At a street corner nearby, several young martial artists who had just finished harassing common women also gathered around. One of them saw "Those who harass common women will be severely punished" and burst out laughing.
"Severely punished? Does he know who I am? My uncle is an elder of the Mystic Sword Sect. We only came to Cloud Province because of the Tomb of Martial Saint Azure Cloud. Forget harassing a common woman—even if I killed one, he might not dare touch me."
"The Mystic Sword Sect? That's a major martial sect! To think you have such a background. My respects, my respects."
Hearing this, the young martial artist looked even more smug and spat twice on the notice.
At the entrance to the market in the city center, the largest crowd of martial artists had gathered around the notice.
A middle-aged martial artist in a brocade robe looked at "Those who rob at will will be killed" on the notice and sneered.
"Killed? Who kills whom is still up in the air. I just robbed Wealthy Householder Zhang in the west of the city yesterday. Where were the Imperial Guard? I didn't see them. Let them come arrest me if they have the guts."
"Exactly! The law can't punish everyone. There are so many of us. Can the Imperial Guard arrest us all?"
The surrounding martial artists chimed in, and some even began clamoring to tear down the notice and trample it.
A shop assistant in a nearby shop secretly watched the scene, his face full of worry.
The old shopkeeper spoke quietly to the assistant.
"I'm afraid Marquis Su's notice won't do any good. These martial-world people aren't afraid at all. We'll have to be even more careful when we go out from now on."
The assistant