Chapter 11
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Chapter 11: How Many Clean Ones?
Zhou Qing was truly panicked.
If Ye Tianming really died in this Guanxuan Hall, it would shock the entire universe. At that time, it wouldn’t just be Qingzhou entering a self-inspection program; the entire Guanxuan Realm and Outer Cabinet would immediately enter self-inspection procedures.
And for them, the Guanxuan Guards of Qingzhou, it wouldn’t be as simple as being dismissed from their positions.
If this incident caused the Guanxuan Sword Master to appear…
Then they would be completely finished!
The entire Guanxuan universe would likely undergo a major purge, because Ye Tianming dying here wouldn’t just be a slap in the face to the Guanxuan Guards, but more importantly to the Guanxuan Sword Master himself.
The Vice President’s face was truly as grim as attending a funeral. He had never imagined that the young man before him would be so unyielding. This guy wasn’t afraid of death!
This situation had become difficult to handle.
The Vice President gave Ye Tianming a deep look, then turned and left.
It wasn’t just Zhou Qing who was afraid; he was scared too, because if Ye Tianming slit his throat, he would be the first one held accountable.
Damn it!
The Xiao family’s money wasn’t easy to earn.
After the Vice President left, Zhou Qing looked at Ye Tianming. His throat bobbed as he carefully said, “Young Master Ye, you can rest assured that without your consent, we won’t let anyone else in here.”
He was now regretting his actions deeply. For a small profit, he had let the Vice President in and nearly caused a major incident.
Next time, if they wanted his cooperation, they would have to pay more.
Ye Tianming put away his sword, sat on the ground, and remained silent.
Zhou Qing immediately felt relieved. He hesitated, then said, “Young Master Ye, you’re still young with a bright future ahead. Please don’t do anything foolish.”
Ye Tianming shook his head, “The Xiao family won’t let me go. Even if I don’t die now, I’ll die later. Since that’s the case, I might as well die now and take the Xiao family down with me.”
Zhou Qing listened with his heart pounding. Whether you die later or not has nothing to do with me, but if you die now, damn it, we’ll all have to accompany you in death.
He thought for a moment, then said, “Young Master Ye, the Xiao family indeed has power, but for now, they probably won’t openly target you again, so…”
Ye Tianming stared into the distance without speaking, but the resolve to die grew stronger in his eyes.
Zhou Qing, afraid he might do something rash, quickly said, “Young Master Ye, dying now might seem like an end to everything, but it would be truly worthless. Even if you die, the Academy won’t destroy the entire Xiao clan because of it. They would likely recover their strength before long, and then what would happen to your Ye family?”
Ye Tianming asked, “Then in your opinion, what should I do?”
Zhou Qing fell silent.
In fact, from his perspective, Ye Tianming was indeed in a desperate situation, because he simply couldn’t fight against the Xiao family. Moreover, the Xiao family was already pulling strings everywhere, and with their connections, they would likely resolve this matter.
Once this matter was settled, it would be all too easy for the Xiao family to control Ye Tianming in the future, after all, he was just a son from a minor family.
Of course, he couldn’t tell Ye Tianming this truth, because if he did, the young man might actually slit his throat right here.
He needed to stabilize him first.
Zhou Qing said solemnly, “Young Master Ye, you’re a smart person, and I won’t speak falsely to you. Between the Xiao family and you, there is indeed a blood feud now. What I want to say is, if this matter passes, you still have a chance to rise in the future. With your talent, as long as you find an extremely powerful mentor, the Xiao family certainly wouldn’t dare to move against you easily.”
Ye Tianming remained silent.
Zhou Qing continued, “With your extraordinary talent, given time, you will certainly rise to prominence. But if you die here now, while it would cause great trouble for the Xiao family, the Academy won’t exterminate their entire clan because of it. That would be against the law. At most, they would severely punish the Xiao family and remove them from the core of power, but as I said earlier, it wouldn’t take many years for them to recover. At that time, they would definitely take revenge on your Ye family.”
Ye Tianming nodded, “I understand.”
Zhou Qing gave him a look, said nothing more, and withdrew.
Inside the hall.
Ye Tianming sat on the ground, blood still slowly seeping from his neck. He stared at the floor in silence, but his gaze grew increasingly cold.
Qingzhou Supervision Academy.
At this moment, all the Academy’s high-ranking officials had gathered. Sitting in the chief position was the current President of the Qingzhou Guanxuan Academy: Ji Shi.
On both sides sat the President of the Qingzhou Supervision Academy, the President and Vice President of the Inspection Academy, and various elders.
Everyone’s expression was grim, as they had already learned about Ye Tianming’s attempt to slit his own throat.
Damn it!
How could someone be so stubborn?
President Ji Shi suddenly asked, “What do you all think?”
Everyone remained silent.
An elder suddenly said, “Since no one is speaking, I’ll say it. As things stand now, we have only two paths. First, according to the rules, we immediately punish the Xiao family and all participants severely. But the Xiao family won’t sit idly by. From what I know, they’ve already mobilized all their connections to handle this matter. Therefore, even if we choose to punish them severely, we can’t truly implement it. More importantly, if we follow the normal procedures, quite a few elders sitting here would be implicated, wouldn’t they?”
As he spoke, he glanced at some of the elders present.
Those elders’ faces immediately darkened. They held high positions, and who among them had a clean record?
It could be said that for those in high positions, an investigation would be fatal for each one.
The elder continued, “If we don’t follow procedures, we can’t give the Guanxuan Realm an explanation. But as the President said, following procedures would first harm our own brothers, and second, we would directly confront the Xiao family. Everyone knows the Xiao family’s strength and connections, not to mention their ancestor’s brotherhood with the Guanxuan Sword Master…”
He paused, then said, “Actually, everyone understands that our Academy cannot punish the Xiao family. To punish them, we would need to unite and report to the Guanxuan Realm, but obviously, no one will do this for a minor family. Moreover, this matter would have an extremely adverse impact on all the elders, and not only that, if thoroughly investigated, it might implicate our previous elder councils as well…”
This time, everyone’s expressions weren’t just grim but fearful. If this matter were thoroughly investigated and implicated previous elder councils… after all, those previous elders weren’t clean either! And now, those elders mostly held high positions in the Outer Cabinet or even the Inner Cabinet.
In other words, this couldn’t be investigated. An investigation would implicate too many people, not just previous councils, but hardly anyone in the entire Wan Province would be clean.
A hot-tempered elder stood up, sneering, “I think this Ye Tianming is simply unreasonable. He even wants to commit suicide. Damn it, he’s openly threatening us. In my opinion, let him kill himself. I want to see if he’s really not afraid of death.”
Since they couldn’t solve the problem, they would eliminate the person who created it.
All the elders remained silent, and silence meant consent.
At this point, another elder suddenly said, “Elder Ling, we can’t think like that. His life may be worthless, and it wouldn’t matter if he died, but you must understand, if he really dies here, even if the Guanxuan Realm doesn’t take our lives, we would certainly be dismissed from our positions, and might even face imprisonment.”
Elder Ling’s face darkened, “So we just let him threaten us?”
That elder didn’t speak but looked at President Ji Shi, who calmly said, “Old Yuan, say what you want to say.”
Old Yuan’s real name was Yuan Qi, the Vice President of the Academy.
Yuan Qi slowly said, “This matter certainly cannot be investigated. If investigated, not only would the Xiao family be in trouble, but our Qingzhou Guanxuan Academy would also be implicated. Moreover, it would involve too many people, and the consequences would be too severe. Therefore, the best solution is to make Ye Tianming voluntarily give up the investigation.”
Elder Ling said gravely, “He doesn’t want to negotiate…”
Yuan Qi said, “It’s not that he doesn’t want to negotiate, but that he’s too clever. He knows that once this matter passes, whether it’s our Academy or the Xiao family, dealing with him in the future would be effortless. Therefore, what he wants is a promise and better conditions.”
Elder Ling asked, “What if he truly doesn’t want to negotiate?”
Everyone looked toward the President.
President Ji Shi slowly closed his eyes and said nothing.
The Vice President Yuan Qi, however, understood the President’s meaning and said, “Then tell him that if he doesn’t want to negotiate, we can all perish together. But before that, we have ten thousand ways to make his Ye family members die one by one before his eyes. This person values relationships; his family is his weakness. Control his family, and we control him!”
He paused, then added, “Of course, we can’t do such evil deeds ourselves, nor do we need to. Right now, the Xiao family is more desperate than we are. They can do these evil deeds, and as for us, we just need to cooperate a little from the sidelines.”