Chapter 101: I Want Justice |
Fu Leisheng was deeply anxious. How could these people be so blind to right and wrong?
They had come seeking revenge, determined to die for it. Now that the revenge had been achieved, for two to live was already the Li family''s matron showing mercy beyond the law!
“How is the judgment wrong? It’s perfectly judged, it’s the righteous official!” Fu Leisheng grabbed Chen Shi’s hand, squeezed it hard to urge him to leave, and said, “Since ancient times murder is repaid with death. Sister-in-law Gu killed Tian Huaiyi and Shen Yusheng, she should pay with her life! I killed so many Li Family retainers and Embroidered Uniform Guards, I should pay with my life too! If you can’t even explain the reasoning, go back to studying for a few more years!”
Madam Xia Weiyin smiled and said, “Master Fu, there’s no need to rush. If someone doesn’t listen to reason, reasoning won’t help. Since this young brother has something to say, why not let him speak. Young brother, how do you think it should be judged?”
Fu Leisheng was frantic. He had intended to use his life to save Chen Shi’s, and now everything was ruined.
Chen Shi said, “Master Fu, you need not worry. Scholar Zhu who taught me said half of the Analects governs the world. I have studied the whole set, I will not act recklessly.”
Fu Leisheng thought of that exam paper and grew even more despondent.
Chen Shi said, “Sister-in-law Gu killed the chief examiner Tian Huaiyi and killed Shen Yusheng, she cut open his occiput and stole a top-rank Divine Embryo, a crime worthy of a thousand deaths. But for whom did she extract the Divine Embryo? To whom was the Divine Embryo given? Who ordered her?”
Fu Leisheng sagged.
Chen Shi continued, “She bought off the Assistant Magistrate Zheng Shiyun—where did that money come from? Who gave her the funds? A servant of the Li Household holds sway over Xinxiang County, commanding the Assistant Magistrate and the bailiffs, barging into the county office to kill the chief examiner, employing the Xinxiang County Land Register—who granted her that authority? The Xinxiang County Land Register is a heavy instrument of the court. Who allowed such an instrument to fall into a servant’s hands? Who allowed a servant with such power to kill a court official and yet leave the county office undisturbed? Who gave her the power to erase Shen Yusheng’s name from the roster?”
He stepped forward, eyes brightened, “If Madam wishes to act as the righteous and incorruptible official, then these matters must be thoroughly investigated before she has the right to call herself righteous!”
Madam Xia Weiyin smiled, “Do you want to be that righteous official? Chen Shi, don’t say you can’t do it—neither you nor even your grandpa could do it. The world has always been like this. I simply do not wish to invite trouble. How do you intend to reason with my Li family?”
Chen Shi froze. “She knows my grandfather?”
Madam Xia Weiyin gently clapped her hands and said calmly, “Bring people. Let us show him how my Li family’s reasoning goes.”
“Yes, madam.”
Several maidservants carried out a book box. The books inside were very heavy; it looked like two to three hundred jin, and the maids struggled with the weight.
Yet when they opened the box, inside was only a single book.
A gold book, about one foot three or four inches long, less than a foot wide, fastened with a golden ring.
Every page was gold paper, and faint characters and patterns could be seen.
One maid flipped to the second page and exhaled a burst of true energy onto it. Instantly, the map of Xinxiang County rose from the page, floating into the air, and Chen Shi’s Nine Yang Heavenly Thunder Summoning Talisman glyph was shattered by the surge.
This page of the book connected with the Myriad Soul Banner that guarded Xinxiang County. Not only that, it linked to the entire Xinxiang County and its subordinate villages and towns. Suddenly a thick, oppressive aura descended, like earth piling from the sky!
The Land Register, Xinxiang County entry.
Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng each emitted a muffled groan as they fought with all their strength against that terrifying pressure, unable to move.
That maid was only at the Divine Embryo realm; she exhaled only a single breath of true energy and had not fully unleashed the power of the Xinxiang County entry, yet even stirring a trace of it was enough to pin down these two Golden Core realm masters, leaving them at others’ mercy!
If that page of the Land Register were fully activated, it might contend with a Nascent Soul expert!
Madam Xia Weiyin said, “Continue to show him the Li family’s hard truths.”
No sooner had she spoken than the bodyguards each flashed their cultivation, miniature shrines and divine embryos surged forth, and Golden Cores floated in the air in rainbow hues—among them were experts who had refined the Golden Core nine revolutions!
Then a dozen or so Nascent Souls appeared, each sitting cross-legged, clothed in brilliant divine light, as if sitting in void, unfathomable and immeasurable, impenetrable by any law or weapon!
The light from the Golden Cores and Nascent Souls lit the previously dark sky like a splendid sunset.
At that moment, a majestic divine radiance shot into the heavens. A Primordial Spirit, four zhang tall, sat in midair like a peerless great Buddha, one hand holding a flower, the other supporting a treasure vase, looking down on Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng!
The aura from this Primordial Spirit was so intense that even the storm clouds above wavered and began to disperse!
Such power was utterly despairing.
Madam Xia Weiyin’s gaze landed on Chen Shi’s face, and she smiled, “Chen Shi, now you understand the Li family’s reasoning, do you not? We women are merely Li family dependents, with no special abilities. But for Xinxiang County, what is so difficult about me serving as its righteous and incorruptible official?”
She withdrew her gaze, lowered the carriage curtain, and said calmly, “Master Fu, the Li family will not tolerate humiliation. I have already given you one measure of justice. Now I demand one for the Li family. Can you grant it?”
Fu Leisheng silently nodded.
Xia Weiyin smiled, “I am after all a gentle woman who cannot abide bloodshed. Master Zeng, stay and give Master Fu a proper burial. Take his head to the provincial capital.”
Master Zeng bowed, “Madam, rest assured.”
“Depart.”
The maidservants closed the Xinxiang County Land Register, shut the book box, and loaded it into the carriage.
The Li Family retainers and Embroidered Uniform Guards mounted at once, escorting the convoy out of the city.
Although many had been killed by Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng, the convoy had not suffered crippling losses—only some expendables were gone, easily replenished in the provincial capital.
Boom!
Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed across the sky, and the Qinqu River along the road shimmered with rain hitting the water.
Though the thunder was loud, the raindrops were small.
The storm should have been heavy, but the aura of Nascent Soul experts had scattered much of it.
After the two madams’ convoy left, clusters of young servants spilled out from the Lingnan merchants’ estates carrying shallow coffins. One opened a coffin while two others lifted the dead into it.
Once placed in the coffin, hammers and wooden nails came out, the boards hammered shut with metallic clangs, seams made airtight.
Along the riverside road, four or five dozen corpses—Li Family retainers and Embroidered Uniform Guards among them—were dealt with within the span of an incense stick.
Another group of servants stepped out and cast water-element techniques to wash blood from the ground, while masons scraped away bloodstains on walls and whitewashed them.
Several servants carried green slate slabs, pried up rotten stones, cleaned the foundation, and replaced them with new slate.
They brought moss and carefully filled the seams so no one would notice the replacements.
Girls dug up the ruined flowers by the river and replanted fresh blooms.
The floral scent was intoxicating, blossoms dazzling.
Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng stared blankly at the scene. In such a short time the road had been made new; the fight seemed like a lingering dream that had never happened.
Master Zeng stood there motionless until two servants brought a thin coffin and placed it before Fu Leisheng, whereupon he waved the servants away.
“Master Fu’s teaching methods are impressive. I admire them.”
Master Zeng’s expression was gentle as he looked at Fu Leisheng kneeling and said, “Tian Huaiyi was upright and incorruptible. Shen Yusheng’s literary talent during the exam soared as if heard by heaven—he received the blessing of the True God and obtained a top-rank Divine Embryo. And this young brother Chen Shi, his sword qi pierced eighty zhang, breaking the thirty-six zhang record left by the Child Prodigy ten years ago, earning great admiration. So I respect you. As a teacher, to have cultivated three outstanding disciples in one lifetime is rare.”
He sighed and said, “I am around your age, yet fate differed. After I passed the xiucai exam I kept trying for the provincial exam, failing repeatedly. From seventeen to thirty-five, I sat the exams and never succeeded. When I tutored a side branch of the Li family, they favored my teaching. When I was thirty-eight, the Li family gave me a recommendation and I finally passed the provincial exam.”
He shook his head, “I was delighted, I leapt and laughed, raced around wanting to tell everyone I had become a provincial graduate, wanting those who once looked down on me to kneel before me and call me ‘Master.’ I wanted to drag back those girls who rejected me and tell them they’d lost a golden match. Later I calmed down. The joy remained, but I realized my success was not due to my merits but Li family patronage. I knew then that even if I took office, I would never advance. So after passing, I became a teacher for the Li household. Years passed like that.”
Fu Leisheng looked up at him, “After so many years, how many talents have you cultivated?”
Master Zeng laughed, “Talents? There are some. Even if not innate talents, with so many heavenly materials and so many experts guiding them, plus transplanting first- or second-rank Divine Embryos, they become talents. But even if the teacher were not me, their achievements would be similar. The foundation of the powerful clans is terrifying.”
He turned serious, “I am nominally the Li household’s tutor, yet the one most taken care of was me. If I hadn’t entered the Li household, I would have been trapped at the Golden Core realm my whole life, like you, unable to reach the Nascent Soul. Once with the Li household, after refining the Golden Core nine revolutions, I casually spoke of breaking through difficulty and the Li masters arranged for superior cultivation methods to be delivered to me, along with various miraculous pills to aid my breakthrough.”
He looked at Fu Leisheng, “You can’t imagine this. Master Fu, you have been stuck at Golden Core nine revolutions a long time, haven’t you? Felt your qi and blood insufficient to breakthrough? You never considered that it might be the cultivation method, not you? You never thought insufficient qi and blood could be supplemented with heavenly materials and miraculous pills to assist the breakthrough? A lifetime’s earnings of yours couldn’t buy one of those pills needed to strike Nascent Soul! Dream on!”
Fu Leisheng made a muffled sound.
“But I envy you.”
Master Zeng sighed, “I was a teacher my whole life, educating people, yet never could I cultivate a student like Tian Huaiyi. I cannot change the world; I only went along with it.”
He stood in silence, then suddenly laughed, “It’s been a long time since I spoke to someone like a friend. Master Fu, you may take your own life now.”
Fu Leisheng’s body trembled. He summoned his miniature shrine and divine embryo; the divine embryo vomited a nine-revolution Golden Core.
He panted, about to use the Golden Core and end his life. Suddenly a deafening roar rang out, echoing through Xinxiang County, making Fu Leisheng dizzy and nearly faint!
His eyes widened in terror as he saw Chen Shi step forward and raise his hand to strike.
Behind Chen Shi’s head a divine radiance had appeared. Within that brilliant light floated a small temple. A plump little tiger followed Chen Shi; it stepped forward, lifted its furry paw, and struck down!
It emitted a thunderous tiger roar. Where that paw descended, a roaring gale swept up before the little temple and a golden furry tiger paw, as large as a hill, fell from the sky!
Whoosh—
That immense palm force slammed down. Master Zeng had not yet withdrawn his Nascent Soul; he quickly invoked it, the Nascent Soul sitting in void, invulnerable to laws and blades, yet under that tiger’s palm everything shattered!
Under the terrifying force, his Nascent Soul had no chance to resist and was pulverized into ashes!
Boom!
A tremendous impact reverberated as the giant tiger paw crushed Master Zeng’s body into mush and slammed the remains onto the green slate ground with a horrific sound!
Chen Shi retracted his hand, and the massive tiger paw returned into the little temple.
The small tiger inside the temple looked perturbed, as if unsure what had happened—why it had roared so loudly, why it had raised a paw to kill the person in front of it.
All of this, however, seemed perfectly natural.
Chen Shi snorted, took the oil-paper umbrella from the fishing basket, opened it, tossed the basket aside, and said in a low voice, “Has it always been like this, and therefore just? A promising scholar had his Divine Embryo taken by you and died. Your casual word ‘justice’—is that the end of it?”
Fu Leisheng stared at the tiny temple behind Chen Shi’s head, incense drifting from within, shock and horror on his face.
Worried that Chen Shi might pursue the Li family convoy and encounter Nascent Soul experts, he hurriedly rose and grabbed Chen Shi’s hand: “This is the way of the world!”
Chen Shi snarled, “This world is wrong!”
Fu Leisheng shouted, “Can you change it?”
Chen Shi paused, stunned for a long moment, then suddenly shouted, “Rich merchants, come out and make excuses! You lot, come over here! Dig up Master Zeng and put him in this coffin! Take him to the Li household in the provincial capital and say it’s on my orders, that I, Chen Shi, sent you! Madam wants justice, and I will give it to her!”
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