Chapter 78 The Crime of Colluding With the Enemy

This was a one-sided slaughter.

 

Cui Zhaoren led a dozen subordinates from the Department of Supervision to kill the hundreds of bandits at the Cock-Crow Lake.

 

They were not rivals at all. After Cui Zhaoren skewered Monk Hua with his sword, he jumped onto the other two big ships in succession and chopped off the heads of Li Xiao’er, who was the leader of the gangsters and Zhao Sijia, the Taihu Lake Devil King.

 

Finally, the bandits of Cock-Crow Lake were overwhelmed and lost all their fighting power.

 

Some were screaming and some were kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy. More people tried to escape.

 

They could not run away.

 

Before he made his move, Cui Zhaoshi had already issued an order for his subordinates to ‘kill them all and leave no one behind’.

 

The Department of Supervision was the empire’s Department of Supervision and Cui Zhaoren was solely in charge of the Department of Supervision.

 

The officers of the Department of Supervision listened to Cui Zhaoren and regarded his words as decrees. If Cui Zhaoren asked them to kill a whole family, they would proceed to kill them all. When Cui Zhaoren asked for someone’s hair, they would get the hair for him.

 

One more hair would be returned.

 

More than a dozen supervisors waved their swords and hacked wildly, leaving no chance for those bandits to speak or plead for leniency.

 

Broken limbs and bodies soon littered Cock-Crow Lake and turned its surface into a pool of blood.

 

Even though their ship escaped the battle, when the students on the deck saw this scene, their throats constricted and their stomachs contracted violently. Many of the weak and timid ones began to vomit on the spot.

 

Since most of them lived in wealthy and peaceful places, they had never witnessed such a large scale massacre before.

 

Li Muyang was calm.

 

He did not know what was going on, but he did not feel nervous at all. He did not think it was terrible.

 

Even if blood flowed like a river on the other side, he just sighed in his heart, thinking that those men in black were extremely cruel and merciless.

 

Like the other students, it was the first time he was travelling far away and it was also the first time he had experienced such a cruel battle.

 

Could being bullied by students in the school and being mocked by teachers in class be compared to all the things that happened today?

 

Absolutely not. However, Li Muyang did not feel anything, as if he was not affected by such things at all.

 

Of course, Li Muyang knew that he was in a wrong state of mind. Zhang Linpu’s body trembled violently and he was looking at Li Muyang from head to toe with his sharp eyes.

 

Li Muyang did not want to appear to be different, so he followed Zhang Linpu’s example and began to tremble too.

 

Zhang Linpu was very angry. “I have my own way. Why are you imitating me?”

 

As a result, Zhang Linpu shook even more violently.

 

Li Muyang was also very angry. “What do you mean by suddenly increasing the level of your shakes? You want me to appear more ‘strange’ than you do, don’t you? You want to exclude me from the category of ‘normal people’, don’t you?”

 

Therefore, Li Muyang followed Zhang Linpu’s example and increased the rate of his trembling.

 

If there had been arousing, drum-beating music in the background, these two people would have looked like two dancing experts battling it out with each other.

 

When Li Muyang and Zhang Linpu were trembling non-stop for some time, the ship suddenly shook violently.

 

Bang!

 

A woman dressed in a colorful green dress, like a butterfly, was thrown on the deck.

 

When the woman’s body fell from the sky, they could clearly hear the sound of her bones shattering.

 

She screamed. Before she could get up from the deck to escape, Cui Zhaoren landed at her side and held the bloody long sword in his hand against her throat.

 

His pure black suit was untainted with blood and his black cloak fluttered in the wind. His jade-like face was cold and gloomy. He looked like Asura of Death from hell.

 

“Let me go, please let me go. I, Shui Yuanyang, am willing to work for you. Whatever you want me to do, I will be willing to do it,” the woman, who was slightly pretty, looked frightened and pleaded with him.

 

“You only have one chance,” Cui Zhaoren said in a cold voice, without the slightest emotion in it. “Who ordered you to hijack the ship?”

 

“No one. No one ordered us to do that. We are the bandits of Cock-Crow Lake. When I saw this beautiful ship, I naturally wanted to team up to make a profit.”

 

The story should be simple, not involving any other complex explanation. She thought this was the only way to preserve her life.

 

…

 

The long sword was stabbed downward, cutting through Shui Yuanyang’s throat.

 

Blood flowed along the edge of the sword and instantly turned her neck and chest red.

 

Shui Yuanyang opened her eyes wide but did not dare to touch it with her hand. Besides the blood, she was afraid that she would touch her wounded throat.

 

“I do not like to hear people talking nonsense and I do not like to hear people lying.” Cui Zhaoren’s eyes became colder. He said, “As I said, you only have one chance. I should have killed you with one strike. But unfortunately, all of your companions have been killed by my people. Even if I want to find someone who can replace you, I can’t find any. So, this is your luck and it is also your misfortune. Who asked you to come here? Don’t worry, think about it for a while and then answer me.”

 

While Cui Zhaoren was interrogating Shui Yuanyang, the battle on the three ships was over. The supervisors of the Department of Supervision killed all the rabble.

 

Right now, they were scattered all around the deck with surging killing intent in their eyes and the smell of blood on their bodies. Some of the blood was from their enemies and some of the blood was their own.

 

They resembled a group of beasts that had been released.

 

“I will tell you, I will tell you. Someone leaked your information to us in advance. He said that there would be a ship passing by Cock-Crow Lake today and it was filled with people who had a lot of gold coins. There was also a large number of treasures and a painting ‘God Emperor Twelve Scrolls’ that the Jia Family, the richest family of Jiangnan, is sending to Capital Heaven. The man said that they only wanted the ‘God Emperor Twelve Scrolls’. All the gold coins, treasures and women on the ship would be equally divided among us.”

 

“He even said that this ship is heavily guarded and that there were experts overseeing it. He also asked us to contact some of our friends to ensure the raid will be successful. Hence, our boss Hua collaborated with the other two captains to carry out this mission together.”

 

“There are no large number of jewels belonging to the richest man of Jiangnan on this boat, let alone the famous painting.” Cui Zhaoren looked at the poor woman as if he was looking at an idiot.

 

“Oh no.” Cui Zhaoren suddenly realized something and shouted, “The cargo is under danger.”

 

“Woosh!”

 

When the supervisors in black heard Cui Zhaoren’s order, they instantly rushed to the third floor.

 

When Cui Zhaoren hurried to the third floor, there was still someone guarding the door. Su Rong, the military counselor and some guards were guarding the hatch where the criminal was locked up.

 

“Congratulations on returning after a great victory, Young Lord.” Military Advisor Su Rong’s face was full of smiles as he said, “A bunch of hooligans dared to stop the boat and rob us and they are all dead. Their deaths are not worthy of pity.”

 

“How is the cargo?” Cui Zhaoren went straight to the cabin.

 

“We have been guarding the door and have not left at any moment,” Su Rong said. “What’s more, there are specially-assigned people around the cabin. There are also spells and restrictions. If someone touches it, the spell master should have felt it. It should not be…”

 

Su Rong could not continue.

 

Because when Cui Zhaoren opened the cabin door, the cage in the room was gone.

 

The cage, which was made of black gold and weighed ten thousand kilograms, had disappeared under their supervision. At the same time, a large piece of wooden board which was underneath the cage was gone too.

 

Someone had dug a hole under the cabin while it was under their supervision and took General Iron-Wall away without anyone noticing.

 

This was beyond their expectation and it was hard to believe.

 

The fact that he could break through the protected system without alerting the spell master and that he could quietly cut a hole in the floor, while carrying a ten thousand kilograms cage with a living person inside it and disappearing from the supervision and protection of so many of them, was proof that he must be someone extraordinary. Who was he?

 

“Crack!”

 

The sword roared like a dragon!

 

Cui Zhaoren pulled out his sword and swung it toward the cabin.

 

“Crack!”

 

The whole ship was hit by the sword intent and split down the middle in an instant.

 

“Bang!”

 

Then the enormous and heavy roof of the ship slid into the surface of Cock-Crow Lake and dropped into the river with a crash.

 

At this time, the sun was shining brightly. Without the cover of the roof, the room on the third floor was no longer in darkness.

 

Cui Zhaoren stood under the blazing sun and his face was as pale as a piece of paper.

 

His eyes were like an ice cold knife. Wherever his gaze landed, it made the people tremble.

 

“Young master, this is due to my negligence. I did not expect that…” Su Rong was so shocked and he hurriedly apologized. “I did not expect them to carry out their rescue in this way. I will be…”

 

“Chase after him.” Cui Zhaoren coldly issued an order.

 

“Yes.” The supervisor in black bowed and rushed toward Cock-Crow Lake an instant.

 

Cui Zhaoren looked at the river in front of him and did not speak for a long time.

 

Everyone was gathered on the deck, including all the crew and shipmen.

 

There was a group of about a hundred people, yet no one made any noise. They were all extremely cautious, even when making eye contact with each other.

 

It was so quiet and solemn that even the air seemed to freeze.

 

Even though they were not satisfied with his behavior, when they saw the young man in a fluttering black robe staring at them coldly, they could only suppress the grievance in their hearts and quickly lowered their heads to avoid any eye contact with him.

 

Seeing the fight just now, no one dared to enrage him.

 

After witnessing the fierceness and cruelty of these men in black, they even regretted that they had done such a stupid thing in suggesting that they wanted to search their rooms. It was seeking the road to death!

 

“Everyone on board is here,” Manager Chen Tao walked to Cui Zhaoren and reported to him.

 

“Is there anyone missing?”

 

“I have counted the numbers and one person is missing.” Chen Tao’s head was almost down to his knees.

 

“Who is it?”

 

“I don’t know yet. Because they are all passengers, I can’t remember their faces.”

 

“Call their names.”

 

“Yes,” Chen Tao answered. He immediately took out the name list which the guests had written down when they boarded the ship and began to call out their names.

 

“Li Yikun, from Jiangnan.”

 

“Zhang Linpu, from Jia County.”

 

“Chen Qingzhi, from Xi County.”

 

…

 

Every time a name was called, the person would step out of the array and cross over to an area guarded by the Department of Supervision.

 

The name list was quickly scanned through. Chen Tao walked over with the name list and said, “There is a person who is missing. His name is Mu Qinghou.”

 

“Qinghou?” Cui Zhaoren sneered and said in a loud voice, “Does anyone know this man?”

 

No one answered.

 

“Anyone who has met this person will be allowed to stay alive and will be rewarded with two hundred gold coins.”

 

“I have seen him.” A thin stranger raised his hand timidly and said, “I have seen him before. He is a fat man.”

 

“Okay, I will give you two hundred gold coins.” Cui Zhaoren kept his word and someone threw a bag of gold coins to him on the spot.

 

“I have seen him too. I even argued with him a little.”

 

“Yes, he spoke up for Li Muyang and humiliated us.”

 

…

 

Li Muyang?

 

Cui Zhaoren heard the issue he was most concerned about among the voices.

 

“Li Muyang…” In the crowd, he found the white-robed young man who dared to contradict and threaten him. He looked at him with cold eyes and his voice was extremely calm. He said, “Do you know that you have committed the crime of colluding with the enemy?”