Chapter 28: Defense

  Luofu, on top of Haoyuan Peak

  Zhēng Xuán Diàn

  Ling Jia Shangren sat in the middle, while the other four people of Luo Fu's Five Swords sat on either side below him. In addition, there were sixteen others, namely the fourteen disciples who had been pursuing Fang Shaobai and Kong Zuo Changyue. There was no one else besides them.

  The atmosphere in the hall seemed somewhat solemn, Kong Zhuo lowered his eyebrows and eyes, observing his nose, his nose observing his heart, standing like an old monk entering meditation.

  Here, he is absolutely not the first person to speak up, nor does he need to be the first one to speak up.

  On his sides stood Lin Yufeng and Yu Xuemai. Lin Yufeng still had a bit of color, except for his pale face, there was nothing unusual about him. But Yu Xuemai was different, although he had already woken up, Kong Zhong's elbow obviously hadn't held back, not only knocking him unconscious but also causing internal injuries. At this time, he stood there with great difficulty, looking very desolate, his expression like that of a woman who had just been ***, very helpless, and also gained a lot of sympathy points.

  "Zhou Shidi, what's your view!" Finally, it was Ling Jia who broke the silence.

  Fuyun Jian Zhouqing's face looked somewhat embarrassed, and he lowered his head, saying, "My brother's teachings were not strict, resulting in a rebellious disciple emerging from my school. I should be punished for this!"

  Indeed, the disciples are not strict, which led to the betrayal of the door and out. This kind of thing has not happened for a thousand years, I didn't expect it to happen under my own door. Zhou Qing had a thousand reasons, but at this moment, he had nothing to say.

  Ling Ga Shang Ren let out a sigh and shifted his gaze to the person beside him. Only Li Yuan Hua, who was sitting at the lower head position of the Xiu Luo Sword, noticed his gaze and slightly turned his head to avoid eye contact. He stroked his short beard under his chin, as if there were some kind of divine female nude painting on the ceiling of the temple, staring intently without blinking.

  Then he looked at Li Yuan Hua's side, where the only woman among the five swords of Luo Fu, Yue Hua Sword Wei Qing Qing, was sitting. Wei Qing Qing appeared to be a beautiful woman in her thirties, and when she saw Ling Ga Shang Ren looking at her, she smiled back with an equally intense gaze, staring straight at him without saying a word.

  In the end, it made Ling Ga Shang Ren feel embarrassed, and he withdrew his gaze. Only then did Wei Qing Qing reveal a satisfied expression, raising an eyebrow and turning to look at Kong Zhuo with great appreciation.

  Helpless, Ling Ga Shangren could only sigh and say, "Bao Shidi, speak up!"

  Qing Ping's face was filled with anger, his voice cold as he said, "Other matters I can ignore, but Kong Zhuan's actions were ruthless, severely injuring a fellow disciple and harboring a traitor. How should he be punished? Surely, Big Brother has some idea in mind!"

  For his own disciple to be severely injured by Kong Zhuo's single move, Bo Zhen couldn't possibly not be angry. Moreover, Kong Zhuo's master Mo Xiu had always been at odds with him, so he naturally wouldn't go easy on Kong Zhuo.

  Looking at Kong Zuo again, he still had the same expression as before. To Bo Zhen's words, it was as if he hadn't heard them at all. Even when he heard that he wanted to punish himself, his eyelids didn't even lift, as if he was listening to something completely unrelated to himself.

  Lingga Shangren nodded slightly, his eyes scanning the disciples standing on the steps below, finally stopping at Kong Zhuo.

  "Kong Zuo, you heard what Master Shi said just now, do you know your mistake?!"

  To his surprise, Kong Zhuo raised his head and looked at Ling Jia Shang Ren with an innocent face, "The disciple really doesn't know what crime he has committed!"

  "The evidence is conclusive, how dare you still deny it!" Bo Zhen suddenly raised his head and looked at Kong Zhuo, "Don't you fear adding another crime to your list?"

  Kong Zhan suddenly burst out laughing, "Master Bao, if you want to frame me, what's the worry about not having an excuse? Even if you really don't like me and want to throw me into the back mountain's Reflection Cliff for a decade or two, you should still have sufficient reason and evidence. To randomly pin such a crime on a junior like me, doesn't it feel like losing the demeanor of a senior?"

  "You——!"

  Bao Zhen's face tightened, and he was about to erupt, but then he thought of Kong Zhuan's last words, "the demeanor of a senior", and could only force himself to swallow his anger. He spoke in as calm a tone as possible, "Kong Zhuan, the facts are right before our eyes, don't try to argue your way out of this. You obstructed Lin Yufeng and Yu Xuanji from capturing the rebels, and you also injured Xuanji and Yufeng - these two things are undeniable facts, can they be faked?"

  Kong Zhuo's smile grew thicker, and he suddenly turned to Ling Jia Shangren, then bowed to the other elderly people around him. "Master Zhang, Master Li, did you all hear what Master Bao just said? He added these two charges against me. I wonder if I have the right to defend myself?"

  "Of course!" said Li Yuanhua, "Our Rufu is a righteous sect, a place of reason. You are also a disciple of the sect, so you naturally have the right to defend yourself!" As he spoke, he glanced at Lin Yufeng, his eyes flashing with a hint of severity. "As for my incompetent disciple being injured by you, that's because he was no match for you, not your fault!"

  Lin Yufeng's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously avoided Li Yuanhua's gaze. "Despicable thing!" Li Yuanhua muttered to himself, then looked at Kong Zhuo's calm face, and suddenly felt that his disciple was particularly detestable.

  "That's good!" Kong Zhan smiled and said, "Then, I'll explain a couple of sentences. I hope the few masters won't think that I'm making excuses or being evasive!"

  "Hmm!" The thin truth sitting there felt piercingly unpleasant, and merely let out a cold hum.

  "Master Bo Shibo just gave me two charges, the first one is that I obstructed two senior brothers from capturing a rebel. This point, I absolutely cannot accept! Up to now, I still don't know who this rebel is, what kind of rebellion it is, and how I obstructed the two senior brothers and other junior brothers from capturing him!"

  Kong Zhuo paused for a moment, straightened his waist, "I only remember that at that time, I was cultivating my Taoist skills, right in the middle of a critical juncture. Suddenly someone disturbed me, I almost lost control of my magic because of this, so I came out to take a look. As a result, I saw two senior brothers with several junior brothers making a ruckus over there. But as for the rebel, I didn't see even a single hair! Could it be that the rebel is among the two senior brothers and several junior brothers? If that's the case, then I didn't let him escape either! Including the two senior brothers, there are fourteen people in total here, who is the rebel? Take him away!"

  "Pfft!" Li Yuanhua, the Shura Sword, couldn't hold back anymore and spat out the tea he had just taken a sip of. The Moonlight Sword, Wei Qing, sitting next to him also burst into laughter, nodding repeatedly. "Haven't you seen Fang Shaobai?"

  "Less white!" Kong Zhuo's face stiffened slightly, and a thick look of doubt appeared in his eyes. He glanced at Wei Qingqing, "No, what does this have to do with Less White? He's not even here!"

  "Hum, you're quite bold, don't you know that Fang Shaobai is a rebel!"

  Kong Zhuo's expression became even more vivid, his facial muscles twitched slightly, and an extremely astonished look appeared in his eyes. He turned to face Zhou Qing, "Shao Bai is a rebel? Master, I saw you instructing him on swordsmanship just yesterday, how could he become a rebel overnight?!"

  Zhou Qing's face fell, and she let out a soft sigh, shaking her head slightly.

  Kong Yan's face turned solemn, "So it's true, Shaobai is indeed a rebel?"

  "Right, Fang Shaobai is indeed rebellious, what else can you say now?" asked Bao Zhen.

  "Impossible!" Kong Zhan shouted loudly, his voice becoming shrill with excitement. "How could Shaobai be a rebel?"

  "Fang Shaobai is a rebel, this is a fact!" Ling Jia Shangren stared at Kong Zhuo, "On this point, no one can deny it!"

  The silent aura pressed down, Kong Zhuo's neck straightened, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, nodded, "Alright, Shao Bai is a rebel, since Master Shi Bo has spoken, it must be true. But what does this have to do with me? You say I'm shielding the rebel, but I haven't even seen Shao Bai's shadow before, how can I shield him?"

  In one sentence, he pushed all the blame away cleanly, "I came out of my meditation and saw only these few fellow disciples, as for Fang Shaobai, I didn't see him anyway."

  "You didn't see it because you had already used your Taoist magic to trap us before he escaped!" Lin Yufeng said coldly, "And now you're still trying to deceive me with your words!"

  "Slap!" A loud slap echoed through Zhengyuan Hall, and Lin Yufeng's body was also pulled back by this slap.

  "Are you not ashamed enough?!" Li Yuan's body didn't move, still sitting in his original position, he slapped Lin Yufeng's ear with a swift motion, "Stand there properly and don't say another word, or I'll expel you from the sect!"

  Lin Yufeng's face suddenly turned pale, and his head drooped down, no longer making a sound.

  "Second Master, what's the meaning of this? If Jade Wind has something to say, let him speak out. You're being biased!"

  Li Yuanhua coldly glanced at Bo Zhen, "What's there to say? It's just that the thirteen of them were trapped by the Dao technique and couldn't escape, so they had no choice but to let Fang Shaobai escape. But do you think this means you can get away with punishing this little scoundrel?"

  "He pointed at Kong Zhuan, 'Didn't you understand what this kid just said? The matter of Fang Shaobai arose suddenly, and apart from the few people in this hall, most of the disciples in the sect don't know about it. This kid spends his days eating and sleeping, not caring about anything else, how could he possibly know? If he didn't know, then even if he really did let Fang Shaobai go, it would be an unintentional mistake, at most he would be punished to face the wall in the back mountain for a few years!' He paused here, looked at Kong Zhuan and continued, 'Moreover, this kid just now insisted that apart from these thirteen fools, no one else saw Fang Shaobai. As long as he sticks to this point, what evidence do we have to prove it was him who let Fang Shaobai go? Relying on the nonsense of these thirteen people who were beaten by him? If we believe their words, wouldn't that also be biased and unfair? This is just a mess!"

  Li Yuanhua's voice grew increasingly cold, "I, Li Yuanhua, have been in charge of the Luofu Penal Code for 200 years, and I've never done such a thing as listening to one side and believing it!"

  He said this and his gaze shifted towards Kong Zhan, "Youngster, is this what you've been planning all along?"

  "Junior brother dare not!" On the surface, his complexion was calm and composed, but Kong Zhuo's back had already been drenched with cold sweat, a wry smile spreading across his face. At this moment, it was as if he had made such a clever calculation in his heart, but now, he couldn't admit it.