Chapter 43: Seize Him All the Same, and Judge Him for His Crimes!
Five days later.
A procession of riders galloped along the imperial highway, weeds and loose stones flying up beneath their hooves.
The one leading them wore a black cap and a black Xiezhi official robe, a golden waist token hanging at his hip. He cut an unmatched, handsome figure, dignified and profound in bearing, an air of extraordinary presence radiating from him.
Behind him rode twenty-three men, all clad in elk-deer official robes—the Blade-Bearers of the Eastern Temple.
Before they had even reached the walls of Shiyang County, Magistrate Lu and a procession of officials and local gentry stood waiting along both sides of the road to welcome them.
Crackle-crackle-crackle.
For three whole miles, gongs and drums thundered and firecrackers exploded in a continuous roar, everyone shouting Lord Gu’s name at the top of their lungs.
The glory of Shiyang County had returned!
For an unknown nobody to secure a Sacred Ground placement at all would already have counted as a remarkable feat, let alone claiming first place outright and crushing every prodigy from every county across Chuwei Prefecture beneath him—it was nothing short of earth-shattering!
Magistrate Lu’s face was aglow with spring warmth, his smile especially gentle and kind.
One family, two men risen to the very heights?
Could the Zhao family ever hope to match such fortune?
Zhao Hou, oh Zhao Hou—my deepest condolences, ha ha ha ha ha ha!
“Lord Gu!”
The moment he spotted the approaching rider, Magistrate Lu hurried forward from a distance to greet him.
Gu Lin leapt down from his horse and cupped his fists in a respectful bow.
Amid countless gazes filled with reverent awe, Gu Lin lowered his voice and said:
“A word in private, if I may.”
Magistrate Lu, though puzzled, followed along nonetheless.
Once they’d reached a quiet, secluded path, Gu Lin got straight to the point:
“I intend to deal with Zhao Hou.”
Magistrate Lu’s smile froze on the spot, and he blurted out instinctively:
“His son is Zhao Can of the Sacred Grounds.”
Gu Lin regarded him calmly:
“Is he the only one among us with a connection to the Sacred Grounds? Or does the Martial Extremity Palace somehow outrank the Eastern Temple in your eyes?”
“I would never dare imply such a thing!”
Magistrate Lu said, his heart trembling with fear, unable to find further words for a long moment.
He despised this Zhao Hou to no end. As a deputy official, the man constantly overstepped his bounds, lording himself above the county magistrate at every turn, forming factions and abusing his authority—what trace of proper order remained in his eyes?
But Zhao Hou had the good fortune of having a son with a boundlessly promising future backing him, which was naturally why he dared to hold Shiyang County in the palm of his hand.
Disdain aside, however, the reputation and authority of Lord Zhao Can carried far too much weight to ignore!
“Lord Gu, it’s best to resolve feuds rather than deepen them……”
Magistrate Lu offered, trying to persuade him with a smile.
Suddenly.
Gu Lin’s expression turned abruptly cold, and he said in a low voice:
“Do you think I’m here to negotiate with you?”
He abruptly revealed his gilded waist token.
Magistrate Lu stared at the fierce, snarling Xiezhi engraved upon it.
The Eastern Temple!
As everyone well knew, both the Eastern Temple and the Heavenly Mystery Guard held the authority to act first and report later against any local official in Chu Province ranked below seventh grade.
That was true power.
Gu Lin spoke with sharp precision:
“You’ve worked in the same office as Zhao Hou for years now, and he’s made things difficult for you at every turn—the whole of Shiyang County knows it well. I refuse to believe you haven’t quietly gathered evidence of his wrongdoing all this time.”
“Hand it over to me. Let me be the one to deal with the tiger sleeping beside your bed.”
“I intend to deal with him now, one way or another. If you won’t assist me, I’ll make things difficult for you instead.”
Magistrate Lu’s face turned pale with fright, and he forced his throat to work as he said hoarsely:
“His son is Zhao Can of the Martial Extremity Palace……”
Gu Lin’s tone turned bitterly sharp:
“Does the Martial Extremity Palace hold any authority to arrest local officials? The Eastern Temple does!”
“Even if Zhao Can himself stood right in front of me, I’d still see his father dead. What of it?”
“That day, he dared to use his standing to press down on me, to threaten me, to show me murderous intent right to my face. Now that I’ve joined the Eastern Temple, if I don’t take my revenge, would you have me play the part of some lofty, virtuous sage above it all? Besides, it’s already a feud to the death between us regardless—might as well let the Zhao family lose one more member while I’m at it!”
“I delayed my journey and turned back to Shiyang for this very matter, and this alone!”
Magistrate Lu’s thoughts spun in confusion. He paced back and forth, trying to steady himself, before finally saying in a rasping voice:
“What happens when Lord Zhao Can seeks revenge for this? I’m nothing but a county’s chief official—how could I possibly dare involve myself in a dispute between Sacred Grounds?”
Gu Lin let out a cold laugh:
“What explicit authority does the Martial Extremity Palace hold to move against you? My Eastern Temple has exactly that authority.”
“If Zhao Can tries to take revenge against a legitimate official of Chu Province through any other means, I’ll be sure to gather solid evidence of it and see him brought down through entirely proper channels!”
“I’ll give you the count of ten breaths to decide.”
Magistrate Lu’s face went ashen, and he fidgeted with the frantic desperation of an ant caught on a hot stove.
Gu Lin drew a sheet of official paper from his sleeve.
Magistrate Lu took it and looked it over.
‘Arrest Warrant.’
‘Zhao Hou, Deputy Magistrate of Shiyang County, stands guilty of grave and heinous crimes. Gu Lin of the Eastern Temple, acting under the mandate of the Divine Dynasty, hereby moves to eliminate corruption on behalf of the common people and purge the ranks of officials throughout Chu Province.’
Signed by Gu Lin.
Stamped with Gu Lin’s red Xiezhi seal.
Magistrate Lu’s scalp prickled with unease.
Drafting the arrest warrant himself.
Filling in the content himself.
Stamping it himself.
He’d wielded the power in his hands to a degree that sent chills down one’s spine.
This single sheet of paper was itself a veiled threat—if it could bear Zhao Hou’s name today, it could just as easily bear his own, Lu Yongjia’s, tomorrow!
Magistrate Lu swallowed the bitterness rising in his throat and nodded, however reluctantly.
Gu Lin smiled and cupped his fists:
“Gather the evidence of his crimes as quickly as you can.”
Centurion Cao had made it clear, after all—the four Sacred Grounds shared a common Dao Discipline Office, responsible both for merit-based promotions and for disciplinary investigations alike.
Gathering the evidence was simply a matter of handing it over to the Dao Discipline Office.
His Eastern Temple would conduct this affair with solid reasoning and proper evidence, thoroughly convincing—not some crude abuse of power to bully the weak.
***
Two days later.
The gates of Shiyang City.
Deputy Magistrate Zhao Hou returned, leading a group of his trusted followers.
Before they’d even entered the city, a dozen or so Blade-Bearers clad in elk-deer official robes blocked their path—among them the newly inducted Yan Shouxu, Wei Xuan, and Lin Yan’er.
“What exactly do you all think you’re doing?” Deputy Magistrate Zhao’s face darkened, an ominous premonition welling up within him.
“What do you think?”
A low, deep voice rang out.
The line of Blade-Bearers parted to either side, clearing a path down the middle, and a young man clad in black Xiezhi official robes walked forward at an unhurried pace.
The approaching figure regarded Deputy Magistrate Zhao with a faint smile upon his face.
A fierce surge of hatred welled up in Deputy Magistrate Zhao’s eyes, but something seemed to click into place all at once, and in an instant he felt as though he’d been plunged into an icy cave, a bone-deep chill washing over his entire body.
This beast had already become a member of the Eastern Temple.
Gu Lin stared at him for a long moment, then advanced step by step.
Deputy Magistrate Zhao stumbled backward.
Both inside and outside the city gates, countless onlookers exchanged bewildered glances—this scene before them was nothing less than a complete reversal of status and standing.
At the academy’s Selection Trial, Deputy Magistrate Zhao had sat high at the center, looking down upon Gu Lin of the Wilderness cohort.
Now, Lord Gu of the Eastern Temple strode forward with overwhelming authority, a pressure so intense that the deputy magistrate dared not even meet his gaze directly.
Suddenly.
Smack!
Without a shred of warning, Gu Lin swung his arm in a wide arc and struck him down. Deputy Magistrate Zhao was sent sprawling to the ground, his face swollen and red, blood trickling steadily from the corner of his mouth.
The Zhao family’s martial instructors stood frozen in dread. Not only did they dare not make a single move, they even forcibly suppressed the internal energy within their own dantians, terrified of letting even the faintest trace slip free, lest it be mistaken for resistance against a Sacred Ground.
Deputy Magistrate Zhao forced back his humiliation and pain, shouting hoarsely before the gathered crowd:
“I… I am an official appointed by the Divine Dynasty! My son is a Squad Leader in the Martial Extremity Palace! Even as a member of the Eastern Temple, you have no right to publicly humiliate an official of the Dynasty, Gu Lin!”
Gu Lin leaned down, staring directly at him, and said, each word deliberate and final:
“You think this is merely humiliation? I intend to kill you.”
“Seize him. Take him to the county office. Judge him for his crimes!”
The moment the words fell, several Blade-Bearers moved swiftly, pinning Zhao Hou to the ground and forcibly dragging him away.
Yan Shouxu came forward respectfully to report:
“My lord, Li Jisheng and his daughter Li Qingwu have both been taken into custody at the county office.”
“Our investigation has confirmed that the Fisher’s Gang, acting on Li Jisheng’s instructions, committed several acts of murder and robbery on multiple occasions. This includes the secret leg technique Li Qingwu used at the academy’s Selection Trial—it too, as it turns out, was obtained through Li Jisheng’s murder and theft of another’s treasure.”
Yan Shouxu, as Dean Yan’s own grandson, benefited from his grandfather’s exalted standing within Shiyang County, which gave him access to particularly reliable sources of information—gathering such details hadn’t proven difficult for him at all.
“Very good.”
Gu Lin’s expression turned hard and cold, then softened once more as he continued:
“The four Blade-Bearer Bureaus also maintain a clear system of advancement. Though it won’t let you rise into a Sacred Ground itself, climbing steadily through the ranks of a Blade-Bearer Bureau can still bring you no small amount of glory, along with far greater access to cultivation resources.”
“Keep working hard from here on out. If you ever need anything, I’ll do everything in my power to help.”
Yan Shouxu’s spirits soared, and he spoke with resounding conviction:
“My thanks to you, Lord Gu!”
Gu Lin turned his gaze to Wei Xuan and Lin Yan’er:
“The same goes for the two of you.”
Both women expressed their gratitude with equal fervor and sincerity.
Gu Lin nodded and led his men away.
It was a good thing Centurion Cao had kindly suggested he choose three Blade-Bearers of his own—having trusted men to handle matters on his behalf had genuinely made things a great deal easier.
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