"M-murder!"
The villagers trembled in horror. Forget shouting accusations or going into the water to rescue anyone-even their legs felt too weak to run. For a moment, they all stood frozen like cattle and sheep awaiting slaughter.
Even the burly men who had shouted the loudest and tried to snatch people away were no exception.
Li Ling could not be bothered with them. He glanced at the girl dressed as a bride and asked, "Is your family here?"
She was about fifteen or sixteen, a girl from a rural mountain village. Her looks were somewhat rough, but she carried a pastoral fragrance like wheat, simple and natural.
Noticing Li Ling's gaze, the girl shrank back in fright, too timid to utter a word.
Seeing how shy she was around strangers, Li Ling did not press her. He called Guard Lin over and asked, "Do you know her?"
Guard Lin gave a wry smile. "No."
Then he explained, "Please forgive me, Prince Consort. My family moved to the city when I was young. Besides, there are quite a few people in these villages."
A guard suddenly approached with an old man in custody and reported, "Prince Consort, this old fellow says he's the girl's family."
The old man looked to be in his forties or fifties. His frame was still fairly sturdy, and he wore a short jacket of coarse cloth. He cowered timidly, looking like a helpless man who had never seen the world.
Dragged forward by the guard, he trembled at the sight of so many officers and powerful servants, not to mention Li Ling, who had just ordered the witch drowned.
But when he saw the girl, he still mustered the courage to call, "My girl!"
The girl finally spoke. "Father..."
Then she hid behind him like a startled fawn.
Li Ling asked in puzzlement, "How do the villages choose the River God's bride?"
Zuo Zhongliang sighed. "The local gentry and elders arrange the River God Wedding, supposedly to honor the god. In truth, they invent excuses to levy wedding contributions. Those who can't pay must provide a person!"
"The other families paid to avoid it. These few families were the poorest, so they seized his daughter to fill the quota."
Li Ling looked at the gentry and elders. "Is that true?"
Several of them shuddered. "Th-this..."
Li Ling snorted. "Nothing but filthy, rotten nonsense! Steward Lin, take her whole family back to the residence and make arrangements for them."
Steward Lin answered, "Yes."
Then he turned to the old man and girl, signaling them with his eyes. "Aren't you going to thank the Prince Consort for his kindness?"
However timid the old man and girl were, they knew that blue smoke must have risen from their ancestors' graves for them to encounter such a benefactor. They hurriedly knelt and kowtowed like pounding garlic. "Thank you for your kindness, Prince Consort!"
Then they took the men Steward Lin assigned them home to fetch their family.
Zuo Zhongliang nodded at the sight. "A wise decision, Prince Consort Li. At least this brings things to a satisfactory close."
"Still, why did you have to kill anyone just now?"
Li Ling said, "Hundred-Household Commander Zuo, those witches and shamans were taking lives for money."
Zuo Zhongliang said, "Of course I know that. But even so, the law should deal with them."
At those words, the guards from the Prince Consort's Residence burst out laughing.
Why waste such a perfect opening to play the straight man?
The captain rested one hand on his saber and planted the other on his hip, laughing loudly. "The law?"
"Listen carefully, Hundred-Household Commander Zuo. Here in the Mystic Xin Kingdom, our Prince Consort is the law!"
The guards jeered too. "Talking about the law to our Prince Consort? Hahahaha..."
Li Ling, however, looked at Zuo Zhongliang with considerable admiration. He had not expected to find someone who respected the law even in a feudal dynasty like this.
Unlike the captain, Li Ling did not misunderstand Zuo Zhongliang and take him for an indecisive, timid coward.
He believed this Hundred-Household Commander Zuo simply refused to throw his weight around against the Mortal People.
The Unusual Events Bureau had been established to slay monsters and demons and possessed sweeping authority, but local legal disputes truly lay outside its jurisdiction. It was a good thing that someone willingly accepted the restraints of law and discipline instead of abusing his strength and power.
If Zuo Zhongliang wanted to act against these people, he could casually accuse them of colluding with the Demonic Path and slaughter every commoner present. Yet he had not done so, nor had the thought ever crossed his mind.
How could such restraint and self-control be slandered as weakness or pedantry?
Li Ling knew him. Zuo Zhongliang had never shown mercy when dealing with monsters and demons.
If he instead bowed and scraped before monsters while striking the Mortal People with a heavy fist, that would truly deserve contempt.
Thus, far from considering him weak or pedantic, Li Ling respected him all the more.
Li Ling waved a hand to stop the guards' laughter. "Hundred-Household Commander Zuo, this isn't the place to talk. We'll be leaving now."
As the villagers watched the distinguished visitors from the city prepare to leave, their expressions varied.
There was envy and jealousy, but also worry and fear.
Without a bride, what damned wedding could the River God have? They were doomed this time. Who could bear the consequences when retribution came?
Still, they dared not move for fear of attracting attention. The bird that raised its head would be shot.
The gentry and elders were even more silent, like cicadas in winter, barely daring to breathe.
Standing before his carriage, Li Ling surveyed these locally influential men and said coldly, "I'll spare you this time. From now on, anyone who dares speak of arranging a River God Wedding will be fed to the fish. Do you understand?"
As though granted a general pardon, the gentry and elders knelt to thank him. "Thank you for sparing our lives, Prince Consort."
When Li Ling returned to the carriage, the Ninth Princess smiled. "Husband, you were quite commanding just now."
Li Ling said, "That was nothing. I was only leaning on my position. Without my status as Prince Consort and the immortal master's favor, no one would have listened."
Actually, he could still have managed it, but then he would have had to reveal his divine ability to move objects with divine sense.
"Besides, I could only save that girl, not the villagers here. That's a regret. This wasn't truly the satisfactory conclusion Hundred-Household Commander Zuo called it."
The Ninth Princess disagreed. "Look how bold these ignorant peasants were. They even dared attack officers. Why would they need saving?"
Li Ling looked at her and said seriously, "You were in the carriage just now, so you must have heard. Someone was inventing excuses to rake in money. Drowning the girl was half superstitious tradition and half killing a chicken to scare the monkeys."
The Ninth Princess said, "I heard. There aren't any officials in the countryside. Relying solely on the gentry and elders to govern themselves certainly invites problems."
Li Ling said, "Greed and ignorance are more frightening than the River God or floods!"
"But then again, however hateful it is for those gentry and elders to cause harm in the River God's name, is there anything inherently wrong with the villagers wanting blessings and protection from disaster?"
The Ninth Princess said, "Whatever the case, they shouldn't foster such vile customs and trample other people's lives."
Li Ling said, "You're right. You can condemn them all you like, but what happens after that?"
The Ninth Princess asked in confusion, "Husband, do you mean..."
Li Ling said, "I know they're ignorant and cruel too. But does pinning that label on them make the problem solve itself?"
"Does being ignorant and cruel mean they deserve to suffer, to languish at the bottom for lifetime after lifetime, while anyone may exploit and squeeze them at will?"
"If that's true, wouldn't keeping these villagers deliberately ignorant and cruel make them easier to rule? And tracing it back to the root, what made them this way?"
"Well..." The Ninth Princess was stumped.
Even as Li Ling questioned the Ninth Princess, he reflected on himself.
He had dealt decisively with the witches and shamans, cowing those ignorant villagers in one stroke.
Up to that point, he had done fairly well. He had neither sparked a mass disturbance nor caused innocent deaths.
Yet he had generously spared the gentry and elders, who reeked of money and decay, simply because there was no local government and he still needed them to oversee the villages.
Casually ordering their deaths might have been satisfying for a moment, but it would have left a greater mess and more trouble afterward.
Did that really count as eradicating the local custom of illicit worship and bringing matters to a satisfactory close?
Moreover, after Ximen Bao dealt with the witches and shamans while governing Ye, he had undertaken practical work such as digging canals, repairing embankments, and developing irrigation.
Li Ling lacked that degree of commitment, as well as the energy and ability.
Forget it. A person should know his own limits. Do only as much as your abilities allow.
With a clear sense of his limitations, Li Ling stopped pondering such profound matters. Slaying monsters, vanquishing demons, and upholding justice would suffice.
This was because fragrance and stench were inherently one, containing the concept of opposing yin and yang.
For now, he lacked the ability to distinguish the ground between them and transform it.
Just then, cries of alarm rose from the watching crowd, and terrified screams quickly spread.
"G-ghosts!"
"The dead have come back to life!"
The captain's slightly tense voice rang out. "Defensive positions!"
The convoy stopped at his command.
Curious, Li Ling lifted the carriage curtain and looked outside. At some point, the witches and shamans the guards had thrown into the water to drown had appeared on the stretch of river ahead.
Instead of floating quietly on the surface, they stood upright, soaked from head to toe, and walked toward them across the water.
Their movements did not resemble those of dead people at all. Rather, they seemed to have returned to life.
The older witch stared with bulging dead-fish eyes. Her loose hair dripped constantly as she spoke in a stiff, chilling voice. "Blasphemers... die..."
The crowd behind them dropped to their knees. "Grandfather River God has manifested!"
Even the worldly gentry and elders went deathly pale. "Grandfather River God, forgive us!"
"Insolent fiends! You dare play god before a member of the Unusual Events Bureau? I'll expose your true forms!"
With a furious shout, Zuo Zhongliang charged out on horseback like an arrow loosed from its string.
In the blink of an eye, his warhorse reached them. A crescent of saber light swept past, instantly severing the witch's head.
The horse neighed!
Its forelegs rose high as it stopped abruptly. Holding the reins in one hand and his saber in the other, Zuo Zhongliang slashed again.
Thud!
Another shaman's disciple lost his head at the blow.
The male shaman's corpse raised both arms, thrusting its dead hands forward like blades.
Zuo Zhongliang pulled the reins, and his well-trained warhorse sidestepped the attack. Then he leaped to the ground and delivered another slash.
In little more than a breath, all three Walking Corpses had been beheaded and could no longer move.
The captain stared, dumbfounded. The other guards who had mocked Zuo Zhongliang looked equally astonished. For a moment, not a sound was heard.
"Excellent skill!" Li Ling praised him. His gaze fell on the corpses, where blood poured from the wounds in their necks but did not spurt.
These bodies had indeed died earlier. They could move again only because some mysterious power had affected them.
"Prince Consort Li, these things are called Walking Corpses. They're low-level Demon Monsters that haven't yet transformed into Water Ghosts or Purple Stiffs. There's nothing remarkable about them themselves, but their appearance means someone has cast a spell or curse. Please return to the city at once."
After killing the Walking Corpses, Zuo Zhongliang came back, bowed to Li Ling in the carriage, and spoke.
Then he shouted at the villagers, who were still kneeling and kowtowing in terror, "Why haven't you left yet? Go home and take shelter!"
Only then did the crowd awaken as if from a dream and scatter.
"Hundred-Household Commander Zuo, what about you?"
Zuo Zhongliang said, "It's my duty to stay and investigate what caused these Walking Corpses, of course, and keep innocent people from harm."
A guard suddenly cried, "Watch out! Something else is coming out of the river!"
A Water Arrow shot toward them in an instant, nearly striking a man standing on the embankment.
Fortunately, the guards from the Prince Consort's Residence were no incompetents. Warned earlier, the man had already noticed the disturbance on the surface and hurriedly leaped sideways to evade the attack.
Zuo Zhongliang quickly warned them, "It's a Water Ghost! Fall back! Don't get too close to the water!"
The guards hastily escorted the carriage to one side, only to discover that all the nearby roads ran along the water.
They feared an attack if they rushed through, while abandoning the horses and proceeding on foot was unnecessary. It seemed they would have trouble leaving without dealing with whatever lurked underwater.
The captain roared, "Damn it! Get all the Thunderclap Bombs out, and the Locust Crossbows too! Cock every one of them!"
Zuo Zhongliang said delightedly, "You brought Thunderclap Bombs? Could you spare a few for me?"
The captain hesitated, but Li Ling spoke from inside the carriage. "Give them to him."
The captain could only comply, looking somewhat sheepish.
He felt a faint threat to his standing. He was the residence's guard captain, so why did the Prince Consort seem to value that company commander more?
Receiving a bag of Thunderclap Bombs, Zuo Zhongliang immediately took two in hand, steadied his breathing, and watched the water intently.
"Here it comes again!"
At that sudden cry, another Water Arrow shot out. At the same time, Zuo Zhongliang hurled his Thunderclap Bombs toward its source like thrown stones.
Boom! Boom!
The explosions followed one after another, throwing waves more than ten feet high.
A Water Monkey resembling a skinned monkey was blasted out of the water, flailing with piercing screams.
Without waiting for orders, the guards pulled their triggers.
Bolts fell like rain. Several struck the Water Monkey in moments, and even after it dived underwater again, it left a trail of blood like thick ink across the surface.
Zuo Zhongliang rushed to the bank and threw his Dart Shuttle. The slender chain attached to it seemed to wrap around the Water Monkey, immediately drawing taut.
With a shout, he hauled back hard, forcibly dragging the Water Monkey up to the surface, where more guards rushed forward and shot it full of bolts like a hedgehog.
Before long, the Water Monkey finally stopped struggling and died after bleeding out its black blood.
"It's dealt with. There aren't any more Demon Monsters in there, are there?" The captain walked over, staring gravely at the water.
Zuo Zhongliang said, "There shouldn't be. But the Great Lin River is broad and deep, a natural habitat for water-type Demon Monsters. Any Demon Monsters lurking in the towns upstream or downstream could come through the waterways. We'd best leave as soon as possible."
Hearing this, everyone hurriedly escorted the carriage carrying Li Ling and the Ninth Princess onward. First, they would leave this place of trouble behind.