“Foreclose on my fifty medicine halls?!”
On the eastern stage of the Cloud-Dragon Stone Bridge, Elder Dan scrambled to his feet, clutching his gold-brocade robe tightly around his round belly as cold sweat poured down his neck.
“King Pei Xuan! Don’t go too far!” Elder Dan shouted, trying to sound fierce even though his legs were shaking like jelly. “I handed over the deeds to the Three Great Herb Valleys according to the duel contract! As for that midnight raid on your pill factory—what proof do you have that I hired those thirty Black-Glove assassins?! Our fifty border medicine halls are the sacred property of the Myriad-Pill Pavilion! Without an official debt judgment recognized by the Central Continent Merchant Guild, even a king cannot seize a sect’s real estate!”
“Proof? And an official Merchant Guild judgment?”
Abacus Su stepped forward, smiling so brightly that his brass spectacles flashed like twin mirrors in the sun.
With a flick of his wrist, Abacus Su unrolled a fifty-foot-long scroll covered in thirty red thumbprints and official guild notary stamps!
“First,” Abacus Su read aloud through his loudspeaker conch so all one hundred thousand spectators on the riverbanks could hear every word, “here are thirty signed, thumb-printed confessions from Shadow-Commander Gui and his twenty-nine Rank 5 assassins—who are currently happily chopping garlic in our Royal Kitchen after eating three bowls of Chef Guo’s iced honey yogurt! They even drew a map showing the loose floorboard under your bed where you keep your secret accounting…
