Chapter 126
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Volume 2 + Chapter 126: The Judgement Court
“Damn it, how could this happen!!”
In the headquarters of the Hechi Gang, Jiye was furious—so furious that he slammed his palm down and shattered the table.
This startled Sali.
“Jiye, calm down,” he tried to soothe him. “Getting angry won’t help. The fact is, Miss Mu Guang’s already been taken to the Judgement Court.”
“Calm, my ass! Stop pretending to be neutral!”
Jiye instantly grabbed Sali by the collar, his glare practically ready to swallow him whole.
“Tell me—did you sell out Miss Mu Guang on purpose? Did you let the upstart nobles capture her?!”
“No! I would never! I wouldn’t dare go against Miss Mu Guang!” Sali shook his head frantically. “I swear I don’t know anything—I’m innocent!”
“You’re lying. I’ll pry your mouth open today, stab iron picks under your nails—let’s see if you talk then!”
Sali turned deathly pale. He believed Jiye was capable of doing exactly that. Right now, his territory was completely under the control of the Hechi and Cangqing gangs. If Jiye and Chen Tie agreed, killing him would be a trivial matter.
“I swear I’m innocent! I really am!!”
“Enough, Jiye. Don’t do this.”
Serra patted Jiye’s shoulder, signaling for him to cool down.
“Mr. Sali is just as anxious. He cares about the young lady too. He’s helping us, isn’t he?”
“Yes! Yes, of course!”
Sali eagerly nodded along with Serra.
“If we can rescue Miss Mu Guang, then the Baitao gang—no, all of Corolle’s gangs—should be ready to go through hell and high water for her!!”
“Tch. I’ll believe you—for now.”
Jiye finally let go of Sali.
The leader of the Baitao gang looked like someone who had just narrowly escaped death.
“Why would the upstart nobles go after Miss Mu Guang?” Chen Tie frowned.
“What else could it be? We must have touched their precious cheese!” Jiye snorted coldly. “In the past, the three major gangs in Corolle were always competing with each other. Since we weren’t united, they saw us as unimportant—easy to manipulate, or even step on. You all know that from experience, don’t you?”
There was no need to speak about Chen Tie—just thinking about how that bastard Oba from House Elvin had betrayed him, causing his brothers to be arrested in his place, made his teeth grind.
“We even took on jobs from the New Commerce Guild before—ran business for them, protected shipments, even escorted goods to war-torn borderlands. Lots of our brothers were wounded defending those cargos.”
Sali’s expression grew darker, fury building in his chest as he spoke.
“And in the end, the New Commerce Guild shorted our pay! Said we were incompetent, said the injuries were our own fault! They betrayed the spirit of the deal! If this happened in a gang, we’d be cutting off fingers to pay the price!”
The upstart nobles weren’t just exploiting the slum-dwellers—they were so greedy that they even squeezed Corolle’s underworld for all it was worth. Anything that could generate value, they would never let slip by.
“Miss Mu Guang appeared and was about to unite the gangs,” Jiye continued to stoke the fire, “we finally had a shot at resisting the New Commerce Guild, and then they played dirty and captured her. They’re trying to snuff us out for good! Why should we live beneath them? Why should we be shackled by their laws?”
“You mean…?” Sali looked shocked.
“You want to keep bowing and scraping?” Jiye asked him. “We joined the gangs just to survive. But look at us now—don’t we look like beggars, kneeling with our bowls out? The moment they get pissed, they smash our bowls—and now we don’t even get scraps!”
“I…”
Sali hesitated, glancing secretly at Chen Tie.
“I’ve had enough of them,” Chen Tie growled. “If we keep swallowing this kind of treatment, when will it end? One day, just like today, they’ll pin a charge on us out of nowhere and throw us into the Judgement.”
He grabbed a broken piece of the table and crushed it into powder with his hand.
Sali was torn inside. He had long hated the upstart nobles. Originally, his plan was to unify the gangs under himself, become the king of the underworld, and then face off against the New Commerce Guild on equal footing.
Now, because of Miss Mu Guang, it seemed the Hechi and Cangqing gangs were already thinking of rebellion.
Even if things weren’t going as he envisioned, the opportunity he wanted was finally here.
“But if it’s just Corolle’s gangs, going up against the city guard is too much, isn’t it?” Sali voiced his concern. “The guards are armed with dragon units, well-trained and powerful. If it’s only us, we don’t stand a chance.”
Jiye and Chen Tie fell silent.
Because it was true.
“…We might need help,” Serra said.
“Yes!” Sali seized on that. “You’d better think this through. This isn’t something you can do just because your blood’s boiling. If we fail, it’ll be all our heads on the chopping block.”
“Damn it. If only someone could help us now,” Jiye sighed.
“But right now, aside from the gangs, who in Corolle would even…” Chen Tie furrowed his brows.
The conversation stalled.
Then, suddenly, a voice rang out, cutting through the heavy air of despair.
“If it’s help you want, we can provide it. You need us—and we need you.”
“Who?!”
Sali looked up toward the entrance.
A stranger walked in. His eyes burned like torches in the night.
“The Shadow King of the slums. The resurrected rebel,” Ajin said. “Now, a follower of Miss Mu Guang.”
—
A night passed.
Due to an emergency announcement last night, all of Corolle’s dragons gathered in the central district to witness the Judgement Court in session.
Unlike normal courts, the Judgement Court was held atop an open-air tower.
A dense crowd gathered below, and they could all see the silver-haired dragon girl standing at the defendant’s podium.
She stood with her head bowed, expression unreadable.
The Judgement used special magical tools to amplify speech and broadcast the defendant’s condition into the skies above Corolle for everyone to see.
“Is that the criminal?”
“Silver hair… silver eyes…”
“She must’ve committed something serious. All the upstart nobles are here.”
The dragons whispered among themselves. Corolle had never been this lively.
Arland Elvin sat with the other nobles in a prime viewing spot atop the tower, enjoying the show.
They were already discussing how to sentence the impersonator, how to punish House Cavendish, and dreaming of their bright future.
The judge slammed his gavel—amplified by magic, the sound echoed across every corner of the city, and the crowd fell silent in unison.
The time for trial had come.
“The Judgement Court of Corolle is now in session. Defendant, do you know the crime you have committed?!” the judge demanded.
An invisible pressure spread outward. Even the dragons below the tower felt it and instinctively lowered their heads.
Arland smiled. Next would come the collapse: this little dragon would break under the pressure, confess everything, and fall apart.
“Go ahead. Show us your disgrace, hahaha…”
But what came next was not the scene Arland imagined.
Instead, with her very first words, Xia Yi silenced his laughter.
