Chapter 126

Gu Zhanting sat in the main trial seat, silent from beginning to end, his gaze looking at Pei Qingyan and Huo Liancheng for a long time, and finally said indifferently: "The method of soul-searching is harmful to heaven and harmony. Unless it's a last resort, it shouldn't be the choice of the imperial court. You are all pillars of the country, multi-party joint trial, and you only come up with this kind of plan?"

Pei Qingyan sighed, knowing this was just the emperor's high-sounding excuse; he just wanted to protect the Huo family.

The Huo family was already doing a lot of dirty things for the emperor, and some things were not the Huo family's business, but the emperor's business itself.

Only hoping that this matter wasn't, otherwise it would be impossible to rely on this matter to shake the Huo family.

Huo Liancheng saluted: "Huo Lu has already confessed. County Magistrate Shi Chong of Menggui was indeed a student of this official. Huo Lu and Shi Chong were on good terms, so he got to know the Infant Ghost through Shi Chong early on. It was all personal action, and this official really didn't know. Lax discipline is this official's fault, please punish me, Your Majesty."

Another Dali Temple Minister spoke: "The words of the Infant Ghost cannot be listened to, can Huo Lu's confession be listened to? Your Majesty is benevolent and does not want to search the soul, then why not ask the party involved, Lu Xingzhou, what he says? He is also in the capital."

Suddenly, all parties stopped talking.

Gu Zhanting looked at the expressions of all parties playfully and said leisurely: "Then summon the party involved and ask."

Sheng Qingfeng was a bit anxious. He really didn't want Lu Xingzhou to get involved in this kind of whirlpool, so he wanted him to hide. Whether the Huo family colluded with the Infant Ghost was a background that traced back to the past, what did it have to do with the victim? How did the victim know how you colluded before? There was no reason to summon the party involved at all. Lu Xingzhou could have completely not shown up.

So the Pei family and the Huo family both wanted him to show up to achieve their respective needs.

At this moment, the Pei family owed Lu Xingzhou a favor and was embarrassed to use him as a chess piece again, so they didn't mention this; the Huo family was worried that Lu Xingzhou's attitude would be wrong, so they didn't mention it either. It had nothing to do with Lu Xingzhou to begin with. It was just that the Dali Temple suddenly brought it up, and even if they brought it up, where did the emperor get the interest to summon him?

The emperor spoke, so he couldn't hide!

Sheng Qingfeng had no choice but to order left and right: "Go summon Lu Xingzhou, he should be at my house right now."

The whole room was full of ellipses in their stomachs.

Gu Zhanting was a bit amused: "Why is the party involved at your house, Minister?"

Sheng Qingfeng saluted: "He saved my daughter yesterday, and I am holding a banquet to thank him today."

Gu Zhanting was just about to say something playfully when a voice came from outside: "Lu Xingzhou has arrived."

Sheng Qingfeng looked up and saw his daughter pushing Lu Xingzhou's wheelchair into the hall.

Lu Xingzhou looked at Gu Zhanting and arched his hands indifferently: "See Your Majesty... please forgive the commoner for his physical inconvenience and inability to perform the full ceremony."

The biggest advantage of pretending to be lame is that even when the King of Heaven is in front of you, you don't have to kneel.

Gu Zhanting's gaze fell on his legs, but he didn't doubt anything, and looked at Lu Xingzhou's overall image carefully again.

Except for being disabled and sitting in a wheelchair, his appearance and temperament were impeccable. Suddenly meeting the emperor, and in such an environment where the important ministers of the imperial court were gathered, the pressure was not ordinary. For a cultivator, it was a group of first-rank powerhouses staring at you.

In this environment, ordinary little brats would probably not even be able to speak clearly, but this Lu Xingzhou was calm and composed... Just this performance was not something in a pool.

No wonder he could assist his daughter in rising rapidly from that kind of desperate situation in a short time.

He finally smiled: "I heard you are here to participate in the Alchemy Academy assessment. If you can pass successfully, you won't be called a commoner anymore."

This attitude made everyone's hearts move slightly, and even the Huo Liancheng and Huo Xingyuan father and son looked at Lu Xingzhou seriously again, their thoughts difficult to understand.

Lu Xingzhou said: "I accept Your Majesty's auspicious words."

Gu Zhanting said: "Huo Lu case, you are the party involved and the victim, what do you want to say?"

Lu Xingzhou said: "As for the so-called Joyous Union Saintess, although there were demon girls appearing on the spot, it cannot be judged whether she was the mastermind. Theoretically speaking, the Infant Ghost is a third-rank demon cultivator, and the Joyous Union Saintess is just a newcomer, only a fourth-rank. Who is the master and who is the follower? Isn't that reversing the heavens? If you ask my personal opinion, I would suspect this is a self-hypnosis type of protective measure, which is to prevent others from shallow soul-searching and confuse the audience."

Pei Qingyan held back his laughter. Meng Guan had no expression.

Gu Zhanting also seemed to have a smile: "So you think the Infant Ghost is indeed behind the Huo family?"

"I don't know the past, I dare not discuss it recklessly, I can only say that it was indeed Huo Lu and the Infant Ghost who attacked me."

This time even Gu Zhanting was stunned. This guy really didn't bite the Huo family?

Is he really intending to recognize his ancestors and return to the clan, or does he have other ideas?

But he heard Lu Xingzhou continue: "The commoner has another matter to sue!"

Gu Zhanting smiled with interest: "What do you want to sue?"

"The commoner sues the Huo family's fifth son, Huo Jin, for colluding with the demon path Yama Hall and buying murder. First, he used Huo Jin's invitation as an excuse to invite the Huanhua Sword Sect's direct descendant, Chu Qingchen, to a banquet and set an ambush to assassinate him; later, he repeated the same trick and invited me to a banquet, intending to intercept and kill me on the way. Fortunately, the commoner was prepared, so I didn't follow in Chu's footsteps." Lu Xingzhou arched his hands again: "The Huanhua Sword Sect is a famous sect in the world, and Chu is a newcomer ranked seventh with a bright future. Being colluded with demon cultivators to be secretly harmed, please make the decision, Your Majesty!"

The whole room was silent.

Gu Zhanting raised an eyebrow, his face becoming very exciting.

He saw it. This Lu Xingzhou probably guessed that he didn't want to use the Infant Ghost case to move the Huo family, otherwise he wouldn't have dragged it until today and waited for Huo Lu to be escorted to the capital. So he simply didn't argue about this case. Anyway, the Huo Lu case could at least bite the Huo family for lax discipline, and punishment was inevitable. He simply stepped on it again and put the hat of colluding with demon cultivators on Huo Jin.

No matter how Huo Liancheng cleared his relationship, the style of family governance would become a joke in the world, and he also pulled the hatred of the Huanhua Sword Sect tightly.

Sheng Qingfeng's face was equally exciting. Colluding with the demon path Yama Hall? Are you talking about yourself?

Huo Liancheng said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, Huo Jin has never left the capital, how could he know the so-called Yama Hall demon cultivators? Huo Jin invited Lu Xingzhou to a banquet, just because there had been conflicts before and he wanted to eliminate this grudge. It doesn't make sense to force the Ye Wufeng case and this invitation to a banquet together."

Gu Zhanting smiled: "Lu Xingzhou, accusations must have evidence, you can't just speculate because someone invited you to dinner, right?"

"Of course there is evidence." Lu Xingzhou took a small mirror from his arms: "This is the Yama Hall's recording mirror. The Yama Hall basically keeps files for big business, both to explain to superiors that they didn't kill people indiscriminately, and to avoid the employer changing their mind."

Huo Liancheng and Huo Xingyuan's faces changed instantly.

There weren't many people in the world who knew the rules of the Yama Hall secretly keeping evidence. Even if they knew, where did you get this mirror?

Sheng Yuanyao smiled and took the mirror and handed it to her father. She had watched the whole process of Lu Xingzhou going to the Yama Hall branch to get the mirror. The people in the Yama Hall even knelt and saluted Lu Xingzhou... Oh right, this rule of keeping files was set by Lu Xingzhou himself a few years ago.

This melon was eaten happily.

Huo Liancheng said: "Slow down, how did you get the Yama Hall's things? Could it be forged?"

"Ha... Grand Tutor Huo has been walking birds at home for a long time, is the news so uninformed?" Lu Xingzhou said indifferently: "Last night, the Yama Hall issued an announcement saying that Ye Wufeng disregarded the rules and had been expelled. His criminal evidence was sent by the Yama Hall to show a clear line."

Sheng Qingfeng asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty..."

Gu Zhanting nodded: "Play it."

Ripples flashed in the mirror. The mirror image wasn't very clear, but Ye Wufeng and Huo Jin's faces could still be clearly identified.

"If we create an environment where Lu Xingzhou is alone, does the Soul-Capturing Envoy dare to take action and kill him?"

"Your Huo family has a good plan. You say it's alone, but when the time comes, will it be witnessed by everyone that the Yama Hall killed Lu Xingzhou, and you throw the pot away cleanly?"

"Soul-Capturing Envoy, you worry too much..."

"Then prove it to me."

"How to prove it?"

"There is a kid named Chu Qingchen who I don't like... You first create an environment for me to kill him, and prove how you do it."

"Bang!" Gu Zhanting slammed the table angrily: "This is what you said you don't know! The Huanhua Sword Sect is a famous orthodox sect, and Chu Qingchen might become a pillar of the Great Qian in the future. Is this how he died in the game between your playboy children and the demon path!"

The influence of the Huanhua Sword Sect was not something to be trifled with. In modern times, it would be a case of a wealthy playboy murdering a 985 master's student, a proper hot search event.

What was even more infuriating was that it was just a game-like addition, acting as a "deposit."

If the Sect Master of the Huanhua Sword Sect knew about this, he would definitely fight the Huo family to the death.

But who knew that the Yama Hall had such evidence on file, and actually sent it out voluntarily!

Lu Xingzhou said leisurely: "It seems that the Huo family is not only the fourth son who is not good, but this fifth son is also not good..."

From his words, it could be roughly judged that he was still just focusing on these unsuccessful children of the Huo family and didn't intend to expand to the entire Huo family. Huo Liancheng and Huo Xingyuan couldn't understand the meaning here, and knelt down together: "Your Majesty, I have lax family discipline, and I am willing to accept severe punishment."

Gu Zhanting looked at Lu Xingzhou, and Lu Xingzhou was just smiling slightly, not saying anything else.

Gu Zhanting took a deep breath and said indifferently: "Huo Lu and Huo Jin colluded with demon cultivators and harmed the country's newcomers, with conclusive evidence. Effective immediately, remove all titles and shadows, cane one hundred, and imprison for three years. Huo Lu has been seriously injured, and the caning is temporarily exempted. Huo Xingyuan failed to teach his children and had lax family discipline, demoted by one rank, and ordered to compensate the victim Huanhua Sword Sect and Lu Xingzhou until the victim is satisfied!"

The Huo father and son kowtowed: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace."

Pei Qingyan, Sheng Qingfeng, and others watched coldly, their hearts feeling a little shaken.

They thought Lu Xingzhou needed to rely on them to deal with the Huo family, but this matter actually didn't rely on them for anything from beginning to end. It could be said that it was entirely Lu Xingzhou's own operation.

Although it didn't shake the foundation of the Huo family... the blow couldn't be said to be small. The Huo family, which originally claimed to have a prosperous family with six direct sons, now had one dead in Xia Zhou, and two notorious ones in prison for three years, basically abolished.

There were only three left. Thinking that there was still a Lu Xingzhou outside staring at their every move, they were probably also terrified and couldn't sleep at night.

He was really trying to make the entire Huo family step into fear and torment step by step with his own strength.

But this comparison of strength like a mayfly shaking a tree, once the Huo family goes all out, what will he do? The Huo family just hadn't been forced to that point before, and didn't want to get a reputation for "killing their son," which didn't mean they really couldn't kill. Once forced to that point, how could there be no reason to kill?

Pei Qingyan calculated in his heart, seeing that Gu Zhanting seemed to be leaving, he stepped out and saluted: "Your Majesty, speaking of family style... I also want to plead guilty."

Gu Zhanting was stunned: "Oh? What is it, Minister?"

"Eighteen years ago, I had a romantic encounter and left a daughter wandering in the Jianghu, but I never knew. Recently, I found her, and I am ashamed to be a father."

Not to mention Sheng Yuanyao's eyes instantly becoming bright, even Gu Zhanting was interested: "You tell me this, what do you want?"

Pei Qingyan bowed: "I am willing to accept any punishment, only asking for a title for my daughter, so that she won't be slandered as illegitimate and can return to the family home gloriously."

Gu Zhanting thought: "You... this is also a great damage to your own reputation. Even if you are ashamed of the child, you should discuss it with me privately... throwing it out at this time, is there any inside story?"

"Yes." Pei Qingyan said seriously: "My daughter wandered in the Jianghu and was taken in by Lu Xingzhou, who helped her find her relatives. This is a great kindness. Pei publicly stated this, hoping that some people know that if there is any act of assassination like Ye Wufeng's, it is equivalent to assassinating my daughter, and the Hedong Pei family will never die with them!"