Yefutidaolu

Chapter 7: City in Words, Words in City

Gao Jian and Bai Ping looked at each other.

Then the two of them ran away.

Hurry up! While the other party is still intimidated by the Five Thunder Order and can't make up his mind, run out of the city quickly!
But before he could run two steps, Gao Jian suddenly grabbed Bai Ping and said, "Wait, don't be too hasty."

"What?" Bai Ping stopped and said, "Leave quickly, and then we can deliver the impeachment somewhere else. Raising evil spirits is not a trivial matter. I have the Five Thunder Token, which has been ordained. My impeachment will definitely be useful."

Gao Jian slowed down his pace and said, "Don't alert the enemy. If the county magistrate really is raising evil spirits in private, given his control over the county, if we show panic, it will basically tell him that we have discovered his problem."

"You have the Five Thunder Order. If you don't know about this, he might consider the impact and let you leave. If you show that you know about this, he might strike first." Gao Jian said.

If the Five Thunder Order really had a deterrent effect, then the county magistrate would not have chosen to kill them by force before the matter was exposed.

In Ningtai County, a disciple of a major sect who had received ordination had died here. Someone would definitely come to investigate. Whether Ningtai County could afford to investigate was another matter.

"Indeed, indeed, what the young man said is right." Bai Ping calmed down and slowed down his pace like Gao Jian.

"Besides, I'm thinking about one thing..." Gao Jian said, "You said... Is Dishan Village an isolated case?"

Bai Ping was stunned.

Yes.

There are hundreds of villages in Ningtai County.

Low mountain villages may not be isolated cases.

But if you want to confirm this, you have to investigate hundreds of villages or steal confidential files in the county, which is simply impossible.

What's more, neither Bai Ping, who was seriously injured and had a broken hand, nor Gao Jian, who only had swordsmanship, could fight against the county magistrate.

“In that case, the local City God is also involved…” Bai Ping lowered his head.

"No matter what, we are sure to lose. We should not stay here for long. Even if we want to impeach, we have to go somewhere else." Gao Jian said.

Bai Ping said, "Thank you very much, brother. If I were alone, I would be fooled by the county magistrate. So... I will go buy a horse tonight. Brother, you go to the street and pretend to be strolling to kill time."

Gao Jian nodded and didn't say anything else.

The two of them just pretended nothing happened and returned to the inn.

Bai Ping put down his luggage, took the money, and went to pick a horse leisurely without any panic. He even deliberately left his luggage in the room.

In the inn, Gao Jian pulled out the long knife from his chest, wrapped it in cloth, and held it in his hand.

Now that the situation had come to this, he was ready to go outside and take a look at the charm on the plaque to see if he could learn something.

It's always good to have more support.

Gao Jian was walking alone in the county town.

If we only look at the situation within the county, the prosperity here is simply indescribable. If we use this to judge the performance of the Ningtai County Magistrate, he should be a very good county magistrate.

The people live and work in peace and contentment, and all gangs submit to them and dare not act rashly.

The town was in good order, and the authority of the government overwhelmed the authority of all local tyrants.

It is precisely because of these that Ningtai County looks like this.

and so……

Why do we need to raise evil spirits?
Gao Jian couldn't figure it out, but when he thought of the appearance of the evil ghost and the villagers who were forced to feed the evil ghost with their bodies under an order from the imperial court, he felt a little suffocated.

It was just as suffocating as when he first turned his back to Bai Ping and ran away.

I hope what Bai Ping said is true. As long as he arrives in other counties, he can write a letter to impeach the county magistrate here.

Thinking about this, Gao Jian walked to the city gate.

It was already afternoon, and although the sun had not yet set, some people had already started packing up and leaving.

Gao Jian wrapped his rusty knife in cloth and walked all the way to the city gate.

Right here, many people are entering and leaving the city, and Gao Jian is one of them.

However, something seems to have happened here.

A crowd gathered.

Gao Jian walked over and found... a lot of corpses wrapped in sackcloth.

There were a lot of them, at least over a hundred, piled on trucks, being pulled over one by one.

The ox pulling the cart was very strong. Gao Jian knew at a glance that this was definitely not an ordinary ox. An ordinary ox could not pull so much weight without breathing hard.

The people pulling the carts, driving the oxen and collecting the corpses were all servants. In addition to these servants, there were also some practitioners of various body shapes wearing black robes and holding weapons walking nearby.

It is easy to tell that they are practitioners because their temperaments are different. However, the expressions of these practitioners are not very good. Their faces are gloomy, making people afraid to talk to them.

However, at this moment, a stall owner selling tofu pudding blocked the exorcists' way because he failed to move the table in time. The exorcist seemed to be in a bad mood because his companion had died, so he raised his hand.

Then, the hand was held by Gao Jian.

"Not really, not really." Gao Jian said.

The exorcist took a look at the knife in Gao Jian's arms, put his hand away, snorted coldly, and left.

The stall owner quickly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and thanked Gao Jian repeatedly.

"No need to thank me. By the way, what happened?" Gao Jian asked the stall owner.

While talking, he bought the other person a bowl of tofu pudding with spicy sauce, onions, and fried soybeans.

The stall owner was a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties. While scooping tofu pudding, he explained, "There was a village that was attacked by a demon. I heard that all the people in the village died. Those were people from the Demon Extermination Department. I heard that many of them also died. But in the end, the demon was killed, and now they have brought all the people back."

"Why pull them all back?" Gao Jian asked.

The man immediately replied: "Sir, you are from another place, right?"

"Huh? You can see that too?" Gao Jian raised his eyebrows.

The stall owner explained, "Hey, the demon removal departments in other places will bury the bodies on the spot after handling them, but it's different here. There is a monster in the wild here who calls himself the King of the Earth. He is a jackal who has become a spirit and specializes in eating carrion. If you leave the bodies where they are, they will be his blood food."

"So, when the Demon Exorcism Department of Ningtai County collects the bodies, they will directly bring them back to the city, have the City God Temple priests perform rituals, and then bury them all on the outskirts of the city. It's this Demon Exorcism Department... that's too overbearing."

"Is it not okay to burn it?" Gao Jian was puzzled.

The stall owner sighed, "Well, if it's an emergency, I'll just burn it, but if there's nothing else, who wouldn't want to be buried in peace? If you burn it in this life, you'll suffer in the next life."

"Look at those people who hold funerals. They all want a complete body. If there is no complete body, they will make wooden hands and feet to make up for it before burying. If the body is not complete, the next life will be a disability. If it is all burned, I dare not think about what my next life will be like."

Gao Jian nodded: "That's true."

This is the custom of this world.

However... after seeing with his own eyes the appearance of the cultivators, the Taoist priests, the rain-prayer, and those evil ghosts and mountain gods, Gao Jian did not dare to say that the other party was lying.

Who knows if it's true?
As they were talking, the corpses had already been pulled into the city, and the traffic outside the originally congested city gate was once again unobstructed.

However, looking at the corpses being dragged by the officers, Gao Jian felt that something was... a little strange.

If the City God is also involved in the matter of evil spirits, then let the City God perform a ritual...are these bodies really buried?

Gao Jian took a deep breath and stopped thinking about those things.

He finished his tofu pudding and handed the bowl back.

The stall owner put away the bowl and handed it to his daughter next to him.

This stall is divided into two parts, the back part where the daughter is responsible for washing dishes and the front part where the old father is entertaining customers.

"It's getting dark soon, and we have to close the stall. It's probably too late to go in and find an inn now. Do you have a place to stay? If you don't mind, you can stay at my house for one night."

"I'm afraid this is inconvenient?" Gao Jian glanced at the little daughter, who was also fifteen or sixteen years old.

The stall owner laughed and said, "There are no rules for poor children. Bodhisattvas say that we should accumulate virtue and do good deeds. Recently, demons have been causing a lot of trouble. It is very dangerous to live outside. I have posted door gods and worshipped tablets at home."

"Thank you, old man. I have already booked an inn, so I have no shortage of accommodation. By the way, boss, you only have five or six bowls of tofu pudding left. Why don't you buy them all for me and I can take them back to feed others." Gao Jian said immediately.

"Okay! Thank you very much, sir. It will also allow my father and I to go home earlier. Her mother is still grinding tofu at home. The earlier I go back, the earlier I can help her." The stall owner smiled, and then gave all the remaining tofu pudding to Gao Jian, and also gave him a lot of fried soybeans as an extra gift.

Gao Jian held the tofu and shook his head.

No matter what, with Ningtai County in this state, there must be more good people there.

Holding the tofu pudding, Gao Jian looked up and saw the four words "Ningtai County" on the plaque above.

After holding the knife, my heart became clear and peaceful.

This time, Gao Jian clearly reflected the charm of the four big characters.

This time, Gao Jian felt as if he had become a god.

It’s not quite right to say that he was a god, anyway… he felt his soul flying out of his body and heading towards the sky.

Halfway through the flight, he looked down.

He saw... the entire Ningtai County.

The entire city, including the suburbs outside the city walls, covers an area of more than ten miles.

The city walls are all stone, with flying clouds carved inside.

There are four gates on each of the four city walls. When you enter through the gates, there are residential houses on both sides.

Walk a few steps inside, and you will see four main streets: east, west, south, and north. The center of the four main streets is the inner street, and in the center of the inner street is the county government office.

In the county government office...why can't I see the county magistrate?
East Street is for clothing, cloth, groceries, jewelry, incense, candles, and various crafts. West Street is for inns, carriages, cheap food and fruits, hired labor, and various craftsmen. Gao Jian lives here.

South Street is filled with cattle, horses, vegetables and fresh meat. He even saw Bai Ping buying a horse on South Street!

North Street is home to music houses, brothels, high-end restaurants, jewellery shops and the like. It has whitewashed walls, fine willows, fragrant palaces and warm rooms. It doesn't seem like a place where poor people would come.

On the inner streets, there are academies, training grounds and other places for practicing martial arts. Here you can see disciples from many gangs and sects practicing martial arts and strengthening their muscles.

There were so many people, and they were a mixed crowd, gathered here and there, making it very lively.

But in Gao Jian's eyes, everything did not seem messy, as if he had clearly grasped the pulse of this county.

Or in other words... the person who wrote the four words "Ningtai County" on the plaque had a clear understanding of the customs and folkways of Ningtai County, and expressed them in his writing, and then all of this charm was fully accepted by Gao Jian.

He was floating in the air, feeling everything.

Something seemed to be gathering.

This city seems to be alive, with the coachmen pulling carts, the delivery guys, the diners eating, the residents cooking at home, the curling smoke from the kitchen, the people pulling manure, reading, practicing martial arts, cooking, crying, beating children, and gamblers, all are operating silently in this city.

The vendor who used to sell tofu pudding was just a small microcosm, and many people lived the same life as them.

There are tens of thousands of households within a circumference of more than ten miles, and it is as prosperous as a beautiful spring day, with abundant grains, mulberry, hemp and livestock, and a peaceful atmosphere.

With them, the whole city suddenly came alive.

A city is a place that receives people's belongings.

All the living beings and the mundane world are seen by Gao Jian.

Moreover, all of these, everyone's daily life, and the vitality of the entire city, all converge into one energy.

This smell is like the column of smoke that slowly rises from the tip of the incense after it is lit.

The air was floating at the vegetable market entrance on South Street in the city, floating vertically in the air, and Gao Jian seemed able to reach it with just his hand.

So he reached out.

In just a moment, Gao Jian felt a huge force coming towards him!

His body, at this moment, seemed to be condensed by something. Gao Jian could intuitively feel that he seemed to have become harder. Although he had no cultivation method, his cultivation... seemed to be rising sharply? !
Is it possible to improve your cultivation without any practice method?
However, at this moment, an idea came along with Gao Jian!

You can feel that the other party is very angry!
Upon seeing this, Gao Jian immediately let go of the rusty knife!

The blade, which had been sharpened a little, was once again covered with rust.

Ripples suddenly appeared in the lake of his heart, and he immediately fell from the state of floating in the sky and returned to his own body.

This time, he did not generate any evil spirit like when he learned the swordsmanship. Instead, there was no side effect at all. He only felt that his body became much stronger.

Moreover, he could clearly feel a flow of energy in his body, and he could even control it.

Gao Jian directed that energy to his arms.

But there was a faint golden color on his hand.

Gao Jian remained calm, picked up a stone from the roadside and squeezed it gently with his hand.

The stone instantly turned into powder, and he didn't even feel how much effort he used.

What on earth is this energy? And what was that thought just now?
I don’t have a corresponding method of practice, but it doesn’t seem to affect my ability to cultivate.

Also, he seemed to have seen the entire Ningtai County just now, and even saw Bai Ping, but he did not see the county magistrate.

It's strange, the county magistrate must be in the city.

Also, Bai Ping...

Wait, from what I just saw, there seemed to be someone behind Bai Ping.

He hurried to recall.

In memory, Bai Ping, who pretended to be leisurely, did take the money to buy a horse. However, the way he looked ahead and behind, one could tell at a glance that he was worried.

And there was indeed someone following him!
They all looked like practitioners, but not government officials. Judging from their footsteps, they should be disciples of the sects in the city.

Would the disciples of the sect follow Bai Ping for no reason?
Gao Jian thought it was unlikely.

Well, with the county magistrate's control over the entire Ningtai County, it would probably not be a difficult task for him to command several sects.

Bai Ping is in danger!
As soon as he thought of this, Gao Jian rushed out immediately!

(End of this chapter)