Chapter 4492 — Prove It

Suffice it to say that, as the young master of Qingtian Escort Agency, Qi Wenmo still had a long road ahead of him; if his scheming and calculation were ever to reach the level of an old fox like Hai Wuliang, he would need a great deal more tempering.

"You slander us! No one believe him—Hai Wuliang is just green with envy and can't stand losing, so he's maliciously smearing Longzhou Escort Agency!" The crowd had not yet digested this explosive revelation when Long Kuiba, face flushing crimson, rushed to refute it, while beside him Cheng Haonan's complexion had gone deathly pale—the worst scenario had finally come to pass...

"Slander?" Hai Wuliang smiled with unruffled ease, not even glancing at Long Kuiba, and turned to the crowd. "Everyone here has sharp eyes. Think back carefully to the matches between Wu Baoliang and Cheng Haonan—both of them carried a layer of eerie black qi. Surely that struck you all as somewhat strange?"

"They are plainly only at the peak of the Golden Core stage, yet Wu Baoliang and Cheng Haonan possessed strength far beyond that of ordinary Golden Core experts—even Nascent Soul experts might not be their match. Is that normal? Moreover, that eerie black qi upon them—I trust none of you have ever seen its like on a proper cultivator?" Hai Wuliang pressed his advantage without pause.

"Utter nonsense!" Seeing that everyone now wore thoughtful, doubting expressions, Long Kuiba hastened to defend himself. "By Hai Wuliang's logic, every expert capable of challenging above their level must be a heretic cultivator? You are the head escort of the mighty Four Seas Escort Agency—is your vision truly so narrow that you have never even seen a genius of this kind? As for the black qi, that is pure malicious slander without a shred of evidence—it is a secret technique never shared with outsiders. Is it so strange that none of you have seen it before?"

All eyes once again converged upon Hai Wuliang. Though doubt lingered in their hearts, his accusations did indeed lack solid proof; to strike Qingtian Escort Agency and Longzhou Escort Agency from the rolls on such thin speculation was, after all, a bit too far-fetched.

"Hmph. Still quibbling when death is at your door?" Hai Wuliang sneered. "Then by all means tell us—what kind of spiritual root attribute would a cultivator need to produce black qi? You think you can fob us off with the words 'secret technique'? That is far too easy."

"Secret technique or not, it must be supported by a spiritual root attribute. Among the common spiritual root attributes, there is indeed no possibility of producing black qi. Wu Baoliang is dead, so we cannot verify it through him—but Cheng Haonan should at least prove himself." Zhao Bufan suddenly cut in with this remark.

He had no wish to be used as a spear by Hai Wuliang, but if it could truly be proven that they were heretic cultivators, then the matter would be entirely different—and such a great merit must not be allowed to fall to Hai Wuliang alone. Otherwise, who knew whether this fellow might use it as a pretext to climb over everyone's heads; with Hai Wuliang's shameless thick skin, trading merit for points and ranking was hardly beneath him.

"He... he has an extremely rare variant spiritual root attribute—it is only natural that you have never seen it!" Long Kuiba said, a flicker of guilt in his voice.

At this point he could only grit his teeth and refuse to budge. A variant spiritual root attribute—that would explain both why he could fight above his level and account for the origin of the black qi, killing two birds with one stone.

Of course, his explanation was not without its flaw: whether it truly was a variant spiritual root attribute could be verified simply by using a professional spiritual root testing instrument.

The trouble was that ordinary spiritual root testing instruments were everywhere, but one capable of detecting a variant spiritual root attribute with absolute certainty was exceedingly rare. Such specialized, exquisite devices were kept in constant supply only at the academies of the Eastern Continent; in the chaotic waters of the Southern Continent, they were seldom seen. Cheng Haonan could only gamble that no such thing had been prepared on site—if so, he would at least have a shred of room to turn things around; otherwise, he would truly be staking his life and fortune upon it.

Sure enough, at Long Kuiba's words, Zhao Bufan and the others could not help but frown—they truly did not have on hand any spiritual root testing instrument capable of detecting a variant spiritual root attribute with absolute certainty.

"Heh. A variant spiritual root attribute?" Hai Wuliang laughed, entirely unhurried. Long Kuiba and his lot had delivered the evidence into his hands of their own accord; if he still could not bring down Longzhou Escort Agency after this, he might as well stop making his way in the Southern Continent. He said coldly at once: "Very well, then tell everyone—just what variant spiritual root attribute does Cheng Haonan have? Have him come out and demonstrate a basic martial technique, and we shall know at a glance!"

"Yes, yes—have him demonstrate!" The crowd below voiced their agreement one after another. They had been puzzling over it just moments before: why did Cheng Haonan never use basic martial techniques, relying solely on ordinary fists and feet? Even if that was his fighting style, for a peak Golden Core expert to not use even a single signature martial technique was far too bizarre.

And not only Cheng Haonan—even Wu Baoliang earlier had never displayed a basic martial technique of definite attribute, only one formidable technique that none of them could comprehend. Looking back now, the more they thought about it, the more sinister it seemed...

"This..." Long Kuiba was instantly dumbstruck; now even he did not know what to do.

For any heretic cultivator—whether cultivating from the start or entering the path midway—there was at least one point beyond dispute: before beginning their cultivation, all heretic cultivators must first destroy their former spiritual root attributes, because every heretic cultivation method runs counter to the norm, its very foundation rooted in opposing the spiritual root attributes.

Not only the five conventional spiritual root attributes, but even those rare variant spiritual root attributes must all be abolished—otherwise they would cause a fatal conflict within the body, and the sole outcome would be qi deviation and sudden death.

Long Kuiba was dumbstruck, and Cheng Haonan was dumbstruck as well. Even if it were a variant spiritual root attribute such as wind, rain, thunder, or lightning, at least it could be reasonably argued, and demonstrating a martial technique of the corresponding attribute would suffice—but how was he to manage this one?

Surely he could not claim to have a black-qi spiritual root? Where in the world was there such an absurd spiritual root? It might fool a three-year-old child, but to fool so many experts present—especially a shrewd judge of character like Hai Wuliang, who knew their true background—there was simply no possibility of that.

"Come on, then—we will not wrong a proper cultivator, nor will we let any heretic cultivator slip by. So long as you can prove you are not a heretic, I, Hai Wuliang, will kneel and kowtow to you in apology on the spot!" Hai Wuliang declared with righteous indignation, a cold smile on his lips.

Now Long Kuiba was utterly at his wit's end. In such a situation, no eloquence, however flowery, could avail him; say what he might, it was useless—only demonstrating a basic martial technique could clear him of suspicion, and that was a dead knot. (To be continued) R655