Chapter 248
Chapter 248
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 248
Chapter Title: Common Folk
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Early morning in Qingzhou City, the bailiffs were posting notices at the city gate.
It was no longer early; dung carts had rolled out of the city during the third and fourth watch, while vendors hauled in vegetables, melons, fruits, meat, and eggs to set up for business. By this time, the gate area was a torrent of carts and horses.
On the notice board, the rankings of the capture-and-kill list had changed. A new entry featured the thief on the fire horse—Chen Shi riding down the county magistrate—now holding second place on Qingzhou's capture-and-kill list.
Li Tianqing still topped the list, with the highest bounty to match.
A young bailiff had just finished pasting up Chen Shi's portrait when the old bailiff beside him nudged his waist and nodded toward one side.
The young bailiff looked over to see the number one and number two from the capture-and-kill list walking their way.
He quickly glanced at the notice board, then back at the pair—yes, definitely the top two.
Both were boys, around twelve or thirteen.
The number one offender wore a white juren daoist robe trimmed in black, a red silk sash at his waist, and a white gold crown on his head.
The number two sported a pale green juren daoist robe with purple trim, a black silk sash, and a bright yellow gold crown.
Both had refined features and bright eyes; nothing about their looks suggested ruthless Red Horse Bandits.
The pair made their way into the city. One seemed very curious and headed for the notice board, but the other was more cautious, grabbing his arm and steering him aside.
The young bailiff yanked out his blade and lunged to arrest them, only to get smacked flat on the ground by the old bailiff, who barked:
"Are you tired of living? You might not care about your life, but I do!"
The young bailiff's embroidered spring saber clattered away as he clutched his face, baffled.
"These two criminals have to be worth a fortune in bounty silver!"
"Even Salt Commissioner Lord Lu—a Divine Descent Realm grandmaster—got cut down by one of their blades. You go after them and it's suicide!"
The young bailiff insisted:
"Let's call for more men!"
The old bailiff snapped irritably:
"No number of men would be enough for them to slaughter! Besides, they robbed that silver and handed it out to the villages—plenty of them got a good share.
The Red Horse Bandits have a stellar reputation these days. The country folk are grateful as can be. If you actually took down some Red Horse Bandits, you wouldn't last a day—someone would beat you to death!"
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing threaded through streets and alleys until they reached the gate of a modest home.
It was a small place: three main rooms and a kitchen—an ordinary family's setup, comfortable for four, cramped for five.
Yet from the breathing sounds in the courtyard, Chen Shi and Li Tianqing could tell seven people lived there.
The pair waited outside the courtyard for a moment before the door creaked open. Out stepped the black-robed man who had been conducting rituals outside the Temple of the God of Wealth at dawn these past few days.
He had traded his robes for coarse hemp garments and straw sandals.
The clothes were worn but spotlessly clean.
The man was not old—thirty-something at most. The moment he stepped out, he spotted Chen Shi and Li Tianqing across the street. His face drained of color, and he turned to bolt.
Just then, a woman's voice called from behind him:
"Will you be back for lunch, dear?"
His body went rigid. He didn't dare run. Steel himself, he called back:
"No lunch today.
Wife, the private school dismisses this afternoon—go pick up the children.
I... probably won't have time."
He knew his cover was blown the instant he saw Chen Shi and Li Tianqing. The two were far too strong for him to handle. Fleeing would only endanger his family, so he held his ground.
A woman emerged and pressed a lotus leaf packet into his hands, murmuring:
"I packed you some food—eggs inside, and a bit of meat.
You've worn yourself out these past days. Don't go shortchanging yourself."
The man murmured agreement and gently pushed her back indoors.
"I know. Hurry back inside
and look after my parents for me."
A hacking cough echoed from within the house—an elder's.
The woman retreated inside, no doubt to tend to them.
The man's eyes twitched sharply twice. He forced himself to walk toward Chen Shi and Li Tianqing.
He towered over the boys, but terror gripped him now, his frame shaking nonstop.
Chen Shi said coolly:
"Give it to us straight. What's your name?"
The man's body jerked as he stammered:
"Luan Di Sheng.
Spare my family, and I'll tell you everything!"
Chen Shi glanced at Li Tianqing, who said:
"I'm no bloodthirsty killer."
Chen Shi grinned.
"I'm the famous big-hearted good Samaritan these days, too.
Brother Luan, we'll walk and talk."
Luan Di Sheng's voice quavered:
"Where to?"
Both claimed they weren't killers, but he knew better—their portraits topped the capture-and-kill list, stained with the blood of top Qingzhou officials!
Li Tianqing smiled.
"Wherever you're going, that's where we go."
Luan Di Sheng said:
"I work for Old Master Wan—off to the medicine fields.
I'm a medicine farmer for the Wan estate."
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing stared in shock.
Luan Di Sheng was undoubtedly a master. They had both witnessed his Five Ghosts Transport Technique, his flight arts, and his command over evils!
He ranked among the elite even in the Nascent Soul Realm. If he cut loose, neither boy could claim certain victory in a one-on-one.
And yet, such a powerhouse slaved as a medicine farmer for some rich household!
Chen Shi laughed.
"Then the medicine fields it is."
Luan Di Sheng led them toward the city gates, tears streaming down his face unchecked.
Chen Shi marveled:
"Weren't you fierce as a tiger wielding those evils against us? What's with the tears now?"
Luan Di Sheng choked out:
"I'm leading you there—I probably won't make it out alive. It breaks my heart thinking my wife, my children, my elders... no one left to care for them. That's why I'm crying."
Li Tianqing said:
"Your speech marks you as a scholar.
Ever sat for the exams?"
"Yes, xiucai from Tan County in Qingzhou. Passed juren in Qingzhou later—eleventh place."
Luan Di Sheng wiped his eyes and continued:
"Saved up for two years after, set on heading to Xijing for the metropolitan exams—maybe even snag a jinshi spot.
Passed through Gongzhou on the way and got swindled out of everything. They sold me to a plantation—nearly died there.
Scraped my way out begging, made it to Xijing on fumes, flunked out, and crawled back home."
The sorrow welled up again, fresh tears falling.
Chen Shi felt a pang of kinship.
"Gongzhou's like that.
I... I've got a friend who got swindled blind and sold off to a plantation, too."
Li Tianqing shot him a look.
"That sister from the Hu family?"
Chen Shi said:
"No, you don't know this one! ...Don't derail us. Luan Di Sheng, go on!"
Luan Di Sheng said:
"Gave up on the capital exams after that. Came home to Qingzhou—my wife waited all that time, never minded the poverty.
I was juren but idled away at home. We scraped by on her weaving and cloth sales.
Old Master Wan took pity, hired me to grow his medicines."
Li Tianqing asked:
"Who's this Old Master Wan?"
"You don't know Qingzhou's Wan family?"
Luan Di Sheng blinked in surprise, then nodded.
"Right—you're outsiders, naturally you wouldn't.
That porridge stall over there? Wan family runs it."
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing looked. To the right of a sprawling mansion's entrance sat the stall, porridge bubbling away with steaming buns fresh from the steamer, cloth draped over them, vapors rising thick.
A long line of the hungry already snaked from the stall, stretching out of sight.
Servants in household livery kept the queue orderly, nipping chaos in the bud.
"Wan household's Qingzhou's premier charitable house. Master Wan Shide's the province's greatest good soul."
Luan Di Sheng went on:
"Wans hand out grain often, run porridge stalls to feed the poor. Old Master Wan Shide—they call him Qingzhou's living Buddha Wan.
Thousands line up daily for their handouts."
"Wan family's a pillar clan here too. Ancestors governed Qingzhou as provincial overseer. They turned to trade after and struck it rich."
The trio passed the stall on their way out of the city, but the line for porridge and buns went on forever, spilling beyond the walls.
"Once flush with cash, they snapped up prime fields in famine years. Their bottomless coffers carry them through disaster.
Lesser houses can't match that—famine forces them to sell off land and goods just to eat."
Little by little, Wan fields swallowed more and more.
Luan Di Sheng said:
"Overheard this at the tea stall: one famine year, a pretty beggar woman caught Old Master Wan's eye.
She wouldn't bed him—offended him bad.
She got desperate to pee, tried squatting right there, but Wan servants chased her off. No soiling Wan land, they said."
"The beggar had spine. Said she'd sooner burst than dirty a Wan field."
They reached the outskirts now, fields rolling out endlessly, no end in sight.
"The woman trudged one way from dawn till dusk—over a hundred li—couldn't hold it anymore, about to go wherever, when folks told her: still Wan land."
Luan Di Sheng said:
"She despaired, asked how far to walk free of Wan fields.
They said: no food, no water, ten straight days."
Chen Shi blurted:
"All Qingzhou's fields belong to the Wans?"
Luan Di Sheng shook his head.
"Not quite all.
Some hill lands aren't theirs. But most flats down here? Folks are Wan tenants."
Chen Shi asked:
"What became of the woman?"
Luan Di Sheng said:
"No idea.
Story cut off there in the tea stall. Maybe she burst. Maybe she gave in to Old Master Wan."
"Country tales like that don't get endings.
But it's gospel truth—Wan lands go on forever."
Li Tianqing mused:
"Wan family's a power here in Qingzhou. Officials elsewhere hail from the Thirteen Great Houses, but Qingzhou's remote—hard for the Thirteen to plant their flags."
Luan Di Sheng said:
"Even a provincial governor can't settle in without Old Master Wan's blessing."
Chen Shi recalled the salt commissioner Lu Song, cut down by Li Tianqing's blade two nights back—from his surname, no Thirteen House blood.
New Township's Zhao clan was the same mold.
Chen Shi said:
"Xinduo started as Zhao turf—from governor on down to magistrates, Zhao scions and lesser houses."
Li Tianqing shook his head.
"My Li House let the Zhaos dig in at Xinduo—wanted them hunting the True King Tomb, scouting its secrets.
The other twelve houses figured the same.
Zhao fell, Thirteen Houses reclaimed Xinduo's reins—no room left for the small fry."
Chen Shi asked:
"Xinduo Zhaos backed by the Thirteen. Who's propping Qingzhou Wans? Can a no-name house hog an entire province?"
Li Tianqing paused, stumped.
Luan Di Sheng's Wan tale covered their rise, riches, sway—but zero mention of backers.
A rootless Wan house wielding godlike pull in Qingzhou? Did that track?
Wan fields stretched horizon to horizon, sown with crops and medicine plots alike.
Herbs fetched premium coin; cultivators patrolled the patches.
Chen Shi eyed them—solid strength across the board, plenty Golden Core xiucai among them.
Wan medicine farmers, every one.
But a peak hand like Luan Di Sheng? Rare bird among them. He ranked high in their ranks.
The other farmers greeted him warmly as he passed.
"Why turn on us?"
Li Tianqing burst out.
"You tend your herbs—what's that got to do with us?"
Luan Di Sheng hesitated, then said:
"My herbs aren't like the rest. I grow longevity medicines.
You killed my fertilizer—I couldn't make quota. Had to come at you."
"Fertilizer?"
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing traded looks. Fertilizer for longevity drugs—what could it be?
Luan Di Sheng brought them to his plot. Nestled against the mountains, dragon-vein spiritual springs fed the beds, sorted into distinct spirit nurseries.
Each nursery tailored just so: shade-lovers screened by stone and timber;
sun-worshippers lit by sky-hung mirrors bending rays, or god shrines beaming divine glow;
dry-fanciers baked by fire and wind spells on the soil;
cold-thrivers chilled by ice and snow arts into harsh grottos.
Incense burners dotted the plots, fed endless smoke to nurture the herbs' spirits.
And the herbs? Refined spirits aplenty—now and then one would shapeshift into a handspan-high imp, scampering to a burner for a puff of incense qi.
The sheer scale left Chen Shi and Li Tianqing gawking.
Chen Shi said:
"You mean the fertilizer's those evils you husband, right?"
Luan Di Sheng nodded, slumping.
"Knew it was wrong taking this medicine farmer gig. But a man feeds his kin.
Wan pays silver, hands down arts and spells—my kids hit the private school, my old man's treated and breathing."
Chen Shi said:
"So Wan taught you those Southern School talismans? He's a Southern School talisman master?"
"Southern School talismans? Southern School talisman master?"
Luan Di Sheng blinked.
Chen Shi pressed:
"Your evil-making tricks, your control methods—they're straight from the Southern School talisman canon, that whole branch."
Luan Di Sheng cut in, shaking his head:
"We don't make evils.
Wan only passed down control arts. Qingzhou's evils are all wild-born."
Chen Shi reeled:
"You can leash wild evils?"
Luan Di Sheng said:
"'Course they're wild. You think someone whips up evils from scratch?"
He gaped in shock.
Chen Shi reeled too.
Each clung to their truths: Chen Shi held natural evils uncontrollable; Luan Di Sheng figured evils came wild-born, beyond cultivator craft.
This instant shattered both!
Chen Shi recovered first.
"Wan spells let you control evils? Then what?"
"Herd them."
Luan Di Sheng said:
"Qingzhou's one big pasture.
Medicine farmers like us rein in the evils—keep 'em from bolting out of Qingzhou at night.
Daylight hours, when they're sluggish, we harvest fertilizer off 'em. Top-dress these spirit herbs."
Qingzhou: pasture!
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing's eyes bulged, the world tilting.
Evils: sheep on the graze!
So who got grazed as the grass?
本章完。