Chapter 331: You mangy monk, keep your mouth shut in your next life!

Zhao Qian's hand, which had been gripping the long saber, loosened slightly before tightening again. Blood droplets from the blade slid slowly along its sharp edge, dripping onto the bluestone floor with a rhythmic *tap, tap*.

He took a deep breath, and the stifled frustration in his chest seemed to dissipate along with that breath.

The manic agitation from smashing the stone statue and the frantic anxiety before swinging the blade had both been washed away by that gushing fountain of blood.

He lowered his head to look at the blood on the blade, then at the body of Huineng hanging from the execution post, and his tense shoulders suddenly relaxed. Even the veins throbbing on his temples calmed down.

"Hmph!" Zhao Qian let out a cold snort from his throat, a sigh of relief mixed with a hint of satisfaction.

The heavy stone weighing on his heart had finally fallen.

"Old Pillar of State Dugu?"

Seeing Dugu Zhao rushing over like a madman, the private soldiers were stunned for a moment before saluting: "Greetings, Old Pillar of State Dugu!"

Dugu Zhao had been galloping at full speed, and his chest was still heaving violently, his white beard trembling with his ragged breath.

"Move aside!"

He barked a low command, his voice still carrying the remnants of his exertion but filled with undeniable authority.

The two soldiers blocking his path barely had time to look up before they were shoved aside.

"Brother Dugu, why have you come?"

Zhao Qian's gaze shifted from the drooping head of Huineng, his unfocused pupils slowly sharpening against the backdrop of Dugu Zhao's dark robes. He blinked, his brow furrowing in genuine confusion, his voice filled with incredulity: "Aren't you supposed to be confined to your estate?"

Previously, in the case of Chang De, Dugu Zhao had been accused by You Wangzhi of being the mastermind, but Yuwen Hu had raised him high only to let him down gently...

He had been punished with confinement to his estate for "lax supervision"!

Zhao Qian had never expected him to appear here at this moment...

Dugu Zhao's gaze fell upon the still-warm corpse hanging from the execution post.

Huineng's head was tilted to one side, blood still oozing slowly from his neck, winding down his tattered monk's robe.

It pooled into a small puddle of dark red on the bluestone, looking exactly like the cinnabar used to make offerings to the Buddha in temples, yet it carried a heart-wrenching, fishy stench.

He closed his eyes tightly for a moment, and when he opened them again to look at Zhao Qian, the bloodshot veins in his eyes seemed ready to burst: "Brother Zhao, you shouldn't have been so impulsive, so reckless as to kill this Huineng!"

Every word felt like it was being squeezed through his teeth.

Dugu Zhao had rushed out with his private soldiers the moment he received the news...

Who could have imagined he would still be a step too late?

This mangy monk deserved to die, but he shouldn't have been killed in this manner!

"Why?"

Zhao Qian asked in a hoarse voice, his tone filled with a bewilderment he didn't even realize.

He paused, then continued: "With this mangy monk dead, the trouble caused by the prophecy can be put to rest!"

In the eyes of this Old Pillar of State, smashing the one-eyed stone statue and grinding Huineng to dust was the ultimate solution—a way to settle all troubles once and for all!

"Brother Zhao, you are muddled!"

Dugu Zhao looked at Zhao Qian's face, which was etched with stubbornness and confusion, and the rage in his chest felt blocked by something, burning his throat.

He took a deep breath, his chest heaving, his eyes filled with a frustration that was nearly overflowing: "Killing Huineng in front of everyone will only backfire, making the world believe you are guilty, that you are trying to cover up the truth!"

"Is the matter of the prophecy something that can be solved simply by killing one Huineng?"

Dugu Zhao truly couldn't understand. Zhao Qian, who had rolled through countless battles, was so brilliant in war, yet why was he so foolish in these matters? Was he completely blind?

Did he think he could silence the world's gossip with a single slash?

It might have felt satisfying to swing the blade, but had he considered the consequences?

Especially in front of so many Chang'an commoners...

It was simply lifting a rock only to drop it on his own feet!

"Is it really that serious?"

Zhao Qian was stunned by Dugu Zhao's sharp rebuke, his previously stiff neck slowly drooping.

He looked at the pool of blood on the ground that was gradually congealing, then at Dugu Zhao's trembling hands, and the gears in his brain, rusted as they were, finally gave a "click" and turned halfway.

He finally began to realize.

No wonder Yuwen Hu hadn't just refrained from causing trouble, but had even been so cooperative...

"My dear Brother Zhao, what do you think?" Dugu Zhao shook his head, his voice filled with profound exhaustion and helplessness.

And at the moment Zhao Qian's blade fell.

A deathly silence pressed down on the execution ground like a giant boulder, as if even the wind had frozen.

But this silence didn't last long. First, an old woman holding a vegetable basket in the front row let out a suppressed sob, like a fuse igniting the tense air.

"The Duke of Chu killed Master Huineng?!" A woman in a coarse cotton coat covered her mouth, tears streaming through her fingers. "He actually dared to kill Master Huineng?!"

"Master Huineng!" Someone whispered in a trembling voice, sounding like a candle flickering in the wind. The old man selling tofu pudding in the crowd suddenly crouched down, burying his face in his graying hair.

A man rushed forward half a step, only to be blocked by the private soldiers' blades. His eyes were bloodshot as he roared: "The Grand Minister of Justice, who heads the Autumn Office and holds the laws of Great Zhou, has killed Master Huineng without a trial, without a confession!"

"This is nothing but a disregard for human life!"

A hot-blooded young scholar jumped out, pointing at Zhao Qian on the platform and shouting: "He is using the pretext of crushing rumors and killing a spy to silence a witness!"

"It seems the prophecy transmitted by the Buddha was true after all!"

The scholar had been skeptical of the prophecy before, but now he believed it completely...

After all, only if it were true would a Pillar of State be so enraged as to kill Master Huineng to silence him!

"How could Master Huineng be a spy?" The old man selling sesame cakes threw his cakes into his basket and shouted with his toothless mouth, "If he were truly a spy, the Mingjing Si and the discerning Lord Chen Yan would have rooted him out long ago. Would they have waited until now?"

In their eyes, the charge of being a spy was complete nonsense!

Did they really think Lord Chen Yan was just for show?

It was clearly a frame-up!

"Exactly!"

The old man selling tofu pudding suddenly stood up, his red eyes fixed on Zhao Qian, his voice filled with blood-weeping indignation: "I think he's about to fall, so he wants to drag someone down with him!"

"And he's splashing filth on Master Huineng!"

He had shouted too quickly and couldn't catch his breath, clutching his chest and coughing violently, yet he continued to glare at the platform.

The surrounding commoners hurried to support him.

"Did you hear that?"

The white-haired old man leaning on his cane took two steps forward, his cloudy eyes wide. "Zhao Qian's private soldiers called that man the Old Pillar of State Dugu!"

As soon as these words were spoken, those in the know immediately revealed the major event from a few days ago: "It's the Old Pillar of State Dugu who ordered the Dingxiang Marquis to almost wipe out the Small Sima's family!"

"The Small Sima knocked his head against the pillar in the palace and still couldn't get justice..." The Widow Wang, who often embroidered banners for the temple, wiped her tears, her voice sharp as a knife. "And yet this Old Pillar of State Dugu is still at large!"

"These two are birds of a feather!" A peddler put down his load and shouted, "Pillars of State, my foot! They're just parasites harming Great Zhou!"

On the east side of the execution ground, an old blind musician suddenly plucked his strings and began to sing: "There is an ancient temple on Zhongnan Mountain, home to a living Bodhisattva..."

"Giving medicine and tea, saving thousands of families..."

"Yet he met a villain's hand!"

"Where is the justice of Heaven!"

A shrill cry pierced through the roar of curses. A middle-aged woman in the front row suddenly knelt, her forehead thumping against the cold bluestone. Blood seeped from her hairline, but she didn't notice, only looking at Huineng's corpse on the post and begging with blood-weeping eyes: "Buddha! Please, do not let Zhao Qian go!"

Her actions were like a command. A dozen commoners knelt down behind her—white-haired elders, women holding children, and even the peddler who had just been roaring.

They kowtowed toward the execution post, the dull thuds of their foreheads hitting the stone floor merging into one, their cries and pleas mixing together, adding a ghostly, tragic air to the execution ground.

"Buddha, let Zhao Qian suffer divine retribution, die a miserable death, and have no descendants!"

Amidst the cries, even more vicious curses erupted like vipers, each word laced with poison and the deepest hatred of the commoners.

Filthy abuse poured in like a tide, every word dripping with venom and the ultimate hatred of the people.

Zhao Qian sensed the surging hatred from the platform and turned to look at Dugu Zhao, his bloodshot eyes filled with helplessness: "Brother Dugu, what should we do now?"

"There was still room to maneuver before killing Huineng, but now it's going to be tricky," Dugu Zhao sighed, feeling the surging public anger.

"Should we just slaughter these lowly commoners..." Zhao Qian's eyes flashed with a ruthless glint as he spoke in a low voice.

*Fool... * Dugu Zhao cursed in his heart, gritting his teeth: "Do you think the situation isn't chaotic enough already?"

"Force alone cannot silence everyone!"

There were so many onlookers; could he kill them all?

And if he did, wouldn't the news spread even faster, the charges become even graver? Was he really going to hand them the evidence on a silver platter?

"Then what are we to do?"

Zhao Qian frowned, suppressing the frustration in his chest, and asked: "We can't just sit here and wait for death, can we?"

"Then what should be done?"

Dugu Zhao frowned, suppressing the frustration in his chest, and asked: "We can't just do nothing and wait for death, can we?"