Peace Scripture

At that moment, Wang Ping felt that he was as good as dead.

At the same time, he cursed the eighteen generations of ancestors of the handler he was meant to meet. So this is how you handle things? What happened to absolute secrecy?

"Have I been made a discarded pawn?"

Just as Wang Ping fell into despair, Shouchong did something that greatly surprised him. Not only did he not behead Wang Ping with a single stroke, he actually retreated.

Immediately afterward, he casually tossed something out.

Wang Ping instinctively reached out and saw the Lotus Blade—the weapon that had once blown apart the fake mountain—drift lightly into his hand, carrying bone-piercing cold.

"Well, that works out nicely. Since that's the case, it's yours."

As Shouchong spoke those incomprehensible words, he grabbed Xie Shi beside him. His figure flashed like lightning, instantly smashing through the roof and racing into the distance.

Almost at the same time, Wang Ping felt his scalp explode.

This feeling... I've been locked onto!

For no reason, understanding dawned upon Wang Ping. Then he heard another voice from outside the Daoist temple. "The one holding the Lotus Blade is the White Lotus Bandits' leader!"

"...Huh?"

The instant those words fell, Wang Ping felt as though he were clutching a red-hot iron. He violently flung away the Lotus Blade Xie Shi had just handed him.

"It's a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!"

Wang Ping shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'm an undercover agent from the county yamen! I've rendered meritorious service to the county yamen! I want to see the chief constable—someone in the county yamen can prove my innocence..."

The only response was the twang of an arrow.

At that moment, Wang Ping felt hollow inside. Looking down, he discovered a bowl-sized hole in his chest.

It was the mark left by an arrow passing clean through his chest.

His second life had ended just like that, without any warning... As expected, he should never have dreamed of rising above the rest. He should have simply farmed honestly.

He had just died far too unjustly.

In the end, why had the county yamen constables suddenly appeared here? And since they had come, why had the person responsible for meeting him not come along?

He should have been able to survive...

Just as Wang Ping thought this, in his final moments, he suddenly saw a pair of black leather boots. Their owner seemed to be issuing orders.

"Catch them! Don't let them get away!"

"Take all those people confined in the main hall into custody... There aren't enough people. Go to Former Village and seize more. We've gone to such trouble to mobilize this time—we can't come back empty-handed."

—That was his handler's voice.

At that moment, another voice sounded. "Chief Constable, just now a rebel claimed he was an undercover agent from the county yamen..."

Yes, yes, yes! That's me!

The chance to clear his name and survive lay right before him. Wang Ping's will to live surged forth, but the other man's next words sent him plunging into an icy abyss.

"What undercover agent? The county yamen never planted any undercover agent in the White Lotus Sect. It was merely a rebel spouting nonsense in the hope of staying alive."

At that moment, Wang Ping was beyond enraged.

With his own moral standards, he had thought the court's bottom line would be denying him credit and reward for working undercover. Yet he had still been too naive.

They were tearing down the bridge after crossing the river!

At that thought, all of Wang Ping's fear, bewilderment, humiliation, and unwillingness—at last, they all turned into an indescribable, towering fury.

Yet what drove him to despair was that he could do nothing.

He could only lie on the ground, raging helplessly.

The next second, Wang Ping's vision sank into bottomless darkness. In a daze, he seemed to hear the rustling sound of pages turning beside his ears.

Former Village.

Once upon a time, this had been a peaceful village nestled in the countryside. But now flames soared into the sky, and cries of battle rang everywhere.

"Sir Officer! Spare me, Sir Officer!"

"Help!"

"Run! Run quickly!"

Firelight reflected the color of blood and illuminated Chen Haoyan's face. Though they stood amid a sea of flames, the constables around this head constable felt only biting cold.

He stood in the inner courtyard of the Daoist temple, quietly examining the shrine placed inside the house before him. The pungent stench of blood drifted in from the outer courtyard, yet he remained utterly unmoved. Even though those who had died were not White Lotus Sect members, but merely a group of village children, he did not care in the slightest.

At that moment, a travel-worn constable approached.

If Wang Ping had been here, he would certainly have recognized him. This was the street-clearing tiger who had collected protection fees throughout the Grass Market outside the city, known as Master Liu.

"Chief Constable, we've swept through the place."

"Although this is the White Lotus Sect's nest, there are not many people in the village who joined the sect. There are roughly a dozen, and they have all been detained."

"May I ask, sir, should we take them back for individual interrogation?"

Chen Haoyan turned around, his gaze calm.

"Interrogation? Liu Ye, it seems you've spent too long in the Grass Market. Those who harbor rebels share the rebels' guilt. Must I teach you such a simple principle?"

At those words, Liu Ye froze.

"Your meaning is..."

"Kill them all."

Those three lightly spoken words weighed like a mountain upon the constable's body. Almost unconsciously, he looked around the Daoist temple.

Corpses covered the ground, severed limbs lay scattered everywhere, and blood flowed into rivers. Yet not a single one had carried a weapon. Judging by the marks on their hands and feet, they had only learned a few tricks to strengthen their bodies. There was not even one person who had truly mastered martial arts; otherwise, this encirclement would not have gone so smoothly.

Even a fool knew they could not be rebels.

But they had still died.

At that thought, Liu Ye opened his mouth on impulse, only to swallow every word he wanted to say with reason. In the end, he could only force out one sentence.

"This subordinate understands..."

"Wait!"

At that moment, a young constable suddenly stepped forward, his face filled with indignation. "Forgive this subordinate, but I cannot agree with such conduct!"

Liu Ye turned his head at those words and saw that the speaker was named Lin Sheng. Three generations of his family had served in the yamen. He had learned excellent martial arts while still young, and thus joined the county yamen as a constable before reaching twenty. As he stepped forward now, his brows brimmed with the vigor of youth.

"My lord, we have been ordered to suppress bandits and rebels. We are here to suppress bandits, not civilians!"

The young constable declared in a ringing voice.

"These people were merely deceived by the White Lotus Sect and do not know the truth. They are not true rebels. If we slaughter people at every turn, how will the court win the people's trust in the future?"

"...People?"

After hearing Lin Sheng's words, Chen Haoyan's expression did not change in the slightest. He merely lifted the corner of his mouth, as though he had heard a somewhat absurd joke.

Bang!

The next second, Lin Sheng, who had stepped forward of his own accord, seemed to have been struck in the chest by a massive hammer. His entire body shuddered, and he threw back his head and spat out a mouthful of hot blood.

Then Chen Haoyan's voice sounded by his ear.

"You offended a superior. This time, it will count as a small punishment and a stern warning."

"As for your question... never mind. Since you have entered my county yamen, you are one of us from now on. You are a brother, so I will give you a reasonable explanation."

At this point, Chen Haoyan seemed to have truly summoned a measure of patience. With a soft laugh, he said, "Those of us who serve in the yamen certainly have many rules to follow, but in the end, it all comes down to one public matter and one private matter. No matter what we do, we must balance public and private. Only then can we stand firm."

"Take this matter, for example."

"What is public here, and what is private?"

As Chen Haoyan's words fell, Lin Sheng was instead stunned. But he quickly pulled himself together and answered, "The public matter is suppressing bandits and eliminating rebels. The private matter is silver rewards..."

The county yamen received rewards for wiping out rebels as well.

Especially for the White Lotus Sect's bandit leader, that old fellow called Shouchong. His reward amounted to a full five hundred taels of silver—even for a head constable, it was a vast sum.

Chen Haoyan nodded at this. "Since that is so, then you should understand."

"If we brothers came out this time and did not kill a single White Lotus Sect rebel, then this trip would have been for nothing, and there would be nowhere to claim reward money from."

Lin Sheng froze. "B-but we really did not find any White Lotus rebels..."

"Who says so?"

Chen Haoyan pointed at Former Village in the distance. "Aren't they all there? The White Lotus Sect intended to gather people and stir up rebellion, but we discovered them. That is a great merit!"

"Do you want me to report to the county magistrate that we failed to suppress the bandits and let every rebel escape? Or that we destroyed the rebels' plans to cause unrest? The former means all our efforts came to naught, and perhaps everyone will face severe punishment. The latter will certainly satisfy the county magistrate, and we brothers can claim the reward money together."

Having said that, Chen Haoyan took out a silver-white flying knife.

"This is the Lotus Blade of the White Lotus bandit leader. We have now seized it, and it serves perfectly as evidence. We will say that after we badly wounded him, he fled in a sorry state."

"Witnesses and material evidence are both present. Everyone is happy."

"N-no!"

Lin Sheng violently shook his head, clenching his teeth. "That is private! We clearly have not solved the problem, yet we pretend that we have. How can there be any public good in such conduct?"

"Well asked."

Chen Haoyan nodded. "Why do you think we went to such lengths, spread word everywhere, and made such a grand display of coming out to suppress bandits and rebels?"

Faced with such a simple question, Lin Sheng replied almost without thinking. "The White Lotus rebels harm the countryside. Naturally, what we do is to protect the region and bring peace to the people."

"You are wrong. Terribly wrong!"

Chen Haoyan sneered. "We have a White Lotus Sect here, and the neighboring county has a Luosheng Sect. In this world, rebels can never all be killed."

"Then..."

Lin Sheng was lost. If suppressing bandits and rebels was not for protecting the region and bringing peace to the people, then what was it for?

The next second, Chen Haoyan gave him the answer. "It is to make the great clans and scholars in the county seat—make everyone—believe that we are protecting the region and bringing peace to the people."

"Then they will pay money to support us."

"Only when they pay money will the county magistrate have money. When the county magistrate has money, we will have reward silver and good days ahead, instead of drinking the northwest wind."

"When they believe it, the county seat will be secure."

"When the county seat is secure, the world will not fall into chaos."

"That is the public good."

"So what we have done this time leaves the greater principles unblemished, both publicly and privately. As for everything else, as the saying goes, one need not be bound by minor details. There is no need to dwell on trivial matters."

"Th-this is trivial?"

Hearing this, Lin Sheng immediately felt an enormous sense of absurdity flood his heart. Looking around, he saw that the surrounding constables had all fallen silent.

"Passing off the killing of innocents as merit, slaughtering villagers outside the city... Human lives hang in the balance. Is that trivial too?"

"You seem to have mistaken one thing."

Chen Haoyan's voice drifted over, carrying an icy indifference that terrified Lin Sheng.

"When we say human lives hang in the balance, we mean those who live in the county seat—the great clans and scholars. As for those Blackheads outside the city... do they count as people?"

With that, Chen Haoyan flicked his sleeve and departed.

Before leaving, he did not forget to glance at the corpses strewn across the ground. His gaze paused briefly on one of them, and he secretly shook his head. What a pity about this man.

This campaign against the White Lotus Sect had actually been a hasty operation.

The reason was simple. After meeting Wang Ping, he had returned and prepared to gather men to set an ambush at River Village—only to unexpectedly discover that the news had leaked.

Yet the men had already been assembled. If he did nothing and abandoned the original plan, the result would only be that the undercover agent was exposed and killed, while the White Lotus Sect made a mockery of the county yamen. Once word spread, he, as chief constable, would inevitably bear full responsibility. Afterward, the county magistrate would very likely deem him incompetent.

Dear mother, this would seriously affect my official career.

Thus, Chen Haoyan finally came up with a solution that was not really a solution. He might not have had the ability to wipe out the White Lotus Sect, but he certainly had the ability to kill innocents and claim their deaths as merit.

And he was very good at it.

As for that undercover agent... a mere Blackhead born in the countryside, whose life was cheaper than dust. If he died, then he died. There was no need for Chen Haoyan to take it to heart.

After all, Wang Ping could not possibly come back to life and seek revenge on him.

Wang Ping opened his eyes again.

"...Huh?"

The drastic change in the scene before him left him unable to accept it for a moment. His mind could not process the changing images fed back by his vision quickly enough.

This time, all he saw was boundless darkness and a high platform standing in that darkness. Upon the platform rested a closed book, so vast it seemed like a towering building. Wang Ping, who had thought he was certainly dead, was completely stunned and did not recover for a long while.

"Where is this?" Wang Ping looked around in bewilderment.

At that moment, the towering book directly ahead of him abruptly opened. The rustling of turning pages echoed endlessly, before finally stopping on one page.

[Peace Scripture]

[Volume One: Otherworldly Celestial Demon]

[A being from beyond the heavens, wandering the Netherworld Realm, yet not a soul or spirit. It is the sole anomaly between heaven and earth, beyond everyone's expectations.]

[After death, may revive once. After revival, requires seven days of cooldown. Upon revival, may randomly enter a new world or enter a world previously visited. At the same time, within certain worlds, after rebirth, Destiny may be consumed to obtain a new identity. The more Destiny one has, the higher the new identity obtained.]

"...So that's how it is."

Twenty years since he had transmigrated here, only for the great building to collapse.

He fiercely slapped himself across the face. Feeling the pain and confirming that this was not an illusion, Wang Ping looked at the towering book before him. He had only one thing to say.

"Father, why did you come so late?!"