novelraw Chapter 555: You Wanna Be Disrespectful? Fine—Let’s Play It Legal but Not by the Book!
Chapter 555: You Wanna Be Disrespectful? Fine—Let’s Play It Legal but Not by the Book!
"You!!!!"
Zeng Hongnian's rage surged, and he was about to step forward, but the fist against his chin and the flying dagger at his brow instantly cooled him down.
The matters of the Luo Family—these young masters and ladies might not know about them, but how could he not?!
Qian Jin at the Five Restrictions Middle Stage, Hou Dehai at the Five Restrictions Late Stage.
Plus an entire team of White Ridge 749 investigators.
This combined force was not something ordinary family factions in White Ridge could shake.
In White Ridge,
the strongest members of the major families, aristocratic clans, and factions were generally around the Five Restrictions level.
Most were at the Five Restrictions Early Stage,
like Luo Tianning and the current Zeng Hongnian.A small portion were at the Five Restrictions Middle Stage, such as Qian Jin.
Those at the Five Restrictions Late Stage were exceedingly rare.
Now that Hou Dehai had reached the Five Restrictions Late Stage, and he was primarily a body-refining Qi Refiner,
his innate combat prowess was more troublesome than ordinary Qi Refiners who relied on spells to show off.
If they really fought,
to put it bluntly, Hou Dehai fighting Zeng Hongnian would be like beating up a little chick.
Before, everyone laughed and joked, seeing him as honest and steady.
But now...
The dogs that bite don't bark.
Zeng Hongnian stood rooted to the spot, his eyes shifting as he glanced at Hou Dehai and Qian Jin, then his gaze settled on Lu Ding.
The current situation was unfavorable to him;
forcing the issue would only lead to loss.
And now he understood clearly.
The person before him wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys—
to make an example for the other families.
Today, if he wanted to save his daughter, he would have to bow and scrape, pay the price, show the right attitude, and afterwards hand over leverage!
Then he would be at their mercy, like meat on a chopping block.
Zeng Hongnian couldn't accept that.
He carried the weight of such a large family on his shoulders.
How could someone shortsighted become the family head?
He didn't want to sacrifice the entire family's freedom for the sake of one daughter.
He loved his daughter, and he cherished his family.
But between handing over leverage, letting the family be constrained in exchange for his daughter, and sacrificing his daughter to secure the family's unimpeded development,
Zeng Hongnian chose the latter!
He suppressed his feelings inwardly, not revealing any emotion.
He cupped his hands and spoke directly: "Grand Duke Lu, is it? My daughter has a stubborn character. As they say, to feed without teaching is the father's fault. Unfortunately, I'm usually tied up with affairs and truly cannot discipline her properly."
"This time, with Grand Duke Lu helping me discipline my daughter, Zeng Hongnian is extremely grateful."
"But as a parent, I cannot bear to see my daughter suffer such physical pain, so I shall take my leave first. I hope Grand Duke Lu will discipline this useless daughter of mine properly on my behalf!"
"Zeng takes his leave."
After speaking, Zeng Hongnian turned to leave without the slightest hesitation in his eyes.
He had more children than just Zeng Ying.
But he had only one family.
From the example of the Luo Family's precedent, it was clear that this investigator surnamed Lu was ambitious, ruthless in his methods, and decisive in action.
Plus, now White Ridge 749 fully supported him.
His background and origins were also shrouded in mystery.
The Zeng Family couldn't afford to provoke him, and he didn't dare reveal the Zeng Family's foundations, so it was better to just let it be.
It was just one daughter, after all.
If you want her, I'll give her to you!
Seeing him turn to leave, Lu Ding thought to himself, indeed, those who achieve great things can abandon anything.
Even their beloved family and friends, sworn brothers, or their own flesh and blood could be discarded without batting an eye.
And he made it sound so noble.
Damn!
Why couldn't he encounter those brainless villains from novels who blindly stood up for their children?
Each one was as shrewd as a fox.
But there was a saying: when a scholar meets a soldier, reason cannot be argued.
Today, the chicken in this "kill the chicken to scare the monkeys" scenario—you'll play the part whether you want to or not!
Did you really think this was a movie?
Where you could come and go as you pleased?
Since you won't take the reasonable, legal, and compliant path, then let's talk about things that are reasonable, legal, but non-compliant.
"Wait!!"
Lu Ding called out to stop him.
Zeng Hongnian paused and turned: "Grand Duke Lu, is there something else?"
Lu Ding raised his hand and picked up the documents Fu Xinghe had presented, then flung them toward Zeng Hongnian.
"Family Head Zeng, since you're here today, you've saved me the trouble of looking for you. Regarding the human flesh mycelium carpet incident in South Lake Community, I'll trouble you to give me an explanation."
Zeng Hongnian's heart skipped a beat.
The human flesh mycelium carpet in South Lake Community.
This was one of the Zeng Family's former shady operations.
The gist of it was this: the Zeng Family had previously spent a large sum to purchase a batch of Skyroaming Mushroom spores from outside.
This thing was of no help to cultivation.
However, its hallucinogenic effects were terrifyingly strong—effective even on Qi Refiners at the Heavenly Five Restrictions level.
And it had extremely high addictiveness!
Excessive use could even lead to cultivation heart shattering, causing one to sink into illusions unable to escape.
It was one of the items strictly prohibited by Great Han.
Therefore, the Zeng Family didn't choose to grow it within their family compound, but instead used various means to purchase a remote community,
raising it house by house inside the buildings.
Since it was called a human flesh mycelium carpet, the fertilizer for this thing went without saying.
At the time, the Zeng Family had been blinded by the enormous profits.
Thinking that the flesh and blood of people with higher cultivation would produce better Skyroaming Mushrooms, they actually slaughtered a small family that had old grievances with them.
But they missed one direct descendant of that family.
Later, this descendant hid in plain sight, investigating secretly, and actually managed to uncover some things.
Of course, not much, and not enough to be fatal evidence. Just as this descendant continued investigating,
the Zeng Family weren't fools—how could they let someone investigate for so long without noticing?
Unsurprisingly, he was exposed.
And while being exposed and hunted down, this person, in front of a large crowd, loudly proclaimed that the Zeng Family was cultivating human flesh mycelium carpets and growing Skyroaming Mushrooms in South Lake.
At the time, this matter caused quite an uproar.
No matter how corrupt the local 749 was, with something strictly prohibited and severely punished by Great Han, they didn't dare be careless.
But when they went to investigate, they found nothing.
Because when the Zeng Family discovered someone was investigating them, they had already moved those things.
After all, no one was stupid;
everyone had brains. If there was risk of exposure, then just move to another place.
Although there were losses during the transfer, it was better than being discovered, right?
As the investigation yielded no results, this matter was eventually dropped.
Now, nearly ten years had passed since the South Lake Community human flesh mycelium carpet incident.
There was no evidence, and so much time had passed.
Zeng Hongnian only felt a tremor in his heart, but no cracks showed on his face.
Holding the documents, he looked at Lu Ding: "Grand Duke Lu, you're asking me to explain something baseless—I can't explain it. It's been ten years already."
"How about you produce some evidence?"
See, this was not understanding Lu Ding's character.
The Zeng Family was unclean, engaged in illegal activities—this was fact.
That alone was enough.
Evidence?
What the hell did he need evidence for?
Reasonable, legal, but non-compliant—managing killing, managing shattering, but not managing burial.
You chose this, senior. I gave you a way out just now and you didn't take it, and now...
Fu Xinghe handed over a pen from the side.
Lu Ding took it, walked up to Zeng Hongnian, and snatched the file documents from his hand.
The sound of pen tip scratching against paper could be heard.
Finally, the pen came down with a decisive dot!