The merchants who had lived through it were still not over the fright, and their faces were hard to read.

They were all Qingzhou men. Most of them knew each other, and some had been business partners once... And now they had died like this, wretchedly, with nothing left of them that could be called dignity.

Pan Yucheng had soldiers clearing the room before Ning Chen needed to say anything.

Ning Chen looked at the bodies on the floor, his face stony. "This prince said it before. Join the evil cult, or shelter its people, and you will be punished without mercy."

"Niu Anguo."

"This officer is here!"

Ning Chen pointed at the bodies and said in a low voice, "These men here. Confiscate every household... The men into exile, the women into the courtesans' quarter."

"This officer obeys!"

Niu Anguo went to see to it.

The surviving merchants sighed one after another. Every one of these men had come of a great family while he lived... and for joining an evil cult he had ended with his house broken and his family destroyed.

Ning Chen rubbed at his brow and let out a long, heavy sigh.

He looked around at the merchants beside him, every one of them still shaking, and asked with concern, "Is everyone all right?"

They thanked him, all of them, for the shelter he had given them.

Ning Chen shook his head and sighed. "Qingzhou has had a disaster. The people are starving and freezing, and every hour of the day more of them die... This prince feels as though a knife were turning in his heart.

These damnable creatures. Rich, and not a scrap of mercy in them, and then they joined an evil cult and brought ruin on Qingzhou. Lower than animals.

This prince has two lines to give you... In poverty a man perfects himself alone; in success he brings good to all the world. What became of these men should be a warning to every one of you." (TL Note: 窮則獨善其身，達則兼濟天下, from Mencius — a man with nothing owes the world…