Though her body was weak, once she woke up, there were not many problems left, but she was adamant about leaving. Ji Qinghe understood her obsession and, failing to persuade her otherwise after several attempts, he didn't stop her anymore.

People from the eleven sects had been intercepted along the way. The black-clad individuals who stopped them showed a token as a form of greeting, and they obediently followed, none daring to resist.

The individuals from the eleven sects were transported in separate vehicles and were interrogated one by one.

"You sinful disciple, confess the truth now!"

Faced with questioning, the leaders of each sect, such as the elders, almost all reprimanded their respective disciples in a similar manner.

The disciples from the various sects involved in Wang Sheng's fraud group revealed everything they knew, spilling the beans.

There was nothing good left to hide, and why keep secrets for Wang Sheng anyway—what good would that do?

All deceived miserably by Wang Sheng, everyone cursed him vehemently during their confessions.

The related individuals had actually confessed once already when they met the elders of their sects.

Once they left the West Pole, it was certain that the elders would ask what exactly had happened in the duel between Wang Sheng and Mulan Qingqing.

They also felt guilty and feared being held responsible. They wanted to hide some details, but there were too many people who knew, and Wang Sheng, that beast, didn't care about concealing anything, not providing even a hint beforehand, forcing them to expose themselves before they could even find a scrap of fabric to cover their shame. Ultimately, they had no choice but to honestly disclose everything to their sects.

Some hadn't finished their confession and were intercepted by the black-clad individuals along the way.

The Su Yuan Sect reacted too quickly; once Guann Yingjie reported the situation, the man in the blue shirt immediately sent people to intervene. Within the vast capital, he quietly located everyone at lightning speed.

The entire process was smooth and uneventful.

The interrogation took place in a main hall. There was someone asking questions from a high seat, and the people below, who appeared despondent, stood confessing honestly; several people were present as witnesses.

The interrogation was managed by the black-clad individuals. People from the Su Yuan Sect were all kept out of sight, at least from the main hall. There were people in the side rooms, separated just by the walls on both sides.

Ji Qinghe and Mulan Qingqing were in a room on the left, while the man in the blue shirt was in one on the right.

The man in the blue shirt seemed to intentionally avoid Mulan Qingqing.

After briefly dealing with a few sects, the target seemed to have already been identified.

Basically, none knew any significant details, just collaborating with small actions, unanimously stating that Chu Jingtang from the Bilan Sect knew more.

The man in the blue shirt knocked on the wooden wall twice, and the chief interrogator immediately spoke up to change the person. The person from the Bilan Sect was brought up.

Chu Jingtang knew he couldn't escape this ordeal and faced the interrogation only to sigh that he should never have met Shi Chun. By then, they had already learned from their sect and elders who Wang Sheng was.

His acquaintance with Wang Sheng, compared to others, really did run deep.

"Take it slow, let's hear the story from the beginning," Chu Jingtang said, starting from the first time he met Wang Sheng and Gao Qiang, then the introduction into Xuan State forces, followed by Guan Wen tricking Wang Sheng into the Moon Sea, only to be schemed against together, turning everyone into accomplices.

This sequence of events left Ji Qinghe and Mulan Qingqing a bit embarrassed next door. If true, the incident indeed started from Guan Wen's dishonorable actions.

More embarrassing details followed, with Yan Ji disregarding the lives of other sect members, knowing the dangers yet still deceiving about twenty sects' people into venturing into the Moon Sea to find Guan Wen.

Chu Jingtang hadn't personally experienced this, and had heard about it from Wang Sheng afterward.

Logically, there were survivors from the Moon Sea incident at the time, but reality was cruel. Previously, Guann Yingjie had reported to Ji Qinghe and the man in the blue shirt that the few dozen survivors had been redirected to encounter a formidable enemy, leaving none alive — a fact known to Mulan Qingqing as well.

This was something neither Wang Sheng nor Chu Jingtang knew about, but others were aware of the personnel movements at the time. If one were to really investigate, it could certainly be verified.

About twenty sects had been deceived into delivering themselves to death, not to mention that to keep things quiet, all the survivors were killed thereafter. The dissemination of such news would be disastrous.

There was no need for Chu Jingtang to continue this story; the previous interrogators had also spilled the details. There was no need to make him repeat it, so the man in the blue shirt tapped the wall again.

Thud!

Therefore, the chief interrogator skipped this part and asked Chu Jingtang how he had contacted Wang Sheng again.

Narrating the events, Chu Jingtang recalled how, after Wang Sheng approached him, he referred Wang Sheng to Hu Yan Dao. Wang Sheng intended to have a showdown with the Su Yuan Sect, aiming to elevate Yuanjian Palace to the top position. Although Hu Yan Dao superficially agreed, he secretly collaborated with the Su Yuan Sect to silence them, only to end up defeated by Wang Sheng.

From this point on, Chu Jingtang could no longer turn back. Escape was his only option, as the Su Yuan Sect clearly intended to silence anyone with knowledge of the incident. He couldn't dare stay and wait for death, so he had to call upon the sects involved to flee together.

Faced with the terrifying threat from the Su Yuan Sect, they had no choice but to follow a dark path, resisting alongside Wang Sheng.

This account was far more detailed than the one Shi Chun had initially provided to Wukang Mountain, fully reflecting Shi Chun's entire manipulation tactics.

He was responsive to all questions, hiding nothing and telling everything.

However, reflecting on it afterward felt bitterly ironic — he felt so foolish that Chu Jingtang ended up crying as he spoke.

As he spoke of Wang Sheng commanding half of Xuan State's forces to seize the Insect Extreme Crystal.

The judge couldn't help but ask, "I heard that you always get quite a haul each time, almost never coming up empty. Given that your scouts are nothing but a makeshift crew, logically, you could at most pinpoint the location of the target to rob. How did you manage to never come away empty-handed?"

This question had been asked of others before, but no one knew for sure; all they knew was that they always managed to loot quite a bit.

A mob of ragtag troops outperforming a group of elites was indeed baffling.

Mulan Qingqing, who was listening from the adjacent room, was also all ears, as this was something she was exceedingly curious about.

Chu Jingtang wiped his tears with his sleeve, crying and laughing, "How could we never come away empty? We hardly ever got any Insect Extreme Crystals."

The judge expressed his surprise, "What do you mean?"

Mulan Qingqing and the others were also stunned.

Chu Jingtang gave a bitter smile, "Except for the first day when we did indeed rob hundreds of them, most of the subsequent lootings were just the Insect Extreme Crystals from our own pockets.

When the loot was divided among us, we still ended up with half of the Insect Extreme Crystals. Wang Sheng used those to repeatedly stage a scenario of having a loot to the others.

On the surface, all the loot was given to me for safekeeping, for all to see, but actually behind the scenes, they were swapped out with bags of stones.

The next day when we robbed again, one could imagine, it must have involved throwing the prepared Insect Extreme Crystals into the battleground amidst the chaos, then being discovered during the collection of spoils, and so on and so forth.

Though it appeared we carried loads of Insect Extreme Crystals, in reality, what we carried were mostly stones. In the end, though it was declared as sixty or seventy thousand Insect Extreme Crystals, the actual number was only about three thousand."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the hall fell silent.

The man in the green shirt froze; this method sounded strangely familiar.

Ji Qinghe in the left room also froze and slowly turned to look at Mulan Qingqing; wasn't this precisely what Guan Yingjie reported, claiming they actually had only forty thousand Insect Extreme Crystals on hand, and a good portion of those were just stones filling up numbers?

What a coincidence, both sides used the same trick.

A coincidence? For Mulan Qingqing, the differences were massive, even the numbers were significantly different—using forty thousand fake crystals to impersonate seventy thousand, while the others used three thousand to impersonate sixty thousand. How outrageous was that? Could this be the same?

Hearing this, she roughly understood what was happening; her face grew paler and her breathing more rapid.

Once the judge on the platform had regained his composure, he asked again, "What was Wang Sheng's purpose in doing all this? I heard that when the number of Extreme Crystals of the elite troops exceeded, Wang Sheng voluntarily gave up, already disheartened and admitting defeat."

Chu Jingtang sighed, "Why perform such tricks if admitting defeat? He had already guessed that the elite troops were faking. He had anticipated that the elite's haul could never exceed his concocted figures. I only realized after seeing him actually defeat Mulan Qingqing that he must have foreseen the elite's determination, anticipated their refusal to give in, so he went with the flow..."

Listening to the explanation in the main hall, Mulan Qingqing could only picture those moments in her mind: not having enough Insect Extreme Crystals, using stones as fakes, both groups coming together and using a traitor to instigate dissent, deliberately stepping back to give the other side another chance, and how everyone was manipulated and reshaped, all still vivid in her memory.

Her breathing grew increasingly irregular.

Ji Qinghe's ears twitched, sensing something was amiss. Turning again, he noticed her chest heaving rapidly but without any breath, and he softly called out immediately, "Qingqing, Qingqing?"

"Actually, they had far more Insect Extreme Crystals than we did, according to the previous gambling rules; they had already won, and Yuanjian Palace might also have won, but they went too far, insisting on pulling tricks for another competition..."

Outside, as Chu Jingtang's words reached this point, Ji Qinghe who just stretched his hand to check Mulan Qingqing, was horrified.

"Phew..."

Suddenly, Mulan Qingqing couldn't hold back her blood any longer, spraying it onto the wooden wall, forming bright, eye-catching splatters like flowers as she fell backwards with eyes rolling.

Ji Qinghe instinctively caught her and urgently administered aid.

The sound of blood splattering on the plank was too loud, stopping the questions inside the hall as everyone turned back looking this way.

The man in the green shirt appeared from a back door, quickly reaching the left room, his face sank as he hurriedly joined the effort to save her...

In a relatively quiet inn, two carriages pulled in, and the group from Wukang Mountain got out one after another.

Wukang Mountain, being somewhat wealthy, had booked the place outright.

Before the official end of the congress, there were free accommodations provided for the participants; whether they stayed was optional, and some, like those from Wukang Mountain, had private matters to discuss.

Yin Huixin stepped out of the carriage, and an inn attendant immediately handed her a confidential letter.

After glancing at the coded message on the letter, Yin Huixin walked aside to open it and abruptly turned to stare toward the striding Bian Jixiong's retreating figure into the inn, hastily following after him.

Bian Jixiong and Elder Ke had just entered the room when Yin Huixin followed.

Once she had shut the door behind her, Bian Jixiong immediately said in a deep voice, "Those two fools have stirred up big trouble, the situation is unpredictable, and we can't just stay put here; we need to prepare for what comes next. Brother Ke, you will need to keep some control here, and it might involve some risk."

Elder Ke gave a slight nod, "Okay."

Staring at Bian Jixiong, Yin Huixin suddenly spoke coldly, "Shi Chun had taken a liking to Weikang before going up to Wukang Mountain; did you let Weikang know in advance of your arrival?"

Elder Ke slightly stiffened, turning to look at the Sect Master.

Bian Jixiong fell silent, then slowly exhaled and said, "Yes, after receiving the news from your side and learning about the trouble Shi Chun and the others had caused, I thought about coming clean to all parties involved; all three of those guys had to go. Fearing that Weikang wouldn't accept it at the time... who knew they actually might clinch the victory."

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