Amid wind and rain, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and heaven and earth dissolved into a vast gray haze.
More than a dozen riders from the Unusual Events Bureau rode through the rain in straw capes and bamboo hats. With the fleetness granted by Talismans, they crossed mountains and ridges and finally reached a riverside building before dark.
They nimbly dismounted, then drew their blades.
An Attendant who looked like a cultivator stepped forward. After sensing the surroundings briefly, he said gravely, "This is the place. He can't escape."
Zuo Zhongliang waved a hand. "Everyone, follow me."
Suddenly, several dark shapes rushed out of the building, rearing upright like giant pythons. They were Human-Head Centipedes over ten feet long.
They all had enormous, pointed jaws, and pairs of humanlike arms in place of legs and pincers. In an instant, one of the men was seized.
Without a sound, he drew his blade and hacked fiercely.
Blood spattered, and the arms released him, only for a sickly green poison mist to spray toward him.
These men had come prepared. Every one of them had taken an antidote pill beforehand, and they fought the monsters fiercely as though the poison had no effect.
"Hmph. The same few tricks every time. Watch yourselves. I'll deal with that Demonic Path practitioner."
With that warning, the Attendant rushed past the fighting and into the building.
A short while later, he emerged again, carrying a half-grown boy in one hand.
With no one controlling them, the Human-Head Centipedes fell into disarray. The men seized the opportunity and soon slaughtered them all.
The boy trembled all over, seemingly terrified, yet he still glared at them with hatred, as though flames were surging from his eyes.
One man could not contain his anger. He charged up and kicked him. "You little bastard! You killed so many of our brothers!"
Zuo Zhongliang stopped him and turned to the Attendant. "Sir, how could it be a boy like this?"
The Attendant said, "Don't underestimate him. He's already mastered an evil art. He's no ordinary lackey. But with his level of cultivation, he certainly couldn't have refined these things."
Zuo Zhongliang's gaze sharpened. "Someone deliberately gave them to him to distract us? Could that rumor..."
The Attendant said, "There's no point keeping it secret now. Yes, that rumor is true."
Zuo Zhongliang said, "Then what should we do? If we don't do something, a lot of people will die!"
The Attendant said, "I don't know either. These rains aren't anything a normal year could bring. The Demonic Path practitioners are fearless because they hold enough trump cards to do whatever they please."
"And those trump cards were handed over by the very common people who are going to suffer."
"Alas, mortals... how pitiable they are..."
Hearing this, Zuo Zhongliang fell silent.
The Attendant said, "Forget it. Don't dwell on it. All we can do now is slay as many demons and fiends as possible and kill these villains who exploit the chaos."
Carrying the struggling boy, he walked toward an open patch of ground.
"You corrupt officials! I won't let you off even as a ghost! Hahahaha... Father, Mother, your son is coming to join you!"
The crazed laughter abruptly stopped.
The Attendant tossed the boy's corpse to the ground, then walked alone to the cliff's edge and gazed down at the river.
The Great Lin River had become utterly turbid. Like a surging yellow dragon, it let out a roar that made hearts tremble.
His back looked somewhat desolate. The others understood why, but had no way to comfort him. They could only silently help burn the culprit's corpse.
"Another one like this, bewitched by the Demonic Path into practicing evil arts for revenge..."
"This world has rotted..."
"But you need aptitude even to be bewitched. It really is a fine thing. If only I had a spirit root..."
With a hundred emotions tangled in their hearts, the soldiers who had just fought a bloody battle could only banter with one another like this.
Zuo Zhongliang frowned and looked at them. "Enough, you lot. Do you really think having spirit root aptitude could change all this?"
"Company Commander Zuo, don't you want that aptitude?"
Zuo Zhongliang wiped his blade clean with the rainwater and sheathed it, saying calmly, "I don't."
"Tsk, tsk. You really are a strange one."
They chatted as they took stock of the scene, then began inspecting the building without saying much more.
A boy of fifteen or sixteen followed beside Zuo Zhongliang. He was the very boy involved in the water monster case back in Huangkou Town.
More than three months had passed, and he had become an ordinary junior squad leader in the Unusual Events Bureau, serving under Zuo Zhongliang.
The Unusual Events Bureau evidently had its own methods of judging people. Though they might not be as keen as Li Ling's nose, when they saw a boy with no family ties to burden him and a reasonably decent nature, they simply recruited him to train.
The boy had nowhere to call home. As long as he could get a meal, he was quite willing to risk his life.
"Sir, why don't you want spirit root aptitude?"
The boy seemed curious. With no one else nearby, he pursued the earlier question.
Zuo Zhongliang looked at him with an inscrutable expression. "Is that something you can have just because you want it? Are you going to give it to me?"
The boy said sheepishly, "I only meant imagining it. Can't you even imagine it?"
Zuo Zhongliang said irritably, "If you've got time for idle fantasies, you might as well do something useful. Clearly, you're still too idle. When we get back, practice the blade technique I taught you another hundred times!"
The boy instinctively clutched his arms. "More practice? We've been running errands everywhere these past few days. I'm exhausted!"
Zuo Zhongliang said, "What does a little exhaustion matter? The bureau feeds you so well you can stuff yourself with meat and fish every day, and I'm here to massage you and get your blood flowing."
"Your spirit is upright, and your comprehension is decent. In less than half a year, you can achieve initial mastery. After another three to five years honing yourself in real combat, you'll be no worse than I am now. Once your blade skills have been tempered, you'll be another capable fighter who can stand on his own."
The boy said in confusion, "But however much I practice, I can never surpass an immortal master."
"Didn't you tell me that from the beginning? Even if mortals like us bring our martial arts to the utmost limit, we can't match even the lowest-level cultivator."
Zuo Zhongliang looked at him coldly. "I told you that so you'd use your brain in a fight instead of always thinking about brute force! If you start weighing everything like that, what use would Blade Gang or divine abilities and spells be, even if I gave them to you?"
The boy's eyes widened, clearly struggling to understand. "Why?"
Zuo Zhongliang said, "Because then you'd be A Xin the extraordinary adept, A Xin the immortal master, but no longer A Xin the junior squad leader of the Unusual Events Bureau. Blade Gang, divine abilities, and spells would be nothing but tools for climbing higher. What talk could there be of slaying demons and fiends?"
"That fellow just now had aptitude too, didn't he? Yet he still fell into becoming a Demonic Path lackey and opposing us."
"His whole family was murdered, so his feelings were understandable, but his actions were still unforgivable! Someone like that has a crooked heart. The higher his cultivation, the greater the evil he'll commit."
The boy's expression stiffened. "But..."
"So, A Xin..." Zuo Zhongliang called the boy by name. "Throw away those pointless fantasies."
Boom!
At that very moment, a thunderbolt struck.
The brilliant lightning illuminated the entire building, as well as Zuo Zhongliang's body and face.
His voice was resolute and utterly solemn. "Immortal masters do not deserve our reverence, nor do ghosts and gods deserve our fear. We mortals can only ever rely on ourselves!"
The boy murmured, "Mortals... ourselves..."
Zuo Zhongliang said, "Remember, we belong to the Unusual Events Bureau. Our mission is to slay demons and fiends!"
The boy instinctively jolted and answered loudly, "Yes!"
"Company Commander Zuo, what's going on over there? Did you find something?" Someone had been startled, and his voice carried over.
Zuo Zhongliang tapped the boy on the head and replied, "Nothing."
The boy stuck out his tongue, looking embarrassed.
But suddenly, Zuo Zhongliang turned back, glanced at him, and said slowly, "Actually, sometimes I do hate being a mortal, powerless to do anything..."
"If only I were an immortal master and had those divine abilities and spells."
The boy's eyes widened.
You've said one thing and then its opposite! Are you playing with me, sir?
The men searched the place but found nothing, so they had no choice but to return to their base.
This was the branch office in Hundred Bright City, a town along the river. The Demonic Path's frequent activity in recent days had drawn attention from all sides. To ensure the city's safety, the Unusual Events Bureau had been forced to dispatch elite personnel here as reinforcements.
It was under these circumstances that Zuo Zhongliang and the others had arrived. Over three consecutive days, they had struck repeatedly and destroyed five hideouts.
Their record looked glorious, but none of them could feel happy. All they had dealt with were insignificant lackeys who had seriously distracted their attention.
"It's really begun..."
Suddenly, one of the men resting in the main hall saw a bureau report and could not help exclaiming.
Everyone gathered around. Written on it was a shocking piece of recent news.
Upstream on the Great Lin River, a riverside town much like this one had been completely swallowed by the flood.
Although some people had begun fleeing beforehand, the dead, injured, and missing still numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Fields and homes had all been destroyed.
"The situation here in Hundred Bright City doesn't seem very good either."
"The terrain here isn't particularly favorable. This little wreck of a city will be finished sooner or later."
"Hey, why worry yourselves sick over that? We're the Unusual Events Bureau, not the local government."
"But the local authorities are starting to evacuate residents now. What matters is keeping a close eye on those Demonic Path bastards so they don't cause trouble."
The men gathered to rest and await orders discussed the matter.
Zuo Zhongliang suddenly noticed another dispatch. "Someone's been playing at gods and ghosts near the Royal City, but this time they're appearing in nearby villagers' dreams and telling them to seek shelter early?"
Someone sneered upon hearing this. "That's viciously calculated. Even if the villagers run, where can they go? Without enough food, won't they just starve to death?"
Another man argued, "Even ants cling to life, let alone people. As I see it, every extra moment alive is a moment gained. The Demonic Path wouldn't go to all that trouble to tell commoners to run to the estates and high ground outside the city."
After reading for a while, Zuo Zhongliang agreed. "Whoever's playing at gods and ghosts still has a conscience. The bureau suspects they're the mysterious person who sent us information and has decided to postpone taking action. We don't have the time to deal with it now anyway. Let's wait and see."
Someone else objected. "So what? That's the territory of princes and nobles. Even if they don't have enough guards for the moment and the refugees plunder it, the reckoning will still come afterward. When government troops arrive to suppress them, won't they become rebels?"
Zuo Zhongliang remained silent for a long time before saying, "Being a rebel is better than starving to death."
"Hey, Old Zuo, I can't agree with that. If these people quietly starved to death, that would be the end of it. Won't stirring up all this trouble just get more people killed?"
"Exactly. Only thinking of themselves. Too selfish."
Zuo Zhongliang said coldly, "You're all talking bullshit. Only when the ones suffering are you and your loved ones will you know which side your backside belongs on."
These men from the Unusual Events Bureau had no idea that, as they spoke, an invisible spirit body floated beside them, silently watching.
That spirit body was naturally Li Ling, who had come to inspect the situation.
Dusk had fallen, and he had intended to check the Unusual Events Bureau's progress in hunting down Demonic Path practitioners. Instead, he heard them discussing what he had been doing lately.
When Li Ling learned what these men from the Unusual Events Bureau truly thought, he could not help being taken aback.
What shocked him even more was that the man arguing with Zuo Zhongliang, who said the refugees should quietly starve to death, carried a wafting fragrance-a bamboo scent of uprightness and selflessness.
At the same time, there was also a moldy, fermented stench of decay. That was hatred buried within events long past.
He heard the man accuse them, "My grandfather once told me that five generations ago, our family had fertile fields and substantial savings. We could have survived the famine on our own granary, but because these refugees rioted, members of our family were beaten to death!"
Someone immediately retorted, "What a coincidence. My grandfather's grandfather starved to death because wealthy landlords refused to release their grain. If the Unusual Events Bureau hadn't given him a meal, he probably would've become one of those rebels you talk about too."
Hearing this, the others' minds stirred, each giving off a different scent.
Indignation, agitation, hatred, sympathy...
All those emotions intertwined, complex beyond words.
For a moment, even Li Ling, who prided himself on discerning the hundred flavors of humanity and knowing good from evil, beauty from ugliness, was bewildered.
His innate divine ability seemed to have failed him. He could no longer distinguish the true nature of these people's hearts.
Li Ling could not be bothered to listen to their argument. He quietly left the place and went outside.
The wilderness beyond the city had already become a vast watery realm. Some low-lying villages and fields were submerged. On his way back, Li Ling happened to see several corpses lying beside the road.
They appeared to be a family, young and old, who had tried to flee into the city. They bore wounds, clearly killed not by the flood, but by robbers.
He also saw low-lying villages where the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled who had not managed to evacuate had drowned in the floodwater with no one to help them.
Only then did Li Ling truly witness how fragile life was. Just a few days without food were enough for the frail to be the first to starve or fall ill and die.
Suddenly, a faint stench of decay spread, then filled all of heaven and earth.
It was a rotting-corpse stench that arose at the root of his nose and reached into his consciousness. Li Ling had smelled it before. Among the many emotions, it represented hatred, murderous vengeance, and intense malice.
Li Ling thought it came from those corpses and instinctively moved away. It was useless. The smell was still everywhere!
"What on earth is going on?"
Shocked, Li Ling moved around and investigated, only to discover that everything he saw, heard, and knew carried that smell, as though all things between heaven and earth were rotting and stinking.
All at once, pieces of information surfaced instinctively in his mind, leaving Li Ling utterly astonished.
"Is this a tribulation?"
"Damn you, Heaven! Are you kidding me? I have to face a tribulation this soon?"