My Professions Have Too Much Personality

Chapter 196: Chapter 131: A Threat from Xia Hanshi

The hall descended into a temporary silence, filled only with the faint sound of breathing.

“Take this Black Tuo Follower’s corpse away, and keep an eye on it,” Jiang Shu Mo said. Several Judges entered from outside the doors and carried the body out.

“What are your thoughts?” Chong Jingtian asked, his gaze sweeping over the others.

“This Black Tuo Follower… his timing is quite the coincidence,” Wei Yufan drawled. “Showing up just when we’re all gathered here. Someone didn’t secretly tip him off, did they?”

“If you’re going to make an accusation, present your evidence,” Ming Lin said, shooting him a look. The two had never gotten along. “The Chief Judges just stressed that baseless speculation is unacceptable.”

“The Black Tuo Follower may have arrived right on Zhong Ming’s heels, but that doesn’t prove any connection.”

Wei Yufan scoffed. ’He wasn’t talking about Zhong Ming.’

Zhong Ming’s expression darkened. He knew perfectly well that Ming Lin was just using him as an example of a “coincidence.”

“Indeed,” Lei Tieyan spoke up. The internal politics of the Judicial Court were a tangled web, and as head of the Judgment Department, his top priority was to ensure his actions were beyond reproach from all sides.

Proving Meng Qi was compromised required evidence. Proving a connection between the Black Tuo Follower and Teng Liang also required evidence.

You couldn’t just rely on coincidence. How would that be any different from what Teng Liang himself had just said?

Su Chen, however, was calm. ’I just wiped out Priest Black Tuo’s lair and found traces of Divine Blood. My recent merits were all built on crushing Black Tuo Followers, so no one would try to drag me into this.’

“Perhaps the Deceitful God’s forces are fighting amongst themselves,” one Director Level official speculated. “Let’s assume Meng Qi killed Zhu Xuan and subsequently became a Core Seed. In that case, their objective for infiltration has already been achieved.”

He paused at this, glancing at Chong Jingtian and the others. He sensed the topic was sensitive, as it touched upon the pride of the Chief Judges.

He quickly changed the subject. “But today, we cleared out the Black Tuo Followers’ main nest in the city, and it was a fruitful operation.”

“This means that even though the Faceless Ghost Followers were the ones who acted and reaped the rewards, the Black Tuo Followers are the ones who have to bear the consequences—a significant loss.”

“It’s only natural that the Black Tuo Followers would be resentful.”

His words made sense, and many people nodded to themselves in agreement. The conflicts among the various groups of the Deceitful God’s Followers were no less intense than their conflict with the Court—in fact, they were often even more brutal.

“So we’re just going to conclude that Meng Qi killed Zhu Xuan and Teng Liang is innocent?” someone else countered, shaking their head. “The increase in his Talent is strange, yes, but it could also be that Meng Qi has taken on a new class of some sort.”

“And what about those strange white chains? Maybe Teng Liang had some trick prepared in advance.”

Jiang Shu Mo’s eyes flickered. He had personally tailed Meng Qi, harboring his own suspicions, but had found nothing out of the ordinary right up until Bu Siqi lured him away.

“Teng Liang, do you have anything to say?” Jiang Shu Mo suddenly asked, having Teng Liang brought forward again.

“I didn’t kill him. He killed himself. If I had killed him, there wouldn’t even be a body left,” Teng Liang repeated, his story unchanged.

Jiang Shu Mo’s brow furrowed. This whole affair felt incredibly thorny.

“Even if Meng Qi is compromised, that doesn’t mean Teng Liang is innocent,” Xue Fei said. “There are too many unexplained elements.”

“He didn’t test Wei Yufan, he didn’t test Zhong Ming, and he didn’t test Ming Lin. Why did he single out Meng Qi? ’Intuition’ isn’t a good enough explanation.”

“And just as we’re about to deal with him, a Black Tuo Follower pops up to help clear his name.”

“There’s no direct evidence of a causal link between those two events,” a Director said, shaking his head. “Xue Fei, stop with the sophistry.”

As the questioning circled back to why he had targeted Meng Qi, Teng Liang said gravely, “If you absolutely must have a reason, then I can only say it was an order from my teacher.”

The hall fell silent. Xue Fei snorted. “You should have said so from the start. Don’t think you can get away with this just by pushing the blame onto Xia Hanshi.”

“’Xia Hanshi’? Is that what you call him?”

Su Chen, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up, his gaze sweeping over to Xue Fei. Annoyance flashed across Xue Fei’s face as he retorted, “Elder Xia is unconventional. He wouldn’t care about a trivial matter like that.”

“Xue Fei, watch yourself,” Jiang Shu Mo said calmly.

Xue Fei’s expression darkened. “We need a final verdict on whether Meng Qi is compromised and what to do with Teng Liang. Otherwise, we’ll likely see more of this sort of ’testing’ in the future.”

Today, Teng Liang can “test” Meng Qi. Tomorrow, others could just as easily “test” people like Su Chen.

Su Chen remained silent. ’Having the Black Tuo Follower show up was a huge risk,’ he thought. ’The timing was just too convenient. Still, it was the lesser of two evils.’

Just then, another commotion erupted outside the hall. It was Bu Siqi.

He was gasping for breath, looking as if he hadn’t stopped for a single moment. He burst straight into the hall and yelled:

“An urgent message from Judge Xia!”

So, Xia Hanshi had made his move. The expressions on the faces in the hall varied wildly.

Before Chong Jingtian could grant him permission to speak, Bu Siqi blurted out anxiously:

“My teacher says that if anyone dares to touch a single hair on Teng Liang’s head before he gets back, that person had better make sure that they, and every last one of their friends and relatives, never step foot outside of Ying Feng for the rest of their lives!”

“This is outrageous!” Chong Jingtian flew into a rage, rising to his feet and roaring, “What is he trying to do? Does he want to rebel against the Judicial Court?”

“Does he really think the Judicial Court has to run everything by him? Xue Fei, this case is yours to investigate! Deal with Teng Liang as you see fit!”

Having been named, Xue Fei froze. “Chief Judge,” he said hastily, “I’m scheduled to leave Ying Feng on a mission tomorrow. It’s urgent and cannot be delayed.”

“You can’t do it? Then who do you think can handle this responsibility?” Chong Jingtian’s brow furrowed. “Recommend someone to me.”

Sweat beaded on Xue Fei’s forehead. He looked around, but everyone’s eyes darted away, refusing to meet his. The few who did lock eyes with him shot him looks that were nothing short of threatening.

No one dared to ignore a threat from Xia Hanshi.

More importantly, suspicion had now fallen on Meng Qi as well, and it was highly probable that he was indeed compromised. If that turned out to be the case, all Xia Hanshi would have to do was accuse them of framing an innocent man, and anyone who died would have died for nothing.