Chapter 443

His voice was extremely loud, and just as a gust of wind blew by, these words traveled nearly half a li downwind. So many teams in front of the checkpoint heard it and turned their heads in unison.

There are many troubles in passing through customs, and it's not strange to have occasional quarrels in such places, but such a big scene is rare.

Which official was asking for more again? He Lingchuan stopped his team members from unloading the cargo, also out of safety considerations. With hundreds of eyes staring fixedly, it wouldn't be so easy for these bailiffs to stuff contraband into the cargo and tamper with things as they had before.

He noticed several soldiers with flickering eyes, always wanting to turn sideways to block the vehicles, but they were troubled by the team members following them and glaring, so they never found an opportunity.

Zhongsun Mou naturally wouldn't miss hearing it, and he sized He Lingchuan up a few times: "Which onion do you count as?"

"Just a commoner." He Lingchuan shrugged, "I walk straight and sit upright, not relying on framing others to get promoted."

The duty of the Inspection Envoy is to inspect officials and rectify discipline, yet this guy started by framing them. It's evident that his usual methods for meeting KPIs aren't very honorable either.

Zhongsun Mou's gaze was deep: "You don't submit?"

"I submit." He Lingchuan bared his teeth in a smile, meeting his gaze, "This is the territory of Lingxu City, of course we have to submit."

"It's good that you're tactful." Zhongsun Mou acted as if he hadn't heard the sarcasm, stepped forward a few paces, and said in a flippant tone, "Otherwise, according to the laws of Lingxu City, those who slander high-ranking officials of the Royal Court will have their tongues cut out. You would at least have to cut off that troublesome tongue of yours before you could pass through that checkpoint."

At this moment, a soldier suddenly shouted: "There's more, we found it!"

Found what? Everyone looked over and saw this soldier holding a bottle high, inside which were several crystals.

"Fragments of the Ancient Rock Heart!"

The caravan members couldn't hold back anymore and cursed out loud one after another.

The bottle was only the size of a palm; it was evident that this guy couldn't put it into the large cargo under everyone's gaze, so he could only sneakily stuff a small bottle to complete the task.

"Ancient Rock Heart!" Zhongsun Mou didn't care about their complaints and summoned the minor official, "How is this calculated?"

"Six pieces of contraband Ancient Rock Heart, uh, the ten-fold fine is... five hundred taels!"

The crowd was in an uproar.

Framing them again, and with the maximum penalty! The minor official was also very thoughtful: "If we search out two or three more items, it will be malicious smuggling, the crime will be increased by one degree, and you can be detained."

Fushan Yue suddenly said: "Your eating habits are so ugly, has no one ever impeached you in Lingxu City?"

He looked toward the back of the checkpoint: "Where is the gate general who originally guarded this pass? Why doesn't he come out, and instead you were replaced to be the watchdog?"

He had traveled back and forth through this checkpoint no less than ten times; if the gate general who guarded the pass dared to mess around like Zhongsun Mou usually, he didn't know what kind of trouble would arise.

"What does it have to do with you?" Zhongsun Mou said leisurely, "One last chance, plead for them properly, otherwise..."

The Second Master of the Shi family couldn't be bothered to struggle anymore and went to find the manager and his subordinates to pool money—

Having just paid three thousand taels, his pockets were empty too.

Fushan Yue's expression was gloomy, and he suddenly strode toward Zhongsun Mou.

The guards behind Zhongsun Mou immediately stepped forward to block him, but were waved away by their master.

Only Fushan Yue was heard saying in a low voice: "I heard that in three months, the Zhongsun family will host a grand event at the Xiling Grass Sea, and many powerful families will attend. You'd better be careful, the Grass Sea hasn't been very peaceful lately."

Zhongsun Mou's expression changed slightly: "You dare?"

Fushan Yue said gloomily: "In the current situation, some thieves and fierce monsters just can't be suppressed. What do you say can be done?"

Zhongsun Mou snorted, but he wasn't as smug as before.

After hesitating for a few breaths, he finally waved his hand at the bailiffs, meaning to forget it and let them pass.

He was the highest-ranking officer present; since he nodded, his subordinates naturally had no objections.

So the team members picked up the cargo, reloaded the carts, and went to line up again.

Half an hour later, they finally passed the checkpoint and stepped onto the territory of the Chi Yan Kingdom.

The Shi Gate caravan and Fushan Yue's guards all let out a long sigh of relief.

Finally passed! That head bailiff also turned around to collect his team and leave.

He didn't forget to take that lowly slave along; after walking more than ten zhang, he slapped the slave hard on the head, gnashing his teeth: "Look at the good job you've done!"

The lowly slave's teeth chattered in fear, and he spoke incoherently: "I, I, I don't know what happened, it was clearly on their cart..."

The bailiff kicked him in the butt, nearly knocking him to the ground: "You just wait, until we get back to the office!"

No one cared about what would happen to the lowly slave.

This group of bailiffs had lost face in public, and upon returning, they would surely vent all their anger on that unlucky guy.

Fushan Yue was also sneering.

Zhongsun Mou thought the lowly slave was a good card to use to make things difficult for him. As it turned out, Little Taozi wasn't in this team at all. Seeing that his plan had failed, Zhongsun Mou activated his backup plan to frame him on the spot.

This guy was determined to go against him.

As soon as he turned his head, he saw He Lingchuan gazing at the backs of those people: "What's wrong?"

He Lingchuan sighed with emotion: "What kind of person was the King of Yuan back then, and the people of the Yuan Kingdom were also iron-willed. I didn't expect that after a hundred years, their descendants would become like this."

The words and actions of that lowly slave made him realize more deeply the misfortune carried on this land.

The performance of one person is a microcosm of a group of people.

Fushan Yue said indifferently: "Anyone with a bit of backbone was killed off back then; those left until now are only cowards. You can trample on them however you want, but the only thing they can't do is walk with their heads held high."

He Lingchuan remembered the resolute words of the King of Yuan before he died:

I would rather my children die with their eyes open than live as cowards.

On the eve of the fall of the Yuan Kingdom, the monarch and his subjects were righteous, laughing as they faced death; their voices and smiles were still vivid.

Looking at the present, the descendants of the Yuan Kingdom had long since had their spines broken and their spirit extracted, living like maggots on the ground, daring only to vent their full resentment on their weaker and more innocent compatriots.

They and their ancestors were like two completely different species.

Who would have thought that this was the same race of people on the same land? Only a little over a hundred years apart.

He Lingchuan could almost feel the loud, wild laughter of Lingxu City echoing under this sky:

This is the price of going against Beijia and the gods.

If you dare to defy the gods and cause chaos in Beijia, I will destroy your country, exterminate your race, and trample on your descendants! Let your children and grandchildren be mocked and spat upon by others for generations to come.

Let your descendants wish that they never had ancestors like you who left behind such endless disasters!

What was even more terrifying was that if Beijia could be so cruel and vicious to its own people, would it show any mercy to other countries or other people? Thinking of this, He Lingchuan couldn't help but press the divine bone necklace under his collar, and a chill spread across his back.

What kind of behemoth would he have to face in the future? What kind of lunatics were they? How should he deal with it? Zhongsun Mou was still standing behind the pass, looking here with a gloomy gaze.

Fushan Yue raised his middle finger at him.

This was a gesture he had learned from He Lingchuan a few days ago, which was said to be able to express the disdain, contempt, and malice in one's heart all at once.

Now that he had entered the Chi Yan Kingdom, which was his own territory, what was there to fear from that guy!

Even if he released his peach on the spot to jump around a few times, the people from Lingxu City couldn't cross the border to chase them.

He Lingchuan also glanced toward the back of the checkpoint: "Are you just going to let it go like this?"

Based on his understanding of Fushan Yue, this guy belonged to the type that would pursue relentlessly.

Otherwise, he and Fushan Yue wouldn't have formed a grudge in the first place.

"How is that possible?" Fushan Yue scoffed at this statement, "Wait until I sneak back in a few days and get close to them properly!"

That's right, this was Fushan Yue's style.

Fushan Yue also said to He Lingchuan: "I'll definitely vent your anger for you, don't worry!"

He Lingchuan didn't care at all: "I'm only concerned about those three thousand taels, when will you pay?"

"When I get home!" Fushan Yue was helpless; he had given the last copper coin to this guy in front of him, so he really had nothing left, "I'll have as much money as you want!"

He looked at the checkpoint again and said bitterly: "Zhongsun Mou is like a mad dog; once he bites you, he won't let go. Unless you kick him to death, he'll always come to disgust you."

Why frame them openly?

Why use a glass jar to frame them? Wasn't it just to disgust him, Fushan Yue? He Lingchuan rolled his eyes; was this guy talking about Zhongsun Mou, or was he talking about himself?

"I thought that high-ranking officials in Lingxu City would be very sophisticated at framing people."

He thought it would be a battle of wits, with both sides trading barbs and killing each other eight hundred times without showing any emotion.

Yet the reality was almost like the other party kicking over a bench and coming up with a kitchen knife to fight hard.

Fushan Yue laughed out loud: "You don't understand Lingxu City, and you don't understand these monster officials."

"Yeah, I don't understand." He Lingchuan was very humble.

"Monsters and humans have different temperaments." Fushan Yue said something profound.

Are monster officials barbaric, and human officials cunning? He Lingchuan laughed: "Then are you a human or a monster?"

Fushan Yue said leisurely: "Strictly speaking, a Ba is also a human."

Fine, that makes sense. He Lingchuan coughed lightly: "By the way, what kind of monster is this Inspection Envoy?"

"You don't know?" Fushan Yue was surprised instead, "Have you never seen a Shark Person?"

"That's a Shark Person?" He Lingchuan touched his head, "I thought they all lived by the water." Of course, the strange notes he had read in Panlong City described Shark Persons, but they all described them as living in shallows.

The nearest big river was ten li away, and this Zhongsun Mou had come all the way from Lingxu City, detouring through the Twilight Plains, and didn't seem to be lacking water.

"Oh, Shark Persons do need water." Fushan Yue added some common knowledge about Beijia for him, "But they all wear water-gathering array plates, so they can absorb water vapor from the air to nourish themselves, so leaving the water for half a month is no problem."

"Lingxu City is half mountain and half sea, very vast, and there are many water tribes living there."

"Are Shark Persons all this petty, or is your hatred level too high with him?"

"He's just a piece of work." Fushan Yue said, naturally having nothing good to say about Zhongsun Mou.

Since he had indicated that he would cover the money, this episode could be considered over, and even the Second Master of the Shi family didn't mention it.

Only the members of the Shi Gate caravan were grumbling all the way.

Just like that, the team walked until they reached the second small town to rest.

Thanks to sesamee for the sponsorship (`)

(End of chapter)