Seeing Tie Ci approach, Qi You remained composed and even smiled at her.

Tie Ci nodded in return: “Brother Qi, may I borrow your quiver for a look?”

Qi You removed his quiver and handed it to her.

Tie Ci examined it, then asked Qi You: “When you drew your last arrow, did you almost fail to grasp it and have to use force to pull it out?”

“How did you know, brother?” Qi You asked in amazement. “I couldn’t pull the arrow out on my first try—I had to use force on the second attempt. At the time I thought the fletching had gotten stuck in the quiver, and I was quite anxious.”

Tie Ci smiled: “That’s right.”

The crowd was thoroughly confused. The impatient ones were already saying: “Stop being mysterious—speak up!”

Tie Ci wasn’t offended and turned the quiver over: “Everyone, take a look.”

People crowded around and looked for a long time but couldn’t make sense of it. What was there to see in an empty quiver?

Tie Ci pointed to a spot on the side of the quiver: “Look here—aren’t there some traces?”

Only then did those who had crowded close see extremely faint traces, but these marks were truly impossible to notice unless pointed out.

What eyesight this person had!

“What is this?”

“Feel it,” Tie Ci said.

People immediately pulled their hands back—the suspected culprit was someone who used poison, so who would dare touch something he might have handled?

Only a pair of snow-white, slender hands reached out, touching the traces without concern, and said in surprise: “Oh my, it’s sticky!”

Then she continued: “It’s rather like the fish glue from a type of deep-sea fish we have—extremely sticky. It starts very hard but gradually softens over time.”

The speaker was tall and graceful, with a face like snow but bright, brilliant eyes.

It was that female warrior.

Tie Ci thought: Ah, she lives by the sea or on an island.

She said: “You are truly learned.”

Turning to the crowd, she continued: “Since none of you could have thrown the arrow according to our earlier speculation, then it wasn’t thrown. That arrow was in Qi You’s quiver from the beginning.”

“As for how this was accomplished, it relied on this deep-sea scale fish glue.”

“This fish glue has extremely high adhesive properties, but it has a fatal flaw—it doesn’t last long. Within half an hour it will gradually soften, and after an hour it will completely disappear without a trace. It can only be used briefly.”

“Before the competition began, someone used this fish glue to fix that trick arrow to the edge of the quiver. Initially, the extremely high adhesive strength made the arrow and quiver into one unit—no matter how Qi You tried to draw it, he couldn’t pull out that arrow. As the competition progressed toward its end, the adhesiveness gradually disappeared, and Qi You was finally able to draw that arrow.”

“Because the timing couldn’t be precisely controlled, when Qi You tried to draw the arrow, the fish glue hadn’t completely softened yet, so he needed to use force to pull it out.”

Someone asked: “How did the perpetrator know that Chu Xingbai would be the last one remaining, thus saving this arrow to deal with him?”

“That’s a good question, and one that can’t be explained. So I suspect the perpetrator didn’t care who this last trick arrow would target—they just needed to target whoever remained at the end. With only a few people left on the field, Qi You would eliminate one person with his arrow and be eliminated himself under suspicion, then poison another one to death. The remaining people wouldn’t be enough for selection.”

“So why do this?”

The crowd’s gaze immediately fell on the remaining Deer Chasing Academy student, the Mingquan Academy student, and Li Yuncheng.

With the competition eliminated, wouldn’t these few be the first to benefit?

Several faces immediately turned pale. The Deer Chasing and Mingquan students hurriedly said: “We never approached Qi You or even spoke to him. Even if we wanted to bribe someone to tamper with things around him, we couldn’t have managed it!”

Someone immediately said: “What about Brother Li? Brother Li seems to know Brother Qi!”

All eyes turned to Li Yuncheng in unison.

Li Yuncheng obviously hadn’t expected the blame to suddenly fall on his head and froze.

Suddenly there was a loud shout: “Don’t wrong my brother!”

It was Miss Li, who took pride in the Li family. Surrounded by a large group of servants and maids, she walked over quickly. First she glared fiercely at Tie Ci, then bowed to Li Yuncheng: “Elder brother, you are the heir of our Li family, the beloved son of Grand Academician Li. How dare these lowly people slander you! Your sister has already sent for the guards waiting outside the academy to drive these people away!”

She then addressed the crowd: “All of you, step back! Are you worthy of watching the Li family’s affairs?”

She then called sweetly to a row of officials behind her: “Uncle Wang, Uncle Cheng, there are villains here spreading confusion and speaking nonsense, trying to slander our Li family children. Please come forward and uphold justice!”

The Maritime Educational Commissioner coughed and stepped forward with dignity.

These educational officials like commissioners and supervisors from Maritime Province would naturally be received with great ceremony at other academies, but here, where the Crown Princess studied and the Chief Minister’s legitimate grandson presided, they could only quietly serve as background figures.

Being called forward by Miss Li now, the Maritime Educational Commissioner felt somewhat better. He had found Tie Ci displeasing from the start—an ordinary scholar manipulating affairs at such an occasion was most improper!

He first nodded to Miss Li, then said gently to Li Yuncheng: “The innocent are innocent—Young Master Li need not worry.”

When he turned to Tie Ci, however, he rebuked her rudely: “Since an assault has occurred here, it should naturally be reported to the authorities for handling. Prefect Qingyang is right here—when is it your turn to speak!”

Prefect Qingyang stepped forward: “This humble official believes this absolutely could not have been Young Master Li’s doing. Who would be so foolish as to involve themselves knowing that the last few remaining would be suspected?”

This reasoning had some merit. Tie Ci nodded, about to express approval, when Prefect Qingyang gave her a cold look and continued: “This humble official rather thinks that those who remained on the sidelines, with slightly lower rankings, are more suspicious. After all, if the top few all met with incidents, wouldn’t the replacement candidates be next in line?”

This reasoning also made some sense, and many people nodded. The students who had ranked in the bottom fifteen after the previous round all changed color.

Miss Li laughed coldly, turned to scan the crowd, and suddenly pointed at Jian Xi: “That woman is the most suspicious!”

“She clearly had the ability to participate in the competition but deliberately didn’t apply, insisting on answering questions from the audience and trampling many senior brothers underfoot. In the third round competition, she had to write a five-character quatrain instead of regulated verse with six tonal patterns—this shows she’s someone who seeks attention and takes unorthodox approaches. When this trick failed in the third round, she turned to underhanded methods on the martial arts field!”

She pointed at the female warrior: “She also has this woman helping her. This woman has superior martial arts and a reckless disposition—clearly someone who has wandered the jianghu for a long time. Such a person could easily approach Qi You, tamper with his quiver, or administer poison!”

Tie Ci looked her up and down in amazement.

She had thought this Miss Li’s mind contained only the glory of their Li family, but unexpectedly she could produce such sophisticated arguments.

While she was still watching the show, Miss Li pointed her finger fiercely at her: “And him! He’s the most problematic! If he’s so clever, why didn’t he suggest such a simple possibility? I think he’s deliberately creating confusion, rambling on and making everyone dizzy, thereby providing cover for this woman. These three people may have been colluding from the start! Their purpose is to bring down the selected students, conceal their own conspiracy, and ultimately elevate Jian Xi to power!”

Miss Li was quite eloquent, speaking in an unbroken stream. Those present found her words very reasonable and nodded frequently.

Miss Li looked pleased and bowed to Rong Pu and the educational officials: “Please, Academy Director and honored officials, uphold justice!”

Following her appeal, commotion arose outside as a large group of guards burst in, pushing through the crowd toward Tie Ci and her companions.

Li Yuncheng said: “Hey, you don’t need to…”

The Educational Commissioner said: “Young lady, don’t be hasty. There’s no need to trouble your Li family servants—perhaps Prefect Qiao should summon the constables…”

Prefect Qingyang said: “This humble official has already sent for them. We’ll take these people to Qingyang Prefecture for proper interrogation.”

Rong Pu said: “Earlier this brother said so much, and you were all skeptical. Now this Miss Li points fingers at random, and you gentlemen are convinced?”

The Maritime Supervisor: “The Li mansion has deep scholarly traditions, and their children are all of outstanding character. How could they speak carelessly?”

Rong Pu: “Are you all certain?”

The Educational Commissioner: “Naturally!”

Tie Ci: “Are you all acting because we’re guilty, or because of the Li family’s status?”

Prefect Qingyang: “How stubborn you are. Keep talking—that’s another charge: insulting and mocking court officials!”

Miss Li: “Uncle Qiao needn’t lower yourself to deal with them. Just arrest them and slap their faces. All three of them! Yes, that masked one—do you think I don’t recognize you just because you’re wearing a mask? You assaulted me on the road and mocked me at the academy, you sneaky thing. Didn’t you say even grand academicians wouldn’t dare offend your maid? Go say that in Qingyang Prefecture’s jail… Take off that mask! Let everyone see your beast-hearted face!”

She reached out to tear off Tie Ci’s mask.

Rong Pu stopped speaking.

He stepped back and folded his sleeves.

His guard whispered: “Young master…”

Rong Pu covered his mouth with his hand and whispered in the guard’s ear: “Move farther away, lest blood splash on us.”

Miss Li’s hand was just touching the edge of Tie Ci’s mask.

Suddenly a wind arose.

The wind was cold as polar ice and snow, fierce as a nine-heaven tornado.

With a whoosh, Miss Li’s head spun, her vision blurred, the ground and sky repeatedly flipped, her heart felt seized and shaken back and forth seven or eight times, then with a crash, her bottom hurt, heaven and earth reversed, she plunged downward, her bottom and back nearly sparking from friction, while the ground drew ever closer—

She screamed in terror.

The next moment her body suddenly stopped, and with a bang she crashed into something hard. Stars flashed as sharp pain struck, something warm flowed down, and something clattered to the ground.

Complete silence fell.

Everyone watched as the man beside Tie Ci merely moved his sleeve, and Miss Li suddenly flew out, tumbling several times in the air. First she caught on a tree branch that viciously jabbed her bottom, then the branch couldn’t support her weight, and she slid down backwards against the trunk, breaking countless branches, until finally a thick branch caught her, leaving her hanging upside down three feet from the ground.

When hanging upside down, she also struck the tree, causing a nosebleed and knocking out a front tooth.

The attack was truly vicious, showing no consideration for the opponent being female. People looked at Murong Yi with very unfriendly eyes.

Murong Yi acted as if he didn’t see them.

If Tie Ci hadn’t casually tugged his sleeve earlier, he would have made sure all of that Miss Li’s clothes were torn off during her slide down.

Let that disgraceful thing roll back to her Li mansion for life and stop coming out to disgust people.

The tree where Miss Li hung had originally been surrounded by many people, who were now covered in dust, leaves, and blood, scrambling to get away.

Rong Pu stood safely in the distance with folded sleeves, sighing to his attendant: “Scholarly dignity is lost, scholarly dignity is lost.”

The guard nodded in deep agreement.

Rong Pu glanced at Tie Ci and said wistfully: “Who would have thought she had such a preference!”

The guard didn’t hear clearly: “What?”

Rong Pu stared at Miss Li and murmured: “Tell me, if I went and beat Miss Li senseless right now, would that win someone’s favor?”

The guard was startled and hurriedly said: “Young master, you mustn’t do something so undignified! Uh, who is ‘someone’?”

Rong Pu: “…Character personas are the death of me!”

Someone came running over with quick steps—it was Li Yuncheng.

Although he couldn’t really remember which branch or house of the Li family this young lady belonged to, they shared the Li surname, and she had suffered this beating while defending him.

The guards Miss Li had brought charged forward, surrounding Tie Ci and Murong Yi. Li Yuncheng led people to help her down. Miss Li, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, grabbed his lapels: “Elder brother… elder brother… he’s insulting our Li family… you must help me get revenge!”

Li Yuncheng frowned.

In previous years, anyone who dared treat him and his Li clan this way would simply be dealt with. But since accompanying the Crown Princess on that journey, he had gradually understood that the current court would not be a world where the Xiao family and ministers could form alliances and counter-alliances, and the Crown Princess would not tolerate aristocratic families acting arrogantly. Making too big a scene at Leaping Carp Academy, if by chance…

But that person’s attack had been rather too ruthless, like a demon king…

Li Yuncheng instinctively looked toward Tie Ci and Murong Yi. He had been thinking about problems earlier and only now took a serious look at these two people. His gaze swept over them, paused, and he couldn’t help but look again.

Then he slowly widened his eyes.

Behind him, Miss Li shouted through her loose teeth: “Arrest them, arrest them, kill without mercy!”

The Maritime Educational Commissioner looked furious: “These people are all suspects—arrest them all!”

Prefect Qingyang: “Where are the constables! Arrest them! Remove their masks and let everyone see what kind of villains these are!”

Amid the commotion, Tie Ci smiled: “Remove the mask? Are you certain?”