Chapter 5191 — Ironclad Evidence
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"What evidence do you have?" Xin Yi'an asked in a low voice. Matters having come this far, he had to respond; otherwise it would be a dereliction of duty on his part as the leading uncle. Yet he could not simply grant Xue Jianming his wish either—unless Xue Jianming could produce solid, tangible evidence. Otherwise it was nothing but baseless conjecture.
"The move with which Qiu Lingshan turned defeat into victory happened to strike the vital gate of the snow-kill form's true-qi circulation. That is precisely why she was able to achieve a one-strike kill. Surely you cannot claim this was all a lucky coincidence born of random flailing?" Xue Jianming sneered.
Each of the great sects cultivated different methods, and their ways of circulating true qi differed vastly as well. Every move and every form had its own distinct emphasis in the flow of true qi, and so the vital gate of each move was entirely different. Take the snow-kill form: when executing it, the throat was the crucial gate of true-qi circulation. Strike the throat hard, and even one weak in strength could fell an opponent in a single move with ease.
Xin Yi'an could only look to Wei Zhao, hoping Wei Zhao would step forward and refute it himself. After all, there was indeed a certain logic to Xue Jianming's argument; to claim that Qiu Lingshan's final move striking straight at Luo Shasheng's throat was purely coincidence would be too far-fetched.
"Now you surely have nothing left to say? If not for this traitor Leng Leng, if not for her revealing our Snow Sword Sect's cultivation methods and the vital gates of our moves, how could Qiu Lingshan, with her paltry strength, possibly have beaten Luo Shasheng? So the evidence is now ironclad: Leng Leng is a traitor, and it is thanks to this traitor that Qiu Lingshan was able to turn defeat into victory!" Xue Jianming pressed his advantage and drove the nail home.
At this, the way the crowd looked at Leng Leng and Qiu Lingshan turned somewhat hostile. Though this affair seemed to have no substantive connection to them, it affected the fairness of the trial tournament. If Xin Yi'an still harbored any intent to shield them, he would be courting public outrage.
"Hold on. It is true that the moves Lingshan used happened to counter your Snow Sword Sect. But to fling mud at Leng Leng on the strength of such one-sided, arbitrary words—is that not rather unseemly? Or is it that your intelligence, Xue Jianming, amounts to only this much, that you can only burrow down this single dead end and conceive of no other possibility?" Wei Zhao, however, was in no hurry; he smiled.
"What did you say!" Xue Jianming was taken aback, then flew into a rage: "The evidence is ironclad, and you still want to quibble?!"
"And you have the gall to call this ironclad evidence?" Wei Zhao snorted in contempt, then said at his leisure: "Since that is so, allow me to ask you something. In yesterday's early-foundation-stage group of matches, it was not only your Snow Sword Sect that was countered. Were not the other Righteous Qi Sect disciples and the like likewise countered utterly by people like us? How do you explain that? Surely you do not mean to claim that every ancient sect has produced a traitor who volunteered to reveal their cultivation methods to us in advance?"
"That..." Xue Jianming was instantly struck dumb, while the rest began to murmur among themselves. On reflection, yesterday's early-foundation-stage group of matches had been exactly as Wei Zhao said: whenever one of his people took the stage, no matter which sect or school the opponent belonged to, the opponent was countered miserably. That was plain for all to see.