Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 486 Xiaojin’s Might (4)

"Mother, look!" Yueyue’s eyes widened as she tugged at Feng Xuxu’s hand, crying out in delight.

"Shh..." Feng Xuxu placed a finger on Yueyue’s little mouth to silence her exclamation.

Xiaojin unfurled its coiled body, its tail gently sweeping back and forth on the ground. Despite the gentleness, a layer of soil was overturned as if the earth had been plowed.

Just as the python raised its head, Xiaojin didn’t give it any chance, biting down hard and quickly injecting its venom into the creature’s body.

At that moment, the python bit into Xiaojin’s body, but in vain, for Xiaojin feared no poison. With a fierce flick of its tail, Xiaojin slapped it away. In the blink of an eye, before the crowd could react, the python let out a shrill scream. Its large body began to thrash about in the courtyard, its scream unceasing as it twisted wildly, sweeping through the flower beds and even breaking the Moon Gate with its tail.

Taking advantage of the commotion, Xiaojin silently reverted to its small form and slipped into the nearby flowers, quickly disappearing from sight.

After roughly the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the python slowly stopped its frenzied thrashing. After another half-stick of incense passed, the python lay motionless on the ground.

Xuan Yue and a few guards approached cautiously, using daggers to start slicing open the snake from its mouth downward, carefully extracting a fist-sized snake gall.

Yueyue excitedly stepped forward to take the snake gall, but was simultaneously stopped by Feng Xuxu and Dugu Chen.

"Father, Mother, just let me have it. I promise, the poison won’t affect me," Yueyue pleaded, her eyes shining with desire as she gazed at the large gall in her father’s hand.

Dugu Chen shook his head resolutely, "No, it’s not up for discussion."

Yueyue pouted, retreating to her mother’s side, looking aggrievedly at her.

Seeing this, Feng Xuxu shrugged her shoulders helplessly and spread her hands, indicating she too was powerless.

"Master." Di An dragged Zhang Feng by the collar and kicked him over to kneel before Dugu Chen.

Zhang Feng knelt trembling on the ground, utterly unprepared for these people to be so formidable, to have even killed his treasure. He felt a sudden bleeding in his heart; that was a treasure he had spent over ten thousand taels of Silver to acquire.

A chilling and piercing voice came through, "Raise your head."

Zhang Feng’s body shook as he obeyed, lifting his head to look at the person approaching. As soon as he saw clearly, his body went limp on the ground, he convulsed twice, and his eyes rolled back as he fainted.

Dugu Chen looked on with cold indifference and said to Xuan Yue, "Lock him in the dungeon. Once enough evidence is gathered, I want him flayed and quartered."

"Yes, Master." They picked up the person who had fainted on the ground intending to open the gate, but alas, they were trapped under a layer of silk netting.

After binding Zhang Feng, they searched the courtyard for the mechanism to deactivate the silk net. Persistence paid off when, finally, in a small corner, they found a protruding stone. With a gentle twist, they heard a ’click’ as the stone matched up with the socket, and the silk net overhead slowly closed, returning to its usual state.

When the soldiers saw this, they scrambled toward the gate, fleeing in a panic. Xuan Yue, carrying the bound Zhang Feng, made it to the dungeon but was stopped by the jailer.

"Who are you people, to dare arrest our Magistrate?"

Xuan Yue’s eyebrows lifted slightly as he reached for a token symbolizing his identity and handed it to the jailer.

The jailer was initially indifferent, but upon seeing the golden token, he took it and examined it carefully. Stammering, he said, "The, the, the Imperial Guard."

"Guaranteed genuine."

The jailer hurriedly wiped the token with his sleeve and respectfully passed it back with a smile full of flattery, "I was blind, not realizing the arrival of my lord. Please forgive this."

"Alright, lock up Zhang Feng and keep a strict watch. Should the prisoner escape, you can forget about keeping your head," Dugu Chen ordered coldly.

"Yes, yes, yes," the jailer hurriedly assured as he waved his hand, signaling two jailer captains to step forward. They picked up the unconscious body, and the jailer personally led the way to lock Zhang Feng in the Water Prison.

Xuan Yue nodded in satisfaction and with a graceful rise, vanished from the dungeon in the blink of an eye.

After the jailer secured Zhang Feng, he turned to seek favor, only to find no one behind him. Nervously, he asked the two jailer captains, "Did you see when that person left?"

Both jailer captains shook their heads, "We didn’t see."

The jailer closed his eyes in relief, glad that he hadn’t acted rashly, as it would have ended badly for himself.

"Deploy more men to guard Zhang Feng. If he escapes, not only will I not have an easy time, but neither will you," he warned the two jailer captains with a serious look in his eyes.

"Yes, yes, yes, we’ll guard him rigorously and won’t let him escape, guaranteed," they replied urgently. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Seeing their nods and bows, the jailer finally turned and exited the cell.