Chapter 99: Chapter 89: I Am the King’s Law

By now, a bloody battle had erupted before the gates of the Huang Mansion.

The slaughter had erupted without warning.

Chen Sheng was never one for wasting words. Once he decided to act, he did so without a shred of hesitation.

The moment he arrived at the Huang Mansion with the troops of the Military Preparation Camp, he gave those inside no time to react. Cold steel was drawn as his order to attack shattered the twilight’s silence.

A great tide of government soldiers surged forward, expertly breaking down doors, storming the premises, dividing the defenders, and beginning the slaughter.

To ensure a flawless operation and prevent any key members of the Huang Family from escaping in the chaos, Chen Sheng had practically brought his entire force to bear. The mobilization and sheer scale of the attack were far greater than the one that had annihilated the Gao Family.

Nearly the entire Military Preparation Camp had been deployed.

Dressed in a spotless, new official robe with the Treasure Saber ’Shehan’ at his waist, Chen Sheng stood behind the formation. His expression was as frigid as a frozen lake, showing no ripple of emotion as he watched the scene before him with indifference.

At his side, Yang Family Patriarch Yang Yi watched the scene of soaring flames and ceaseless screams, an imperceptible flicker of pity and conflicting emotions passing through the depths of his eyes.

Although he had anticipated it when he received Chen Sheng’s order, he was still shaken by the young commander’s brutality and decisiveness. He was a man who, when he finally chose to act, did so with the force of a thunderbolt, carrying out the complete annihilation of a family line.

What weighed even more heavily on his heart was Chen Sheng’s explicit demand that the Yang Family must participate, assisting the government soldiers in slaughtering the ’Huang Family rebels’.

Yang Yi knew this was the Pledge of Loyalty the Yang Family was required to give Chen Sheng.

Yang Yi understood that merely breaking ties with the Huang Family wasn’t enough to win Chen Sheng’s complete trust. Only by staining their own hands with Huang blood could they thoroughly wash away the Yang Family’s past ’sins’.

Better you die than me. He understood this principle well.

And so, after only a brief internal struggle, Yang Yi made his choice. He personally led the Yang Family’s elite disciples, rushing to the Huang Mansion at once. After receiving a signal from Chen Sheng, he unhesitatingly ordered his men to cooperate with the soldiers and turn their butcher’s knives on their former allies—now the ’rebels’.

"What is it, Clan Leader Yang? Finding this hard to watch?"

Chen Sheng’s gaze remained fixed on the battle ahead, his tone flat, as if it were merely an offhand question.

A chill shot through Yang Yi’s heart, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back. He hurriedly bowed and said:

"Not at all! I would never dare. The Huang Family was audacious enough to anger Commander Chen... er, that is, the Huang Family colluded with water bandits and conspired to rebel. The evidence is ironclad! They must be annihilated to uphold the court’s law and bring peace to the people of Changshan Mountain."

Realizing his slip of the tongue, Yang Yi had scrambled to reframe a personal grudge as a matter of public justice.

After all, this was the standard practice of the Government Office. No matter what they did, they liked to cloak it in the guise of ’acting on behalf of the people’.

But upon hearing this, Chen Sheng let out a soft chuckle, a sound that cut through the surrounding din of battle with surprising clarity.

"Why the pretense, Clan Leader Yang? The root of the Huang Family’s disaster today is that they angered me. This is a fact. What is there to hide?"

Yang Yi forced a smile and mumbled his agreement, not daring to speak another word on the subject. In his heart, however, the chill grew even deeper.

This Commander Chen’s power and confidence seemed even more profound than before, and his words were now completely unrestrained, as if he feared nothing at all.

At this thought, Yang Yi quickly changed the subject, his tone a mix of fawning and probing:

"Commander Chen, about... about the marriage between you and Xueyao, is there any room for reconsideration? If the Yang Family has done anything improper, I beg your forgiveness, Commander. We will do everything in our power to make amends."

’A marriage alliance?’

Chen Sheng sneered inwardly. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

’To think the Yang Family still harbored such a delusion, even now.’

’The Yang Family of today had little value left for him to exploit; in fact, they now depended on his every whim just to survive.’

’Even if he were to consider a marriage alliance, with his current horizons, why would he ever be interested in the daughter of a mere local magnate from a single county?’

’Such an alliance would be of no help to his future prospects whatsoever.’

Just then—

"You damn cur, you’re courting death!!"

A roar filled with boundless rage and despair exploded from deep within the Huang Mansion, the sound wave so powerful it momentarily drowned out the clamor of the battlefield.

It was Huang Dongchun.

Yang Yi and Chen Sheng recognized the voice almost at the same instant.

Eager to prove himself, Yang Yi immediately took a step forward. Force began to circulate through his body as he prepared to rush into the mansion and slay the fiend.

He was fast, but someone else was faster.

The very instant Huang Dongchun’s roar sounded, Chen Sheng’s figure vanished from his spot like a phantom. In the next moment, he was a black afterimage tearing through the air, charging into the Huang Mansion at a speed the naked eye could not follow.

...

By this point, Huang Dongchun was like a man possessed.

With a furious palm strike, he blasted a Military Preparation Camp soldier who tried to stop him. The man was sent flying backward, his sternum caved in through his armor, his fate unknown.

Unleashing the vast Force of his Marrow Transformation Realm to its absolute limit, the wind from his palms howled like thunder. The common soldiers were no match for him, and in an instant, he had cleared a small area around himself.

He and the Huang Family’s patriarchal uncle had never imagined that just after they had humbly sent a letter pleading for peace, they would be met with Chen Sheng’s merciless, iron-blooded butchery.

There were no negotiations, no warnings—only the most direct and brutal slaughter.

Upon receiving the news and rushing over, Huang Dongchun witnessed his kinsmen being slaughtered like weeds. The pent-up fear, humiliation, and rage completely overwhelmed his sanity.

He was no longer thinking of compromise or swallowing his pride. He no longer cared about the consequences. Only a single thought remained in his mind: Kill!

Since Chen Sheng would not give the Huang Family a path to survival, then they would fight to the death. At worst, he would abandon this century-old foundation, escape to the Qinglin River to become a bandit, and he would absolutely not be a lamb waiting with an outstretched neck for the butcher’s knife.