Chapter 1121: Chapter 1115: I Am No Mere Pawn; You Are
These extravagantly dressed individuals, backed by monstrously powerful factions, stared at Li Chang like starving wild dogs, stopping just short of actually drooling.
A sense of profound gratification welled up in Perfected Qiuyue’s heart.
He turned around briskly, dropped to his knees before Empress Wenren Xianyi, and cried out mournfully,
“Your Majesty, the Azure Cloud Li Clan’s crimes are unpardonable! They are a disastrous scourge upon our Imperial Dynasty. I implore Your Majesty to issue an edict!”
“Order the Department of Immortal Suppression, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, and the Emberwing Guards to conduct a thorough investigation!”
When one maggot caught the scent of meat, the rest naturally followed.
In an instant, the rustling of robes echoed through the court, leaving only a scant few people still standing.
Li Chang glanced around; most of them were old acquaintances.
General Wang Jinhu of the Heavenly Light Cave, several Prefecture Lords who had quite a few ties to his family, several imperial logistics departments that didn’t dare to fall out with the Merchant Lineage, and the subordinates of Dongfang Liancheng of the Eastern Border.
What surprised Li Chang somewhat was that A’hei, the Emberwing Guards’ lapdog who monitored the court for Min Youguo, and Wu Neng, the Commander of the Department of Immortal Suppression, did not join the crowd.
“We implore Your Majesty, the Empress, to issue an edict and thoroughly investigate the Azure Cloud Li Clan!”
The civil and military officials in the court shouted loudly, fully displaying their imposing authority.
Empress Wenren Xianyi lost her languid posture at this moment.
She took a deep look at Li Chang, her elegant brows furrowed tightly, originally intending to say something.
However, another hoarse voice suddenly rang out in the court.
“Your father here fucking loves telling the truth! Everything I said is the damn truth!”
Such vulgar language caused the officials’ expressions to change.
The one speaking was none other than Feng Tu, who had seemingly just yielded.
“Insolent!” Perfected Qiuyue turned his head and shouted fiercely.
But whether Feng Tu had truly yielded or not was something only he himself knew.
The City Lord of Highsun City—who had led his entire city to resist Venerable Yuanliang and had dared to battle Nun Dairou—abruptly shot to his feet.
He stood perfectly straight, his eyes bloodshot as if he wanted to devour people alive.
Even Li Chang was taken aback.
“You all want my life, yet you won’t even let me spout some nonsense. Where in the world is there such logic?”
Spit flew from Feng Tu’s mouth.
“What the hell do you know? You stand here in this court pontificating, convicting whoever you please.
Where were you when the Wu Tribe invaded the Western Border?
When an army of three hundred thousand Wu Tribe soldiers marched upon my Highsun City, where were you?”
“Do you have any idea what Bi Shihu was trying to do?
He trapped us in Highsun City! I watched with my own eyes as my soldiers were slaughtered!
We all thought we were going to become nothing more than stepping stones for Bi Shihu to establish his peerless military merit.
It was a tunnel and an array formation set up by the Li Clan that allowed us to see the sun the next day!”
“I wanted nothing more than to tear Bi Shihu into ten thousand pieces! Even now, everyone in Highsun City is cursing him to descend into the eighteen levels of hell.
Yet here you all stand, singing his praises and using his name to crusade against the Li Clan.”
“And do you know that if the Nirvana Sage Elder hadn’t intervened, Huan Gui would never have revealed itself!
It was precisely because the Li Clan had Huan Gui on their side that the Nirvana Sage Elder was severely injured, granting us victory in the Western Border!”
“The three cities of Deston Prefecture rejoiced because of this! The casualties of our Western Border soldiers were reduced.
Do you know how many soldiers survived because of them?”
“And then there’s your Crown Prince. Laughable!”
“I should have ground his bones to dust and scattered his ashes! He is a corpse…”
Before the City Lord of Highsun City could finish his sentence, his angry expression remained frozen on his face, but his complexion visibly turned deathly pale.
His bloodshot eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, and blood began to slowly seep from his facial orifices.
His soul was visibly extracted from his body, causing his limbs to stiffen until he collapsed back to his knees on the ground.
Feng Tu’s appearance was hideously contorted, veins bulging all over his body.
Looking up, a figure dressed in a golden feathered gown blocked out the bright light of the entire court.
Everyone in the entire court lowered their heads.
Only Li Chang frowned, looking at the person standing before the kneeling Feng Tu—Wenren Xianyi.
Her Spiritual power was immense, her oppressive aura leaving the court officials nearly breathless.
With a single outstretched hand, she seized Feng Tu’s soul.
The soul struggled, but beneath Wenren Xianyi’s jade-like hand, it was entirely futile.
At this moment, Li Chang still maintained his composure, though faint traces of bloodshot veins gradually crept into his eyes.
In the court where one could hear a pin drop, the man who had just spoken such indignant, unrestrained words had been reduced to a corpse.
Highsun City lost a City Lord who had brought prosperity to its lands.
The Imperial Dynasty lost a great general who dared to risk his life fighting foreign races.
The Zishu family avoided a scandal.
And the Li Clan lost a straightforward, honest friend.
Li Chang felt a numbness spread throughout his body.
He stared unblinkingly at the Empress as she returned to sit upon her Dragon Throne.
Perfected Qiuyue pressed his forehead against the floor and shouted once more, “I implore Your Majesty the Empress to thoroughly investigate the Azure Cloud Li Clan!”
“Investigate!”
Wenren Xianyi waved her hand casually, as if nothing had just happened.
Before long, a squad of immortal soldiers marched into the court and plastered talismans on Li Chang’s body.
Perfected Qiuyue stood up and led the soldiers as they dragged Li Chang out of the hall.
Li Chang kept his neck stiff, ignoring his disheveled clothes, his bloodshot eyes locked onto Feng Tu’s corpse.
Dead. Just like that, he was dead.
Meanwhile, the people in the court were all sneering coldly, waiting to devour the Azure Cloud Li Clan.
It was as if they had already anticipated the massive profits they could reap from the Li Clan, or foresee forcing the Li Clan to hide away from the light of day, just like the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
“Li Chang, with the ten deadly sins established, the Li Clan’s crimes are unpardonable. You all…” Perfected Qiuyue’s expression was sinister and cold.
However, Li Chang did not display the panic Perfected Qiuyue had imagined.
With nothing but numbness left in his eyes, he interrupted Perfected Qiuyue’s words. “Do me a favor, my lord.”
“What?”
Perfected Qiuyue froze.
“Please help me collect City Lord Feng’s corpse properly. I will personally deliver it back to Highsun City.”
“You still want his corpse? You’re going into the Heavenly Prison; you won’t even be able to keep your own life!”
Perfected Qiuyue’s mocking laughter abruptly ceased.
He saw that Li Chang still maintained that same demeanor—an indifference laced with a raging inferno of anger that caused Perfected Qiuyue’s heart to skip a beat, leaving him stunned in place.
“I told you to keep his corpse. Because very soon, you will deliver it to me personally, kneeling on the ground and presenting it with both hands.
Otherwise, I will make sure you die a miserable death.”
His cold glare pierced straight into the soul.
Li Chang was taken away to the Heavenly Prison, leaving behind only his loud, skyward laughter echoing outside the court.
“I have spent centuries in this court! I am no mere pawn; you are! Hahahaha!”
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