The Trail

Majid looked witnesses with a smile making their distress deepens, he looked at Fanli enjoying his anger and took a deep breath before looked at Guoro. Everything went as he expected up until now, he dragged a nagging voice in his mind, disturbing him about the aftermath of offending Fanli, to the corner before he comes back to the second part of his plan. Even though his plan was simple, child's play, but he knew it gonna work, this world didn't run by the law, it run by power. It's the same as his world but here things are aggravated that they didn't need to run intricate hypocrite shows. So these guys weren't used to a fair trial, they don't have attornies that could inverse white and black. Their second Mistake was taking him for a clueless kid.

"I ask of the Royal Guard permission, to forbid the witnesses from talking to each other, or anyone to say anything to them." Majid saw his fair share of old stupid TV shows', where fairness was foiled with heckling.

"You are permitted, everyone silence anyone who talks without permission would be punished severely." Guoro understood his intention, he didn't want them to share information. So he could discredit them all if he proved some of them lied about their presence. But how can he do that, if they stayed together they could hear each other testimonies, if they were sent outside that's even worse, this is the Divine Hammer Hall, he didn't have the human resources to prevent them from intervening. Interesting, let's see how this boy is gonna do it.

"And I need papers and brushes for our witnesses," Guoro's eyes narrowed for a while that Majid's heart skipped a beat. Don't tell me he would reject, this is what all was about, but a smile appeared on Guoro face, then a hearty laughter appeased Majid's mind, I guess he figured it out.

"You don't need to ask for my permission anymore boy, you are permitted to do as you wish, as long as it's acceptable." Guoro looked around and he could see confusion on most of the people present. Even this supidass Fanli didn't seem to understand otherwise he wouldn't be this content, he would have tried to do something.

Each of the witnesses got a paper and an ink brush, their faces were void of blood. Even though they couldn't get his intention, they felt things got serious all of a sudden. Majid made them set in a circle, their backs to each other with wide space between them.

"Ok, I would ask you questions, write your answers down, don't turn, don't talk to each other."

Majid throws a series of questions, "When does that happen, where, what, was I alone, how many gang members, what happened..."

Each question poured cold water at the candidates, his questions played at the details and added some unexisting elements to the incident to further prove his point. Only one of them seemed to be relaxed, the first witness, Majid kept his eye on him. Fanli seemed to get it, at last, his hand clenched hard but he couldn't say anything, he called for Song Bi, whispering to each other his face darkened.

Majid wrote answers of his own, then collected their paper, "time is over, time is over," many where reluctant to let go of their papers, but he didn't care as he made sure they wrote their names on. A memory of his days at school surfaced on his mind and brought a smirk on his face. The teachers were really merciless back then when they took the papers as if they were supervising a final soccer game or something. Majid looked at the dispairing fake witnesses with satisfaction, you deserve mercilessness you bastards.

Reading the papers, Majid couldn't help but laugh. Only one of the papers almost matched his, most only got 2 to no answer right. He handed the papers to Guoro and didn't say anything.

After reading for a while, Guoro slammed the papers on the table, "How dare you to lie in my presence, this proves clearly that none of you was present, only one paper matched your answers."

"Guoro, what if his answers were fake, that would explain why their answers were wrong," Fanli cooked up this excuse waiting for this moment. Guoro unprepared was caught off guard, he found himself unable to debunk him but Majid was all too ready.

"Honored Royal Guard, that didn't explain why their answers didn't match each other. As of my answers, they are proved right, as they match perfectly with the witness that recognized me in the first place."

"Exactly, Fanli don't play smart with me again,"

The fake witnesses didn't enjoy their respite before they were stripped of it again.

"We just forget the details, I clearly remember what he said."

"People could forget the details"

"Yes, yes…" each of the fake witnesses spouted some nonsense desperately.

"Indeed Guoro, people could forget the details," Fanli shamelessly argued.

"Fanli, do you take me for a fool, this happened yesterday, yet they couldn't even get the time or the place right, some say it's evening, some the morning or even the night. Should we take these papers to Head Masters and let everyone know,"

"You said one was right, then at least we have a real witness, that should be enough to condemn this rascal." Fanli knew he couldn't argue, but he wasn't about to give up yet.

"Does anyone smelled a stinky odor again, or is it just me," Majid said ignoring Fanli murderous eyes after a bout of laughter resounded again.

"Fanli, that only proves he was there, but all these false testimonies prove someone has indeed incited them to slander him. Do you have anything more to say, Fanli."

Fanli could only ground his teeth as sat back on his chair, his eyes fixated on Majid, the latter knew that all was over, and now was the time to face the aftermaths. He didn't regret it though, he wouldn't go look for trouble, but when trouble looks for him, he would hold back anymore. So what, there's reincarnation, in a way this is but a f**king game.

"Hereby I rule you innocent," Guoro looked at a few disciples of his, "take these lowlifes away, cripple their meridians and lashes them 100 times."

"No no..."

"Mercy please, I just said what we saw,"

"Please forgive me, your honor..."

"Sir Maoji please forgive me, I was forced…"

Kids or adults, Majid has no sympathy for this kind of people, their selfishness was beyond salvation. The 100 hundred lashes aside, they volunteered to cripple his cultivation, that's just unforgivable. It was for the goodness in the world if these kinds of peoples didn't get powerful.

"Hall Master help," many of the witnesses throw themself at Fanli's legs begging for help.

"Go away you animals."

"There no loyalty between thieves, alright," Majid shook his head as he approached Guoro "Many thanks respected Royal Guard, the royal sect is different indeed, mighty and just," he bowed sincerely before he said, "your honor, people reap what they saw, but the real witness was forced due to circumstance. It's as you said, crippling his cultivation is a bit too far." It wasn't that he sympathized with the boy, let it up to his feelings, in addition to crippling his meridians, he would have lashed him personally. But in the end, he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Good kid, I missed this one, you made this one learn a lesson today. Fierce when cornered, and just when you prevailed." What a pity, if I only found him early, fate is sometimes cruel. "I like you kid, you can drop the long honorifics just call me Master or Guard Guoro"

"You overestimate me Master Guoro, thank you," Majid didn't stand on ceremony, he was tired of it as well, Guoro just laughed at the fast boy before he looked at his disciples, he adjusted the real witness punishment to 100 lashes.

Meanwhile, Majid got lost in his thoughts, he came to the same conclusion, it remains to find a backer. But joining a sect was unlikely now, his chance was already burned on this damn Divine Hammer, he can argue his way into the school maybe with Guoro's help, but that is just like walking unarmed into the lion's den.

"What are you still doing her pest, piss off," Fanli exploded, he saw Majid standing leisurely at his hall, he had already prepared some disciples to pursue him when he leaves the school. He was so eager to catch him, royals or whatnot, he won't sleep peacefully today unless he killed the boy.

Majid turned a deaf ear to Fanli and looked at Guoro, "Master Guoro can I take my token back, given the misunderstanding with the Hall Master, I can't join the Divine Hammer Sect."

"Misunderstanding!" each word out of this boy's mouths ticked Fanli off, "you can't, you already passed the tests and could only be accepted by my sect. This is the rules."

"Witch rules, your rules, I don't care about them. If not for the honored Royal Guard, my cultivation would have been crippled by now. Seeing as how you handle your sect's internal issues, I fear not only for myself but for all these candidates' feature."

His words somehow resonated with some candidates, and murmurs spread throughout the crowd.

"You, you…" but suddenly Fanli anger boiled off, and a sinister smile replaced it, "Cripple you, why do I need to. You already crippled yourself, I gave you a merciful punishment since you were already crippled, alas you didn't appreciate my kindness,"

Majid could only roll his eyes at this guy's thick skin, this guy must have tempered his skin to perfection. Like hell, the man was just trying to redeem himself now that Majid pointed out his shortcomings. Afterall recruitments are the vein that sustains a sect power if bad rumors circled around, it might ruin the sect's reputation and feature, unable to attract good talents. That aside, Majid could help frown, what do you mean I'm crippled, he looked at Fanli. The latter wasn't done yet as he continued passionately, "you have QI aura of Core Expert yet you're only at the 5th level, you already exhausted your potential. You won't be accepted anywhere you go, do you think you're the only one who thought of this, many smartasses tried before but all failed. That's why we have practice tests for, to weed off the rotten seeds." Usually, he wouldn't waste more than a few breaths on normal candidates, today he took his time explaining. He suffered great humiliation from this kid, how can he let this chance slip away.

"Well stupidity is a blessing sometimes, what are you still hanging onto, boy." The boy was disturbed but Fanli didn't see the utter despair he expected to see.

"Doesn't the commoners temper their body without meridians your honor," Majid didn't bother with Fanli, there was no reason to give him face anymore. He was indeed worried, even Guoro expression relayed his agreement with Fanli. He knew they weren't stupid enough to ignore this part, but he wanted a clarification while he's at it. Fanli wasn't offended at all, he volunteered to deliver the bad news, Guoro didn't want to be the one to do it either.

"You were born with a divine blessing, yet you degraded yourself into a lowly mortal, haha," the crowd also broke into laughers, the laughers were like music in Fanli's ears, he waited patiently before he continued, "do you know how much it takes for mortals to temper their bodies, no less than 100 years, as for you a 5th level cultivator, it shouldn't take you much, just 40 years or so, haha," the crowd roared again and seeing as the boy didn't break yet gave him more satisfaction instead, he would enjoy cutting his hope strings one by one until he saw the despair.

Majid let out a deep breath, it shouldn't take that much to temper the body based on his theories and experiments. Providing enough resources, it should take the same as using his meridians cultivation, so he wasn't worried about that. The other part was concerning though, he was considered a cripple, he wouldn't be accepted anywhere else. He wasn't in the mind to argue with Fanli, but seeing as the other was eager to give him some information, why not.

"Why does that matter, I can continue my cultivation while tempering my body along the way."

"Dream on, without a strong body you can't compress the root core unless you want to explode, haha,"

"That can't be true, how came the beast has cores on birth, my body can't be weaker than a newborn can it"

"So you were inspired by beasts, haha." Song Bi roared as found a chance for a comeback, "It suits you well, you're indeed lower than lowly mortals, haha," he was boiling since he was discarded into a corner by Guoro, he didn't let this opportunity to release some steam escape.

Fanli pated Song Bi shoulder laughing whole-heartedly. Each time Fanli laughed the crowd followed, Majid found that funny somehow, he knew they finally found a chance to appease Fanli, no one of them was eager to face an angry narrow-minded examiner.

"Well this lowly one is the same level as you Bi, and can wipe the floor with your ass, and crush you under my foot," Majid opened his eyes exaggeratedly in realization, "that makes you a bug heh," many stifled laughers escaped from the back rows of the crowd.

"You defeat me, what a joke, I just don't need to dirty my hands," now that he thought about it, the witness said that this Maoji faced against a Core Expert and got the upper hand, so he won't fall for his provocation.

"What, your eyes were in your ass before, weren't just a moment ago willing to dirty your hands. If you aren't capable just shut up, and cower to your corner before you shame your sect anymore,"

This time no one could stifle their laughter anymore, with the back rows as the spark, the whole crowd roared contagiously. Is what I said really than funny or is this Song bi that infamous.

"Calm down Song Bi, he's indeed stronger than you, he crippled himself to get that power after all. But it won't last long, in just a few years you would leave him in the dust," Song Bi nodded and backed off.

"That's more like it," Majid enjoyed any occasion to provoke the duo, he might not get another chance in the future. But he was surprised that Fanli was collected, unlike the fool he made of himself this whole day.

"I'm not one to bear a grudge little boy, let me explain this for you. The demanding part of the body in the Core Realm is the moment of breakthrough. Once the core is crystalized it won't pressure the body much, but of course, as the core grows it starts to pressure the body to grow stronger, and that's why the beasts have stronger bodies for the same level as humans, even when ignoring their core advantage. If you could break throw you can grow even stronger, unfortunately, you will never have the chance, haha."

Majid lamented inside, his plan of building a core might fail as well, but whatever, at least I'm stronger than my peers, I can even hold my ground a little bit against Core Experts. He wanted to make one of those novels' bets to make some money off this despicable man. But if this was really a common sense in the world of cultivation, he should instead keep a low key when he breaks it. Not publicize it to the world to see, more bad would find his way to him than good. But most importantly, how can he escape the death flag on his head now.