"How much is your dignity worth?" Cheng Jiliang asked with keen interest.
"Twelve taels." Chu Yao put away the box containing the head as well and answered with exceptional seriousness.
Cheng Jiliang said, "Then deduct twelve taels from the money you'll use to redeem Xiao Cui."
Chu Yao stopped and looked at him, still tilting his head up to look above. But this time, Cheng Jiliang felt the sharp edge of that stare pressing down on him.
"The twelve taels I mean are the twelve taels your tower's thugs snatched from me when they told me to get lost."
"Your dignity is in those twelve taels?" Cheng Jiliang asked.
"My face is," Chu Yao said.
"When the weak insult the strong, they ought to pay a price." Cheng Jiliang said lightly, "You may take Old Blade away. Kill him or carve him up as you please. So long as Song law permits it, I won't interfere."
Old Blade turned his gaze in disbelief, but Cheng Jiliang did not look at him.
Neither did Chu Yao.
Chu Yao looked at Cheng Jiliang, at the man identified in the intelligence he had investigated... as the chief overseer of Three-Part Fragrance Pavilion's Song Kingdom region.
The strongest person in the local Three-Part Fragrance Pavilion, with Outer Tower cultivation. He had currently erected his second Starlight Saint Tower. He possessed no Supernatural Power, nor had he ever shown signs of grasping the path of the Dao.
Fighting an Outer Tower from the Inner Palace, the disadvantage was having no Star Tower to draw upon. The advantage was that the enemy did not know him.
And... the incense-serving attendants scattered throughout key positions. He had to be careful not to let them form a formation.
The battle formation most commonly used by Three-Part Fragrance Pavilion's