The Fengxian family was given neither the chance to explain nor the right to defend themselves.....
Before a single word could leave their mouths, binding incantations had already wrapped around them like iron chains.
After all, if they were allowed to speak… how could the prey ever fall neatly into the trap woven by Azhai Rong?
---
Flashback .... Last Night
When night descended, Azhai Rong arrived at the Xuemo Sect with his officers to retrieve Mo Yan's portrait from Kinji.
He went straight to the academy, heading for Master Kinji Yo's chambers.
But the moment the door swung open....
Death had already danced its grim waltz across the floor.
The smile he wore vanished in an instant, wiped away as if someone had poured water across a finished painting.
His eyes had expected to see Kinji sitting at his desk, engrossed in work… but instead, they met the sight of a lifeless corpse.
Blood had drained from the body, pooling on the floor like water spilled from an overturned cup.
The room lay drowned in shadow, curtains stirring faintly in the cold wind.
The air was freezing...like the ruins of a place abandoned to winter.
Outside, snow fell heavier, as though nature itself conspired to bury this massacre.
The smell of blood lingered thick in the air, and on Kinji's throat was a mark…
A mark only one person's blade could carve.....Yin Fengxian's.
Her sword was a beast in its own right, striking like a serpent sinking its fangs deep.
The flesh on his neck had already blackened under the venomous precision of that strike.
Azhai Rong's fists clenched.
His sole hope of reaching Mo Yan.....destroyed by Yin Fengxian.
He knew that if he struck back directly, society would demand an explanation… so instead, he spun a web of deceit.
---
Chaos erupted through the academy.
Word spread like wildfire.....the honored headmaster had been murdered.
Students and officials poured into the hall, panic setting the air ablaze.
But upon Azhai Rong's lips bloomed yet another smile.
He still had a pawn left to play...Fiijion, the man whose hunger for Langshan Sect's throne knew no bounds.
Fiijion had been given a written promise: "You shall be the next king."
All he needed to do… was kill his own leader.
It was a scheme the three had been plotting that very day.
But they could hide from the world....
Not from fate.
Fate sees all. Fate hears all.
---
Facing the crowd, Azhai Rong raised his voice:
"There is no need to panic! The investigation is complete. The murderer has been found.....
It is the same villain who kidnapped our children, intending to sacrifice them in a ritual to open the Black Heaven Gate…
The true criminal… is Yin Fengxian!"
No one in the crowd even knew who Yin Fengxian was.....
Yet still, they declared him guilty.
All while the real criminal stood among them.
That very night, the news was carried to all four clans like a wildfire in dry grass.
By dawn, every ear had heard it.
Every heart believed it.
Because Azhai Rong understood the world's ugliest flaw....
The first story people hear is the one they believe, even if it is later proven false.
---
He poured poison into their ears...
Not just against the Fengxian family, but also against Mo Yan and Yu Sui.
The crowd gasped when they learned Mo Yan and Yu Sui had returned.....
But Azhai Rong wasted no time linking them to the Black Heaven Gate and the rituals of the past.
Twenty-five years ago, when certain families were exiled…
He twisted it into a tale of conspiracy...claiming they had been preparing to open the Black Heaven Gate all along, with Mo Yan aiding them.
The first to fall victim to this rumor were the mothers.
Already frantic over their missing children, the idea that Yu Sui and Mo Yan planned to sacrifice them was like oil poured onto a raging fire.
In moments, the people turned....not only against Yin Fengxian, but against Yu Sui and Mo Yan as well.
---
Azhai Rong set out with his officials, only to stumble upon yet another shattered snare...
The mutilated corpses of Master Fiijion and Lady Zhiyu, slaughtered without mercy.
This became both a piece of evidence… and a personal defeat.
Every failure that rose before Azhai Rong only twisted him into something more dangerous.
And yet, in the eyes of the people, he was their savior.
While Yin Fengxian… was a villain.
---
They say...
If even a single grape on the vine rots, the whole vine will soon decay.
But if you cut away the rot in time… the vine can be saved.
Yin Fengxian had done exactly that.....
Cut away the rot.
And though he never intended it, in doing so, he had protected Yu Sui.
---
Flashback Ends