The Second Scripture Scroll: Perish with the Sun!

[Spirit Wandering Temple]

Chen Haoyan had already shed his county office robes and changed into fitted clothes. He covered his face with a black cloth, revealing only a pair of sharp, hawk-like eyes.

Centered around him, figures flashed one after another, bright and gleaming, reflecting dazzling golden light beneath the sun until it blurred the eye. Each figure held a weapon—blades, spears, or staves—and as they shifted and moved, Killing Intent billowed forth, surrounding Chen Haoyan.

"What an excellent [Bronze Man Formation]."

Chen Haoyan praised it quietly. "I had long heard that the bronze men guarding the grounds of [Spirit Wandering Temple] were wondrous beyond compare. Once formed into an array, they could hold off a hundred alone; even martial masters would struggle to break through."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

At that moment, the wind suddenly rose. Combined with the sunlight reflecting off the bronze men, it made Chen Haoyan's vision sway abruptly, and his eyes instinctively narrowed.

Yet in that very instant, the previously motionless bronze men sprang into action. Their weapons struck with savage force, smashing at Chen Haoyan from every direction. The power contained in those blows was not the least bit inferior to that of an external arts martial artist at Xie Shi's level of completion, carrying the might to split steles and shatter stone.

Faced with this attack, Chen Haoyan neither dodged nor retreated.

He tensed his muscles and bones, and wisps of blood-red force immediately seeped from his pores, intertwining around him in protection.

Boom!

The bronze men's weapons smashed against the blood-red force as though eggs had struck stone. They were sent flying backward on the spot, unable to harm even a single hair on Chen Haoyan's body.

The next second, Chen Haoyan removed the great bow from his back. He gripped nine arrows in his hand and, in a flash of lightning and flint, loosed nine shots in every direction!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

With every arrow released, a visible white ripple burst from the bowstring's snap. As all nine arrows flew, layer upon layer of ripples overlapped.

Looking out, it was as though a towering wave had risen from level ground. These were shockwaves born from the tearing of the air barrier, so fierce that the naked eye could not even see the arrows after they left the string. By the time the bronze men heard the explosive crack of arrows tearing through the air, the arrows had already struck their chests!

In the blink of an eye, the [Bronze Man Formation] was broken!

Chen Haoyan possessed astonishing strength. Empowered by inner force and using Black-Iron Armor-Piercing Arrows, he sent even these bronze men, each weighing over a thousand jin, flying backward.

Seizing this chance, Chen Haoyan immediately sprang forward and ran.

"The bronze men are impervious to blades and spears. Though these nine arrows could force them back, they could not injure them. Once they recover, they can immediately reform the array."

At that point, he would be trapped in their encirclement again.

Those nine arrows had looked effortless, but in truth, he had already gone all out. He could not maintain such an eruption of power for long.

"Now!"

Chen Haoyan moved like lightning, charging toward a direction he had chosen long ago. He passed through streak after streak of blinding golden light without encountering a single bronze man blocking his path.

His field of vision suddenly opened up, and Chen Haoyan's spirits lifted.

"Just as I thought—I wasn't mistaken. This [Bronze Man Formation] is not flawless. It has a massive weakness. No bronze men guard this direction!"

After escaping the [Bronze Man Formation]'s encirclement, Chen Haoyan did not dare delay. He immediately looked around, taking in the scene before him within [Spirit Wandering Temple].

"Where is the secret medicine of immortality...?"

It was common knowledge that the court treated the strange men and alchemists scattered throughout the provinces, prefectures, and counties with such generosity because they could refine elixirs of immortality.

This was no absurd rumor.

The current Emperor was already more than one hundred and twenty years old. Even a legend of the martial world would have long since become frail and decrepit at that age.

Yet the Emperor remained vigorous. He could pleasure ten women in a night without collapsing.

This was the work of those strange men and alchemists. It was precisely their life-extending secret medicines that had allowed the Emperor to break through the limits of his lifespan time and again, living until this day.

That was what Chen Haoyan had come for.

"Which one is the alchemy room?"

Chen Haoyan's eyes shone as he swiftly swept his gaze across the many side rooms of [Spirit Wandering Temple]. His nose twitched, and in an instant, he locked onto the room with the strongest medicinal fragrance.

Bang!

Chen Haoyan burst through the doors and rushed straight inside. Before his eyes stood a massive pill furnace, surrounded by row upon row of wooden shelves filled with porcelain bottles of every kind. Small labels were written on the bottles, and a rich medicinal aroma rushed toward him.

Which one was the elixir of immortality?

"Never mind... I'll take them all!"

The bronze men guarding the grounds were already reforming their array and pursuing him. Chen Haoyan had no time to think. He immediately stripped off his fitted clothes and swept every porcelain bottle into them.

Then he leaped into the air.

With a thunderous crash, he smashed through the alchemy room's ceiling. Inner force erupted beneath his feet, and he walked through empty air as though on level ground, about to escape alive.

Yet at that moment—

"Have pity on the people of this world; their sorrows and hardships are truly many."

Chen Haoyan, whose mind had relaxed for an instant at the thought of his success, saw his pupils suddenly constrict. Before him, he saw only a lotus flower bloom.

"Not good!"

The next second, Chen Haoyan's gaze abruptly turned vacant.

A lotus descended into the world, delivering all living beings. Amid those falling lotus petals, Chen Haoyan seemed to see a compassionate and sacred woman walking toward him.

The air beneath his nose was filled with a dense scent of incense.

He had never experienced this before, though he had seen accounts of it in the case files of the Divine Constables Bureau in the capital. At the time, he had only thought them wild claims made by local officials shirking responsibility.

Only now did he understand.

"So those ghosts and gods were not fabricated—they really existed?"

"[Liansheng Bodhisattva]... is alive!?"

[Morgue]

Wang Ping appeared once more. His gaze immediately fell upon the towering book before him, where the glittering golden tome had turned another page.

[Volume Three: Empty]

[Awaiting Entry]

At the sight, Wang Ping's face immediately lit up with joy. But he soon realized something was wrong. How had the Lotus Blade plus the Dragonrise County Seal turned only one page?

Or was it...

The next second, the pages flipped back. A scene that greatly surprised Wang Ping appeared: the second page of the [Peace Scripture] had changed.

Countless words had appeared across the once-empty page.

In a daze, Wang Ping seemed to see a scene.

It was a rural village, very much like the former village. Yet it was currently in chaos, with constables from the county office going door to door, asking each household questions.

Very quickly, he learned the answer.

These county office constables were checking household registrations, measuring farmland, and then reassessing taxes. They even claimed that this was a tremendous blessing, benefiting the state above and the common people below.

Then he saw a constable, led by a farming family, arrive at a plot of farmland that was not particularly spacious, barely more than one mu from front to back. The head of that household was a white-haired old man, who said with a smile, "Sir Officer, this is the land allotted by the court."

"It's about one and a half mu."

"One and a half mu?"

The constable glanced at the farmland before him upon hearing that, then shook his head. "That's wrong. The official register in my hands says this place should contain eight mu of land."

"Ah? Eight mu?"

The old man froze at those words, then hurriedly asked, "Could there have been some mistake? Sir Officer, you can see it yourself—my family's land is only this large."

"That is not my concern."

The constable spoke calmly. "The official register states it in black and white. It cannot be wrong. Your family must have hidden land, thinking you could conceal it from us?"

"How could that be, Sir Officer..."

The constable ignored the old man's wailing and said indifferently, "Enough. Go get the grain at once. Remember, not a single fraction of the autumn tax for eight mu of land may be missing!"

After saying that, he glanced at the old man, as well as the young man and boy behind him, before continuing, "Also, by court order, each household may henceforth retain only a father and son. Yours has three generations, doesn't it? Your grandson must be separated out and counted as a new household."

The old man was still bewildered when he heard this. "Th-then what does that mean?"

The next second, the constable pressed a hand against the Ox-Tail Saber at his waist and said softly, "It means that for this autumn tax, you must pay the money for two households."

"What!?"

"Sir Officer! Sir Officer, spare us..."

"That's the last of it! You can't take it away...!"

The scene came to an abrupt end. When Wang Ping looked again, he saw cart after cart piled high with grain being transported into Longxing County.

Then the scene shifted again.

This time, Wang Ping finally arrived somewhere familiar. This was the county office's inner courtyard. Two people sat facing one another within it, drinking tea and conversing.

One of them was Chen Haoyan.

At that moment, he was respectfully bowing to the other person and saying in a low voice, "Reporting to you, my lord, this autumn tax collection was a tremendous success—far beyond expectations!"

"Oh? Is that true?"

The other man was somewhat delighted at those words. He raised his head, allowing Wang Ping to finally see his face. He was a refined middle-aged man.

"How successful was it? Tell me."

Chen Haoyan immediately replied as if reciting treasured facts. "This time, we personally went into the countryside and uncovered one hundred thousand mu of concealed land and more than three thousand eight hundred concealed households. They have all been registered anew."

After he finished speaking, Chen Haoyan appeared rather pleased with himself.

"As a result, this year's autumn tax increased severalfold. To be frank, my lord, there is almost nowhere left to put the grain carts brought into the county seat. Every warehouse has been crammed full. This subordinate even had to order the constables below to help construct several temporary granaries before we could barely store it all."

"Good, good, good! Not bad!"

The refined man clapped his hands and laughed. "Entrusting this matter to you, Haoyan, was indeed the right choice. Now I can give the court an account."

"However..."

At this point, the refined man seemed to recall something and frowned. "Though the autumn tax is important, we must not press the good citizens within the city too harshly."

"Rest assured, my lord."

Chen Haoyan hurriedly explained, "The Lin Household, Chen Household, Liu Household... I have already settled matters with all seventeen good citizen households in the city. They need only surrender one tenth of their land."

"After all, most of our county office constables come from these good citizen families. How could we go too far? For many matters, we can simply turn a blind eye and let them pass. There is plenty of land outside the city. Doing so does not violate the law, either. Relatives concealing one another's crimes is not an offense under the law!"

Only then did the refined man smile. "That is for the best."

"One must understand that only by putting the people first can the realm remain stable."

"Moreover, most of these good citizens have practiced martial arts for generations and possess some skill. If we stir up any trouble, it will only harm the harmony within the county seat."

"By comparison, the commoners outside the city do not know martial arts and have no need to eat so much grain and rice. Leaving it to them is merely wasteful, and they cannot make even a splash."

"Let them suffer a little more."

Chen Haoyan immediately nodded. "My lord speaks wisely. This subordinate will certainly give proper instructions. I will never commit acts that maim or harm the people and tarnish your lordship's upright reputation."

The refined man then smiled and nodded.

"When you handle matters, I am always at ease... As it happens, an opening has appeared at the Divine Constables Bureau in the capital. I have already recommended you to fill it."

Chen Haoyan was instantly overjoyed. "Many thanks, County Magistrate!"

At this point, the scene completely shattered.

Wang Ping opened his eyes and realized he had returned to the inner space of the [Peace Scripture]. Every word upon the towering book before him glowed blood-red.

"The County Magistrate... so that was it."

Before this, he had been wondering why the [Peace Scripture], which should have been able to settle a Scripture Scroll only by containing a corpse, had suddenly begun operating.

"The answer is simple. It truly did contain a 'corpse.'"

Only this time, the corpse was not a person, but the entirety of Longxing County.

That Dragonrise County Seal—the imperial treasure that, according to Shouchong, contained the incense offerings of the tens of thousands of people within and beyond the county, the entire county town itself—was Longxing County's corpse.

And what it settled was [the event that caused Longxing County's death].

The Hundred Officials Seal was the blood of ten thousand people.

Within the city, songs and dances flourished in peace. Outside the city, corpses lay everywhere. The so-called Longxing County had died in that autumn tax collection long ago; it simply had not yet breathed its last breath.

For a moment, Wang Ping suddenly recalled his life before the last.

At that time, he had only just transmigrated here and was still an infant. Yet the money his family had saved over most of their lives could not even buy fine rice, and he had nearly been abandoned.

Why had it been like that?

There were clearly farmlands everywhere in the village, crops growing in every field. When harvest season came, the eye could see nothing but a sweep of golden yellow. Why had there still been a shortage of food?

Why could they not afford even rice? Why, when starving, could they only dig up wild vegetables to eat, or have some coarse rice? Even then, they had to divide it into porridge over three days, sometimes adding sand and grit because it made them feel fuller... Feel fuller, not actually become full.

Why had it been like that?

Walking to the [Peace Scripture], Wang Ping gently ran his palm over the page, carefully touching every blood-red word, then let out a deep sigh.

[Volume Two: Perish with the Sun]

[No matter how loudly the weeds cry, they cannot shake the sun in the sky. The vow to perish together with jade and stone is merely one final wail before death.]

So this was the reason.

The effect of the second Scripture Scroll, [Perish with the Sun], was very simple. In a word, it was to injure oneself by a thousand to wound the enemy by eight hundred—a kind of curse technique.

"When I fight a target, every injury inflicted on me by that target can be recorded through [Perish with the Sun]. Once I decide it is enough, I can enter the [Peace Scripture]'s space and activate [Perish with the Sun], inflicting retribution according to the severity of those injuries."

"The strength of the retribution will take the gap between the target and me into account."

"At equal levels, the injury and retribution will be equal. If I am stronger, the injury will be light but the retribution heavy. If I am weaker, the injury will be heavy but the retribution light."

The next second, heaven and earth spun.

The refinement was complete. Wang Ping walked out of the [Morgue], stood silently for a moment, then resolutely gripped the Black Chi Bow and Ox-Tail Saber beside him.

Tonight, another torrential rain had come.

Wang Ping rose to his feet and silently left the carriage. His figure vanished into the rain, but his eyes remained fixed upon the distant [Spirit Wandering Temple].

"Damn Chen Haoyan. He caused me to die such a miserable death..."

But since he had survived, he might as well do something. Besides, it was a life he had long decided to spend. At this point, he could instead act as his heart pleased.

"...Consider it repayment."

Wang Ping lowered his eyelids. His gaze lingered for a moment on the Scripture Scroll's record of [Perish with the Sun], then he slowly straightened and exhaled deeply.

Judging by its effects, this Scripture Scroll held tremendous promise for the future. It could even become a decisive trump card. This time, he had truly struck it rich.

And so, as repayment for receiving this Scripture Scroll—

He would also vent a little of his anger.

"Chen Haoyan, one of Longxing County's suns—using this life... I'll shoot you down for them!"

Boom!

Beneath the night sky, Wang Ping's figure seemed to overlap with the sudden flash of lightning. Tearing through the pounding rain, he vanished swiftly into the distance amid thunderous roars.