Chapter 4162 — Wei Shenjin's Hard Line

"Situ Qian, what in the world are you doing?!" Situ Guangzong's forehead bulged with veins, and he bellowed in uncontrollable fury.

The prestige he had painstakingly accumulated over so many years as an elder—all of it had been washed away in an instant by this madwoman Situ Qian's little stunt. From now on, when the other disciples saw him, they would no longer look at him with awe, but would point and whisper about today's affair, about the disgrace of the Situ family!

At the mere thought of it, Situ Guangzong wished he could strangle his own granddaughter to death on the spot with his bare hands!

Jolted by Situ Guangzong's thunderous shout, Situ Qian and Xiaoyuhua, who had been drowning in an endless sea of lust, finally regained a sliver of their senses. They turned their heads and caught sight of Situ Guangzong, who looked ready to devour them alive, and were frightened half to death—and then their hearts gave an uncontrollable, violent spasm.

Bang! The exposed chests of both women burst open at once, blood spraying in every direction, a horrifying sight—right there before everyone's eyes, their hearts had exploded and killed them where they stood!

For a moment, the entire hall fell utterly silent. Everyone, Situ Guangzong included, was struck dumb—none of them had ever imagined that the two women would simply drop dead, just like that.

An instant later, every eye in the room fixed on Situ Guangzong. What had happened today was no small matter—from Ma Shangfeng at the start to the two women's sudden deaths at the end, no fewer than eight people had died in all. This was an event without precedent!

Situ Qian and Xiaoyuhua's shameless, wanton display was especially vile in its influence. This was not merely a disgrace to the Situ family alone—once word spread, it would smear the entire Snow Sword Sect and even make them the laughingstock of all Central Island. The consequences were unthinkable.

"Investigate. Investigate this thoroughly for me. What exactly is the reason behind this!" Situ Guangzong ground out between clenched teeth. He was the highest-ranking elder with real authority present, and Situ Qian was his granddaughter—no one was more affected than he, and no one was more desperate to know the truth.

Situ Qian had made him lose every ounce of face, but any discerning eye could see that her sudden shameless, brazen behavior was plainly the result of drugs. There might well be something else hidden behind it all, and that was the only hope Situ Guangzong could cling to.

The matter was grave. The truth had to be uncovered as quickly as possible to quell the rumors—only then could the damage be kept to a minimum. The Snow Sword Sect's most elite enforcers were dispatched at once, and the first to be investigated was, naturally, Situ Qian's lawful husband, Wei Shenjin.

Wei Shenjin had long been prepared. He laid out the whole affair of Situ Qian's adultery with Ma Shangfeng, and when the news spread, the entire Snow Sword Sect was thrown into an uproar once again.

Ma Shangfeng's corpse lay right there for all to see. Add to that Situ Qian and Xiaoyuhua's conduct, which everyone had witnessed with their own eyes, and Wei Shenjin's account was soon accepted by all.

Not only had she committed adultery—in the end she had sunk so low as to spare not even passing strangers. Fornicating in broad daylight before a crowd, until she grew so overexcited that she dropped dead on the spot!

In an instant, Situ Qian—whose name was already on everyone's lips—became in public opinion a woman who would bed any man alive, a slut fit to be written into the annals of Cloud Terrace Island and enshrined as the archetypal wanton woman of all time.

To this, Situ Guangzong could offer no rebuttal. As her grandfather, he had in truth always known something of Situ Qian's character, and the adultery with Ma Shangfeng had been verified as fact—there was no twisting black into white on that point.

But if the case were closed on that account, the blow to the Situ family would be far too great. They might even be nailed to the pillar of shame for a thousand generations—and that infamy was more than the Situ family could bear.

"Wei Shenjin, you say Situ Qian committed adultery with Ma Shangfeng. I shall refrain from commenting on that for now. However, the reason she was so frenzied and so utterly unnatural today was clearly an overdose of drugs. That was your doing, was it not?" Situ Guangzong forced down the rage in his heart and questioned Wei Shenjin in a cold voice.

Situ Qian was a slut—that much he could no longer change. The only thing he could do now was shift the focus of everyone's attention, train every eye on Wei Shenjin and his killing out of resentment, so that at least the Situ family might suffer a little less.

"Elder Situ, are you suggesting that I plotted to drug them and so caused the deaths of Situ Qian and Ma Shangfeng and the rest?" Wei Shenjin shot back before them all.

"You harbored resentment, and doing such a thing is entirely understandable. I am not incapable of sympathizing with you. So long as you confess, I can consider a lighter punishment—I can even offer you some compensation, enough for you to live out the rest of your days in comfort. I hope you will think this over carefully before you speak." Situ Guangzong blended threat with enticement.

He had no particular desire to make an example of Wei Shenjin, still less any intention of avenging Situ Qian. The only thing he wanted was to erase the damage as much as possible.

"Elder Situ, I will not plead guilty to a charge fabricated out of thin air. It is true, as you say, that after I learned of her adultery with Ma Shangfeng, I did want to kill her to vent my fury. Unfortunately, I am a cripple now—I have no such strength at all. I cannot even use a spirit jade card. So where would I get the spirit jade to buy her drugs?" Wei Shenjin said with a bitter smile.

Situ Guangzong was left speechless. What Wei Shenjin said was true—buying medicine required spirit jade, and a cripple who could not even use a spirit jade card could hardly haul a sack of spirit jade around town. Such a thing would be far too conspicuous; someone would surely have noticed.

"Why not go and search my house? Take a look at Situ Qian's boudoir and you will see. It is full of things she bought. I trust it will open your eyes," Wei Shenjin said with a cold laugh.

He had once stood in great fear of elders with real authority like Situ Guangzong, but after coming into contact with Wei Zhao, he had suddenly realized that these so-called great personages were nothing more than that—sooner or later he would trample them beneath his feet.

At these words, Situ Guangzong's expression turned unspeakably ugly. Yet when the enforcers returned from their investigation at Wei Shenjin's home, his expression grew uglier still.

"The boudoir is full of filthy things for stirring arousal, along with no small amount of medicine—for both men and women—all of it from the Central Merchants' Guild, and none of it cheap," the enforcer reported.

This time, Situ Guangzong was utterly speechless. Goods from the Central Merchants' Guild were notoriously expensive, and Wei Shenjin, a cripple who could not use a spirit jade card, could never have afforded such medicine. In the end there was only one conclusion: Situ Qian, that wretched whore, had brought it all on herself—she had played herself to death.

"Very well. I understand. Do as you see fit." Situ Guangzong shot Wei Shenjin a cold glance, then stormed off in a rage, flicking his sleeves. In his eyes, four words were plainly written: know not what's good for you. (To be continued)