Chapter 92: Let's Take a Walk

Chapter 92: One Final Walk

The Legalist sequence has a technique like this?

Li Jun stared in astonishment at the blood-red ruler floating in mid-air.

Because the constituent bio-chips were of differing models, the ruler's surface appeared uneven, its joints jagged and misaligned; even scraps of flesh and blood were lodged in the gaps.

The entire ruler looked crude in appearance, like a chip matrix forcibly kneaded together.

Its sole distinguishing feature was that the ruler's body was perfectly straight, meticulous to a fault.

The ruler drifted down, caught in Le Zhong's hand; his fingers stroked its body gently, a look of reminiscence in his eyes.

"The Harsh Official's Law Ruler, meting out justice and sentencing—in the blink of an eye, nearly ten years since I last held it."

He sighed, then raised his eyes to Li Jun, offering an apologetic smile.

"To forge this Law Ruler, I borrowed your hand to kill these men. Though they were all criminals deserving of death, ultimately it still saddled you with the charge of abuse of private punishment. If you encounter Legalist sequence members in the future, you'll inevitably suffer for this."

"But I, Le Zhong, won't let you suffer. Inside this Law Ruler are etched the Legalist programs I cultivated painstakingly; they can separate falsehood from truth. Beneath Sequence Seven, the Buddhist Lands and Grotto-Heavens of both the Buddhist and Daoist sects will have nowhere to hide."

Le Zhong finished speaking, then seemed to recall something; he looked up at the 'Dragonfly' hovering above the courtyard.

"Right, I also borrowed your Xiqinglang. But I have nothing else of value on me now, so take this body back to claim your merit."

Le Zhong smiled: "The major conglomerates of Chengdu Prefecture have suffered plenty at my hands before; there should still be a bounty on me in the underground black market. This head should fetch a million or two in treasure notes. That settles our debts."

"What exactly do you intend to do?"

Li Jun frowned tightly. Though Le Zhong wore a carefree smile, he saw a dense death wish in his eyes.

"Naturally, to enforce the law impartially and rectify discipline."

Le Zhong answered almost instinctively, but the moment the words left his mouth, he suddenly propped his forehead, laughing in self-mockery.

"Studying law strips away all humanity; one's bones are filled with nothing but these rigid grand principles."

He looked at Li Jun, smiling: "Before, I looked down on your Martial sequences too, thinking you were one of the roots of chaos in the empire; your decline from prosperity was self-inflicted."

"But today, I truly want to learn from you martial men once—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!"

Le Zhong wore a smile, yet the coldness in his eyes deepened. In the end, that gaunt, fleshless face was nearly contorted into a savage grin. "I walk the Legalist path, yet I must suffer the grievances of you Confucians? Wu Gong, I fuck your mother!"

The words barely fell before Le Zhong raised a hand, pressing the ruler against the back of his head; two segments of the ruler protruded on either side, like the twin wings of a black gauze official's hat.

In a flash, this Harsh Official straightened his spine, his eyes blazing with sharp light.

He paced measured steps to the center of the courtyard, cupped his fists in a bow to the north, then rolled his sleeves with both hands as if holding an imperial edict, and recited in a clear voice:

"The Law is the program of the world, the order of the yellow millet dream. If the people trust the law, the nation prospers. If the people profane the law, chaos arises."

"Now the Confucian Wu Clan despises discipline, establishes private prisons. Their investigations are corrupt, they monopolize trade. A motley crew consorts, a gang of villains gathers."

Le Zhong spoke with righteous severity, his voice shaking like a great bell.

Sunlight spread across his face, bright and piercing, causing even Li Jun at his side to feel a faint sting in his eyes.

"Clans are knives, cutting only the poor and bitter. Using the status of magnates and gentry to inflict cruelty on the commoners, locking the people's throats, treading on the people's shoulders!"

As his voice grew ever more resonant, clusters of blue electric arcs continuously sputtered from the ruler at the back of Le Zhong's head.

Simultaneously, his face grew increasingly red, white vapor rising incessantly from the crown of his head.

Overloaded computation boiled his brain as if in a cauldron, and blood continuously seeped from his seven orifices.

Yet this Harsh Official remained utterly unmoved, standing ramrod straight in this courtyard, head raised to the heavens, his tongue bursting forth with spring thunder.

'Today, I, Le Zhong, in the name of the Legalists, strip the Wu Clan of their private prison authority. All who harbor grievances, regardless of kinship or distance, regardless of nobility or baseness, shall be judged by the Law!'

Following this thunderous shout, Le Zhong's eyes slammed shut, and the ruler pressed against the back of his head clattered to the ground.

The arcs vanished, revealing a ruler body covered in cracks.

Danjing Mountain, Wu Clan Manor.

Mountains secluded, waters still, just as always.

"All who harbor grievances, regardless of kinship or distance, regardless of nobility or baseness, shall be judged by the Law!"

A solemn, dignified voice suddenly reverberated above the manor, and then a heavily guarded room deep in the compound exploded with a boom.

Precious beams, licked by flames, quickly turned into black smoke, rising to obscure the sky and blot out the sun.

This tremendous commotion thoroughly startled the manor; dense figures emerged from nowhere, crowding around the room, all staring in horror at the sea of fire before them.

Wu Gong stood at the forefront of the crowd with a gloomy face, flanked by the two maids in red.

Crackle.

The sound of snapping timber came from the fire, and suddenly a mountain wind rose in the courtyard, blowing a narrow gap through the waves of flame.

A dozen figures walked out from the sea of fire; though their bodies were charred and cracked black by the burning, they exuded a tangible hatred and killing intent.

"You stole my private prison, released the prisoners."

Wu Gong fixed his gaze on the man walking at the very front, burned beyond recognition, "Le Zhong, you seek death!"

The man laughed loudly, his eyes shining brilliantly as if containing the light of heaven, identical to Le Zhong's.

"For the sake of perfecting the Great Ming Code, how many of my Legalist forebears died in succession? If we feared death, how could there be this Great Ming Empire, enduring a thousand years, standing unshaken?!"

"Today I will make you, Wu Gong, know that even if the legal net is slack now, the Great Ming statutes are not something you rotten Confucians can toy with at will!"

"Nothing but self-righteous goods who don't know a favor when they see one."

Wu Gong snorted coldly in disdain, raised his right hand and pointed forward, "Leave not a single one, kill them all clean."

Shing!

The two maids in red flanking him saw red light surface in their eyes; ten fingers suddenly extended cold blade tips, their figures lunging out like two red-maned leopards pouncing.

Behind them, dense gunfire followed close after, deafening.

"A man who fails to avenge a grudge lives in vain in this world, would he not be laughed at by all under heaven? Drink the wine in the cup, change clothes and go forth; today discarding legal principle to become that life-taking King of Hell, brothers, keep close, breach the dragon's pool and tiger's den, let us walk this one path!"

Le Zhong strode forward, his mouth half-speaking, half-singing, a heroic spirit surging from his whole body.

At this moment, he no longer resembled a Legalist Harsh Official, but rather a martial man calmly facing danger.

"Today we speak not of legal right or wrong; you may all let loose and slaughter to your heart's content. After grudges are settled, we shall sleep in peace in these green mountains!"

The group of prisoners with indistinguishable faces around him laughed loudly in unison, "Willing to follow you, Lord, for a kill to the fullest!"