Chapter 42.2

“This disciple didn’t do it.” In front of him was the silhouette of the youth’s back shielding him. Thinking about the day that everything changed, Jiang Tan can’t help but utter the same exact words as that day. His unwavering tone was still the same, each word spoken with clarity.

His body was being stabbed by countless gazes that seemed to be looking at him like he was a murderer but it didn’t matter to him. He didn’t care whether or not other people believed him, as long as this person believes him, Jiang Tan will not feel that it is unbearable.

“Your Master knows you didn’t do it.” Ignoring the people who came, Gu Yan assured his own disciple first. He does not know why, nor does he understand the exact situation but this was the child that he had personally raised, Gu Yan was still able to grasp his innate character.

If it were the original ‘blackened’ person, even if he did commit atrocities a hundred times worse than this, Gu Yan wouldn’t be surprised because the other person was really capable of such things. However, now that he was raising this child properly, he was unable to relate his disciple with this word “blackening”. There was no way he would commit something like murdering for loot.

He was used to eating large quantities of heavenly grade spirit stones as snacks, why would he need to covet other people’s treasures to the point of killing them? However, Gu Yan knows that these people in front of him were just looking for trouble and will not care for this reasoning.

“My disciple will not do this sort of thing.” He was unable to explain why this wisp of remnant soul was following him. Even though he’ll be seen as blatantly defending his own disciple, Gu Yan still didn’t shift his body in the slightest.

“Senior Gu, please stop joking around. Junior sister Ye Yuan’s spirit is right here, if it was not Jiang Tan’s doing, why would Ye Shimei’s spirit follow him right after being summoned? Clearly, this is because it has deep resentment towards him. “ A young disciple from the Zhong Xuan sect spoke up. It was Li Rong, a disciple who had also entered the Hidden realm with them earlier on.

These words were quite reasonable in the ears of the rowdy crowd, especially when they thought about the implication behind these words, they would gradually create what they thought was a very reasonable explanation in their hearts.

The remnant soul following Jiang Tan was an indisputable fact, coupled with the speech earlier, most of the people present quickly concluded the ‘truth’ in their hearts.

Jiang Tan walked out from behind the youth, the urge to grow up quickly was stronger than ever. Now, he could only let himself be protected by the youth who was blocking those piercing gazes. Even if he wanted to block their gazes from the youth’s body, his current stature was insufficient to shield him.

“This does not serve as evidence.” Gu Yan said coldly. Facing the disciple’s accusation, he didn’t even bat an eyelid.

In the eyes of some people, this sentence holds the implication that he firmly refused to acknowledge it but this was merely contradicting the unspoken words of the remnant soul.

One of the elders of the Zhong Xuan sect whose temper was relatively violent actually wanted to launch an attack, but was held back in the end. The young disciple who had spoken before seemed to say something again. After the elder who had asked Gu Yan for an explanation heard this, he then requested for a “body search”.

“Junior brother.” Seeing the youth who still had a cold face with the same unyielding attitude as before, Song Wang, the peak master of the Heavenly Sword Peak placed a hand on his shoulder, “Why don’t you just let them conduct a search and everything will be fine.”

This time, the youth finally lightly nodded his head. However, his expression became colder than before.

“Verdant Lotus core—— ?!”

Forced to open his hand, the spirit sealing bottle that Jiang Tan held tightly in his palm was exposed to everyone’s eyes. Even if the flame was sealed in the bottle, through the transparent bottle, those who know their goods recognized this treasure at a glance.

How many refiners and pharmacists had dreamt of getting their hands on this? At that moment, the people present no longer paid any attention to the matter of the murderer at all, instead, their eyes were all fixed on the tiny bottle.

After that, the person who carried out the search found a sheathed dagger in the black-haired child’s sleeves. The moment the dagger was pulled out of its sheath for inspection, the remnant soul who had followed along became agitated as if it had gone crazy, wanting to attack the person who was holding the dagger.

As long as somebody holds the dagger, the remnant soul will desperately try to approach that person.

At this point, it was impossible for Jiang Tan to not understand the reason. He turned to stare at the young disciple named Li Rong but the latter didn’t look back, his line of sight was elsewhere.

Fearful, but filled with joy, Li Rong didn’t look at the person who he had used as his scapegoat. Since the lid on the coffin was already closed and the final conclusion has been drawn, no one would suspect him.

Although they were both the chief disciples and he had always been the most talented one among his peers, yet just because Ye Yuan was the Head’s daughter, any good resources in the sect would first be given priority to her. Even in the hidden realm, he could only have Ye Yuan’s leftovers.

This was not fair. He had concealed this thought in his heart for nearly a decade, until this time in the hidden realm when Ye Yuan said she wanted those spiritual artifacts that he had found. Nearly a decade of unwillingness and dissatisfaction finally overwhelmed him.

Kill then, it was better if this person didn’t exist. Thinking of this, the corner of Li Rong’s mouth curled. From now on, he would no longer be oppressed by this person who was obviously inferior to himself.

Knowing that these people will never believe him, Jiang Tan clenched the bottle in his hand tightly, repeating the words he had previously said to the youth. He didn’t bother to explain himself to the other people.

“Your teacher believes you didn’t do it.” Gu Yan did believe him but just him alone wouldn’t change their current situation.

“This person will have to be brought back to our sect. Committing such an atrocity, he must be convicted and be dealt with accordingly.” Saying this, the white-bearded cultivator took out a spiritual shackle, “All the people present here are witnesses, our Zhong Xuan sect is not bullying them.”

t/n: </3333