94: Chapter 94 Killing him is not enough to appease public anger

Finally, under Kang Dalei's violent methods, Marquis Nanyue confessed to a whole stack of crimes, including embezzling military supplies, killing for money, and forcibly seizing others' property.

Among them were many of Marquis Nanyue's former confidants. Once the first person took the lead, the rest were like floodwaters breaking through a dam, unstoppable.

It took a full four-plus hours of listening before it was all completely finished.

"So he did so many things."

Kang Dalei scanned everyone's faces, tapping lightly on the tabletop.

At this moment, no one dared to breathe loudly, fearing that a single small movement would cause them to follow in the footsteps of the previous few.

"Ding-dong, temporary mission issued: Announce Marquis Nanyue's crimes and return all embezzled funds to the defrauded soldiers. Reward: one set of xuanyuan armor."

"Someone, compile a list of the defrauded soldiers, then bring the rest of the Marquis's estate members. This young master is going to hold a trial for them."

Kang Dalei scanned the crowd once more, then took Marquis Nanyue's ledger of embezzlement and left the Marquis's estate.

At the entrance, after being punched out of the estate, Bai Xuaner was severely injured. It could be said that if not for that high-grade armor, she would already be a dead person by now.

"Kang Dalei, how dare you treat me like this? I will kill you."

"Yo, you actually didn't die?"

Walking out of the estate, Kang Dalei was quite surprised to see that Bai Xuaner could still barely stand up.

Although he hadn't used his full strength in that punch, a casual blow was not something an early-stage Great Sun Realm cultivator could withstand while completely unprepared.

He hadn't expected that Bai Xuaner would not only survive but also be able to stand.

"Bastard, my great-grandfather will not let you off."

Bai Xuaner looked at Kang Dalei with venom; at this moment, she truly wished she could kill the man before her.

"Kill me? I'll wait for you anytime. However, you should go handle two things first."

Kang Dalei didn't take Bai Xuaner's threat seriously at all.

Let alone her, even a Marquis couldn't harm a hair on him at this moment.

Body refinement is the pinnacle of all systems in terms of offense and defense.

Throwing a bottle of healing spiritual medicine to Bai Xuaner, Kang Dalei waited for her to consume it, then tossed Marquis Nanyue's embezzlement ledger to her.

"I thought you wouldn't take my medicine."

"Hmph, Tiansheng Pill, how could this young lady not smell it? Also, don't think that just because you did this I will forgive you. If it weren't for the high-grade armor my great-grandfather bestowed upon me, I would have been killed by your punch. I will have my revenge for this."

"Fine, fine, fine. No one is stopping you from taking revenge, but whether you can actually do it is not up to you."

"You." Bai Xuaner let out another cold snort.

Right now, she really, really hated Kang Dalei.

How could this person in front of her not know how to cherish the fairer sex at all? She was a girl; although she was 29, she was still unmarried. Couldn't he just let her win for once? If he just let her have her way, maybe she wouldn't hate him so much.

"Stop being angry. Even if you're angry, you can't beat me. Anyway, since you have nothing to do, once your injuries heal, go write a letter to the Great Zhou Emperor for me."

Kang Dalei said.

Bai Xuaner was truly in a fit of anger; how could she possibly be so obedient and just go do it? She tilted her head, turned around, and pretended not to hear as she prepared to leave.

But just as she tilted her head, her wrist was grabbed by Kang Dalei.

"If you don't go do it, then the crime of killing a Marquis..."

"You..." Bai Xuaner was really about to be moved to tears by anger.

She couldn't beat him, she couldn't out-curse him, and now she couldn't even resist.

"May your son be born without an anus."

After saying this, Bai Xuaner stormed back into the Marquis's estate.

But just as she entered the gate of the estate, a sentence from Kang Dalei made her stomp her feet in frustration.

"If you were to marry me, wouldn't you be cursing your own offspring?"

"Kang Dalei, you are utterly shameless."

Bai Xuaner didn't want to speak with such a rascal anymore.

Soon, the execution platform in Nanyue City was set up, and all the soldiers and lieutenants who had been defrauded of their military supplies and battle merits arrived.

"I don't want to talk nonsense. I'll just tell you two things: The Great Zhou Dynasty provides full military pay every year. A regular soldier gets four taels of silver per month, a squad leader gets four and a half taels, a platoon leader gets five taels, a centurion gets six taels, a chiliarch gets seven taels, and a lieutenant gets eight taels."

"Also, for those who perform meritorious service, depending on the number of demons killed: a low-tier demon is 10 taels, mid-tier is 20 taels, high-tier is 30 taels, and a Demon King is 50 taels. Calculate it yourselves—how many demons have you killed on the merit roster, and is the money enough?"

"There are rewards for killing demons?" At this moment, in the crowd, an exclamation interrupted everyone's contemplation and also interrupted Kang Dalei's speech.

A lame old man was seen asking with a face full of disbelief.

"That's correct." At this moment, in front of the execution platform, Bai Xuaner, dressed in armor and holding a sword, walked over with an ugly expression.

She cleared her throat and walked slowly onto the execution platform, saying:

"Not only are there rewards for killing demons, but there are also corresponding rewards for gathering information on demons and reporting their habitats. Additionally, if you kill enough demons, you can be promoted to positions like squad leader, platoon leader, centurion, chiliarch, lieutenant, general, and so on, based on your own points."

"We can even get promoted?" The crowd exclaimed again.

Bai Xuaner smiled faintly.

"Of course. If your battle merits are sufficient, you can even become a God Venerate, with God Venerate blood bestowed by Yuanchu Mountain. I just took a look; many of you have enough battle merits to be promoted to platoon leader, or even centurion. However, because Marquis Nanyue embezzled your battle merits, you have remained regular soldiers. Now that he has been beheaded by me, later, this general and Marquis Wanjian will distribute all the military pay he embezzled to you."

"Marquis Wanjian? Is that the one who killed ten thousand demons with ten thousand swords?"

The crowd immediately became excited, even forgetting about the matter of the back pay.

Bai Xuaner had initially been very unhappy with Kang Dalei, but upon seeing the excited state of the soldiers below the platform after hearing the name Marquis Wanjian, the dissatisfaction she felt toward Kang Dalei dissipated by more than half in an instant.

"That's right, it's him."

Bai Xuaner pointed to the young Kang Dalei standing to the side.

Only now did everyone realize that the young man standing in front of them was actually Marquis Wanjian.

"Is it really the Marquis?"

"The Marquis is so young!"

"Nonsense, the younger the Marquis is, the greater the confidence we have in defeating the demons."

"That's right! Long live the Marquis! Long live!"

It was the first time Kang Dalei had been the center of attention for so many people; to be honest, it would be a lie to say he wasn't nervous. However, facing the scorching gazes of the crowd, he didn't know what to say for a moment.

In the end, he only managed to squeeze out two words.

"Back pay."

For a moment, the crowd was stirred with excitement, and they had long forgotten about the fact that a Marquis had just died in Nanyue City.

The crowd might have forgotten, but Kang Dalei couldn't, especially when facing so many scorching gazes filled with expectation.

He couldn't just walk away, could he?

"Did you write a letter to the Great Zhou Dynasty asking them to send a Marquis over?"

Bai Xuaner really didn't want to pay attention to Kang Dalei at this moment, but looking at so many soldiers and commoners, she also became worried.

"You know to be anxious now? There aren't many Marquises in our Cangyuan World to begin with, and now that one has died, it's certain that there are none available to be sent over. We can only see which God Venerate Family is willing to come and garrison Nanyue City."

"But then again, this Marquis Nanyue deserved to die. Embezzling so much money and grain—a full ten million taels of silver, plus the thousand rewards from the Great Zhou Dynasty—not killing him would not appease public anger."

"I thought you were like those other people, believing that as long as one has merits, killing the innocent and embezzling some silver is no big deal."