Ye Haoxuan glanced at the booklet on the desk. The old man was indeed a Taoist priest from Qingxu Temple in Liuzhou, but ten years ago, he had been expelled from the temple for violating its precepts.
This Taoist priest wasnât seventy-eight this year either, but fifty-eight.
He really wasnât any good thing.
The old manâs heart chilled under his gaze, a vague sense of foreboding rising within him.
"Men, drag him down and subject him to death by a thousand cuts. Letâs see if he truly cannot die."
"Yes!"
"Get away from me, get away!" the old man shouted. "I am the Jade Emperorâs envoy in the mortal world. If you dare harm me, youâll suffer retribution."
"With a so-called envoy like you, the Jade Emperor must be blind."
Ye Haoxuan ignored him and simply waved for them to take him away, to carry out the execution right at the County Office gates.
In Great Zhou, death by a thousand cuts meant carving exactly three thousand six hundred cuts into a personâs body, each cut taking a piece of flesh, until there was nothing left but exposed bone and no more meat to slice.
But for such a beast, even death by a thousand cuts was letting him off cheap.
The bailiffs and San moved quickly. Outside, the old manâs heartârending screams drifted into the hall, so terrifying that a few people inside actually pissed themselves.
"Take the other two down as well and subject them to the punishment of death by a thousand cuts."
"The prince is wise!"
"The prince is wise!"
"Scum like this deserve to be cut to pieces!"
"..."
At first, the commoners feared these men would cover for one another as fellow officials, but now, seeing this prince handle matters so swiftly and decisively, their earlier worries sank back into their stomachs.
As the steward and the others were also dragged off for execution, the commoners who had been blocking the gate scattered to go watch the sentence carried out.
With only his own people left in the hall, Ye Haoxuan finally stepped down and came to stand before Liu Cheng. "Liu Cheng, itâs time you explained what happened with Huang Manli!"
"Huang... Huang Manli?" For a moment, Liu Cheng couldnât even remember who she was.
"Liu Cheng, what was the Situ Residenceâs purpose in having you send Huang Manli before me?"
"Liu Cheng, if you talk, perhaps Iâll kindly let you leave a bloodline behind. But if you donât know whatâs good for you, I can only have your whole family reunited below."
As expected, the prospect of leaving an heir caught Liu Chengâs attention. "They wanted to..."
"Splurt..." He had just uttered a few words when an arrow came flying from whoâknowsâwhere, striking him square in the forehead and killing him beyond any hope of revival.
Seeing this, Ye Haoxuanâs guards immediately gave chase.
"Heh..." Silencing him, were they?
After dealing with Liu Cheng and the other main culpritsâaside from that old Taoist who had no familyâevery one of the others had relatives. When the head of a household committed such a grave crime, his family naturally had to be implicated as well.
But just as he was handling the punishment of each household, someone came to report that Liu Chengâs entire family had committed suicide, and even Liu Chengâs youngest son had been smothered to death.
Ye Haoxuan froze for only a moment before waving his hand for them to withdraw.
As for the families of the other two, all male members were executed by hanging, while the women were made government slaves, doomed never to rise again in this lifetime.
The shroud Liu Cheng had thrown over Jingzhou, blotting out the sky with one hand, was thus burned away completely.
Afterward, the authorities dispatched a new County Magistrate to take charge of Jingzhou.
The commoners of Jingzhou, grateful for Ye Haoxuanâs grace and virtue, spontaneously lined the road to see him off when he left Jingzhou.
"The prince is a good man!"
"Yes, if he hadnât come to Jingzhou, we would never have known about that bastard Liu Chengâs vile deeds."
"..."
Indeed, Liu Cheng had covered things up far too well. With so many crimes on his head, he hadnât let a single one be discovered.
"You can let Xiaobai out now."
Once they were outside the city, Ye Haoxuan spoke.
"Youâre not going to keep investigating who killed Liu Cheng?"