Pacification

A cry suddenly rang out from afar, jarringly out of place.

Lin Wen turned to look. A group had arrived halfway up the mountain: more than a dozen grimy, dust-covered men escorting a woman who was stumbling along, weeping so hard she was drenched in tears.

Behind them, even more people were gathering continuously—from the foot of the mountain, from behind it, and from its summit.

Clearly, they were another group of disaster victims.

They surged this way, evidently having heard something.

Several leaders ran over and excitedly told them something, pointing at the corpses at the foot of the mountain.

Their expressions shifted. Suddenly, a middle-aged man rushed over. After carefully inspecting every corpse, he waved his arm and shouted, "It's those beasts! That's right—they're all dead!"

Several people in the group immediately broke down and began weeping. Some cursed through their tears, "They died well!"

"They deserved to die! They should have died long ago!"

Others shouted, "He's the Great Immortal—it's him! I saw it in the newspaper!"

"The Empire has made an immortal a County Governor!"

"We're saved!"

"Xiuyu, Xiuyu! Hurry and ask the immortal to save your child!"

The woman stumbled forward, crying, "Great Immortal, please save my child! The flood swept away my home, the plague killed my husband. All I have left are my children—I only have them. If they're gone too, then I'll only..."

The tears streaming down her face left her unable to continue.

The disaster victims all fell silent, gazing at the Great Immortal in their eyes.

The Great Immortal was looking up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, though his eyes were closed. A faint golden radiance gleamed and flowed around him, as though he were communicating with Heaven.

The silence lasted only a dozen seconds before another large group came rushing over from behind.

As they ran, they shouted, "The Imperial army is here! The Imperial army is here!"

"The Imperial army is coming to slaughter us all!"

"He's a liar! He's a liar!"

"Don't believe him! He must have sent the Imperial army!"

The crowd immediately stirred into turmoil. Some were half-convinced, some wavered, while others remained resolute.

"Bullshit!"

"Don't talk nonsense!"

"Are you a spy?"

Just as the argument raged on, the Imperial army arrived.

They were, after all, well-trained soldiers. Even as they sprinted madly toward them under Fang Dashan's command, they still maintained their formation.

Fang Dashan shouted anxiously, "Go, go protect County Governor Lin!"

Faced with disaster victims nearly ten times their number, Fang Dashan was trembling from head to toe, inside and out. Yet he did not show a trace of it. Instead, he charged forward with even greater force and decisiveness.

If he allowed a local official to be surrounded or even killed by refugees in full view of the Imperial army, he would be sent before a military tribunal.

Under Imperial law, the County Governor had already issued an order to suppress them. If Fang Dashan allowed his superior to be harmed, he would certainly receive a harsh sentence. If his motives were called into question, even a death sentence was highly possible.

So he had to appear utterly fearless. Even if he truly had to start killing, by Imperial custom, that was far better than losing his superior.

He had always been crystal clear on priorities. Thus, the moment he reached Changle Town and heard that the County Governor had taken only a small group into the riot zone, he rushed over without stopping for breath.

Fortunately, things had not reached their worst point.

As Fang Dashan ran, he shouted, "Imperial army! Prepare for battle! Rebels! If you dare act recklessly—if you touch even a hair on County Governor Lin's head—you will be killed without mercy!"

Those words had an enormous opposite effect. The disaster victims erupted, and the entire crowd instantly descended into chaos.

"They're in this together!"

"We were deceived!"

"I don't believe it!"

"This isn't real!"

"Great Immortal, say something!"

Someone else shouted sharply, "Let's kill this bastard first! Even if we die, we'll drag someone down with us!"

"There are tens of thousands of us! What are we afraid of? Everyone, charge down together!"

The crowd surged like pent-up mountain floodwaters. With a unified click, Fang Dashan gave the first-level combat signal. All three thousand men flicked off their safeties; if the situation turned wrong, he would immediately order them to fire.

At that moment, Lin Wen finally jolted awake from his "dream." He opened his eyes, swept his gaze across the scene, and instantly understood what had happened.

Throwing off several people trying to seize him, his clear, cold voice once again rang through the valley.

"Compatriots!"

He quietly strengthened the faint glow and began walking down the mountain, neither fast nor slow.

"Believe me!"

With just those words, the disaster victims calmed down considerably. Many gazed at Lin Wen amid the radiance and burst into tears.

"Fang Dashan!"

A booming voice rang out.

Fang Dashan's heart surged with excitement, and he immediately replied, "This subordinate is here!"

Though he had put all his strength into it, his voice was still like a mosquito's buzz compared to Lin Wen's.

"Receive your orders!"

"Put down your weapons! Remain where you are and await orders!"

Fang Dashan's joy practically leaped out of him. He immediately shouted, "Put down your weapons! Await orders!"

He was the first to demonstrate what that meant, engaging the safety and tossing his gun onto the ground.

With a clatter, all three thousand men engaged their safeties and threw their guns to the ground, kicking up three thousand clouds of dust that drifted away on the breeze.

Before them stood Lin Wen, shining with golden light, like an immortal descending into the mortal world.

Lin Wen turned around and raised his right hand high.

"I am Lin Wen, Prefect of Long Mountain Commandery!"

"I will bring food, hot water, tents, medical care, medicine, as well as fairness, justice, and dignity."

"Any who insult you, any who trample upon you, any who disregard you—kill without mercy!"

"Not even immortals can save them! I said so!"

It was like a level-eighteen gale sweeping in, blowing away every shred of doubt and mistrust. Those who did not believe began to believe; those who half-believed no longer doubted; those who had believed and then stopped became fanatical; and those who had always believed unwaveringly could no longer be shaken by anything.

Only Fang Dashan looked at the golden radiance around Lin Wen, then at the sky packed with leaden clouds and utterly devoid of sunlight, feeling that it was somewhat unbelievable.

Lin Wen quietly lowered the intensity of the golden light and said at the same time, "Fang Dashan, leave one squad behind to collect all the weapons. There's no need to bring them out again. Everyone else, come with me."

Then he called out, "My compatriots! Follow me."

Even Fang Dashan had rarely heard the thunderous response of tens of thousands of people answering as one.

Lin Wen took the lead toward the other side of the mountain. The disaster victims spontaneously gathered around him, while the Imperial soldiers followed at the rear.

Fang Dashan forcibly squeezed his way over, intending to shower him with flattery, but Lin Wen stopped him with a single look.

As they marched, the disaster victims gathered and dispersed. Quite a few ran off at full speed, eager to spread the news and let more people know.

Dozens of copies of the Imperial Daily were passed around by countless hands, becoming covered in dust and creased all over. The disaster victims on the outskirts tirelessly told the newcomers the entire course and truth of the events. Though they had repeated it many times, they still took great delight in it.

The inner circle consisted of the most fervent believers. They remained utterly unmoved, following only at Lin Wen's side and looking up at his figure.

The procession swelled mightily as it went. By the time they reached the great dike at Changpai Village, it had expanded to seventy or eighty thousand people, with even more still spreading the news along the way.

Lin Wen walked to the foot of the dike, casually selected a group of people to accompany him up, and told everyone else to wait below.

No one objected. They watched as Lin Wen led his "apostles" up the dike with the gazes of pilgrims.

No one doubted what he intended to do. If the great immortal said he was searching for hope, then he was searching for hope. If he found the children, it naturally meant hope would not be extinguished. If he did not, then hope already dwelled in every person's heart.

Only Xiuyu, the children's mother, remained in extreme anxiety. She no longer doubted the great immortal's authenticity and believed he could help her find them, but she feared that the children were already dead, and that what the great immortal would find were their bones.

Her overwhelming worry nearly left her unable to walk. If someone had not supported her, she would never have made it up the dike.

Once atop the dike, the vast river rolled onward in mighty currents. The great wind, already carrying a chill, sliced against them like icy blades, yet no one felt uncomfortable. They were all excited to witness a miracle.

Lin Wen felt a slight pang of nostalgia. This was where he had fought hard before. Unfortunately, he had failed to reincarnate successfully.

But it did not matter. Before long, he would reincarnate with even more karmic blessings, obtain a stronger start, and carry countless opportunities and tides of fortune with him as he blasted apart every immortal and god.

When he saw the stele erected for him atop the dike, the corner of his mouth twitched. What "boundless compassion, peerless benevolence and righteousness"—it made him sound just like a bodhisattva. And that "Primal Chaos Lightbreaker" was simply tacky beyond belief. Lin Wen had no desire to acknowledge such a title.

What he wanted was a title that was mighty and domineering, that slaughtered in all directions, with ambition piercing the heavens and sweeping across the universe.

Forget it.

Lin Wen did not dwell on it. It was only a stele in the physical world, useless anyway.

He headed upstream along the dike. Upstream stood a small mountain called Clear Breeze Mountain. During his time guarding the dike, Lin Wen had slept for several days in a cave there.

The three children were in that cave.

This was the answer Lin Wen had obtained only after tremendous difficulty. When he had first asked [Immortal's Guide] about the children's whereabouts, every way he phrased the question incurred an enormous cost.

It left him utterly baffled. Had those three children been abducted by immortals, or had they successfully crossed into another world? Why did simply asking where they were require so many karmic blessings?

And he could not simply choose not to look for them. Leaving aside how much suspicion that would bring him, that grieving mother alone would leave his thoughts blocked and unsettled.

After racking his brains, Lin Wen suddenly realized that when he had studied spells before, there had been one almost identical to [Immortal's Guide].

[Ask the Heavens]

Their sole difference was that the former answered subjective questions, while the latter answered objective ones.

Seen this way, where the children were should have been an objectively existing fact, rather than an abstract matter that varied from person to person.

Using an abstract question to answer an objective fact might have crossed "platforms," causing the cost to skyrocket.

The test confirmed it. This question only consumed 10% of his Primordial Spirit.

But Lin Wen only had 4% of his Primordial Spirit left, so he could only helplessly spend 13 points of Good Fate to cast the spell.

Fortunately, Lin Wen's thoughts had turned quickly enough, and he resolved the problem in a flash.

Had he hesitated even a little longer, a bloody conflict might already have broken out. The consequences would have been unthinkable—his Bad Fate might have skyrocketed in an instant, ruining his grand plan of cultivating immortality completely.

I'm still not proficient enough with spells.

Lin Wen thought fiercely.

When I get back, I have to train harder. I need to memorize every word related to spells and carve every spell's effects and costs into my mind. Otherwise, if I use the wrong spell against an enemy someday, it might cost me a crucial battle—or even leave me dead, my dao extinguished.

That was absolutely unacceptable.

As his thoughts raced, Lin Wen nimbly bounded across reefs and trees, leapt into the cave, and found the three children.

Their tiny bodies were curled up in a corner of the cave. Their tattered clothes were covered in mud and dried water stains, while the exposed skin was full of scrapes and bruises. Clearly, the people who had kidnapped them could not move in and out as skillfully as Lin Wen and had gone through no small amount of trouble.

The three children were sleeping deeply. They were only five or six years old: one older brother and two younger sisters. All three were sallow and emaciated, and their skinny arms bore needle marks. They had clearly been injected with anesthetics to keep them unconscious.

Lin Wen's expression darkened. He knew the three children would need thorough examinations once they returned. Hopefully, nothing would be wrong.

Later, he would have the Inspectorate investigate properly which scum among that pile of agents had done this. When the time came, he would give that bastard some special treatment.