Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill!

How much of Yuhang's prosperity was merely a shell now? Wang Xuan sat by the second-floor window, seeing it all clearly.

There were quite a few people on the streets, but most were not standing or walking. One row slumped against the walls, another lay sprawled across the bluestone pavement, their clothes shredded into rags, ribs jutting out one by one, the soles of their feet black as charcoal.

Whenever passersby went by, they kept to the opposite side of the street and stared straight ahead, as if a second glance would bring bad luck upon them.

"Above, there is heaven; below, Suzhou and Hangzhou." Wang Xuan drained the cheap wine from his coarse porcelain cup in one gulp, then frowned. "This place ought to be called, 'Above, mountains of blades; below, vats of oil.'"

It had already been his third day since arriving in this world.

Across the street, two merchants squatted together. Their clothes had once been decent, but their cuffs were worn pale and their collars shone black with grease. The older of the two was tracing lines on the ground with his finger.

"...Seventy percent." His voice was extremely low, but Wang Xuan's hearing was far beyond ordinary. "The authorities take seventy percent. Of the remaining thirty, if you don't grease the palms of those lords at the city gate, your goods won't even make it out of the docks. This year, I've already lost two hundred taels."

The other merchant sighed. "At this time two years ago, we were still cheering for Miss Yu'er at Emerald Red Pavilion."

"Two years ago? The emperor was still alive two years ago."

The two fell silent at the same time.

"Didn't someone raise a banner in the north again?"

"They did, then they were gone. The banner went up in the morning, and by noon their heads were hanging from the city wall. Have you noticed? Those men in Flying Fish Robes on the streets these past few days always have someone like a wooden post following behind them... walking without a sound. Creepy as hell."

Wang Xuan withdrew his attention and tapped the table twice, unhurriedly.

Wooden posts. Soundless footsteps. He had seen them before. Over the past three days, he had traveled through every street and alley in Yuhang City, deliberately avoiding patrols, yet every so often he caught sight of such people mixed among the Brocade Guard. Their expressions were blank, their auras deep as wells, and their steps as light as cats'.

Players!

And Players who had already been recruited by the Royal Clan and signed contracts.

In this Great Ming, the emperor had been dead for a full year. Yet no new ruler had taken the throne. Instead, the Three Offices officials of each province had taken control: the Provincial Administration Commissioner who governed civil affairs, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner who handled justice, and the Regional Military Commissioner who controlled military matters.

Those three great powers looked more like emperors than the emperor himself now. They seized land, killed people, collected taxes, and did whatever they pleased. Whenever someone rebelled below, they sent troops to suppress them. Afterward, they squeezed the people twice as hard. If even the troops proved useless, they unleashed those Grandmaster-level Players to take the enemy commander's head amid an army of ten thousand.

Of the silver they extorted, twenty percent went toward supporting the army, while eighty percent filled the private treasuries of the Three Offices officials, reserved solely for their pleasures.

The common people had been driven beyond the point of survival. They either ended up on the streets waiting to die, or gritted their teeth and joined the government offices or the army, helping the Three Offices suppress other common people.

A vicious cycle.

"Martial sects?" He had previously asked an old beggar. The old man had been gnawing on a bone he had picked up from somewhere. At the question, he looked up and gave Wang Xuan an odd glance.

"They've been gone for ages. Shaolin, Wudang, Qingcheng, Diancang... all burned clean in one fire. I heard they didn't even spare the scriptures in the Scripture Depository. They threw them all into the stove."

The martial world of this world truly had it rough. Zhu Wushi had slaughtered it once back then, and before it could recover its strength, it had now been uprooted all over again.

Wang Xuan had changed lodgings frequently over the past three days. One day he stayed at an inn, the next he squeezed into a carriage hostel. Whenever he went out, he wore a bamboo hat and chose narrow alleys whenever he walked. But it was useless. The Brocade Guard on the streets grew denser by the day, while the intervals between patrol shifts grew shorter and shorter.

He gradually realized that he could not keep hiding. The other side clearly already knew he was in Yuhang City.

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So he stopped hiding. That morning, he checked out of his room, found a tavern facing the street, swaggered upstairs, and ordered the cheapest jug of wine.

Thud, thud, thud...

Footsteps came from the stairway.

Five sets: heavy, with thick boot soles and the faint clink of iron at their waists. Plus one more that was almost nonexistent.

Wang Xuan's spiritual awareness had already reached the fifth level of Grandmaster. His perception far surpassed those of the same realm. That sixth set of footsteps was as light as a cat walking on cotton; an ordinary Grandmaster would not have heard it at all.

Six people filed up to the second floor.

The first five wore blue-green Flying Fish Robes and Spring-Embroidered Blades at their waists, the standard attire of the Brocade Guard. Behind them followed another man in gray cloth, with a forgettable face—the sort one would lose in a crowd within three seconds. He had little expression and seemed somewhat dull.

But Wang Xuan recognized him at a glance: a Player, and one whose realm was far above the fifth level of Grandmaster.

The Brocade Guard squad leader at the front had high cheekbones, deeply sunken eye sockets, and a vicious face as though everyone owed him eight hundred taels. The moment he came upstairs, he swept his eyes around the room, then immediately fixed them on Wang Xuan. On the entire second floor, only this wandering martial artist in a bamboo hat occupied a table alone.

The squad leader strode straight over, his thumb pressing against the blade guard. His voice was hard enough to use as a brick. "Take off the hat. No covering your face in Yuhang."

The four Brocade Guards behind him spread out in silent coordination, blocking off both escape routes.

Wang Xuan did not move.

His gaze passed over the squad leader's shoulder and settled on the dull-looking Player.

The squad leader frowned, pushing his blade another inch from its sheath. "Didn't you hear what I said?"

Wang Xuan removed his bamboo hat and casually set it on the table.

In that instant.

The Player who had stood there like a wooden post suddenly contracted his pupils.

But he did not freeze. There was not even a second's pause. As his pupils contracted, his body had already moved. True Qi exploded from his dantian, and a layer of dark golden light abruptly flared across his entire body, as if a bronze statue had suddenly come alive.

Violent True Qi surged outward in every direction from him!

Tables and chairs were flung away, cups and dishes shattered across the floor, chopsticks shot into pillars like hidden weapons, and porcelain shards sprayed everywhere. The five Brocade Guards staggered backward under the blast, while the squad leader nearly lost his footing.

Only Wang Xuan remained seated, his hands resting flat on his knees, utterly still as he watched the dark golden figure before him.

It really was the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill.

He had seen this man fight yesterday. In a dead-end alley in the eastern part of the city, a Player who had concealed his identity was cornered with no route of retreat. It was this dull-looking Player who burst into golden light from head to toe and drove a single punch forward, smashing the other man's head directly into his torso.

He had used the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill.

At this moment, the dull Player's skin had entirely turned a heavy dark gold. His muscles swelled, stretching his coarse cloth clothes taut enough to burst. He stomped down.

Crack!

A hole exploded through the thick wooden floor of the second story, splinters flying everywhere. Borrowing the force of that stomp, he shot toward Wang Xuan like a cannonball. The five-step distance vanished in the blink of an eye.