Versatile Mage (Web Novel)
chapter-1153

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

“Xinxia?” A twisted grin slowly surfaced on Mo Fan’s face.

The Parthenon Temple, that goddamned Parthenon Temple, could they do something even more ridiculous!?

“Mo Fan, calm down first,” Tangyue said hastily.

The three could sense Mo Fan’s demon blood being awakened for a second. The thing they worried about the most almost happened!

“There’s no point of calming down here. The Parthenon Temple is asking for it. I wouldn’t mind demolishing their temple and razing their mountain to the ground!” Mo Fan said coldly.

“Just listen until we finish explaining it,” Tang Zhong said.

“What else do you have to explain? Besides, are you three out of your minds too? Salan is Salan, Xinxia is Xinxia; there’s no way they are the same person! I didn’t think the Parthenon Temple would come up with such a ridiculous accusation for the sake of their election!” Mo Fan said.

Mo Fan had already felt that something was not right when Xinxia was promoted to a Saintess so easily. He was wondering if someone was using her as a pawn.

As he thought, as the date of the election approached, the Candidates were taken out one by one, and it was Xinxia’s turn now…

Did the Parthenon Temple seriously fail to find a better excuse to disqualify Xinxia from the election? Did they seriously have to come up with such a ridiculous accusation? The truth was quite obvious, hence Mo Fan was unwilling to listen any further.

He would go to Greece at once and bring Xinxia back. If the maniacs of the Parthenon Temple dared to stop him, he would not show any mercy!

“Is she alright?” Mo Fan asked.

“She’s imprisoned in the Saintess’ Hall in the Hall of the Goddess. She’s fine for now, but the judges have started to vote whether if she’s guilty,” Tang Zhong said.

“I’ll leave right now!” Mo Fan turned around and headed for the exit, but Leng Qing immediately stepped in front of him.

“Listen to what we have to say before you make your decision. We won’t stop you, since someone you care the most is involved, but I do hope that you can understand the situation first, because everything that happened is very unfavorable for Xinxia! If you can’t prove Xinxia’s innocence and try to bring Xinxia away with force, you will be going against the Parthenon Temple and the Holy Judgment Court! That’s pretty serious. Even if you use the Demon Element, you won’t be able to rescue Xinxia!” Leng Qing said to Mo Fan in a serious voice.

“Fine, I’ll listen,” Mo Fan sat down.

He was interested in seeing what ridiculous evidence did Parthenon Temple came up with.

This was absurd! Xinxia was Salan?

—

“First of all, you need to know why Xinxia was arrested. They accused her of killing the Saintess Panijia, and Xinxia admitted it too,” Leng Qing said.

“I won’t be surprised that someone was framed in the competition between the Saintesses. It’s normal if Xinxia was forced to admit it,” Mo Fan replied.

“Let’s assume Xinxia is Salan. Panijia asked Xinxia to meet her alone in the Saintess’ Hall. Saintess Panijia had evidence to prove that Xinxia was Salan, so she was planning to confront Xinxia, but Xinxia killed her. However, Panijia was being extra careful. As soon as Xinxia killed Panijia, she was surrounded by people in the Saintess’ Hall. No one witnessed the murder, but the two of them were the only people in the Saintess’ Hall, and Panijia’s heart was found beside Xinxia’s wheelchair, while her hands were covered in Panijia’s blood. Panijia still had her last breath when the people came in, and they saw her pointing at Xinxia before she fell,” Leng Qing said.

Mo Fan frowned.

Based on Leng Qing’s description, there were quite a lot of witnesses to the incident, and Panijia had only died moments before. From a normal person’s perspective, Xinxia was clearly the murderer, yet how did the culprit do it? How did the culprit force Xinxia to kill Panijia?

“Mind control, if Xinxia’s mind was being controlled, that explains why she did it,” Mo Fan rebuked.

“A master of the Psychic Element personally checked if Xinxia was being controlled, but the answer is no. The trace of a person’s mind being controlled will stay in the victim’s mind for at least seventy-two hours. If Xinxia really was being controlled, we should be able to find the Psychic Trace in Xinxia’s mind, but the result is negative. Xinxia was not controlled,” Leng Qing said.

“Was that master of Psychic Element reliable?” Mo Fan asked.

“He’s Pang Lai’s good friend, one of the best Psychic Mages of our country. He wouldn’t set Xinxia up, and it was only a coincidence that he was there. The Parthenon Temple initially wanted to let their Psychic Mage do it, but Fang Yunya was worried that Xinxia had been set up in the competition between the Saintesses. He volunteered to do the job, but in the end, he did not find any Psychic Trace in Xinxia’s Spiritual World,” Leng Qing said.

“There must be something we’ve missed,” Mo Fan said.

“Possibly, but let’s put that aside, it’s only the fuse to the whole incident. Whether or not Xinxia murdered the Saintess isn’t our concern here.”

A Saintess had been murdered…

An incident like that was surely going to shock the world, yet it was not even the priority compared to the thing they were about to discuss!

“Let’s talk about the accusation that Xinxia is Salan, Tangyue, you first,” Leng Qing said.

Tangyue nodded. Even though she was reluctant to spill the beans, she had no choice but to do so.

“Mo Fan, aren’t you curious why I was a teacher at Bo City?” Tangyue said.

Mo Fan nodded. Mo Fan had always wondered about it, but he later assumed Tangyue was sent to Bo City to track down the Black Vatican as a probationary member of the Enforcement Union.

“Are you thinking that Xinxia is too young to be Salan? The Calamity of Bo City was a conspiracy for over ten years. Xinxia was only around seven back then. There’s no way she was behind it,” Tangyue said.

“Obviously,” Mo Fan said.

“We’ve learned new information about Salan recently. Salan is only a nickname, there’s actually the first Salan, second Salan, and third Salan. Every Salan will choose a successor after they have inherited the name…” Tangyue said.

“I’m aware of that…”

“Therefore, let’s assume Xinxia is Salan. She was only a successor back then, not the real Salan. The members of the Black Vatican in Bo City were under the order of the previous Salan,” Tangyue said.

“But why is Xinxia a suspect?” Mo Fan said.

“You know how difficult it is for the members of the Black Vatican to verify the identity of their superiors. Even the Gray Priests, Black Clergies, and Blue Deacons have never seen the true face of the Red Cardinals, nor would they know who they were. In order to prove to the members who the Red Cardinals are, they refine Cardinal Blood Stones when someone becomes a Red Cardinal, or is chosen as a successor.

“These Cardinal Blood Stones are the only way to verify a Red Cardinal’s identity. The Cardinal Blood Stones split in two when they are refined. One is held by the Supreme Pontiff, and the other is given to Salan. When a Red Cardinal wants to prove their identity to the members, they only need to put a drop of blood on the Cardinal Blood Stone. If the Cardinal Blood Stone accepts the blood, it then proves the person is their Red Cardinal, Salan.”

Mo Fan listened carefully. He had heard about the Cardinal Blood Stone before, but he was unsure how it actually worked.

“We were just like you, we didn’t believe Xinxia is Salan, but to our surprise, the Cardinal Blood Stone accepted Xinxia’s blood,” Tang Zhong said.

“Is the Cardinal Blood Stone reliable?” Mo Fan asked.

Lingling, who had been silent until now, spoke up, “The Cardinal Blood Stone is real. There are only two pieces of Cardinal Blood Stones that can prove Salan’s identity. One is in Salan’s hands, and the other is currently in the Holy Judgment Court’s hands when they acquired it from the Black Vatican’s Supreme Pontiff. Grandpa hadn’t retired back then, and he was the person that appraised the Cardinal blood Stone. It’s made of the same material as the Stone of Guilt. It’s impossible to replicate, or modify after it is refined, so the Cardinal Blood Stone that was used to verify Salan’s identity was real.”

Mo Fan fell silent.

According to Lingling, Old Bao was once an authority of the Holy Judgment Court. There was no way he would set Xinxia up either, meaning that the Cardinal Blood Stone was the only way to prove Salan’s identity. The problem was, why would it accept Xinxia’s blood?

“It’s a piece of solid evidence, we can’t overturn it,” Tang Zhong said.

“Let’s not worry about the evidence for now. Xinxia has grown up together with me, how could she possibly manage the members as Salan? Besides, aren’t you familiar with Xinxia’s personality, she’s the least possible person to be Salan,” Mo Fan said.

“There’s something you aren’t aware of yet…” Leng Qing said.

“What is it?” Mo Fan asked.

“I believe once you learned it, you will have to admit that Xinxia is actually Salan,” Leng Qing lowered her voice.

“Just say it. Either way, I will never believe she’s Salan,” Mo Fan said firmly.

“Mo Fan, did you remember the Black Totem Snake sense an extremely dangerous aura in Hangzhou City? I told you that the big guy wasn’t afraid of you, but the person standing behind you. It was Xinxia,” Tangyue said.

Mo Fan stayed quiet. Tangyue did mention that before.

“We speculated that there must be something inside Xinxia’s body that the Black Totem Snake was scared of. The truth is, it might be another soul inside Xinxia’s body.”

“Another soul?” Mo Fan was confused.

“Xinxia is innocent. The Xinxia you know isn’t Salan, but there’s another soul in her body. It was also the reason why her body is weak and her legs are feeble. Her body is struggling to bear the heavy burden of having two souls in it.”

“And the other soul… is Salan!”

Mo Fan suddenly felt his brain buzzing, as if it was about to explode!

“How is that possible? That’s bullshit!” Mo Fan snapped.

“Mo Fan, calm down, I’ll tell you something else too.

“The reason why it’s impossible to have a traitor in the Enforcement Union is because every member has to swear an oath to the Tree of Souls. The people that broke the oath would be rejected the next time they visit the Tree of Souls… but as a matter of fact, there’s actually a member of the Black Vatican in the Enforcement Union. We weren’t able to figure out how they did it, until Han Ji came and told us something about the Amnesia Bug that the Black Vatican used at the Ancient Capital. I finally came to a realization,” Tang Zhong told him.