Sinners

A deadly undercurrent surged in Nanyuan. Meanwhile, in the Dawu Prefecture, Chen Yong and Feng Qi had just joined forces to kill a Shanhai and were now fleeing for their lives. Feng Qi vomited blood continuously. Chen Yong dragged him along as they fled at high speed. A broad, almost manic smile was plastered across Chen Yong's face. "Feng Qi, you're not going to die on me, right?" "Probably not?" Feng Qi coughed up more blood. Chen Yong incinerated the spatters with fire and laughed. "We might be exposed, and we might not be able to get away. That fellow really knows how to endure. Even if we wipe out all of these pursuers, he still might not make a move." Feng Qi forced a smile, his face deathly pale, and offered no reply. "You should show yourself and head back to the Great Xia Prefecture..." "What about you?" "Me?" Chen Yong smiled. "Someone has to take responsibility. Someone has to shoulder it all. Old Feng, I... probably can't go back." Chen Yong gave a light laugh. "From the moment I stepped out of the Great Xia Prefecture, I knew it. I can't go back! If I return, I'll be monitored, suppressed, and suspected. Everyone's eyes will be fixed on me, and sooner or later they'll find something. Every word and every action will be scrutinized under their watch." He would not go back! When the Six-Winged Divine Cult ceased its pursuit, he actually should have stopped and let things rest. But he had chosen to continue. The moment he made that choice, there was no going back. By now, the people suspecting him were far more than just one or two. Behind them, one of the pursuing experts shouted, "Are those two ahead Chen Yong and Feng Qi?" "Halt at once!" "Surrender, and you may yet live!" Shouts echoed in the air. Was it really Chen Yong? Even the pursuers were not entirely certain! Yet Chen Yong and Feng Qi were the prime suspects. If they had stopped and reappeared the moment the Six-Winged Divine Cult's Sun Moon expert fled, suspicion would not have been so heavy. But right now, it had to be them. Chen Yong bared his teeth in a brilliant grin. "See that? In the end, I couldn't hold back. I endured for so many years, but the moment I let myself go, there was no stopping it!" His bloodlust had been unleashed! After driving back the Six-Winged Divine Cult, his refusal to let go and his insistence on continuing the slaughter had made this day inevitable. Feng Qi remained silent. Chen Yong smiled. "I'll shoulder it alone. Don't say anything. You're too weak, and you've dragged me down several times already! Otherwise, I would have had a much freer hand killing on my own. Go to the Great Xia Prefecture and find my master. He will protect you!" "You..." "Listen to me!" Chen Yong cut him off, his eyes bright and tinged with bloodshot crimson. "I'm not turning back! Nor do I want to! Rules are shackles, a cage. They restrict the righteous, the weak, the victims... But I refuse to be restrained, and I have no need for their rules to protect me. Life and death are up to fate! The moment I walked out of the Great Xia Prefecture, I let go of everything! "I'm going to keep avenging those old brothers! I still have to avenge Jiajia's parents. Brother Wu and his wife died without even a whole corpse left behind just to save me back then, and those two beasts from the Six-Winged Divine Cult are still alive! If I go back, every move I make will be monitored. Once they gather evidence and want my head, I won't even be able to resist. Rather than sitting idly by waiting for death, I might as well fight with everything I've got! "Take good care of Jiajia for me... Me, my master, my junior brother, my martial uncle, and even my grandmaster... we're all pawns. Heh, nothing more than pawns!" Chen Yong sneered. "It's just that no one expected small fry like us would still have the spirit to fight back at a time like this! If they ground us down for a few more decades, buying themselves time, all our spirit would have been extinguished. Once broken, we would simply be discarded, and all the races would drop their guard..." His words were somewhat scattered and disjointed, but Feng Qi understood them completely! A sudden pang of grief and misery seized him. "Perhaps you all are, but... could the Fifth Generation have been one as well?" The Fifth Generation had possessed a real chance at success! Could even the Fifth Generation have been a pawn? Chen Yong chuckled dryly. "Some things are beyond your imagination. Perhaps those fellows were played by my grandmaster, but I haven't uncovered the details yet. I'll keep digging into it! As long as I live! My grandmaster... who knows! But my master and my martial uncle—they were the pawns meant to draw all the attention. Everyone in the multiple divine character faction out in the open is a pawn, cannon fodder. Feng Qi, this game is immense..." A trace of despair crept into his voice. "So vast that we are nothing more than expendable cannon fodder. They are the righteous ones, do you understand? They represent righteousness! While we... we are the villains! I'm not resigned to this, and I refuse to accept it! Perhaps they did it for the sake of the human race, but why... why treat us like this? My martial uncle and my master probably know all of this, yet they chose silence. But I won't. I've stayed silent for far too long. Jiajia being injured and Su Yu leaving—everything tells me I cannot remain silent any longer!" Feng Qi wanted to speak, but Chen Yong said with a smile, "Say no more. Go back and tell everyone that I did everything. Say that you were taken captive by me! Say that I captured you, and you were forced to stay with me, forced to follow along..." "Brother Chen!" "You're a Shanhai after all. It's fine that you're not from the multiple divine character faction. Just help me look after Jiajia. That master of mine... he's unreliable. Sooner or later, disaster will strike him. It's inevitable. The same goes for my junior brother. Our lineage... is destined to be sacrificed!" He grinned, showing his teeth. "Jiajia hasn't gotten involved yet. Keep her far away from all of this. That boy Su Yu is entangled a bit too deeply and might not be able to escape it. That will depend on him!" With that, his blood essence erupted, and his speed skyrocketed. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from sight. Moments later, the two plunged into a mountainous range. Chen Yong set Feng Qi down and smiled. "Good brother, do me this favor. Take good care of Jiajia, and I'll have nothing more to ask for! After today, I, Chen Yong... will no longer be Chen Yong!" As the words fell, he struck downward with a palm. With a thud, Feng Qi collapsed to the ground, his injuries compounded. Chen Yong crouched down and smiled. "I need to tamper with some of your memories. It might be better if you don't remember any of this. Just remember to take care of Jiajia, and that will be enough. These past days, these past years, it's been hard on you." A look of pleading appeared on Feng Qi's face. "Can you leave my original memories intact? Brother, I don't want to live without even knowing what I've done." "Better not, lest an Invincible sees through it and targets you." Smiling, Chen Yong knocked him unconscious with a single punch. Once Feng Qi was out cold, Chen Yong swiftly began extracting his blood essence. Feng Qi's physical body withered and deteriorated at a visible rate. Drop by drop, blood essence was drawn out. Chen Yong began rapidly stripping away memory fragments, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead one after another. About an hour later, he reinjected the blood essence back into Feng Qi's body. Feng Qi's vitality had suffered severe damage! Chen Yong smiled faintly and helped stabilize his wounds. Waiting quietly until he saw Feng Qi's eyelids twitch, he shattered a small distant hill with a resounding palm strike, creating an enormous commotion! As Feng Qi's eyelids fluttered, Chen Yong flickered and vanished from the spot. A moment later, several Shanhais and a Sun Moon expert arrived in pursuit, finding Feng Qi sprawled on the ground. Feng Qi opened his eyes and looked at them, a dazed expression in his gaze. "Feng Qi?" Feng Qi coughed up blood and looked toward the group. "You... who are you..." "Are you Feng Qi?" The Sun Moon expert was on high alert, his voice deep and stern. "Why are you here?" "Me?" Feng Qi's head throbbed violently. In his trance, he seemed to recall something, yet also seemed to have forgotten something. After a long moment, he closed his mouth and said nothing. The Sun Moon expert barked coldly, "Speak! Why are you here?" Feng Qi kept quiet. His memories were a jumble. He only remembered that on a certain day, he had set out somewhere with Chen Yong, who suddenly wanted to kill someone. He had tried to stop him, but Chen Yong had knocked him unconscious with a single strike. Everything after that was a blur. Why? No, why... why had he tried to stop Brother Chen? Yet he distinctly remembered that he had indeed stepped in to stop him. Brother Chen had killed people... he had killed a commander from the Tiansheng Sea. In his grogginess, he had even seen Brother Chen kill many more. *"Brother, help me look after Jiajia. As for the rest... do as you wish."* He only recalled that single sentence lingering in his memory. The rest remained hazy. He had spent the entire time in a stupor! The several Shanhai experts glanced at their Sun Moon leader. Hailing from the Dawu Prefecture, the Sun Moon expert frowned slightly. The Dawu Prefecture enjoyed good relations with the Great Xia Prefecture, and Feng Qi was from Great Xia. Right now, this was giving him a massive headache. Could this really have been the work of Feng Qi and Chen Yong? "Feng Qi, I'm asking you a question!" Feng Qi looked up, gritting his teeth. "What? I killed people. What else do you want me to say?" "Hmm?" The Sun Moon expert's eyes swirled with cosmic light as he stared at him, frowning deeply. He had confessed so easily? "Where is Chen Yong?" "How should I know? I haven't seen him in years!" "Nonsense!" The Sun Moon expert barked, his brow furrowed in frustration. This was trouble. Feng Qi admitted to killing the targets while Chen Yong was nowhere to be seen. What was going on here? This matter had long drawn the attention of formidable figures—not just his, but that of Invincibles. Several Shanhai commanders had been slain in succession. This was an earth-shattering affair. He had not actually expected to capture anyone this time, yet... they had truly caught Feng Qi! "Feng Qi, you'd better confess honestly. Otherwise... this matter has already drawn the attention of Invincibles. Even if you refuse to speak, an Invincible can pry into your mind, inspect your memories, and trace the past!" With that, he barked, "Restrain him and take him away! I will report this to the Two Great Sacred Grounds, the various prefectures, and the Garrison Armies of the Three Sea Domains!" This involved far more than a single prefecture. Feng Qi was also a genius Shanhai of the human race. After King Dawu fell in battle, the Dawu Prefecture's strength had waned, and it now leaned on the Great Xia Prefecture for support. But Great Xia was currently in turmoil as well, and given the gravity of the situation, they had no choice but to escalate it to the Two Great Sacred Grounds. Before that, it was best to notify the Great Xia Prefecture. Capturing Feng Qi... was hardly a good thing to deal with, yet who would have thought they would run right into him here? It was truly bizarre. Soon, several Shanhais seized Feng Qi and escorted him away. The Sun Moon expert swept his senses across the surroundings, frowning, before vanishing from the area. After an unknown amount of time, the Sun Moon expert reappeared and said in a heavy voice, "Chen Yong, did you abandon Feng Qi to clear his name? I don't know what you're thinking, or whether you truly believe you can deceive an Invincible. Or perhaps Feng Qi truly never took part? Regardless, I will grant your wish and hand him over to an Invincible to handle. The Dawu Prefecture and the Great Xia Prefecture have shared friendship for centuries; I have no desire... to see things take a turn for the worse!" Silence answered him. The Sun Moon expert sighed softly and vanished once more. This time, he did not return. After a while, a figure swiftly escaped through the mountain using earth-escape techniques—the burrowing effect of the Mountain-Boring Ox! Water escape, shadow escape, earth escape... fire escape! At this moment, Su Yu probably had not considered any of this. Shadow for shadow escape. Water Person for water escape. Mountain-Boring Ox for earth escape. Fire Crow for fire escape. White Civet for wind escape. As for the Suanni, it was attuned to metal, specialized in slaughter. Chen Yong's repertoire was neither inferior nor weaker than anyone else's. Many years ago, he had already begun preparing for this day. His talent was astonishing! Decades ago, he had already been capable of stepping into the Shanhai Realm. Back then, when Hong Tan sought to revitalize the multiple divine character faction, Chen Yong was the eldest disciple he took in, his pioneering first student endowed with extraordinary gifts. It was just that after spending decades stuck in the Lingyun Realm, few people still remembered that. *** Feng Qi was captured! He confessed to the murders! The news spread rapidly among the Sun Moon experts and Invincibles. King Dahan, who guarded the Human Realm, King Miecan, who had just returned, and King Song, who had rushed back specifically—all three kings received word immediately. This was a monumental incident! Five Shanhai commanders had been slain in succession, three of whom were high-stage Shanhais and two at the middle stage, all elite officers from the various prefectures. And the man arrested was a supposed-dead genius of the Great Xia Prefecture, and the matter might even implicate Chen Yong, a newly promoted academy elder. A disciple of a Sun Moon, a grand-disciple of the Fifth Generation. The affair instantly triggered an uproar among the upper echelons. A public trial for Feng Qi! Feng Qi was quickly taken into custody by envoys from the Great Xia Prefecture and escorted directly to Great Xia. General Zhao, who had pursued them all the way, took Feng Qi away by force. Throughout the entire journey, Feng Qi confessed fully to his crimes without denial. As for how he had killed them? He refused to say, knowing he lacked the necessary strength. As for Chen Yong, he claimed he had never seen him. As for why he had collapsed in the mountain forest, he stated that he had been severely wounded when the Shanhai he killed struck back, causing him to faint from his injuries. The motive for the killings? Personal vengeance! *** The news circulated rapidly among the high ranks. In Nanyuan, Su Yu was still discussing with the others whether they should leave after having a meal. The transmission talisman in his robe vibrated slightly. Su Yu did not hide it, taking out the talisman openly. He glanced at it, smiled, and said, "Everyone, if we're leaving, let's make it quick. Let's head to the Great Xia Prefecture right away. My teacher told me to get back and stop fooling around. I don't want to get dragged home—we aren't that far from the Tiandu Prefecture, after all." Though he spoke casually, his heart was shaken. The message had come from Xia Huyou. Just moments ago, Xia Huyou had received word that Feng Qi was captured! Feng Qi had confessed to killing those commanders. Chen Yong's whereabouts were unknown, and he was not present. An Invincible would soon arrive in the Great Xia Prefecture to oversee Feng Qi's public trial. Martial Uncle Feng was arrested! What about Chen Yong? Su Yu was thoroughly shaken inside, yet he maintained a steady smile on his face. Had the assassin really been Feng Qi? No, it had to be Chen Yong! Earlier, the storyteller from the Great Ming Prefecture had mentioned that the slain commander from the Great Shang Prefecture used to use Civilization Masters as bait. Thinking back on it now, it had to be just as Su Yu suspected—he had used multiple divine character experts as bait. It was definitely Chen Yong who killed them! What was Martial Uncle trying to do? Killing those Shanhai commanders without sufficient evidence was courting catastrophe. Those were military officers; doing so meant death. Su Yu had killed people too, but he knew exactly what he was doing! Even if things blew up, as long as he fled back to the Great Ming Prefecture, nothing would happen to him. He had only killed descendants of Sun Moon experts. As for why he killed them—they had trespassed on his property and tried to steal his secrets! If he killed them, then so be it! It would simply come down to whose backing was stronger! If the Great Ming Prefecture refused to hand him over, those Sun Moon experts would be helpless, and the matter would not reach the Invincibles. But slaying military figures without authorization, especially commanding officers, meant certain death! Killing in Nanyuan was a contest of backing. Killing those commanders, however, was something even the strongest backing could not protect against. Su Yu's mind churned. Did Martial Uncle kill them for revenge? To avenge the multiple divine character faction? Yet... did Martial Uncle really harbor such deep affection for the faction members from other prefectures? Or was there another reason he did not know about? What would happen to Martial Uncle Feng? A public trial by an Invincible... Once an Invincible arrived at the Great Xia Prefecture, it would be best for Su Yu to stay far away, as his identity could easily be exposed. Yet... could he really stay away? Even if he were discovered, he wanted to go see and hear for himself. He did not know if he would have the chance, but he had to go. At this moment, killing a few more targets here had become inconsequential! There would be plenty of opportunities to deal with those fellows later. *** Su Yu quickly urged everyone onto the road. At the same time, in the Great Xia Prefecture, within the Great Xia Civilization Academy. Hong Tan sat across from Marquis Xia. At this moment, Marquis Xia was equally helpless and sighed. "Feng Qi has been captured, but... he'll most likely be fine. Since he was left behind, the Invincibles probably won't find anything and might even clear him of the charges. But Chen Yong... since he chose not to return, it means... he has already made up his mind." There was another matter he had not mentioned: a similar incident had occurred in Nanyuan. Of course, only a descendant of a Sun Moon had died, and a descendant was not a Sun Moon expert; it was entirely different. As for the other two who had died, they were merely from Shanhai clans. Their deaths were of little consequence. He suspected it might be related to Su Yu. Naturally, he had no intention of bringing that up now. Right now, none of that mattered. Hong Tan remained silent, his gaze blank and fixed. He had just turned seventy this year. Liu Wenyan was two years older than him and should be seventy-two. Fifty-one years ago, Liu Wenyan had been twenty-one, and he nineteen. Back then, he had only been enrolled in the academy for a little over a year. Later, his master died, and Liu Wenyan left. Years passed, and when Hong Tan was thirty-three, he took in the eighteen-year-old Chen Yong as his disciple—thirty-seven full years ago. Chen Yong was fifteen years younger than him, now fifty-five years old. Many years ago, he had already been on the verge of advancing to Shanhai and was viewed by Hong Tan as the faction's hope. Having spent thirty-seven years together, Hong Tan sometimes felt the man was more like a son to him than an actual son would be. Even though he had no son! Memories flashed through his mind, recalling the open-hearted youth Chen Yong had once been, the brooding figure of his middle years, and the restrained forbearance of his later days... Hong Tan was dazed for a long while before suddenly speaking, "Second Brother, let me ask you something..." Second Brother... How many years had it been since he last heard that form of address? Marquis Xia was momentarily lost in thought as well. In their youth, this kid had called him Second Brother, but... decades ago, he had stopped. "Ask... away," Marquis Xia replied, his voice dry, his mind flooded with a thousand thoughts. "Second Brother, tell me... what is your Xia Family still holding out for?" Hong Tan looked at him and grinned, chuckling. "I know. In truth, I know, and my senior brother knows. Haven't we... long been abandoned? What are you all still persisting for? It's utterly meaningless, isn't it?" Marquis Xia felt a surge of bitterness and forced a dry laugh. "Don't talk nonsense. How could that be? Who would abandon you? You are the hope..." "Hope?" Hong Tan smiled. "No, hope isn't us. Hope is the multiple divine characters, not us! We are of the multiple divine character faction, but the faction isn't just us, is it? Second Brother, stop lying to me, alright?" Marquis Xia's throat grew even drier. "No, it is you! You are the multiple divine characters! And the multiple divine characters are you! This place is the cradle of the multiple divine characters, the place where they rose! This is where the true faction resides. With you, there is a multiple divine character faction!" Hong Tan grinned. "Back then, my master was duped by you all like this. My senior brother was too, and so was I. Everyone in our lineage... was! Second Brother, all you know how to do is lie. You were good at deceiving people even when you were young." "I'm not lying!" Hong Tan smiled, his expression caught between tears and laughter. "I always thought we could still struggle a bit, that there was still hope. But... Second Brother, let me ask one more thing. Can we... still be saved? When that day comes, whom should we seek vengeance against? Can we even take revenge?" "You can, definitely..." At this moment, Marquis Xia's voice choked with emotion, though his plump face was plastered with a smile. "You truly can! Trust me, trust us! Little Hong, trust us just this once, alright? Believe in us one more time! It can definitely be done! Otherwise, what have we been doing all these years? Once Longwu succeeds, there will be hope for us..." "Will there?" "There will!" Marquis Xia nodded solemnly. "Longwu plus my father, along with several others—you will be able to demand justice..." "Can we really?" Tears suddenly streamed down Hong Tan's face. "But... but my disciple... he's gone. Will he even live to see that day? He assassinated several Shanhai commanders; will they let him off? Second Brother, you can save him, can't you?" Marquis Xia wanted to say yes! Yet... he could not bring himself to say it. At this moment, Marquis Xia felt so suffocated he could burst. He gritted his teeth. "Chen Yong is a smart man; he probably deduced a few things. Flying far away might not be a bad thing for him! Su Yu left, Chen Yong left, and Liu Wenyan went to the All-Heavens Battlefield... in truth, these are all good things! Besides... besides... we still have backup plans. It's fine, Little Hong, it will be fine!" Hong Tan stared at him, looking him over again and again. After a long silence, he regained his composure, looking frighteningly calm. "Second Brother, I want to kill people. I feel like I'm going mad. I'm truly losing my mind..." "Kill them, we definitely will!" Marquis Xia nodded, chuckling. "Kill many people, kill so very many!" "Yet they... they claim they are the good people?" Hong Tan muttered in a daze, "In this era... we are the ones who deserve to die. We are the villains, Second Brother, do you understand?" "I understand, I understand it all!" Marquis Xia grinned broadly. "Who wouldn't understand! Just because they claim they are good people, does that make them good? Good and bad aren't for them to decide! We were all born of flesh and blood, so why should they have the final say? You agree, right? Just because they call you villains doesn't mean you are!" "Yet we are weak..." Marquis Xia said dryly, "Don't be afraid. Being weak now doesn't mean we'll always be weak. Am I not on your side?" Hong Tan sneered softly. "No, you're not. You still have a way out, Second Brother. You still do, but I... I have none. My senior brother has none, my disciple has none, and my grand-disciple has none... I will kill people, just not right now! I will definitely kill people! Without fail!" "Right, without fail... I'll help you..." Hong Tan smiled, stood up, and turned to leave. "Marquis, for this faction, for this world, for the mortal realm, I have endured for far too long. One day, I will live for myself, live for my kin, live for my friends... No longer for the Xia Family, no longer for the mortal realm, and no longer for anyone else..." Marquis Xia said nothing, keeping his head lowered and his fists clenched. Hong Tan walked away. He wore a smile, tinged with relief. *Perhaps... I should have done this long ago.* *Little Yong, I thought you could keep enduring.* *It's been so many years!* *Why did you have to act like that reckless kid Su Yu!* *You foolish boy, why show off at a time like this? You aren't young anymore, after all.* As Hong Tan walked, his eyes fell upon the Xiuxin Pavilion. Glancing toward the top floor, he smiled faintly. *What are you up to now, you old fossil?* *** Inside the Xiuxin Pavilion. Wan Tiansheng stared at the ceiling, momentarily lost in thought. After a long while, he muttered, "Ye Batian, you fool. You died so easily, leaving this mess for me. What am I supposed to do?" "Ah well, perhaps... is this the final frenzy?" "Chen Yong has gone mad, Hong Tan has gone mad, and Liu Wenyan went mad long ago... All your disciples and grand-disciples have been driven mad. You did this to them. After they die, will you even have the face to meet them?" *Creak, creak...* The wooden chair swayed, letting out a rhythmic creak. Wan Tiansheng gazed at the ceiling, gradually regaining his serenity. *Wait a little longer, just a little longer. Let me see, let me see more clearly. Right now, I still don't see clearly enough, precisely enough: who truly deserves to die?* *Perhaps I... will become a sinner as well?* *No, I am already a sinner!* *I am, you are, Hong Tan is, Chen Yong is, Xia Xiao'er is, and Xia Longwu is too. We are all sinners.* *If we are sinners, so be it!* *If one cannot leave a glorious name through the ages in this life, then leaving behind an infamous stench for ten thousand generations will do just as well.* The wooden chair creaked once more as Wan Tiansheng closed his eyes. The future... was only the future. That vision of the future, that battle—would it be ignited by him, or by someone else? *I am a sinner of the ages!* *I am guilty, but I will never atone for my sins.* *** On that day, Su Yu laughed and chatted merrily as he traveled toward the Great Xia Prefecture alongside Zhou Hongbo and the others. As for Nanyuan... he no longer had the mind to care about it. No one paid any mind to the few who had died. Midway through their journey, someone had already received the news: Feng Qi was captured, and the assassin... might be Chen Yong. Since Feng Qi had been captured in the Dawu Prefecture, could the killings in Nanyuan also be Chen Yong's doing? As for whether one person could assassinate targets in two places simultaneously, who knew what special techniques Chen Yong possessed? That man had hidden himself far too deeply! Perhaps he possessed an avatar? That was entirely plausible for a Civilization Master. Chen Yong had been able to slaughter experts of the seventh and eighth stages of Shanhai; having an avatar was perfectly normal! Escape arts—the victims slain previously seemed to bear traces of such methods as well. Now that Feng Qi was caught, an Invincible public trial would soon take place. Perhaps they would uncover something, and maybe they could use this opportunity to seize Chen Yong—that deeply hidden All-Races Cultist, that human traitor! Along the way, everyone learned of the news. Zhou Hongbo smiled. "In that case, it's very likely that this same group was behind the incidents in Nanyuan. As for Chen Yong... it's hard to say right now, but he might very well be in league with the Six-Winged Divine Cult! This time, I'll do my best to secure spots for everyone so we can attend the Invincible's trial together! If it really is Chen Yong... sigh, the multiple divine character faction of the Great Xia Prefecture first saw Su Yu flee, and now Chen Yong turns traitor. Not long ago, Su Yu even slandered Principal Zhou, throwing the Human Realm into turmoil... This lineage is truly cursed!" Someone whispered, "It hasn't been confirmed yet, has it?" Zhou Hongbo chuckled. "I'm just speculating. The Invincibles will naturally uncover the true culprit! Sigh, multiple divine characters... there are plenty of multiple divine character experts out there, but rarely does one find a group that causes non-stop trouble like the one in the Great Xia Prefecture! It was like this back then, and it's like this again now. Who knows when it will ever end." "The Great Xia multiple divine character faction really knows how to stir up trouble. Over the past two years, the news has been filled with them. If I were part of the Xia Family, expelling them might have made life much easier, and Manor Lord Xia wouldn't be in such a difficult position right now. I really don't know what the Xia Family is thinking." Some could not fathom the Xia Family's mindset. Su Yu... felt momentarily dazed as well. *So in everyone's eyes, it is we who have dragged down the Xia Family, rather than the Xia Family failing us?* *Has the multiple divine character faction... already become a burden in the eyes of the public?* No, not the entire multiple divine character faction, but the Great Xia branch of it! Or rather, just those few people. Liu Wenyan, Hong Tan, Chen Yong... and himself, Su Yu. In the eyes of many, they were troublemakers, the source of endless problems. According to their logic, the Xia Family should have abandoned them long ago, shouldn't they? And the fact that the Xia Family had not abandoned them made them peerlessly righteous and benevolent? Su Yu's thoughts drifted slightly. Beside him, Zhou Hongbo rode atop a demonic beast, looking over at Su Yu with a smile. "Brother Cui, what are you thinking about?" Su Yu smiled faintly. "Thinking about women!" "..." Zhou Hongbo chuckled. "Brother Cui is truly straightforward." Su Yu laughed heartily. "I call this being genuine and unpretentious! I say whatever comes to mind. Why make life so exhausting? Let the big shots worry about big-shot matters; we should just do what we need to do!" "Open-minded!" Someone chimed in with a laugh, "Brother Cui's attitude is truly open-minded. We should learn from him. Indeed, big shots' affairs are for big shots to resolve. No matter how much we talk, we're just bystanders. Who knows what the exact situation is?" Another person asked with a smile, "Brother Cui, you know Su Yu. Do you think the Great Ming Prefecture will make a move if Chen Yong really turns out to be the culprit?" Su Yu chuckled. "Su Yu... personally, he might want to step in, but he's too weak. This is the assassination of military commanders; it carries a death sentence! Why would the Great Ming Prefecture get involved in this mess? At most, out of respect for Su Yu, Great Ming might refrain from sending people to hunt down Chen Yong, and that's the absolute limit! Do you honestly expect the Great Ming Prefecture to oppose the entire Human Realm for an unrelated outsider like Chen Yong?" Su Yu grinned. "Our Great Ming Prefecture has no appetite for that. Whatever happens outside the Great Ming Prefecture is none of our business. That has been our rule for years." "That's true. Let's see how things develop. If it really is Chen Yong, then the Great Xia Prefecture, including Elder Hong, will probably face serious trouble. Those slain commanders all have friends, companions, and mentors... I expect Chen Yong will become a wanted man across the entire Human Realm!" Su Yu laughed. "Who cares! A wanted notice has nothing to do with me, nor does it have anything to do with any of you. Could you kill him? What a joke! Don't go looking for your own deaths. I'm just here to watch the show. If you keep talking about this, I won't chat with you anymore—I don't want to get dragged into it." "Quite right, quite right!" Several people nodded in agreement. It was far too dangerous and had nothing to do with them; it was best not to get involved. Su Yu wore a bright, utterly relaxed smile. Yet inside, dark clouds hung heavy over his heart. What kind of outcome would this bring? Would there be any movement from his grandmaster's side? Where on earth was his martial uncle? Why was it that the moment he left the Great Ming Prefecture, all he received was bad news? Why did it feel as though the entire Human Realm was turning against them? Were they in the wrong? Or... was it the majority who were mistaken?