Chapter 124 : Chapter 124

Chapter 124: My Lord, There Really Are Prince Qing’s Remnants in Jiannan Circuit!

“What exactly happened?”

“My lord, it was that Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander Cheng Yu! He... he...”

The minor clerk sent out to gather information was sweating coldly. The more he spoke, the more he stammered, until in the end he could not get the words out at all.

Seeing the clerk in such a terrified state, Xu Quan immediately felt his anger rise.

He had come to Jiannan Circuit to establish his authority and take charge.

How could one of his subordinates be this cowardly? If word got out, would that not disgrace him?

Anyone who saw this would think the newly arrived Inspector Xu was nothing special.

“What a disgrace! Whatever you have to say, say it slowly. How could a mere Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander frighten you like this? If people saw you, would they not think I was afraid of him too?”

“What exactly did Cheng Yu do?”

But the angrier Xu Quan became, the harder the clerk shook with fear.

Stammering, he said, “He... he... he is a murderous fiend who kills without blinking!”

“A fiend?”

Xu Quan frowned. Back when he had learned he was being sent to Jiannan Circuit in name to inspect matters, but in truth to watch Cheng Yu, he had already heard of this man’s terrifying reputation in Dragon Abyss Path as a ruthless butcher who killed without restraint.

People had been so frightened of his killings that they called him a fiend.

Xu Quan had even prepared his subordinates in advance so they would be mentally ready. So why was this man still so agitated now?

“Could it be that after coming to Jiannan Circuit, he did something else again?”

The clerk nodded frantically, like a pecking chicken.

“Yes! My lord, we should stop opposing that man! We will lose our lives!”

SLAP!

The instant Xu Quan heard that, his brows flew up. Thinking of what had happened at Gao Residence, the anger in his chest only grew more unbearable.

In a fit of rage, he struck the clerk hard across the face.

A bright red handprint remained on the man’s cheek.

“Hmph! Are you implying that I, the Inspector, cannot control the situation and cannot deal with a mere martial brute?”

“All I need to do is build alliances on the outside, befriend the Jianghu martial artists, and on the inside lead the officials to keep the Jinyiwei in check. So what if Cheng Yu has some martial strength?”

“As long as he still recognizes that the Jinyiwei are Great Qian’s Jinyiwei, I can sleep soundly!”

The more smugly he spoke, the angrier he became.

He had clearly cowed Cheng Yu the very first time they met.

So why did every last one of these people seem to think he could not handle a crude Jinyiwei officer?

“Sleep soundly?”

The clerk had already been frightened half to death by the news outside.

Now he had also been beaten and cursed, and he instantly sank into grievance and despair.

He looked up at his lord’s self-righteous face, then thought of what was to come.

There was a high chance that they would soon have to oppose Cheng Yu, that terrifying Yama of Jiannan Circuit.

Despair filled his heart at once.

Had he not been related to Xu Quan by family ties, he would have wanted nothing more than to flee immediately.

“My lord, wake up a little! The Jinyiwei have already butchered the Jiannan Circuit Jianghu to the point that almost nothing is left! There is no one left for you to befriend!”

“What did you say?”

Xu Quan, who had still been lecturing grandly a moment ago, froze on the spot.

The Jinyiwei had butchered the Jiannan Circuit Jianghu?

Had Cheng Yu not only been in office here for less than a month? When did that happen?

A terrifying thought suddenly surfaced in his heart.

Could it be that Cheng Yu had actually cleaned out the Jianghu forces of Jiannan Circuit in such a short time?

And had he done it the same way as before, with the whole business of raiding households and exterminating entire families in Qingjiang Prefecture...?

“He went and massacred Jianghu forces again?” Xu Quan asked through gritted teeth, his expression turning cold.

Yet inwardly, he was delighted rather than angered.

As an official of Great Qian, he knew better than most what level the Great Qian Jinyiwei were at.

No matter what, they should not have been capable of dealing with the truly powerful forces of Jiannan Circuit.

Even with Cheng Yu’s arrival, that disparity should not have changed. At most, he had probably only made small moves and wiped out a few weak factions.

If that was the case, then not only would it not affect the overall situation, it would also give Xu Quan the perfect excuse to strike.

A good thing!

Once Xu Quan thought it through, he was overjoyed, and he immediately prepared to go question Cheng Yu in person.

How dare he carry out another private slaughter on such a scale? Xu Quan would never let the matter pass lightly.

It was the perfect chance to light the first fire of his new office!

“My lord, do not go! The Jinyiwei have Xiuchun Sabers in their hands!”

The clerk hurriedly threw himself at Xu Quan’s leg.

“Among the Jianghu martial artists, more than ten Fifth-Rank and Sixth-Rank martial artists have already died, and Cheng Yu himself has even killed two Seventh-Rank martial artists!”

“Nearly all the experts of the Jiannan Circuit Jianghu have already been slaughtered by the Jinyiwei!”

Xu Quan had been about to kick away the troublesome clerk in disgust.

But the instant he heard those words, it was as if he had been struck by lightning, and he stood there in a daze.

In utter disbelief, he said, “What did you say? He killed two Seventh-Rank martial artists?!”

“Yes!”

The clerk wailed miserably, “The Chief Escort of Yueshan Escort Agency, Sect Master Tie of Iron Halberd Mountain, the master of Plum Saber Stockade, all those well-known Jianghu martial artists of Jiannan Circuit, the Jinyiwei wiped them all out in one sweep!”

“Right now, the underground prisons of the Jinyiwei are packed full of crippled martial artists!”

The Jiannan Circuit Jianghu was finished!

Xu Quan had specifically looked into the Jianghu forces of Jiannan Circuit beforehand.

The moment he heard all this, his whole body trembled, and his legs went weak. He hurriedly reached out and braced himself against the doorframe beside him.

Even his voice began to stammer. “Re-really? Y-you are not lying to me, are you?”

“It is absolutely true, Cousin-in-law!”

Speaking with utter sincerity, the clerk dropped the formal mode of address and directly called him by their family relation.

Xu Quan shuddered and collapsed onto the ground.

“It is over, it is over!”

He had originally thought that no matter how mad or arrogant Cheng Yu was,

he would only dare launch a massacre of Jianghu martial artists like before when he had an excuse such as the great case of Sword-Forging Manor.

Who could have imagined that Cheng Yu had only been in Jiannan Circuit for such a short time and had already started slaughtering people again!

All the balancing and alliance-building Xu Quan had spent so long planning had not even begun.

And just like that, the whole thing had gone completely up in smoke!

At that thought, Xu Quan immediately gritted his teeth, forced himself upright in anger, and said, “This is outrageous, utterly lawless! How dare he do such a thing? Who gave him that authority? I will impeach him!”

After this round of killing by the Jinyiwei in Jiannan Circuit, the court ministers’ plan to pacify the Jianghu had not even begun before it had already been made worse!

When the blame came down in the future, Cheng Yu would not escape it.

And Xu Quan, who had dawdled for half a month before finally arriving in Jiannan Circuit, would not escape responsibility either!

He had to stop the loss in time and strangle this disaster before it went any further.

The clerk started crying again.

“My lord, do not go! Once Cheng Yu finds out, he will kill even you!”

“What did you say? He is a Jinyiwei of Great Qian. How would he dare kill a court-appointed official!”

Xu Quan glared at the clerk, though his body was trembling slightly.

His words were forceful, but in his heart, he was wavering wildly.

Surely not...

Surely not!

“My lord, Circuit Intendant Gao’s entire household, dozens of men, women, and children, were all driven to death by the Jinyiwei when they raided the Gao Family Ancestral Residence. Even the Gao Family ancestral graves were dug up!”

Xu Quan froze in place as if nailed there. Thunder seemed to crash through his heart.

No wonder Gao Song had reacted like a frightened quail the moment Cheng Yu was mentioned, and the instant anyone suggested opposing Cheng Yu.

Who would not react that way after suffering all that?

He was a dignified Third-Rank official in charge of an entire circuit!

Yet his whole family had been wiped out, his household confiscated, and even his ancestral graves dug up!

Cheng Yu would not dare touch a court official?

What was there that he would not dare do!

And at that moment, Xu Quan suddenly discovered, to his own surprise, that he was not as frightened as he had been before.

Because he had abruptly decided that he would no longer oppose Cheng Yu at all!

If he could not afford to provoke him, could he not at least avoid him?

He hurriedly asked, “On what pretext did Cheng Yu and the Jinyiwei do all this?”

The clerk glanced at the Xu Family household slaves bustling outside the door as they settled the residence, then burst into tears again.

“Prince Qing’s Remnants. Whoever he kills, he just says they were Prince Qing’s Remnants!”

Xu Quan’s eyes widened.

“Has he gone mad? How dare he lie so casually about something like that!”

Without evidence, was the charge of rebellion something that could be thrown around at will?

The clerk had already cried all the tears he had.

“My lord, there really are Prince Qing’s Remnants in Jiannan Circuit!”