County Constable

County Constable.

The dark-faced man stiffened at once.

Under the Great Liang Dynasty's system, the county constable ranked below the county magistrate. Alongside the county deputy and chief clerk, he served as an assistant official, responsible for apprehending traitors and thieves, investigating ghosts, and serving as a Ghost Slayer.

In other words, the county constable was the head of a county's security forces, the county magistrate's foremost enforcer.

The number of county constables varied according to a county's size.

Shanyin County was an upper county and, by precedent, had two county constables. Yet both posts had been vacant for a long time.

"This commoner, Zhou Si of Shanyin, pays his respects to Lord County Constable."

The flames had returned to their original color, and their warmth once more filled this surviving main hall. Yet the bookish servant and the other herb-gathering men by the fire still wore expressions of terror, not yet recovered.

"You have not yet inspected my seal before the yamen, so I have not officially taken office. Brother Zhou, there is no need to bow."

Su Che waved a hand, sinking into deep thought.

Before taking office, he had thoroughly read through the case files concerning Shanyin County in the Ministry of Justice archives.

Smuggled salt and the vanished escort convoy were merely the clues that could be found in those files.

Twenty hu of smuggled salt amounted to twelve hundred jin. The court had dispatched an escort force for major criminals, and there had been no shortage of skilled fighters among them.

The former was a resource people found hard to part with; the latter was a force possessed of formidable combat strength.

Everything had happened at Withered Forest Monastery. To say there was nothing wrong here was absolutely impossible.

That was why he had come here to take a look. But what exactly had that thing outside been?

Su Che gently set the Sword Case on the ground, then walked over to the bookish servant and reached into the bamboo hamper, searching through it.

"Lord County Constable, these brothers of mine..."

"No matter. They have merely been oppressed by a nightmare. They will be fine after a while."

Su Che paused, then explained, "The human body has three souls and seven spirits. The three souls are the gods of longevity, while the seven spirits are the turbid ghosts within the body. Ordinarily, the souls govern the spirits, allowing one to move nimbly and think clearly. When demons cause mischief, the souls and spirits are overturned, and the turbid spirits instead rise above the divine souls. Naturally, that leaves a person unable to move or speak."

Seeing the suspicion on the dark-faced man's face, Su Che continued his explanation.

"This is the view found in the Shangqing Lineage's Supreme Scripture of Numinous Writings and Purple Text. I speak only provisionally."

Su Che pulled a book from the bamboo hamper and flipped through several more pages, his brows drawing together slightly.

This Withered Forest Monastery truly was anything but simple.

"Your Excellency's divine might shakes the world. You slew demons and banished devils; even a Celestial Master could scarcely be more impressive."

The dark-faced man praised him sincerely.

Divine might shaking the world?

Su Che knew his own affairs best.

He had merely borrowed a tiger's majesty through a fox's guise.

Within that Sword Case rested a sword once wielded by a swordsman of the previous generation. It had been extraordinary from the start, and after following that swordsman through countless years of demon-slaying and devil-banishing, it had long since nurtured a baleful might.

Ordinarily, the divine object concealed its own brilliance, and nothing unusual could be seen while it rested in its case. But upon encountering demons, evil spirits, or ghosts, it would demand to leave its sheath and test its frosty edge.

Slaying demons and banishing devils was practically an instinct for this sword.

Without this sword, he would never have marched straight up to Withered Forest Monastery.

But there was no need to tell the dark-faced man any of this.

"A hundred-year-old owl becomes a Wood Wraith; laughter and emerald flames rise within its nest."

Su Che slowly closed the booklet in his hand. He had not expected Withered Forest Chan Temple to have bred such a thing.

"What is Young Master reciting?"

The pretty bookish servant supported his forehead with one hand and slowly climbed up from the ground.

"Young Master, did you kill that monster? What sort of thing was it?"

The bookish servant muttered to himself.

"Sleep. It will not come again tonight."

Dead or not, what did he mean, it would not come again tonight? He made it sound as though he were meeting a beauty.

The little servant looked at his young master, rubbed his temples, then turned over and lay down to sleep.

Su Che gazed at the clear radiance beyond the window, momentarily dazed.

Three months had passed.

Even now, he still felt as though it were all a hazy dream.

In his previous life, he had been an honest nine-to-five office worker. Apart from reading and raising cats, he had no other hobbies.

Who could have imagined that upon waking from a dream, he would arrive in another world?

A world that looked very much like his previous one, yet was utterly different.

It resembled his old world because it seemed much like the era of the Northern Dynasties and Southern Dynasties. North and south stood opposed, and warfare stretched on without end.

It was utterly different because here, a hundred ghosts walked in broad daylight, while demons and devils ran rampant.

As for him, he was the Third Young Master of the Duling Su Clan.

An unlucky bastard who had been thoroughly taught a lesson by a wandering young hero for bullying women.

The first thing he saw after transmigrating was himself stripping the clothes from a middle-aged woman inside the carriage of some Ministry of War assistant director's wife.

According to his predecessor's memories, he had made her drink a mouthful of wine for every garment he removed.

Heaven have mercy, that Ministry of War assistant director's wife was already forty-nine.

And if he remembered correctly, this body of his was still a virgin.

What kind of damned fetish was that? Driving a big truck meant being skilled behind the wheel; driving an antique car meant having peculiar tastes.

Then he had run into a group of heroic young men in bright clothes and furious steeds, dispensing justice with their swords.

His major tendons had been torn, and his meridians injured.

The currently most popular path of Confucian Martial Way was, for the time being, no longer an option.

After painful reflection, Third Young Master Su decided to have his family pull some strings and secure him an out-of-town post. It would let him build up his strength while also allowing him to avoid trouble.

Before his family, this Third Young Master was full of exposed horse's hooves.

Changes in temperament and personality, altered eating habits, even the differences in every movement, in walking, sitting, lying down—anyone could see them at a glance.

Rather than let people grow suspicious, he might as well flee far away at once. Any habits that failed to match in the future could be attributed to the results of training abroad.

This was the idea Su Che had hastily come up with.

Fortunately, while the Duling Su Clan was not among Great Liang's foremost great houses, handling such matters was no problem for them.

Through the arrangements of that elder residing within the palace, the Ministry of Personnel soon completed the paperwork. Through his family's hereditary privilege, he was appointed county constable of Shanyin County, becoming a Subordinate Ninth Rank official of the Great Liang Dynasty.

Naturally, that elder had given him a thorough lecture, imparting some experience in navigating life and casually bestowing several secret treasures upon him.

The Sword Case was one of them.

The firelight still flickered within the main hall. After what had just happened, even the men bold enough to enter the deep mountains to gather herbs could no longer sleep.

The group sat around the fire, listening as Su Che spoke with the dark-faced man who led them.

"That thing was wounded but not dead. Sooner or later, it will cause trouble again. Mister Zhou, at daybreak tomorrow, we will set out. I will send official notices to the surrounding counties, telling them to be extra careful and forbidding people from approaching Withered Forest Monastery."

Under the Liang Dynasty's official system, a county was headed by the county magistrate, beneath whom were the county deputy, chief clerk, and county constable. By convention, the county deputy and chief clerk were local men, while county magistrates and county constables were selected by the Ministry of Personnel and assigned from elsewhere.

This was the principle of internal and external forces restraining one another.

Since county magistrates and county constables were appointed directly by the court, local powerful clans could be prevented from wreaking havoc and monopolizing an area. Since county deputies and chief clerks came from the locality, county magistrates could likewise be prevented from draining a pond to catch all its fish.

Of course, that was only the beauty of theory. In reality, county magistrates simply colluded with county deputies.

As one of those reduced to fish and meat beneath the knife, the dark-faced man had initially held some expectations for this county constable carrying a Sword Case.

But hearing this, he could not help feeling disappointed.

What exactly had he been hoping for?

The dark-faced man looked at Su Che. This county constable already counted as dutiful for knowing to send notices warning the neighboring counties.

Could he really expect him to raid this place?

Level the mountain and raze the temple, slaughter every demon and evil spirit.

Those were things the court had once done. Now, no one did them anymore.

"Rest easy, everyone. That ring of azure light just now was likely a Wood Wraith."

Plants and trees that received the essence of sun and moon could also gain intelligence and become spirits or monsters. An ancient text said, "A thousand-year tree's essence becomes a green ram; a ten-thousand-year tree's essence becomes an Azure Ox."

Among the treasures Su Che had brought from the capital was a secret record called Records of the Hidden Within, notes compiled by the Imperial Demon Hunters on the forms and traits of every strange demon and ghost. Its words were perfectly clear.

"...Whenever plants and trees are enlightened by the six human desires and become spirits, they are called Wood Wraiths. Their color is azure, brilliant as a wheel. They do not delight in blood and flesh, and most possess the virtue of the Greater Yin. They are also called Azure Emperor's Boys... Their nature fears not fire but dreads metal. Examining the transformations of the Five Elements, wood is fire's father, while metal is wood's thief. When the metal wind arrives, wood withers. Whenever one encounters a Wood Wraith, merely array weapons, and one may avoid it..."

All in all, it was a demon that liked moonlight and had no fixed form. It did not crave blood and flesh either—that was, the flesh and blood of living things.

It ought to be a demon that wanted only peace and tranquility.

Su Che looked around at the surrounding halls. "Once I take office and complete the handover, I will order this place torn down."