“Did John Doe hire paid Internet trolls too?”

“Ha ha, the paid Internet trolls came out so fast to prove their employer’s innocence!”

“You have a knack for underhanded attacks. Just admit it. You’re brazen enough to deny the truth!”

“Is John Doe a man of outstanding character? Who knows? Maybe he has been pretending to be a decent chap over the past two years. Master Qingshan must have cornered him, so John Doe sneaked up on him in desperation.”

“Oh, you’re still busy justifying John Doe’s wrongdoing? Shame on you!”

“Evidence? How could you say that? So many people were witnesses to the surprise attack. Even Master Qingshan called out John Doe’s name. How much evidence do you need?”

“John Doe wiped out a force openly and aboveboard merely because he had the upper hand. If I were sure of winning the battle with my superior strength, I would also go and exterminate a whole force in a big way. There will be a battle between him and Master Qingshan. What is his advantage? Does John Doe have any superiority over him?”

“That’s right. When John Doe occupies a dominant position, he plays honestly. Otherwise, he adopts sneak-attack tactics. Unfortunately, Master Qingshan is a guru. John Doe couldn’t defeat him even by launching a surprise attack!”

On the Wulin online forum, more than 30 brothers released many posts to support John Doe, but they were overwhelmed by cutting remarks from countless people.

No one could have foreseen this drastic change.

In a matter of days, Qingshan gained a large group of supporters.

This adverse situation irritated He Gaoming and the others even more.

In addition, Fang Qiu’s supporters remained silent and dared not to argue with the crowd. He Gaoming and others alone couldn’t save the situation. No matter what they said, their arguments would soon be drowned out by comments against them. So, all their efforts were in vain.

In the wine factory, these brothers were complaining.

“Shit! Brainless idiots!”

“Why don’t they use their brains before criticizing others?”

“I feel deeply wronged. Never had I imagined online Wulin trolls number as many as those in the ordinary world, and they’re even more ridiculous.”

“How can we continue to argue? These people won’t listen to us no matter how we explain.”

“It turns out that this method is useless.”

Due to this matter, the brothers even stopped cultivating. They all gathered in the wine factory and fretted over this matter.

Like them, all the major forces in Wulin also paid attention to this issue.

All the leaders of the Pear Garden, the four clans, the eight factions, and the sixteen sects voiced their doubts about this matter.

“John Doe launched a surprise attack on Qingshan?”

Yun Yangzi, who stayed in the Pear Garden with Master Numinous, was instantly stunned by the news.

“Do you believe that?”

Master Numinous asked with a smile.

“No.”

Yun Yangzi shook his head and added, “I’m sure John Doe is not that kind of man.”

“Let’s wait and see.”

Master Numinous broke out laughing, swung his arms, and left.

…

“Interesting.”

In the Diwu Great Family, Diwu Mingchuan also saw those negative comments about John Doe all over the Wulin online forum. Suddenly, he laughed and said, “After a long quiet period, Wulin is going to be interesting.”

“Not John Doe.”

Next to him, Diwu Qian, who was browsing the forum, shook her head with certainty and said, “He’s not that kind of person.”

“Well, this little guy is quite sly, but launching a sneak attack is not his style.”

Diwu Mingchuan nodded affirmatively.

“If it’s not him, who could it be?”

Diwu Qian asked.

“That’s why I said things are getting interesting in Wulin.”

Diwu Mingchuan narrowed his eyes, and his smile faded. No one knew what he was thinking about.

Besides them, the Qian family, the Zhan family, and the Xi family all felt it was not John Doe.

The Xi family possessed the largest information network in Wulin, so they investigated John Doe’s whereabouts in the first place. As it turned out, John Doe didn’t enter Qinghai Province at all. That was to say, the man in black was indeed not John Doe. Xi Fengling, the head of the Xi family, was very concerned with this news.

…

At his cultivation base in Beijiang, Fang Qiu, who had been meditating for four days, gradually woke up.

The second he opened his eyes, Fang Qiu looked at the time on his watch.

“The challenge is tomorrow!”

He mumbled.

He took out his mobile phone.

As soon as he turned on his phone, it never stopped ringing.

After he took the call from He Gaoming four days ago, Fang Qiu turned off his phone so he could prepare himself to be in the best state before the battle.

Therefore, he succeeded in meditating undisturbed.

Many messages flooded his phone as soon as he turned it on.

“So many?”

Seeing the notification of hundreds of messages coming in, Fang Qiu immediately frowned and quickly clicked to check them one by one. He found notifications of some missed calls, and the rest were a pile of text messages.

Fang Qiu finished reading all the text messages.

He had a fair idea of what had happened in Wulin these days.

Fang Qiu scrolled through these text messages.

Right after that, he logged into the forum.

After carefully reviewing the contents about him, Fang Qiu finally figured out the gist of the matter.

“Qingshan encountered a sneak attack?

“The man who launched a surprise attack on Qingshan had similar clothes and movements like me?”

“Who did this?”

After Fang Qiu learned about the whole thing, his face grew grave.

“Someone framed me deliberately.

“But what exactly was his purpose?”

Fang Qiu was confused.

He didn’t care much about maintaining his reputation and he had been keeping a low profile, so no one could use this as a threat against him.

“But what’s the benefit of ruining my reputation?

“Who is inciting trouble behind the scenes?

“Using me as the opportunity to start a row?”

The more Fang Qiu thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

Things were not that simple. Destroying his reputation shouldn’t be the only purpose of this person disguised as John Doe to attack the unprepared Qingshan.

At the thought of this…

Without hesitation, Fang Qiu logged into his forum account to release a new post!

“It’s Not Me!”

He sent out only these three words.

On the Wulin online forum, lots of people were keeping a close tab on John Doe. Thus, right after his post was published, it drew a great deal of attention.

Except for the title “It’s Not Me”, there were no other comments in the whole article.

Fang Qiu clarified this issue in this post.

He went offline at once.

Soon after…

On the Wulin online forum, the discussion immediately became increasingly heated.

“The person involved has finally come out.”

“Is this person really John Doe?”

“John Doe eventually stepped forward to clear his name.”

For a time, countless people ran over to watch.

However…

There were still varied opinions from the people.

“It’s hard to say whether it’s you or not. Neither side has any decisive evidence, so we can’t draw any conclusion!”

“John Doe has appeared. Next, it should be Qingshan’s turn to stand out and say something, shouldn’t it?”

“Let them confront each other with questions. Won’t the answer be obvious after that?”

The neutral parties were looking for the initiator of this dispute.

“Not you?”

“I’m amazed you have the cheek to emerge. Are you afraid to admit your sneak attack?”

“Er, listen. You’re a real shameless bastard. If it weren’t you, why did you appear to defend yourself only after so many days have passed?”

“Do you think we’ll believe you? Are we fools in your eyes?”

“Just admit it. It’s not a big deal.”

“Show us your evidence if you didn’t do it! Why should we believe anything you say?”

“Why did you leave so fast? If you want to prove your innocence, explain the matter to us. Where have you been these days? Who can prove it for you? You walked away without providing any evidence. Why should we believe you?”

“In my opinion, John Doe is scared. When everyone held him in contempt, he had to show up and offer an explanation. Unfortunately, his three-word reply is far from enough to make us believe him!”

Soon, all kinds of comments emerged.

Most of them still didn’t believe in John Doe.

After all, the sneak attack happened under everyone’s eyes, and the attacker did look like John Doe. The most important thing was that Qingshan called out John Doe’s name after repulsing the attacker, which was heard by many people.

In these regards…

John Doe’s clarification was not convincing at all!

…

In the wine factory…

These worried brothers also saw John Doe’s post in the first place.

Right away, He Gaoming called John Doe.

“Hello?”

In no time, he got through to him.

“Master,” He Gaoming immediately called out.

With concern, he continued, “You must have known what happened in the past few days. I feel Wulin is sliding into chaos. Be careful! Since someone could pretend to be you to launch a sneak attack on Qingshan, there may be other unexpected incidents. From the present situation, it seems that some people are secretly targeting you and blackening your name deliberately!”

“Yes, I know all of this.”

Fang Qiu nodded indifferently and said, “You guys can rest assured. I have no problem with it, and I didn’t do it. Tell the other brothers I’ll prove my innocence with strength in the battle. My victory over Qingshan will eventually kill the rumors.”

He Gaoming was a little lost for words.

Though he was John Doe’s disciple, he had his own ideas about the challenge.

In his eyes, his master was excellent, but he hadn’t achieved the same mighty strength as a guru. In contrast, Qingshan was a real guru.

He really couldn’t imagine why John Doe still believed he could defeat Qingshan, even at this extremely critical moment.

But Qingshan was a guru!

After hanging up the phone, He Gaoming repeated their conversation word for word to the other brothers, who finally breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Fang Qiu’s reassuring reply. Only He Gaoming was still worried.

John Doe spoke up for himself.

Many Wulin people began to waver between the two sides.

Was the person who ambushed Qingshan John Doe?

If not, who else could it be?

If that was the case, why did John Doe clarify it in such a feeble manner?

The identity of the ambusher became a mystery.

Sure!

While making guesses, everyone noted that tomorrow was the day of the battle between John Doe and Qingshan. Therefore, their attention shifted from the sneak attack to the decisive battle between the two of them.

That night, a great number of people set off from Quma County to the uninhabited area.

Right after posting the clarification to clear his name, Fang Qiu left the cultivation base, changed to John Doe’s identity, and rushed to the Qinghai uninhabited area.

The environment in the uninhabited area was extremely harsh, but these people would have to spend one night there. So, the people who rushed there for the battle chose to stay on its periphery, ready to enter the area after a peaceful night.

Meanwhile, Fang Qiu also came to the periphery of the uninhabited area!