Chaos on Every Side

Yang Jing had no idea what Liu Maolin was thinking. After hearing Old Master Liu's words, he leaned over as well and studied the map carefully.

The route was clearly marked on the map, along with several villages where they could stop to rest.

He nodded. "All right, we'll take this route."

The three of them went back into the inner room and chatted for a while longer. Before long, the sound of horses and carts came from the courtyard outside the storeroom. The guards had probably finished loading the medicinal herbs onto the wagons.

Yang Jing drained his tea, straightened his clothes, and rose. "They should be about ready. I'll set out now and try to get back before it's completely dark."

Old Master Liu and Liu Maolin both nodded.

Liu Maolin and Yang Jing left the inner room and entered the courtyard. The convoy was ready to depart at any moment.

Three powerfully built guards stood at the head of the convoy. All were Bright Strength experts who served as guard captains for the Liu Family, a clear sign of just how valuable this shipment of medicinal herbs was.

Two of them looked weary. They had only recently finished another escort mission with Liu Maolin, and now they had to hurry straight to Jinhe County without a moment's rest.

Liu Maolin instructed the three Bright Strength guard captains, "This is an important mission. On the road, all three of you must follow Guest Official Yang's orders. Do not act on your own."

All three nodded in assent.

Although Yang Jing was much younger than any of them, he was a Hidden Strength expert. They had sparred with him before, and even all three together were no match for him. He had crushed them with ease. Even without Liu Maolin's reminder, they would have deferred to Yang Jing.

Yang Jing stepped forward and mounted a sturdy black horse. His gaze swept over the convoy, ready and waiting, while his fingertips unconsciously rubbed the saber at his waist. In a low voice, he ordered, "Move out!"

At Yang Jing's command, the Liu Family Medical Hall convoy, several dozen strong, slowly passed through the Medical Hall's gates.

Yang Jing led the Liu Family Medical Hall convoy carrying its valuable medicinal herbs out of Yuhe County and headed north.

Yuhe County lay roughly in the south-central part of Jintai Prefecture. Both their destination, Jinhe County, and the Jintai Prefectural City lay to its north.

Once they left Yuhe County, refugees filled the landscape as far as the eye could see.

One wretched scene after another sent a faint chill down Yang Jing's back.

Lately, Yang Jing had spent almost all his time immersed in martial training. Partly, it was because he had only recently broken through to Hidden Strength and was brimming with motivation; partly, it was to prepare for the approaching Parade Ground Trial.

Liu Maolin knew how furiously Yang Jing had been training and had not assigned him any ordinary escort missions.

As a result, Yang Jing had only heard about conditions outside the city from other people.

But seeing them with his own eyes now, he could not help feeling his heart tighten.

Wasn't this a fucking age of chaos, right before my eyes?

His brows knitted tightly, Yang Jing considered how he still needed to bring his family into the city. Otherwise, he would never feel at ease.

He would have to get started on that immediately after the Parade Ground Trial.

As for his grandfather, if the old man truly refused, Yang Jing would have no choice but to use force. He would tie them up and bring them into the city if he had to.

The wagon convoy continued north.

Yang Jing noticed that although there were still plenty of refugees along the road, their numbers dwindled considerably compared with those within Yuhe County.

Perhaps the war in Caozhou had driven many of its people from their homes and sent them fleeing east. Jintai Prefecture was one of the prefectures in Jizhou closest to Caozhou, while Yuhe County, situated in Jintai Prefecture's south-central region, was also relatively close to Caozhou.

By comparison, conditions in northern Jintai Prefecture were much better.

The journey was not all smooth sailing.

In times like these, refugees were everywhere and bandits ran rampant.

Partway through the journey, Yang Jing and the others encountered two separate bands of robbers blocking the road, though both were nothing more than disorderly rabble.

Without using his full strength, Yang Jing easily defeated their leaders. The three Bright Strength experts then worked together with the other guards to scatter the robbers. The convoy suffered no losses, and the medicinal herbs naturally remained undamaged.

By the time they safely delivered the herbs to Jinhe County and completed the handover, dusk had fallen.

Not daring to delay, Yang Jing immediately led the convoy back. They finally entered the Yuhe County seat just as darkness settled fully.

Only when the convoy entered the Yuhe County seat did Yang Jing finally breathe a complete sigh of relief.

They had encountered two groups of robbers on the journey, but neither had been particularly powerful.

What Yang Jing feared most was the Flying Horse Bandits.

The Flying Horse Bandits moved swiftly. The Imperial Court's troops had mobilized against them several times, only to be shaken off, and seven or eight soldiers had even been killed.

By now, the Flying Horse Bandits' fearsome reputation had spread throughout Yuhe County.

Yang Jing had no confidence in his chances if they encountered the Flying Horse Bandits. He had thought it through: if they truly met them, he would do his best, but if that was not enough, he could only flee. With Surging Wave Leg, if he focused on plunging into the mountain woods or reed beds, the Flying Horse Bandits might not be able to catch him.

Losing the medicinal herbs would mean letting down his senior brother Liu Maolin and Old Master Liu, but Yang Jing would never throw away his life over a mere shipment of herbs and a sense of guilt.

In an age of chaos like this, what would his grandfather, grandmother, and mother do if he died? Who would search for his father and Elder Uncle?

Fortunately, following the route Old Master Liu had chosen before their departure had indeed kept them from encountering the Flying Horse Bandits.

Still, Yang Jing felt this was no lasting solution. The Flying Horse Bandits came and went like the wind, highly mobile. They might avoid them three or five times, but as long as the Liu Family Medical Hall kept shipping medicinal herbs to Jinhe County and the Prefectural City, they would have to face them sooner or later.

For now, however, they could only keep stalling like this.

The Flying Horse Bandits reportedly had more than one Hidden Strength expert among them and were formidable, but the Imperial Court had wiped out bandit forces stronger than them before.

Yang Jing reckoned that once the Imperial Court could spare the resources and truly made up its mind, destroying the Flying Horse Bandits should not be difficult.

When the convoy's wagons reached the Liu Family Medical Hall, its elderly steward was already waiting at the entrance.

After the handover was completed, the elderly steward handed Yang Jing a heavy money pouch. "Thank you for your efforts, Young Hero Yang. Here are ten taels of silver as your payment. Please take it; we do things by the rules."

Yang Jing accepted the pouch with a smile, hefted it, and nodded. "Thank you."

With the mission handed over, Yang Jing stayed no longer. He bade the Medical Hall's elderly steward farewell and left with the money pouch, heading toward his little courtyard in Tongyi Ward.

As he walked home, Yang Jing reflected on everything he had seen and heard that day, as well as what he had learned from fighting those two bands of robbers.

In the darkness, Yang Jing returned to his little courtyard in Tongyi Ward, all blue bricks and gray roof tiles. The August evening breeze carried the lingering warmth of late summer, rustling the leaves in the corner of the courtyard.

Yang Jing rinsed himself with cold water, then went into the kitchen bare-chested.

He set an earthenware pot on the small clay stove, cut the bear meat into large chunks, and stewed it with ginger slices and angelica. The bubbling of the broth sounded especially clear in the quiet courtyard.

Once it was ready, he carried a large, coarse porcelain bowl to the courtyard, sat on a stone stool, and began eating heartily.

Although it could not match the cooking of Fu Man Lou's chef, Yang Jing was quite satisfied. At least the meat was tender enough to melt in his mouth. Warm juices slid down his throat, and the familiar warmth soon stirred in his dantian.

This was the nourishing effect of fierce beast meat.

After eating two jin of meat, Yang Jing patted his slightly swollen belly. As he rose, his joints gave faint cracks, a sign that his sinews and bones were being nourished.

The chaotic times, the bandits, the Parade Ground Trial-all these things were like a whip lashing Yang Jing's back. They kept him from standing still, driving him to think constantly about training and becoming stronger.

Fortunately, with the System Panel, he could clearly see the results of every training session and gauge each day's improvement at a glance. That gave him even more motivation to train.

Yang Jing drew a deep breath, walked to the center of the courtyard, and settled into a firm horse stance. The wind from his Mountain Collapse Fist swept across the ground, stirring up dust.

He unleashed the first form, Split Stone, his fist scraping a sharp whistle from the air.

When the seventh form, Cloud Collapse, descended, even the stone roller in the corner of the courtyard trembled slightly.

An hour later, beads of sweat fell from Yang Jing's forehead and struck the ground, spreading into a small dark patch.

After resting for the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Yang Jing switched to practicing Surging Wave Leg.

As he leaped and shifted, the shadows of his feet wove through the air. The dull thuds of his kicks against the tree trunk startled the night birds roosting overhead into flight.

He deliberately channeled his internal energy into the tips of his feet, each kick subtly matching the rhythm of surging waves pounding the shore.

Only when the moon stood high overhead did Yang Jing stop training.

Well water washed over his body, its chill carrying away the sticky sweat.

Lying on his hard plank bed, Yang Jing slowly closed his eyes. Scenes of the Parade Ground Trial seemed to rise before him.

Three days later, early in the morning.

Morning light had only just spilled over Tongyi Ward's ceremonial archway when Yang Jing let out a satisfied belch, left his courtyard, and headed toward the Martial Arts Hall in Chengping Ward.

The medicinal broth made from sliced ginseng and astragalus still left a lingering warmth in his throat. Together with a little over a jin of tender bear meat, it became a warm current spreading through his limbs, lending a little more spring to his steps.

Yet the scenes along the street carried a heavy gloom.

Refugees huddled in corners and beneath eaves, their faces sallow and bodies emaciated, their ragged clothes unable to hide their jutting bones.

This was already a relatively central part of the Yuhe County seat. A little farther in lay the Inner City.

If so many refugees had flooded the area around Tongyi Ward and Chengping Ward, the outer wards had far more.

The August sun was fierce, so the refugees shifted into the shade, leaning weakly against one another with vacant eyes.

When the weather turns cold, that's when things will really get hard.

Yang Jing sighed inwardly and shook his head slightly.

For now, at least, the warm sun could help keep them alive. Once the bitter winds of late autumn began to blow, these streets would probably gain many new corpses each day.

As he walked, a jumble of voices reached him, carrying a faint accent from elsewhere.

Jintai Prefecture was close to Caozhou, and their accents shared certain similarities, but the differences were still easy to hear.

Yang Jing paused briefly and looked toward the voices.

Beneath a pagoda tree at the street corner, a dozen or so ragged refugees had gathered, all talking over one another. Their accents were unmistakably from the Caozhou region.

Instinctively, he slowed his pace and took two steps diagonally backward, concealing himself behind an old elm.

Martial artists who had reached entering strength had much sharper eyes and ears than ordinary people. Having now broken through to Hidden Strength, Yang Jing's hearing far surpassed that of an ordinary person. Even from several zhang away, their words reached him clearly.

"The Song Kingdom's soldiers went mad. They broke through Qinghe County, and the fires burned for half the night when the city fell."

"Our village was in Qinghe County. We heard the commotion and ran east. We were some of the quick ones. Anyone even a step too slow was gone."

"The Caozhou Army stopped them at Yunmeng Mountain, but the losses were terrible. I heard the soldiers' bodies at the front were piled into mountains."

"My cousin serves in the Caozhou Army. Last time, he had someone bring a letter saying their provisions were almost gone. What are they supposed to hold them off with?"

Their words were filled with terror and despair, like a dull knife sawing again and again at Yang Jing's heart.

His father and Elder Uncle had both accompanied the Imperial Court's troops to escort provisions to the Caozhou Frontline. During his inquiries of late, Yang Jing had also learned about places such as Qinghe County and Yunmeng Mountain. They lay in the hellish region where the fighting in Caozhou was fiercest.

I hope Father and Elder Uncle aren't near Qinghe County or Yunmeng Mountain. Yang Jing clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

He stood behind the tree, staring at the hunched backs of those Caozhou refugees without moving for a long time, his heart heavy and anxious.

Only after a while did he take a deep breath, unclench his fists, and prepare to head for the Martial Arts Hall.

Just as Yang Jing looked away from the Caozhou refugees gathered in conversation, he caught sight of several men clustered in the shadows at the street corner.

They wore short, close-fitting clothes, with bulges at their waists. Their eyes shifted restlessly, flicking now and then toward passersby. That blend of streetwise slickness and viciousness was peculiar to gang members.

Over the past few months, Yang Jing had been forced to deal with gangs numerous times and had gained a fairly deep understanding of Yuhe County's gangs, large and small. He recognized these low-level thugs for what they were at a glance.

Noticing that the men seemed to have reached some decision, Yang Jing immediately stopped and edged closer to the wall, intending to watch.

One of them, a man in a short silk jacket who appeared to be their leader, walked straight toward a jewelry shop beside the street.

As the man lifted the door curtain and entered, Yang Jing vaguely glimpsed a richly dressed woman inside, holding two jeweled hairpins beside her temples to see how they looked.

A moment later, a sharp smack rang out from the shop, followed by a man's angry shout. "I said you can't buy them! Don't you understand? Do you think our money just blows in on the wind?"

His voice was loud enough to make the passersby turn and look.

Yang Jing raised his brows in surprise. Then he saw the man in the short silk jacket emerge from the shop, gripping two jeweled hairpins and still wearing an angry expression. The hairpins gleamed brilliantly and were clearly worth a considerable sum.

Inside the shop, the richly dressed woman held her reddening, swollen cheek and stood rooted to the spot. The sudden turn of events had left her unable to react.

But she soon looked down at her empty hands, and her cries rang out through the shop. "Robbery! Someone's stolen my things!"

The panicked voices of a shop assistant and a maid followed. "Madam, wasn't that your husband? How-"

"What husband? Pah! He's not my husband! I don't know him!" The woman's voice was frantic and furious.

A chaotic uproar followed inside the shop, like chickens flying and dogs leaping. Several assistants ran out carrying clubs, but the man in the short silk jacket had long since vanished.