Chapter 203: Something Stale

The green-robed daoist collapsed, fresh blood flowing from his mouth. His vitality gradually dissipated and he turned into a lifeless body in the end.

The constables all knelt down. Previously, due to the green-robed daoist's presence, they did not dare to say or do anything. But now that the green-robed daoist was dead, they could naturally only kneel to show their respect to the newly appointed warden of Rainwater Commandery.

The county chief did not need to kneel, but he could not get up at the moment.

Having been an official for many years, he had never cared about the life and death of the common people. His only concern was how to climb the ranks and protect his own life. Now, he thought about many things, and his expression changed constantly, because he remembered the words he had said earlier.

He had said many unsavory words to this young man in front of him, but now, the other party was telling him that he was the newly appointed warden. Furthermore, he was so young. It was clear that he had an extremely deep background in the imperial court. Since that was the case, it was self-evident what it meant for him to offend this youth.

Chen Chao glanced at the county chief. He did not have any good impression of this fat man.

Nonetheless, he still casually asked, "Lord County Chief, what happened today?"

The county chief pondered for a long time, his face changing constantly. Finally, he spoke in a trembling voice, "As this lowly official saw it, it was those villains from the Sublime Bright Sect who tried to harm Your Excellency. That's why they were killed on the street by Your Excellency."

Chen Chao rubbed his wrist and said, "Seems like it's not detailed enough."

The county chief's expression became extremely ugly. He quickly reorganized the words in his mind and said cautiously, "At first, the villains from the Sublime Bright Sect were abducting a civilian. Your Excellency intervened to stop them, but they were seized with crazy ideas and actually dared to attack Your Excellency. In order to protect the common people, Your Excellency had no choice but to kill them!"

Although the county chief and Chen Chao were equal in rank, he still unconsciously used "lowly official" to refer to himself.

Chen Chao looked at him and did not speak for a long time.

The county chief quickly got up from the ground and did not dare to look at Chen Chao. He kept his head low, sweat dripping non-stop from his face. He took a look at the green-robed daoist who was dead yet still had his eyes open, his expression becoming extremely ugly. He did not dare to speak and also discreetly shifted his gaze away.

Chen Chao gave a cold laugh and said, "If Lord County Chief continues serving for a few more years, I'm afraid that these common people won't survive."

Hearing this, the county chief's head was buried deeper.

It was uncertain what he was thinking about.

Although warden and county chief were of equivalent official ranks, the other party did not have the authority to govern him. But when he saw what happened on the street, how could he still harbor such thoughts?

He had never heard of a warden who dared to kill a cultivator openly on the street.

Other than the incident that caused a great sensation in the Divine Capital.

Suddenly... he thought of something.

A young man in black, carrying a saber...

The county chief's complexion worsened. Back then, the youth who killed the foreign cultivators in Wei Prefecture, and was later sent to the Divine Capital but did not die in the end, and instead became the champion of the martial exam in the Myriad Willow Convention, he seemed to be dressed like this?

The county chief's expression became incredibly unsightly.

If it was that fierce person, what else could he say?

Most likely, with just one word from him, not only could his official position be forfeited, even if his puny life was forfeited, what could he do about it?

Chen Chao did not have the time to contemplate what he was thinking. He just ordered, "Take all these corpses back to the warden's office and watch them closely. If they go missing, you know the consequences."

The constables exchanged glances but dared not say a word. Today's events definitely could not be covered up. The immortal masters up the mountains would surely have special means of knowing about the deaths of these people. At that time, how could this incident be cleaned up?

They were very worried, but they did not dare to utter a single word at the moment, because this young warden in front of them was evidently even more ferocious. Otherwise, he would not have done something like killing cultivators on the streets.

Let alone so many of them...

Chen Chao ignored them. He just turned around and walked towards that boy.

The boy was still sitting on the ground, somewhat absentminded.

Chen Chao pulled him up.

The boy looked at this peer with many emotions in his eyes.

"Follow me."

Chen Chao dropped this sentence and walked towards the tavern.

The tavern's door was closed, but that shopkeeper had been watching the events happening on the street. When he saw Chen Chao approaching the tavern, he opened the door tremblingly and subconsciously wanted to kneel down.

"Lord Warden..."

"Why are you kneeling?"

Chen Chao glanced at him and shook his head, saying, "There's no need to kneel."

......

......

Returning to the second floor, all the other customers had already left, leaving only Yu Xiyi there.

Chen Chao sat down with the boy and Yu Xiyi went straight to the point, "So, you were assigned a position here from the very beginning?"

Chen Chao placed the waist token on the table and the large characters on it were very conspicuous.

"Otherwise?"

Ever since his last encounter with the Lord Warden Commander in the Divine Capital, the Lord Warden had given him several options to choose from. Chen Chao did not want to go to the Northern Frontier, nor did he want to stay in the Divine Capital. However, the last option perfectly aligned with that Lord Warden's intentions.

To come to Cang Prefecture and serve as the warden of Rainwater Commandery.

Yu Xiyi glanced at the young man, furrowed his brows, and lamented, "Even if you were assigned here, your actions seem a bit excessive. Sublime Bright Sect really has a Nepenthe cultivator holding down the fort."

As a major daoist sect of the Longevity Dao lineage, the Sublime Bright Sect was incomparable to ordinary small sects.

Many powerful cultivators existed in this sect.

Chen Chao said, "I have a sword cultivator friend too."

Yu Xiyi sneered, "If you encounter that Nepenthe cultivator, even if it's me, I'll have to flee right away too."

"Moreover, I can't stay here for too long."

Yu Xiyi grinned and said, "I don't think that Nepenthe cultivator will personally take action, but for ordinary cultivators, as long as they crossed the Divine Trove Realm... Even if you can win against them, what about those at the Great Beyond Realm?"

Chen Chao chuckled, "Back in Tianqing County, that Great Beyond Realm old hag tried to kill me but failed."

Yu Xiyi sneered coldly.

For an ordinary cultivator to leapfrog a realm and kill someone was already a difficult challenge. Furthermore, even if they wanted to accomplish such a feat, they needed impeccable timing and favorable conditions too.

Chen Chao set off a storm in Rainwater Commandery and it was evident that this was no trifling matter. It would not take long before he had to face the consequences.

Chen Chao said, "It won't take long for them to react, but before that, I think you'll definitely be interested in hearing a story with me."

Yu Xiyi furrowed his brows and did not say anything.

While Chen Chao turned to the boy who was still in fright and asked, "What happened?"

The young man was silent for a while and did not immediately answer this question. Instead, he asked hesitantly, "Can you help us?"

The word 'us' held many implications.

Chen Chao nodded and said, "Of course."

The young man looked into Chen Chao's eyes earnestly. Although Chen Chao did not say anything, his gaze was resolute.

It was unknown how long had passed, the boy began to recount his story.

He was a local resident of Rainwater Commandery and his parents had died since young. For many years, he survived by begging and with the help of his neighbors, he managed to survive until this day. As he grew older, he often hunted in the surrounding mountains and forests to make a living. Although there were demons everywhere in the area, he had no choice in order to survive. Somehow, he was lucky enough not to have been killed by those demons after so many years.

Even so, he knew he might still end up dead in some dark alley one day.

In this world, people dying was nothing new.

There were several days when he returned from the mountains empty-handed. He had not eaten for many days already.

Hence, he thought of a place.

About a year ago, the Sublime Bright Sect, a sect under the Longevity Dao lineage, was recruiting disciples in Rainwater Commandery. Posters were plastered all over the city. It was just that he had never dreamed of becoming such an immortal master. Having witnessed so many ordinary people being bullied by those so-called immortal masters, he did not want to become someone like that. Therefore, he never went to try out.

But later, when he had no other options, he decided to give it a try. Unexpectedly, he was lucky enough to be chosen. After having several good meals, he was brought to the Sublime Bright Sect along with many others who were also struggling in life and dreaming of soaring to the sky. The Sublime Bright Sect said they would teach some basic daoist techniques and see if they could cultivate. At first, they were indeed given a set of incantations to practice.

However, many people could not even understand those incantations. There were many literate people under the rule of Great Liang, but even more illiterate commoners.

Those who could understand were unable to learn anything either.

At first, everyone still dreamed that they would be able to step into cultivation soon, becoming the immortal masters that the common people spoke of, and they would no longer fear the demons that ran rampant in the world. However, just two months later, things started to become bizarre.

Every ten days, everyone would be taken into a cave filled with white mist, and they had to find the things placed by the cultivators in advance before they could leave. The white mist should be poisonous, even a robust person would feel discomfort inside too. Feeling dizziness was mild, while more severe symptoms were weakness in the limbs, and the worst case was vomiting blood in large mouthfuls after entering.

The boy recalled the painful memories and frowned, his expression extremely ugly. His eyes were full of fear, "People die every day, every day!"