“Evil cultivators keeping martial artists as livestock?”
Lu Zheng’s eyes flickered. Martial artists cultivated vigorous blood and qi, making them excellent cauldrons for those who practised blood-path arts. This was precisely the kind of crooked, heretical practice the military suppressed with lethal force.
That previous martial artist had already been quite strong, roughly a century of cultivation. In any organisation he would count as a regional expert. To keep such a person as a mere blood slave and cauldron, this “master” must be even more powerful.
“Heh heh…”
“Ha ha…”
“Young man, surrender without a fight and you will suffer a little less.”
“Otherwise, under my God-Devouring Art, I fear you will wish you were dead!”
The two voices drew closer and closer, as though whispering right beside their ears.
Lu Zheng and Shen Ying both frowned. The voices muttered and hissed with static-like noise, drilling straight into their ears. They were extremely unpleasant.
“Heh heh, not bad. Still holding on?”
“Ha ha, the higher your cultivation, the happier the master will be!”
The pair seemed in no hurry to attack, still toying with them.
However…
“Shut up!”
Shen Ying gave a low shout, and a spiritual attack shot out with the sound wave.
She had been interrupted at the best part. She could not be bothered to play games with these two.
“Pfft!”
“Hmph!”
One spat blood, the other grunted. Then two figures were forced out of thin air, staggering and nearly falling.
“What?”
The two figures stared in disbelief, looked up at Shen Ying, flipped around, and tried to flee.
But the moment they turned, each saw a pink peach-blossom phantom appear three feet in front of them.
The next instant, the peach blossoms shot into their bodies like lightning. Both felt as though their chests had been struck by a heavy hammer. They simultaneously sprayed blood and collapsed limply to the ground.
“Cultivators!”
“Grandmasters!”
Their hearts sank completely. No matter what, they had never imagined they would encounter such experts.
They themselves possessed nearly two centuries of cultivation each. They were long-famous, their abilities far from ordinary. Even if they met people from the Demon Suppression Division, they could escape unscathed.
When news came that the stronghold had been destroyed and the chief killed, they had been sent to investigate whether it was a random incident or if someone had discovered clues about their master.
They questioned the fleeing villagers, inspected the stronghold ruins, and concluded it was merely an accident.
Then they planned to scout the perpetrators of this “accident”. To their delight, they discovered the pair who wiped out the stronghold had not gone far and were lingering in the maple forest below the mountain.
Overjoyed, the two prepared to capture Lu Zheng and Shen Ying to make up for the loss of that chief.
In their view, the chief had only been average. Anyone who could kill him was nothing special. They were both sorcerers with countless techniques. Capturing two martial artists of roughly a century’s cultivation would be child’s play.
After all, true experts came and went without a trace, like dragons that showed only their heads. They would have destroyed the stronghold in the afternoon and already be a hundred li away by night.
Who would still be playing around in the same spot?
Did they have any awareness of being experts at all?
Therefore…
“How… how is this possible?”
“Who… who are you people?”
Lu Zheng glanced at them. Both looked middle-aged, wore black robes, were tall and thin, and resembled each other with slight beards on their chins.
“Brothers, huh?” Lu Zheng rubbed his chin. “Talk.”
The one on the left flashed his eyes. “Sirs, we admit defeat this time. I…”
Before he could finish, Lu Zheng pointed a finger at him and flung out a God-Devouring Curse.
“Urgh… mmph… argh…”
“It’s just the God-Devouring Curse. You speak as if no one else knows it.” Lu Zheng said calmly.
The one on the right stared in shock and glanced at the sword in Lu Zheng’s hand. “You’re not a martial artist?”
Lu Zheng sighed. “Why are modern villains so talkative?”
Without giving the man on the right a chance to explain, he casually sent another God-Devouring Curse.
Lu Zheng turned to Shen Ying. “I read in a book about punishments that when interrogating, you usually start by saying nothing at all, just give them a show of force first.
“After that, no matter whether what they say is true or false, every time you ask a question you apply torture once more, then ask again in a different order, mixing important and unimportant questions. Ask dozens of times, torture dozens of times, and you will basically get the truth.”
Shen Ying blinked, deeply impressed though she did not fully understand.
The two men currently suffering under the curse changed expressions dramatically. A transcendent studying criminal punishment? What kind of freak was this?
Moreover, when transcendents administered punishment, it was far more terrifying than ordinary methods, because they could torture the soul itself. Absolutely horrifying.
The pair stared at Lu Zheng, nodding frantically through the agony of the curse, indicating they had something to say.
…
Xu Xiuzhu, Baron of Yizhang County, nobility of the Great Jing Dynasty. His grandfather had earned a count’s title through military merit in the north. By Xu Xiuzhu’s generation, it was the final generation of nobility.
Normally, at this point he would either follow his ancestor’s example, go north, earn military merit with blade and spear, and extend the title (the Great Jing military offered leniency to those already holding titles, allowing his son to inherit once more), or he would buy land and shops, shrink the family business, and live comfortably288 as an ordinary rich man. After all, Great Jing was at its zenith; few dared cause trouble.
But Xu Xiuzhu did neither. He took a forbidden manual his grandfather had seized in the north and hidden away, and began cultivating.
Using the resources and connections accumulated over three generations of the Xu family, he secretly bribed several evil cultivators to serve as enforcers, raised blood-qi martial artists as cauldrons, and greased the palms of county officials top to bottom. Astonishingly, everything went smoothly for decades.
Then, using forbidden arts, he controlled many wealthy merchants in the county seat. By now, he was the underground emperor of Yizhang County.
“Good heavens!” Lu Zheng blinked. “Why does his story feel so familiar?”
Shen Ying could not help covering her mouth with her sleeve and laughing softly. “Apart from the three generations of inheritance and cultivating evil arts, he feels rather similar to Lu-lang, doesn’t he?”
Lu Zheng was speechless.
After all, he too was on familiar terms with officials in Yizhou Prefecture and Tonglin County, friendly with wealthy merchants like Old Master Wang, surrounded by a large group of high-cultivation female demons, and rooted in Tonglin County like its underground emperor.
Even Chu Jin, the prefectural inquisitor of the Yizhou Demon Suppression Division, would come asking for his help when he could not find someone.
“Can it be the same?” Lu Zheng protested. “This fellow can’t even see the light of day!”
“Of course it’s different, completely different!”
Shen Ying smiled, stepped forward, and took Lu Zheng’s arm. “What does Lu-lang plan to do? Deal with it ourselves, or report it to the Demon Suppression Division?”
Lu Zheng snapped his fingers. “Do you even need to ask? Of course report it to the Demon Suppression Division. We are upright, law-abiding citizens. Killing and fighting isn’t suitable for us.”
The two captives, “…”
