Chapter 102 Leaving Notting City and Stepping Back into the Vortex of Conflict
The visitor was none other than Su Zheng, the deputy city lord.
He had already planned to go home, but the intense soul power fluctuations coming from the direction of the City Lord's Mansion made it impossible for him to sit idly by.
He planned to say a few words on behalf of the boy who was just arrested, hoping to save his life.
But the moment he stepped into the hall, the horrific scene before him made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Fear gripped Su Zheng's heart, and he revealed his Fire Fox Martial Soul. Three soul rings rapidly rose beneath his feet, yellow, yellow, and purple, instantly unleashing the soul power of a level 39 Soul Elder.
Although he adopted a fighting stance, his tightly clenched hands were covered in cold sweat.
He looked around, his mind racing as he calculated possible escape routes.
The young man before him could turn the City Lord's Mansion upside down; his level 39 was nothing more than suicide in front of him.
Ye Liuyun glanced at him sideways.
Through his previous observations, he knew that although Su Zheng, the deputy city lord, was in the officialdom, he was completely different from Xiao Han, who was a scoundrel who exploited the people. In fact, he was ostracized everywhere and did not dress extravagantly.
Ye Liuyun simply brushed past him calmly and walked straight towards the gate.
Su Zheng's hair stood on end, his soul power was running at its limit, and he stared intently at Ye Liuyun's back, thinking that the other party would suddenly launch a fatal attack.
But even after Ye Liuyun walked out the door, there was still no movement.
"Stop!"
Su Zheng found it utterly absurd, and he couldn't help but shout at the retreating figure:
"Aren't you going to kill me to silence me?"
He stared at the corpses of the city lord's family in the courtyard and gritted his teeth, saying:
"If you're going to do it, stop pretending! Now that I've seen this, rather than suffer in your hands, I'd rather you just give me a quick death!"
Ye Liuyun stopped in his tracks, slightly turning half of his cool and aloof face, and casually replied:
"What crime have you committed?"
Su Zheng was taken aback by the question, then puffed out his chest and said:
"I, Su Zheng, have acted uprightly and honestly, and I have no regrets!"
Ye Liuyun spoke in a calm tone, as if he were asking about today's weather.
"Then why should I kill you?"
"Because I saw something I shouldn't have seen!" Su Zheng said urgently. "In the world of Soul Masters, shouldn't such a thing be covered up by killing to silence witnesses?"
Ye Liuyun gave a self-deprecating smile and patted his face.
"So what if I see it? Am I that ugly?"
"The city lord deserves to die, so I'll kill him. There's nothing shameful about it."
"I even wanted to kill someone and leave my name on the wall, to tell the whole city that I killed that bastard."
Su Zheng froze on the spot, completely bewildered.
In the world of Soul Masters, might makes right, and killing to silence witnesses is as natural as breathing.
But this ruthless young man who had wiped out the city lord's entire family possessed a set of almost naive logic:
If someone makes a mistake, kill them.
That's right, don't kill.
Seeing Ye Liuyun about to leave again, Su Zheng couldn't help but loudly remind him:
"Do you know what a grave crime it is to kill a nobleman of the Heaven Dou Empire? Xiao Han may be wicked, but he is still an official appointed by the Empire. If someone reports you, you will face endless pursuit by the Empire! No matter how strong you are, can you be stronger than the thousands of troops of an Empire?"
"You act too impulsively. With your abilities, you could have chosen a more tactful approach. Xiao Han certainly wouldn't dare to offend you too much. You can slowly figure out how to deal with him."
"Instead of acting on impulse without considering the consequences."
Ye Liuyun, who was originally planning to leave, stopped in his tracks.
He turned around, his icy gaze piercing Su Zheng, making the air seem to freeze.
"Take your time?"
He let out a very soft, cold laugh.
"Who will take care of those who were trampled on during this period? Who can they turn to for redress for their grievances?"
He took a step closer, his voice as deep and cold as iron:
"Are you suggesting that justice may be delayed, but it will never be absent?"
"Don't be ridiculous, justice delayed is justice denied."
Ye Liuyun scrutinized Su Zheng as if he were looking at a rotting soul.
"If you back down once, you'll have to back down a second time."
"What you consider 'barely acceptable' today, you'll consider 'normal' tomorrow."
The chill in his voice intensified.
"When you first became an official, would you have turned a blind eye to scum like the Lightning Gang? Wouldn't you have been furious?"
"But now, you've learned to make excuses. Because the city lord is backing you up, you can't do anything about it; because you have reservations, you turn around and leave."
Finally, Ye Liuyun, his tone laced with murderous intent, issued an ultimatum to Su Zheng:
"If you forget why you started in the first place, then your death is near."
Su Zheng felt as if all his strength had been drained away. He staggered back a step, his back slamming heavily against the cold wall.
Ye Liuyun's words were like a scalpel, precisely cutting through the disguise he had been using to escape.
In a daze, he seemed to see himself more than 30 years ago.
That young man, whose eyes were filled with stars and who vowed to punish evil and make a name for himself throughout the world when the light shone during the Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony.
At that time, Su Zheng also thought that he would be a shooting star that would streak across the long night, and that he would write a different world.
But what happened next?
It is the flattery and sycophancy during toasts and drinking parties, and the groveling before the powerful and wealthy.
That once passionate heart, through these repeated instances of being "out of control," slowly became smooth, cold, and numb.
Su Zheng laughed self-deprecatingly, his eyes revealing a near-desperate and self-abandoned look, and said to Ye Liuyun:
"But that's just how the world is! What can I do but submit?"
Ye Liuyun's expression remained unchanged, but deep within his dark eyes, it seemed as if sparks were igniting in the polar night.
He was as calm as if stating a truth:
"Then change it."
Su Zheng was stunned.
He stared wide-eyed at Ye Liuyun, as if he had heard some absurd joke, but a chill inexplicably ran down his spine.
"Change the world? You're insane... Do you even know what you're saying?"
Su Zheng muttered to himself, in his eyes, this was simply a delusional and suicidal idea.
"I must be crazy to talk to a naive guy like you about this stuff."
"You can go now. I'll find a way to keep this a secret."
"I'll be watching from Notting. One day you'll realize you can't change the world."
Ye Liuyun did not look back; he walked away in the dappled afterglow.
He wants to return to the Heaven Dou Imperial City and step back into the vortex of struggle.
Su Zheng stood facing the wind atop the City Lord's Mansion.
He watched the black dot gradually disappear into the distance, his heart churning with turmoil.
Reason told him that the other party's attempt to change the world was futile; that complex world was a thousand times more terrifying than Notting.
He genuinely felt that the other party couldn't win, yet he also genuinely hoped that the other party could win.
He forced a bitter smile, all his unspoken words culminating in a sigh that only he could hear:
"All living beings turn to a life of compromise, but you alone enter a place of no return."
The sand and dust blurred his vision, and the struggle in Su Zheng's eyes gradually faded.
A dark figure had silently appeared behind him, kneeling on one knee, like a dagger with its edge concealed.
"My lord," the shadowy figure said in a low voice.
Su Zheng surveyed the chaotic scene within the City Lord's Mansion, his tone utterly calm and devoid of any emotion:
"Erase all traces here. Announce to the public that the city lord died suddenly due to a relapse of his old illness."
He paused, a long-lost ruthlessness flashing in his eyes:
"Contact those trustworthy people and push me to the position; I want to be the city lord."
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[end of the chapter]