Inside Story

[Stone Speaker] took President Yu’s sudden blow head-on, yet all it did was draw a thin line of blood from the corner of his mouth. Once he got back to his feet, he was breathing steadily and showed no sign of impaired movement.

As President Yu closed in, he made no move to fight back. He merely tapped the ground lightly with one foot. The earth rippled, and his entire body instantly retreated more than ten meters.

President Yu narrowed her eyes. “[Shortening the Earth]... You’ve been hiding your abilities well. To think you’ve developed your earth-and-stone powers to this extent.”

With a technique like [Shortening the Earth], and without spatial restrictions prepared in advance, it would be extremely difficult to keep [Stone Speaker] from escaping.

[Stone Speaker] came to a stop. “President Yu, you attacked me in full view of everyone based solely on a groundless suspicion. Do you really regard the law and due process as meaningless, that you can act so recklessly?”

“Why couldn’t I?” President Yu dropped her pretense entirely. “Isn’t that my image in your eyes? I can ‘hunt down’ [Xiumu]. Why wouldn’t I dare attack a Great Scholar? [Xiumu] has a witch backing her. What do you, [Stone Speaker], have?”

Chen Miemie and the many mystics were astonished by how swiftly the situation had changed.

It had only been a short while, yet the three Great Scholars who had originally belonged to the hostile witch faction—President Yu and Luo Lang included—had all ended up standing against [Stone Speaker].

[Stone Speaker] knew President Yu well. Once she reached a conclusion, she cared little for evidence. As long as her reasoning formed a closed loop, she would rather kill the wrong person than let the guilty escape. So he shifted his target.

“[Xiumu], President Yu is investigating the cause of her daughter’s death. What about you? Why are you playing along with her?”

“A high-ranking witch and a senior member of a major organization have died, and the blame has even been pinned on me. As a Great Scholar, naturally I have to uncover the truth.”

[Stone Speaker] did not believe a single word of that sort of formal reply.

“Don’t think that becoming a witch just because you took a teacher and spent a few days at the City Library makes you one. Don’t forget how your lover, Li Liang, died.”

[Xiumu] had originally intended to remain uninvolved, but her expression turned hostile.

“The person behind him was you?”

[Stone Speaker] burst out laughing. “The person behind him? What do I have to offer? Wealth? Li Liang followed [Cicada], so he certainly wasn’t lacking money. Power? He was already a senior scholar, and my position couldn’t give him anything. Saying he belonged to someone is too inaccurate. We simply got along well.”

“So you were the one who told him to assassinate Chen Miemie?”

[Stone Speaker] fell silent for several seconds. “No.”

“Don’t dare admit it?”

“At this point, there’s no reason for me to lie to you. Isn’t that right, [Cicada]?”

[Xiumu] turned toward [Cicada], Xia Chong.

[Cicada] opened his mouth, apparently intending to say something, but in the end he merely nodded and admitted, “I was the one who ordered him to post the assassination mission.”

[Xiumu] could hardly believe it. She had always assumed that Li Liang was merely pretending to belong to [Cicada], while actually taking orders from the person behind the scenes. She had never expected that the order had truly come from [Cicada].

If that was the case, then the person who had caused Li Liang’s death was not that supposed “mastermind” at all.

“Why?”

[Cicada] recalled the events with a faint frown.

“That day, Li Liang came to me and said that someone wanted to target Chen Miemie, the descendant of the Third Seat.

“At first, I didn’t pay much attention. Although it might have caused unrest, I wasn’t responsible for public security, and I didn’t want to meddle.

“But then Li Liang told me that Chen Miemie was the person I had been investigating all along—the one who had kidnapped me at the Scholars’ Institute.

“I thought Li Liang’s attitude was contradictory. It seemed he wanted me to act against Chen Miemie, while also not wanting me to succeed.

“What he didn’t expect was that I changed my mind.

“For certain reasons, I have a connection with Chen Miemie—or rather, with one of his elders. I wanted to warn him.

“That was when Li Liang took the initiative and made a suggestion. He said we could post an assassination mission in the underground world. That way, it would appear on the surface that we were seeking revenge, while in reality accomplishing our goal of warning Chen Miemie.

“I agreed to his proposal and approved the substantial funds required to publish the mission.”

[Xiumu] asked, “Then why, after he was captured by the witches, did you deny that he had acted on your orders?”

[Cicada] replied, “Who would admit to something like that openly? But I didn’t deny it. Teacher [Chenpi] came to ask me, and the witch [Silence] came as well. I told both of them that I had known about it and approved it.”

Everyone’s eyes shifted to [Chenpi] and [Silence].

[Chenpi] was the same as ever. When she was outside, the green-haired little witch was incredibly haughty, carrying herself as if to say, “I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

[Silence] had worn a cold expression throughout the day. She liked quiet, and large-scale events such as the one in the auditorium made her feel that everything was unbearably noisy, putting her in a foul mood.

Normally, neither witch would have bothered responding.

But [Silence] noticed that Chen Miemie’s gaze had also fallen on her, so she slowly spoke.

“[Cicada]’s initial response was a denial. Even if he changed his answer later, it’s difficult to determine whether he was telling the truth. Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that he posted an assassination mission. That cannot be brushed aside with a few casual explanations.”

Though [Silence] appeared to be addressing everyone, she was actually explaining herself to Chen Miemie alone.

Chen Miemie understood her meaning.

It was simple. [Silence] and President Yu shared essentially the same logic: regardless of Li Liang’s intentions, his actions had displayed hostility toward Chen Miemie. Therefore, they would rather kill the wrong person than let a threat go free. If he died, then so be it.

[Xiumu] stood rooted to the spot.

The idea of “posting an assassination mission in the underground world” had been a workaround she and Li Liang had come up with. She had never expected that their attempt to resolve the matter would only make things more complicated, ultimately leading to tragedy.

[Silence] added, “And another thing: Li Liang was not killed by us. Once we released him, we had no reason to secretly murder him afterward. Some people are always fond of smearing the witches, but get one thing straight: I issued the order to release him. No witch would disobey it and attack him.”

A new mystery emerged at the scene: Who had actually killed Li Liang?

Once again, everyone’s eyes focused on [Stone Speaker].

“Why are you all looking at me? What, just because you can’t find the murderer, everything has to be my fault?” [Stone Speaker] looked just as displeased.

Luo Lang shot back, “Weren’t you the person behind Li Liang? Killing him to silence him and sever the relationship between [Xiumu] and the witches—that’s exactly the kind of tactic you like to use to sow discord.

“Besides, so many cases have gone unsolved. As the Great Scholar in charge of trials and criminal punishment, don’t you bear some responsibility for dereliction of duty?”

“Haha, sow discord? Do I even need to? The witches have always acted willfully, ignoring the law. Whether it’s ordinary citizens, merchants from within or outside the city, or municipal officials, who among them doesn’t resent the witches? They simply don’t dare voice their anger.

“Luo Lang, I won’t bring up all the things you do in secret. But since we’re laying everything out today, tell me this: how much of the annual budget is consumed by the witches? Just the project involving [Chenpi] is a bottomless pit that has lasted for thousands of years. If those resources were invested in public welfare, commerce, scholarship, or the mystical world, how many useful things could be accomplished every year?”

President Yu, before your daughter mutated, where were your integrity and your high spirits? Have all the many injustices you once witnessed disappeared now?

Disregard for the law, the brewing of potions, limitless demands—how much longer must this city endure the witches’ wanton behavior?

This deep-rooted malaise has festered for far too long. It’s time to set things right. Will you all lend a hand?