The crowd gradually dispersed.
The yamen runners were cleaning up the bloody mess in the streets and collecting the corpses of the dead, which included not only people from the yamen and Green Sword Sect, but also some unfortunate civilians who couldn't withstand the penetrating arrows of the government troops.
Indeed, there was no reason in this world. One never knew when death would come, with no chance to resist or lament before being declared dead. But Zhang San was completely numb to the sight, having long grown accustomed to it.
He had wanted to leave immediately with Wang Xiaoer, but out of caution, Zhang San decided to stay in the alley a bit longer and wait until most of the people outside had left before heading out.
However, the scene that met his eyes upon exiting the alley made Zhang San pause briefly in surprise.
Below the spacious execution grounds, most of the people had already left, with only a few scattered government runners still washing away the bloodstains.
The sky was gloomy.
A woman in white stood below the execution grounds.
The woman looked to be in her thirties, her white robes filled with patches. She stood silently watching for a long time.
Then she turned around.
It was the expression on the woman's face that made Zhang San freeze up for a moment.
It was an expression of utter despair.
What was she despairing over? The execution grounds were clearly empty.
Zhang San wondered about this curiously.
The woman then slowly walked away, her direction coincidentally leading towards where Zhang San was.
As the woman drew nearer, Zhang San realized she was very beautiful, with time seeming to have left little trace on her face. Despite her shabby clothes and lack of makeup, she was still striking.
The woman's peripheral vision caught sight of Zhang San, but she continued on her way slowly without paying him much attention.
...
...
"Master...what are you looking at?" Wang Xiaoer asked.
Zhang San pointed in the direction the woman in white had left and said, "There's something odd about that woman."
Wang Xiaoer squinted into the distance from the cart and vaguely made out the figure of a woman in white robes. He murmured, "Master is indeed at that age now and should consider..."
Thud!
No more needed to be said before Wang Xiaoer was thumped again.
Zhang San said, "I just feel like the direction she was looking before seems to be...where the magistrate left. Or am I imagining things?"
Wang Xiaoer rubbed his head and said, "Don't think about it, Master. It's got nothing to do with us. We've still got our own business to handle."
Zhang San nodded. "You're right. No wonder you're my disciple. By the way...what was our business again?"
Wang Xiaoer looked towards South Avenue, where a peddler was selling candied hawthorns at the end of the street. He had noticed them after the avenue reopened earlier. Wang Xiaoer naturally said, "Master, of course it's to go buy candied hawthorns. I read in medical books that sugar can stimulate the brain. As soon as we eat some, we'll be able to..."
Thud!
Another punch.
Wang Xiaoer cried out in pain but still refused to give up. "Master, how about we get two skewers to share then?"
Zhang San snorted. "Don't joke around. How could your master sit here eating candied fruit on a stick with a brat like you?"
...
...
Not long after, a master and disciple sat in a small alley in the southern part of Tian Ruo City, each eating a candied hawthorn skewer with great enjoyment.
As he bit into a haw, Wang Xiaoer asked while eating, "Master, are we really staying here tonight?"
Zhang San spoke unclearly with his mouth full, "What's wrong with it? A panoramic skylight, carefree and leisurely. We can even watch the stars at night. As righteous disciples, we've got to sleep poetically."
Wang Xiaoer nearly choked on a hawthorn. He looked around at the dilapidated alley full of puddles and said, "Master, can we be honest? Sleeping on the streets is sleeping on the streets. What poetry?"
Zhang San said wistfully, "But this is how your martial uncle spoke to me in the past."
Wang Xiaoer sighed, realizing that the sect's poverty had persisted over three generations now.
"But Master, I'm a bit worried," said Wang Xiaoer, well-read in martial arts novels.
Zhang San asked, "What are you worried about?"
Wang Xiaoer replied, "Master, didn't you say earlier that the jianghu in the central counties has been very chaotic? I read in books that places like these alleys are where murders most often happen. What if we're sleeping and suddenly a fight breaks out, and then a corpse just drops down from the sky and lands on us?"
Zhang San's brows furrowed as he thought to himself that these were some strange ideas indeed.
As expected, one really shouldn't read too many of Mr. Jin's martial arts novels, or else everyone would become obsessed like Wang Xiaoer.
A corpse falling from the sky?
Ridiculous. If that happened, I, Zhang San, would immediately pluck my head off and give it to you as a...
Just as he was thinking this, there was suddenly a loud 'thud' in the small alley!
A corpse dropped down inexplicably from somewhere, landing deep in the alley.
It was a man dressed in black robes, embroidered with the image of a dragon on the collar.
Judging from the clothes, he appeared to be a high-ranking member of the Black Dragon Hall.
However, the master and disciple remained calm.
Wang Xiaoer nodded, then licked his candied fruit skewer with an expression that said 'Just as expected, right on cue.'
Zhang San stared dumbfoundedly at the scene, subconsciously taking a bite of his skewer with an expression that said 'Well I'll be damned.'
They then exchanged glances to confirm their strategy for dealing with this.
Master, what should we do? This guy looks really formidable.
I'm used to being the one killing people in front of others. Now suddenly it's the other way around. How would I know what to do? Let's pretend to be scared first.
Master, what if pretending doesn't work?
Then we'll take him out. I'll attack from the front and you throw poison darts from behind.
Master is as shameless as ever, yet also brilliant!
After this wordless exchange, the master and disciple each began putting on an act, with the theme being 'fear' and the specific performance being terror and panic.
The Killer Hall guard from JinWan Pavilion carefully examined the scholar and boy, deciding it wasn't worth wasting time on two ordinary people. With a leap using qinggong, he departed.
Seeing the emblem of money on the back of the departing man in golden robes, Zhang San murmured doubtfully, "JinWan Pavilion? JinWan's people are chasing and killing members of the local underground gang, Black Dragon Hall?"
Moreover, the man from Black Dragon Hall had a dragon emblem embroidered on his collar, clearly marking him as a high-ranking member. For ordinary conflicts between gangs like turf wars, there was no reason to kill someone of this status.
Yet this man had undoubtedly been chased down and killed in this alley by someone from JinWan Pavilion.
Could JinWan Pavilion and Black Dragon Hall be at war?
Zhang San pulled Wang Xiaoer up and said, "Let's go!"
Having heard the three words "JinWan Pavilion" whispered by his master, Wang Xiaoer also realized the gravity of the situation and hurriedly jumped onto the cart.
However, as soon as the cart moved, Wang Xiaoer became worried again. "Master, I'm a bit anxious again."
Zhang San asked listlessly and helplessly, "Now what is it?!"
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
