Chapter 5: To Hell with Rationality!

Li Dashan knelt upon the earth, his head striking the ground with echoing thuds; his wife and son were his greatest vulnerabilities, and with both now held under coercion, he no longer dared to harbor any illusions of chance.

Taking the shattered silver and weighing it in his hand, a savage grin broke across Han Laoba's fierce countenance: "Dog-like creature, wouldn't it have been better to do this sooner? You simply refuse to weep until you see the coffin!"

Having secured the money, he showed no urgency to depart; instead, his cold gaze swept across the courtyard, quickly coming to rest upon a somewhat unsightly, broken vat tucked into the corner.

Han Laoba's face filled with a mocking malice as he waved his hand toward the junior officials behind him, gesturing for them to kick away the stones.

"Plop!"

The boulders were cast aside.

A delicate, handsome toddler of about two or three years appeared within the broken vat; whether it was an illusion or not, the expression on the child's face at this moment was distinctly cold and grim.

Han Laoba cared nothing for such details; he strode forward, shattered the water vat with a single kick, and spoke: "Spare you? Very well, this official has always been magnanimous toward lesser men."

"However, since you have offended me, you must offer some small measure of compensation, shouldn't you?"

He flicked away non-existent dust from his sleeve, completely at his leisure, and said: "Now, this official gives you two choices. First, surrender this tender-fleshed little cub to me to serve as a sacrificial offering for next month's ritual; no doubt the River God will be quite pleased."

"Second, let that beautiful wife of yours sleep with this official for a night, and I can overlook everything that just transpired."

The force of his raised foot was perfectly measured; though it shattered the water vat, it did not harm Li Chang'an inside, yet his words carried an entirely undisguised threat and warning.

Kneeling on the ground, Li Dashan began to tremble violently upon hearing this.

Clearly, the two choices Han Laoba presented were no choices at all for Li Dashan.

He could only bury his head lower, grinding his teeth as tears and mucus flowed, crying out: "Master Han, Lord Ba, for the sake of all the residences I have built for the county magistrate's office, please spare my family, young and old alike!"

"Heh, another one who won't weep until he sees the coffin!" A black-clothed official behind Han Laoba sneered, raising his leg to plant a vicious kick into Li Dashan, cursing: "That Master Han favors your wife is a blessing you earned in a past life; do not be blind to your own good fortune!"

...

Li Chang'an witnessed the entire ordeal from the side, the light in his eyes gradually freezing over, replaced by a piercing, bone-chilling coldness.

What remained of his rationality told him that a gentleman's revenge is never too late even after ten years, and without sufficient certainty, resolving the matter through gentler means would be far safer.

After all, according to the predestined fate described within his reincarnation mark, even if he did nothing now, his parents and he himself would face no mortal peril.

But if he were to take any radical action at this moment, the outcome would be entirely uncertain.

The opposing side consisted of six adult males, and their leader, Han Laoba, had even trained in martial arts within the military; if a fight broke out, it was not impossible for his entire family to be slaughtered on the spot.

Yet his emotions screamed at him: to hell with rationality!

He had come here to defy heaven and change his fate, not to draw back his head like a coward!

In this wretched world, the common folk not only had to face demons that slaughtered without numbering, but also the court's extortion that seemed to suck the very marrow from their bones; under such terrifyingly high pressure, merely staying alive required every ounce of their strength, yet even so, there were those who refused to let them be...

Was there no justice left beneath the heavens?

Was there no law left in the land?

Since fists prevailed over all else, then he, too, could only speak with his fists!

While no one was paying him any mind, Li Chang'an bent down to scoop up a sharp, shattered shard of pottery from beneath his feet and hurled it with the sudden speed of a thunderbolt!

"Swoosh...!"

The whistling sound of tearing air abruptly exploded.

The shattered pottery shard flew with extreme velocity, embedding itself precisely and elegantly into Han Laoba's right eye!

"Squelch..."

The sound of a sharp object puncturing flesh brought a strange sense of release, followed immediately by a piercing, agonizing shriek.

If not for the fact that Li Chang'an's present body was far too weak and his reserves of internal energy insufficiently plentiful, that single strike might have pierced straight through the eye to drill a hole directly into Han Laoba's skull.

Huang Xiaoru and Li Dashan were his biological parents in this lifetime; even if the time they had spent together was not yet long, blood runs thicker than water, and that feeling of ancestral