劍問蒼天 - 第76章 第四章 - 翰墨軒

The more Tian Buhui heard, the angrier he grew. With a cold laugh he said, "Daoist Brother Shangguan, if this treasure is truly so important, how is it that your Fenxia Valley could not keep a proper watch over it and simply left it lying about, until it somehow came to be connected with my disciple? By that reasoning, the men you set to guard the treasure must be worthless fools as well, I fear?"

Shangguan Lue flew into a rage and sprang to his feet. Tian Buhui gave no ground and shot up as well, and in an instant the atmosphere in the hall grew taut as a drawn sword.

Daoyan barked, "Junior Brother Tian, what do you think you are doing? Sit down!"

Tian Buhui shot Shangguan Lue a venomous glare, but in the end he dared not defy the sect leader before all present, and had no choice but to sit slowly back down. Daoyan turned to Shangguan Lue and said, "Daoist Brother Shangguan, we will of course give you an accounting. Rest assured of that."

Shangguan Lue gave a cold laugh and likewise sat back down.

Beside them, Shui Yue said with a touch of anger, "Qi'er, are you not coming back here?"

To her surprise, Lu Xueqi—who in days past had always obeyed her master in every word and deed—now seemed a different person altogether. She raised her head to Daoyan and said, "Sect Leader Uncle-Master, whatever wrongs Junior Brother Zhang may have committed, I beg you to examine them carefully and thoroughly. But he is absolutely no spy planted among our Canglan Sect!"

She looked straight ahead, her countenance grave and composed, as though she faced the whole world without the slightest fear, and said with resolve, "Your disciple Lu Xueqi is willing to stake her life as surety!"

For a moment everyone was struck dumb!

Even Zhang Qingyue himself gaped slightly, staring blankly at the woman kneeling beside him, and upon that snow-white skin, amid that frost-cold visage, there suddenly seemed to glimmer, faint and indistinct, a touch of tenderness.

"Your disciple Lin Jinghong is likewise willing to stake his life as surety for Zhang Qingyue!"

Almost at the very moment Lu Xueqi finished speaking, Lin Jinghong could hold back no longer. He rushed resolutely forth and knelt in the great hall, paying no heed to the purplish, liver-red color that had come over his master Daoist Cangyan's face. Casting all caution aside, he cried aloud, "Junior Brother Zhang has risked his life again and again for Qingyun; he could never be a spy from another faction. Your disciple grew up with him from childhood and knows this beyond all doubt. Sect Leader Uncle-Master, I beg you to weigh the matter carefully!"

The Perfected One Daoyan's expression at this moment could not have been uglier, yet just then, as though something had provoked them, a sudden commotion ran through the Qingyun disciples. Within moments, disciples from under Fenghui Peak, from Long Peak, and from Dazhu Peak all came running out at once, knelt together, and cried aloud, "Your disciples too are willing to stake their lives as surety for Junior Brother Zhang!"

The assembly paled. Looking closely, the three were none other than Zeng Shuyan, Qi Hao, and Tian Lingsu. At this, besides the Tian Buhui couple, Long Peak's Cangyan and Fenghui Peak's Zeng Shuchang all rose to their feet in utter astonishment.

By now the great hall was in utter confusion. Rage surged in the Perfected One Daoyan's heart; he thought, Are these rebellious disciples set on staging a mutiny today? Yet of all times, this was when so many fellow cultivators of the righteous path were present, and he could not afford a scene. As sect leader of the Canglan Sect he had lost every shred of dignity, and the fury rushed straight to his chest—yet for the moment he could not think what to do.

Just then he heard a light cough behind him. It was his disciple Xiao Yichen, who said softly, "Master, perhaps you should go back and rest a while, and deal with this again in a little while?"