Chapter 28 - Murderer or Victim?

Whispers, whispers and whispers. Gloating, curiosity and satisfaction was depicted on the faces of the present disciples. Such heavy accusations formulated by an elder would bring consequences, the onlookers were ready to enjoy the show.

The elder didn’t aim his words at Devil Destroyer’s direct disciples to give her less ground for acting whilst trying to avoid a direct confrontation with her.

Before she could speak Falven took the word “We arrived at this point, I sincerely hoped to avoid this nonsense. These futile internal struggles are so pointless in the big scheme of things that I really would have preferred to not stump the frogs in a well that you are. Please everyone, I know I’m not your favourite buddy, but there are some individuals who want to mock the intelligence of everyone here. These brothers of yours dare to insult your judgement with false accusations. What’s worse is that even an elder of the majestic Devil Slaying Sect has joined this farce. Very well, hear me out honest and upright elders of this legendary sect. I have been attacked by the owner of this corpse now lying in his blood, that’s what happens when someone wants to sneak attack me. I have tried to escape to these forgotten lands but this disciple pursued me, his reasons are obvious. I beat the crap out of his cousin some time ago, this was his vengeance. But how could he dare to kill a core disciple of the sect you may ask, I am making this all up for sure. Don’t forget, my dears, he had Kuorn Muy’s support, who has followed him with his dogs and then tried to encircle and kill me once our fight ended. If it wasn’t for the arrival of my junior brothers I would have seriously risked my life. And surprise, the first ones to arrive are core disciple Devil Suppressor and some protectors, let me guess dear protectors, was Devil Suppressor talking to you not far away and because of serendipity a messenger sent by Kuorn Muy has found you and reported the aggression? Incredible that all these important disciples and their followers were so close to a deserted area with no importance at all and they were just so lucky to witness someone they despise killing a core disciple, a disciple who had all reasons to attack me and not the opposite”.

The long and sarcastic speech hit the mark. Kuon Muy was shriving in rage, his elder was silently staring at his bad mouthed opponent, while all around disciples started murmuring “I hate that haughty attitude, who does he think he is?”, “But his words do make sense, right?”, “Well, he might be right, but he’s already killed in the past, he could just exploit the coincidences to make it seem he’s been plotted against”, “Who damn cares what’s the truth? From one side our top disciples, on the other a lecher who’s insulted the Heavens and corrupted our beloved princess, do we really need reasons to persecute him?”, “That dog is even trying to blame our core disciple for plotting with Kuorn Muy to kill him, for how long are we going to leave him act so vilely?”.

The opinions of the disciples were not uniform, but resentment, jealousy and ulterior motives pushed them to group against the new disciple, venting their frustrations. He had times and times again surprised everyone, proving wrong their judgements in his regards. But his haughty attitude, privileged position and heretic words made many despise him even more. It was a relief for those disciples to attack him now, when he was the most vulnerable, even if he was not in the wrong.

Devil Suppressor was as calm as ever, as if the speech hadn’t touched him in the slightest “So tell me, if it’s too strange for us being not far from this desolate area, why have you led the victim right here, where your accomplices have helped you? Why were those two waiting in this area?”.

These words were enthusiastically welcomed by Kuorn Muy’s faction, if Fate Destroyer was attacking them for being in an area without apparent motives, the same went for the two youngsters.

Roaring Lion and Gentle Waters were surprised by the verbal attack, they looked up to Devil Suppressor and didn’t expect he would make things difficult for them. They were honest souls who devoted themselves to training, political intrigues were not their strength.

“The answer is very simple, they were training. I suggested them to. Here they could explode all their power without worrying about collateral damage or being disturbed, at least this is what I thought. If you want proof of my words, Princess Sayri and the Royal Lord are both witness of them, they’ll confirm my version”.

The involvement of princess Sayri changed the atmosphere. Many disciples considered the princess their goddess, she was both an elegant beauty and a wise cultivator, her name carried a unique charme. Imagining the princess as the support of the public enemy made their hearts tremble, they felt this was wrong, the truth they believed was getting compromised.

Kuorn Muy advanced aggressively towards Falven, hate filling his glaring eyes “You dare to call the Princess’ name for help, so shameful of you. It’s common knowledge you used some dirty tricks to corrupt her pure heart, clouding her judgement! You have disparaged the Heavens, put the sect in peril and plotted to bewitch our Saintess with your truth distorting words. Finally, the Royal Lord follows the Princess orders, we cannot accept this so called proof of yours and we can’t allow the princess to be further stained by your evil intentions”.

These words met the support of the crowd of disciples, they were looking for a way to separate the image of their saintess from the devilspawn before them, they couldn't admit the object of their adoration was siding with the origin of their stress.

This was the moment Falven was waiting for, he needed the elders to root for him, no matter the disciples' opinion, he couldn’t afford to be loathed by the elders at the moment.

Mountain Slayer was clearly against him, elder Evil Thunder had also good reasons to oppose him. With his demise his direct disciple would enjoy Soaring Hill and a better resource supply. Evil Thunder was the strongest elder, Falven needed the other four elders to unconditionally support him. He could count on Erudite Slayer too, the two had collaborated in perceiving the Slaying Laws and the elder wouldn't ignore his contributions, obviously elder Devil Destroyer was his firmest backer.

“Because my goal is to prove the truth to the experts here, I won’t lose time answering your senseless provocations” Falven then turned toward elder Erudite Slayer “Venerable elder Erudite Slayer, I have to impose a task on you. If you want, please analyse the ground where my two younger brothers have trained. If they have trained there all the time without sparing any effort, remnant laws and tracks of their attacks shoud still be on that land. This would prove they’ve sincerely trained using most of their chi and were not using this forsaken place as a hiding spot for murder”.

Kuorn Muy’s face changed, as if he had swallowed an insect, while the core disciple was as calm and confident as ever. He even showed an interested look, like he was genuinely intentioned to unfold the truth.

Erudite Slayer immediately approved “Please elders, come with me so that you can be witness of my words and actions. Anyone else can follow from behind, don’t get too close otherwise you might contaminate the environment”.

The two youngsters lead the elder to where they trained and Erudite Slayer took some time to examine the ground. It was a vast and desolate land, nothing except the bare soil was in sight. The terrain wasn’t levelled, holes and depressions were everywhere.

“The ground has signs of a recent fight indeed. Although I cannot be sure of who’s fought here, it’s clear that two disciples who practice slaying lawshave been training here in the last hours and they have just stopped recently”.

The meaning of the elder’s words was unambiguous.

“Your words were correct, but they don’t prove anything except that the two young inner disciples had been training in this area. They may be complete outsiders to this story, but this doesn’t change in the slightest the fact that you’ve killed a disciple of the sect and this is not the first time. Elder Evil Thunder, what do you suggest we do with him?”.

Elder Mountain Slayer cut to the chase, he needed to take action before the disciple could garner even more evidence of his likely innocence. The elder himself was now quite sure his own disciple had plotted against Fate Destroyer, but he needed to back him up until the end. With Evil Thunder's support, he still had hopes to seriously restrain this rising threat. At least he could prevent a trial against his own disciple for plotting against a core disciple. Sometimes the truth was not everything, strength was.

Silence, all disciples, protectors and elders were waiting for Evil Thunder’s answer, an important change in the sect could take place that night.