100: Chapter 95: Evil!

100: Chapter 95: Evil!

“Ah, our Chen Family’s star of culture and writing, Lord Chen, how come you’ve arrived only now!”

At the entrance of the mountain stockade, Chen Qing was enthusiastically greeted by a woman who was apparently trying to delay him!

He remembered this woman; she was married over from the Pan Family Stockade and was notoriously fierce in the village.

She had been the most aggressive when taking over his family’s property.

Once he became the Chosen Man, she was shameless in trying to ingratiate herself with him and even tried to matchmake her niece with him, often being chased away by his mother with a broom…

Now that this woman had come forward, Chen Qing should have felt a little relieved, at least it proved that the Chen Family indeed had escaped here.

If this woman could run up here safely, his elder brother should have been able to protect his younger sister.

But for some reason, the more he looked at the woman’s guilty smile, the more uneasy Chen Qing felt in his heart.

“Are the other clan members safe?” Chen Qing asked tentatively.

“Ah, you don’t know, many people died!

Just last night, I was doing laundry.

You know, several of our downstream families wash clothes by the river.

At that time…”

Chen Qing, seeing that she was obviously stalling for time with her clumsy story, interrupted without hesitation, “Sister-in-law, please call all the surviving members of the Chen Family and those from the Pan Family.

I have orders to give.”

“This…” The woman’s face obviously stiffened for a moment, then she immediately said, “You’ll have to wait a while.

The Pan Family is holding a clan ancestral ceremony today, and they might not be able to receive you at the moment.

Let me first arrange for you to rest upon entering the stockade.

You must be hungry after your long journey, and with so many people, I need to call someone to cook enough dinner…”

Having heard enough, Chen Qing stopped listening and quickly brushed past her to stride inside!

He, as the Magistrate, had arrived, even under such circumstances of seeking to provide aid, and yet the Pan Family people still had the mood to hold a clan ceremony?

This woman didn’t even have the skill to tell a convincing lie.

“Hey hey, Chen Qing, Chen Qing!” The woman, suddenly frightened pale, hurried to chase after him, but Chen Qing wouldn’t give her the chance.

With swiftness in his step, he quickly made his way inside the stockade.

No sooner had he entered, he was greeted by a group of people.

“Oh my, this must be the Prefectural Governor, right?”

The leading old man, dressed in black silk and clearly more elegant than other rustic folks, supported by several elders of the Chen Family Village behind him, Chen Qing immediately guessed the man’s identity.

“Could you be the head of the Pan Family?”

“This humble one, Pan Qinghe, greets Lord Chen!”

The Chen Family members, looking at Chen Qing, revealed pale and forced smiles: “Chen Qing, you’re finally here.

We knew you wouldn’t abandon your clan.”

Chen Qing coldly observed those from the Chen Family, who were smiling with great difficulty, then turned his gaze to the Pan Family members, who were evasively looking away, finally resting his eyes on the middle-aged man claiming to be Pan Qinghe.

“How did you recognize me upon first sight?”

“My lord carries an imposing aura, clearly someone extraordinary, thus you are easy to identify,” Pan Qinghe replied with a smile.

As they spoke, the recruits that had come with Chen Qing also entered.

Since they were all strong young men dressed in temporary military uniforms, it made the members of both the Chen and Pan families retreat even more nervously.

Chen Qing said with a grim expression, “You didn’t recognize me; instead, you must have seen my younger sister.

She looks like me, and having seen her, you would’ve easily recognized me!”

Pan Qinghe, after hearing these words, instantly lost his composure and showed clear panic.

Rushing to speak, he said, “Why would you say that, my lord?

This commoner has never seen…” But before he could finish, there was a cracking sound, and Pan Qinghe, still stubbornly lying, suddenly fell to his knees.

Immediately, he collapsed to the ground, screaming like a pig being slaughtered!

Everyone retreated in terror, for they could see clearly how Pan Qinghe’s legs suddenly twisted and deformed in an exaggerated manner, his bones even breaking through his flesh!

“I will only ask once!” Chen Qing looked icily at Pan Qinghe, who was kneeling and screaming in agony: “My elder brother…

and my younger sister, where are they?”

Amidst his painful screams, Pan Qinghe’s eyes filled with fear.

This youngster from the Chen Family was a Magician?

It was over; this was truly the end!

He had traveled to the north in his youth and had witnessed the ruthlessness of magician officials in action.

In those chaotic towns, those magicians, for the sake of order, would kill hundreds of commoners without blinking an eye, no different from butchers.

And the Imperial Court wouldn’t pursue it!

He mustn’t speak, absolutely not.

If he did…

it would mean the extermination of his clan!

“Is there a misunderstanding, my lord?

I…

I really haven’t seen…”

Crack!

This time Chen Qing showed no mercy.

While everyone watched in horror, Pan Qinghe’s body twisted and deformed like a twist bread, his bones shattering piece by piece.

His scream was heart-wrenching, and he fainted after not even two seconds.

Chen Qing casually tossed his now crumpled body aside like a lump of meat.

The brutality of this death left not only the Pan and Chen families aghast but also the soldiers following Chen Qing, who stepped back in fear.

The next instant, several people from the crowd turned and ran without hesitation.

Chen Qing, watching this with a cold smile, raised his hand slightly, and those fleeing men were lifted by a gust of wind.

No matter how desperately they struggled, they could only watch helplessly as they were brought before Chen Qing.

“Isn’t that Chao Hui, Chao Hai?” Chen Qing coldly sneered at the two young men who were running the fastest and were the first to be caught by him.

One was tall and thin, and the other short and stocky – weren’t they the children of the second uncle who had tried to seize his family’s land?

He recognized the rest; they usually followed these two, mixing into trouble outside, not tending to the fields, and causing issues everywhere, engaging in petty thefts like stealing chickens and dogs, and it was even rumored that they had ambushed and robbed passing merchants together.

They had always been hostile to his family, and seeing them running so guiltily now, Chen Qing could naturally guess that they were related to the incident!

“Chen Qing…..” The shorter one quickly kowtowed and pleaded, “Don’t do anything rash, it has nothing to do with me, really nothing to do with me.

Those monsters came suddenly last night, Chen Ye and the others were surrounded, I wanted to help too, but I had to take care of my old mother, I’m really sorry, truly sorry…”

“Yes, Chen Qing…

we were also terrified at the time, we really didn’t expect it!” The tall, thin man also suddenly reacted and kowtowed, “I know we’re scoundrels, but you can’t just kill people over this kind of thing!”

The others also knelt and kowtowed in fear, not daring to speak.

They dared not lie, nor admit to anything, as all present were complicit in forcing a marriage – if it really came down to it, none could escape blame!

This Magician Chen was not only skilled in sorcery but also ruthless in his actions, all the more reason they dared not tell the truth.

Chen Qing didn’t even bother listening to their nonsensical jabbering.

With a flick of his finger, the next instant, the five men he had caught, just like Pan Qinghe before them, had their limbs broken and twisted, wailing like slaughtered pigs.

“I will ask only once…..” Chen Qing said icily, “My older brother…..

and where is my little sister?”

“Chen Qing!” The elder of the Chen Family immediately mustered the courage and yelled angrily, “Are you really going to kill everyone just on a suspicion?”

Chen Qing responded to the question with his actions.

With several thuds, the five men, with their limbs now twisted, were just like Pan Qinghe, turned into a twisted lump of flesh, their pitiful screams before death chilling everyone to the bone!

“Lord Chen!” Chen Ying, unable to watch, quickly reminded him, “My lord, many mouths make light work, this reputation for killing one’s kin…”

“When they’re all dead…..

no one will know!” Chen Qing cut her off.

A chill ran through everyone, feeling not the slightest humor in Chen Qing’s words.

The bloody scene was right before their eyes, after all!

Without further ado, Chen Qing raised his hand again, but this time, he grabbed the children next to several woman.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”

Immediately, those women could no longer hold back, “In the cellar, in the cellar, it has nothing to do with us!

It was the brothers Chao Hui and Chao Hai who bludgeoned Chen Ye to death, and it was the people of the Pan Family who forced Chen Yuan into marriage.

Chen Qing, you can’t do this to your own nephews!”

Bludgeoned…

Chen Ye to death?

Although he had harbored a bad premonition, actually hearing the news still made him stagger; the children dropped with a clatter, immediately sustaining bloody injuries to their heads, crying loudly as the women hurriedly picked them up.

“You damned murderer, how could you!”

The Chen family’s elders cursed loudly, and the women also cried bitterly while holding the children.

Chen Qing ignored them and, following the confession of those women, activated the Wind Movement Technique, disappearing from everyone’s sight and appearing instantly at the cellar they mentioned.

And then…..

he saw the very thing he least wanted to see.

“Big brother?

Big brother??”

The little girl, with tears all cried out, let out a frightened scream as she backed away when someone entered the cellar, but upon recognizing Chen Qing, she excitedly tumbled and crawled towards him, throwing herself into his embrace.

“Big brother…

why did you take so long to come….

my big brother, he…”

Chen Qing held the little girl, staring blankly at the figure lying on the ground ahead, his head a bloody mess, clearly lifeless…..

“Brother….”

A flood of memories surged through his mind, and his heart seemed to crack as if something had shattered…

“Big brother?”

Chen Yuan raised her head to look at Chen Qing, a strange and cold sensation transmitted to her.

She wasn’t the only one who felt it, Chen Ying outside the cellar also sensed it, her eyes snapping towards the direction of the cellar.

She didn’t know if it was an illusion, but it seemed as if some indescribable horror was brewing, one that defied common sense.

This sensation was even more terrifying than when Old Jiu had looked at her on the boat, no…..

it was not even on the same level.

“Chen Qing?”

The Mirror Demon in Chen Qing’s arms was also stunned, this guy…..

actually was…