The elite forces of the Judicial Office, clad in black armor and carrying shield weapons, surged in from behind the toppled courtyard wall...
In the blink of an eye, several more sections of the walls around the Jiang residence were knocked down. Like a black wildfire sweeping across the plains, large numbers of Judicial Office elites surrounded the site where the ceremony to wash one's hands in a golden basin was being held.
At the sight of these elites, every guest attending the ceremony felt a chill run through their bodies and did not dare move.
"Xiezhi Battalion!" Among those seated at the scattered tables with Zhang Tie, many turned pale upon seeing the Judicial Office elites who had suddenly appeared. Some were even trembling.
The ones who had breached the outer walls of the Jiang residence were precisely You Province City's Xiezhi Battalion.
The Xiezhi was an ancient divine beast worshipped by the Hua Clan. Legend had it that it was as large as an ox and shaped like a qilin, covered in black fur, with eyes blazing like torches and a single horn growing from its brow. It possessed immense wisdom and could distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, loyalty from treachery. It hated evil as bitterly as an enemy; whenever it saw a treacherous villain, it would gore them to death with its horn, then devour them.
The totem of Great Xia's three judicial offices was the Xiezhi. As the You Province Judicial Officer, the most important part of Zhang Tie's formal official robes—the item representing his status as a provincial judicial officer—was the Xiezhi Crown. Zhang Tie had never worn it because he found official robes too troublesome to put on.
The most violent and intimidating force under the Judicial Office was the Xiezhi Battalion.