Chapter 12: Vast Righteous Qi Is My Reason!

Boom!

Those words exploded through the crowd like a thunderclap.

Everyone stared in shock, mouths agape.

No one had expected that, when faced with Zhao Wudao’s relentless questioning, Xu Tian would give such a response.

Arrogant!

Domineering!

And even… utterly unreasonable!

Chu Hao, standing at the back of the crowd, was stunned for a moment.

Then he was overjoyed. So excited that he pinched his own thigh hard.

“Good, good, good! Looks like the maddest one in all Great Xia is Xu Tian after all!”

A sharp gleam burst from Chu Hao’s eyes.

“He chose neither the Second Prince nor the Confucian Dao. He chose to shoulder it all himself!”

“But can you bear it? The moment you say something like that, you are cutting yourself off from the Confucian Dao.”

Li Hongru pressed his lips together, his brows knitting even tighter.

Li Chuan and the others at his side were dumbstruck.

They could scarcely believe such words had come from the mouth of a Third-Rank Confucian cultivator.

Everyone knew

that Confucian arts were incomparably domineering, but they placed extremely high demands upon the cultivator’s state of mind.

If one’s heart was not upright, if one’s convictions wavered in the slightest, then at best one would stagnate where one stood, and at worst one would suffer deviation and lose control.

That was why Confucian cultivators were cautious in both speech and conduct. They cultivated themselves and nurtured their nature, and every word they spoke had to stand upon principle.

What the Prince of Qin had just said bore none of the bearing of a Confucian cultivator at all.

Zhao Wudao was also stunned for a long while. That single sentence had shaken him so badly that he could not recover for quite some time.

Xu Tian, however, no longer spared anyone around him another glance.

He merely turned and looked toward the academy entrance.

There, a cloud of dust was rolling swiftly closer.

“Report!!!”

A long cry tore apart the academy’s stillness.

A young man with command pennants strapped to his back came charging into the academy plaza on a warhorse breathing white vapor, reckless of all else.

The youth sprang from the saddle, rushed before Xu Tian, and dropped to one knee.

His lips were cracked, and his armor was broken. It was obvious that his journey had been anything but peaceful.

“This subordinate Su Can of the Second Prince’s personal guard and the Deathsworn Camp has fulfilled his mission without disgrace!”

With trembling hands, the youth pulled a bloodstained bundle from his robes and raised it high above his head with both hands.

His voice was hoarse, yet filled with fierce excitement:

“By order of His Highness the Second Prince! The Heaven-Slaying Diagram has returned! A national treasure has come home!”

“And further! It has been confirmed that three hundred jin of Blood-Drinking Flowers were hidden inside the false compartments of the Shan Kingdom merchant ships, with the intention of throwing Great Xia into chaos! The evidence is conclusive, the goods were seized on the spot, and the culprits were caught with them!”

The entire plaza fell deathly silent.

Blood-Drinking Flower?

Those words crashed down like a sledgehammer onto the hearts of the crowd, who had only just been wavering moments before.

The Blood-Drinking Flower was said to be the rebirth of the remnant soul of some First-Rank mighty figure.

Once it took root within the human body, it would drink blood, gnaw bones, and devour one’s essence.

Once it matured, it would be harvested and turned into a rare cultivation material worth an immense fortune.

But if the host watered the Blood-Drinking Flower with fresh blood and used a special method, then its power could be invoked to conceal one’s aura and amplify one’s own strength.

Even more terrifying still, anyone tainted by the Blood-Drinking Flower would be ceaselessly tempted and drawn deeper into corruption…

So to come into contact with a Blood-Drinking Flower was to nourish an evil fiend!

This had also been one of the great calamities that ravaged Great Xia during the war years.

Zhao Wudao’s face turned deathly pale in an instant, and his body swayed involuntarily.

How could this be possible?

How could it have happened so quickly?

Hadn’t the news from over there said that a Second-Rank expert had been dispatched?

That person should have had no chance of returning to the capital!

Yet…

Xu Tian looked at the kneeling youth and at the blood that had soaked through the bundle.

The chill in his eyes turned into killing intent.

Even with Li Lianying personally taking action, it had still been this difficult.

These people had truly grown far too bold.

He stepped forward and took the heavy bundle into his hands.

“Rest well and recover properly. In the future, we still have many things to do.”

Su Can’s eyes lit up. He nodded fiercely, rose, and saluted.

“Yes!”

Xu Tian turned around, holding the bundle in one hand as his gaze swept across the entire plaza once more.

“Evidence? This is the evidence!”

Xu Tian undid the bundle and drew out the Heaven-Slaying Diagram resting on top.

Beneath it were revealed the vivid Blood-Drinking Flowers within, as well as the special markings of the Shan Kingdom engraved upon them to conceal their aura.

With the evidence laid bare, the surroundings instantly fell silent as a grave.

He set the bundle down and swept his gaze around, taking in the astonished looks of everyone present.

“I know you have countless questions. Some of you may not even accept my words.”

Xu Tian drew in a deep breath.

The Vast Righteous Qi within his body seemed to answer some hidden summons. It began surging wildly, letting out a roar like great rivers crashing through the land.

“But this is my reason!”

The moment the words fell, Xu Tian suddenly hurled the scroll in his hand high into the sky.

Whoosh!

The tattered scroll swelled in the wind until it blotted out the blazing sun above the academy.

It was a painting, yet it looked more like a single character.

A single character formed from condensed blood… “Slaughter”!

【Authentic relic of the Confucian Sage detected: 《Heaven-Slaying Diagram》…】

【Confucian Sage Divine Ability triggered: Enlightenment at Longchang!】

【Comprehension amplified a hundredfold! Enlightenment amplified a hundredfold! Intent amplified a hundredfold!】

【Comprehending: Slaughter Word Formula!】

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

Heaven and Earth changed color.

The originally clear sky was instantly covered by a vast expanse of blazing white aura.

The dense Vast Righteous Qi within the academy turned even more incandescently white at that moment.

A killing intent was gathering.

“Slaughter!”

Xu Tian softly uttered a single word.

The enormous “Slaughter” character in the sky exploded apart with a crash, transforming into countless motes of light that poured wildly into Xu Tian’s body.

Boom!

An aura so terrifying that it bordered on the unimaginable erupted from Xu Tian’s body.

“This is… Confucian Dao true intent! His Highness has comprehended a second Confucian Dao secret art!”

Li Hongru’s lips trembled, his tone filled with utter disbelief.

That sight had shaken even his own state of mind.

Heaven have mercy!

He had stepped into the Second Rank decades ago and had held the Mountain-Suppressing Diagram for more than ten years, yet he had comprehended absolutely nothing.

He had not even glimpsed a proper Confucian art and could only cultivate ordinary ones, much less any Confucian Dao secret art.

Yet His Highness the Prince of Qin had reached the peak of Confucian arts with a single glance.

He had already sensed this aura earlier in court, but at the time, he had not dared speak wildly.

Now, combined with the rumored calligraphy sheets and the familiar aura he was sensing once again, he could finally be certain.

“If the first time was luck, then the second time can only mean Heaven’s mandate.”

Li Hongru looked at Xu Tian, bathed in blazing white Vast Righteous Qi, and murmured to himself:

“This is what a true prodigy of the Confucian Dao looks like!”

His voice was not loud, but everyone present heard it clearly.

That was right.

In this world, anyone could lie.

But the boundless, supremely pure, supremely unyielding Vast Righteous Qi of Heaven and Earth would not lie.

No wonder His Highness the Prince of Qin had not bothered with these petty disputes of words.

This Vast Righteous Qi, surging into the heavens, was enough to silence every doubt.

The Confucian cultivators who had still been wavering now felt that incomparably pure Vast Righteous Qi.

At this moment, their hearts began to change as well.

【Confucian Dao secret art obtained: Slaughter Word Formula!】

【Confucian Dao reputation increased. Confucian Dao talent obtained: One Call, a Hundred Responses!】

【One Call, a Hundred Responses: By reciting the words of the sages, you may link together the Vast Righteous Qi of the Confucian cultivators around you and stack the power of the corresponding Confucian arts.】

The Vast Righteous Qi filling Heaven and Earth gradually calmed, and Xu Tian’s figure emerged once more.

He looked at Zhao Wudao, whose face was full of terror, and spoke in a level voice:

“You are tainted by the Blood-Drinking Flower. You colluded with foreign powers and intended rebellion.”

“For the crime of treason, does your Zhao Family admit its guilt or not?”

Zhao Wudao suddenly threw up his head, his eyes full of fear and madness.

“You are talking nonsense! Slandering us with lies…”

He pointed at Xu Tian and looked around at the crowd, shouting himself hoarse:

“My Zhao Family is a great clan of the capital! You say we are tainted by the Blood-Drinking Flower? Where is the evidence? He is forcing a charge upon us! My friends—”

Although the students around them had already begun to change their minds,

upon hearing the three words “Blood-Drinking Flower,” they still could not help feeling hesitant.

After all, Zhao Wudao did look every bit like a proper gentleman on the surface.

Besides, once someone was tainted by the Blood-Drinking Flower, it was a crime grave enough to exterminate an entire clan.

The Zhao Family might be arrogant, but would they really dare defy the whole world so brazenly?

In the next moment,

their eyes widened in utter disbelief at the scene before them.

Damn it!

That blasted Zhao Family really did dare!