Three days later.
Cloud Mountain.
Dawn had barely broken when reporters from all sorts of tabloids gathered around the execution ground at the summit.
The authorities had announced in advance that the execution would be livestreamed in its entirety, with the aim of deterring evildoers.
What their real purpose was, however, remained unknown.
As the first rays of sunlight appeared, a police vehicle drove up to the summit.
The door opened, and Wang Biao was escorted out, chains on his hands and feet. He was unshaven and looked utterly dejected.
Reporters crowded around him with cameras big and small, their flashes going off nonstop in Brother Biao's face.
"Wang Biao, Wang Biao, look over here!"
"What do you have to say about the title 'Shame of the Human Race'?"
"Could we interview you about what was going through your mind when you committed the murders?"
"Those people had no quarrel or grudge with you. Why did you kill them?"
"Twenty-two martial artists! Do you have any idea how much they contributed to humanity?"
Wang Biao abruptly raised his head and looked at the reporter who had asked the last question.
"They were just a bunch of maggots. Aside from turning into flies, they contributed nothing to humanity."
"I killed them for the sake of fairness."
Wang Biao's eyes were bloodshot, and his furious roar was like that of a beast driven mad.
The reporter who had asked the question was so startled that he stumbled and nearly fell.
"Get moving!"
An officer shoved Wang Biao from behind and led him onto the execution platform.
"Lunatic. He's a fucking lunatic!"
The frightened reporter's forehead was covered in sweat.
A reporter beside him patted him on the shoulder and reassured him, "These serial killers are all mentally abnormal, every last one of them a pervert."
"I've interviewed plenty of them before. You'll get used to it."
The frightened reporter gritted his teeth. "A bastard like that ought to go to hell!"
The execution platform was a small square covering fifty square meters.
An iron pillar stood in the middle.
Behind it was a structure resembling a gantry crane.
A triangular nozzle protruded from the center of the crossbeam, aimed at Wang Biao, who was bound to the pillar.
Once the execution began, both sides of the gantry would gradually charge up.
When charging was complete, the energy would gather at the triangular nozzle and fire a jet of flame reaching two thousand degrees Celsius.
The person on the pillar would be burned to ashes in an instant.
Standing on a tree in the distance, Qin Ze watched the strange execution device through binoculars, clicking his tongue in amazement.
"Humans really know how to have fun. They're always coming up with all kinds of things to torture and kill people with."
The Dharma King nodded beside him. "That's right. Like candles and little leather whips."
Whoosh-
Brother Devour jumped onto the tree and brushed the fallen leaves off his shoulders.
"The brothers are all in position."
Qin Ze took out his mask and put it on. "We take the stage in half an hour."
Brother Devour said gravely, "Besides us, there's another group of suspicious-looking people nearby. It looks like they're here for the same reason we are."
Qin Ze raised an eyebrow. "Brother Biao really is in demand."
"When we make our move, be quick about it. Don't let someone else take the rest of our payment."
Brother Devour assured him, "Don't worry. It'll be a big, big surprise."
Meanwhile, at the highest point on Cloud Mountain's summit.
Teacher Yao and a group of enforcers were lying low among the trees.
"Have the fish taken the bait?"
Teacher Yao glanced at the time.
An enforcer beside Teacher Yao answered, "Lord adjudicator, quite a few people have indeed come to the vicinity of Cloud Mountain, but it looks like they aren't all together."
Hearing this, Teacher Yao frowned.
"The Maka Race?"
The enforcer replied, "Doesn't look much like them."
Teacher Yao pondered for a moment. "We can't worry about all that now. Everything goes according to plan. Keep a close eye on them."
Beside the execution platform, Enforcer Number Three stood straight as a javelin.
The police were short-handed, so he had been pressed into service too.
"My right eyelid keeps twitching. Something bad is going to happen."
Enforcer Number Three muttered to himself.
The time for the execution was almost here.
Twenty meters across from the execution platform stood a raised platform, where the chief justice sat.
"Wang Biao, you are suspected of killing twenty-two martial artists."
"They include no fewer than five enforcers and one adjudicator from the Law Enforcement Department."
"After trial by this court, you have been found guilty of thirteen charges, including murder, intentional killing of martial artists, treason, and murder during a home invasion..."
"You will be sentenced to death, to be carried out immediately."
"Wang Biao, do you have anything else to say?"
Every camera at the scene was trained on Wang Biao.
Wang Biao sneered. "What crime have I committed?"
Comments scrolled across the livestream one after another.
[Death's staring him in the face and he's still talking tough. Ptooey!]
[Brother Biao was a respectable man in life. Spit on him before you go.]
[He's finally dead.]
[Down with the tyranny of martial artists, freedom belongs to humanity.] (Deleted)
[Will anyone come to storm the execution ground?]
Wang Biao looked around and roared like a beast:
"Those twenty-odd bastards trafficked women and underage girls. They not only forced innocent women into prostitution, but also carved out the organs of anyone who refused."
"Didn't martial artists like that deserve to die?"
[Holy shit, there's more to the story?]
[That does sound like something martial artists would do.]
[Down with the tyranny of martial artists, freedom belongs to the people.] (Deleted)
[I don't believe it. He's definitely talking out of his ass.]
[He makes it sound real. The esteemed martial artists risk their lives fighting exotic beasts every day to protect the human race. How could they do something like that?]
[Setting the facts aside, even if what he said was true, it wasn't his place to judge those people, was it?]
[Everyone above is a martial artist. Diagnosis complete.]
[Boring. I want to see blood flow like a river.]
Wang Biao went on roaring, "The very existence of a privileged class like martial artists is unfair! They even stand above the law. They put on a righteous front, but behind the scenes, every last one of them is a sneak thief!"
"All martial artists deserve to die! Every last one of them!"
The chief justice snapped, "Utter nonsense!"
"Carry out the execution at once!"
Duang~
As the chief justice's gavel fell, the gantry immediately began charging.
Wang Biao shouted at the top of his lungs, "For fairness!"
The charging finished, and a small red ball of energy gathered at the triangular nozzle.
Bzzzt-boom-bang-
A bolt of blue lightning suddenly struck the nozzle, and the gantry's crossbeam exploded in an instant.
"What happened?" The chief justice scrambled to his feet.
"The flame nozzle was struck by lightning. We're contacting the maintenance crew, and they'll make emergency repairs right away," the assistant beside him replied.
The chief justice looked up at the clear blue sky and muttered, "Where did the lightn-"
The chief justice's eyes widened as a bolt of lightning descended from the sky and struck the small square with a tremendous boom.
"Thunder descends from the nine heavens; darkness rises from the scarlet earth."
A man's voice, mingled with thunder, rang out over Cloud Mountain's summit in the early morning.
As the dust and smoke over the square cleared, everyone saw a... minotaur covered from head to toe in lightning!
"The Hater Circus!"
Enforcer Number Three recognized the Dharma King's mask at a glance.
Only that bunch of lunatics from the Circus would wear birds and beasts like that.
The surrounding officers and enforcers came to their senses and immediately moved to surround him.
"Hands on your head and squat on the ground!"
The corners of the Dharma King's mouth lifted. He raised his right hand and clenched it sharply into a fist.
Bzzzzzt-
In an instant, countless bolts of lightning shot out in every direction, with the Dharma King at their center.