Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 163: Legacy of the Sword Heart (X)
Ignoring the trembling Jian Jingzheng, Fu Qian wiped the blood from his hands and simply pushed the door open to leave.
He was telling the truth earlier; Ruan Shuo had indeed hidden it very well. Unlike Yuan Xin before, he had no aura of slaughter on him. Up until he was bluffed into transforming, Fu Qian only felt he had something extra on him, which didn't match the brutal Sword Intent seen in the video.
Therefore, the only certainty at that time was that his time in the Sword Pavilion wasn't fruitless, and he was hiding it.
However, Jian Jingzheng essentially represented the Sword Institute's attitude towards this matter. It was obvious they were displeased with their student being suspected, and he just came along to go through the motions. Under these circumstances, relying on the Sword Institute to get to the bottom of just this slight anomaly was almost impossible.
Given that no Beyonder Materials were found, Ruan Shuo probably could have fended them off with any random excuse.
Even though there was no time limit for this mission, based on past experience, dragging it out was definitely not a good thing. He didn't have that much time to squabble with this bunch; cutting the Gordian knot was the true way. Besides, he had been wanting to slap that guy Jian Jingzheng for a long time.
If Li Weixuan really came out of seclusion to trouble him over this, that would be even better—he could take the chance to confirm if that man was his target.
...
When Fu Qian stepped outside, there were significantly more people than before. Even though the entire process took less than a minute, Ruan Shuo's roars were quite loud. These students had clearly been drawn over.
At this moment, the crowd was looking at Fu Qian with shock and suspicion, but no one dared to step forward to question him. Someone had already recognized him as the person who had talked to Ji Liushuang. Gossip always spreads quickly. By now, his identity as an instructor from Tianqi had already spread like wildfire.
"Problem solved."
Ignoring these students, Fu Qian walked right past them, found a place, and contacted Lanaya. To be honest, he wasn't in a good mood right now. It turned out that although Ruan Shuo made a huge fuss, he was not his target.
It could be said it was all for nothing.
"That fast!" Fu Qian's words caught Lanaya by surprise. It hadn't even been an hour since their last call, had it? "Are you sure it's him?"
"He admitted it himself. It's basically the story of a low-profile genius cultivating silently."
"...Where is he now?"
"Dead. Put up a stubborn resistance." Fu Qian gave a brief rundown of what happened. "The Sword Institute will have a detailed report for you soon regarding the specifics."
...
After hearing Fu Qian's description, Lanaya fell into a long silence, feeling a massive headache. Confirming the real culprit was of course a good thing, but it was very bad that the culprit was an Academy student, and crucially, they were now a corpse. Also, even though Fu Qian made it sound easy, the process in between probably wasn't that simple.
"In that case, I have to trouble you to come over." Lanaya finally spoke after thinking it over.
On Jia Yi's end, simply saying the person was found but died wouldn't necessarily be an acceptable answer. For this kind of matter, it would be better for Fu Qian, as an eyewitness, to be present and explain.
Come over?
To be honest, Fu Qian didn't care how Lanaya communicated with Jia Yi, but since she requested it.
"Sure."
...
When Fu Qian saw Lanaya again, her expression was quite strange. It seemed she had already received the report.
"You're too reckless!" Lanaya stared at Fu Qian as if looking at an alien. "Killing someone directly without any evidence, and even injuring Jian Jingzheng who tried to stop you?"
"Do you know how many crimes that guy listed against you in the report? Cruel methods, inherently tyrannical..."
"I didn't kill Ruan Shuo on purpose." Fu Qian pointed to himself. "He must have mentioned that I got stabbed, right?"
"That guy might be a bit petty, but he doesn't have the guts to hide that." Lanaya nodded. "How is your injury?"
"It's about healed." Fu Qian patted the area around the wound, signaling there was no need to worry.
In fact, with his physique, if he hadn't deliberately suppressed the wound's recovery speed, there probably wouldn't even be a scar visible right now. Even so, the wound was almost completely healed.
But that didn't mean Ruan Shuo's sneak attack wasn't severe. The dagger wasn't just sharp; it was clearly coated in poison. Anyone else would have already collapsed.
"That's good then!" Seeing that Fu Qian didn't seem too severely injured, Lanaya relaxed a bit. "Try not to do this again in the future; it's easy for people to use it against you."
"Yeah, I'm just prone to impulsiveness. I'm actually still regretting it right now," Fu Qian said casually. "Is Mr. Jian Jingzheng alright? I'll find a time later to visit and apologize."
Do you look like you regret it even a little bit?
Lanaya glared at him, exasperated. Knowing Jian Jingzheng's character, stabbing someone in the back with a report was fine, but if Fu Qian really went to his door to apologize, whether he'd even dare to show his face was unknown.
...
"Mr. Fu is trying to tell me that a student from the Sword Institute, not even at Middle Tier, consecutively slaughtered the guards of our two Warehouses? And that the person died during the arrest?
Forgive me for speaking plainly, but I cannot report this result to headquarters. If this is the Academy's attitude, then I will have to consider finding the Night Watchers."
In the conference room, Jia Yi looked at Fu Qian with repeated cold sneers, clearly dissatisfied with the investigation results.
"What do you mean by that? Would the Academy use a student's life to brush you off?" Lanaya slapped the table. It was clear she had been suppressing a lot of anger previously.
"I didn't say that." Jia Yi, however, wasn't afraid of her. "I just feel the investigation was too hasty, with neither evidence nor testimony."
Oh?
Fu Qian finally looked up and glanced at Jia Yi. "Director Jia has a point. It's indeed not good to be too hasty."
Hey!
Lanaya glared right at Fu Qian. Whose side are you on?
"So just to be safe, how about I send you down to ask this student personally?"
"...What do you mean?" Jia Yi froze for a second before realizing what Fu Qian meant, his face instantly turning deathly pale.
If anyone else had said that, he would have just thought it was a threat. The problem was he had just seen the report from the Academy's side. Even though it was a simplified version, it didn't lack descriptions of Fu Qian's terrible conduct.
He still knew that it was this man who had directly killed Ruan Shuo, and right in front of a Sword Institute instructor at that. This guy was definitely a lawless, ruthless character. What he was capable of doing was truly hard to say.
"Literally what I said."
Looking at the suddenly silenced Jia Yi, Fu Qian paid him no more attention.
In truth, this guy just felt a student wasn't significant enough and worried he couldn't explain it to his corporation. The actual truth might not have been that important to him.
To tell the truth, his worry wasn't unreasonable. From Fu Qian's perspective, no matter what the investigation result was, the Yuan Corporation wouldn't break ties with the Academy over this. However, with an ugly accident report, Jia Yi, as the regional director, was very likely to be held accountable.
It might be unfair, but frankly speaking, when this kind of thing happens on your turf, you just have to accept your bad luck.
Taking the blame is one of the responsibilities of leaders without backing.
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