Su Yu was currently stuck at the ninth-stage Skysoar Realm.

The big battle he saw was probably something that would only happen a few years in the future.

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