Once the month was up, a Sword Order duly found him.
Hou Niao had been wondering whether the important figures might forget about him and let him spend his growing years happily in Jincheng. But he had been too naive. No newcomer could enjoy a free supply of resources.
Early one morning, after his morning practice, a freshly washed Hou Niao arrived early at the Southern City Inspector's Yamen to begin his first day as a Yamen Constable.
The Inspector's Yamen was the office under Jincheng's Pastoral Marshal Prefecture responsible for civil disputes. It was essentially the same as the Relevant Authorities in the cities of the Anhe Kingdom, except that in the Shan Kingdom, such offices were jointly headed by the Quanzhen Sect and mortals, with the Quanzhen Sect taking the lead.
As a provincial capital with a population of nearly a million, the city was divided into four branch offices-east, south, west, and north-each handling its own patch and reporting matters directly to the Pastoral Marshal Prefecture for a decision. Naturally, these petty mortal affairs almost never reached the Pastoral Marshal Prefecture. If they really were reported, the result would instead be a scolding for failing to distinguish the weighty from the trivial.
The Yamen Officer in charge was an elderly Grain Avoidance cultivator. With no hope of advancing to the Upper Realm, he had been assigned this retirement post. This was also a benefit the Quanzhen Sect provided for its aging cultivators whose strength was failing and who could no longer advance to the Upper Realm.
There were many such people, filling the ranks of officialdom throughout Jincheng. After all, Profound Connection was a major hurdle; cross it, and an entirely different world awaited.
The Southern City Yamen had many more officials like him: a registrar, a