"Who is so audacious, dare to murder another fellow disciple in the Heaven Sword Sect!"

"You're courting death!"

The sheer pressure coming from the thunderous voice was so heavy that even the elders felt their bodies shudder.

The owner of the voice, Elder Xian, descended from the sky while looking at Snowy with a cold expression.

"We've seen Second Elder!"

"Disciples greet Second Elder!"

Most of the people present gave a respectful salute to Elder Xian while lowering their heads, afraid to meet the latter's eyes—with the exception of Snowy and Elder Lan.

Snowy still imitated the others to greet the Second Elder, but she also stared at him squarely; her eyes were as clear as a mirror, devoid of any kind of emotion.

Elder Lan, on the other hand, was looking back at the man with an even colder expression than the former. The feeling of oppression that inflicted the people present quickly diminished as she released her own nascent soul spiritual qi.

Although she was the fourth elder and Elder Xian was the second elder, their cultivation was actually in the same minor stage known as the stabilization stage, so despite him being slightly stronger, he didn't have that many advantages when it came to spiritual Qi.

As they were equal in power and position in the organization, Elder Lan wasn't afraid to confront Elder Xian head-on.

"What are you trying to do, Elder Xian? We still have to continue the examination, do you want to interfere with my jurisdiction?"

"Don't say it as if I'm looking for trouble, Elder Lan." Elder Xian's cold expression was replaced with an amiable smile as he faced Elder Lan. As he went on, he put a concerned look on his face and said, "I'm just doing my duty as the Leader of the Law and Punishment Hall. After all, someone has violated the sect's rule by murdering another fellow disciple. There's no way that it can go unpunished, don't you agree? If this matter is spread outside.. I'm afraid the Heaven Sword Sect will become a laughingstock among the big sects. "

"But—"

"Cousin!" A sudden cry filled with grievances and hatred came abruptly as Elder Lan was about to give him a rebuttal. The owner of the voices pointed her trembling finger at Snowy, screaming. "You.. Why did you kill my cousin?! Don't you have a heart?"

Unsurprisingly, the crying girl was Xian Qingrou, who showed up with teary eyes and sobs, giving the impression of being so fragile, which easily made the men's hearts soften and want to voluntarily coax her out of her grievances.

If she pursued a career as a performer rather than a cultivator, she might have already become famous across the Easter Continent, judging from this magnificent performance.

Of course, as a woman herself, Elder Lan wasn't easily fooled by her deception and even made her more irritated and annoyed. As she had run out of patience, she bellowed at the girl who was weeping on her knees, "Shut up!"

Xian Qingruo's tear-jerking performance was put to a halt when a loud voice crashed into her ears, stunning her frozen. She bit her lowered lips and cursed Elder Lan inwardly for being a bully.

Watching Qingruo being reprimanded in public, Elder Xian's eyebrows knit a slight furrow and his lips twitched for a brief moment before he forced a smile despite his displeasure.

Although he treated her as a mere plaything, she was, at the end of the day, still one of his people. In the case of her being scolded in public, it truly made him lose a lot of faces.

"I'm sorry for her outburst, Elder Lan, but we can't just blame her either, can we? After all, it's very normal for someone who saw her family being murdered to not be able to contain her sorrow. If not for my status as an elder, I might have already taken action myself, since a promising youngster from my Xian family was wrongly killed here. Actually... I can't believe something so awful still happened even with you presiding over it. It's truly baffling, isn't it?"

"Hoo.. so you want to say that I'm responsible for his death?"

Despite his polite tone, Elder Lan easily caught some hints of mockery mixed within Elder Xian's words.

She didn't know whether it was intentional or not, nor did she know what his purpose was for provoking her, but with her temper, he could be said to be successful.

Elder Lan narrowed her eyes sharply, looking dagger at him while her hands crossed in front of her. She looked like a ferocious beast, ready to pounce at the slightest provocation.

"I didn't mean it that way."

He smirked and looked in different directions.

"After all, we all know who the killer is. Don't you think so?"

When she was about to defend Snowy out of her vexation at the Second Elder, Elder Lan suddenly choked her words back as she realized that Elder Xian had dug a pit for her to jump into.

If she interceded here, it could only make the matter more complicated.

The peaceful and harmonious situation in the sect on the surface was built upon a fragile power balance between the sect master's faction, the second elder's faction, and the neutral faction.

After she had shown her extraordinary abilities by breaking the sect's records in the second examination round, many people had focused their attention on Snowy. And given the fact that she was brought to the sect by Feng Xue, the disciple of the first elder who was supporting the sect master, she was automatically viewed as a part of that faction.

If Elder Lan showed her a favor, this could drive people to assume that she had been leaning towards the sect master's camp, thus breaking the balance. As many people didn't want this to happen, the rest of the neutral faction will have no choice but to side with the Second Elder Faction regardless of whether the assumption was true or not.

Hence, her current predicament.

Seeing that Elder Lan had her hand-tied, the edge of his lips curled upwardly. He now had the upper hand and decided to strike while the iron was still hot.

"Disciple Snowy, do you admit your sin?"

"I don't think so?"

Snowy tilted her head innocently as if she didn't even have a slight understanding of what he was talking about.

If Feng Xue was the one who saw this moment, she would've already packed her up and brought her home due to her cuteness having gone through the roof.

Alas, it didn't work that way with Elder Xian. On the contrary, it only made her look like she was just playing stupid in front of him.

"Unrepentant!"

With a roar, he tried to bring Snowy down to her knees, but against his expectation, Snowy's face that wasn't hidden by the veil wasn't even twitched in front of his might.

"Still dare to resist?"

Infuriated by what he saw, he used his full strength to oppress Snowy.

Bang—

As his force was being pushed back by surprise, he staggered a few steps back and coughed from the pain.

He first thought that Elder Lan couldn't bear it any longer and decided to jump into the fray, but it was actually someone else making their move.

"Don't you think you're being too hasty, Elder Xian?"