CHAPTER 582: CHAPTER 582: PURPLE COLOR

All eyes turned to Meng Hao.

He straightened and spoke clearly.

"I am an undercover officer sent by the government. My mission was to infiltrate the Alchemy Competition and catch the traitors.

The government has been worried for years about the strange results in the last ten competitions.

We suspected that powerful groups were controlling the outcomes from the shadows, and I was assigned to help bring them down.

We have been trying for years but failed every time. This year, with Gu Jin’s help, we finally caught all three traitors."

Qiao Feng shook his head violently. "No! I am not one of them! You have made a mistake!"

One of the Magic Council officers raised his hand, and a subordinate stepped forward holding a strange artifact.

It looked like a mix between a camera and a crystal. With a flick, it lit up, and a shimmering projection appeared in the air.

Everyone turned to watch.

The image showed Qiao Feng entering his room. He lay down on his bed and stayed still for a few minutes.

Then he began to chuckle quietly. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and dialed a number.

They all heard his voice clearly:

"The work is done. Meng Hao has been declared a traitor without me doing anything. He never saw it coming."

The team’s eyes grew wider as he continued speaking on the recording.

"I already knew about the powders Gu Jin put at our doors. I switched mine to white by using medicinal properties to hide the change.

So when I poisoned the water, it would look like the person who had white powder outside their door had done it.

Who would have thought it was Meng Hao’s door which had white color. He got thrown out, and I stayed safe."

In the projection, Qiao Feng laughed smugly.

"Now the captain will regret trusting me. When she realizes she was wrong, she will be so heartbroken that she will leave the alchemy world forever. With her gone, there will be no competition left for us to worry about."

The projection faded.

For a moment, no one spoke. The room was filled with heavy silence. Then, one by one, the team members’ faces twisted with anger.

"I cannot believe it," Lin Yue said through gritted teeth.

"You disgust me," Bai Yu spat.

Qiao Feng’s eyes darted around, panic replacing his smugness.

He turned to Gu Jin, his teeth clenched.

"Why did you make everyone think Meng Hao was the traitor if you knew the truth?"

Gu Jin’s smile returned, cold and sharp.

"Because I needed time. I spread an emotion-inciting medicinal powder in all your rooms. The powder makes a person slowly drop their guard.

I knew that if the traitor felt safe, they would eventually contact their backer. That was the proof I wanted.

The only way to buy that time was to create a false suspect, and Meng Hao agreed to play that role."

The team stared at her in awe.

"She’s brilliant," someone whispered.

Qiao Feng’s face twisted with rage. "You will regret this. The power behind me will crush you."

Gu Jin’s voice was calm as ever.

"That will not be possible. Thanks to the agreement between Country J and the International Magic Council, I am under the protection of the highest authorities.

If anyone harms me, they will face at least three years in prison. I do not think your backers want that kind of trouble."

Qiao Feng, however, no longer looked panicked. Instead, he looked at Gu Jin with a strange calmness.

"Then tell me," he said slowly. "Why did you suspect only me?"

Gu Jin shook her head.

"I never suspected only you," she replied.

Her gaze swept across the entire room, meeting the eyes of every single team member.

"I suspected every one of you," she continued. "That is why I installed cameras in all of your rooms."

The team froze. No one moved or spoke.

She went on, her tone steady.

"And Qiao Feng, there is something you did not know. There was never a special color for each person’s door.

I only made it look like that. In reality, every single door had the same color... purple. No matter who left their room and walked outside, they would leave purple powder behind."

Gasps filled the air.

"I lied about there being different colors," she explained.

"That way, the real traitor would feel safe. They would think the powder on the ground pointed to someone else, and in that false confidence, they would make a mistake."

Qiao Feng’s jaw tightened. He let out a slow breath and nodded.

"I have to admit... you are smart. You planned everything without a single flaw."

Then, to everyone’s surprise, he let out a short chuckle. He turned his finger toward Yun Qing.

"But you are still ruthless," he said coldly. "You let one of your own team members get hurt, just so you could catch me."

Gu Jin raised one eyebrow and gave a small laugh.

"If I had not let the team see with their own eyes how cruel a traitor can be, what would have happened?" she asked.

"If the traitor turned out to be someone they had trained with for months, someone they called a friend, would they have stayed quiet? No.

They would have begged me to show mercy, to give that person the benefit of the doubt."

She stepped closer, her voice calm but sharp.

"If I had only shown them evidence, some of them would still feel pity. Some would try to protect the traitor. But now... now they have felt betrayal in the most direct way. They will not make that mistake again."

The room grew quiet.

The team members lowered their heads. They knew she was right. Not long ago, before they knew who the traitor was, they had even discussed among themselves that if one of them ever betrayed the team, they would not punish them too harshly.

They had thought they could forgive.

Now, after what they saw, they felt ashamed for even thinking that way.

Gu Jin turned back to Qiao Feng.

"Now it is your turn to answer," she said.

"You had earned your seat fairly. You fought your way through many districts to be here. So why would you throw it away by working with your backers and poisoning your own team members?"

Qiao Feng’s expression hardened. His eyes narrowed, and he turned his head sharply toward someone sitting in the corner.

Everyone followed his gaze. Their eyes landed on Zhou Lei.

The room tensed.

Zhou Lei didn’t say anything. He just sat there, his face unreadable.

Qiao Feng spoke with bitterness in his voice.

"The people behind Zhou Lei offered me a large sum of money. All I had to do was remove one person from the team, and Zhou Lei would take their spot in the official lineup."

The room filled with murmurs.

"They promised me even more," Qiao Feng went on.

"They said if I succeeded, I would get resources, protection, and the support of powerful families. It was too tempting. I thought... why not?"

He gave a bitter smile.

"I did not expect Gu Jin to see through me. I thought I could poison someone quietly and no one would trace it back to me."

Hearing this, Gu Jin raised one eyebrow again.

Gu Jin’s eyes moved to Zhou Lei.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" she asked.

Zhou Lei leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed.

"I do not know what he is talking about," he said flatly. "He must be lying to save himself."

Qiao Feng’s face twisted.

"Lying? You think I would drag your name into this for fun?" he snapped. "We both know your backers gave me the order. They even promised that once you entered the official team, you would share the benefits with me."

Some of the team members gasped.

Zhou Lei kept his calm. He looked straight at Qiao Feng, his voice quiet but steady.

"From my point of view, I have not done anything wrong," he said.

Then he slowly turned his head toward Gray, the captain. "And I will say this clearly. I have never told the people behind me that I wanted someone else to remove my teammates for me."

The room grew silent. Everyone’s eyes were now on Zhou Lei. His tone didn’t change as he kept speaking.

"I did know about the arrangement between my backer and other people," he admitted. "But every single time I found out, I cut that connection completely. If you do not believe me, you can investigate. You will see the truth for yourself."

He paused for a moment, then added,

"However, I want to remind all of you about something. Many of you have received invitations before. If you check the mailbox of your home, you will find a letter that is half-burned."

Bai Yu suddenly nodded. "I... I did see one," he said slowly. "It was weeks ago. I thought it was some prank, but now that I think about it... It could have been from them."