Responsibilities to Be Fulfilled

"Before we discuss the deal, I need to understand what happened first," he said. "Who is that man?"

"Shen Fang, the Prefect of Zhangwei City."

Chen Xuan looked it up on his phone. The position was roughly equivalent to the mayor of a directly governed municipality.

Meanwhile, Liu Shuyue was an aide assigned directly to the King by her sect. She was at least vice-national level, so her status should have been above his.

"He doesn't listen to you?"

"He doesn't need to listen to me, because I never intended to interfere in politics from the start. Back then, I thought it would let me stay above it all and avoid losing myself to power. The price, of course, was having no power."

Liu Shuyue took a sip of coffee and, as usual, frowned at the bitterness. But she quickly took another large gulp, as though the bitter taste was no longer quite so unbearable.

She spoke naturally, without the slightest trace of regret.

In other words, Liu Shuyue did not resent her lack of authority.

"I just don't understand... why can't people learn anything from history?" she murmured, staring into her coffee.

It seemed quite a lot had happened over the past five years.

"It's all right. You can tell me slowly... This store exists to resolve the confusion and troubles in its customers' hearts."

"I'd like to tell it slowly too," Liu Shuyue said with a slight shake of her head, "but time waits for no one... Every moment of delay could mean more deaths, so I'll keep it brief."

With that, she drained her coffee in one go.

Strange... In her memory, this stuff had always been more bitter than sweet, but now it somehow seemed sweeter than bitter.

Even this young merchant's face... no longer looked quite so calculating.

Had her standards fallen?

After a brief pause, she grew serious. "A great disaster has struck western Qingzhou. You probably don't know that Zhang Wei, the city we are currently in, is located in Qingzhou. This disaster was caused by a monster called Anba. It causes rice fields to wither and all fruits to fail. Slaying monsters is my duty, so I came here and destroyed it. But the disaster that had already occurred would not disappear just because the monster was dead. Since it happened close to harvest season, the consequences of this famine are especially severe. More than three hundred thousand people are expected to be affected."

"I came from the west. Along the way, refugees were everywhere... Under such circumstances, their only chance of survival is to flee to provincial cities that have been less affected."

As she said this, Liu Shuyue's expression darkened slightly, as though she had recalled something unpleasant.

"A famine..."

Chen Xuan knew that these refugees certainly did not include wealthy households or those paid by the imperial court. Those people would have stockpiled plenty of grain, and even if they had not, they could afford to buy it at high prices.

When famine came, the people truly at risk were ordinary folk with neither grain nor money. Their ability to withstand hardship was too weak; they could hardly endure prolonged surges in grain prices. Fleeing was almost their only option.

The problem was that the Prefect of Zhang Wei neither agreed to let these refugees into the city nor wished to divert them to other towns.

His only response so far had been distributing relief porridge outside the city gates.

That amount of food might have sufficed for a thousand people, but against six or seven thousand, it was negligible. Not to mention that more refugees would continue arriving.

Liu Shuyue's proposals were also rather "advanced." First, issue official bonds. Second, implement work-for-relief.

The bonds could be purchased by aristocratic clans and wealthy households, with the money and grain raised used for disaster relief without burdening the government's finances. Work-for-relief would prevent people from receiving handouts for nothing while also strengthening Zhangwei City's construction. As long as they held out until relief funds and grain arrived from other regions, the problem would be easily resolved.

Hearing this, Chen Xuan could not help smiling knowingly.

Those two suggestions had clearly been answers Liu Shuyue found in Broadly Read Through the Ages. Having been tested through countless disasters, this combination was practically the optimal solution.

"So the argument I heard just now was about you making those suggestions."

"That's right. He refused." Liu Shuyue sighed. "I can guess what he was thinking... As long as the King does not issue an order, he will follow the regulations. There is nothing wrong with not doing extra work, and doing more makes it easier to make mistakes. Besides, grain prices have not yet reached their peak, and the refugees still have some money on them. Taking grain and money from wealthy households to fund disaster relief now would be tantamount to opposing them. Why bother?"

"So he told me that an emergency dispatch had already been sent to the Royal City, while the other provincial cities were gathering grain and supplies to support this area. There was no need to do anything extra. What I needed to do now was pacify the people, lest grain prices rise too quickly and cause panic among the city's residents."

It was the first time Chen Xuan had heard her sneer.

"I'm afraid that, to Prefect Shen, those refugees outside no longer count as people at all. There are six or seven thousand now. What about ten thousand in a few days? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? This is not the first time Qingzhou has seen something like this. The books record famished people rioting, seizing cities, and looting. Isn't he at all afraid of repeating history?"

"Because he really has a cow, I suppose."

"What kind of metaphor is that..." Liu Shuyue's expression turned grave. "I can't let this continue... A great many people will die. I must admit that, the moment I met you, I felt lucky. I want to exchange for an ability—one that can solve the current problem."

Chen Xuan nodded, but did not answer immediately.

"I know this request is unreasonably demanding. Perhaps only the Lotus Cloud Sect in the entire world could properly handle this matter, but the sect would certainly not interfere in mortal affairs. If there is any other opportunity that could lend me a hand, this Ability Store is the only thing I can think of." She stood and clasped her fists in salute. "In return, I will offer a high-grade ability for the exchange!"

Seeing that he remained silent for a long time, Liu Shuyue lowered her eyes. "I was presumptuous. Such an extraordinary ability probably does not exist—"

"Who said it doesn't?" Chen Xuan suddenly interrupted. "As long as a customer has a need, this store can certainly fulfill it."

Her eyes lit up.

"But I need to ask you a few questions..." He gestured for her to sit down again. "If I remember correctly, sect disciples are not responsible for disaster relief, are they? A disaster caused by a monster cannot be blamed on you. No one could condemn you even if you ignored those refugees. Disaster relief is the government's responsibility, and if you intervene, you will inevitably face countless obstacles. That may also go against your original intention of staying out of politics. Do you truly need to go this far?"

Liu Shuyue watched him for a long time before shaking her head and saying in a low voice, "Not long ago, I thought the same way."

"Not long ago?"

"When I cut off Anba's head, about a week ago. The monster was dead, and my objective had been achieved... Next, I should have gone to another town to handle the next problem. After all, Qingzhou's west was not the only place plagued by monsters, and at present, only sect disciples were particularly skilled at dealing with such trouble."

Chen Xuan nodded in agreement. Or rather, this was how Lotus Cloud Sect cultivators ought to act—there were plenty of officials capable of handling disaster relief, but very few who could slay demons.

Everyone had their own specialty. Liu Shuyue could not possibly fail to understand that.

"But on my way back to Zhang Wei, I saw something... It changed my mind."

"What did you see?" Chen Xuan asked curiously.

She closed her eyes, as though recalling the scene. "I passed a ruined temple in a wasteland and saw smoke rising from its roof. Even from a hundred paces away, I could smell stewed meat. There were no villages or towns nearby, nor was it a place for hunting. How could there possibly be meat? I could think of only one possibility... Someone had crossed the line and become a savage cannibal."

"So I entered that ruined temple with my sword drawn. Once they had fallen so far as to survive by taking others' lives, they could no longer be regarded as ordinary refugees."

Chen Xuan fell silent.

He had heard Liu Shuyue say that grain prices had not yet peaked and assumed the famine had not yet become that severe. But on second thought, Zhang Wei was not at the heart of the disaster zone, and famine spread in stages. Central Qingzhou might still remain stable, but the hardest-hit western region was likely far worse.

"As it turned out, I did see a gang of vicious bandits. They were no different from bandits in the mountains or deep forests, dividing up stolen goods while chopping their victims into pieces and tossing them into a pot. The only difference was that they were all gaunt children, the oldest no more than thirteen or fourteen."

"Children?" Chen Xuan frowned. "With their builds, could they really do that?"

"They certainly could not rob ordinary people, so their targets were clear—their own parents." Liu Shuyue's voice sank as she spoke. "Killing one's father and mother is unforgivable. Faced with such beasts, I had no reason to show mercy. But when I moved to wipe them out, one girl rushed out and shouted at me, asking what they had done wrong. Were they supposed to obediently die and become food for their fathers and mothers?"

She opened her eyes and stared at Chen Xuan somewhat absently. "Only later did I understand that their parents had already regarded them as life-saving food—whether to sell them for others to eat or eat them themselves, they were nothing more than food. Yet some adults had not expected that the food would turn around and bite them."

"So in the end... you spared them?"

"No. I killed them all," Liu Shuyue replied. "Among the remains of the dead were several children their age. Those children had merely refused to harm their own families, so they were slaughtered alongside them by those fiends. If I had let them go, would that not have been the greatest injustice to those unwilling to join them? Besides, those people had already tasted the sweetness of it. They would only grow worse afterward, sliding into even more twisted Nine Netherworlds. It made me wonder—what difference was there between them and monsters?"

"On the surface, the two are the same... They both eat people, and both make this world crumble further. Yet before the famine, they had clearly been ordinary people. So that is my answer..."

Liu Shuyue paused. "If I stand by and do nothing, then before the disaster is eased, many more people will surely follow that path and turn from humans into monsters. At that point, I will have no choice but to destroy them one by one. But if I have a chance to resolve the famine, would that not also achieve the purpose of slaying monsters, without my sword needing to be stained with needless blood?"

"That is why I chose to remain in Zhang Wei, even if doing so violates the principles I once held. But I am certain of one thing: this is still slaying monsters. It is the responsibility that a sect disciple must fulfill."