In February, the willows lay drunk in the spring mist.
Dragon Abyss City lay in the central plains, with four distinct seasons. Now that the days were growing warmer, a lush vitality filled the city. The southern stretch of Sky Street bustled with carriages and horses, pedestrians streamed along both sides, and cries of hawking and laughter rang without end.
Liang Yue wore a plain cloth robe as he sat outside a teahouse on Linmen Street, leisurely surveying his surroundings, his gaze faintly blazing like torches.
Beside him sat Pang Chun, likewise dressed in coarse hemp garments that fit him somewhat poorly. His enormous head hung low and his shoulders hunched, making him look like a sneaky behemoth.
Across from them sat a young man of average build, with a small nose and small eyes.
At first glance, he looked utterly ordinary. But upon a second look, seeing his brocade robes, the costly jade pendant at his waist, and the heavy gold-embroidered money pouch hanging there, one would suddenly find his entire bearing much more agreeable.
"Liang Yue, what exactly are we doing here?" the young man asked. "If we want tea, we should go upstairs and get a private room. When have I ever drunk tea by the roadside? It'd be too embarrassing if people saw me."
The standard arrangement in the Imperial Capital Guard was one Official Guard leading two Subordinate Guards. The man speaking was named Chen Ju, the Official Guard whom Liang Yue and Pang Chun followed. He came from the Chen Family, one of the Four Great Clans of the imperial capital.
Though he belonged to a collateral branch, he was still ultimately a scion of a great clan. His wealth was beyond comparison with ordinary people.
"The view upstairs is poor. You can't see as clearly as you can from here," Liang Yue said, shaking his head.
Chen Ju asked in confusion, "Don't the suspect always set fires at night? What are we doing here in broad daylight?"
"Who said a fire at night can't be set during the day?" Liang Yue smiled. "If I've guessed correctly... you'll know soon enough."
"Tch." Chen Ju greatly despised this habit of his of keeping people in suspense, then asked, "I heard Old Hu asked you to pay for regular status, and you refused?"
"That's right," Liang Yue said. "He wanted me to fork over three hundred taels of silver. That's far too outrageous."
"Three hundred?" Chen Ju's eyes widened. "When my family sent me in, they spent five hundred taels."
He was a scion of a great clan and a genuine Second Realm martial artist, yet he still had to pay to enter the Imperial Capital Guard. In that regard, everyone was treated equally.
Perhaps even the current Crown Prince would have to pay three hundred taels to become an Official Guard.
"Hoh, so Old Hu was giving me a conscientious price?" Liang Yue replied.
"More or less. He probably didn't mark it up," Chen Ju nodded. "The authority to recruit regular officers rests with Zou Fang, the Southern City Commander. Anything under three hundred taels wouldn't even catch his eye."
He immediately added, "Actually, I can pay this regularization fee for you."
"No need." Liang Yue refused without hesitation. "I can't pay it back."
"It's not a loan. It's a gift," Chen Ju said. "You know that though my family is merely a collateral branch managing the clan's businesses, without much status, we've never lacked money. Lending you a hand is nothing to me. We're friends, after all."
"Really, no need." Liang Yue still refused. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I will never buy an official post with money... I think it's unreasonable."
"Hm?" Chen Ju froze, somewhat surprised. "I thought you were a very clever person. You should know how to adapt."
"Some things can be adapted to, and some things cannot." Liang Yue's gaze was resolute. "Even if the whole world wades through the same muddy waters, unreasonable is still unreasonable."
"You..." Chen Ju seemed somewhat moved and was about to say something else when Liang Yue suddenly pressed down on his arm beneath the table. His gaze fixed on a spot not far ahead, divine light sharp as blades, as though he had discovered something.
Ahead.
A plain-looking man, like an old farmer, pushed a small cart along the street, crying, "Iced sour plum juice... cool and refreshing sour plum soup..."
Winter had only just passed. Farmers often stored ice in their cellars, brewed chilled drinks, and brought them into the city to sell. They were quite popular.
At an intersection ahead, a travel-worn man wearing a bamboo hat called out to him. "Give me a bowl of sour plum soup."
"Coming right up."
The old farmer uncovered the ice barrel, which was wrapped in thick quilts, ladled a bowl of sour plum soup for the man, accepted three copper coins, then pushed his cart toward the intersection.
After turning into an alley, he pulled a large block of ice from the barrel and suddenly threw it into the backyard of a shop to one side.
He moved very quickly. There was no one in the alley, and amid the bustle of the main street, no one noticed at all. It seemed to have been done without a ghost knowing or a god perceiving.
Yet Liang Yue, watching him from afar, suddenly had a sharp gleam in his eyes and barked, "Move!"
The three immediately drew their sabers from beneath the table and rushed toward the old farmer with the cart in the alley. As he ran, Chen Ju shouted for the crowded pedestrians to clear the way. "Dragon Abyss Imperial Capital Guard! Move aside!"
But just as they reached the center of Sky Street, a sudden change erupted!
The man in the bamboo hat standing at the intersection across the street, who had just bought his sour plum soup, saw three brawny men with sabers charging in his direction. He abruptly raised his head, and his eyes brimmed with ferocity like those of a wild beast!
"Die!"
With an angry roar, he flung the bamboo hat from his head, revealing a vicious, fiendish face marred by a scarred half-mask of ruined flesh.
The bamboo hat flew at Pang Chun, the largest of the three, striking him squarely in the chest. With a bang, Da Chun, towering like an iron pagoda, was violently sent flying by that blow. He flew five or six zhang like a kite before crashing heavily to the ground.
The man's sudden outburst caught the three off guard. They were utterly baffled. Could this be an accomplice of the arsonist?
No matter what, he had shown no mercy with that strike. The remaining two naturally had to strike back.
Chen Ju immediately drew his saber. He was a Second Realm martial artist, and the moment he raised his blade, it carried the rhythm of martial arts. His saber swept out as though Divine Sense followed it, incomparably fierce.
Liang Yue tacitly supported him from the side, sweeping a kick at the man's lower body.
Clang!
With a crisp ring, this man caught Chen Ju's saber barehanded, producing the sound of Gold Iron. Then he thrust out his right palm, and a blast of force sent Chen Ju flying several feet away.
"Puh—" Chen Ju cleanly spat out a mouthful of blood as he flew backward, gravely wounded on the spot. Even in midair, he did not forget to warn him, "Liang Yue, be careful! He's in the Aura Realm!"
The Aura Realm was already the Fourth Realm for martial artists. Aura winds could leave the body, fierce and violent. No one had expected such an expert to be hidden on this street, much less that he would launch a sudden attack on the three of them.
But by the time Liang Yue heard the warning, it was already too late.
His sweeping kick struck the man's shin as if he had hit an iron pillar. Pain shot through his leg bone, while the other man seemed to feel nothing at all.
After sending Chen Ju flying, the man lowered his head and looked down at Liang Yue. His two palms immediately came down viciously like twin ghosts pounding at the gate.
Liang Yue's cultivation was lower than Chen Ju's. If that palm strike landed solidly, his head would likely explode on the spot! In that instant, he seemed already to hear the whistling wind carrying the scent of death.
At that hair's-breadth moment, however, Liang Yue showed no fear. Looking behind the man, he shouted, "Attack his vital point!"
Seeing this mere First Realm martial man remain utterly fearless before him, the man truly thought for an instant that someone was ambushing him from behind. His attention faltered slightly, and he dispersed his aura to guard against it.
Then he discovered there was nothing behind him.
He had been fooled?
In the instant he lost focus, Liang Yue had no intention of counterattacking. Instead, he rolled backward on the spot, widening the distance between himself and the man. The terrifying, suffocating pressure eased slightly.
The man grew even more enraged at this. He had actually been toyed with by a weakling, and he was just about to catch up in a single stride.
Whoosh—
At that critical moment, accompanied by a piercing whistle through the air, a silver-white sword light like a shooting star flashed forth from the far end of the long street several li away, carrying an icy, biting chill.
It tore through the sky!
Ssh!
In an instant, the streak of light pierced through the man's hardened chest, carrying his entire body away and smashing him into the wall behind him.
When Liang Yue regained his footing, he found that the shadow before him had vanished. The man had been nailed to a brick wall more than ten zhang away, his life or death unknown. A pure white sword was embedded in his chest, as though forged from moonlight.
With the clatter of armor, a squad of saber-bearing armored soldiers in black cloaks converged from all directions and surrounded the unconscious man. Yet not one stepped forward, as though they were waiting for something.
Very soon, a figure descended amid a fragrant breeze.
She was a woman in a plain white dress, tall and slender, with clear, cold eyes. Her brows and eyes curved like mist shrouding the moon, a delicate bridge rising from her nose, skin like congealed cream, and a jade-like face in the wind.
She flew in from afar, drifting like an immortal maiden descending to the mortal world. Then she landed with a rustle, the strips of her robes hanging suspended in the air.
The peerlessly beautiful woman descending from the heavens instantly drew every gaze on the entire street, as though ten thousand rays of sunlight had gathered upon her alone.
Who knew how many people forgot to breathe in that instant.
After landing, she turned her hand over. The flying sword in the man's chest shook off strings of blood droplets, then with a whoosh became a streak of light and flew back into her sleeve. Only then did she speak. "Yu Wenlong?"
The man nailed to the wall crashed to the ground. With difficulty, he raised his head, revealing a face covered in knife scars, incomparably vicious. He cursed indistinctly, "Running dogs of the Evil Extermination Bureau, despicable southerners..."
"To sneak back into the imperial capital, you actually did not hesitate to destroy your own face." The woman unfolded a portrait in her hand. It faintly showed this man's appearance, except his hair was much longer and the horrifying scar was not yet on his face.
"Ah..." The man braced himself on the ground with both arms and roared, "I'll fight you to the death—"
Though subdued by many people, he still struggled desperately, refusing to submit. His vicious aspect was fully revealed, like a wild beast.
"Take him away!" The woman did not need to give the order. The armored soldiers around them took out heavy iron chains and bound him tightly in the blink of an eye, then escorted him away.
Only after completing the task did the woman turn back toward Liang Yue, who was seated on the ground. She walked over slowly while raising a command token. "Traveling Official of the Evil Extermination Division, Wen Yifan."
Her voice was soft yet cool and clear, just like her bearing.
"Liang Yue of the Imperial Capital Guard's Fukang Ward station." Liang Yue hurriedly rose to his feet, stumbling slightly on his right leg before cupping his fists. "Thank you, miss, for saving me."
"So you're from the Imperial Capital Guard. No need for thanks; we were all working the case. If you hadn't rooted him out, our Evil Extermination Division might have missed a major criminal. But..." Wen Yifan's gaze lingered on Liang Yue for a moment, and she asked with some puzzlement:
"How did you know he was a spy from Nine Yang?"
Thanks to Teacher Shen for the Alliance Leader reward, becoming this book's second super-luxury Alliance Leader!
Thank you, thank you.
That concludes the first day's three updates. Today's update schedule was a little strange to coordinate with the event. Starting tomorrow, updates will be at noon on the 20th, and after that, we'll keep updating at noon.
Also, the new book is still short right now. Friends who aren't interested in following along yet can check out the author's previous two books. The first currently has over forty thousand average subscriptions, and the second has over eighty thousand. If this new book does well, perhaps it can help this one break one hundred thousand average subscriptions too. I'm dreaming, sorry.
In any case, thank you all for your support today! I'll keep working hard!
Before you continue