Chapter 4495 — You Knew All Along?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Right, right. North Island isn't like these parts—here heretical cultivators are always lurking about, but over there the Threefold Pavilion keeps everything in perfect order. Never mind their own disciples; even the cultivator tribes all around have no soil in which heretical cultivators could take root." The crowd voiced their agreement on all sides.
Hearing these discussions, Hai Wuliang's expression changed despite himself. At this rate, things would spin out of control!
That Wei Zhao was a disciple of the Threefold Pavilion of North Island—even he had not known. After all, Wei Zhao had spoken of his origins only to Qi Wenmo and a handful of others when he first arrived in the Weihu Sea, and had never mentioned it again. Even if Hai Wuliang had sent men to investigate, such a thing could not have been uncovered in short order.
"You can't put it that way. Even if Ling Yi is a disciple of the Threefold Pavilion of North Island, that still doesn't prove he isn't a heretical cultivator!" Hai Wuliang hurried to refute.
"Oh? Then by your reckoning, Hai Wuliang, our Southern Continent Escort Alliance would never nestle in the same den as heretical cultivators—but the illustrious Threefold Pavilion of North Island would harbor them instead? Shall we write a letter to North Island and explain your doubts to the pavilion's upper echelons, Chief Escort Hai?" Qi Mingyuan said, eying him askance with a faint sneer.
"That is not what I meant!" Hai Wuliang shrank back despite himself. For all that he strutted and preened in these Southern Seas, looking every inch a local overlord, set beside an island power like the Threefold Pavilion of North Island he was less than nothing—they could send any proper senior figure and crush him in the blink of an eye…
"You keep saying that even a disciple of the Threefold Pavilion of North Island can't be proven not to be a heretical cultivator. If that's not what you meant, then what did you mean?" Qi Mingyuan said, his expression darkening.
"Hmph, according to this chief judge's investigation, that Wu Baoliang was once a disciple of North Island as well. Since he turned out to be a heretical cultivator, how can you prove that Ling Yi is not?" Hai Wuliang gave a cold snort, then added: "This chief judge has always held the Threefold Pavilion of North Island in high esteem, but in a power as vast as the Threefold Pavilion, it is only natural that a black sheep or two might slip in unnoticed. Wu Baoliang is proof enough of that!"
Everyone was taken aback once more. The day's business was growing more interesting by the moment—so even this Wu Baoliang had been a disciple of the Threefold Pavilion of North Island. That truly was unexpected.
"Wait a moment. Hai Wuliang, you say you investigated?" Qi Mingyuan's eyes suddenly narrowed. "Which means you knew Wu Baoliang's background all along, yet rather than move to stop him early, you sat back and let him enter the arena? Tell us, then—what was your intent in doing so?"
In an instant, the way everyone looked at Hai Wuliang turned intriguing once more. Anyone whose mind turned even a little quickly could guess what lay behind such a thing—but for Hai Wuliang, the assembly's chief judge who proclaimed fairness and justice at every turn, to have done such a thing was sheer hypocrisy.
By the prevailing winds of opinion in the Southern Seas, people would admire a local strongman who dared to act, but a hypocrite who said one thing to your face and another behind your back was despised even more than an outright villain.