Chapter 50: Fury Ignites, Tooth for Head!
Ten days later, Gu Lin returned to Chu City.
This trip had spanned a full month in total.
Two tasks completed—one could truly call it a bountiful harvest.
His Martial Dao cultivation had risen to Cavern Mystery Third Level, and he had mastered “Inch-Sized Thunder.”
His Confucian Dao cultivation had risen to Confucian Scholar, Spirit Nurturing First Level, and he had mastered “Net of Heaven and Earth.”
He had also obtained a First-Tier Demon-Seeking Insect.
His next goal was to focus on selecting scrolls and records concerning Witchcraft Dao cultivators, so as to break through into Witchcraft Dao cultivation as soon as possible!
Gu Lin rode his horse into Luoxia City.
He had only just arrived home.
When he saw Yan Shouxu, Wei Xuan, and Lin Yan’er, along with his mother Zhou Man, all wearing looks of deep worry.
Gu Lin felt an ominous sense of foreboding wash over him instantly.
“My lord Gu!”
“Lin’er…”
Gu Lin asked urgently:
“Where’s my father?”
He turned toward his mother. Zhou Man’s eyes were rimmed red, and she said, choking back tears:
“Your father, Escort Chief Lin, and Wang Mu were all detained in the prefecture’s prison. It’s already been nine days.”
Gu Lin’s fury erupted almost instantly, uncontrollable.
Yan Shouxu quickly moved to reassure him. “Reporting to you, my lord—this humble servant visited them just yesterday. Uncle Gu and the others are not in any immediate danger to their lives.”
Gu Lin steadied his emotions and asked in a cold voice:
“Tell me everything, from start to finish.”
Wei Xuan quickened her pace of speech, laying it all out in one breath:
“Reporting to you, my lord—half a month ago, Uncle Gu and the other two opened an escort agency. Unexpectedly, they came under investigation by the Bureau of Price Standardization, which claimed the agency was suspected of violations involving escorted goods, and detained Uncle Gu and the others.”
“The Bureau of Price Standardization is a sixth-rank office overseeing commercial affairs and trade order across Chu Province, tasked with stabilizing prices. The office’s presiding official is named Sima Chongguang, an upper sixth-rank official, hailing from the direct line of the Fourth Branch of the Sima clan.”
“Zhao Can of the Martial Extremity Palace is betrothed to Sima Zhishu, the legitimate daughter of the Fourth Branch of the Sima clan!”
The moment these words fell, a chilling coldness spread across Gu Lin’s face.
He first offered his mother a few words of comfort, then set off with the three others toward the Bureau of Price Standardization’s prison.
Yan Shouxu said in a low voice:
“My lord, the Bureau has been investigating for days on end now. They likely haven’t found any actual evidence of wrongdoing against the escort agency, and can only keep them detained on the pretext of suspected violations involving escorted goods.”
Gu Lin pulled tight on the reins, his fury impossible to contain.
Fortunately, he’d only been in Chu Province a short while, and the escort agency had only just opened—otherwise his father, Wang Mu, and the others would already be dead in that prison!
Had the agency been open even half a year or a few months, the slightest careless oversight—overcharging a client by a tael or two, or an incomplete official stamp on a shipment’s paperwork—would have been more than enough for the Bureau of Price Standardization to make a mountain out of a molehill and slap on an unpardonable charge!
An hour later, the four of them arrived at the prison under the Bureau of Price Standardization’s jurisdiction, where every inmate held within was a merchant engaged in commerce.
Arriving at the prison, they found Gu Changchuan and the other two.
Gu Changchuan and Escort Chief Lin, both possessing advanced Energy Condensation cultivation, were nonetheless gaunt and haggard, their prison garb stained with bloody streaks. The pudgy Wang Mu had been beaten until his skin split open, his entire face swollen black and blue.
“Jingming.”
The instant he saw his son, Gu Changchuan scrambled up and clutched tight at the iron bars, saying urgently:
“The agency is innocent—the agency never committed a single violation!”
Gu Lin saw the countless wounds covering his father’s hands and fought with everything he had to rein in his spiraling emotions.
Gu Changchuan drew his hands back, feeling he’d only brought trouble upon his son, and dragged Brother Lin and Wang Mu into it as well.
The moment Wang Mu laid eyes on Gu Lin, tears streamed down his face at once, his voice breaking into a wailing sob.
Gu Lin commanded:
“Get the jailers in here and have them release everyone!”
Yan Shouxu and the other two went to see to it at once.
Moments later, a portly official in ninth-rank robes arrived, leading a group of jailers.
He glanced at the black Xiezhi robe and said with utmost deference:
“This humble one is Liu Shouji, prison warden of the Bureau of Price Standardization. This one pays respects to my lord Gu.”
Gu Lin didn’t even spare him a glance, saying sharply:
“Release them.”
Yet the warden showed no sign of complying, deliberately putting on a pitiful, mournful expression, offering the same excuse:
“My lord Gu, releasing prisoners from this jail requires an official document from the Bureau’s presiding official, Lord Sima. Those are the rules—please don’t put this lowly one in a difficult position.”
“Difficult position?”
Gu Lin walked toward him step by step, then suddenly swung his arm in a wide arc, sending the warden crashing to the ground, his face covered in blood.
Immediately after, Gu Lin drew out a notebook and rapidly wrote several lines with a swift, scratching stroke of his brush, stamping his seal at the bottom.
He slapped the document against the warden’s forehead and said in a voice cold as ice:
“The Eastern Temple is investigating these three men—do you think the Bureau of Price Standardization outranks the Eastern Temple? Should the Eastern Temple obediently line up behind the Bureau of Price Standardization instead?”
The warden wiped the blood from his face, carefully tucked away the document, and said in a trembling voice:
“Release them!”
Several jailers unlocked the cells, and Gu Lin carefully examined the injuries of all three men.
Wang Mu’s tears flowed like a spring as he choked out:
“Jingming, they… they beat me every single day in that cell, trying to force a confession out of me, but the agency had only just opened—what violation could there possibly have been?”
“Let’s get you out of here first.”
Gu Lin led them out of the prison and instructed:
“Wei Xuan, Lin Yan’er—go to the Blade-Bearer Bureau and fetch some medicine.”
“Yes!”
The two set off at once, following his order.
Gu Lin returned home. His mother wept tears of overwhelming joy, and Gu Changchuan, seeing the light of day once more, wept old man’s tears as well.
Yan Shouxu said in a low voice:
“My lord, the escort agency can’t continue operating—if it does, the Bureau of Price Standardization will keep watching it day after day, and sooner or later they’ll fabricate a precise enough charge to pin on it.”
Even as he spoke, a shadow of gloom settled over his own face—he hadn’t expected the Sima clan itself to get involved. Going forward, endless trouble lay ahead, and every action would need to be taken with the utmost care and caution.
Gu Lin paced back and forth, the cold intent in his eyes growing deeper still.
Sima Chongguang, was it?
He had to be made to pay.
And not merely an eye for an eye!
In this world, weakness and yielding didn’t buy peace and harmony—they only invited even more vicious oppression!!
***
Luoxia City.
The Zhao family estate.
In the study, a woman clad in an ornate skirt gracefully brewed tea, while beside her, a handsome, refined-looking man sat quietly leafing through a cultivation manual.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone was at the door.
The one who entered bowed respectfully and reported on the matter of the prison at the Bureau of Price Standardization.
A shadow of gloom crossed Zhao Can’s face, though he composed himself again a moment later.
He had known all along that once the little beast returned, he would surely use his standing in the Eastern Temple to forcibly take the three men away.
“My love, you’re being far too hasty.”
Sima Zhishu handed him a cup of fragrant tea, her crimson lips parting gently as she spoke:
“Wait a year or so, and then have Third Uncle’s Bureau of Price Standardization investigate the escort agency once more—this time, they’ll be certain to pin down a clear and definite charge. Then we can lawfully and rightfully slaughter that beast’s father and his friends.”
Zhao Can said nothing.
How could he not be hasty?
His father had been strangled to death by that little beast with his own bare hands, his own younger brother had died a gruesome death upon that dueling platform, and he himself suffered nightmares every single night, dreaming of his father and brother in the underworld, furiously accusing him of letting that little beast live on for the sake of his own future.
Zhao Can was tormented beyond measure, suffering unbearably.
Sima Zhishu took hold of Zhao Can’s wrist, speaking slowly and deliberately:
“My love, you mustn’t act rashly. That Gu beast isn’t a Blade-Bearer—he’s a member of the Eastern Temple. Any private vendetta pursued behind the scenes would be utterly reckless.”
“What does he have that could ever compare to you? If he traded his life for yours, do you truly think it would be worth it? Do you truly think he’s even worthy of such a thing?”
“Don’t worry—my Sima clan’s Fourth Branch will keep finding ways, whether there’s a real reason or not, to make life miserable for that Gu family. As for that Gu Lin beast, with how brazenly he carries himself, he’s bound to slip up sooner or later—and when that day comes and we find something to hold against him, the Martial Extremity Palace will strike him down like a bolt of thunder!”
Zhao Can steadied his emotions and turned his hand to hold his beloved’s palm in return.
Sima Zhishu leaned gently into Zhao Can’s embrace. As his future wife, she naturally shared his hatred for their common enemy—that a person of such low standing would dare to insult her beloved filled her, too, with a deep sense of humiliation.
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