47. Trial 1

Chen Liju felt a little bit fuzzy and disoriented as she stumbled out of the small makeshift toilet. She was confused and held her head in her hand as she looked around the both familiar and unfamiliar compound wondering why her head felt so heavy.

Even the two distant male voices yelling inside the house didn't seem to bother her as she looked around the compound. It was a fairly sized compound which had a single massive house where the yelling was coming from.

A cow pen and chicken coop stood on one side of the massive backyard. A sprawling maize field thrived just behind the small makeshift toilet and she sighed as she looked around for a while before stumbling towards the house.

Her movements seemed to slowly become smoother the more she walked giving her the motivation to hasten her pace to the house before stopping in her tracks and staring at the house with a frown.

She was a little hesitant and wondered if she should give the father and son some more time to argue and calm down before walking back in but dismissed the idea and slowly walked back to the front of the house and into the parlor where she had been received by the friendly old man.

Her eyes curiously darted around the empty compound as she wondered why they had both suddenly become so quiet and hoped to catch s glimpse of the son the old man had said would come back from the field and show her around the mountains.

She was still doing this when she walked in and momentarily froze as she took in the sight of the now stabbed and profusely bleeding old man who was laying on the ground writhing in pain.

She didn't have to think before she quickly run up to his side and held onto his outstretched hand. Her tiny chubby arms tightly held onto his as she stared into his eyes that were slowly letting out a stream of tears.

He looked so sad and accepting as he looked up at her and softly smiled before speaking up in his hoarse voice. "I am so sorry you had to see this"

He apologized probably feeling guilty for involving a child in whatever was going on here. "How are you feeling?"

She asked ignoring his apology as she stared down at his bleeding chest. Her eyes were filled with a faint hint of purple as she studied the wound getting ready to heal him.

Her hands had barely held onto the knife and bleeding wound when the old man suddenly held them prompting her to look up into his eyes.

He knew that she wanted to heal him and had the power to do so but he didn't want it he was tired of living in this world and wanted her to let him go she quickly understood this and nodded before retracting her hands.

She did not feel anything as she watched him painfully leave the world and even though he was a high level person and his death would cause a lot of chaos and add on to her work she still quietly accompanied him in his last moments.

Not because she cared for him or pitied him but because it was their deal, she would stay here and traumatize herself in exchange for his land ownership agreements.

So a few minutes later when he finally breathed his last she got off the ground and calmly walked deeper into the house and looked around for his land ownership papers and a set of clothes before walking back next to his now lifeless body.

She stared down at him and clicked her tongue with annoyance before pulling out the knife and easily stopped his bleeding before quickly cleaning him up using a magic spell.

She was still busy cleaning him up and dressing him up when she heard a commotion from outside a crowd of people seemed to be teaming outside as they walked together to enter the compound.

Her pace quickened and she had just finished cleaning him up when the group made it into the house. A tall well built young man seemed to be the one leading the mob as he quickly rushed forward and shook the old man's lifeless body before dramatically yelling out in anguish.

"You killed him, you killed my father!" he declared loudly successfully riling up the mob behind him as a few men suddenly lurched towards her.

She stood still in shock as she stared at the wailing young man that had killed his father a few moments before and failed to escape the incoming men who were intent on grabbing her.(⁠๑⁠•⁠﹏⁠•⁠)

One hand was just about to grab the fringes of her dress when it disappeared before a scared yelp rung out in the room. A few more painful yells followed before she finally saw them and sighed in relief.

Her blue robed guards had finally arrived and taken care of the mob before walking up to her and standing around her small figure defensively.

The young man seemed to finally notice his mistake and had stopped wailing as he now looked up at her childish face in fear. She ignored all this and turned around from him before walking out the house.

She had earlier seen her guards throw out the mob and had thought the crowd would disperse and was shocked to see them quietly standing outside the house as if waiting for something.

She was confused by the sight and turned to her guards in question wondering if they had anything to do with this prompting one of them to step forward before bending down to her level.

"We told them you had something to say." a deep voice suddenly whispered into her ear making her nod in understanding before turning to the still waiting crowd.

"Good afternoon everyone," she started by greeting them all with a perfectly audible voice shocking most of them.

They didn't understand how such a young child would be able to speak so loudly that they could all clearly hear her and were yet to get used to the phenomenon when she continued with her speech.

"As some of you may have seen earlier your regional elder has sadly left us." she announced with a mournful voice making sure they would feel the sadness she felt in her words.

"He was stabbed to death by a very viscous person who I will make sure to apprehend before my departure but for now I would like to invite you all to take part in his burial rights ceremony here in this very compound in a few days.

Anyone who is closely related to the family are also allowed to visit this compound to grieve with his family during this sad times. Thank you all for the support you have shown for rushing here to help him and I am sure the gods will reward you for your actions."

She finished her speech with these words and proceeded to quickly flee from the compound as she had to quickly rush over to her current accomodations where her dad and aunt would be waiting.

Thankfully the rocky terrain of the Yuzhou prefecture had turned the what was supposed to be soily path into a smooth pavement like path that was friendly to her short stubby legs that she now used to quickly make her way down the familiar village paths.

Clear Waters Village was a big village located within the Yuzhou prefecture and was mostly known as a farming hub as a huge mine was located in the village next to theirs causing them to become their major source of agricultural products.

Song Ming also know as old man Song was the one who had made all this possible as he owned majority of the land in the village and had made the deal with the mining village before hiring the villagers to all work in his farms.

Many of the villagers were very great full for all his help as they believed that he had to struggle a lot to make the mining village agree to his arrangements unaware that he actually owned the mines and was just looking for a cheaper way to feed his miners.

So now you can imagine just how much his and untimely death would immensely affect both of the villages and the entire region as a whole.

She was still thinking about all this when she finally arrived at the small compound that had been her home for the past few weeks before making her way in to find her father and aunt busy talking about something.

The compound was fairly sized and held three buildings with two acting as their sleeping areas and one acting as the kitchen and common area. Her father and aunt were sitting outside the moment she entered the compound and immediately noticed her rushed actions.

"Did something happen?"Her father asked urgently getting off his seat and walking towards her.