In the "Confrontation in Court" trial, the difficulty did not lie in gathering clues or investigating the case—the clues and evidence had already been provided. The real challenge was penetrating the mystery to grasp the case's full truth in the shortest time possible.
The dungeon granted each side a mere ten minutes of argument. Anyone deficient in deductive reasoning, lacking sharp insight, or possessing an inflexible mind could never untangle the complex web of the crime within ten minutes.
Without clarity of thought, how could one mount a defense?
Thus, when Yuanshi Tianzun effortlessly dismantled the initial evidence Zhao Chenghuang presented, the other contestants felt their hearts sink.
*This guy is not easy to handle.*
And when Yuanshi Tianzun took less than a minute to devise a line of reasoning that could overturn the second wave of evidence, the seven contestants' mood could only be described as grim.
From escaping the secret room to reaching the crime scene took only a minute or two. Had he truly deduced the entire scope of the murder in such a fleeting moment?
Was his claim that the killer had been hiding in the apartment during the crime merely a lucky brainstorm, or a conclusion drawn with absolute certainty?
***
In the Colosseum, on the Elders' dais.
Elder Hongying smiled. "The Alliance Leaders' goal in designing this trial must be to test the contestants' intellect and adaptability. In a dungeon, a sharp mind and quick reflexes are the two most critical metrics after raw combat power."
She turned her head to Elder Sun beside her. "Has that boy really seen through the entire case already? He isn't a Scout, after all."
Elder Sun scoffed. "He most likely hasn't figured it out yet—he's just bluffing. Even a Scout needs time to think. How could anyone be that fast?"
Zhang Yuanqing was indeed bluffing. The timeframe was far too tight; barely over a minute had passed between his arrival at the crime scene and the detective team's appearance. He simply had not had enough time to unravel the entire case.
Noticing the bloodstain on the back of his shirt and the damaged glasses was relatively simple—matters of reasonable observation and deduction.
However, proving that the killer was on the scene required a comprehensive understanding of the crime's full sequence. His assumption that the killer had been present derived entirely from the premise of his own innocence, not because he had truly solved the mystery.
Seeing Yuanshi Tianzun remain silent for so long, the seven contestants went from anxious to relieved. *He really hasn't solved it. He might have thought of a direction to counter the evidence, but he can't back it up with sound logic or an overarching narrative.*
Zhao Chenghuang also breathed a silent sigh of relief.
*So he was bluffing after all.*
*As long as I can prove the killer was inside the apartment, I can overturn the evidence,* Zhang Yuanqing thought. *But how do I prove it? There are only three people's fingerprints on the scene, and the killer left no obvious traces. Still, a killer definitely exists. The one who knocked me out was most likely the killer. After knocking me out, they fought with Professor Li, murdered him, fled the scene, and framed me.*
*Yet from start to finish, no third person appears in the phone video, and Lao Wang next door didn't see a second visitor that afternoon either...*
*Unless the killer broke in well in advance, waited for my arrival, struck immediately to knock me unconscious, then killed Professor Li to frame me, and slipped away quietly, leaving me to take the fall...*
*To prove the killer was in the room at that time, I must produce evidence and dissect their criminal method. Four minutes have passed; only six remain. Don't panic. The more critical the moment, the calmer I must be...*
Just then, Zhang Yuanqing heard World Returns to Fire say with a squinting smirk, "Grasping at straws, are we? How could the killer have been in the room? If there were another killer, why didn't they leave any fingerprints? Your line of thought is completely wrong, Yuanshi Tianzun. Time is running out; you'd better look for another angle.
"Actually, you could suspect Professor Li's wife. Who knows, maybe she's the real culprit. Of course, if you go that route, you'll have to explain why you were already unconscious and Professor Li was already dead when she arrived home.
"Let me offer you an idea: she slipped home during her class, killed him, and calmly left. Then, when class ended and she returned home, she 'coincidentally' stumbled upon the scene."
*Idiotic. Like Lao Wang next door, the wife is clearly just background flavor. Almost no details about them were provided. This trial tests deductive logic and reasoning, not investigative detective work in the field,* Zhang Yuanqing instinctively refuted in his mind.
Immediately afterward, he realized he had fallen for a trick.
World Returns to Fire was talking trash, intentionally disrupting his train of thought and unsettling his emotions.
Catching onto World Returns to Fire's intention at once, Zhao Chenghuang remarked in a cool, flat tone, "For the illustrious Yuanshi Tianzun to fall in the very first round... Wouldn't that be a bit too embarrassing?"
He aimed to amplify Zhang Yuanqing's anxiety, repaying the goading Yuanshi Tianzun had delivered earlier.
***
Outside, in the spectator stands.
Elder Hongying watched the projection and smiled. "Old Sun, you were right. He really was bluffing."
Elder Sun murmured, "The Alliance Leaders can be quite malicious. Knowing full well there isn't a single Scout among the final eight, they just had to design this kind of challenge. It was most likely the female Grand Marshal's idea. With no Scout in the top eight, she must have been quite dissatisfied."
Elder Hongying said, "Then hasn't she eliminated the last remaining member of the White Tiger Guards as well?"
Elder Sun gave a slight nod. "The Grand Marshal dropped a rock on her own foot this time."
*How am I even supposed to respond to that?* Elder Hongying chuckled, shook her head, and continued observing the match.
By now, the murmurs sweeping through the stands were largely along the lines of: "Four minutes already," "Can a Scout give us an analysis?" and "Yuanshi Tianzun is definitely thinking, 'This test is way too hard, I can't do it.'"
Watching up to this point, the crowd had grasped the true nature of the challenge.
This murder case did not test one's ability to conduct an investigation and solve a mystery from scratch; it tested whether the suspect could quickly reconstruct the truth from existing information under extreme time pressure to carve out a path to survival.
Stripped of its narrative veneer, it fundamentally assessed whether a Spirit Realm walker could promptly crack an impasse and secure survival when plunged into a life-or-death crisis inside a dungeon.
Even a figure like Yuanshi Tianzun, who had conquered S-rank dungeons, seemed powerless here.
***
Inside Room 404, World Returns to Fire continued his stream of trash talk.
Zhang Yuanqing ignored his opponent's ceaseless chatter. Supported by the deductive enhancement of the Spectacles of Insight, his thoughts raced. He reviewed every single detail once more—and suddenly caught onto a glaring discrepancy.
*The killer couldn't possibly have known I was visiting in advance.*
He was Professor Li's ghostwriter. Aside from teaching, Professor Li moonlighted as a fairly well-known author. Using a ghostwriter was a shameful secret; Professor Li would never have publicized this meeting to anyone.
Once he grasped this single thread, everything clicked into place for Zhang Yuanqing.
*So that was it! I fell into habitual thinking. The killer wasn't trying to frame me from the start, nor were they hiding in the room...*
A grin surfaced on Zhang Yuanqing's face.
"My foolish detectives, allow me to tell you where the killer was actually hiding."
World Returns to Fire raised an eyebrow. "And where would that be?"
Zhang Yuanqing took two steps back and pointed at the single bed in the corner of the study. "Look right here!"
Hearing this, the group bent down to look. They saw that the dust across the central area beneath the bed bore traces of being wiped away, while the dust around the perimeter remained intact.
It appeared that not long ago, someone had crawled under the bed, their body clearing away the dust.
Yuan Ting started. "Are you saying the killer was hiding under the bed the whole time?"
Before Zhang Yuanqing could reply, Sun Miaomiao dismantled the deduction: "Impossible! If the killer were hiding under the bed, how could Professor Li, sharing the same room, have been unaware? If Professor Li knew, what kind of relationship did they have that he would tolerate someone who wanted him dead hiding under his bed?"
Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help glancing at the baby-faced girl. *This girl is sharp.* If he followed her line of reasoning, he would have to prove the relationship between the killer and Professor Li—an impossible task that would run his deduction into a dead end due to a lack of clues.
Zhang Yuanqing stuck to his own logic. Unfazed, he chuckled. "I never said the one hiding under the bed was the killer. The person under the bed was Professor Li. Oh, and he didn't hide there voluntarily—the killer stuffed him under there."
*Stuffed under there by the killer?* The contestants froze. Zhao Chenghuang asked impassively, "Then who did the suspect meet in the room?"
"The killer, of course!" Zhang Yuanqing lifted the phone in his hand, illuminating the screen. "Take a look at this video."
He opened the video and turned the screen toward them.
To save time, he paused the footage right after the line: *"I'm no longer interested in your manuscript."*
Looking at the pensive detectives, Zhang Yuanqing said, "The 'Professor Li' the suspect met was the killer. That is why, in broad daylight, he drew the curtains and wore a mask. And because my glasses were broken and my vision was blurred, I failed to notice that Professor Li was an imposter. That was how he pulled the wool over my eyes."
Sun Miaomiao knitted her brows. "That doesn't add up. The killer couldn't have known in advance that your glasses were broken and your vision blurred. How could he be certain you wouldn't see through his disguise?
"Wearing a mask can genuinely be due to a cold, and drawing curtains is a matter of personal preference. Just because you have severe myopia and couldn't see clearly doesn't prove that the Professor Li at the time was the killer. The dust under the bed could likewise have been brushed away for other reasons.
"Your hypothesis is bold, but it's pure speculation without evidence."
She disdained World Returns to Fire's trash-talking tactics, but she was more than willing to poke holes in Yuanshi Tianzun's reasoning.
Surveying the detectives, Zhang Yuanqing spoke with fluent confidence: "Everyone has overlooked a key detail. I, the suspect, was Professor Li's ghostwriter. Ghostwriting is an unsavory affair, so Professor Li would never have disclosed our meeting to anyone. In other words, my arrival was a total accident, entirely outside the killer's expectations.
"Therefore, hiding Professor Li under the bed and inviting me inside was done out of sheer necessity—an impromptu reaction, not an assumption that I wouldn't see through him. At that moment, he had likely already resolved to kill me. Drawing the curtains and putting on a mask wasn't meant to impersonate Professor Li; it was simply to keep me from seeing his true face when he committed the crime.
"However, he subsequently discovered that I didn't see through his disguise at all. So the killer had a sudden flash of inspiration and decided to frame me instead, leading to the scene in the video where he offered me wine."
The detectives' expressions shifted, each falling into deep thought.
Empowered by the Spectacles of Insight, Zhang Yuanqing's delivery grew smoother and more compelling: "He deliberately offered me wine, knocked me unconscious when my guard was down, and then, according to plan, dragged Professor Li out of the room, drove a fruit knife through his heart, and pressed the knife into my hand to plant my fingerprints.
"My wound was on the back of my head; the force of the blow came from behind. Thus, when falling unconscious, a person either collapses forward or to the side. That explains why blood splattered onto my back and the backs of my trouser legs—because I was lying face-down at the time!"
Earth God pondered for a moment before saying, "I admit what you say makes a great deal of sense. However, young man, you need to produce evidence. You don't have much time left."
*Roughly two minutes left. More than enough.* Zhang Yuanqing chuckled softly. "Next, I invite everyone to watch the second half of the video."
He tapped the screen to resume playback.
The footage showed Professor Li standing up, ending when he returned carrying a flask-shaped bottle of imported liquor.
Zhang Yuanqing asked, "My young and foolish detectives, now that you've watched the video, look around the study again. Have you noticed anything missing?"
Qingsongzi said in annoyance, "Argue your case if you must, but stop smuggling personal jabs into it. Fine... The study's layout is completely wrecked, but if I had to name something missing... it's the keyboard. The keyboard is gone."
Qingsongzi then glanced toward the wine cabinet by the window. "That bottle of liquor is gone too."
Zhang Yuanqing snapped his fingers. "He had to take the keyboard and the bottle because those were items he touched while impersonating Professor Li; he left his fingerprints on them! The chaotic signs of a struggle in the room were merely a smokescreen. Their true purpose was to conceal the disappearance of the keyboard and the liquor bottle.
"According to the crime scene photos, the liquor bottle and keyboard were already missing when the constables arrived. Yet in the video recorded by the suspect, they clearly existed. That means the killer took them when fleeing after knocking me out and completing the murder.
"Therefore, the missing liquor bottle and keyboard are the decisive proof that the killer was in the room at that time!"
A lengthy, airtight argument delivered in a single, seamless breath.
*Ding! The detective team must prove within ten minutes that the suspect is the killer. Countdown begins...*
The seven contestants' faces changed drastically. The dungeon had validated Yuanshi Tianzun's deduction; now the burden of proof swung back to the detective camp to present evidence against him.
Yet their evidence was completely exhausted.
From witness testimony to fingerprints and the autopsy report, every piece of usable evidence had already been played—and even so, it had failed to eliminate Yuanshi Tianzun.
At this point, the tables were completely turned.
Readily available, irrefutable evidence had been the detectives' greatest advantage. They had not needed to wrack their brains; presenting the evidence alone would have condemned the suspect to defeat.
However, they possessed a fatal vulnerability: the moment the suspect dismantled their evidence, the detectives were plunged into absolute passivity.
*It's too late to look for new evidence. What we must do is overturn Yuanshi Tianzun's argument—that is the proper counter now that our evidence is spent.* Sun Miaomiao's eyes darted as she piped up, "There is a flaw in your reasoning! If there were fingerprints on the keyboard and the bottle, the killer could have just wiped them clean. There was no need to take them away. Therefore, your deduction doesn't hold!"
Having said her piece, she listened expectantly.
Zhang Yuanqing sneered. "You're right—wiping off the fingerprints was an option. But that doesn't conflict with my deduction. My reasoning is grounded in the fact that the keyboard and bottle vanished. You are merely arguing for the sake of arguing, without a shred of supporting evidence."
Sure enough, no dungeon notification chimed. Sun Miaomiao's rebuttal was invalid.
Zhang Yuanqing laughed. "Actually, simply asking Lao Wang next door who else visited Professor Li that morning or at noon would identify the killer. It's just that doing so lies outside the scope of our contest."
This trial did not require catching the real killer; Lao Wang was merely a background figure who might not even physically exist in the dungeon.
"Furthermore, I suspect there was something wrong with that bottle of liquor as well. Professor Li died of a stab wound to the chest and bore no other injuries. If the killer had knocked him out, it would have left marks, so how was he incapacitated?
"He was most likely drugged via the liquor. Thus, taking the bottle served an additional purpose: removing the tool of the crime."
World Returns to Fire, Zhao Chenghuang, Tone-Deaf, and the others furrowed their brows, racking their brains to find any evidence that could overturn Yuanshi Tianzun's deduction.
Seconds ticked by. For a time, the detectives scratched their ears and cheeks in frustration, defiant yet utterly helpless.
Zhang Yuanqing remarked, "No way, no way... Seven brains can't beat a single one? You're all prominent figures in the Transcendent stage. If you lose this, where will you hide your faces in the future? So many spectators outside are watching.
"I ought to give this match a title so our colleagues can talk about it later. How about 'Yuanshi Tianzun and the Seven Dwarfs'?"
The wheel of fortune had turned; now it was his turn to manufacture anxiety and shatter their composure.
*The Seven Dwarfs and Yuanshi Tianzun?!*
Even Earth God's face twitched as he gritted his teeth. "Brat, you really have a punchable face right now."
The other six contestants looked equally livid. They finally experienced the sheer potency of trash talk—identical in effect to psychological goading. They knew full well he was deliberately rattling and provoking them, yet they couldn't help feeling furious and thrown off balance.
Yuanshi Tianzun muttered like a broken record, "Yuanshi Tianzun and the Seven Dwarfs, Yuanshi Tianzun and the Seven Dwarfs..."
Veins throbbed across the foreheads of all seven contestants.
Finally, amidst the awkward, rigid atmosphere and turbulent undercurrents, the dungeon chime rang out:
*Ding! Time is up. The detective team has forfeited their presentation of evidence. The suspect is found not guilty!*
*Ding! All members of the detective team are deducted 10 points. The suspect is awarded 30 points. The match has concluded. The arena will transition in three minutes!*
At that moment, thunderous cheers erupted across the Colosseum, celebrating this stunning intellectual reversal from the brink of defeat.
"Incredible! There wasn't even any combat, but that was so satisfying! I love watching underdog comebacks—it was thrilling! Yuanshi Tianzun really took on seven alone! He's too strong!"
"Did you see that? That is the genius of a dungeon conqueror! That's the sheer processing power of someone who cleared two S-rank dungeons!"
"Only Yuanshi Tianzun could pull this off as the suspect. Any other contestant would have been eliminated long ago. Even then, Yuanshi Tianzun nearly tripped up just now!"
"Tianzun is the GOAT!"
The scene was like a concert reaching its climactic peak.
*Clap! Clap! Clap!* Mother Xie clapped her delicate hands in excitement. "Fabulous, truly fabulous! So much more entertaining than idol dramas! Darling, your taste is better than Mama's—the man you picked is far superior to your father! Let's recruit Yuanshi Tianzun as our live-in son-in-law!"
The youthful mother's cheeks flushed with delight, her eyes sparkling with excitement like brilliant stars.
Just as Xie Lingxi was about to reply, a sudden chill seized her heart. Years of "battlefield experience" tipped her off to danger.
*Far superior to Dad? If I agree with that, the black-hearted witch's next line will be: 'Oh? You think Yuanshi Tianzun is far superior to your father too? I'm telling your dad!'*
Xie Lingxi smiled sweetly. "I think Brother Yuanshi and Dad are both amazing in their own ways."
Mother Xie glanced at her and nodded with a beaming smile.
Fu Qingyang retracted his gaze and looked at his cousin beside him. "As I said, he is the type whose potential is unlocked in adversity. The more unfavorable the situation, the greater the burst of potential he can unleash..."
Watching his cousin's radiant expression and the adoring delight filling her beautiful eyes, Fu Qingyang's face suddenly stiffened.
*That brat Yuanshi Tianzun... Perhaps I should fire him after all, and sever Guan Ya's contact with him completely.*
On the other side, Zhu Rong narrowed her eyes, her long eyelashes veiling the glint in her gaze.
*To control Yuanshi Tianzun, it must be done during the Transcendent stage. Once he ascends to become a Saint, he will be beyond suppression.*
Setting combat talent aside, his sheer intellect reminded her of the Demon Lord.
That man had harbored a warped mind, yet possessed supreme brilliance; back in his Transcendent stage, he had already glimpsed a portion of the Spirit Realm's deepest secrets.
*Demon Lord...* At the thought of that name, Zhu Rong's legs went soft, triggering an instinctive physiological reaction.
This only deepened her obsession with enslaving Yuanshi Tianzun.
On the Elders' dais, Elder Hongying applauded. "Impressive, truly impressive."
A contest of this level was unlikely to stir profound waves in an Elder-grade figure, but that didn't stop her from enjoying the show.
Elder Gou, seated a table away, raised his dog head, glanced at Elder Sun beside him, and remarked flatly, "Not bad. He wasn't eliminated in the very first wave."
"Say what you want, but why are you looking at me?" Elder Sun snapped sensitively, feeling as though the words *You fool* were plastered across the other's face.
Elder Gou ignored him and said, "The next round will likely be martial combat. I wonder what the rules will be and how many contestants will be eliminated."
The reactions from the arena outside were entirely beyond the sight and hearing of the contestants within the dungeon.
Three minutes passed in a flash, and the prompt chimed in their ears:
*Initiating Round Two. This round is titled—The Great Whistleblowing Era!*
Chapter 199