Chapter 1049: Hanging the Corpse for Public Display

Huang Ban arrived and went straight to Ding Wei beneath the eaves, cupping his hands in salute. "Sir."

Ding Wei asked, "Has everyone been settled?"

"Yes. The people from the various sects have all been collected, and every bureau and department has confirmed receipt. Everything is normal."

"Mm." Ding Wei nodded. "The situation has changed. There's no longer any need to keep the tempering participants under centralized supervision. You're free now, so there's no reason for you to remain at Shouque Villa either. Xuan Yao is no longer suited to sit in Wentian City for the moment. Let him avoid suspicion for a while. You will temporarily take his place there."

"Yes!" Huang Ban accepted the order with cupped hands. Then he cautiously asked, "This subordinate only just arrived. I heard Lan Ming had come, so I asked around. I heard something happened here?"

Ding Wei nodded and gave him a sidelong look. "That Niu Youdao is restless. Be careful. Don't act rashly or in haste. Lie low until the wind passes."

"Understood." Huang Ban immediately grasped his meaning.

...

When Taishu Shanhai and the others learned that Niu Youdao had come out, they once again hurried to his quarters, only to be met by another closed door.

What exactly was going on? What had happened?

They were utterly lost in the clouds, their hearts clawed by a hundred anxious hands.

...

Tianlan Sacred Land did not always live up to its name. White clouds drifted lazily through the sky, and a completely unbroken expanse of blue was rare.

But it was undeniably a beautiful place, its scenery magnificent enough to resemble an immortal realm.

At the summit of that paradise, sunlight seemed to catch on a brilliant blue jewel: a palace constructed entirely from pure blue jade.

Tianlan Sacred Hall.

The name might sound rather plain, but no one dared take the place lightly.

Lan Daolin was thin, his robes broad and flowing. Dressed in blue with wide sleeves, he had a head of white hair, yet his skin remained pale and smooth, without wrinkles or any sign of old age. He carried the air of a transcendent Daoist immortal.

His disciple Zhen Yan walked beside him. Zhen Yan looked, if anything, older than Lan Daolin. In his hands was the report Niu Youdao had submitted, which he was reading.

Stopping before the threshold of the Sacred Hall, Lan Daolin asked, "Zhen Yan, what do you think of Niu Youdao's report?"

Zhen Yan replied, "It seems to contain some reason, but this isn't something our side alone can decide."

Lan Daolin asked again, "Three days, three reports. What do you think of Niu Youdao himself?"

"Ever since Luo Fangfei escorted him out of Sacred Realm, this disciple has gathered and reviewed every piece of information concerning him. He does indeed have methods. To rise this quickly is no simple thing."

Lan Daolin said without a ripple of emotion, "He's restless too. A man skilled at manipulating rules. Someone who manipulates rules so readily shows that he feels no reverence for them. No reverence means dissatisfaction. A man like that cannot be allowed to remain."

Zhen Yan paused slightly, then ventured, "Junior Brother Lan Ming is in Wentian City now. Shall this disciple send him a message and have him deal with it?"

Lan Daolin shook his head faintly. "No hurry. He may not be someone we can keep, but he is indeed a fine blade. If the blade can be useful, then use it. We can decide what to do with it after we're finished."

"Yes." Zhen Yan bowed slightly.

Without even looking, Lan Daolin raised a hand and pointed at the report in Zhen Yan's hands. "Forward it to the others. See what they think."

...

Dawn came again.

The prison doors opened, and Lan Ming emerged after personally spending an entire day inside. He looked almost as though he were taking a leisurely stroll through a garden. With a flick of the sleeves embroidered with flood dragons, he clasped his hands behind his back and lifted his head toward the dimly brightening sky.

Footsteps sounded behind him as a group followed out.

Long Fanhai was among them.

He was being dragged.

He had to be dragged. He could no longer stand. His clothes hung in tatters, his flesh was mangled, and he had been tortured until he barely looked human.

In truth, the facts had been made clear long ago. The testimonies from every side had already matched. There had been no real need to put Long Fanhai through such torment.

But Lan Ming could not end things so simply, nor could he conclude them too quickly. He had come under orders to investigate, so naturally he had to make a show of pursuing the matter with absolute severity.

Lan Ming had continued pressing to discover whether anyone behind Long Fanhai had instructed him.

Long Fanhai clenched his teeth and refused to loosen his mouth. He denied not only that anyone had instructed him, but even that he had been probing for information at all. He insisted he had merely been making ordinary inquiries, with no other intention.

It did him no good.

The facts, and the testimony of everyone else present at the time, proved that what Long Fanhai had asked about was precisely Niu Youdao's report to a Sacred Venerable.

Once the matter touched that line and the charge had been fastened to his head, Long Fanhai knew he was almost certainly going to die.

So he had resigned himself to death.

No matter how badly he was tortured, he refused to loosen his mouth. Even when Lan Ming tempted him with the promise of sparing his life, he still did not yield.

He could not yield.

The moment he did, Ding Wei would never let him live anyway. It would still be a dead end, and his family would be dragged in as well. All he could do was choose one path and follow it to the end.

Whether Long Fanhai confessed or not, Lan Ming continued having him interrogated.

He also had Xuan Yao brought out for questioning while the man was still in custody, asking whether he had used public office for a private vendetta. Xuan Yao denied everything.

In the end, nothing further came of Xuan Yao's matter.

A glaring streak of blood was dragged across the ground as Long Fanhai was hauled directly toward the open square in the center of Wentian City. Blood dripped steadily from the corners of his mouth.

The four attendants who had been present during Long Fanhai's visit emerged from the prison afterward. They looked battered and miserable, but they were otherwise intact and had suffered relatively little physical punishment.

Watching their superior being dragged away, all four trembled with lingering fear.

Lan Ming cast a glance at the man being hauled off, then turned away and headed toward the central administrative compound.

In the middle of the square stood a stone pillar.

A rope was thrown over it.

One end tightened around Long Fanhai's neck. Someone pulled down on the other.

Long Fanhai seemed to understand what was about to happen. Blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth as he gave a miserable smile.

He had been perfectly fine. In truth, he had hardly done anything, yet somehow he had ended up here.

Of course he was unwilling.

He knew perfectly well that the chain of events had begun with Niu Youdao.

Yet he did not blame Niu Youdao in the slightest.

Truly, he did not.

He knew the person who had forced him into this dead end was not actually Niu Youdao.

The rope suddenly tightened around his neck until he could no longer breathe, and his body rose from the ground.

People near and far watched, all of them unsettled, yet no one dared approach. Not one person even dared ask what was happening.

The blue-robed men hoisted Long Fanhai from the stone pillar. He struggled twice, then soon stopped moving.

After confirming he was dead, the blue-robed men left.

No one among the distant onlookers dared come forward to untie the rope.

...

Inside a pavilion, Ding Wei sat before a Go board, idly rolling a stone between his fingers.

Lan Ming entered, intending to take his leave, but Ding Wei extended a hand toward the opposite seat and said, "Sit."

Lan Ming smiled faintly, walked over, flicked his robe into place, and sat cross-legged opposite him.

Ding Wei placed a black stone on the board.

"Fine. I'll keep you company." Lan Ming studied the position for a moment and set down a white stone. Then he raised his eyes to watch Ding Wei's expression. "One of your men just died, yet you're still in the mood to play Go. Looks like the matter truly had nothing to do with you."

There was a trace of mockery in his tone.

"It had nothing to do with me in the first place." Ding Wei placed another black stone. "Killing a man only means his head falls. If he was guilty, execution was enough. Why hang the corpse out for public display? When the rabbit dies, the fox grieves. It is easy to chill people's hearts."

Lan Ming placed another stone. "As expected of Misty Pavilion's Presiding Administrator. Your ears and eyes truly are sharp. You learned about it quickly enough. A warning is necessary. This is what happens when someone pries into a Sacred Venerable's correspondence. His corpse will hang there for one month as a warning to others. If you insist on taking it down, I can't stop you."

"A month?" Ding Wei said. "The stench will fill the city. You won't be here to smell it anyway."

"The stink is the point. People remember better when they know how bad something smells. You won't remain here for long either, Ding Wei. You won't have to smell it."

"You seem remarkably well informed about my movements."

As they spoke, Huang Ban suddenly entered and presented Ding Wei with a letter. "Sir, the Sacred Venerable has issued an order. You are to return to Dayuan Sacred Land immediately."

The hand in which Ding Wei held a stone froze in midair.

His fingers even seemed to tighten around it.

His nerves abruptly drew taut.

He did not know whether this summons had anything to do with the third report. To be called back at this exact moment made him wonder whether something in that report had implicated him.

The first report had brought trouble down on Xuan Yao.

The second had brought trouble down on Long Fanhai.

It was hardly impossible for the third to bring trouble down on Ding Wei himself.

He did not accept the letter. Still appearing calm, he kept his gaze on the board and asked, "What is it about?"

Huang Ban replied, "The letter doesn't say."

Ding Wei placed the stone in his hand. "Understood."

Huang Ban withdrew. As he went, he cast another glance at Lan Ming, the man who had just put Long Fanhai to death.

Lan Ming had noticed the slight irregularity in Ding Wei's movements as well.

After placing several more stones, he smiled. "Brother Ding, that move was careless. Looks like something is weighing on your mind."

Ding Wei said, "Niu Youdao has been here three days and sent three reports in succession."

"There's a third?" Lan Ming looked genuinely surprised.

He glanced left and right, then suddenly leaned forward and lowered his voice. "What else happened on your side?"

That question confirmed it for Ding Wei.

Lan Ming truly had no idea what the third report contained.

There was no longer any reason to continue the conversation.

Ding Wei reached into the bowl, scooped up a handful of stones, and scattered them across the board with a clatter. "The Sacred Venerable has summoned me. I can't delay. We'll stop here. Brother Lan, make yourself at home. I'll leave first."

He withdrew his hand, rose, and simply walked away.

Lan Ming turned to watch him go for a while, then looked back at the ruined board, his gaze flickering uncertainly.

...

Long Fanhai's death, especially the decision to leave his corpse hanging in public, had a considerable impact on everyone in Wentian City.

The inspectors from the various sects noticed the strange mood among Misty Pavilion personnel. After hearing fragments of rumor, they all made their way toward the open square in the middle of the city.

There they saw the miserable corpse.

Demon Fox Bureau Deacon Long Fanhai had been executed?

It could only have been an official punishment. Otherwise, who would dare lay hands on a Misty Pavilion man here?

By now, the various sect representatives had begun connecting certain pieces.

They remembered the state Long Fanhai had been in after being turned away from Niu Youdao's door: devastated, as though returning from a funeral.

Such a loss of composure meant he must already have sensed something.

No great imagination was needed to guess that the matter might be connected to Niu Youdao.

But what exactly had happened?

No one had the slightest idea.

...

Dayuan Sacred Land.

Curtains of gauze drifted everywhere. The fragrance of melons and fruit filled the air. Songs intoxicated the senses while dancers moved with graceful allure.

A grotesquely obese man sprawled across a broad and luxurious chair, so fat he looked almost like a mound of flesh.

He constantly stuffed fruit into his mouth while smiling at the dancers whose supple bodies appeared and disappeared beneath thin gauze.

This was Yuan Se, one of the Nine Saints.

Ding Wei, who had hurried in from outside, did not interrupt his master's entertainment. He circled the dance floor, approached the broad chair, and cupped his hands. "Master!"

Yuan Se never took his eyes off the dancers. He merely waved a piece of melon in one hand. "Show it to him."

A seductive woman standing nearby, almost entirely naked except for scraps of cloth covering the essential places, presented Ding Wei with a letter in both hands.

She explained that it was a letter Niu Youdao had sent to Lan Daolin, which Lan Daolin had forwarded here.

Ding Wei read it and remained silent for a long time.

Yuan Se finished gnawing the melon in his hand before speaking. "You're the one presiding over Misty Pavilion. I ought to ask your opinion. What do you think of these things Niu Youdao is proposing?"

[End of Chapter 1049]