First Encounter with Injustice, Brother Mooncake

【Name: Lu Fuying】

【Age: 8】

【Bone Structure: None】

【Cultivation Level: Mortal】

【Fate: Black】

【Evaluation: Adrift like duckweed, life like wild grass.】

【Recent Incident: Saved by Ying Bing while laboring, yet accused of consorting with demons and now facing execution.】

This was the information Li Mo had just glimpsed through his Heavenly Fate Divine Eye.

For a moment, he stood frozen, an inexplicable fury rising in his chest.

Shouldn’t the garrison army be protecting the people?

At the very least, this was the first time he’d witnessed such injustice since entering the Southern Pass.

His gaze fell on the magistrate, who now leisurely sipped tea as he approached Lu Fuying.

The magistrate’s eyes held no regard for the child as a living being.

"Out of mercy for your youth and ignorance, I’ll grant you one last chance," he said coldly.

"Tell me—was the woman you saw human or demon?"

The frail little girl, not even ten years old, trembled with fear, too young to grasp the implications of his words.

"That... that pretty sister was... an immortal?"

"Still defending demons even at death’s door."

The magistrate snorted, splashing tea onto the executioner’s blade, though the grime and bloodstains remained.

The executioner, his expression numb, raised the heavy guillotine blade, ready to add another innocent soul to its toll.

Clink—

But as the blade descended, a crisp sound rang out.

The front half of the blade snapped clean off, spinning through the air before clattering to the ground.

The magistrate, oblivious at first, suddenly felt his head bare. His hair disheveled, he turned to see his official hat knocked away by the broken blade.

And lying before the stunned child was the object that had shattered the executioner’s weapon—

A single golden bean.

Dazed, she looked up to see a young man standing protectively in front of her. His refined features seemed familiar, though she couldn’t recall where she’d seen him before.

The youth turned to the bald monk beside him.

"Take her to her family."

Before she could even cry, Lu Fuying found herself tucked under Murong Xiao’s arm and whisked away.

By now, the soldiers below the platform had snapped into action—some rushing to the magistrate’s aid, others forming a perimeter.

"Disrupting an execution, abetting a fugitive, and now attempting to murder an official!"

"You must be in league with that demon!"

The magistrate, having regained some courage after his earlier panic, straightened his back and barked orders.

Li Mo was sorely tempted to punch him dead on the spot.

His Heavenly Fate Divine Eye had already revealed the man’s rotten nature.

But slaughtering the entire garrison wasn’t exactly an option.

"Your duty is to protect this land. Surely you have methods to distinguish humans from demons," Li Mo said, forcing patience into his voice.

"The person Lu Fuying encountered days ago was no demon. I can prove it."

As everyone knew, Young Master Li was usually a man of reason.

A gentleman prefers words to fists—

Unless a hammer is involved.

"So you know that woman?" The magistrate narrowed his eyes.

Li Mo relaxed slightly. "Naturally."

The magistrate’s face darkened instantly.

"He just admitted to colluding with the demoness! Seize him—dead or alive!"

Li Mo: "?"

The garrison soldiers leveled their spears and charged.

Demons and beasts typically surpassed humans in raw physical strength at the same cultivation level.

But if the thousand-strong garrison of Bottle Town combined their power through military formations, even a Sixth-Rank Great Demon—equivalent to an Inner Realm expert—could be subdued.

These soldiers were all at the Breath Circulation stage, and dozens of them working in unison could easily overwhelm an ordinary Insight Realm cultivator.

But Li Mo was no ordinary Insight Realm cultivator.

He didn’t even bother using special techniques.

With his current physique and the innate weapon-like sharpness of his Extreme Soldier Slaughter Body, a single casual punch carried enough force to shatter their formation.

BANG—

A deafening crash echoed as the lead sergeant—a Core Formation expert—grunted in pain, the gathered energy dispersing under the impact.

The soldiers, their qi interconnected, all reeled from the shared backlash.

In the next instant—

Li Mo’s foot shattered the stone tiles as he closed the distance to the magistrate in a single step.

"You—you—urk—!"

A kick to the gut silenced the man’s yapping, doubling him over in agony.

As a certain battle maniac once said: If you can solve it with fists, don’t waste time talking.

Turns out, there was wisdom in that.

"Do you... have any idea... who oversees this territory—?!"

The magistrate, now kneeling from the beating, still tried to threaten through bloodied lips.

But before he could finish—

CRUNCH.

Li Mo’s fist cratered the man’s greasy face, sending teeth scattering across the ground.

Young Master Li had given him a chance to reason.

Pity he couldn’t even handle that.

The magistrate collapsed, finally silent.

Li Mo didn’t leave. Instead, he took a seat on the nanmu-wood chair and waited calmly.

Soon, a more elite contingent of garrison troops arrived, their armor gleaming, their auras fierce.

A crushing pressure locked onto Li Mo from afar—emanating from the middle-aged commander at their head.

The commander’s hair was streaked with white, his mustache neatly trimmed, his piercing gaze seeming to dissect the youth before him.

"Who are you? Do you understand the consequences of defying the Southern Garrison Army?"

He’d intended to arrest Li Mo immediately—

But the boy’s extreme youth gave him pause.

To dismantle an Insight Realm-capable formation unscathed at such an age... perhaps he had powerful backing.

"What is a border army’s duty?" Li Mo countered, his voice flat.

"To slaughter the innocent and bully children?"

A dangerous glint flashed in his eyes.

"I asked you a question, yet you dare interrogate me?"

Commander Qi’s laughter was icy.

The magistrate, seeing his chance, scrambled toward his superior. Li Mo didn’t stop him, watching as the man spat:

"The case had your approval, Commander! The facts were clear!"

"This boy is definitely connected to demons—probably working with that shapeshifted demoness!"

Just as Commander Qi was about to order the arrest—

His expression changed.

A resounding smack echoed as he backhanded the magistrate hard enough to send the man sprawling.

The magistrate gaped in shock.

Then he saw it—

The black jade token in Li Mo’s hand, engraved with a single character: Zhong.

It was the pass Zhong Zhenyue had given him after Li Mo saved his life—guaranteeing unimpeded movement through all southern border garrisons.

(Though Li Mo had been in too much of a hurry to actually meet the man.)

"Any further objections?"

"General Qi suddenly recalled... certain irregularities in this case."

Sweat beaded on the commander’s forehead as he smoothly changed tack.

That was Zhong Zhenyue’s personal token. Even if this boy was secretly a demon, Qi wouldn’t dare accuse the Young Marquis’s honored guest.

"What about the girl?"

"Completely innocent! No demonic ties whatsoever!"

Just like that, the wrongful conviction was overturned with startling efficiency.

Murong Xiao looked bewildered. Huang Donglai could only offer a wry smile.

After the magistrate was dragged away, Commander Qi even enthusiastically invited Li Mo’s group to a banquet—conveniently forgetting the whole "disrupting an execution" incident.

In the Great Yu, neither law nor reason held as much power as a single token.

The absurdity wasn’t lost on Li Mo.

Disinterested in further pleasantries, he walked into the crowd and knelt before Lu Fuying.

Gently, he wiped the grime from the child’s tear-streaked face.

"Little sister, when did you say you saw that fairy maiden?"

"You're Mooncake Big Brother?!"

The little girl's reply left Young Li momentarily stunned.