Chapter 4774 — Who Do You Say It Was?

"Sophistry!" Huo Yudie and Ning Xuefei were so furious at these words that their pretty faces flushed crimson—only Wei Zhao, the accused himself, remained utterly unruffled, without the slightest trace of alarm.

"You can know a man's face but not his heart. Junior Sister Yudie, and Miss Ning, I advise you to keep your distance from this despicable wretch—otherwise you may never know when he'll do you in. You might even be counting his spirit jade for him after he's sold you off!" Ren Zhongyuan sneered.

"Vice Chancellor Liu, we've come this far—it hardly seems fitting for you to keep stalling without stating your position. Or have you truly made up your mind to shelter this boy?" Yi Xiaotian pressed at the opportune moment. He and Ren Zhongyuan had clearly planned this in advance: one aimed the spearhead at Wei Zhao, the other gave Liu Ziqi no chance to react—a two-pronged assault!

"Exactly! Whether or not this brat is the real poisoner, just seize him and run a soul-search on him—that will settle it. Are the lives of so many of us worth less in Vice Chancellor Liu's eyes than this one boy?" The others chorused their agreement.

Huo Yudie and Ning Xuefei were frantic at this. A soul-search inflicts irreparable damage upon the spirit sense; even a Nascent Soul cultivator subjected to one would suffer grievous injury to their vital essence and might not recover for decades. These people were plainly out to destroy Wei Zhao!

Liu Ziqi found herself caught in a dilemma. These people had been stirred up by Ren Zhongyuan and Yi Xiaotian, and even her authority would find it hard to suppress them now. The matter had truly become thorny.

But at this point Wei Zhao finally stepped forward, still wearing that light, unconcerned air, and looked at Ren Zhongyuan. "You insist so firmly that I'm the one who administered the poison—have you any substantive evidence beyond the wild fancies filling your own head? As I recall, everyone's belongings are inspected before boarding. Yet this was poisoning on a massive scale. So let me ask: how was such a quantity of poison smuggled aboard?"

His words left everyone speechless. Poisoning required poison—but to claim that so much poison could have been casually carried aboard was an insult to everyone's intelligence.

This was a top-grade ancient warship. Before boarding, every person had to submit not only to inspection by the crew but also to a specialized detection array. Under such stringent defenses, smuggling anything through was essentially impossible. On this point, the accusation simply did not hold up.

"Hah, you may fool others with this, but you can't fool me!" Ren Zhongyuan, however, was brimming with confidence. He grinned coldly at Wei Zhao and said, "You probably don't know this—my father is not only a seventh-grade alchemist but a renowned top-tier physician of the Eastern Continent. And as it happens, I picked up a smattering of his craft."

"Oh?" Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow noncommittally.

"Under normal circumstances, poison would indeed be hard to bring aboard. But I have just carefully studied everyone's symptoms, and I found they match exactly those of a legendary rare toxin. The name of this poison is the Heart-Piercing Sea Anemone!" Ren Zhongyuan declared with conviction.

"Heart-Piercing Sea Anemone? A venomous creature of the sea?" Liu Ziqi was startled.

"Precisely. This Heart-Piercing Sea Anemone is very common in the ocean, but since people so rarely venture beneath the waves, they know nothing of it. Only a very few pharmacological texts record it—and I happened to see it in my father's study." Ren Zhongyuan smiled smugly and looked at Wei Zhao. "So you had no need to carry any poison aboard at all. You simply waited until no one was watching, dove into the sea to gather a few Heart-Piercing Sea Anemones, ground them into powder, and slipped that into the food. The substance dissolves on contact with water and is colorless and odorless—no one could possibly detect it!"

This reasoning, which sounded so well-founded, was in truth nothing but a public confession of what he himself had done—only with the blame pinned on Wei Zhao's head.

The Heart-Piercing Sea Anemone was his own secret specialty. Had he not spoken of it himself, very few others would have known of such a toxin. The sea, after all, was the domain of sea beasts; even the most accomplished physician could scarcely come into contact with marine creatures, let alone study them closely.

At these words the crowd had a sudden revelation and turned reverent gazes upon Ren Zhongyuan, while Wei Zhao was effectively confirmed as the true poisoner. Of everyone present, only he had both the means and the opportunity to commit the poisoning. Whatever else might be said, he was the prime suspect—and on that point there could be no escaping it!

"That still doesn't prove Wei Zhao did the poisoning. You know so much about it—who's to say you didn't gather those Heart-Piercing Sea Anemones yourself to frame him?" Ning Xuefei retorted without hesitation.

"Exactly. From beginning to end it's all your own word. None of us know anything about the Heart-Piercing Sea Anemone—only you do. Doesn't that mean you yourself are a strong suspect?" Huo Yudie said with a cold stare.

"Junior Sister Yudie, don't let this wretch pull the wool over your eyes. As the old saying goes, the bystander sees clearest. Between him and me, who is more likely to have done the poisoning—I trust everyone present can see it plain as day!" Ren Zhongyuan wore the expression of a man grievously wronged, then abruptly turned to the crowd. "Wei Zhao and me—who do you say it was?"

"Wei Zhao! Of course it was Wei Zhao!" More than half the Eastern Continent disciples here had to look to him for their cues; at a moment like this, the choice was obvious.

Huo Yudie and Ning Xuefei were secretly frantic. At this rate these people would again pressure Liu Ziqi into using the soul-search on Wei Zhao. Then Liu Ziqi raised a hand to the crowd and finally declared her position. "Wei Zhao is indeed a suspect in the poisoning. But until evidence is found, I will only place him under surveillance and house arrest. You two—if you dare lay a hand on the Western Island consort without authorization, by all means, try it."

This one sentence left Ren Zhongyuan and Yi Xiaotian, who had schemed so painstakingly to create this scene, staring at each other in silence. Damn this old woman—she was too much of an obstacle!

But grumble as they might, Liu Ziqi's absolute strength was there for all to see. To step forward again at such a moment would be to offer oneself up as cannon fodder, and no one was a fool. The crowd could only sulk and shut their mouths.

"Very well. Since you all agree we cannot act rashly, then think hard about how to cure the poison. As for investigating the truth, that can wait. With no conclusive evidence and only this endless squabbling, we might as well all sit here and wait to die." Liu Ziqi's tone was unyieldingly firm.

Wei Zhao glanced at Liu Ziqi with some surprise. He had not had much contact with this academy magnate before—especially after that business of forcing Huo Yudie into a trade with Ren Zhongyuan, his impression of her had not been favorable. But now it had improved somewhat.

Though this academy magnate was a woman, she acted with decisiveness. First she had gone along with the crowd's wishes and placed Wei Zhao under surveillance—not convicting him, yet quelling the public fury.