Chapter 59 The prefectural government issued an ultimatum, and the Wang family finally couldn't sit still any longer.

Old Patriarch Zhao Cangyuan's head had been hanging at the entrance of the County Office for seven days.

On the seventh day, Lin Chen had someone take it down.

It had nothing to do with having a soft heart.

The weather was getting hot, and the smell was too pungent; it could be smelled from half a street away.

Head Zhao, who sold steamed buns in South City Lane, hadn't set up his stall for three days, saying that the mere thought of that smell made him nauseous, and he couldn't even bring himself to eat the buns he steamed.

The bloodstains in the front courtyard of the Zhao Family had been scrubbed three times, but they simply wouldn't come clean.

The dark red had seeped into the pores of the blue bricks; even scraping with a brush wouldn't remove it, as if it had grown into the stone itself.

Later, Clerk Zhou came up with a crude method: he ordered a dozen carts of yellow soil to be spread over it, packed it down solid, and treated it as a new courtyard.

People walking on it wouldn't say anything, and no one would know how many people's blood was pressed beneath their feet.

Zhao Tingyuan and the seventeen direct descendants of the Zhao Family were all stuffed into the County Office prison.

The charges filled thirty-two pages of records.

By the time Clerk Zhou finished writing, his wrists had swollen twice their size, and his fingers trembled as he held the brush—not out of fear, but because he had written so much that he had a cramp.

The collateral clansmen of the Zhao Family who hadn't been stained with blood were registered and sent back to their hometowns.

Those whose hands weren't clean were sentenced one by one according to the severity of their crimes.

Throughout the whole process, Lin Chen didn't intervene.

He didn't need to intervene.

Magistrate Pei Qingxue handled it far more efficiently than he had imagined.

This female County Magistrate at the Early Stage of the Tongmai Realm had much sharper political skills than her talent in martial arts.

Three days.

Just three days of effort.

The 3,200 mu of paddy fields and 1,800 mu of dry fields under the Zhao Family's name were all confiscated and uniformly allocated by the County Office to landless tenant farmers.

The land deeds for thirty-six shops were transferred to the public treasury to collect monthly rent, which would be used for the Bailiffs' salaries and silver for repairing the county town.

The Bailiffs' salaries, which had been delayed for three years, were paid in full at once.

The Patrol Division was expanded from twenty people to fifty.

The Constabulary underwent drastic reorganization; the old and weak were all laid off, and new blood was fully recruited.

The shopkeeper of Lis Pharmacy, who previously hated to sell medicine unless he could charge by the pill, personally visited the County Office the very next day.

Medicine prices were lowered by forty percent, and the smile on his face was even more fawning than if he had seen his own father.

News traveled faster than Lin Chen had thought.

Much faster.

During these seven days, the sound of firecrackers in Qingxi County never ceased.

The storyteller in the teahouse compiled a piece about Captain Lin slaying the Old Ancestor with a single blade, performing three shows a day, all of which were packed.

There weren't enough seats in the back, so some people brought stools and squatted outside the threshold to listen.

A merchant caravan from the neighboring Qingping County came to Qingxi to purchase goods and took the news back with them.

By the time it reached Qingping County, the version had already changed.

It was said that a fiend had appeared in Qingxi County, slaughtering all three hundred members of the Zhao Family by himself, with corpses piled higher than the city walls, and blood flowing out of the Zhao residence, staining half the street red.

As it spread further, to Lin'an County and Cangwu County in the north, the versions became even more absurd.

Some said Lin Chen was a star deity descended from heaven to undergo a tribulation.

Others said he was a reincarnated Martial Saint banished to the Lower Realm.

Still others insisted that this kid was actually the illegitimate son of some big shot in the Prefecture, disguised as a Patrol Officer to conduct a secret inspection.

The most reliable version came from the mouth of a passing merchant.

The merchant held a bowl at a tea stall, boasting to the few people at his table for half a day, before finally concluding:

"There is a Chief Constable in Qingxi County with the surname Lin, sixteen years old, who entered the trade at the Blood Refining Realm and rose several stages in less than a month."

"With one person and one blade, he uprooted the Zhao Family that had been entrenched for four generations."

"He slaughtered three hundred bandits in the bandit stronghold without blinking, and cutting down an old monster at the Tongmai Realm was like cutting vegetables."

He drank some tea, put down the bowl, and added another sentence.

"The people in that place gave him a nickname: the Yama of Qingxi."

The word Yama drifted out from the tea stall, spreading along the official road in all directions.

Within a few days, the thugs and rogues in the surrounding counties would get weak in the knees just hearing the three words 'Qingxi County'; let alone running over there, they didn't even dare to mention it.

The remaining dozens of remnant bandits from Black Wind Ridge quietly moved their lair and burrowed into the deep mountains and old forests further north.

Lin Chen had no reaction to these rumors.

Every day, he did exactly the same things as before.

Patrolling the streets. Handling cases. Practicing the blade.

It was others who had changed.

Before, when patrolling the streets, peddlers would take a detour when they saw him.

Now, when patrolling the streets, peddlers would crowd around him, insisting on stuffing two hot sesame cakes into his hands, unable to be refused.

Before, when handling cases, witnesses would stammer for half a day without being able to utter a complete sentence.

Now, witnesses scrambled to speak, wishing they could dig up a case about a lost chicken from ten years ago to report.

Before, when practicing the blade, he was the only one on the martial arts practice field.

Now, every morning, there were over twenty heads peeking over the practice field wall. They were all teenagers from the county town, their eyes wide open, not even daring to breathe loudly while watching him swing his blade.

Life was quite peaceful.

A little too peaceful to be right.

The hair on the back of Lin Chen's neck would occasionally stand up.

Before a storm arrives, the weather is always excessively good.

The eighth day.

Lin Chen remembered it very clearly.

Because that day, he had just practiced the fifth form of the Shadowless Thunder Blade to the point of proficiency.

After the True Qi of the Early Stage of the Tongmai Realm was poured into the blade, the heavy intensity of the Raging Thunder Blade intent became another layer thicker, and every strike carried the sensation of muffled thunder rolling on the blade's edge.

He returned to the Patrol Division office from the martial arts practice field and unscrewed his water bag to take two gulps.

Someone was standing at the entrance of the office.

Clerk Zhou.

His complexion wasn't quite right.

His lips were pressed into a thin line, and he was clutching a scroll of yellow silk, his ten fingers pinching so hard his knuckles were turning blue.

"What's wrong?" Lin Chen set down the water bag.

Clerk Zhou walked in and turned to close the door.

His movements were two points heavier than usual; the door panel knocked against the door frame with a muffled sound.

He handed over the yellow silk in his hand.

He didn't speak.

Lin Chen took it and unfolded it.

The material of the yellow silk was much better than those found in the Zhao Family's storehouse.

The surface of the silk was thick, with dark gold silk threads sewn along the edges, and a large seal stamped at the beginning of the scroll.

The seal script was upright, and the vermilion ink was bright.

Seal of the Nanyang Prefecture Governor's Mansion.

Lin Chen's gaze moved downward.

The content of the ultimatum was not long.

But every word carried a blade.

"Chief Constable of Qingxi County, Lin Chen, without the approval of the Prefecture, has arbitrarily sealed the city and imposed martial law, besieged the Zhao Family, a clan registered with the Prefecture, resulting in the death of the Zhao Family's Old Ancestor, Zhao Cangyuan."

"His actions show contempt for the law, overstepping his authority, and usurping military and political power."

"We now order Lin Chen to immediately cease all unauthorized actions, await orders on the spot, and await investigation and punishment by the Prefecture's investigation team."

"During this period, you are not allowed to leave the borders of Qingxi County by even half a step, you are not allowed to mobilize the armed forces of the County Office, and you are not allowed to dispose of the Zhao Family's assets without authorization."

Lin Chen's gaze paused at the signature for a breath.

Beside the Governor's seal, the signatures of the three Vice Governors were listed.

The first was surnamed Chen.

The second was surnamed Liu.

The third was surnamed Wang.

Lin Chen's fingertip rubbed over that 'Wang' character.

The ink marks on the silk surface varied in depth. The signatures of Chen and Liu were written with even strokes and consistent force, standard official writing.

Only this 'Wang' character.

The strokes were three points heavier.

Between the strokes, the brush tip had pressed into the silk weave, revealing an undisguised ruthlessness.

The person who wrote it must have bitten their teeth to pieces to restrain themselves from writing the word 'kill' directly on it.

Lin Chen folded the ultimatum.

"Has Magistrate Pei Qingxue seen this?"

Clerk Zhou nodded.

"The messenger who delivered the letter arrived half an hour ago. As soon as Magistrate Pei Qingxue finished reading it, she told me to send it to you. She is waiting for you in the back hall."

Lin Chen tucked the ultimatum into his chest and got up to walk to the back hall.

The door to the back hall was ajar.

Lin Chen pushed the door and entered.

Magistrate Pei Qingxue was sitting behind the desk.

The silk sling on her left arm had already been removed, and the black-purple veins from the poison had faded by more than half.

But when she held the brush in her right hand, the fingertips of her left hand would occasionally twitch uncontrollably.

A map was spread out on the desk.

Along the official road from Qingxi County to Nanyang Prefecture, it was densely marked with vermilion circles.

Lin Chen walked to the front of the desk and stood still, taking out the ultimatum and placing it on the desk.

"As expected."

Magistrate Pei Qingxue looked up.

There was fatigue in the corners of her eyes, but her pupils were very bright.

"You saw the signature?"

"I saw it." Lin Chen's finger tapped the corner of the ultimatum.

Magistrate Pei Qingxue pulled a thin sheet of paper from under the pile of documents on the desk and pushed it in front of Lin Chen.

It was a memo written by her. The handwriting was neat, and the items were distinct.

"I have been the Magistrate of Qingxi County for three years, and I have investigated the Zhao Family's background for three years."

Magistrate Pei Qingxue's voice was extremely low.

"The Zhao Family has been entrenched in Qingxi County for four generations; no matter how big their influence is, they are ultimately just a local tyrant at the county level. Their true backing is not the Old Ancestor at the Tongmai Realm in the clan."

Her fingertip tapped on the map.

Deep in the Qingxi Mountain Range.

"It is this."

Lin Chen lowered his head.

Magistrate Pei Qingxue had drawn a circle at that location with vermilion. Two words were written next to the circle.

Spirit Mine.

"Deep in the Qingxi Mountain Range, there is a Medium Grade Spirit Mine. The output is not large, but the quality is extremely high; the purity of the Spirit Stone produced is three times that of ordinary veins."

Magistrate Pei Qingxue retracted her hand and crossed her fingers on the desk.

"The Zhao Family guarded it for others for four generations. The mine was dug by the Zhao Family, the accounts were kept by the Zhao Family, and the secret passages for transporting the ore were built by the Zhao Family."

She paused for a beat.

Her gaze met Lin Chen's.

"But the true owner of the mine is the Wang Family of the Prefecture."

Lin Chen didn't reply.

He took a bronze medallion out from the deepest inner layer of his martial arts attire.

Four words were engraved on the front of the bronze medallion. Forever Guarding Qingxi.

He flipped it over and placed it in front of Magistrate Pei Qingxue.

A line of small characters on the back was clear in the candlelight.

Personally inscribed by the Sect Master of the Wang Family of the Prefecture, gifted to the Zhao Family of Qingxi for generations of guardianship.

Magistrate Pei Qingxue stared at that line of characters for a long time.

Long enough for the candle flame to jump three times.

"You found it too."

Lin Chen took the bronze medallion back.

"Old Patriarch Zhao Cangyuan said one sentence before he breathed his last."

His voice was plain, no different from reporting how many thieves he had caught while patrolling the streets today.

"He said there is someone in the Prefecture who will grind me into powder."

He tucked the bronze medallion back into his chest, placing it against the leather blade manual from Old Wang.

"Now it seems he was talking about the Wang Family."

Magistrate Pei Qingxue was silent for several breaths.

The only sound in the back hall was the occasional crackle of the candle wick burning.

"The Wang Family has been rooted in the Prefecture for over a hundred years."

Magistrate Pei Qingxue's voice lacked emotional color, as if she were reading an intelligence briefing.

"It is said that they host multiple experts of the Ningdan Realm within the clan. The Family Head himself is even a powerhouse of the Divine Treasury Realm."

Her fingers tapped on the desk, not heavily, but with a precise rhythm.

"Family members are spread across all levels of the Prefecture's offices. They have people in the military, people in politics, and people in the business world."

She paused for a beat.

"This ultimatum appears to have the seal of the Governor's Mansion on it."

"In reality, it was written by the Wang Family." Lin Chen finished the second half of her sentence.

Magistrate Pei Qingxue nodded.

The candle flame on the desk jumped twice more. Light and shadow swayed on the wall, stretching the shadows of the two people, making them long and short.

The back hall was quiet for a long while.

Lin Chen looked down at the location of the Spirit Mine circled in vermilion on the map.

Then, he took out that thin piece of silk from another inner layer of his chest.

The one found in the Zhao Family's secret room.

The two maps were placed side by side on the desk.

The seventeen courier stations and secret posts marked on the Zhao Family's thin silk were compared with the vermilion circles on Magistrate Pei Qingxue's map.

Five locations overlapped completely.

The surname marked next to each overlapping point was Wang.

Lin Chen's finger slid slowly along the route of the official road.

From deep in the Qingxi Mountain Range, through seventeen transit points, all the way to Nanyang Prefecture.

A complete chain of benefit transmission.

The mine was at this end, the Wang Family at that end, and the Zhao Family was nothing more than the dog running errands in the middle.

Now the dog was dead.

The mine had collapsed.

The chain was broken.

The Wang Family's reaction was naturally not sadness.

It was rage.

Lin Chen stacked the two maps together and folded them.

"The ultimatum says to let me await orders on the spot and wait for the Prefecture's investigation team."

He raised his head.

"When will they arrive?"

The corners of Magistrate Pei Qingxue's mouth moved. That arc could not be called a smile, but rather a kind of bitter self-mockery.

"The messenger said, within three days."

Lin Chen's thumb rested on the copper mouth of the scabbard at his waist.

His fingertip rubbed back and forth on the metal surface for a circle.

"Three days."

He chewed on these two words again.

It wasn't much time, but it wasn't little either.

It was enough for him to do many things.

Outside the window, the night market in Qingxi County had just opened.

The sounds of peddling, laughter, and the oily smoke of stir-frying poured in through the walls.

It was unrealistically lively.

The common people did not know yet.

The sky above their heads, which had only been clear for seven days, was about to change again.