Chapter 147: Deliberations (Patreon)

“We’ve searched extensively, but the culprit did not leave any traces behind… besides those of the attack, of course. Nor does anyone seem to have seen them, neither the guards not the personnel on duty.”

Liu Wei frowned. It wasn’t surprising that this plan had been carefully executed, after all framing an elder was definitely sufficiently dangerous territory to warrant it, but it was rather inconvenient.

“What about the victim?”

“As far as we could tell, Yifei Xia was neither politically involved, nor particularly ambitious. Despite her talent and comparatively advanced cultivation, she was fully content in her position as a healer. That actually made her a particularly valuable asset to the Xia Family as a reliable and uncomplicated source of income and favor from those she healed.”

“A good target to take out to hurt the Xia Family”

Lan Shi nodded.

“But also someone not too troublesome for them to discard at the right moment.”, she added.

Liu Wei sighed.

“Well, unfortunately I don’t think that helps us determine the culprit.”

“We did also inspect the detection formations, but there was no evidence of tampering.”

Lan Shi shook her head.

“So that’s a dead-end too.”

“That I disagree with.”, Liu Wei responded.

Even with the candleholder artifact, there was no one inside the sect who could have performed the attack that killed Yifei Xia – besides him of course – so they knew for a fact that the culprit had to have entered the sect from outside. For a cultivator of that level to do so undetected, the sect formations had to have been tampered with. The fact that no evidence of such a tampering existed was actually more revealing than if it had.

“It narrows down the list of suspects to those who could have smuggled someone into the sect – and possibly out of it as well – without leaving behind such evidence.”

The sect’s defensive formations, including those made to detect the approach of outsiders, were impeccable; one would have to look far beyond the peninsula to find better ones. To his estimation, there were only three elders inside the sect that may have been able to smuggle a powerful cultivator through them like this:

Long Zhao, who, as the sect patriarch, had the highest authority and access to the formations, Sun Liang, who was the most skilled formation master of their sect and oversaw their maintenance, and Yue Zhong, the peninsula’s greatest expert in stealth techniques.

Notably, Liu Wei did not believe Meixiu Xia or her family capable of such a feat. They were incredibly influential diplomatically and undoubtedly most capable schemers, but they simply lacked the skill to pull off something like this. This was the most compelling piece of evidence against the Xia Family’s involvement so far.

“I see. But that is only relevant from a position assuming your innocence, not any proof or indication of it, so you won’t be able to use it at the trial.”

Liu Wei nodded.

“Indeed not. Have you heard from Elder Lai?”

“He has not been able to come to a conclusion yet.”

“I see.”

As substitute leader of the Alchemy Hall, Guang Lai had more options to access the sect treasury than most. Still, the treasury was expansive and confirming that something was not there was a more difficult task than it sounded.

The two remained silent for a long time.

“The trial will be held in a few hours.”

“It will not end in my favor.”

“But…”

Liu Wei shook his head. He’d mostly expected this from the start.

“We have nothing that suffices to call the accusation against me into doubt. Presenting our theories would only serve to let them patch up any possible leads while not changing the outcome.”

Lan Shi starred at the table with a locked-up jaw.

“Elder Shi, please understand that I am not giving up, not am I asking you to do so.”

Lan Shi looked up with a questioning look.

“I will continue to investigate this case. And I will find out the truth, regardless of how long it takes me. The initial outcome of this trial is irrelevant to that. Patience is a powerful guide in the search for justice.”

Lan Shi’s expression grew determinate.

“The Enforcement Hall will report that it found no additional compelling evidence regarding the murder and that it considers the case to be closed with the Patriarch’s decision for now. And we shall aid you in your search.”

…

Long Zhao was uneasy.

This murder was a concerning act on its own, but that alone wouldn’t have troubled him like this. No, it was simply one more in a growing chain of events that had been happening out of his control.

It wasn’t so much that his authority as sect patriarch had been diminished – it had, in fact, only strengthened after the successful war. Both the members of his sect and the subordinate sects saw him as the clear leader of their sect and hadn’t dared to challenge his authority. It was more so that, despite his authority, the actual happenings of the sect were more and more slipping from his grasps.

Ever since Elder Wei had joined the Reform Faction, they had succeeded in bringing a great deal of change to the sect. Long Zhao would label none of it as particularly catastrophic on its own, in fact some of it could probably even be called beneficial for the sect, but there was no denying that they had a great deal of momentum that he had failed to get a hold off.

That, however, was the lesser of Long Zhao’s worries. Not because it was insignificant, but because the far more problematic issue was that, with the recent developments, he didn’t feel like he could trust the other pillar families anymore. ‘Trust’, of course, was a strong word and what he’d had had never been unreserved to begin with, but recent events had still very much shaken it.

And two of the people responsible for that were sitting across the table right at this moment.

Long Zhao took glanced thoughtfully at Meixiu Xia and Yue Zhong over the edge of his cup as he took a sip of the herbal tea they had been served.

“Let us discuss Elder Wei’s trial then.”, Meixiu Xia opened in an uncharacteristically cold tone. Long Zhao supposed that it would be odd for her to maintain her usual benign demeanor under the circumstances.

An integral member of her family had been murdered; someone she would have personally known for over two hundred years. And while the initial evidence pointed to Elder Wei, Long Zhao was personally almost certain that he was being framed by one of their own allies.

The whole affair didn’t fit with whom he believed Elder Wei to be. He’d observed him ever since he had become an Elder and even before his mysterious change of mind after his last breakthrough, the man had never been one to kill his enemies in the shadows. Even if he had, of course, going about it like this would have been beyond stupid. That alone was enough to catch Long Zhao’s suspicions.

The other pillar families, on the other hand, had more than enough motive to strike against the Xia Family. After all, Meixiu Xia had been the one to rather aggressively move against them in recent times. While Long Zhao wasn’t aware of the exact extent of her involvement in the Peng Family’s internal struggle, he was rather certain that the newest elder was somewhere between a subordinate and a puppet to her.

“Of course, let us. Given that it was your family that suffered the attack, I believe that you should begin, Elder Xia.”

“Then let me begin by stating it out loud: I do not believe that Elder Wei was the true culprit behind this attack; or if he was, I believe that he was acting in concert with someone else.”

“We are in agreement on that, Elder Xia.”, he affirmed. Yue Zhong nodded along.

“That is to say, I want revenge against whoever was behind this.”

Long Zhao agreed with her on this. His family hadn’t been the one to suffer from the attack, but as the sect patriarch he certainly couldn’t let something like this slip.

“I understand your feelings, Elder Xia.”

“We cannot punish those we do not know.”, Yue Zhong interjected.

“Would you have me just let the matter go then, Elder Zhong?”

Meixiu Xia shot a sharp glare at her fellow elder. It wouldn’t have escaped her that she was certainly among the people who could have been behind the murder, and the accusatory undertone in her question was clear. Yue Zhong did not return any hostility, keeping up her usual neutral expression as she calmly took a sip of tea before answering.

“Unless the Enforcement Hall has caught something that has escaped all of us, which…”, she paused to take a sip of tea, “I believe to be highly unlikely, there is simply nothing we can do about it.”

Long Zhao sighed.

“I have to agree with Elder Zhong on this. The trial has to go ahead before the sect assembly tomorrow and unless Elder Wei can offer us a solid alternative, we will have to convict him. Many of our subordinate sects and allies have sent delegations to show their respect, we can’t present them with the image of a sect submerged in its internal struggles.”

“Don’t misunderstand me: I take no issue with convicting Elder Wei. Whether he was involved or not, this presents a perfect opportunity to take the wind out of the Reform Faction’s sails and bring down his reputation.”

Long Zhao flinched slightly at the brazen opportunism of using such a situation for political advantage against a likely innocent man, but truth be told, he was willing to do just that as well.

As much as he did not trust either of the two elders sitting at the table with him right now, their threefold alliance – or the triumvirate, as he liked to refer to it – had been remarkably successful in taking over control of the sect. Their three families had already been in strong positions a hundred years ago, when it was formed, but ever since then they’d been able to extend their influence much further. For far over fifty years now, they had reigned supreme over the sect, with no other pillar family coming close to their influence.

That, however, had arguably come at a much greater cost than one could initially make out. Their monopolization of power had contributed significantly to the already ongoing degradation of the relationships between the other pillar families. They had, in fact, been happy to stoke the fire and watch their rivals fall. As a result, even as they had held the reigns over the sect, lost control of its overall trajectory.

As Ma Rong’s tireless work had grown the reform faction, the Triumvirate had been too busy securing the benefits of his genius alchemical mastery to care. When he had taken control of the Alchemy Hall from the Rong Family, they had stood by. When Elder Peng had ruined his family’s position with his reckless behavior, they had watched gleefully. Even when Elder Wei had joined up with the Reform Faction, they had decided to use his actions to their advantage against the other pillar families instead of resisting them.

As a result of all of this, the pillar families’ faction was in disarray as they faced a united Reform Faction that was only continuing to grow more powerful. Long Zhao couldn’t let go of this opportunity to put a halt to their advance, even if he had to go against his conscience to do so.

“Then what do you want, Elder Xia?”

“I simply don’t want this case to end with this trial.”

“A reasonable request, so long as it doesn’t disturb the sect’s outer image. What do you propose?”

“Well, apart from the fact that my family will naturally be continuing our investigation, I have a specific sentence for Elder Wei in mind…”