Su Xiaoxiao thought she was going to die.

At the moment when the man in sackcloth was about to turn around.

A demon pill was shaking violently.

This is the instinct she inherited from her fox demon bloodline.

She felt through her spiritual sense that there was a force locking onto her from somewhere, coming from some terrifying existence.

Is Xiaoxiao going to die? Will it be painful? What a pity... Xiaoxiao has never held hands with a man...

What surprised her was that at this moment, the Yousu clan that she was trying so hard to protect did not appear in her little head. Even her great-grandmother whom she had always thought about did not appear in her mind. In what might be the last moment of her life, she recalled a very ordinary thing.

It was a sunny afternoon in Qiantang Mountain. She was just a little fox who had just awakened to intelligence. She was lazily lying on a sunny bluestone slab and taking a nap. The warm breeze blew by, and the book beside her that she had never left since she picked it up was turning silently. She woke up in a daze, stretched out her little paws to press the pages of the book, turned over while holding the book, and continued to bask in the warm sun.

Friends in the tribe always say that she is silly because she keeps going around alone with a human book all day long. But only Su Xiaoxiao herself knows that in the narrow and closed little world of Qiantang Mountain, this book is the only bright color in her monotonous life. It turns out that the world outside is so wonderful.

A sudden voice interrupted Su Xiaoxiao's memories and broke the silence on the deck.

"stop!"

The man in sackcloth stopped and slowly turned around.

Everyone on the field looked in surprise towards the place where the sound came from.

Su Xiaoxiao also turned her head away stupidly.

In the crowd, several passengers hurriedly moved away for fear of being misunderstood, and soon only one person was left, standing there motionless.

Is it him? He... isn't he a bad guy? Su Xiaoxiao felt that her little brain was not enough.

Zhao Rong ignored the gazes of the people around him, and didn't even look at "Su Dahuang" whom he wanted to save. He walked forward a few steps, looked up at the man in the air, silently recited the sword formula in his heart, and raised his hand to tightly grasp the sword left by his mother at his waist.

Just when he was about to speak, Liu Sanbian pressed his shoulders, but he raised his hand and brushed it off.

Zhao Rong didn’t know what the other people on the field were thinking, but he felt that he should stand up.

Whether from his own perspective or from the perspective of a Confucian scholar today.

Because he wanted to ask, "Why?"

The man in sackcloth turned around and found that it was a Confucian scholar. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly. He looked at Zhao Rong coldly, and his gaze paused slightly at Zhao Rong's waist.

"You, don't accept my command?"

Only at this moment did Zhao Rong realize how stressful it was to be stared at by a sword cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage. He felt that what he breathed in through his mouth and nose was not air, but sand, and each breath was extremely bitter. If it weren't for Gui Suo's sword technique and the sword at his waist, he would have probably suffocated to death under that man's gaze.

Oh, is this what it feels like to have your life in the hands of someone else?

The sword in his hand trembled incessantly inside its sheath.

You're not happy too?

Zhao Rong looked up and confronted the man in sackcloth clothes with a fearless expression and scorching eyes.

"I don't agree. May I ask why you killed her?"

"Without the approval of the Sikou Mansion, a fox demon from the Su clan left Qiantang Mountain without permission."

"I am an ignorant boy. I don't know what kind of prohibitions the Sikou Mansion has on the fox tribe of Qiantang Mountain? I believe there must be some written laws. May I ask you, is leaving the mountain without permission really a capital crime according to the prohibition?" Zhao Rong took a step back, bowed, and then stared at the group of people in the air.

Zhao Rong was gambling on a guess he had made before. He saw Su Xiaoxiao's face full of surprise after learning about the Su clan's ban, as if she had never known about it before, so he had some guesses in his mind. Imagine if leaving the mountain without permission was a capital crime stipulated in the law, then the fox clan would definitely warn all clan members and strictly forbid them to leave the mountain. Therefore, there were only two possibilities for Su Xiaoxiao not knowing about it.

First, the ban has been implemented for too long and has gradually lost its enforceability, and the fox tribe has long since stopped taking it seriously.

Secondly, the ban does not impose severe punishment on those who leave the mountain without permission, or in other words, it does not impose severe punishment on ordinary fox demons in the tribe. It only strictly restricts those fox demons with high levels of cultivation in the tribe. They need to report to the Sikou Mansion when they go down the mountain, so the lower-level fox demons do not need to be informed.

The first possibility is very low, because from what Zhao Rong observed, the living environment of the demon race in the Xuanhuang Realm is not good. Looking at the expressions of the onlookers around, some were joking or indifferent, and they were probably accustomed to it. There must be many cultivators like the man in sackcloth who are hostile to the demon race. So how could the demon race slack off on the ban in such a harsh environment?

Then there is only the second possibility.

Zhao Rong felt relieved when he saw that no one from the Sikou Mansion responded and some of them frowned slightly.

"If the ban clearly stipulates that the little fox demon should be punished for leaving the mountain without permission, then the boy has nothing to say. He has obstructed the enforcement of the law and is willing to make amends and accept the punishment from the adults."

The man in sackcloth narrowed his eyes and said nothing.

The cold-faced woman at the side looked at the scholar holding the sword calmly with surprise. She just thought that he was a person who was trying to attract attention and it was useless for him to stand out. However, she didn't expect that he would be so orderly and straight to the point as soon as he spoke. He turned out to be a courageous and knowledgeable scholar.

She knew in her heart that Zhao Rong was right.

The Su clan of the Qiantang Mountain lineage participated in a struggle that they shouldn't have participated in, but the most wrong thing was that they stood on the wrong side. Later, they were demoted to Qiantang Mountain in the south of Wangque Continent on the grounds of violating the "Xuan Emperor Law" and were detained by the Sikou Mansion of Tianya Sword Pavilion. The ban stipulates that fox demons in the Tongyou realm and above are not allowed to go down the mountain without permission. If they violate the rule once, their tails will be chopped off. If they dare to commit the same offense again, their pills will be shattered.

However, the ban does not have any detailed provisions for fox demons below the Tongyou realm, which is equivalent to the Tianzhi realm of the human race. It only mentions that "other fox demons are not allowed to go down the mountain without permission" without mentioning specific punishments. It may be that the people who formulated this law did not care much about those little fox demons who had not even reached the Tongyou realm, or maybe they... gave them a break?

The cold-faced woman didn't know the details because it happened too long ago. She just learned some things by chance from an old file in the Sikou Mansion.

But what is certain is that this little fox demon with tears in her eyes and a pitiful appearance does not deserve to be executed. But who cares? The Sikou Mansion has always acted harshly and tyrannically. In many cases, they will not even explain to you what crime you have committed. After all, the punishment is unknown, and the power is unpredictable. So what if there is an unjust case? The majesty of the Sikou Mansion on the mountain is more important.

But I didn’t expect that something unexpected seemed to have happened this time. Someone actually dared to question the legitimacy of the Sikou Mansion’s law enforcement?

The cold-faced woman thought about this and glanced at the adult in front of her. What surprised her was that this adult, who always had a bad temper, did not slap the scholar to death with one hand today, but let him continue talking.

"But, if you don't punish me without saying anything, then I will be the first one to disobey. You can kill me, but I still want to say it..."

Zhao Rong's voice was clear and his tone began to become "aggressive".

All the eyes present were on him.

Su Xiaoxiao had stopped crying long ago. She knelt on the ground, raised her head, and stared at the man foolishly. She was stupid and could not understand what the man was saying, but she knew that someone was fighting for her slim chance of survival.

"If the person in front of me today was a wild cultivator who acted without restraint, I would never reason with him, because the strong prey on the weak, which is the way of this kind of people."

"but!"

"The one in front of me today is a monk from the Sikou Mansion who has been given power by the "Xuan Emperor Law" and has been entrusted with an important task by the Great Emperor of the Human Race. He is the one who should enforce the law impartially!"

"I am not convinced. I will ask you again, sir, why did you kill her?"

The whole audience was silent.

A gentleman has a broad mind and will speak out when he feels injustice.