When Pan Long reached the hall, the Wind Patrol Envoys were arguing, just as he had expected. Cang Yuan sat facing the entrance, looking exhausted. Yet his expression held no anguish or deep concentration, only a trace of hesitation.
Everyone rose to welcome Pan Long.
Once Pan Long had taken his seat, a burly man with a bristling beard asked first, "Wind-Observing Envoy Pan, I take it you're here because people in various places have been accusing Wind Patrol Envoys?"
Pan Long recognized him. He was Du Zihui, the Wind-Observing Envoy of Yong Province, known as "Swallows Rivers and Stars." Like Pan Long, he had reached the True Person Realm. But Du was a veteran True Person who had made his name over fifty years ago and was now more than a hundred and sixty years old.
Pan Long nodded. "A Courier Rider under me, Shang Man, has been accused. He's locked up in the Xiangping Prefecture jail and sentenced to be executed at the winter solstice."
"Executed at the winter solstice? Is it that serious?" Cang Yuan frowned. "If a fight that injured someone involved standing up for what was right, the sentence can be reduced. How did Xiangping Prefecture arrive at such a heavy sentence?"
Before Pan Long could answer, an elderly Wind Patrol Envoy with white hair and beard spoke. Pan Long knew him as Li Qing, the Wind Patrol Office's keeper of case files. "Shang Man was originally called Little Nine, also known as Dumb Nine. He was an orphan who once ran with the great thief One-Handed Swallow. Later, the vicious beggar 'Scabby Head' Su Sanwu drugged him mute and made him a 'closed-mouth' 'pitiful act.' He subsequently received Wind Patrol Envoy Shang Wuque's cultivation on Shang's deathbed, which cured his disability. For helping Shang