Who Gave You the Nerve!

Time slowly passed. As the sun climbed higher, everyone's shadows gradually shortened.

Suddenly, a faint tremor came through the ground, and the sound grew clearer and clearer.

Everyone frowned and looked toward the source.

This was the Divine Capital. Back then, usually only the Mounted Patrol would be dispatched...

Pang Mingjing shook his head. The Night Guard had long been abolished.

The hoofbeats slowed, and one rider after another turned from another street onto Ministry of Revenue Street, appearing before the crowd.

At their head was a man wearing a helmet crowned with red tassels, a gleaming bronze breastplate bearing an elephant-head design, a red sash around his waist, and red silk tied around the neck of his black horse.

Behind him, dozens of men wore brocade garments, red sashes and crimson wraps, their weapons and armor shining brightly.

One of them, a burly dark-skinned man in tattered clothes, pointed his riding crop at Li Qingxian. "Qingxian is over there!"

"Giddyup!" The lead rider accelerated again.

"Giddyup!" The Mounted Patrol followed close behind.

Fifty riders charged forward like a flood bursting through a collapsed dike.

When Pang Mingjing saw Zhou Hen, who looked like a little giant, his expression changed drastically.

The Night Guard had not dispatched Mounted Patrol for half a year, yet they had emerged for Li Qingxian?

Unless Zhou Chunfeng had gone mad!

The four Night Guard soldiers and the coachman nervously looked at Pang Mingjing.

"My lord..."

Pang Mingjing gritted his teeth. "Do not move. Whoever moves will be dealt with under military law!"

As the Mounted Patrol bore down on them and the hoofbeats drew close, even the people from the Evil Sects were terrified.

When they were still more than ten zhang apart, the other riders slowed down, but Zhou Hen, towering like an iron pagoda, charged straight ahead.

The enormous slanting scar on his face writhed like a crimson serpent.

"Night Guard Mounted Patrol conducting official business! Those who do not withdraw are enemies!" Zhou Hen shouted.

"Those who do not withdraw are enemies!" all the riders shouted in unison.

Zheng Hui yelled, "Rescue Li Qingxian!"

Pang Mingjing gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "Anyone who acts rashly will be executed!"

Clop, clop, clop...

Zhou Hen and his black horse charged right up to them. At the instant they were about to crash into Pang Mingjing's guard, Zhou Hen violently yanked the reins and leaned back, and the fine horse reared up high on its hind legs.

Neigh...

Bang!

The hooves came down, smashing heavily into the chest of the guard who refused to retreat.

The guard's upper body caved in abruptly like dough struck by a fist. His whole body flew backward, blood spraying from his mouth as he crashed toward Pang Mingjing.

Pang Mingjing stepped aside to dodge. The man slammed heavily onto the ground, blood bubbling from his mouth as he stared fixedly at Pang Mingjing. His body convulsed, his legs kicked once, and he breathed his last.

The other three guards retreated again and again. This was Zhou Hen! He was a Martial Cultivator who had crawled out of piles of corpses, and had even served as a river warden for three years.

"Zhou Hen, you actually dare to ride down and kill someone on Ministry of Revenue Street, I..."

Before Pang Mingjing could finish, a black shadow flashed past.

Smack!

The riding crop lashed through the air, and a scarlet welt crawled across Pang Mingjing's face.

"You..." As a Principal Seventh Rank military officer, Pang Mingjing had never been whipped like this. He trembled all over with rage.

Zhou Hen sat astride his horse, looking down at Pang Mingjing from above.

"Who gave you the nerve to harm someone from my Divine Capital Office!"

Pang Mingjing came back to his senses. Enduring the pain, he sucked in a sharp breath and said, "The Finance Office is conducting business. It is only natural that we find someone nearby. Even if Director Zhou were here, even if the Chief Guard Envoy were here, they could not find the slightest fault in it! You whipped a fellow Principal Seventh Rank Night Guard officer in the street. That is what is truly reckless and lawless—reckless and lawless!"

Zhou Hen frowned and looked at Zheng Hui.

Zheng Hui sat on his horse with a frown, not knowing what to do.

"Evidence! If you say I harmed someone from the Divine Capital Office, produce evidence! Yet your Divine Capital Office trampled a colleague in the street and whipped a court official. The evidence is as solid as a mountain!" Pang Mingjing's eyes were bloodshot.

Zhou Hen looked toward Li Qingxian again.

Li Qingxian smiled. With a kraft-paper bag tucked under his arm, he cupped his fist toward Zhou Hen. "Thank you, Lord Zhou Hen, for coming to my aid. As for the evidence of the Finance Office framing me, it is right here." As he spoke, he patted the paper bag.

Everyone turned to look at Li Qingxian.

Li Qingxian half-raised the paper bag in his right hand. "This is the document Lord Pang gave me, but I have not opened it from beginning to end. I can guarantee that there is definitely something wrong with this document. Lord Luo, you are from the Ministry of Revenue. Please take a look."

Pang Mingjing stared at Li Qingxian in disbelief. How could someone so young be this alert? Who was secretly directing him?

Luo Jing took the paper bag. As he rapidly examined the document, he said, "This official seal is wrong. It is forged. I have seen the signed approval of the Night Guard's Finance Office several times; that is forged as well. There are other details in here too, and the problems are serious. If you had entered the Ministry of Revenue carrying this document, you would likely have been thrown into prison immediately."

Pang Mingjing shouted sternly, "Li Qingxian, you actually switched the document and framed your superior. Death would be too good for you!"

"Pang Mingjing, Pang Mingjing, I think you are truly muddleheaded! What place is this? This is Ministry of Revenue Street! And what kind of place is Ministry of Revenue Street? Open your dog eyes wide and look—the Five Gods are watching! Lord Luo, someone is planting evidence on Ministry of Revenue Street and desecrating the gods. Can your faction investigate this?"

Luo Jing smiled pleasantly. "If someone truly used the Ministry of Revenue and our gods to plant evidence and frame another, then that is blasphemy. Pang Mingjing, say what you just said again."

Pang Mingjing was left tongue-tied, unable to utter a single word.

Zhou Hen gave Li Qingxian a deeply satisfied look, then asked from atop his horse, "Pang Mingjing, what else do you have to say?"

Pang Mingjing slowly took a deep breath. "Perhaps one of my subordinates took the wrong document. Once I return to the Finance Office, I will certainly investigate it thoroughly."

But Li Qingxian said, "You still dare to lie before the statues of the Five Gods. I think it is necessary to send you to the Divine Prison for harsh interrogation."

The guards beside Pang Mingjing shuddered, and even the Night Guard following Zhou Hen drew in their necks.

"Li Qingxian, I have neither grievance nor enmity with you. How dare you speak such vicious words!" Pang Mingjing raged.

Li Qingxian smiled. "Lord Pang is right. What malicious intentions could Pang Mingjing possibly have? He merely wanted to kill me. I am only a lowly Night Guard soldier—what right do I have to hold a grievance or enmity against a dignified Seventh Rank Martial Cultivator like you? Even if you killed me today on Ministry of Revenue Street, it would only be a trivial matter. You would have done nothing wrong. As the victim, even if I say a single word, it becomes vicious speech."

The looks Zheng Hui and the ordinary Night Guard soldiers gave Pang Mingjing now held undisguised fury.

"What a sharp tongue!" Pang Mingjing said.

Just then, four people came out from a side gate of the Ministry of Revenue. After looking around, they hurried over.

Pang Mingjing caught sight of the newcomers from the corner of his eye and could not help shouting, "Lord Xie, it's me, Pang Mingjing! We met at Vice Minister Feng's banquet last time. Your Ministry of Revenue's Eighth Rank minor official colluded with Night Guard soldiers to frame me."

Everyone followed the sound and saw a man of around fifty approaching. He looked vigorous and spirited, with few wrinkles on his face. He wore a crimson official robe, and the rank badge on his chest was embroidered with a white pheasant spreading its wings as if about to fly. No gold thread had been stitched around the badge.

"Lord Xie." Luo Jing and the other Ministry of Revenue personnel hurriedly saluted this Subordinate Fifth Rank official.

Xie Ming nodded to Pang Mingjing and Luo Jing, then smiled. "Which one is Li Qingxian?"

"That would be me." Li Qingxian cupped his fist.

Xie Ming carefully looked Li Qingxian over, his gaze passing over the Deer-and-Crane Jade Pendant. "My Lord Feng heard that you had come to the Ministry of Revenue on business and specifically sent me to receive you."

Li Qingxian smiled. "Thank you, Lord Xie. However, I have already finished my business and was just preparing to return to the Night Guard."

Xie Ming nodded, stood where he was, and said nothing.

Pang Mingjing felt as though he had fallen into an ice cave.