Chapter 345: Mutual Accusations at the Morning Court

Chapter 345: Chapter 345: Mutual Accusations at the Morning Court

In the Southern Domain, at a place called Li Village, all of its several thousand inhabitants were beheaded in a single night.

Their thousands of heads were piled into a pyramid under a large banyan tree at the village entrance.

Beside the pyramid of heads stood a wooden plaque, on which was written: "Slaughtered by—Blood Shadow!"

This was already the seventh village in the Southern Domain to be completely slaughtered in the past month.

For all seven villages, the method of slaughter was identical: heads piled into a pyramid, with a wooden plaque placed beside it.

In no time, the name Blood Shadow spread throughout the entire Southern Domain.

Nearly every power in the Southern Domain, large and small, was investigating everything they could about Blood Shadow.

But after each slaughter, Blood Shadow would vanish without a trace, as if they had never appeared at all. No one knew how many members Blood Shadow had, or what their collective strength was.

Furthermore, the seven villages were scattered across a thirty-thousand-li radius in the northeastern part of the Southern Domain. These villages normally had no contact with one another; in fact, not a single common thread could be found linking them.

No matter how much people speculated, no one could figure out why Blood Shadow was slaughtering these villages.

If they were merely a bloodthirsty and cruel organization, why were other villages right next to the targeted ones left completely unharmed?

No one knew that Blood Shadow operated by its own set of rules.

When gathered, they were like a scorching sun; when scattered, they were as faint as the light of a firefly.

Ordinarily, they were scattered, with each member even holding a position in a different trade. They had their own special methods of communication.

Even when they undertook a mission together, they would disperse on the spot the moment it was completed.

As it stood, within Blood Shadow, only the twelve squad leaders knew the identities of their own members; no leader knew a thing about the members of any other squad.

The only one who knew the names of every member of Blood Shadow was its leader, Ying Xiao.

Ying Xiao had only arrived in the Southern Domain three days ago, and last night, he participated in one of the slaughter missions for the first time.

At this moment, in an inconspicuous house in a small mountain city in the Southern Domain, Ying Xiao had assembled the twelve squad leaders.

Ying Xiao began the meeting by praising and affirming their performance over the past month.

In fact, Ying Xiao himself had taught every member of the Dark Night Envoy their Killing Techniques.

One could only imagine the deadliness of these Killing Techniques, which he had obtained from the Xiezhi.

Thus, within the Dark Night Envoy, Ying Xiao was revered as a Deity.

To receive praise and affirmation from Ying Xiao was a supreme honor for these squad leaders.

"Lately, our Dark Night Envoy has been far too conspicuous in the Southern Domain. On my way here, all I heard was talk about Blood Shadow. Therefore, we need to lay low for a while. Let those powers search for Blood Shadow. We will ensure they find nothing, leaving them to wallow in suspicion and fear."

"However, laying low does not mean we do nothing. Before we came to the Southern Domain, our patron promised to meet all our conditions. If we need money, we get money. If we need Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, we get Heavenly and Earthly Treasures. We cannot fail our patron’s expectations. In three years, we must secure a sufficiently high position within the God Slaughter Hall. When the time comes for our patron to launch his day of reckoning against the God Slaughter Hall, we will be a sharp dagger aimed at its soft underbelly."

"Therefore, for the time being, all squads will operate independently. No more village massacres. Focus on assassinating single targets—those who have committed great evils. You have full discretion over the operational plans and the number of operatives to deploy. Warn your members that they cannot slack off in their daily Cultivation for even a moment. Three years from now, any member of the Dark Night Envoy below the Divine Separation Realm will be culled."

...

「Ukolok City.」

The previous night, Hanmo Mansion had been raided. More than ten Guards were killed, and one Guard at the Void Realm was injured.

Zerkar did not publicize the incident. He even warned everyone in Hanmo Mansion not to breathe a word of it.

A single person had waltzed into Hanmo Mansion, killed over a dozen Guards, and escaped completely unscathed. If word of this got out, the Hanmo Clan could not afford the humiliation.

But as the Clan Leader of one of the Golden Families, he certainly couldn’t just swallow this insult.

At the grand court assembly held early the next morning, Zerkar submitted a formal complaint, listing twenty-three separate crimes committed by members of the Cage Race in Han City.

Zerkar’s formal complaint sent shockwaves through the court, which immediately erupted into a clamor.

Everyone began to murmur, completely baffled as to what had possessed Zerkar.

Everyone had heard about the incident at Tayun Building two nights ago. But it was the Cage Race’s Guards who had died, and both Moqish and Mo Sang had sustained significant injuries.

Logically, the Cage Race should have been the ones with the grievance, so why had Zerkar of the Hanmo Clan launched a preemptive strike?

Enke, Patriarch of the Cage Race, was equally stunned and confused. But since the accusation had been brought before the entire court, if he didn’t fight back, wouldn’t it be the same as taking a slap to the face without reacting?

Enke immediately began to refute the accusations point by point, while also starting to list the crimes of the Hanmo Clan’s own scions.

Which of the scions of the Eight Golden Families wasn’t covered in their own filth? For a thousand years, everyone had simply turned a blind eye, and these matters were never brought up in the great hall.

And so, the two men began to tear into each other right there in the great hall.

Khan King Niu Guli grew weary of the headache. In the end, he could only punish both sides equally. Both families received penalties, and the more egregious offenders from each clan were sentenced to be caned. Moqish of the Cage Race was among them.

The matter seemed to end with a whimper rather than a bang, but one could not simply judge things by their surface.

Zerkar’s move was a declaration of his position, indirectly telling Enke to control his descendants. Should they truly anger the Hanmo Clan, he, Yilode, was not afraid to fight the Cage Race to the bitter end.

Enke, however, was filled with rage. He had absolutely no idea how he had offended Yilode.

After the court session ended, three to five scions from each of the two families were taken to the Palace City for their punishment.

Moqish received thirty strokes of the cane. For a Divine Separation Realm Martial Artist like him, thirty strokes were nothing—not even enough to scratch an itch—but the loss of face was immense.

When he learned that this was all because of the complaint Yilode had filed in court, the new hatred piled onto his old grudges, and his fury was thoroughly ignited.

As for the true mastermind, Chu Fan, he was still lying on his cot, wrapped up like a mummy.

No one would have ever suspected that he was the one sowing discord.

After all, he had just received twenty lashes from a Fire Rope Whip the previous morning. In everyone else’s eyes, he was lucky to even be half-alive.

How could he possibly have been the one to raid Hanmo Mansion? Let alone injure a Void Realm expert with a single sword strike and then escape unscathed from the combined assault of two such masters.

In the adjacent courtyard, a Maid who had just gone out returned to report to Li Haiqin, "Princess, just after the court session ended, several scions from both the Cage Race and the Hanmo Clan were taken to the Palace City to be caned."

"Oh? Who were they?" Li Haiqin asked, her interest piqued.

"All of them were known for committing crimes in Han City. I believe that Moqish was among them."

"What about Jisierk?" Li Haiqin asked quickly.

"Jisierk was not on the punishment list."

Overhearing their hushed conversation, Chu Fan couldn’t suppress a small smile.

’The first fire is burning nicely,’ Chu Fan thought. ’I’ll wait a couple of days, then I’ll light the second one.’

’I have a month anyway. I’ll use this time to create rifts between the Eight Golden Families first.’

’Let Ukolok City fall into chaos for a while. Otherwise, once news from the South Garden arrives, what if Niu Guli gets it in his head to raise an army and march east? Wouldn’t my whole trip to the Northern Domain have been for nothing?’