"General, do you think I'm lying?"
The woman covered her mouth with a smile. That simple gesture brimmed with seductive charm; even Wei Gongcheng, who had little interest in women, felt his heart stir. Where did that brat Chen Qing find such a bewitching little demon?
Beside the two of them, another woman in white sat inside the carriage. She was Mu Hongqing's prized female disciple. Watching the normally prim and proper Wei Gongcheng reveal that look all men shared, she frowned deeply.
It was not contempt, merely some puzzlement. In terms of looks, she considered herself decidedly prettier than this woman in red. Yet, for some reason, an extraordinary allure infused the woman's every movement. Never mind men-even she occasionally found herself spellbound. It was truly strange.
Yet judging by her presence, the woman was unmistakably a mortal.
"General?" Wei Gongcheng came back to himself and smiled. "Where did you learn that I was a general, madam? Did the education commissioner tell you?"
The woman smiled faintly. This fellow was still as sensitive and perceptive as ever. She recalled when she had married Cui Yan and worked with Painted Skin Mister to alter Yuchi Peng's memories. This fellow had nearly noticed several times. He really was troublesome.
She had heard that Chen Qing had won him over?
That little fellow had quite an eye for talent!
"The education commissioner is far more proper than you, General. No matter how I pestered him, he wouldn't let a word slip."
"How dare you!" Hearing the woman direct her teasing at her master, the woman in white immediately had a flicker of cold flame flash through her eyes!
"Hehehe, little sister, what a temper you have."
The woman in white looked grim. What sort of disreputable woman had that bastard Chen Qing found? He had even asked Master to bring her from the capital. More importantly, someone as upright and solemn as Master had actually agreed. What was going on?
Wei Gongcheng watched the woman, whose face had turned pale with anger, yet who still showed no intention of laying hands on a mortal, and nodded inwardly.
Lord Mu's disciple had good character. By the look of things, if this woman stayed in Liuzhou, dealing with her in the future should save a great deal of trouble.
With that thought, he changed the subject to Chen Qing. "According to the education commissioner, almost everyone has fled Liuzhou. Is that right?"
The woman in white clearly could not be bothered to argue further with the other woman. Seeing Wei Gongcheng willing to ease the atmosphere, she took the offered way out and nodded. "That is indeed the case."
"That's quite troublesome..." Wei Gongcheng smiled. "The country folk who were frightened into leaving for the time being are one thing. They can't get far even if they want to, after all. With a few measures, there's still a chance of drawing them back. But those wealthy households and teachers have more choices. The surrounding prefectures and even counties will certainly be willing to entice them into settling there. Delay a little, and even the trade routes may shift."
"But you don't seem worried at all." The woman in white frowned. "Weren't you recruited by that Chen fellow?"
"I merely accepted an invitation to recuperate in body and mind." Wei Gongcheng smiled. "I never said I'd agreed to join him. If he can't get the job done, I'll simply return to the capital. What do I have to worry about?"
"You say that, but you seem to have a great deal of confidence in him?"
"Ha... You're quite observant, miss." Wei Gongcheng stretched. "This business in Liuzhou is indeed troublesome enough that even experienced, capable officials would probably struggle to turn things around. But him... he should be fine."
"From your tone, he's quite formidable?" The woman in white grew curious.
She clearly understood that someone who could get her master to deliver a concubine could not be ordinary-at least, not as ordinary as his record made him appear.
"It's hard to say..." A complicated look entered Wei Gongcheng's eyes. "Call him formidable, and he's only a mortal, terribly fragile. But call him otherwise, and he's resolved troubles that many formidable people couldn't!"
"Troubles?" The woman in white laughed. "How troublesome could anything a mortal can resolve possibly be?"
"How troublesome..." Wei Gongcheng thought for a moment, then smiled as well. "Even your master would most likely have been unable to resolve that trouble."
Hearing him actually compare a mere mortal junior to her master, the smile on the woman's face turned cold again.
"Utter nonsense!"
Wei Gongcheng smiled wryly. This woman bristled at the slightest mention of her master. She evidently had great faith in Lord Mu.
But he was telling the truth...
"Come over here, all of you. Let me touch you again."
Chen Qing addressed the four bizarre-looking creatures in the courtyard.
By now, all the successful imperial examination candidates had received their assignments and left Liuzhou Prefecture without delay. Only Zhou Haitao had ultimately chosen to stay, but he soon regretted it.
There had been more than a single mountain tortoise in his former classmate's carriage.
There was also a talking old wolf, a talking bird, and a talking sapling.
These things being able to talk... that wasn't normal, was it?
Zhou Haitao looked ready to cry. Weren't these monsters?
The court had said that Master Huang, who had taught them in the past, was a monster who had turned many people in the city into wooden figures. Chen Qing had been closest to Master Huang back then. Could he be a monster too?
He had been wrong. Why bother with brotherly loyalty? Wouldn't it have been better to obediently go serve as a county commandant?
Meanwhile, hearing that Chen Qing wanted to touch them, the spirits all shook their heads and backed away.
There was something strange about this mortal. He seemed to possess neither a bloodline nor spiritual power, yet whenever he touched them, they felt a tingling numbness all over, as though struck by electricity. They also felt as if he had seen them naked.
It was a peculiar sensation, like a human being stripped bare and examined from head to toe, as though a single touch from him laid all their secrets bare.
Had Wei Gongcheng been here, he would certainly have recognized that Chen Qing was using the same method he had used to recruit him at the Yuchi Residence.
"Stand still, all of you!" Nezha immediately put on a ferocious expression. "What's wrong with Daddy wanting to touch you? Even if he wanted to do you, you'd have to stick your bottoms up for him!"
Dark lines crossed Chen Qing's face, and he rapped Ghost Child on the forehead. "What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Was Nezha wrong?" Ghost Child clutched his head, feeling aggrieved. Although Daddy had little strength and the blow had not hurt, he was clearly angry.
Chen Qing could not be bothered with this silly child. He slowly approached the spirits, who dared not move, and carefully felt them over again.
This was the first ability players received after determining their official position and swearing an oath to heaven and earth to join the Divine Path. It was called Spirit Caress.
By touching and stroking the spirits of heaven and earth, one could examine their bloodlines and aptitudes. That was why being touched felt like being seen naked, accompanied by an electric tingle: a special kind of spiritual power was probing their entire bodies.
The reason Wei Gongcheng had felt sensation in his legs back then was that probing spiritual power. It could not actually heal his injuries. Chen Qing had cleverly used the ability to leave him a sliver of hope and lure him in.
But the ability's actual purpose was to examine spirits' aptitudes and thereby determine which divine positions to confer on them.
"The south gate is an important position. You should be the first divine gate guardian..." Chen Qing stroked the snow-white old wolf's head.
The old wolf meekly lowered his head and let Chen Qing stroke his fur, but Chen Qing knew he was not truly docile. He recognized the breed: a Snowfield Demon Wolf, a pack-dwelling beast demon from Northern Yan. They were extraordinarily fierce, and the powerful ones could even control wind spirits.
This old wolf had once led a pack and could be considered a former wolf king. But later, in his old age, a younger demon wolf had successfully challenged him, nearly biting him to death and leaving him lame in one leg.
Somehow, his wanderings had brought him all the way to Great Azure Mountain in Liuzhou.
A meat eater, he now had to fill his belly with the occasional fish he caught in the river. If one parted his thick fur, one could actually see that this former wolf king had wasted away to skin and bones.
To Chen Qing, however, this was an unexpected delight. For an entry-level door god, the wolf king's aptitude was already very good.
As for age and disability, such shortcomings posed no obstacle to the Divine Path build.
"Lord Chen! Lord Chen!"
Just as Chen Qing made his decision, Ma Erniang's voice came from outside the gate.
The four spirits hurried to conceal themselves. The sapling ran into the grass and pretended to be an actual sapling. The bird circled the prefectural office's garden. The old wolf lay obediently on the ground like an oversized Samoyed, while the old tortoise simply withdrew his limbs and head into his shell.
"Lord Chen, I've brought the people you wanted!" Ma Erniang called out from a distance.
Chen Qing's eyes lit up, and he hurried outside.
A sizable group followed behind Ma Erniang, numbering about fifteen. Every one of them was sturdy, with bright eyes-clearly men who had grown up eating meat regularly. They were much taller and more robust than the average Jiangnan man.
"They're all from our village," Ma Erniang said with a smile. "And they're the village's best hunters. Look at their builds and complexions. They'll do you proud if you take them out, won't they?"
"Excellent, excellent!" Chen Qing could not help rubbing his hands together with a smile. He had originally thought Ma Erniang would bring, at best, a few young ruffians. He had never expected such sturdy hunters. He really had underestimated this butcher's wife's connections.
"Milord!" the lead hunter said in a deep, rumbling voice. "Erniang said you're recruiting soldiers to guard the city? Will these be official posts under the court?"
Great Jin had a distinctive military system. Official military posts could be passed down through the generations, ensuring one's descendants a military livelihood.
But becoming a soldier in Jiangnan was not easy. Great Jin treated its soldiers generously. Even the troops in Jiangnan, who saw little fighting, received benefits beyond the reach of ordinary farming households. Those willing to serve in the north received even more generous treatment.
However, soldiers in the north fought year-round and suffered high death rates. Their lives were nowhere near as secure as those of Jiangnan's naval troops, but joining the Jiangnan navy required connections.
Of all Jiangnan's soldiers, the city guards had the most opportunities for extra profit. Hearing from Ma Erniang of such a fine opportunity, the hunters had naturally responded eagerly.
Hunting was no long-term livelihood, after all. Many could no longer manage it by thirty, and hunters had a hard time in their later years. Besides, hunting itself was quite dangerous. How could it compare to the prospects of guarding a city gate?
"Yes!" Chen Qing said with a beaming smile. "I have special approval from the provincial administration commissioner to recruit five hundred prefectural soldiers myself. All staffing costs will be covered by the authorities above. Rest assured, everyone: as long as you guard the gates well and do not neglect your duties, your posts can pass down through the generations, just as with military households. Furthermore, I promise that the city guards' treatment will be exactly the same as that of Liuzhou's previous city guards!"
"Is that truly so, milord?" The hunters' leader immediately grew excited. "We've heard about the previous soldiers' monthly pay. It was ten taels of silver!"
"Of course!"
They all sucked in a breath, rubbing their hands in excitement. Hunting in the wilderness, eating in the wind and sleeping under the open sky, they earned only seven or eight taels a month if they were lucky enough to catch mountain wolves or foxes with fine pelts. If they caught only rabbits for their skins, even four taels was a stretch. And they paid for that with their bodies and lives. Ordinary farmers would probably grin until their teeth went crooked if they could earn three taels of silver a month!
Yet the city guards received such generous monthly pay simply for standing at the gates, not to mention the extra profit to be had on the side...
"We are willing to serve you, milord!" They all knelt and pledged their loyalty.
Chen Qing smiled faintly. As expected, enticing people with profit was the surest way.
Looking at the excited men, Chen Qing put away his smile and said solemnly, "But I'm not hiring you to eat for nothing. Do you... dare to kill?"
The men froze. After a brief silence, several of the fiercer-looking men stood. "As long as you keep your promises, milord, why wouldn't we dare to kill?"
With someone taking the lead, hot blood surged through the others as well, and they all responded, "We are willing to slay your enemies, milord!"
"Good!" Chen Qing clapped his hands and smiled. "You're fine men. Then let me ask you another question."
"Please ask, milord!"
"Do you... dare to kill ghosts?"
Everyone: "..."
"Milord... are you joking?"
"I am not joking..." Chen Qing gazed outside, his eyes deep. "Counting the days, the ghosts... should already be on their way!"
The third round of PK is about to begin. Please keep reading and send votes!