Chapter 434 - 307: Shocking the World

Chapter 434: Chapter 307: Shocking the World

Ten days later, atop the gatehouse of the new city’s north gate—the main gate that faced the official road and towered a full hundred meters high! The day was clear, and a scorching sun had enveloped all of Penzes City since early morning, turning the entire city into a steamer. The newly paved, smooth stone slabs, relentlessly baked by the sun, were scalding to the touch.

In this ghastly weather, no one wanted to take a single step out of their homes, save for those who absolutely had to. The big, round sun was so blindingly bright it was almost impossible to keep one’s eyes open. So, being able to stay at home and sip on sour plum soup chilled in the cellar was an incredible luxury.

And yet, right there at the new city’s north gate, hundreds of people had gathered. They craned their necks to stare up at a dark terracotta pot on the hundred-meter-high gatehouse, their faces filled with terror. As they pointed at the pot, many of the more timid onlookers took one glance before turning to leave in fright. Most people, however, remained, speculating and murmuring about who could have committed what crime to warrant such a punishment.

After all, it was common knowledge that Lord Ling Xiao of Penzes City was a genuinely good man!

This was the consensus among the hundred thousand citizens of Penzes City: their Lord was a benefactor of unprecedented kindness! They had never seen any noble treat the people of their lands the way their Lord did!

In the first year, those farming the Lord’s land were required to turn over half of their earnings. If a natural disaster caused a total crop failure, the Lord would provide them with relief grain from his own reserves, and also give them free seeds for the following year.

For the commoners who had never owned land before, this was almost impossible to believe, like a dream come true! ’Is this real? Can the Lord truly be so benevolent?’

There were always braver souls who decided to test it. As it turned out, it was just as Lord City Lord Mo Qing had announced: people whose lands had been hit by torrential rains the previous year, leading to a total crop failure, had indeed received relief grain and seeds for the current year from the City Lord’s Mansion!

What excited the citizens of Penzes City even more was that, starting this year, those who farmed the Lord’s land only needed to turn over a mere one-tenth of their earnings!

This policy even drew condemnation from every noble in the Empire! On their own lands, massive numbers of the poor began to flee toward Penzes City, and Li Fu and Mo Qing did nothing to stop this phenomenon, nor did they even inform the other nobles. In any case, there were vast tracts of barren land outside Penzes City. As long as a person was willing to work hard, whoever reclaimed the land could own it! And they, too, would only have to turn over one-tenth of their earnings!

As a result, the population of Penzes City exploded, rocketing from around two hundred thousand to over five hundred thousand people! Penzes New City had become a true, major city! The Penzes City of today was even more prosperous than the Imperial Capital!

Within Penzes New City, there was also an Inner City. The walls of the Inner City were not very high, only a little over ten meters. Moreover, the Inner City had only a single gate, above which were two large, flamboyantly calligraphed characters: "Shushan." No one understood what those two characters meant.

In any case, the only people living in the Inner City were the Lord and his soldiers. Some who had seen inside said the architecture was plain and monotonous, even less attractive than the residential districts. Over time, people lost interest in the Inner City.

But today, that terracotta pot had suddenly appeared on the new city’s main gate. The pot was very narrow—it would be difficult for even a half-grown child to squeeze inside. And... the pot wasn’t large, only a little over half a meter tall! Yet it somehow held an old man, with only his head showing.

One could only imagine that the man’s limbs must have been removed. Though he had long been dead, some of the more powerful Adventurers in the crowd with keen eyesight could clearly see the ferocious, pained grimace on the old man’s face. And despite the hundred-meter distance, they could almost feel the baleful aura emanating from his body, even in death.

Instantly, the crowd was filled with renewed curiosity and speculation about the Lord of the Inner City, who was almost never seen. A newcomer to the city couldn’t help but remark, "Gods, what a cruel punishment. It seems the Lord City Lord here is a truly brutal man!"

His words immediately angered many people in the crowd. Someone shot him an angry glare and snarled, "What nonsense are you spouting! Do you even know the Lord? Damn it, keep talking trash and we’ll run you out of Penzes City! Our Lord is the best person in the world! That man in the pot must have committed some unforgivable, heinous crime. He must be a great villain to deserve a punishment like that!"

The man hadn’t expected his casual remark to cause such a backlash. He was an Adventurer himself, with the strength of a Middle-tier Great Sword Master, and wasn’t about to let himself be insulted. He glared back at the speaker and retorted, "What, is this Lord your father or something? How are you so sure that man was a villain? What crime did he commit? Even if he committed a crime, he shouldn’t be tortured like this! Let alone be put up there for public display!"

The man never expected his words would be like poking a hornet’s nest. A moment ago, only a few people were paying him any mind, but the instant he spoke, dozens of cold stares fixed on him. Then, a man whose aura was clearly more powerful than his own frowned and said coldly, "He shouldn’t be tortured like this? If someone were to kill your family, burn down your house, seize your land, rape your women, and then slaughter your entire clan... I wonder if you’d still be saying such things. If you want to make a name for yourself, you’d best first consider where you are. As an Adventurer, surely you understand that the more one talks, the more one is bound to misspeak?"