Two days later, execution!

[Host: Wei Qing]

[Age: 16]

[Realm: Seventh-Rank Martial Artist (Intermediate)]

[Spirit: 487]

[Strength: 385]

[Physique: 391]

[Art: Returning Origin Art (Pending Learning)]

[Martial Skill: Flowing Cloud Slash (Perfected) - Profound Meaning: Lotus Blossom; Nanke's Dream (Minor Mastery); Ephemeral Art (Pending Learning)]

Feeling the explosively surging power within his body, a smile curled at the corner of Wei Qing's lips.

Looking at the corpses strewn across the ground, the surviving members of the Fang clan and their household servants all had faces as pale as paper.

When they looked at Wei Qing again, it was as if they were staring at a demon crawling out of hell, their bodies trembling uncontrollably from fear.

Yet the yamen runners standing off to the side wore expressions that were completely different.

Their faces brimmed with a reverence bordering on devout piety.

It was a look of profound submission to the strong.

Wei Qing's gaze was icy as he looked at the remaining Fang family members, servants, and guards, and spoke: "Is there anyone else who wants to test how sharp the blade of my Heavenly Realm Division is?"

"Feel free to step forward."

The bone-chilling voice utterly shattered the last shred of will to resist in the hearts of the Fang clan.

"Arrest them all. Throw them into the dungeon."

"Yes, sir!"

All the yamen runners pounced like a pack of starving wolves.

At this moment, no one dared to resist any longer. They docilely put on their shackles, lined up, and were escorted out of Fang Manor, heading for the dungeon.

The commotion of the Fang clan's mass arrest naturally stirred the surrounding commoners.

"Serves you right. Colluding with demons—you deserve to die a thousand deaths."

"The Emperor is wise. Finally, you're paying for my little Cui'er's life. Cui'er, do you see this?"

"Sigh, it's a pity about Lord Fang, though."

"I must keep a close eye on my children, make sure they stay far away from demons."

Among the crowd.

There were those who cursed!

Those who threw rotten eggs!

Those who lamented Fang Youting's fate!

But more than anything, there were commoners earnestly admonishing their own children.

Afraid of raising a brat who would drag down his father or ruin his ancestors.

By the roadside, on the second floor of Wangchun Tower.

A woman with a veil covering her face looked at a child of three or four in the crowd, pity stirring in her heart: "The adults committed the crime—why drag a child of a few years into it?"

"He doesn't understand anything!"

"Damn it!" The man standing beside her suddenly changed expression, hurriedly covering the woman's mouth. "Junior Martial Sister, are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Are you thinking our sect has been living too comfortably lately, and want to find a new way of life for it?"

The man turned his head to look down, and his eyes met Wei Qing's icy gaze.

At that moment, time stood still.

His entire body shuddered violently, as if an invisible chill had pierced straight through his heart.

It wasn't until Wei Qing looked away that the man realized his entire back was already soaked through with cold sweat.

"Mmph... mmph..."

The veiled woman struggled fiercely, glaring at the man with dissatisfaction.

"Junior Martial Sister, you need to understand—everyone who colludes with demons has the blood of our human kin on their hands. Tens of thousands of our people have died at the hands of these traitors."

"The children of their clan may be innocent, but weren't the victims innocent too?"

"That's why Great Zhou enacted such harsh laws—anyone who colludes with demons shall have their entire clan exterminated."

"If someone with ill intent had heard what you just said, do you have any idea our entire sect could be wiped out?"

"Ah..."

The masked woman was frozen in shock on the spot.

She had never imagined that a single moment of compassion would nearly bring annihilation upon her sect.

"Senior Brother, I didn't mean to."

The man emphasized gravely, "This is the first lesson your senior brother teaches you down the mountain: trouble comes from the mouth!"

"From now on, whenever you speak, mind the occasion."

"Some thoughts you can keep in your heart, but you must never voice them lightly."

The masked woman said softly, "Mm, I'll remember."

Hearing this, the man felt a headache coming on.

Ever since they left the mountain, this junior sister had caused him no small amount of trouble.

If not for his decent strength and the Qingshan Sect's reputation in Jizhou Prefecture, they would have run into disaster long ago.

But as his master's cherished pearl of a junior sister, he couldn't just abandon her.

While the two were conversing, the Fang family had already been fully escorted into the prison.

The commoners who had followed crowded around the yamen gate, waiting.

Before long, a runner emerged from the yamen and posted a notice on the announcement board.

He loudly summarized the contents: "Fang Xiang colluded with demons. By decree of the Imperial Court, he is to be executed at the east city execution grounds two days from now, at noon!"

Having said this, he turned and went back inside.

Two other runners stood guard at the announcement board.

The waiting commoners, hearing that the sentence was indeed passed, clapped and cheered one after another.

The news that the Fang family had been imprisoned and would be executed in two days spread like wings, reaching every alley and street in Qingcheng within half a day.

This news

also became fodder for idle talk among the commoners over tea and meals.

"Execution of the nine clans—our Great Zhou's laws are still this harsh,"

a diner with a blade on his back couldn't help but sigh in an inn.

"Hmph, I think it's just right. For those traitors to humanity, there should be no softness at all. The more of these scum we kill, the better—then who would dare to side with demons?"

"Mm, that makes sense."

"Come, drink. Since we're in Qingcheng, no need to rush off. Two days from now, let's go watch together."

"I was thinking the same. Cheers!"

Meanwhile, Zhu Huan led over a dozen runners, turning the Fang residence inside out from top to bottom, and finally hauled all the valuables back to the yamen in one load.

Inside the main hall, Wei Qing sat in the magistrate's seat, while the county clerk held a ledger and reported:

"Your Honor, from the Fang family confiscation, we have thirty-one scrolls of famous calligraphy and paintings, title deeds for six shops, assorted pearls and agates, a hundred bolts of fine Yunzhou fabric, thirty thousand taels of silver, and two thousand taels of gold."

"Total value: three hundred fifty-four thousand six hundred."

Three hundred fifty thousand taels.

Wei Qing took a deep breath. "Ten years as a clean prefect, a hundred thousand taels of snow-white silver."

"Fang Youting was a good official, but not a qualified head of the family."

In Great Zhou, an ordinary household's annual expenses topped out at twenty or thirty taels of silver.

And yet the Fang family had over three hundred thousand taels.

This showed just how much the Fang family had squeezed from the people's fat and marrow.

"Sell all the properties, title deeds, and famous calligraphy and paintings, and deposit the proceeds into the county treasury. In one month, during the autumn tax collection, send it all to the imperial capital."

"Yes."

The county clerk accepted the order and withdrew.

In the inner hall of the yamen, after a simple lunch, Wei Qing entered a cultivation state.

"System, learn the 'Ephemeral Art.'"

[Command received!]

The system's voice had barely faded when the art's circulation pathways and a flood of cultivation experience poured into his mind.

Moments later.

Once Wei Qing had fully absorbed it, the status of the Ephemeral Art leaped from "Pending Study" straight to Minor Accomplishment.

With a flicker of thought, his figure appeared thirty feet away as if by teleportation.

"This speed is more than three times what it was before. A High-Grade Profound Tier art truly lives up to its reputation."