In the duel arena, although Ling Zhu'er had the upper hand, it was impossible to tell the winner in a short while. Chen Yue turned to Macedonia and asked, "My lord, although Ling Zhu'er is being disrespectful to her superior, is there any possibility that she won't be punished?" What he was most worried about was naturally that Ling Zhu'er would be punished by the association for her offensive behavior. However, the battle had started before he arrived, and it was too late for him to stop it even if he wanted to. The only thing he could do was to find a way to get her out of trouble.
Macedonia's face became serious when he heard this. If it had been a moment ago, he would probably have answered without hesitation that it was impossible. Although Ling Zhu'er was a follower on his side, as an apostle, the first thing to maintain was the dignity of the apostles. Otherwise, without this unified stance, the rest of the followers would surely cause trouble, and where would the status and dignity of the apostles be placed? However, after having a certain understanding of Chen Yue's strength, Macedonia had already regarded him as an equal, so he hesitated in his speech.
"Well... it's very difficult. If it were just me, it would be very difficult to suppress this matter." He raised his chin forward and said, "Without the need for those three lords to appear, just that person alone is enough to suppress me."
"Hmm?" Chen Yue's expression changed, and he looked forward following Macedonia's movement. He happened to see an apostle with a tall and burly figure and a somewhat rough face standing out from the crowd like a crane among chickens. There was no one within two meters of him, which showed that his status was extremely noble, far exceeding that of ordinary apostles.
"Carlo, a fourth-order disciple and one of the cores of the neutral forces." Mo Ye knew that Chen Yue didn't know much about the association's personnel, and when he saw the puzzled look in his eyes, he immediately explained.
"It's just a simple duel, but it has actually bothered such a noble person." Chen Yue said coldly with his lips slightly curled.
"Chen Yue, do you mean there's something fishy about this?" Macedonia heard the sarcasm in Chen Yue's words and frowned slightly. "Come to think of it, there's really no need for him to appear on such an occasion." Although they were both disciples, Carlo's strength was much higher than Macedonia's, so he didn't have much confidence in his words.
"Lord Macedonia, do you think there's no one behind the scenes fanning the flames in this series of events?" Chen Yue sneered. If it was just speculation before, now that he saw a fourth-order disciple in the duel arena, Chen Yue was certain that the black hand behind the scenes was definitely the neutral forces.
Macedonia fell into deep thought and then nodded heavily.
"I also suspected it before, but I only thought of Deacon Piaro."
"If Deacon Piaro still cared about his face, he wouldn't have done this." Chen Yue thought of the scene at the Crescent Island training base in the past. Judging from the importance the deacon attached to his face, the possibility of the black hand behind the scenes being Piaro was very small.
"Smearing my reputation was just the first step. Unfortunately, Lord Vinia didn't remove my name from the list, which probably disappointed them." Chen Yue analyzed one by one with a cold smile. "Then they targeted my followers. To put it simply, although Lord Vinia could suppress the negative influence on me, with the pressure exerted by Deacon Piaro, she would definitely have a hard time dealing with it. At this time, if my followers were to cause a scandal of disrespecting their superiors again, it's conceivable that even Lord Vinia wouldn't be able to protect me."
"In that case, they would win." Chen Yue raised his head slightly, his eyes extremely sharp. "I really don't know why they went to so much trouble to get that quota."
Macedonia and Mo Ye were both a bit stunned, but after carefully connecting the dots, they found that Chen Yue's inference was completely reasonable.
"Ah, I understand." Mo Ye suddenly exclaimed, "Although I'm not familiar with Ling Zhu'er, I still know a little about her character. Chen Yue, your bad reputation is not a new thing, and there are always people talking about you without hesitation. Why was there nothing wrong before, but it only happened after the idea of removing your name failed? I think it must be that the guy's words were extremely insulting to you and even deliberately provoked Ling Zhu'er, which made her unable to bear it and launch a challenge without caring about seniority."
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"In that case, even if Ling Zhu'er endures this time, it doesn't mean she will endure next time. So it's no wonder she did this." Mo Ye finally said.
Chen Yue looked at him approvingly, knowing that the effect of these words coming from Mo Ye's mouth was definitely better than his own.
Macedonia's eyes changed again and again, and he had completely believed it.
"Unexpectedly, really unexpected." Macedonia smacked his lips, and his angry eyes passed through a hundred meters and landed on Carlo.
As if sensing this unmasked gaze, Carlo's shoulder moved and his head quickly turned around, locking onto Chen Yue and the other two standing on the high platform in the distance. His eyes passed over Mo Ye and Chen Yue's faces one by one without stopping at all. Ironically, although he deliberately dealt with Chen Yue, face to face, Carlo might not be able to recognize the unfamiliar Chen Yue. When his eyes moved to Macedonia's somewhat cold and big face, Carlo's eyes suddenly became sharp.
He stared at Macedonia without flinching for a moment. Even across a hundred meters, one could still feel the strong smell of gunpowder between the two sides.
Because of the gap in strength, Macedonia was the first to lose.
Carlo raised his eyebrows slightly and cast a disdainful look before turning his head without hesitation.
"Hiss." This last look completely angered Macedonia. His chest heaved rapidly several times and his eyes became cold.
"Mo Ye, you immediately go to Lord Vinia and tell her everything here. Ask her to come here. Hmph, Carlo wants to cut the Gordian knot, but it's not that easy."
A small follower wouldn't be taken seriously by many people. Among the people present, Carlo undoubtedly had the highest status. Once he made a decision, no one could disobey it. Even Vinia and the others wouldn't stand up for Ling Zhu'er. In that case, no matter what, her crime of disrespecting her superior would be established. Once she was expelled or killed, Chen Yue's implicated crime would be indefensible.
"No wonder there's no one else except Carlo. If you want to act arbitrarily, you have to ask me." Macedonia narrowed his eyes and said coldly.
Mo Ye was overjoyed when he heard this. With Macedonia's words, it showed that his intention to stand up had been decided. Today, it wouldn't be so easy for Carlo to convict Ling Zhu'er and Chen Yue. Without saying anything more, he quickly ran towards the Emerald Tower after coming down from the high platform.
When he went out, he just passed by the group of apostles who came to watch the fun.
They all rushed in, but didn't see the lively scene they had imagined. These apostles were surprised and naturally pulled the apostles who had arrived earlier nearby to ask. In the process of asking, the news of Chen Yue's return came out naturally.
The first reaction of the apostles being asked was disbelief, but under the other party's solemn guarantee, they became doubtful. Since there were doubts, they naturally had to hold others to discuss with each other. At first, it was only confined to a corner of the duel arena, but soon, most people were looking around and making a lot of noise. All of a sudden, the duel arena seemed to have become a vegetable market, full of messy sounds everywhere.
"What's going on?"
Listening to the continuous noisy sounds of "Chen Yue is like this" and "Chen Yue is like that" in his ears, Carlo finally couldn't bear it and asked a confidant.
"It seems that a guy named Chen Yue has returned." The confidant muttered, chewing the name in his mouth several times, and suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "It's Chen Yue."
"What are you panicking about?" Carlo sneered. "He's just an inconspicuous first-order apostle. If it weren't for this bet, he wouldn't be anything. Hmph, so what if he's back? I'll have you removed from the Apostle Association immediately."
His eyes moved to the duel arena and became gloomy.
"It's time to end this. You guys, go and kill this Ling Zhu'er on the spot."
A fierce look flashed across the confidant's face and he was about to agree when a deafening whistling sound suddenly came from his ear.
"What happened?" Looking around, he found that the apostles watching at the moment were no longer discussing the topic of Chen Yue. They were all staring fixedly at the duel arena, with an expression of disbelief on their faces.
Just when everyone was talking about it, the apostle seemed to be affected and his control over the green-spotted spider weakened. Immediately, Ling Zhu'er, who had been watching eagerly, seized the opportunity. She slashed six swords at the two hind legs of the green-spotted spider like lightning, all hitting the same position. The green-spotted spider let out a sad hiss and its two hind legs were crippled on the spot, greatly reducing its mobility.
"It seems that the compatibility of this familiar is not high." On the high platform, Chen Yue's eyes flashed.
Before the apostle could react, Ling Zhu'er's long-prepared offensive poured out like a landslide. In an instant, the winner was decided. After almost completely crippling the green-spotted spider's mobility, Ling Zhu'er nimbly jumped and dodged a ball of green mucus coming towards her. She quickly moved her feet and slid to the underside of the green-spotted spider like lightning. The long sword carried an indomitable momentum and stabbed straight into the heart of this familiar.
The next moment, a cold shout suddenly rang out.
"How dare you!"