Capítulo 20: Chapter 20 Su Xiaoxiao
The elder with white hair stepped forward, and upon seeing the face of the hemp-clothed man leading the group, his heart skipped a beat as he thought to himself that something was amiss.
Even a Minor Punishment Captain from the Punishment Mansion had come!
And it was that "harbinger of doom" no less!
The Tianya Sword Pavilion was a subordinate branch of the Taia Sword Pavilion on the Wangque Continent. It held a transcendent status on the mountain of the Wangque Continent and was endowed with the right to enforce the law by the prime ancestor of the Human Clan. The Punishment Mansion was specially established by the Tianya Sword Pavilion to manage punishments, controlling the Five Bans law in Wangque.
The highest-ranking officer of the Punishment Mansion was the Great Minister of Punishment, followed by several Minor Punishment Captains. However, these officers were rarely seen on the mountain, and most of the law enforcement outside was conducted by lower-ranked officials such as Punishment Captains and Inspectors.
At every ferry crossing of the Immortal Clan on the Wangque Continent, there's at least one Inspector from the Punishment Mansion in charge of overseeing the cultivators on the mountain. As for the Punishment Captains, who handle cases specifically, they are rarer and have elusive whereabouts.
Though the Punishment Mansion wielded great power, they rarely intervened in affairs on the mountain. Petty matters such as cultivators killing each other for treasure were not their concern, nor were they interested in feuds or conflicts between Immortal Sects. Not to mention the more mundane matters such as dynastic changes or transformation of rivers and mountains below the peaks.
Their actions depended on "a thread," which was to not harm the interests of the Xuanhuang Human Clan or disrupt the normal order above and below the mountain. This included reducing the fortune of the Human Clan, stealing significant artifacts of the Human Clan, chaos caused by demons corrupting the Cultivation World, or cultivators slaughtering the common folk below the mountain on a large scale.
The elder with white hair had only seen a Punishment Captain from the Punishment Mansion at most and never expected to encounter such a reputed figure as a Minor Punishment Captain today. Especially the notorious "harbinger of doom" from the mountain's rumors. This dignitary's reputation for severe and harsh punishment was well-known, particularly his cruel and stern approach to demonic cultivators.
The elder with white hair looked at the hemp-clothed man who matched the descriptions from the rumors, his face turning pale and his heart trembling.
One should know that even a Punishment Captain of the Punishment Mansion was at least a Golden Core Realm Sword Cultivator. Sword Cultivators were extremely rare on the Wangque Continent mountain and possessed enormous lethal force. A Golden Core Realm Sword Cultivator was on par with a half-step Daoist Cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm, and the current Pavilion Master of the Qingfeng Pavilion was a half-step Nascent Soul.
And now before him stood a Minor Punishment Captain of the Punishment Mansion, a genuine Nascent Soul Realm Sword Cultivator! Why had such a Great Cultivator personally come to his small boat today?
"This humble one is Qiao Yu, a cultivator from the Qingfeng Pavilion of the southern sects, assigned to this boat by the Pavilion. May I ask what matter has brought your esteemed presence here?"
The hemp-clothed man looked down at the elder with white hair, who was bowing deeply in an extremely submissive gesture, but he did not utter a word.
The next moment, a stern-faced woman stepped out from behind the group of ten. She casually took out a token, showed it for all to see, and then with her gaze sweeping over the people below, she announced loudly,
"A Great Demon has caused chaos in Anling Country and has now fled. The Punishment Mansion has sealed off all neighboring countries. All ferries south of Zhi Shui Country are forbidden from passing through, and must immediately stop at the nearest Immortal ferry crossing."
As she finished speaking, the stern-faced woman glanced at the hemp-clothed man. Seeing him nod slightly, she continued,
"Everyone on the boat, gather on deck for a routine inspection."
"Yes, Sir!"
Qiao Yu, with a grave expression, turned and muttered a few commands to the boat steward behind him. The latter hurried to call the passengers to assemble on the deck.
At that moment, a buzz erupted among the crowd on the deck upon hearing the announcement, sparking lively discussions.
"Silence!"
Commanded the stern-faced woman.
The crowd instantly fell silent.
Zhao Rong listened quietly within the crowd, discerning what was happening. He exchanged a glance with Liu Sanbian standing beside him, a hint of helplessness in his eyes.
All I wanted was simply to return a piece of jade and deliver a letter. Why are there so many issues along the way?
The ferry had just entered the northern territories of Wangque Continent and had covered a good portion of the journey. But if they were to disembark in Zhi Shui Country, the rest of their journey would not only be considerably slowed down but also diverted.
Zhao Rong felt an itch in his teeth, cordially cursing the Great Demon that was stirring up trouble in Anling Country multiple times in his mind. Couldn't you wait until I was past before causing a ruckus?
Before long, all the passengers had gathered on the deck of the ferry.
The atmosphere was tense, with everyone showing different expressions.
"Sir, all the guests on the boat are accounted for, a total of one hundred and seventy-two people."
The moment the hemp-clothed man heard this while meditating with his eyes closed up high, he instantly opened his eyes.
Then, in the next second,
the sinister sword tattoo on his face suddenly lit up like a streak of blood. He then scanned the crowd below with eyes as piercing as a torch.
Zhao Rong first noticed the red light on his face, then, as the man's gaze swept over him, his breathing suddenly became rapid. He felt as if a boulder was pressing on his chest, making it hard to breathe. Zhao Rong tried to avert his eyes, only to find that he seemed possessed by a ghost, unable to control his body except for breathing. He began to struggle, but the more he struggled, the more suffocated he felt!
"Don't try to move anymore. I will transmit a sword technique to you. Recite it silently while envisioning the form of the sword at your waist in your mind,"
came Gui's voice at his ear, followed by a brief but complex spell.
Zhao Rong, like a drowning man grasping at the last straw, hurriedly followed Gui's instructions.
With his Heart Lake reciting the spell, he closed his eyes and visualized the scholar sword.
A profound and mysterious feeling arose, and Zhao Rong felt that he had established a subtle connection with something.
In the next moment, the short sword at his waist vibrated faintly.
The suffocating feeling began to recede like a tide.
Suddenly, he felt a weight on his shoulder, and the pressure that had been steadily receding disappeared abruptly.
Zhao Rong opened his eyes to see that Liu Sanbian had lent him a hand, with one hand resting on his shoulder.
Before Zhao Rong could even thank the two, several red lights burst out from the crowd, thick and thin. Upon closer inspection, they originated from four individuals within the crowd, one of whom looked extremely familiar.
A white collared undershirt and a red cloak.
It was "Su Dahuang"!
Zhao Rong wore a look of surprise.
Gui said, "They are all demon cultivators with low cultivation, and their demon energy has been drawn out."
The hemp-robed man saw that the demonic aura emitted from his sword markings had hooked a few "little fish" and raised an eyebrow.
The faces of the four within the red light showed panic.
The surrounding crowd slowly withdrew, isolating the four.
The Golden Core cultivator of the Qingfeng Pavilion, Qiao Yu, looked at them, no, at them, with a sympathetic gaze.
Alas, how unlucky can you be, to have just run into this "bringer of death"?
The hemp-robed man watched the four demons with an indifferent gaze, remaining silent all the while.
The isolated demons grew more and more panicked, with one even collapsing to the ground, shivering.
Among the four demons was a roughly featured man who, recalling the hemp-robed man's reputation from rumors, gritted his teeth, threw a green light towards the hempen-robed man, and in the blink of an eye transformed into two black lights shooting out of the ship.
"How dare you!"
The cold-faced woman's sword flashed, and the incoming green light exploded into fragments in mid-air.
The hemp-robed man, who had remained unmoved from the beginning, calmly glanced in the direction of two black lights that had fled far and in opposite directions.
The next second, there came an explosion from a certain direction; looking closely, one of the black lights had burst open, leaving a cloud of blood mist at the site of the explosion, and the other ownerless black light suddenly stopped, falling from the sky—it was a colorful shuttle.
"What are you running for, guilty conscience?"
The hemp-robed man finally spoke, and his voice was different from what Zhao Rong had imagined, full of vigor and very rich.
Having said that, his gaze returned to the three remaining demons.
One of the demons, with a fierce look, suddenly took a hostage from the crowd and demanded the man in hemp let him go.
But the next second, before he could react, his arms and legs were severed in succession, leaving him reduced to a "human stick" lying across the ground, screaming in agony.
"Beast, you deserve to die."
The hemp-robed man said slowly, and after admiring his handiwork on the ground for a while, he lightly lifted a finger, and the head of the demon on the ground exploded.
Another demon, seeing the fate of the previous two, was so terrified that he dared not resist, knelt to beg for mercy, crying that he had never harmed an innocent, and was willing to serve as a servant, to work like an ox or horse for life.
"So afraid of me, you must be just like the one who ran away, guilty," the hemp-robed man said flatly. Then, after a pause, he added,
"I'll leave you an intact corpse."
As he spoke, without any visible movement on his part, the kneeling demon's gaze faded, and he slumped to the side, dead.
Zhao Rong furrowed his brows. The first two demons, one resorted to violence and fled, the other took a hostage; there you had reasons to kill them. But this third demon didn't resist at all, and without finding any guilt, you executed it outright?
Gui remarked, "Heh, he must have become bloodthirsty from killing demons in Kundu. Since returning, he's been wiping out the local demon cultivators without restraint. Such behavior is quite common in Kundu."
Zhao Rong neither agreed nor disagreed.
The ten individuals who came with the hemp-robed man, upon witnessing his actions, expressed mostly indifference, clearly accustomed to such scenes. The only exception was the cold-faced woman who had spoken earlier; her expression showed a trace of pity, but as if she remembered something, she quickly concealed it and continued to watch with an indifferent gaze.
The hemp-robed man's gaze shifted to the last demon.
Everyone's eyes followed his to the same target.
This demon once had the appearance of a handsome white-faced scholar, but now had collapsed to the ground in terror, with disheveled hair and a pale face, her eyes brimming with tears.
Realizing everyone was looking at her, she buried her head into her knees, her arms wrapped around them, sobbing uncontrollably.
It seemed she had even forgotten to beg for mercy.
She retreated into the small world she had created for herself.
"Wuu wuu, Xiaoxiao was wrong, Xiaoxiao shouldn't have run out of Qiantang Mountain, wuu wuu wuu, but Xiaoxiao missed ancestral grandma, Xiaoxiao wanted to find ancestral grandma, wuu wuu wuu wuu..."
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