“Why are you still trying to make a show of your authority at this kind of juncture?”
A cold voice travelled over. Lin Yangzhi walked over from the yard’s gate with a sarcastic smile on his face and said when he saw Lin Xuanzhi, “No one’s tying you up because they’re giving you, the direct descendent of the Lin family, face. As for that lowly brat……he, after a while pa.s.ses, you won’t even be able to protect yourself anymore. By then, I’d really like to see if you could still make a show of what little authority you would have left!”
Lin Xuanzhi slightly narrowed his eyes that were so dark they seemed like a bottomless pit, “I can still make a small show of my authority now. Today, you suddenly intruded my yard with these people from the Law Enforcement Hall for no reason — that has already violated our family’s rules. So the one who needs to be careful should be you ba.”
“You think I want to come here?” Lin Yangzhi had a triumphant look on his face. He faced the East and clasped his hands, “I am here on the orders of the three elders to come arrest you and that good-for-nothing.”
Lin Xuanzhi lightly said, “Even if I were to die, I’d like to know what I’m dying for. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong.”
“When we go over to that worn-out cellar, you’ll understand clearly.” Lin Yangzhi said.
Lin Xuanzhi frowned, “What cellar?”
Yan Tianhen’s heart froze over with a deathly stillness. He knew that he had been exposed, but how could he get Lin Xuanzhi out of this mess?
His Dage never knew anything in the first place ah.
Yan Tianhen secretly clenched his fist tight and kept racking his brain to think of all sorts of ways to not implicate Lin Xuanzhi in this. However, aside from a.s.suming all the blame for this incident, he had no other idea.
Lin Yangzhi smiled, “I don’t dare ascertain if you’re in the know or not, but that younger brother of yours must know the reason behind all this very clearly.”
Lin Xuanzhi looked towards the dejected-looking Yan Tianhen.
Yan Tianhen bit his lower lip. His body trembled slightly and he didn’t dare to look up at Lin Xuanzhi. He was really afraid of seeing a look of disgust and disappointment on Lin Xuanzhi’s face.
“Dage, it was my fault.” Yan Tianhen stammered with a gloomy voice.
“Shut up!” Lin Xuanzhi rebuked loudly. He looked at the Lin Yangzhi who had a look on his face that said ‘I knew it’, “I don’t know what’s inside the cellar, but since you’re so certain of it while pretending to act all mysterious, then why not we go take a look at it together? So that I can see what on earth was so amazing that it could alert the three elders who oversee the Lin family.”
“You won’t cry unless you see your coffin. Guards, take Yan Tianhen away!” After Lin Yangzhi called out in a loud voice, he turned around in an elegant manner and waved his hand before he walked away.
Lin Xuanzhi’s gaze swept over Yan Tianhen.
Yan Tianhen wanted to sneak a look at Lin Xuanzhi at first, but he didn’t expect to inadvertently meet his gaze.
Yan Tianhen’s eyes were slightly reddened, full of guilt and remorse.
Lin Xuanzhi was slightly taken aback. He didn’t say anything before he s.h.i.+fted his gaze and took the lead in walking forward.
This party attracted the attention of a lot of Lin family members along the way.
“What’s going on?”
“Aiya, those people are wearing the armour of the Law Enforcement Hall!”
“Yan Tianhen has been arrested, where are they walking to?”
“Didn’t you guys hear? Not long ago, someone discovered that there was actually a corpse in the yard where Lin Xuanzhi stayed in before! They said that he’s cultivating the devil’s arts!”
“What? Something like that actually happened?!”
“Demonic cultivators and us righteous cultivators cannot co-exist. How could Lin Xuanzhi dare to?”
“It shouldn’t be Lin Xuanzhi, but Yan Tianhen — look, the one who’s being arrested is Yan Tianhen.”
“Ei, you’re right. Yan Tianhen really is an ugly person who likes to cause mischief. When I was at the testing grounds today, I felt an evil energy surrounding that guy the whole time. It was really weird.”
“Pei, that despicable thing.”
“Fortunately, he’s not on our Lin family’s family tree, or else……hehe, it would’ve been such a disgrace.”
When Yan Tianhen heard their ridicule and contempt, he suddenly felt even more upset. Good news never goes beyond the gate, but bad news would travel a thousand miles. He was the only one who knew about him hiding the corpse in the cellar, but even now that someone else had discovered it, Lin Xuanzhi was still completely in the dark about it.
Yan Tianhen sniffed. He really hated himself for ruining Lin Xuanzhi.
However, things have already come to this, and he had no way of remedying the situation.
He could only blame himself for being too careless and brazen. He actually placed the corpse within the Lin residence!
Yan Tianhen thought about how to disentangle Lin Xuanzhi from this the whole way there, and he hoped that the end of this path would never come into sight.
But very soon, this group of people had whooshed to the yard at the bottom of the mountain where he and Lin Xuanzhi had lived in before.
The three elders were already waiting for them quietly as they stood in the yard.
Lin Yangzhi was the first to walk over. He said to the three elders, “Elders, Lin Xuanzhi and Yan Tianhen have been brought over.”
Lin Xuanzhi walked forward and looked at the three elders who wore different expressions on their faces, “Xuanzhi doesn’t know what he has done wrong, so I would like to ask for the guidance of the elders.”
Third Elder was the first to speak coldly, “Lin Xuanzhi, do you know what you’ve done wrong?”
Lin Xuanzhi lightly said, “If I had known what I did wrong, would I have asked that question just now?”
Third Elder choked. He had indeed asked a stupid question.
Third Elder sneered and waved his sleeves, “Someone reported seeing Yan Tianhen today who, under your instructions, came to this cellar. Do you admit to that?”
Lin Xuanzhi frowned slightly, then spoke after a slight pause, “That’s right.”
Yan Tianhen abruptly raised his head and said anxiously, “Dage didn’t ask me to come, I came of my own accord!”
“I’m talking to the Elder, so why are you interrupting?” Lin Xuanzhi immediately scolded Yan Tianhen in a stern voice.
Third Elder smiled, “Lin Xuanzhi, you really have a strong brotherly bond with Yan Tianhen.”
Lin Xuanzhi nodded and made light of it, “Of course. After all, he was the son that my dad acknowledges, and the only younger brother I have now.”
“You have such a good younger brother.”
“Thank you for the compliment, Third Elder.”
“….”
d.a.m.n it, this kid was actually acting dumb. He was just like a slippery mud fish, you couldn’t catch ahold of a handle on him, and it was still climbing up the bamboo pole!
Fifth Elder said with a stern expression, “Xuanzhi, why did you ask him to come here today?”
Lin Xuanzhi’s gaze swept over the cellar, “When my Dad was still alive, he had buried a lot of good wine underneath the peach blossom tree. A few days ago, Boss Feng from Heaven and Earth brewery sent over a batch of wine that my Dad had pre-ordered, and since we were free today, I asked Ah Hen to move the wine to the cellar. I don’t know why that would be such a terrible wrongdoing to commit.”
Fifth Elder was stunned, his eyes glinting in astonishment, “That’s it?”
Lin Xuanzhi looked calmly at Fifth Elder and asked instead, “Don’t tell me, there something else?”
Lin Yangzhi interrupted, “Lin Xuanzhi, you’ve probably been hoodwinked. Why don’t you ask Yan Tianhen what he did!”
Yan Tianhen blinked, and his heart, which had been thumping wildly, had already begun to gradually slow down.
He wore an innocent expression and looked like he had just received a great shock as he looked at the three elders, then said as he s.h.i.+vered, “I, I don’t know ah, I just listened to my Dage and moved the wine into the wine cellar. I, I really didn’t do anything else!”
The three elders looked at one another. Second Elder said, “Yangzhi, you were the one who discovered the situation today, so you should go down to the cellar first to take a look ba.”
“Yes!” Lin yangzhi nodded. He flashed Lin Xuanzhi a cold, triumphant smile, and under the apathetic gaze of the latter, he opened the cellar’s door and jumped straight down, “Look, there’s a corpse here– where’s the corpse?”
A roar filled with surprise travelled out from the cellar. All three elders immediately went to the entrance of the cellar and opened up a luminous pearl that illuminated the entire cellar.
The only thing they saw were the numerous wine jars that filled the cellar. Aside from those jars, there was nothing else.
Lin Yangzhi had received a huge blow. He stood rooted to the spot with a face full of disbelief.
“Where’s the corpse you were talking about?” Fifth Elder asked unhappily.
“It was clearly here!” Lin yangzhi pointed at the rack where a set of clothes was hanging from. His face changed and he immediately shouted, “Lin Xuanzhi must have moved it someplace else beforehand!”
Lin Xuanzhi had already jumped down. His smile didn’t reach his eyes as he said, “Corpse? You said that you actually saw a corpse in my cellar? Then I’d like to ask, where on earth is that corpse of yours?”
Lin Yangzhi looked like someone had clutched his throat as his whole face flushed red.
There was no corpse, and there was no proof that could back up his claims. This kind of scene was terribly awkward.
Lin Yangzhi took a quick step forward and lifted the clothes on the rack, then searched one round around the cellar. Even a hidden compartment couldn’t be found.
He stared at the Lin Xuanzhi who was standing in the middle of the cellar in disbelief and saw Lin Xuanzhi flash him an almost imperceptible smile that seemed to mock him.
Lin Yangzhi came to a sudden realisation. He abruptly pointed at Lin Xuanzhi’s face and said, “It must be him! Elders, he must have hidden the corpse someplace else. If you don’t believe me, then dispatch some people to this yard to search it thoroughly!”
Third Elder gave some people a look and a few of his subordinates immediately left the cellar, then thoroughly searched the other parts of the yard.
Yan Tianhen stood at the entrance of the cellar. He was still tied up tightly with a special Locking Immortals rope.
Yan Tianhen hung his head down as he looked at the cellar. When he looked up and met Lin Xuanzhi’s gaze, his eyes reddened instantly.
Lin Xuanzhi threw him a gaze that seemed to tell him to not worry, then turned back.
It goes without saying that he was the one who had done this.
Yan Tianhen only wanted to cry out loudly right now. His heart was now beating even faster than when he had known that he was exposed and his secret was about to be unmasked.
His Dage…this was his Dage!
He didn’t expect that, at this kind of time, his Dage would stand on his side — to help him conceal, and to help him rig up a scam!
A short moment later, the guards who had gone out to check all returned.
A guard whispered a few things into Third Elder’s ear. Third Elder’s face sunk, and he looked at the expectant Lin Yangzhi with a cold look on his face, then shouted, “How dare you falsely accuse and frame them? What kind of evil intentions are you harbouring?”
Lin Yangzhi looked like he had just been struck by lightning. He panicked and quickly said, “Third Elder, even if you gave me ten guts, I still wouldn’t dare to accuse or frame someone! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, then why would I have dared to ask the elders to come forward?!”
Lin Xuanzhi said slowly, “Yangzhi Tangxiong, if you want to catch adulterers, you must catch them both, if you want to catch thieves, you need to find their spoils. You have no evidence to back up your empty claims and yet you said that we were hiding a corpse in this cellar? I won’t accept that.”
“You were obviously cultivating the devil’s arts, and have been raising a corpse in this cellar!” Lin Yanzhi’s eyes were now bloodshot as he said fiercely, “Otherwise, why would the cultivation of you and that unorthodox brother of yours advance so quickly?”
Lin Xuanzhi said, “That is my private matter, it has nothing to do with you.”
“He, then do you dare let us see your cultivation method?” Lin Yangzhi was being completely overbearing. He vowed not to let it rest unless he achieves his goal.
“I obtained my cultivation method through my own fated opportunity, it does not come from the Lin family, and I don’t have a reason to let others take a casual look at it.” Lin Xuanzhi said indifferently.
“If you don’t dare to let others look at it, then it means you have something to hide.” Lin Yangzhi was quite certain that Lin Xuanzhi didn’t dare to take it out because he must be cultivating the devil’s arts. The more he tries to hide it, the more suspicious he would look.
Lin Xuanzhi’s brows furrowed slightly. He looked at Fifth Elder and Second Elder, but he only saw that Second Elder still looked like this matter was of no concern to him as he looked down on them from above while Fifth Elder was frowning, and had evidently raised some suspicions of his own as well.
Lin Xuanzhi’s face was instantly filled with disappointment, and his eyes slightly reddened in anger. He lamented, “It wasn’t easy for me to obtain this opportunity and I had always been content with my lot. Even when I was said to be trash and got abandoned by my family, I had never harboured any hatred for the family. But now, you guys are trying to force me……from what I can see, the matter about a corpse being found here was fake, but all of you trying to get my cultivation method from me was your true aim!”