The Magistrate of Jiyang County had experienced quite the dramatic day.
He had originally been reclining in his concubine’s arms, enjoying wine, when a man and woman suddenly descended from the sky into his courtyard. The man did not even introduce himself before immediately demanding to know why, with the sun high in the sky, the magistrate was not at the county yamen working.
The magistrate was completely confused and wanted to ask who the man was, but before he could, the man imperiously issued an order: receive more than two hundred displaced people who had fled from the Shuntai region.
Shuntai was separated from this place by mountains upon mountains and rivers upon rivers. Why in Heaven’s name should he be responsible for taking them in?
The magistrate was preparing to ask when the man said coldly, “Neglecting your duties, indulging in sensual pleasures and debauchery. I’ll leave your life on account for now. If you mishandle this as well, We will return and collect it together with the rest!”
The magistrate had not cared much about the accusations at first. He assumed some “righteous wandering hero” had appeared out of nowhere to uphold justice without understanding his own limits, but the instant the man referred to himself as “We,” the magistrate sobered by eighty percent.
He stared at the man and desperately compared his appearance with every description he had heard of the Southern Yu emperor. The comparison only made his heart pound harder.
But whenever the Son of Heaven traveled, there should be an entire imperial procession. The young man in front of him was absurdly lightly accompanied. Or perhaps… was this woman enough to count as a hundred guards by herself? The magistrate’s gaze unconsciously drifted sideways.
Although the man had seized the initiative, the woman beside him was simply too breathtakingly beautiful. The magistrate’s heart began pounding after a single glance. He was just about to steal another when the pair leapt over the wall and disappeared.
He stared at the empty courtyard, and his heart felt equally empty. He hurried back to his concubine and asked whether she knew what had just happened.
The concubine was badly frightened. She had been leaning beside the window and had heard their entire conversation, but she did not dare say so directly. She only claimed she had been too far away to hear clearly.
The magistrate murmured, “So a man and woman really did come here just now?” He had begun doubting whether the entire encounter had been real.
He hurriedly changed clothes and returned to the yamen, summoned the runners, and ordered them to investigate the southwest and find out whether a large group of displaced people was approaching. At the same time, he cursed every magistrate along the way for behaving inhumanely enough to throw this hot potato into his hands.
One runner returned in less than a quarter of an hour.
The magistrate cursed him. “Bastard! You dare slack off right in front of this official? In that amount of time, did you learn how to fly there and back?”
The runner looked terribly wronged. “The headman of Xu Village came. He said one of their hunters saw displaced people.”
The magistrate hurriedly ordered someone to bring in the village headman, then turned and asked his secretary where Xu Village was.
The secretary dipped a finger into water and drew a simple map on the table.
The magistrate asked, “What if we settle them there directly?”
The secretary was horrified and immediately urged him to reconsider. Resettling displaced people could increase the population, but it also carried risks. Banditry was rampant throughout Southern Yu, and it was not unheard of for mountain bandits to disguise themselves as refugees and then sack a county town.
In truth, settling two hundred people was not difficult. The magistrate simply feared that the flying man really had been the emperor, while also fearing that the entire affair was some martial artist’s deception that would leave him with a future disaster.
While he was still agonizing over it, another runner came in and said Young Master Jin had arrived with another young gentleman to request an audience.
The magistrate was about to ask what Jin, silver, or bronze gentleman they were talking about when his secretary reminded him that Young Master Jin was a wealthy tea merchant, very famous in local business circles.
The magistrate thought for a moment, temporarily set aside the irritating matter of the refugees, and decided to receive his major taxpayer first.
Pei Yuan Jin had already changed completely from head to toe. His clothes were made of ordinary cloth, but with his face, physique, and bearing, he still looked outstanding. Duan Qian had disguised himself thoroughly. His features were entirely ordinary, and standing beside Pei Yuan Jin, he resembled a servant.
Thus, the moment the magistrate entered, he walked straight toward Pei Yuan Jin. “Hahahaha! Young Master Jin, apologies for keeping you waiting.”
Duan Qian, who could only see the side of the magistrate’s face: “…”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Turn right.” The magistrate froze. “What?”
Duan Qian had already moved closer. “It has been since last year that I last saw Your Excellency. Your Excellency remains as distinguished as ever!”
The magistrate immediately understood he had mistaken the wrong person and laughed awkwardly. “Hahaha! Young Master Jin, however, has become even more impressive. I almost failed to recognize you.”
After exchanging pleasantries, Duan Qian explained his purpose. “My elderly mother received a dream from Guanyin telling her to relieve suffering and save those in distress. But under Your Excellency’s rule, doors need not be locked at night and lost property is never pocketed. Where could anyone suffering possibly be found? Conveniently, one of my workers saw a group of displaced outsiders near Xu Village. Presumably Your Excellency’s excellent reputation has spread so far that these people traveled thousands of li specifically to seek refuge here. I imagine this is precisely what Guanyin meant in my mother’s dream. So I will decide on her behalf to donate one hundred shi of grain to assist Your Excellency in resettling these people. Consider it adding flowers to brocade.”
Elio’s Notes: A shi was a traditional Chinese grain measure. Its exact modern equivalent varied by period and region, so the source quantity is best left in the original unit.
The magistrate thought, Why is it this again? Just what kind of background do these two hundred refugees have? Gods in Heaven and emperors on Earth are all speaking on their behalf.
He had originally feared the supposed emperor was fake and the refugees were part of some martial artist’s scheme. Now, after hearing Duan Qian’s words, he made up his mind. He would take the refugees in first. If anything later went wrong, he could simply push this Young Master Jin forward and accuse him of colluding with refugees and plotting rebellion.
Once he thought it through, his face blossomed into a delighted smile. “Madam Jin must possess tremendous blessings to receive guidance from Guanyin in a dream.”
And just like that, the matter was settled.
When the old farmer abducted Tan Bu Ju, many of the displaced people had been nearby. They were terrified that the incident would implicate them. Now that the government was willing to take them in, they were naturally overwhelmingly grateful. Led by several elders, they kowtowed repeatedly toward Fu Xi Yan’s group before obediently leaving.
The old farmer who remained behind was punched by Xiao Zhang and immediately collapsed back into his paper-figure form.
Fu Xi Yan led everyone into the city to reunite with Pei Yuan Jin.
Duan Qian owned a large residence in Jiyang County. He rarely stayed there, but it had plenty of servants, so rooms were quickly prepared for the entire party.
Apparently because Pei Yuan Jin had walked alongside him the entire way without once drawing his sword, Duan Qian silently decided the cooperation was now established. He dismissed the servants to the outer compound and arranged for everyone else to rest in the rear courtyard. Only Duan Qian, Pei Yuan Jin, and Fu Xi Yan remained in the reception hall. Then Duan Qian wiped the charcoal and adhesive traces from his face.
Fu Xi Yan discovered that the saying “fair skin hides a hundred flaws” suited Duan Qian perfectly. Once his complexion turned pale again, he looked considerably better.
He shared this observation with Pei Yuan Jin.
Pei Yuan Jin looked at him. “But the second half isn’t true.”
Hm? What second half?
Fu Xi Yan repeated the saying to himself, and naturally the familiar follow-up emerged: “One bit of fat ruins everything.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
He glared at Pei Yuan Jin.
Pei Yuan Jin smiled and squeezed his cheek.
Fu Xi Yan hissed. “Your hand is really hot.”
Pei Yuan Jin paused and immediately drew the true qi automatically circulating through his body back toward his true essence. When he took Fu Xi Yan’s hand again, his temperature had returned to normal.
Fu Xi Yan could not help worrying. Aunt Yu had said before that Pei Yuan Jin would definitely need Fu Xi Yan’s cooperation if he wanted to advance to Martial King. Now everything had gone off course. Who knew what consequences might follow?
Fu Xi Yan had a great many things he wanted to tell Pei Yuan Jin, but they had spent all their time surrounded by people in the wilderness, which made finding an opportunity difficult. Of course, the bigger reason was that Fu Xi Yan himself felt vaguely anxious. He kept hesitating, wanting to speak but not quite daring to.
Perhaps this was what was meant by love giving birth to worry, and love giving birth to fear.
Fu Xi Yan tightened his grip on Pei Yuan Jin’s hand and silently leaned against him.
Pei Yuan Jin glanced at him and adjusted the position of his shoulder.
Duan Qian finished cleaning his face and was about to begin discussing serious business when he saw the two of them practically glued together. His tongue suddenly seemed equally glued. He coughed several times and drank some water to moisten his throat before saying, “After what happened today, the identity I spent years cultivating will probably become unusable.”
Fu Xi Yan very graciously fed him a line. “Why?”
“After you ‘kill’ Meng Chun Qiu, the City of Ten Thousand Beasts will inevitably send someone to investigate. You brought refugees down the mountain, I accompanied Young Master to the county yamen, and immediately afterward the magistrate settled the refugees. My identity as ‘Young Master Jin’ will obviously become their first investigative target. To avoid revealing anything, I’ll have no choice but to let this identity die as well. Fortunately, I always appeared publicly only as ‘Young Master Jin,’ with a dark and unremarkable face. As long as you two keep quiet, nobody will suspect that I’m Duan Qian.”
Naturally, this was a test. He wanted to know whether Pei Yuan Jin intended to expose his connection with Meng Chun Qiu. Compared with Young Master Jin, “Duan Qian of the Ghostshadow Organization” was the identity he had truly spent years cultivating. Ghostshadow’s intelligence network stretched throughout Northern Zhou and Southern Yu and was extremely useful. If circumstances forced him to abandon it, that would truly hurt.
Pei Yuan Jin understood the implication perfectly and, unusually, spoke. “One condition.”
Duan Qian was already prepared. “Name it.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Investigate who the Ghostshadow Organization’s leader is.”
Duan Qian agreed without hesitation. “Even if you hadn’t asked, I’m already investigating. Think about it. If the leader said Wei Li Ming was born with rebellion in his bones, why would I continue keeping and promoting him? He isn’t Lu Bu, someone impossible to replace, and I’m certainly not Dong Zhuo, fearless of being murdered.”
Fu Xi Yan suddenly understood. “You were using him to investigate?”
Duan Qian nodded, then sighed. “Unfortunately, Wei Li Ming’s methods were ordinary. I laid out countless roads for him, yet he still failed to approach the leader. This time he defected to the Immortal Treasury Palace, which caused the leader to suspect me as well. I’m afraid continuing the investigation will become even harder.”
There was no telling how much of that was true. Wei Li Ming was actually quite capable, and Duan Qian, as his superior, could reasonably have valued his talent. As for “rebellion in his bones”… what lord did not celebrate wildly when employing a talented subordinate, deciding that all the person’s previous betrayals had merely cleared the way to serve him? Regret only arrived after the betrayal happened again.
It was entirely possible Duan Qian was rewriting history afterward simply to win their trust.
But since they currently intended to cooperate, Fu Xi Yan was not stupid enough to call him out. He smiled. “So Young Master Duan has been living in Cao Cao’s camp while keeping his heart with the Han.”
Elio’s Notes: “Living in Cao Cao’s camp while keeping one’s heart with the Han” is an idiom alluding to Guan Yu’s time in Cao Cao’s camp while remaining loyal to Liu Bei. It describes outwardly serving one side while one’s true loyalty remains with another.
Duan Qian said, “It isn’t for any noble reason. The leader of Ghostshadow is exceptionally skilled at setting traps. He has offended half the jianghu while remaining safely hidden in the shadows himself. Naturally I would keep a few extra precautions when working for someone like that.”
That sounded far more believable.
Fu Xi Yan glanced at Pei Yuan Jin. Seeing he had no intention of speaking again, Fu Xi Yan formally took over the conversation. “You’ve been undercover for years. Surely you have more than zero clues?”
Duan Qian said, “Anything Wei Li Ming knows, I know.”
Fu Xi Yan deliberately set a trap. “Oh? Which thing?”
Duan Qian smiled and slowly uttered three names. “Qiu Xi Hong. Song Qi Yun. Mo Xiao Ran.”
Fu Xi Yan’s heart jolted violently.
When Wei Li Ming defected, he too had given Pei Yuan Jin three names, believing the hidden Ghostshadow leader had to be among them. His list had been Qiu Xi Hong, Song Qi Yun, and Ban Qing Yu.
The first two were identical. Only the third differed.
This did not necessarily mean either Duan Qian or Wei Li Ming had concealed anything. They simply analyzed the issue from different perspectives. At the time, Wei Li Ming had been desperate to defect to the Immortal Treasury Palace. Naturally he wanted his information to be as accurate as possible, so he considered the matter more comprehensively and included Ban Qing Yu, who effectively controlled the Spirit Sect.
Duan Qian, as Wei Li Ming’s superior, naturally commanded a much larger intelligence network. It was therefore unsurprising that he knew Mo Xiao Ran existed. Frankly, if Mo Xiao Ran had not personally intervened three times to save Fu Xi Yan, Fu Xi Yan himself would never have known such a person existed.
This also showed that Duan Qian’s influence inside Ghostshadow was definitely much greater than he pretended.
Fu Xi Yan asked, “What evidence do you have?”
“I arranged Chen Wen Ju’s prison escape, and I was also the one who received the order to terminate the operation. I can confirm that the leader was inside the city at the time. Wei Li Ming already investigated Song Qi Yun and Qiu Xi Hong’s movements. As for Mo Xiao Ran…” Duan Qian paused. His expression became strangely complicated, containing something like hatred, something like yearning, and perhaps even a trace of envy. “In any case, that conclusion is the result of corroborating information from several directions.”
More importantly, Duan Qian had learned that Ghostshadow personnel in the city had once gone to track Mo Xiao Ran. They had never returned. Naturally, he did not mention that detail. He wanted to keep one more card hidden and had no intention of helping them reduce the possible Ghostshadow leader from three names to two.
Fu Xi Yan calmly nodded, then mercilessly said, “You’re right. Wei Li Ming already told us everything you just said. We’d like something new.”
Duan Qian thought for a moment. “Would you two be interested in news from the new city?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Let’s hear it.”
Duan Qian slowly said, “Then regarding our cooperation…”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Aren’t we currently negotiating the price for keeping your identity secret?”
Duan Qian froze.
Fu Xi Yan began patiently laying out the facts and logic. “Originally, we hoped to exchange our silence regarding your identity for information about Ghostshadow’s leader on an equal basis. But the information you just offered is something we already heard from Wei Li Ming, so naturally it can’t count, correct? Still, we aren’t unreasonable people. Although news from the new city will spread beneath Heaven within a few days anyway, we are staying in your house, so we ought to show you some face. We’ll reluctantly accept that proposal instead.”
Duan Qian nearly spat blood at the sight of Fu Xi Yan taking every advantage and somehow still acting magnanimous about it.
Yet matters had reached this point. Even knowing the transaction was hardly fair, Duan Qian could only grit his teeth and continue. Fortunately, he had never intended to use the new-city news as a major bargaining chip.
He cleared his throat. “Your achievements on the martial path far exceed mine, so I won’t waste time explaining why Martial Gods cannot ascend.”
Fu Xi Yan hurriedly said, “Feel free. A year ago, I was still at the True Essence Stage.”
Duan Qian: “…”
He had never met a martial artist who progressed this quickly, nor had he met a human being with skin this thick. Apparently, his dislike of Fu Xi Yan was not merely jealousy over Fu Xi Yan grabbing onto the Young Master’s enormous golden thigh and soaring upward in one step. Fu Xi Yan himself was simply irritating!
Duan Qian took a deep breath. “After advancing to Martial King, the body begins automatically absorbing spiritual energy at a rate hundreds or thousands of times greater than at the Dao-Entry Stage. But the human body has a limit. It cannot completely transform that spiritual energy into true qi. As a result, spiritual energy gradually takes over as the dominant force and replaces true qi. Then the person’s soul begins to assimilate along with it. That step is what we call advancing to Martial God. When a person’s soul merges with the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth, naturally they gain the power to manipulate that spiritual energy and overturn mountains and seas. But at the same time, the body can no longer imprison the soul. Every time a Martial God uses their power, part of the soul dissipates, until eventually nothing remains.”
Fu Xi Yan recalled the stages a martial artist passed through: True Essence Stage, Bone Forging Stage, Vajra Stage… All of them trained and strengthened the body. Unfortunately, no matter how much the body was refined, its basic limits remained. Compared with the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth, it was simply too small.
Seeing them listening intently, Duan Qian’s expression improved. “True qi, soul, and spiritual energy are different aspects of the same fundamental thing. The Spirit Sect’s new-city plan was to create a sealed environment where souls replaced spiritual energy, allowing Ban Qing Yu to leap across Martial King and Martial God and directly attack the barrier of Ascension!”
Fu Xi Yan’s heart began pounding.
A sealed space where souls replaced spiritual energy? Surely it was not what he was imagining.
Duan Qian said, “The moment day and night exchange is when spiritual energy is at its strongest, so the Spirit Sect chose midnight to activate the formation. At that moment, one hundred thousand people were to be killed simultaneously. The formation would prevent their souls from dispersing, and Ban Qing Yu would absorb those souls to advance!”
Fu Xi Yan shot to his feet, his face turning terrifyingly pale. “One hundred thousand?”
Duan Qian looked at him in confusion. “Only the central district of the new city was used, so there were only one hundred thousand.”
Only one hundred thousand?!
Fu Xi Yan felt as though an immense weight had suddenly pressed against his chest. His emotions escaped his control. Tears inexplicably gathered in his eyes, bringing with them a suffocating, unbearable heaviness.
Pei Yuan Jin’s expression was equally grim. “What was the result?”
Duan Qian said, “Among those hundred thousand were several thousand prisoners. At the hour of Hai, they suddenly revolted and began slaughtering civilians. To prevent the entire plan from collapsing, the new city activated the formation early. The Palace Master of the Immortal Treasury Palace led several elders in a forceful assault intending to destroy the formation’s central spire. The Spirit Sect Leader, the Lingnan Sect leader, the Giant Eagle Martial Artist, the Ghostshadow leader, and the Taoshan brothers joined forces to resist them. The two sides fought until sun and moon seemed to lose their light. In the end, the formation core shattered and a flaw opened. Spiritual energy invaded the sealed space, ruining the plan completely. Ban Qing Yu’s advancement stopped at mid-Martial King.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “And the hundred thousand people…?”
Duan Qian finally understood why he was upset and followed his line of thought. “The Immortal Treasury Palace saved more than twenty thousand survivors.”
Fu Xi Yan took a deep breath, then abruptly turned and walked outside. “Sorry. I need to be alone.”
“We’ll stop here today. We can discuss the rest another time.”
Pei Yuan Jin hurriedly threw down those words and followed him.
Fu Xi Yan walked quickly without any destination in mind. He crossed every bridge he saw, passed through every corridor in his path, and only stopped after reaching a dead end. Pei Yuan Jin quietly stood behind him. When he heard Fu Xi Yan begin to sob, he finally reached out and pulled him into his arms.
Fu Xi Yan buried his head against his chest. “I had a chance to save them.”
Even if he could not fight Martial Kings or Martial Gods, he could have spread the news. At the very least, those people should have been given the chance to save themselves!
He remembered all the people they had met in the new city, people filled with hope.
They had sincerely believed the new city would give them a new future, new hope, and a new life!
Fu Xi Yan had known they were in danger, yet he had done nothing, simply assuming it was the Immortal Treasury Palace Master and the others’ responsibility. The division of labor had seemed so natural. But he had forgotten that he himself was no longer an ordinary person.
Back when he watched movies and heard sayings like “with great power comes great responsibility,” he had sometimes scoffed. Why should capable people be forced to pay the price for everyone else? Wasn’t that just moral coercion?
But now that he actually lived in this world, now that he could hear a martial artist like Duan Qian casually say “one hundred thousand people” as if discussing a hundred thousand insects, an indescribable anger and unwillingness surged inside him.
The True Essence Stage might be a dividing line separating people with martial talent from people without it. It should not be a line separating higher humans from lower humans. People performed different roles; that did not mean some were intrinsically superior and others inferior.
These were not dusty old slogans. They were truths human beings ought to put into practice.
Yet here, an entire great nation had treated a hundred thousand human lives as consumable materials and sacrifices for the sake of profit! How shameless. How horrifying!
Fu Xi Yan gripped Pei Yuan Jin’s clothes tightly as tears poured uncontrollably down his face. His tears had been building ever since the night he personally killed someone. He cried not only for the eighty thousand innocent lives that had been sacrificed, but also for this cold, cruel world that treated ordinary people like ants.
Pei Yuan Jin gently patted his back. “You couldn’t have done anything even if you went.”
That was not merely an attempt at comfort.
Pei Yuan Jin knew perfectly well that both he and Fu Xi Yan had been under the Spirit Sect’s control at the time. If they had gone to the new city, there was an overwhelming chance they would have faced relentless pursuit and encirclement. The new city was a scheme the Spirit Sect had spent decades constructing. For it, they had even sacrificed their own Sect Leader Wu Xuan Yin’s future and bought the support of the Lingnan Sect leader, the Giant Eagle Martial Artist, the Ghostshadow leader, the Taoshan brothers, and other extraordinary experts at Martial King level or above.
One could imagine how terrifying and insane the situation had been.
Fu Xi Yan clung to him. “Thank goodness for all of you.”
Thank goodness this world still had the Immortal Treasury Palace.
Thank goodness he did not have to walk alone.
Wu Xuan Yin. Duan Qian. Qin Xiao Xun… When Fu Xi Yan interacted with people like them, he had not sensed obvious cruelty in their personalities because he too was a martial artist and therefore someone they regarded as one of their own. But when they spoke or acted toward ordinary people, their lofty arrogance and casual contempt leaked through.
How terrifying. They were all human.
Pei Yuan Jin frowned. “All of… you?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “And your dad.”
Judging from the Spirit Sect’s lineup alone, the Immortal Treasury Palace’s intervention had almost amounted to making an enemy of half the martial world. Yet Pei Xiong Ji had still acted without hesitation. He had taken the elders and turned the tide, saving more than twenty thousand lives. The more Fu Xi Yan thought about it, the more his nose stung again.
Pei Yuan Jin did not entirely understand. He had been born into this world and had grown accustomed to the way jianghu people treated ordinary civilians. It no longer surprised or enraged him.
But Fu Xi Yan had only encountered worlds like this in fiction before. Whenever he watched protagonists in feudal societies loudly preach equality and tell privileged elites that the interests of ordinary people should come first, he had sometimes found it overly idealistic. Now, however, he realized this was exactly the ideal he wanted. Every world needed pioneers. Someone had to speak for those who suffered, break injustice, and create a more equal and humane world.
Fu Xi Yan remained silent for a while, then suddenly said, “Our dual cultivation might be dangerous.”
Pei Yuan Jin apparently had not expected the subject to leap there. After a moment, he said, “Should I have Apothecary Jiang prepare some medicine for you?”