Chapter 265: Unspoken Words
Lava Immortal Palace, Main Hall.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, usually in its compact form, once again expanded to an enormous size!
It raised its head and roared, its dragon horns nearly hitting the ceiling of the hall.
It was enraged, it exploded with fury!
"She must not, Ning Xiaohui must not leave here alive!"
"Absolutely not!!"
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had schemed and prepared for so many years, paying a heavy price to weaken the Lava Immortal Palace step by step.
It wanted to regain its freedom!
After working tirelessly for so long, the final moment was in sight.
There was no way it would allow Ning Xiaohui to ruin its grand plan!
"That brat Ning Zhuo is unreliable, he's been forced onto the stage by Zhu Xuanji to put on a show!"
"I can only rely on myself!!"
"I—The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, would rather die than continue being bound."
"I want freedom, freedom!"
It roared toward the heavens, unwilling to accept failure, determined to make one last desperate gamble.
However, it was still constrained by the Three Sect Lords, even though they had long since perished. Its authority was insufficient to directly kill Ning Xiaohui.
Ning Zhuo was also unreliable!
Cornered, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had no choice but to resort to an old trick, borrowing the power of the Scarlet Flame Beasts.
Just like before, when it deliberately left behind the Mechanical Demon Generals.
But this time, its move was on a much grander scale!
Boom!
Amidst a loud explosion, the Five Elements Tower fired its cannon. Although it didn’t kill many, it successfully provoked the wrath of the beast tide.
The beasts began a full-scale assault, launching a frenzied attack.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit managed the defensive forces, deliberately reducing the mana support to the protective light barrier.
The golden light shield immediately weakened to sixty percent.
Crack, crack, crack...
The attacks from the beasts quickly caused cracks to appear on the surface of the spherical light shield.
This time, the desperate Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit held back, no longer sending additional mana to the shield. Instead, it diverted vital mana to other insignificant mechanical structures.
Bang.
A muffled sound echoed as a large hole broke open in the spherical light shield.
The Scarlet Flame Beasts roared in excitement, surging through the opening like a waterfall crashing down, flooding into the Lava Immortal Palace!
And directly below the Scarlet Flame Beasts was the History Pavilion.
In the main hall.
Hundreds of fire whips condensed into form, lashing repeatedly at the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit!
But the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit no longer adopted its usual evasive stance. With its head held high and chest puffed out, it let out dragon roars, appearing incredibly majestic.
"I’ve played the turtle for so long, who in this world knows that I was once a fire-walking dragon?!"
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit's gaze blazed as bright as the sun. Even as it endured the lashes of the fire whips, it continued to control the situation.
Numerous mechanical creations soared into the air, colliding with and battling the Scarlet Flame Beasts.
Under the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit’s command, the mechanical creations deliberately herded the beasts toward the History Pavilion.
"What’s that sound?!" Ning Xiaohui sensed something was wrong when she heard the explosion.
The next moment, she realized what was happening, and her face turned deathly pale.
When she opened the door to the History Pavilion and saw the surging Scarlet Flame Beasts surrounding the area from all directions, with even more beasts raining down from the sky, she was completely dumbfounded.
An overwhelming sense of fear engulfed her entire being.
At that moment, she stood frozen in terror!
A figure suddenly appeared nearby, casting a spell aimed at Ning Xiaohui's head.
It was Yang Chanyu!
"Don’t even think about it!" At the critical moment, Zhu Zhen appeared, not only blocking Yang Chanyu’s attack but launching a counterattack.
Yang Chanyu was shocked.
She hadn’t expected there to be another person hiding nearby.
Zhu Zhen was a member of the Southern Dou royal family, a powerful Golden Core cultivator dispatched to gather intelligence from foreign countries.
Invisibility and concealment were some of his specialties!
Just as Yang Chanyu blocked Zhu Zhen’s counterattack, several Golden Core figures surrounded her.
They were the Golden Core ancestors of the Zhou, Zheng, and Ning families!
"The fish has taken the bait, hahaha!"
"It’s you again, Yang Chanyu!"
"The No-Void Sect… Wasn’t it you who started the Golden Core melee last time?"
The Golden Core cultivators of the three families gritted their teeth and attacked with their magical treasures, launching a joint assault.
Yang Chanyu's heart sank, and she had no choice but to retreat continuously.
But her attempt to disappear failed.
Zhu Zhen pursued her relentlessly: "Yang Chanyu, you’ve been marked by my spell. For the next hour, you’ll be unable to escape. Surrender now, you can’t run anymore!"
Ning Xiaohui's pupils shrank in fear, and her whole body trembled.
It was only now that she realized she had just brushed past death. If Zhu Zhen hadn’t intervened, she would already be dead at Yang Chanyu’s hands.
Ning Xiaohui watched as the Golden Core cultivators battled in midair, slaughtering the Scarlet Flame Beasts with wild abandon. She finally recognized her dire situation.
"I’m the only one who has entered the History Pavilion!"
"I hold all the evidence of the true culprit in my hands!!"
"The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit wants to kill me!!!"
"I have to escape, I must run away."
Ning Xiaohui had consulted the records in the History Pavilion, making her the most knowledgeable person about the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit on Mount Huoshi.
Many mechanical creations rushed toward the History Pavilion.
Ning Xiaohui dared not trust these mechanical puppets, knowing they were all under the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit's command.
Fortunately, the battlefield was chaotic, and she spotted a gap, immediately fleeing!
And this scene was witnessed by Sun Lingtong.
But he did not take action!
The massive body of the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit nearly filled the entire main hall. It couldn’t direct the mechanical puppets to specifically target Ning Xiaohui.
To eliminate Ning Xiaohui, it had to rely on others.
Originally, Ning Zhuo was the dagger it had planned to use, but now that Ning Zhuo was absent, it scanned the battlefield and immediately set its sights on Sun Lingtong.
"Sun Lingtong!" The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit’s voice boomed in Sun Lingtong's ear the next moment.
"Kill Ning Xiaohui!"
"She’s entered the History Pavilion and knows all of Ning Zhuo’s secrets!"
Sun Lingtong's body trembled slightly.
"Hurry up!" the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit shouted.
Sun Lingtong blinked, "Who are you? Suddenly appearing to scare me, and now you’re trying to trick me?!"
Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit: …
Ning Xiaohui stumbled, seeking a way out in the chaos of the battlefield.
Two Scarlet Flame Beasts at the Foundation Establishment level spotted fresh blood and charged toward Ning Xiaohui.
Bang, bang.
Two muffled sounds echoed as the two Scarlet Flame Beasts were blown apart mid-charge.
It turned out that a Golden Core cultivator from the Zhou family had intervened, protecting Ning Xiaohui.
Ning Xiaohui hurriedly continued running.
More Scarlet Flame Beasts surrounded her.
Zheng Shuanggou threw his moon hook into the air.
The moon hook flew up, pouring out large amounts of Golden Core mana, forming a clone of Zheng Shuanggou made of mana.
The mana clone, holding the moon hook, landed beside Ning Xiaohui and slaughtered the Scarlet Flame Beasts.
Once again, Ning Xiaohui was saved.
"Did you discover anything in the History Pavilion?" the mana clone of the moon hook asked.
Ning Xiaohui’s whole body trembled, and she snapped back to reality: "Right! I can reveal the truth now. Then the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit and Ning Zhuo will be done for, and they’ll be too busy saving themselves to come after me..."
Thinking of this, Ning Xiaohui shook her head and blurted out, "I was just about to read when this happened. I didn’t have time to see anything."
The mana clone nodded, not suspecting her: "I’ll escort you out first."
Ning Xiaohui: !!!!!!
At that moment, she was utterly shocked and terrified!
Those words she had just spoken were not what she intended to say, but somehow, she had said them.
She was completely out of control!
"What’s happening?!"
"Why did I say that?"
"I wanted to reveal the truth, so why can’t I control myself?!"
Ning Xiaohui widened her eyes in an effort to seek help from the mana clone.
But at that moment, a Golden Core-level Scarlet Flame Beast attacked.
The mana clone's expression turned serious: "Run quickly, I’ll hold it off!"
Ning Xiaohui was still
in the Qi Refining stage, and the mana clone needed to keep its distance to avoid dragging her into the Golden Core-level battle.
As the mana clone was about to leave, Ning Xiaohui seized her last chance and shouted—
"Senior, you must be careful!"
The mana clone was taken aback for a moment, then laughed heartily: "Little girl, you be careful. I’m just a mana clone after all."
"No, that’s not what I wanted to say!!" Ning Xiaohui screamed in her heart.
Fear!
A paralyzing fear gripped her heart so tightly she could barely breathe.
"What on earth is happening to me?"
"Why can’t I speak the truth?"
"The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, yes, it must be it!"
"This is its domain, it’s interfering with me, it wants to kill me!!"
Ning Xiaohui's face was as pale as a ghost, devoid of any trace of blood.
The criminal puppet's face was equally pale.
He sat lifelessly in his cell, the dim light casting shadows over his troubled expression.
Suddenly, a secret door opened in the center of the stage, and a black-clad messenger puppet emerged.
The surrounding lights focused on the black-clad puppet, making the rest of the cell appear even darker.
The low beats of a drum accompanied the black-clad puppet's every step, filling the audience below the stage with a sense of darkness and pressure.
The criminal puppet jumped up as if shocked by electricity, shouting: "I didn’t confess, I didn’t confess, I never said you were the real culprit!"
The black-clad messenger sang in a cold voice: "Do not worry, I have a solution. Confess to the crime, and you shall escape disaster."
After singing this line, he spoke softly: "There’s no need to grieve, I’m here to help you escape."
"As long as you confess, I will ensure you live without fear of death!"
Clang.
The sound of a gong hinted at the character's shock.
The criminal puppet was so frightened that he took a step back and fell to the ground.
He looked up at the black-clad messenger, anxiously singing: "Magistrate Fang Qing is a righteous official, how can I falsely accuse him? I am but a commoner, how dare I make trouble?"
"This crime is fabricated, how can it be believed?"
"Oh, woe is me..."
The criminal puppet shook his head and waved his hands, turning slightly to face the audience, spreading his hands: "How can I stoop so low? How can I reverse black and white, how can I deceive the people?"
The black-clad puppet sneered coldly.
The sound of the jinghu instrument suddenly rose sharply.
The black-clad messenger sang: "What of the righteous official? The people are but a mob."
"A mob is easily swayed. As long as there are enough words, even false accusations become truth."
"Does the truth even matter?"
"As long as we accuse him, he will have no escape!"
Thus, the second act of the play "Fang Qing's Vindication" came to an end.
(End of Chapter)