Venerated Venomous Consort

He still had not come back home. Luckily, he would stay connected with Gu Xijiu once every two days to give her peace of mind.

She took a look at the moon. It was the fifteenth of the month. He had not been in touch for the past two days. Even if he did not plan on coming home, he would definitely talk to her via directed audio.

She returned to the house but decided to skip her meditation, as she was concerned that Di Fuyi would want to speak to her. If she insisted on meditating, she would inevitably be distracted anyway. It would not bring any good to her practice. To her surprise, she did not receive any news from Di Fuyi after waiting for him all night long.

Throughout the night, she tried to connect to his amulet so many times, but none of her attempts made it through. Di Fuyi must have turned off his amulet. Whenever he decided to turn it off, he must be doing something extremely dangerous that required his full attention. He must not be distracted even for a split second. Therefore, Gu Xijiu decided to stop looking for him, as she was concerned that her interruption might disrupt him.

In his letter, Di Fuyi once said that the Tianmo Jade [1] that had been placed in Tianju Hall was no ordinary one. It seemed mystical, which did not belong to their world. Neither did it look like Long Fan’s creation. Presumably, there might be another power hidden behind the scenes. The purpose of his departure was to investigate the curious case.

Di Fuyi’s investigation was a secret mission. No one else knew about it except Gu Xijiu. To prevent any leakage of information, Di Fuyi would avoid telling her anything about the progress of his investigation. He would only tell her not to worry and ease her mind.

He seemed to be in a rush every time they spoke to each other. Their conversations would usually end after a few words. There would not be any passionate exchange of affection. The main point was to let each other know that both were safe and sound.

Gu Xijiu waited the whole night, but no call came through. Suddenly, one did! It was from Baili Ce. “Xijiu, I have bad news! Your family has been arrested by the Feixing Kingdom for charges claiming that your family has secretly conspired against the kingdom. They have been imprisoned and soon, the day after tomorrow, they will all be publicly executed.”

Gu Xijiu was in utter shock. The first person that she thought of was Rong Jialuo. He must be out of his mind to imprison her family.

…

The entire Feixing Kingdom thought the same about their king. He must have gone insane.

Although Gu Xietian was not a good husband in his marriage, he was indeed an exceptional general that was hard to come by. Throughout the years, he had been fighting north and south on many difficult fronts in the name of Feixing Kingdom. Indeed, he had also achieved many notable merits won in battle. To the ordinary people, his supreme dedication to the kingdom was comparable to that of General Yue Fei from the Song Dynasty.

Previously, he was not a supporter of the crown prince. However, for the sake of his daughter, he sought to protect Rong Jialuo and secured his throne. After Rong Jialuo’s ascention to the throne as the new king, he served the king with utmost loyalty and scrupulously abided by his duty.

Lately, however, he was unhappy with Rong Jialuo’s warlike policy by exhausting all resources to build up his military power, so he decided to resign from power and return home to enjoy his retirement. He claimed that his health condition would no longer enable his service, thus shutting himself away from the world. Despite his resignation, he remained a great hero to the people.

To everyone’s surprise, the great hero would end up being convicted of treason. His entire family had been arrested and would soon be punished with the cruelest punishment of all – the punishment of body dismemberment and death.

The punishment of body dismemberment and death was sentenced to the entire family. The members involved would include his two daughters and their husbands.

They had a huge family with a total of more than 300 members, including the servants. Even the infants were not excluded. They were not even three years old.

Early in the morning, the streets were already filled with huge crowds of people. Almost everyone came out. First in the line were the officers and soldiers to lead the way. Behind was a queue of wooden prison wagons. Each wagon could hold a prisoner’s body within its space, leaving only his or her head out from the confinement.

However, as the number of prisoners was too many to handle, each wagon was now filled with seven or eight people. Packed like sardines, people of all sizes were forced to squeeze in the tiny space. Each of them was chained with a pair of heavy shackles; even the children were not excused.

Gu Xietian was held alone in a wagon. His pair of shackles was different. The metal chains were heavier. The inner circles were filled with iron nails that penetrated deeply into his skin, so he could barely move.

All the people watched as the wagon carried him by. The man, who was once an awe-inspiring general, had declined to a downhearted state. His waving tendrils of white hair lay scattered. He looked injured, as though he had already been punished. His once dignified look was replaced with severe bruises and bloodstains.

In the Feixing Kingdom, only convicts of the most heinous crimes would be sentenced with the punishment of dismemberment and death. People hated them. When their wagons slowly passed by, most people would be so enraged that they would throw rocks and rotten eggs at these convicts to vent their hatred.

This time, Gu Xietian was found guilty of treason, the crime that people hated most. By right, they should be equally enraged by his crime. However, when his wagon slowly passed by, the people only remained silent and watched helplessly as his wagon moved forward. Seeing the miserable condition of the prisoners in the wagons outraged them even further with injustice and grievance.

None of them believed that Gu Xietian would betray the kingdom. However, Celestial Master Zuo’s imposter had a ruthless and tyrannical means of governing the kingdom which managed to suppress public opinions. They dared not speak out, even though they were immensely enraged.

One of the soldiers, who was leading the way, announced loudly from time to time, “Gu Xietian, the betrayer! He deserves to die!”

His voice echoed the quiet streets.

Usually, when the soldier announced the prisoner’s guilt, the people would start throwing rocks or even rotten eggs at them. This time, however, was different. Despite the soldier’s announcement, all the people remained still, not doing anything for the occasion.

When the line passed by a restaurant, some of the officials, who were bribed to pretend to be common people, threw some rotten eggs at Gu Xietian. Their action was rather provocative, as they managed to draw the people’s attention. Worried, they dared not throw another egg.

The execution ground was set to be on a huge plaza that could fit thousands of bystanders. In order to prevent the prisoners from being freed, the plaza was temporarily sealed, left with four remaining doors. Every entry must be identified and examined thoroughly. No weapons were allowed upon admission.

The plaza was surrounded with four metal walls. Even the doors were extremely heavy. In case of any rescue attempts, the doors would shut immediately, seizing the rescuers in the plaza with no way out.

The prisoner’s wagons slowly entered the plaza, followed by the common people.

There was a huge stage at the center of the plaza, equipped with hundreds of pillars. All 300 prisoners had been forced out of their wagons. Some kneeled, others were tied to the pillars. All awaited their death.

As there were too many prisoners, the executioners were obviously outnumbered. Even the pillars were not enough to accommodate all of them, so the punishment had to be separated into three sessions.

When the first batch of prisoners emerged on stage, the other two batches had to watch.

Gu Xietian and his two daughters were saved for the last batch. They were forced to watch their loved ones die one by one before their eyes. It was a true punishment for Gu Xietian.

It was undoubtedly an enormous torment. Gu Xietian was forced to kneel. His bloodshot eyes were filled with unutterable grief and great despair.

Some of his relatives were in the first batch of prisoners. They were being tied to the pillars, including all three of Gu Xietian’s grandchildren. The eldest amongst them was five years old. The youngest was only three years old. The children had no idea about the punishment, but the seizure was too painful for them. They burst into tears and wept aloud. The bystanders were completely agonized by the children’s loud cries.

“Announcing the arrival of Celestial Master Zuo and the wife of The Lord!” A loud announcement could be heard from afar.