Was there any need to be so rash? Du Huoguan felt obliged to remind Nie, "Prison Master, the Qi Household's own strength may be limited, but the power backing them in the Heavenly Court cannot be underestimated. Killing their daughter without giving a reason really is indefensible. We won't be able to explain it to the Heavenly Court either."
Nie turned and sat on the Brocade Couch. "Why was Shi Chun arrested?"
Du Huoguan said, "Theft."
Nie said, "Then theft it is."
"..." Du Huoguan choked into silence. Qi Yueru came to visit a prisoner and happened to steal something, every city guard was useless, and you even had to kill her yourself? Is that a plausible excuse? Even if we tell people that, someone has to believe it.
But he soon understood the intent. The excuse was supposed to be implausible. Only an implausible excuse could keep the man alive.
In any case, he would still have to arrange the trumped-up charge himself shortly.
Once he understood, he offered another reminder. "Qi Yueru should know who the traitor is."
"Finding the traitor is your job." Nie brushed it aside in a single sentence, clearly feeling that Du Huoguan had already talked too much. Nie lifted both feet and lay down sideways on the couch again, adding, "Shi Chun can be released, but leave the theft case open. Tell them that if new leads turn up, they may be summoned for questioning at any time."
"What?" Even a man of Du Huoguan's imposing bearing was somewhat dumbfounded. Give them their freedom, let them leave the Land of Exile, yet still arrest them and bring them back whenever we please? How can we do that? There's never been such a precedent in the Land of Exile. Worried that he had misunderstood, he could not help asking for confirmation. "Do you mean release them from the city, or from the Prison of Life?"
As soon as he asked, he felt that the question had been rather unnecessary.
Sure enough, the Prison Master looked disinclined to answer.
Still, he braced himself and voiced the doubt in his heart. "Prison Master, why protect a nobody like Shi Chun?"
"If you have to ask, there's no point explaining." Nie replied indifferently and slowly closed both eyes.
The intention to entertain no further conversation was plain. Helpless, Du Huoguan could only leave with his doubts.
In the dueling arena, Shi Chun kept looking around. He was bored and lonely, unsure what was going on. It seemed no one was paying him any attention anymore. He looked toward the city guard who had beaten the drum. The guard remained beside the drum stand, occasionally glancing his way.
In fact, Shi Chun had already discovered the two people on top of the pavilion. He had seen them before the strange vision in his right eye disappeared, but he pretended he had seen nothing.
To him, his greatest discovery was not what his right eye had seen, but confirmation of how to activate its power.
Nerves! Yes, nerves. As long as he grew nervous, the strange power in his right eye would activate.
He had been pondering this question for some time, and had begun to sense the answer while being tortured in prison.
When he first entered Zhixu City's Prison and faced interrogation under torture, he genuinely could not keep himself from feeling nervous. Once his nerves set in, his right eye's power emerged. That had allowed him to vaguely pick out the common thread between the times the extraordinary power had activated, though he had not dared be certain.
He had never expected an opportunity to confirm it to arrive so quickly. The blue fox greater demon's abrupt appearance had instantly brought his nerves to the necessary pitch.
In the end, it had verified his conjecture: nervousness could activate his right eye's supernatural power.
Du Huoguan emerged through the doorway downstairs. Shi Chun did not know who he was, but had seen him earlier in prison.
Du Huoguan raised a hand and beckoned the drum-beating city guard over, instructing him to take Shi Chun away to have his details recorded.
There was no other choice. The Prison Master had said to leave the case open, so they needed to retain some grounds for summoning the prisoners at any time. Otherwise, what basis would they have for bringing them back from the outside world in the future? The Prison of Life had no jurisdiction over the outside world, and those who held authority elsewhere would never permit it to interfere as it pleased. Conversely, would the Prison of Life allow outsiders to interfere as they pleased?
Several city guards arrived at a room in the guest courtyard and knocked on the door.
An anxious Qi Yueru opened it. Seeing the people outside, she grew somewhat wary. "What is it?"
Their leader said, "You've stayed here too long. The Prison Inspector has ordered your expulsion. Take your belongings and leave."
Qi Yueru was eager to get out as soon as possible. She immediately obeyed, gathering her possessions and stepping outside.
After being brought to the barbican checkpoint, she had to undergo one final procedure: a body search. Since she was a woman, a female city guard naturally handled it.
Qi Yueru meekly cooperated. But the instant she turned around, a savage blow struck her, sending blood spraying from her mouth. Before she could understand what was happening, she was forced face-down onto the ground.
Someone immediately covered her mouth. Others seized her arms and legs and broke them one by one with sharp cracks. She screamed muffled cries of agony.
They were truly ruthless, not playing around in the slightest. The hand over her mouth, in particular, immediately made her realize that she had been exposed. Ba Yingshan wanted to silence her!
Unwilling to accept her fate, she immediately wanted to shout and expose him, but forced the words back down even as they reached her lips.
Even if she exposed Ba Yingshan, she would not survive, and he would implicate the Qi Household as well. Her closest family members were still there.
Before she came, her Lineage had secretly instructed her that if her actions were exposed, she had to shoulder all responsibility alone. Everything was to be treated as her own personal conduct.
Had she not kept that firmly in mind, she really might have shouted Ba Yingshan's name just now.
"What are you doing? What are you doing..." Qi Yueru whimpered through the hand over her mouth, struggling and screaming.
Seeing that she still refused to expose the other party even when about to be silenced, the man standing nearby who had signaled the attack looked up toward the barbican wall.
Du Huoguan showed his face above the wall. Looking down at the woman pinned to the ground, he felt a little regret. If she would not talk even under these circumstances, he knew she never would.
The Prison Master only made decisions, while he still had to attend to everything else. Just as the Prison Master had said, finding the traitor was his job.
Seeing that his attempt had failed, he tilted his head slightly in a signal. The man looking up from below understood at once. He walked over to the pinned Qi Yueru, bent down, and punched her in the back over her heart, caving it straight in.
Blood spurted between the five fingers covering Qi Yueru's mouth. With blood seeping from all seven orifices, her face was filled with suffering and despair. She had no time even for remorse or regret. After a few convulsions, she stopped moving.
Crack. Afraid she might not be dead, someone twisted her neck until it broke.
Then they dragged the corpse away, hauling it brazenly all the way outside the inner city's main gate, where they hung it up with a rope.
From beginning to end, the execution was swift, decisive, and utterly merciless.
A crowd soon gathered to watch. The city guards deliberately spread word that she had been killed by the Prison Master personally for theft.
What? The Prison Master had acted personally? Like a stone stirring up a thousand waves, the news set everyone buzzing and spread at lightning speed.
At Wangbo Tower, Lan Qiaoyan could scarcely believe the news. She personally went to the inner city's main gate and confirmed that the dead woman was indeed Qi Yueru.
Not only outsiders, but even the city guards were deeply shocked when they heard. They suspected it was a rumor. Would the Prison Master act over such a trivial matter? Yet once they learned that their own colleagues had said it, they had no choice but to believe it. Their colleagues would not dare make reckless claims about the Prison Master.
The news naturally reached Ba Yingshan's ears as well. Frightened out of his wits, he continued hiding in his room to avoid suspicion.
He did not believe for a moment that the Prison Master would personally kill Qi Yueru over something so trivial. Was there any need to spell out the real reason? All he could do was hope that Qi Yueru had not exposed him before she died...
Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, their clothes ragged and their bodies covered in wounds, also emerged through the inner city's main gate. They had been released, and their weapons and packs had been returned.
Seeing the crowd blocking the gate, Wu Jinliang gave a chuckle. "Are they here to welcome us, or waiting to enjoy our misfortune?"
He soon discovered that he had been overthinking it. Everyone was pointing above the city gate. The two men coming out through it looked up and saw the hanging female corpse. Neither recognized her.
Wu Jinliang made another puzzled sound and asked one of the onlookers, "What happened here?"
There was plenty he did not know. He did not even know that Shi Chun beside him had already fought a duel for both their lives.