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There was a clamor outside the Law Enforcement Hall.
“Meeting the Sect Master? The Sect Master’s face was completely lost, yet he still dared to ask to meet the Sect Master?”
“The Sect Master is a first-class sword cultivator in this world. It is really unlucky of him to accept such a direct disciple.”
“Why does he think he’s qualified to make such an unreasonable request?”
In the Law Enforcement Hall, the elders sitting in the ebony armchairs frowned.
Rong Ran was the Sect Master’s direct disciple and also Peak Master Rong’s only son.
Peak Master Rong couldn’t come here today to participate in the trial to avoid suspicion.
However, Xuanhu Peak was the medicine peak of the sect. The disciple elders had to go to the medicine peak for healing if they were injured. Before coming here, Peak Master Rong had refined a lot of pills for them.
Many elders exchanged glances momentarily, and one motioned to Deputy Sect Master Cheng with a glance.
As everyone knew, even though Qiyun Jun was the Sky Sect’s Sect Master, he was in retreat on Wangyun Peak all year round. He rarely paid attention to the sect’s trivial matters. Deputy Sect Master Cheng Zixu and his direct disciple He Lanze handled most Sky Sect affairs.
Deputy Sect Master Cheng looked handsome and romantic with gentle soft eyes. A little red cinnabar sat between his eyebrows. He was bowing his head to play with the white jade his wife made for him. He didn’t notice the elder’s winking eyes, and his expression was very serene.
The elder coughed slightly.
Deputy Sect Master Cheng seemed to notice the situation at this time, “Elder Xu, what’s the matter?”
Elder Xu: “Deputy Sect Master, you see, Rong Ran is the Sect Master’s direct disciple after all. Should we postpone the trial and notify the Sect Master first?”
Deputy Sect Master Cheng touched the white jade ball in his hand, wondering: “When have the trials of the Law Enforcement Hall required our Sect Lord? Look at Peak Master Rong, he didn’t come to avoid suspicion. Young people’s matters should be left to the young people. Isn’t that good?”
Elder Xu: “But, after all, he’s the Sect Lord’s only personal disciple
”
Deputy Sect Master Cheng smiled: “Of course, I’m not unreasonable. But the Sect Master passing it personally sounds more expensive than others’ statements. Elder Xu, don’t you think?”
The cold sweat emerged on Elder Xu’s forehead.
Suddenly, Deputy Sect Master Cheng changed the conversation: “But the murder of fellow sect members has a wide impact. It’s considered a major event in a sect, so it’s understandable to ask the Sect Master to decide.”
“But who will inform him?”
This was a big question.
Nobody dared to go to Wangyun Peak except Rong Ran.
No, there was one more person.
He once personally stayed at Wangyun Peak and had the Sect Master heal his wounds, then came down from Wangyun Peak unharmed.
Elder Xu looked at the Law Enforcement Hall backstage.
The man was sitting there. The disciples around him were bustling with each other, but he could still be seen at a glance.
Elder Xu had already passed the age of appreciating beauty.
But he still couldn’t move his eyes away for a while.
That person was like a drop of ink on white paper—no, it should be like a little ink in the snow pond. Glaring, pure white.
It was difficult to describe such a face in words.
Over the years, the Sect Lord had come down from Wangyun Peak several times, and they all seemed to be for this person. It made people wonder if the Sect Master cultivating the ruthless dao had certain thoughts for this person.
And this person was the victim’s teacher.
Compared with Rong Ran, who committed a big mistake, which one would the Sect Lord be biased toward?
After Elder Xu thought about it, he suddenly fell into a cold sweat and didn’t want to say more.
Seeing that no one answered, Deputy Sect Master Cheng chuckled lightly and waved to He Lanze, who looked back at him.
“Continue the trial. The Sect Master has a high level of cultivation, and his divine consciousness communicates with the world. If he wants to come, he’ll come.”
He Lanze turned back, raised the punishment sword in his hand, and said blankly, “Rong Ran, you personally killed fourteen fellow disciples, then called back the souls of the dead deliberately to frame others. Your sin is intolerable. Today, I’ll break your dantian, cut your meridians, and abolish all your cultivation. You will now be expelled from the sect.”
“No, Senior Brother Helan, you can’t—” Rong Ran finally looked flustered. He turned his head and looked around. The dark crowd was watching him, but nobody sympathized with him.
He suddenly turned his head and looked at the sky outside the Law Enforcement Hall.
The mountains were looming in the distance, and he suddenly knelt down and kowtowed.
“Master, I beg you to save this person for the sake of past kindness!”
Nobody responded.
Only countless cold sneers and cold gazes fell on him like knives.
He Lanze: “The guilty should be punished, and wrongdoings should be readdressed. Heaven’s law is clear, and karma is rewarded.”
What he said was the Law Enforcement Hall’s commandment.
The punishment sword passed through Rong Ran’s dantian.
The dantian was the core of a cultivator’s vitality. Once the dantian breaks, the body’s cultivation level would flow out like mercury, instantly becoming nonexistent. However, the power of the punishment sword wasn’t just that. The sword qi would pierce the dantian and immerse itself in the meridian, destroying every inch of it.
In an instant, Rong Ran became a cripple.
Rong Ran’s pupils dilated. Because the pain was so intense, he couldn’t even scream. In an instant, everything he had worked hard for, what he was pleased with, the half of his life he had learned, all turned to ashes.
Just like his body losing the support of its cultivation base and falling to the ground, the Dark Incense Sparse Shadow did too. His body now had non-washable stains and incurable scars. And the bird he wanted to like the most, that proud bird- never returned to his cage.
The ulcerated scars on half his face appeared, and the limbs, still swelling, showed scary bruises. His hair soaked in saltwater snaked on his cheeks, and the blood trickled down from his chest and abdomen, making his already dirty clothes even more unbearable.
The disciples outside the Law Enforcement Hall were all taken aback by his appearance.
Rong Ran lay on the ground, convulsing in pain. Thinking that he was about to die, he suddenly saw a touch of white before him.
All the surrounding noise suddenly quieted.
He looked up to see a white-clothed crane cloak with silver hair and a high crown.
Qiyun Jun lowered his eyes and looked at him, mercilessly holding his Taiqing Duer Sword in his hand.
“Master!”
In his desperate situation, Rong Ran didn’t know where his burst out power came from. He crawled to Qiyun Jun’s feet. His bruised and swollen hands gripped the edge of Qiyun Jun’s outfit as if it was driftwood, leaving behind bloody handprints.
“Save me
 Master, save me
”
Qiyun Jun didn’t speak. The sword in his hand never exited its sheath.
It’s just that with the other person standing there, sword unsheathed, there was a sharp edge to him gazing at the world. Everyone was silent.
“Greetings to the Sect Master.”
“Gree, greetings to the Sect Master!”
Several elders in the hall stood up simultaneously. Deputy Sect Master Cheng also slowly got up from his seat.
“Senior Brother Ji, time flashed by. I haven’t seen you for two years. Is coming out from your retreat for your direct disciple?”
Only Deputy Sect Master Cheng dared to speak to Qiyun Jun like this in the entire Sky Sect. The two came from the same class, and before Qiyun Jun entered the heartless dao, their relationship was still deep. Of course, there was no “feeling” when entering the heartless dao. Cheng Zixu would rather talk to his wife overnight than deal with a block of ice, even if the ice cube were originally his close brother.
Qiyun Jun: “He’s no longer my disciple.”
He took out two pieces of a broken black jade pendant from his sleeve and threw them in front of Rong Ran.
“I had said it was the last time.”
Hearing this, Rong Ran’s face was pale.
Yes, when he asked Qiyun Jun to lead the team to the Netherworld, Qiyun Jun did say that it was the last time.
But at that time, Qiyun Jun didn’t say he was no longer his disciple.
The relationship between master and disciple in the cultivation world was close, especially with personal disciples. It involved a lot of karma. He believed that Qiyun Jun wouldn’t let him go so easily.
But Qiyun Jun was more decisive than he thought.
Rong Ran looked at the broken black jade in front of him, and the hand holding Qiyun Jun’s clothes gradually became weak.
“Banding together with outsiders, killing fellow sect members, these crimes are intolerable.” Qiyun Jun could tell where the Dark Incense Sparse Shadow came from, “Of course, you saved my life back then, so now I will keep your life. Henceforth, you and I are clear from any karma.”
The moment he brushed his sleeves, the wound on his chest and abdomen stopped bleeding.
“Take him out of the sect.”
Qiyun Jun ordered.
There was no chance for Rong Ran to intercede.
When his voice fell, the law enforcement disciples immediately came out. They raised Rong Ran’s arms and dragged him out.
His last hope was shattered, and Rong Ran’s face turned gray.
The body soaked in the water prison dragged a reddish watermark on the ground.
He seemed to think of something, his expression distorting. He looked at Qiyun Jun and suddenly let out a crazy sharp laugh.
“Our karma is complete? Hahahaha, you could never complete it!”
Qiyun Jun showed a rare frown.
During the sharp laughter, Rong Ran was dragged out of the Law Enforcement Hall, then into the crowd. The angry disciples drowned him out.
The three thousand long steps outside the sect were very long.
He was dragged and kicked down the steps. Up in the sky, there was the clear, intense sun. Around him, there were people’s distorted faces, distorted voices, and also himself, distorted.
He suddenly felt that this scene was very familiar as if he had experienced it.
Only at that time, he wasn’t the person dragged down the steps, humiliated, and trampled.
He was the one who walked on the steps and watched the show; that was him.
The scorching sun burned his entire body. He didn’t know how long it took before the endless rolling down the steps stopped.
The human voices faded away, and he was abandoned there.
The blood blurred his eyes.
He couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t move his body, so his sense of smell became extremely sharp.
Slowly, he began to smell the fester of the wound on his face.
——Stinky, unpleasant, and disgusting.
Just like himself.
After the trial was over, the people in the Law Enforcement Hall gradually dispersed.
Shen Shu wanted to get up and leave. However, he saw his master step to the front of the Law Enforcement Hall, crouch down, and pick up the two pieces of broken black jade Qi Yunjun left behind. Shen Shu walked over and saw Ye Yunlan holding the two dusty black jade, slowly wiping them with his sleeves. The snow-white sleeves quickly became dirty and looked off. Ye Yunlan looked indifferent and was expressionless.
When Shen Shu was about to ask, he suddenly heard a cold voice resembling ice.
“Why did you pick up those two pieces of broken jade?”
Shen Shu turned around and saw Qiyun Jun, who had gone and now returned, standing at the Law Enforcement Hall’s entrance.
The backlight concealed Qiyun Jun’s appearance. He could only see a black silhouette, tall and crowned with a crane cloak.
Ye Yunlan didn’t look at him and instead stared quietly at the ink jade in his hand.
The broken jade pieces were combined into one with mysterious ancient patterns engraved on them. The words “Sky Sect” were engraved in the center.
He said: “This was originally my item.”