Chapter 17: Who Has Suffered Injustice?

“Oh, right.”

Before leaving, Zhang Linchuan suddenly looked at Tang Dun.

“Your name is Tang Dun?”

“That’s my name.”

Zhang Linchuan smiled.

“Dun means honest and sincere. It’s a good name.”

Tang Dun scratched his head.

“The teacher in our village gave it to me when I was little.”

“Oh?” Zhang Linchuan asked.

“Our Tangshe Town is poor and couldn’t afford tuition. Hunter families don’t really care much whether their children can read or not. It was only because that teacher traveled here for study that he stayed and taught us for three years. After three years, he shouldered his bookcase and traveled far away again. Back then, he liked me the most. Said I was some kind of jade.”

That explained it.

The custom of traveling with books to study was admired in the present age, and disciples of every school practiced it.

For example, Confucian disciples believed in reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles. Many roamed through different countries. But some did so to broaden their knowledge, while others went everywhere selling themselves.

As for Mo School disciples, they traveled the world and personally experienced everything. However, if they had met Tang Dun, they probably would have taught him martial skills, or even some simple mechanism arts, rather than reading and writing.

Although Zhuang Country took Daoism as its state religion, it did not strongly reject disciples of other schools. There was naturally nothing wrong with Tang Dun’s experience.

Jiang Wang said, “Since you’ve studied before, staying here as a minor constable is somewhat wasting your years. After you finish handling Niuer’s funeral, if you have no burdens tying you down, you can try taking the entrance exam for the city Dao Academy’s outer academy.”

This was because he saw the man’s simple and honest nature and felt a little appreciation for talent, but in the end, it still depended on Tang Dun’s own choice.

After leaving Tangshe Town, following the official road straight south would lead back to Maple Forest City.

Because of the corresponding formation patterns engraved along it, wild beasts were absent from the official road.

The horses’ hooves were not hurried, and Zhang Linchuan’s voice from horseback was also unhurried.

“Do you know how many resources the court has to invest every year to maintain the official roads throughout all of Zhuang Country?”

Jiang Wang shook his head. He truly did not understand these matters.

“It is an astronomical number,” Zhang Linchuan said. “Moreover, these formation patterns can only drive away low-level demonic beasts. Those powerful demonic beasts and ferocious beasts still need experts to clear them out. Every year, the court invests enormous manpower and resources to keep roads everywhere open. It even pours resources into the Dao Academies without regard for cost. And the only thing we can do is grow as quickly as possible, so that we can shoulder the corresponding responsibilities.”

“I have been taught,” Jiang Wang said.

“Then let me ask you another question. Great cities are protected by great formations. Why doesn’t the court gather everyone into the great cities to live?”

“I suppose there are two reasons.”

Jiang Wang thought for a moment before saying, “First, even great cities have limits and cannot satisfy everyone’s survival needs. Second, every city has a limited sphere of influence. The court needs these official roads to extend in all directions, with towns and villages serving as nodes, because this represents territory in fact. And land means resources.”

“You see it very clearly. The formations in towns and villages cannot possibly be as safe as those in great cities, but villages and towns still have irreplaceable roles. Just like Tangshe Town. As long as it exists, Maple Forest City can continuously harvest resources from the Qichang Mountains. If one day Tangshe Town no longer exists, then the Qichang Mountains will have nothing to do with our Zhuang Country anymore.”

“The people of Tangshe Town dare to hunt in the Qichang Mountains, so they naturally have experts as well. That evil cultivator hid when the Criminal Investigation Office went there, and caused no other movements before we arrived. Yet the moment we got there, he launched an attack…”

At this point, Zhang Linchuan turned his head and looked at Jiang Wang with a faint smile.

“Junior Brother Jiang, is there something on you that attracts them?”

Jiang Wang could not answer.

He naturally had secrets, but they were limited to the Void Key inherited from Zuo Guanglie. All changes had happened within the Taixu Illusory Realm, and in reality, they should never have been discovered.

But if it had nothing to do with that, the first time he was attacked by an evil cultivator also seemed to have been after he entered the Taixu Illusory Realm.

He was considering how to phrase things and muddle through when Zhang Linchuan suddenly raised his hand and pointed. His middle and ring fingers curled, while the other three fingers extended straight toward Jiang Wang.

An electric arc leapt from the tips of those three raised fingers, gathering into a startled thunderbolt that came straight toward Jiang Wang!

Jiang Wang did not even have time to react. That bolt of lightning slid past his ear and struck a poison arrow dyed dark green, destroying it and sending it falling.

Only then did Jiang Wang hear the sharp whistle from the poison arrow’s sudden acceleration, and only then did he smell the burnt scent of the strands of hair that had been grazed by the lightning.

“I’ve been waiting for you!”

Zhang Linchuan leapt from his horse. His free right hand raised upward in an extremely strange hand seal, and a whip of lightning condensed out of thin air.

“Come die before me!”

He controlled the lightning whip, his body diving like an eagle as he charged toward the attacker hidden in the forest to the left of the official road.

So he had actually been prepared long ago. Furthermore, he had split his attention in two, secretly forming hand seals and preparing two dao techniques ahead of time. That was why he could counterattack at the very first instant the ambush happened.

Jiang Wang was still very far behind such a senior brother who had been tested through battle for so long.

At that moment, a voice rang out from the forest on the right.

“The target is troublesome. Split up and retreat!”

Jiang Wang, who was about to catch up with Zhang Linchuan, abruptly turned his head!

How could he not recognize this voice?

In that little girl’s room in Tangshe Town, although they had only exchanged a few short sentences, it had been enough to carve itself into his bones!

Inside the Heaven-Connecting Palace, a dao essence silently exploded.

Jiang Wang made a decisive choice and charged toward the direction the voice had come from with the most resolute posture.

Living in Zhuang Country, almost every commoner had to remember one thing before going out—

Do not leave the official road.

Because apart from the sphere of influence of human towns and cities, everything outside the official road belonged to the wilderness.

That was the territory where wild beasts, demonic beasts, and even ferocious beasts roamed.

Zhang Linchuan was strong enough, so he ignored it.

Jiang Wang wanted to kill, so he ignored it too.

He had seen bloodshed and cruelty, but even the most vicious criminals on West Mountain would not swing a butcher’s blade at a child.

That little girl had only just begun to know this world.

Ignorant, innocent, radiant.

How innocent she had been.

Jiang Wang’s sword trembled in its sheath.

It seemed as though it had already begun to grow excited.

It seemed to know as well that it was about to erupt with the most brilliant radiance of its life.

Ten years to sharpen a sword, its frost edge yet untested.

Today I show it to you—

Who has suffered injustice?

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.

The instant the long sword leapt out, it actually collided with the scabbard five times before finally leaving the sheath!

The sword was like a shooting star, the man like a flood dragon.

A great tree wailed as it collapsed. The evil cultivator hidden in the tree leapt backward in urgent retreat.

In the rush, Jiang Wang could not see his face clearly. He could only see the face concealed beneath messy hair, so pale it could be called ghastly.

The dao essences within his Heaven-Connecting Palace exploded one after another.

Jiang Wang had never squandered them like this before. He felt his entire body filled with strength.

Before forming a dao vortex, every dao essence spent was a regression in cultivation.

But only by doing this could he kill.

He wanted to cut down this evil cultivator. Only then would the anger accumulated in his heart have an outlet. Only then could his soul obtain peace.

Purple Qi Comes from the East Sword, second killing form, bringing with it a sheet of frosty light.

The pale-faced evil cultivator had no time to form hand seals as he retreated. His right arm rapidly swelled, muscles bulging outward and veins bursting up. He suddenly threw a straight punch toward the frost light.

The sword and that demonic right arm clashed more than ten times in an instant.

Only then did Jiang Wang suddenly realize—

He had misjudged!

This opponent was very strong!

At least far stronger than him!

He was absolutely not merely someone who relied on prior arrangements, someone only a level or so above him in cultivation as Jiang Wang had previously believed.

In other words, if this pale-faced evil cultivator had erupted with full power during the ambush in Tangshe Town, Jiang Wang could hardly guarantee that he would have survived.

But retreat did not exist in his heart.

The long sword trembled again, and a piercing whistle rose.

Purple Qi Comes from the East Sword Manual, third killing form!

As the flowing light turned, that demonized right arm was actually severed entirely and sent flying!

“Damn it!!”

The pale-faced evil cultivator roared. He had not expected that a single moment of carelessness would allow this desperate youth to force him to the brink.

His rear foot suddenly landed on a great tree in the midst of his backward flight. He knew he could not retreat any farther. Retreating again meant death. Life had to be seized through slaughter.

With the point where his rear foot touched as the center, the entire great tree instantly withered.

Then gray mist surged from his roaring mouth, carrying an extremely intense rotten stench and a pungent bloody odor.

Power that manipulated life and death.

This was a dao technique belonging to the Netherworld!

Sword light surged.

Dao essence drove sword light, and sword light cut through the gray mist.

From within that gray mist, Jiang Wang leapt out!

Purple Qi Comes from the East Sword Manual, fourth killing form!

In Tangshe Town, he had let this evil cultivator escape. He had been caught off guard and had no way to stop him.

But at least here, at this moment, he had to give that little girl named Niuer an explanation!

This was the responsibility of a cultivator toward common people.

This was the responsibility of an adult toward a child!

Jiang Wang’s airborne figure broke through the gray mist and appeared in the pale-faced evil cultivator’s eyes.

And within those eyes, which opened wider and wider, filled with terror, a dazzling sword light descended from above.

That was the final light he saw before eternal darkness.

[End of Chapter]