The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 131 The Scourge

The folding fan in Li Ye’s hand was painted with an ink landscape painting, antique and profound. There were five words on the upper right, a river and a mountain.

Today, Li Ye was wearing a white robe of a scholar with no fancy decorations. He smiled with a peaceful look as he waved the folding fan gently. His manner was very natural and unrestrained.

But soon, his smile disappeared and he narrowed his eyes. His smiling face became gloomy.

A few fishing boats were moored along the river a hundred paces to the left front. It was in the afternoon, so the fishermen were having meals. On an old fishing boat with a broken bamboo mat as its top, an old man in his fifties and a teenager girl were cooking fish in a fire on the bow.

The two people wore coarse clothes with many patches. The old man’s hair was grey, fluffy and sparse. His face was furrowed, he was skin and bone, and his eye sockets sagged. The constant exposure to the wind and sun made his skin extremely dark and rough.

The teenager girl had a small nose, small eyes, and a small face, particularly thin. Her hair was tied up at will in the back of her head with a strip of cloth, an unhealthy yellow luster shining in the sunlight. She squatted in front of the fire, fanning it with a tattered cattail leaf fan. From time to time, she twisted her head and blinked because of the choking smoke, but she smiled all the time. From time to time, she talked to the old man who was leaning against the cabin with a sad face and smoking.

This was a pair of poor old and young people, and their life was simple and boring. They had to work hard to earn two meals for a day, and whether they could get enough to eat or not, it depended on luck mostly.

Li Ye was looking at them. His face suddenly became gloomy because a group of strong men in black, carrying sticks, rushed to the small fishing boat aggressively. They said a few words to the old and young who were bending over with smiles and they began to shout abuse. One of them kicked the old man in the chest, making him fall backward on the boat, and one of them grabbed the girl by the hair and pulled her down the boat despite her cries and struggles.

Although Li Ye was far away from them, he had the cultivation of Level 7 Qi-refining, so he could easily listen to their conversation.

The strong man in black rushed onto the boat and ferociously asked the old man who was bending over, “When will you pay this month’s fee?”

The old man’s voice was old and full of horror, and his hands trembled. “Your Excellency Wu, we really don’t have money, so please give us another two days... We only have two dried fish left and we will give them to you. Please...”

“Fuck you! Who wants your dirty and stinky dried fish!” The strong man kicked the old man in the chest.

“Grandfather!” The teenager girl quickly hurried to help but was caught by another strong man in black. He looked ferocious. “You old dog, we know you can’t afford to pay the fee. Your granddaughter has beautiful features, so we can sell her to the brothel for money!”

Li Ye put away the folding fan as he heard the title of “Your Excellency Wu”. “Your Excellency” wasn’t a very common title in this era, and it wasn’t used to refer to an official. Only the most exalted people, such as the three councilors and nine ministers, were entitled to be called “Your Excellency”. The strong man in black wasn’t of high status, but the old man called him so, showing how much he was afraid of the strong man in black.

His toe stepping on the ship’s side, Li Ye flew over like a wild goose and landed on the fishing boat in an instant. At this time, the leading strong man in black was about to step the second time on the old man who was lying on his back, and the strong man, who was grabbing the girl’s hair, was going to leave the boat.

Li Ye’s face darkened and his gaze was extremely cold. Whether before or after the transmigration, he hated the matter of bullying the weak and the poor old people very much.

He pushed forward with his palm so that the strong man in black, who beat the old man, flew out more than 30 meters with a scream and fell into the straw piles without any movement. His palm grabbed the air so that the strong man, who was grabbing the girl’s hair, was forced to raise his head with his face turning red and purple. His feet were off the ground, and he couldn’t catch the girl anymore.

“Who are you? You dare get involved in the Wu family’s affairs. How many lives do you have? Let go of me?!”

“You have fucking provoked the person whom you can’t provoke. You have to pay for the evil things that you have done!”

The other men were shocked and angry as they saw this scene. They shouted at Li Ye in succession and rushed forward with sticks.

“Wu family?” Li Ye sneered. He swung his left sleeve so that all the men, who rushed forward, flew backward. They vomited blood in the air and banged down on the river bank, never getting up again. Those, who were able to lift their heads reluctantly, looked at Li Ye full of fear.

His right hand grabbing backward, he brought back the man who bullied the girl and threw him at his feet. Li Ye stepped on his face with one foot, making his half face into the plank of the bow. In the screams of the other side, Li Ye asked coldly, “The Wu family of Qizhou?”

“Yes, yes, there’s only one Wu family in Qizhou... Hero, please spare my life!” The man struggled with his limbs.

“Good-for-nothing!” Li Ye kicked the man away. With his limbs struggling in the air, he splashed into the river.

The girl’s face was covered with tears, and her watery eyes were full of fear. In spite of the tears, she helped the old man up. The two of them knelt together in front of Li Ye and kowtowed to Li Ye. “Thank you, thank you!”

Li Ye quickly helped them up. In front of Li Ye, the old man’s face was skin and bone, full of fear and tears. As Li Ye saw this face, he felt particularly uncomfortable, his heart like being gripped, so he couldn’t say a word for a while.

“Benefactor, you should leave at once! You have provoked the Wu family, so they will definitely retaliate. Their men are all over the dock and they have many great practitioners. You’re unable to leave if it’s too late!” The old man urgently advised Li Ye.

Li Ye took a deep breath to calm down. He asked the old man in a low voice, “Were those people collecting taxes from you just now?”

“Alas! We have paid the tax long ago. The Wu family sets up another item to collect more money than the tax each month. Everyone in this dock has to pay the money, therefore, many families have been destroyed these years. If we can’t afford the money, men will be caught as slaves and women will be sold as prostitutes. We just happen to be seen by you!”

The old man wiped his tears and hurriedly advised Li Ye again, “Hero, you’d better leave now. You can’t handle this thing. I’ve heard that the entire Qizhou is in the same situation! The world is like this, so we, the ordinary people, can do nothing but live in disgrace!”

“What are you going to do if I leave?” Li Ye glanced at the girl who was still in shock with her thin shoulders shaking at this moment. She probably could anticipate her own situation. Li Ye saw that her palms had grown calluses. Not only didn’t she have enough food to eat at such a young age, but she must also have done a lot of heavy work. He asked the old man, “Where are the men of the Wu family at the dock?”

The old man raised his hand and pointed to the dock. “Do you see the tallest building? That’s where the Wu family manages the dock. It’s higher than the official office... Alas, why did you ask this? You’d better leave quickly!”

“These people are to blame for the chaos of the world! People should pay for the evil things that they have done? That’s right, it’s time for them to pay the price!” Li Ye beckoned to Liu Zhiyan and the others who hurried over here and asked them to take the old man and the girl to the ship of the Changhe Gang. He jumped up and flew towards that tall building.

“This, this... an immortal?” The old man saw Li Ye fly out, so he knelt down behind Li Ye in awe and hurriedly kowtowed. In the eyes of the mortals, weren’t cultivators of high cultivation the immortals?

After being helped up by Liu Zhiyan, the old man asked her in astonishment, “Is this immortal special to defend righteousness and help the weak?”

Liu Zhiyan smiled at the old man. “For some people, you can say that.”

The dock was bustling with goods piled high and pedestrians jostling. The budget-conscious merchants, shouting yamen runners, and all kinds of livestock pulling wagons filled the dock, but coolies carrying heavy loads were the most. They were the cornerstones of the dock, as ordinary as bricks, but indispensable.

In front of the tallest building, a young coolie with a plain figure and a short gown was trudging along the street, carrying two sacks of heavy goods.

The sun had tanned his shoulders. He bent over and lowered his head, sweat dripping from his chin constantly and forming a line on the ground. His face was tight, his breath was as heavy as a cow’s, and his every step was as heavy as Mount Tai, but he didn’t stop, because he had just carried twenty loads of goods today and he must carry forty to get enough food for his family.

Suddenly, there were rapid clops coming quickly. When the young coolie turned his face hard under the large sacks, a trace of astonishment crept onto his face immediately. A great shadow came over him, and with a loud neigh, it hit him before he had time to dodge.

The young coolie and the two large sacks fell to the ground. His arm was scratched on the ground and bleeding. Before he could get up, a middle-aged man, who got off the white horse, kicked him in the chest, turning him over on the ground. The middle-aged man scolded, “Don’t you have fucking eyes? Can you walk? Son of a bitch, don’t go out if you can’t walk. If you crash my precious horse, will you afford it?”

The middle-aged man dressed in splendid clothes, very elegant and exalted. But when he scolded the young coolie, he did it like a shrew. The young coolie glanced at the other side and felt extremely angry because he walked on the street, and it was clear that the other side had hit him, but the other side beat and scolded him reversely.

But the young coolie dared not fight back, or even speak back, so he could only put away the two sacks of goods and get ready to carry them obediently. He wasn’t timid, but he had to endure because he needed to support his family. If he offended the person in front of him so that the other side beat him ruthlessly, he didn’t care that he would be badly injured, but his old mother and weak sister wouldn’t have food to eat without him, the pillar of his family.

“I’m talking to you. Don’t you hear me? Are you dumb? You’re like a fly and don’t make any noise. How dare you not answer me? You despise me?”

The middle-aged man saw that the other side ducked his head and didn’t speak, so he became more arrogant. He stepped forward and kicked over the heavy sacks that the young coolies had piled up with difficulty, and then he slapped the young coolie hard. His words grew worse, “You’re a good-for-nothing, so what can you do except for your strength? Without us, the dock won’t be so prosperous, and you won’t be able to earn money. How dare you ignore me when I talk to you? And you dare clench your fists. I beat...”

The young coolie’s face darkened, his anger made him tremble, and he clenched his fists. He kept his head down all the time. He was afraid that if he took a look at the middle-aged man, he couldn’t help but fight against the other side. He kept enduring and his face flushed. He couldn’t endure anymore, but he had to. He wanted very much to join the rebellion and kill these rich but cruel sons of bitches, but the rebels didn’t come to Qizhou, so he had to submit to humiliation for the sake of his family. He ducked over to the kicked sacks and piled them up hard.

“I’ll beat the shit out of you!” The man in splendid clothes went even further. He stepped forward again and kicked the young coolie at the face.

The young coolie stuck his neck, ready to suffer silently.

At this moment, the man in splendid clothes uttered a cry, and his feet never again fell at the young coolie’s face.

The young coolie found that the man in splendid clothes had fallen on the ground as he looked back in shock. A young man in a white robe stepped at the face of the man in splendid clothes and ground his head into the soil.

Li Ye looked down at the middle-aged man, and his voice was cold, “Fate gives you wealth not for letting you bully the poor. If he had your family background and your luck, his achievements would be a hundred times higher than yours!”

The man in splendid clothes kept screaming, but the more he screamed, the more soils he would eat.

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