Mo Hua told Situ Fang the information he had learned.
Thinking of the impoverished widows and orphans, Situ Fang's delicate brows drew tightly together, and she was furious.
"How outrageous!"
They were profiting off the dead, devouring families with no one left to protect them!
The next day, Situ Fang led Dao Court Office cultivators to find Wang Lai and the others at a Gambling Den. She escorted them to the Dao Court Office and interrogated them.
She also recovered the Spirit Stones they had extorted.
Situ Fang returned those Spirit Stones to the mine cultivators' families, but there was little she could do to Wang Lai and the others.
Wang Lai and his group had forcibly demanded compensation on the mine cultivators' behalf and kept most of the compensatory Spirit Stones for themselves. It did not count as an especially serious crime.
The Dao Court Office could not sentence them too heavily either.
Situ Fang wanted to dig up their old offenses and punish them cumulatively for their crimes.
Those hooligans had plagued the local people for years; they were surely covered in misdeeds.
But mine cultivators were weak and feared retaliation, so no one dared identify them.
With no other choice, Situ Fang could only imprison them for a month, subject them to the wooden punishment, give them thirty strokes of the paddle, and then release them.
The first thing Wang Lai and the others did after leaving the Dao Prison was gather a crowd of hooligans and go to the dead mine cultivators' homes. They threatened and extorted them, snatched the Spirit Stones back, even injured several people, and declared:
"If you dare report this to the Dao Court Office again, we'll wipe out your entire family, young and old alike!"
Situ Fang had told Mo Hua