45: A stunning reversal!

“Bang!”

Elder Liu slammed the two account books shut, creating a loud noise like a gavel!

He slowly raised his head, his face, already dark with anger, now surged with an uncontrollable, almost volcanic rage!

But his rage was not directed at Lin Ye.

Instead, it was like two invisible, all-consuming sharp swords, firmly locked onto Steward of the Menial Servants, Zhang Ping, who was already scared out of his wits and pale!

“Zhang… Ping!”

Elder Liu’s voice was hoarse, low, and filled with extreme suppressed anger. Every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a bone-chilling coldness!

“What… else do you have to say?!”

“I… I…”

Zhang Ping had lost all his previous arrogance and complacency. He looked at Elder Liu’s almost man-eating gaze, then at the “death warrant” that Lin Ye had produced, recording all his crimes. His entire body seemed to have been drained of all its bones, his legs went soft, and with a “thud,” he once again collapsed onto the cold ground!

His mind was blank!

He couldn’t understand how he had done it so secretly, even his transaction partners were single-line contacts. How… how did this Little Bastard, this waste he regarded as an ant, get this account book?!

This was absolutely impossible!

“Fake! It’s fake!”

The instinct for survival made him let out a hysterical, final death struggle, “Elder! That… that thing is absolutely fake! It’s him! He must have forged it to frame me! Disciple… Disciple is innocent!”

“Innocent?” Elder Liu laughed in extreme anger, “What an innocent! What a great Steward Zhang, wholeheartedly working for the public good!”

He slammed the table, making the entire hall hum!

“Someone!” he roared, “Immediately go to the Sect Archives and bring all the records of Medicinal Pill and medicinal herb inflows and outflows from the Outer Sect for the past six months, exactly as they are! Today, this old man wants to see if it’s this ‘late bloomer’ Genius who is stealing from himself, or if certain individuals are crying wolf and deceiving their superiors!”

“Yes!”

A Deacon Disciple took the order and rushed out of the hall like a dart.

Everyone’s gaze was focused on the figure kneeling on the ground, trembling like a sieve.

Outside the hall, the thousands of Outer Sect Disciple had already been completely stunned by this sudden, 180-degree earth-shattering reversal!

They looked at each other, seeing the undisguised shock and… confusion in each other’s eyes.

The plot… seemed a little different from what they had imagined?

The waiting time was so agonizing. Every minute, every second, felt like being repeatedly roasted over a fire for Zhang Ping.

Finally, after the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the Deacon Disciple, holding several thick, old-smelling Sect scrolls, ran back, panting.

“Elder! The records… are here!”

“Present them!”

Elder Liu personally stepped down from the high platform. He did not return to his seat, but in front of everyone, right in the center of the hall, he spread out the several Sect archives and the two account books side by side on the ground!

He wanted to confront them publicly! To let the truth be known to all!

He first picked up the “evidence” presented by Zhang Ping, accusing Lin Ye.

“First day of the seventh month, snuck into the pharmacy, took three bottles of Low Grade Qi Condensation Powder?” Elder Liu read the first entry, then opened the Sect archives and sneered, “First day of the seventh month, the Sect pharmacy inventory showed no records of any Medicinal Pill theft! However, you, Zhang Ping, on the pretext of ‘insect extermination in the menial servants’ quarters,’ took three bottles of similar ‘insect repellent powder’ from the storeroom! May I ask, Steward Zhang, where did these insects go?!”

Zhang Ping’s face instantly turned even paler!

Elder Liu didn’t stop, pointing to the second entry: “Eighth day of the seventh month, in the woodshed, withheld half a catty of Body Tempering Grass? Hmph! The Sect archives record that on the eighth day of the seventh month, the weather was clear with no rain, and all medicinal herbs were drying in the medicinal field. How could there be any withholding?!”

Full of loopholes!

In front of the Sect’s precise, undeniable official records for every single day, Zhang Ping’s crudely fabricated false evidence was simply a joke, thoroughly refuted!

“This… this is…” Zhang Ping’s lips trembled, and he could no longer speak a complete sentence.

Elder Liu didn’t even bother to look at him again. He forcefully threw the false evidence on the ground, and then, with an almost trembling hand, picked up the… true “evidence” presented by Lin Ye!

“Gengzi year, third day of the seventh month, night, miscellaneous courtyard. Gave ten bottles of Low Grade Qi Condensation Powder to Senior Brother Liu…”

Elder Liu’s gaze sharply turned to the Sect archives!

“Sect records! Third day of the seventh month, Outer Sect Disciple competition, many injured, a total of thirty bottles of Low Grade Qi Condensation Powder consumed! But the pharmacy records show forty bottles were released from storage that day! Of these, a full ten bottles are unaccounted for! The person in charge – Zhang Ping!”

The two pieces of evidence perfectly matched!

“Gengzi year, twentieth day of the seventh month, rain, abandoned mine in the back mountain. Gave three Body Tempering Grass to Senior Brother Liu…”

“Sect records! Twentieth day of the seventh month, heavy rain, emergency harvesting of medicinal fields! Among them, three hundred-year-old Body Tempering Grass ‘rotted’ due to ‘improper storage’! The person in charge – still you, Zhang Ping!”

A perfect match!

Still, a perfect match!

Entry by entry! Transaction by transaction!

Every record in Lin Ye’s account book perfectly corresponded with the seemingly “reasonable” losses in the Sect archives!

The truth, at this moment, could not be clearer!

Boom!!!

Outside the hall, the thousands of Outer Sect Disciple, after hearing all this, completely erupted!

“Beast! So it was him! He stole our Medicinal Pill!”

“I knew it! Why were our monthly resources always so meager! It turns out this beast, worse than a pig or dog, embezzled it all!”

“Kill him! Kill him! Get justice for us!”

The angry roars, like a mountain tsunami, almost tore off the roof of the entire Deacon Hall!

And inside the hall, Zhang Ping, after hearing the irrefutable ironclad evidence, felt as if all his spirit had been drained from him.

The color completely drained from his face, becoming paler than a dead man’s.

All the light in his eyes, at this moment, completely dimmed.

It was over.

He had thought he had set up a flawless killing trap.

But he never expected that from the very beginning, he was the one who had been targeted by the hunter, stepping, step by step, into the death trap… the prey!

“Thud!”

Zhang Ping’s body softly collapsed to the ground.

His face was ashen.