Next Day.
Iron Needle Pavilion.
Splash! A bucket of bone-chilling icy water splashed against Tie Zheng and roused him from his unconsciousness. The tortured old man, whose figure now more closely resembled that of a mutilated corpse, trembled from the sudden chill, and instinctively spat out a response that had recently become ingrained in his bones.
“Dogf*cker!” cursed Tie Zheng, his half-lidded eyes blazing with weariness and contempt.
Usually, his disrespect would have been rewarded with a few flesh-tearing lashes with a serrated whip. This time, however, an unexpected reply followed.
“Criminal Tie Zheng,” the voice began. “For your crimes of treason against the Mu Household as well as your crime of foregoing your Oath to the Hegemon you have been judged guilty and are hereby sentenced to be executed in public. Your death will serve as a grim reminder to all those who wish to trespass the laws set down by the Hegemon.”
After announcing the verdict, the speaker stepped back and instructed the servants. “Prepare him well.” The servants complied and began by releasing the chains and cleaning his body, covering all the wounds and scratches and signs of torture until none of it was seen.
Tie Zheng, in the meantime, sat stiff and still; seemingly having lost his soul.
Time flitted around him and before he knew it, the disgraced Iron Judge was dressed in a coarse set of clothes and brought out of the torturous dungeon. A streak of sunlight hit against his pale face causing him to flinch and awaken from his daze. It was his first time seeing sunlight in a long time and he was unsure how many days had passed since his arrest.
Bound by iron cuffs and chains, Tie Zheng was dragged forward by a group of armoured guards bearing the insignia of the Mu Household. Having had his tendons broken and his cultivation destroyed, the weakened old man could not even hope to struggle and could only be helplessly dragged around by the guards.
He attempted to scream and rant about his injustice, only to belatedly realize that his mouth had been stuffed and bound. Even still, unwilling to remain quiet, Tie Zheng groaned and grunted. He attempted to appeal to the throngs of common citizens who were lining up on either side of his passage in hopes of moving someone to stand up for him.
Unfortunately for him, he was uninformed of the endless rumours and speculations that had smeared the names of him and his family.
“There he is. The disgrace of the North Aislu Continent.”
“Oh my. Did you see the look in his eyes? It was a look of depravity and perverseness!”
“Don’t look children. Don’t look at that thing; lest he cast something on us.”
People all around cursed and laughed as he passed them one after the other, their words falling in his ears and in his heart. At first, he was confused. However, as their words and gazes grew more and more unkind, Tie Zheng quickly came to realise the truth.
‘Don’t believe those rumours!’ He screamed; his cries turning into muffled grunts and groans. ‘Don’t you understand!? I’m being framed!!’
“T-this degenerate! Look at him groaning and grunting while looking at our children! Everyone, quickly hide your children!”
“Avert your eyes, beast!” As someone said those words, a small stone arced across the air and struck Tie Zheng on his forehead. The strike hit true, leaving behind a noticeable injury.
“Stone him! Stone the beast! Stone the degenerate beast!” Such cries began popping up within the spectating crowd causing an increasing number of people to aim rocks and pebbles and other such armaments at the disgraced elder.
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The public stoning quickly grew out of hand and the Mu Household guards were forced to step in and shield Tie Zheng. In mere minutes, the elder had been left battered and bloodied by the stoning.
Whatever hopes that he had previously possessed, this public stoning had ruthlessly crushed them all. Tie Zheng’s spirit, which hadn’t even been broken after days of continuous brutal torture, was swiftly crushed.
Alas, while the guards were able to block the rocks and stones, they were unable to block the jeers and curses hurled by the people. Their words drilled ever deeper into Tie Zheng’s heart, causing him untold amounts of pain and agony. In just a few minutes, he seemed to have grown older by years.
Eventually, after a walk that had felt endless, he arrived atop a specially prepared wooden platform. More guards appeared to unshackle him from his previous bonds and restrain him with ropes to a thick wooden pillar. Tie Zheng neither struggled nor resisted; he no longer had the heart to do so.
After securing him to the effigy, the guards and servants moved away. An Elder Judge from the Disciplinary Hall read his crimes to much cheer from the public. Voices condemning him and cursing him to an eternity of suffering sprung up from all over the Justice Overseeing Platform, the spot which would serve as the location for Tie Zheng’s fiery punishment.
Much clamour surrounded the disgraced judge but strangely none of it entered his mind. The world to Tie Zheng in these final moments had strangely gone quiet. It then went colourless. Scents, shapes, and figures, all of it disappeared until only a vast expanse of endless greyness was left.
“This is how you ‘properly’ frame someone,” a voice suddenly entered Tie Zheng’s ears.
Snapping his head up, the elder looked at the figure of an expressionless youth dressed in the regal attire of the Mu Family. His eyes glazed with unrecognition for a moment before suddenly lighting up with realisation. “You-! You are that child! Wu-Wuzhi! That’s right!”
Wuzhi, the only thing that existed within this endless grey expanse, appeared deaf to Tie Zheng’s words. Instead, he continued his monologue. “To frame a person is to trap them within a sandpit, stripping away their efforts, their agency, their free will until all that’s left is a simple puppet that dances according to the whims of its master.”
“This is what the chapter titled ‘Inveiglement’ from my teacher’s ‘Schemes and Strategies’ suggests.”
“You-! Did you do this to me!? Why!? Why did you!? What have I done to deserve this!?!” Tie Zheng roared.
“You tried to kill me,” replied Wuzhi.
“Kill you? No! Please! You don’t understand! It wasn’t my doing! I was ordered by someone to frame you!”
Wuzhi shook his head. “You tried to kill me. And as pathetic as an attempt that was, I can forgive you for that.”
A look of relief appeared on Tie Zheng’s face as if he was granted a heavenly pardon. However, as quickly as relief came, Wuzhi’s next sentence followed.
“But then, you had me bound in chains. Now that… is unforgivable.” When he spoke that final word, the grey space around them shook and trembled as if a great weight was pressing down upon it.
“You shall suffer the agony of being burned alive, Tie Zheng. And soon, your son will follow you to a similar end. Your daughter will live the rest of her life as a ninth-class wh*re, servicing the lowest of men in the lowest of places. She will not die. I will ensure that.”
“I will make sure that your family and legacy will bear the greatest infamy for every generation until the end of time. I will make sure that your crimes are never forgotten and that every time that your name is recalled, people will spit with disdain and revulsion.”
“This is my promise to you, Tie Zheng. I hope you remember that in the afterlife.”
A cold smile spread across Wuzhi’s face as the isolated grey space faded away.
---
“NOOOOOO!!!!” An unearthly scream of unwillingness and despair burst out from the distance as the raging fire finally consumed Tie Zheng entirely. A sequence of roars and cheers followed as people watched his figure slowly and painfully melt akin to a wax candle.
Seated amongst the stands alongside the judges, elders, and other members of the Mu Household, Wuzhi unblinkingly watched Tie Zheng’s final moments with an impassive face. Watching the older man’s life finally slip away he let out an empty chuckle before suddenly breaking out into a fit of coughs.
Wuzhi hurriedly retrieved a white handkerchief from his side and held it against his mouth. When his cough finally settled after a few minutes, he removed the handkerchief -now stained with large splotches of blood- and threw it to his guardian along with an instruction. “Burn this.”
Mana Rosemark, the fraternal twin of Collette Rosemark and a disciple of the Sacred Snow Heart Sect, caught the bloodied handkerchief and nodded her small head. “Yep, yep.”
“I’m tired. I want to return to my residence,” said Wuzhi.
Mana immediately scrambled to help him get up and handed him his crutches. After speaking a few words of goodbye to the Mu Household people, he descended the viewing stands with some difficulty and entered his prepared carriage.
With Mana quietly sitting across him and staring at the carriage ceiling with unequalled concentration, Wuzhi settled his tired body against the plush cushions and emptily gazed at the receding views outside the carriage while engrossed in thoughtful ponder.
Before long, they returned to the Mu Household residence.