“Well thank you Wen Chang for your presentation on your side of things.” Yang Qing gently spoke as he clasped his hands together and stared at both the Emerald leaf cow and Sect Master Cheng Yuan.

He remained silent for a moment as if in deep contemplation but his sight never left those two. His face abruptly changed from a solemn look into a small smile.

“I think rather than offering my judgment on this matter. Sect Master Cheng Yuan and Emerald leaf Wen Chang it may be better if you air out things amongst yourselves first. Something has been feeling off. What do you think Mao Yunru, Yi Jie, you too Feng Xin since you are the assigned inquisitor in this case.”

“It’s a pity for the sect master and the emerald leaf cow.” Mao Yunru gently added as she nodded toward Yang Qing in agreement about something being off.

“Feng Xin, you will need to move fast.” Said Yi Jie who was standing at the left side of Yang Qing’s podium gazing at Feng Xin who was by now moving towards the exit doors of the courtroom.

“I will” one could feel the murderous aura emanating from Feng Xin as he exited the courtroom.

“Sect Master Cheng Yuan judging from the look you have been having for quite some time you must have some doubts yourself, don’t you?

I think it may be beneficial to talk it out with your friend Wen Chang over there. I can tell she treats the sect as her home just as you do. And if what I’m suspecting is afoot ends up happening, you may need each other more than ever for what may come next.” Said Yang Qing

Sect Master Chen Yuan at this moment was muddle-headed as for Wen Chang she had an utterly confused look on her face wondering just what happened in the last few seconds after she finished her statement. She couldn’t track what any of them were hinting at.

It was understandable, she may be a powerful spirit beast but she has been sheltered all her life and couldn’t understand the veiled intricacies of the ways of the world. In some regards, she had the innocence of a child oblivious to the darkness of the world.

It took a while before Sect Master Cheng Yuan collected himself and glanced at Wen Chang. However, he now looked at her with a different look. The resentment, anger, and hate were all gone. It was replaced with self-reproach, shame, self-blame, and regret.

“Wen Chang can I confirm some things with you please.” Cheng Yuan asked Wen Chang with the softest tone that Wen Chang ever heard him use on her. She even detected the shakiness in his voice and the myriad emotions running in his eyes.

She couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on but she instinctively knew something serious was going on.

She nodded her head to Cheng Yuan for him to ask whatever it is he wanted to ask.

Cheng Yuan politely smiled at her before he started, “Do you remember how many high-tier earth rank herbs and the low-rank sky herbs you saw that day the elders took you into the sect treasure vault?”

Wen Chang was at first confused about why Cheng Yuan would ask her that. He was the sect master, he should already know how much was in there better than she did. But she still put on a contemplative look as she tried to figure out the exact number.

“Mao Yunru can you please help her in recollecting?.” Yang Qing suddenly interjected softly at the side.

Mao Yunru nodded as she lifted her right hand and pointed towards where Wen Chang was and softly muttered, “Myriad thoughts purple cloud”

A light purple cloud produced from her index finger quickly engulfed Wen Chang. Dazzling flickering starlights were moving in between the clouds.

Wen Chang was at first alarmed at suddenly being surrounded by clouds. But she soon felt a cool sensation flowing through every part of her mind. W every cool sensation the thoughts she had been trying to recollect became clearer and clearer by the minute. An even more amazing scene happened as the images she had been trying to recollect imprinted themselves on the clouds surrounding her. It made her feel as though at this very moment she was in the sect’s treasure vault and not the courtroom.

“Wen Chang, can we project what you’re seeing for the rest of the court to see?” Yang Qing asked

Wen Chang nodded absent-mindedly in response to the question. At the moment she was deeply engrossed and fascinated by how vivid the images were. She could see everything with such clarity as though she was right there at the vault, even the grains on the amber Deerwood that was used in preserving the herbs could be easily identified.

Upon her acceptance, Mao Yunru projected what Wen Chan was seeing for the rest to see, more specifically Sect Master Cheng Yuan.

The purple cloud stopped cocooning Wen Chang and soon spread above the courtroom with clear water-like images of rows and rows of herbs reflected on them.

Sect Master Cheng Yuan on seeing the images had a disturbed and dumbfounded look on his face as he kept muttering

“How could this be?” over and over again.

“Cheng Yuan what do you mean by how could this be? Aren’t these the herbs you were stockpiling for who knows what reason?” Wen Chang couldn’t help but throw a snide remark with some anger and bitterness rising.

It took a while for the Sect Master to get his bearing together as he kept watching and re-counting the herbs over and over trying to see if he will get a different result each time.

“Sun Marjoram, auspicious nocturnal bay leaf, 2,000-year-old dream dust cassia, silent echo pokeroot, blood snakeberry, heart calming lily, core tribulation wood, butcher’s vine fruit, jade bottle wood…..what are all these herbs doing here” Cheng Yuan’s eyeballs were wide open by what he was seeing that they almost popped out.

“Huh aren’t those leaves from Elder Jia’s prison boab tree, those silver fruits seem to be from Elder Gui’s silver python tree…wait even Elder Peng’s 3,000-year-old luminous star flower is here. That treasure is a sky rank herb and he never parts with it. How is it here?” 𝘦.𝘰𝘳𝑔

The more Sect Master Cheng Yuan scrutinized those herbs the more he realized that they were private stashes from some of the elders. But he couldn’t remember seeing any of them donating them to the sect or even any mention of it. These were all upper-tier earth rank herbs and hard to overlook given how frequently he visited the treasure vault for the current major undergoing project of the sect.

“I went to the sect treasure vault a couple of days ago and I didn’t see those herbs and even the books didn’t have them recorded being brought in or taken out.” Cheng Yuan silently ruminated over certain timelines in his head but no matter how far he thought back he was sure he never saw some of the high-tier earth-rank treasures in the vault and the sky-rank luminous star flower.

From the images, he had counted 240 earth rank herbs but from the latest records even counting the recent herbs used on Wen Chang he was sure the sect had only about 100 Earth rank herbs on hand and they were for a very important strategic plan for the future of the sect.

The sky-rank herbs he counted were 7 however, originally there were 6 of them meaning the extra was the luminous star flower that belonged to Elder Peng which among the sky-rank herbs present had the highest value. It could be traded for 3 sky-rank herbs.

Sect Master Cheng Yuan quickly regained his composure and hurriedly asked.

“Wen Chang, do you remember when the elders showed you the treasure vault and who were they?”

Wen Chang still didn’t quite guess the purpose of the questions but still obediently answered.

“Well, it was like a few weeks after I broke through to the core formation stage and had stabilized my realm. It should have been about 4 months ago. As for the elders, I don’t want to get them in trouble so I won’t tell you” said Wen Chang.

“YOU YOU YOU…DON’T YOU GET THE SITUATION WE ARE IN!!!!! Hurry and say the name of those elders it is important or we may not have a sect to go back to.” Sect Master Cheng Yuan vehemently yelled. He almost jumped to where Wen Chang was in his rage but had the presence of mind to hold himself back because of where he was, though the biggest part was that earlier feeling of death he got from Yi Jie.

“I am no..” Wen Chang was in the midst of rejecting Cheng Yuan’s request with some smirkiness to her tone when she felt an overbearing pressure coming from Yi Jie. Her legs immediately buckled and her enormous body tumbled down. Despite her enormous size and weight, the fall did no damage to the courtroom floors, in fact, she was the one who ended up with bruises on all her knees.

“I suggest you listen to your sect master and answer what he is asking. You submitted yourself wholly to the rules of the court, you must have been informed by the inquisitor who brought you here what it entails and what will happen should you fail to comply” Yi Jie said with coldness to his tone. At this moment he was like a drawn cold saber.

Wen Chang couldn’t even raise her head. In part, it was because of the enormous pressure bearing on her that she couldn’t raise her head but the other part was because her instincts were screaming at her if she stared at the man she might die.

Wen Chang had grown sheltered in the Green fog swamp sect. Her perspective on all things she drew them all from growing and living inside the sect. She had never experienced the outside world at all. Therefore, when she broke through to the core formation realm she grew a little conceited. She was one of the 2 in the sect who had reached that realm and considering she had been cultivating for a shorter time than Cheng Yuan. She knew it was only a matter of time until she caught up with him and even surpass him. This made her swell with pride. The recent fight that ended in a draw further added to that budding hubris.

Coming in, Sect Master Cheng Yuan had repetitively emphasized that she watch how she acted once they were in the courtrooms. She agreed on the surface but deep down she never placed much weight on what she was told. In her mind, she was already a talent. How many people could fight someone above them in a minor realm? She an early-stage core formation realm had held off someone at the middle stages. This was a feat for geniuses, so she thought.

She didn’t know much about the courts other than the rough overview. She felt her talent could match anyone even from the courts. Mao Yunru’s display of her techniques and the coercion from before may have surprised her but Wen Chang thought in an outright battle even though she may not win but she could keep her life and if they were to fight in the same realm she may be the winner. After all, spirit beats had a natural advantage in brute strength much less her who had the bloodline of a radiant cow that has been known to reach the soul formation stage at its peak.

But at this very moment, all her earlier disillusioned thoughts were knocked down by a massive club of absolute reality in the name of Yi Jie. She may very well be an ant or dung in front of him.

“Weren’t they all core formation experts? How is the gap this big?” she painfully wondered to herself.