Yang Qing's guess was validated when he saw Chen Zian get so overwheld by his emotions that a bit of killing intent leaked out. The target of that intent was two elders, one of them looked well on in his years, and the other was relatively young, he looked to be in his mid-thirties and could be considered to have a decent cultivation base too, as he was in the eighth stage of the core formation realm.
Of those two elders, the older one was called Chen Gutian, while the younger one was called Chen Zholan. Chen Gutian's cultivation base was in the eleventh stage of the core formation realm, but he was well along in his years, and from what Yang Qing could tell he had at most three hundred years left in his lifespan. He was Chen Zian's uncle by blood which Yang Qing guessed was the reason Chen Zian entrusted him with the supervision of Misty Caldera County. He was one of his people, and he was getting on in his years, there was no better retirent than the environnt in one of their precious territories.
As for Chen Zholan, from what was gathered, he was one of the talented youngsters of his generation who had gained the admiration of Chen Zian. Giving him the supervisory role at Cherry Blossom County, was no different than announcing to the rest that Chen Zholan was his chosen successor.
However, both had betrayed him, which was why Chen Zian looked like he was struggling to keep his emotions in check every ti his eyes fell on them. Both Chen Zholan and Chen Gutian made sure to avoid his gaze with the forr occasionally looking up, with nervousness, regret, and repentance in his eyes which Chen Zian didn't look like he was in the mood to accommodate.
Yang Qing couldn't help but sigh when he saw their interaction, especially with his gaze falling on Chen Zian. The investigation showed him to be uninvolved in the charges brought against his clan. He had no ties and seed largely unaware of it until the mont he was appraised of it by Yu Gen when they were about to be brought over.
His clan mbers had hoodwinked him, and the damage they would leave behind would cause significant damage to his clan and their foundations.
The evidence showed he didn't know what they were up to or the dealings they had with the Black Scorpion Gang or the Red Lotus Alchemy Pavilion, or the pill slaves and human cauldron's business. His lack of knowledge or involvent in those affairs could be true, but then again it could be false. Short of using karma to deduce it, it would be next to impossible to prove that he knew whatever his clan mbers were involved.
Yang Qing could think of about a hundred different thods the Chen clan patriarch could use to isolate himself from the whole thing despite being involved and each one of those thods would make it impossible to trace the whole thing back to him.
Of course, they could always use karma and verify the whole thing, but those proficient in karma were all in the soul formation realm or a saint-grade treasure like the one handed to him during his ceremony, and from what Yang Qing knew deducing karma was a long tedious yet delicate process even if the person under deduction was a core formation realm.
Reading soone's past, present, and future was not as easy as turning the pages of a book, it was more like untangling a million threads that had intertwined together into a convoluted ss and to try and make sense of it by undoing one string after another.
With how overwheld the Order was, it was in doubt whether they would have any karma specialist to spare and handle the case concerning a core formation expert and deduce whether he was lying about knowing his clan was engaged in pills slaves and human cauldrons or not.
If their normal but extensive investigation ans didn't reveal anything, then Yang Qing would have to accept either Chen Zian was truly innocent, or his ans of covering up his tracks were much more defined than the Order's ans of uncovering them.
Whichever side the coin fell on, whether he was innocent of all of this, or a skilled manipulator, at the end of this case, the Chen family would never engage in pill slave or human cauldron trade again. The Order would ensure that now that they had fallen under their eyes. Surveillance puppets would be permanently deployed to monitor every single thing happening within their territory.
Yang Qing had seen one, and though in terms of attack, they were not powerful, when it ca to evading detection and observation, they were masters of their craft and had been made with mimicry chaos tal which gave them the ability to transmorph into anything and even hide themselves with void energy because of the attributes of the tal.
If Chen Zian was involved provided he wasn't reckless, he would stop all activities for which they were about to be sentenced, but if he couldn't help himself, those puppets would be the first to catch him. While they were weak against palace realm cultivators, surveilling and apprehending a core formation expert was more than doable for them.
Yang Qing twitched as he detected sothing that prompted him to take out his dallion and use it to expand the courtroom once more, catching those present by surprise. A mont later, a flash of golden runes and light appeared at the center of the courtroom.
The light flashed for a second and disappeared and in its place was a new group of people who looked to be around the ages of ten to twenty wearing the sa robes, which were dull grey robes. Outwardly, they looked vibrant and full of life, with their lustrous skin, and healthy bodies that eluded strong vitality, but within them, Yang Qing could feel the hollowness that lay within.
They were all young with the oldest being the sa age as Yang Qing who was twenty-three and was even in the middle stages of the foundation establishnt stage, about half of them were, with the rest being in the late stages of the qi refinent realm.
At face value, such a young lineup which had about thirty foundation establishnt cultivators and seventy late-stage qi refinent cultivators, considering how young they were, it was bound to leave countless cultivating organizations salivating over them.
A seventeen-year-old foundation establishnt cultivator would be treated as a genius seedling in a rank three organization and even so rank two organizations would gladly receive them as a regular disciple, and there were already seven of them here, but Yang Qing's gaze couldn't help but turn cold when he saw them.
The cultivation base he saw within them, was all manufactured and ca at a price, a steep price at that. None of them would be able to live past one hundred years even those in the foundation establishnt realm. They were nothing more than fragile porcelain with countless cracks that were hidden behind beautiful layers of engraving and ornants, but soon enough those porcelains would break without fail.
Such were the lives of pill slaves and human cauldrons.
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