Qiao Ruohe suddenly remembered: wasn't this long-faced cultivator the very person who had peeped at Lin Qingxuan at Qihua Abode?
"First, throw that junior sister down the mountain," the long-faced cultivator ordered.
"Yes." Seeing that two disciples were indeed about to untie Xiao Ling from the punishment stake, Jin Dapeng shouted at the fan-wielding leader:
"Huangfu Song, if you dare harm a hair on her head, I will not let you off."
His shout was extremely fierce, causing the two disciples who were about to untie the ropes to freeze in astonishment and look toward Huangfu Song.
He was not angry at all; instead, he patted his fan, smiled, walked up to Jin Dapeng, and looked him up and down.
"I was wondering who it could be. Isn't this the once-thriving now fallen and desolate eldest young master of Jinling Garden?"
As soon as Huangfu Song finished speaking, a gossipy disciple close to him chimed in:
"Jinling Garden? Could that be the declining cultivation family whose head was burned to death by the Burning Heaven Cult,
leaving a widow with her tail tucked between her legs, fleeing in panic with two sons,
only to end up seeking asylum within the borders of our Eastern Kingdom?"
When the gossipy junior brother said the words "cultivation family," he looked at Huangfu Song, the two of them seemingly holding back their laughter.
At the same time, they both shifted their gaze to the dozen or so disciples behind them.
In an instant, roaring laughter filled the entire Disciplinary Terrace.
"Stop spouting your mother's dogshit! My dad isn't dead, and how could those scum of the Burning Heaven Cult possibly harm him?" Jin Dapeng cursed.
"Eldest Young Master Jin, logically speaking, if you want to go take revenge on the Burning Heaven Cult,
you should apply to the Qingling Sect to study water-attribute Spells.
Could it be that you don't even understand such a basic principle of the cultivation world as water overcoming fire?" the gossipy junior brother said.
"Where I choose to apply has nothing to do with you!" Jin Dapeng replied.
"Which sect you go to is none of our business."
Huangfu Song walked closer to him, snapping his fan shut, but his gaze fell upon Qiao Ruohe instead.
Suddenly, he slammed his left foot fiercely onto the stone platform,
stamping out a footprint nine inches deep.
Such strength was several times greater than Jin Dapeng's, leaving the burly man speechless.
While the three of them were shocked, Huangfu Song folded his fan and abruptly pointed it straight at Qiao Ruohe's nose.
"Yet you are colluding with a spy of the Burning Heaven Cult—how do you plead?"
As soon as these words were spoken, not only did the dozen-odd disciples brought by Huangfu Song look at one another in dismay,
even Jin Dapeng cast a strange look at Qiao Ruohe.
Indeed, as Huangfu Song had said, he was merely an introductory disciple of the Divine Wood Palace;
how could he wield flame Spells? This naturally aroused suspicion.
Qiao Ruohe glanced left and right, seeing that in those eyes there was not only contempt and doubt, but also murderous intent.
Only the young girl's eyes lacked such expressions.
That was because he had opened his heart to her.
She had even advised him not to cultivate other sects' techniques within the Divine Wood Palace.
Yet she also did not know how to speak in his defense.
For a moment, accusations were written all over everyone's faces.
Qiao Ruohe could only tell the truth, intending to spill the matter of The Man in Black,
when Huangfu Song's gossipy junior brother preempted him by saying, "Search him."
Two cultivators walked up to Qiao Ruohe and patted him down all over.
From inside his robe, they fished out the *Spirit Controlling Manual* and the *Fire-Casting Notes*.
Seeing these Fire-Casting Notes, everyone widened their eyes.
The gossipy junior brother shook his head and laughed, "You've got some nerve, sneaking into the Divine Wood Palace and still daring to carry the secret technique manuals of the Burning Heaven Cult."
"A spy of the Burning Heaven Cult—even if we execute him right now, the Sect Leader won't question it," a cultivator stepped forward and said.
"Those notes are not mine," Qiao Ruohe said.
The cultivator who had been patrolling the Withered Wood Forest earlier stepped forward to identify him.
"Senior Brother of Direct Descent, he is the one who set the fire in Elder Guo's forest. I saw it with my own eyes; he can cast fireball Spells."
This time, even if he jumped into the ocean, he would never wash himself clean.