Chapter 3964 — The Birthday Invitation
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Heavens! Ma Jian nearly wet himself with fright. A single round of Soul-Search Art was enough to leave a man simple-minded or crippled for life; a hundred or a thousand times over, and never mind his consciousness—even his brains would be squeezed dry!
"Soul-Search Art? You actually meant to use the Soul-Search Art on our young junior brother?" Shangguan Lan'er was briefly stunned, and then the way she looked at Ma Jian turned utterly unkind. Given her family lineage, even if she had never cared much for cultivation, she had still heard of the Soul-Search Art, and she knew perfectly well what side effects attended that wondrous technique.
Having said her piece, Shangguan Lan'er turned without another word and stormed out of the interrogation room, leaving everyone inside to stare at one another.
Time crawled by, drop by drop. Wei Zhao and Xiao Che sat off to one side in perfect ease—now that this young miss of the Shangguan family had stepped in, there was no need to worry about any further tricks from the other side. Ma Jian and Niu Qiang, by contrast, could not sit still for the life of them, and Ma Jian, the chief plotter, was sweating buckets, sick with dread.
After the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Shangguan Lan'er returned, and even as she pushed the door open she was grumbling to herself in dissatisfaction: "That cold-faced ghoul really has no feeling for others at all—he would not even come out to see a young lady like me. Simply outrageous!"
At those words Ma Jian let out a breath of relief. Thank goodness the Hall Master, Gongyang Jun, had always been a cold sort who paid no one any mind; otherwise, if this young miss had actually gone before him to lodge a complaint, then even if he escaped death this time, he would never escape a living punishment.
Yet before he could properly count his blessings, he caught sight of the two experts in black-veiled masks who followed Shangguan Lan'er in, and at once his scalp prickled, the world spun about him, and he nearly fainted dead away on the spot.
Their attire alone made it clear that these two were not like ordinary Enforcement Envoys. They were called Black-Veiled Envoys, beings who existed solely to police the inner workings of the Law Enforcement Hall. Should any member of the Hall show even the slightest slip, once they fell into these men's hands, their fate was certain to be a life worse than death.
"Ma Jian, you stand accused of abusing your authority and using your office to settle personal scores. Come along with us," one of the Black-Veiled Envoys said in a low voice.
Then, giving Ma Jian no chance to speak at all, he stepped forward, and the fine steel chains in his hand came whistling out. Before Ma Jian could react, he was already bound fast about the body by those chains, the specially crafted barbs upon them biting into every joint, each one sunk deep enough to show the bone.
Ma Jian had not the slightest room to struggle. With a miserable howl he collapsed to the ground on the spot, and the least movement brought him agony beyond bearing. So he could only howl his way along as the Black-Veiled Envoy dragged him off before everyone's eyes, like a dead dog.
Wei Zhao and Xiao Che could not help but twitch their eyelids. The Law Enforcement Hall was indeed notorious as a den of fiends, its methods so cruel they made one's hair stand on end. If one could avoid coming to such a place in future, best to avoid it.
Just as he was being dragged to the doorway, Ma Jian gritted his teeth and made a desperate struggle, forcing his head around toward Shangguan Lan'er and Wei Zhao, his face full of grievance: "You... you clearly didn't see the Hall Master... how did this happen..."
Shangguan Lan'er stuck out her tongue and shrugged in imitation of Wei Zhao's usual manner: "I didn't see that cold-faced ghoul, it's true. But these two here said they had received orders from the cold-faced ghoul to settle this matter for me, so I brought them along."