Huizhou County

As the morning sun crested the horizon, its warm light broke faintly through the dawn. While the dense ranks of houses and streets still lay veiled in thick mist, the heavy city gates were already pushed open by the guarding sentries. Having concluded a night of bustle and worldly clamor, Huizhou County slowly woke once more from its slumber. The influx of vegetable farmers and hawkers hurrying to the morning market, along with peddlers and porters hauling their wares, instantly sent the lively breath of mortal life drifting along the broad bluestone paving into the small county town. Although the vast, lingering fallout of the barbarian incursions and celestial calamities in the Northern Border had not truly reached Huizhou County in the literal sense, the war had still left its mark. Years of ongoing turmoil in the Northern Border had led many merchants and roving jianghu swordsmen to treat this small county town at the junction of two provinces as a waystation for their journeys north. The arrival of these opportunists brought commerce and growth to what had once been an unremarkable county, but it also brought a great deal of chaos. With the rooster crowing in the backyard, Tang Si opened the doors of his little eatery as usual in the lingering dawn. Just as he was carrying out his tables and stools to set up his street stall, he discovered another dead body lying right before his doorstep. A jianghu man. Looking at the calluses on the corpse's hands and the bloody sword wounds, Tang Si could roughly guess the dead man's identity at a glance. After a brief silence, he quietly dragged the corpse over to the entrance of the shop next door, fetched two basins of clear water, and washed away the bloodstains before his own door. He had no intention of reporting it to the authorities, because doing so was useless. On the contrary, the constables would only extort a sum from him as a fee for disposing of the corpse. And having stepped out only to encounter the bad luck of a dead body, Tang Si was in no mood to conduct business anyway. With a corpse lying there, hardly anyone would come to eat at his shop. With that in mind, Tang Si prepared to shut the doors again, his eyes somewhat numb. After all, this was already the second time this month. Huizhou County had no garrison stationed within its walls—or rather, all the troops stationed here had already set out north to fight the barbarians. Against martial apprentices coming from every corner of the world, the only instrument of force the magistrate could rely on was a bunch of pampered head constables. Was it realistic to expect these soft young officers, whose families had held sway in Huizhou County for generations, to risk their lives against desperate outlaws? Not at all. In the years since the barbarian calamity had flared up, shouts, curses, and the clashing of weapons in Huizhou County's inns had become routine. Dead bodies had become routine as well. Sighing inwardly, Tang Si slowly closed his wooden doors. "Aren't you going to report this to the authorities?" Just as the doors were about to shut, a gentle male voice suddenly drifted over from in front of the neighboring shop where he had dragged the corpse. Tang Si froze at the sound. He remembered clearly that the street had been completely empty only moments ago. His movement halting instinctively, Tang Si turned toward the voice, and his gaze stalled. In the dim light of the empty dawn street, a long-haired man had appeared before the jianghu traveler's corpse at some unknown moment, studying the dead man's wounds with apparent interest. What a handsome man... No sooner had the thought crossed Tang Si's mind than his knees buckled at the sight of the stranger's clothes. The man wore a belted, deep purple-and-black robe of luxurious silk. Though an uneducated rustic like Tang Si had no idea what it cost, he could tell at a glance that it was far more precious than the county magistrate's official robes. Panic surged uncontrollably from the depths of his heart. Tang Si dropped straight to his knees, slamming his forehead against the ground as he stammered, "M-My Lord, this... this wasn't done by this humble one..." "..." The man gave the hawker a slightly odd look. He had only asked why he hadn't reported it—was this really necessary? Thinking this, the man instinctively prepared to lift the vendor with his Source Qi, but held back. He saw the marrow-deep dread in the man's eyes when looking at him. At this moment, forcing him to stand would probably feel no different to him than being executed. Glancing toward the county yamen, a look of thoughtful reflection appeared in the man's eyes. He said, "I know it wasn't you. A mortal like you couldn't kill a martial apprentice anyway." Hearing this, Tang Si did not stop his trembling in the slightest. "Your Excellency is wise... Your Excellency is wise..." As he spoke, he knocked his head forcefully against the ground. Seeing this display, the man lost any desire to continue questioning him. With a soft sigh, his figure vanished from the street in a flash. Having heard no further words from the mysterious nobleman for a long time, Tang Si quietly raised his head, only to find the man gone without a trace. And gone along with him was the corpse—now reduced to a pile of ashes. Not daring to get up immediately, Tang Si remained kneeling for a long while until noises came from the shop next door. Only then did he scramble to his feet, shutting the door in haste while muttering tremulously under his breath: "Immortal Lord... what are you coming to this county for at a time like this..." Though only a county seat, Huizhou County had walls several zhang high. As the crowds below bustled into the city, a handsome man sat lazily on the gate tower, gazing out at the sunrise on the horizon. Moments later, another figure landed beside him in several quick leaps. The handsome man was not surprised by the arrival. Patting the empty space beside him, he chuckled and called out: "I told you, Changtian, going down to question that fellow was just a waste of time. You'd have been better off enjoying the sunrise with me up here." Looking at the grinning Li Junqing, Xu Yuan leaned down and sat by his side, saying: "The townspeople are so accustomed to corpses left in the streets. That is an outright trampling of Great Yan's laws. Don't you, an imperial prince, have anything to say about it?" Li Junqing cast a sidelong glance at Xu Yuan's calm expression and curled his lips into a smile: "Say what? The Northern Border has been at war for so many years. The fact that no massive riots have broken out here is already pretty good. Don't set your expectations too high." At this point, Li Junqing's smile lingered as he continued: "Besides, the plight of the realm's commoners isn't my concern. You should take that up with my imperial brother." Xu Yuan gave the young man a deep look and shook his head slightly. "Actually, that's not what bothers me." Li Junqing raised an eyebrow. Having seen what had happened down below, he smiled and said: "What bothers you is that man's attitude toward you?" "Yes," Xu Yuan did not deny it. "It was as if I might kill him at any moment." Li Junqing rolled his eyes with a snort. "You really are sentimental." Xu Yuan glanced at him, frowning. "What do you mean, sentimental? Treating human life like grass has already become commonplace inside the city. Out in the wild..." "I know, but so what?" "..." Xu Yuan fell silent. A complicated look flashed through Li Junqing's eyes. Tapping the gate tower beneath him, he chuckled softly: "Changtian, do you think His Majesty and your father don't know about this?" Hearing this, Xu Yuan rubbed his brow with some irritation: "They knew from the very beginning. After all, this is the inevitable consequence of a flood of martial apprentices." Allowing cultivation manuals to spread among the common people broke the sects' monopoly at its roots, but it also brought tremendous turmoil to the bottom rungs of society—or rather, necessary growing pains. Yet when these growing pains of Great Yan fell upon an individual commoner, they were nothing short of a disaster. "Since you know that, what are you getting angry for?" Li Junqing maintained his indolent, carefree posture and said leisurely: "Nothing can be built without first breaking the old. Sacrifice is a necessary prerequisite to forging an era of peace and prosperity. "If you feel this way over just a few deaths now... "Changtian, when the great chaos truly rises in the future, what will you do then?"