Chapter 64: Seeking Justice
Chu Liang returned to Silver Sword Peak and carefully flipped through the Mount Shu Sect rulebook.
There were only a few paragraphs about the Red Cotton Market and only one clause regarding stall fees. Any vendor who was selling large goods, occupying a huge area, and/or disturbing the usual order of things at the Red Cotton Market would need to pay ten percent of their profits as a stall fee.
All Chu Liang's fruit tea stall had done was draw a queue of people, so this rule clearly didn't apply to him.
Regarding fines, a vendor would have all of their profits confiscated as a fine only if they repeatedly refused to pay the stall fee.
His actions weren't mentioned in that clause either.
Earlier, Chu Liang hadn't been aware of these rules and had been concerned that those disciples from the Hall of Discipline might seize the opportunity to start a fight, so he hadn't argued with them. However, upon returning and checking through the rulebook, it was evident that their conduct and actions had been unreasonable.
After analyzing the situation, Chu Liang arrived at a conclusion—he was being bullied. Moreover, he had reasons to suspect that those disciples had been targeting him specifically.
So, he went to his teacher's pavilion.
After Chu Liang waited for around two hours, he finally saw a fire descend to the ground. Di Nufeng had returned with a gloomy expression.
Her temper had been particularly fiery today. Moreover, every time she attended a meeting between the peak masters, she would always end up arguing with someone. This meant that she was undoubtedly in an extremely bad mood at the moment.
Consequently, Di Nufeng felt puzzled to find Chu Liang waiting outside her pavilion.
Whenever she had been in a bad mood in the past, this disciple of hers had always been the first to flee and hide somewhere far from her. So, why was he looking for her today?
"What's the matter?" Di Nufeng asked.
"Esteemed Teacher," Chu Liang said calmly, "I was bullied."
"Huh?"
Di Nufeng furrowed her brows in an expression of disbelief.
Chu Liang briefly explained how he had set up a stall in the Red Cotton Market and had been forced to pay a stall fee without proper justification. He shared with her his analysis of the clauses in the rulebook as well.
Then he concluded, "Without a doubt, their actions were extortion."
Di Nufeng waved her hand. "I didn't understand what you said about the rules. Just tell me... are you in the right?"
Chu Liang answered definitively, "Absolutely."
"Ah..."
A sly glint appeared in Di Nufeng's eyes as she shook her head.
After a moment, she couldn't help but laugh, "Hahaha..."
Di Nufeng laughed for a while more before turning around and walking off with large strides.
"The Cloud Horizon Peak?" she said to herself as she walked. "It truly is a rare thing that I get the chance to fight such a justified battle..."
Chu Liang followed her, taking quick steps to catch up to her.
...
Unlike what she usually did, Di Nufeng didn't unfurl her wings of fire, soar into the sky, and surge forth like a blazing fire. Instead, she flew to the Cloud Horizon Peak at a leisurely pace.
The teacher and disciple hovered in the midair above Cloud Horizon Peak.
Cloud Horizon Peak had dozens of disciples, and their small cabins encircled their peak master's pavilion. Against the backdrop of a red sunset sky and lush green hills, there were elegant buildings nestled between the hills and a river. Cloud Horizon Peak resembled a small town, and it was clearly well taken care of.
As Di Nufeng stared down at the peak, she took a deep breath and yelled, "Shang Shuwen, I'm going to count to three. Get your ass out here!"
Boom—
At her sudden roar, the leaves of the trees on Cloud Horizon Peak turned from green to yellow, the river immediately stopped flowing, and a wave of heat descended from the sky. For a moment, everyone on the peak felt as if they were in a furnace.
Di Nufeng dropped from the sky and landed on the vacant area in front of the peak master's pavilion.
Bang!
Her descent was accompanied by another wave of scorching heat, and countless birds fled from the peak.
"Di Nufeng?" a bewildered voice rang out as a white-robed figure flew out from the pavilion. "Why are you here?"
He was a middle-aged man who was dressed in long robes and exuded a refined demeanor. The man had thick and lustrous hair, a fair face devoid of facial hair, and limpid eyes. If it wasn't for his wise and composed gaze, he wouldn't seem like someone who was getting on in years.
This person was none other than Shang Shuwen—the peak master of Cloud Horizon Peak and Mount Shu's renowned Confucian cultivator.
"Your disciple bullied mine. I've come here to seek justice for my disciple," Di Nufeng declared.
She stared Shang Shuwen down with a fiery gaze that was imposing and threatening.
"I see..." Shang Shuwen said, remaining rather unperturbed. Right after that, he asked, "What was the conflict between the disciples? Which disciple of mine was involved? Tell me the details first. If my disciple has done anything wrong, I will certainly punish them accordingly."
Di Nufeng glanced at Chu Liang, who was standing behind her. It seemed that she had forgotten the details of the incident that Chu Liang had informed her of earlier.
Chu Liang stepped forward and calmly bowed respectfully to Shang Shuwen. "Greetings, Senior Uncle[1] Shang. The disciple in question is a senior brother with the surname Zhang, who works for the Hall of Discipline. He targeted me without reason and extorted money from me on Red Cotton Peak."
"Surname Zhang? The Hall of Discipline?" Shang Shuwen muttered, pondering for a moment. Then he said, "That should be Zhang Xingyuan."
With that, he gently extended a finger and wrote "Zhang Xingyuan" in the air. Then he pushed his hand forward slowly.
There was a sudden gust of wind that kicked up the dust and fallen leaves, pulling them into a swirling whirlwind. The wind howled, and a tall figure appeared in the midst of the whirlwind in the blink of an eye. As the wind and dust dispersed, the figure was revealed to be that disciple who had claimed to be representing the Hall of Discipline.
Chu Liang was rather amazed by what had just happened.
The divine skill that Shang Shuwen had used, which could summon someone just by writing their name, was likely to be a Confucian technique. Techniques like that were rarely seen in the Mount Shu Sect.
Zhang Xingyuan, on the other hand, seemed frightened.
Earlier, he had just finished patrolling for the day and returned to Cloud Horizon Peak. He had been resting in his cabin and had gotten a shock when Di Nufeng roared. Nevertheless, he hadn't thought much of it, as it shouldn't be something that someone of his status should be concerned about. So, he instead prepared to head out to see what the fuss was all about. Zhang Xingyuan had no idea that he'd be summoned over here by his teacher a second later.
Nevertheless, when Zhang Xingyuan saw Chu Liang, he finally realized, So, he's Di Nufeng's disciple...? Is she here to get revenge for him?
A subtle but ominous feeling crept into Zhang Xingyuan's mind. He realized he might be in trouble.
"Zhang Xingyuan, I'm going to ask you a question. Answer me honestly," Shang Shuwen said in a heavy tone.
He felt quite exasperated.
Disputes between disciples were normal. How could such a matter be considered significant enough to involve their peak masters? If it were another peak master, they might not even care at all.
However, this was Di Nufeng. Even though Shang Shuwen knew she was overreacting, he did not dare to slight her.
Shang Shuwen had joined Mount Shu Sect after Di Nufeng, so he hadn't known much about Di Nufeng's infamous past in the sect aside from the rumors he'd heard. Nevertheless, he had witnessed her confrontations with the peak masters, especially Wang Xuanling, and how she never showed them any respect. So, Shang Shuwen knew that Di Nufeng was absolutely not one to be trifled with.
"Yes," Zhang Xingyuan replied, trembling with fear.
"Did you see this junior disciple on Red Cotton Peak today and extort money from him?" Shang Shuwen asked, pointing at Chu Liang.
"Absolutely not, Teacher!" Zhang Xingyuan defended himself loudly. "I am an attendant of the Hall of Discipline. Everything I do is in accordance with the sect's rules! How could I possibly dare... to do such things."
Hearing this, Shang Shuwen looked at Di Nufeng and suggested softly, "Perhaps there's a misunderstanding. Why don't we go inside and sit down to discuss what happened in detail?"
"Haha..." Di Nufeng tilted her head slightly and looked at him amusedly. "Did you not hear what I just said? I said that my disciple was bullied by yours, so I came here to seek justice for him. You don't think I came just to verify what happened, do you?"
"It's normal for conflicts to arise among the young ones. Moreover, Zhang Xingyuan is an attendant of the Hall of Discipline, so it's easy for him to get into conflicts with ordinary fellow disciples," Shang Shuwen said slowly. He pointed at the pavilion behind and suggested again, "Let's go inside, sit down, and carefully go through what happened. We just need to clarify who was in the wrong. There's no need to damage our relations—"
Yet, before he could finish speaking... an impatient expression appeared on Di Nufeng's face, and she snapped her fingers.
Snap.
A ball of fire appeared out of thin air in the pavilion, instantly turning it into a raging sea of fire.
Boom.
With another snap of her fingers, the pavilion exploded. A mushroom cloud of smoke surged into the sky above Cloud Horizon Peak.
They could no longer go inside the pavilion.
"What are you doing?!" Shang Shuwen exclaimed, his pupils contracting in fright and anger.
He hadn't imagined even in the slightest that Di Nufeng would behave this violently.
"I'm telling you this for the third time. I'm here to seek justice for my disciple," Di Nufeng replied. She tilted her head and stared at him with half-lidded eyes and a deep gaze. "I don't want to waste any more words on you."
"But you haven't even clarified what happened. How can justice be served? You..."
Shang Shuwen was, after all, an intellectual. It was difficult for him to maintain composure in such a situation, but he couldn't be as hostile as Di Nufeng. Moreover, he knew that even if he did behave aggressively, he wouldn't be able to defeat her.
So, Shang Shuwen could only indignantly denounce her, "You are completely unreasonable!"
Di Nufeng's response to that was a sneer. "Pfft."
Her disdainful gaze seemed to say, Are you only just finding out today that I'm unreasonable?
Di Nufeng rubbed her thumb against her fingers as though she was preparing to cause another explosion at any moment. It might have taken a long time to construct the buildings on the mountain peak, but destroying them would only take a blink of an eye.
"Forget it. I won't argue with you," Shang Shuwen said, suppressing his anger. He flung out his sleeves and looked at Chu Liang. "How many sword coins did he extort from you? I'll just compensate you."
The reason he spoke to Chu Liang instead was that he felt Di Nufeng was simply unreasonable, and he didn't want to communicate with her. Her disciple, on the other hand, seemed refined and polite. Chu Liang spoke clearly and coherently and seemed like an honest person, so he shouldn't be as difficult to deal with as his scoundrel of a teacher.
Under Shang Shuwen's gaze, the honest child, Chu Liang, glanced at Zhang Xingyuan and then at his teacher, Di Nufeng.
With a seemingly timid expression, Chu Liang answered slowly, "Fifty... thousand."
1. In the sect's hierarchy, Shang Shuwen and Di Nufeng hold equal status and are from the same generation of Mount Shu Sect members. Chu Liang is part of the next generation. Due to his direct connection to Di Nufeng, male members of the same generation as Di Nufeng, who would be considered her senior or junior brothers, should be addressed by Chu Liang as Senior Uncles. ☜
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