The Hall of Punishment Metropolitan Graduate spoke lightly, but Fang Yun's aides drew sharp breaths. This was the difference between the Hall of Punishment and the Ministry of Justice.
For the Ministry of Justice to confiscate a household, it required approval from the Three Legal Offices, the Grand Secretariat, and the monarch. But as long as the Hall of Punishment had evidence, it need only send a letter to the Pavilion of the Hall of Punishment. So long as three pavilion elders agreed and the matter was filed with the Eastern Sage Pavilion, they could act directly.
Though this matter targeted Fang Yun's family, it already counted as plotting against a Void Sage. Thus, the Hall of Punishment acted with great decisiveness, arresting Qi Huo from the mailroom, the two guards stationed at the eastern gate of the County Academy, and all three of their families.
The lightest sentence for confiscation and execution was the extermination of one family. A family included only the criminal's wives, concubines, sons, and unmarried daughters. This was the maximum penalty for plotting against a Grand Academician.
The maximum punishment for plotting against a Great Scholar was the extermination of an entire clan.
Fang Yun was a Void Sage. For the crime of plotting against a Void Sage, the minimum punishment was also the extermination of an entire clan!
The scope of a clan was extremely broad. Taking Qi Huo as an example, every male of the Qi Family, beginning with his grandfather—including his grandfather, his biological brothers and cousins, as well as all their male descendants bearing the Qi surname—would all be executed! Married Qi women would not be implicated, but unmarried Qi women would be executed alongside the men.
Exterminating one clan sounded like little, but it often implicated nearly a hundred people.