Under the patrolling officer’s lead, Dong Dagong crossed through the streets and alleyways. Strangely enough, they were not headed for the Department of Law and Punishment. Instead, they made their way out.
“Where are we going?” Dong Dagong asked.
“You’ll know once you’re there,” said the patrolling officer.
It was dust. The evening lights had only just been lit.
Dong Dagong looked up. The hazy sky between the buildings had begun to drizzle before he knew it.
Along the way, they encountered another group, which was also ushered towards outside the city under another patrolling officer’s guide.
They were not particularly close with one another, but they were still fellow soldiers, so they greeted one another and began to talk and befriend each other.
When a certain object appeared on the horizon, everyone gazed up. That was a colossal figure, standing with its back to Myriad city, below the hazy clouds.
It was Li Qingshan’s statue.
They were all very familiar with this figure. They could not help but think of the Xuanwu Army God, and they were rather roused at heart for some reason.
As the statue gradually became larger with their approach, they already understood that this was their reason for coming here. They had vaguely guessed something, and they gradually grew serious, all falling silent. They just trudged through the rain in an oppressive atmosphere as if they were mad at one another.
To draw a clear line with Li Qingshan…
How could the statue of a traitor be allowed to stand outside Myriad city in such a glorious manner?
What the Myriad sect wanted them to do was already screaming out at them.
The sky grew darker and darker. More and more lanterns were lit. The rain also became heavier as it fell.
A disturbance silently unfolded in the city. The flow of people followed the patrolling officers outside the city.
The bridge outside the city gates was already filled with people, waiting for what would happen next. Their group could only pass through after parting the crowd. The faces around them were all cold but also excited.
On the harbour square, the master of the Department of Law and Punishment, Leng Yuan, stood high on a huge beast with his hands behind his back. It was shaped like a wolf, but it lacked any fur, instead covered in layers of icicles, giving off a sense of coldness. The drizzle all turned to pellets when it approached it.
The giant beast lay on the ground. Before its claws were people from the four offices of patrol, enforcement, judgement, and punishment.
Li Qingshan’s statue towered over the ocean without budging, gazing into the depths, allowing the winds and waves to slam into it. It was completely unaware of everything occurring behind it.
“Senior brother, Dong Dagong and the others have been brought here. We’ve gathered everyone!”
The patrolling officer bowed towards Leng Yuan, but Leng Yuan ignored him, so he simply returned to the ground that belonged to the office of patrol.
Around a hundred soldiers stood near the ocean, gazing at Li Qingshan’s statue together. From so close, the greyish-black statue seemed particularly stalwart and valiant. They had once advanced at all costs with this figure in front of them.
Yet now, behind them was the entire Department of Law and Punishment and behind them were thousands of onlookers.
They were all people that the Department of Law and Punishment had determined to be connected to Li Qingshan.
There were countless soldiers in the army that revered Li Qingshan, but the Department of Law and Punishment could not investigate several hundred thousand people.
These soldiers had all been heavily rewarded by Li Qingshan after the battle of Black Cloud city, so they had basically received his personal graces. At the same time, they were all at least Foundation Establishment cultivators that had undergone the first heavenly tribulation, having reached the basic requirements to join the sect. As such, they were all regarded as disciples of the Myriad sect, even if they were only “attendants” and “readers” that dwelled at the very bottom of the hierarchy without the title of “disciple”.
Meanwhile, proper disciples like formal disciples and inner disciples could be considered as mainstays of the sect. In the army, they all held important positions like commandants and generals. Even if they were to be investigated, they would be investigated privately and not summoned here like that, ordered to draw a clear line between them and Li Qingshan.
As for ordinary soldiers with lower cultivations, no matter how fervently they revered Li Qingshan, they were insufficient to change the greater situation. Changing their impression of Li Qingshan was not difficult either. Even those who would rather die than change would be forced to press forwards under the general trend of events, even if their enemy was Li Qingshan.
Actually, the reason why Li Qingshan rewarded them heavily was not to show them his graces, but only due to the fact that they fought valiantly and died with batting an eye. Many of them had died at least three times during that battle, but after being reborn, they continued to advance behind him.
Without them, Li Qingshan would not have won!
“Begin!”
Leng Yuan ordered.
A person from the office of enforcement stood forward immediately and said loudly, “You all know that Li Qingshan is a traitor, so I don’t have to say much more. Each of you are under the suspicion of colluding with the Demon domain!”
Wang Junxing was filled with the delight of revenge. When it came to the person who was happiest in the Myriad sect when they heard that Li Qingshan had defected to the Demon domain, it would probably be him, even if Li Qingshan had probably forgotten who he was a long time ago.
He was originally the officer in charge of allocating dwellings in the Department of Heavenly Dwellings. He had received bribes from the head caretaker of the Hundred Herbs garden, Shen Yushu, to make things difficult for Li Qingshan, but he had been punished by Li Qingshan instead before he ended up getting expelled from the Department of Heavenly Dwellings by Pi Yangqiu. Having lost his easy, good-paying job in the Department of Heavenly Dwellings, he was forced to become a patrolling officer in the Department of Law and Punishment, which he also planned on using to get revenge on Li Qingshan.
However, when Li Qingshan became the first senior brother, he no longer dared to remain in Myriad city, transferring over to the office of enforcement in a hurry so that he could instead rush around outside apprehending criminals. Even then, he still lived in fear, afraid of the day when Li Qingshan would remember him and make him suffer the same fate as Shen Yushu.
No one understood what kind of life he led during those days. Now, after much anticipation, he finally lasted until the day when Li Qingshan defected. He basically felt like he had just been spared. He was so delighted that he almost became mad.
When others were still reluctant to accept this job in consideration of Li Qingshan’s kindness and influence, he asked for it proactively, purely for the sake of venting.
When they heard that, there was a disturbance among the soldiers. The crime of colluding with the Demon domain was even more severe than deserting in battle. It would only lead to death.
“However, our Department of Law and Punishment has always been fair and impartial, with senior brother Leng wise and mighty. We will neither spare any bad people nor wrongly punish any good people. Today, your mission is to completely destroy this statue, leaving it without a single trace remaining. And, everyone must take part. If you don’t, hmph, you’re welcome to imagine your own fates!”
The soldiers looked at one another, but none of them wanted to do it.
Wang Junxing flew into a rage and questioned, “Don’t tell me you’re sympathising with that traitor of humanity and also prepared to defect to the Demon domain?” He basically wished these people would all stand by so that the Department of Law and Punishment could kill all of these lackeys of Li Qingshan!
The soldiers’ faces all sank. They refused to budge. They were all proud and valiant soldiers that had been through countless battles. The more fiercely they were threatened, the more they refused to yield.
The surrounding people all held their breaths. If this continued, they had no idea what would happen. The accusation that the Department of Law and Punishment had put forward was so heavy that probably all of them would perish here.
“Commandant Luo, your military rank is the highest here, so be their example!” Leng Yuan said suddenly.
He had never liked Li Qingshan. From beginning to end, that man gave off a sense of unruliness that could not be restrained by rules. However, he had not come here today to kill people. Otherwise, any of the inner disciples under his command could butcher all the people here.
“Senior brother Leng, I…” A long-faced man was taken aback, clearly rather reluctant to go ahead with that.
“Junior brother Luo, how many of your fellow soldiers have fallen on the battlefields in the Demon domain?”
“Countless.” Commandant Luo lowered his head.
“Do you want these fellow soldiers of yours to just die for nothing here?”
“I don’t.”
“When Li Qingshan defected to the Demon domain, he did not think of you. That was the path he chose. You also have to choose your own paths now.”
For once, Leng Yuan betrayed his usual stoicism. It could almost be described as giving patient advice.
These soldiers did not possess a particularly high cultivation, but they were the backbone to the Xuanwu army. If they perished here, then the morale of the Xuanwu army would definitely be drastically affected, even to a point beyond recovery. It would be greatly detrimental to the sect.
Commandant Luo lowered his head and contemplated it for a while before sighing. “Thank you for your reminder, senior brother. I understand.” He turned around and made his way towards the water, wielding his right hand like a blade and raising it high into the air. Sucking in a deep breath, he swung down heavily.
A streak of light whistled through the air, slashing against Li Qingshan’s statue. With a rumble, loose rock scattered in the air, falling into the ocean with plips and plops.
The spectators all cried out together.
When they looked at Li Qingshan’s statue again, there was already a deep gash.
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