"Over the years, which county in Dongjun hasn't wanted to get rid of your River God avatar?"
"Even the commandery governor of Dongjun has considered taking action against you several times!"
"And I was the one who stopped them all."
As Cha Liangcai spoke, the voice from the jade statue regained its original composure.
"I know all that. I know. So rest assured. Once I recover, I'll certainly help you reach the core formation realm."
As it spoke, the jade statue painted an enticing picture of a glorious future for Cha Liangcai. "When that time comes, your Cha Family will become the fourth golden core realm power in Qing Province! Even the royal family of the Qi Kingdom will have to take your wishes into account, and Dongjun will become your Cha Family's fief."
Cha Liangcai was moved by the prospect the jade statue described, but he regained his composure after only a moment. "Let's hope so."
With that, Cha Liangcai rose and left the secret chamber.
Once outside, Cha Liangcai's expression darkened and shifted. "Once you recover, what will be left for my Cha Family? This time, I'll use this opportunity to find out just what your origins are!"
Meanwhile, after a long silence in the empty secret chamber, the jade statue slowly spoke again. "Hmph. I knew these old fellows who've clung to life for hundreds of years would all be crafty old foxes. Fortunately, I never pinned my hopes on them."
"The time hasn't come yet. I can wait. I can endure."
"Once I recover..."
The River God of the Taiping River was certainly not the sort to sit and await his doom. He soon took action.
Inside a gambling den somewhere in Dongjun Commandery City, the owner hid in a secret chamber, kneeling fervently before a jade statue. "Master, what are your orders?"
An imposing voice emerged from the jade statue. "The magistrate of Qingshan County refuses to behave. He intends to have a band of rogue cultivators disrupt the River God Grand Sacrifice and ruin my grand undertaking!"
"Contact those evil cultivators and demonic practitioners. Have them muddy the waters in Qingshan County. Better still if they can kill the magistrate, so he can't stir up any more trouble."
The gambling den owner's obese body trembled with excitement. "Rest assured, master. Your servant will see to it at once!"
What happened in that gambling den was far from an isolated incident.
People in several locations throughout Dongjun Commandery City received the same orders.
An innkeeper, a brothel madam, a winery owner—who would pay attention to these seemingly ordinary businesspeople?
Who could have imagined that they had long since sold their fortunes and lives to someone else?
Soon, the evil cultivators and demonic practitioners lurking underground in Dongjun received new work, targeting the demon-slaying campaign about to begin in Qingshan County.
Many evil cultivators even planned to use this opportunity to obtain more living souls in Qingshan County, gather flesh and blood to feed their ghosts, or acquire strong people to refine into blood corpses.
To evil cultivators, nothing was unusable. Human bones, flesh, blood, and organs could all be used to refine artifacts and pills, or even practice their arts, while intact human bodies could be refined into puppets and blood corpses.
In the past, suppressed by the Qi Kingdom's court and the aristocratic clans and Dao Palaces throughout the land, evil cultivators had been unable to stir up much wind or waves. But with so many rogue cultivators slipping into Qingshan County this time, they undoubtedly had an excellent opportunity.
The demonic practitioners' thinking was simpler still. Slaughter and blood sacrifices were both part of their usual way of doing things.
They did not care how many people the River God Grand Sacrifice in Qingshan County affected. They only cared whether they could profit from it and destabilize the region.
As long as they could destroy a place's order and stability, they could grow unchecked.
Because of Qingshan County's series of high-profile actions, Dongjun, once a pool of stagnant water, grew murky as the various factions stirred it up.
Every faction stirred restlessly, waiting for the wind to rise in Qingshan County.
Once wind and waves rose, who knew how many would try to fish in muddy waters, and how many would watch the fire from the opposite bank?
Qingshan County lay against mountains and beside water, blessed with exceptional natural advantages.
With more than two hundred thousand people within its borders, it could hardly be called anything but prosperous.
Qingshan County Seat was especially impressive, with towering walls and more than twenty-three thousand households, housing a hundred thousand residents.
Every day, its markets bustled with carts and crowds, flourishing with extraordinary activity.
Though it was already deep winter, the streets remained packed with people.
Peddlers wandered the streets and alleys, calling out their wares, while townsfolk and merchants in winter clothes strolled and browsed, making the scene particularly lively.
Great Qi lay at the easternmost edge of the Eastern Domain Continent. Like the Lu Kingdom to its south, it bordered the vast, boundless East Sea.
Qing Province in the Qi Kingdom lay on the East Sea coast, making its winters especially cold and bringing somewhat heavier snowfall.
Snow fell over Dongjun that day. Snowflakes danced through the sky, and when the cold wind blew, they fluttered and swirled in a beautiful display.
In Qingshan County's fish market, an honest-looking middle-aged man in his thirties or forties squatted on the ground in shabby winter clothes, with large fish laid out on the stall before him.
The man tucked his hands into his sleeves and puffed out warm breath, occasionally calling, "Fish for sale! Fish for sale! Fine big fish!"
Several local thugs who loafed around the markets spotted him. Once they confirmed he was not a resident of Qingshan County Seat, they immediately approached and surrounded his fish stall.
"You're new here?" one thug asked, eyeing the middle-aged man sidelong.
The middle-aged man nodded and bowed, looking particularly meek. "Yes, sir, I'm new. I heard Qingshan County was holding the River God Grand Sacrifice, so I thought I'd come sell some fish and buy a little extra food for my children."
The lead thug sneered. "Do you know you have to pay to set up a stall in this fish market?"
The middle-aged man froze and said awkwardly, "But... but I never heard..."
"What would a newcomer like you know? Hand over one tael of silver for the stall fee, or we'll confiscate your stall!" another thug barked.
The middle-aged man was utterly bewildered. He looked helplessly at the thugs, while the other fish sellers hurriedly edged away, lest their own business suffer if the thugs started smashing things.
"Stop staring! Hurry up and pay the stall fee!" the lead thug said impatiently.
The middle-aged man waved his hands repeatedly. "But... but I've only just set up my stall. Where would I get the money?"
"No money? Then pay with fish!" One thug picked out a fine, large fish as he spoke.
The other thugs followed suit, each taking a large fish and laughing gleefully.
The middle-aged man seemed about to lose his temper at the sight, but in the end, he said nothing. He silently squatted back down and lowered his head.
Seeing this, the thugs laughed even harder. Their leader added, "You know what's good for you. We'll waive today's stall fee!"
With that, the thugs swaggered away with their fish, laughing and jostling one another.
The middle-aged fish seller seemed dispirited as well. He silently packed up his stall and disappeared into the crowd, leaving only the other fish sellers' helpless sighs behind.
That evening, the thugs slaughtered the large fish in their own courtyard, boiling and roasting them until every mouthful left a delicious lingering taste.
What they did not know was that the middle-aged man whose fish they had stolen that day was quietly performing a rite of worship in a deserted, dilapidated courtyard.
The object of his worship was none other than a lifelike stone fish!
"My good child, go feast on flesh and blood. Eat plenty. A full belly will help you grow quickly..."
As the middle-aged man performed his rites, the stone fish suddenly came alive. A mass of gray mist, smelling of water weeds and fish, drifted from it, circled several times in the air, and headed straight for a courtyard.
The thugs in that courtyard were still eating and drinking with abandon when they suddenly found it difficult to breathe. Their throats grew dry and hoarse, leaving them unable to make a sound, and their faces turned blue from suffocation.
They failed to notice that a mass of gray mist had already entered their bodies.
Within less than an hour, the thugs discovered to their horror that something seemed to be continuously gnawing away at their organs and flesh. Yet their bodies did not shrink. Instead, they kept swelling.
In the end, each thug swelled to several times his original size and collapsed to the ground, unable to struggle any longer.
They could only watch helplessly as their organs were devoured and the flesh and blood inside their bodies were replaced by water weeds and river water.
By the time someone discovered the thugs the following day, they were so bloated that they no longer looked human, and their skin was blue and almost transparent.
When the constables from the arrest squad arrived, the corpses were already swollen to the breaking point.
Through that thin layer of human skin, they could see that no trace of flesh, blood, or bone remained inside the corpses—only clumps of blackened water weeds and murky river water.
The arrest squad's constables were no fools. One look told them this was beyond their abilities, and they immediately reported it to Magistrate Zhang Qingyun.
When Zhang Qingyun learned the news, his first thought was that his daughter had been right. The demon in the Taiping River really had sent people to cause trouble!
Soon, Zhang Qing and Xu Xiao arrived at the scene.
Looking at the corpses, swollen almost to bursting, Xu Xiao briefly sensed the lingering aura before reaching a conclusion. "This should be the work of an evil cultivator."
Zhang Qing knew little about cultivators' methods. She asked softly, "Will this be difficult to deal with?"
Xu Xiao held two fingers together like a sword and pierced the bloated corpses with several streams of spiritual energy. Foul-smelling water weeds and murky river water immediately sprayed out!
Just as the blackened water weeds were about to splash onto the people nearby, Xu Xiao beckoned with her fair hand. Icy blue spiritual power transformed into deep-blue mist, shielding everyone.
When the mist dispersed, the water weeds and murky river water still retained the shape of their outward spray, but they had frozen into an ice sculpture.
Witnessing Xu Xiao's divine methods, the arrest squad's constables cried out in amazement, exclaiming that an immortal maiden had descended to the mortal world.
Xu Xiao, however, said to Zhang Qing, "Let's discuss this when we get back."
After returning to the county offices, Xu Xiao drew on what she had learned in the Moon-Embracing Sect's library, as well as what she had seen and heard during her travels through Qing Province, to explain matters to Zhang Qingyun and Zhang Qing. "To put it plainly, when evil cultivators harm people, they often set bait, much like hunters catching prey."
"A piece of meat you eat, a cup of tea you drink, or even a copper coin you happen to pick up can all serve as an anchor for an evil cultivator's spell."
"These methods are all dirty, low-down tricks, but their strength lies in how difficult they are to guard against. Ordinary people might fall victim without even realizing it."
Zhang Qing looked thoughtful. "So this is what makes the Curse-Subduing Art so dangerous. If those evil cultivators are allowed to take lives in the city without restraint, I fear the whole of Qingshan County Seat will descend into chaos within days."
Dear readers, I regret to report that Lin Yuan will probably have to wait several more days to sign his contract this week. Here's what happened: Lin Yuan was lucky enough to pass the internal submission review. He published the book last Tuesday and could have signed the contract on Wednesday. But an expert advised him that signing this Monday would bring better feng shui. Lin Yuan believes in mysticism, so he postponed signing until this Monday. Unfortunately, Lin Yuan foresaw everything except getting held up by the real-name registration on his own phone number when signing! Since Lin Yuan's original phone number wasn't registered under his own name, he got a new one, spending a whopping 230 yuan. But the contract signing failed repeatedly. After a tip from his editor, he learned that newly issued phone numbers take several days to enter the main database. Lin Yuan refused to accept this. Rage rose in his heart, and reckless resolve seized him, so he decided to transfer his old number into his own name and try again! Then his editor told him that transferring ownership of an old number also requires several days for it to be reentered into the main database. I'm so heartbroken. I excitedly got a new SIM card, thinking I could sign the contract. I even thought mysticism could change my fate. But now... I'm so heartbroken. My 230 yuan!
(End of chapter)
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