Chapter 44: A Brutal Reckoning with Old Enemies, Breaking Through to Cavern Mystery!
The Shiyang County office was packed with people, inside and out.
Within the main hall, beneath a plaque hung high proclaiming a mirror-bright, incorruptible judgment, Gu Lin sat composed behind the three-foot bench of justice.
Bang!
He struck the alarm block down with a resounding crack.
Amid countless horrified gazes, Deputy Magistrate Zhao—once dignified and commanding—had now fallen to the status of a prisoner kneeling before the bench.
Deputy Magistrate Zhao thrashed desperately against his shackles, his face streaked with blood, and let out a shrill, anguished howl:
“Gu Lin, how dare you abuse your power and settle a personal grudge under false pretenses! Once you return to Chu Province, the Sacred Grounds won’t let you get away with this!”
Gu Lin regarded him with cold contempt:
“Abuse of power? How amusing, truly. If I hadn’t joined the Eastern Temple, it would be my own bones ground to ash and scattered to the wind by your Zhao family right now.”
“Today has nothing to do with personal grudges. I act under the mandate of the Divine Dynasty, fulfilling the duty of the Eastern Temple, handling this case with strict impartiality!”
With that, he drew out a sheet of official paper.
The magistrate, registrar, inspector, and the other officials present all lowered their heads in silence.
This document, from the handwriting to the seal, had come entirely from Lord Gu’s own hand.
But what did that matter?
It carried exactly the same weight as any official arrest warrant issued directly by the Dynasty itself.
Because the Eastern Temple represented the central authority’s own oversight patrol throughout Chu Province.
Lord Gu’s actions were, in every respect, legitimate and lawful.
Gu Lin opened his palm, and a Blade-Bearer promptly handed over a stack of case files. He spoke at an unhurried, deliberate pace:
“Zhao Hou, former Deputy Magistrate of Shiyang County. Took nine concubines into his household, forcibly marrying six of them through coercion, indulging his lust while oppressing the common people. This is his first crime.”
“Instructed the steward of the Zhao household to accept bribes on his behalf. This is his second crime.”
“Three years ago, Li Mantang, younger brother of his concubine surnamed Li, slaughtered eighteen commoners aboard a single boat purely to satisfy his own selfish desires. Zhao Hou deliberately shielded him from justice, and Li Mantang remains free and untouched to this very day. This is his third crime.”
“Two years ago, he instructed Inspector Li of the county office to wipe out the Tiger’s Head Gang under the pretense of suppressing bandits, all because the gang’s leader refused to hand over a three-hundred-year-old ginseng root. He abused his authority to commit indiscriminate slaughter. This is his fourth crime.”
Below the bench, Zhao Hou’s eyes had gone bloodshot, and he glared at Magistrate Lu with the fixed, murderous stare of a vengeful spirit.
Magistrate Lu felt a chill run through him, though not out of fear of Zhao Hou himself, but of his eldest son, Zhao Can.
Gu Lin asked in a stern voice:
“Do you admit your guilt?”
Zhao Hou burst into a fit of hysterical laughter, snarling:
“When you’re determined to convict someone, any excuse will do! A petty wretch like you managing to join the Eastern Temple? You act with such reckless abandon—my boy Can won’t let this go, and the Dynasty itself won’t have room for you……”
His words cut off mid-sentence.
Gu Lin leapt up from behind the three-foot bench.
In the blink of an eye, he stood directly before Zhao Hou, his left palm clamping down on the man’s throat like an iron vise.
Every official and local gentry member present felt a chill run down their spine.
The county office fell utterly silent—silent enough to hear a pin drop, the very air itself seeming to freeze solid.
Only the ragged, labored sound of Zhao Hou’s breathing remained.
Within mere moments, Zhao Hou’s face swelled and darkened to a mottled shade of purple-red, veins bulging thick across his entire face.
Gu Lin’s expression remained utterly blank as he continued to tighten his grip.
Crack.
Zhao Hou’s eyes bulged from their sockets, and his life came to an end.
Looking upon Deputy Magistrate Zhao’s lifeless, contorted body, the atmosphere pressed down to its absolute limit—everyone present felt as though they could barely breathe.
No one could have imagined Lord Gu’s methods would prove so ruthlessly decisive!
Did he truly hold no fear of Lord Zhao Can? After all, Lord Zhao had joined the Martial Extremity Palace a full six years ago—in terms of connections and resources, he undoubtedly overwhelmed Lord Gu by a vast margin.
The hatred of a brother’s death combined now with the hatred of a father’s death—that kind of enmity would follow a man straight down to the underworld itself!
Gu Lin rose slowly to his feet and said in a calm, even voice:
“By order of the Eastern Temple, Gu Lin has punished this wrongdoer. Zhao Hou, a criminal who spurned the grace and favor of the nation, has been executed for his crimes.”
With that, he strode off toward the county office’s holding cells.
Pity?
None whatsoever.
All he felt was pure, unrestrained satisfaction!
Had he lost that day at the Selection Trial, his entire family would very likely be lying dead in some abandoned field by now.
He arrived at the holding cells.
One of the cells held four prisoners.
Li Jisheng and his daughter, along with the Fisher’s Gang’s Second and Third Deputy Leaders.
The moment Li Qingwu laid eyes on that familiar figure, her entire body convulsed violently. She tore the veil from her face as though seized by madness, revealing features too wretched and pitiful to bear looking at, and cried out shrilly:
“I’ve already fallen this low—and still you won’t let me go? My Li family will repay you three thousand taels of silver for the rest of this life, five thousand taels—is that not enough?”
Gu Lin let out a silent laugh.
After a long moment, his voice turned to ice as he said:
“That night, it must have been you who guided that wicked woman of the Hehuan Sect straight to me, nearly costing me my life.”
Li Qingwu trembled like a leaf caught in a storm, then suddenly collapsed to her knees, her face contorted with pleading desperation.
Gu Lin’s fingers twitched lightly within his sleeve.
Whoosh—
A thin line of blood appeared across each of the four prisoners’ throats simultaneously, and all four dropped dead on the spot.
There was no trace of internal energy circulating, no visible sign at all—the entire motion had been utterly formless and silent, genuinely terrifying to behold.
And this was merely the faintest taste of his ability. If he truly gathered his full strength for a single strike, just how horrifying would the fully-leveled Six Meridian Divine Sword actually be?
Gu Lin glanced once more at Li Qingwu’s corpse, then moved on toward the next cell, his expression utterly unchanged.
Inside were held Li Mantang, younger brother of Zhao Hou’s concubine, and Inspector Li.
Gu Lin understood clearly that these two would yield no small amount of merit points.
Without another word, he killed them both on the spot.
Finally, he arrived at one last cell, where a burly young man knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly without pause.
If not for the chubby Wang Mu’s earlier reminder, Gu Lin might not even have remembered this man’s name.
All he recalled was that back at the Wilderness cohort’s academy hall, this man had hurled provocations at him, declaring he’d cripple him, his face twisted with murderous intent.
Zhuang Wei’s face was etched with pure terror, and he wailed:
“Lord Gu, you now hold such immense power and standing—just treat me like some snarling stray dog. Give me a couple of slaps if you must, but please, don’t kill me.”
Gu Lin shook his head and let out a short, mirthless laugh:
“Just thinking about how this stray dog once barked so viciously at me is enough to make killing you feel entirely necessary.”
With that, he flicked his sleeve, and a single claw-strike ended the man’s life.
Moments later, golden starlight flickered to life within his mind, gradually gathering into three large characters: 【Book of Merit】.
【Kill One Grade Three Seven-Star Villain, Kill One Grade Three Six-Star Villain, Kill One Grade Three One-Star Villain, Kill One Grade Four Six-Star Villain, Kill One Grade Four Three-Star Villain……. Reward: Subduing Dragon Eighteen Palms (Full Level)】
【Martial Dao Merit: 896/10000】
【Confucian Dao Merit: 359/1000】
【Arcane Dao Merit: 0/1000】
【Witchcraft Dao Merit: 0/1000】
In an instant, the acupoints throughout his body buzzed and hummed, his dantian gradually swelling, the mist of energy within slowly turning liquid, until his seven meridians and eight channels felt a wave of icy cold, and his dantian erupted with a single, thunderous boom.
Breaking through to Cavern Mystery First Level!
A wide smile spread across Gu Lin’s face—this was, after all, one of the very reasons he’d turned back to Shiyang County in the first place.
‘Subduing Dragon Eighteen Palms, a palm technique honed to the very peak of raw, unyielding power. Paired together with the Six Meridian Divine Sword, just how strong would my true combat strength actually be?’
He murmured to himself, his anticipation growing by the moment.
Of course, he had no intention of settling for merely Cavern Mystery First Level—he still needed to keep pushing forward, breaking through further still!
Once he reached the Eastern Temple in Chu Province, his first priority would be to advance his Confucian Dao cultivation, to see whether there might be an opportunity to open up the Arcane Dao and Witchcraft Dao as well.
Especially the Witchcraft Dao—he wouldn’t need spirit stones to cultivate it directly, but he could accumulate spirit stones to purchase and nurture witch-creatures, and through the strength of the Witchcraft Dao, he could command those creatures to devastating effect—an enemy would never see it coming!
As for the Arcane Dao, he certainly couldn’t neglect that path either. The Arcane Dao allowed for the forging of implements, the refinement of pills, and the laying of formations—and for combat purposes, nothing suited him better than setting up formation arrays before a battle even began.
Opening up these two additional paths would have been utterly impossible in a small place like a mere prefecture, but once he set foot in Chu Province, everything would be different.
And then there was the Chu Province Grand Tournament as well—that, too, was already a fixed goal on his path forward!
Gu Lin cast aside every extraneous thought, glanced once more at the holding cells, and then walked away at an unhurried pace.
The remaining prisoners held within the county office’s cells were nothing more than petty thieves and small-time crooks—entirely devoid of merit points, and besides, their crimes hardly warranted death. Gu Lin had no wish to leave behind a reputation among the public for indiscriminate slaughter.
He led his group of Blade-Bearers back to the Gu family residence, packed up his belongings, and sent someone to deliver a letter to Escort Chief Lin of the Tongxing Escort Agency. The letter’s contents were simple enough: should he ever wish to expand his business into Chu Province, the Gu family would be glad to offer every convenience.
After all, back in Shiyang County, the Escort Chief had shown his father no small amount of kindness over the years.
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