“Drained away?!”
Mo Liang looked oddly at the disciple from the Sixth Branch who reported. He would absolutely think this disciple was talking bullshit if many disciples around didn’t nod.
“Even if you’re telling the truth and there are people who can verify what you said…”
Mo Liang took a breath and felt annoyed. No one would ever believe it.
He could see that Su Jinnan valued the demon crystals more than his own life. If he knew that all the demon crystals exploited by his family had turned into stones, he would go crazy.
Su Jinnan was crazy indeed.
He lowered his head, suppressed the anger in his heart, knelt on the ground, and squeezed out two words from his teeth, “Old Ancestor!”
“You still know that I am your old ancestor?”
The elder with an aquiline nose grunted coldly. A moment later, Su Dieyin arrived. Her look changed slightly as she saw the empty camp of the Seventh Branch. But under this circumstance, she could not ask any questions.
“If Dieyin and Yuanhai hadn’t secretly informed me, when would you tell me about this?”
The tone of the elder with the aquiline nose was cold, and his gaze toward Su Jinnan was full of dissatisfaction.
“Has Su Yuanhai secretly reported to the old ancestor as well?”
Su Dieyin was slightly relieved when she heard the words. It seemed that it was not the same as she thought. Su Yuanhai should have already left with his people.
As Su Dieyin was about to speak, the hawk-nosed elder waved his sleeve and opened the warehouse door of the camp, although Su Jinnan was still not resigned to what had happened. A smell of spiritual stones came toward them.
The hawk-nosed elder, who was supposed to be delighted, suddenly looked seriously terrible.
“Su Jinnan!!”
The hawk-nosed elder bellowed. Su Jinnan looked up, but he had no time to react. A big palm in front of his eyes had been getting bigger and bigger!
Slap!
Su Jinnan was slapped across his right cheek and thrown far away. Lying flat on his stomach, he spat out blood and raised his head with a bewildered look.
“Why did the old ancestor slap me?” He thought.
“Su Jinnan, how dare you!”
The hawk-nosed elder believed Su Jinnan had told a lie. He flashed to Su Jinnan and was about to slap Su Jinnan again. Seeing this, Su Dieyin hastened to stop him.
“Old Ancestor, please have a moment of patience. Is there possibly a misunderstanding?”
“Misunderstanding?”
The hawk-nosed elder sneered at Su Jinnan, as if he was looking at a dead man. He said, “How dare you play these tricks in front of me, Su Jinnan? You are so bold!”
Su Dieyin finally realized that something was wrong. She quickly walked to the warehouse. When she saw only stones and a few low-grade spiritual stones in the warehouse, she gasped instantly.
Was… Su Jinnan tired of living?
Could it be Su Yuanhai?
As Su Dieyin was worrying, the hawk-nosed elder spoke again, “I’ve thought Yuanhai’s worry was superfluous. But I did not expect you became insane for these demon crystals and even lied to me!”
“Lie? Old Ancestor, I never lie to you about anything!”
Su Jinnan sensed the hawk-nosed ancestor’s killing intent and panicked at last. He knelt and kept kowtowing, “Old Ancestor, please check it out. It is my fault to conceal the news of the demon crystals and not to report it. But… I did not lie to you!”
“How dare you exculpate yourself?!”
The hawk-nosed elder grasped Su Jinnan and threw him in front of the warehouse, “How could you explain these stones to me?”
Su Jinnan became dumbfounded as he saw the stones in the warehouse. He shook his head frantically and shouted, “Old Ancestor, I didn’t do it! It must be Su Yuanhai. He did this. I got here just now and didn’t have time to change the demon crystals inside the warehouse!”
“I knew you will exculpate yourself like this.”
The expression of the hawk-nosed elder didn’t ease a little bit, and he slapped Su Jinan again. Su Jinnan flew even further this time. His blood flew from his mouth corner, and it seemed that he was more severely injured this time, because he tried to get up several times but failed.
“Su Yuanhai is a good boy. He knows his common background, what should take and what not. To distance himself from the demon crystals, he put all the universe rings of his disciples together and invited me to visit the Seventh Branch. With my divine awareness, I couldn’t miss any demonic pneuma. He didn’t take a single piece of demon crystal away.”
At this point, the hawk-nosed elder looked gloomy and cold, “Are you still trying to exculpate yourself from perpetrating the fraud?”
“I…”
Su Jinnan opened his mouth but could say nothing. He felt bitterness in his mouth, and even in his heart.
He turned around and stared at Su Dieyin with resentment, as if he would vent all his grievance and resentment on Su Dieyin.
Su Dieyin frowned and thought Su Jinnan must be crazy.
How dare he show hostility to her in front of the old ancestor? Didn’t he fear that the old ancestor became angry?
Su Jinnan didn’t want to die and the two slaps had woken him up. He got up, knelt on the ground and bowed to the hawk-nosed elder. He said in a low voice,
“Old Ancestor, I really didn’t do this. I beg you to make a final verdict after a thorough investigation. If I am proved to do that, I… will die without regret!”
Hearing this, the hawk-nosed elder eased his expression a little bit. He frowned and went to the camp of the Sixth Branch with Su Jinnan in his sleeve.
“Su Yuanhai lost his demon crystals, but yours must be still there, right? Put away your demon crystals first, and I’ll investigate the matter in detail.”
“Thanks a lot, Old Ancestor!”
Su Jinnan relieved. The feeling at the brink of death was obviously unpleasant.
Su Dieyin, who was following behind them, had a sense of discomfort suddenly, as she heard the words.
Could it be…
Su Dieyin’s mind was interrupted by the extremely angry roar of the old ancestor from the camp of the Sixth Branch!
“Su Jinnan! You deserve this!!”
Boom!
In front of the warehouse of the Sixth Branch, a palm mark appeared on Su Jinnan’s chest, and his body flew backward like a cannonball. The tremendous force made his eyes bulge, and he fell on his back with blood gushing out from his mouth.
Boom!
The camp was bulldozed by Su Jinnan’s body, and countless disciples of the Sixth Branch were killed or injured. The area was full of miserable howling!
The old ancestor really got angry this time.
Seeing the crimson among the ruins, Su Dieyin got a pale face and could not help but feel chilled. She decided to retreat out of the camp of the Sixth Branch and watch what would happen.
“Ahem…”
Su Jinnan crawled out of the ruins with a look that he would almost die. He stared firmly at the warehouse that was full of stones. He could not understand how those valuable demon crystals were turned into stones suddenly in a night.
Mo Liang stood aside with a pale face. Why did the old ancestor of the Su Family show up at this moment? … How could he say that absurd reason?
The hawk-nosed elder’s sight lingered on Mo Liang’s face for a moment and then moved away. Then he went to Su Jinnan and coldly said, “Tell me where the demon crystals are hidden, and I’ll spare your life for the sake of your loyal service to the Su Family! Otherwise… go to die!”
Su Jinnan’s face is extremely pale, and he had not figured out what on earth happened. To save his life, he had to continue to explain.
“Old Ancestor, no matter how bold I am, I would never deceive you. I can stake my life on those demon crystals. None of them fell into my hands. Someone else must have planned this to weaken your strength, Old Ancestor! Please think twice!”
“You would never deceive me? You have a gift of the gab to pass the buck.”
The hawk-nosed elder snorted coldly, but his expression eased up.
“I am not ready for taking your life. Since you lost the demon crystals, I order you to find out the whereabouts of the demon crystals in three days. If you fail, the whole Sixth Branch will be killed! Only by doing so, I can calm the anger of those who have traveled from other great regions. Do you understand what I mean?”
“From other great regions?”
Su Jinnan opened his eyes wide and spat out more blood, “How could it be possible? I clearly…”
“Hum!” The hawk-nosed elder waved his sleeve, turned around, and scolded coldly, “What a fool! There isn’t a wall without a rack. Do you think that no one in your Sixth Branch would leak the news? The news about the demon crystals has long spread to other great regions. But you hide it from me, and brought a great disaster to the family!
If the Su Family were destroyed because of you, Su Jinnan… you will be the only sinner to our Su Family. Think about it!”
Su Jinnan fell into a daze at the words, “It’s merely a demon crystal mine…”
He never thought that his greed would put him in such a desperate situation.
“Head of the Sixth Branch… be aware of what you are doing.”
Su Dieyin sighed and turned to the hawk-nosed elder with a hint of pleading in her beautiful eyes.
The hawk-nosed elder had planned to directly return to the Head Branch but stopped as he saw Su Dieyin’s eyes. He sighed, “Well, I will pay a visit to the Second Branch. I haven’t been there for a long time since your grandmother died. And I will check how seriously the condition of Su Jiuzhou’s injury is. It makes you enthusiastically talk about all the time.”
“Thanks a lot, Old Ancestor!”
Su Dieyin was overjoyed at the words, and she joyfully responded, “Thank you, Old Ancestor!”
“Ho-Ho…”
The hawk-nosed elder smiled and temporarily put the issue of demon crystals aside. Then he waved his sleeves and disappeared with Su Dieyin instantly. Only the wailing remained echoing in the camp in the Black Stone Forest.
Mo Liang stood there stiffly like a statue. He exhaled as if he regained a new life until the hawk-nosed elder was out of his sensing range.
Seeing the disciples of the Sixth Branch lying on the ground, he took two steps and realized that his back had been soaking wet.
“It was absolutely right that I didn’t join a sect or a family.”
After this incident, he was furtherly sure about what he had been insisting on.
Thinking of this, Mo Liang went to Su Jinnan and helped him up. He fed him a healing medicine.
After Su Jinnan digested the medicine for a moment, his face regained its color. He stopped healing himself and opened his eyes. He said calmly, “Fellow Practitioner Mo, you should leave here now. And never mention that you came here.”
Mo Liang was slightly stunned, “Head of the Sixth Branch…”
A mocking expression flashed over Su Jinnan’s pale face, “The old ancestor did not blow off his steam on you. Don’t you know the reason?”
Mo Liang was terrified, “Are you meaning…”
Su Jinnan gave a wry smile. What he was going to say immediately made Mo Liang feel cold, “I… have violated the taboo. It will be fine if I can hand out the missing demon crystals. If not, the Su Family is bound to give a satisfactory explanation to those practitioners from other great regions. And I will be the perfect fall guy. If the old ancestor struck you, it might cause another problem. Therefore… you’ve escaped a disaster this time.”