Chapter 67: Revealing the Truth

Once Madam Wang completely exposed Xie Yuan, Xie Miaoxuan put away what was in her hand.

She naturally knew what was inside.

There was no need to pull these items out and make them public under everyone's gaze. Although it would add another charge to Madam Wang's crimes, it was unnecessary.

It was enough to spill out the things the two of them had done in the past.

For someone as vicious and dark-hearted as Madam Wang to harbor desires for her father—a man as ethereal and immortal-like as Xie Qi—Madam Wang's affection, akin to a rat in a gutter, did not deserve to be known to the world.

She believed her father would also feel disgusted to know he was liked by such a venomous soul.

As for Madam Wang, since she had darkly loved her father for so many years, Xie Miaoxuan was certain she would not want this matter to be publicized to the world either.

After all, there are people who can commit any evil act while placing such love on a sacred altar, claiming it as their exclusive, obsessively devoted possession.

This kind of morbid and twisted romance was best buried deep in the dust.

Xie Yuan retorted, coughing violently, "Cough, cough, cough... Your words are completely baseless..."

After recovering from the agonizing pain of that kick to the chest, his eyes were as red as dripping blood, yet he still desperately denied it.

"This is sheer slander. We have been husband and wife for twenty years, and now that you have brought shame upon yourself, you want to drag me down to hell with you."

Madam Wang raised three fingers toward the surrounding crowd.

"Today, I swear by the lives of the entire Langya Wang clan! If every word of my ramblings is false, may my entire clan meet a violent end! And after I die, may I plunge into the eighteenth layer of hell and never be reincarnated!"

At this moment, she pressed her lips tightly together, straightened her back, and finally displayed the proud aloofness of an aristocratic daughter that she had suppressed for so many years.

A single glance had ruined her entire life.

It had also turned her into an unrecognizable monster.

She had transformed herself from a noble and pure aristocratic lady into a hateful person.

Living so miserably and furtively all these years, holding onto this love and wishing to prevent Xie Qi from growing close to any woman—which was why she ruined his reputation—she did not regret it even now.

She only hated herself for not being of the primary branch of the Langya Wang clan, and hated herself even more for her ordinary appearance.

Had it not been for this, perhaps she would have chosen a different path.

Xie Yuan, like a trapped beast, kept shouting "I didn't, I didn't," scolding Madam Wang and roaring frantically at the people present.

"Vile woman! Seeing that you have no hope of survival, you are recklessly dragging me down with you! Her words are untrustworthy, completely untrustworthy; it's all her fabrication. You have no evidence, I never did these things!"

Madam Wang smoothed her collar and looked at Xie Yuan as if gazing at garbage. "Ha, you want evidence? Since Qiong Shan was able to bury my letters to him in two separate places, do you really think you can escape?"

She looked at Qiong Shan, her eyes devoid of sorrow or joy.

Her heart had died long ago when she heard the news of Xie Qi's death.

The only thing that kept her stubbornly dragging out her existence was the desire to find out who Xie Qi had spawned this vile seed Xie Miaoxuan with!

To bring her to the capital and then destroy her.

Since her father was already dead, Xie Miaoxuan deserved to die all the more to accompany her father.

Covered in blood and filth, she began to laugh crazily.

"Just because I am plain-looking, in all these years the concubines I procured for you alone numbered nearly twenty. What husband and wife? When disaster strikes, we simply fly apart."

Qiong Shan looked at Madam Wang with a complex expression. Though she was plain-faced, she was meticulous, and when she spoke in gentle, soft tones, she possessed the delicate charm of a maiden from a modest family. Hadn't he, too, been captivated by that gentleness back then?

Everyone's gazes converged on Daoist Qiong Shan.

Qiong Shan gave a bitter smile. Madam Wang truly understood him—no, rather, she was exceptionally skilled at probing the human heart.

He was indeed cautious enough; naturally, he had kept the evidence of Xie Yuan plotting against Xie Qi.

The letters he produced this time were far more than just one.

There were as many as a dozen.

They detailed meticulously how Xie Yuan had manipulated him into putting on an act to cement Xie Qi's destiny as one doomed to bring misfortune to everyone around him.

And how that fate was broadcasted until the entire capital knew of it.

There were even records of monetary transactions between the two of them.

Seeing these items once more, Xie Miaoxuan still could not suppress the surge of grief and indignation welling up inside her.

Her nasal passages were flooded with a thick, sour ache.

Her throat tasted of bloody bitterness.

"You both are truly unworthy of being called eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law."

She cupped her hands in a solemn bow. "Respected elders and fellow villagers, Madam Wang used poison to ruin my father's reputation and destroy his career and official prospects. Xie Yuan was the mastermind behind this entire affair; not only did he instigate Madam Wang to commit such vicious acts, but years ago he also set a trap to brand my father's destiny as cursed. All of this stems from his jealousy!"

"My father lived an upright and honorable life, never imagining that the person posing as his own elder brother by his side was such a venomous serpent, harboring schemes waiting to entrap him and ruin his reputation completely."

"He could have become a virtuous official of his generation, bringing blessings to the common people! Instead, he encountered an elder brother and sister-in-law bent on driving him to his death, turning all his aspirations into illusions. Because of this, to save the life of her young son, my grandmother knelt and begged the clan leader and the Langya Wang clan at the time, only for her illness to worsen that very night and for her to die in terror."

"Xie Yuan and Madam Wang have remained carefree and unpunished for so many years after committing such evil deeds, while my father died an untimely death in the prime of his life due to repressed grief."

She whipped her head around.

"Respected clan elders, how should such heinous villains be judged?"

Xie Miaoxuan stared fixedly at Xie Mingde and the others in the crowd who had remained silent all along.

Xie Mingde gave Xie Miaoxuan a deep look. They had been summoned when Xie Yuan was on the verge of killing someone on the spot.

At the time, he had purposely refrained from stopping Xie Yuan from killing Madam Wang, figuring that once Madam Wang was dead, all the trouble would be resolved.

At worst, Xie Yuan would just be mocked for a few days.

Who could have imagined that in the blink of an eye, the situation would undergo such twists and turns that by the time he wanted to intervene, it was already too late.

He was not entirely unaware that there was something fishy about Xie Qi's case, but digging deeper into matters concerning someone with a jinxed destiny would harm the entire clan, so naturally, no deep investigation had been pursued.

Now, the claim that Xie Qi's fate was flawed had all been fabricated by Xie Yuan.

That Xie Miaoxuan had uncovered all this in such a short time filled him with both astonishment and shock.

Why was such a brilliant young lady not a son?

Had she been a young man, the Xie clan would have had no cause to worry about failing to rise.

Yet he forgot that back when Xie Qi was alive, he had also sighed that with such a son, the Xie clan would surely prosper—only to abandon Xie Qi the moment his reputation was tainted.

When all was said and done, he was merely a selfish person who wanted to reap the benefits without paying any price.

Xie Mingde felt as though his handsome beard was going to be plucked bare these past few days.

His mind raced with various entanglements and consequences.

After a long pause, he finally spoke, "Although Xie Qi has passed away, it is indeed time to give him a proper accounting. As for their punishment... Madam Wang shall be sent to the ancestral temple to be imprisoned for life, and Xie Yuan shall be stripped of his position as clan leader. Are you satisfied with this disposition?"