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Chapter 873 Decay of the major families (11)

"Good riddance.." muttered Yang Qing as Xia Ting took away those clan members. Gui De, their vice clan master, left immediately after the sentencing was done with an urgency to him. No doubt because of the information that showed that one of their clan members was a traitor. If such information got out, and their clan was unprepared for it, they would be left in a precarious position.

Things were already tense as it is and in their pursuit of growing their power and amassing wealth to make up for not having a palace stage expert, they had ruffled a lot of feathers and created a lot of enemies, the least of which were the founding families.

If word got out that their supreme elder had been colluding with the Five Clovers Kingdom, he could already imagine what was likely to happen. Those families would instantly band together and attack them.

When it came to foundations, except for the royal family, the five founding families were at the same level, and though their Gui Clan was wealthier, in terms of core power and foundations, they were not stronger than the rest, and right now, one could even argue they were slightly weaker when compared against the Zhang and Mo family who both had palace stage experts.

Their founder had left them treasures to help guard their clan grounds against even palace realm experts, but so did the other founding families. If those families combined their forces and resources in earnest, it wouldn\'t take long for all their defensive measures to be breached.

By Gui De\'s estimates, it would take no more than four days, and if the royal family got involved, that time would drastically shorten.

"I am sorry Elder Weimin, you brought this upon yourself. I can only hope your death and that of your family will be enough.." Gui De thought as a merciless glint flashed in his eyes.

...

It didn\'t take long after the Gui Clan\'s case for the next family to be brought in, the Mo family. Fourteen of their clansmen were brought in, of which thirteen were on trial with the extra member being the clan leader who had been allowed in the court as a courtesy by the Order, in case the clan leader wanted to speak at their behest.

Their clan leader, Mo Li, had the same bearing as Chen Xian. He was calm and steady like a boulder but within that calmness lay a tempestous saber. In terms of bearing, they were similar in that regard, but when it came to talents, that was where the differences appeared, and one of them, it went without saying was Mo Li\'s cultivation base. He was at the first stage of the palace realm and from the fluctuations he was releasing he looked to be just at the cusp of reaching the second stage.

By Yang Qing\'s estimates, in about six months to a year, he would have already taken that step, catching up to the Zhang clan\'s leader who was a second-stage palace realm expert. Though as a saber user, even though Mo Li\'s cultivation base was lower, even in his current realm, Yang Qing had a feeling he would be able to put up a decent fight against the Zhang clan\'s patriarch.

And the reason for that was Yang Qing could feel how properly refined Mo Li\'s saber intent was. It was to the point that even though Mo Li had great control over it to the point he could effortlessly conceal it by blending it within his body, Yang Qing could still feel its intrinsic qualities effortlessly emanating from his body.

It was sharp, free-flowing, and tidal. Looking at Mo Li made him feel like he was looking at a kingfisher stirring a hurricane and a thunderstorm with a flap of its wings on a cold dark night with the only source of light being the dangerous gleam of its talons and beaks.

Only when one had reached a certain threshold in the cultivation of their saber intent, could its \'quality and character\' be as evident as Mo Li\'s was.

When Yang Qing saw him, he could finally understand why it was rumored that the Mo family had been trying to compete with the royal family over the years. The attainments Mo Li had showed, he was qualified to do it. Provided nothing happened, given enough time with the talent he showed, at the very least he would reach the middle stages of the palace realm.

His qualifications aside, after seeing Mo Li and the way he carried himself, Yang Qing did find himself puzzled about something.

After years of being a judge, he had developed a knack for reading people from even the most mundane of things, and based on what he was reading off Mo Li, the Mo Clan Leader didn\'t seem the type to care one iota about being an emperor or wielding power in that form.

He had seen enough saber experts in his lifetime to be able to tell that Mo Li was a through-and-through bonafide saber fanatic. The purity in his saber intent told him that. To a man like that, even his family and his life came second to his saber. All other things were immaterial and considered hindrances when compared to it.

There was no way a person obsessed with the saber like he did, would spare so much as a second thought lusting after the crown like what the rumors said.

If he was truly in opposition with the royal family it had to be for some other reason, either he was using the royal family as a whetstone to sharpen himself, or there was something else that prompted a man like him to act against them and that something had to be as dear to him as his saber was.

Yang Qing didn\'t believe the throne had reached that level. As important as it was to most, to someone so devoted to the dao of the saber, the throne would be no more than a distraction for him.

While he was curious about what the underlying reason behind his antagonistic attitude toward the Duan royal family could be, he decided to shelve the matter to focus on the matter at hand, which was the prosecution of the thirteen Mo clan members.

All thirteen members were young noble scions of the clan and had checked off all the stereotypical check boxes that one would expect to see from pampered young masters who had not experienced the wind and the rains of the world. They were arrogant and ruthless to those they deemed weaker than themselves or those they could bully without fear of reprisal while they cowered and whimpered like newborns in front of those they couldn\'t threaten with their background.

They were all trembling, too scared to even look up. The longer Yang Qing looked at them, he realized something. Their eyes would occasionally dart to their indifferent clan leader and immediately after it would seem like their fear would spike up a notch. A few seconds in, it was clear to him that the reason for their fear wasn\'t the court or what punishment they were going to receive but rather what terrified them to the point that some almost toppled over, was their clan leader, Mo Li.

If that was the case, then it explained why when it came to the Mo family, none of the high-ranking figures of the clan which included their clan elders and the promising youths were caught up in the investigation, unlike the Chen, Zhang, and Gui clan that had a mix of their elders and youths with potential.

Mo Li was likely a terrifying deterrent within his family and how they conducted themselves. As for how thirteen members still ended up in the Order\'s crosshairs despite his deterrent, Yang Qing felt it was more than likely because the thirteen members present were too useless in terms of talent to catch his eye as none of the thirteen members was at their core formation realm despite their background.

They were all of a similar age to Yang Qing but the one who had the highest cultivation base amongst them was only at the eleventh stage of the foundation establishment realm while the rest languished between the sixth and ninth stages.

The other factor was they didn\'t live at their clan\'s main grounds where their clan leader was, but instead lived at the various residences that were a million miles away from their clan\'s main grounds.

All thirteen were residents of Purple City where they used their background and the considerable distance from their clan\'s main grounds, to lord over the rest. Seeing their reactions, Yang Qing had doubts if they would have had the guts to replicate their crimes at any other place that wasn\'t that far away from the sight of their clan leader.

He couldn\'t help but sigh as his gaze fell on them. Even after he made the introductions and explained the rules of the court, none of them dared look up. Left with no alternative, he moved on to list their crimes as he presented the evidence, along with calling some witnesses.

The thirteen clan members were guilty of crimes one would expect to see from some silk-dandy young masters. Cases of bullying here and there, kidnapping, beatings all in the name of face, stealing wives and daughters, and the like.

They also funded a few of the gangs one of them being the Black Viper Gang from which Yang Qing had apprehended a blood fiend cultivator from within their ranks. It was the same gang that the Zou siblings associated with when they lived in Purple City. Its leader, Shu Wei, a second-stage core formation expert was among the list of witnesses. He sang like a canary, especially when he was made aware of what fate would befall him for having a blood-fiend cultivator within his ranks.

From their list of crimes, it was evident the thirteen Mo clan members weren\'t exactly the brightest of people. Their hubris and name were exploited and used by others for their gain, even the lackeys they had under them used them in one way or another.

With the chaos and crimes they committed, one could always see the trail of others pulling their strings, especially the subsidiaries of the Golden Bamboo Pavilion. They were the primary beneficiaries of those clan members\' arrogance and stupidity as they constantly used them to sow discord and chaos all overPurple City in an effort to undermine the City Lord\'s hold over the city.

In the end, after he listed out their crimes, not one of them offered a word of retort, as they all weakly admitted to their guilt in the matter, stammering as they did.

Yang Qing sentenced them to hard labor for one hundred years. As for what that hard labor would be, he left it to the penalties and rehabilitation office under the administration hall to decide. As the thirteen clan members were being taken away, they all seemed to burst with relief as they left the courtroom.

Throughout the whole proceeding, the clan leader, Mo Li, said no more than ten words, and the words he did speak, it was when greeting Yang Qing, and excusing himself after he was done with the sentencing. In between, he said nothing.