Face twitching, he realized that anything he did now would be as ineffective as punching a pillow. Not only was Bai Xiaochun’s status particularly unique, but he had given away fish to too many people. The Saint-Emperor could already feel a big headache coming on.
In terms of punishing Bai Xiaochun… he obviously couldn’t execute him. And locking him up didn’t seem like a viable option either. He could levy a fine, but at the moment, Bai Xiaochun had almost no wealth. Clearly, he didn’t have anything to fear in that department.
In terms of his special status… the Saint-Emperor had come to the conclusion that the best thing would be to just send him away from the capital city!
“Well played, Bai Xiaochun. You’re forcing me to let you go!” A moment later, the Saint-Emperor waved his right hand toward the heavenly pond, causing a frigid qi to erupt out from the imperial city.
In the blink of an eye, cracking sounds filled the air as the heavenly pond began to ice over. After ten breaths of time passed, the surface of the lake was solid ice!!
It was now completely sealed, making it impossible for anyone with a cultivation base lower than the Saint-Emperor’s to do any fishing!
“Let’s see how you fish now!” he growled to himself. Swishing his sleeve, he ignored the three celestials and went back into the cistern to continue his session of secluded meditation.
The celestials eyed each other, cleared their throats, and then left.
Soon, news was spreading everywhere about the pond having been sealed. Bai Xiaochun got word from the court officials that he had become friendly with. Although there was a bit of a commotion, it wasn't a huge deal.
In fact, despite not being very happy with how it had been handled, many people breathed sighs of relief that this particular crisis had now been resolved.
“So stingy!” Bai Xiaochun grumbled. “He’s a mighty Saint-Emperor! There are more than 20,000 heavenly dragonfish left in that pond! I only got about 3,000 so far. I'd say 10,000 would be a good limit. I invested a lot of Fantasy Pills into this venture!” Despite all of the heavenly dragonfish he had eaten so far, he was still quite a distance away from a cultivation base breakthrough. It was a real pity.
However, the sight of the heavenly pond covered in ice caused him to hesitate….
“Weird. Something about it seems off.”
Please go to
install our App to read the latest chapters for free
Chapter
1064: You’re Gonna Regret This....
Bai Xiaochun was already famous for kidnapping Ghostmother, as well as for his status as the Arch-Ancestor of the Heavenspan Realm. But now… he was even more famous, thanks to the heavenly dragonfish.
It was almost overnight that the name of Duke Heavenspan Bai Xiaochun rocked all of Saint-Emperor City.
“Did you hear? Duke Heavenspan caught over 3,000 heavenly dragonfish, but in the end, His Majesty the Saint-Emperor didn’t punish him at all!”
“Not only did he not punish him, the venerable Saint-Emperor actually sealed up the entire heavenly pond!”
“He actually forced the Saint-Emperor to seal the heavenly pond…? This Bai Xiaochun is totally unfathomable! I bet if you gave him another half a month, he would catch so many heavenly dragonfish they'd go extinct!” All sorts of talk spread within the city, and once again, Bai Xiaochun felt what it was like to be the center of attention. The number of eyes that locked onto him when he went out was now many times greater than before.
Wherever he went, people would point at him and whisper to each other….
“Seems I really am just too outstanding. Not even the cultivators in the Eternal Immortal Domains can restrain their emotions when looking at me.” He cleared his throat as he reveled in the sensation. To him, it didn't feel strange at all. After all, he had experienced situations like this many times before.
However, even as he was sighing in contentment, the Wildlander Heavenly Marquis Liu decided to take this opportunity to pen a long speech to deliver to the Saint-Emperor, in which he thoroughly excoriated Bai Xiaochun!
The next time court was in session, Heavenly Marquis Liu walked out in front of all of the court officials, and clasped hands formally to the Saint-Emperor. Then he delivered his speech, barely stopping to take a breath as he spoke.
“I, your servant, will explain the means by which Bai Xiaochun stole the heavenly dragonfish!
“Based on your servant’s extensive analysis, as well as my understanding of Bai Xiaochun, plus a significant expenditure on my part to purchase an actual heavenly dragonfish to study, I finally understand what happened!
“Your Majesty, Bai Xiaochun definitely used some type of medicinal pill!
“I don't know much about the medicine concocting techniques of the Heavenspan Realm, but I do know that they are different from those in the Saint-Emperor Dynasty. Therefore, I am convinced that he used some special medicine to wreak calamity on the venerated heavenly dragonfish, and steal them away!
“The heavenly dragonfish are innocent victims, and also national treasures. They are unfamiliar with the wickedness that lurks in the human heart. Thus, they were cruelly slaughtered, in the most egregious and unprecedented miscarriage of justice to have ever been perpetrated since the founding of the dynasty! Men and gods alike are angered, and thus, I wish to demand redress for the grievances of the heavenly dragonfish. Your Majesty, I implore you to throw Bai Xiaochun into the heavenly pond and let the fishes eat him!”
Bai Xiaochun gasped in response to his words. Court was held once a month, and this was his first time attending. He had been nervous at first, worried that someone would bring up the heavenly dragonfish. As the court session went on, it seemed like no one planned to. The Saint-Emperor was as warm as ever, and had seemingly calmed down.
But then, in completely unexpected fashion, Heavenly Marquis Liu had suddenly jumped out with his accusations. It was really infuriating.
“Alright, Old Liu,” he murmured inwardly. “I see how it is. Back when I was handing out heavenly dragonfish, I gave some extra to you, for the sake of the Heavenspan Realm. And now you want to feed me to the fishes? Oh, you just wait and see what I’ve got coming for you!” Chuckling coldly in his heart, he began to come up with a plan for how to teach Heavenly Marquis Liu a lesson. Back in the Wildlands, he'd ended up running away to the Great Wall, but now, he had nowhere to escape to!
Many strange expressions could be seen on the faces of the officials in the square. They looked at Heavenly Marquis Liu, and then at Bai Xiaochun, and nobody spoke. Quite a few people were frowning coldly at Heavenly Marquis Liu.
It wasn't that people had suddenly switched to siding with Bai Xiaochun. Normally speaking, they would have loved to hit him when he was down. However, they had all accepted gifts of heavenly dragonfish from him. Although they regretted doing that, what was done was done. Even the Saint-Emperor didn’t want to bring the matter up again, and was a bit frustrated that this Liu fellow was so foolish as to bring the matter up in court.
A frown appeared on the Saint-Emperor’s face. After all, Bai Xiaochun was the ringleader of the heavenly dragonfish disaster, but almost all of the other important people in the aristocracy had joined in….
It was a big headache no matter what way he looked at it. Furthermore, in the past, he would never have even thought to eat a heavenly dragonfish. As they were national treasures, he only gave them out as gifts. But now….
As far as what Heavenly Marquis Liu had just pointed out, it was nothing the Saint-Emperor didn’t already know. After the main event played out, he did a deeper investigation of the heavenly pond, and found evidence pointing to that very conclusion. However, by that point, it didn't matter. Besides, Bai Xiaochun had been very careful, and only the most trace and vague evidence had been left behind.