"Traitors?" Ye Tongwei was taken aback. At a moment like this, he was the only one among them with the standing to speak, and he at once knit his sword-like brows and said, "Who exactly are you calling a traitor?"

"The traitor I mean is, naturally, him." Wei Zhao thrust out his chin toward Qiu Mingchong and said offhandedly, "This creature was bought off by Xue Jianming long ago. He is Xue Jianming's running dog now."

For the moment he had no intention of dragging the Center out into the open. For one thing, he feared startling the snake in the grass; for another, he feared delivering too great a shock to the Taigu Alliance all at once and throwing the whole Taigu minor jianghu into chaos—which would only give the Center its opening. So he could only let it out a little at a time.

At those words every gaze in the hall snapped to Qiu Mingchong, and every face wore doubt. These people were no fools, after all; since returning from the secular world, Qiu Mingchong had indeed behaved oddly—in the past he would never have capered about so, stirring up trouble. Could this fellow really have a problem?

"You're farting!" Qiu Mingchong, who had been at a loss, immediately stamped his feet and retorted, "I have nothing whatsoever to do with Xue Jianming—how could I be his running dog? It is plainly you who have been carrying on with Duanmu Yu, spitting blood from your foul mouth to bite back at your betters! Master, Elders, do not believe this scoundrel of unknown origin—he is sowing discord!"

Once more the crowd turned their doubtful eyes to Wei Zhao. Compared with Qiu Mingchong, this outsider of mysterious provenance seemed the greater problem.

"Do you have evidence?" Ye Tongwei asked with a frown.

In times past Wei Zhao might have patiently dug up the evidence for them, but today he had no such mood. He turned to Bing Wushuang and said, "I leave it to you. If he won't admit it, just kill him."

The moment the words fell, everyone was stunned. This was the Yeling Sect—was this creature not being a bit too overbearing?

On the Yeling Sect's own ground, facing Qiu Mingchong, the sect's second-ranked top disciple, the fellow could not even be bothered with the most basic decency of reason and evidence, and meant simply to kill him. Who did he think he was?

"Is Your Excellency not going a little too far?" Ye Tongwei could bear it no longer. Though he was Duanmu Yu's master and naturally stood on her side in matters of feeling, with no conflict of position between himself and Wei Zhao, he was, after all, one of the Yeling Sect's important higher-ups, and he could not stomach Wei Zhao slapping them in the face so wantonly.

"Exactly. What do you amount to, that you dare come here and order us about?" Another senior elder stepped forth in a fury. This man was named Qiu Hong, a peak late Golden Core expert; in both strength and standing he was second only to Ye Qingguo and Ye Tongwei. Hot-tempered by nature, and—crucially—distantly related to Qiu Mingchong, he counted as Qiu Mingchong's second patron.

Ye Qingguo for some reason remained silent just then, and Qiu Mingchong had been threatened so publicly; his second patron could only step forward to hold the field. In Qiu Hong's view, of course, Wei Zhao and his companion were simply courting death—and this was a fine chance to enhance his own prestige.

Wei Zhao paid him no heed, and neither did Bing Wushuang. After all, he had never had the habit of wasting words; seeing this, he simply crushed the man with his materialized Relentless Ice Force. Before Qiu Hong could even react, before he had the slightest chance to resist, he was forced to his knees on the spot.

"A Nascent Soul monster!" Qiu Hong could no longer speak, while Ye Tongwei and the others were all stricken with astonishment. This was, after all, the Yeling Sect's headquarters; until now they had thought Wei Zhao and his companion were courting death—for what of it if Bing Wushuang was a recognized top genius? He was still only early Golden Core, and at most one rank higher, peak early Golden Core. What of that?

Who could have imagined that the man had not advanced one rank at all—he had gone and advanced straight into a Nascent Soul monster! How were they supposed to deal with that?

Before a Nascent Soul monster, they were all no better than paper cutouts. No wonder Wei Zhao's tone was so overweening—so he truly had the backing for it!

The whole gathering of Yeling Sect higher-ups was scared witless; even Ye Tongwei fell silent. As for Qiu Hong, kneeling on the ground, he dared not even raise his head, dreading the slightest eye contact with the other man—one careless spark of offense, and a man could die.

Bing Wushuang's gaze then fell upon Qiu Mingchong. By Wei Zhao's instruction, if the creature proved stubborn and would not confess, he could become a corpse. In any case, they had already broken completely with the Center; killing a chess piece of no consequence to the Center hardly mattered.

"You... don't come closer!" Qiu Mingchong's legs went weak with fright. Even in his worst nightmares he could never have imagined such a day—pressed to this pass in the Yeling Sect's own headquarters. By the look of the other man, if he dared deny it once, he might truly become a corpse.

"Live or die—choose one," Bing Wushuang said without expression.

"I..." Qiu Mingchong cursed his mother's name furiously in his belly. At this moment, only confessing to being an infiltrator could preserve his wretched life—but if he did, would these Yeling Sect people ever let him go? In the end it was death all the same!

Unfortunately, Bing Wushuang plainly had no mind to consider all that for him. Seeing the hesitation on his face, the materialized Relentless Ice Force simply closed in around him. With the little strength Qiu Mingchong had, there was no need for the man even to strike—in the blink of an eye he would freeze him stiff as an icicle.

"Master, save me! Uncle-master, save me!" Qiu Mingchong cried out shrilly as though plunged into an ice cellar. Yet the whole gathering of Yeling Sect higher-ups pretended not to hear. A joke, that—before a Nascent Soul monster like Bing Wushuang, how would they dare run wild?

"Then die," Bing Wushuang pronounced the final sentence of death.

"No! If you dare kill me, you will all die worse deaths than mine—Xue Jianming will avenge me!" Qiu Mingchong thrashed about in his last desperate struggle, screaming himself hoarse. In truth, Wei Zhao had not been wrong at all: his present superior was no longer Dr. Glasses, but truly Xue Jianming.

To show how much he valued Xue Jianming, Dr. Glasses had already assigned a portion of the internal agents under the other man's name, while he himself focused only on a few high-end fighting assets—Xue Jianming among them. There was no need for him to be distracted by small fry like Qiu Mingchong.

Having screamed this, Qiu Mingchong shut his eyes and waited for death. Yet after a terrified moment, he found that the materialized, bone-piercing chill enveloping him had suddenly dispersed. Bing Wushuang had let him off!

Seeing that haunted, suspicious expression of his, Wei Zhao could not help laughing. "Since you've admitted yourself that you're Xue Jianming's inside man, what the hell would I kill you for? Cleaning house—isn't that something you Yeling Sect people can do for yourselves?" (~^~)