Does Spreading Rumors Not Break the Law?

Before he knew it, Duan Yun had already been in Springwatch City for more than half a month.

At first, everything had felt fresh. This place was unlike anywhere else, with countless ingenious crafts woven into daily life. The whole city was bustling and vibrant, as if even the air smelled sweeter. But now that he had gradually learned more about it, the great city had slowly lost its charm.

This was not a paradise. Like other towns and cities, it was filled with all manner of absurd sights.

Compared with Springwatch City itself, the outskirts were where ordinary people truly lived.

There was no other reason—the prices inside the city were simply too high.

Duan Yun had received an eight-hundred-tael silver reward, enough to count as a small fortune, yet even he was starting to feel the strain.

He had a little over four hundred taels left, and for the time being, he could not spend recklessly.

When he had first entered the city, he had already paid one mace of silver as an entrance fee.

In other words, this city required a ticket just to enter.

That was fine for Duan Yun, but for ordinary folk, it was no small burden.

If they could not earn even one mace of silver, they would never enter the city lightly.

Springwatch City's outskirts were still lively, though the buildings were noticeably more disorderly. Even when the stone paving on the roads had shattered, no one repaired it.

Inside Springwatch City, as long as you had silver, there was no end to the pleasures you could enjoy.

After wandering about for days, Duan Yun always felt that everything was turning into a brothel.

Even when studying martial arts at a martial hall, if you paid enough silver, beautiful senior and junior sisters would be there to soothe your tired body and mind after a day of training.

Poor bastards could only go find men and help each other relax instead.

Even the shops in the city selling manuals and weapons specialized in being gaudy and flashy.

Duan Yun would rather hunt for manuals in the outskirts than go into the city.

He always felt that those women selling manuals were seductresses who had learned enchantment arts. They practically wanted to charm you senseless right in front of the bookshelves. He could not tell whether they were selling books or selling flesh.

That was what was strange about Springwatch City.

At every moment, it gave off the scent of drunken gold and paper, stirring up your desires. Everything around you was like a brothel tempting you into spending money.

It could be said that Springwatch City was one enormous money pit. Duan Yun had spent just over twenty days playing there, and half his silver had already sunk into it.

He was still a young hero who had cast off lowly desires. That went without mentioning all those fellows who could not keep their little heads under control.

To him, this great city seemed to be constantly sucking in the wealth and desires of the surrounding lands.

Countless outsiders spent their gold and silver here. Once they had none left, they went out to steal and rob.

The desires that could not be satisfied here became rape and murder elsewhere.

Life for the people in the outskirts was relatively normal. Though that sort of business remained flourishing, every now and then one could still encounter women standing at alley entrances, stealing souls with their looks.

Yet what he saw today gradually became absurd and bizarre once more.

Springwatch City was a city of the Ink Sect. The Ink Sect gathered countless master craftsmen, a group that most resembled scientists in Duan Yun's understanding.

They possessed martial strength, yet unlike ordinary martial artists, they were not single-minded idiots who only knew killing and raping.

They liked conducting experiments, but the contents of those experiments made his scalp prickle.

For instance, a long line had formed on this street right now.

The people in that line had come to sell bones.

Not the bones of cattle, sheep, or pigs, but ribs from their own bodies.

Apparently, someone from the Ink Sect wanted to use human ribs for an experiment, and had put up a reward.

As the saying went, money could make ghosts grind millstones. The Ink Sect governed Springwatch City, and what they lacked least was silver.

Thus, under such a reward, countless commoners formed a long dragon of a queue, allowing Ink Sect members to remove one or two ribs in exchange for nearly a hundred taels of silver.

Duan Yun naturally would not trade two ribs from his body for a hundred taels of silver, but to the commoners waiting in line, it seemed like a gift from heaven.

Inside Springwatch City were all sorts of things that lured out desire. By losing two ribs, they could satisfy desires they had long gone without. Or, if they endured those desires and lived in the outskirts instead, the money would be enough for a comfortable life for quite some time. To these people, it was well worth it.

After all, they would not die.

It was said that the Ink Sect's craftsmanship was superb, and having one's ribs removed was not too painful.

So Duan Yun could only watch helplessly as these people went to sell their bones.

When they came out, wounds hung from their bodies. Though they had clearly lost one or two ribs, their faces were brimming with delight.

The bizarre sight reminded Duan Yun of penned cattle and horses.

Every person was cattle and horses raised by the Ink Sect.

Springwatch City manufactured beautiful desires, and silver was needed to fulfill them. The cattle and horses only needed to offer up parts of their bodies, such as ribs, in exchange for silver.

Good heavens, it was practically becoming an internal circulation—where you exchanged money was where you spent it, and you could not even take your body home intact.

Such a scene made Duan Yun's scalp prickle even more than rape and murder.

Duan Yun had basically confirmed it: the Ink Sect was not made up of normal people either.

Beneath this seemingly incomparably prosperous Springwatch City lay rib after rib that had been removed.

Yes, the Ink Sect wanted people's ribs this time. What about next time?

Still, compared with the rape and murder outside, the Ink Sect's actions were draped in a coat of gold and silver.

They did not take things for free. They paid silver, and the environment was safer than the towns outside. That was why countless people flocked to them like ducks.

Looking at those people exchanging ribs for silver, Duan Yun felt something strange in his heart. At the same time, he rejoiced that his big head had kept his little head under control, and that he had not fallen into Springwatch City's desires.

At that moment, Duan Yun was sitting in a tea stall, where he encountered the second strange thing of the day.

A storyteller was telling a tale in the tea stall.

And the tale was about Hua Wen and Hua Wu, whom he knew.

"Have you heard? A newly risen demon has recently gained notoriety in Cloud Prefecture, bringing calamity to one region!"

"Who is it?"

The tea drinkers sipped their tea as they listened to the storyteller's rambling.

"Does anyone here know the name of the Lingshui Twin Heroes?"

At that moment, someone answered, "I've heard of them. Two heavily bearded fellows, and their swordsmanship is pretty good."

"That's right. In these times, anyone who still dared call himself a great hero naturally had a few tricks up his sleeve. But last month, something strange happened to the Lingshui Twin Heroes."

"What strange thing?" someone asked.

"The dignified Lingshui Twin Heroes, burly men with standard great beards and seven-foot frames, suddenly fell into womanhood one day!" the storyteller declared excitedly.

"What? Fell into womanhood? They turned into women!"

Upon hearing that, the tea house patrons were no longer sleepy.

"Exactly."

"How could that be? How could a perfectly fine person suddenly turn into a woman?"

That was Duan Yun's question as well.

"This is fucking nonsense. Hua Wu and Hua Wu had only been apart from him for a short time. How could they suddenly turn into women!"

Thinking of the two brothers' great beards and square faces, Duan Yun truly did not dare imagine how strange they would look as women.

Was this storyteller just fabricating obscene rumors?

"That is the terrifying part about that new demon. The reason the Lingshui Twin Heroes fell into womanhood was because they practiced a cultivation art given to them by the demon. The Lingshui Twin Heroes had been wise and illustrious their whole lives, yet even they were deceived by that demon!"

Now the people in the tea house were interested.

"What kind of cultivation art is that, to be so wicked?"

"Yeah, turning men into women, making them fall into womanhood? I have a brother asking where he can find this art. He wants to learn it, then let me have a go first."

"Hahaha!"

"Exactly. This storyteller has no evidence at all. He does not even have the demon's name."

At that moment, the storyteller slapped his sounding block and said, "I did say the demon's name. His surname is Duan, his given name Yun. He looks young and handsome, has clear eyes, and travels with a donkey."

Duan Yun: "???"

Good heavens, the protagonist was actually me?

So you storytellers could spread rumors without breaking the law, was that it?

Duan Yun had never imagined that one day, he too would become the protagonist in a storyteller's tale.