Chapter 867: The Traceable Claw Shadow
Xiao Zhang opened his eyes with some difficulty, looking at the tense expressions on the faces of these ordinary people around him, and felt a strange emotion stir within him.
In the eyes of cultivators, he was a madman who only knew how to fight, someone they feared and dreaded. When had there ever been people who truly respected and protected him?
Back then, when he said the Winter Wild Tea of Fengyang County was good, it was only because he truly felt this tea was countless times better than the Da Hong Pao that Liang Wangsun loved to drink. How could he have ever thought about bringing any benefit to the people of this remote county?
Yet now, these ordinary people, whom he would not even bother to glance at on a normal day, stood before him. Even though they were clearly scared to death, their hands trembling as they gripped their knives, they refused to leave.
Suddenly, he felt that besides those exhilarating battles, there were some other things in his life that he had not done in vain.
For instance, saving Wang Po in the Luo River amidst the wind and snow back then. For instance, praising the Winter Wild Tea of this small county.
...
...
The simple yet fierce folk character of Fengyang City was fully displayed at this moment.
The men who filled the stone steps of Qibao Village and the commoners outside shouting something were all proof.
But the expressions of the imperial experts and the soldiers of the Divine Crossbow Battalion did not change at all.
The expressions of those Azure-Robed Daoists were even more utterly indifferent.
In their eyes, whether it was Xiao Zhang or these commoners of Fengyang County, they were no different from dead people.
The Azure-Robed Daoists walked up the stone steps.
It seemed a bloody incident was about to occur, and many people would die in Fengyang City today.
The Azure-Robed Daoists did not care. Even if countless people died, it could simply be explained away as a "civil disturbance."
The worst off, of course, would be these dying commoners and the local officials.
The local official of Fengyang County was the County Magistrate, but fortunately for him, in order to prepare for tomorrow's Winter Wild Tea Gathering, the Prefect of Fengcheng Prefecture had already arrived.
No matter what happened today, the one ultimately responsible would naturally be the Prefect.
This Prefect would certainly not allow this bloody incident to happen.
The Prefect of Fengcheng was middle-aged, with a gaunt, handsome face and graying temples, quite imposing.
He clasped his hands and bowed to the Azure-Robed Daoists, saying, "Several Revered Daoists, please wait a moment."
The Azure-Robed Daoists should have known he was a disciple of the Prince of Xiang. Upon hearing this, they stopped, their expressions still indifferent.
"You foolish people, thinking only of showing momentary bravery, are you trying to drag all the elders and children of my Fengyang City into an unjust situation?!"
The Prefect looked at the tea merchant and the commoners on the stone steps, his expression stern as he shouted, "Do you know who this Xiao Zhang you are protecting is? He is a murderous madman who kills without blinking! Could someone like him possibly have any true feelings for you? It was just a casual remark back then, why should you risk your lives to protect him?"
Someone in the crowd shouted back, "Our tea sells so well now, every household is making money. Shouldn't we be grateful?"
The Prefect roared sternly, "Why does the wild tea of my Fengyang City sell so well? It is because the imperial court built you a dock, opened trade routes, and made this tea a tribute item. If you want to be grateful, you should thank the imperial court, not this criminal wanted by the court!"
The surrounding commoners stirred slightly and began to murmur. Although they had not dispersed, they were at least not as tense as before.
Xiao Zhang squinted at the Prefect and said, "You're quite good with your mouth."
The Prefect said firmly, "You don't need to threaten me. I am not afraid of you. If you don't want to hear me speak, just kill me."
Xiao Zhang said, "In the past, you would already be dead by now."
The Prefect stared at the white paper on his face and roared, "So what if I die? I have nothing to be ashamed of before heaven and earth. I speak for the people, and if I die for it, it is a worthy death. But you are nothing but a wanted criminal, bullying the weak and slaughtering the innocent! Truly guilty of the most heinous crimes, ten thousand deaths would not be enough to atone for your sins!"
...
...
"Xiao Zhang has a violent temper and has killed many powerful cultivators in battle. He is hardly a good person. But bullying the weak and slaughtering the innocent... that is not something he would do. Not because he is unwilling, but because he scorns to do so."
In the crowd, Hu Sanshier spoke softly to Chen Changsheng.
Today, many imperial experts had come to Fengyang City, along with the Divine Crossbow Battalion, and most importantly, those few Azure-Robed Daoists.
If nothing unexpected happened, Xiao Zhang might truly meet his end.
When Hu Sanshier spoke softly to Chen Changsheng, he was watching his expression, wanting to know what the Pope was thinking.
The only ones who could change the situation now were Chen Changsheng and his group.
Just then, Hu Sanshier suddenly noticed that Zheshou, who was always by the Pope's side, was gone.
"You don't understand us. If you did, you wouldn't say that, and you wouldn't need to look at his expression while speaking."
Tang Thirty-Six said to him, "Look, Zheshou didn't need to look at his expression. He just left on his own."
Hu Sanshier didn't quite understand what he meant until the next moment, when he heard a sharp sound of something tearing through the air from the top of the stone steps.
...
...
The imperial court had been hunting Xiao Zhang for three years. The hunting teams changed constantly, but aside from the hidden assassins of the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, the main force came from the Ministry of Justice.
Several experts from the Ministry of Justice dispersed the crowd, blocked Xiao Zhang's escape route, and uncoiled the iron chains from their bodies, swinging them towards Xiao Zhang.
Those iron chains, with their sinister aura, and the techniques used, were far inferior to those of the six yamen runners among the Tang Family's Five Kinds of People, but they were vaguely of the same lineage and possessed their own power.
Xiao Zhang could barely stand at this point, so how could he dodge these iron chains?
Since he couldn't dodge, he wouldn't.
Being unable to dodge did not mean he was unable to fight.
He closed his eyes, thinking about which move he should use to impale one of those Azure-Robed Daoists before jumping into the river.
Even if he died, he had to die in a way that lived up to his name—he had to be arrogant.
But the next moment, he didn't feel those cold, heavy chains wrap around his neck. Instead, he heard a series of dense, chaotic sounds.
Those sounds were very crisp, clearly the clashing of metal, yet too clean, like metal breaking.
He opened his eyes and looked. In the light before him, fragments of iron chains were flying everywhere, almost beautiful.
Deep within those iron chain fragments, there were some extremely sharp traces, but he couldn't tell what weapon they were.
Seeing the iron chains in the hands of the Ministry of Justice experts shatter, the pupils of the few Azure-Robed Daoists contracted, and they drifted swiftly up the stone steps.
They ignored the sharp aura that had shattered the iron chains, their goal very clear: to kill Xiao Zhang.
Several extremely dark sword lights stabbed towards Xiao Zhang's vital points from bizarre angles.
These Azure-Robed Daoists came from the Changchun Temple in Luoyang and cultivated the orthodox Daoist techniques of the National Religion. In a sense, they were fellow disciples of Chen Changsheng. But perhaps because the Changchun Temple had been hidden in the shadows of history for too many years, their sword techniques were even more bizarre and unpredictable.
But their swords still failed to kill Xiao Zhang.
Once again, dense, crisp sounds of metal clashing rang out on the stone steps.
Several extremely deep, invisible traces tore through the morning light, leaving afterimages in the air above the stone steps, looking like a wolf's claw.