Chapter 1152 - Confession
The clansmen of Xiao clan gazed at the two figures high up in the air. They looked incredibly awkward.
Xiao Sheng became a saint, and Old Man Xiao went to the royal palace to personally request Queen Xiao to give the young man another chance, all of which led to what happened just now.
Many came to congratulate them, and yet, despite having become a saint, Ye Futian was still able to beat him.
Up in the sky at that moment, blood continued to spill from Xiao Sheng’s mouth. Ye Futian’s fist seemed to have punched right through his body. Xiao Sheng’s long hair and clothes, which were bloodstained, billowed.
The people from Divine Cloud Valley were speechless as they watched the scene unfold.
“Do you confess?”
Ye Futian wanted a confession from Xiao Sheng. He wanted to hear that the losing young man was guilty of those horrible actions.
The relations between Xia Qingyuan and the Xiao clan meant that she was unable to pull something that extreme if she did not have the evidence to back her claims. As such, Ye Futian came to see it through personally instead.
There were no such restrictions between him and Xiao Sheng. More than that, what Xiao Sheng pulled twice prior was deemed unforgivable.
Ye Futian’s party almost perished during the Battle of Empty Realm, and they were only able to barely survive due to Yaya, his eldest brother, Ye Wuchen, and the others holding off their assailants by putting their lives on the line.
The second time Xiao Sheng’s attempt on his life required the Imperial Advisor and Yan Yuan to send him off, just so that he was able to leave Dali Dynasty, getting the Imperial Advisor’s Residence embroiled in his matters. Ye Futian learned from Xia Qingyuan that the Imperial Advisor had resigned from his position as the chief of Dali Academy. Even the students of the Imperial Advisor left the academy to train elsewhere. The Prince Regent emerged again, and his powers seemed to be about to eclipse those of the Imperial Advisor.
King Tiandao and the Prince Regent became close allies, supporting the third prince to take the position of chief of the Dali Academy, taking charge of the academy that the Imperial Advisor had painstakingly built. Both figures were to be the third prince’s advisors then. Many from Daoli Mountain were even allowed to train in the Dali Academy.
The Imperial Advisor would have definitely predicted those turn of events at the very moment he had decided to make a move for Ye Futian’s sake. While Emperor Li would not have done anything to him simply because he let one person go, there was no way the Emperor could just let everything slide. The Imperial Advisor was still a subject of Emperor Li’s Realm, one who played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the Battle of Empty Realm.
In both attempts to take his life, someone from Emperor Xia’s Realm—Xiao Sheng—had colluded with Li Yao, a prince of Emperor Li’s Realm. Such actions meant that even if Xiao Sheng had truly confessed and repented, Ye Futian would still not have forgiven him, let alone that Xiao Sheng had only become a saint.
There were things that one could not merely let slide, things that did not deserve to be forgiven. If it had not been for Queen Xiao’s intervention before, Ye Futian would not have let the matter slide back then.
All of that had nothing to do with one’s state of mind or magnanimity.
Xiao Sheng, at that moment, looked at the silver-haired figure right in front of him, the figure that was basking in holy brilliance. At that moment, Xiao Sheng felt as if Ye Futian was the saint while he was the sage.
Despite having become a saint, Xiao Sheng was still unable to beat him, and any talk of besting him in the future was now pointless.
Do I confess, then? he wondered.
While Xiao Sheng had not done anything himself, he was still involved in those incidents. It was due to him that the attempts at Ye Futian’s life came to be.
Seeing how Xiao Sheng was looking at him without saying anything, Ye Futian lifted his arm and sent a burst of dazzling sword will through Xiao Sheng’s body without hesitation. The force raged throughout Xiao Sheng’s body, making him shudder throughout. His face was ashen.
He continued to look at Ye Futian, who then threw punches at him. Every single punch worsened his condition as the powers of the punches ravaged his internal organs.
Countless who were watching below were shaken at that scene.
Ye Futian was taking care of things his way.
“If you’re not going to confess, I’ll keep doing it my way until you yield,” Ye Futian said. His voice was cold and overbearing. Even the ones below came to be confused about what was going on.
Who among the two was the saint again?
Who among the two was the sage again?
Ye Futian was truly ravaging Xiao Sheng’s will by then.
Boom…
Another punch landed, and Xiao Sheng’s body seemed to have been penetrated. He looked very wobbly. Not only did his aura feel shriveled, but it also seemed as if his spirit and vital signs were quickly disappearing. It was only then that Xiao Sheng realized that until Ye Futian got the answer he sought, there was no stopping what was going on.
“Enough.” A voice was ringing throughout the air. Many looked at the one who spoke and saw Old Man Xiao step forward with cold eyes, looking at Ye Futian.
“Ye Futian, are you going to use such means to make him confess to something he didn’t do?” Old Man Xiao asked coldly.
“If he truly is innocent, I shall be willing to pay the price with my life. But if he truly is guilty, what will you do then?” Ye Futian glanced at Old Man Xiao and answered in an equally cold tone.
Old Man Xiao understood from Ye Futian’s eyes that he was sure that Xiao Sheng was behind all those attempts on his life.
“Only through a transformation of one’s mind, reaching completion and flawlessness, cam one achieve sainthood in one’s training in the great path. Xiao Sheng has been of such a state of mind, as he was able to make it into sainthood. How can you be so sure that he was the one behind all of that?” Old Man Xiao asked again. After Xiao Sheng was able to make it to Saint Plane, the old man came to think that he might have been wrong and had misunderstood Xiao Sheng.
The Princess was unable to find out anything, after all. They had restricted Xiao Sheng’s mobility, and yet what followed still happened, which meant that Xiao Sheng could not have been the one behind it all. Even some things that happened before could not have been pulled off by Xiao Sheng, judging by the resources he had at his disposal.
“Flawless state of mind?” Ye Futian chuckled sarcastically and continued, “While I have no idea why he had been able to let go of his obsession and make the breakthrough, there were multiple ways of breaking into Saint Plane. Even if he had truly been able to let go, that does not mean that he did not do any of those things. You claimed that he was of a flawless state of mind? What about me, then?”
The holy light on and around Ye Futian turned even more dazzling as soon as he finished. He threw yet another devastating punch, rattling Xiao Sheng’s internal organs so severely that they were almost shattered. Xiao Sheng looked even more broken.
At that same time, Ye Futian’s aura intensity climbed to a critical point, and beams of glittering light shot to the heavens. It brought forth a terrifying, stifling aura all of a sudden. It was as if a storm was brewing.
The hearts of many were shaken furiously. The beams of light shot to the heavens, and his will seemed to have merged with the great path. His mind seemed to have melded with the world around him.
Ye Futian looked up to the sky and said with a brimming voice, “I now ask the heavens. Is my conscience clear?”
His voice resonated with his surroundings. Countless heard that voice throughout the vast space. Many outside the Xiao clan’s manor gathered around. They looked up at that figure in the sky at the silver-haired man who was a sage yet had bested a saint.
Catastrophic clouds rolled about above him. Beams of the divine light of calamity ebbed in the heavens. Black clouds filled the sky, and the scene looked like doomsday. Stifling pressure shrouded the entire place.
Old Man Xiao looked up. His gaze was fixed on the scene unfolding midair.
I now ask the heavens. Is my conscience clear?
The catastrophe of the Great Path could not have been evoked if one’s state of mind was patchy.
Xiao Sheng looked up in the sky at the terrifying might of the gathering catastrophe, which proved even more powerful than the one that he had braved through.
He grinned all of a sudden. Ye Futian, a sage, had bested him, a saint.
The catastrophe of the great path was evoked soon after, giving the one who bested him a chance to break into the Saint Plane.
It was an irony like no other.
He had thought himself a truly changed man from head to toe when he broke into Saint Plane, enabling him to start anew.
Yet, there was someone who refused to let him do so.
The one who refused proved to be better. So much better that there had never been one such person emerging in history throughout all of Emperor Xia’s Realm.
Ye Futian used him as a catalyst to break into the Saint Plane.
I, Xiao Sheng, have broken into Saint Plane, but so what? he thought.
What he did in the past were things he would have never do again with his current state of mind. Yet, so what?
The fact that he had done all those things remained unchanged.
Ye Futian kept his eyes on Xiao Sheng and said, “I led Emperor Xia’s Realm to victory in the Battle of Empty Realm, yet someone wanted to see me dead. After the Battle of Empty Realm, I went to Dali Dynasty to train, and the Imperial Advisor of Dali imparted his ways to me, teaching me the ways of the great path. Yet, someone in Emperor Xia’s Realm still wanted to see me dead. The Imperial Advisor knew that I was from Emperor Xia’s Realm, and he escorted and sent me off back to the Nine States all the same. I would have died in Dali and would have never made it here. Tell me, all of you, does that someone deserve death?”
Violent clouds of the catastrophe rolled in increasingly great intensity. Even those who watched from outside were shaken to their core.
The catastrophe was truly powerful. All of them seemed to have sensed all manners of the might of the great path imbued within. It was as if the catastrophe would bring about doom below as soon as it rained.
What Ye Futian said, however, proved even more earth-shattering.
His methods were actually imparted to him by the Imperial Advisor of Dali.
He went to Dali Dynasty to train, and the Imperial Advisor took him in. His identity was discovered, and the Imperial Advisor escorted him to Emperor Xia’s realm.
It was surprising enough that the Imperial Advisor of Dali Dynasty would have gone to such extents for him, yet someone in Emperor Xia’s Realm wanted to see him dead.
Some irony indeed.
All of them seemed to be able to understand what Ye Futian had gone through.
It was of no surprise that he went on to ask the heavens if his conscience was clear.
If Xiao Sheng had truly been the one doing all of that, then he truly deserved death.
All of them understood why Ye Futian had come in such a forceful manner to take Xiao Sheng.
“Anyone can come to vouch for him, and still, I will not yield,” Ye Futian said coldly.
Xiao Sheng looked at him and then at the sky. One could have only guessed what was going through his mind right there.
He closed his eyes and opened them again, sighing before saying, “I am indeed guilty.”
The world turned completely silent in that instant, with only the catastrophe continuing to howl.
Xiao Sheng confessed to his crimes!