Chapter 275: The murky world must fall, the netherworld shall reign supreme

The Taoist priest was so frightened that he lost control of his bowels and bladder, crying out, "I don't know anything, sir! Master Ancestor, no, Qixiazi! He only ordered us to pack up and get ready to leave, and after that we never saw him again!"

Xiao Er pressed further: "Leave? You left, but what about those workers?"

The Taoist priest shrank his neck and said, "Qixiazi said they... they all were killed."

Lu Qi stepped forward and kicked him flying.

Xiao Ran questioned several more people, but received the same reply each time.

Qixiazi, astonishingly, vanished without a trace despite being heavily surrounded!

Xiao Ran bellowed, "Find him! Dig three feet deep if you must—drag him out for me!"

"Ninth Prince," Xiao Er said, clasping his fists, "I and Lu Qi will take some men to check out the statue the young lady mentioned."

Xiao Ran nodded at once: "Hurry up!"

The party hurried to the statue in the main hall.

Xiao Er examined the statue closely, tapping it inch by inch, but heard only a solid thud and found no trace of any mechanism.

Lu Qi snorted coldly: "What good could a statue worshipped by such villains have? Split it open and see!"

Xiao Er nodded: "Makes sense!"

He at once grabbed weapons together with Lu Qi and the soldiers and began hacking at the statue.

"Bang! Crack——!"

Amid flying wood chips, the solemn statue was split open a huge gap.

Indeed, only a small part of the statue's belly was hollow, housing a dark iron box.

Xiao Er reached out and took it; the box felt heavy but was unlocked.

He lifted the lid—inside was empty!

The bottom of the box bore a clear square mark, showing that something like books had once been placed here.

"Too late!" Lu Qi slammed his fist into the shattered statue, "That old coot must have taken it ahead of time!"

The group returned to the front courtyard with the empty box to report, and Xiao Ran's face darkened further.

After hours of searching, Qixiazi remained unfound, and even this vital evidence had disappeared!

He looked at the quivering Taoists and said, "I'll give you a chance to live—whoever can tell me where Qixiazi intends to flee, I'll spare his life."

The Taoists shuddered, exchanging looks; a few showed clear signs of being swayed, lips trembling, but ultimately no one dared to speak first.

Xiao Ran's resolve hardened and he barked, "You won't talk, huh? Fine! Looks like you're bent on dying with that old villain! Men, execute these tyrants' accomplices right here!"

"I'll talk! I know!" a thin, tall Taoist shouted at the brink of death, "Qixiazi once said that if anything happens in the west, he would… he would head to Jiangzhou!"

"Jiangzhou? The southern watery region of Jiangzhou?"

"Impudent! Have you forgotten Master Ancestor's teachings?"

An old Taoist yelled, "For the great cause, dying for the Dao is the utmost honor! How can you cling to life and fear death, betraying the sect?"

"Bullshit great cause! Nonsense honor!" Lu Qi bellowed and kicked the old Taoist in the chest, sending him flying.

A soldier came running: "Ninth Prince! Flood! The southwest corner is flooding!"

Everyone looked up, only to see the southwest corner of the observatory already ablaze, flames shooting skyward with thick smoke.

The flames instantly swallowed half the sky, a scorching heat wave washed over them.

Lu Qi frowned: "How did the fire grow so huge just after it started?"

The thin, tall Taoist who had just confessed trembled, "It was Master Ancestor's order! He said after killing those workers, we were to pour vegetable oil throughout the halls and torch the observatory!"

Xiao Ran urgently ordered, "Put out the fire! Quickly!"

The soldiers struggled to fetch water to fight the fire, but the wind and oil-fed flames quickly turned over half of Qingyunguan into a blazing inferno, making any effort futile.

A smoke-blackened officer ran back, "Your Highness! The fire is too huge—oil's everywhere, we can't extinguish it!"

Xiao Ran stamped his foot and ordered, "Withdraw!"

Everyone swiftly withdrew from the Qingyunguan, now a blazing hell.

Xiao Ningxun embraced his sister, gazing at the towering flames within the observatory, his heart heavy.

Qixiazi's blaze destroyed too much evidence and left a huge mess.

Indeed, the next day the whole Qingzhou Prefecture was in an uproar.

"Did you hear? Yesterday the troops surrounded Qingyunguan!"

"More than surrounded! I was inside burning incense then and saw it myself—countless troops stormed the observatory and drove the worshippers right out!"

"What offense did Qingyunguan commit? Those Taoist priests are normally so kind!"

"Exactly! Whenever disaster strikes here, Qingyunguan is always the first to set up shelters and hand out porridge."

"What's wrong with the authorities? How could they do this?"

Many civilians spontaneously gathered at the prefecture gate, demanding justice for Qingyunguan.

"Don't wrong the innocent!"

"And Taoist Priest Qixiazi? Please have him come out and say something!"

The Prefect called several people to the office, fretting like ants on a hot pan.

"Ninth Prince, Third Young Master, you two have seen this as well."

"Public resentment is boiling over! The mass graves have been burned away, the workers reduced to idiots—there's no human or material evidence left! How can this official answer to the people?"

Several people exchanged glances, but for a moment no one could think of a solution to this dilemma.

"Third Brother," Tuan Tuan tugged at Xiao Ningxun's sleeve, "They don't realize those people are villains, nor what wicked deeds they've done—so let's make them know!"

Xiao Ran blinked: "How do we let them know?"

Tuan Tuan pointed a finger outside and said, "Just write down all their misdeeds, post them on the outer wall, and let everyone have a look!"

"If they want to see those Taoists, just drag those wicked Taoists out for them to see!"

"Exactly!" Xiao Ningxun's eyes flashed with sharp light, "Rather than waste our breath explaining, let's make their crimes public! Let the people see right from wrong!"

Xiao Ran clapped excitedly: "Wonderful! List their crimes clearly and post them all over the city! Then drag those Taoists out for a parade, see how they still pretend to be good!"

The clerks of the government office immediately sprang into action, listing Qingyunguan's crimes—private manufacture of weapons, enslaving artisans with evil arts, murder to silence witnesses, and so on—one by one, and wrote them into a stern notice.

Stamped with the official seal, the notices were posted like snowflakes across the streets and alleys of Qingzhou Prefecture, especially the largest one on the outer wall of the government office gate.

Squads of soldiers escorted the head-down, shackled Taoists onto Qingzhou's most bustling street.

Upon seeing the notice, everyone's faces changed.

And seeing those paraded Taoists, heads bowed, faces ashen, where was any trace of their usual immortal bearing?

Pah! They're actually a pack of wolves that devour people without spitting bones!

Using our good intentions for this kind of scheme! They deserve a bad death!

My poor child went to work at Qingyunguan and has heard nothing since; surely they fell victim to their evil hands!

Beat them to death! Avenge our departed kin!

Someone first threw a rotten egg, then followed by rotten vegetable leaves, clods of earth, hailing down on the Taoists being paraded.

In just two or three days, the people's hearts completely turned.

Seeing the populace angrily denouncing the demonic Taoists, Xiao Ran let out a long sigh of relief.

Xiao Ningxun gently patted his sister's head: "Still, our Tuan Tuan is the smartest."

Tuan Tuan looked at the people who had finally recognized the wicked Taoists, squinting happily: "Yeah, this is how it should be!"

Everyone returned to the inn.

Xiao Ningxun picked up again the empty iron box taken from the statue, examined it closely, his brows furrowed.

Tuan Tuan came over and asked: "Third Brother, what are you looking at?"

Brother is wondering what Qixiazi took away.

He repeatedly inspected it, then suddenly noticed what seemed to be a scratched mark on the inner side of the box lid's cork padding.

He carefully removed the padding, held it to the light, and saw eight characters clearly carved there:

The turbid world shall fall; the netherworld shall reign supreme!

Xiao Ningxun's pupils constricted sharply.