Two Million in Debt

Shh—

The shopkeeper raised a thick, short finger. His originally flattering smile completely vanished in an instant, and his eyes, squeezed into mere slits by his fat, now revealed a chilling, bone-piercing coldness.

Young Master Xiao, you had better look closely. On this invoice, the red seal on the left belongs to the Directorate of Palace Delicacies, the steel seal on the right belongs to the Directorate of Ceremonial, and that bright red 'Approved' at the very bottom was personally written by His Majesty, the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty!

The shopkeeper banged his abacus loudly against the table. His Majesty's words are as precious as gold, and both the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Directorate of Palace Delicacies have personally inspected this. That is enough to prove this table is made of top-grade Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Thread Nanmu! Yet you insist it is ordinary pine wood? What, are you saying the royal family passes off shoddy goods as high quality? Slandering His Majesty the Emperor is a capital offense that warrants the execution of your entire extended family. I heard you are the young master of the Xiao family from Longxi in Lingnan?

Xiao Chen's breath caught in his throat, the veins on his forehead bulging.

The shopkeeper gave him no chance to catch his breath, his fingers flying across the abacus with a loud clatter. Table and chair replacement fees, royal item depreciation fees, employee trauma fees, compensation for lost work, reputational damage fees, plus the pacification fees for the diners you just terrified with your yelling... We will round it down to an even five hundred thousand taels of silver. Pay up, prodigy.

Bullshit! Five hundred thousand taels? Why don't you just rob me! Xiao Chen laughed out of sheer anger, his chest heaving violently. The rebellious and ruthless glint in his eyes could no longer be suppressed. I do not even have fifty taels! I only have my life. If you want money, you will have to ask the Strange Fire in my hands if it agrees!

Boom!

A cluster of eerie green flames erupted from Xiao Chen's palm, the terrifying heat instantly distorting the air. He took a fierce step forward, preparing to rely on his half-step Astral Qi Realm cultivation to violently carve out a bloody path.

Smack! Not only did the shopkeeper not dodge, but he also pulled a voice-amplifying artifact from his sleeve, drew a deep breath, and bellowed, We have a thug trying to dine and dash!

Before his voice even faded, countless blinding golden array runes suddenly erupted from beneath the restaurant floor. An eighth-tier Heaven-Locking Slaughter Array was instantly activated! Its oppressive aura was like Mount Tai crashing down, forcibly crushing the Strange Fire in Xiao Chen's palm into a mere wisp of black smoke.

At the same time, doors in all directions were kicked open. Dozens of West Depot guards, clad in flying fish suits and armed with armor-piercing heavy crossbows, surged in like a tide. Their cold crossbow bolts firmly locked onto Xiao Chen.

Leading them was a beardless middle-aged eunuch with an aura as deep as the abyss—an expert at the half-step Astral Qi Realm!

Damaging royal property, and even attempting to commit arson and burn down a century-old Great Zhou heritage building! The penalty is doubled! The eunuch sneered, his high-pitched voice dripping with malice, his eyes full of the greed of someone looking at a fat sheep. Take him down! Bring him to the Imperial Prison and let him find out exactly how thick His Majesty's New Laws of the Great Zhou really are!

A century old? Are you blind? Was this not just built? Does the banner right above your head not say 'Celebrating the Grand Opening of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, 10 percent off everything'? Xiao Chen's mental defenses completely shattered, and his brain was suddenly working very well.

...

At the same time, on Vermilion Bird Street in the capital.

The arrogant First Prince of the prairie barbarians, Wanyan Gu, was riding a two-headed demonic wolf. He laughed wildly as he cracked his riding crop, driving the fleeing commoners away as they scrambled for cover.

Hahaha! You Central Plains lambs, bear witness to my invincible mount!

Just as he was laughing so hard his back teeth showed, the two-headed demonic wolf beneath him suddenly stopped, squatted on its hind legs, and dropped a massive pile of feces reeking of sulfur right in the middle of Vermilion Bird Street.

Before Wanyan Gu could even process what was wrong with this, a squad of Brocade Guards suddenly rushed out from the street corner. Their movement techniques were incredibly bizarre, and in the blink of an eye, they had completely surrounded Wanyan Gu and his two hundred guards. Each of them was waving a glittering, sky-high fine.

Public defecation! Environmental pollution! Terrorizing pedestrians! Confiscating the tool of the crime, the demonic wolf, and imposing a fine of one million taels of silver. You have three days to pay in full, with a fifty percent late fee applied if overdue! The leading middle-aged woman spat as she spoke, slapping the ticket directly onto Wanyan Gu's chest.

Awooo? The demonic wolf only managed half a howl.

So noisy, you still dare to make a racket? Three Brocade Guards at the Astral Qi Realm, who had been hiding in the crowd, suddenly sprang into action. With a fluid series of grappling moves, they pinned the demonic wolf—which was as strong as an Astral Qi Realm cultivator—to the ground. They expertly strapped on black iron reins and dragged it away like a dead dog toward the newly built zoo in the southern city, managed by the Shanglin Park Directorate.

You are courting death! I am Wanyan Gu, Prince of the Great Prairie! You dare touch my wolf! Wanyan Gu's eyes turned bloodshot. He drew his spiked club, ready to fight to the death, and his guards all drew their scimitars.

Smack!

A copy of the Capital Public Security Administration Punishments Law, Foreign Guest Special Edition, stamped with the Imperial Seal, was slapped right onto his face. A line of large characters personally written by Wang Hao stung his eyes: When a foreign guest breaks the law, the fine is doubled. If you have no money, go mine coal in the Western Mountains.

On this day, countless aloof, arrogant prodigies who used to walk sideways in their own territories finally experienced the brutal beating of the dual iron fists of Wang Hao-style feudal capitalism. The entire capital was filled with wailing, and the loan departments of all major money houses were instantly overwhelmed.

...

Night fell. In the lowest level of the Great Zhou capital's Heavenly Prison, Cell Block A, solitary confinement.

Xiao Chen sat with disheveled hair on a damp, cold pile of straw that smelled of mildew. He wore ten-thousand-year cold iron shackles engraved with spirit-sealing runes on his wrists and ankles; even the slightest movement caused bone-deep pain.

His eyes, which had once been filled with the unyielding, rebellious spirit of 'thirty years on the east bank, thirty years on the west bank,' were now bloodshot, vacant, and filled with a self-doubt that almost shattered his Dao heart.

Three days.

He had only been in the Great Zhou capital for three days!

On the first day, he smashed a table in a restaurant. It was classified as malicious destruction of royal-exclusive non-renewable resources, and he was fined five hundred thousand taels.

On the second day, to scrape together money to pay his debt, he gritted his teeth and set up a street stall to sell his proudest, top-grade pills. He had only sold two when the Brocade Guards arrested him on the street for practicing medicine without a license, illegally selling unregulated health supplements, and failing to obtain a pharmaceutical sales permit from the Great Zhou Imperial Academy of Medicine. Not only were all his pills confiscated, but he was also fined three times the estimated value of the goods—eight hundred thousand taels!

On the third day, driven into a corner and desperate to win his money back, Xiao Chen wore a mask and sneaked into the underground black market to fight in illegal boxing matches. He never imagined that the damn black market was also a royal enterprise owned by the Great Zhou Emperor, Wang Hao! He fought through severe injuries to win ten consecutive matches, thinking he could use the prize money to turn his luck around. Instead, the manager pulled out a thick copy of the Great Zhou Gambling Industry Anti-Monopoly Law, accusing him of having an abnormal win rate and suspecting him of match-fixing! Not only was all his prize money confiscated, but he was also hit with a seven hundred thousand tael penalty fee!

Interest upon interest, fines upon fines, plus a daily fee of one thousand taels for luxury VIP cell accommodation, guard mental distress fees, and array maintenance fees.

Xiao Chen, a child of destiny possessing a Strange Fire, boasting monstrous talent, and destined to stand at the absolute pinnacle of the Divine Realm, now owed the Great Zhou imperial court a staggering two million taels of silver!

Two million taels... a full two million taels... Xiao Chen muttered like a madman, his hands gripping his hair tightly as his heart bled profusely.

Even if he extracted the exotic flame from his body to sell by the pound and boiled his bones into soup, he still wouldn't be able to scrape together that much money! Just what kind of devil was that Emperor Wang Chen? How could he make such a despicable act as extorting wealth seem so legal, compliant, and elegantly refined?

Teacher! Teacher, wake up! What should your disciple do?! Hurry and teach me! Xiao Chen cried out desperately in his mind to the remnant soul of the old grandpa residing in his ring.

However, the ring remained dead silent, without even a single echo.

In fact, as early as when Xiao Chen's debt surpassed one million, that old monster who had lived for over a thousand years decisively cut off their spiritual connection, executing the Turtle Breathing Technique to completely play dead. Having lived for so long, what kind of storms or mountains of corpses and seas of blood had this old monster not seen? But the Great Zhou Emperor Wang Hao's shameless methods of sucking out marrow, plucking feathers, and drinking blood were something he had truly never witnessed! Especially when he felt the aura of the royal ancestor flying overhead.

Before falling into his deep slumber, the old monster had only one extremely terrified thought: I absolutely must not show my face! That Emperor named Wang Hao is too wicked! If he finds out I am a soul body, he will definitely drag me out, squeeze dry all my value, and then sell me to evil cultivators! I can't afford to provoke them; this Great Zhou Imperial Court is absolutely not to be trifled with!

Creak—

The heavy black iron door of the cell was slowly pushed open, emitting a teeth-grinding friction sound.

A faint scent of agarwood drifted into the cell. Xiao Chen jerked his head up, glaring at the newcomer like a lone wolf forced into a corner.

The person who walked in was a middle-aged man wearing a bright red python robe. He had a feminine face and was toying with a mutton-fat jade ruyi in his hands. A smile as refreshing as a spring breeze hung on his face.

The Director of the Eastern Depot, Wei Zhongxian.

Oh my, isn't this Young Master Xiao Chen, the rare genius of our Divine Land unseen in a century, who dared to fight head-on against a Gangqi Realm expert while only at the Half-Step Gangqi Realm? Wei Zhongxian disgustedly covered his nose with a gold-embroidered silk handkerchief, waving away the musty smell in the air with his eyes full of mockery. Tsk, tsk, tsk, how did you end up in such a state? Seeing you covered in dirt and ashes truly breaks this Director's heart.

Eunuch dog! Save your sarcasm! Xiao Chen gritted his teeth, his eyes so red they looked as if they would drip blood. This is clearly a chain of traps set by your Emperor! If you want to kill me or slice me to pieces, do as you please! If I, Xiao Chen, so much as frown, I am not a real man! But if you think you can make me bow my head to you, keep dreaming!

Insolent! How dare you be disrespectful to the Director! Two jailers immediately stepped forward, ready to crack their whips.

Step down. Wei Zhongxian gently waved his jade ruyi, and the jailers immediately backed out in fear and trepidation. Young Master Xiao has a big temper, this Director can understand. Young people, who hasn't had their days of youthful arrogance? However, the rules of the Great Zhou are the heavenly laws set by His Majesty. Even if you are unconvinced, you have to hold it in.

Wei Zhongxian leisurely walked up to Xiao Chen, looking down at him from above, his gaze gradually turning sinister: Young Master Xiao, you want to die? It is very simple. There are one hundred and eight ways to die in this Heavenly Prison, guaranteed to let you pass away peacefully. But...

Wei Zhongxian drew out his words, a devilish smile curling at the corners of his mouth: The two million taels of silver you owe cannot be written off just by slitting your own throat. The Great Zhou Debt Inheritance Law personally promulgated by His Majesty stipulates that a father's debt is paid by the son, and debts remain even after death. If you die, the Embroidered Uniform Guard will take the bill to Longxi to find your family. I heard that your favorite little cousin is exceptionally pure and beautiful. If she were sold to the Green Willow Pavilion under the Music and Dance Bureau, perhaps after working for five hundred years, she could pay off both the principal and the interest...

Just try touching a single hair on her head!!!

His reverse scale having been touched, Xiao Chen leaped up fiercely like a maddened dragon, his eyes nearly splitting open. But in the next second, the runes on the ten-thousand-year cold iron chains flared with brilliant light, and a massive force violently yanked him back to the ground, causing him to fall flat on his face.

He lay sprawled on the ground, highly agitated, his heart filled with an unprecedented sense of despair and powerlessness.

He couldn't even afford to die! In this prison, death was actually a luxury!

Wei Zhongxian watched Xiao Chen's verge-of-collapse appearance. A hint of mockery flashed through the depths of his eyes, but the expression on his face instantly became extremely sincere, as if he were truly an elder caring for a junior.

Young Master Xiao, you have actually misunderstood. Our current Majesty is the most eager for talent, a true lover of capable individuals!

Wei Zhongxian sighed, After His Majesty heard about your situation, not only did he not blame you, but he was also furious and severely reprimanded those rigid, inflexible servants below!

Xiao Chen froze, a trace of astonishment flashing through his bloodshot eyes: What... what do you mean? He would be that kind-hearted?

His Majesty's meaning is, how could a peerless genius like Young Master Xiao, who has boundless prospects and is destined to stir up the winds and clouds in the future, be ruined in prison over a mere two million taels of worldly silver? This would simply be a massive loss to the martial arts world of the Divine Land!

Like performing a magic trick, Wei Zhongxian pulled a gold-stamped parchment document from his sleeve and presented it to Xiao Chen with both hands.