Qingming Pavilion was reopening today, so naturally their friends had come to show their support. The group sat in a private room, watching the scene below through the window.
For the first time, Xing Wenyu took a proper look at Xiao Li. “That boy is quite good. Quick with his tongue and quick on the uptake.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “He really is.” If Xiao Li had not performed well, Xia Yunzhao would have replaced him. They had hardly known each other when he first hired him, after all.
Zhong Yundu clicked his tongue. “A million spirit pearls for an iron membership token? What sort of iron could be worth that much?”
“Between you and me,” Xia Yunzhao whispered, “I haven’t even made the iron membership tokens yet.” That was still a promise for the future.
Beside him, Shang Shuangze made a questioning sound. “There’s something wrong with those people.”
Xia Yunzhao immediately peered down. “Where? Which ones?”
Shang Shuangze extended a finger and pointed downward three times.
Following that beautifully shaped finger, Xia Yunzhao spotted three shifty-looking men in the queue.
They stood in different parts of the line, though not too far apart, and kept exchanging furtive glances.
Xia Yunzhao raised an eyebrow. “Well, look who it is. Old acquaintances.” He swept his gaze along the queue again and, sure enough, found two more. Five in total.
That was the right number.
During the New Year holidays, he and Shang Shuangze had been out enjoying themselves, mostly Xia Yunzhao doing the enjoying. Whenever they caught cultivators bullying ordinary people, they threw them out of the city. They had expelled five in all.
The offenses were relatively minor, things like refusing to pay for purchases or forcing people into unfair sales. They had not dealt particularly harshly with the offenders: they made them pay compensation, gave them a beating, and tossed them beyond the city gates.
Who would have thought the five would dare return, much less choose the shop’s New Year reopening to cause trouble?
They were not entirely foolish. They had disguised their faces well enough that an ordinary person would have had trouble recognizing them. But who was Xia Yunzhao? He had thoroughly studied disguise arts and bone-shrinking techniques. He recognized them at a glance.
Once he explained, the others understood. Du Yan shook his head. “This isn’t exactly easy to handle.”
The five were clearly up to no good, but they had not done anything yet. Throwing them out without cause would be awkward. If someone who did not know the circumstances saw it, they might think the lord of Qingxi City was bullying visiting cultivators.
Xu Ziyu said impatiently, “Why worry about all that? An alchemist is hardly going to run out of customers. Just find somewhere to bury them!”
Xia Yunzhao hurriedly waved his hands. “Well, we can’t bury them in front of everyone. Wait until they leave the city to bury them… I mean, let’s see what they’re planning first.”
Xing Wenyu shook his head as well. “Surely they aren’t stupid enough to attack the shop outright, so the defensive formations might not help… What are you laughing at?”
Everyone turned toward him and saw that he was looking at Zhong Yundu. Zhong Yundu had been holding his teacup with a thoroughly entertained smile, as though he were waiting for a joke to unfold. When the others looked at him, he merely grinned. “Just wait.”
Everyone was puzzled. Only Shang Shuangze seemed to have an inkling. He gave Zhong Yundu a thoughtful glance.
Since Zhong Yundu had put it that way, his friends decided to humor him. They were all present, after all. Those five cultivators were not going to stir up much trouble under their noses.
The line below moved quickly. Nearly every cultivator who entered received one of the so-called membership tokens. Its other benefits might not be obvious yet, but the discount was real!
Pills were expensive, and cultivators were hardly lining up here every day. Most saved up and made one big purchase. With a token that gave five percent off, a purchase costing a thousand spirit pearls saved fifty, while ten thousand saved five hundred!
Bu Zuoren stood in the line, watching cultivators leave happily with their tokens. He showed nothing on his face, but inwardly he sneered. What a pack of fools. They could not even recognize a scheme to attract customers.
Why else would the shop give them those tokens? To make sure they bought all their pills here in the future, of course! And what was that tiny discount to an alchemist? Not even loose change!
He had been the first cultivator Xia Yunzhao expelled during the holiday. At the time, he had only just arrived in Qingxi City and had hardly had a chance to do anything. The reason he was expelled was hardly worth mentioning, in his opinion. He had simply drunk a cup of spirit tea at a teahouse without paying for it.
How could that possibly count as wrongdoing? Mortals were born in the morning and dead by evening. A cultivator could wipe out whole crowds with a wave of his hand. Such people ought to support cultivators!
He had given that teahouse the opportunity to pay him tribute, only for the damned city lord to catch him at it and have him beaten and driven out!
It was outrageous! In other cities, he could kill a few mortals on a whim without anyone making this kind of fuss!
He simply could not swallow the humiliation. Their purpose in coming back was straightforward. Wasn’t this city lord so determined to protect mortals? Then they would kill mortals. Conveniently, the attendant in that blasted Qingming Pavilion was a mortal. How ridiculous, a cultivator’s shop hiring a mortal!
They would kill the attendant first. Once the uproar drew the city lord over, Bu Zuoren would race to the teahouse and kill both the proprietor and the waiter. If those two had not demanded payment for the tea, how would that city lord and his husband ever have noticed him? A bunch of insects. They deserved to die.
The other four had their own people to kill. They would show this city lord that, for all his talk of protecting mortals, he could not protect a single one!
“Honored sir? Honored sir? What pills would you like? Would you like a membership token?” Bu Zuoren came back to himself and realized it was his turn. Xiao Li was bowing as he waited for an answer.
Bu Zuoren looked him up and down as though inspecting a lamb waiting for slaughter. “A token? Yes… I’ll take one.”
“Of course.” Smiling, Xiao Li gestured politely. “Please step inside first.”
Bu Zuoren swaggered up the steps. He had long since spotted the shop’s defensive formations. So what? He wasn’t attacking the shop itself. Could a defensive formation tell whether someone was good or evil? Hah…
He had just put one foot over the threshold, the other still outside, when a faint red glow flickered across the ground. In the next instant came a ringing zheng! as a blade hummed. The red light flared, and Bu Zuoren seemed to be seized by one leg and flung outside!
No, he had not been grabbed by the leg. His leg had been thrown outside! The rest of him was still where he stood! Off balance, he toppled straight onto the threshold before he even understood what had happened.
The red light spread outward, engulfing the waiting crowd. At once, the shop’s three defensive formations lit up together, shielding the entire building. Four streaks of sword qi shot directly at the other four men in the queue.
The four saw that something was wrong and turned to flee, but how could they outrun sword qi? All four had their arms severed and let out screams of agony.
It all happened so quickly that even Xia Yunzhao’s friends upstairs, let alone the cultivators in line, could not react. Then they heard a roar of laughter. Zhong Yundu pointed at the scene, howling, “That’s the first time I’ve used that move! Who knew it’d work so well? Hahahaha!”
Xia Yunzhao was stunned. “What was that, Brother Zhong? Can that blade light of yours actually see what other people are thinking?”
Zhong Yundu was speechless. “It’s nowhere near that miraculous. It can detect a little malicious intent, that’s all. And only malice strong enough will trigger an attack. Ordinary malicious thoughts, such as wanting to steal a few pills, only set off a warning.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded eagerly. “That’s still incredible! Is it a spell?”
Zhong Yundu cleared his throat twice and smoothly sidestepped the question. “Just a cultivation technique. Nothing worth asking about. It’s a mess down there already. Aren’t you going to deal with it?”
Xia Yunzhao looked down and smiled instead. “Take a look, everyone.”
The five had come to cause trouble and only brought disaster on themselves. Arms and legs had gone flying. By the time the formations quieted down, the men were scarcely recognizable as human.
The cultivators in line had not even processed what had happened, but the mortals watching from the sidelines were quick to react.
“What’s going on? The city lord’s shop just attacked somebody?”
“How wicked must those people be for even the city lord to lose his patience with them!”
“That’s right… Come to think of it, shouldn’t we call the City Guard?”
“I know where they are! They just came to our house to register everyone! I’ll go fetch them!”
“Run faster, Shanwa!”
Bu Zuoren had enough experience to understand the danger. When he heard the mortals talking about calling the guard, he endured the pain, drew a magical artifact, and blocked Shanwa’s path. “Stop! Take one more step and I’ll kill you!”
Yet the boy did not show the familiar fear Bu Zuoren expected. Instead, his expression held a fierce confidence!
Shanwa glared at him. “You wicked cultivator! You still dare do evil in Qingxi City! Do you think we mortals here are as helpless as dead leaves? I’m telling you, our city lord registered every mortal in the city! He knows every one of us! If you kill me now, he’ll avenge me tomorrow!”
“That’s right!”
“We’re not afraid of wicked cultivators!”
The other mortals crowded around aggressively. Some were even holding stools and chairs. They surrounded Bu Zuoren on every side, apparently ready to rush him if he made a move.
Bu Zuoren instinctively retreated a step. “M-madness. All the mortals in Qingxi City are mad…”
Members of the City Guard arrived soon afterward, led by Jing Ruyun and Wei Xuening. One look at the scene and the now-visible defensive formations told them everything they needed to know.
Jing Ruyun waved a hand. Several junior sisters stepped forward and roughly tied up the five cultivators, whose arms and legs had been severed, before hauling them away. Only then did she call, “Xiao Li.”
Xiao Li came out of the shop and bowed. “My lady.” He looked rather solemn but showed not the slightest fear.
Jing Ruyun raised her voice so everyone could hear. “We’re taking these people away. Please see to your guests and don’t let this unpleasantness spoil their enjoyment.”
Xiao Li bowed even lower. “Yes, my lady.”
Jing Ruyun hurried away with the prisoners. Xiao Li adjusted his expression and smiled. “My apologies, honored guests. We never expected something like this to happen, and our city lord is deeply distressed by it. Since you’ve all been startled, our humble shop must take responsibility. May we offer every honored guest a complimentary Fasting Pill with any purchase today?”
The cultivators waiting in line immediately brightened. “Hahaha! Now that’s a pleasant surprise!”
“Tell your city lord not to worry. A little thing like this won’t scare us away! Hahahaha!”
“We aren’t frightened, but we’ll still take the Fasting Pills!”
The cultivators had remained relatively quiet throughout the incident. It was not because they were frightened. They were cultivators; what bloody scene hadn’t they seen? They were astonished. First, Qingming Pavilion’s formations were astonishingly effective, not simply in raw power but in their ability to identify precisely the people in the queue who were plotting trouble. It was almost unbelievable.
Then there were the ordinary people of Qingxi City. They had shown no fear whatsoever toward cultivators! And what had that boy said? That the city lord knew every mortal in the city personally?
“Ahem. Why are you all looking at me? How could I possibly know every single mortal?” Xia Yunzhao picked up Shang Shuangze’s teacup and gulped down some water. “The City Guard has been registering the mortal residents lately. They must have misunderstood.”
Naturally, the completed household registers would be delivered to his desk, and he would certainly skim through them. But he could hardly study everyone’s information in detail.
Still, if this misunderstanding made the city’s mortals feel a little more confident when facing cultivators, there was no particular need to clear it up.
Below, everything had returned to normal. People queued, people bought pills, and ordinary residents even fetched water of their own accord to scrub the bloodstains from the ground.
Xia Yunzhao smiled, satisfied with how the matter had been handled. Jing Ruyun and Xiao Li had both done well. He had told Xiao Li before that if anything happened in the shop, he could use his own judgment. Clearly, the boy had taken those words to heart.
“We’re no longer needed here. Come on, let’s see what’s happening on the other side.”
For that, he really ought to thank the Fang family. Their ancestral estate seemed to have everything, including a dungeon.
It solved perfectly the problem of where to put criminals once they caught them.
Bu Zuoren and his four companions were exceedingly fortunate: they became the dungeon’s very first occupants since the Fang estate had been turned into the city lord’s residence.
By the time Xia Yunzhao and his companions arrived, Jing Ruyun and Wei Xuening had already completed one round of interrogation. Cultivators were sturdy folk, so there was little danger of accidentally questioning them to death. All manner of methods were available. The five gentlemen had already confessed everything they needed to, and Jing Ruyun had even sent her junior sisters to dig pits. Given the splendid history of these fellows, keeping their corpses in one piece would depend entirely on their city lord’s mercy.
The moment Xia Yunzhao entered, Ying Yanyu briskly reported the interrogation results.
City Lord Xia grimaced. “Are there many cultivators of this particular variety? Don’t tell me Qingxi City has people like them too?”
Ying Yanyu curled her lip. “City Lord, ordinary cultivators might not have much to do with mortals, but that doesn’t mean we deliberately bully them. We barely have enough time to cultivate! These people burn down villages out of boredom or murder whole families for entertainment… Put it this way, if there weren’t no demonic qi about them, I’d have mistaken them for demonic cultivators.”
If two cultivators fought without paying attention to the mortals nearby and accidentally killed a large number of them, one could just about understand how it happened. But those who killed deliberately were excellent candidates for becoming demonic cultivators.
“That’s good. That’s good.” The city lord felt much better. “The City Guard has another responsibility now. While maintaining public order, pay special attention to cultivators who bully ordinary people. Once the facts are confirmed, it doesn’t matter who they are. Expel them directly. Anyone who injures or kills someone must be publicly punished, with the same harm they inflicted returned to them.”
Ying Yanyu and Yu Fanyang exchanged a look, then straightened proudly. “Yes, City Lord!”
“One more thing,” Xia Yunzhao added. “That means we won’t have enough guards. You’re allowed to recommend people yourselves. If you know cultivators with good character and sufficient ability, you can recommend them to me. But before they join us, they’ll have to pass through the formation at Qingming Pavilion. You saw it today, didn’t you? It can detect malicious intent. And everyone who works at the city lord’s residence should make time to pass through it as well. Just as a formality…”
Nearby, Zhong Yundu was strolling through the dungeon with his hands behind his back. Hearing this, he remarked, “Why go to all that trouble? I’ll make one for you at the city lord’s residence.”
Xia Yunzhao immediately took advantage of the offer. “Thank you, Brother Zhong!”
The City Guard members laughed too. “Thank you, Elder Zhong!”
Zhong Yundu gave a quiet hiss. He still had not grown used to being called Elder Zhong. Every time he heard it, he felt as though a long beard had sprouted from his chin.
Shang Shuangze was also inspecting the dungeon, but he was not interested in the building. He was examining the five prisoners. After looking at each one, he raised a hand, and a magical treasure flew out from Bu Zuoren’s body.
Jing Ruyun and Wei Xuening were shocked. They had searched the prisoners before locking them up and confiscated their magical treasures. Who would have thought this man still had one hidden on him? They had even entered his cell to interrogate him. If it were an offensive treasure, they might already be dead!
Xia Yunzhao picked up the treasure and examined it. “Don’t be afraid. It’s only a defensive treasure that can increase one’s speed. It can conceal its own aura, so it’s difficult to detect.”
Jing Ruyun smiled bitterly, deeply embarrassed. “It seems I still have a great deal to improve.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “Take your time. I have quite a lot of reference materials myself. Once I sort them out, you can all read them.” Everyone had to learn gradually. Even now, he could not fall asleep without reading for a while each evening.
What? You’re saying Golden Core cultivators don’t need sleep? Impossible. Absolutely impossible! If I don’t eat or sleep, what’s the point of cultivating immortality? I might as well go home and work overtime!
Xia Yunzhao examined the magical treasure more carefully, and his brow gradually furrowed. It resembled a flying shuttle and could conceal its own aura, making it difficult to discover. Once fed spiritual power, it could instantly transport people as far as five thousand li away. A terrifying ability!
Worse, there was no limit on the number of passengers. Every living creature containing spiritual energy within a one-meter diameter could be transported along with it!
It was a Level-Three magical treasure, yet something felt wrong to Xia Yunzhao. Its abilities were far too powerful. It seemed almost as though a damaged Level-Four treasure had been reforged into this one.
He had been wondering about something earlier. Bu Zuoren and his companions were wicked, but they were not stupid. Coming back for revenge after being expelled suited their characters perfectly. But how had they planned to escape afterward? Weren’t they afraid the cultivators in the city would capture them?
So this was their answer. The treasure was so convenient, almost as though it had been tailor-made for this particular act of revenge. Without it, the five might not have dared return.
Xia Yunzhao slowly raised his head and looked straight at Bu Zuoren’s mangled figure. How had a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator obtained such a formidable magical treasure?
Bu Zuoren shrank back but managed a show of bravado. “I-if you’re going to kill me, then kill me! What are you staring at?”
Xia Yunzhao abruptly smiled and asked lightly, “When they sent you here, didn’t they tell you that you wouldn’t be able to escape?”
Bu Zuoren’s pupils contracted. He instinctively looked aside. “Who are you talking about? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Here’s something you might find interesting,” Xia Yunzhao said. “That treasure would work anywhere except my Qingxi City. Sending a nameless nobody like you to test me? They really must think very little of me.”
“Impossible!” Bu Zuoren shouted before he could stop himself. “He said this shuttle could teleport five thousand li, without any restrictions…”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “So you don’t know who the other party is either.” He nodded toward Jing Ruyun. “Get the details of that person’s conversation with him.”
Jing Ruyun paused in surprise, then hurriedly nodded.
After Xia Yunzhao and the others left, Zhuo Lingling said, “Senior Sister, even such a powerful shuttle won’t work in Qingxi City? Our city lord really is amazing!”
Xue Lingtao poked her on the forehead. “You idiot! The city lord made that up to trick him into talking!”
Rubbing her forehead with a miserable expression, Zhuo Lingling wondered, Really? The city lord knows how to lie?
Jing Ruyun and Wei Xuening exchanged wry smiles. They had spent half a day threatening and interrogating those men, yet the city lord had accomplished more in a single quarter-hour.
* * *
Not long after Qingming Pavilion reopened, registration of the city’s mortal residents was completed as well. With that groundwork in place, Xia Yunzhao finally began to feel as though he was actually governing a city.
He had no experience, but he had always been both bold and cautious, never shrinking away from things that needed doing. Before long, a series of laws and tax regulations had been promulgated. One of those notices was posted outside Qingming Pavilion.
The timing had really caught the cultivators in a bind.
In other cities, laws were issued for mortals to obey. Who had ever heard of ordering cultivators to follow the law? Cultivators defied even the Heavenly Dao. Were they supposed to obey the city lord’s regulations?
But they had just received their membership tokens, and those discounts on pills were rather nice… Forget it. They would grit their teeth and put up with the rules!
In any case, the regulations all came down to the same sentence: Don’t bully mortals.
At worst, they could simply steer clear of mortals from now on!
The City Guard also gained five new members. Ying Yanyu was the second most outgoing person at the city lord’s residence, and she had recruited four of them herself. Xia Yunzhao even put the applicants through an “interview.” Their character and cultivation were indeed excellent.
Zhong Yundu had kept his word and installed that strange formation at the city lord’s residence too. Since he refused to offer a single word of explanation, the others could only call the contraption the Heart-Discernment Dharma Seal, meaning that it could discern a person’s true heart.
Everything slowly settled into a routine, and everyone returned to their own affairs. Those who needed to enter seclusion did so, those who wanted to drink went drinking, and those whose business was serving as an elder carried on being elders.
Three people entered seclusion: Xia Yunzhao, Shang Shuangze, and Xing Wenyu.
Xia Yunzhao hoped to advance to Level-Three alchemist. He had lingered at Level Two for far too long. Of course, compared with other alchemists, that period was not even worth mentioning.
As for Shang Shuangze, he was going into seclusion to break through to late Golden Core. He had reached mid Golden Core before coming down from the mountain, but the peculiarities of the Biluo Nine-Turn Art had caused his cultivation to fall to late Foundation Establishment. Now that he had returned to mid Golden Core, he had long since been ready to advance again.
It was convenient for the two of them to enter seclusion together. Otherwise, neither would feel entirely at ease being unable to see the other.
Xing Wenyu, meanwhile, would naturally be drawing spiritual energy into his body and starting his cultivation over.
There had been a little episode concerning that. Xing Wenyu had already drawn qi into his body once before, so he knew what to do. Still, the cultivation method used to begin that process mattered. The better its quality, the better.
Xia Yunzhao had even offered Xing Wenyu his own Qi-Guiding Art to read. After one look, Brother Xing was amazed. He declared it even more concise and refined than the qi-guiding methods used by the major sects.
That couldn’t be right, Xia Yunzhao thought. Hadn’t the description said that the method was incredibly common? So common that even a dog could learn it by watching another dog, that if you tossed a brick into Bai…
At that moment, Xia Yunzhao remembered where he had seen the name Baiyujing before. It had appeared in the description of the Qi-Guiding Art: toss a brick in Baiyujing and you would hit three cultivators who had begun with that method.
So his bond with Shang Shuangze had begun even earlier than he realized! They had started cultivating with methods from the same lineage.
Sure enough, Shang Shuangze also raised an eyebrow when he saw the Qi-Guiding Art, looking rather surprised. Xia Yunzhao leaned closer with a smile. “Well? Isn’t it the same?”
Shang Shuangze nodded without hesitation. “You can tell that they’re from the same cultivation method, but your version is more refined. It should be easier to draw qi into the body.”
Xia Yunzhao looked puzzled. “You mean my version is of higher quality?”
Shang Shuangze nodded and explained further. “Baiyujing’s Qi-Guiding Art is one of the finest qi-guiding methods in the world. Your version goes beyond even that foundation. It’s far from ordinary.”
“So that’s how it is…” Xia Yunzhao fell into thought.
Xiao Qing certainly held many secrets. The fragment it had swallowed, the patterns on its body that could not be looked at directly, and all the cultivation methods and pill recipes it produced that seemed ordinary at first but gradually revealed themselves to be extraordinary… That little bronze cauldron was no simple thing.
He looked up. The decidedly extraordinary round-bellied bronze pig was rubbing itself shamelessly against Du Yan, begging for a sip of spirit wine. It looked exactly like Xianchan nearby, lying on its back with all four paws in the air, waiting for Shang Shuangze to rub its belly.
Xia Yunzhao: “…”
What do you mean, extraordinary? It’s just a round-bellied little bronze pig!