The once bright future was now completely shrouded in darkness.
Fang Ming, hearing this, finally understood the difference between this world and ordinary martial arts worlds.
In ordinary martial arts worlds, there was a clear division between the martial arts community and the government. The saying "those who kill shall die" held little sway over high-flying martial arts masters.
Martial arts masters who killed usually dealt with matters according to so-called martial arts rules. The government clearly would not interfere, nor did it have the ability to.
"The martial world is the martial world, the dynasty is the dynasty," was a common saying among martial arts masters.
But this world was entirely different.
The strongest in the dynasty was the strongest martial artist, a master at the Immortal-Demon level.
Immortal-Demon level martial artists were called gods and immortals by the people of this world because they had reached the pinnacle of human potential. A single life was like an open book to them; if an Immortal-Demon level martial artist stood before an ordinary person, within a minute, they would know everything that person had done in their past.
Because martial arts were paramount, the dynasty's interference in the martial arts world was the greatest. The dynasty knew that if martial artists could not be restrained and were allowed to exist outside the law, the dynasty would surely fall into turmoil.
A dynasty that could not govern its martial artists, an emperor who could not govern its martial artists, was not truly a supreme emperor.
Therefore, under the rule of the Great Yi Dynasty, public challenges and open arena matches were permitted, but public murder was absolutely forbidden.
The Martial Emperor had once decreed that if a Grandmaster of Martial Arts killed an ordinary person without the court's permission, they would be judged according to the court's laws and apprehended.
Even if a宗师 (Zongshi - a high-level martial artist) broke the law, they were subject to the same punishment as a commoner.
Although this prohibition was often circumvented through loopholes, those instances involved creating various "accidents" to cause death in secret, which was entirely different from public murder.
Public murder, as a heinous act, would inevitably draw the absolute attention of the government.
Faced with the government's endless supply of martial artists, the most numerous and powerful force in this world, the killer was almost certainly doomed.
The law for killing was the same, and while the law for maiming might not result in a death sentence, it would at least lead to over ten years of imprisonment.
This explained why the surrounding people looked at Fang Ming with a mixture of astonishment at his young age and high martial arts cultivation, clearly a martial arts prodigy they hadn't recognized before, and pity for his impending doom.
They believed that if Fang Ming had merely intended to discipline the thief with a light punishment, the approaching soldiers would have said nothing, and Fang Ming would have faced no repercussions.
But in a moment of anger, he had unleashed a powerful attack on the thief, crippling him. This was an act of excessive self-defense.
If every martial arts master acted this way, it would be seen as defying the Great Yi Dynasty and treating its laws as nothing.
The Great Yi Dynasty would naturally not allow such a situation to occur.
And no matter how strong one was, unless they were an Immortal-Demon level martial artist, even the strongest Grandmaster would be utterly annihilated by the relentless tide of the government's martial artists.
This kind of forceful intervention was far from a wise way to protect oneself.
Some people looked at Fang Ming and shook their heads. Judging by his attire, he was likely a young master from a noble family. Why hadn't he let his servants handle it? Then his servants could have taken the blame.
Now that he had acted personally, there was no turning back.
From all directions, people held dim prospects for Fang Ming.
Some even went to report the incident to the authorities upon witnessing such a significant event.
Fang Ming, however, watched this scene with amusement.
"A world with such good laws, I've never seen anything like it before," Fang Ming thought to himself.
He could understand the medieval European world, but neither the zombie world nor the cultivation world had laws where powerful individuals who killed were subject to the same penalties as ordinary people.
In medieval Europe, it was because everyone was an ordinary person, with no powerful individuals.
The laws of this martial arts world, frankly speaking, were the best Fang Ming had encountered among so many extraordinary worlds.
It seemed that regardless of how things were handled in secret, public murder would undoubtedly provoke an unprecedented crackdown from the entire dynasty's power.
This was not a world where a certain number of powerful individuals reigned supreme.
Even the young talents on the Human Ranking were selected through public arena matches, and the fame of the Earth Ranking Masters depended not only on their martial prowess but also on their influence within the martial arts community.
The Great Yi Dynasty had done well in this regard.
They had strictly regulated the martial artists.
However, in doing so well, they had also fostered the existence of thieves like Jiang Caiying.
Now, from his perspective, the thief had turned around and used the law to threaten Fang Ming.
Jiang Caiying, standing on his side, now clearly understood that Fang Ming was not unskilled in martial arts; he was a martial prodigy with considerable strength at such a young age.
The reason he hadn't noticed before might have been that Fang Ming had deliberately concealed his strength (in reality, the fluctuation of cultivation energy was different from the internal energy of martial artists, making it undetectable), or perhaps Fang Ming had already practiced his martial arts to a state of returning to simplicity.
If Fang Ming had simply taught him a lesson, he would have endured it, considering it a harsh encounter and a significant loss.
But now that Fang Ming had directly severed his right arm, he could not tolerate it. This was a matter concerning his lifelong happiness.
Therefore, he no longer cared about anything else and was determined to have the authorities judge Fang Ming!
After a while.
Fang Ming had no intention of moving and continued to sit in the bookstore.
As for the county under the jurisdiction of the Great Yi Dynasty, upon hearing that someone had had an arm severed, and that too in broad daylight, naturally, someone reported it to the authorities. Such a significant event meant that the soldiers arrived quickly, without delay.
"Your Excellency, the Magistrate!"
At this moment, led by a group of constables in official attire, the local magistrate arrived.
Seeing the magistrate arrive, Jiang Caiying, the thief, was overjoyed. He knew that the magistrate's martial arts strength was the strongest in this county. The last time he competed for the title of Earth Ranking Master, he had narrowly missed the last spot, but it was only due to bad luck. In terms of strength, the magistrate was at least a "quasi-Grandmaster" level.
Even the young masters on the Human Ranking, the renowned young experts of the world, would be at a significant disadvantage against the magistrate, a quasi-Grandmaster.
With a magistrate of such strength arriving, there was no problem in apprehending Fang Ming.
"Rest assured, I will see justice done for you," the magistrate said to Jiang Caiying, looking at the severed arm lying on the ground.
The scene was rather peculiar: a magistrate assuring a thief that justice would be done for him.
A normal person would have laughed.
Fang Ming naturally smiled as well.
Seeing this, the magistrate became angry. "Kid, do you think the law is on your side? If any petty thief or pickpocket is to be punished with permanent disability, how will other crimes be judged?"