Chapter 873 Decay of the major families (11)

Chapter 873 Decay of the major families (11)

Once he was done with the Gui family, Xia Ting arrived just in time to transport them to Requiem. In addition to getting life imprisonment, for the lives they had taken, should anyone related to their victims ever seek recompense through blood duel, the Order will happily oblige.

That order wasn't received well by the convicted Gui clan members. All of them were alchemists and even though most were late-stage core formation experts, Yang Qing could tell by the fluctuations of their cultivation base that they had reached their present realms through pills and potions. Their fragile cultivation base would be exposed and exploited in a blood duel.

"Good riddance.." muttered Yang Qing as Xia Ting took away those clan members. Gui De, their vice clan master, left immediately after the sentencing was done with an urgency to him. No doubt because of the information that showed that one of their clan members was a traitor. If such information got out, and their clan was unprepared for it, they would be left in a precarious position.

Things were already tense as it is and in their pursuit of growing their power and amassing wealth to make up for not having a palace stage expert, they had ruffled a lot of feathers and created a lot of enemies, the least of which were the founding families.

If word got out that their supreme elder had been colluding with the Five Clovers Kingdom, he could already imagine what was likely to happen. Those families would instantly band together and attack them.

When it came to foundations, except for the royal family, the five founding families were at the same level, and though their Gui Clan was wealthier, in terms of core power and foundations, they were not stronger than the rest, and right now, one could even argue they were slightly weaker when compared against the Zhang and Mo family who both had palace stage experts.

Their founder had left them treasures to help guard their clan grounds against even palace realm experts, but so did the other founding families. If those families combined their forces and resources in earnest, it wouldn't take long for all their defensive measures to be breached.

By Gui De's estimates, it would take no more than four days, and if the royal family got involved, that time would drastically shorten.

"I am sorry Elder Weimin, you brought this upon yourself. I can only hope your death and that of your family will be enough.." Gui De thought as a merciless glint flashed in his eyes.

...

It didn't take long after the Gui Clan's case for the next family to be brought in, the Mo family. Fourteen of their clansmen were brought in, of which thirteen were on trial with the extra member being the clan leader who had been allowed in the court as a courtesy by the Order, in case the clan leader wanted to speak at their behest.

Their clan leader, Mo Li, had the same bearing as Chen Xian. He was calm and steady like a boulder but within that calmness lay a tempestous saber. In terms of bearing, they were similar in that regard, but when it came to talents, that was where the differences appeared, and one of them, it went without saying was Mo Li's cultivation base. He was at the first stage of the palace realm and from the fluctuations he was releasing he looked to be just at the cusp of reaching the second stage.

By Yang Qing's estimates, in about six months to a year, he would have already taken that step, catching up to the Zhang clan's leader who was a second-stage palace realm expert. Though as a saber user, even though Mo Li's cultivation base was lower, even in his current realm, Yang Qing had a feeling he would be able to put up a decent fight against the Zhang clan's patriarch.

If that was the case, then it explained why when it came to the Mo family, none of the high-ranking figures of the clan which included their clan elders and the promising youths were caught up in the investigation, unlike the Chen, Zhang, and Gui clan that had a mix of their elders and youths with potential.

Mo Li was likely a terrifying deterrent within his family and how they conducted themselves. As for how thirteen members still ended up in the Order's crosshairs despite his deterrent, Yang Qing felt it was more than likely because the thirteen members present were too useless in terms of talent to catch his eye as none of the thirteen members was at their core formation realm despite their background.

They were all of a similar age to Yang Qing but the one who had the highest cultivation base amongst them was only at the eleventh stage of the foundation establishment realm while the rest languished between the sixth and ninth stages.

The other factor was they didn't live at their clan's main grounds where their clan leader was, but instead lived at the various residences that were a million miles away from their clan's main grounds.

All thirteen were residents of Purple City where they used their background and the considerable distance from their clan's main grounds, to lord over the rest. Seeing their reactions, Yang Qing had doubts if they would have had the guts to replicate their crimes at any other place that wasn't that far away from the sight of their clan leader.

He couldn't help but sigh as his gaze fell on them. Even after he made the introductions and explained the rules of the court, none of them dared look up. Left with no alternative, he moved on to list their crimes as he presented the evidence, along with calling some witnesses.

The thirteen clan members were guilty of crimes one would expect to see from some silk-dandy young masters. Cases of bullying here and there, kidnapping, beatings all in the name of face, stealing wives and daughters, and the like.

They also funded a few of the gangs one of them being the Black Viper Gang from which Yang Qing had apprehended a blood fiend cultivator from within their ranks. It was the same gang that the Zou siblings associated with when they lived in Purple City. Its leader, Shu Wei, a second-stage core formation expert was among the list of witnesses. He sang like a canary, especially when he was made aware of what fate would befall him for having a blood-fiend cultivator within his ranks.

From their list of crimes, it was evident the thirteen Mo clan members weren't exactly the brightest of people. Their hubris and name were exploited and used by others for their gain, even the lackeys they had under them used them in one way or another.

With the chaos and crimes they committed, one could always see the trail of others pulling their strings, especially the subsidiaries of the Golden Bamboo Pavilion. They were the primary beneficiaries of those clan members' arrogance and stupidity as they constantly used them to sow discord and chaos all overPurple City in an effort to undermine the City Lord's hold over the city.

In the end, after he listed out their crimes, not one of them offered a word of retort, as they all weakly admitted to their guilt in the matter, stammering as they did.

Yang Qing sentenced them to hard labor for one hundred years. As for what that hard labor would be, he left it to the penalties and rehabilitation office under the administration hall to decide. As the thirteen clan members were being taken away, they all seemed to burst with relief as they left the courtroom.

Throughout the whole proceeding, the clan leader, Mo Li, said no more than ten words, and the words he did speak, it was when greeting Yang Qing, and excusing himself after he was done with the sentencing. In between, he said nothing.