Xu Chuyao moved a bit further away and found a car parked on the side of the road, slipping inside.
It was because there was air conditioning inside the car.
Zhou Tian and Peter Mo, who had been the first to start the argument, were no longer speaking, but they still stood where they were, glaring fiercely at each other until their respective partners arrived.
“He provoked me for no reason,” Zhou Tian said first. “Anyone would find it hard to hold back.”
Peter Mo refused to back down. “So what if I said a few things? I didn’t lay a finger on you. On the contrary, you’re the one who crashed the car into me. You started it!”
Now that everyone was here, they both knew they had to splash the dirty water on the other side to ensure they held the moral high ground.
The situation was clear: Peter Mo was the one who initiated the provocation, but he hadn’t made a move. Zhou Tian was the one being provoked, but he hadn’t been able to restrain himself and had struck first, making him the one who escalated the conflict.
“If you hadn’t kept provoking me, would I have hit you?”
“A hit is a hit. I was only talking.”
It sounded like both sides were at fault, and those who had come to help were momentarily unsure of what to do.
At that moment, Wen Shengqing walked over slowly from the side and said to the crowd:
“Regardless, Peter did not strike first. By escalating things to this point, Young Zhou, you have been too impulsive.”
Zhou Tian was extremely dissatisfied with this form of address.
It would have been fine in the past, but in the current situation, being called “Young Zhou” only made him angrier.
However, something that would infuriate him even more happened immediately. After Wen Shengqing finished speaking, he turned to look at the shortest person present.
“Actually, Young Zhou used to be quite humble when he was with me. He has become less so since he switched sides. This shows that you are also responsible, Chu Cang.”
The statement was quite a stretch, but this seemingly ordinary sentence nonetheless caused a hint of pressure to rise in everyone’s hearts.
Inside the small car, Xu Chuyao whispered an explanation to Shen Ning:
“His ability involves raising a question and then adding chips to his side. If his chips outweigh the opponent’s, the opponent will be punished—just like a scale.”
“I see,” Shen Ning said thoughtfully, then asked, “What if his chips are less than the opponent’s?”
“Then nothing happens,” Xu Chuyao shrugged. “I mean, it’s his own skill; it shouldn’t be able to backfire on him.”
“They are both the same. Chu Cang doesn’t have to worry about the Penalty for Breaking One’s Word, either.”
However, after carefully observing the numbers and strength of both sides, Chuyao realized that things weren’t that simple. Wen Shengqing might not get his way.
‘The more the scale tips, the higher the damage. But there are six people on both sides—one Rank 5 against one Rank 5, and five Rank 4s against five Rank 4s. The chips are essentially equal.’
It was just as she expected.
After Wen Shengqing spoke, Chu Cang immediately countered, stating that Zhou Tian acted in self-defense and that Peter Mo was the bigger problem.
The people behind him chimed in, saying that after working together for so long, everyone knew how foul Peter Mo’s mouth was.
The people on the other side naturally refused to accept this. Even if they knew the truth in their hearts, they had to defend their own side.
Each side claimed to be in the right, and the scene suddenly reached a stalemate.
This continued until a man who looked like he belonged in an oil painting stepped forward.
“That person is… Judas.” Xu Chuyao took out her mobile phone and checked the list of councilors in her photo gallery. “He’s one of Chu Cang’s men.”
Judas stood between the two groups, facing the hostile gazes of the opposition as he spoke:
“Colleagues, let me say something fair. In all honesty and to tell the truth, this matter…”
“What exactly are you trying to say!”
After being snapped at by the other side, Judas gave a sheepish smile, coughed twice, and forced himself to continue:
“While Marshal Wen is certainly at fault today, General Chu also bears responsibility. I suggest that everyone take a step back and apologize to each other.”
“What a joke. You think we’ll just back off because you said so?” Peter Mo didn’t hesitate. “Who do you think you are? What right do you—ah!”
Before he could finish, he was violently pulled back by a partner behind him, nearly falling over. Looking back, he saw that everyone’s expressions had become extremely serious, while the look in Wen Shengqing’s eyes was filled with clear astonishment.
At the same time, Chu Cang felt a sweetness in his throat. He swallowed the blood back down, but his heart felt certain.
‘Excellent. The probe worked.’
‘It really is just as I suspected.’
‘Then, this farce should come to an end.’
He was just about to speak when a clear, sweet voice suddenly rang out—
“I object! I have something to say!”
A young woman with long black hair and an impressive figure crawled out of the small car by the road. She crossed her arms, looking at the crowd with an imposing aura.
“I believe Mr. Zhou, as the party who initiated the physical violence, is more at fault,” Xu Chuyao said solemnly. “Furthermore, I’ve met Mr. Zhou before. Back then, he was a refined gentleman. I didn’t expect him to turn into this after only a few months. That is clearly General Chu’s fault!”
He had tried to set a trap for her just a few days ago; now was the perfect time to settle the score.
Xu Chuyao was very good at holding grudges.
“Xu Chuyao, you—”
Chu Cang didn’t even get to finish his sentence.
*Bam!*
With a dull thud, his right arm instantly exploded. A mist of blood scattered, splashing onto several people nearby.
*Hiss—!*
The person next to him almost fainted from shock. As someone at the peak of Rank 4, he should have seen many major scenes, but the problem was that his mind was racing—a Rank 5 powerhouse had been silently and heavily injured. What did that mean?
If it were him, wouldn’t he have been killed instantly?
The entire area fell into a dead silence.
The wrinkles on Chu Cang’s face twisted in pain, and those around him turned pale.
Only Xu Chuyao blinked, covering her small mouth in surprise.
“Someone is injured! Shen Ning, hurry and help the General with his treatment!”
Although she didn’t quite understand what was happening, Shen Ning immediately acted since her partner had spoken.
She waved her hand, and a Wind of Resurgence descended, swirling around Chu Cang’s severed arm.
There was no reaction.
“The treatment failed,” Shen Ning said flatly.
“How could it fail? Your healing is a Rank 4 Philosophical Trait,” Xu Chuyao said loudly. “Could it be that the damage priority crushed the healing? What kind of thing has a higher weight than a Rank 4 trait?”
What else could it be?
Rank 5.
Chuyao seemed to have only said half of it, yet she had made everything clear.
Everyone present understood—this was Wen Shengqing’s Rank 5 ability.
‘If he says you are wrong, you had better not admit it. In fact, you should get away as fast as possible.’
The bleeding at Chu Cang’s severed arm gradually stopped, but his expression was incredibly grim.
For high-level Spirit Power Users, limbs were not the only way to fight, but this truly meant he had permanently lost an arm.
Judas felt the gazes of his colleagues around him and silently lowered his head, returning to the group.
He finally understood why Chu Cang had arranged for him to say those words—
It was a meticulously designed probe.
Originally, it should have only caused minor injury, but for some reason…
“This is too much, Marshal Wen!”
Xu Chuyao puffed out her cheeks, looking as if she were standing up against an injustice. “To be honest, it was indeed General Chu’s fault at the beginning today, but wouldn’t a few words and an apology have sufficed? You went too far!”
Chuyao always said exactly what was on her mind.
“You—”
Just then, a heavy cough sounded, interrupting everyone.
The Old Speaker rolled down his car window. His gaze swept between Wen Shengqing and Chu Cang, lingering for a moment on the empty sleeve.
“What are you all doing here? Hurry back and handle your affairs.”
With one sentence, he directly set the tone for the scene.
Otherwise, if the stalemate continued, it might truly escalate into a full-scale conflict.
With the Old Speaker’s word, no matter how unwilling they were, they could only return to their cars and head back to the Council Spire.
—
In the car, Shen Ning couldn’t help but ask, “Why did you provoke Wen Shengqing just now?”
“Weren’t we targeting Chu Cang? Do we have to deal with both sides at the same time?”
“Of course.” Xu Chuyao curled her lips. “While they are busy guarding against each other, I can manipulate things from both sides.”
Since her partner was already Rank 5, she had to find a way to create the trigger conditions for her ability.
Chu Cang could use traps to induce reactions, Wen Shengqing could “judge right and wrong,” and she could also actively create variables to pave the way for the Butterfly Effect.
Shen Ning thought for a moment and asked, “But were those words just now really useful?”
It felt like she was just drawing hostility.
Xu Chuyao gave a light snort. “It was just a setup. You’ll understand once the meeting starts.”
“The meeting?”
Yes, the meeting.
After everyone returned to the Spire, they each handled their immediate business, such as treating the wound on Chu Cang’s severed arm.
Shortly after, the notice was sent out—an emergency meeting would be held before dark.
This time, there was no gallery for observers.
Shen Ning stayed in Xu Chuyao’s room to wait.
*Scritch, scratch.*
In all the days she had been at the Council Headquarters, Xu Chuyao had attended many meetings, but this was the first time she had seen such an oppressive atmosphere.
Everyone looked solemn and remained silent.
Chu Cang’s wound had been treated. The empty sleeve hanging at his side made it look as if he had been missing the arm for years rather than it being a fresh injury.
In essence, this had been a perfect probing operation.
“Ahem.”
The Old Speaker sat in the main seat, his expression not looking very good. “Speak. What happened this time?”
In truth, he already knew the specific situation. With so many people present, and since Chuyao’s words afterward had brought everything into the light, everyone had figured out the cause and effect.
It began with the argument between Zhou Tian and Peter Mo, which Chu Cang used as an opportunity to probe Wen Shengqing’s Rank 5 ability. It was supposed to go smoothly, but Xu Chuyao had suddenly intervened, causing the situation to spiral out of control.
As for whether Chuyao was speaking out of a sense of justice or if she had an ulterior motive, no one could say for sure. It had sounded reasonable at the time, and it still made sense in hindsight. The only problem was that it was too coincidental.
In the Old Speaker’s view, that point wasn’t important. What mattered was that things had developed to a point that slightly exceeded his expectations.
It was true that he had orchestrated the clash between Wen Shengqing and Chu Cang. One side was bound to fail, and it was expected that the loser would not emerge unscathed.
But they hadn’t even truly started fighting yet. It was merely a probe, and an arm had already been lost. When the real confrontation came, wouldn’t it result in one person dead and the other crippled?
Therefore, his thoughts were the same as Chuyao’s final words—Wen Shengqing had gone too far and needed to be rebalanced slightly.
“Report! I have something to say!”
Amidst the silence of the hall, Xu Chuyao stood up with a loud *clack*. She pointed her small hand and spoke directly:
“Marshal Wen went too far today. Since things have reached this point, I can no longer remain silent. In fact, I have some evidence in my possession that can prove Marshal Wen once committed several wrongs, and I hope to seek justice.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire Council Hall instantly erupted into a frenzy.
The people on Chu Cang’s side, in particular, looked at the girl with strange gazes.
Originally, they had utterly loathed Xu Chuyao today—her words at the critical moment had caused General Chu to be heavily injured. As for her subsequent words about the injustice, they had only taken them as empty pleasantries with no real meaning.
But now, she was actually making a public accusation at the meeting?
This completely overturned the impression they had of her.
‘So you really are the “Justice Princess”?’
Only Long Jun, who was unaware of the truth, was sweating profusely. He frantically signaled Xu Chuyao with his eyes, gesturing for her to calm down.
‘Don’t do this! We really can’t win against this guy!’
Wen Shengqing raised his head, his gaze falling upon the girl. A few hints of doubt flashed within his gloomy eyes.