Roots and banners

"I went to apologize to them," Shen Heng said calmly.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xuan instinctively widened his eyes and looked over.

"Why?"

Shen Heng didn't speak immediately. He gazed at the falling black snow in the distance and remained silent for a while before saying:

"You shouldn't go looking for them, especially those whose teammates have died."

"Why? To consider their feelings?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"That's certainly one reason," Shen Heng didn't deny, "But more importantly, your actions could easily create rifts among us inspectors."

"A crack?" Zhou Xuan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Hmm," Shen Heng nodded slightly and continued, "Put yourself in their shoes. If you were in their shoes, and your teammate had just sacrificed their life, their body barely cold, and there was a group of people arguing about who should be held responsible and whether the punishment was fair, how would you feel?"

Zhou Xuan opened his mouth, but then froze on the spot.

Shen Heng ignored him and continued:

"You'll feel that these people are too materialistic!"

Instead of thinking about why so many people sacrificed their lives in this operation, they were thinking about whether they could avoid being punished.

"Then is the sacrifice of one's own teammates still meaningful?"

Zhou Xuan's lips moved twice, and he said in a somewhat weak tone:

"But... this is really a bit unfair!"

"The base has already done a very good job. If it's not like this, what do you think would be appropriate?" Shen Heng asked.

"Uh... we don't even know how significant the destruction is, and now we're being punished just because we don't know? We're also fighting a bloody battle against the Calamity Beast!" Zhou Xuan's tone became clearer as he spoke.

"What if we never knew?" Shen Heng countered.

"This..." Zhou Xuan was speechless.

"There's hardly anything absolutely fair in the world. All we can do is find our own balance within a framework of relative fairness," Shen Heng said calmly.

As he spoke, he glanced at Zhou Xuan and continued:

"And do you know what will happen if you submit this?"

Hmm? This... Zhou Xuan looked at Shen Heng with some doubt. He understood Shen Heng's meaning: submitting it might have bad results, but...

"Why?"

"The base might grant your request and reduce the punishment, but they might also think we're ganging up to put pressure on them!" Shen Heng's tone was calm, yet the seriousness of his words was palpable.

"At that point, the nature of the matter will change."

"What started as a matter of specifics has become a question of the entire operation team's attitude towards base management and disciplinary action."

"In ancient times, this would be similar to forcing someone to abdicate!"

"A coup, you know that, right?"

Shen Heng looked at Zhou Xuan,

"The severity of the problem will then be far, far more serious."

"The base might be threatened to reduce the punishment, but at the same time, everyone who signed could be remembered by the base."

"Ah? This..." Zhou Xuan's face gradually paled. "I... I didn't think that much..."

"I know you didn't mean to, otherwise I wouldn't be here calmly talking to you." Shen Heng chuckled, then added, "But it's best to do this kind of thing less often in the future!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xuan's expression softened somewhat.

He nodded. "I understand!"

"However..." Shen Heng paused, "I am personally very grateful for your actions this time!"

Zhou Xuan was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, then grinned and said, "It's nothing, we're on the same team after all!"

Shen Heng chuckled, raised his beer and took another sip, then turned his gaze to the wasteland.

"By the way, judging from your situation, you weren't previously involved with the military or police, were you?"

"No, no," Zhou Xuan nodded. "When I was going up the mountain, I encountered a Calamity Beast that had fallen into a trap. Later, when I caught it and was getting its meat, I encountered the awakened Origin Crystal."

"Up the mountain? A trap?" Shen Heng looked at Zhou Xuan with slight surprise. "Before joining the Supervision Bureau, you were a hunter?"

"A hunter? Well, sort of!" Zhou Xuan raised his hand and scratched his head, grinning.

"Is hunting still allowed? Won't you get arrested?" Shen Heng asked. If he remembered correctly, hunting had been basically banned before, right?

"Yes, it's probably because we live in the Tai Mountains that many things from our tribe have been preserved, such as hunting. The country allows it, but we can't hunt too much," Zhou Xuan explained, nodding.

"How badly has this mountain become?" Shen Heng asked.

"It's roughly like this..." Zhou Xuan tilted his head back and thought for a moment, "It'll probably take several hours to drive to the nearest town!"

Shen Heng's lips twitched slightly. That really is pretty tacky!

"Have you considered moving out?" Shen Heng asked.

"Before the major relocation, many people in the clan moved out, but many others stayed in the mountains. During the later major relocation, everyone moved out," Zhou Xuan said, taking a sip of his beer.

Shen Heng nodded, understanding what Zhou Xuan meant by the large-scale relocation.

The "mass relocation" refers to the event two years ago, after the announcement of the Ruins Realm, in which the state relocated the residents of townships to the nearest county seat for the purpose of protection and management.

but...

"The clan?" Shen Heng glanced at Zhou Xuan.

"Oh, I'm from a minority group, the Miao!" Zhou Xuan explained.

Because they are ethnic minorities and live in the mountains, does the state allow hunting?... Shen Heng suddenly realized.

He chuckled softly and said:

"Your experience is quite different from most people's; many people might wish they had such an experience!"

"Well, that's what they say, but if you really get that kind of treatment, when you come out, you'll just wish you were like everyone else," Zhou Xuan muttered.

Shen Heng glanced at Zhou Xuan, but didn't ask any further questions, saying:

"So, you started learning to hunt from a young age?"

"Yeah," Zhou Xuan nodded, "There was no other way. Back then, it was just my mom and me at home. If I didn't study, our family would have had a hard time making ends meet!"

Seemingly unwilling to discuss this further, Zhou Xuan added:

"Moreover, it's not just hunting that's been preserved in our village; we also have Nuo opera, ancestral worship, and many other customs!"

"Nuoxi?" Shen Heng tilted his head slightly. "That kind of masked sacrificial dance?"

"Yes!" Zhou Xuan's eyes lit up, as if he had met a kindred spirit. "But it's not just dancing; there are lyrics, steps, and it's all very particular! Moreover, exorcising evil spirits, praying for blessings, and thanking the gods... different plays have different ways of dancing. I even tried to learn some when I was a child, but unfortunately, I didn't learn them all."

"You've studied this before?" Shen Heng asked, slightly surprised.

"Of course, Captain, I'll dance a bit for you to see!" Zhou Xuan said with a smile.

As he spoke, he put down the beer can and stood up.

Without drumbeats, without a mask, he stood in the night wind of the wasteland, with metal city walls beneath his feet, and just like that, he jumped up...

Shen Heng sat on the city wall, watching with great interest.

This dance is not as graceful as court dance; instead, it is filled with an indescribable sense of rhythm and cadence. The rhythm and cadence are very strong, yet they give people a strange sense of balance.

As Shen Heng watched Zhou Xuan performing the Nuo opera, his thoughts couldn't help but wander.

Abilities may indeed be related to past experiences...

My abilities haven't improved in almost two years, have they?

Once you reach B-Class, the difficulty of evolving really does increase dramatically. No wonder, apart from Han Ling, I haven't seen anyone evolve from B-Class upwards so far.

The Daoist priest said it depends on application, understanding, insight, and even personal preference?

Suddenly, he remembered what had happened in the past two days, and also the reason why he had been drinking, which was unusual for him.

If this continues, the number of lives we'll have to bear in the future will likely increase...

Is it heavy?

Of course it's heavy!

But should we give up?

Shen Heng never imagined...

Several days passed in the blink of an eye.

In the past few days, the others have stopped avoiding Shen Heng and his group as before.

In fact, many people will stop and greet them as a sign of respect when they see them.

Shen Heng responded with equal respect.

During these same few days, no exploration teams ventured out from the base; they needed to wait and see if the Calamity Beast would retaliate.

On this day, Shen Heng's figure stopped in the training room.

He turned his head slightly, gazing into the distance.

The beast tide has arrived, in a way that was far larger and more prolonged than anyone had anticipated...