Unspoken Defense

"So, Yang Zhai, tell us if you have anything to say in your defense." Zihao De turned around to look at Yang Zhai and asked. 

Even though we need Yang Zhai, we can't let him do whatever he wants. And this is also a good opportunity to pressure him and get him under our control. We had been searching for an opportunity to control him, but he gave us this opportunity by himself. Even though he cares about the clan, he needs to be controlled: Elder Zihao De smiled and thought. 

Both Tai Qi and Zihao De had been trying to get Yang Zhai under control, they did not like his free behavior from the very start. He would disappear and appear whenever he wanted, he was now even lying too, and, not just that, he also did not care about his uncle. He needed to be controlled. Especially, when he was important to their plans.

"Elder, I did not do such a thing. He is lying. I also did not take any essence stones from him. In fact, I had a few things I needed to pick up, so I went to his house today, and the current situation occurred." Yang Zhai spoke with confidence.

"Hmm, do you have any proof?" Zihao De knew that Yang Zhai was lying, and that's why he asked for the evidence on the spot.

"How can I have proof of something like this?" 

"That's right that you can't have any proof related to something like this, but Wei Lo said that you took essence stones from him. I suspect that you would place them in your rented house, so there can only be one place where you can store them." Zihao De spoke. 

He had seen Yang Zhai take the essence stones from Zihao De, and store them in the storage bracelet, so Zihao De directly went for the evidence(essence stones) that he had seen for himself.

"Which place are you talking about, elder?" Yang Zhai pretended not to understand and inquired.

"Give me your bracelet, and also activate and open it." 

"Uh,"

"Are you not going to show me your bracelet, could it be that you really took essence stones from Wei Li?" Zihao De was trying to build pressure on Yang Zhai.

Elder Zihao De is not going easy on him, even though he knows that there are essence stones in the bracelet, he is pretending not to know: Han Ako thought after seeing what Zihao De was doing.

Zihao De, you are the same as always, not even going easy on a kid. You really are a strategist, you saw him store the essence stones in the bracelet, and yet, you are trying to pressure him: Elder Shu Ti shook his head. 

"But, elder, I really did not take essence stones from uncle Wei."

"If you did not, why are you hesitating from showing me your storage bracelet? Give it to me and I will see for myself."

"Okay…" Yang Zhai removed the bracelet and handed it to elder Zihao De after activating it.

"Good," Zihao De smiled and looked inside the bracelet. 

"Hmm," his expression changed after a few seconds.

"How can this be?" He muttered involuntarily and thought: How can this happen? I had clearly seen him store the essence stones in the storage bracelet, where did they go?

Others also noticed the change in his expression.

"What happened, Zihao De?" Shu Ti asked after seeing Zihao De's reaction.

"Uh, no, it's nothing." Zihao De was awakened from his daze by Shu Ti's voice. He noticed that his demeanor was not right and hurriedly returned to his normal self.

"Here, Yang Zhai," He handed the bracelet back to Yang Zhai with a calm expression.

"Elder, is something wrong with my storage bracelet?"

"No, it's completely fine. You don't have to worry about it. Also, I did not find any essence stones in your storage bracelet, so you can relax a little. But, don't feel at ease yet, I need to check your rented house as well just to be sure that you don't have them in your house." 

When Zihao De said this, Shut Ti's eyes narrowed.

I know Zihao De and also about what he is capable of, so there's no way that he would mistake Yang Zhai placing his essence stones in the storage bracelet, just what is going on? Where did the essence stones disappear? Or could it be that he was lying? No, why would he lie and ruin his own reputation in front of everyone, there's definitely something wrong here: Shu Ti thought.

Among the experienced, even a single word could hide many secrets and a lot of knowledge. 

"Yang Zhai, go sit there, I need to discuss something with Elder Zihao De." Shu Ti came to Yang Zhai and sent him away.

"Zihao De, tell me, what happened?" Shu Ti asked Zihao De after Yang Zhai went to the side.

"It's strange, I am sure Yang Zhai stored the essence stones in his storage bracelet, but now there are no essence stones in his storage bracelet." Zihao De glanced at Yang Zhai and said. He was puzzled from the moment he saw the storage bracelet.

"You also followed him here, so, there is no way that he emptied his storage bracelet while walking here. Could it be that he has another storage tool or something like that?" Shu Ti thought for a moment before saying.

"No, it can't be, I did not sense any other aura other than his storage bracelet and his own essence water's aura when he stored the essence stones." Zihao De had also thought of this, but had rejected the idea after thinking for a while.

"Could it be that he did not even store the essence stones and placed them somewhere else where you did not notice?"

"No, I am sure the essence stones had disappeared and had traveled towards the storage bracelet when Wei Li handed them to him."

Both of them were discussing, other elders were listening to the two of them.

On the other hand, Yang Zhai stood on the side looking at them, silently. He was smiling inwardly.

I had expected something like this to happen: Yang Zhai was looking at Zihao De and Shu Ti, he had his guess about what they were talking about.

When he took the essence stones from Wei Li, he had only activated the storage bracelet to fool Zihao De, in actuality, he was storing the essence stones in the Bloody Storage Ka. Yang Zhai knew that the third elder was always following him; therefore, he could not hide the essence stones in the storage bracelet, but he also needed the essence stones and could not give them up.

The advantage of the Bloody Storage Ka was that it would not produce any aura whenever it was activated: in fact, it worked so silently that even elder Zihao De was unable to notice when it activated. This was the reason Yang Zhai had always hidden the Bloody Storage ka as his trump card, even though it was just a storage type ka.

However, if he had stored the essence stones in the storage bracelet and was caught, the clan might have forced him to sign a pact that would have limited his freedom. And he would not make a mistake like this. 

"Let's go," Zihao De came to Yang Zhai and said.

"Okay,"

Zihao De and Yang Zhai left after that.

!*****!*****!