Stellar Transformations

B6C10: Silent interrogation

Qin Yu had surpassed Cha Hong in power but he was willing to become a guardian and a subordinate to Cha Hong. This hard-to-explain matter naturally has made the 3 majesties suspect Qin Yu. They even suspect that he is a member of either the Azure Dragon Palace or the Blue Water Mansion who came here only because of the top treasure 9 Swords!

“Why are you speechless, cave master Qin Yu?” Di Luan looks at Qin Yu with a cold laugh. Di Qing and Di Jian also look at him. It appears that if his answer is unsatisfactory, they will immediately capture him.

Qin Yu lets out a sigh: “My 3 majesties, does such a simple question still need to be asked? With your wisdom, you still can’t see the answer?”

His words make Di Luan, Di Qing and Di Jian dumbfounded.

“My 3 majesties, I wasn’t well-known in this area of water. If someone like me seizes the cave master position directly, perhaps not many Xiuyaoists will accept him as cave master.” Qin Yu says in a frustrated manner to the 3 majesties.

Di Luan however says: “Strong individuals enjoy supremacy. Who would have dared to oppose you if you had killed Cha Hong?”

Qin Yu immediately says: “Majesty, you said I could’ve killed Cha Hong, but he wasn’t alone. There were so many guardians under him, if I had killed him, naturally I’d have had to kill quite a few expert guardians. So, when I become cave master, wouldn’t I have already killed a number of my subordinates? Moreover … at that time I was much weaker than I am now.”

“Oh?” Di Luan looks at Qin Yu with suspicion.

Qin Yu says smilingly: “Just by asking around a bit, you’ll know that I underwent closed-door training a few times in the Blood-red Cave. Moreover, I improved greatly thanks to these training sessions. Previously I didn’t have enough power to beat Cha Hong at all. Only after those closed-door training sessions did I begin to be capable of this.”

Di Luan’s eyes flash with coldness.

“You did closed-door training before or after Cha Hong’s death?” He asks in a very serious voice.

Di Luan, Di Jian and Di Qing have all noticed the problem in Qin Yu’s answer. If his power improved before Cha Hong’s death then there is nothing wrong. But if it improved after Cha Hong’s death then there is a possibility that he killed Cha Hong.

“It was before his death!”

Qin Yu says firmly.

“Can you confirm this?” Di Luan says with a cold laugh. “Lying is no good. We can ask whoever we want. Anyone can be a witness.”

Qin Yu says with a smile: “You can ask anyone about this. It seems Cha Hong spent most of the last 100 years doing closed-door training. That day, after everybody discovered that he was dead, we began to discuss who would become the new cave master. We then had some sparring matches and I defeated Teng Bi.”

“My 3 majesties, I know that you’re suspecting that I killed Cha Hong and absorbed his yuanying. But if I had killed him, it would have taken me at least several days to absorb his yuanying whereas I fought Teng Bi on the same day as his death. Even if I had killed Cha Hong, I wouldn’t have had enough time to consume his yuanying.”

Qin Yu looks smilingly at the 3 majesties: “I believe you understand what I mean.”

Di Luan, Di Jian and Di Qing exchange a look and say nothing.

It generally takes several days to absorb an early Dongxu stage yuanying but the place where the soul jade slips are kept is checked every day. Therefore, they must have discovered Cha Hong’s death within 24 hours of it or even soon after it happened.

Even if Qin Yu had spent that entire short period of time to absorb, theoretically he would not have been able to improve much.

Suddenly, Di Qing says: “Just now you said Cha Hong often did closed-door training in the past 100 years, right?”

Qin Yu is secretly happy. He thinks that even though the death of the Nine Demons Hall’s 8th majesty is important, one of the 9 Swords is also very attractive and if he can shift these 3 majesties’ attention onto that jade sword, the situation will be much better for him.

“That’s right. Many Xiuyaoists here know about this. Moreover, Cha Hong even strictly ordered that nobody disturb him during his training.” Qin Yu answers truthfully.

Di Qing and Di Jian exchange a look.

“7th brother, looks like Cha Hong did so to break a black jade case’s Dust Removing restrictive spell. An early Dongxu stage blood-red aquatic python indeed has to spend 100 years to break a Dust Removing restrictive spell set up by an immortal. That Cha Hong fella is really pitiful to have spent so much time breaking one.” Di Qing says through holy sense communication.

Di Qing and his brothers remember very well that when the 9 of them obtained a black jade case before, they had to join forces and spend several months to open it.

“2nd brother, 6th brother, there’s a high probability that 8th brother came to rob Cha Hong right after he had opened that restrictive spell. The 2 of them then had a fierce battle and could even die from this. It’s also possible that a third party interfered with them.” Di Luan says to Di Qing and Di Jian through his holy sense.

Both of them agree with him.

“However, now we don’t know if 8th brother died in the Blood-red Cave or got killed on the way back from the Blood-red Cave after taking that black jade case.” Di Luan has become suspicious. He is sure that an unknown third party was involved in this.

When did this third party actually get into action?

“Qin Yu, how did Cha Hong die?” Di Luan shouts coldly at Qin Yu.

The latter says with a shake of his head: “Majesty, I don’t know how Cha Hong died either. That fight took place on the underground secret floor, but when the guardians arrived, there weren’t any corpses there.”

“There wasn’t anyone there?” Di Luan asks frowningly.

“Yes, there wasn’t anyone there.” Qin Yu says firmly.

Why there were no corpses? The reason for this is that Qin Yu sucked the corpses into his spatial ring at that time to get rid of the evidence, and later he burnt them up with his internal flame.

Di Luan and his brothers become even more suspicious.

Now it can be confirmed that the underground secret floor is the battlefield, but why there were no corpses?

Destroying the evidence!

The 3 brothers can only think of this explanation.

“Take us to the underground secret floor and show us the marks of the fighting.” Di Jian suddenly shouts. Given their power, they can definitely have a rough idea of what happened during that fight based on those marks.

Qin Yu says with a somewhat unpleasant expression: “This is impossible because that fight happened a year ago. Nearly half of the underground secret floor was destroyed so it has already been rebuilt and those marks of the fighting are now all gone.”

“All gone?”

Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan all look at Qin Yu with suspicion.

They are suspecting that Qin Yu destroyed the evidence.

“My 3 majesties, now all the squad leaders and 16 guardians have gathered in the main hall. My 2 brothers are already there as well. If you have any doubts, please feel free to ask them.” Qin Yu says immediately.

He looks at the 3 majesties with a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes.

“The 3 of you keep questioning me. It seems you distrust me very much. But there’s nothing I can do about this. You can interrogate anyone as you please. True gold fears no fire. I’m going to show you the way.”

He then heads for the main hall directly without paying attention to the 3 majesties’ response.

“Oh?”

There is a hint of amazement on Di Luan’s face. He did not expect Qin Yu to become haughty at a time like this.

“The killer should be afraid of us and very respectful to us, and when we ask a question, he’ll definitely answer it instead of getting angry. But this Qin Yu fella even dared to get angry.” Di Luan says to Di Qing via his holy sense.

Di Qing also says with a nod: “Yeah, let’s go question other guys first.”

Di Luan has been misled by his overconfidence in his own smartness. What seems true can be false and vice versa so there are many things that are extremely difficult to reason out.

……

In the main hall of the Blood-red Cave,

Di Jian and his brothers are sitting in Qin Yu’s, Hou Fei’s and Hei Yu’s original positions. Qin Yu and his 2 brothers are leading the 16 guardians and all the squad leaders of the Blood-red Cave waiting for the 3 majesties’ orders on the lower end of the hall.

“Cave master Qin Yu, it seems your 2nd brother and 3rd brother are not very powerful?” Di Qing, who is sitting in the central position, asks Qin Yu.

Hou Fei scratches his head but he basically does not care about the 3 majesties above him. Di Qing does not know that Qin Yu has already told Hou Fei and Hei Yu to suppress their auras and send out a little energy. Di Qing and his brothers therefore have noticed that Hou Fei is at the late Yuanying stage and Hei Yu is at the middle Yuanying stage.

“Majesty, even though my 2nd brother is only at the late Yuanying stage, he belongs to the unusually gifted Aquatic Monkey clan so he can already fight common early Dongxu stage experts. My 3rd brother is also from a very formidable clan of eagle which is second only to the Golden Flame Eagle clan.” Qin Yu explains on behalf of Hou Fei and Hei Yu.

Hearing what he said, the 3 majesties all have a hint of disdain in their eyes.

Hou Fei, a Fiery-eyed Aquatic monkey, and Xiao Hei both are extremely rare demonic beasts. According to Uncle Lan, Hou Fei is the only Fiery-eyed Aquatic monkey in the entire underwater Xiuyao world, and he has suppressed his aura so the 3 majesties cannot see his extraordinariness.

It is better to reveal Hou Fei’s power a bit than to hide it completely so Qin Yu said that he is comparable to early Dongxu stage experts.

The 3 majesties do not care about someone with so little power.

“The guardians who went into the underground secret floor at that time and saw the marks of the fighting come out.” Di Qing shouts.

Immediately, the 3 black turtle brothers, Wu Tong, Wu Feng, the 2 snake women Yan Qing and Xi Yan, Teng Bi and Zhuang Zhong all walk forwards. In front of the 3 majesties, these 9 guardians do not dare to show any arrogance and are very respectful.

“We’re going to talk through holy sense communication so there’s no need to worry that someone else can hear what you’re going to say, everybody. But … don’t lie, because I’m going to question all the 9 of you. If I find out any differences between your answer and that of someone else, if there are 2 different answers, you’ll all die!”

Di Qing says in a cold voice.

The 9 guardians’ hearts tremble.

Qin Yu also frowns. He immediately takes a step forwards and says: “Majesty, if someone among these 9 guardians lies while the others tell the truth, won’t this method of yours harm the honest ones?” At this moment, he at least has to try to do something for his subordinates.

“Cave master Qin Yu, move back or die!”

Di Jian, who is sitting with eyes closed in repose, suddenly opens his eyes and shouts coldly at Qin Yu. His eyes are filled with icy killing intent.

“Big brother, this fella is too strong. Even if I go berserk, I won’t necessarily beat him. We better restrain ourselves.” Violent-tempered Hou Fei unexpectedly pacifies Qin Yu through holy sense communication. The latter can only clench his teeth and take a step backwards.

Di Jian takes a look at Qin Yu then shuts his eyes to rest again.

Di Luan and Di Qing will be responsible for the interrogation. Di Jian is much stronger than them but he comes with them only to prevent any accidents from happening. In the eyes of the Nine Demons Hall, unless the old freak Three-Eyed of the Blue Water Mansion or the Azure Dragon Palace’s overlord personally gets into action, it’s really unlikely that someone will be able to deal with Di Jian.

All of the 9 guardians become very nervous.

None of them dares to lie because if one of them lies, this can bring about the deaths of all of them.

Di Qing has covered the 9 guardians with his holy sense. If they talk to each other via holy sense communication, he will definitely detect undulations in their holy senses.

Time goes by.

However, there is only a frightening silence in the whole main hall.

“Next.” Di Qing says coldly. Zhuang Zhong, the 1st to be questioned, now has beads of sweat all over his forehead. Even though he has gone through the interrogation, he is still in danger because if someone else’s answer is different from his, both he and that guardian will die!

Time keeps going by.

Now every guardian has been interrogated except for one and Qin Yu has nearly reached the limit of his patience too.

“Big brother, these Nine Demons Hall’s fellas are real bastards. They’re doing this just to disturb our minds. If they make me angry, I’ll kill one of them with a smash of my stick. You can kill that early Dongxu fella. Then we’ll join forces to fight that strongest fella!”

Obviously Hou Fei has also become somewhat impatient because he cannot know what Di Qing and Di Luan have asked and what information they have obtained.

Di Qing and Di Luan’s threat in the beginning has really been effective. 8 guardians have been questioned successively without any problems. At the moment, the 9th guardian, Ba Jian of the 3 black turtle brothers, is being questioned.

Boom!

Di Qing suddenly makes a wave of his hand. A purple beam of light shoots out and Ba Jian is helplessly blown to pieces with a boom.

“Humph, you even dared to lie.” Di Qing stands up all of a sudden and sweeps his eyes across the other 8 guardians.

Those 8 guardians’ faces immediately go pale. Teng Bi’s eyes even flash with fierceness: “Majesty, we didn’t lie at all. If the 8 of us get killed because he alone lied to you, we’ll die with resentment.”

“Shut up!”

Di Jian suddenly opens his eyes and shouts.

A shock wave shoots out from his mouth at a frighteningly fast speed. Teng Bi’s face changes color greatly at once. He attempts to dodge with a shake of his body but that shock wave is so fast that it still hits him. Teng Bi is immediately sent flying. He then falls on the floor and spits out 2 mouthfuls of blood.

Teng Bi has been seriously injured!

A late Dongxu stage Purple Demon aquatic dragon is definitely comparable to Kongming stage Xiuxianists so he has been able to injure Teng Bi badly with just a shout. The faces of the other 7 guardians immediately blacken. They know that if the 3 majesties want to kill them, they will not be able to put up any resistance.

“Majesties!”

Even Qin Yu speaks out and looks coldly at the 3 majesties above him.

A faint cold smile appears on the corners of Di Luan’s mouth. In an instant, he reaches out a hand to stop Di Jian, who is about to rage, and says: “Since cave master Qin Yu has spoken out, all right, we accept that the last guardian was the only one who lied and won’t blame the other 8 guardians.”

Yan Qing and the other guardians immediately let out a sigh of relief.

However, they simply do not know that the last guardian Ba Jian did not lie. His answer does not contradict theirs at all.

End of b6c10.