Chapter 127: False Accusation

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: False Accusation

After spending several hours helping harvest the medicinal herbs in the sect’s herb garden, Sui Sui finally finished his work. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stretched his sore shoulders before gathering his belongings. It was getting late, and he still needed to return to Elder Shan Li’s residence to check on the Spirit Jade Fruit Tree. More importantly, he had to take MuMu back to the probationary disciples’ dormitory with him, Sui Sui didn’t want to leave him wandering around the elder’s courtyard any longer than necessary.

With that in mind, Sui Sui made his way toward Medicine Peak to Elder Shan Li’s Residence.

However, the moment he arrived at the back of elder Shan Li’s residence, he was astonished by the sight.

What on earth was this?

Two people were hanging upside down in midair, each suspended by thick green vines wrapped tightly around one leg. Their robes had fallen toward their shoulders, their hair hung toward the ground, and both were twisting and kicking desperately in an attempt to free themselves. Their increasingly frantic struggles only made them sway back and forth beneath the branches, creating a rather ridiculous sight.

Sui Sui stared at them for several seconds, wondering whether he had somehow entered the wrong courtyard.

Then he noticed MuMu.

The little beast was floating comfortably off to one side, watching the two captives struggle as though he were enjoying a particularly entertaining performance. He had a perfectly ordinary fruit clutched between his paws—not a Spirit Jade Fruit this time—and was munching away happily. Every so often, he spat out a seed. Unfortunately for the two people hanging nearby, MuMu’s aim was terrible. Some of the seeds flew much farther than intended, occasionally striking them as they swung helplessly in the air.

"Pfft!"

MuMu giggled at one particularly well-aimed shot before taking another bite of his fruit.

Sui Sui’s mouth twitched.

He had only been away for a few hours. How had things turned into this?

"...What exactly happened here?" he finally asked, looking between the two unfortunate disciples and the utterly unbothered little beast.

Hearing his voice, all three turned toward him. MuMu was the first to speak, immediately pointing a paw at the two people hanging upside down.

"Sui Sui, look! They’re bad people! They even tried to destroy my fruit tree! Luckily, the tree is smart and didn’t let them!"

MuMu eagerly snitched on the two intruders, looking thoroughly pleased with himself as though he had just accomplished something extraordinary.

Sui Sui glanced at the little beast before turning his attention toward the two people suspended in the air. Only then did he get a proper look at their predicament.

One of them was Chu Ran.

Her face was bright red, and patches of rash covered her exposed skin. Her hair hung messily toward the ground as she struggled against the thick vines wrapped around her leg. Despite her miserable appearance, however, she still managed to glare at Sui Sui with her usual arrogance.

"Bai Sui Sui! I demand that you get us down immediately, or else!" Chu Ran snapped.

"I’m afraid I can’t help you with this, Young Miss Chu," Sui Sui replied with an innocent expression. "I have no idea what you did to provoke the tree into attacking you, but this really isn’t something I can handle on my own. After all, I’m only a Qi Refining cultivator. If even a Foundation Building cultivator like you can’t deal with it, what exactly do you expect me to do?"

His tone was polite enough, but the mockery beneath his words was unmistakable. He was simply returning the insults Chu Ran had thrown at him earlier, using her own reasoning against her.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely lying. Sui Sui genuinely hadn’t known that the Spirit Jade Fruit Tree could attack people like this. He had only discovered its temper after returning to find Chu Ran and Disciple Leng hanging upside down. Fortunately, the moment he saw the situation, he had already sent a message to Elder Shan Li. If the elder wasn’t too occupied with other matters, he should be on his way soon.

However, unexpectedly, after waiting for a while, the person who arrived first was not Elder Shan Li.

Instead, Madam Jiang appeared with several elders and disciples in tow. Among them was Jiang Huan.

The moment Chu Ran spotted the newcomers, her eyes lit up with hope. Earlier, she had sent a distress message to Jiang Huan, and it seemed that he had brought people with him after receiving it. At last, someone had come to rescue her!

Her expression immediately crumpled, and she began sobbing as though she had just suffered the greatest injustice in the world.

"Senior Brother Jiang, you must help this junior sister! I’ve been bullied so terribly!"

Under normal circumstances, Chu Ran’s delicate appearance and tearful voice might have easily stirred everyone’s sympathy. Unfortunately, her current state was far from flattering. Her face was bright red and covered in patches of rash, her hair was a complete mess, and she was still hanging upside down from the tree’s vines. No matter how pitifully she cried, the sight was simply too ridiculous to take seriously.

For a moment, the newcomers could only stare at her, apparently unsure what to make of the scene.

Everyone except Jiang Huan, that was.

He seemed to have a special filter reserved exclusively for Chu Ran. No matter how disheveled she looked or how absurd the situation was, he remained completely unmoved by her appearance, his heart aching the moment he heard her tearful plea.

In his eyes, his beloved Junior Sister Chu was clearly the victim of some terrible injustice.

And whoever had made her suffer like this would have to answer to him.

"Don’t worry, Junior Sister. I’ll get you down."

Jiang Huan immediately drew his sword, preparing to cut through the vines holding Chu Ran and Disciple Leng. However, before he could swing his blade, Chu Ran hurriedly stopped him.

"Don’t cut the vines, Senior Brother!" she cried, shaking her head frantically. "The sap is poisonous! It causes terrible rashes and unbearable itching. That’s why I’ve ended up like this!"

As she spoke, she twisted helplessly in the vines, looking even more miserable than before.

Jiang Huan immediately halted his sword. He stared at the vines, then at Chu Ran’s rash-covered face, suddenly unsure how to proceed. If the sap really was poisonous, cutting the vines might expose him to it as well. Yet if he couldn’t cut them, how exactly was he supposed to rescue her?

While Jiang Huan was still struggling to find a solution, Chu Ran suddenly began wailing again.

"Wuwuwu! Everyone, please bear witness! I, Chu Ran, have been framed and persecuted by Bai Sui Sui!" As she spoke, she abruptly pointed toward Sui Sui, who had been standing off to the side and watching the spectacle unfold.

Sui Sui froze.

Me?

He looked at her in disbelief. What had he done? He had only just arrived, and somehow, he had already become the culprit!

Chu Ran glared at him through her tears. "Yes, you! Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about! You knew that Senior Brother Leng and I had discovered your crimes, so you deliberately used the tree to punish us and silence us before we could expose you!"

Sui Sui stared at her for a moment, then he asked calmly, "And what crime have I supposedly committed this time?"

"Of course, it’s embezzling the Spirit Stones Elder Shan Li gave you!" Chu Ran immediately answered, as though she had been waiting for him to ask. "Everyone, please be this disciple’s witness! Earlier, Senior Brother Leng and I discovered that Bai Sui Sui had been using Low-Grade Spirit Stones to nourish the Spirit Jade Fruit Tree, even though Elder Shan Li had specifically entrusted him with High-Grade Spirit Stones!"

She struggled against the vines, her voice growing more agitated as she continued, "If you don’t believe me, just examine the soil around the roots! The traces are still there, so you’ll be able to verify everything for yourselves!"

Having established what she considered irrefutable evidence, Chu Ran took a ragged breath before continuing her accusations.

"Senior Brother Leng and I only came here to investigate the matter. We never intended to cause trouble! But his beastly pet provoked us first, forcing us to try to capture it. We accidentally disturbed the tree in the process, and that’s how we ended up like this! And that’s not all! Bai Sui Sui has even been feeding the precious Jade Fruits to his pet! Just think about it! He’s wasting the Spirit Stones entrusted to him and squandering the fruits Elder Shan Li has worked so hard to cultivate. How can someone like him be allowed to remain here?"

Her words quickly stirred up the crowd.

The moment the elders heard that Sui Sui had allegedly misused the Spirit Stones entrusted to him, their expressions turned serious. But what truly provoked their anger was the accusation that he had been feeding the precious Spirit Jade Fruits to his pet.

Those fruits were rare treasures that required considerable resources and effort to cultivate. Even them as elders of the Wenjian Sect rarely had the privilege of consuming them. If Sui Sui had really been feeding them to a spirit beast, it would be difficult to describe such behavior as anything other than wasteful.

Several elders immediately turned toward Sui Sui, their expressions growing increasingly displeased.

Jiang Huan, who had already been convinced by Chu Ran’s tearful accusations, stepped forward and glared at him.

"Bai Sui Sui! How could you be so shameless? Elder Shan Li trusted you enough to entrust his precious Spirit Jade Fruit Tree to your care, yet you dare to betray that trust behind his back? Someone like you doesn’t deserve to remain on the sect!"

Sui Sui nearly laughed at the sheer absurdity of it all.

Amazing. Truly amazing.

Chu Ran had merely thrown out a string of accusations, yet Jiang Huan had already accepted every single one as the truth. He hadn’t even bothered to ask Sui Sui for an explanation, let alone verify the evidence.

Sui Sui looked at him with undisguised disbelief.

"Wow. So you’re already convinced I’m guilty just because of a few words from her? You haven’t even heard my side of the story, much less examined the evidence, and you’ve already decided that I deserve to be expelled?"

He tilted his head slightly, his expression turning cold.

"Is this how the Jiang Family teaches its younger generation to handle matters? I thought a prominent family like yours would understand the importance of impartiality, especially when it comes to judging others. Who would’ve thought that you’d be so biased?"

The moment those words left his mouth, the atmosphere changed.

One of the elders immediately frowned and snapped, "Watch your mouth, boy! Do you even know who you’re speaking to?"

As he spoke, he glanced nervously toward Madam Jiang, whose expression had already darkened. After all, Jiang Huan was her son, and the Jiang Family was a prominent family within the Wenjian Sect. Sui Sui’s words were not merely an insult to Jiang Huan; they were a direct challenge to the family’s reputation.

Sui Sui, however, showed no intention of backing down.

"What? Did I say anything wrong?" he asked indignantly. "Isn’t that exactly what Jiang Huan is doing? When Chu Ran accuses me, everyone immediately believes her, even though she hasn’t provided a shred of evidence. But when I question her accusations, suddenly I’m the one who needs to watch my mouth?"

He swept his gaze across the gathered elders and disciples before continuing, his voice growing firmer.

"Where’s the logic in that? You keep talking about fairness and justice, yet you can’t even be bothered to hear both sides of the story before passing judgment. If this isn’t extreme bias, then what is?"

He paused briefly, then added with unmistakable indignation, "Honestly, it’s shameful."

Jiang Huan’s face flushed with anger.

"You!"

He wanted nothing more than to tear into Sui Sui for daring to speak to him like that. However, there were too many cultivators watching. If he openly admitted that he had judged Sui Sui without hearing his side, he would only prove the accusation true. And if word spread that the Jiang Family’s young master abused his status to bully others without evidence, it would inevitably damage the family’s reputation.

For the moment, Jiang Huan could only glare at Sui Sui, unable to find a suitable response.

For a moment, everyone was caught in a deadlock, neither side willing to back down. The standoff was finally broken when Chu Ran and Disciple Leng let out another pair of pained screams, drawing everyone’s attention back to their predicament.

Initially, the vines had only wrapped around one of each disciple’s legs, leaving the rest of their bodies free to struggle. Now, however, the vines had begun to move again. More and more tendrils emerged, winding around their legs and creeping upward until they had bound their entire bodies like cocoons, leaving only their heads exposed. Neither disciple was in any immediate danger, but being squeezed so tightly while hanging upside down was hardly comfortable. The more they struggled, the tighter the vines seemed to hold them, forcing them to cry out in pain.

It seemed that the arrival of even more people had only further irritated the Spirit Jade Fruit Tree. As if to warn the newcomers against approaching, additional vines suddenly burst from the ground, intertwining to form a dense green barrier around the trapped disciples. The thick tendrils swayed menacingly, making it clear that anyone who tried to force their way through would face the tree’s wrath.

"Senior Brother, help me!" Chu Ran cried, her eyes immediately turning toward Jiang Huan.

"Hold on, Junior Sister!" Jiang Huan hurriedly reassured her before turning toward the people who had accompanied him. His expression darkened with impatience as he barked, "What are you all standing around for? Do something to help my Junior Sister!"

He even shouted at several of the elders present, displaying just how accustomed this young master was to throwing his weight around. Yet none of them dared to openly express their displeasure. After all, many of these elders relied on the Jiang Family for resources, making it difficult for them to challenge Jiang Huan directly.

Naturally, the alchemists were the first to take charge. When it came to spiritual plants and trees, they were the most knowledgeable people present, so they immediately began examining the vines and the surrounding area, hoping to find a way to free the two disciples without provoking the tree further.

Unfortunately, their findings were far from encouraging.

"We’ve already examined the situation," one of the senior elders finally reported. "The consciousness of this Spirit Jade Fruit Tree is far more developed than we anticipated and it has been contaminated by the impurity so deeply. Its resistance is unusually strong, and it appears to be acting entirely on its own. I’m afraid that, aside from Shan Li himself, no one else can reliably persuade it to release them."

The other alchemists nodded in agreement, confirming his assessment.

Jiang Huan’s expression grew even more unpleasant.

"Then what are you all waiting for? Go and find Elder Shan Li! Bring him here to deal with this immediately!" he demanded, his tone growing increasingly domineering.

However, before anyone could respond, a voice colder than the surrounding air suddenly sounded from behind them.

"Oh? Who is so presumptuous as to think they can simply order this one around?"