Chapter 957: Standoff Between Two Great Factions

Three days passed very quickly and indeed, the angered Mo Ling appeared outside Soul Palace.

Outside Soul Palace was a large city garden filled with various plants. However, Soul Alliance members had now occupied the place. Even the exits out of Soul Palace were surrounded. They clearly were forcing Soul Palace to hand over the alleged criminal.

Soul Palace already knew that Soul Alliance was laying in wait nearby. As long as Mu Qingyi left Soul Palace, they would know about it.

Soul Alliance mobilized numerous experts, so the three great palaces didn’t want to display weakness either. Soon, a standoff between the two great factions arose in this zone in the center of the city.

However, neither side was willing to attack first since this place was Wanxiang City, and starting a war would incite the condemnation of countless people.

There were innumerable soul pet trainers in the human realm and not all of them were in Soul Alliance or the three great palaces. These remaining forces, if gathered together, could create a tide of anger that could severely wound the two great factions. Therefore, neither the forcible hegemon of Soul Alliance or the three great palaces which controlled billions of people, were willing to start a war in the city. It would probably end up as a fight between a few crucial people.

......

“Shielding a criminal is an intentional invertion of justice by your three great palaces! Hand over the person as soon as possible, otherwise don’t blame us for being rude.” said the Fourth Hero Mo Ling with a face of justice!

No matter how large a faction was, or how influential it was, it had to find a reason to convince the masses. Therefore, Mo Ling had spoken so righteously, reiterating Mu Qingyi’s “crimes” in front of the public. He wanted everyone to know that Soul Alliance was acting in the interests of Wanxiang City to apprehend the criminal and not to abuse its power.

Towards this, the three great palaces scoffed.

“This Fourth Hero Mo Ling really likes to act. He clearly has a heart of stone, and is only interested in profiting. Yet here he is, so dignified and pompous. Doesn’t he know that his reputation is bad enough?!” scoffed Senior Elder Teng who had fought him before.

On Soul Palace’s lofty stairs were numerous experts that covered the three great palaces. In the plaza on top of the stairs in front of the palace were countless soul pet trainers gathered. Next to each of them was an elemental world soul pet!

These elemental world soul pets were different colors. Their bodies either wrapped with fire, attached with water, weaved with lightning or surrounded by sand...

When their number reached enough, they formed an elemental color diagram. The elemental energy, fluctuating in the air, exuded an enormous pressure!

These elemental soul pets were restraining their hostility. The moment Soul Alliance made any brash moves, from the high ground they would definitely deliver a baptism of anger onto them!

Chu Mu glanced at the high ranking stone stairs. It was clear that in terms of army strength, the three great palaces had the absolute advantage. It was no wonder that although Soul Alliance was powerful, they didn’t dare make any rash moves

“Who is here from Soul Alliance?” Chu Mu asked the adjacent Senior Elder Liu.

Senior Elder Liu knew about Soul Alliance’s situation obviously like the back of his hand. Promptly, he pointed at the strange woman next to Mo Ling with half her face covered by hair: “That’s Mo Ling’s concubine, and she is also a very strong poison ability female soul pet trainer. She should be a bit weaker than Poison Desolation Nie Yunbin. If we have to deal with her, we probably have to mobilize another elder.”

“The fellow behind Mo Ling with the face full of poison spots is Nie Yunbin. You’ve seen him before. He’s probably come this time to seek revenge from you. You need to be a bit careful.”

“That person in the long robe is Eight Desolations Bin Liao. he’s very strong, and is very hard to deal with. Behind him is his trusted aide, Zhang Yincheng who is also a peak emperor expert. However, his strength is a bit weaker than the Sixteen Absolutes.”

“That semi old man is one of the Sixteen Absolutes, the Night Absolute. This older fellow’s strength only broke out later in life. While he was young, he was insignificant, but he now sits in the top five of the Sixteen Absolutes.”

These people Senior Elder Liu was telling Chu Mu about all head peak emperor rank soul pets. It could be seen that besides the Eight Desolations and Sixteen Absolutes, there were still many peak emperor rank experts without a title who served Soul Alliance.

Although the three great palaces also had experts like this, their higher up strengths were clearly lacking. They mainly relied on numbers.

......

“Hmph, someone leaked the information. The person harboring the criminal is your Soul Alliance’s Chu Fangchen. No wonder you protected him like that. It turns out there was something fishy between the two of them already!!” angrily berated Nie Yunbin.

After Nie Yunbin was brought away by Soul Palace, Soul Alliance used a huge piece of territory in exchange to take him back. However, while he was incarcerated, Nie Yunbin was tormented by a number of Soul Palace members. So today, Nie Binyun wanted to return the humiliation onto Soul Palace, especially Chu Fangchen and the fallen Mu Qingyi.

“Senior Tan, the three great palaces harboring a criminal is clearly intentionally opposing us!” Mo Ling glanced at the white haired old man and spoke in a slightly respectful tone.

“You are certain the Mu woman is hidden inside Soul Palace?” asked the white haired man.

“Absolutely certain!” Mo Ling was extremely certain.

On the stairs, Chu Mu was paying attention to the situation. He discovered that no matter what Mo Ling said, he was always asking for instructions from this white haired old man. He couldn’t help but ask Senior Elder Liu: “Who is that old man? Why does his status seem to be very high?”

“He is Hero Chief Yuan Sui’s teacher. His status in the soul pet realm isn’t inferior to the Mu King from back then. There was a time when he was the strongest person. Although he has gotten old now, his reputation still exists. The reality is that there are numerous people like Tan De in Wanxiang City who don’t pay attention to worldly matters. They don’t care who is in control of Wanxiang Realm. The only thing they care about is ensuring the city doesn’t end up in turmoil. Sou Alliance is restrained by people like this, which is why they don’t brazenly dare wipe us out. However, I’m not sure who managed to convince a number of people of his rank to believe that the Mu woman committed crimes...” said Senior Elder De.

Chu Mu nodded his head. Each period would have their own respective strongest figures. Perhaps ten years ago these old men were as all-powerful as Heroes and Kings. As time wore on, they gradually retreated from the limelight; yet, they still would affect several generations of people. These sorts of virtuous and honorable people were indeed not easily swayed by factions.

“Senior Tan, with what you understand of the Mu woman, how could she do such baseless things? This is all part of Mo Ling’s strategy, who wants to manipulate the situation for his personal gains.” The person in charge of the situation, Great Senior Elder Chao, spoke warmly to that old man.

“It’s not something that I, whose eyes have gone bad and hands shaking, can make a decision on. I only hope that neither side makes too big of a fuss over it. Moreover, this place used to be the Mu King’s territory. No matter how you think of it, it’s best to best respectful towards his descendants, even if she committed a crime...” said Tan De.

Tan De’s words were very impartial. Clearly he wouldn’t help either side. However, since he had mentioned the Mu King, the person who countless people revered and respected, he was telling Mo Ling that he couldn’t have any killing intent towards Mu Qingyi and had to forgive her.

“With Elder Tan saying those words, Mu Qingyi cannot thank you enough.” suddenly, a spirited voice rang out.

Everyone’s eyes immediately fell on the woman slowly walking down Soul Palace’s stairs.

The reality was that most people present hadn’t personally seen Mu Qingyi before. Now as they watched this somewhat pale-faced outstanding beauty walk down the stairs, they all showed different expressions on their faces. Most of them were stunned by her beauty and many thought to themselves: Did this otherworldly woman truly commit the crimes Mo Ling alleged?

“So you still have the face to appear in front of everyone. The Mu King is indeed worth respecting; however, your actions have made such a mighty king feel humiliation!” said Mo Ling.

Mo Ling knew how to use his words, intentionally separating Mu Qingyi from the Mu King, and seemingly acting in justice’s interests!

Although there were perhaps a number of people who knew the truth behind his acting, he still had to act it perfectly because when he controlled the situation, the acting would become real!

Despite Mu Qingyi being full of anger and wanting to hack the shameless Mo Ling to thousands of pieces, she didn’t want to argue right now with him. She showed herself because she didn’t want the Mu Family to be shamed; an emperor family could not receive infamy because of her. She could choose to hide and walk on her soul pet path, but she had to let everyone know that this was a conspiracy and an attempt to frame her. It was what happened when every ancient family reached the end of its era and would be unfairly pushed aside and plotted against.

“Your majesty, you can clear up the truth. Especially how the Crown Phoenix King entered the dominator rank so quickly. Make clear whether it is like Mo Ling said; selfishly stealing the life force energy in the Sealed Tower and selfishly harming numerous experts, stealing their resources...” said Tan De.

There were many small details that lined up with Mu Qingyi’s alleged crime. For example, inner crystals had been constantly taken from the Sealed Tower, and Mu Qingyi would often enter the Sealed Tower. In her inner palace and a few other places were hidden her personal stash. Most of these resources had come from unknown sources or blackmarket dealings such as assassination, coercion, or enticement...

“Blackmarket dealings can be made up as long as the people closest to me have betrayed me. Moreover, there are some details that I didn’t pay attention to that allowed her to make up a story that even I feel indignant at justice at.” Mu Qingyi’s eyes were not as dignified as the past where they shined upon everyone like the sun. Instead, they contained more calmness and arrogance.

She was currently staring at Fang Wu, who was among the crusade. This was a person who Mu Qingyi hadn’t been on guard at all against. Yet, she was the one to stab the deepest sword in her back!

Fang Wu evaded her eyes, not daring to look at Mu Qingyi’s eyes.

However, this woman was extremely fierce. Since she had taken action, she had to take Mu Qingyi completely down!!