Chapter 164 - 163: A Firefly Defying the Sun (2)
"Spirit... Spirit Severing..."
Elder Yan choked out, the words carrying perfectly through the dead silence of the arena.
Lin Yuan slowly lowered his hand, turning his attention away from the elder as if the man were completely beneath his notice. He looked back to Mu Tianyang.
The Senior Disciple had fallen to his knees, his mind completely broken by the cascading sequence of disasters. He had tried to frame a Foundation Establishment boy, only to discover that the boy’s protector was a Spirit Severing expert who could see through absolute illusions and swat Nascent Soul elders out of the sky like bothersome insects.
"Demonic arts, your elder claims," Lin Yuan said, his voice a smooth, cold rumble that carried the undeniable weight of a spirit severing expert. He gestured to the male disciple kneeling. "Tell me, Patriarch Yun. Does this boy wear the uniform of a demonic sect? Does his golden core radiate demonic Qi? Or does he pulse with the exact foundation of the Pure Cloud Sect?"
Patriarch Yun’s jaw tightened. With a wave of his hand, he cast his own divine sense over the terrified boy. The truth was absolute. The boy was a registered inner-court disciple of his own sect.
"Speak, boy!" Patriarch Yun roared, his voice trembling with a mixture of shock and fury. "Why are you wearing the Saintess’s robes?! Who commanded you to do this?!"
The disciple sobbed, bowing so hard he cracked his forehead against the floor.
"Forgive me, Ancestor! Forgive me!" the boy wailed, pointing a trembling, desperate finger at Mu Tianyang. "Senior Brother Mu commanded me! He said it was for the ultimate good of the sect! He gave me the Phantasm Veil Pendant and told me exactly what to say! I didn’t want to, but he said if I refused, he would have my cultivation crippled!"
The confession echoed through the amphitheater, driving the final nail into Mu Tianyang’s coffin.
"Lies! He is coerced!" Mu Tianyang screamed, desperately crawling backward, his pristine robes dragging in the dust. "Ancestor, you must believe me! This is a conspiracy by the Han clan and this... this monster to destroy our sect’s foundation!"
"A conspiracy," Lin Yuan echoed, the faint, lethal smile returning to his face. "You speak of conspiracies, Mu Tianyang, while hiding the most damning evidence of all."
Lin Yuan turned his back on the disgraced disciple and looked directly up at the northern zenith, addressing Lord Zhao and Patriarch Yun.
"Last night, after this farce was initiated," Lin Yuan announced, his voice ringing with crisp clarity, "I investigated the servant who planted the hairpin on Bai Chen. He confessed to being bribed. But more importantly, he confessed to seeing Senior Disciple Mu ordering a private carriage to the eastern gates in the dead of night."
Patriarch Yun’s white eyebrows crashed together. "A carriage?"
"Indeed," Lin Yuan nodded. "Because one cannot execute a flawless illusion of a Saintess if the actual Saintess is present to contradict it. Mu Tianyang went to Su Yin’s chambers before dawn. He lied to her. He told her that you, Patriarch Yun, were furious with the scandal and had ordered her immediate return to the sect’s main campus. He packed her into a carriage and sent her away in the dark, intending to exile her until this tribunal was finished and Bai Chen’s life was destroyed."
The crowd gasped. The sheer, calculated malice of the scheme was breathtaking. To use the Patriarch’s name to exile a Saintess simply to clear the stage for a political assassination was a crime that defied all orthodox boundaries.
"Impossible!" Patriarch Yun bellowed, slamming his staff against the floor, the sound ringing out like a cannon shot. "I issued no such order! Su Yin is the diplomatic pillar of this delegation! Where is she?!"
"She is exactly where she should be," Lin Yuan replied, his voice completely calm. "Under the protection of my household."
Mu Tianyang’s breath hitched. His eyes widened as the final realization crashed down upon him. The carriage had never made it to the sect. Lin Yuan had intercepted it and seen through the entire conspiracy before the sun had even risen.
Lin Yuan did not wait for the sect to demand proof. He stood perfectly still in the center of the floor and closed his eyes.
He gathered his divine sense, and projected his voice directly toward the eastern guest pavilions of the Celestial Summit.
His voice echoed spiritually, vibrating across the entire palace grounds.
"Su Yin," Lin Yuan’s divine command resonated in her mind. "The truth is laid bare. It is time for you to come forth and look upon the honor of your Senior Brother."
For a long, agonizing moment, the amphitheater was perfectly still. The wind sweeping over the open-air summit seemed to hold its breath.
Then, the heavy doors at the southern entrance of the amphitheater slowly pushed open.
The crowd turned as one.
Stepping into the morning light, flanked by the imposing architecture of the Celestial Summit, was Su Yin.
She wore the exact same pale blue-white robes as the imposter kneeling on the floor, but there was an undeniable difference in her presence. She did not walk with her head bowed. She did not tremble.
Her hair blew gently in the mountain wind. Her eyes, usually filled with warm kindness, were now completely cold, radiating the sharp clarity of a cultivator who had just had the veil of lifelong loyalty violently ripped from her eyes.
She walked down the steps, her gaze fixed entirely on the kneeling figure of Mu Tianyang.
Bai Chen, still bound in the center of the floor, looked up. The despair that had crushed his chest instantly evaporated, replaced by a massive, overwhelming surge of relief. She was here. She was safe. And she knew the truth.
As Su Yin stepped onto the obsidian floor, bypassing the Dao Protector and walking straight toward the center of the tribunal, the absolute destruction of Mu Tianyang was finalized.
Lin Yuan stepped aside, allowing the true Saintess to face Lord Zhao Shenming, offering a faint nod.
The political theater was over. The slaughter had begun.