I Still Want More

I Still Want More

Under the interrogation of Lin Wen, who was almost omniscient, the remaining four officials quickly confessed as well. Two were executed on the spot, while the other two were dragged off to prison.

The crowd nearly boiled over. Their cheers thundered across the fields, endless and deafening.

Meanwhile, the officials backstage trembled amid incomprehensible shock and terrified disbelief. Many had even collapsed to the ground, too weak to stand, while others looked around frantically, seemingly searching for a way out. But as far as the eye could see, they were surrounded by Imperial soldiers, with not the slightest gap to escape through.

A ridiculous thought rose in their terrified hearts: Could all of this have been calculated by County Chief Lin long ago? Was he going to wipe out every dissenter here and sweep up all his opponents in one net?

Beside them, Li Yuchen was so excited he practically looked ready to explode. "Beautiful! So damn cool! That was incredible! Just what I'd expect from my good brother, Li Yuchen's brother! Lord Wen, keep it up! Fuck them up! Kill these scum!"

Uncle Jie and the five burly men exchanged glances, all of them speechless and helpless.

At this rate, the young master was not merely inexperienced in the ways of the world—he was as pure as a blank sheet of paper. A few polite words catered to his tastes were enough for him to treat someone as a kindred spirit. If he ever truly went onto a battlefield, he would probably be tricked out of even his underpants.

At the same time, they felt deep wariness and admiration toward Lin Wen. His abilities were unfathomable, yet he was audacious beyond measure. Like the most calculating politician, he had silently woven a net that covered the heavens, inviting his targets into the jar. Yet he was also like a chivalrous hero whose heart and courage were laid bare, flying into a rage for justice—heedless of consequences and unafraid of power, acting only for the loyalty in his heart and the fairness he believed in.

These two utterly contradictory extremes combined within him to create an almost unimaginable charm. For a young man like the young master, who harbored romantic fantasies and cherished the ideal of following righteousness unto life and death, it was like a bear falling into a barrel of honey, every crevice of his heart flooded full.

No wonder he had been so thoroughly captivated.

But for someone of the young master's status, this performance was completely unacceptable.

Disappointment kept rising in Uncle Jie's heart, but there was nothing he could do to change it. He could only hope that the young master would mature quickly and become someone capable of standing on his own as soon as possible.

On the stage.

The interrogation continued, but Lin Wen no longer conducted detailed trials afterward. Otherwise, no amount of good karma would be enough to spend.

Simply asking those four criminals for the details of their crimes had drained all of his Primordial Spirit. He was broke again now—not a single drop left.

It had also consumed quite a bit of good karma.

There were still over seven hundred people left. Even squeezing him dry into a human husk would not be enough.

And there was not enough time, either. He still had to go repair and build the temporary resettlement sites later. There was no need to waste an entire day trying a few parasites.

Time was good karma, my friend.

Lin Wen pushed [Aura Reading] to its limit, opening his eyes as wide as they could go. With a single glance, anyone whose black aura exceeded one-tenth was guilty. Anyone whose black aura exceeded half was dragged into the death cells. Anyone entirely black was executed on the spot.

The charge was uniformly crimes against humanity. There was uniformly no process. Once sentenced, they were killed or imprisoned. There was no third outcome.

Twenty people took the stage at a time, and Lin Wen needed only fifty seconds to determine what they were made of.

Any faster would not work. [Aura Reading] required focused concentration, otherwise he could not clearly discern the shape and color of the auras.

Too many people would not work either, because his vision would become confused. It looked like a glitching monitor, all kinds of colored blocks tangled together and impossible to distinguish.

Unless it was especially obvious, or only one out of every twenty people was black, putting more people onstage at once would not improve efficiency.

But even so, Lin Wen's interrogation speed was astonishing. Before an hour had passed, Lin Wen had already executed more than a dozen people and had over fifty dragged away.

The atmosphere at the scene had reached a complete fever pitch. The disaster victims had never seen or even heard of Imperial officials being slaughtered like pigs in their entire lives, yet none of them found anything unreasonable about it. Lin Wen had already proven that he knew all and saw all.

Those he spared were certainly innocent officials. Those he executed were certainly scum who deserved their fate.

Without question, an unwavering faith that could not be shaken had been firmly planted in their hearts along with the gunshots. At this moment, if anyone dared step forward and utter even half a bad word about County Chief Lin, they would immediately be torn to pieces by the enraged crowd.

As for the officials backstage, shock was no longer enough to describe them. They could barely believe this was real. The Empire had always been extremely cautious in dealing with officials. The evidence had to be conclusive, followed by repeated joint reviews and five rounds of verification before anyone could be taken down. If a death sentence was sought, an even harsher council trial had to be held.

Even if they were ultimately sentenced to death, they would receive treatment appropriate to their official rank. They would have ample time to settle their affairs, and be granted a dignified death and a proper burial.

But now, like weeds and straw, they were being casually shot dead by Lin Wen. Their corpses lay on the viewing platform for hundreds of thousands of lowborn people to gawk at, with no one even bothering to clear them away.

Not only that, the trial process was absurdly simple. There were no verification hearings, joint reviews, or court trials. There were not even specific charges, trial proceedings, evidence, or testimony. With merely one sentence and one glance from Lin Wen, their lives and deaths were decided.

This immense absurdity made them unable to believe that what was happening before their eyes was real.

Such clean decisiveness—killing whenever he said kill—was no longer merely shocking. It was unprecedented, a grand feat the Empire had never seen before.

As the gunshots rang out from the stage one after another, terrifying chills swept through their bodies, and a sunless despair drowned their reason.

Then the riot began. Shouting incoherent nonsense that even they themselves did not understand, they rushed in every direction like headless flies.

This suicidal behavior was immediately stopped by the Imperial soldiers. Fang Dashan directly ordered a suppression. Before three thousand Imperial soldiers, this group of powerless officials was swiftly captured.

Some pissed and shat themselves. Some burst into loud sobs. Some cursed at the top of their lungs. Some begged for mercy over and over. Every ugly spectacle appeared at once, and chaos reigned.

Fang Dashan ordered that every two Imperial soldiers escort one official awaiting trial. At a word from Lin Wen, they would drag the officials onto the stage.

This increased the pace considerably. Whether they were willing or not, could forty well-trained Imperial soldiers really fail to drag twenty pampered Imperial officials along?

The only strange thing was that after they reached the stage, Lin Wen had the Imperial soldiers stand off to either side. This led to frequent chaos onstage, especially after Lin Wen pronounced a death sentence. The condemned officials went mad—some leaped from the stage and tried to flee, some ran wildly and crashed about, and some directly attacked Lin Wen.

Though all of it was futile. Those who jumped down and fled were seized by the crowd, beaten soundly, then sent back up to be executed.

Those who ran about were immediately subdued by the soldiers and then executed.

Those who came at Lin Wen did not even need to be executed. A burly man in black killed them with a single punch, leaving Lin Wen without even any good karma to gain. It made him deeply regretful and endlessly annoyed.

In the end, he had no choice but to have the Imperial soldiers restrain those being tried. This lowered the efficiency of Lin Wen's Aura Reading considerably, but he still managed to finish examining all the officials before noon.

About half of them passed by sheer luck. Roughly three hundred were found guilty, and nearly eighty were sentenced to death.

Lin Wen emptied every bullet from the six burly men in black. At one point, corpses piled across the entire viewing platform, and soldiers had to be sent in to clear them away before the proceedings could continue.

No one felt uncomfortable about it. Only the fervor of justice being carried out and gratitude for wrongs being redressed echoed in their hearts.

Lin Wen had gained roughly 150 points of Good Karma in total, averaging less than 2 points per person. It was a little less than what he had earned from killing demons, but it was still a substantial income—enough to make up for all his previous losses.

Now, his Good Karma had surpassed the 900 mark and was advancing toward 1,000.

Not enough.

Lin Wen stood on the platform beneath the blazing sun, looking out at the cheering crowd, at those faces bathed in sunlight.

Still not enough.

I need more, he thought.