Chapter 1234: Huangzhou Officialdom Trembles

Many who have reached the Tribulation Transcendence stage know spatial techniques, but few are adept at rapid methods; thus, even if the King of Thieves acts, few can guess his identity.

Today I've fallen into this trap.

Although my identity has been guessed, it's not a big problem as long as I'm not caught.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou charged at the King of Thieves again; the King of Thieves' eyelid twitched—how could these two be so much faster than before?

Weren't they just in the early Tribulation Transcendence stage? Could such speed be possible at that stage?

Or are they also skilled in speed?

Since the opponent is the King of Thieves, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou naturally gave it their all.

Rumor has it the King of Thieves comes and goes without a trace, able to sneak into the imperial palace at will, coming and going freely—showing how astonishing his speed is.

It's just that after the King of Thieves sneaked into the Falling Gold Money Guild, he vanished without a trace, disappeared from the human world—unexpected to appear here.

"Let's negotiate, okay? You see, this matter isn't that serious—just turn a blind eye and let us two go."

The King of Thieves regretted deeply—these two are so hard to deal with; if I'd known, I wouldn't have shown off earlier, and while they were dazed, I should've just snatched the disciple and left.

The three fought in tacit understanding, neither using large-scale destructive techniques, to avoid disturbing the populace.

At their level, they had long reached the state of freely controlling their power output—even in full-force combat, not a trace of power leaked; to outsiders, their battle looked like that of martial artists.

Fang Jin stared blankly at the sky, where the afterimages of the three filled the heavens—with his eyesight, he couldn't even make out their positions.

Which martial artist has this kind of speed?

The King of Thieves felt increasing pressure—his lifelong reputation cannot be ruined here.

In one-on-one combat, he fears no one; not to mention he's in the mid Tribulation Transcendence stage, with a realm advantage, and speaking solely of speed, none at his level can match him.

But the problem is he faces two people, and these two cooperate seamlessly, always blocking his retreat, leaving him in a dilemma of advance or retreat.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou also found the opponent troublesome—the King of Thieves is like a loach; even if touched, he can't be grasped.

To deal with someone whose strength lies in speed, the best method is to use wide-area attacks—for example, Lu Yang's Sword Dao Domain.

But here we are in the county town—using the Sword Dao Domain would likely disturb the peace of the entire city.

"In that case, we can only advance our realm."

As the King of Thieves searched for a breakthrough, he felt the two instantly surpass his realm, reaching the peak of Tribulation Transcendence!

Meng Junzi granted Meng Jingzhou special privilege, allowing him to freely borrow power from him.

"What secret technique is this?!"

The King of Thieves stared, dumbfounded—going from early Tribulation Transcendence to peak in an instant, this secret technique I've never even heard of; not even life-burning secret techniques like the Heavenly Demon's Self-Destruction have such an effect!

Most crucially, two peak Tribulation Transcendence cultivators attacked—he couldn't escape!

The King of Thieves' situation deteriorated rapidly, and he was subdued by two constables.

The heavenly net is vast, wide-meshed but lets nothing through—even the most arrogant King of Thieves was finally caught.

"Two fellow cultivators, we really don't need to come to this—look, I'm a proper Tribulation Transcendence cultivator; I wouldn't covet a single spirit fruit—I just wanted to test my disciple. After tonight, we planned to return the spirit fruit."

The King of Thieves gave a sheepish smile—these two are eerily formidable; force won't work, so I can only appeal to emotion and reason, hoping they'll show leniency.

"At most, this counts as mitigating circumstance." Lu Yang remained unmoved—we can't disgrace this uniform.

The King of Thieves and his disciple were caught; Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou began studying the《Hundred Officials' Conduct》taken from the storage ring.

"This book is somewhat interesting—it records the handles of Huangzhou officials; this page mentions bad habits, that one bribery, this one corruption and malfeasance—I recall it's all there."

Meng Jingzhou read it and clicked his tongue in wonder—the author of this book must have something; these are highly private matters, likely obtained through special means of eavesdropping and spying.

Especially, the book not only records what the officials' handles are, but some even include evidence.

"Probably intending to blackmail officials with this book."

Unfortunately, the book doesn't record the author's name.

"Come clean—where exactly did you steal that storage ring from?"

With his master caught, Fang Jin had no choice but to confess truthfully: "It's Zhou Hai, the Zhou Prefecture Governor's storage ring."

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou suddenly understood—this fits; Zhou Hai's cultivation specialty is eavesdropping, so the events recorded in the book should be what he heard using his technique.

……

At dawn, Man Gu woke up to find over ten arrest warrants placed at his door, all needing his signature.

Man Gu felt ashamed—he had already worked hard to maintain security in Quyi County, never expecting so many lawbreakers and disorderly elements.

"Fortunately, I asked the two senior brothers to come help."

Man Gu saw the note left by Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou and felt even more moved.

"The two senior brothers didn't rest after their night shift—they're still going to verify the situation with the victims."

……

"Governor Zhou, is this《Hundred Officials' Conduct》yours?" The two constables came to verify the situation with the victim.

They handle cases with emphasis on the chain of evidence—just relying on Fang Jin's claim that the《Hundred Officials' Conduct》was stolen from Zhou Hai isn't enough; we also need the victim's identification.

Upon seeing the two holding the《Hundred Officials' Conduct》, Zhou Hai's eyes widened—how could this damned book appear in their hands!

Of course—these two are Man Gu's subordinates; surely Man Gu ordered them.

Indeed, Man Gu's outwardly carefree demeanor is an act—actually, he's meticulous as a hair, scheming to eliminate two prefectural governors, not to mention even calculating himself!

What a terrifying opponent.

"This isn't something you're qualified to touch—hand it over!" Zhou Hai said solemnly, having confirmed that what they held was the original.

"You haven't said whether it's yours—if it is, we'll just make a record." Lu Yang said seriously.

"I said—hand it over!" Zhou Hai shouted, lunging forward to seize it!

Numerous beast-shaped apparitions appeared around Zhou Hai, roaring and bellowing, striking directly at the soul!

These beasts are formed from his divine consciousness—his cultivation method is essentially an extremely rare technique for cultivating divine consciousness.

The beasts roared and lunged at Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou; Zhou Hai sneered—what status does he have, how could he be threatened by two constables? He could already picture the two clueless constables collapsing in agony, begging for mercy!

When the demon beast touched the two of them, it instantly collapsed, Zhou Hai suffered a backlash, rolling on the ground, banging his head against the earth.

"You say you, what's the point?" Meng Jingzhou sighed, crouching beside Zhou Hai. They had originally come to verify the evidence, but now it's fine—the victim attacked the constable, making him a criminal suspect.

"Forget it, take him back."

……

Huangzhou high-level emergency meeting.

Compared to the previous meeting, this one had fewer attendees—some were disciplined, some were illegal, all were taken into custody.

Several high-level officials had been arrested, so it's easy to imagine the lower ranks were also controlled. For Huangzhou's officialdom, this was undoubtedly an earthquake.

Since the founding of the Great Xia, Huangzhou's officialdom had never experienced such a great upheaval.

It is said that upon seeing the《Biographies of Officials》, the Governor of Lvzhou was so angry he nearly fainted, and only after taking several heart-calming pills did he recover.

Who would have thought that internal chaos in the officialdom was one aspect, and on the other hand, he appointed Zhou Hai as governor precisely because his subordinates occasionally praised Zhou Hai.

Who would have thought that the reason his subordinates kept speaking well of Zhou Hai was because they had been caught with evidence against them!

The Governor of Lvzhou coldly swept his gaze over the crowd; whether guilty or not, everyone remained silent, heads bowed.

"Let everyone speak—who should take office as governor of Zhongshan Commandery? I think Man Gu is capable of shouldering this great responsibility."

(End of chapter)