My Wife is Unbeatable in the Whole World, Touch Me If You Dare!-Chapter 419 - 281 Hidden Dangers

Li Nuo could not go to their homes to offer condolences—it would be too inappropriate, given that it was his father who had killed them. He had to consider the feelings of the bereaved families to some extent.

Thus, he was responsible only for coordinating arrangements at Honglu Si.

These few days, the officials of Honglu Si had also been discussing these matters.

From the mouths of these elder officials, Li Nuo occasionally learned of some past events.

More precisely, matters concerning his father's past.

When his father first entered officialdom, along with other young officials, full of ambition, he wanted to promote a series of reforms.

These included overhauling the Imperial Examination, abolishing hereditary titles, eliminating noble privileges, and implementing land reform...

For the common people, these reforms were positive, but each and every one of them touched upon the interests of the nobles and influential families. Back then, led by the Wang Family Head, various nobles conspired to deeply embroil them in a major case of treason.

In the end, out of nearly twenty newly Advanced Scholars, only his father survived.

And he survived by betraying his peers, thus preserving his life and earning a promotion.

So many officials and nobles could not have been involved in the case of the Eastern Palace, and those killed by the Ministry of Justice were precisely the participants of that past case, with everyone else being released without charge.

This could not possibly be a coincidence.

If treated with equal application of the Law, without a single innocent among them, all these nobles would be beheaded.

But the methods to kill them were not the usual ones.

The usual methods could not make them submit to the law.

From the perspective of Legalism, such actions did not conform to the rules; accusing someone of a crime with ulterior motives to kill them did not increase one's cultivation, but rather would harm it.

This was where Legalism faced a dilemma.

Those who did not practice Legalism did not have these concerns.

Alternatively, one could cultivate Legalism to an extremely high level, where one could completely follow the rules of their own heart, but even Anning was far from reaching such a realm.

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From a certain perspective, his father killing so many people was not a good thing for Li Nuo.

After reaching the Fifth Realm, a Law Practitioner's cultivation would become even more difficult to advance.

In fact, after the Fourth Realm, the growth of cultivation was extremely slow.

Although the cultivation gained from these cases did not diminish, the cultivation required for a Breakthrough was more than ten times what it previously was; relying only on ordinary cases, it was impossible to accumulate enough.

Killing more corrupt officials and powerful figures could indeed accelerate one's cultivation.

But the problem was, with the case of the Eastern Palace as a pretext, His Majesty had nearly eradicated all of Daxia's top-ranking nobles, leaving few for Li Nuo to kill.

An undeniable fact was that his greatest competitor on the path of Law Practitioner was his father.

What was ironic was that his father wasn't even a Law Practitioner...

What if all these people were his own accomplishments? How much longevity could he add, how much cultivation could he gain?

Of course, Li Nuo was merely fantasizing.

At the moment, he was powerless against those nobles; they had Death Exemption Tokens and could offset a death sentence with their titles. To deal with them, one had to use methods outside of Legalism...

…

Half a month had elapsed since the incident at the Eastern Palace.

It wasn't until yesterday that the market square returned to tranquillity, with no one being brought out for execution.

In that half-month, the market square truly resembled a river of blood, the paving stones were washed and dirtied again and again, an endless cycle that simply could not be cleansed.

Even now, the ground there could no longer reveal its original color; no matter how thoroughly it was scrubbed, one seemed to still detect a faint scent of blood when passing by.

During this time, over a hundred people had been beheaded here.

Of these, a large portion were nobles, and a small portion were officials.

In the face of the charge of conspiracy, it did not matter whether one was an Earl, a Marquis, a Duke, or a Commandery Prince, nor did it matter if they were high-ranking officials of the fourth or even the third rank; justice was indeed blind, and execution was swift.

Nobles uninvolved in the plot were also on edge, locking themselves at home, refusing visitors, afraid that the Ministry of Justice might come knocking with a fabricated charge of conspiracy.

The entire city of Chang'an seemed to be shrouded in a bloody haze.

However, the common people of Chang'an felt quite differently about it.

The spectacle at the market square provided daily entertainment. These high and mighty nobles and officials, who would not even deign to glance at them on ordinary days, were now, to their surprise, lined up and beheaded before their eyes.

The people didn't care whether these individuals had actually taken part in the conspiracy or not.

These powerful nobles had committed countless sins, too numerous to record; every single one, every household bore a heavy debt of blood. Now that they had come to such a fate, the common folk could only cheer with satisfaction.

In the case of the Eastern Palace, the Ministry of Justice was exceptionally ruthless with these nobles and officials.

Yet they displayed unexpected leniency towards the former accomplices.

Considering they were compelled at the time, the Ministry ceased to pursue the relatives of the deceased accomplices, and for the two surviving female officials from the Inner Palace, only they were executed, sparing their families.

Had the law been applied strictly, executing their entire clans would not have been excessive.

However, in this case, exterminating entire families was somewhat impractical.

The main culprits were King Han and King You; executing their clans would have implicated His Majesty himself, and the other nobles had inextricable links to the Imperial Family; a thorough execution would have left little of the royal bloodline.

Thus, the decision was made to execute only the key conspirators, which was a rare demonstration of leniency and mercy from the Ministry of Justice in this affair.

Looking back on the whole affair, King Han, King You, the nobility, and the Wang family along with their affiliates, had utterly lost in their clash with Li Xuanjing.

King Han and King You lost everything, and dozens of nobles met their end at the market square. The officials supported by the Wang family were purged in the affair. In just half a month, the Wang family, which had wielded the greatest influence in the court, was reduced to the weakest.

To destroy all this took but a few days.

But to regain their former glory, the Wang family would have to work for decades at least.

According to the conclusions of the Ministry of Justice, the Wang family was implicated in the incident at the Eastern Palace in those days, and given their relationship with King Han over the years, the accusation seemed quite credible.

However, aside from executing Wang Yue, the court did not delve deeper into the Wang family's involvement.

Likewise, the Wang family maintained silence over the death of Wang Yue and the purging of their line of officials.

But everyone knew this matter was far from over.

If the death of Wang Heng was merely a slap in the face to the Wang family,

this incident had uprooted them.

Behind this abnormal calm, a greater storm was brewing.

Imperial Palace.

In the Imperial Garden, two figures were playing chess.

The Xia Emperor looked years younger than he had half a month earlier. After contemplating for a moment, he slowly placed a chess piece down and said, "Is it time to stop yet?"

Li Xuanjing replied, "As Your Majesty commands."

The Xia Emperor took a light sip of tea and said, "This time, we've spared the Wang family no face; though they may bide their time for now, they remain a massive hidden danger."

Li Xuanjing picked up a chess piece and said, "Since things have come to this point, why doesn't Your Majesty finish off the Wang family entirely? Wouldn't that remove all concerns for the future?"

The Xia Emperor coughed, set down his teacup, and said, "Do you think I am like you, able to annihilate a whole family by contriving a charge? You might be shameless, but I still have some to uphold…"

Li Xuanjing concentrated on his chess, no longer speaking.

After some time, the Xia Emperor exhaled lightly and said, "Do you think I don't wish to eradicate the Wang family? If there were only the Wang family, it might be manageable; those two old fellows are of little concern. But if I moved against the Wang family, the other families certainly wouldn't sit by and watch. It would surely lead to chaos throughout the land, and the neighboring nations would not miss such an opportunity. Daxia might perish under my reign…"

His gaze deepened as he looked into the distance and said, "For a thousand years, no dynasty has wished to rid itself of the problem of the famous families; if I could achieve this, even if it cost me my life, I would have done my ancestors proud…"