Chapter 116: He wouldn't budge this huge black pot with such a soft spine

At that moment, the villager's face was full of bewilderment—what had he done wrong? When he went out, he had merely glanced at Shen Qing's back.

But in that instant of surprise, Shen Qing's fist had already struck his face, sending him flying.

Before he could even land, Shen Qing grabbed his ankle and then used him like a hammer, slamming him hard into the ground, again and again.

The villager shouted a curse: "Baka yarō!"

"Ah, so you're a wokou."

As he spoke, Shen Qing increased the force in his hand by three parts, making the villager emit sharp cracking sounds—the sound of bones breaking.

Only when there was not a single intact piece of flesh on his body did Shen Qing release him.

"Your killing intent is pure indeed. Tell me—who are you?"

The villager's limbs twisted, his eyes filled with venom: "I am Nomura Taro, and Sato Taro, the great general of the Black Snake Army, is my sworn brother in life and death!"

Shen Qing then understood—no wonder the killing intent was so pure.

Shen Qing smiled.

"So that beast is your sworn brother in life and death?"

"Then many things suddenly make sense—him being able to reach Wangyue Valley must also be thanks to your information, right?"

This all made sense now: the wokou had bought information from Zhao Wanshu, then told the Black Snake Army, which is why they could track all the way to Wangyue Valley.

Shen Qing turned his head to look at Zhao Wanshu: "Minister Zhao, do you have any more explanations?"

Zhao Wanshu, kneeling on the ground, trembled continuously, his voice altered.

"This... this... Shen Shao ye, please let me explain..."

At that moment, the sound of running came from outside the courtyard, accompanied by Cao Shen's voice: "Sir Shen! Sir Shen!"

The next instant, Cao Shen leapt high from outside the courtyard into the yard, with a black dog and Old Li tucked under his armpits.

Zhao Wanshu hurriedly knelt and looked toward Cao Shen, shouting as if clutching a lifeline: "General Cao! General Cao! In the past, I was blind to Mount Tai—I am willing to compensate you with money, I will give you everything! Please intercede for me with Shen Shao ye..."

Before his words finished, Cao Shen kicked Zhao Wanshu in the face, spitting out a mouthful of thick phlegm: "Get lost."

Having said that, Cao Shen looked at Shen Qing: "Sir Shen, good thing I arrived in time—Zhao Wanshu is still alive."

Shen Qing raised his eyebrows—it seemed he had made some major discovery.

At that moment, Old Li reached out and patted Cao Shen: "General Cao, why not put us down first?"

Only then did Cao Shen notice that the black dog and Old Li were still clamped under his armpits; he hurriedly set them down and continued speaking.

"We three searched Zhao Wanshu's residence in Yansu City, and the first two mansions had no issues at all."

"It was only at the final residence, located on Xiangjiu Street."

"Sir Shen, please look."

As he spoke, Cao Shen handed over several documents to Shen Qing, while also glancing at Zhao Wanshu—sure enough, Zhao Wanshu's body trembled once.

Shen Qing glanced at them; several were ordinary military supply allocation documents, sending some armaments to the Youhu Army.

However, each bore only a single seal—the seal of the Supervisor of Provisions Minister.

Cao Shen continued: "Sir Shen, you have only recently arrived in Jia Shui Jun and may not know this."

"Six months ago, the wokou army launched a surprise attack on Shui Fu City; our Great Wu had three major armies fight to the death without retreating, and in the end, all three armies—from generals to soldiers—were annihilated, including the Youhu Army, whose general Su Gui was still my close friend!"

"These allocation documents were all made after the Youhu Army's sacrifice! I want to ask Minister Zhao—where did you send these supplies?"

Shen Qing smiled: "I didn't expect Minister Zhao to be so well-connected, even trading with the underworld."

"Do you need to explain these documents?"

Zhao Wanshu's lips trembled: "False accusation—this is definitely a false accusation."

"Who... who put these documents in my house?"

"Are you admitting this is your house?"

As this sharp shout rang out, Zhao Wanshu collapsed outright, his whole body falling to the ground.

At that moment, a gloomy, sinister laugh came from Nomura Taro: "Shen Qing, he won't tell you—I will: those several batches of military supplies were all sold to me."

Shen Qing looked at him: "You seem to know a lot—do you know who the mastermind behind this is?"

Nomura Taro froze: "How do you know there is a mastermind?"

Could the rumors be true? Does Shen Qing really have heavenly eyes?

Shen Qing glanced at Zhao Wanshu, sprawled on the ground, and snorted: "He has such a soft spine, yet won't budge this huge black pot."

Nomura Taro laughed loudly: "Good, good, good..."

But the next moment, Nomura Taro's laughter cut off abruptly—Shen Qing had already kicked him in the face.

"Laughing, laughing, laughing—did I allow you to laugh?"

"Know or don't know? If you know, just say it—don't waste my time. If you don't, I'll torture you first, then you can speak."

Nomura Taro's face darkened, but he continued speaking.

"This Zhao Wanshu is indeed foolish—he never knew that the woman he kept in his household was my person."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wanshu snapped his head toward Nomura Taro: "What? A Ying is your person? You beast..."

Cao Shen stepped on Zhao Wanshu's mouth, grinding it hard several times.

Nomura continued: "Over these years, I have also extracted some things from Zhao Wanshu's mouth—this Supervisor of Provisions Minister was obtained for the Zhao family through connections, though not explicitly stated, but likely it was his elder brother, that is, Zhao Wanwu, the head of the Zhao family."

"Shen Qing, do you dare go to the Zhao family?"

With a bang.

Shen Qing pointed directly, blowing Nomura Taro into a mist of blood.

"Having spoken, you may now die in silence—why so many words?"

Cao Shen, standing nearby, swallowed his saliva—how had this dragged in the Zhao family?

He turned his head to look at Shen Qing, also wanting to know what Shen Qing would do.

Who would have thought Shen Qing wouldn't hesitate in the slightest, waving his hand: "Old Li, pick up Zhao Wanshu."

"General Cao, this place is some distance from Beiyun City, it's inconvenient for me to send people, and I'll have to trouble your Mighty Army again."

"Let's go, set off for Ziyan City, the Zhao clan must be exterminated."

Zhao Wanshu froze: "Young Master Shen! Even if you are the young master of the Shen family, you can't just exterminate our Zhao family!"

Shen Qing didn't even turn his head: "I think you've misunderstood, this matter doesn't require me to act using my Shen family status."

"These years, how much grain and pay have you embezzled, how many soldiers have you harmed, and on top of that, colluding with the enemy."

"Oh, right, also aiding the enemy, you actually dare to sell the military supplies of Great Wu to the Wokou?"

"All these added together are enough to warrant the extermination of your Zhao clan four or five times over."

"Even if you brought back the founding Martial Emperor, he couldn't save your Zhao family."

"I said it!"