Jiang City's predicament

Lin Hao put the potion into his backpack, turned toward home, and decided to try his luck again tomorrow.

He had barely walked half a block when the phone in his pocket vibrated. The caller ID showed Jiang Chao.

He answered, and Jiang Chao's boisterous voice came through the receiver. "Haozi! Why did you call me three times yesterday? After drinking yesterday, I got in the car and fell dead asleep. Didn't hear a thing."

Lin Hao laughed. "Isn't your alcohol tolerance pretty good? How did you sleep until noon before calling back?"

There was a pause on the other end. Jiang Chao's voice suddenly dropped, carrying an indefinable hesitation. "No... I actually woke up early. It's just... the Martial Arts branch bureau called me in for questioning this morning. I only just got out."

Lin Hao's heart tightened. "Questioning? What did you do?"

"What could I have done? I'm a law-abiding citizen!" Jiang Chao hastily protested his innocence, still sounding somewhat shaken. "It... it was about Xia Zhi."

The taut string in Lin Hao's heart loosened a little. So it was about Xia Zhi.

When he said nothing, Jiang Chao assumed he was stunned. "Haozi, you're dumbfounded too, right? I still haven't recovered! We all thought Xia Zhi was such a nice girl, but it turned out... it turned out..."

Halfway through, his words suddenly caught, leaving only slightly heavy breathing coming through the receiver.

Lin Hao raised his eyebrows. I've never thought Xia Zhi was a nice girl.

He followed Jiang Chao's lead and asked, "What did it turn out to be?"

Jiang Chao drew a deep breath and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Don't freak out when I tell you. Xia Zhi... she wasn't human at all. She was a mimic demonic beast! A Shadow Mimic Spider! The people at the Martial Arts Bureau showed me photos from the scene investigation. I was completely dumbstruck!"

Lin Hao's face showed little reaction, but he played along, sounding astonished. "What? A demonic beast?!"

For the next five minutes, Jiang Chao rambled on.

He said the people at the Martial Arts Bureau had asked him about the entire course of his acquaintance with Xia Zhi, all their financial dealings, and whether he had ever seen her behave unusually. He had told them everything in full, and they had only let him go after he signed a written pledge.

As he spoke, he suddenly changed tack, his tone taking on an indescribable conflict. "Haozi, do you think... even though Xia Zhi was a demonic beast, is it possible her feelings for me were real? Look, she treated me pretty well when we were together..."

Lin Hao was so exasperated that he laughed, unable to speak for a long moment.

"Haozi? Did you hear me?" Jiang Chao called out a couple of times on the other end.

"I heard you." Lin Hao stopped laughing and retorted, "Jiang Chao, aren't you overthinking this? Xia Zhi was a demonic beast."

"No, you still don't understand her," Jiang Chao explained. "Look at TV. Aren't there plenty of stories like this? Love that transcends species. How touching is that? Maybe after meeting me, she didn't want to hurt people anymore."

Lin Hao had no desire to spout such nonsense with him. "Touching, huh? Then let me ask you this. Could you handle rolling over in the middle of the night and finding a giant spider with eight legs and a body covered in bristles lying next to you, face-to-face?"

The other end immediately went silent.

A full half minute passed before Jiang Chao's voice came through, sounding as though he had nothing left to live for. "...Forget it. I don't have the good fortune to enjoy this interspecies romance."

After a few more words, they hung up. Lin Hao looked at the Crimson Potion and began weighing things up.

The Martial Arts Bureau had already traced things to Jiang Chao. If they kept digging along that trail, they might soon reach him.

Should he go to the branch bureau of his own accord and explain?

But he had already spent twenty thousand of that thirty thousand in cash on the potion. There was no way he could produce it now.

If he couldn't clearly account for that thirty thousand when the time came, would it cause trouble?

Better to hold off for now and replenish his qi and blood first. Once he found a way to make up the shortfall later, he could decide what to do.

His mind made up, Lin Hao hefted the potion in his backpack and continued toward home.

Jiang City, City Defense Command Center, Conference Hall One.

There was neither the neat order of spotless windows and clean tables nor the solemnity of people sitting stiffly upright.

The long conference table consisted of three tactical tables pushed together. City defense reports with curling edges and mud-spattered operational maps lay scattered across it.

At the head of the table, Jiang City's city lord, Wei Cang, had not even had time to change out of his combat uniform.

A long gash split his uniform's shoulder armor, its edges still crusted with dried blood. Red still seeped around the edges of the gauze covering the wound on his brow.

"...That's the situation." Shen Ce, deputy city lord and director of the Jiang City Martial Arts General Bureau, reported the state of the fighting to everyone in the hall.

His left arm was wrapped in thick bandages, and his voice was hoarse from staying up all night. "The demonic beasts outside get harder to deal with every year. The Third Squad defending the west wall lost two brothers in a single night. If this keeps up, our manpower won't hold out much longer."

The hall fell silent for several seconds, with only the second hand of the wall clock ticking.

Seated on the left, Chen Jingshan, head of the City Defense General Administration, had defended Jiang City longer than any other martial artist present. His hands were covered in calluses and deformed old injuries.

He looked up toward the window and sighed. "Plenty of people were born and raised in this city and have never once stepped beyond the outer city's high walls. They're almost starting to think this peace fell from the sky."

Huang Keming, director of the Jiang City Finance and Resource Coordination Administration, whose hair was already more than half white, picked up the thread. "Speaking of which, this beast tide's unrest isn't without cause. Of all the people pouring in for this Six-City Tournament, the competitors brought plenty of qi and blood potions and all kinds of precious medicinal herbs. The demonic beasts outside the walls are especially sensitive to those scents. How could they not go mad?"

"You can't put it that way." Deputy City Lord Shen Ce waved a hand, cutting him off. "This tournament has brought Jiang City considerable revenue. The demonic beast unrest is region-wide. We can't pin the pressure of defending the city on hosting the tournament."

Huang Keming opened his mouth but did not argue further.

The hall fell silent again.

Chen Jingshan leaned back in his chair. After a long silence, he finally spoke. "In the end, it isn't really that the demonic beasts are getting fiercer. It's that we old fossils are getting less and less capable."

No one contradicted him.

City Lord Wei Cang was sixty-two that year, with seven old injuries that ached piercingly whenever the weather turned rainy and overcast. His qi and blood were not even seventy percent of what they had been at his peak.

Shen Ce looked at his bandaged left arm, and Huang Keming touched his graying hair. Everyone present was an old-timer who had defended Jiang City all their lives. No one knew better than they did that Chen Jingshan had spoken the truth.

Wei Cang raised his eyes and swept his gaze over everyone present. His voice was hoarse but steady. "We're old. Jiang City's future can't depend on our old bones. The young must step up."

"But even the cleverest cook can't make a meal without rice, City Lord." Shen Ce gave a bitter laugh. "Jiang City is only so big. Its resources and opportunities simply can't compare with those major cities. Any promising seedling with a little potential runs off to a big city. Who wants to stay in this small city and risk their life fighting demonic beasts every day?"

"Young people these days are too mercenary!" Huang Keming's voice suddenly rose. "Back in our day, we charged wherever we were needed. Who ever set so much as a single condition?"