Chapter 693: Blood Splatter

The old man's words were impassioned, like a great stone cast into water, splashing out countless buzzing discussions.

Facing the old man's accusations, Che Lin was quite calm, merely sneering, "Why so many words? A thief's bite goes three inches deep into the bone; who would believe a thief?"

The old man suddenly shouted, "Sir, you must let me finish what I have to say!"

This was directed at Tang Zhao; he wanted Tang Zhao to at least guarantee that Che Lin would not kill him to silence him before he finished speaking.

Tang Zhao watched him quietly, saying nothing, neither agreeing nor refusing.

But that was enough; since Tang Zhao did not refuse, Che Lin could not act rashly, as wanting to make the old man shut up immediately would be like showing no face to Tang Zhao.

The old man pointed at Che Lin and said, "You of the Land Inspection Division think you are the masters of heaven and earth, running rampant and acting like bullies. You claim to be eradicating the Yin Calamity, but you use that as an excuse to run rampant, seizing men and bullying women, doing every evil deed imaginable."

Che Lin was furious and said, "Old thief, to actually invert black and white and slander the Land Inspection Division! But you cannot slander the Land Inspection Division, because everyone sees it with their own eyes! Every year in Kuan Cheng, there are over a dozen Small Yin Calamities and dozens of others; which time was it not our Land Inspection Division that handled them? Which time did we not protect the safety of the common people everywhere? Without us, people like you would have long since been eaten by Fierce Beasts!"

If not for Tang Zhao being here, he would not have needed so much nonsense; he could have split the old thief in two with one sword strike.

Of course, he might not have struck directly either.

After all, the old man was pointing at the career he took pride in and calling it fake; no matter what, for the sake of his honor, he had to argue with the old fellow, so when he argued, he held his head high and chest out, full of confidence.

Many people around them could not help but nod; after all, the Yin Calamity was terrifying, everyone saw it, and since everyone was still safe and sound now, one could hardly say the Land Inspection Division did nothing.

"Haha, protect the common people? Perhaps you protected a few families, but for every one you protected, you harmed ten! Look at the people in the streets and alleys living in shacks; how many are there to avoid the Yin Calamity, and how many are there to avoid your Land Inspection Division?"

"Our family was originally from a small town outside. The old man spent a lifetime of savings to build a small nest, took a wife, and had a child; the family was happy. But just because you said there was a Yin Calamity nearby, you told everyone to get out immediately, giving a one-day limit, or else you would set fire to the houses. My child was only four and sick in bed; my wife was taking care of her and begged for a one-day extension. You ignored it completely, driving her out the door one moment and burning the house the next. A large town, ruined by you until nine out of ten houses were empty, burned into a blank slate. This is all the evil your Land Inspection Division has wrought."

Che Lin was even angrier and said, "Have you lived your life in vain? You can't even understand this simple logic? Do not be ungrateful; if I hadn't forcibly relocated your family, you would have valued your property over your lives, insisting on clutching your family wealth to wait for death. Once the Yin Calamity arrived, not one of you would have survived!"

The old man said sharply, "What is the difference? My child was young; between the illness and the fright, she died the next day. My wife was overcome with grief, and having brought no money out, she could only live in a shack in the city, unable to even afford porridge. Between hunger and hatred, she was gone in less than a month. My family didn't survive either! You people, clearly having calculated the time and place of the Yin Calamity long ago, why didn't you notify us early or late, but had to insist on notifying us within one day? It's actually so people have no time to pack their belongings, so you can collect what is left behind. And what is the meaning of burning the houses? It is clearly to destroy the evidence and cover your tracks!"

Che Lin was furious beyond control and shouted, "Once the Yin Calamity passes, those houses of yours all turn into ghost domains. They become part of the Demon Cave; what use are they besides nourishing Phantoms? If I don't burn them, what am I waiting for? For the sake of the big picture, isn't a little loss a common occurrence? And what about stealing your money? My family is wealthy; do I lack those few coppers of yours? Stop measuring the heart of a gentleman with the measure of a petty person!"

The old man sneered, "Wealthy, and even wealthier after becoming a Town Guardian. Without your ways of making money, how could everyone in the Land Inspection Division be so rich? Someone like you who has become a high official still knows to pull up a fig leaf, saying things like 'protecting the common people' in your mouth, while doing filthy deeds in private. Those under you don't hide it at all, saying directly, 'One becomes an official a thousand miles away to get rich,' and that they joined the Land Inspection Division to get rich. The wealth they seize is far more than the wealth destroyed by the Yin Calamity."

He turned to the others and shouted loudly, "I know that those who came today are either rich or noble; you cannot feel the wretchedness of the Land Inspection Division at all. After all, the Land Inspection Division exists to protect people like you. But today, I am going to tear the skin off this bastard Che Lin! The more people who know, the better. I only regret that I only have the skill to steal things and can only use my old trade to make him lose face; if I had the strength, I would also make Che Lin taste the feeling of a broken home and a lost family!"

Che Lin was trembling with rage, not knowing if it was anger at being slandered or the fury of being exposed. Tang Zhao watched all this quietly, thinking to himself: It doesn't look like he's making this up; the Land Inspection Division here is somewhat similar to the Land Inspection Division before the Lord rectified it.

The Land Inspection Division is a department that deals with the Yin Calamity; its duties are special, but in terms of the people who compose it, there is nothing special. A group of people with high martial arts skills but who may not have read books, if gathered together without rectification, restraint, or education, will rot, and even rot to the core. If not for the guidance of the Judge, even someone like the late Chief Xing might have had the potential to fall.

Therefore, when Xing Ji first brought Tang Zhao into the Land Inspection Division, the first lesson was teaching him "what he fights for," and not everyone has taken this lesson.

It is just unclear whether they are capable of doing their jobs but have poor conduct and harass the common people, or if they don't do their jobs at all and only commit evil.

Hopefully, at the very least, it is the former—a very rotten Land Inspection Division, rather than a group of rotten people operating under the name of the Land Inspection Division.

It was a waste that Tang Zhao had even felt a trace of kinship when he heard this was the residence of a Land Inspection Division Town Guardian.

Che Lin stood in place, circulating his Qi, several times restraining himself from splitting the old man with a sword, knowing that would only make him look guilty. He shouted, "Right and wrong have their own public judgment! You say we do it for wealth; do we not have easier ways to make money? If we didn't want to work, why risk our lives to deal with the Yin Calamity? How many brothers have we sacrificed over these years? They also had families and property! I have also been wounded several times, narrowly escaping death... Have you wiped all these things away with one stroke? Even if you, old thief, bite back, you cannot change the fact that you are a thief! Old thief—take him down... and hand him over to the authorities for disposal!"

He was clearly emotionally agitated, yet his momentum was greatly frustrated, and the final disposal became less than firm.

He felt he had been wronged, but he could not be as angry as an ordinary person who had been wronged; instead, he felt dejected.

He was telling the truth, so why, despite being in the right, could he not be bold and confident?

A group of Land Inspection Division members took the old man down and escorted him away. The old man no longer cursed, but just sneered incessantly, saying, "You all saw it, you all heard it. My words today, if any of you go out and tell even one other person, you are my old man's parents reborn. Let us spread the word; as he said, right and wrong have their own public judgment! He can't go back on his own words, can he?"

Che Lin was so angry he had a headache. He turned fiercely toward the next woman and said, "He didn't steal the sword; what do you say?"

That woman was much younger, her expression calm, and she said, "I didn't steal it. Are you going to strip me naked to interrogate me too?"

Che Lin said coldly, "Stop your shrewish behavior. I have seen many female offenders; acting like a shrew toward me is useless. If you know what's good for you, open up the things on your person and let me see; otherwise, I will use methods to interrogate you, which is also a fair procedure."

The woman said, "As an ordinary guest, I ask myself if I have done anything. Without a shred of evidence, you want to search me; it seems that for the sake of your 'big picture,' it is normal for others to suffer a little loss. In the end, the world is decided by your Land Inspection Division."

Tang Zhao shook his head upon hearing this, thinking to himself: How does it sound like she hates the Land Inspection Division too? Just how hated is the Land Inspection Division under Che Lin?

Che Lin was a bit worked up and said, "Whether it is decided by me or not, you can try—"

Having said that, he struck out with another sword; this strike was faster than the one against the old man just now, so fast it was almost at the limit of a non-Sword Guest's reaction.

It seemed he was no longer probing step by step this time, but wanted to capture her in one go.

The woman flipped her palm, and her sleeve wrapped around like a water sleeve.

It seemed this sleeve was a soft weapon; using a weapon that overcomes hardness with softness was not uncommon among women in the pugilistic world.

The only difference was that this sleeve was too wide, covering half of her body.

Anyone who sees an obstruction must think that something is being hidden inside. This is a principle known to all old hands in the pugilistic world.

Che Lin was also an old hand, and his attention was already focused on guarding against it.

At this moment, the sword blade arrived, the sleeve rolled up, and when it suddenly pulled away, it revealed...

The woman's head!

She had actually thrown herself onto the sword edge!

Oh no!

Che Lin was shocked and hurriedly withdrew his sword, but the woman had first used her sleeve to disturb his vision, and then, at close range, threw herself onto it with all her strength; she was leaving no room for retreat!

Pfft!

Fresh blood sprayed wildly!

With one sword strike cutting through the neck, the woman died almost instantly, leaving Che Lin with only a pair of wide-open eyes, staring fixedly at him.

Since he began practicing martial arts, Che Lin had killed countless people; let alone staring at him before death, curses and the like were common occurrences, but perhaps because he had just been lectured, he felt a bit short of breath, and the woman's gaze actually left him dazed for a moment.

At this time, someone screamed, "Murder! The Land Inspection Division is murdering people!"

"The Land Inspection Division treats human life like grass and kills innocent people!"

A scream entered his ears, and Che Lin was stunned for a moment, followed by a thought flashing through his mind:

A setup?

One person bumps into you and another screams; this is the standard procedure for a setup, yet in a normal setup, one only pretends to be injured; no one would actually die.

Regardless, for someone to throw themselves onto a sword edge and pay with their life just to set someone up, what a great determination that is.

What is driving such determination? Could it be...

A deep, blood-feud hatred?!

Che Lin was not yet completely bewildered, knowing this was not the time for excuses like "It wasn't me, she ran into me herself." He gritted his teeth at the person shouting in the crowd and yelled, "Seize her!"

Several members of the Land Inspection Division rushed over together, having already locked onto the person who was shouting; it was also a woman, slightly older than the one just before.

To make the arrest, the several Land Inspection Division members all drew their swords directly; of course, they were not real "swords," but Art Tool swords, yet they were still sharp blades capable of slicing through iron as if it were mud.

Seeing the sharp blades, the woman's expression tightened, and she crashed into them without the slightest hesitation.

The distance was very close, and she was very resolute!

Although this had already happened once just before, those Land Inspection Division members were not Sword Guests, and their reactions were not as good as Che Lin's, so it was too late to dodge.

Besides, why would they need to dodge?

Clearly, for someone seeking their own death, the people of the Land Inspection Division did not mind satisfying her.

Only Che Lin shouted, "Stop—" wanting to intervene, but he was at a distance and separated by the crowd; it was clear he would not make it in time.

At this moment, someone was faster than him.

A hand had already reached behind the woman, grabbed her waistband, and dragged her away.

Dragging her all the way to an empty spot, Tang Zhao finally let go and said, "That's enough, right? You are using your lives to smear the reputation of Town Guardian Che, but in truth, the damage isn't that great. As long as he doesn't care himself, your deaths will be as light as a feather. Or perhaps you should tell me, what kind of deep hatred is it that makes you so willing to throw your lives away?"