The disciples of the six sects who were watching whispered among themselves after hearing her accusation. According to Fan Mingzhu, when she and her senior brother were fighting a demon beast, Shi Xuan suddenly barged in with his men, robbed them halfway, and stole the demon beast's spiritual medicine.
Such things sometimes happen during their training; only extremely unscrupulous cultivators would do something like this—taking advantage of someone's misfortune.
"That's a bit unethical, but Shi Xuan doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do something like that."
"You can know a person's face but not their heart; once greed takes hold, anything is possible."
"Maybe she did it on purpose, after all, there seems to be a deep-seated grudge between the two of them."
"That's true. Fan Mingzhu stole Shi Xuan's spiritual root. Compared to a spiritual root, what is a fifth-order spiritual plant?"
"That's true, but knowing that Shi Xuan would do such a thing, we'll have to be more careful when we see her during our future training."
...
Before Shi Xuan could speak, Lu Wenxing objected, jumping up and pointing at Fan Mingzhu's nose, yelling, "Shameless! You're twisting the truth! There's not a single good person in your Divine Cauldron Sect!"
Many disciples of the Divine Cauldron Sect were also in the crowd. They were displeased by these words and began to speak out angrily, causing the scene to become chaotic.
Shi Xuan, both amused and exasperated, pulled Lu Wenxing aside, and Lu Wenxing snorted coldly and shut up.
Once the surrounding noise subsided, Shi Xuan spoke calmly, "Are you sure I stole your demon beast instead of saving your lives? Think about it carefully, the Fiery Demon Ape is a level five demon beast."
A level 5 demon beast is equivalent to the early stage of the Golden Core realm, while Fan Mingzhu and her senior brother are at the seventh level of Qi Refining and the ninth level of Foundation Establishment, respectively. They should not be a match for that demon ape.
Fan Mingzhu bit her lip and lowered her eyes, saying, "My senior brother has already used two protective magic treasures and is about to defeat that demonic ape, but you took advantage of the moment when my senior brother was exhausted from fighting the demonic ape to seize the beast and the magic treasures!"
A Foundation Establishment cultivator might not be able to defeat a Level 5 demon beast, but if they add a protective magic weapon, it's not impossible.
Shi Xuan handed the golden flower in his hand to Gu Liangce behind him, then took a step forward, getting closer to Fan Mingzhu, and said with a smile, "Come on, tell me, since your senior brother is about to defeat that demonic ape, what fatal wounds did he inflict on it? Your senior brother hasn't left yet, has he? Why don't you go and call your senior brother over and tell us about his heroic feat of fighting a level-five demonic beast? We'd like to hear it too."
"Yes, tell us what you've got!" Lu Wenxing stopped interrupting and started supporting him instead.
"My senior brother is researching a new elixir formula and has no time to meddle in this." Fan Mingzhu knew that this scene was not suitable for her good-for-nothing senior brother, so she made an excuse for him in advance.
“You’ve come out to demand an explanation, but the person involved isn’t here. Your credibility is questionable. Now whatever you say is just empty talk.” Lu Shan chimed in from behind.
“Yes, if you’re saying you value it, then your senior brother didn’t even come over. If you’re saying you don’t value it, then you still had to jump out and confront him in such a grand way,” Gu Liangce said.
Seeing that the disciples of Lianfeng Sword Sect were all targeting her, Fan Mingzhu turned to look at her senior brothers and sisters, her eyes filled with grievance, as if to say, "Look at the other people's senior brothers, and look at you, not one of you came out to help me."
That's a bit unfair. Fan Mingzhu and Gu Zhusheng didn't mention this matter in their sect after they returned last time, so the disciples of the Divine Cauldron Sect didn't know the details of the matter. However, the disciples of the Refining Edge Sword Sect were personally involved, so they spoke with extra confidence.
Seeing this, the Divine Cauldron Sect could not afford to lose face, so Wei Bin had no choice but to step forward and say, "A group of you, each of you, has a cultivation level higher than my junior sister. Why are you being so aggressive?"
"Heh," Shi Xuan scoffed, "I was about to leave when she insisted on coming out to reason with me. Now that I've stopped to reason with her, you're jumping out to talk about human relationships and social etiquette. So, unless you agree with your junior sister's false accusations, you're not considered aggressive?"
Wei Bin was speechless, after all, he didn't know the cause and effect of the matter.
"Besides, all we did was ask your junior sister to tell us how they injured the demon ape. How did that become our fault?" Shi Xuan asked politely.
“Junior Sister, then tell them where you and Senior Brother injured the demon ape. Don’t be afraid.” Wei Bin turned to look at Fan Mingzhu.
"I..." Fan Mingzhu didn't expect Shi Xuan to press her for details like this. They hadn't caused any fatal damage to the demon ape at all, and she couldn't make up a story for the moment.
However, the Fiery Red Star was the last medicinal herb she needed for her medicinal bath, and finding another one wouldn't be easy, so she didn't want to give up.
"We were in a very dangerous situation at the time, and I can't remember some of the details..."
“I didn’t ask you to go into details,” Shi Xuan smiled kindly at her, revealing a pair of cute dimples. “Just tell me roughly what weapon you used to injure the demon ape. Since you almost killed it, you should be able to explain the internal and external injuries.”
The people around them nodded in agreement. Shi Xuan was right. Even if they couldn't remember the details, they could probably still remember them.
Fan Mingzhu's eyes flickered, but the demon ape was already dead. Could they really bring so many people to search for it in the back mountain? Besides, there were so many demon beasts in the back mountain; the corpse might have already been devoured by other demon beasts.
"The eldest brother used the silver bone shield and demon king pestle personally bestowed by the master, both of which are fifth-grade high-quality magic weapons. The demon ape must have suffered internal organ damage, as it was already teetering on the verge of collapse when it was snatched away."
The Silver Bone Shield and the Demon King's Pestle were indeed magical artifacts used by Gu Zhusheng when she fought against the demon ape, but they were at most low-grade fifth-tier magical artifacts, and they had already been destroyed by the demon ape during the battle.
Since things had come to this point, Fan Mingzhu had no choice but to grit her teeth and persevere.
"Are you sure?" Shi Xuan remained calm and composed, giving the impression that he had everything under control.
Perhaps because she had even come to believe her own fabrication, Fan Mingzhu's gaze became more resolute than before.
“Yes,” she said.
"Not going to change it?" Shi Xuan looked at her, his gaze clear and open. "If you say you're not going to change it, then I'll have to provide evidence."
Evidence? What evidence? Fan Mingzhu hesitated, unsure whether the evidence she mentioned was genuine or if she was trying to trick her.
Shi Xuan stopped at this moment, waited for Fan Mingzhu for a few breaths, and then focused his gaze on her, full of pressure.
Fan Mingzhu's eyes darted back and forth uncontrollably, her hands gripping the hem of her skirt, somewhat nervous. But the words were already spoken, and now it was too late to change them or make excuses; she could only grit her teeth and go down this path to the bitter end.
She remained silent, waiting to see what other tricks Shi Xuan had up his sleeve.
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