Chapter 159 : Chapter 159

Chapter 159: Has the terrifying Jinyiwei of centuries past returned?!

“I’m going to take a look!”

“Me too!”

Convinced that the Jinyiwei had surely been defeated, some of the more impatient martial artists ran straight toward Iron Halberd Mountain, eager to see the miserable sight of the Imperial Hounds suffering a crushing defeat.

The others wore satisfied smiles.

Prince Qing’s Remnants were infamous rebels, and the records of their slaughter and uprisings were everywhere to be seen.

No one wanted to gamble on whether they themselves might become one of the dead butchered by them.

But compared to the savage brutality of Cheng Yu and the Jinyiwei, even that seemed hardly worth mentioning.

Because Cheng Yu had killed until they were afraid!

The Xiuchun Saber had cut down Jianghu people again and again as casually as one might cut grass, and they had experienced it time after time.

No matter how timid or cautious a martial artist might be, as long as he had harmed innocent lives or exploited ordinary people, the Jinyiwei would deem him guilty.

Which of the people here dared say that his hands had never been stained with the blood of ordinary people?

Given the status of martial artists, such things were unavoidable.

Because in their eyes, the lives of ordinary people were not lives at all!

If the Jinyiwei used such reasons to accuse and arrest them, then almost no one would be able to escape unscathed!

Reason could not win against them, and martial might was in Cheng Yu’s hands.

All they could do was hope that Prince Qing’s Lineage would get rid of Cheng Yu, so that they would no longer have to live in such constant terror.

Fortunately, Prince Qing’s Lineage produced a Ninth Rank expert in every generation, and they also had Madam Wu, that former Earth Ranking expert of the Eighth Rank.

Dealing with a brat like Cheng Yu should pose no problem at all!

If they wiped out the Imperial Hounds, it would count as venting a long-held grievance!

Just as the Jianghu martial artists had already decided the outcome in their hearts, the people who had gone to investigate came running back, and anxious shouts rang out.

“S-s-something happened! The Jinyiwei, they... they... they...”

The man who spoke was filled with terror, so frightened that he could not even finish his sentence.

The others saw him in that state, and their hearts instantly sank. Still clinging to absurd hope, they hurriedly asked, “What happened to the Jinyiwei? Hurry up and say it!”

“The Jinyiwei wiped out all of Prince Qing’s descendants! Iron Halberd Mountain is nothing but ruins!”

The moment those words fell, the Jianghu martial artists, though somewhat mentally prepared, still felt their hearts seize up. They collapsed to the ground in terror.

It was over!

Completely over!

If Cheng Yu could even deal with Prince Qing’s Remnants, then once he turned all his attention to cleaning them up, how were they supposed to keep living?

“Why?! Weren’t Prince Qing’s descendants backed by a Ninth Rank expert? How could the Imperial Hounds possibly deal with a Ninth Rank?”

Some of the martial artists were utterly shattered. No matter what, they refused to believe this result.

They were nothing more than bandits who had washed themselves clean, learned to shout Jianghu chivalry like everyone else, and turned themselves into so-called Jianghu martial artists.

They had stubbornly held back the roster for Register by Name, waiting only for Prince Qing’s descendants to deal with the Jinyiwei.

Yet they had never imagined that Cheng Yu would destroy Prince Qing’s Remnants. Now their day of death was close at hand!

Impossible!

How could the Jinyiwei possibly deal with a Ninth Rank?

In the next moment, the sound of pounding hooves answered their doubts.

A flash of saber-light swept past.

The Xiuchun Sabers in the hands of the mounted Jinyiwei slashed down, and one of the fugitives who had escaped the earlier purge of Jiannan Circuit’s Jianghu forces fell into a pool of blood.

The Jinyiwei experts, having received Vital Blood Elixirs, had advanced by leaps and bounds in strength.

At this moment, the leading Jinyiwei revealed a disdainful smile and swept his gaze across the martial artists present.

Wherever his eyes passed, people shrank back in fear.

“My lord gave you half a month to Register by Name. Now only two days remain. If you fail to submit it to the Jiannan City Thousand-Household Office in time...”

“Your crime will be the same as Prince Qing’s Remnants—treason! Your households will be raided and confiscated, and your clans exterminated!”

After delivering those cold and ruthless words, the Jinyiwei rode off.

The Jianghu martial artists stared blankly after them, despair filling their hearts as the world seemed to spin before their eyes.

The sky over Jiannan Circuit had changed completely!

There was no longer room for even the slightest trace of Jianghu power. It now belonged wholly to the Jinyiwei, wholly to Cheng Yu!

People of the Jianghu like them had been dragged down completely.

Those who had left evidence behind faced certain death.

As for the rest, they could either endure humiliation and live with their tails tucked between their legs, or flee to distant lands!

...

Unlike the miserable fate awaiting the Jianghu martial artists, the ordinary people who made up the overwhelming majority of Jiannan Circuit’s population

had fallen into excitement and celebration.

In every township and every village, joyous news spread like wildfire.

“The lords of the Jinyiwei have exterminated the rebels of Iron Halberd Mountain! Thousand-Household Commander Cheng personally slew the rebel leader!”

“Jiannan Circuit will know peace from this day onward!”

In the fields, along the roads, in every street and alley, the common people were living through the happiest days of their lives.

They had enough to eat and enough to wear, and their families could stay together.

There was no more inexplicable squeezing and exploitation, and no parents or children would be dragged away.

To be able to live like human beings—that was the beautiful life they longed for.

And yet even that had once been something the lofty Jianghu powers sought to strip away without mercy.

It was Cheng Yu and the Jinyiwei who had given them that chance.

Even with rebels lurking nearby and danger to their lives at any moment, they had no regrets.

Even if they could live like human beings for only a single day, that would still have been enough!

And now, reality had shown them that the lords of the Jinyiwei had utterly destroyed the rebels of Jiannan Circuit.

Their good days would continue for a very, very long time!

Countless people came wearily but eagerly to the road outside Jiannan City, tears in their eyes.

They had come to welcome the returning victors, and to welcome the lord who had changed everything.

“The heroes are here!”

Someone cried out, and the common people surged toward the Jinyiwei, weeping as they knelt and thanked them.

They knew perfectly well who deserved their deepest gratitude—the Cheng Yu riding upon that magnificent crimson horse!

“We can never repay Thousand-Household Commander Cheng’s boundless kindness, not in this life or the next!”

“Lord Cheng is a living Bodhisattva! He saved poor wretches like us!”

“My whole family will be grateful to the heroes forever! Grateful to my lord!”

Cheng Yu dismounted and led his horse forward on foot. Behind him, Chang Ningxiao, who had already withdrawn her Sword Intent, looked rather surprised.

Only now did she truly realize what Cheng Yu’s actions meant to ordinary people.

At that moment, even a Grandmaster sank into thought.

“Elder Jian A, Cheng... why is your master doing all this?”

Martial artists possessed transcendent power beyond the ordinary.

So why could he care so deeply about the plight of ordinary people?

Jian A smiled mysteriously. “That question... I cannot answer it either.”

His master was far more than merely someone whose Sword Dao had reached divine heights...

A gentle smile appeared on Cheng Yu’s face as he looked at the people.

If some people were made happy, and some others were made unhappy, then he himself would be happy!

...

As Jiannan Circuit underwent a complete upheaval, the news fully fermented and spread.

Once again, all of Great Qian heard the name Cheng Yu.

And the shock it brought this time far surpassed before.

He had exterminated Prince Qing’s Remnants!

He had slain Xiao Teng after Xiao Teng erupted with Grandmaster-level power!

A rebel lineage that had lasted for centuries had finally become history.

The Jiannan Circuit Jinyiwei under Cheng Yu’s command now possessed strength comparable to one of the realm’s first-rate powers.

Whether expert or weakling, people changed color at the mention of Cheng Yu’s name, and changed color at the mention of the Jiannan Circuit Jinyiwei.

Those four characters—Xiuchun and Flying Fish—became, for a time, synonymous with terror throughout the Jianghu around Jiangnan.

Martial artists found themselves shrouded beneath a dreadful shadow.

A terrifying thought rose in their hearts.

Could it be that, under Cheng Yu’s leadership, the terrifying blade of Great Qian from centuries ago—that Jinyiwei whom no one had dared call Imperial Hounds—was returning?!