Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 60: Execution

In the City God Temple in Suiyuan County, which was smaller in scale than the one in Ning’an County, the soul-calling bell that ordinary people could not hear rang loudly. Subordinates of the City God from various departments appeared one after another and gathered under the statue of the City God in the main hall of the City God Temple.

The returning night patrol immediately reported what he had seen and heard to the county’s City God, and and explained everything in a few words.

“Hmph! Relying on his profound cultivation and skills, he actually dared to order this county’s patrolling Yin messengers around! Does this esteemed immortal not know that while one can be a thief for a thousand days, one cannot guard against thieves for a thousand days?”¹

On the surface, Ji Yuan had denounced the day and night patrol, but in reality, he had also criticized the entire system of the City God of Suiyuan County.

The Chief Official of the Punishment Division expressed his dissatisfaction with Ji Yuan’s shouting from the first sentence, while the Chief Official of the Rewards Division shook his head slightly.

“That’s not always the case. With one strike of his sword, he made the snake demon cut off its tail and flee in a panic, but he did not draw his sword again. Perhaps he was arrogant, or perhaps he respected the justice of the City God of Suiyuan!”²

“Okay, let’s discuss this later. The most urgent task is to kill the snake demon. The patrol envoy has already made a promise on behalf of our Suiyuan Yin Division. We must not let outsiders think that we are a joke!”

The chief of the underworld, the county City God, stepped out of his sculpture with a magic sword slung on his waist. He flicked flung out a hand to give the order.

“Follow me to seal off the Ligou River. The snake spirit that steals the essence of mortals has been seriously injured. It cannot escape from me, even if it is a hundred miles away!”

As long as the snake demon had not yet had a breakthrough in its cultivation, cutting off its tail was equivalent to an ordinary person cutting off a leg. It would not be able to run fast at all, not to mention that the injury might not be that simple.

Because, when the night patrol was describing it before, they explained the situation of the broken tail. The red light did not fade, and the internal power of the fire roamed like a living being. Beneath the restrained power, only a hint of the blade’s sharp edge was revealed. With such a sword, it would have been difficult to cut into the tail.

This is also the main basis of the inference of the Chief Official of the Rewards Division. If the part of the snake monster that had been pierced by the sword were just a few feet higher, it would have been dead for sure. However, the expert only burned part of its tail. On the bright side, he might have been respecting the jurisdiction of the City God of Suiyuan. The Chief Official of the Punishment Division was only annoyed because that loud shout was a bit humiliating.

Led personally by the county City God, the Chief Officials of the seven divisions, accompanied by four attendants each, mobilized nearly all of the underworld officials from each department.³

In order to demonstrate his presence and power, he used the golden body⁴ City God to mobilize his magic and display his supernatural powers, leading the various officials under his jurisdiction to approach the Ligou River at a speed that bordered on teleportation. The ringing of another patrol’s soul-calling bell could be heard from afar.

At this time, the county God looked up, and saw that the eastern sky had at turned bright, forming a stark contrast with the darkness on both sides of the Ligou River.

“It would be troublesome to work during the daytime, so let’s be quick and decisive!”

The City God was in front, the four Chief Officials were behind him, and the underworld messengers were on either side. They walked along the two banks of the river. Their steps were steady but their speed was fast.

“Hmph, that evil creature was indeed seriously injured!”

The river was stirred up by the giant snake and had become turbid, but the stench of blood was very conspicuous. Ahead of them, a long snake struggled in the water on the riverbank.

“It’s just ahead! Go!”

Following the order of the City God, the four chief officials accelerated simultaneously, and their respective spiritual weapons appeared in their hands.

“Bold snake demon, die!”

“Accept your fate!!!”

After a few breaths, the light of the dharma⁵ suddenly appeared, and they all rushed towards the river, stirring the already turbid river water into muddy sludge, continuous waves crashing against the shore along the way.

“Boom…”

“Boom…”

“Bang… Spash…”

The snake monster, who was already seriously injured, was entirely torn apart, and left rolling in pain on the river.

“You dare to take advantage of the opportunity before you have completely refined your chaotic root! You are courting death! Soul-catching messengers, draw out its soul for me!”

The City God sheathed his spiritual sword and placed it on the head of the snake monster. It crushed the snake against the surface of the river as if it were a heavy object, but was strangely unable to sink. He issued orders to the Yin messengers on both sides of the river.

“Yes, sir!”

The six soul-catching messengers marched in a ghostly fashion and stepped onto the river surface. Soul-catching ropes appeared around their waists, and were thrown down to the river surface one after the other.

“Hiss— Roar—”

The big snake roared and struggled, but the next moment, its body stiffened and all resistance came to an abrupt end.

The soul of the giant snake was bound tightly by six soul-catching ropes and dragged out of its physical body…

. . .

The sky gradually turned bright. At this time, most of the people in the village had already gathered on the riverbank. All of them had mixed excitement and fear as they stared at the snake tail stuck on the side of the broken wooden boat.

At this moment, the snake tail was floating on the water and was somewhat charred. The thickest part of the tail was as big as an adult’s thigh, and about ten feet long. Many villagers felt lucky when they saw it.⁶

Some villagers who lived by the riverbank described the scene in an exaggerated fashion.

“Oh, it was so scary! All the dogs in the village were barking last night. I knew something was wrong!”

“So that’s why, at this time in the night, the dogs in the village would always bark non-stop for a while!”

“That’s right, it was always before dawn!”

“Hey… the more I think about it, the more I get scared!”

“If it hadn’t been for that expert passing by, someone in the village would have died sooner or later!”

“I see, the master must have come here on purpose, otherwise why would he have come yesterday?”

“That’s what I mean!”

…

“You don’t know, but at the time that expert was standing on the roof of Er Zhuang’s house when he roared at the beautiful snake girl. Many people heard it.”

“Yes, I almost peed my pants in fright!”

“Me too, I was paralyzed with fear, and my ears were buzzing.”

“That’s right. If it weren’t for that shout, that unlucky merchant would have long been eaten!”

“And then?”

“And then, and then the demon was eliminated. Before I could even see what was happening, snake demon exploded in flames and rolled around in agony.”

…

People on the other side of the river were still marveling in fear, but Ji Yuan had already followed the village chief and others to the village chief’s house.

Outside, many villagers pretended to pass by or looked at it from a distance. If it hadn’t been for the the village chief who had come out angrily and chased them away a few times, there would have been a large crowd of spectators like the on by the riverside.

Ji Yuan felt a little uncomfortable. He was not prone to stage fright, but he also did not enjoy being on stage. The same was true for the onlookers, but he would not show excessive dissatisfaction. However, the village chief was experienced, and Ji Yuan felt that the move of going out and driving away the spectators was quite helpful, and made the situation a lot quieter.

At this time, the merchant finally regained consciousness. He had been frightened to the point of losing his wits and becoming paralyzed. When he arrived in the house, he was pinched on the Ren Zhong acupuncture point⁷ and given ginger tea, before finally coming back to his senses.

When he woke up, in addition to seeing his fellow merchants and several elders of the village, he also saw Ji Yuan, who was sitting on the bench in the courtyard drinking tea. He immediately broke away from his friends beside him, staggered to Ji Yuan, and knelt down in front of him.

“Thank you Immortal for saving my life, thank you so much for saving my life!!!”

“Bang bang bang…”

The merchants kept bowing to Ji Yuan, kowtowing on the yellow mud floor.

Ji Yuan didn’t stop him directly, but after receiving his bows several times, he stretched out his hand and held the man’s forehead.

“Remember this from now on. Lust is like a knife hanging over your head. Greed and desire can kill people, either others or yourself. There may not be anyone to save you next time!”

“Yes, yes, I have learned Immortal Master’s lesson. After this incident, I will never forget it, I will never forget it for the rest of my life!”

“Well, I don’t have the qualifications to be called an Immortal. I just have some skills, but I don’t have the Dao of immortality…”

The first half of Ji Yuan’s sentence was addressed to the merchant, and the second half of the sentence, spoken in a bit of a joking tone, was addressed to the villagers who were listening attentively.

The merchant nodded in agreement, but there was one thing he didn’t say. He was really scared out of his mind after having been so complacent last night, so he had seen the underworld messengers. At that time, the two underworld messengers claimed to be the night patrol under the jurisdiction of the county’s City God. They called the master “The Immortal”.

So, when the merchant woke up, he subconsciously called him Immortal and kowtowed.

At this time, Old Man Xu also came in from outside, carrying Ji Yuan’s luggage.

“Mr. Ji, your bag and umbrella!”

Ji Yuan glanced at it and knew that the bag had not been opened. He took the bag, nodded, and smiled at Old Man Xu.

“Thank you, old man!”

“Mr. Ji, you really helped us in get rid of the monster…”

“Hey, didn’t you, old man, let me stay for the night?”

Ji Yuan laughed, patted his clothes, and stood up. He couldn’t stay in this village for long. Being watched by the villagers was a small matter, but it would be very troublesome if the government came to investigate and ask questions. It would be better to just leave.

In fact, this kind of insignificant monster wouldn’t dare harm the people too much. It was fine in the mountains and wilderness, but in normal cities and counties, if people died unexpectedly, the City God’s Book of Good and Evil and the Book of Fortune and Longevity would show abnormalities due to the dead person’s anger and resentment. It would be easily discovered. The snake monster’s fraudulent request for a sacrifice was just a means of exploiting a loophole.

1. Basically, the night patrol messenger is saying that JY can’t sustain his arrogance in ordering them around forever, so JY shouldn’t have overstepped his authority – ungrateful much? ↩︎
2. T/n: original Chinese commenter: “Actually, it’s just cowardice” XD Interestingly, another commenter pointed out that the Punishment Department judges people for their evil, while the Rewards Department judges people for their good, which is exactly what is happening here. ↩︎
3. T/n: I’ve looked, but I can’t find anything about 7 divisions or what those 7 might be. We know 4 from Ning’an’s chapters, but the other 3 are a mystery, even to me. There is a lot of interesting information about City Gods, though ↩︎
4. See ch. 32 for an explanation on what the “golden body” is ↩︎
5. Think of it like the Buddhist version of mystical cultivation magic. ↩︎
6. i.e. that they weren’t eaten by it ↩︎
7. This acupuncture point is located above the upper lip, used for fainting/collapse/easing anxiety ↩︎