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Ten minutes later, the transport van came to a halt.

The door swung open, and two inspectors stepped inside to take over from the prison guards, escorting Lu Liang out of the van.

There weren't many people outside the courthouse. Because this case involved the mayor's son, none of the media outlets would report on it, and only the parties directly involved were present.

A middle-aged inspector held a photograph in his hand. He stepped forward, compared the picture with Lu Liang, and nodded after a brief moment. “Identity confirmed. Take him in.”

Lu Liang remained silent as he followed them into the courtroom.

Inside, representatives from the Inspector Bureau sat on the plaintiff's side.

In the witness box, three young men wearing earrings and decked out in various designer brands sat with their legs crossed.

The moment Lu Liang walked through the door, the three young men turned to look at him, their eyes filled with provocation.

Seeing the three of them, Lu Liang's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. Clenching his fists, he roared, “You beasts!!!”

The leader of the group was a young man with middle-parted hair and gold-rimmed glasses. He was none other than the mayor's son, Fu Zilin.

Seeing Lu Liang roar, Fu Zilin's face curled into a sinister smirk. He opened his mouth and slowly licked his lips.

“Lu Liang, this is a courtroom, not a place for you to scream!” the middle-aged inspector barked, immediately grabbing Lu Liang by the neck.

The two inspectors holding him by the shoulders forced him forward, pushing his body down against a 1.2-meter-high iron railing.

Lu Liang's leg irons were locked to the iron barrier.

“Order in the court!” A middle-aged female judge sitting at the bench slammed her gavel heavily.

She glared at Lu Liang and said in a solemn voice, “Defendant Lu Liang, in accordance with the laws of the Nanming Kingdom, this is your final opportunity. Do you have any objections to the charges of raping and murdering your own daughter, Lu Xuan?”

Lu Liang stared at the judge, then looked at the three young men who were sitting with their legs crossed, wearing mocking grins.

He let out a bitter, mocking laugh. “Would an objection even matter? Do you even dare to sentence the monster who killed my daughter? Your presence here today makes you nothing more than their accomplice! You played a part in my daughter's murder too!”

As he spoke, he pointed a trembling finger at the judge in a fit of rage.

Seeing his reaction, the middle-aged female judge felt a surge of anger. How dare a mere condemned man speak to her like this?

She grabbed her gavel and slammed it down hard, saying furiously, “Lu Liang, do you think that just because you are going to die, you can slander a judge however you please? Let me tell you, there are many ways to carry out a death sentence.”

Standing up, she slammed the gavel once more and declared loudly, “The evidence against the defendant Lu Liang is ironclad, and his attitude is utterly atrocious. I hereby sentence him to execution by bludgeoning, to be carried out immediately!”

The trial skipped many standard legal procedures. After all, this was an internal hearing held behind closed doors, so they could do whatever they wanted without any outsiders watching.

Following the judge's pronouncement, an inspector responsible for recording the video turned off the camera and nodded toward the judge and the three young men, including Fu Zilin, in the seating area.

Fu Zilin stood up with a smirk on his face. “Lu Liang, do you see now? My family calls the shots in Ningcheng. Who do you think you are, a mere nobody trying to use the law to punish me? How utterly laughable.”

Suddenly, his smirk twisted into a sadistic grin. “Oh, by the way, your daughter was fantastic. Back then, I told her that if she didn't cooperate, I'd kill her entire family. Do you know what she did when she heard that? She actually begged us to take her, saying she'd do anything as long as we didn't kill her daddy. Hahaha!”

“You absolute beast!” Hearing those words, Lu Liang's eyes turned entirely bloodshot.

The iron chains binding his legs rattled violently under his frantic pulling. The metal ground against his skin, tearing it open and letting blood pour out.

At that moment, two inspectors stepped forward. They grabbed Lu Liang by the arms to lead him out.

When they were only a few meters away from Fu Zilin and his companions, the two inspectors suddenly froze. Their eyes went dull, and they released their grip on Lu Liang's arms.

Seeing this, Lu Liang knew this was Zhao Jin's doing. He immediately looked down at the sidearm holstered at the hip of the inspector next to him.

Without a moment's hesitation, he snatched the pistol. With a look of sheer madness on his face, he locked his gaze on Fu Zilin, who was barely five or six meters away. The smirk on the young man's face instantly froze.

Lu Liang pulled the trigger repeatedly, unleashing a hail of bullets at the three of them.

Bullet holes tore open Fu Zilin's chest and neck. A look of sheer terror washed over his face as he gasped, “Help...”

In the next instant, his body collapsed backward against the table behind him. His carotid artery had been severed, and blood sprayed over a meter away like a ruptured pipe.

He wasn't the only one; the two young men beside him also had several bullet holes ripped through their bodies, their faces contorted in agony.

“Ah!”

“Save me... it hurts so much...”

Screams and wails echoed throughout the courtroom. The court staff stood frozen in absolute shock at the scene.

Lu Liang kept pulling the trigger even after the gun ran dry, tears streaming down his face. “Hahaha! So you actually know what pain feels like! Then why didn't my daughter get spared from the pain?! She was even more terrified than you are!”

The inspectors' standard-issue pistols were typically loaded with ten rounds, and Lu Liang had emptied all ten of them.

“Ahhh!!!”

“Someone get in here! The convict is killing people! Kill him! Kill him now!!!” the middle-aged female judge shrieked in terror from her bench.

The rest of the staff scrambled in panic to flee the courtroom, while the inspectors stationed outside drew their firearms and rushed in.

Total chaos erupted. Every face in the room was twisted with a different shade of panic.

Zhao Jin sat quietly in the corner, enjoying the spectacle. His eyes narrowed slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips.

The inspectors who had rushed inside opened fire on Lu Liang, bullet after bullet tearing into his body.

Blood soaked his clothes as Lu Liang collapsed straight to the floor. Yet, a smile remained etched on his face—the smile of someone who had finally exacted his vengeance.

Watching this, Zhao Jin turned and left. For him, his objective had already been achieved.

Next, he would prepare for Lu Liang to crawl out of hell, just like the legendary Butcher.

News of the courtroom shooting quickly swept through Ningcheng's high society, as the deceased was none other than the mayor's son.

Inside the courthouse security room, Chief Wang Pingcheng was personally reviewing the surveillance footage.

There were simply too many suspicious aspects to the incident. Why had the two inspectors frozen in place for no apparent reason?

When he spotted a figure wearing a suit and a fedora sitting in the corner, his expression instantly turned grim. It's him!

No one knew who Zhao Jin really was. Even after extensive database cross-referencing by the authorities, they could not find any identification records on him.

His appearance meant that things had suddenly become far more complicated, even if they couldn't see what his angle was just yet.

The door to the security room was pushed open, and Fu Guang walked in, his eyes bloodshot. “Chief Wang, have you found anything? Those two inspectors are still desperately denying that they were in cahoots with Lu Liang.”

Wang Pingcheng pointed at Zhao Jin's figure on the screen and sighed helplessly. “Mayor Fu, that individual was involved. Fu Zilin's death was highly likely caused by him. The higher-ups have already issued strict orders—our Inspector Bureau cannot make a move against him. We can only report intelligence.”

Hearing this, Fu Guang clenched his fists. He had received the same notification. He knew that the higher-ups no longer trusted them.

“I understand.” Fu Guang turned and left. Facing such an existence, even he was completely powerless.