<h4>Chapter 871 Decay of the major families (9) </h4>


    From the reports collected on the n, currently, it operated more like a merchant n than a n whose roots were in alchemy. They chased lucrative deals all over with fervent passion to the point of undercutting others ruthlessly in the pursuit of those profits and connections.


    Anyone who wasn''t at a certain standard, they reduced their association with them, even with those they had a history with like what they did with the Zhang n by reducing the quota of support they provided them at the border in support of the war efforts.


    They suppressed whoever got in their way, be it the founding families like the Chen n whom they had a deep feud because the former had decided to try their hand at alchemy which the Gui n saw as their sole domain and property, or somepetitors with no background who refused to lower their heads and submit to them.


    They had be tyrants and cut throats in their conduct which was how they ended upnding in Yang Qing''s courtroom.


    Yu Gen led twenty-three of their nsmen into the courtroom and just like the Chen and Zhang family, the court had allowed provision for someone from their n to be present at the proceedings and even speak on their behalf should they wish to.


    The person who came was their supreme elder called Gui De. He was a quasi-pce stage expert. The reports showed he was their most powerful cultivator with a natural physique, the mist lotus weaver physique that gave him adept skills in illusory arts.


    Maybe due to the tense state of the Red Maple Empire, be it from the ruthlesspetition among the noble families, the veiled threat of the Golden Bamboo Pavilion, or dealing with the consequences of the bridges they had burned in their pursuit for wealth, whatever the reason, Gui De and a few others within the n had decided to focus solely on growing their martial strength. Despiteing from an alchemist n, Gui De had few aplishments in that area other than the bare minimum that one would expect from someoneing from a long-standing alchemist n.


    After they were all in the courtroom, Yang Qing went through the regr motions of introduction which involved exining the rules and the rights of all present, be it the court, the used, and the defendants before finally he moved on to the charges issued against those present.


    The Gui n had no involvement in blood fiend arts, like the previous two families, however, they had just as much blood on them.


    In their relentless pursuit to grow their wealth, and power and to ensure they remained the hegemons of alchemy, they used any and all means to that end. They operated on the motto of fearing the strong and bullying the weak and bully they did.


    Of those twenty-two present, some had hired assassins to kill theirpetitors with some even making special requests such as having the assassins especially torture them before they took their lives, there was even one Gui n member who had the assassins use mind maniption arts on one of theirpetitors and had him ughter his entire family. After he had done the deed, the spell was canceled and the scene along with the memory of what he had done came flooding back. That person ended up going berserk and took their own life by self-detonation.


    There were hundreds of cases that were simr to that one and every single one of them had a brutal ending to them. The Gui n were shown to be just as vicious as Chen Zhn who had his friend murdered and exploited the grief of that friend''s father.


    All the twenty-two Gui n members present were just another Chen Zhn, though if Yang Qing was asked, they were even more ruthless than Chen Zhn, at least with Chen Zhn, the target of his cruelty was Chen Xue, but with these Gui n members, they each had at least fifty victims each, on them, whom they arranged for the most merciless endings unimaginable...


    And the reason? A recipe that someone refused to share because it was thest legacy of their family having been passed down for thousands of years,


    Another, just because they supplied potions to a customer belonging to the Gui n despite the sale having no impact on their existing rtionship with the Gui n.


    Countless got tortured, and had their loved ones subjected to torment as they bore witness before finally being given a vicious death. Even until their death, Yang Qing didn''t think they found peace.


    Having your entire family tortured and ughtered ruthlessly, all because you sold a few earth-rank potions to someone who decided to buy them from you on a whim.


    Who would be able to find peace after something like that happened to them?Yang Qing sure wouldn''t.


    The investigation done on the n unearthed their rtionship with an assassin organization by the name of Underground Ferrymen. That assassin organization was rumored to be headed by a middle-stage pce realm expert who it was said had managed to execute a pce realm expert when he was in the quasi-pce stage.


    Whether that story was true, was of little consequence, what was true was, that the Underground Ferrymen had countless bodies on them, with some of them evening from some prominent rank three organizations. Their target went from individuals to entire organizations, from silent kills to spectacles, and the Gui n, some within their ranks at least, were shown to have deep ties with them dating back almost 4,000 years with even one of their members having married one of the assassins of the Underground Ferrymen.


    The investigation unearthed the ties, and the thread though didn''t lead to the head of the snake, it did lead to several high-


    ranking figures of the organization. After being worked on by the special inquisitors, those captured figures spilled everything including themissions they took on behalf of some of the Gui n members, and others that touched on cases other judges had.


    It was a windfall for the Order and even more so for Yang Qing, as those members had irrefutable evidence of what the Gui n had them do and the arrangements and agreements they had with each other. It was from that pile that Yang Qing discovered the Gui n had even gone to the extent of having the Underground ferrymen assassinate a few Zhang n members so they would be triggered to remain on the border out of vengeance.


    That wasn''t even the only frame job done at their behest, there were countless. About a third of the chaos in Red Maple Empire was at the machinations of the Gui family.