Chapter 2383 A Battle of Words

The elder beside Elder Long couldn’t hold back a laugh. Elder Long glared at him.

“My apologies.” That elder belonged to the Long family and hastily apologized. Although the others also felt it was funny, they had greater restraint.

“Long Chen, this is the joint hearing hall, and you are facing the overseer. You must show the appropriate respect. The Elders of the four great families are present to judge this matter, so you don’t need to worry. We will definitely not falsely accuse an innocent person. But you must follow the proceedings,” said Elder Long.

He himself had almost laughed. It was his first time hearing someone talk to the overseer in such a manner.

The overseer was ashen, with his teeth about to shatter from how hard he was clenching them. Long Chen wasn’t the slightest bit afraid of him. How was he supposed to interrogate him?

“Alright, since Elder Long has said this, I’ll accept your investigation. But I want to make things clear. The eighth legion and I have not done anything wrong, so you have to show us the appropriate respect as well. Don’t give me this crap about kneeling. I’ve seen my share of blood, and I’m not afraid. If you want respect, you have to treat us with respect as well. Don’t look at me with your nose and try threatening me,” said Long Chen.

The overseer’s face was twitching. In all his life, he had never been insulted like this. He wanted to leave, but then he would just be replaced by another overseer. But then wouldn’t he be known as a laughingstock who had been run out by Long Chen?

He took a deep breath and suppressed his rage. “The third legion’s commander, Ye Lingfeng, has accused you of deliberately harming him. What do you have to say about that?”

“I didn’t.”

“Then why did you immediately leave after attacking the camp?” demanded the overseer.

“It was our strategy. You wouldn’t understand,” said Long Chen.

“Nonsense! You clearly saw Ye Lingfeng coming to assist you and wanted to harm them!” shouted the overseer.

Long Chen furiously cursed, “You really must have an illness! How do you know that they came to assist us? How do you know that we harmed them? Since you’re so knowledgeable about everything, why not just directly say that we’re guilty? Aren’t you supposed to be neutral?”

“Long Chen, pay attention to your tone!” barked Elder Long. But from inside his sleeve, he gave him a thumbs-up.

“Elder Long, has this fellow been bought by Ye Lingfeng? Or is he a relative of his? Why is he always on his side?” demanded Long Chen. Seeing the expressions of the Elders twitch slightly, he exclaimed, “Is it true?”

“Cough, Elder Ye Shan is a member of the Ye family, but he is well known for being an upright person who does not allow anything to affect his judgments. Don’t get any crazy ideas, Long Chen,” said Elder Long.

Long Chen’s jaw dropped. He looked at the pockmarked elder.

“Overseer, is this your normal behavior? I remember that you always asked for the entire sequence of events before making judgments. Why are things so messy today? If this continues, we will have no choice but to put a halt to this and move things up to the sage,” said the white-haired elder who had previously spoken.

The overseer’s expression changed. It seemed he was rather afraid of the white-haired elder’s status.

“My apologies. I am too emotional due to the meaningless sacrifices of thousands of Heavenly Dragon warriors. I was anxious to get to the bottom of things. Let me continue,” said the overseer.

Elder Long suddenly said, “Elder Ye, to use spiritual transmissions at this time is a bit unsuitable, don’t you think?”

Elder Long’s gaze was locked onto Ye Yaochen. It was forbidden to send spiritual messages in this room. That was in order to keep things as just as possible. The runes on their platforms could easily sense such a thing.

Ye Yaochen had forgotten that fact in his panic. He turned red. “I was merely telling the overseer to calm down. I was used to using spiritual transmissions, so my apologies.”

“I can let it off this time, but if it occurs a second time, this hearing is over,” said the white-haired elder coldly.

This white-haired elder seemed to possess great authority even within this room of Elders.

The overseer nodded. After this warning, he became much calmer. He switched targets. “Shen Chengfeng, how did you come up with the strategy for the eighth legion to take back your old camp?”

Shen Chengfeng said, “The strategy was made by Long Chen. He did not allow us to participate in the specifics.”

The overseer’s expression sank. “You are the commander. How can you not know the strategy in advance? Are you not neglecting your duty?”

“Long Chen was sent to reinforce us, and he was given absolute authority over commanding us. Even I can only listen to his orders,” said Shen Chengfeng. Perhaps he had been affected by Long Chen, but there was some anger in his voice. Did they view him as a softer target after failing to intimidate Long Chen?

“That is correct. Long Chen was sent by us. It was the order of the Deputy Elder, and the Lord Venerate was informed of it. If you have any questions about it, you can ask the Lord Venerate,” added Elder Long.

The overseer didn’t dare to continue on that topic with the mention of the Lord Venerate. He continued to question Shen Chengfeng. “Why did you immediately retreat after entering your camp? Why not activate your formation to handle the demonic beasts? Having entered your camp, you could have stood guard over one region and slowly reclaimed the rest. Instead, you instantly vanished after entering. Was that not to con Ye Lingfeng and the others?”

Shen Chengfeng shook his head. “I am not clear on that. I only listened to Long Chen’s orders. Long Chen did not allow us to learn his plans, so I had to respect his orders.”

Shen Chengfeng was too lazy to come up with anything. He simply pushed them to Long Chen. If they wanted answers, they could go pester him.

The overseer helplessly turned to Long Chen. “How do you explain it?”

“Explain what? You aren’t a strategist, so you won’t understand anyway.” Long Chen shrugged.

“Long Chen, you must answer my questions here.” The overseer’s suppressed anger flared up once more.

“Fine, since you are forcing me. After entering the camp, I found that the demonic beasts had laid a trap for us. A large mass of demonic beasts were hiding in the surroundings. If we had done as you said and hunkered down, over a thousand of us would have died, even if we did manage to reclaim the camp. That victory would have come at too great of a cost, so I chose to cut our losses and leave to rethink our strategy. We wished to make the greatest gains with the smallest price, understand? Any other questions?” asked Long Chen.

“Then why did you shoot an arrow in Ye Lingfeng’s direction before leaving?” demanded the overseer.

“Because we were kind and I decided to warn him that it was a trap. There were too many demonic beasts, so he had to run. Is there a problem with that?”

“Then why did those demonic beasts become enraged after the arrow’s explosion and start attacking Ye Lingfeng?”

“You have to ask those demonic beasts. I’m not sure either. I was testing some new methods to handle demonic beasts, and I’m still in the experimental stage. But my goal has always been to kill as many demonic beasts for the divine families as possible. Any more questions?”

The overseer’s anger was starting to grow out of control. Just who was interrogating who? “Let me ask you-”

“First, let me ask you this: what are you doing? This is clearly a matter between two legions, so why are you only asking us instead of them?” interrupted Long Chen.

“They had so many of their members die. Why would we interrogate them?!”

“Why does that sound so laughable? Because more of your people died, can you escape any responsibility? If you want to make things clear, you should call over everyone present at that time. We can make things clear while facing each other,” said Long Chen.

“This suggestion is good,” said Elder Long suddenly.

The white-haired elder nodded. “If we want to get to the root of things, both sides must be present. Just a one-sided story is biased.”

The overseer had no choice but to give the order. “Have Ye Lingfeng and the others come here.”

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