Chapter 283: This Isn't Right

"My Lord, the things you asked me to investigate have all been found!"

Half-kneeling before Shen Yu, Liang Ruyue dared not raise his head, fearing he might be struck down with a single palm.

Upon returning from Luoyue Slope, Shen Yu had directly asked Peng Yan of the Palace Front Department to help investigate the matter of the Yan Family from back then.

Peng Yan had also worked under him for a time in the past, and they had gotten along quite well; Peng Yan's abilities were not in the slightest inferior to Liang Ruyue's.

Yet, unexpectedly, after Liang Ruyue found out by chance about the matter Peng Yan was secretly investigating for him, he insisted on getting involved no matter what.

Liang Ruyue was now ranked among the high-level officials of the Black-Clad Guard and had many resources at his disposal; after so many years of deployment, the tentacles of the Black-Clad Guard had long since spread everywhere. With his help in the investigation, the matter was soon mostly cleared up.

Afterwards, Liang Ruyue even volunteered to bring the investigation results to report to Shen Yu, hoping only to receive his forgiveness, however little it might be.

But some things, once done, are done; no amount of making amends can fix them.

"You've worked hard. From now on, we are square. You don't need to feel guilty about anything; you owe me nothing. You may go!"

Taking the intelligence Liang Ruyue had gathered, Shen Yu flipped through it, then waved his hand to signal for him to leave.

From beginning to end, Shen Yu's expression was neither cold nor warm, very indifferent, just as if he were facing a stranger, polite yet with a hint of distance.

Seeing this, Liang Ruyue also knew that he could no longer stay by Lord Shen's side as he had before.

"Heh!" With a miserable laugh, Liang Ruyue slowly rose, stood up from the ground, and after casting one look at Shen Yu, he stumbled as he pushed open the door and walked out.

From this day forward, he was just a member of the Black-Clad Guard, nothing more, and behind him, there was no longer an absolutely safe and reliable back to rely upon.

While flipping through the information in his hand, Shen Yu pondered to himself. Regarding the matter of the Yan Family back then, besides that group of corrupt officials framing them, there must have been someone secretly fanning the flames.

Yan Ruyi was actually very clear about this point; the person manipulating things from the shadows was most likely the same people who had made him hold Shen Yu back.

But Yan Ruyi still chose to ignore all of this, because back then, when the very commoners he had risked his life to save finally wanted his life, his heart had already died.

The beliefs he once held in his heart collapsed, his entire family was killed, and in the end, he was nothing but a muddled, walking corpse.

His only remaining thought was that there was one thing he had to do. The other party had helped him preserve his life, allowing him to complete this task. He would then pay for it with his life; that was the deal.

As for hatred or anything of the sort, it was no longer important. For someone whose heart was completely dead and who lived in a daze every day, even revenge could not stir any ripples in him.

Perhaps going to his death was already the thing he had longed for most all these years; death, to him, was more like a form of release.

As for whether those people were taking the opportunity to blackmail him in the end, or whether the things he had to do went against morality—his heart was already dead, so how could he care about morality or lack thereof? After I die, what does it matter if the heavens collapse and the earth sinks?

"Changguan Marquis Mou Qing, Minister of Rites Chen Wenyue... all are people of high position and great power."

Holding these intelligence files, Shen Yu traveled a thousand miles in a single step, heading in the direction of the Capital. Most of the people who participated in that matter back then were now in the Capital, with a portion still in the provinces.

But without exception, every one of them was in a position of high power, and it even involved a behemoth: the Bolin Sword Sect.

Back then, Yan Ruyi's disaster relief efforts had not gone smoothly because someone had deliberately interfered. The relief funds were embezzled, commoners starved to death everywhere, and many experts appeared to feed on human lives to enhance their own strength.

During the famine years, commoners starved to death, human life was like grass, and a single life was not even worth a bowl of millet.

These people, who usually could only hide in dark corners, emerged one after another, even openly using the lives of these commoners to improve their own strength.

At the time, officials at all levels exploited the situation layer by layer, embezzling the relief grain, causing the relief food to never reach the hands of the commoners. The commoners had no food and could not survive; they were liable to riot at any moment.

They were afraid of trouble, so since someone was helping them kill these rioters who might revolt at any time and solving the hidden danger, why not? They were happy to be idle.

As for the fact that the commoners under their jurisdiction suffered heavy casualties, with not one in ten surviving, that was even easier to brush off.

With these natural and man-made disasters, they were all just scholars with no strength to truss a chicken; facing those high-flying experts, even if they had the heart to kill the bandits, they were powerless to do so.

In the end, a famous righteous sect like the Bolin Sword Sect ordered its disciples to come down from the mountains to slay the treacherous villains and make a name for themselves in the martial arts world. To put it bluntly, they were using these evil experts to sharpen their blades.

As a result, the chaos there could not be quelled even more.

The more chaotic it was, the more it would highlight the loftiness of the famous righteous sects. If it were not chaotic, how could they make a name for themselves, and how could they be praised and sung of with gratitude?

Then again, were the disciples of those famous righteous sects truly clean? Sometimes they wreaked havoc even more ruthlessly than others. Because they cherished their reputations, they often acted even more decisively.

But when Yan Ruyi arrived, he began to provide relief to the disaster victims and tried to use his connections to mobilize the army to suppress the experts who were harming the commoners.

He even took action against the disciples of the Bolin Sword Sect, appearing cold and heartless, but he should not have, he absolutely should not have, injured the grandson of an Elder of the Bolin Sword Sect.

On top of that, those corrupt officials intended to use Yan Ruyi as a scapegoat; the relief grain given to him only had grain on the very top, while everything underneath was sand and dirt.

Once the grain was gone, Yan Ruyi was directly branded a corrupt official, and without even a trial, he was thrown straight into prison.

These relief supplies had been tampered with by many hands; so many people were taking a cut, it wasn't just one or two people who had meddled.

Therefore, officials at all levels wanted Yan Ruyi to die, and the people of the Bolin Sword Sect also wanted Yan Ruyi to die; at that time, even Yan Ruyi felt it would be better if he were dead.

But the old master of the Yan Family was also notoriously stubborn, and he even declared he would enter the palace to argue his case, saying he would do whatever it took to prove his grandson's innocence.

Yet they did not know that for the Yan Family to seek a reversal of the verdict for Yan Ruyi, they were not facing one person, but an entire group, with the Bolin Sword Sect standing there as well.

Compared to the Yan Family, which had no powerful Martial Artists in the entire clan, the forces behind those officials, as well as the behemoth that was the Bolin Sword Sect, were far too powerful.

At the time, the imperial court had not yet fully recovered from its weakness and was pursuing a policy of recuperation, avoiding provocation of those top aristocratic families and sects whenever possible.

In the end, they could only sacrifice Yan Ruyi, and along with him, the entire Yan Family was sacrificed as well.

The information Liang Ruyue gathered was very comprehensive, writing out the cause and effect almost clearly.

Moreover, it contained not only the matter of how they framed the Yan Family back then, but also various pieces of evidence of their corruption, oppression of the commoners, and seizure of fertile land.

This time he really put in the effort, mobilizing almost all the power he could command, just to get this one thing done properly.

Unfortunately, although Shen Yu appreciated it, he would never give him his trust again!

Sighing silently, Shen Yu put away the papers in his hand, and as he looked at the towering Capital right before his eyes, a flash of murderous intent crossed his gaze.

"Let's start with the one with the highest official rank. Changguan Marquis, a house of dukes and marquises, yet they could actually embezzle relief grain."

"Of all the relief grain, they took half directly, and the rest was what others divided up. If I don't kill such people, am I supposed to keep them for the New Year?"

"One by one, none of them will escape!"