The farther Pan Long traveled, the more shocking the sights became.
Central Province had once been the most peaceful and prosperous land in the Nine Provinces. For over a thousand years, it had suffered neither war nor man-made calamity, not even a natural disaster. The Great Xia Dynasty could not protect all the Nine Provinces, but it could guard Central Province and keep every natural disaster at bay.
According to Bi Lingkong, this was the power of the Nine Provinces Grand Array. The Great Xia Dynasty had gathered strength that should have been spread across the Nine Provinces and used it to give Central Province a thousand years of favorable winds and timely rain.
Bi Lingkong had once said with disdain, "Central Province is just like the Di Lineage. All their splendor was stolen from others!"
But today, Central Province's peace and prosperity had finally been shattered.
Pan Long alone saw at least a dozen bands of Greenwood heroes attacking towns across Central Province.
Their methods varied. Some used Stealth and assassination to lure out government experts, surrounded and killed them with thunderous force, then left without lingering. Others spread their followers far and wide, wreaking havoc until the government experts were run ragged, then struck while they had the chance. Still others had come simply to burn, kill, and plunder. Whether they killed any government experts did not matter to them at all.
As Pan Long traveled, he did not interfere with those hunting government experts. But whenever he saw anyone looting or setting fires in a town, he suppressed them without a word and put out the fires while he was at it.
He knew his actions might be wrong. They might even disrupt his teacher's plan. From the standpoint of his own interests, he was helping the