Chapter 782: Sinner (2)

Chapter 782: Sinner (2)

The news continued spreading among the upper echelons.

Nanyuan.

Su Yu was still in a discussion with others. Should they grab a meal before leaving? At that time, his voice transmission talisman shook.

He took it out openly and checked the message. Then, he smiled and said, "Everyone, I think we need to leave quickly. My teacher told me to return and stop running. I don't want to get dragged back to Tiandu. This place is still not too far from Tiandu."

Inwardly, he was incredibly shaken. That was a message from Xia Huyou. That fellow had just received news that Feng Ji had been captured. Feng Ji had also confessed to killing those commanders.

As for Chen Yong, his whereabouts were still unknown. Nobody knew what was going on with him. Some Invincibles were on the way to Great Xia for the public trial. His Martial Uncle Feng had been captured! Where was Chen Yong?

Su Yu was shocked, but he maintained the same smile on his face. Feng Ji was the murderer? No. It was definitely Chen Yong.

Previously, the Great Ming storyteller had said that the dead commander enjoyed using cultural researchers as bait. And Su Yu was now certain that those cultural researchers were from the multiple character faction.

Chen Yong was definitely the killer. What was his martial uncle thinking? Killing those Mountainsea commanders without sufficient proof would place him in great trouble. All those people were from the military. Killing them without reason was punishable by death.

It wasn't like Su Yu's hands were clean. But he knew what he was doing. If anything happened, he only needed to run to Great Ming and he would be fine. Those he had killed were only some Sunmoon descendants. He also had a good reason for killing them. They had intruded upon his home to steal his secret.

In that situation, as long as he had a sufficient backer, he would be fine. As long as Great Ming protected him, those Sunmoons wouldn't be able to do anything. This matter wasn't important enough to attract the involvement of those Invincibles.

But killing military officials so rashly would result in death. The murders Su Yu committed could be resolved with a strong backer. But killing military officials could not be resolved even with a strong backer.

Had his martial uncle killed those people for revenge? Was he avenging the multiple character faction? But was his martial uncle really so close to the other multiple character faction branches? Or was there an unknown reason?

And what was up with Martial Uncle Feng Ji? Public trial by Invincibles. Since there would be some Invincibles in Great Xia City, the smart thing for him to do was to avoid Great Xia City. But could he do that?

Even at the risk of discovery, he couldn't miss something like that. He didn't know if he would even get the chance to learn anything, but he had to try. In comparison, the people he planned to kill in Nanyuan were no longer so important. He would have plenty of chances to do so in the future.

Su Yu started urging the others to depart immediately.

At the same time.

Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

Hong Tan was seated opposite Marquis Xia. Marquis Xia sighed helplessly and said, "Feng Ji has been captured, but he will probably be fine. Since he has been left behind, I reckon even Invincibles won't be able to find anything. Instead, the Invincibles might be the ones to prove his innocence. As for Chen Yong...since he decided to not return, it is clear that he has reached a decision."

He left one thing unsaid. Similar assassinations had also happened in Nanyuan, but only a Sunmoon descendant had been killed. A Sunmoon descendant was not the same as a Sunmoon.

As for the other two deaths, they were merely the descendants of some Mountainseas. Their deaths did not matter. Marquis Xia suspected that these deaths were related to Su Yu. But he didn't feel like telling Hong Tan this. For now, that was not important enough.

Hong Tan remained silent. He stared blankly. He was seventy years old this year while Liu Wenyan was two years older than him. Fifty-one years ago, Liu Wenyan was twenty-one while he was nineteen. At that time, he had only entered the academy for a little bit over one year.

Not long after that, his teacher died and Liu Wenyan left. When he was thirty-three, he accepted the eighteen-year-old Chen Yong as his first student. Thirty-seven years had passed.

Chen Yong was fifteen years younger than him. This year, he was fifty-five. He had the ability to enter the Mountainsea Realm many years ago. At the time, Hong Tan had viewed him as the hope of the faction.

After being together for thirty-seven years, he would sometimes feel like that fellow was like his son. That was what he felt even though he had no real son.

In his mind, scene after scene from Chen Yong's youth appeared. Back then, Chen Yong was a cheerful youth. As a middle-aged man, he had a gloomy personality. And at an old age, he became a patient man.

Hong Tan blanked out for a long while. Finally, he said, "Second Brother, can I ask you something?"

Second brother...

How many years had it been since Hong Tan had called him that? Even Marquis Xia turned absent-minded. That was how this kid would address him during their youth. But that had stopped decades ago.

"Ask..."

Marquis Xia felt his throat turning dry.

"Second Brother...what is the Xia Family still waiting for?" Hong Tan flashed an ugly smile and said, "I know, I understand. My senior brother understands as well. We are all abandoned chess pieces. Our persistence is pointless. Is that right?"

Future...only one of the possible futures. The battle he saw...was it something he started? Or was it someone else? He was a sinner. But he would not atone for his sins.

***

That day, Su Yu talked and laughed with Zhou Hongbo and the others as they traveled in the direction of Great Xia City. As for Nanyuan, he could no longer pay any attention to it. As for the deaths in Nanyuan, the people in the group didn't care about them.

While they were traveling, some of them received word that Feng Ji had just been captured. Since Feng Ji had been captured in Great Wu, was it possible that Chen Yong was the one in Nanyuan?

As for whether it was possible for Chen Yong to be the culprit in both Great Wu and Great Xia, nobody could be sure as well. After all, he might have a unique ability that was capable of doing that.

He had hidden his abilities too well before this. Perhaps he had a clone? That wouldn't even be surprising. After all, he was a cultural researcher. And since he was someone capable of killing seventh and eighth stage Mountainseas, having a clone would be the least surprising thing about him.

He also seemed to possess elemental transformation escape abilities as traces of these abilities had been found in the previous murder scenes. Feng Ji would be trialed by Invincibles soon. Perhaps there would be some new discoveries after that. For a lot of people, this was a great chance to capture a secret cultist like Chen Yong or even more like him. Before long, the entire group learned of that.

Zhou Hongbo smiled and said, "In that case, the same group of people might be the culprits behind the murders in Nanyuan. Who knows? Perhaps Chen Yong is an ally of the Six-Winged Divine Sect. I will try my best to give all of you the chance to attend the public trial. If Chen Yong was really the culprit...sigh. First, Su Yu escaped. Then, Chen Yong defected. Not long ago, Su Yu even made a fake accusation about Principal Zhou, causing chaos in the Human Realm. Their line is truly disgusting."

Someone else asked, "But we still don't know who the culprit is, right?"

Zhou Hongbo smiled, "I was merely speculating based on the clues. The Invincibles will naturally find out the truth. Sigh. Multiple character faction...there are plenty of multiple character cultivators out there. But very few of them are troublemakers like those from Great Xia. Back then, they were troublemakers. Today, they are still troublemakers. When will this end?"

"Great Xia's multiple character faction is indeed filled with troublemakers. Their news has dominated the Human Realm for the past two years. If I were from the Xia Family, I would have expelled them long ago. That would make life much easier for them. Things wouldn't have been so difficult for Prefect Xia. I can't understand what they are thinking."

They couldn't understand what the Xia Family was thinking while Su Yu was turning absent-minded as he listened to them. So the truth was that for everyone else, they were the ones dragging the Xia Family down, not the other way around.

In the eyes of everyone, the multiple character faction had turned into baggage. No, not the multiple character faction as a whole. Only Great Xia's multiple character faction. Or to be precise, only a few individuals.

Liu Wenyan, Hong Tan, Chen Yong, and Su Yu himself.

For many people, they were troublemakers. They were the source of calamity. As far as everyone was concerned, the correct action for the Xia Family to take was to abandon them entirely. Since the Xia Family had not abandoned them, it had turned into an embodiment of justice.

Beside him, Zhou Hongbo, who was mounted on a demonic beast, smiled at him and asked, "Brother Cui, what are you thinking about?"

Su Yu smiled, "Women."

"..."

Zhou Hongbo laughed, "Brother Cui sure is honest."

Su Yu laughed heartily, "I call this honesty. I am no hypocrite. I will speak everything on my mind. We only live once. Why tire ourselves thinking about so many things? We have the big shots worrying about the matters that are truly important. The rest of us should just enjoy life."

"You are an optimistic person, Brother Cui."

Someone else spoke, "I have a lot to learn from you. That's right. The big shots can worry about those matters. We can talk all we want, but we will be nothing but spectators. We won't even know what the actual truth is."

A different person asked, "Brother Cui, since you know Su Yu, do you think Great Ming will do anything if the trial manages to confirm that Chen Yong is the killer?"

Su Yu smiled, "Su Yu himself might not accept that. But he's too weak. This is the crime of murdering military officials. There is no escaping the capital punishment. Why would Great Ming get involved in this? At most, they will not participate in the hunt for Chen Yong for Su Yu's sake. Are they supposed to stand against humanity for someone unrelated to them like Chen Yong? Great Ming is not interested in something like that. We don't care about the events outside Great Ming. This has always been how we conduct ourselves"

"True. We'll see. If it was really Chen Yong, Great Xia would probably be in some trouble, including Hong Tan. The dead military officials were people with friends and teachers. Chen Yong will probably become a wanted criminal across the entire Human Realm."

Su Yu laughed, "Who cares? That has nothing to do with me. That has nothing to do with any of you. Are you even capable of killing him? You must be dreaming. Don't court death. I am merely a bystander. If you keep talking about this topic, I will start ignoring you. I don't want to get implicated alongside all of you."

"You're right."

Someone nodded. This was too dangerous. And it was completely unrelated to them. They shouldn't get involved. Su Yu smiled with a carefree and cheerful expression on his face.

Inwardly, he was feeling extremely gloomy. What would come out of that trial? Would his grandteacher do something? Where was his martial uncle?

Why was he receiving one bad news after another after leaving Great Ming? Why did he feel like the entire Human Realm was standing against them?

Were they the ones in the wrong?

Or was everyone else wrong instead?