Can This Get Me In?

Early the next morning, Xu Jin and Wang Lei left the patrol office and headed for the west bank of the ferry.

Wang Lei was still thinking about what Liu Houde had reported yesterday and could not help asking, "Brother Xu, Reed-Blossom Stronghold is the weakest of the three groups, yet they still dare act so arrogantly. Shouldn't we teach them a lesson?"

Reed-Blossom Stronghold was one of Green-Mud Ferry's registered cultivation factions.

Most of its members had once been river bandits or idle boatmen, people who had come from nearby prefectures and counties to scrape out a living. In the end, they banded together, occupied the reed marshes, and settled there.

They usually made their living hauling short-distance cargo and loading goods at the docks. In secret, they stole cargo, staged scams, and extorted passing boat owners. Every now and then, they also dealt in burial objects and broken jade dredged up from the riverbed—things that could never grace an elegant hall.

The Zhou brothers were the ones in charge.

All three had clawed their way up through the waters as wild cultivators. The eldest, Zhou Biao, had trained his external martial arts until his body was hard as iron. He had the most violent temper and was the stronghold's public-facing chief.

The second, Zhou Bao, possessed uncanny skill in the water. He could hold his breath underwater for an entire two hours without surfacing, and he specialized in the dirty work of boarding boats and robbing cargo. He was the stronghold's living Yama.

The third, Zhou Hou, was sharp as a monkey. He excelled at scouting and keeping watch, and every informant for dozens of miles up and down the ferry had been placed by his own hand. His information network was even more efficient than the town office's.

Interestingly, both Zhou Biao and Zhou Bao had originally plunged into the reed marshes and become river bandits in order to find their lost youngest brother. The three brothers had, in the end, found their way back together.

Later, when the imperial court purged the river bandits, they scraped together money and pulled some strings to get their names cleared and entered into the registry. They renamed themselves Reed-Blossom Stronghold, stepping out of the shadows and into the open.

"No rush. Once the matter of the Sunk Tomb is settled, I'll personally pay them a visit and tell them exactly who my three fires as a new official are meant to burn."

He did not care how other patrol inspectors handled things, but now that he was here, in Green-Mud Ferry, dragons had to lie coiled and tigers had to crouch low.

He had not gone looking for trouble with them, yet they had come looking for trouble with him first.

Then they could have a good time with this.

No one would be left idle.

As they spoke, the platform for entering the water came into view.

The floating platform was tied to wooden stakes on shore with hemp ropes as thick as bowls. Four Canal Gang disciples with sabers at their waists stood guard at its edge. The moment they saw someone approaching, they drew their blades across the path, putting on a full display of intimidation.

"Stop! Do you have a pass?"

"No one enters without Consecrated Xie's written order!"

Wang Lei stepped forward and took out his bronze patrol insignia, handing it over. "Can this get me in?"

The lead disciple took it and opened it. The Demon Suppression Bureau's beast-pattern seal was cast into it, bright and unmistakable.

The man's hand trembled slightly.

No matter how rough he was, he had to go numb when he encountered someone from the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Only because his cultivation was low and he had never truly seen the world did he fail to understand that the mere four words "Molten-Gold Yama" would probably have made his legs go weak.

Within the Great Yin Dynasty, the three words Demon Suppression Bureau carried a power no less than that of the previous dynasty's Embroidered Uniform Guard. They could execute first and report afterward, backed by imperial authority.

If someone obstructed official demon-slaying business, killing them was simply killing them.

With a troubled expression, the man said, "Sir... our Canal Gang claimed this area first. Without a written order, it isn't proper for you to enter. If I let you in, I'll be in trouble too."

Xu Jin raised his fingertips slightly, and a thread of sword qi shot forth, flames flickering along his fingers.

"Can this get me in?"

At the sight of that strand of sword qi, the man no longer dared block them. He immediately bowed and scraped. "You can enter, you can enter. Please, go right in."

He was truly afraid that if he said another word, the other man would kill him with a single stroke of sword qi.

Obstructing the Demon Suppression Bureau in the performance of its duties was no joke.

Xu Jin accepted the insignia the man respectfully returned, withdrew his sword qi, and stepped onto the floating platform.

Among the crowd, an inconspicuous disciple slipped into the reed marshes while no one was watching, hurrying off to report to Xie Kun and He Hu.

At the same time, inside the temporary meeting hall at the downstream cargo depot.

Half a stone slab covered in Yin script lay atop an Eight Immortals table. Xie Kun and He Hu were gathered around it, deducing the formation. Standing beside them was a young man in his early twenties—He Hu's own nephew, He Chong.

Speaking of He Chong, he was a well-known figure among the Canal Gang's younger generation.

He had grown up by the water. His Yin-water cultivation art had reached the point of blazing perfection, and by the age of twenty, he had already touched the threshold of the second level of the Comprehending Intent Realm. He was widely acknowledged as the Canal Gang's future pillar.

Last month, it had also been he who, with skill high and courage bold, dived more than ten zhang beneath the water and spent three entire days mapping the terrain. He had been the first to discover the underwater entrance to the Sunk Tomb.

Later, the uncle and nephew, together with a third man, joined forces. Using the tangled underwater terrain and the advantages of their Yin-water cultivation arts, they had forcibly driven the previous patrol inspector, Zhou Zheng, away in defeat, even knocking his sword into the riverbed.

By the rules of the martial world, whoever first discovered the entrance to an ancient site and drove off the competition held the right to take the lead there. The Sunk Tomb falling into the Canal Gang's hands had been only natural and right.

Unfortunately, the rune-carved stone door to the main tomb chamber bore a Yang-fire seal left by ancient Han Dynasty cultivators, one that perfectly countered the soft and Yin-oriented path of their cultivation arts. After more than a month of effort, they had not pried open even the slightest crack in the seal.

A young man's distinctive arrogance rested between He Chong's brows.

He had long heard the rumors coming from the prefectural capital about Molten-Gold Yama, but he had never truly been convinced.

In his eyes, Xu Jin had only been able to kill Wang Defa by taking advantage of the fact that his cultivation art countered the other's. If they were to truly fight at close quarters, Xu Jin might not necessarily be his match.

"Uncle, Uncle Xie, I told you there was no need for us to fear him." He looked up at the two men, eager to test himself. "When we meet him later, I'll go up first and test his mettle. If he is really nothing but a hollow reputation, then the matter of the Sunk Tomb will still be decided by our Canal Gang."

He Hu frowned but said nothing.

The shadow of being forced to kneel beneath Xu Jin's pressure yesterday had yet to fade. Even now, at the mention of him, his legs still felt a little weak. He truly feared Molten-Gold Yama's strength.

But his nephew was young and full of fire, and he was the future standard-bearer of the gang. Pouring cold water over him in public would wound his fighting spirit too badly.

Xie Kun stroked his beard at the side, smoothing things over. "It is a good thing for Chong to have spirit, but caution is still best. Our proper business today is to set up the Yin-Fiend Gathering Formation and use the river's Yin energy to forcibly break open the stone door."

"If we can break the seal ourselves and seize the alchemy cauldron inheritance, then even Molten-Gold Yama will have no way to stop us. Even if we tear our faces apart and make a great fuss, there is no need to fear. At worst, we can invite several old consecrated members who have been in retirement for years, with half their bodies already in the grave, to come out and hold the field for us. Surely a mere probationary patrol officer would not dare go too far on the Canal Gang's territory."

Just as he finished speaking, stumbling footsteps sounded outside.

The disciple who had come to report burst in headfirst, gasping for breath, his face filled with panic. "Second Consecrated One, Consecrated He, Young Master He! This is bad! Xu Jin has already reached the platform for entering the water! The brothers can't stop him at all!"

He Chong sprang to his feet, and the light of competitiveness flared in his eyes.

"Perfect timing."

He flexed his wrist, and his knuckles cracked softly.

"I want to see whether this title of Molten-Gold Yama is truly earned, or merely an empty name blown up by the martial world."