Acting in direct defiance of the current edict.

This phrase made the eyelids of every Xuan clan present twitch. They all looked at Gong Qi. Whose side are you actually on? Shouldn’t you be protecting your own people?

The official who had been gasping for breath — a man by the name of Lou Shan — immediately straightened up. He puffed out his chest, pushed past the Xuan sect members, and declared, “Who — who has used Xuan arts to harm an ordinary person? This is the conduct of an evil practitioner. You are all righteous members of the Xuan sects — do you intend to turn from the righteous path to the crooked one?”

Lang Jiuchuan glanced at this man, privately thinking that the officials selected to serve under the Bureau of Oversight must have been ones whose birth charts Shen Qinghe had personally examined for favorable signs — lest they encounter some dark and troublesome case and prove insufficiently formidable.

This man was stocky and broad-shouldered, with thick brows, large eyes, and a square face — his entire bearing radiated upright solidity. Everything about him said he was a man of strong vital constitution.

“Sir, this young woman wishes to lodge a formal complaint against this person — Rong Family disciple Lu You’an — for using a sinister yin technique to harm my mother.” Lang Jiuchuan pointed to the item at Lu You’an’s waist. “What hangs at his waist is a Three-Yin Soul Bell, tempered in a place of extreme sha energy. When shaken, it summons and drives yin-sha energy directly into a person’s body, damaging the soul and injuring the physical form.”

Lu You’an’s pupils contracted sharply. How did she know the name of this artifact? When his master gave it to him, he had said it was a treasure awarded to elders by the Rong Family — that if he studied the Way diligently and made great contributions to the Rong Family in the future, he too would receive celestial materials, spirit artifacts, and cultivation pellets as rewards.

But how could she know?

Indeed — how could Lang Jiuchuan know? The moment she had seen the soul bell at his waist, the artifact’s name had simply surfaced in her mind, unbidden. She must have encountered it somewhere before.

Looking now at Lu You’an’s expression, she knew she had guessed correctly.

A sharp gleam flickered in Lou Shan’s eyes. He turned to Gong Qi and said, “Daoist Gong, I’m just an ordinary man of letters who doesn’t understand how spirit artifacts work — but regardless of whether one is a scholar or a Xuan cultivator, as long as we both serve in the Bureau of Oversight, upholding fairness and impartiality is the Bureau’s founding principle. Wouldn’t you agree? Yin-sha energy entering the body and damaging the soul — if we stand by and allow people to use Xuan arts however they please, punishing anyone who displeases them, what means does an ordinary person have to resist? Would the whole world not descend into chaos?”

Director Shen had made it clear: the Bureau of Oversight had only just been established and urgently needed a decisive case to assert its authority and build public trust. They’d been sitting idle for some time — now a willing chicken had walked straight into the blade. Why wait any longer to pluck it, bleed it, and cook it up?

Ma Cheng retreated two steps, thinking darkly that his luck had run out. He should never have waded into this mess. Now it seemed he was going to be dragged down with it.

Before Gong Qi could speak, Changqing — the Rong Family’s Taoist priest — said in a heavy voice, “Junior Brother Lu, did this truly occur? Or is there some misunderstanding — was someone perhaps accidentally harmed?”

Lang Jiuchuan let out a cold laugh inwardly. Accidental harm — don’t come crying about it later.

Gong Qi narrowed his eyes and said, “Let us first go and examine Lang Family’s Madam, and then we’ll know.”

Lang Jiuchuan said coolly, “The yin-sha technique used on my mother has already been broken — which is precisely why this Taoist has suffered a backlash. Look at the state of him, ravaged by his own technique. But whether my mother was afflicted or not — all of you here are distinguished members of the Xuan sects. Surely you can take one look and know the truth. You would not be partial.”

Lu You’an’s eyes flooded with red: she was absolutely insufferable!

Gong Qi: “…”

That last remark was positively dripping with sarcasm.

He coughed once and said, “Well then, let us go and take a look—”

“There is no need!” Lu You’an said abruptly. “The yin-sha that afflicted the Lang Family’s Madam did indeed originate from me — but I did not do it deliberately. I accidentally injured her. At the time, I saw an evil spirit following behind the Madam and feared it would harm someone, so I acted on impulse, and in doing so, inadvertently struck her.”

It was Changqing Senior Brother’s reminder that did it — if nothing could be definitively proven, he simply would not admit to intent. Something had clearly happened, but who could prove it was deliberate?

Lang Jiuchuan’s gaze went ice-cold. Quite the talent for sophistry.

Lou Shan’s face nearly turned green. A single phrase of accidental harm was supposed to absolve someone of the crime of harming another person through the use of techniques?

Lang Jiuchuan looked toward the Venerable Xuanming, who had been playing the part of a silent quail — not a word out of him. “How remarkable — the celebrated Huguo Temple, surrounded by throngs of devotees and overflowing with incense, and yet filled with such compassionate regard for all living things — so all-embracing that every demon and specter runs loose within its walls. How truly merciful the Buddha and Bodhisattvas of Huguo Temple must be.”

Everyone: “…”

Even a monk’s face like the Venerable Xuanming’s was beginning to crack, just slightly. She was clearly mocking Huguo Temple as a hollow and fraudulent religious institution.

Spirits bold enough to walk freely through a temple were essentially treating the sacred images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas as though they were nothing. Wouldn’t the Buddha take notice of such impudence?

Without waiting for anyone to respond, Lang Jiuchuan’s frigid gaze snapped to Lu You’an. The corner of her mouth curved with a cold and wicked tilt. “The Buddha shows compassion to all. I, however, cannot abide watching an evil spirit harm the innocent. Fellow Practitioner Lu — take care.”

Lu You’an saw that wicked, otherworldly expression and his pupils shrank to pinpoints. He knew with a sickening lurch that something was coming — but it was already too late.

Lang Jiuchuan hurled a talisman straight at him.

Boom.

Lu You’an let out a scream of agony.

It was a thunder talisman.

Lu You’an crashed to the ground.

“How dare you — how dare you injure someone!” Changqing shouted furiously, lunging forward in an instant to seize Lang Jiuchuan.

Gong Qi had barely moved when Lang Jiuchuan, symbol brush in hand, gave Changqing’s arm a sharp tap, then stepped back several paces, feigning perfect innocence. “What is the Taoist’s intent? I merely acted to prevent an evil spirit from harming Fellow Practitioner Lu. I had no wish to accidentally strike him. Ah — it is simply a reflection of my insufficient mastery of the arts.”

Every jaw in the vicinity twitched. They all looked at Lu You’an — lying on the ground, his robes blasted to tatters, barely decent, his hair scorched and frizzled to a crisp, his skin split open in places. You call that an accident?

Changqing, meanwhile, was staring at Lang Jiuchuan with visible shock. He pressed his left hand to his right arm, silently recited the Mind-Calming Verse, and smoothed out the churning flow of qi and blood that had been thrown into chaos by the force that had struck him — then looked at the symbol brush she was casually turning between her fingers, his gaze full of wariness.

Whatever kind of spirit artifact that was, a single tap from it had flooded him with an overwhelming surge of force. His right hand had gone numb and lost all feeling, as though completely seized up — to say nothing of the upheaval in his qi and blood.

This young woman was extraordinary.

Lang Jiuchuan held his gaze coldly.

“You — you have just openly committed an assault in front of the Bureau of Oversight — the audacity!” Another Xuan sect member — apparently of the Feng Family — turned black with rage. “Lord Lou, should you not arrest this criminal?”

Lou Shan blinked. “But she said she was exorcizing an evil spirit. It was an accidental injury.”

The man’s eyes looked about ready to pop out of his head. He stamped his foot. “Nonsense! There are no evil spirits in a temple. She clearly struck him with deliberate intent.”

Changqing and Xuanming both went dark before the eyes. This was bad.

Lou Shan perked right up. Oh, so you want to take that line — then I have something to say about that.

He pointed at Lu You’an, lying half-dead on the ground, and said, “Did he not also claim there was an evil spirit following the Lang Family’s Madam, and that he struck her by accident while trying to help — and that he accidentally injured her? By your logic, was that also nonsense? Arrest him.”

Ah, but —

The Feng Family disciple felt his scalp prickling. He looked to his fellow Xuan sect members. He wanted to say he was genuinely on their side — but would anyone believe him at this point?