Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill!

The prosperity of Yuhang was little more than a hollow shell, and Wang Xuan, sitting by the window on the second floor, saw it clearly.

There were plenty of people on the street, but most were not standing; a row leaned against the base of the wall, another row lay on the bluestone slabs, their clothes tattered into rags, ribs protruding one by one, the soles of their feet as black as charcoal.

Occasionally, passersby would walk along the far side of the street, eyes fixed straight ahead, as if catching a glimpse of the wretches would bring them bad luck.

"Above there is heaven, below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou." Wang Xuan downed the cheap liquor in his coarse ceramic cup and frowned. "This place should be called 'above there are mountains of blades, below there are cauldrons of oil'."

It had been three days since he descended into this world.

Across the street, two merchants were squatting; their clothes had originally been decent, but the cuffs were worn white and the collars were slick with black grease. The older one was tracing lines in the dirt with his finger.

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

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

"Two years ago? Two years ago, the Emperor was still alive."

The two fell silent for a moment.

"Isn't there someone raising a banner in the north again?"

"They raised it, and then they were gone. The banner went up in the morning, and by noon, their heads were hanging on the city wall. Have you noticed? These past few days, those wearing the Flying Fish Robe on the street all have a wooden-stake-like character following behind them... they walk without a sound, it's eerie."

Wang Xuan pulled his attention back and tapped his finger on the table, rhythmically.

Wooden stakes, walking without a sound—he had seen them. Over these three days, he had traversed the streets and alleys of Yuhang City, deliberately avoiding patrol squads, but every so often he would catch a glimpse of such people. They blended in among the Brocade Guard, their expressions wooden, yet their presence as deep as a well and their footsteps as light as a cat's.

Players!

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

In this version of Great Ming, the Emperor had been dead for a full year. Replacing him was not a new monarch, but the heads of the Three Offices in each province: the Provincial Administration Commissioner in charge of civil affairs, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner in charge of justice, and the Regional Military Commissioner in charge of military affairs.

These three great Buddhas were now more like emperors than the emperor himself, enclosing land, killing people, and collecting taxes as they pleased. If there was a rebellion, they sent troops to suppress it, and once suppressed, they squeezed the people twice as hard. If the army wasn't enough, they released those master-level players to take the head of the enemy commander amidst ten thousand troops.

Of the silver squeezed from the people, twenty percent went to feed the army, and eighty percent filled the private treasuries of the Three Offices lords, used exclusively for their own indulgence.

The common people were driven to the point of no return; they either ended up on the streets waiting for death, or gritted their teeth and joined the yamen or the army to help the Three Offices oppress other commoners.

A vicious cycle.

"Martial arts sects?" He had asked an old beggar about them before. The old beggar, who was gnawing on a bone he had picked up from somewhere, looked up and gave him a strange look.

"They've been gone for a long time. Shaolin, Wudang, Qingcheng, Diancang... burned clean in a single fire. I heard they didn't even leave the scriptures in the Scripture Depository; they were all tossed into the stove."

Come to think of it, the martial world of this realm was truly ill-fated. It had been slaughtered once by Zhu Wushi and hadn't recovered its vitality, and now it had been uprooted entirely.

Wang Xuan had changed his lodging many times over the past three days, staying in inns one day and crowded hostels the next. He wore a bamboo hat whenever he went out and stuck to small alleys, but it was useless. The Brocade Guard on the streets grew denser by the day, and the interval between patrol shifts grew shorter.

He gradually realized that he could no longer hide; the other side clearly knew he was in Yuhang City.

He simply stopped hiding. This morning, he checked out, found a restaurant facing the street, sat down swaggeringly, and ordered a pot of the cheapest wine.

Clack, clack, clack...

Footsteps sounded at the top of the stairs.

Five sets—heavy, thick-soled boots, with the faint clinking of iron weapons at their waists—plus one more, which was almost non-existent.

Wang Xuan's spirit had reached the fifth level of the Master Realm, his perception far exceeding those of the same rank. That sixth set of footsteps was as light as a cat stepping on cotton; an ordinary master would never have heard it.

Six people filed onto the second floor.

The first five wore green Flying Fish Robes and carried Spring-Embroidered Blades, the standard attire of the Brocade Guard. Following at the very back was one more, dressed in gray cloth, with a bland appearance that would make him impossible to find in a crowd within three seconds. His face was expressionless, slightly dull.

But Wang Xuan saw it at a glance: a player, and one whose cultivation was far above the fifth level of the Master Realm.

The Brocade Guard squad leader in the lead had high cheekbones and deep-set eyes, his face as fierce as if someone owed him eight hundred taels of silver. As soon as he reached the floor, he scanned the room, his gaze immediately pinning onto Wang Xuan. On the entire second floor, only this martial artist wearing a bamboo hat occupied a table alone.

The squad leader walked straight over, his thumb pressing against the guard of his blade, his voice as hard as a brick: "Take off the hat. In Yuhang, covering one's face is forbidden."

The four Brocade Guards behind him spread out in tacit understanding, sealing off the exits on both sides.

Wang Xuan did not move.

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

The squad leader frowned, pushing his blade out an inch: "Did you not hear what I said?"

Wang Xuan took off his bamboo hat and placed it casually on the table.

At that very instant.

The player who had been standing there like a wooden stake felt his pupils constrict violently.

But he did not freeze; there was not even a second of hesitation. As his pupils contracted, his body was already in motion. True energy exploded from his dantian, and a layer of dark golden light suddenly flared across his entire body, as if a bronze statue had suddenly come to life.

Violent true energy surged in all directions with him as the center!

Tables and chairs were overturned, cups and plates shattered across the floor, and chopsticks pierced into the pillars like hidden weapons. Broken porcelain shards flew everywhere, and the five Brocade Guards were sent stumbling backward by the shockwave; the squad leader nearly fell over.

Only Wang Xuan remained seated where he was, his hands resting flat on his knees, motionless, watching the figure glowing with dark gold.

It really was the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill.

He had seen this person make a move just yesterday; in a dead-end alley in the east of the city, a player who was hiding his face had his retreat cut off, and it was this dull-looking player who had golden light erupt all over his body, throwing a punch that drove the man's head straight into his chest cavity.

He had used the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill.

At this moment, the dull-looking player's skin had already turned a heavy, dark gold, his muscles bulging and stretching his coarse cloth clothes until they were on the verge of tearing, and he stomped his foot.

Crack!

A hole exploded in the thick wooden floor of the second story, sending wood splinters flying everywhere, and using the force of that stomp, he launched himself like a cannonball straight at Wang Xuan, covering the five-step distance in the blink of an eye.