‘ Take them away!' Deputy Commander Chen barked, ordering his men to take away the villagers.

He then turned to Ana and sneered maliciously.

‘ What do you have to say for yourself now?’

‘ I should not have trusted you, Commander. I thought you were above this level.' Ana ignored him, looking right past him and stared straight at Marcia.

She shook her head with disappointment. It was difficult to swallow that Marcia would be fooled into thinking of her as a murderer.

Marcia felt a tug at her heart upon hearing Ana's admonishments. The look in her eyes also made her feel a twinge of guilt, as if she was the one

who had done something wrong.

‘ Commander, we have solid proof now. Let's have Ana publicly executed to be made an example of!’ Deputy Commander Chen turned to Marcia and suggested.

‘ I need to think about how to deal with Ana first...' Marcia murmured, but then Eva interrupted her. She stepped up and saluted, saying,

‘ Commander, if you do not order the execution of Ana this instant, what would the troops think? That committing such crimes will be met with tolerance?’

‘ Please, Commander. Have Ana executed!’ The spirit manipulators from the other squads all suggested to Marcia. Very soon all troops, instigated by Eva, seconded this suggestion and shouted for her immediate execution.

At this moment, a commotion broke out from the soldiers who were surrounding the camp. They then parted the formation to make a way for someone.

A powerful beast emerged, looking at these soldiers ferociously. It was followed by a petite woman in an old cloak, walking briskly towards the center. Beside them was the same attractive women, who followed Ana previously by Marcia's order.

The other troops present were very shocked at the sight of this war beast, because just like a king of all beasts, it looked different from normal ones of its kind typically found in these parts. It had a very unique scent, and forged ahead with the vigor and vitality of the lion.

‘ Ananta! Su!’ Ana shouted in surprise, her mouth agape at the sight of her friends.

What an unexpected turn of events!

‘ Ms. Frank!’ Su shouted as she leaped off Ananta and then rushed to her.

Ananta followed right after her.

‘ Didn't I tell you to leave here immediately?’ Ana frowned, seeing Su rushing to her.

‘ I waited for a whole night but you didn't come, so I could sense that something must have happened to you. I insisted that Ananta bring me back. And I wanted to help you and then I met this women, who told me she will help me. I could never leave you alone to face danger,’ said Su innocently and earnestly.

Ana immediately recognised the woman and immediately turned to look at Marcia, who calmly looked at Su.

‘ May I ask who you are?' Marcia asked.

‘ Ma'am, Ms. Frank killed someone because of me. If you must arrest someone, please arrest me instead of her,' said Su, coming close to Marcia.

‘ Because of you?' Marcia asked again.

‘ Some soldiers from your military camp killed my grandpa and....and, tried to force themselves on me. Therefore, Ms. Frank killed them to save me,’ Su said, her eyes filling with tears.

At this moment, Eva and Deputy Commander Chen were gobsmacked to hear what she said, because they had never expected the victim in question to come to Ana's defense.

Deputy Commander Chen had already gone to the village before, wanting to find this girl whose grandfather had been killed and whom Matthew had tried to rape.

He had planned to force her to frame Ana, but when he heard that Su had already left the village, he instead gathered the other villagers and forced them with threats so that they would agree to frame Ana.

It never occurred to him that Su would come back.

‘ Commander, don't believe what she said so easily. It seems to me that they are very familiar with one another, so perhaps she's just pretending to be that girl in order to save Ana!' Deputy Commander Chen hurriedly said, shifting nervously where he stood.

‘ I know you wouldn't believe me, so I brought this. This is what was dropped by the man who tried to rape me!’ Su said defiantly, taking out a token from her cape with the word ‘ one’ on it.

Everyone there, including Ana, gasped in surprise.

Eva and Deputy Commander Chen turned pale as soon as they saw the token, because only spirit manipulators at the fifth grade of the Mortal Stage in the northeast military camp were qualified to wear it.

The word ‘ one’ on it represented the squad of the spirit it belonged to.

The token must have fallen accidentally when Matthew was restraining Su! Luckily, she had found it and kept it with her as she was in the process of tidying up the room before she left the village.

‘ Captain Eva, can you explain to me why the token of your first squad is in the hands of this girl?' Marcia looked at Eva calmly.

‘ Em...’ Eva was in a tight spot. Whatever she said, she wouldn't be able to get herself out of this mess easily.

‘ Deputy Commander Chen, how on earth did you look into this? I remember you told me that the girl had already left the village, didn't you?’ Marcia interrogated him.

‘ Commander, she couldn't prove herself to be the girl even with the token...' Deputy Commander Chen now looked really anxious, and regretted with all his heart that he had let Eva sway him.

He would still try to defend himself as best as he could, however.

‘ Guards, go bring me those villagers.’ Marcia commanded, her eyes sharp and angry.

Deputy Commander Chen grew even more terrified when he heard this. Perhaps, Marcia was suspecting that he forced those villagers to frame Ana!

Immediately, those villagers who testified that Ana was the murderer were brought back in, and they were very shocked to see Su.

‘ They are all from our village!' Su recognised that these villagers had been part of her neighborhood, but they all looked very strange and surprised.

Marcia turned to those villagers after hearing what Su said and demanded,

‘ Do you know this girl?’ Those villagers looked at each other and didn't dare speak, and they couldn't help but nervously stare at Deputy Commander Chen, clearly terrified that if they said something wrong, they would put themselves in danger.

Their nervous looks towards Deputy Commander Chen confirmed Marcia's suspicions.

Immediately, she said, ‘ Don't be afraid, just tell me the whole truth. No one will do anything to you. I will make sure of it. I am the Commander of the military camp. I can assure you that you can leave here safe and sound.’

Those villagers hesitated when they heard her, and one of them kneeled hurriedly and pleaded,

‘ Commander, please forgive us! We did not lie deliberately. Someone threatened us with violence if we refused to accuse Ana of murder!’

The rest of them kneeled following

him.

Hearing that, Deputy Commander Chen turned pale and broke out in a cold sweat.

‘ Then who threatened you?’ Marcia asked sharply.

All the villagers looked at Deputy Commander Chen.

‘ Deputy Commander Chen, do you have anything to explain?' Marcia had already suspected why Ana would be set up.

‘ Commander, don't believe these unruly villagers, they must have consulted with Ana and the girl coming out of nowhere to set me up together!’ Deputy Commander Chen was now very flustered, babbling senselessly.

‘ Then can you tell me why they would want to set you up?' They have nothing to do with you!’ Marcia questioned him sharply.

Deputy Commander Chen was speechless. He had no idea how to talk himself out of this one.

‘ Su, do you remember the face of the man who killed your grandpa?’ Marcia turned to Su, asking gently.

‘ I do,’ said Su nodding.

‘ Guards, bring Matthew to me!’ Marcia commanded.

Eva and Deputy Commander Chen looked at each other, anxious.Before long, Matthew was carried there with almost half of his body paralyzed, but when he saw Ana still alive and Su standing next to Marcia, his face immediately drained of all its blood.

He had thought Ana was surely dead, but apparently, the situation now was not what he had anticipated.

‘ Yes! Him! He is the murderer who killed my grandpa!’ Su shouted, pointing at him.

Her distressed face was beet red and her eyes streamed with tears.

‘ She is the one who killed your grandpa, not me', said Matthew bluntly pointing at Ana.

‘ Matthew, is this the very girl that you said was raped by Ana?' Marcia asked sneeringly after hearing all this.

Unable to respond, Matthew looked stunned and could not help looking at Eva and Deputy Commander Chen.

But now Eva and Deputy Commander Chen became even more anxious. They had asserted that for sure Su came out of nowhere, but Matthew admitted that Su was the victim. Their stories were obviously contradictory and full of holes.

Marcia's eyes swept over them, sending chills down their spines.

'Commander, I am sure that this bitch must have been coerced by Ana! Otherwise, she would have never chosen to testify against me. She is committing perjury now, and you must not listen to her slanderous words,' Matthew said, gnashing his teeth in great anger.

He couldn't help but cast a resentful look at Su. His fingers fiddled with each other, a sign that he was extremely anxious at this moment. He was terrified that Marcia would find out the truth.

‘ Fine. Then how do you explain this token?’ At the moment, Marcia took the token from Su's hand and threw it in front of Matthew.

‘ Well, about that... I, uh... I must have accidentally dropped it when I tried to stop Ana's evil deeds! As we all know, Ana is a ruthless killer with great strength. Therefore, if I want to do my best to resist her attack, I definitely have no spare time to care about whether my token has fallen onto the ground or not!’ Matthew said, a look of surprise and recognition flashing across his face.

‘ You mean that you have dropped the token due to your carelessness? That is really a ‘ perfect excuse', wouldn't you say? Do you think I'm stupid, Matthew? Don't you think your excuse is so ridiculous and untenable? Since the whole thing has already come to light, I am really surprised that you still dare to lie through your teeth to me!' Marcia shouted, staring down at him in rage.

Matthew trembled with fear.

‘ And as for the two of you...’ Marcia also glared at Eva and Deputy Commander Chen behind him.

‘ Deputy Commander Chen, it never occurred to me that you would be so willing to cover Matthew's crimes and frame Ana. It is no wonder that I saw you and Matthew whispering in private before. Matthew must have given you some benefits so that you would act in his favor! How despicable you are! You are really a disgrace to the army!’ Eva said accusingly, immediately pointing at Deputy Commander Chen.

At this point, she realised that her own corruption would be exposed if she didn't try to cover her tracks.

In order to preserve her own fame and even life, she tried to hide and divert her participation in the evil scheme.

At this critical moment, she knew clearly that the most important thing was to protect herself. Everyone else could go to hell.

Eva's words immediately caused an uproar among all soldiers present on the scene. No one had expected the real situation to be like this.

‘ Captain Eva, how can you...' At the moment, Deputy Commander Chen was still lost in his own thought, feeling extremely anxious about the fact that their evil deeds had been discovered by Marcia. However, he did not expect that Eva, who had been the very reason for his involvement, would dare frame him up at this time.

He was afraid that if he was convicted of this crime, it would be rather difficult for him to earn back dignity and respect from others in the military. What was worse, he could lose his life.

‘ Commander, I really didn't expect this matter to develop into this. It appears I was too trusting of them and that's why I let myself believe their slander! When they told me about this matter, I didn't think much about it either. That's why they deceived me so easily! I have made a serious mistake in this matter and I am not afraid to take due responsibilities. Moreover, since Matthew is my subordinate, I still hold the responsibility for his lax discipline. I cannot shirk my responsibility this time and I am willing to accept your punishment,' Eva said slyly, trying to shrewdly defend herself and clear herself of any possible blame. She was holding out hope that she could defer all the blame to Deputy Commander Chen.

‘ Eva, I really didn't expect you to be such a coward! Commander, it was actually Eva who...' Deputy Commander Chen was also determined to expose her hypocrisy. After all, he would originally have had nothing to do with this matter if not for Eva who had goaded him to get his hands dirty. If he had not been deceived by her coaxing, he would not have anything to do with this matter from the very beginning.

‘ You two, shut up! Aren't you ashamed enough?’ Marcia screamed, her face red with rage. It was infuriating to see how Deputy Commander Chen and

Eva blamed each other in order to push off their own accountability.

She never expected that these two people would begin to blame each other in such an undignified manner in front of everyone at the military camp. Their shameful behavior had really disgraced the dignity of senior officers of the army.

At this point, all of the troops present couldn't help but grow more and more astonished at the drastic developments.

They were in shock at the truth that had emerged.

Seeing Marcia become so angry at this point, Eva and Deputy Commander Chen were extremely afraid of making the situation become more disadvantageous to them.

Therefore, they shut up their mouths and did not dare to say anything more, for fear of further upsetting Marcia.

‘ I'll deal with the two of you later,’ Marcia said menacingly, giving Eva and Deputy Commander Chen an angry look, which made no effort of concealing her hostility towards them.

Then she said directly to Matthew, ‘Matthew, the evidence is conclusive now, and there are all kinds of witnesses and material evidence. If you admit your crimes now, I can consider sparing your life.’

Coming to accept that he could no longer cover up his serious crimes, Matthew realised that even the God could not save him now. Worse still, at hearing Marcia say that his life was at stake, he had no choice left but to admit his crimes reluctantly with a glum look of defeat.

‘ Yes, Commander. I did all these things,' he said quietly, looking down in shame.

At hearing Matthew readily admit his crimes, the soldiers who were already stunned at the current situation became even more astonished.

The whole area began to be in an uproar again. It turned out that this result was indeed a stunning reversal, shocking everyone present.

No one had expected that Ana was actually framed, and that the people who jointly framed her were Eva and Deputy Commander Chen, two well—known people in the army.

‘ I already told you guys that our leader did nothing wrong. I was always firmly convinced that our leader must have been wronged by someone,' Isis and Joss immediately cried out with great excitement as they saw the truth finally coming to light.

As they celebrated, they couldn't help but shoot meaningful glances at several spirit manipulators of the sixth squad. They meant to reiterate how unwise it had been to distrust their leader before.

Meanwhile, the other spirit manipulators of the sixth squad all looked embarrassed and were speechless, feeling incredibly awkward. After all, they too had clamored that Ana was a maniac killer before. It also made them feel terribly guilty that they had doubted their leader's innocence for one second.

‘ Matthew not only killed innocent villagers, but also intended to insult the dignity of women from good families. His shameful behavior has greatly ruined the image of our soldiers in front of the civilians. Since he is really guilty of a terrible crime, I propose to execute him in public!’ Marcia announced her decision loudly without even batting an eye, satisfied at his confession.

‘ Commander... Didn't you just say you would spare my life?’ Matthew began to blubber.

He had been immediately blindsided when he heard what Marcia announced, not expecting that she would suddenly change her mind. He was aghast that she would go back on her word.

‘ I just said that I would consider whether to save your life or not. But when I think of your shameful behavior of deceiving me and all the others here, I am convinced that your guilt is unforgivable. Now, I want someone to drag him down and behead him.’ Marcia couldn't help shout coldly, standing tall and looking regal and imposing.

Hearing the order, two soldiers immediately stepped forward. Matthew put up no resistance. His entire body was pale and ashen, ready to meet death. He was dragged down by the two soldiers immediately, staring soul lessly into the sky before his head was sliced clean off with their sharp swords.

‘ In addition, I also take back my previous punishment of expelling Ana from the northeast military camp. However, although she did things with a justified reason, it is also true and proven that she has killed two spirit manipulators in my jurisdiction. Therefore, I have now decided to demote her to a servant and constrain her into doing chores in the military camp for six months as a punishment!' Marcia announced her punishment for Ana, knowing that she had to be fair.

‘ As for Eva and Deputy Commander Chen, I am really disappointed with them. They even tried to cover up Matthew for his crimes and framed Ana. I will announce my punishment for them in public some other day soon. Now that they have both born witness to the other's corruption, they will surely be punished. You can rest assured that I will not engage in favoritism towards these officials. I will severely punish them for their crimes. All of you! Remember this wisely! I hope the whole army can take these events as a warning and learn from them. Deceit will not be tolerated.’ Then Marcia turned to Ana and Su and told them quietly,