Chapter 274: Fish Roe

After Jiang Lianpeng was reduced to ash, Zhang Gui wore a cold expression and, with his hand, subdued all the remaining guards of the Compassionate Association.

Then he ordered Zhao Sanshi to take his hundred Stone Corpse Soldiers and conduct a thorough search of the Compassionate Association's hideout.

They lifted the collapsed house brick by brick to look for anything.

Check for any suspicious items, especially anything resembling "insect eggs," and must present them immediately.

Zhao Sanshi solemnly replied, "Yes," and began searching with his subordinates.

Meanwhile, Zhang Gui, whose many Divine Authority augmentations had dissipated and who had returned to a normal human form, began personally interrogating the captured Compassionate Association members.

After a round of questioning, not a single one knew what a "Phosphorus‑less Earth Dragon" was.

Even when the link between the Compassionate Association and the Earth Demon Hundred Races was mentioned, they looked utterly bewildered, as if they would rather die than believe it.

With no other choice.

Zhang Gui could only reverse course and interrogate them again.

Since the first time he went from lowly thugs to great beasts, this time he started with a Jin Hai Guard from the Compassionate Association's Xuanwu Hall.

As a result, Zhang Gui sat on a wall that was only a half‑remaining stone slab, and as soon as he spoke,

the Jin Hai Guard slammed his head to the ground, blood streaming from his face, and shouted loudly:

"A true man, if he must die, shall die!

Yet you accuse our Compassionate Association of colluding with the Earth Demon Hundred Races—that is outright slander!

By the conscience of Heaven and Earth, our Compassionate Association risks a "great injustice under All Under Heaven" to save the masses, yet we are vilified by the world, and you as well—"

Seeing this tooth peddler pose as a loyal minister, Zhang Gui could no longer suppress his fury.

He rose and kicked him squarely in the mouth.

"You, with your bear‑colored skin, claim to be a true man, invoking Heaven and Earth's conscience,

You idiot, I'll teach you a lesson.

Any matter deemed a "great injustice under All Under Heaven" is one hundred percent wrong out of ten.

Therefore a gentleman does not do it!"

"If a 'great injustice under All Under Heaven' is something no one dares to act upon or change, wouldn't the Human Realm become unchanging for ten thousand ages?!"

"A gentleman must not risk a 'great injustice under All Under Heaven,' yet a sage must uphold righteousness without hesitation!"

Zhang Gui growled low:

"That's why this world still has people like me to change it, to reform it.

What kind of scoundrel are you, anyway?"

With a final kick he knocked the Jin Hai Guard unconscious, "Human‑trafficking, life‑destroying peddler,

and you still dare to gloss over your deeds—truly a worsening idiot."

In that fury, he lost any desire to continue dealing with those Compassionate Association members who, after being brain‑washed by the organization, were unclear whether they were sincere or feigning, twisting right and wrong.

He returned to the half‑stone wall, sat down, stared blankly at the blue sky for a while, and closed his eyes, his spirit wandering beyond the material world.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Sanshi's excited voice suddenly recalled,

"Lord, we found a strange little item; it doesn't look like insect eggs, but rather like fish roe."

"Oh," Zhang Gui snapped his eyes open, "bring it to me."

"Yes." Zhao Sanshi stepped forward a few paces and presented a piece about half the size of a quail egg,

which looked like a small chunk of wet, slippery fish roe freshly taken from a split mother fish's belly,

and handed it into Zhang Gui's hands with both palms.

Zhang Gui squeezed the "fish‑roe chunk," summoned Divine Authority power, and enveloped it.

According to past experience, any oddity or living object, even a freshly deceased corpse whose life force has not yet dissipated, would register some sensation.

Yet this time there was no response; it was clearly just an ordinary dead thing.

But Zhang Gui did not give up; he examined the fish roe repeatedly, even held it up to the sunlight, yet still found nothing.

At that moment, the Jin Hai Guard he had just knocked out began to stir awake slowly.

In a daze, he uttered an unconscious "Ah,"

"Alas." Zhang Gui felt something stir, rose, and approached the Jin Hai Guard again.

He looked down at him from his higher position and plucked a grain‑sized fish roe, about the size of a rice grain, from the fish‑roe chunk in his hand.

Then he recited, "In the bright Song era,

"Those who forcibly buy humans are imprisoned in a 'Standing Cage', displayed publicly for seven days, and their unending blood flows three thousand."

As his words faded,

The Jin Hai Guard's limp body on the ground gradually straightened of its own accord, standing like a zombie, neck upright, his blood‑stained face clenched in teeth, yet he uttered no plea for mercy.

"You may be unable to distinguish good from evil, quite foolish, yet you have a hint of backbone."

Zhang Gui, seeing this, casually praised him, then pressed the fish roe toward the split wound on the Jin Hai Guard's face.

Unexpectedly, the once‑hard‑bodied Jin Hai Guard's face twisted to the extreme upon seeing the fish roe, letting out a scream of "Aaah!"

He struggled in vain, his body tightly bound by the Elemental rule force linked through Zhang Gui's Divine Authority.

Hoarsely, he begged, "Spare me, sir, spare me."

Zhang Gui was startled, a strange expression on his face, lifted the fish roe in his hand, and asked:

"Do you know what this is?"

The Jin Hai Guard hesitated briefly and said nothing.

Seeing him now become a "dead‑duck‑stubborn" again, he was indeed both stupid and wicked.

Zhang Gui no longer hesitated, directly pressing the "fish egg" into the crack on the Jin Hai Guard's face,

"People like you truly deserve death!"

In the end, the Jin Hai Guard's mental defense finally collapsed completely, and it howled irrationally.

"Kill me, kill me!"

I know this egg is the insect egg laid by a phosphorus‑less Earth Dragon.

I know the merciful ones will collude with the Earth Demon Hundred Races.

Trading humans earns a share of silver.

Using those refugees who are on the brink of death, the starving and the dead bodies, to help the phosphorus‑less Earth Dragon cultivate intelligent dragon offspring, is an added flourish.

In exchange, they obtain many treasures that Gold and Silver cannot buy.

Zhang Gui listened quietly from the side.

Under the Divine Authority's sensing, the 'Fish Roe' that had been stuffed into the Jin Hai Guard's facial wound—originally like a dead object—actually began to emit a luminous 'glow' of life.

He couldn't help but think with delight:

"It's true.

This 'Fish Roe' truly is the insect egg of a phosphorus‑less Earth Dragon.

This treasure wasn't carried by Jiang Lianpeng, and perished together with that grandson.

That means I only lost that precious robe that can transform into a ten‑zhang phosphorus‑less Earth Dragon.

It can be said I gained and lost alike."1

Simultaneously sensing, he discovered that the more agitated the Jin Hai Guard became, the more its internal Qi and blood surged, the more evident the life glow of the phosphorus‑less insect egg hidden in the facial wound became.

Conversely, the same applies.

As the life glow of the phosphorus‑less insect egg grew brighter, the Jin Hai Guard's Qi and blood fluctuations grew weaker.

Eventually, even its breath became faint.

It could only murmur weakly,

"My wife, children, and elders are all controlled by the great beings of the 'Society', I cannot kill them!

I don't want to, I don't want to, you can't blame me, you can't blame.

At this moment, using the Divine Authority's sensing on the phosphorus‑less insect egg lodged in his facial wound, the emitted life glow still increased, albeit at an extremely faint rate.

It seemed that even if the Jin Hai Guard died, the egg could not be hatched.

(End of chapter)