Eastward Arrival

Su Che discovered that things differed somewhat from what he had imagined.

An ancient temple, a young sword-wielding hero, a Wood Wraith, a tree-demon matriarch, and a beautiful female ghost...

That was how the scene was supposed to look.

Yet this thing lying beneath the grass in the courtyard now seemed to possess a texture like both gold and jade.

Su Che keenly sensed it.

Something was wrong. The style had changed.

The so-called Five Elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—generated and restrained one another, evolving into the foundation of all things.

From the perspective of the Five Elements—

The vegetation qi of Withered Wood Zen Courtyard was abundant, corresponding precisely to the Wood Element.

That thing from last night had glowed green like a wheel, and green also belonged to Wood.

But if this object before him, with its gold-and-jade-like texture, had truly been cut from that demon last night, then that demon clearly belonged to the Metal Element.

Metal restrained Wood.

Su Che sorted through his thoughts.

Perhaps his understanding of the transformations of the Five Elements was still too shallow for him to see through the mysteries within.

Third Young Master Su drew a yellow silk cloth from his sleeve.

This had been a gift from the Yellow Heaven Dao when he left the capital to take up his post.

A piece of yellow silk woven from Shu brocade, upon which an aged master of the Yellow Heaven Dao had used a jade brush and cinnabar to write countless "Edicts of Supreme Purity, Sealing Spirits."

The incantations flowed endlessly, spiritual qi held within. It contained the Yellow Heaven Dao's profound Six Heavens arts and possessed the power to ward off demons and gods.

It was itself a treasure that could seal demons when advancing and protect its bearer when retreating.

So I was originally a gadget-build player. You may have the hard work of the Ten-Mile Slope Sword God emerging from seclusion, but I also have the ability to hurl the universe and crush the Moon-Worshipping Cult Master.

Using the Yellow Heaven Dao's ritual silk, Su Che picked up the strip that was neither gold nor jade, carefully wrapping it layer by layer. Then he called for the herb gatherers to continue onward with him.

In times like these, even beneath a clear, blazing sun, no one wished to linger here any longer.

The group followed the mountain road onward toward Shanyin County.

The herb-gathering man named Zhou Si had learned Su Che's identity, and his words and conduct became exceedingly cautious.

This disappointed Su Che somewhat.

He had hoped to learn more about Shanyin County from the herb gatherers' leader.

Yet the man's tight-lipped, overly wary manner made one thing clear.

The officials of Shanyin County, high and low, were plainly steeped in corrupt practices.

That was why the people feared officials as they feared tigers.

Su Che recalled the materials he had once read.

Great Liang divided county-level administrative regions into four categories.

Capital counties, superior counties, middle counties, and small counties.

Capital counties were those where the capital was located. Jiankang alone was divided into three counties, and together with Jiangling's two counties, there were five in total.

As for superior, middle, and small counties, they were determined by the number of registered households. Under the old system of the previous dynasty, counties with over ten thousand households were superior counties, those with over five thousand were middle counties, and those below five thousand were small counties.

Ever since the fall of the previous dynasty, the realm had fallen into chaos. Warlords occupied their own territories, and war raged without a day of peace.

Demons took advantage of the turmoil to profit, ghosts and monsters violently seized blood food, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism each contended for supremacy, while powerful clans ran rampant and corrupt officials squeezed the people dry.

It was a living picture of the end of the world.

Registered households gradually dwindled, and the population steadily declined. Thus, when Great Liang was founded, counties with over five thousand households were simply designated superior counties, those with over three thousand middle counties, and those below three thousand small counties.

Guobei County and Shanyin County were the finest regions of Dongyang Commandery, neighboring one another. During the previous dynasty, both had been superior counties with over ten thousand households. Even after years of warfare, they had each maintained a scale of more than five thousand households.

Now, each had its own troubles.

Guobei had ghosts; Shanyin had demons.

Guobei County had a long history and had been established earlier than Shanyin. Its thriving population aside, it had repeatedly suffered the ravages of war amid the conflicts at the end of successive dynasties.

The historical records alone documented six massacres of the city.

Congealed resentment was the finest soil for nurturing vicious ghosts.

If Guobei's troubles were man-made calamities, then Shanyin's problem was a "natural disaster."

Shanyin's trouble lay in its excellent feng shui.

With Mount Xuan at its southern back and three rivers encircling it, it fully deserved the eight words: "where spiritual essence gathers, favored by creation."

Have a feng shui master examine the lay of the mountains and rivers, and while such sites as "Water Dragon Falls," "Crouching Ox Land," "Phoenix Eye," "Kylin Slumbering Den," and "Heaven Beyond the Well" might not be found by the handful, several could certainly be discovered.

The problem was precisely that it was too good.

With good feng shui, people buried here could bless their descendants, while things dwelling here could become demons and monsters.

Shanyin County had an especially large number of demons.

Among the county's officials, the magistrate was surnamed Xue. A successful examination graduate, he was nominally the county magistrate, but in truth had long served under the Provincial Censor-in-Chief and did not come to this county to conduct affairs.

There was also a county deputy and a registrar. The county deputy was surnamed Jiang and ordinarily oversaw all county affairs. The registrar was surnamed Tian and handled documents, selections, criminal matters, and the like.

Both came from prominent local clans, and they were the true regional lords who held the lives and fortunes of Shanyin County's people in their hands.

At that moment, outside Shanyin County Town's eastern gate, a patrol inspector had already overseen constables and patrolmen as they erected a canopy. Red and yellow satin had been wound around the bamboo framework, fluttering briskly in the wind.

Nearly a hundred constables and patrol officers stood in formation, dressed in black gauze robes and official uniforms, sabers at their waists. Some carried crossbows and halberds, while others bore bows and arrows.

At a casual glance, they actually gave off the impression of battle-hardened elites.

Magistrate Jiang was fat and tall, like a Guardian King from before a temple gate stuffed into clothes two sizes too small. Nothing about it looked right.

Registrar Tian was short and slight, with a ruddy bulbous nose. His hands were tucked into his sleeves, and he appeared weighed down by worries.

"My lord County Deputy," Registrar Tian habitually cleared his throat. "What sort of background does this newly appointed county commandant have?"

This was one of his conversational techniques. In truth, Registrar Tian had already sent people to investigate Third Young Master Su Che's background thoroughly.

He was merely tossing out a brick to attract jade, coaxing Deputy Magistrate Jiang into speaking. Otherwise, with one tall and one short, the two of them stood here baking in the sun.

It was truly rather stifling.

"The Su Clan of Duling. Originally military men from Yongzhou—nothing much to say." As Deputy Magistrate Jiang spoke, however, he sighed quietly within.

Some things one claimed not to care about, yet they still set one's heart ablaze.

When would their Shanyin Jiang Clan leap through the Dragon Gate and achieve the standing of the Su Family?

"During the Fengtou defeat of the northern expedition by the royal army over ten years ago, nearly the entire family was wiped out. Aside from one member of the previous generation in the Palace Administration, only three remained."

A eunuch, Registrar Tian knew. The Su Clan elder held no low rank in the inner court composed of the Twelve Directorates, Four Offices, and Eight Bureaus.

And recently, he was quite likely to take another step forward.

"Of this generation of the Su Clan, apart from those lost at Fengtou, three remain. The eldest was just appointed Governor of Northern Yu and General Who Pacifies Bandits. He now served under Grand Commander Wei."

Great Liang followed the principle that civil and military paths were one. Military generals concurrently holding local offices, or civil officials bearing military titles, were common occurrences in local government.

At the mention of Wei Huaiwen, that pillar of the nation who could strike terror into enemy hearts, the conversation between Deputy Magistrate Jiang and Registrar Tian paused involuntarily. That name alone was enough to make any Liang man pause and feel reverence.

"The second young master serves as a Secretariat Gentleman. I hear he is a modest, principled gentleman who once studied at Mount Yuelu. Then there is our County Commandant Su..."

Magistrate Jiang looked at Registrar Tian. "I heard this fellow led a group of young ruffians to surround the carriage of a certain assistant minister's wife from the Ministry of War..."

"Oh?" Registrar Tian wore a look of surprise.

"...That lady was already forty-nine, and her eldest granddaughter was nearly ready to marry..."

"What a blaze of fury." Registrar Tian was dumbfounded.

In these chaotic times, early marriage and early childbirth were quite common. The lady whom Su Che's former self had molested indeed had several children and grandchildren.

"Later, he ran into students traveling from White Deer Grotto Academy, and they seized him and gave him a thorough beating. His family presumably did not want him causing more trouble, so they sent him here to vent his fire on us."

Magistrate Jiang looked at Registrar Tian and instructed him, "The prefectural office has already sent people to make this clear. We should carefully humor him. In a few months, when his elders in the capital remember him and promote him elsewhere, our merit will be complete."

"I rather hope his temper is fierce." Registrar Tian rubbed his brow. "Let him set three fires and properly smoke out this Shanyin County."

Magistrate Jiang's expression immediately tightened. "What? Has the treasury lost silver again?"

Registrar Tian sighed. "The accounts never match up. The discrepancy is nearly one hundred taels now. I cannot tell whether someone is skimming off the top, or whether some demon skilled in the Five Ghosts Moving technique has arrived."

"Hasn't this been going on for nearly a month?"

"After today, exactly fifty days."

"Would a demon skilled in Five Ghosts Moving steal only two taels a day?" Magistrate Jiang frowned deeply at his colleague.

How could anyone be so muddleheaded?

Magistrate Jiang asked himself: if he knew the Five Ghosts Moving technique, he would empty Registrar Tian's home clean in one go. Why would he steal five taels one day and then rest for two days?

"Let him handle it now that he is here."

Magistrate Jiang gazed into the distance, but there was still no sign of Third Young Master Su.

He had probably run off somewhere to sleep among flowers and drink beneath willows, hadn't he?

Old Jiang recalled his own youthful days. Back then, he had been a copper pea that could neither be boiled soft nor smashed flat, a resounding copper pea.

"Reporting to the two lords... huff..."

A dust-covered clerk emerged from within the city gate.

"Catch your breath before you speak." Registrar Tian stared at him. "What is it? Has the treasury lost silver again?"

"The new county commandant... the new county commandant has arrived..."

"He has arrived?" Magistrate Jiang's lips suddenly went dry.

That bastard—why did he not follow the rules? When a new official took office, it was customary to set up a canopy at the eastern gate and welcome him.

This bore the auspicious name of purple qi coming from the east.

That Su fellow really did not follow the rules.

"Hmph. What are you still standing around for? Have people take all this down."

The county deputy glanced at the registrar.

"Come, let us meet him."

"My lord, wait." Registrar Tian grabbed Deputy Magistrate Jiang's arm.

"How many people came with County Commandant Su? Did you have the public office prepare food?"

Registrar Tian asked the clerk.

"This student has ordered the kitchen to prepare a meal. County Commandant Su has no other attendants; he brought only a bookboy."

Registrar Tian turned to Deputy Magistrate Jiang.

Their eyes met.

Magistrate Jiang chuckled.

"You are still the sharper one, brother."

"Traveling light, changing his appearance—this Third Young Master Su understands how the world works."

"After soaking in the capital for so many years, he ought to understand a few things. As the Sage said: example is better than precept."

Magistrate Jiang called out to several patrol inspectors beside him.

"Stop standing around. Once you have cleaned this up, disperse."

Registrar Tian added, "Everyone else may disperse. The three patrol inspectors are to return to the yamen later and welcome County Commandant Su with us."

The three patrol inspectors exchanged looks, unable to make sense of the situation. They could only agree.

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