Chapter 282 Evidence Found, Xuanzi's Crime Confirmed
On either side of the long table in the Sea God Pavilion, the flickering soul-guided lamps cast extremely long shadows of Yan Shaozhe, Xian Lin'er, and the others, which swayed violently against the wooden walls.
The air inside the council hall seemed to have solidified into cast iron, so heavy that it was hard to breathe.
Yan Shaozhe stood stiffly before the main seat, his usually gentle and profound eyes now fixed on the secret report on the table, the bloodshot veins deep within them particularly noticeable in the dim light. Beside him, Cai Meier, the vice dean of the Martial Soul Department, gripped the back of her chair, her beautiful eyes filled with utter disorientation and horror, her breathing becoming extremely rapid.
Shocking.
For the Shrek Academy executives who remained in the Sea God Pavilion, this event was nothing short of a violent mudslide that completely overturned their understanding.
When Yan Shaozhe first received the urgent intelligence from the teacher of Mingdu Foreign Languages Academy, his first reaction was not anger, but complete disbelief.
He simply couldn't believe that the Gluttonous Douluo Xuanzi, who was of the same generation as Elder Mu and had worked tirelessly for Shrek Academy for a hundred years, would commit such a despicable act of masked infiltration and assassination of a talented junior from another country during such a prestigious competition that attracted attention across the entire continent.
"No...that's impossible."
Yan Shaozhe gritted his teeth, his fingers digging deep into the grain of the golden nanmu wood of the long table from the excessive force he used. He looked up at Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo opposite him, his voice hoarse and extremely sharp as he growled:
"Although Elder Xuan is sometimes impatient and values the reputation of Shrek Academy highly, he is, after all, a level 99 Limit Douluo! He possesses the absolute dignity and pride befitting an elder of the Sea God Pavilion! How could he possibly lower himself to assassinate a 20-year-old student from the Heavenly Soul Empire just because of a loss in an ordinary round-robin tournament during the day? This is absolutely a deliberate frame-up by the Body Sect! It's a scheme orchestrated by Poison Undying and the Heavenly Soul Royal Family to completely ruin the reputation of Shrek Academy!"
Cai Meier nodded repeatedly, somewhat flustered, tears welling in her eyes, her lips trembling as she echoed:
"Yes, Shao Zhe is right. The spiritual power that Liu Yuan displayed during the day was indeed strange. The Body Sect has always acted lawlessly and without regard for rules. They might have used their own primordial soul power to forge the aura of the Taotie Divine Ox, then destroyed the hotel themselves, and pinned this mess on Elder Xuan! Elder Xuan's unexplained disappearance might be due to their diversionary tactic, and he might be stuck somewhere outside Mingdu City, being held up by Poison Undying!"
These remarks made in the dim light seemed somewhat powerless.
Although Yan Shaozhe was loudly denouncing the "framing," the icy chill surging within him was stronger than anyone else's.
He knew perfectly well that Shrek Academy currently had absolutely no evidence to prove Xuanzi's innocence. The outer courtyard of Mingdu had been heavily guarded and sealed off by the official city guards, and core disciples like Bei Bei and Huo Yuhao were under house arrest. Everything they knew was based on one-sided information relayed through internal channels. If they couldn't produce conclusive evidence to refute the Body Sect's formal accusation, Shrek's reputation would quickly be ruined under the combined pressure from the Sun Moon Empire and the Heavenly Soul Empire.
"Lin'er, Qian Duoduo, we can't just sit here and wait to die!"
Yan Shaozhe straightened up abruptly, his eyes bloodshot. Without any hesitation, he immediately and swiftly issued a death order:
"Lin'er, immediately utilize all the hidden agents and intelligence networks of the Soul Guidance Department within the Sun Moon Empire and Mingdu City. Have them spare no effort to search for all evidence of Xuanzi's whereabouts last night! Also, have the high-ranking members of the Outer Court who remain in Mingdu contact the City Guard and the official organizing committee. Even if it means using large amounts of rare metals and favors from Shrek Academy, they must obtain a copy of the firsthand on-site soul power report! We must obtain substantial evidence that can clear Elder Xuan's name!"
"Okay, I'll take care of it right away."
Xian Lin'er's handsome face turned ashen. She was well aware of the gravity of the matter, and without any hesitation, the moment Yan Shaozhe finished speaking, she grabbed the specially made soul-guided communication core from the table, strode out of the Sea God Pavilion, and went to contact the Shrek subordinates hidden in the shadows.
The door slammed shut, and the council hall returned to its previous somber and deathly silence.
Yan Shaozhe slumped back onto the stone chair in the main seat, feeling utterly exhausted. His trembling hands pressed tightly against his forehead, while the occasional night breeze from Lake Haishen outside the window caused the lamplight on the long table to flicker.
"Elder Xuan...you absolutely mustn't do that!"
Deep within his heart, Yan Shaozhe was praying frantically and with extreme anguish. His once refined face was now distorted by excessive anxiety.
"You were personally entrusted with leading the team by Elder Mu before his death. If you really make a foolish mistake this time and sneak into someone's guest room in the middle of the night to commit assassination, then the foundation and reputation that Shrek Academy has built up over thousands of years will truly be ruined in this tournament! At that point, we will be finished, with no chance of recovery!"
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from Shrek Academy, in the capital of the Sun and Moon Empire, in the Mingdu Imperial City.
Although the streets were still illuminated by soul-guided neon lights late at night, the atmosphere was extremely tense due to the full mobilization of the city defense forces. Outside the large luxury hotel that had been completely reduced to ruins, hundreds of city guards were moving solemnly among the rubble and broken walls, holding various sophisticated soul-guided detection instruments.
Inside a temporary city defense command post not far from the ruins, large swaths of black and white images were flashing at an extremely high speed on a giant main control soul guidance screen several meters high.
Two city guard generals clad in heavy black armor, along with a silver-robed elder from the tournament organizers, were intently watching the surveillance footage on the screen, accompanied by a group of core security soul masters from the empire.
"Reporting to the General and Elder! The First Reconnaissance Team, by reviewing the footage from the third and fourth main roads of the Mingdu Imperial City, as well as all the high-altitude soul-guided cameras around the restaurant, has indeed found evidence of Shrek Academy leading Shinjuku Old Master... in his activities around midnight last night!"
A level four Soul Master soldier responsible for operating the core magic array strode forward, reported loudly with an extremely serious expression, and pressed a button on the control panel.
Swish.
The image on the main screen froze for a moment, then zoomed in several times.
In the dim black and white night scene, a bulky figure wearing a wide gray robe, with even the head hidden in the shadow of a huge hood, silently passed through the dark alley opposite the restaurant with an extremely stealthy and unusually high-speed short-distance blinking technique, and then skillfully crossed the outer metal defensive railing.
Although the figure suppressed the aura of his martial soul and soul rings to the limit, and the high-altitude detector could not detect the core soul power fluctuations, judging from the iconic wide gray robe and the Imperial Database's comparison of his body shape, gait, and micro-expressions, this gray-robed figure was undoubtedly the Gluttonous Douluo of Shrek Academy, Xuanzi.
Seeing the clear image of Xuanzi stealthily moving like a ghost in the dead of night on the screen, the expressions of the two city guard generals present turned extremely ugly and stern at the same time.
"It really is him..."
The general on the left snorted coldly, slamming his hand on the alloy control panel with a dull thud. His eyes were filled with icy coldness: "In the middle of the night, after instructing his disciples at dusk, he secretly sneaked into the area surrounding the exclusive hotel where the Heavenly Soul Royal Team was staying. Why would a level 99 Limit Douluo use such a despicable and underhanded method to cross the security line if he had nothing to hide?!"
"Don't rush, these alone are not enough to serve as conclusive evidence for a direct conviction."
The silver-robed elder beside him took a deep breath. Although the shock in his eyes was equally intense, as a high-ranking official of the competition, he forced himself to remain rational and stared intently at the continuous gaps in the screen after Xuanzi crossed the barrier.
"General, look. After Xuanzi silently pushed open the window and floated into the second floor using his movement technique, because the second floor is the private living quarters of high-level soul masters, which involves the privacy of the sects of various empires, the empire did not install any core soul guidance cameras with real-time transmission capabilities in the corridors and rooms when building this hotel, in accordance with the rules of the competition."
The elder's tone became very serious as he pointed to the black blind spot on the screen and continued:
"Therefore, while the surveillance footage we've retrieved can definitively prove that Xuanzi did indeed sneak into the Heavenly Soul Royal Team's exclusive hotel last night, we have absolutely no footage of much more, such as which room he made his move in, or whether he actually attempted a life-or-death assassination attempt on Liu Yuan in the bedroom. Without the most direct evidence, Shrek Academy can easily use the excuse that 'Elder Xuan was just inspecting the place late at night or got lost' to deny the allegations based solely on the footage of his stealth outside the door. We have no choice but to continue our search!"
Hearing the elder's words, the two city guard generals gritted their teeth, turned around, and shouted loudly to the messengers below:
"Have the first and third Soul Master search teams expand the search area! Dig deep into that completely collapsed hotel ruins! Focus on searching every rubble and debris near the original site of Liu Yuan's room on the second floor! Bring back any objects that might contain fragments of Soul Master records or residual Soul Power array crystals for examination using our instruments!"
"yes!"
The messenger responded loudly, and the Soul Master soldiers in the command post once again sprang into action.
The night outside Mingdu grew deeper, with less than an hour remaining until dawn. Under the lingering pressure of their extreme soul power, the city guards on the ruins, enduring the biting cold, grimly searched among the countless rubble, broken walls, and scorched earth with their armored hands.
About half an hour later, at this extremely delicate moment when the eastern sky was beginning to lighten with a faint, almost imperceptible dawn, and the entire sweeping search was nearing its end.
"Reporting to the General! A major discovery has been made!"
Inside the deepest crater of the ruins, a city guard captain, holding a miniature soul power detector, suddenly tumbled and crawled out from a pile of shattered marble cabinet shards. His voice, sharp and trembling with excessive excitement and terror, rang out in the night air:
"Brothers, we successfully found a defensive miniature pinhole camera in a crevice of rubble less than half a meter directly below the ruins of Liu Yuan's original bedroom bed on the second floor. Although the surface was cracked in large areas, the core magic array was not completely destroyed! This camera was originally secretly modified inside the stone wall by the restaurant to prevent soul master students from losing rare metals. It was not in the open master control records, so it retained the most original independent soul power storage chip!"
"What?! Quick! Send it to the core analysis station immediately for soul power repair and image retrieval!"
Upon hearing the news, the two city guard generals and the silver-robed elder in the command post sprang from their stone chairs as if electrocuted. Without any hesitation, the three strode forward, their powerful soul force whistling through the air, transforming into streaks of black light as they rushed to the core Soul Master Analysis Array.
Several level 5 and 6 spiritual detection soul masters had extremely solemn expressions. Their hands were constantly changing hand seals in the void, guiding strands of pure soul power along the traction lines and carefully injecting them into the black soul power storage chip, which was only the size of a fingernail and was already covered with dense cracks.
Buzz—.
A clear, resounding tremor of the magic array echoed.
Under the deathly and extremely tense gazes of the two generals, the silver-robed elder, and all the high-ranking officials of the Sun Moon Empire, the huge soul-guided screen above the control panel, after a few seconds of frantic, snowy flashing, finally stabilized and became extremely clear thanks to the forced splicing of soul power.
The video begins with the interior of a dimly lit bedroom illuminated by the faint glow of a neon streetlamp.
The white-clad youth, Liu Yuanzheng, calmly straightened his body at the edge of the bed, adjusting his sleeves. Directly in front of him, the previously intact wooden window was silently pushed open, and the figure of an old man in a wide gray robe, with an extremely distorted and red face, floated in silently like a gray streak of light.
Under the high-definition high-altitude soul-guided refraction array, that old face was so clear that even the bulging veins on his forehead and his narrowed eyes filled with insane killing intent could be seen clearly.
It was none other than Xuanzi, the highest-ranking elder of Shrek Academy and the Gluttonous Douluo.
Immediately afterwards, Xuanzi in the scene let out a low roar with a ferocious expression. In an instant, his right hand completely transformed into a violent gray stream of light, wrapped with pure and extreme soul power and killing intent that could easily tear apart an ordinary Title Douluo. He fiercely and extremely quickly grabbed the neck of Liu Yuan, who was completely unprepared and wide open in front of the bed, and pinched it hard.
This attack, as shown in the video, was so decisive and ruthless, leaving no way out, and was aimed entirely at completely killing Liu Yuan in an instant.
The video ended here, though it was accompanied by a large amount of static and distortion of soul power due to the subsequent violent self-destruction explosion.
However, upon seeing the frozen image on the screen of Xuanzi's claw snarling at Liu Yuan's neck, the entire city defense command center fell into an absolute, deathly silence in an instant.
There was no more suspense, and no room left for Shrek Academy to make excuses or deny anything.
The cause and effect, the specific scenes, and the video evidence of Xuanzi personally assassinating Liu Yuan in the dead of night were all thoroughly and irrefutably uncovered by the official forces of the Sun Moon Empire.
The conclusion, in the early morning when the first rays of light were just beginning to appear on the horizon, was truly and irrevocably reached.
(End of chapter)