"Is he… is he only in the Gathering Yuan State?"
Everyone was wondering the same thing.
The elders at the Peak of Drifting Clouds were desperate. They ran away and left Li Qin behind.
The general wasn't targeting them, so they left without any obstacles.
Li Qin was left there alone, experiencing strong feelings of desperation.
She was staring at the general. With a wave of her right hand, her streamer appeared out of nowhere.
She could have flown away, but since she hadn't fully recovered, she was unable to.
She called the streamer over unconsciously, only to help raise her morale, but she soon found it useless.
The general was pushing her. His spear was overwhelming. His horse was high-spirited and vigorous. It made no difference how Li Qin fought back.
In the end, she put her streamer down and leaned against the wall. She raised her chin up and looked over to Jiang Chen, who was still in the air. Her eyes were full of resentment.
"Die!"
The general brandished his spear and was about to kill Li Qin.
At this moment, an unpredicted admonishment was heard. "How dare you!"
A long golden wire traveled over to the general. It was a rope. It bound the general's hand that was raising its spear.
People couldn't tell what kind of material this rope was made of. However hard the general tried, he wasn't able to get rid of it.
Li Qin took her chance to run away from the general.
A figure appeared in the sky. Surrounded by rainbow light, he looked as if he had descended to the earth from heaven. He was standing over the Peak of the Drifting Clouds tall and stiff, like a sharp sword. Everyone's attention was on him.
He had black hair and was in a white robe. Both his hair and robe were flowing in the wind, free of shackles. His skin had a fine luster and his eyes were shining with the light of a thousand kinds of coloured glazes.
Ning Haotian!
He was recognized immediately. Everyone in the Natural Law School knew him.
Soon, people started to exclaim and shout.
"The Reaching Heaven State! Apprentice Brother Ning has achieved the Reaching Heaven State!"
"He's standing on nothing in the air! Only a Reaching Heaven State is able to do that. How is it possible? He's so young."
"Apprentice Brother Ning is so great!"
Both Ning Haotian's manner and his skill to stand in the air without the help of any spiritual weapon announced the power of his state.
Following Ning Haotian, important elders also showed up one by one, like Li Qin's master, Elder An.
She flew into a rage when she saw the devastation on the Peak of Drifting Clouds.
"Don't say anything. Let me handle it," the Medicine Elder came up to Jiang Chen and said to him in a low voice.
Both his tone and expression were serious. He knew it would be difficult for him to save Jiang Chen this day.
Jiang Chen didn't answer. He and Ning Haotian were fiercely looking at each other.
This was their first encounter since they met in the Black Dragon City.
Ning Haotian's look was aggressive, which made Jiang Chen uncomfortable, as if he were being exposed to a glare.
"Jiang Chen, do you admit your guilt?"
In the end, Ning Haotian spoke first. He had a magnetic voice that could reach very far.
"What guilt? How do you declare me guilty?" Jiang Chen asked coldly.
"How dare you! Apprentice Brother Ning is vice leader of the school now. All disciples are under his management. He has the right to decide your life and death. Nowadays, the Natural Law School is going to the dogs and you're the biggest culprit!" a disciple of the Peak of the Heavenly King jumped out to scold Jiang Chen.
"Vice leader of the school?!"
People were shocked. No doubt, it was big news.
Although there was more than one vice leader, it was a decisive position.
Most importantly, each school leader had been a vice leader at some point.
This appointment meant Ning Haotian had almost reached the position of leader.
No wonder almost twenty elders had been trying to kill Jiang Chen that day; they had intended to impress Ning Haotian!
It was a surprise for Jiang Chen as well. He finally saw why the Medicine Elder was acting so serious.
Fortunately, he wasn't counting on the Medicine Elder to save him from this occasion.
"You wanna know what your guilt is? Let me tell you," Ning Haotian said at a moderate speed, but with a forceful stateliness. He wasn't posturing. He had picked up such a temperament naturally after he achieved the Reaching Heaven State.
"The Natural Law School is one of the top ten sects and schools in the Fire Field. We're a decent and just school. Each disciple's word and deed represents us.
"But you killed Gao Chenyi in the Vermillion Bird City. Besides that, you became an indecent grave robber by taking treasures from the imperial mausoleum!
"That statue was used to guard the imperial mausoleum, wasn't it? But you turned it into your weapon. Shame on you!"
Ning Haotian even shook his head disdainfully in the end, as if Jiang Chen was so notorious that he didn't even want to talk about him.
His words created an uproar in the crowd.
"No wonder he's so powerful. He took treasure from the imperial mausoleum. That explains it."
"So many people died in the underground imperial mausoleum and no one else but him received any priceless treasures."
"He could have killed others to get these treasures. Gao Chenyi's death was odd."
Ning Haotian went on, "Now that I've been appointed vice leader of the school, I have the responsibility to correct your wrong deeds!"
Then he raised his right arm gently. The rope that was binding the statue moved up into the air.
Bound by the golden wire rope, the general had to turn back into a statue.
Pah!
Suddenly, Ning Haotian threw his palm out and the statue was smashed into pieces, blown apart from the inside out. The gravel splattered heavily.
"You!" Jiang Chen gnashed his teeth. His eyes were full of anger.
"I've only just started!" Ning Haotian sneered and disappeared suddenly.
"This is bad!" Jiang Chen turned pale. He knew he would be in danger.
As expected, Ning Haotian showed up before him again and retreated in a blink, but the Universal Darkfire Lamp and the Eight Groups of Spiritual Beings in Jiang Chen's hands had both been grabbed by him.
Crack!
Ning Haotian clenched his fist. His horrifying power demolished the Universal Darkfire Lamp in a second. The petals of the lotus-formed wick floated down.
To his surprise, at this moment, the Eight Group of Spiritual Beings shook out of his other hand and flew over to Jiang Chen.
"Oh? It's intelligent."
Ning Haotian smiled and extended one of his fingers. The tip of the finger exuded electricity which pierced the Eight Group of Spiritual Beings. The pamphlet lost its golden light immediately, turned into an average book, and fell.
"From now on, you won't be able to bring shame on the Natural Law School anymore," Ning Haotian said.
"Long live Apprentice Brother Ning!"
"Well done. Disciples of the Natural Law School shouldn't use things that belong to an imperial mausoleum."
"Grave robber, shame on you!"
Many disciples were shouting emotionally. What Ning Haotian had done cheered them up.
However, they were actually jealous of Jiang Chen. If it were them who had found the three spiritual weapons, they wouldn't have cared whether they were from an imperial mausoleum or whether they would be seen as grave robbers.
In fact, it was normal for practitioners to explore imperial mausoleums or relics. It didn't make them grave robbers at all.
However, everyone could adopt a double standard.
For the moment, Ning Haotian was the powerful one. He could call Jiang Chen whatever he wanted.
Even if the Eight Group of Spiritual Beings didn't belong to the imperial mausoleum, it didn't matter.
Ning Haotian was resolute to destroy the treasures Jiang Chen had been using and turn him back into an average Gathering Yuan State.
"Now, let's talk about the crimes you've committed today—" Ning Haotian started again.
"Save your breath! Ning Haotian, knock it off! I only want to ask you one thing!" Jiang Chen interrupted rudely. When everyone was looking at him, he said the words slowly for emphasis, "How many holy pulses in your body have disappeared?"
Ning Haotian totally lost his cool.
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