Heyang County's Welcome Ceremony
A translucent dome of light enveloped his entire body, its faint halo flowing and curling like mist, making Gao Yunyi look like a true immortal beyond the mortal world.
Sure enough, after he entered a state of meditation, Gao Yunyi's turbulent heart slowly calmed, and his surging killing intent gradually receded.
It really works.
Gao Yunyi was delighted.
He had not expected this nearly useless idle skill to suppress his inner demon as well as earn him experience.
Now that he had found a solution, there was no need to rush down the mountain. He would deal with the problem completely first.
The next day,
Gao Yunyi opened his eyes just as dawn began to break.
The meditation had worked better than he had imagined. His mind was now like a pool so clear he could see its bottom: clean, transparent, free of distracting thoughts, and utterly pure.
He pushed open the door and walked out.
But he found that the severed limbs strewn across the ground outside last night had all disappeared. Not only that, but a layer of fresh earth had been spread over the ground, concealing the pools of foul-smelling blood.
If not for the collapsed walls and ruined houses that scarred the stronghold after the battle, Gao Yunyi would have thought all his killing last night had been for nothing.
With no bodies or bloodstains in sight, Gao Yunyi immediately felt even better.
"Reporting to the exalted immortal, we gathered all the bandits' heads overnight. There are forty-two in total; not a single bandit from Crouching Ox Mountain escaped. We also buried the bodies on the spot and found the loot the bandits had hidden, including countless pieces of gold, silver, and jewelry. We didn't disturb your rest, did we, immortal?"
Constable Chen emerged from some corner or other and trotted up to Gao Yunyi, carefully bowing with his hands clasped as he reported.
"No, you did well."
In a good mood, Gao Yunyi said a few more words than usual.
Constable Chen was instantly overjoyed at the praise, his heart brimming with excitement.
"The bandits' heads are over there. I'll have someone carry them over for you to see, exalted immortal."
Constable Chen spoke with a fawning smile.
"No need. I'm kindhearted and can't bear to look at such cruel and bloody things."
Gao Yunyi frowned slightly, covered his nose with his fingers, and walked away with effortless grace.
Constable Chen was left standing alone in the wind, utterly disheveled.
Going down the mountain was much easier than climbing it.
The men carried several shoulder poles hung with large baskets full of bandits' heads, gold, silver, and jewelry. Their steps were as swift as the wind, and their faces were bright with joy. Amazingly, they made it all the way down the mountain without even getting out of breath.
Those baskets were filled with merit and reward money—the foundation on which they could make names for themselves.
The bandits of Crouching Ox Mountain had plagued Heyang County for years. The people hated them so much they wanted to drink their blood and eat their flesh.
Years ago, the authorities had sent more than a hundred soldiers and officers up the mountain to suppress the bandits, only for them to return in crushing defeat.
And now he—no, a dozen or so constables and runners from the county yamen—had wiped out the entire bandit gang on Crouching Ox Mountain in one fell swoop.
Once word got out, they would be heroes of Heyang County.
Never mind making names for themselves and winning the people's admiration; surely they would each get a whole page in their clan genealogies.
At the thought, the men grinned from ear to ear, feeling as though they had inexhaustible strength.
Although the immortal had killed all the bandits, cleaning up the battlefield, burying the bodies, and searching for the stolen goods had been hard work too, all right?
Who dared say that logistics work didn't count as taking part in the battle?
Unlike his beaming, high-spirited subordinates, Constable Chen, who walked at the head of the group, had a flicker of worry pass through his eyes from time to time.
For among the heads filling those baskets, one did not belong to a bandit. It belonged to the woman who had called the prefect her second uncle.
After a night of careful consideration, Constable Chen had ultimately decided to bring the woman's head back with them.
There was no way to conceal the death of a female member of the prefect's family on Crouching Ox Mountain. Rather than have his superiors send someone to investigate thoroughly later, he might as well return it openly now.
As long as everyone's testimony matched and they insisted the bandits had killed her, he hoped the credit for wiping out the bandits would help them get through this.
To that end, Constable Chen had not only used the bandit chief's saber to chop the smooth wound on the woman's neck into a jagged mess, but had also slashed her face all over.
That way, one look at the woman would show that the bandits had brutally tortured her to death.
He had done everything he could. The rest was up to fate.
In the gently swaying carriage,
Gao Yunyi was taking stock of the spoils from the trip.
Besides Refined Iron, Azure-Pattern Stone, Spirit Cotton, and Azure-Pattern Silk Thread for crafting equipment, there was even a Pill Formula and one of the medicinal ingredients it required: a Red Spirit Flower.
Of course, these were all low-level materials and a low-level Pill Formula. They could only be used to make level 10 equipment and a grade one pill.
He had materials for equipment but no blueprints, and a Pill Formula but not enough medicinal ingredients. Otherwise, he could have made the equipment and pill right now.
Equipment and pills were far too important to him at this early stage.
Gao Yunyi's expression darkened. The things dropped by the forty-odd bandits he had killed seemed plentiful, but none of them were of any use to him right now.
He remembered that when he had been a beginner in the game before, his luck had never been this bad.
By level 12, he had already collected a full set of equipment and obtained a top-quality necklace that increased critical hits.
That goddamn game system must have secretly lowered the drop rate.
It even takes a cut of my kickback. How shameless.
I despise it.
Gao Yunyi mentally raised a middle finger at the heavens.
"Reporting to the exalted immortal, the county magistrate is up ahead with the people of Heyang County, welcoming you back in triumph."
Constable Chen's excited voice came from outside the carriage window.
Gao Yunyi lifted the curtain and looked out. Good grief, a dense sea of people filled the road not far ahead. It looked as though everyone in Heyang County had come.
With a swish, the curtain fell again.
Gao Yunyi felt his scalp go numb.
For an introvert with social anxiety, an occasion like this was worse than death.
I'm not coming out. You could beat me to death and I still wouldn't come out.
As long as I can't see it, nothing happened.
Outside the carriage, the excited expression on Constable Chen's face suddenly froze.
That was right.
He had done it again.
Last night, he had specifically sent someone down the mountain to carry the good news of the immortal's extermination of the bandits and destruction of their den back to the county yamen overnight.
That was why the county magistrate and several thousand people from Heyang County had appeared outside the city so early in the morning, creating such a magnificent welcoming scene.
He had thought the immortal would be happy if he did this.
But judging by the expression on the immortal's face just now, he seemed very unhappy.
Constable Chen scratched his head, thinking that immortals truly lived up to their name: their thoughts were beyond a mortal like him to fathom.
But the deed was done, and there was no changing it. He could only grit his teeth and carry on.
What else could he do? Walk over, wave at the county magistrate, and say, "Disperse, disperse, everyone go home"?
Even if he were given eight hundred times his courage, he wouldn't dare do that.
As the carriage drew closer and closer to the county seat, County Magistrate Zhang, who had been watching until his eyes ached, immediately swept his raised hand down hard.
A crackling barrage of firecrackers suddenly rang out.
It was followed by the deafening crash of gongs and drums and cheers like roaring mountains and surging seas.
The entire county seat seemed to have been swept up in a grand festival, boiling over with noise and excitement.