131: Dog bite dog

Xie Ning and his group in the courtyard were unaware that a battle had broken out inside the Zhao Family mansion three hours ago.

And the cause was related to them... 3 hours ago.

In a courtyard of the Zhao Family, Zhao Long, the Flower Sect's Sick Young Master, and Iron Fist Lu Si were all present.

"Haha~ To think those idiots fought so hard for so long, only for the holy yuan fruit to end up in our hands."

The Sick Young Master laughed a few times, his tone quite smug.

"Open it and see," Zhao Long said.

"Alright, alright, alright," the Sick Young Master said with a chuckle, placing the box on the table. "Come, come, the time to witness the holy yuan fruit has... arrived."

As the box opened, his face, which had been laughing wildly, suddenly froze. Zhao Long's gaze narrowed as he stared at the object inside the box, a look of surprise on his face. In contrast, Lu Si's reaction was much more subdued.

Lu Si looked at the object in the box and remarked, "The world is truly vast and full of wonders. I didn't expect the holy yuan fruit to look so much like a Yantai Large Fragrant Pear."

Hearing this, the Sick Young Master suddenly looked up, glared at him, and roared, "Nonsense! Are you intentionally mocking me?! What holy yuan fruit? This is just a pear!"

"What!" Lu Si's eyes widened as he looked back into the box, his face full of surprise.

He thought it just looked like a pear, but it turned out to be an actual pear.

After all, Lu Si was different from these two; he was just an outstanding student at the academy. He had never heard of the holy yuan fruit before, which led to the misunderstanding.

Zhao Long looked at Lu Si and frowned. After the Sick Young Master's frantic reactions—slapping the table and kicking chairs—had calmed down a bit, he said, "Xie Ning must have done something. He possesses the Fire Shadow Beast Taming Technique and can move through flames without a trace. Only he could have swapped it."

Lu Si shook his head firmly and said with a heavy expression, "That's not right either. If he really swapped it, when you brought it out from the fire zone, they would only need to pretend to fight. They wouldn't have fought so fiercely. Later, when I took the box, their people used every means possible to force me to stop."

"Is that so? Perhaps." Zhao Long glanced at him and fell into thought.

Lu Si didn't realize that his words had shifted the target of suspicion from external enemies to their own people.

Slowly, suspicion arose in the hearts of all three.

Zhao Long looked at Lu Si, Lu Si looked at the Sick Young Master, and finally, both looked at Zhao Long.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the courtyard was delicate. A gust of wind blew, and the courtyard door slammed shut with a bang, startling the Sick Young Master and Lu Si.

Zhao Long thought for a moment, looked at the two, and said, "I suggest we stop suspecting each other for now. Each of us should go investigate, and we'll confront whoever we find evidence against. After all, if this is Xie Ning's scheme, our infighting will only play into his hands."

"You keep mentioning Xie Ning this, Xie Ning that. Maybe you're the one who secretly hid the holy yuan fruit!"

The Sick Young Master had first been humiliated, then unintentionally mocked by Lu Si, and now Zhao Long's words further fueled his intense emotions. He stiffened his neck and said to Zhao Long:

"You'd better clear your own name before making suggestions! Don't think we don't know you have a conflict with Xie Ning. He's backed by Yan Ruyu, whom you can't afford to offend. I have reason to suspect you want to hide the holy yuan fruit and shift the blame to him, so we'll help you deal with him."

Zhao Long looked at him coldly, his eyes filled with contempt. After a long while, he said, "Twenty years of good food and drink, all sorts of fine Materials and teachers from the Flower Sect, and they produced a brainless thing like you? Instead of suspecting the enemy, you're staring at your ally. It's true I have a conflict with him, but there's no need for me to do this."

"Who are you calling brainless? You can't clear yourself of suspicion, so am I wrong to doubt you?" The Sick Young Master kicked over a chair and roared at Zhao Long.

Seeing the situation spiraling out of control, Lu Si wanted to calm both sides down, but the Sick Young Master was acting like a paranoid madman, insisting it was Zhao Long's fault and having lost some of his rationality.

Zhao Long sighed inwardly and said, "Working with you is truly a headache."

"Stop beating around the bush! Either fight me or prove you didn't do this! I was wondering why you didn't run when you got the item, but instead threw it out and stayed behind to fight them. It turns out it was all calculated!"

These words from the Sick Young Master made Zhao Long even more furious. He snorted coldly and said, "A fight? As you wish."

As soon as he finished speaking, he slashed a blade toward the Sick Young Master. The latter was prepared; seeing the attack coming, he retreated rapidly and fanned his paper fan, whipping up a large whirlwind that surged toward Zhao Long.

Failing to reach an agreement, the two started fighting, and Iron Fist Lu Si retreated in a hurry, frightened.

Unlike the two before him—one the eldest young master of the Zhao Family and the other the Young Sect Leader of the Flower Sect—he was just an ordinary student with no say in the matter.

Just then, the representatives of the three parties who were discussing cooperation in the next room heard the noise and rushed over. They happened to see the two fighting and hurriedly questioned Lu Si.

Helpless, Lu Si explained the details of what had happened to the three of them, and was then taken away by the Lingbei Academy representative.

The representatives of the other two parties simply waited for Zhao Long and the Sick Young Master to fight for a while and vent some of their emotions before stepping in to stop them.

The Flower Sect people took the Sick Young Master and left in disgrace.

Zhao Long put away his Tyrant Blade and let out a helpless sigh.

"The Eldest Young Master's scheme is truly brilliant, quietly swapping the items in the box. This way, I only need to do a bit more guiding, and I can definitely make them turn their aim toward Xie Ning or Yan Ruyu." The Zhao Family member in charge of this Secret Realm operation came over and complimented Zhao Long sincerely.

Zhao Long shook his head. "No, I was also outplayed this time."

"What! Young Master has always been resourceful, how could you be outplayed by a peer?!" The person in charge was shocked, as if he had seen something terrifying.

However, Zhao Long nodded and said:

"This time, I indeed lost. I intended to use this opportunity to swap the holy yuan fruit and leave some clues pointing to Xie Ning, dragging the Flower Sect and Lingbei Academy into the mess. I didn't expect to be a step too late; the box I got was already full of fakes."

"I also thought that since it was a fake, I could just go with the flow and direct the blame toward Xie Ning's group. Who knew that Lu Si from Lingbei Academy would ruin my plan twice."

Just as the box opened, an unexpected comment from Lu Si prematurely triggered the Flower Sect's Young Sect Leader's emotions. Later, when he tried to shift the suspicion to Xie Ning, Lu Si's words negated it again, causing the agitated Young Sect Leader to lock his suspicion entirely onto him.

Whether intentional or not, Lu Si had disrupted Zhao Long's plan, meaning it would now take more effort.

Thinking this, Zhao Long said to the person in charge, "Handle the Flower Sect and Lingbei Academy as you see fit; you don't need to ask me. It's best if we can find evidence pointing to Xie Ning or Yan Ruyu. I don't need to tell you how to do it, right?"

"Your subordinate understands." With that, the person in charge left.

After a while, Zhao Long walked to the side, picked up a pear that had survived the fight, looked at it, took a bite, and said slowly:

"Xie Ning, truly a clever move."