Yin Shui'er's voice echoed throughout the entire square of Bu Luo City.
The common folk below didn't find it unusual. To them, the difference between the governor of the Demon Extermination Division and an esper from the division wasn't significant; both were high-ranking espers.
If the governor could speak, and the city lord could speak, then this young girl who had earned first-class merit could naturally speak too.
"Non... nonsense."
On the high platform filled with espers, a guest elder from the City Lord's Mansion, seeing this, was about to erupt in anger and scold her. However, he realized that no one else was stopping her.
When he stepped forward, the gazes around him seemed peculiar, and both Wu Ye and Yin Zhongxiu looked at him with an icy glint in their eyes.
The elder subconsciously shivered, and his tone softened slightly.
"I say... fellow Daoist Yin Shui'er, what you're doing, is it..."
"Is it what?" Yin Shui'er narrowed her eyes and asked.
The elder still wanted to speak, but he found Yin Zhongxiu quietly glancing at him.
Instantly, the elder fell silent.
Yin Shui'er turned her head, her chest heaving, and exhaled a breath of stale air. She then casually closed the booklet in front of her.
She looked at the surging crowd below, her expression indifferent.
"I don't know if it's fortune or misfortune, but on Xishan, I met two people who deserved to die."
"The first is the night watchman of Heya Village, Ao Lang."
"When I was alone facing the stage two antelope demon, he, driven by greed for my Black Gold Dagger, deliberately framed me and fled. If Xu Mu hadn't saved me later, I would have already died."
As she spoke, Yin Shui'er's gaze sharpened.
"Bring him to the platform!"
The young girl's sharp command was followed by several soldiers in ordinary official uniforms, holding spears, escorting a young man bound with ropes onto the high platform.
"As a night watchman, receiving the court's salary, at a critical moment, you disregarded the danger to your companions and villagers. Tell me yourself, what crime do you deserve?"
Ao Lang's hair was disheveled, and his face bore bruises, clearly having already suffered some punishment.
After being violently kicked by the yamen runner behind him, he involuntarily stumbled forward and then, with a plop, knelt on the ground.
"Lord Yin, I was wrong!"
"Blame me for being misguided by greed. Please spare me, it didn't result in any deaths!"
Ao Lang pleaded with a snotty and tearful face, like a prodigal dog, crawling on all fours to within three steps of Yin Shui'er, wriggling his body like an earthworm.
"What a thing to steal. Unless you take it to the Golden Tent Royal Court to sell, no one would dare to accept it."
Bai Si, a young esper from the Demon Extermination Division standing nearby, shook his head slightly.
Truth be told, Ao Lang was quite unlucky. He had spent a considerable sum of money, traveled on an esper's magic ship for three days and three nights, only to finally fly out of Gui Ye.
Unexpectedly, due to the appearance of the Celestial Tome, the entire esper cultivation world was apprehending Vilithan.
From the Domain of Gui Ye, not to mention ships, even a bird would be thoroughly searched, to see if its feathers were hiding anything related to the Celestial Tome.
It was then that Ao Lang's Black Gold Dagger was discovered.
He possessed the Black Gold Dagger but lacked the token symbolizing his identity as an esper of the Demon Extermination Division. Therefore, he was directly detained by the cultivating immortal and handed over to the local authorities.
After interrogation by skilled individuals, he finally revealed his origins and admitted that the Black Gold Dagger was not his.
As a result, the local Demon Extermination Division sent him back to Gui Ye in less than two days.
"Spare you?"
Yin Shui'er's expression was blank. Countless strands of her dark hair danced with the rising esper energy.
The water element within her body began to boil, and countless bubbles rose, enveloping the yin elemental energy symbolizing the moonlit night and flying out of her body.
In an instant, the esper energy that Yin Zhongxiu had injected into the girl was dissolved.
Sensing this change, Yin Zhongxiu's eyes suddenly narrowed.
Then, a look of surprise appeared on his face.
To break through his yin attribute, could it be...
"That was someone who risked their life to support Xishan and save the common people!"
"Because you were a coward, you used his body as a shield and let him die in the jaws of a tiger?"
Yin Shui'er's eyes were sharp as knives. The pressure she exerted grew stronger. The sky, due to the excessive water elements, had even slowly condensed into a vast and ethereal lake, like a mirror, reflecting everything that reached it. The seats on the entire high platform began to tremble.
Everyone's hair stood on end. Their robes fluttered wildly. A few first-tier espers, carelessly, had the swords and sabers hanging from their waists sucked into the lake, vanishing in an instant, with no chance of retrieval.
"Shield, jaws of a tiger?" Ao Lang struggled continuously, but his body was still involuntarily being sucked higher. "I didn't, Lord Yin! I just took your Black Gold Short Sword. I knew nothing about any shield or tiger!"
"I'm being framed!"
Ignoring the young man's cries, Yin Shui'er slightly raised her finger. He was instantly sucked into the water mirror.
Ao Lang's presence vanished from this world. Yin Shui'er expressionlessly closed her right palm.
Crack!
The mirror surface in the sky suddenly shattered.
Clang!
Several broken swords and sabers fell from the sky onto the ground with a crisp sound.
Then, blood-red rain began to fall from the sky.
Everyone reacted promptly, raising their esper abilities to evade.
But someone did not.
Yin Shui'er simply stood in place, letting the blood-red water slide down her exquisitely beautiful face and wet her crimson one-piece long robe.
She slowly turned her head to the right, where the espers of the Three Divisions were seated.
Wang Hua's expression was gloomy. Bright green leaves atop his head were stained by the blood, which dripped down onto his shoes.
Wang Jue sat silently, not uttering a word. However, if one looked closely, they would notice his thumb trembling uncontrollably at a rapid frequency.
"Pointing at the mulberry to curse the locust" was a very meaningful idiom.
He had read extensively and thus knew that what Yin Shui'er had just said was not directed at Ao Lang, but at him.
He had betrayed Xu Mu, who had rushed from afar, using the latter as a shield. Subsequently, he had met his demise in the jaws of a tiger, while he himself had coincidentally escaped from Xishan.
"Brother Yin, is this your intention?"
Wu Ye looked at Yin Zhongxiu, puzzled.
He couldn't understand why Yin Shui'er dared to act this way, as he was aware of the message from the main Yin family.
It clearly stated that Yin Zhongxiu should not clash with any party, especially the Wang family.
And what the young girl was saying now clearly indicated a direction towards an uncontrollable escalation of events.
If all of this were without Yin Zhongxiu's tacit consent, or even his instigation, how could Yin Shui'er break free from his suppression?
"Yin Zhongxiu was clearly holding back," Wu Ye thought.
"It's not my intention," Yin Zhongxiu shook his head, then slowly took down the long spear from his back.
He was indeed not holding back.
Yin Shui'er was able to break free from his suppression of yin attribute because she had already become a stage two esper.
"This is Xia Lü's intention."
The man sighed.