Chapter 57: The Dog-Head Guillotine

Every minute and every second inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony felt like a drawn-out torture session.

Madame Chen knelt on the ice-cold golden bricks, her back long since drenched in sweat, making her look as though she had just been hauled out of the water.

She could neither see what was happening in the side hall nor hear the slightest sound.

This unknown waiting was more agonizing than any torture.

Had he confessed?

To save his own life, would he pin everything on me?

Just as the string in her mind was about to snap, the door of the side hall creaked open.

Zhao Yi stretched lazily, yawned, and strolled out leisurely.

Behind him, two imperial guards dragged a heap of wretched mud.

It was Chen Yong.

"I confess! I confess to everything!"

Before the guards could even drag him to the center of the grand hall, Chen Yong used every ounce of his remaining strength and let out a shriek like a slaughtered pig.

He had completely broken down.

"It was her! It was all that bitch's idea!" Chen Yong wailed, tears and snot streaming down his face as he pointed at his wife, Madame Chen. "She was the one who said that silk merchant surnamed Qin had money, and she coaxed me into luring him to our home and getting him drunk on wine!"

"She... she was the one who smashed him to death with a hammer! I... I just helped her throw his corpse into the kiln!"

"And Liu Biao! Lord Liu! He knew everything! He taught us what to do! He said that once burned to ashes, not even immortals could find out! Afterward, he even split a hundred taels of silver with us!"

Hearing this, Madame Chen was utterly stunned.

She jerked her head up, her venomous eyes glaring viciously at her husband.

"Chen Yong! You heartless beast! You're lying!"

She lunged forward like a madwoman, scratching and biting at Chen Yong.

The grand hall instantly descended into absolute chaos.

"Enough."

Wu Mingkong’s icy voice was like a basin of freezing water, extinguishing all the noise.

She slowly stood up from the dragon throne.

That peerlessly beautiful face wore no expression, yet it was more chilling than any fury.

"The truth is out."

"Chen Yong and Madame Chen, for plotting to murder for wealth with cruel means and heinous crimes. Sentence: execution immediately!"

"Director of the Court of Judicial Review Liu Biao, for knowingly breaking the law, shielding criminals, and treating human lives as grass. Same sentence: execution immediately!"

She paused, her gaze falling upon Chen Zi'ang, who had been kneeling there trembling like a sieve from the very beginning.

"Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review Chen Zi'ang, for lax governance, failing to discern people properly, leading to a miscarriage of justice and the corruption of court principles."

"Strip him of his official post and let him retire to old age!"

"Take them to the execution grounds at once!"

Several imperial guards stepped forward and dragged the three limp, mud-like death row inmates away.

"Hold on."

Zhao Yi’s lazy voice rang out once more.

He sauntered over to the three death row inmates, circled them, and clicked his tongue appreciatively.

"Your Majesty, executing these scoundrels by merely chopping off their heads is letting them off far too easily."

Zhao Yi’s words left everyone dumbfounded.

He turned around, facing Wu Mingkong on the dragon throne, a brilliant yet bone-chilling smile on his face.

"This subject believes that for dealing with such beasts who are lower than pigs and dogs, we should use the method meant for dogs."

"This subject requests the decree to specially forge a guillotine."

"Let's call it..."

"The Dog-Head Guillotine!"

Boom!

These three words struck the Hall of Supreme Harmony like three bolts of heavenly lightning.

Every single civil and military official in the court was petrified.

The Dog-Head Guillotine?

What kind of thing was that?

Was this executing people, or was this meant to humiliate them?!

"You unfilial wretch!" Zhao Zhao was the first to react. He grabbed Zhao Yi’s arm, trembling with rage. "Have you lost your mind? Kneel down before His Majesty and beg for mercy right now!"

Upon hearing those words, Liu Biao and Chen Zi'ang felt terror completely overwhelm everything else.

Death, they did not fear.

But this method of being guillotined like a dog was a strike to the soul! It meant they would not find peace even after death!

"Your Majesty, show mercy! Spare our lives, Your Majesty!"

On the dragon throne, Wu Mingkong’s phoenix eyes held astonishment at first, but that astonishment rapidly transformed into a deep, ruthless amusement.

What a fine "Dog-Head Guillotine."

What a fine Zhao Yi.

He intended to use the blood of these three people to warn all the civil and military officials in the court.

Whoever dared to treat the common people like pigs and dogs would himself be treated like a dog and guillotined!

"Granted."

Wu Mingkong spoke indifferently, uttering a single word.

...

The matter concluded with swift and decisive action.

Emerging from the imperial palace, Zhao Zhao’s face was still dark as thunder.

He followed behind Zhao Yi without a word, his expression even uglier than that of the recently deceased Chen Zi'ang.

"Dad, why are you making that face? Didn't I just vent a deep grievance for you?" Zhao Yi tucked his hands into his sleeves, looking completely unconcerned.

"You..." Zhao Zhao pointed a trembling finger at him, unable to utter a single word for a long time. "You... you were just making a scene! The Dog-Head Guillotine? How on earth did you come up with that?!"

"Didn't those bastards deserve it?" Zhao Yi rolled his eyes.

Zhao Zhao was choked into speechless silence.

The two walked one after the other, and as they neared the entrance of their estate, Zhao Yi suddenly came to a halt.

He rubbed his hands together, a hint of sheepishness appearing on his face.

"Uhm, Dad, I've been out for half a month and I really miss my little sister Ying'er."

"I have to go see her."

Looking at his heartless son, the anger Zhao Zhao had just suppressed flared right back up.

"Get lost!"

"You got it!"

Zhao Yi scampered away in a flash, heading straight for the Duke of Anguo’s estate.

Once again, in the waterside pavilion of the back courtyard.

Chu Ranran was resting her chin in her hands, listening intently as Zhao Yi told a story.

"...And then, in order to get the antidote, Lantu rushed into the Ice Volcano alone and almost froze into an ice sculpture!"

"Ah?" Chu Ranran nervously covered her mouth, her beautiful eyes filled with worry. "Then... what happened to her afterward?"

"Want to know?" Zhao Yi deliberately kept her in suspense.

Chu Ranran nodded like a pecking chick.

Zhao Yi chuckled, leaned in close to her ear, and lowered his voice: "Kiss me once, and I'll tell you."

Chu Ranran’s face turned burning red all the way to the tips of her ears.

Looking at Zhao Yi’s handsome face, which practically screamed "hurry up and kiss me," her heart fluttered like a startled fawn.

This fellow, mischievous as he sometimes was, looked truly handsome during his time in Henan Circuit.

Especially today—she had heard the servants in the estate talking about what happened in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

A single person, with a single mouth, had turned the entire Court of Judicial Review upside down.

It was simply... simply more impressive than the heroes in storybooks.

...

Stepping out of the Duke of Anguo’s estate, Zhao Yi felt as though he were floating on air.

Humming a tune without any recognizable melody, light on his feet, he headed straight for the secret base outside the city.

Before even nearing the manor, the surging wave of heat and roaring human voices reached him first.

The entire manor blazed with light, transforming into a workshop that never slept. Dozens of newly recruited craftsmen bustled in and out around several newly built giant kilns, working with feverish intensity.

At a glance, Zhao Yi spotted the chief craftsman, Old Zhang.

The old man stood with his hands behind his back in an open area, looking like a great general inspecting his own troops, an unconcealable pride written all over his face.

In the open space, over a hundred pitch-black clay jars were neatly arranged. They were small, roughly the size of a palm, and their mouths were sealed tightly with wooden plugs and wax.

"Old Zhang!"

Hearing the voice, Old Zhang turned his head and, seeing it was Zhao Yi, immediately dropped his master-craftsman demeanor and ran over like a man presenting a treasure.

"Young General! You're finally here! Quick, take a look at the new baby old Zhang made for you!"

Zhao Yi walked forward, picked up a glass jar, and weighed it in his hand; it had a substantial heft.

"Hehe." Old Zhang smiled mysteriously, revealing a row of yellow teeth. "Young General, hearing is believing, but seeing is reality. Let's go over there and try it out, and you'll know!"

On the training grounds stood several scarecrows dressed in worn-out leather armor.

Old Zhang pulled a flint from his bosom and ignited a strip of cloth trailing from the glass jar. The sizzling sparks stood out brilliantly in the night.

He took a few steps back, mustered all his strength, and hurled the glass jar hard toward a scarecrow in the distance!

The glass jar traced a black arc through the air.

The crisp shattering sound he anticipated did not come.

Thud!

A muffled impact, like someone striking a winter melon with a heavy hammer.

Followed immediately by—

Boom!

A huge orange-red fireball burst open violently! The flames were more than twice the size of the previous glass jars!

Yet that was not all!

The moment the fireball exploded, a sharp, piercing sound of air being torn apart—like hundreds of thousands of poisonous bees bursting from their nest simultaneously—swept outward in all directions!

"Swoosh—swoosh swoosh—"

The scarecrow directly hit was instantly swallowed by the raging fire. As for the other two scarecrows within ten paces of it, though unignited, their thick leather armor had been torn apart as if by some brute force, leaving them riddled with countless holes.

The entire firing range plunged into dead silence.

Only the roaring flames crackled rhythmically.

The smile on Zhao Yi’s face had frozen long ago.

Step by step, he walked up to an unignited scarecrow, reached into the ragged hole on its chest, and pulled out a scorching, razor-sharp shard of pottery.

Embedded in the glass shards were also several grains of black iron sand.

"Old Zhang..." Zhao Yi’s voice was somewhat dry as he slowly turned his head to look at the proud old man.

"Did you... add something extra inside?"

"Reporting to the Young General!" Old Zhang puffed out his chest, his face glowing red. "Old Zhang figured just burning with fire wasn't exciting enough! So right into the wet clay of this glass, I added a bit of saltpeter—just like fireworks—and mixed in a massive amount of iron sand and broken porcelain shards!"

"When this glass explodes, the strong liquor inside can burn a vast area, and the millions of sharp shards of glass themselves can kill people!"

"With this trick, even if an immortal comes, he'll still lose a layer of skin!"

Zhao Yi looked at the pottery shard in his hand, then glanced at the scarecrows torn to pieces, and could not help but gasp deeply.

Holy shit...

If this thing were thrown into a dense enemy formation, that scene...

He dared not imagine it.

"Splendid!"

Zhao Yi suddenly let out a roar, startling Old Zhang.

"Fucking brilliant!"

He rushed over, grabbed Old Zhang’s shoulders, and flushed red with excitement.

"Old Zhang! You're no genius! You're a bloody monster, a living one!"

He cast another glance at the hundred pitch-black "little cuties" on the ground, a terrifying gleam shooting from his eyes.

"What is this thing called?"

Dizzy from being shaken, Old Zhang hurriedly replied, "It doesn't have a name yet. I ask the Young General to bestow one."

Zhao Yi narrowed his eyes.

"Let's call it... 'Thunderbolt'!"

"A single explosion, like a thunderclap on a flat ground!"

"Scale up production!" Zhao Yi waved his hand grandly. "Money, more than enough! Men, more than enough! I want these 'Thunderbolts' to fill every single warehouse!"