Chapter 1307: Gathering of All Sides

Chapter 1307: Chapter 1307: Gathering of All Sides

The atmosphere in the hall was strange. After saying that one line, Lin Ruxue and Lin Junzhao passed through the hall and entered the back chamber, leaving a houseful of people waiting here. The others were still fine; they returned to their original seats and waited quietly. But the White Deer Institute’s mountain chief Su Fengchen and Li Ang, who had come in later with Lin Ruxue, could clearly feel how out of place they were compared to everyone else in the room. All the gazes probing them dodged away in a guilty flurry. Several times Su Fengchen wanted to say something, but the moment the others noticed his intention they immediately turned their heads aside, leaving him enormously embarrassed.

Su Fengchen and Li Ang exchanged a glance, their hearts instantly growing uneasy. From the incident the previous night up to today, the two of them had been completely isolated from the outside world: one was confined under watch in the old villa of the Peach Blossom Spring, the other was taken into the palace and punished in the Land of Bitter Cold. Yet, as far as Su Fengchen knew, the other Sect Leaders should have received the same treatment as he. And although Li Ang had been imprisoned, her cultivation hadn’t been sealed. From her senses, this Liu Xuanji had, like her, been locked up all night as well; he’d just left a little earlier than she had this morning, that was all.

Could it be that the other side had seen some flaw in what he did the night before? A sudden incident leaving behind a few flaws was normal enough, but according to his arrangements, there shouldn’t have been any way for others to discover it so quickly. Without solid evidence, he would always have grounds to argue. As long as he muddied the waters and rode out this storm, he would return and immediately set about arranging for the entire sect to withdraw from the Daoist Plane.

Thinking of this, Su Fengchen once more swept his gaze around the room and finally fixed it on Pei Yan. This man who could not sit still was like some coarse village bumpkin squatting at the doorway, holding a mantou that had somehow been pulled out from who-knew-where and breaking it into pieces to throw into the pond in the courtyard. In the end, it seemed he realized the koi in the pond had no interest whatsoever in his food, so he flew into a rage, stood up, casually condensed a few thin slips and flicked them sideways. One after another, they struck the previously calm surface of the water, sending ripples spreading out and startling the fish within the pond into frantic flight. Having exacted his petty revenge, he broke into a pleased grin.

"Mr. Pei is in quite the good mood, I see!" Su Fengchen was the first to speak, breaking the deathly silence in the room and drawing everyone’s attention over.

Pei Yan didn’t turn his head. He condensed the slips in his hand into an iron rod, stood at the entrance of the hall, and planted the rod into the snow in the courtyard, scribbling idly back and forth. Hearing the question from behind, he chuckled and said, "Good mood? You call this a good mood? Hah, back home my old man calls this ’itchy hands.’ I’m just bored out of my skull and don’t feel like sitting in the room staring at each other with big eyes and small eyes, so I’m finding myself something to do."

"Uh~!" This bluntness left Su Fengchen at a loss for how to respond. After a moment he finally came back to himself, forced a couple of dry laughs, and continued, "I’ve heard that it is Mr. Pei who is in charge of investigating the suspect behind the attack on your sect. Ah, our White Deer Institute has unfortunately been dragged into this affair as well, and now the Spirit Lord has summoned us all together here. I wonder if that means you’ve already found something?"

After the series of events last night, everyone present in the hall already knew the truth. As for Su Fengchen’s little performance, they all tacitly chose silence. Only Liu Xuanji let out a cold snort of open contempt. To this question from Su Fengchen, Pei Yan finally gave a response. He turned his head slightly to look at the man, a hint of hesitation crossing his face, and said with some difficulty, "That’s hard to say! This is something I need to report in person to your Spirit Lord. Are you sure you want to hear the results of my investigation before your Spirit Lord does?"

"Oh! Oh! I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare! That’s how it should be, how it should be! I let my concern get the better of me and spoke out of turn!" Having run headfirst into Pei Yan’s cold shoulder, Su Fengchen could only hurriedly back down.

"Hmph! ’Concern got the better of you,’ you say! Sounds more to me like a guilty conscience!" Liu Xuanji picked up the teacup on the side table next to his chair, took a sip, and mocked him in a tone that was neither light nor heavy. Having been schemed against and forced to bow his head in front of juniors, now that they finally had the handle on the real culprit, Liu Xuanji couldn’t possibly swallow this breath for long.

"Elder Liu, what is that supposed to mean? Clearly it was a problem within your own sect, yet our White Deer Institute was dragged into it and our reputation ruined. Even so, we’ve never spoken a single word of complaint against your sect." Finally someone was willing to respond; Li Ang naturally wouldn’t let the chance slip, letting out a cold snort in retort.

"What is it supposed to mean? The truth! You people know perfectly well what your sect has done." Liu Xuanji slammed the teabowl down onto the side table with a low growl.

"You—!" Li Ang shot to her feet with a whoosh at his words, but Su Fengchen seized her wrist and pulled her back into her seat. Smiling, he tried to mediate: "Don’t be impulsive! Look where we are. As for who’s right and who’s wrong, I believe the Spirit Lord will make a fair judgment. Brother Liu, you should calm down as well. I know recent events have been deeply entangled with your sect, but I’m sure there’s some misunderstanding in all this. In the end, the truth will come out and clear your sect’s name."

"Hmph! You and I—"

"Junior Brother!"

Liu Xuanji’s swordlike brows arched as he heard the barbs in Su Fengchen’s words and he was about to retort, but a sharp shout from Mo Baiqi cut him off. Knowing that arguing now would be meaningless, Liu Xuanji flicked his sleeves and sat back down, no longer sparing the other man a single glance. Just then, as the two were quarreling, a series of footsteps sounded from outside the courtyard. Under Lin Daozi’s guidance, a procession of graceful, pretty maids, each holding a food box in her hands, walked in from the outer courtyard.

These maids did not enter the hall but instead went to a pavilion in the courtyard. Pei Yan watched the scene before him with curiosity. He noticed that the pavilion, which had originally only been able to seat four or five people, began to sprout extra pillars out of thin air under the urging of Lin Daozi’s finger. As the additional pillars extended outward, the pavilion’s roof also expanded. In no time at all, the pavilion occupied nearly half the courtyard; even with more than twenty people seated inside, it would not feel cramped.

Once he was done, Lin Daozi took a large round table from his Qiankun Bag and set it in the center of the pavilion. He then instructed the maids to lay out the steaming dishes from the food boxes onto the round table. With the maids serving the dishes in a smooth, flowing rhythm, the table was soon piled high with delicacies.

Pei Yan’s fingers were already itching at the delicious aroma wafting from the food, but his attention quickly shifted to the chairs the last group of maids carried in and placed around the round table. Nineteen chairs?

How could there be nineteen chairs? The elders of the five sects plus the two Supreme Generals of the Jinwu Guard and Commander of Embroidered Uniforms Mao Xiang, add himself, then Lin Ruxue and Lin Junzhao—altogether that’s only sixteen people! Oh—could it be that a few of Lin Ruxue’s disciples would also be taking seats at the table?

Just as Pei Yan was puzzled, Lin Ruxue, who had just gone into the back chamber, chose this exact moment to reappear before everyone. The people in the hall once again rose to their feet to salute her. Lin Ruxue waved her hand and said self-mockingly, "All of you have worked for me for many years. To my shame, we haven’t met that often over these years, but it’s not as if we’ve met rarely either—yet we’ve never once sat down to share a meal. As the Lord of the Immortal Palace, doesn’t that make me a bit too cold and unfeeling?"