I'm Your Father!

Jiang Yun was genuinely worried that Qian Bochou would be intimidated by the other man.

After all, Qian Bochou was a man of this era. Though he held no official post, he had spent many years in official circles.

Just hearing the names of high-ranking officials in the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Rites, or the capital could make anyone instinctively fear them.

Thankfully, Qian Bochou took a deep breath and gritted out coldly, "Xia Lingxian, you colluded with Demons and Monsters. Your crime deserves death!"

"Do you have proof?" Xia Lingxian asked calmly.

"Proof?" Qian Bochou gave a cold snort. "We captured that Evil Woman. She killed seven of our men, and she came from your estate."

"Steward Hu said she was your honored guest, too."

Xia Lingxian smiled faintly and replied evenly, "That's right. She was my guest, but I didn't know who she was. I didn't know she was an evil person."

"You think that excuse will work?" Qian Bochou snorted and waved a hand. "Never mind that Evil Woman. The gold and silver treasures found in your estate are enough to sentence you to death!"

"Ha ha ha ha!" Xia Lingxian burst into loud laughter, then said coldly, "Qian Bochou, I told you before: I'm not like you corrupt officials."

"I began studying the sages' books when I was four and resolved to serve my country. I would never do anything that violated Great Zhou's laws. Corruption and bribery? Everything I've earned was legal."

"All the money in my estate came from sending children away. Their parents thanked me and gave me money in return."

"Good. So you're also suspected of trafficking children? That's one more crime to add to the list." Qian Bochou's voice turned cold. "Under Great Zhou law, anyone who sells another family's child is beaten to death as soon as they're caught."

Xia Lingxian slowly raised a hand and pointed at the children and the many beds. "Selling another family's child is indeed a grave crime."

"But these children are all my own flesh and blood."

"Does Great Zhou law say you can't sell your own children?"

Jiang Yun stared, dumbfounded. He hadn't expected this bastard to commit such a monstrous act.

He couldn't help turning to Qian Bochou and asking, "Constable Qian, is it not against the law to sell your own children?"

Qian Bochou's face darkened. He clenched his teeth slightly before saying, "Apparently, it really isn't."

In recent years, Great Zhou had enjoyed favorable weather and peaceful times, but throughout its history, it had suffered many disasters.

When disaster struck, or a family was hit by sudden misfortune, selling one's sons and daughters was a desperate measure taken to survive.

The court couldn't be so heartless as to punish them for it.

If people were driven to the brink and had no way to live, then sold their children, would the court really arrest them for it?

In short, any decent person who could afford a full meal would never want to sell their children.

But Xia Lingxian...

Seeing Qian Bochou admit that it wasn't illegal, Xia Lingxian burst into laughter again.

He said coldly, "I devoted myself to serving the country and realizing my ambitions, but corruption runs rampant in the court. Without sending gold and silver upward, you can't get promoted, no matter how capable you are."

"I'm as clean as a sheet of paper. I refused to break Great Zhou's laws."

"So this was the only way."

"I used the money from selling my children to bribe my superiors and buy myself a future."

"I've fathered more children than I can count over the years. Not eight hundred, but I must be close to a thousand by now."

Looking at Xia Lingxian, Jiang Yun clenched his fists. Then he sensed something strange in the cellar.

A chill seemed to creep in from all around them.

He bit his finger, smeared the blood between his brows, and looked again. His breath caught.

There were more than sixty little ghosts in the cellar.

Some of them were only one or two years old; the oldest were five or six.

They still bore the marks of their deaths. Some had been beaten to death; others had drowned...

Their bodies seethed with an overwhelming hatred. They stared fixedly at Xia Lingxian, as if ready to pounce on him and take revenge at any moment.

But a jade pendant hung against Xia Lingxian's chest, giving off a faint black glow that kept them from approaching.

Jiang Yun quickly understood what had happened and said, "Xia Lingxian, you've caused quite a few children to die like this, haven't you?"

"What are you talking about?" Xia Lingxian's brow instantly furrowed.

Jiang Yun stepped forward and said gravely, "I'm guessing that you sold the children, but not all of them were treated well."

"On the contrary, some died for all sorts of reasons. For instance, the people who bought them beat and abused them to death."

"In any case, they died carrying resentment, turned into ghosts, and haunted you."

"If you'd reported this to the court and asked the Imperial Guards to deal with them, they could've taken care of these little ghosts."

"But you were afraid the court would discover what you'd done."

"So you colluded with evil people. They could've easily gotten rid of these little ghosts, but they didn't."

"Instead, they gave you a treasure to temporarily suppress the ghosts."

"And because you needed their treasure to stay alive, you had no choice but to dance to their tune."

Xia Lingxian looked as if Jiang Yun had stepped on his tail. Moments ago, he'd been disdainful, but now terror showed on his face. Still, he stubbornly denied it. "I don't understand what you're talking about. Take me to the dungeon at the Nanzhou Prefectural Office."

"Still pretending."

Jiang Yun crouched in front of him and reached into his chest to take the pendant.

It was a black obsidian pendant that gave off flecks of dark light.

"What are you doing?" Xia Lingxian's eyes widened.

"If I guessed wrong, then this pendant must be nothing but an ordinary gemstone."

With that, Jiang Yun yanked the pendant off.

"Take the five children out of the room. Leave Xia Lingxian and Steward Hu here."

Qian Bochou didn't understand what was going on, but he trusted Jiang Yun and had his men lead the children out.

The group left the cellar.

Soon, wretched cries rang out from within.

"Children, children, what are you doing?"

"I'm your father! Don't do this, don't!"

"I was wrong!"

"Ah!"

Hearing the screams from inside the cellar, Jiang Yun couldn't calm down. The main reason was that the bastard's deeds were so utterly against all human decency that he hardly deserved to be called a man.

Hearing the screams, Qian Bochou hurriedly looked at Jiang Yun. "What's going on?"

"The children are settling the score with him. Leave them be."

Then Jiang Yun explained everything he'd seen in the cellar.

After listening, a chill ran up Qian Bochou's back. "You mean the cellar was full of ghosts?"

"Mm." Jiang Yun nodded. "Don't worry. Their resentment was so deep that they refused to be reborn. Once they kill Xia Lingxian, their resentment will fade, and they'll go off to be reincarnated."

"He was an important man. If he dies like this, I don't know how we'll explain it when we get back." Qian Bochou looked worried.

"If he doesn't die, that'll be even harder to deal with." Jiang Yun paused. "Who knows if his connections in the capital will get him out?"

Qian Bochou shook his head and said firmly, "They shouldn't. Colluding with Demons and Monsters is a capital offense."

"Who made the law?"

"Of course..." Qian Bochou froze. "The bigwigs in the capital."

Jiang Yun smiled. "So do you still think it'll be hard for them to save Xia Lingxian?"

Qian Bochou let out a long breath.

After a while, the cellar gradually fell silent.

"Let's go in and take a look," Jiang Yun said.

"Brother Jiang, stay close to me."

Hearing there were ghosts inside, Qian Bochou didn't care about saving face. He clung to Jiang Yun's wrist like a little girl.

When they pushed open the cellar door, Xia Lingxian was already dead. His eyes were filled with utter terror. He'd been scared to death.

As for Steward Hu beside him, he seemed to have gone completely mad.

"Ah, little friends! I'm Uncle Hu. Don't run away! Uncle Hu will play with you."

"Little friends..."

The constables who had followed Jiang Yun and Qian Bochou into the cellar held the raving Steward Hu down.

"This man's gone mad, Chief. What should we do?" A constable looked over.

Qian Bochou frowned and waved a hand irritably. "Throw him back in the cell. We'll deal with him later."

Jiang Yun turned and glanced at Steward Hu, then suddenly shouted, "There's another ghost! Watch out!"

"Ah!" Steward Hu clutched his head in terror, suddenly flopped to the ground, and trembled all over. "No, no, I don't know anything! I don't know anything!"

"It was all the master's orders."

"This guy's faking it." Jiang Yun rolled his eyes at Steward Hu. He'd seen through the act from the beginning.

The little ghosts had gone after Xia Lingxian for revenge, not Steward Hu.

Steward Hu didn't have the ability to see ghosts, either.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone mad from fright. He would've been scared to death, just like Xia Lingxian.

He crouched beside Steward Hu and said calmly, "You can testify that Xia Lingxian colluded with evil spirits, right?"

"I can't. I don't know anything." Steward Hu kept his head down, butt sticking up in the air.

"I don't mind calling a few ghosts over to play with you." Jiang Yun threatened him. "Think carefully about what might happen."

Steward Hu shuddered. Remembering how Xia Lingxian had been scared to death by the ghosts, he looked at Jiang Yun and said, "I don't know the details about those evil people."

"The master went to see them alone every time."

"I really don't know anything."

Hearing that, Qian Bochou stepped forward. "If you don't know anything, you're useless. Take him back and beat him to death."

Perhaps to save his own life, Steward Hu hurriedly cried, "Spare me! Constable Qian, spare me! I do know one thing that might help this young brother."

"This time, after the master went to meet those evil people, he came back and said..."

Steward Hu raised a finger and pointed at Jiang Yun. "Those people said this young brother had foiled their plans again and again, so they were sending someone to kill him."

"Kill me?" Jiang Yun's brow furrowed deeply.

Steward Hu hesitated, as if he didn't dare say it. "And those people also said..."

"Say it!" Jiang Yun said sternly.

"They also said that after killing you, they wanted to send your younger sister to Master Xia to bear his children..."

Jiang Yun kicked Steward Hu hard in the head. A loud thud rang out, and Steward Hu died on the spot.

"Hey, little brother, calm down, calm down." Seeing the murderous fury blazing in Jiang Yun's eyes, Qian Bochou gently patted his chest. "That scoundrel Xia Lingxian's already dead. It's not worth it. Don't let this ruin your health."

Jiang Yun took a deep breath, then slowly spat out four words. "I'm angry now."

Qian Bochou hurriedly tried to reassure him. "I can tell, I can tell."

He didn't know that Jiang Yun was a cultivator. Cultivating the Dao meant cultivating the heart.

Jiang Yun's heart rarely stirred deeply.

Soon, Jiang Yun walked out of the cellar, and Qian Bochou hurried to follow.

Jiang Yun's voice drifted back from ahead.

"Not one of those evil people will survive. I guarantee it."