All the ministers in the hall were silent.
If Mei Chuan was as Zhou Yuan said, then Li Zao killing her would not only mean she wasn't a spy, but that he was a hero who protected the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Everything the Crown Prince had done would then appear utterly ridiculous!
Tan Yongzhi remained silent, and all the civil and military officials were silent as well. The soldiers of the Tiger Guard army lowered their heads in shame. The Minister of War who had approved the order to borrow troops and search hurriedly got into his carriage, afraid to face the world.
Zhou Wuji stood behind Zhou Yuan, listening to his thunderous words, his head feeling somewhat dazed.
Li Zao, not a spy, but a hero who protected his Great Zhou Dynasty?
Wasn't that utter nonsense!
Zhou Wuji's face turned pale. He could no longer bear the silence or the sharp gazes of the officials. He looked at Zhou Yuan and said, "Even if Mei Chuan was wicked and deserved to die, how can you prove Li Zao isn't a spy? You know those two people from the Xia Dynasty admitted to being spies, and Li Zao cooperated with them to kill Mei Chuan!"
Upon hearing this, the officials, whose minds had been reeling from Zhou Yuan's words, suddenly became clearer. Yes, even if Mei Chuan deserved to die, Li Zao had acted in concert with the Xia people and escaped with them via the teleportation array afterward. How could Zhou Yuan prove she wasn't a spy?
"What reason would she have to be a spy?"
Zhou Yuan's expression turned cold as he looked at Zhou Wuji, as if he were looking at an idiot. "Regardless, she was my fiancée, Zhou Yuan's fiancée, and a native of Zhou. What could Great Xia offer her that would make her become a spy?"
Zhou Wuji snorted coldly and said, "You yourself said Li Zao was under Mei Chuan's control since childhood. Perhaps she wanted to use the power of the Xia people to break free from Mei Chuan's control, so it's possible she became a spy."
Many ministers in the hall nodded slightly. Such speculation was reasonable. Li Zao was alone and weak. To break free from Mei Chuan's control, voluntarily becoming a spy for the Xia was within the realm of possibility. They might have made the same choice.
"Then go and investigate," Zhou Yuan said calmly, unconcerned by Zhou Wuji's words. "As long as you can find evidence of her colluding with the Xia people and betraying the country, I will admit she was a spy."
"But I must also remind everyone that Mei Chuan committed countless evils throughout her life and accumulated many enemies in secret. Perhaps even if Li Zao hadn't acted that day, someone else in the crowd who wanted to kill her would have stepped forward to act on behalf of heaven."
"You mean Li Zao killing her was merely an accident?" asked a minister sitting in a carriage outside the hall, calmly.
"Of course, I believe it was an accident. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The spies from the Demon Extermination Division had been planning for twenty years and ended up in a mutual destruction with Mei Chuan. Her demonic core was exposed, and she entrusted her physical body to Li Zao for protection. Thus, Li Zao seized the opportunity to kill her."
Zhou Yuan replied this way, and the minister in the carriage said no more, seemingly agreeing with this conclusion.
Others also nodded, agreeing that Zhou Yuan's explanation was highly probable.
"So she still hasn't cleared herself of the suspicion of being a spy," Zhou Wuji said stubbornly, seeing that the officials had fallen silent and even Tan Yongzhi had stopped speaking.
Zhou Yuan turned his head and looked at him indifferently. "I said, if you suspect Li Zao, then investigate. As long as you can prove Li Zao colluded with Great Xia, then I will acknowledge her as a spy, and you can decide how she is punished."
"But if you have no evidence and are just spouting nonsense, even dispatching troops to invade my residence early in the morning, then I will have to go to the palace and have a good chat with His Majesty!"
"Don't try to pressure me with father's name!"
Zhou Wuji's face turned pale. After much thought, he couldn't find any other way to implicate Li Zao, so he shifted his attention to Zuo Mingqiu. "What about him!"
"That day at Sword Pavilion, two black-robed youths publicly killed five of my seventh brother's guards. They left unharmed under the protection of the Sword Pavilion elders. Afterward, he gave the New Sun Sword to that elder, helping him kill Mei Chuan!"
"You must be one of those two!"
The gaze of the officials once again fell upon Zuo Mingqiu. Tan Yongzhi's dim and sorrowful eyes slowly regained their calmness as he looked up again.
He had not forgotten that in the Sword Pavilion incident, there were a total of six spies from the Great Xia Dynasty. Two had already been identified, and Li Zao was still among them. There were three remaining.
Was this handsome young man in black one of them? If so, what was his identity?
"I killed them. Is there a problem?"
As expected, Zuo Mingqiu admitted it frankly.
However, this time, there was no uproar in the hall. Everyone had learned their lesson from before. Zuo Mingqiu's calm admission suggested he had prepared an unassailable argument.
Zhou Wuji snorted and said, "In broad daylight, you killed five royal guards, kidnapped a disciple from Plum Blossom Valley, and gave the New Sun Sword to a spy of Great Xia. If you say you are not a spy of Xia, who would believe you!"
"I believe it, because I am not."
Zuo Mingqiu looked at Zhou Wuji with some impatience and said, "Those so-called five royal guards were simply asking for trouble. I was chatting with a friend when they said we insulted the royal dignity and demanded an apology. We couldn't agree, and they threatened to kill me. They had murderous intent towards me. Was I supposed to wait there to be killed? Is that how the martial world works?"
"There is no such principle in the martial world of Great Zhou," the Minister of Rites, Tan Yongzhi, denied, shaking his head. He looked at Zuo Mingqiu and asked, "So I want to know, what did you and your friend say that provoked those five deceased guards?"
Zuo Mingqiu frowned upon hearing this. "Essentially, we were discussing the Xuan Ranking of the Great Zhou Dynasty and thought the geniuses on it were all trash. We said that if Zhou Yuan were here, he might be able to fight us. Then those five people heard that and insisted on teaching us a lesson."
Tan Yongzhi was slightly taken aback.
The geniuses on the Xuan Ranking were trash, and if Zhou Yuan were here, he could contend with them for the immortal sword?
Zhou Wuji, upon hearing this, burst into laughter, enraged. "Young man, you don't know the immensity of heaven and earth! Do you know that the Xuan Ranking is the ranking of all the young prodigies of our Great Zhou Dynasty? To call the Xuan Ranking trash is equivalent to calling all the geniuses of our Great Zhou Dynasty trash!"
Tan Yongzhi looked at Zuo Mingqiu and also frowned. "Such words are not considered an insult to royal dignity, but I imagine any person from Zhou would be uncomfortable hearing them."
"But what I said is the truth."
After replying to Tan Yongzhi, Zuo Mingqiu calmly turned to Zhou Wuji and said, "What is the Xuan Ranking? You don't need to tell me. Even if you ask a thousand or ten thousand times, I will give you the same answer."
"The geniuses on the Xuan Ranking are trash."
"If you don't believe it, you can find them and have them spar with me."
Zhou Wuji was about to agree when he recalled Zuo Mingqiu's feat of easily obtaining the New Sun Sword, and inexplicably lost his nerve.
So many geniuses went to the Sword Pavilion this time, including two from the top three of the Xuan Ranking, yet none of them could obtain the New Sun Sword. This person, however, did. This was very telling.
Furthermore, it was rumored that he had once defeated Li Zao.
Li Zao was indeed very strong!
The rest of them felt insulted by Zuo Mingqiu's words, but they were also curious. Which power's genius was Zuo Mingqiu to dare to speak such words with such confidence?
He was certainly not from Zhou.
Could he be from the Demon Extermination Division?
Zuo Mingqiu looked at Zhou Wuji's displeased expression and continued casually, "After killing those five, we intended to escape using the spatial array. However, the array was being repaired. That senior from the Demon Extermination Division must have decided to reveal his identity, so he saved the two of us along the way."
"In return, I gave him the New Sun Sword. After that, we had no further contact."
Zhou Wuji shouted furiously, "Do you think I'll believe your nonsense!"
"How can you prove you are not a spy of Great Xia!"
All eyes in the hall were focused on Zuo Mingqiu. The silent civil and military officials all wanted to know who this arrogant man who disdained their entire Great Zhou Xuan Ranking was.
"Because I am from the Hundred Clans Alliance, naturally I cannot be a spy of the Great Xia Dynasty."
"And how can you prove you are from the Hundred Clans Alliance!"
"I can tell you my name."
"Ridiculous!" Zhou Wuji was so angered he laughed again. He pointed at Zuo Mingqiu, his face pale, and mocked, "Do you think you are the Supreme Being of the Hundred Clans Alliance? Would I recognize you just by hearing your name?"
"She is indeed more famous than I am."
Zuo Mingqiu was silent for a moment, then, with a hint of annoyance and weariness, he raised his hand and tore off the skin mask on his face, revealing his original appearance.
It was an extremely handsome face, like a banished immortal. His lips were thin, his features sharp, and his expression was as calm as water.
Zhou Wuji was stunned when he saw this face. He seemed to recall someone but couldn't recall the name.
Zuo Mingqiu turned around and looked at everyone in the hall. Thus, everyone saw him.
Zhou Wuji looked at Zuo Mingqiu, the civil and military officials looked at Zuo Mingqiu, and Tan Yongzhi looked at Zuo Mingqiu.
The Minister of Rites furrowed his brow deeply. He had to admit that it was a very familiar face, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.
"Where did I see it?"
"I once accompanied the Sect Master True Lord to the palace. You were by his side at that time," Zuo Mingqiu said calmly.
He had been to the Hundred Clans Alliance many times. Once, True Lord Bixu had taken him to the imperial palace. It was then that he met Zhou Yuan for the first time, who had grabbed him and talked nonsense about the Heavenly Dao for a long time.
Tan Yongzhi's body stiffened abruptly upon hearing this. He remembered who he was. Zhou Wuji's pupils contracted, and he also remembered the owner of this face, his own face turning instantly pale.
How to prove you are not a spy of Great Xia?
It was enough to prove you were from the Hundred Clans Alliance.
How to prove you were from the Hundred Clans Alliance? Did saying your name mean everyone in the world would recognize you?
In fact, that was the case.
Because he was Zuo Mingqiu, the former Daozi of Tianshi Mountain, the next Celestial Master designated by the Old Celestial Master, the one who could defeat the military prodigy of Great Zhou across realms, the unmatched of the Nine Provinces, and the Nine Heavens First Sovereign who could easily obtain the New Sun Immortal Sword.
……