Chapter 93 : Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Even with a Hundred Times More Courage, They Still Wouldn’t Dare Refuse This Thousand-Household Commander’s Invitation

After saying his piece, Cheng Yu paid those people no further mind.

He directed his men to board boats and head to Plum Saber Stockade to gather up the spoils of war.

The Jinyiwei were overflowing with the joy of a rich harvest.

It was finally their turn to be pleased.

But on the other side, the atmosphere among the Jianghu martial artists was completely different.

All of them were chewing over Cheng Yu’s words, a chill running unceasingly through their bodies.

“A few… households wiped out?”

They understood what Cheng Yu meant.

No matter how powerful Yueshan Escort Agency and Iron Halberd Mountain were, the two of them could never protect all of Jiannan Circuit.

If they truly dared deny the Jinyiwei face, then so long as Cheng Yu was willing, someone would inevitably be unable to escape the fate of having their household raided and destroyed.

If Cheng Yu could deal with Mei Feng and Plum Saber Stockade, then he could deal with others as well.

The moment they thought of that, Qin Mosheng, Liu Erniang, and the others whose strength was comparable to Mei Feng’s began to tremble, their mental defenses slowly crumbling.

Better to go to the Thousand-Household Office and suffer humiliation than to die and have one’s entire household destroyed, wasn’t it?

Zuo Hong and Tie Ke did not share that same worry. What they feared more was Cheng Yu’s arrogant tyranny.

The moment they saw the others’ expressions turn wrong, both of them inwardly felt alarm.

These people had truly been frightened by Cheng Yu!

Zuo Hong hurriedly spoke up to persuade them. “There is no need for everyone to mind the alarmist nonsense of those Imperial Hounds of the court. A Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander who has scarcely even grown up—no matter how arrogantly he speaks, how frightening can he really be?”

“This brat is vile to the extreme. Heaven will deal with him sooner or later. In the end, he will never amount to anything.”

“If Cheng Yu dares create slaughter for no reason, then even if we can endure it, the righteousness of the Jianghu cannot. Once true experts step in, wiping him out would be effortless. You need only set your minds at ease.”

He spoke those words with lofty righteousness.

He had thought they would calm the crowd at least a little, yet to his surprise, not a single person looked any better.

They still kept their heads lowered in silence, bitterness filling their hearts.

Cheng Yu would never amount to anything?

He had already killed Mei Feng and wiped out Plum Saber Stockade. If that still did not count as amounting to something, then what did?

Seeing that his well-intentioned persuasion drew no response, Zuo Hong immediately felt a surge of irritation.

“You people of the Jianghu—how can you be so dispirited and weak?”

Qin Mosheng raised his head and said with a bitter smile,

“Senior Zuo, you say Cheng Yu will never amount to anything, and that true experts can kill him with ease. But have you considered that before that happens, all of us may already suffer calamity?”

At those words, the other martial artists silently nodded.

What they feared had never been Cheng Yu truly rising to power.

Because by the time that happened, they would only be left to resign themselves to fate.

But what if Cheng Yu used one excuse after another to erupt again into slaughter and wipe out another three households, or four?

He still would not suffer retaliation.

Only when he had killed until blood flowed like rivers, when his excuses could no longer cover it and Great Qian could no longer protect him, would the true experts be able to strike without restraint.

By then, the grass on the graves of people like them would probably already be taller than a man!

After seeing Mei Feng’s fate today, Qin Mosheng and the others truly feared that the tragedy of Plum Saber Stockade would repeat itself.

Cheng Yu did not announce it in advance when he killed people and raided households!

A man only had one life. No one wanted the one who died to be himself.

“And what exactly are you saying?”

Zuo Hong frowned tightly, a bad feeling flashing through his heart.

Tie Ke was also staring from the side with wide eyes.

Qin Mosheng struggled inwardly for a moment, then gritted his teeth and saluted with cupped fists.

“All we seek is a way to live. If we end up doing something disgraceful and fail the spirit of Jiannan Circuit’s Jianghu, then I only ask that Senior Zuo and Sect Master Tie not blame us.”

The other martial artists also lowered their heads one after another.

“You!”

Zuo Hong’s eyes widened. He simply could not believe what he was seeing.

Tie Ke frowned and asked, “You intend to go to the Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Office and attend that Imperial Hound’s gathering?”

The crowd nodded with difficulty.

If they did not go, they might die. If they went, they would live. It was not a hard choice for them.

BOOM!

Zuo Hong stamped heavily on the ground, boundless anger flashing through his eyes.

“A pack of disgraceful wretches! You talk endlessly about Jianghu chivalry and the righteous path—is it all so that you can go become the lackeys of a ruthless Imperial Hound of the court? I am ashamed to be associated with you!”

This matter had nothing to do with him in the first place, yet when these people had asked him for help, he had not hesitated in the slightest.

And in the end, not only had he failed to earn any reputation, he had instead been humiliated and toyed with by that bastard Cheng Yu, his old face ground viciously beneath the man’s heel.

Even so, he had not really voiced any complaint.

But now the very culprits behind all this were saying they intended to attend the banquet. Where did that leave his reputation—and the reputation of Jiannan Circuit’s Jianghu?

After being rebuked like that, Qin Mosheng also felt anger rise in his heart.

“Our households are small and our strength is meager. We cannot compare with Senior Zuo. Naturally, we cannot be as fearless and self-assured as you.”

Liu Erniang softly chimed in from the side, “Cheng Yu had a reason for killing one household, and he would have a reason for killing two… I fear that only after he has killed until only your two factions remain will anyone come deal with him…”

Zuo Hong’s words sounded lofty enough, but was it not only because his own life was not in danger that he could say such things?

Hearing that, Zuo Hong’s eyes nearly split with rage. “You are nothing but a pack of beasts! From now on, do not even say that you know me. I cannot afford such disgrace!”

Qin Mosheng and the others’ expressions turned colder and colder. Together, they saluted Zuo Hong and Tie Ke once, then turned and chose to leave.

Watching the martial artists’ retreating backs, Zuo Hong nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

All their talk of Jianghu chivalry—usually, even when fighting over spheres of influence and territory, they still maintained a courteous facade.

But when a true enemy actually stood before them, far from sharing a common hatred, they could not even manage a united stance.

They had started fighting among themselves instead!

How had things come to this?

He looked toward Plum Saber Stockade amid the beautiful scenery at the center of the lake, and the hatred in his heart deepened by several degrees.

This youngster was not only strong and ruthless—who could have thought his methods would also be so venomous!

He had turned what had once been a perfectly fine Jianghu into something this disgusting!

At Plum Saber Stockade, “If you ask me, if they hadn’t done guilty things, where would all these troubles have come from?”

“Exactly, exactly. When they were out committing evil and violence, they did not care in the slightest. Yet once punishment falls on them, they ram themselves forward acting pure and spotless. That’s the real joke.”

Two Jinyiwei chatted as they carried large chests filled with gold, silver, and treasure.

They had participated in the nighttime annihilation of Plum Saber Stockade the night before.

At the time, the sight of so many people crying for their fathers and mothers and begging for mercy had made them hesitate a little.

They had worried about killing innocents by mistake and disgracing Lord Cheng.

But after searching the place in daylight, they discovered that the entirety of Plum Saber Stockade had enslaved the fishermen throughout Mingtian Prefecture who made their living from Lai Lake.

Whether they cast nets or rowed out in boats, they all had to hand over a large cut of their earnings, and if anything displeased the stockade, they would quietly be beaten to death.

Every martial artist there had been living in comfort off the fruits of others’ labor, dressed well and enjoying themselves.

You could swing a Xiuchun Saber from the easternmost end of Plum Saber Stockade all the way to the westernmost end, and your merit would only increase, never decrease.

Not far away, Cheng Yu stood on a stretch of shore and gazed out over the lake and its waters.

The land beneath his feet had by no means originally belonged to Plum Saber Stockade.

Rather, after Mei Feng killed his adoptive father and usurped this place, he had greedily sought luxury and forcibly filled in part of the lake to create more land, using it to build gardens and courtyards.

Now that Plum Saber Stockade had been destroyed, the beautiful and enchanting atmosphere it once carried no longer remained.

Perhaps it was because the blood of Plum Saber Stockade’s martial artists had stained the place last night.

Or perhaps from the very beginning, this place had already been steeped in the blood and sweat of countless others.

“Reporting to you, my lord, Plum Saber Stockade oppressed and plundered Mingtian Prefecture for decades. The family wealth seized in this raid is almost impossible to believe!”

A Jinyiwei Hundred-Household Commander respectfully presented a booklet.

Cheng Yu took it and flipped through it casually. It was filled with records of the things Plum Saber Stockade’s martial artists had done.

Unlike the martial artists of Dragon Abyss Path, who gathered laborers for Sword-Forging Manor and ran wild like wolves, the martial artists of Plum Saber Stockade were more like bloodsucking parasites.

There were few outright fiends among them who openly slaughtered the weak.

Most of them instead did things like forcing purchases at low prices, renting things back out at high prices, secretly sabotaging fishing boats, and monopolizing the docks and boat rentals.

Compared with directly killing people and seizing their wealth, their squeezing and exploitation never ceased for an instant.

No wandering hero cared about such things. They were too busy preaching chivalry and morality.

Cheng Yu instructed, “Now that the matter of Plum Saber Stockade is settled, suspend the suppression of bandits for the time being and prepare for the negotiations with the Jianghu factions a few days from now.”

The Hundred-Household Commander nodded, then revealed a worried expression. “Will those people come?”

“They will.”

Cheng Yu let out a contemptuous laugh.

“Unless these people no longer care about living, then even if you gave them a hundred times more courage, they still would not dare refuse this Thousand-Household Commander’s invitation.”