The Mass Grave

The strong preyed on the weak...

Jun Jingyi shook his head. What a self-righteous thing to say, what a timeless truth.

But why did it make him so uncomfortable?

He strolled along the street.

His mind raced with thoughts of the world he had come from.

So many martyrs had vowed to shatter their bodies and bones to bring about a bright and just world.

But now, all it took was "the strong prey on the weak"...

If that were so, why had those martyrs fought against the injustices of the world?

If that were so, why had those countless great heroes risen up and stained the world with their blood?

Because the strong preyed on the weak in all things. That was how the world was supposed to be, naturally.

"..."

After pondering for a long time, Jun Jingyi let out a soft chuckle.

"What are you laughing at?"

Beside him, Sikong Ye finally asked.

In truth, he had been thoroughly bewildered ever since they entered the Bai residence.

He couldn't make sense of what they were doing.

And now he didn't understand why Jun Jingyi was laughing.

"Nothing. I just thought that if that were so, things would be simple!"

Jun Jingyi strode forward, a stern aura surging from his body.

Soon.

Outside Tianfu City.

In a remote valley.

A mass grave.

Heaven knew how many new corpses appeared here every day.

Heaven knew how many of them had died natural deaths.

But Jun Jingyi knew that the servants of Tianfu City's major families who died in accidents were generally thrown here.

As soon as the two approached, they felt the temperature around them drop sharply.

A gentle breeze swept past, yet it felt like the icy wind of a bitter winter, chilling them to the bone.

"What are we doing here?"

Sikong Ye frowned.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of people had died at his hands. He wasn't afraid of corpses, but this place...

"Looking for someone!"

Jun Jingyi spoke calmly.

Sikong Ye's face instantly turned pale. He stopped in his tracks and stared at Jun Jingyi in horror.

What had he just heard?

Looking for someone?

At a mass grave?

There were people here?

Uh... there really were, but they were corpses! This guy...

For a moment, he felt a chill run all over his body.

"What are you thinking? I want to find that young woman's corpse!"

Seeing how frightened Sikong Ye was, Jun Jingyi explained helplessly.

Otherwise, he was afraid the guy would take him for some kind of ghost...

This damned feudal era was just that absurd.

He looked at the densely packed nameless graves before him.

Then he looked at the bones and rotting corpses scattered all over the ground, with weeds growing thickly around them.

He walked slowly farther in.

A moment later, the two stopped, staring blankly at the pile of corpses before them, twice as tall as a man.

They were silent for a long time.

Jun Jingyi's first words were, "There must be a hundred people here, right?"

"More than that..."

Sikong Ye shook his head, his face icy.

Jun Jingyi fell silent again, then asked softly, "They must have been dead for a long time, right?"

Sikong Ye's expression grew even colder.

"At most, no more than three days!"

He had seen battlefields before, and even corpses carpeting the ground couldn't make him uncomfortable, but this... was outside a prosperous city in Great Yan.

Jun Jingyi shook his head, the smile vanishing completely from his face. He said calmly, "Let's find her. The rest has nothing to do with us."

Soon, Jun Jingyi was waiting to the side, fighting the urge to vomit.

The young man crawled over the pile of corpses, searching through it.

He couldn't do it himself, because he was afraid of desecrating the dead. If he threw up the contents of his stomach on them, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

Soon.

Only after spreading out nearly the entire pile did the young man find the corpse inside.

The sight left Jun Jingyi speechless once more.

He took a long, hard look at the pile of corpses before him.

This woman seemed to have been brought here in the morning, hadn't she?

But that had nothing to do with him.

The two took the corpse and left the mass grave.

They deliberately lingered by the official road for a while, and after many people had seen them, they found a decent spot and buried her.

By the time they had finished everything and returned to the city, the sky had already darkened.

They passed through the bustling streets of Tianfu City, listening to the lively cries and calls of vendors around them and smelling the aroma of all the different snacks.

Jun Jingyi's previously downcast mood immediately brightened.

But he didn't buy anything.

He couldn't quite stomach food right now.

He didn't sleep that night either. He couldn't, though of course, it couldn't have been because he was afraid.

Early the next morning, after his usual exercise, he ate breakfast.

Everything was so peaceful.

As usual, he gave the new beggar a few copper coins when he passed him.

Jun Jingyi felt much happier.

He had done another good deed.

The restaurant.

Business was still booming.

The line outside the door for Dukang Liquor seemed to have grown even longer. The sight made Jun Jingyi happy. That was all money.

"By the way, didn't the managers of those restaurants want to discuss a partnership with me some time ago? Go tell them I'm free today!"

Jun Jingyi smiled at the waiter and spoke gently.

"You're going to talk business?"

Sikong Ye frowned.

"What else?"

Jun Jingyi looked at him in confusion. How could he make money without doing business? And without money, how could he defy the heavens and change his fate? His life was still in danger.

"Then, what about that young woman?"

"Didn't we already bury him?"

Jun Jingyi spoke in confusion.

Sikong Ye: "..."