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, its sound growing 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 since been abolished.

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

At their head was a man wearing a helmet with a red plume, bright brass armor emblazoned with an elephant head across his chest, a red sash around his waist, and red silk wrapped around his black horse's neck.

Behind him, dozens of men wore brocade clothes, red scarves and crimson wraps, their weapons and armor gleaming.

One of them, a brawny man in ragged clothes with dark skin, pointed his riding crop at Li Qingxian. "Qingxian is over there!"

"Ride!" The leading knight accelerated again.

"Ride!" The Mounted Patrol followed close behind.

Fifty riders thundered forward like floodwaters bursting through a dike.

When Pang Mingjing saw Zhou Hen, built like a small 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. Anyone who moves will be dealt with under military law!"

As the Mounted Patrol charged in and the hoofbeats drew near, even the people from the Evil Sects trembled with fear.

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

The enormous diagonal scar on his face writhed like a crimson snake.

"The Night Guard Mounted Patrol is on official business. Those who do not retreat are enemies!" Zhou Hen shouted.

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

Zheng Hui yelled, "Rescue Li Qingxian!"

Pang Mingjing gritted his teeth and said quietly, "Those who act rashly will be beheaded!"

Clop, clop, clop...

Zhou Hen and his black horse charged right up to them. Just as they were about to crash into Pang Mingjing's guards, Zhou Hen fiercely yanked the reins and leaned back, while the steed raised both front hooves high.

Neigh...

Bang!

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

The guard's upper body abruptly caved in like a lump of dough struck by a fist. He flew backward, spraying blood as he crashed toward Pang Mingjing.

Pang Mingjing stepped aside to dodge. The man hit the ground hard, blood gushing from his mouth. He stared fixedly at Pang Mingjing, his body twitching, then kicked out with both legs and went still.

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

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

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

Smack!

The riding crop flashed, and a vivid red welt crawled across Pang Mingjing's face.

"You..." As a Principal Seventh Rank martial official, Pang Mingjing had never been whipped like this. He was so furious that his entire body trembled.

Zhou Hen sat on horseback, looking down at Pang Mingjing from above.

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

Pang Mingjing came back to his senses. Enduring the pain, he hissed softly and said, "The Finance Office is conducting official business. It is only natural to recruit people nearby. Even if Director Zhou were here, even if the Chief Guard Envoy were here, they could not find the slightest fault with it! You whipped a Principal Seventh Rank Night Guard colleague in the street. That is what is brazen and lawless—brazen and lawless!"

Zhou Hen frowned and looked at Zheng Hui.

Zheng Hui sat frowning on his horse, not knowing what to do.

"Evidence! If you say I harmed someone from the Divine Capital Office, produce evidence! Yet your Divine Capital Office men trampled a colleague in the street and whipped an imperial 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 fists to Zhou Hen. "Thank you, Lord Zhou Hen, for coming to my aid. As for the evidence that the Finance Office framed me, it is right here in my hands." As he spoke, he patted the paper bag.

Everyone looked 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. Sorry for the trouble, could you take a look?"

Pang Mingjing stared at Li Qingxian in disbelief. How could someone so young be this alert? Who had secretly instructed 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 Finance Office's Night Guard signature marks several times; those are forged too. There are also other details here, and the problems are not minor. If you took this document into the Ministry of Revenue, you would probably be thrown into prison immediately."

Pang Mingjing shouted sharply, "Li Qingxian, you actually switched the document and framed your superior. You deserve to die a thousand deaths!"

"Pang Mingjing, Pang Mingjing, I think you truly are muddleheaded! What place is this? This is Ministry of Revenue Street! And what sort of place is Ministry of Revenue Street? Open your dog eyes wide and look—the Five Gods are watching! Lord Luo, someone planted evidence on Ministry of Revenue Street and desecrated the gods. Can your faction investigate this?" Li Qingxian's voice struck the ground like metal.

Luo Jing said with a smile, "If someone truly used the Ministry of Revenue and our gods to plant evidence and frame another, that would be blasphemy. Pang Mingjing, say what you just said again."

Pang Mingjing opened and closed his mouth, unable to utter a single word.

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

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

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

The guards beside Pang Mingjing shuddered. Even the Night Guards following Zhou Hen shrank their necks.

"Li Qingxian, I have neither grievance nor grudge against you. How dare you speak such vile words!" Pang Mingjing roared.

Li Qingxian smiled. "Lord Pang is right. What bad intentions could you, Pang Mingjing, possibly have? You merely wanted to kill me. I am only a lowly Night Guard soldier; what right do I have to hold a grudge against a dignified Seventh Rank Martial Cultivator like you? Even if you killed me on Ministry of Revenue Street today, it would only be a trivial matter. You have done nothing wrong. As the victim, even speaking a single sentence counts as vile words."

Zheng Hui and the ordinary Night Guard soldiers looked at Pang Mingjing with undisguised fury in their eyes.

"Sharp-tongued!" Pang Mingjing said.

Just then, four people emerged from the Ministry of Revenue's side entrance. They looked around, then hurried over.

Pang Mingjing caught sight of the newcomers from the corner of his eye and could not help shouting, "Lord Xie, it is 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 turned toward the sound and saw a man in his fifties approaching. He looked vigorous and alert, with sparse wrinkles on his face. He wore a crimson official robe, and the rank badge on his chest bore an embroidered white pheasant spreading its wings as if about to take flight, without gold thread stitched around the badge.

"Lord Xie." Luo Jing and the other Ministry of Revenue staff hurriedly bowed to 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 fists.

Xie Ming carefully sized Li Qingxian up, 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 welcome you."

Li Qingxian smiled. "Many thanks, 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 cellar.