BANG

The sound of a fist impacting the table echoed the room.

“You insolent trash how dare you talk to your elders like that.”

Right Chancellor Fu Kun stood up and yelled.

“You’re clearly guilty and I’ve tolerated you long enough!”

With a flick of his wrist a mixture of ki and his Will poured out and crushed Sun Jiao into a bloody mess.

All this of course didn’t happen and had only been a figment of Fu Kun’s imagination. Gritting his teeth he could only suppress his anger towards the prince.

Instead it was the target of the insult who rebuked after taking a moment to calm down.

“Useless words from a corned criminal. Speak if you have some defense , but this witness can only be seen to speak the truth. Perhaps you have some evidence to prove an alibi or a witness willing to sacrifice himself to vouch for you?”

Minister Tong felt a bit of pleasure in throwing Sun Jiao’s words back at him. He had originally wanted to simply punish a criminal, but having exchanged words he now was salivating at the thought of personally punishing this arrogant junior that gave no face to his senior.

Sun Jiao’s brow curled after hearing his own words, but he returned to a look of calm after venting his disdain with a snort. Sun Jiao didn’t expect to talk his way out of it, but he hadn’t expected to run out of options so quickly.

All that was left was for him to play his trump card.

“Hmph. I’m willing to-”

Xiaobo had been watching silently, but couldn’t stay quiet any longer.

Sun Jiao pondered for a moment before being enlightened.

Sun Jiao coughed to hide the lapse in conversation and resumed speaking.

“I am willing to wager with you. If I’m guilty of a single crime in that list then I’ll write my name backwards and you can do with me what you will, but if I’m innocent then you’ll serve as my slave. If I tell you to climb a mountain of blades you’ll climb without question. If I tell you to swim a sea of fire you’ll jump in without thought.”

Minister Tong couldn’t help but pause and think. If he had been the one to propose that wager then he would have been a hundred percent confident in winning. He couldn’t help thinking that since Sun Jiao proposed it... then doesn’t that mean he’s a hundred percent confident in winning?

Seeing Minister Tong’s hesitation Sun Jiao couldn’t help, but egg him on.

“Oh a coward? In that case we can overlook this matter and pretend all this never happened. Only I expect you to slap yourself and ask for forgiveness for wasting our time.”

Minister Tong was unable to figure out what Sun Jiao was planning, but with that it clicked into place.

‘So you want to bluff your way out of things huh? Too arrogant!’ he thought to himself.

“I’m no coward! I won’t allow you to get away with your crimes! I’ll accept your wager.”

“Then it’s a deal. I’ll submit myself to a soul search and you can ask me if I’m guilty of the crimes that witness says I committed.”

As the minister of justice Minister Tong was no fool. He had many dealings with the slimiest and craftiest of criminals which gave him the experience necessary to spot the trick behind Sun Jiao’s plan.

“So you’re saying I can only ask about that one witness then?”

“You can ask any one question as long as it pertains to the cases.”

‘He’s probably not guilty of the witness claims, but how could I get that wrong? Maybe the witness misspoke a detail or some other excuse causing him to be innocent. Expecting me to ask about that crime and use that as proof against the other crimes are you? Then I’ll just ask about another crime. He has to be guilty of at least one of these crimes they can’t all be wrong, but I have to be certain. Unless...’

A sly grin grew on Minister Tong’s face.

“All of you will act as witness. Sun Jiao will submit to a soul search and I will ask a single question about his guilt in regards to these crimes. If he’s guilty then he will cut off all ties with the Sun family and be punished to the full extent of the law. If he’s innocent then I’ll serve him for the rest of my life. Does that sum things up?”

Sun Jiao snorted and nodded without saying a word.

Minister Tong looked around the table and stopped on Sun Shen. Sun Shen’s approval was the only one he needed. If the first prince agreed then the rest would have no choice to follow since this was an important Sun family matter.

Sun Shen was resting his chin on his fist and with his other hand waved in an off-hand manner for him to continue.

“Good then let’s begin. I’ll conduct the soul search.”

Minister Tong walked around the table and stood in front of Sun Jiao. Extending his hand he placed it just in front of Sun Jiao.

Sun Jiao prepared for the process as Xiaobo instructed. He opened up his consciousness and suppressed his Will power.

Minister Tong began the soul search technique.

The technique involved connecting two souls together and allowing one to completely surround the other. From there it could then detect any attempts at deceit.

This was dangerous for the questioner since the soul was defenseless without Will power as Will power would react violently when it encounters another soul.

This meant that Sun Jiao would have to control his Will power to prevent it from attacking.

Some of the other ministers began to question if Sun Jiao would wait until Minister Tong started and then attack the soul directly. Even though the strength of Minister Tong was like the heavens and the strength of Sun Jiao was like the earth it wouldn’t matter if the soul was attack directly.

With the heaven council watching over them would Sun Jiao attack?

Minister Tong didn’t think so and extended his soul into Sun Jiao’s consciousness.

Cao Hai, Fu Kun, and the other ministers held their breath as the technique continued.

As his soul began to surround Sun Jiao’s soul even Minister Tong couldn’t help but swallow due to nervousness.

Like molasses it slowly covered Sun Jiao’s soul and only after completely surrounding it and a dull look came over Sun Jiao’s eyes did Minister Tong relax.

Now that Sun Jiao’s soul was surrounded Minister Tong’s soul was safe from attack. Not only that, but with a single thought he could crush the defenseless soul.

Seeing the defiant light in Sun Jiao’s eyes fade, Right Minister Fu Kun couldn’t wait to see Sun Jiao admit his own guilt and spoke up.

“Hurry up and ask him if he committed the crimes the witness said!”

Minister Tong’s smile had never faded and now that he was moments away from victory he wanted to bask in the glory a bit before asking.

“Haha Right Minister you were tricked!”

Misunderstanding the meaning this time Left Minister Cao Hai spoke.

“Oh? You lied about the witness? An impressive bluff.”

“Thank you Left Minister, but I cannot take credit for bluffing. No the one who tricked Right Minister Fu was none other than the second prince.”

A light sparkled in Cao Hai’s eyes as he couldn’t pass up a chance to poke fun at his rival.

“Oh Minister Fu was tricked by a junior? Hehehe how embarrassing.”

Fu Kun’s brow twitched and he quickly lashed back.

“Don’t act all superior you don’t know the trick either do you?”

Cao Hai’s gloating look turned into a coughing fit before he straightened himself out and replied in a dignified matter.

“Ahem. Of course I know, but how could I not give Minister Tong face and let him explain? Minister Tong, if you would?”

Cusping his hands Minister Tong replied.

“Thanks Minister Cao. Minister Fu cannot be blamed for falling into the trap as I am partly to blame. The evidence I provided was compelling and by all rights should be correct. Why then would Sun Jiao wager his life? The answer is that he’s confident that the witness is wrong or that he isn’t guilty of the crimes the witness said.”

“Then how do you expect to win?”

An impatient Minister Fu pressed on.

“He might not be guilty of that crime and maybe even even innocent of other crimes in the list as well. My one question won’t be about one crime. Instead I’ll ask him if he’s guilty of any crimes in the list at all. He can’t be innocent of all of them!”

The ministers at the table began to murmur amongst themselves.

“Oh quite clever! Sun Jiao’s certainly guilty of something.”

“Haha, seeing him stand there with that dumb look on his face is quite refreshing isn’t it?”

“If it was anyone else I might feel bad for them, but that arrogant prince is just getting what he deserved.”

If the list was only ten crimes Minister Tong would wager that Sun Jiao was guilty of nine. But, not only was the list of crimes quite extensive, Sun Jiao only had to be guilty of one to lose the bet.

Motioning for quiet Minister Tong took in a breath and savored his victory. Sun Jiao had run out of tricks and was in the palm of his hand. He only had to say a few words and he’d be victorious.

“Sun Jiao!”

“Yes.”

With an emotionless voice Sun Jiao replied.

“You’ve read the crimes on the jade slip. Cor-”

Minister Tong stopped talking and pretended to cough. .

“Haha close one. I almost asked my question and lost the bet.”

The surrounding ministers laughed and thought to themselves that even with his life on the line Minister Tong was confident enough in his victory to joke!

“Well then. Without further ado; Sun Jiao are you guilty of any crime that’s listed on the jade slip?”

The surrounding ministers all sucked in their breath. Even Sun Shen’s eyes opened without signs of sleep as he looked on with interest.

“No.”

The sly smile that had been present on Minister Tong’s face was frozen in place as all the surrounding ministers gasped.

After recovering from their shock the surprised look hidden by their hoods turned to ones of pity directed towards Minister Tong.

It was impossible for Sun Jiao to lie under the effect of a soul search. They wondered how he could be innocent of everything, but it didn’t matter as the wager was set and Minister Tong had lost.

The truth was that Sun Jiao’s soul didn’t lie. He truly didn’t commit any of the crimes as he was on earth the entire time! It was only recently that he arrived and nothing he’d done was on the list.

That was Sun Jiao’s trump card.