Chapter 72: Chapter 73: Iron thorn kingdom

The whole group was soon in the middle of the courtroom with Yi Jie heading to his usual position by Yang Qing’s side.

Han Qingling the sect master of the Yellow lotus sect was standing on the right side, Zhao Qi whose head was still lowered stood in the middle, Liu Yun one of the heads of the Mountain springs pavilion stood on the left, and lastly Su Jinjing who went ahead of them closer to Yang Qing’s podium.

She stared longingly and gently at her spear before she shook her head as he eyes firmed up as if she had resolved herself and let the spear hang downwards as she averted her eyes.

“Su Jinjing the inquisitor of this case hereby present Han Qingling the sect master of the Yellow lotus sect, Zhao Qi the core disciple of the same, and Liu Yun one of the heads of the Mountain springs pavilion.

The Mountain springs pavilion the accuser in this case has filed a complaint against the Yellow lotus sect for defaulting on its loan repayment. The sect owes 6,45,208 middle-grade spirit stones. Over the past year, they haven’t made a single repayment despite agreeing on a monthly repayment schedule.

The Yellow lotus sect on receiving the suit has in turn filed one against their core disciple Zhao Qi who they named as the cause for the debt and the difficulty in repayment.

The guidelines of the courtroom have been explained to all parties present and they have all agreed to adhere to them and suffer the consequences should they break them. 

That’s it.”

Su Jinjing had a soothing voice that seemed to have a mild calming effect to all around the courtroom. However, those effects were minimal on Yang Qing, Yi Jie, Mao Yunru, and the sect master of the Yellow lotus sect. It was more pronounced on Zhao Qi the weakest member present as he was able to look up finally and the dejection in his eyes was slowly disappearing.

“Thanks, Su Jiinjing,” Yang Qing said as he offered her a thankful smile. He knew Su Jinjing had used her calming effect in her voice on purpose. Despite her weirdness with mothering a spear, she had a gentle personality by default. She had infused her spirit into her voice to try and help Zhao Qi but since she didn’t want it to seem like favoritism she used it in the whole courtroom.

When she joined the team both Yang Qing and Yi Jie were worried because of her gentle personality she wouldn’t be able to do her duties as an inquisitor which had a hint of ruthlessness to it. It was only later when seeing her in action that they realized their worries were unfounded. She may be gentle but she loved her spear a little too much and as such whenever she got a chance to use it or help it be its true self as she likes to say, she was more than overzealous with it. 

Of all the inquisitors in Yang Qing’s team, she had the highest record of fatalities and injuries caused when in the conduct of her duties. Even Zheng Hu the battle fanatic fell a little short compared to her. But due to her high spirit strength, she is sensitive to malice so she never attacked anybody who didn’t deserve it and was never the first person to throw the punch but she sure had the last throw.

Due to her sensitivity, she also had the highest impromptu cases record. Most cases in the Order are from people submitting their complaints which are then distributed to the various courts that are then distributed to the inquisitors. The inquisitors can use the intelligence organizations attached to the Order to dig deeper into the background of the parties they are investigating however they also need to do their part in person. During such investigations,, they can stumble onto other cases that violate the Order's articles and regulations and are obligated to bring those parties in. Such cases were called Impromptu cases.

…….

Su Jinjing bowed in return as she offered back a polite smile of her own as she made her way back to the end of the courtroom closer to the courtroom doors.

“As my colleague has told you the moment you stepped through the courtroom doors you are now subject to the rules and regulations of this courtroom and its judgment. However, you still have time to refuse and decide to resolve the case among yourselves. The decision the court makes is final and can’t be overturned. Whatever is decided, all parties will have to follow it.

Are you all sure you want to go through with this or would you rather solve it amongst yourselves?” asked Yang Qing.

“We already tried to resolve it ourselves but we couldn’t make any headway. Whatever the courtroom decides I on behalf of the Yellow lotus sect will abide by the ruling,” Han Qingling curtly said.

“I’m okay with it,” Zhao Qi softly answered with a weak smile

“On behalf of the Mountain springs pavilion, we will adhere to the court’s judgment. We trust in its integrity and impartiality,” Liu Yun gently said as he offered a small bow.

“Okay then. My name is Yang Qing the judge who will be in charge of this case henceforth. I will hear the version of events from all parties present and once I am satisfied I have all the pertinent information to have a sound judgment only then will I offer my ruling. During the case, I may involve specialists in the matter at hand but they are involved on as needed basis.

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I hope we will come to a resolution that all members present can accept and live with,” said Yang Qing as he eyed every member present.

“Owner Liu Yun I think we will start with you then sect master Han Qingling you will be next then we will finish with disciple Zhao Qi. Make sure to be upfront and not hold back the details. That is all. Owner Liu Yun would you please,” Yang Qing said as he motioned for Liu Yun to start.  

“Thank you for the opportunity, Judge Yang Qing. As you all know my name is Liu Yun I am one of the founders of the Mountain spring pavilion along with Wen Song and Wu Aiguo. They couldn’t make it as Wen Song is in secluded cultivation and Wu Aiguo is not on the continent at the moment and it’s hard to get a hold of him through the communication talisman. But any decisions I make they will agree to it too. We have been sworn brothers for the past 300 years. We were orphans who lived in the harsher parts of the Green bud kingdom formerly known as the Iron thorn kingdom.”

Yang Qing and the rest once they heard he was a citizen of the Green bud kingdom couldn’t help but have perceptible changes in their expression. The current Green bud kingdom a rank 4 kingdom was once known as the Iron thorn kingdom. The kingdom's name changed 40 years ago when the royal family was overthrown and killed.

The Iron thorn kingdom got its name from the way the royal family liked to impale its victims on gates all over the kingdom that were made of tiny spikes made of abyssal iron. The victims would experience a slow excruciating death as the iron sucked their life force and put them in extreme torment. Whether noble or commoner they all faced the same treatment as long as they drew the ire of the royal family.

The ruthlessness of the royal family was so extreme that a metallic smell permeated all over the kingdom. It was a mixture of abyssal iron and blood. They could act wantonly because they had a palace realm ancestor and no one in the kingdom even among the noble families had someone of that caliber. The best they had were peak core formation experts and they were few far and few in between as the royal family kept a tight leash on the resources all over the kingdom. They used those same resources to develop their own forces further strengthening themselves.

The kingdom was also located in one of the areas that had a nonexistent Order presence. Due to their low manpower, there were many areas around the southern continent that escaped the Order's eyes while some areas were too dangerous to even create their branches there such as the Green fog region. 

All these factors thus emboldened the royal family of the Iron thorn kingdom to act with unbridled cruelty and they also had the presence of mind to seal the whole kingdom so no one went out thus putting a blockade on the information flow out of the kingdom. But all this changed close to 40 years ago. Their latest act at the time which was recorded as the cruelest they have ever been was when they massacred a whole city because they suspected a coup was brewing from it. This was the trigger that united the kingdom and also pushed it over the edge. Every citizen whether noble or commoner had one common goal, to either escape or destroy the current family. 

A mass exodus was impossible and destroying the royal family was even harder not with their palace stage ancestor lying around and the numerous other experts the royal family had created from squeezing and monopolizing almost every drop of cultivation resource.

However, in this desperation, they got help from an unlikely source, an underground organization known as the silent moon. It barely makes moves but when it does it sends waves around the continent. 

The organization is veiled in secrecy and the only times they are heard off is in the aftermath of their actions which don’t happen as often.

It’s not known how but the major nobles all got messages with the emblem of a moon veiled in a hazy shadow attached to it asking the same question,

“What are you willing to pay for your freedom?”

They were at first weary but the weariness with time grew into a glimmer of hope. A what if... Which led them to the same answer. EVERYTHING they had. Once they came to that answer they all got another reply.

“Then give us every form of wealth you have silver, copper, gold, spirit stones, spiritual metals, and herbs  anything you’ve attached value to except the living give it and the royal family will be no more,”

It took close to 4 years to gather the wealth of not only the nobles but even the commoners. It took that long because they had to be careful about it, in case the royal family got wind of it and a repeat city-wide massacre happened.

Anything of value was gathered, from precious cultivation resources and arts to heirlooms down to even a wooden sword someone used as a kid and couldn’t let go off. Anything they thought to be a treasure was given. The whole kingdom came together and paid for the hit. It’s not known how but the silent moon knew when everything was gathered and the very next day the royal castle was destroyed and all in it. As for the palace stage ancestor, he had his cultivation crippled and hung on the same abyssal iron gates they hung their victims along with the king and other infamous princes known for their cruelty. All this barely took a day.

When the citizens saw the royal capital in flames they couldn’t believe it and when they saw the royal family hanging on the gates they all broke and wept. Young, old, commoner, noble they all had the same emotions as they looked the source of their nightmare up in flames and suffering the same torment they did or dreaded.

It was only after all these happened and the borders were finally open that the rest of the continent finally knew what happened here. The Order sent inquisitors and was baffled at the records of cruelty they heard which was more intense than what was floating around.

It was from this experience that they pushed for inquisitors not only to be diligent in their current cases but even in impromptu ones. Because there were sure to be many other Iron thorn kingdoms out there.

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