Chapter 90 : Chapter 90

Chapter 90: Criminals Break the Law, Take the Blade, and Everyone Shares the Silver!

Qin Mosheng had been troubled out of his mind over the matter of the Tiger Tally, desperately racking his brains over what to do.

He had never expected Cheng Yu to erupt into action so suddenly and behead Mei Feng on the spot.

“Stay your blade!”

He was the first to react, but even then, he was far too late to stop it.

Mei Feng’s head slowly rolled away. Blood erupted from his neck like a fountain, and his burly body crashed heavily to the ground.

Blood rained down over Cheng Yu’s head, yet not a single drop stained him.

He stood there calmly like a demon god, enough to make anyone shudder.

【The host has punished a criminal villain, shaken all present with his might, and exalted the prestige of the Jinyiwei. Reward: 300 Soul-Chasing Arrows!】

“He was executed just like that?!”

The commoners who had come to watch had been ready to enjoy a beheading, but they had never imagined it would be done in such a thrilling fashion!

Could a beheading even count as a sneak attack?

For a moment, their legs trembled so badly they nearly gave out. They cried out in alarm, not daring to lift their heads and look at Cheng Yu as he stood there now.

“Cheng Yu! Have you lost your mind?!”

Liu Erniang and the others stared with wide eyes. No matter what, they could not accept this reality—Cheng Yu had killed Mei Feng!

Without the slightest scruple, he had killed him the instant he chose to!

A Fourth-Rank martial artist who had been fairly close to Mei Feng lifted a trembling hand and pointed at Cheng Yu.

“You murderous fiend, you actually dared to behead him…”

WHOOSH!

Before the man could finish speaking, the sound of something slicing through the air rang out. A poisoned dart suddenly appeared in his neck.

“Y-you…”

The vicious strange poison took effect at once. Clutching his throat, the man collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.

Cheng Yu idly toyed with the Tang Sect Poison Darts in his hand. “Looks like an accomplice jumped out on his own… Men, examine the body! Let’s see who this one is.”

Several Jinyiwei stepped out at the order and dragged the corpse over to identify it.

“Reporting to you, my lord: this man is Shao Ming, master of Divine Fist Martial Hall. He is Mei Feng’s brother-in-law.”

“Divine Fist Martial Hall? Quite the bold name. Good. It’s on the way, so raid that one as well!”

Cheng Yu nodded in satisfaction, then looked toward Qin Mosheng, Liu Erniang, and the others.

From the moment he killed Shao Ming onward, these people had been thoroughly frightened into silence.

“Heroes, do any of you happen to know of other accomplices of the villain Mei Feng? Tell me, and it will save me another trip.”

Qin Mosheng and the others trembled all over. Hearing this, they were filled with fury and shock, yet none of them dared say another word.

Qin Mosheng in particular—the same man who had just been righteously demanding that Cheng Yu provide an explanation—now kept his head lower than anyone else.

“We… we don’t know…”

“If you don’t know, then forget it.”

Cheng Yu sheathed his saber and clapped his hands. “When you do things, you ought to have some sense of your own place. If this is not something you can meddle in, then don’t reach out. Be careful your hand gets cut off and you can’t pull it back.”

With that, he smiled, turned around, took the handkerchief a subordinate offered him, and wiped the blood from his hands.

Then he mounted his horse and led his men away from Jiannan City in a great procession, heading straight for Plum Saber Stockade.

Before leaving, he even had his men spend a hefty sum of silver to hire the watching crowd to deal with the corpses and wash the ground clean.

After all, before long, there would be no one left to come collect the bodies.

The onlookers had been badly frightened by the dead men’s blood, but the moment they saw the gleaming silver, they immediately found their courage and enthusiastically rushed forward to help.

Lord Cheng was a fair man. Criminals broke the law and got the blade, and everyone else got to help out and share the silver!

Qin Mosheng and the others stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly as the commoners bustled with great enthusiasm while dealing with Mei Feng’s corpse.

“When this fellow was alive, he was never surrounded so merrily by this many people…”

Liu Erniang swallowed hard.

Jianghu martial artists called themselves men of chivalry, and most of them treasured their reputations and pursued righteousness to some degree, but that did not mean all of them were liked by ordinary people.

Mei Feng in Mingtian Prefecture was exactly that sort of case.

He was bold in manner and straightforward in character, and he loved nothing more than inviting people to gorge themselves on meat and drink wine by the bucket. Jianghu folk praised him to the skies for it.

With all the mutual boasting and flattery, everything looked harmonious enough.

But after a night of eating and drinking, how many wine cups and dishes were smashed the next day, how many tables and chairs were broken when people showed off their strength, and whether anyone had bothered to pay the bill—those things were not the concern of great heroes. Their energy had to be devoted to chivalry.

The common people naturally bore resentment in their hearts.

While Mei Feng lived, he had never won the adoration of the common people. Now that he was dead, his corpse had instead become a prize everyone was eager for.

That extreme sense of contrast struck the hearts of the other martial artists like a heavy hammer.

The sight frightened them badly. They wanted to go snatch back the corpses of Mei Feng and Shao Ming, yet their legs refused to move.

“He isn’t just killing people—he’s crushing their spirits! He’s crushing their spirits!”

Qin Mosheng’s face twisted viciously.

As one of the rare scholars in the Jianghu of Jiannan Circuit, he had always been respected by others. Whoever saw him would salute him and address him as Mister Qin.

But he had never imagined

that Cheng Yu, a mere young junior, would not only heap humiliation upon him in the invitation letter, but would also toy with him like this.

Without the slightest warning, he had erupted into action and beheaded Mei Feng, trampling Qin Mosheng’s pride straight into the dirt!

“What do we do now?”

Liu Erniang had been badly frightened by Mei Feng’s grisly death, and her beautiful face was full of terror.

The reason she had managed to make a name for herself in Jiannan Circuit was because she relied on maintaining relationships and making friends. The key to it all lay in one word: rules.

Heroes cared about face. Petty men cared about profit. So long as things remained within the rules, both could be managed.

But when faced with Cheng Yu,

she felt a deep sense of helplessness.

Cheng Yu did not follow a single rule of the Jianghu!

When he wanted to kill, he killed. No one could predict what he would do the very next moment.

“Go at once and notify Yueshan Escort Agency and Iron Halberd Mountain. We absolutely cannot let Cheng Yu raid Plum Saber Stockade, or else the Jianghu of Jiannan Circuit will never be able to hold its head up again!”

Qin Mosheng spoke immediately.

Cheng Yu was using the theft of the Tiger Tally as the reason to raid households and kill people. Once the matter was formally defined afterward, if the Jianghu sought revenge then, it would be nothing less than courting death!

It might even draw out experts from the Jinyiwei.

Worse still, it would open an unprecedented path in Jiannan Circuit. Whoever Cheng Yu wanted to raid, he would raid, and the Jianghu would be powerless to stop him!

They had to unite and, in the name of chivalry and righteous principle, stop this slaughter before it happened. They had to intercept Cheng Yu ahead of time and show him that they were by no means fish on the chopping block!

“We have to notify Yueshan Escort Agency and the others too?”

“Yes. Those two Seventh-Rank experts must reach Plum Saber Stockade before the Jinyiwei do! They won’t pass up a chance like this to earn fame.”

Qin Mosheng’s eyes were filled with hatred. “I want to see just how arrogant Cheng Yu can really be!”

…

At noon, the large force of Jinyiwei arrived at the shore of a jade-green lake in Mingtian Prefecture. In the middle of the lake was an island so striking that it looked like a jewel set upon a sheet of green cloth.

This place was Plum Saber Stockade.

Cheng Yu ordered the force to halt and sent men to requisition boats to cross the water.

He looked at the unnaturally quiet surroundings, then caught the scent of the breeze blowing off the lake.

It carried a faint salty tang mixed with a trace of blood.

【The host has strategized masterfully, moved ahead of time to raid and destroy the criminals, and displayed the cunning of the Jinyiwei. Reward: Internal Energy!】

As his Internal Energy rose once more, Cheng Yu felt himself drawing closer and closer to the Sixth Rank.

He felt that once he broke through to the Sixth Rank, then even without relying on the Demon-Slaying Sword, slaying a martial artist of the Upper Three Ranks across realms would by no means be impossible!

Just then, several powerful auras suddenly rushed in from not far away, heading straight for where Cheng Yu and his men stood.

“Good thing we made it in time! We nearly let you, villain, commit a bloody massacre!”

A dignified man in fitted black robes took the lead. His Internal Energy was so abundant that the bulging veins in his neck revealed just how powerful his physique was.

He was clearly a martial artist of the Upper Three Ranks.

Seeing the bold character “左(Zuo)” brushed across the man’s chest, Cheng Yu recognized his identity.

Zuo Hong, Chief Escort of Yueshan Escort Agency, a late Seventh-Rank martial artist!

The others arrived behind him as well. Aside from Qin Mosheng, Liu Erniang, and the rest, there was also a burly man holding a great halberd.

It was not hard to identify him as Tie Ke, sect master of Iron Halberd Mountain.

Qin Mosheng glared viciously at Cheng Yu, who had not yet crossed over, and finally felt his heart settle.

After rushing all this way, they had finally made it in time!