By the time all seven cross-level matches had concluded, Xin Yi'an was about to announce the start of the second round of regular bouts, when Xue Jianming stepped forward once more and said in a ringing voice: "My apologies, Uncle Xin, but there is a matter I must raise before everyone, lest certain people, using filthy and despicable means, imagine they have gone unseen and unheard while playing us all like puppets."

"What is it you want to say?" Xin Yi'an forced down his patience and gave a cold snort. His opinion of Xue Jianming had sunk to rock bottom; were it not for the crowd watching, he would never have been this courteous.

"What I want to say is that our Snow Sword Sect has produced a traitor, and it is precisely because of this traitor that our Snow Sword Sect disciples lost a match they should never have lost." Xue Jianming raised his hand and pointed at one person: Leng Leng.

In an instant Leng Leng became the focus of the whole arena and was at a loss for a moment, but fortunately Wei Zhao stood at her side, and a single glance steadied her again. She retorted methodically: "First, I am not a traitor, and the Snow Sword Sect has never issued any notice declaring me one. Second, I have no idea what muddled nonsense you are going on about. What does the Snow Sword Sect disciples losing their match have to do with me?"

Xue Jianming gave a cold laugh at this and pointed at Luo Shasheng: "Very well, then why don't you explain to everyone how, given Luo Shasheng's strength and with the snow force already formed, Qiu Lingshan could defeat him in a single move?"

"Naturally because Lingshan had the better grasp of rhythm, and Luo Shasheng underestimated his opponent and grew careless. What is so strange about losing a match?" Leng Leng said dismissively.

"Quite right. That much was plain for all to see—a textbook case of the weak overcoming the strong. There is nothing to doubt," Xin Yi'an chimed in.

"I would not be so sure. Qiu Lingshan's command of rhythm was indeed ingenious, and Luo Shasheng did indeed underestimate his foe. But with only those two factors, the most she could have done was seize a single opening for a counterattack. Think for a moment, all of you—put yourselves in her place. If you had caught that opening for a counterattack, could you have turned defeat into victory in a single move?" Xue Jianming countered.

At his words the crowd was stunned for a moment, then one and all shook their heads. At the time Luo Shasheng had unleashed the snow force, and that powerful restraining effect was very real. With strength ebbing and swelling as it did, even if an opening appeared, to defeat him in a single move was still harder than climbing to heaven—after all, Qiu Lingshan was nothing more than a newcomer from the secular world who had only just succeeded in establishing her foundation.

Xin Yi'an frowned. Though he did not wish to agree, there was indeed a certain logic to Xue Jianming's words. Recalling that earlier scene of Qiu Lingshan turning defeat into victory, even he found it somewhat inconceivable.

"Therefore, I believe it necessary to ask again: why was Qiu Lingshan able to defeat Luo Shasheng in a single move under those circumstances?" Xue Jianming had no need of Leng Leng's answer, for he had his own. He pointed at Leng Leng at once and declared: "There is only one reason. Our Snow Sword Sect has produced a traitor—a traitor who laid out all our sect's cultivation methods for the enemy to see!"

Hearing this, Wei Zhao could not help but be amused. This fellow Xue Jianming truly had a thick hide. He had already become the Center's running dog, yet he could still stand before the crowd and declare with such solemnity that Leng Leng was a traitor. What a piece of work.

"What evidence do you have?" Xin Yi'an asked in a low voice. Matters having come this far, he had to respond; otherwise it would be a dereliction of duty on his part as the leading uncle. Yet he could not simply grant Xue Jianming his wish either—unless Xue Jianming could produce solid, tangible evidence. Otherwise it was nothing but baseless conjecture.

"The move with which Qiu Lingshan turned defeat into victory happened to strike the vital gate of the snow-kill form's true-qi circulation. That is precisely why she was able to achieve a one-strike kill. Surely you cannot claim this was all a lucky coincidence born of random flailing?" Xue Jianming sneered.

Each of the great sects cultivated different methods, and their ways of circulating true qi differed vastly as well. Every move and every form had its own distinct emphasis in the flow of true qi, and so the vital gate of each move was entirely different. Take the snow-kill form: when executing it, the throat was the crucial gate of true-qi circulation. Strike the throat hard, and even one weak in strength could fell an opponent in a single move with ease.

Xin Yi'an could only look to Wei Zhao, hoping Wei Zhao would step forward and refute it himself. After all, there was indeed a certain logic to Xue Jianming's argument; to claim that Qiu Lingshan's final move striking straight at Luo Shasheng's throat was purely coincidence would be too far-fetched.

"Now you surely have nothing left to say? If not for this traitor Leng Leng, if not for her revealing our Snow Sword Sect's cultivation methods and the vital gates of our moves, how could Qiu Lingshan, with her paltry strength, possibly have beaten Luo Shasheng? So the evidence is now ironclad: Leng Leng is a traitor, and it is thanks to this traitor that Qiu Lingshan was able to turn defeat into victory!" Xue Jianming pressed his advantage and drove the nail home.

At this, the way the crowd looked at Leng Leng and Qiu Lingshan turned somewhat hostile. Though this affair seemed to have no substantive connection to them, it affected the fairness of the trial tournament. If Xin Yi'an still harbored any intent to shield them, he would be courting public outrage.

"Hold on. It is true that the moves Lingshan used happened to counter your Snow Sword Sect. But to fling mud at Leng Leng on the strength of such one-sided, arbitrary words—is that not rather unseemly? Or is it that your intelligence, Xue Jianming, amounts to only this much, that you can only burrow down this single dead end and conceive of no other possibility?" Wei Zhao, however, was in no hurry; he smiled.

"What did you say!" Xue Jianming was taken aback, then flew into a rage: "The evidence is ironclad, and you still want to quibble?!"

"And you have the gall to call this ironclad evidence?" Wei Zhao snorted in contempt, then said at his leisure: "Since that is so, allow me to ask you something. In yesterday's early-foundation-stage group of matches, it was not only your Snow Sword Sect that was countered. Were not the other Righteous Qi Sect disciples and the like likewise countered utterly by people like us? How do you explain that? Surely you do not mean to claim that every ancient sect has produced a traitor who volunteered to reveal their cultivation methods to us in advance?"

"That..." Xue Jianming was instantly struck dumb, while the rest began to murmur among themselves. On reflection, yesterday's early-foundation-stage group of matches had been exactly as Wei Zhao said: whenever one of his people took the stage, no matter which sect or school the opponent belonged to, the opponent was countered miserably. That was plain for all to see.