Chapter 268 Unexpected
Chapter 268 Unexpected
Translator: BornToBe
Tu Fang’s words caused all the Elders’ expressions to change, especially Elder Sun. Terror appeared in his eyes and he hastily hid himself in the crowd.
When he had been fighting that Corrupt Elder, he had intentionally faked that he wasn’t a match for him and had been forced back over and over, leading him towards Long Chen.
Then he had been ‘sent flying’ by a powerful blow and just happened to be become entangled with another Corrupt Elder.
On the chaotic battlefield, he had thought that his actions had been completely perfectly without anyone noticing. He hadn’t expected anyone to suspect anything.
However, Elder Sun naturally wouldn’t admit to it now. If Tu Fang was just guessing and using scare tactics, then if he admit his crime, he really would be an idiot.
In any case, he didn’t believe that anyone had any proof that he had purposely drew that Corrupt Elder over. So he acted as if he didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Elder Sun, do you not have anything to say?” Tu Fang icily glared at Elder Sun, killing intent surfacing within his eyes.
Although Tu Fang had been fighting all-out against Gui Yan, both of them had known that it would be impossible for them to kill the other. They had been keeping watch over the battlefield as they had fought.
He hadn’t seen Elder Sun leading that Corrupt Elder over to Long Chen, but he had seen that when Long Chen and that Corrupt Elder had begun fighting, it had been Elder Sun who had been the closest. Although he had quickly charged at another Corrupt Elder, Tu Fang had still noticed that.
With his knowledge of how Elder Sun had constantly been targeting Long Chen, how could Tu Fang possibly not realize that Elder Sun had set that up?
Tu Fang was no longer capable of enduring. Long Chen might be a Divergent, and so he couldn’t purposefully interfere with his matters or give him any special treatment, but this was no longer special treatment. He would never allow Elder Sun to do such a thing to any of his disciples.
With that kind of justification, then even if he handled Elder Sun, he wouldn’t be infected by any karma. And so Tu Fang was finally prepared to execute this completely idiotic Elder Sun.
Elder Sun’s expression changed and he asked, “Why would Enforcement Elder say such a thing?”
Everyone else was startled, looking from Tu Fang and Elder Sun in confusion, not knowing what was going on.
Within that crowd, only Long Chen knew the whole story. But currently, Long Chen was pondering over something and didn’t say anything.
“Do you not even know what you’ve done?” snorted Tu Fang.
“Disciple doesn’t understand. Please explain it clearly Enforcement Elder.” Elder Sun was panicked inside, but he still acted confused.
Although the two of them were both Elders, Tu Fang was the most senior and most powerful Elder in the Xuantian Monastery. The other Elders had to call themselves disciples in front of him to display their respect.
“Fine then. That Corrupt Elder was originally your opponent. Why would you be defeated and have to run from him? He was also at the eight-temper Bone Forging level, the same as you, so don’t try and tell me that you weren’t his match,” icily said Tu Fang.
Elder Sun said with shame, “Disciple had a problem with his aura when cultivating a few days ago, causing damage to my meridians. That caused my combat ability to sharply drop. If Enforcement Elder does not believe me, you can personally examine it. Disciple is a member of the monastery and has received the monastery’s kindness. How could I possibly intentionally harm the monastery’s disciples?”
Elder Sun stubbornly declared he hadn’t done it on purpose. Furthermore, as a cunning old fox, he had already made his preparations. During the battle, he had purposely harmed his meridians just for this.
There was no way to check at what time the meridians had been injured. In other words, there was no rock-solid proof that he had done it on purpose.
Tu Fang sneered, long since knowing Elder Sun would say that. But he had his own secret arts to determine the veracity of Elder Sun’s words.
Seeing that sneer, Elder Sun felt a chill. If Tu Fang were to determine that he had intentionally harmed Long Chen, then with Tu Fang’s upright nature, he would definitely die.
Elder Sun began to sweat. Tu Fang was about to continue with Long Chen suddenly interrupted.
“This matter isn’t Elder Sun’s fault. The battlefield is constantly chaotic, and no one can make any absolute guarantees.
“I’ll testify that Elder Sun tried to charge over to save me many times, but he was always blocked by the Corrupt path’s experts. He was also helpless.
“And so I’d like to ask Elder Tu Fang not to blame Elder Sun. Although Elder Sun wasn’t able to help, I will definitely remember his intentions.”
Long Chen’s words dumbfounded Tu Fang. He wondered if Long Chen had suddenly become an idiot. Was he unable to tell that he had been purposely targeting him? He was pleading for Elder Sun’s innocence?
Even Elder Sun was stunned. He had definitely never thought Long Chen would go out of his way to help him.
But he also wasn’t afraid. As long as he stubbornly declared that his meridians had been damaged and he had been weakened, he would be fine. He hadn’t left behind any mistakes.
Tu Fang didn’t know what Long Chen was thinking, but since Long Chen didn’t want him to continue looking into this matter, he could only drop it.
“For this Corrupt and Righteous battle, other than a certain sect, everyone’s display was excellent,” Tu Fang said to everyone.
Of course, when he said ‘other than a certain sect’, everyone’s gazes turned to the Bloodnet Sect’s assistant sect leader.
All of the Bloodnet Sect’s disciples had fled without a single one remaining behind.
Although many other sect’s had had cowardly disciples who had run, they all had at least a few disciples who had stayed. It was only a question of how many had fled and how many had stayed. But no matter how many or how few, or even whether they had managed to survive, that was still a kind of honor for those sects.
The Bloodnet Sect’s assistant sect leader had no way to refute this at all. Today had really been shameful for him.
“Long Chen, as the head commander of the battle this time, you announce the rewards and punishments,” said Tu Fang.
“Me?” Long Chen was startled.
“Yes. The sect leader appointed you as commander, so you have the authority. Even I do not have the right to oppose your orders,” smiled Tu Fang.
Long Chen was amazed. He had thought himself to just be a small disciple of the Xuantian Monastery. He hadn’t expected his responsibilities to be so heavy now.
Seeing everyone looking at him, Long Chen didn’t decline and straightforwardly announced, “Let’s talk about the punishment first. I feel like there’s nothing to punish. No one is born with the courage to be unafraid of death.
“This is more due to how they were raised, so it’s not the fault of those disciples. Being afraid of death is natural, and I don’t blame them.
“That’s because not one of them was one of my brothers, and so their actions also can’t count as betrayal. As for how their own sects handle them, that’ll be up to each individual sect. Our monastery will not interfere.”
Everyone was shocked. Whether it was in the secular world or the cultivation world, deserters who fled right before battle would all be executed. But Long Chen was just letting them off just like that.
Those sect Elders were extremely grateful to Long Chen for that, but they also were filled with shame. Long Chen’s magnanimity almost made them too ashamed to show their faces.
“As for rewards, that’s whatever. Every single person who is capable of standing beside me are my brothers. We’re all willing to give up our lives, so who would care about how much the rewards are?” smiled Long Chen.
The Righteous disciples were all filled with pride. Being called brother by Long Chen, they felt as if they had suddenly grown much taller.
On the battlefield, Long Chen was like a god of war, consecutively killing the top enemy disciples, and then even killing a Corrupt Elder.
He was even able to fight Yin Luo, a genius who only appeared once every thousand years, and he had managed to sever one of his legs.
To be called brother by this practically unrivalled god-like figure, all of them were incredibly moved. They were willing to risk their lives with Long Chen. They wouldn’t even hesitate to sacrifice their lives.
Looking at those worshipful gazes, Tu Fang sighed emotionally. This was the level of Long Chen’s charisma. Those beside him would gladly fight for him.
Even the other Elders looked at Long Chen with admiration. Long Chen was a natural-born leader. No one else had that kind of bold spirit.
When it came to the rewards, even the Elders didn’t view them so importantly anymore. That was because they saw the newfound determination in their disciples’ eyes.
They trusted that after experiencing this battle, those disciples would definitely have amazing accomplishments in the future. In fact, that was precisely what Long Chen had said just before the battle:
Those who managed to survive would definitely become absolutely amazing experts.
That was especially true of those core disciples. They had all awakened their ancestral marks. It would be impossible for them not to become amazing experts.
Tu Fang finally decided to act in accordance to the previous years. They would distribute awards to the various sects in accordance to how many living members they had at the end.
But those rewards would not be distributed immediately. The monastery would have them send the heads back to the Xuantian Supermonastery first and get the rewards from there.
As for what to do now, the first thing to do was to clean up the battlefield. They had to gather the Corrupt disciples’ corpses as well.
They couldn’t let their corpses just lie there. Once those experts’ corpses began to rot, that would release a huge epidemic. They had to be brought away and burned by them.
Once the battlefield had been cleaned up, an Elder walked over with a certain corpse. Looking at that corpse, everyone was silent for a moment.
That corpse was the Corrupt Elder that Long Chen had killed.
Within this region, an eight-temper Bone Forging expert was an expert that only the Xuantian Monastery or perhaps the Skywood Palace had the resources to raise. Furthermore, even the monastery only had eight Elders who were on the level of this eight-temper Bone Forging Elder.
Such a powerful existence had died to Long Chen. That shocked everyone.
That corpse was collected by Tu Fang. It was the strongest Corrupt expert to die during this battle.
An eight-temper Bone Forging expert contained a vast amount of life energy. It was extremely difficult to kill them.
Even if they met another eight-temper Bone Forging expert and were unable to defeat them, couldn’t they just run? So in all the years of battles between the Righteous and Corrupt paths here, it seemed this was the first time an expert of this level died.
And most inconceivable of all was that such an expert hadn’t been killed someone in the same realm as him, but by a disciple who was only at the Blood Condensation realm.
Tu Fang decided to send this corpse to the Xuantian Supermonastery. If the Xuantian Supermonastery were to learn that such an incredibly powerful disciple had appeared in their monastery, they would definitely send down endless resources, grooming Long Chen with their full strength.
After cleaning the battlefield, the various sect Elders brought their disciples away. But those disciples didn’t leave before bowing to Long Chen respectfully.
That bow wasn’t just because of their respect for him, but because they were incredibly grateful to him. It was Long Chen who had showed them what kind of person was worthy of being called a cultivator. Long Chen was like a shining beacon on their cultivation paths, lighting up their way forward and showing them what they had to do to advance.
As for these brave warriors who had just fought a blood-soaked battle, Long Chen really did feel as close to them as brothers. Long Chen waved out to each of them in farewell.
Once they had all left, only the monastery’s Elders and disciples were present. Long Chen suddenly turned to Tu Fang:
“Elder Tu Fang, I miss my home. I want to return for a bit.”