Yuan Qingdong looked at Chen Yong and said, "I believe you know this person as well, Elder Chen. In fact, you probably know him quite well. And I have solid proof that he is now a cultist. Since Feng Ji had helped Su Yu, I suspect that there is a hidden story here. Why had Su Yu plotted the deaths of Jin Yuhui, the other cultural researchers, and the cultists from the Fire Blood Sect, Celestial Dragon Sect, Devil Scorpian Sect, and the others?
"Is it possible that he was trying to remove the competitors of the Six-Winged Divine Sect? Was Prefect Zhu fooled? Just whose side is Su Yu on? Where did his cultivation methods come from? A ruin? Or the six-winged divine race? Is he even a genius? Or is he a prop of the six-winged divine race?
"If his inheritance came from a ruin, nobody will covet it. But I still hope that he can release the source of his inheritance. Don't worry. I'm not trying to steal his ruin. I'll even suggest that Great Xia and the Knowledge Seeking Realm work together to protect his ruin. We will help him inherit the ruin. But what if his inheritance did not come from a ruin?
"Elder Chen, this is my first business here at the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. This is no minor issue. This is a massive scandal that has involved both Great Ming and Great Xia. Even those from Great Zhou and Great Shang were involved to a certain extent. We need to find out the truth. We can't allow him to argue his way out of this."
Yuan Qingdong's expression turned cold as he said, "He might be an undercover genius of the Six-Winged Divine Sect. And he has even earned the trust of Great Ming. Something like this can't be ignored."
The other elders couldn't find anything to say, but their expressions were unsightly.
Old Huang asked, "What is the proof that Feng Ji is a member of the Six-Winged Divine Sect?"
"Proof?" Yuan Qingdong smiled and said, "Here it is. Please take a look."
He played a video showing Feng Ji and some Six-Winged Divine Sect members operating together. But the face of the so-called Feng Ji in the video couldn't be clearly seen.
Old Huang frowned and asked, "How can you prove that this is Feng Ji? Sure, the figure is similar—"Yuan QIngdong interrupted, "We received this from our investigators. The Knowledge Seeking Realm has already verified it. If Feng Ji dares to come out and prove that he is not a cultist and everything is a misunderstanding, we can solve this issue. But if he doesn't dare to do so, then it is reasonable to suspect that there was something suspicious about his faked death."
That was reasonable as well. Faking his death was indeed quite suspicious. There was also the question of how Feng Ji had returned to the Human Realm from the Luminous Domain Mansion.
Ignoring everything else, as a genius Great Xia had spent a lot of effort nurturing, the act of faking his death could be considered an act of defection. And the same Feng Ji had helped Su Yu during the battle at the Starfall Mountain.
Chen Yong calmly asked, "Is Vice Principal Yuan suggesting that we arrest Su Yu?"
"It's too early for that." Yuan Qingdong said, "But I need Su Yu to return to Great Xia and prove his innocence. That's a reasonable request, right? If he's unwilling to come, I can go to him instead. As long as he can explain his relationship with Feng Ji, there won't be any problems between us."
Chen Yong said, "What is there to explain? I was the one who had sent Feng Ji to help Su Yu."
Silence descended.
Chen Yong continued, "Feng Ji is my good friend. As for his act of faking his death and joining the Six-Winged Divine Sect, he did it under my arrangement. Back then, the Six-Winged Divine Sect attacked me. In order to find out the truth and find my true enemies, I had Feng Ji fake his identity and join them. Is there a problem with that?"
"Yes." Yuan Qingdong said, "Not even you have the qualification to send an undercover agent to the cult. Did you report this arrangement to anyone?"
A record must be made for every undercover sent. Otherwise, there would be no way of knowing if one had truly turned cultist or if one was merely spying.
"He reported it to me." Wan Tiansheng said, "Alright, Old Yuan. You guys sure are detailed in your investigation. Feng Ji was an undercover agent approved by me. Back then, he was injured in the Luminous Domain Mansion. When Chen Yong told me about it, I thought that it would be a good opportunity for us to send an undercover agent into the Six-Winged Divine Sect. And thus, we did so."
The look in Yuan QIngdong's eyes changed. He smiled and said, "I see. So this is a misunderstanding. In that case, forget what I said. So Feng Ji is on our side. But I'm afraid that Feng Ji is in trouble currently. The matter concerning his involvement in Su Yu's affair has probably spread around by now. The moment the Six-Winged Divine Sect hears about this, his cover might end up exposed. Before this, I thought that Ji Feng was acting under their order."
Chen Yong's expression changed as he asked, "Vice Principal Yuan, I thought you were the only person aware of this? How was it leaked?"
Yuan Qingdong had a regretful expression as he said, "You guys should have reported this arrangement to the Knowledge Seeking Realm. When we found out about Feng Ji, we tried to capture him but failed. Because of the failed attempt, the entire thing ended up leaking. Sigh. So it was a misunderstanding. At times, misunderstandings are very hard to avoid.
"This wouldn't have happened if the Knowledge Seeking Realm was informed earlier. In that case, Su Yu's defection must be a misunderstanding as well. Good thing I didn't announce it publicly or things might get troublesome. Everyone, remember to not hide anything from me in the future to prevent further misunderstandings."
Chen Yong nodded and said, "I will. As for Brother Feng, he can only rely on his luck. Nobody knows where he is."
Chen Yong sighed and said, "I was too careless. I thought nobody would discover him."
Yuan Qingdong said, "Heavens help the worthy. Mountainseas won't dare to rashly fight in the Human Realm as that will attract too much attention. Thus, he will probably be safe unless they send Sunmoons after him. But the Six-Winged Divine Sect isn't weak. Their sect master is a Sunmoon, right? I hope the sect master won't get involved personally."
Nobody said anything. This was a show of force from Yuan Dongqing even though he had just arrived. Most of the people here didn't even know about Feng Ji, but Yuan Dongqing had easily exposed everything. If Chen Yong refused to confess his involvement, Su Yu would be implicated.
Not even Great Ming would be able to protect him if it was proven that he was colluding with the cult. And now, Feng Ji was in trouble since he was likely being hunted by the cult.
Chen Yong inhaled deeply and said, "Hopefully. But at this point, I hope that Great Xia can provide him with some assistance. Make it clear that Feng Ji is affiliated with Great Xia. That way, the cult will need to consider the consequences before doing anything."
Yuan Dongqing said, "The Six-Winged Divine Sect might still not be sure of his identity yet. But the moment you make this announcement, you will be confirming his identity for them. What if he has managed to fool them? This announcement will ruin him."
Chen Yong said, "If so, he can only blame his luck. Principal, I'll need to trouble you to talk with Great Xia about this. Just make the announcement. It might not be too helpful, but at least it can serve as a warning to deter some random villains from getting involved."
"Alright!" Wan Tiansheng nodded, "That won't be an issue. I hope Feng Ji can survive this."
His gaze landed on Yuan Qingdong as he said, "Vice Principal Yuan, do you have anything else to say?"
"Yes. One last matter..." Yuan Qingdong said, "We need to make one thing clear. Head Manager Chen is now a Mountainsea and an elder. According to the rules, the position of head manager is no longer suited for you. It just so happens that the Character Faculty has lost a few elders this time. The capable tend to have more responsibilities. You should take over the previous tasks of Elder Yu Hong. You will be in charge of distributing the resources of the Character Faculty."
This used to be a very lucrative position. But that might have changed. After all, Great Xia had greatly reduced their fund allocations out of anger. Because of that, the students of the Character Faculty were starting to get restless.
Thus, anyone taking over this position right now would be burdened with endless troubles. He would offend everyone if he couldn't allocate enough funds to them. As for increasing the allocation...it wasn't even possible since Great Xia had reduced the funding. And he would even lose something as important as the books depository.
But Chen Yong merely smiled and said, "Sure. Let's do things according to the rules."
Yuan Qingdong smiled and said, "According to the rules, the multiple character faction no longer exists here. The Character Technique Stele has always been stored inside the books depository. Please hand it over to the academy..."
Chen Yong smiled, "Character Technique Stele? Back then, my grandteacher took it to the Allheaven Battlefield and lost it."
His grandteacher was the fifth principal. The elders were rendered completely speechless.
Bullshit!
Su Yu had just inherited his character technique not long ago. Wasn't this clearly a lie?
Even Yuan Dongqing blanked out.
He had thought that Chen Yong would refuse, resist, or even find excuses to not do it. But...he had never expected that Chen Yong would treat him like a fool.
"But Su Yu..."
"Su Yu has formed his character technique by himself due to his incredible talent. Oh, that was also the case for me and my junior brother, Bai Feng..."
Chen Yong grinned, "Even my student, Wu Jia, formed her character technique herself. If you find this hard to believe, I can accept a few hundred geniuses as my students. As long as you give me enough time, I guarantee you I will produce at least a few geniuses with self-learned character techniques as well."
"..."
Bullshit! He was lying through his teeth! He was treating all of them as fools! Self-learning genius? Absolute nonsense!
Chen Yong smiled and said, "If you find this hard to believe, you can ask my grandteacher. Perhaps he can answer you."
Yuan Qingdong narrowed his eyes before saying, "In that case, forget it. But since Su Yu has joined the Great Ming Cultural Research Academy, his identity as a student here should be removed as well. It is not appropriate for the same person to be registered as a student of two different academies."
Chen Yong smiled, "Sure. I have no objections. This is pretty good. With this, we can sever the final link between this academy and him."
But Wan Tiansheng disagreed, "Forget it. Keep him registered as a student here. No matter what, he is a genius who has walked out of this academy. Vice Principal Yuan, you must be tired after such a long journey. Time for you to take a rest. Don't tire yourself out for a single Su Yu. It's not even a big deal."
"Principal Wan..."
Yuan Qingdong wanted to argue, but Wan Tiansheng coughed and said, "I guess age really is catching up to me. I can't seem to sit on the same chair for long. Let's end the meeting here. We seem to be having more and more meetings nowadays. Don't bother calling for a meeting for the sake of a single Su Yu in the future. Stop wasting everyone's time."
He then stood up and left.