Novel Full Chapter 160: Li Hanzhou's Collapse
Li Hanzhou followed behind Chen Yan.
He naturally didn’t believe the nonsense Chen Yan had spouted about feeling guilty towards Qian Xun or whatever. This Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain must have a deeper purpose for coming to Yuanhua Mountain this time.
“Please, have a seat, Manager Li.”
Chen Yan led Li Hanzhou into an empty study, then sat down in the main seat behind the desk.
A sense of foreboding had already risen in Li Hanzhou’s heart. It seemed this Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain was not here with friendly intentions.
Only after the handsome young man before him, dressed in the pure white robes of the Kongshan Sect with gilded cloud crane patterns on his cuffs, had settled in his seat did Li Hanzhou also sit down opposite the desk within the study.
“Might I ask why Chief Disciple Chen has sought out this humble Li for discussion?”
Li Hanzhou steadied his breathing, trying his best to appear calm.
“Oh? Manager Li seems rather tense.”
The handsome youth sitting opposite Li Hanzhou said with a smile:
“Done something to feel guilty about?”
“Ah, Chief Disciple Chen, how can you say such a thing? I’m just a lowly manager disciple, usually only dealing with those young disciples who have just entered the sect. What could I possibly have done to feel guilty about?”
Li Hanzhou replied.
“Really? No guilty conscience?”
Chen Yan’s expression instantly turned serious as he pressed the question.
“Really, none!”
Li Hanzhou met Chen Yan’s gaze and answered with absolute certainty.
Hearing this, Chen Yan smiled again:
“See, I couldn’t trick it out of you!”
“You jest, Chief Disciple Chen.”
Li Hanzhou relaxed slightly and continued:
“An upright person fears no crooked shadow!”
“If what Manager Li says is true, that would be wonderful.”
Chen Yan laughed, then suddenly shifted the topic:
“But what the Transmitter of Mingxiao Peak said seems a bit different from what you’re telling me, Manager Li?”
Upon hearing these words, Li Hanzhou felt as if he had plunged into an icy abyss.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and his limbs began to tremble uncontrollably.
Although the muscles in his cheeks had already started twitching involuntarily, Li Hanzhou still struggled to maintain a facade of calm on the surface.
Even though he looked anything but calm:
“H-h-how could that be?”
Chen Yan ignored Li Hanzhou. Instead, he casually took a token from his waist and tossed it lightly onto the desk in front of him.
Kongshan Imperial Law Court.
These five large characters were now displayed directly before Li Hanzhou’s eyes.
“Who are you working for?”
“I haven’t…”
“I’ll ask again. Who are you working for?”
Chen Yan showed no mercy and continued his pursuit.
“…Sp-spare me, I beg you, Chief Disciple Chen, please, I beg you, spare me!”
Li Hanzhou, like a pile of mud, slid off his chair, then turned over on the floor, kneeling on both knees, and began kowtowing repeatedly towards Chen Yan.
The moment he saw the Imperial Law Court token, his psychological defenses had been almost completely shattered.
The skull of a Martial Spring Realm cultivator was hard. He quickly cracked the blue stone tiles of the study floor with his forehead.
Chen Yan retrieved the token from the desk, merely watching Li Hanzhou calmly:
“Now you tell me, just to me. If I hand you over to the Imperial Law Court, you know very well what will happen.”
This was a threat.
“Pei Qingshan! I work for Pei Qingshan!”
Li Hanzhou wailed:
“I was doing things for Pei Qingshan, Supervisor Pei! When I first became a disciple of Yuanhua Mountain, Pei Qingshan wasn’t the supervisor of Yuanhua Mountain yet. At that time, Pei Qingshan was just a manager disciple, and I happened to be assigned under his command.”
“And then?”
Chen Yan continued asking.
“L-later, after Pei Qingshan broke through to the Qi Sea Realm, he no longer served as a manager disciple. I’m not too clear on what specific position he was transferred to.”
Li Hanzhou answered:
“Then another twenty years passed, and I also became a Martial Spring Realm cultivator and began serving as an education manager. It was around that time I accidentally learned that Pei Qingshan had taken up the post of Supervisor of Yuanhua Mountain.”
A Supervisor held a status equivalent to an ordinary elder within the sect, usually held by a Spirit Connection Realm cultivator, responsible for coordinating all daily affairs of their assigned peak.
Of course, only daily affairs.
“Then, one day ten years ago, Pei Qingshan suddenly invited me to a banquet at the Mingxiao Tower by the Mingxiao Peak ferry dock. After the banquet, he took me to a hidden warehouse near the dock. It was loaded with two full carts of goods. Then Pei Qingshan told me to lift the black cloth covering the cargo.”
Li Hanzhou said.
“What was under the black cloth?”
Chen Yan asked.
“Spirit stones! Crystal clear spirit stones! Their quality was so good you could tell at a glance they were high-grade spirit stones. Two whole carts, a total of one hundred and twenty thousand high-grade spirit stones!”
Li Hanzhou said:
“Then, Pei Qingshan told me to find a way to transport these two carts of spirit stones back to Yuanhua Mountain.”
“Where in Yuanhua Mountain?”
“The General Affairs Office.”
Li Hanzhou answered.
“What other things does Pei Qingshan usually have you do?”
Chen Yan continued asking.
“Nothing.”
Li Hanzhou shook his head:
“He doesn’t have me do anything else. He only had me go to Mingxiao Peak to collect spirit stones for him. That’s the only thing.”
“What else do you know?”
“I really don’t know anything else, Chief Disciple Chen, truly. I haven’t done anything. I’m not part of Wei Mian’s faction either. Everything on Heavenly Summit Mountain has nothing to do with me. I’m just a lowly education manager, even if I wanted to do something, I couldn’t…”
Li Hanzhou’s emotions were on the verge of complete collapse:
“Please, Chief Disciple Chen, don’t hand me over to the Imperial Law Court. They’ll kill me, they definitely will…”
The core of the Imperial Law Court consisted of a total of seven Grand Elders, headed by Huo Mu. Apart from them, there were about thirty cultivators with cultivation realms at Spirit Connection or above serving in the Imperial Law Court.
Of course, these thirty-plus fifth-realm cultivators were merely the “claws” of the Imperial Law Court’s Grand Elders.
Within the sect, they were like shadows, holding no real authority whatsoever. Even tokens like the one in Chen Yan’s hand, engraved with “Kongshan Imperial Law Court,” were only issued by the Grand Elders when carrying out special missions.
“I can give you a chance.”
Chen Yan said:
“Today, immediately go to the Enforcement Hall on Kongyuan Mountain and find Elder Zhong Yin. Tell him Chen Yan sent you. Then confess everything you’ve done to Elder Zhong. At the very least, it can guarantee your fate will be better than falling into the hands of the Imperial Law Court.”
“Thank you, Chief Disciple Chen, for your great kindness and virtue!”
Li Hanzhou said emotionally:
“I’ll go right now, I’ll go to Kongyuan Mountain right away!”
“Go.”
Chen Yan said indifferently.
Watching Li Hanzhou’s retreating figure, Chen Yan rubbed the Kongshan Imperial Law Token in his hand, lost in thought.