“Xu… Xu Xiaoshou?”
Zhao Xidong arrived at the scene of the murder and was flabbergasted when he saw the culprit.
When he saw the burst of Innate sword aura while flirting in the woods, he’d initially thought that it was Su Qianqian summoning him with sword aura. He totally didn’t expect to find the one responsible to be Xu Xiaoshou instead.
He was shaking all over with fury.
“This guy cost me my date with Mimi in the afternoon. If things had gone how they were supposed to, I should’ve been able to…” His thoughts trailed off.
“It’s bad enough that the kid screwed up my stuff. But why is it that every time something bad happens in the spirit palace, this guy is always present?
“Once last night, once in the afternoon, and one more time right now…
“Can’t you stop stirring up trouble for just one day!?”
The crowd around was apparently getting increasingly larger. The fireworks in the night sky had attracted a lot of attention and caused everyone to become extremely frightened.
Zhao Xidong’s call almost made everyone’s jaw drop to the ground.
“Xu Xiaoshou? He’s Xu Xiaoshou?”
“Isn’t that guy a disciple of the Outer Yard? Did he come here all the way to the Inner Yard… to kill someone?”
“Boy, he really is something indeed!”
“I’d like to see what’s going to happen to him next, hehe…”
If there was a real-time rank of famous people in the Tiansang Spirit Palace, then Xu Xiaoshou would definitely be in top place, and the reason for this was simple—there were a lot of rumors about his strange exploits.
He was the champion who’d been denied entry into the Inner Yard, was suspected of being the focus of that barricade plan for the spirit palace back then, and was also suspected to be the man backing Su Qianqian, and so on.
Everyone looked at the man covered in blood on the battlefield and gulped, as there was yet another line to be added to that list.
“If I’m not mistaken, those fireworks up in the sky were Zhao Shu, right?”
“He was one of the newly appointed Inner Yard Thirty-three, man…”
This was the very first time someone had strong doubts as to if he was fit to become one of the ordinary disciples of the Inner Yard.
Xu Xiaoshou was just someone at Spiritual Cultivation Level nine and a disciple of the Outer Yard, after all.
“Oh gosh, this world is going crazy. I must be dreaming here!”
Whack!
Doubted, Passive Points +22.
“D*mn, what are you hitting me for?”
“Does it hurt? Doesn’t appear to be a dream, then…”
“The h*ll??”
…
Respected, Passive Points +33.
“…”
Xu Xiaoshou glanced at the Passive Points and found that the numbers had already shot over 2000 from just one fight.
The one thing that had contributed the most Passive Points was the high frequency at which the ice spear had attacked him, hardly doing any damage, as he’d earned up to 100 points from that every second.
Due to the workings of his passive skills, his condition had recovered by more than half. Even if he were to keep fighting, he was confident he’d still be able to pull through.
But then again, it soon became clear that it would be impossible to do so, as more and more enforcers were already starting to gather around.
Xu Xiaoshou turned his gaze away from Yuan Tou and looked at Zhao Xidong. He immediately looked rather frustrated.
“Lord judge, you have to help me in this! They’re trying to kill me!” Xu Xiaoshou then pointed at Yuan Tou.
Everyone was speechless.
Hold on. Who the h*ell just killed someone here?
The bad guy was now playing the victim?
Doubted, Passive Points +52.
Zhao Xidong was in no mood for joking. Taking lives outside of the arena was a grave offense.
“Say no more. Come with us to the Spiritual Law Division. The Tribunal is waiting for you.”
Yuan Tou’s face immediately lit up with glee. Xu Xiaoshou would definitely be dead once he got to the Tribunal. Could his mission be considered completed?
But then again, Lan Xinzi had ordered him to take Xu Xiaoshou’s head within a day…
He shook his head. Given the powers of that man, there was no way the mission could be accomplished in one day. Giving him a month to prepare would’ve been more reasonable.
Xu Xiaoshou never thought that Zhao Xidong would become so cold and merciless toward him after just one afternoon without seeing each other.
He took back his snickering look and said seriously, “I was out taking a stroll because I couldn’t sleep. A disciple of the Inner Yard just came up trying to kill me. What was I supposed to do? Just roll over?”
“I did shout for you all to stop,” Zhao Xidong said sternly.
“No one shall ruin the might and authority of the law enforcers, even that person has a small relationship with Elder Sang,” he thought.
Xu Xiaoshou then smirked and said, “You were nowhere to be found when I almost got killed, and you asked me to stop when I’d just turned the tables in my favor?
“That’s cute!”
“If it’d been someone else other than me in that predicament, do you think you would’ve been able to see them? You only would’ve heard about the death of a disciple of the spirit palace the next day.”
Zhao Xidong was silent. He knew very well that what Xu Xiaoshou said could probably be true.
However…
“This is standard procedure. You’ll explain yourself to the elder over at the Tribunal.”
“Sure.” Unexpectedly, Xu Xiaoshou didn’t retort back. He simply pointed at Yuan Tou. “But this guy has to come with me.”
Yuan Tou was baffled. “What does this have to do with me?” he thought. “Did you see me do anything? I was only watching the fight the whole time!”
Zhao Xidong looked at Yuan Tou and frowned. He seemed to recall something. “Zhang Xinxiong of the Zhang family?”
Xu Xiaoshou was baffled, then he wore a look that seemed to say “I knew it.” “Seems like they sent you here, eh?
“Well, well, first there was Feng Kong, Shao Yi, and today… Zhao Shu, was it?
“Why don’t you people just take me out on your own, then? Afraid of getting caught? Or are you afraid of me, Xu Xiaoshou?”
Everyone around was silent. Some things were better left unspoken, as there were things that just couldn’t see the light of day.
While matters like that would happen time and again in the Inner Yard, it would only happen in the Inner Yard.
Yet, at the moment, some of the veteran 33 were actually sending people to assassinate a disciple of the Outer Yard.
That was indeed something that couldn’t see the light of day.
More importantly, the assassination attempts had actually failed.
Which was akin to saying that the Inner Yard disciples paled in comparison to one from the Outer Yard.
Yuan Tou saw how the public opinion was against him and immediately became flustered.
“This has nothing to do with any of that. This was just a personal feud. Xu Xiaoshou took the slot to enter the Tianxuan Gate from Zhao Shu, so he chose to do such a thing out of desperation, yet…”
He was unable to bring himself to finish the sentence, as no one would expect a newly appointed member of the 33 to lose to one such insect.
However, what Yuan Tou said astonished everyone around.
“A slot to enter the Tianxuan Gate?”
“Xu Xiaoshou actually got a slot to enter the Tianxuan Gate? That’s why Zhao Shu decided to kill him?”
“D*mn, that really explains it… By the way, how did Xu Xiaoshou manage to get a slot to enter the Tianxuan Gate? Isn’t this a little too much? There’s so many in the Inner Yard who couldn’t get it, so why him?”
“Heh, can you kill Zhao Shu, then?”
“…”
“Oh, shut up!”
The list of those who would enter the Tianxuan Gate had only been announced that very night. Few were actually in the know.
But now everyone knew about it.
Xu Xiaoshou was completely stunned. He’d initially thought that it was very easy for Elder Sang to get him a slot.
He’d never expected that getting one such opportunity for himself meant that someone else had to lose theirs.
“That old fart. Why didn’t he tell me that?
“Hmm, it’s not like him to tell me such things, though.”
It took him less than a second to completely process the situation, yet he felt compelled to ask the old fart what happened, nonetheless.
There were still things that were puzzling about the whole case.
If Elder Sang were to do such things again in the future, wouldn’t that make enemies for him everywhere, then?
“I still wanna live for a few more years, man!” he thought.
Seeing that Zhao Xidong was about to shift his stance, Xu Xiaoshou immediately added, “Even if Zhao Shu was only here to kill me because of the slot to enter the Tianxuan Gate, this matter still has a lot to do with this guy here.” He glanced at Yuan Tou.
“The two of them were here together. One came down to kill me, and the other came to keep watch. Don’t think you can fool me.”
Zhao Xidong was about to say something before Xu Xiaoshou further added, “Don’t bother asking. I don’t have proof.
“But I didn’t know that Zhao Shu was that weak back then. My first reaction after seeing that someone was trying to kill was to run.
Xu Xiaoshou then pointed at Yuan Tou. “Yet, it was him!”
“He was the one who cut off my escape route. If I’d been able to run back then, Zhao Shu wouldn’t have died.
“He was the killer, not me!”