Chapter 36: Robbery (1/2)

Lu Yin’s words made sense. and Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue exchanged glances. They realized that if Lu Yin really was a student taking the trial, he wouldn’t have done something to cause himself trouble.

“There is a person that I have my suspicions about, though,” he continued, glancing at Bai Xue, “Liu Shaoge.”

The two Sages were astonished, “Why?”

“Hubei has been marked blue, you know what that means.”

Bai Xue disagreed, “My entire domain is blue, as is Nanjing. That doesn’t mean anything.”

“You’re one of the three High Sages, and the only reason Nanjing is blue is that I saved it. Liu Shaoge isn’t a High Sage, he isn’t even much stronger than Zhou Shan; how could he possibly defend himself from the trainees? Look at the map yourself, you’ll see there are multiple students around the region.” This explanation silenced Bai Xue’s retort; she simply couldn’t pick a hole in his argument.

Zhang Dingtian heaved a deep sigh, sheathing his sword as he turned to leave, “Innocent until proven guilty; that applies to you, and it applies to Liu Shaoge as well.”

Bai Xue also left after one last, troubled glance at Lu Yin. It was only then that Jeraldine approached, “Was it really Liu Shaoge who spread the news?”

“How would I know?” Lu Yin answered nonchalantly.

She blinked, “But you sounded so certain just now.”

Lu Yin smirked at her, “How would I convince them if I didn’t? If you’re going to scapegoat someone, you need to have full confidence in your words. What have you been studying in school if you don’t even understand this?”

Scapegoat someone? How despicable! While Jeraldine was disturbed by these words, Lu Yin returned to his residence. Meanwhile, her post on the net prompted many of the students bitterly fighting in Europe to rush to Tianzhu. Although Eddy and Hayden tried to clarify that they had only been passing through and fought the Tianzhu Monk through coincidence, no one believed them.

To Lu Yin, the official network was like a movie over the next few days. There were constant messages about X defeating Y, Z dying, and the like; some of the students trying to fly over from the Americas had been eaten by mutant sea beasts on the trip. The commotion continued for five days until Eddy and Hayden finally managed to prove their innocence, convincing people that the criminal hadn’t left anything in Tianzhu.

Within Beijing, Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue looked terrible. They were aware of the situation and knew how bad things were about to become; the capital would soon become a battlefield. Although Zhang Dingtian was extremely powerful, there was a limit to his strength and he didn’t have any battle techniques that suited him; it would be impossible to protect the city alone. Bai Xue was significantly weaker, and the blunt truth was that even all of the Seven Sages gathered together would still face a hopeless situation.

Lu Yin was just as concerned as the two Sages. He had taken the identity of a native in the trial, so if Beijing was taken over, it would drastically reduce the effect he was aiming for. Also, he had no intentions of allowing the criminal to go free with the item that had been left behind. Beijing was critical to all of his plans.

“Lu Yin, let’s go. Beijing won’t be able to defend itself,” Jeraldine told him anxiously, but he was lost in contemplation. The most powerful people on Earth right now were Zhang Dingtian and Eddy, the former being a tiny bit more powerful, but there would be many opponents of comparable strength in the upcoming battle. He needed to be stronger than them all to keep the city from battle; at the very least, he needed to reach Eddy’s level and sweep through them all with his Cosmic Palm.

Considering all this, he whispered to Jeraldine before flying off, “Stay in Beijing, I’ll be back in a few days.”

Jeraldine was left gritting her teeth in reply. He was aware of the situation; why was he asking her to stay and die?

Right as Lu Yin was about to leave the capital, Bai Xue popped out to confront him, “Are you trying to escape?”

“I’ll be back before the trainees attack the city,” he answered softly.