Chapter 91 - 88: Beast Blood
Chapter 91: Chapter 88: Beast Blood
"Execute them!"
The call was relayed from one person to the next, all the way to the execution platform.
Upon receiving the order, the executioner—dressed in red with a face full of bushy whiskers—picked up a nearby wine bowl and took a great swig of strong liquor.
He then sprayed the liquor from his mouth onto the thick-backed, gleaming cleaver in his hand.
This was a standard ritual for an executioner. First, drinking fortified his courage. Second, spraying the liquor on the blade was believed to ensure a cleaner cut and ward off evil spirits.
’Yellow wine and a steel blade, beheading’s as easy as cutting cake!’
Once prepared, the executioner walked over to a captive from the Mo Mountain Tribe and gripped the thick-backed cleaver with both hands.
He suddenly exerted his strength. The executioner’s muscles bulged, veins popped on his skin, and a series of crisp cracks echoed from his bones. He was actually a Martial Artist, and one who had reached the Bone Forging Pass at that.
The next moment, the thick-backed cleaver was raised high.
Then, it came swinging down.
CRACK!
The captive was instantly decapitated. Blood sprayed forth, and the headless body twitched for a while before finally falling still.
"You damn officials! You’ll all die horrible deaths! The Mountain God won’t let you get away with this!"
Seeing one of his men killed, the Third Elder of the Mo Mountain Tribe began cursing furiously again.
However, in a situation like this, no one paid him any mind.
The executioner continued on. With a swift rise and fall of his blade, another head flew into the air.
In the span of just a dozen breaths, all the Mo Mountain Tribe captives who had been captured with the Third Elder had become ghosts under the executioner’s blade.
The garish, pungent blood flowed across the ground, a shocking sight to behold.
Yet at this moment, the surrounding onlookers were all cheering.
The Mo Mountain Tribe paid no taxes, offered no grain, occupied the mountain forests, and frequently came down to plunder.
In the eyes of these common people, the Mo Mountain Tribe was nothing more than a band of bandits, a group of uncivilized savages.
"Haha...!"
At this, the Mo Mountain Tribe’s Third Elder suddenly threw his head back and laughed, looking like a madman.
"You all deserve to die! All of you!"
He screamed and bellowed, tears streaming down his face in utter grief.
Seated on the high platform, Liu Zheng was currently scanning the crowd below with his gaze.
He seemed to be searching for something.
’So he really is fishing.’
Within the crowd, Fang Yue had been keeping a close eye on County Magistrate Liu Zheng.
From the very beginning, he’d felt this was a trap set by the County Magistrate’s Office, using this execution as bait.
Forces had surely been positioned in secret all around; the plaza was a trap.
The moment anyone from the Mo Mountain Tribe appeared to rescue the Third Elder, they would be met with a devastating blow.
But if the Mo Mountain Tribe did nothing, dissent would surely arise within the tribe.
As the tribe’s Third Elder, he was bound to have people close to him. Besides, if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. If the tribe failed to act, others would become alienated.
Therefore, it didn’t actually matter whether the Mo Mountain Tribe’s reinforcements came or not.
’This Lord Liu has played his hand beautifully.’
Having figured it all out, Fang Yue couldn’t help but be impressed. No one who could become a County Magistrate was a simple person to deal with.
It was best to have as little to do with such people as possible. Otherwise, who knew when you might get caught in one of their schemes?
Perhaps because there had been no movement for a long time, it seemed no one was actually coming to rescue the Mo Mountain Tribe’s Third Elder.
At that moment, Liu Zheng gave a slight nod.
The executioner, who had been watching Liu Zheng the entire time, immediately got the signal.
He then walked up to the condemned man.
The thick-backed cleaver rose high.
Just then, a commotion suddenly broke out in the crowd.
"The granary’s on fire!"
Someone shouted—it was impossible to tell who—and everyone’s attention instantly snapped toward the Government Office.
Xiahe County’s granary was located a short distance west of the Government Office.
Sure enough, a plume of thick smoke was rising into the sky from the direction of the granary.
If one listened carefully, it seemed you could even hear the sounds of battle.
The granary was under attack, set ablaze by arsonists.
Without a doubt, this was the work of the Mo Mountain Tribe.
They were all shrewd characters.
One was fishing for a target, while the other attacked a place the enemy was forced to save.
With the granary on fire, could County Magistrate Liu afford to ignore it?
Of course he had to deal with it!
After all, a famine was looming this year. And in a year of famine, what is most scarce? Grain.
If the official granary’s reserves were truly burned to the ground, chaos would erupt immediately.
As expected, Liu Zheng’s expression had turned ugly.
He made no overt movements, but Fang Yue saw several people in commoner’s clothes take advantage of the commotion to leave the plaza and head toward the granary.
’Then the next move should be here, right?’
A feint to the east to attack in the west. The granary was burning, and the court experts lying in wait at the plaza had been drawn away.
It was time for the Mo Mountain Tribe to make their move and rescue their Third Elder.
As if to confirm Fang Yue’s thoughts.
Right at that moment, a dozen or so figures shot out from the now-chaotic crowd.
They were dressed as ordinary commoners, but as they leaped up, their bodies suddenly expanded by several degrees.
In an instant, they transformed from scrawny commoners into powerful, able-bodied Martial Artists.
The government constables and soldiers near the execution platform reacted, drawing their blades and engaging the intruders.
The common folk nearby were naturally terrified and scattered in all directions.
They were desperate to avoid being swept up in the bloody battle.
Fang Yue naturally blended into the crowd to leave as well.
However, his gaze remained fixed on the battlefield near the execution platform.
’They’re a bit weak. With just these few people, Liu Zheng could kill them all by himself. Even with some of his forces diverted, the remaining guards are more than these men can handle.’
Sure enough, in just a few moments, some of the Mo Mountain Tribe reinforcements were struck down and killed, while even more were wounded.
It was clear they couldn’t hold on for much longer and would soon be wiped out.
At that moment, the few leading mountain people, who possessed Bone Forging strength, pulled out bamboo tubes from their clothes.
It was unclear what was inside, but they opened them, tilted their heads back, and drank it all in one gulp.
Just a few moments later, the three men’s faces became savage, their eyes turned blood-red, and their bodies began to swell in an instant.
In the space of a few short breaths, the bodies of these three men ballooned in size.
Each of them transformed into a small giant, only a little shorter than the Third Elder himself.
After their bodies grew, they seemed to lose their minds.
The first to suffer were their own companions. Two of the weaker mountain people were torn to shreds on the spot.
’What did they drink? How can it make a person’s body expand several times in an instant?’
Fang Yue naturally saw this, but it filled him with a sense of unreality.
There were special Cultivation Techniques in the Martial Dao that could alter one’s body shape, such as the Bone Shrinking Skill, which allowed an adult’s skeleton to shift and pass through gaps only a child could fit through.
There were also body-strengthening Cultivation Techniques that could make a frail body more robust after being implemented.
But all of these had their limits.
Moreover, they all required years of practice and training to achieve such effects.
However, these three men had simply drunk something and transformed into their current state, like miniature giants.
And just by looking at them, one could tell their strength was astonishing.
Their power had surely surpassed that of a Bone Forging Pass Martial Artist.
As for how far beyond, he couldn’t guess without testing it himself.
"By order of the Lord Prefect, the Mo Mountain rebels are enemies to all, and everyone has the right to execute them! All you Martial Scholars, you too have a duty. Upon seeing this order, you must obey and await deployment!"
"Why are you not attacking together to exterminate these villains?"
By this point, Fang Yue had almost reached the exit of the plaza.
But then he heard Liu Zheng’s self-righteous voice and saw the man holding up a token.
His gaze swept over Fang Yue, then flickered toward several other directions in the crowd.
"Damn, I was so close. This County Magistrate Liu is truly ruthless!"
A Martial Artist stopped in his tracks, turned against the flow of the crowd, and slowly walked back toward the execution platform.
Fang Yue recognized him as a Martial Scholar from last year.
At the same time, several others did the same, and among them was Wei He.
Fang Yue had no choice but to stop as well. At that moment, he understood.
The Martial Scholars present in the crowd had also been ensnared in Liu Zheng’s scheme.
Ordinarily, by virtue of their status as Martial Scholars, they were not officials of the County Magistrate’s Office.
Liu Zheng had no authority to command them.
But the man had prepared a Prefect’s Order in advance.
The Prefect of Shanyang Prefecture, a Senior Third Grade official.
He was a true governor of the Great Wei Dynasty, with the power to strip a Martial Scholar of their title.
If they disobeyed the Prefect’s Order today, they would likely be stripped of their Martial Scholar titles and thrown into prison tomorrow.
’If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have come to watch the show.’
Fang Yue smiled wryly to himself and also headed toward the execution platform.
It was already too late. While the three transformed mountain people were causing a distraction, others had already freed the Third Elder from his bonds and rescued him.
The moment he was freed, the Mo Mountain Tribe’s Third Elder unleashed a violent, ferocious, and murderous aura.
He was like a Fierce Beast from the mountains—savage, brutal, and cruel.
His tyrannical power was so immense that even Fang Yue felt a faint sense of crisis.
After breaking free, the man didn’t flee. Instead, he charged straight for County Magistrate Liu, looking as if he intended to kill him on the spot.
’The state of these mountain people is bizarre. Their bodies are tyrannical, and their strength is unknown. I can’t fight them head-on.’
Fang Yue’s eyes narrowed as he watched one of the mountain people grab a soldier who couldn’t dodge in time and crumple him into a ball.
He slowed his steps, and then he spotted several archers off to the side.
An idea immediately came to him.
By now, the Martial Scholar who had been the first to step forward had reached the execution platform and was engaged with one of the mountain people who looked like a ’small mountain’.
At first, the exchange was even.
But soon, the Martial Scholar no longer dared to clash head-on with his opponent and began to circle him instead.
It was obvious he was no match for his opponent in terms of pure strength.
However, a long defense is bound to fail.
Soon, the mountain man found an opening and smashed down with a fist larger than a vinegar bowl.