Fishing

Zhou Si lowered his head, pressing his face tightly against the blue bricks of the floor.

He could feel the chill of earth energy rising from the bricks, prickling the tip of his nose. It reminded him of countless mornings when he had awakened amid mountain dew.

Sometimes, he dearly wished he could return to the past and become a herb gatherer again, carrying a bow on his back and a steel blade at his waist.

Back then, everything had been simple. When he encountered demons, he drew his blade—he either fought or fled. It was nothing extraordinary.

Now he was old. He could still draw a powerful bow and wield a steel blade, but he could no longer hit his target, and the hand that gripped his sword had grown soft and weak.

"This commoner will certainly convey Your Excellency's meaning."

The Demon Kings around Shanyin County wanted reassurance, so Su Che would give them reassurance.

It would be even better if they brought along some century-old mountain ginseng or rare spirit herbs.

"Those Demon Kings are all quite wealthy. One hundred taels of silver to buy a chance for a meeting, three hundred taels of gold to beg for peace."

County Lieutenant Su lifted his teacup and took a sip of the clear jade-green brew.

"Dujue City couldn't possibly earn that much money, could it?"

With the way Dujue City was being run, Su Che had no idea how much money Lord Dushan, the one in charge, had to pour into it.

Yet the Demon Kings could produce another large sum of gold today to buy safety. Did their money grow out of Mystic Mountain?

"I won't make things difficult for you either. Everyone chooses their own road. Since Mister Zhou chose this path, encountering such matters was bound to happen sooner or later. Please, Mister Zhou."

Su Che directly issued an order to see his guest out.

"This commoner thanks Your Excellency."

Zhou Si climbed up from the floor as though a great burden had been lifted, his back already drenched in sweat.

For today to end this way was truly beyond his expectations.

It was not as though he had never seen Su Che's methods back at Deadwood Temple. In his eyes, this County Lieutenant Su was most likely the sort who hated evil as bitterly as an enemy and feared he could never kill enough demons.

When the Demon Kings behind him had proposed sending him to negotiate with Su Che, he had been reluctant ten thousand times over.

The only reason Zhou Si had been willing to cooperate with demons was to seek wealth. Yet now the other side had forced him into becoming their spokesman in the human world.

Why put himself through such misery?

If anything changed in the future, how could he possibly remain uninvolved?

Zhou Si raised his head and gave Su Che, who was drinking tea, a long, searching look.

A thousand thoughts surged through his heart, but when the words reached his lips, not a single sentence came out.

"Mister Zhou, you often travel through the mountains, so you should know that at daybreak, moisture gathers in the mountains and gives rise to thick fog. Sometimes the mist spreads so densely that one cannot see even three feet ahead."

Su Che glanced at Zhou Si.

"But later, when the great sun rises in the east and red light spills everywhere, all fog must disperse without a trace. Mister Zhou, Shanyin County may once have been shrouded in mist and veiled by clouds, but now the rising sun is already upon us. Some matters should be planned for early."

"I won't keep you today. When you have made up your mind and can see the mountain road clearly, come find me again. Zhang San, see our guest out."

Hearing Su Che call out, Zhang San, who had been waiting outside, carefully pushed open the door and entered. He glanced at Zhou Si, whose face was covered in sweat.

Boss Zhou was considered a notorious hard man in Shanyin County, yet now even his clothes were soaked through.

"Mister Zhou, this way."

Zhang San made a welcoming gesture and led Zhou Si out the door.

Su Che sat quietly in his chair.

Thinking it over carefully, this actually counted as the first official business he had handled since taking office.

He had clearly been busy every day and had not been slacking off, so why did it feel as though he had not done any work at all?

There had to be something wrong with Shanyin County's feng shui.

With that thought, Su Che took out the copy of Records of the Hidden Within that he had brought from Jiankang to Shanyin and began reading again.

Speaking of which, the Imperial Demon Hunters truly were a place where hidden dragons crouched and tigers lurked. Records of the Hidden Within ought to have been merely a compilation of assorted collected materials, yet they had somehow written it with flowers blooming from the tip of the brush.

Take the pages he had just read. The foxes outside Gushu City, in order to harvest and refine essence, seduced young men from within the city into spiritually coupling at the mass graves. After each completion, they offered some money and goods.

At the beginning, they had probably only paid one or two coins.

Perhaps there were too many foxes and too few young men. Later, it actually sparked vicious competition, and the subsidy for spiritual coupling swelled all the way to fifteen or sixteen coins.

That was not even the most outrageous part. Some wicked youths in Gushu City actually murdered for profit. They secretly carried weapons to the mass graves, and after finishing, they not only collected payment but also drew their blades to kill the foxes and sell their pelts, causing even greater upheaval in the market.

The fox demons' retaliation then produced further vicious cases, ultimately drawing the attention of the Imperial Demon Hunters. They struck with an iron fist and swept all the foxes outside Gushu City clean away.

Su Che had no interest in the realities contained within this affair. Still, the Imperial Demon Hunter who described the case possessed a truly masterful hand, especially when writing of those wicked transactions between humans and foxes. It entered skin and flesh, breast and muscle; with a brush that brought flowers to life, it made the reader feel personally present, the lingering flavor unending.

This writer had clearly gone out and experienced life firsthand.

"I wonder whether that fox Qingqiu understands this Essence Harvesting Art. If there's a chance, perhaps we can exchange pointers."

Su Che drank tea as he read Records of the Hidden Within, continuing until the great sun sank in the west.

"Zhang San."

"Yes, sir."

Deputy Zhang had practically become Su Che's attendant and secretary.

"Do we have night clothes?"

"Hm?"

"If there aren't any night clothes, find me a black scarf to cover my face. Then get two blades from the armory."

"Sir, you are...?"

"I've been feeling somewhat worn out lately. Tonight, I'm going out to bully men and tyrannize women for a little exercise."

Su Che looked at Zhang San, whose face still held some surprise. "What? Want to come along?"

"Uh..."

"I'm teasing you. I have other arrangements tonight. If Captain Shi asks, tell him I went out drinking at a pleasure house."

Su Che increasingly felt that social death had plenty of benefits.

If some wandering young hero disappeared at night, people would most likely suspect that he was up to something, or practicing martial arts in the middle of the night.

If they followed the clues, they might uncover some major affair.

He did not need to consider so much. One sentence—he had gone drinking at a pleasure house—and everything was completely explained. If one could not find him in the pleasure quarters, that was only because one had not looked anywhere grand enough.

All things were dialectical. That saying truly became fresh with every study.

Before long, Zhang San had found a full set of the items Su Che wanted and laid them out on the table.

"Please take a look, sir. This is a set of night clothes, made by the Qi Family Old Shop in our county. I went to their store and picked one roughly suited to your build."

"These three blades, two long and one short, were all used by great bandits who were once captured in Shanyin. I do not know which one catches your eye."

"This is knockout smoke mixed with Tendon-Softening Powder. Anyone without cultivation will have their limbs go limp after inhaling even a little."

"This is Burning Passion Salve. I heard it is very effective, but it was confiscated property and has already sat in storage for more than thirty years. As for its effectiveness..."

Fine, now he knew some flower-plucking thief had met his end in Shanyin County over thirty years ago.

"Leave everything except that salve."

Su Che gave the order. The little fox had helped him quite a bit and had even shouldered that enormous black pot from White Deer Grotto.

She had asked him to act today, so he absolutely had to step forward.

Otherwise, he would be far too much of a scumbag.

Gushu: located in present-day Dangtu County. Eastern Wu once built fortifications here, and Grand Marshal Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin had once stationed troops here, using it to remotely control Jiankang's political situation.