Applied Immortality - Chapter 85: Presumption of Innocence? Presumption of Guilt?

All-immortal Realm, meeting room.

Chen Jingyun was weary, elbows on the table, and holding his face.  Being a made-up realm, the habit still brought some comfort, despite how the gesture lacked any sensory feedback.

Peak Nirvana cultivation kept him in top shape at any given time, which didn’t extend to an exhausted mind.

It’s been days since Argent Mountain shook all over—days spent without a wink of sleep. There were just too many things requiring his attention once the earthquake stopped. On top of it all, he had to get in touch with the reclusive Unfettered of the Immortal Alliance.

The few Eminence Stage’s Nirvana Realm cultivators in the meeting room gave him uneasy looks. Just like him, they took over the various sects’ management after the Unfettered went into hiding. They all knew about Argent Mountain’s events.

The meeting room had just one Unfettered, sitting on Chen Jingyun’s left: Elusive Palace’s Daoist Indisputable Pauli.

Chen Jingyun chuckled, “There’s no need to fret; everything is in order on Argent Mountain. I’ve contacted every Unfettered Senior as well. The purpose of this meeting isn’t this, so let’s begin.”

They nodded. Argent Mountain’s matters were secrets of the Immortal Alliance, not something they could interfere with. Only an Unfettered could address it.

Chen Jingyun lifted his head and cleared his throat. “I’m certain everyone has an idea regarding the following deliberation. We must hold accountability for every cultivator in the Immortal Alliance, and I hope to never again hold a meeting over this. We need to come up with a defining conclusion.”

“Sect Leader Chen, it’s not so simple.” A cultivator wearing the iconic Heavenly Spirit Range blue robe spoke.

The grizzled old man led Heavenly Spirit Range’s Ingenious Valley branch. Chen Jingyun asked, “Do you have a good idea, Valley Head?”

The Valley Head shook his head and said, “Hardly, just look at this.”

He handed over an image with a drop of blood inside, explaining, “It is a blood and tissue sample from Wang Qi when he received the Myriad Poison Needle.”

The Myriad Poison Needle was hollow. As it entered a subject, its various arts were triggered while collecting the subject’s blood and tissue in the process. The minute amount collected went under a Great Ascension cultivator’s radar. Zhen Chanzi had no clue. In addition, the needle had extra art placed on it to preserve the samples from degradation.

Per Immortal Alliance’s rules, the Myriad Poison Needle was to be resealed in the bamboo tube it came with and marked, meant for Immortal Alliance’s collection. With the needle being the culmination of plague and poison paths, it could never be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. It gave the perfect excuse and dispelled the population’s worry about its true purpose. It was why no one bothered to take it for themselves.

Even Su Junyu was in the dark about whether what he handed over contained Wang Qi’s blood.

Chen Jingyun asked, “The result?”

Valley Head’s finger touched the image, and it expanded. The blood faded to reveal dozens of twisting threads.

“This is the blood’s true composition.” Valley Head explained.

Wang Qi would know what that was. He’d be freaking out and shouting, “Chromosomes!” a term coined on Earth.

The other Heavenly Spirit Range Eminence cultivator nodded and said, “Yes, it’s human.”

The Valley Head swiped his finger over the image to erase most elements. “That is common to all humans, in no relation to cultivation aptitude. While this is the crucial part.”

The remaining chromosomes shifted from his action, from spirals into straight lines. They were double helixes.

Divine Province dubbed it blood essence.

Valley Head kept removing the common parts, the hidden redundancies, and pulled up 52 other blood essence pictures. “These are the same parts of the blood essence images of other cultivators. Twenty six of which came from that which the Immortal Alliance controls, while the other half belong to twenty-six ordinary cultivators of the Immortal Alliance that the All-immortal Mirror randomly selected.”

Valley Lord held his hands in prayer, and the 53 images overlapped, turning into a ball of light. “All-immortal Mirror automatically compares the samples.”

The results were soon in, and Chen Jingyun gazed upon the string of numbers. “This only tells me he’s still human.”

Valley Lord sighed. “Among the 26 known samples, 20 are ‘inhuman.’ The child’s innate constitution makes him stand out among average people, but not the top. Among these 26 people, he’s somewhere in the middle. Based on his constitution alone, we can’t determine what’s wrong with him.”

A cultivator in blue interjected, “I disagree.”

She was an elder with white hair, the Peak Lord of Heavenly Spirit Range’s other branch, Innate Peak. Unlike Ingenious Valley’s research into blood, Innate Peak delved further into the human body. She pulled up a table. “The tissue sample shows the youth is normal. His diet was primarily comprised of vegetarian food with a steady intake of meat, mostly hunted by himself. The ancient Spirit Body cultivation and chaotic type cultivation method all match up.”

Heavenly Spirit Range’s two major branches stuck to their own views. Pauli turned to Chen Jingyun and said, “It’s obvious you’re holding something back. Stop wasting our time and say it.”

Chen Jingyun nodded, taking out a report and making a duplicate appear before everyone with a wave. “A Myriad Arts Sect disciple made the report a few days ago. Wang Qi was doing an exploration trial when Argent Mountain shook.”

As they skimmed it, the people pulled faces: “Harmony in self, endurance in purpose? Grand Ripple Enigma and Waveform Essence?”

Chen Jingyun nodded. An Eminence said, “These are all signs of a supreme genius! Such perception makes him unrelated to those guys.”

Chen Jingyun shook his head. “Abnormal events must have something dark at their source. Doesn’t anyone think this genius is off?”

Someone gasped, “Now that you mention it, Transcendent, Supreme Lord, Daoist Proscribe, they all…”

The display of this youth surpassed the geniuses of old!

“If his origin is pure, I’d be elated to have such a genius in the Immortal Alliance, but he lived in the same village as Daoist Proscribe.”

Pauli was impatient. “I told you, Hai isn’t smart enough to pull this off. Is your head for decoration?”

Chen Jingyun refuted, “What if Daoist Hai had such a plan of letting Wang Qi enter the Immortal Alliance? We can’t overrule it.”

Chen Jingyun paused. “Furthermore, there is one man among the 26 who grasped the same resolve just as fast.

“In regards to everyone’s views, we can only conclude that Wang Qi is and isn’t suspicious. Every time we discuss him, we reach the same conclusion. I’m not about to waste my time on such a topic.

“The main topic in today’s meeting is: what attitude should we hold towards Wang Qi when recruiting disciples? Assume he’s guilty or innocent.”