"My lord, Shopkeeper Li, and the brothers from the Joint Defense Camp have all been seized by the Imperial Guard and thrown into the Heavenly Prison!"
"My lord's warhorses and resources have all been confiscated!"
"Not only that, they framed the brothers for stealing warhorses, calling it the heinous crime of treason, punishable by the extermination of nine clans!"
The man pressed his forehead to the ground, his heart churning with grief and indignation.
"What? The Imperial Guard? Who did this?"
Ning Chuan flew into a rage. The organization behind him had actually raided his very foundations.
He looked toward Zhang Chao, his gaze unfriendly.
Zhang Chao spread his hands.
"Ma Dayuan led the men who did it!"
Seeing Ning Chuan's fury, he patted Ning Chuan on the shoulder and said earnestly,
"Brother, this matter needs to be considered over the long term. If you can ask Lord Leng to step in, it should be easy enough to settle. It all depends on how much weight you carry in Lord Leng's heart!"
Ning Chuan pondered everything that had happened today.
The moment he entered the city, the Black Tiger Gang had come to seize his younger siblings. Who had tipped them off?
And now the Imperial Guard had arrested Shopkeeper Li and the others, even confiscating the warhorses he had seized from the bandits.
The two incidents had come one after another. Behind them, there had to be the shadow of the Straw Bag Strategist!
The County Yamen and the Imperial Guard were at odds. The Straw Bag Strategist had used the Imperial Guard's internal strife to deal with him.
It had both widened the enemy's internal conflicts and struck Ning Chuan with precision—a plan that killed several birds with one stone.
"Once I free up my hands, I'll deal with that old bastard!"
"First I'll beat the shit out of him, then chop him into pieces with a thousand blades!"
Holding back a mouthful of rage, Ning Chuan patiently instructed his younger siblings not to run around before striding furiously toward the Imperial Guard.
"You dare arrest my people and confiscate my things!"
"Ma Dayuan, I'd like to see whether you truly have three heads and six arms!"
Seeing Ning Chuan's killing intent blaze, Zhang Chao feared he would do something rash and shouted after him.
"Brother Ning, go find Lord Leng first! Don't be impulsive!"
"Brother Ning!"
"Brother Ning!"
Ning Chuan ignored him, worried about Shopkeeper Li and the others.
He had heard that the Imperial Guard's Heavenly Prison admitted people but never released them. Even if someone was lucky enough to emerge, they would be crippled if not dead.
He entered the Imperial Guard compound and charged straight toward the Heavenly Prison.
Watching Ning Chuan's departing back, Zhang Chao knew he could not stop him. Gritting his teeth, he said,
"No, I have to report this to Lady Xiao Lian!"
The Imperial Guard colleagues saw Ning Chuan storm in with fierce momentum, and curiosity immediately rose.
"Who's this kid? Why haven't I seen him before?"
"I heard he's a colleague recommended by Lord Leng!"
"Oh, Lord Leng's man. Why is he charging in so aggressively?"
"He's heading for the Heavenly Prison!"
Those who knew the inside story had flickering eyes. Someone had already gone to report to Ma Dayuan.
At that moment, the Imperial Guard's Heavenly Prison was packed to bursting.
From the shopkeepers to the clerks of the Qingshi Chamber of Commerce, along with more than fifty men from the Qingshi Town Joint Defense Camp, all had been imprisoned here.
Most had already fainted under the torment of brutal torture. A small number remained awake, terror filling their eyes.
"My lord, please show mercy! Please spare this lowly one!"
"My lord, I didn't steal the warhorses!"
"My lord, you can't do this!"
Those still awake shook the bars, knelt on the ground to beg for mercy, and cried out with their hearts torn apart.
Shopkeeper Li and Zhang Dashan were covered in blood, bound to a wooden stake so thick it took two people to encircle it.
Their clothes were in tatters and their bodies were scarred all over. They had already fallen unconscious, clearly having received special attention.
Seven or eight Imperial Guards were bustling about the Heavenly Prison without paying any heed to everyone's cries.
The Imperial Guards worked in pairs. One unfolded a document, while the other seized an unconscious person's hand and pressed their fingerprint onto it.
The ink on the documents had yet to dry, and every one of them listed Ning Chuan's crimes.
"Outside Qingshi Town, he colluded with bandits and murdered more than ten civilians!"
"At the Qingshi Town inn, he resisted the court's arrest and killed dozens of constables in the street!"
"He stole more than four hundred warhorses from the city defense army, along with more than five hundred sets of standard armor and weapons. He colluded with bandits and plotted rebellion!"
"In Hanshan Town, he raped and murdered more than ten village women. His crimes were monstrous!"
Any one of these crimes was enough to cost Ning Chuan his head.
Not to mention that, in all their hands combined, there were dozens of such documents.
After everyone finished bustling about, they handed all the fingerprinted documents to an Imperial Guard.
This Imperial Guard was tall and powerfully built, with a face covered in a thick beard. His small eyes gleamed with vicious malice.
He was Ma Dayuan's favored man, his number one general—the Captain Wang Meng, known as the Mad Tiger.
Wang Meng held the stack of criminal indictments. Even he drew in a sharp breath when he looked them over.
"Haha... So many charges. Even I'm trembling with fear just reading them. Ning Chuan is dead for sure this time!"
"A man personally recommended by that Cold-faced Girl committed such sky-high crimes. No matter how powerful his background, she won't escape the crime of negligence!"
"Once this is reported upward, won't that Cold-faced Girl have to slink back with her tail between her legs to wherever she came from?"
"Hahahaha... Ning Chuan's crimes are too numerous to write down even if all the bamboo on earth were used as slips!"
A thin, scrawny man hurried forward, his face full of fawning flattery. As he smiled, a pair of huge buck teeth showed.
"Captain Wang is absolutely right. Once the Cold-faced Girl is driven away and Lord Ma smoothly takes his position, won't Captain Wang's promotion to Squad Leader be as natural as water flowing downhill?"
"When that time comes, I hope Lord Wang will give me plenty of support!"
Wang Meng enjoyed hearing that, and his heart swelled with even greater pride. He patted the scrawny man on the shoulder.
"Easy, easy!"
The others followed suit, stepping forward to shower him with praise. Wang Meng became even more intoxicated with triumph.
"Hahahaha..."
Wang Meng's smug laughter echoed through the Heavenly Prison.
"Is framing someone really that funny?"
Wang Meng's eyes narrowed. At some unknown moment, a young man had appeared before him.
The young man was flipping through a stack of documents. Looking down at his own hand, Wang Meng found it empty.
Looking closer, the man wore Imperial Guard robes. He was none other than Ning Chuan, the owner of the indictments.
Wang Meng immediately relaxed, only for rage to surge up next. He pointed at Ning Chuan.
"Ning Chuan? You've got some nerve, snatching my documents!"
"You came at just the right time! Seize him, take back the documents, and strip off his Imperial Guard uniform!"
Ning Chuan ignored Wang Meng and opened the documents to read them.
"Fuck, you framed me with this many charges!"
"Damn it, you really left me no room at all. You're determined to beat me to death!"
Ning Chuan's fury surged. Just then, the seven Imperial Guards behind Wang Meng rushed forward, and he casually gave them a barrage of hard slaps.
"Fuck you, come die before your daddy!"
Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! A chaotic burst of sounds rang out. Everyone who had rushed forward was slapped into spinning in place before staggering and collapsing.
Wang Meng's pupils shrank sharply. Terror flooded his heart, his scalp went numb, and cold sweat instantly covered his back.
"Ma Dayuan got me killed!"
"How could this kid be so powerful?!"
Even when these colleagues attacked together, he was no match for them. Yet Ning Chuan had knocked them all down in an instant.
And it had looked effortless.
Pointing at Ning Chuan, he could no longer summon even a shred of courage. He only dared gain an advantage with his tongue.
"You... you... Add another charge to the indictment! Snatching criminal documents, resisting law enforcement, assaulting colleagues!"
Ning Chuan could not be bothered with such a minor character. He reached out with one large hand and grabbed straight for Wang Meng's throat.
Before you continue