Ding Province Martial Meet

"This..."

The old man and woman who had hurried over behind Lin Xiao went pale at the sight of corpses strewn across the ground and earth dyed red with blood.

In all their lives, they had never seen such a scene.

"Y-young man, are you all right?"

Seeing Lin Xiao as the only person still standing in the clearing, the old man gathered his courage and asked.

Lin Xiao slowly turned around and said with a smile, "I'm fine. They were only a few mounted bandits."

The old man could not help but bow deeply.

"Thank you, young hero, for saving our lives. If you had not been here today, our entire village would likely have been slaughtered and plundered by those bandits."

Lin Xiao asked curiously, "Are there many mounted bandits like these around Stability Prefecture?"

The old man nodded with a bitter smile.

"To be honest, young hero, just the ones I've heard of are too numerous to count. Chen Family Village had always been fortunate enough to avoid being harmed by bandits."

"Yet today, disaster still found us. A month ago, I heard that Li Family Village, more than fifty li from here, upstream from Lingyun Lake, was wiped out overnight."

"And the biggest bandit force around here is called the Blackwind Bandits."

"Their mountain stronghold lies in Blackwind Gorge, a hundred li north of here. They have sixteen chieftains, every one of them highly skilled in martial arts, and they come down the mountain every month to collect protection money."

"If any village cannot pay the protection money, it is immediately massacred."

"As for all the other bandits, large and small, no one knows how many there are."

Lin Xiao frowned. "How can there be so many bandits?"

"Has the imperial court never sent anyone to deal with them?"

At the mention of the imperial court, the old man's face filled with contempt.

"The court is full of useless wine sacks and rice bags. Ask them to collect money, and each is more eager than the last. Ask them to suppress bandits, and they run faster than rabbits."

Hearing the old man's words, Lin Xiao's heart sank even further.

It seemed the situation in Stability Prefecture was far worse than he had imagined.

"All right, gather everyone and clean this place up."

Lin Xiao did not pursue the subject any further.

After a night of work, although the village had suffered some losses, they remained within bearable limits.

Early the next morning, Lin Xiao had just gotten up when he saw the old man arrive with a middle-aged man.

"Young hero, this is the boatman I found for you. He has crossed Lingyun Lake more times than he can count and knows every aspect of it well. With him ferrying you across, there will definitely be no problem."

"Greetings, young hero. Thank you for saving us last night. I will never forget such kindness, even when my teeth are gone."

Lin Xiao waved a hand. "No need to be so polite. Can we cross the lake now?"

"We can, we can."

The boatman hurriedly replied.

"Good. Then let's go."

A small skiff set out, with the boatman standing at the bow and Lin Xiao standing in the middle.

On the shore, the old man and the villagers waved them off.

"Young hero, if you ever have time to spare, you must come back! You are the benefactor of Chen Family Village."

Lin Xiao waved his hand. "Mm. Go back. I'm leaving."

The boatman moved his oars, and the skiff slowly sailed into Lingyun Lake.

Along the way, the boatman told Lin Xiao many interesting stories and origins of Lingyun Lake.

"Young hero, you aren't going to participate in the Ding Province Tournament, are you?"

Lin Xiao asked in confusion, "The Ding Province Tournament? What is that?"

The boatman began to explain slowly.

"About half a month ago, I ferried another young man across Lingyun Lake. He told me that Stability Prefecture was preparing to hold a martial meet."

"Those participating are all geniuses from within Stability Prefecture."

"As long as they are under twenty-five and natives of Stability Prefecture, they can participate. It seems the main purpose of this martial meet is to reshuffle the rankings of the various factions."

"That young man was a disciple of a sect in Stability Prefecture. He had been out gaining experience, but upon hearing about the martial meet, he hurried back."

Though the boatman's explanation was not very detailed, Lin Xiao had already guessed the truth.

It was nothing more than using the martial meet as a pretext to reshuffle the rankings of the factions, then divide up the benefits.

This was a method commonly used by martial world factions.

Naturally, it was also the most effective method.

Everything was decided by strength.

Usually, however, it was the strongest martial artists of each faction who competed.

He had not expected it to be shifted to the younger generation instead.

"A Ding Province Martial Meet? This is getting interesting."

He had been considering how to find an opening in the current situation of Stability Prefecture. The Ding Province Martial Meet might be an excellent opportunity.

Now that he had come to take up office in Stability Prefecture, he counted as a person of Stability Prefecture as well. Surely no one would refuse his participation in the Ding Province Martial Meet.

Then let me see just how capable Stability Prefecture's geniuses are.

As Lin Xiao admired the beautiful scenery of Lingyun Lake,

a massive ship suddenly sailed up from behind.

The vessel was lavishly decorated.

On its deck stood a handsome young man with delicate, feminine features.

Beside him, a bent-backed old man attended him carefully.

"Young Master, the family head has placed great hopes on you for this Ding Province Tournament."

The delicate youth smiled. Though he was clearly male, his smile was even more beautiful than a woman's.

Yet that was not the strangest part. Strangest of all was that his voice was also like a woman's.

If not for his Adam's apple, anyone seeing him for the first time would certainly take him for a woman.

"Hehe, it is merely those people from One Sect, Four Gates. Though I cannot claim I will definitely defeat them,

during this trip, under my master's guidance, my cultivation improved considerably. My strength has reached the third level of the Innate Realm. Against those people of One Sect, Four Gates, it is not as though I have no chance of winning."

"Young Master has already reached the third level of the Innate Realm?"

The old man was slightly surprised.

When this young master had left to gain experience, he had only just entered the Innate Realm.

Yet in only half a year, he had broken through from the first level of the Innate Realm to the third level.

Such cultivation speed was likely comparable even to those monsters in the top fifty of the Hidden Dragon Rankings, was it not?

If this continued, Young Master breaking through to the Grandmaster Realm would be just around the corner.

At that time, it might not be impossible for the Yin Family to take another step forward.

The youth had a feminine name: Yin Ke Ren.

When he was born, they had intended to give him a boy's name. But seeing that his appearance was no different from a woman's, they gave him a girl's name instead.

As he grew older, Yin Ke Ren became increasingly feminine.

When he was seven years old, an old man came to the Yin Family and said that Yin Ke Ren's physique was exceptionally suited to cultivating a certain technique. From then on, Yin Ke Ren's cultivation was personally taught by that old man.

Yin Ke Ren did not disappoint expectations. He began cultivating at seven, and now, at twenty-two, he had reached the third level of the Innate Realm in only fifteen years.

Throughout Stability Prefecture, he was renowned as a heavenly prodigy.

He was even ranked eighty-seventh on the Hidden Dragon Rankings.

When the rankings were next updated, Yin Ke Ren might rise even further with his current realm.

As the master and servant spoke, their ship had already drawn up behind Lin Xiao's skiff.

"Hmm?"

Yin Ke Ren looked down from above at Lin Xiao on the skiff.

Yet he merely glanced once before withdrawing his gaze. Even though his ship was about to collide with Lin Xiao's skiff, he offered no warning whatsoever.

Such was the cruelty of a world where the strong devoured the weak.

As one of Stability Prefecture's One Sect, Four Gates, the Yin Family considered the life or death of an ordinary person utterly insignificant.