Chapter 54: Open Rebellion

Xia Youxin had been captain of the Xuanyuan Guard’s Seventh Guard for almost a month now, but she knew very well that she had not become captain because she was especially capable. It was because Zhaoge was short on people. She had merely been lucky enough to be the tallest among the short.

Especially lately, after Zhaoge’s spiritual qi had risen sharply and many practitioners had come because of its reputation, she felt the gap between herself and other practitioners more and more keenly.

In order to keep the outside practitioners under control, Xia Youxin cultivated diligently every day after her shift ended. Yet for some unknown reason, she always found it hard to quiet her mind. By the time she finally managed to settle down, the sky would already be bright.

Because of that, Xia Youxin’s cultivation progressed very slowly. Even now, she still had not reached the second level of Qi Refining. This made Xia Youxin feel somewhat anxious.

After her shift ended that day, Xia Youxin had not even had time to go eat when she heard a clear, piercing whistle. It was the signal summoning the captains of the Xuanyuan Guard.

Usually, only when there was something urgent would the Left and Right Envoys use a whistle to gather everyone. Xia Youxin hurriedly put back on the armor she had already taken halfway off and rushed anxiously toward the drill ground inside the valley. The place she guarded was near the eastern city wall, the farthest point from the valley entrance that was now called the inner city.

She had run almost halfway there when someone came riding toward her. Xia Youxin looked up and said in surprise, “Qi Jian, why are you running outward?”

Qi Jian was the captain of the Xuanyuan Guard’s Sixth Guard. The two of them were not very familiar. They only saw each other during shift changes. Today, Xia Youxin had been guarding the eastern gate, while Qi Jian had been resting at home in the inner city.

Hearing her voice, he looked down at her and said, “The Left Envoy has summoned us. I’m hurrying over. You’re running the wrong way. We’re gathering in the north of the city today. Didn’t anyone tell you?”

Xia Youxin shook her head.

Qi Jian could not resist running his mouth. “Then your popularity is really bad!”

Xia Youxin: “…”

Because she knew her cultivation was lacking, she spent almost all her time cultivating and barely interacted with her colleagues. Yet her progress was not obvious at all, to the point that she was too embarrassed to tell people she had been cultivating all this time. Everyone simply thought she had a withdrawn personality.

Xia Youxin hurriedly opened her mouth. “Then give me a ride!”

Qi Jian let out an “ah,” but before he could react, Xia Youxin had already grabbed the saddle and jumped up. She squeezed in beside him as if they were old friends. Qi Jian thought to himself that Xia Youxin did not seem all that withdrawn. In that brief daze, Xia Youxin slapped the horse’s back from behind him and made his horse charge forward.

Qi Jian was not prepared and howled, “This is a horse I borrowed! Be gentle!”

The north of the city was quite far. The two rode for a good while before arriving. Once they reached the place, they could already see many of their colleagues gathered from a distance.

The two sat on horseback, giving them a higher view, and immediately spotted the two-zhang-tall platform farther away.

Her mouth opening slightly, Xia Youxin said in shock, “When was that built?”

The two jumped off the horse. Seeing that the Left and Right Envoys were already standing there waiting, they did not even have time to tie up the horse before rushing over in a few strides. Xia Youxin was running so fast that she even stumbled once.

Once the two stood in place, the other guard captains had also finished gathering.

The Xuanyuan Guard was now divided into twenty-five smaller guards, so there were twenty-five captains present.

Guo Qianshan’s gaze swept over the faces of these twenty-five people. To ensure loyalty, the Xuanyuan Guard had all been selected from the original slaves. As long as they had summoned a life-bound artifact and were not too old, they would be chosen for the Xuanyuan Guard.

Since it had not even been three months since Zhaoge was established, the guards’ cultivation levels were basically all at the first level of Qi Refining, having only just entered the Dao. Among the twenty-five small-unit captains they had finally managed to select, the highest cultivation was only the second level of Qi Refining.

“The employer—no, he should now be called the City Lord. The City Lord specifically built this Jade Dragon Platform for us to raise our cultivation.” Guo Qianshan briefly explained the situation of the Jade Dragon Platform.

As the twenty-five small-unit captains listened, their eyes all lit up in unison.

It was true that there were many people in Zhaoge who did not love cultivating. Even among the soldiers of the Xuanyuan Guard, there were inevitably some who were lazy and only muddled through their days. But that definitely did not include the twenty-five people before him.

Without a longing for the great Dao of cultivation and the drive to strive for it, they would not have stood out and become small-unit captains.

So when they heard that the Jade Dragon Platform had a drill ground specifically for their exercises, an armory, quiet rooms, and even a horse field, every one of them became uncontrollably excited.

“Is this real?”

“If the City Lord said it, how could it be false?”

“This is great! Before, at the drill ground inside the valley, there were residences right beside it. Every time we trained, the aunties and uncles next door would watch for fun. Now we’ll finally have some peace.”

“I don’t mind being watched. I just felt the valley drill ground was too cramped. Whenever we wanted to train, we had to wait for others to finish first.”

“I knew the drill ground would definitely be separated out when we expanded before. After all, the valley is full of residences. With so many people coming and going, it wasn’t convenient.”

“Enough.” Wan Tianyou stopped everyone’s discussion and took out a sheet of paper to read the Jade Dragon Platform’s regulations. These were something they had discussed with Qiu Ping’an and the others not long ago. The Jade Dragon Platform was different from places like the Artifact Refining Workshop. This place was large, and many people would enter and leave. If rules were not set, it would probably become a mess in the future. They did not want to waste the employer’s painstaking effort.

In fact, the regulations hastily written out were fairly simple. The contents included the usage standards and times for the Jade Dragon Platform’s drill ground, horse field, and quiet rooms. Since the number of quiet rooms was limited, they would all be supplied to these small-unit captains first. On their rest days and after their shifts ended, they could directly choose quiet rooms to cultivate in. Ordinary guards, meanwhile, had to apply to their small-unit captains in advance.

Wan Tianyou said, “Zhaoge now has a new rule. You only work four days a week. During the three rest days each week, you may remain in the quiet rooms the entire time. You may prepare food and drink in advance, or have someone deliver it. But you are not allowed to dirty the quiet rooms. Whoever dirties one will be barred from entering the quiet rooms for a week.”

The concept of a seven-day week had been brought by the employer, and everyone could understand it. Before meeting the employer, a job that allowed one day off every five days had been a prized position they could not even fight their way into. After meeting the employer, they had gone from slaves to residents inside the valley, then from ordinary residents to members of the Xuanyuan Guard, enjoying the generous treatment of resting two days out of five. They were already very content. They had never expected that now they could even get one more day off to use for cultivation, so everyone was extremely excited.

Xia Youxin clenched her fist in excitement, her eyes bright. But there was also a layer of worry. With the Jade Dragon Platform, there would no longer be any need to cultivate at home. Everyone’s cultivation speed would definitely improve quickly. What would she do if she fell far behind?

Just as she was worrying, she suddenly heard her name called. Xia Youxin froze for a moment before reacting, then quickly stepped out of line and walked over to the Left Envoy with her back taut and straight.

Guo Qianshan said to her, “You are the youngest among these people, and your life-bound artifact is also more suited to combat. I see that your spiritual qi is chaotic and that you show signs of breaking through. This week, you do not need to stand guard. I approve one week of leave for you. Focus on entering a quiet room and making your breakthrough.”

Xia Youxin loudly answered yes, her heart beating extremely fast. In truth, she had felt several days ago that she was about to break through. She simply had never been able to calm her mind. Every time she forced herself to settle down, she still found it hard to cross that barrier. Now that she saw the Left Envoy had high hopes for her, the pressure in her heart grew even heavier.

Wan Tianyou said from the side, “All right, go back and eat. After you finish eating, gather your subordinates and pass this matter on.”

There were more and more people in the Xuanyuan Guard now, so naturally, things were no longer like before, when every matter was personally instructed by the Left and Right Envoys. For something like today, the Left and Right Envoys gathered all the small-unit captains first, then the small-unit captains returned to notify the guards beneath them. Otherwise, gathering all five hundred people together before speaking would also take a lot of effort.

With an uneasy heart, Xia Youxin finished eating and completing her tasks. Then she could not wait to slip into a quiet room. She was afraid she would disappoint the Left Envoy’s expectations, even more afraid that her cultivation would lag behind everyone else’s and that she would be kicked down from her position as small-unit captain by the people under her in the future. At the same time, she was also worried about her inability to quiet her mind and cultivate.

With her thoughts in such disorder, she had originally thought she would have to endure until midnight again before she could calm down. Who knew that not long after entering the quiet room, she quickly entered meditation, forgetting all the worry and panic of the entire day completely.

It was like having a beautiful dream. By the time she became aware again, she discovered that this session of meditation had actually lasted until the evening of the next day. In the past, she would definitely have left the meditative state in less than two shichen.

Her stomach rumbled loudly, but Xia Youxin ignored it and thought seriously.

When she cultivated in the past, it was either at home or in some random open place she found after her shift ended. Other people lived at home, and there were neighbors beside them. No matter what, there would be noise. Even in the middle of the night, it was hard to calm her mind. Outside was not good either. Although she carried Mosquito Incense produced by the Medical Workshop and did not fear mosquitoes and insects bothering her, as soon as the sky brightened, workers would start shouting as they built walls and houses. It was even noisier than home.

But the quiet room was different. Aside from birdsong, the sound of wind, and the rustle of leaves, she could not hear anything else. There was also a spirit-gathering array here, and the spiritual qi was incredibly dense. It was as though she was truly cultivating in seclusion within a heavenly paradise rarely visited by people. This kind of treatment could only be enjoyed by disciples of legendary immortal gates, right?

Xia Youxin felt that her spiritual power had become a little more condensed than before. The anxiety in her heart was replaced by gratitude. Sob, sob, sob, the City Lord was too good!

Her stomach was too hungry for Xia Youxin to ignore. She opened the door, and in the next instant, the clamor outside rushed in like a flood. Xia Youxin froze slightly, then could not help laughing.

…

Qi Jian was choosing weapons in the armory.

His parents had named him Qi Jian because, apart from the number one major sect, the Spirit Sword Sect, they knew of no other immortal gates at all. So they gave him this name, hoping that one day he could enter the Spirit Sword Sect and bring honor to the family.

Unfortunately, later on, the family fortunes declined, and they were reduced to human sacrifices. He had originally given up all hope, but then good fortune shone on him and he encountered a noble benefactor. Now, not only was his whole family alive and well, he had even summoned a life-bound artifact and was able to enter the Dao and cultivate.

He wholeheartedly wanted to repay the employer, so when the Xuanyuan Guard began recruiting, he immediately came. But because his life-bound artifact was not suited to combat, Steward Tao had originally wanted to arrange for him to work in the Artifact Refining Workshop or the Medical Workshop. He refused. It was not that he thought those places were bad. Rather, he thought they were too good.

He believed that staying in the Medical Workshop or the Artifact Refining Workshop would mean continuing to enjoy the employer’s grace. Only by becoming a member of the Xuanyuan Guard, only by guarding Zhaoge for the employer, could it count as repayment.

After entering the Xuanyuan Guard, the uniformly issued long spear did not suit him. He discovered that he always trained with the spear much slower than others. On the surface, he said nothing. In private, he trained several shichen longer than everyone else, which was how he became a small-unit captain. Even so, because conditions in the valley were limited, he had never dared to bring up changing weapons. Until now, when there was finally an armory!

The armory had every kind of weapon. Sabers, spears, cudgels, maces, meteor hammers, axes, long-handled spears, battle-axes, halberds, nine-section whips… There were also many weapons he did not recognize, had never seen, and had not even heard of.

Qi Jian tried every weapon back and forth several times, and in the end, he found that the one that suited his hand best was the sword. “As expected, I was born to use a sword.”

Delighted, Qi Jian drew a sword and went to register his name with the steward.

…

Zhaoge, near the sewer exit.

Early in the morning, Lanlan carried a basket to the vegetable fields to pick vegetables. Today was her day off, so she did not need to go help cook the big-pot meals near the city gate. She planned to pick some fresh vegetable leaves and go back to make vegetable porridge. Lately, she had been helping in the outer city kitchen every day, and what she ate was all dry rice and big chunks of meat. She wanted to make something lighter.

Who knew that before she even reached the vegetable garden, she would see a round cover beneath the wall of a certain residence being pushed up. Lanlan froze for a moment. Then she saw a pitch-black person covered in stench crawl out from below. Lanlan backed up a few steps, then turned and ran, shouting as she ran, “Catch the thief! There’s a thief!”

It was so early in the morning that the residents of the nearby homes had not yet gone out to work and were all eating at home. Hearing the sound, they immediately put down their bowls and rushed out. Some grabbed brooms, some raised hoes, and some carried axes. Men, women, old, and young were all there, and not one of them was afraid of trouble.

“Where’s the thief?”

Lanlan shouted, “Over there! He crawled up from the sewer!”

When the brothers Wei Huo and Wei Hai had first entered, it had been the middle of the night, and they had quickly been assigned to the sewers. Several days had passed, and Guo Qianshan and the others had forgotten these two brothers completely and never returned.

No one delivered food to them, so they endured by relying on fasting pills. No one delivered water to them, so they consumed spiritual qi to activate water-generation talismans and make water to drink.

As for why they did not come up? After all, back then, they had wholeheartedly wanted to prove their abilities to Zhaoge’s master, solemnly promising that they would absolutely not come up until they found the thing.

At first, they had even thought that the area below was closer to the spiritual vein, so cultivating there would bring twice the result with half the effort. But they had not expected it to be so foul down there, and fouler by the day!

Originally, they even wanted to use the spiritual qi there to break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining before searching. Later, they truly could not endure the smell. No longer in any mood to cultivate, they could only devote themselves wholeheartedly to finding that thing.

The sewer was pitch-black, without a trace of light. The brothers did not know how much time they had spent inside, but they finally found it. The two wept with joy and immediately crawled up with the item. The sewer was tangled and complicated, and they even went the wrong way. They did not find the original exit and only climbed out from beneath a well cover.

Because their spiritual power had been exhausted, the one fat and one thin brother climbed up with great difficulty. Before they even had time to catch their breath, they were surrounded by the furious nearby residents.

By the time the Xuanyuan Guard noticed the disturbance, the two had already been beaten by the crowd once and lay on the ground, barely breathing.

After cultivating in the Jade Dragon Platform’s quiet room for less than three days, Xia Youxin had successfully advanced to the second level of Qi Refining. Today, she had just returned to her post and was in high spirits. Seeing residents report that there were thieves, she immediately led people over to arrest them.

Speaking of which, it was also fate. When the Wei Huo brothers first came to Zhaoge, the first squad of Xuanyuan Guards they encountered had been led by Xia Youxin. At the time, they had rather looked down on this small-unit captain at the first level of Qi Refining. Now, seeing her was like seeing a savior, and they immediately shouted for her to save them.

Wei Huo even pointed at those residents and said, “I am a mid-level Qi Refining practitioner, and I work for a Golden Core Perfected One, yet I have been humiliated to this extent by these ignorant commoners! You must give me justice. Unless all these people are beaten until they are crippled and thrown into the sewer, this matter absolutely cannot end!”

However, Xia Youxin had already forgotten she had once met these two. Even if she had a perfect memory, facing two pitch-black, foul-smelling people, it would still be difficult to recognize them. She shouted, “Stop talking nonsense! What proper person crawls out of a sewer? Arrest them both and interrogate them!”

The Wei Huo brothers: “…”

The members of the Xuanyuan Guard did not mind how dirty they were. They twisted the brothers’ arms behind their backs and escorted them to the punishment hall. The punishment hall had also been newly built, and the prison was right beside it.

It was rare for such a thing to happen inside the valley. Lanlan and a crowd of neighbors followed over to watch. A large group of people noisily arrived at the punishment hall, drawing the attention of Xiao Haonü nearby.

He poked his head out and listened roughly, then his eyes started to turn. Those two thieves had actually crawled in through the sewer. Did that mean that as long as he crawled into the sewer, he would have a chance to escape?

His heart immediately stirred. But after a second thought, he remembered that the spiritual power in his body had been sealed by a cultivator and he could not undo it. Even if he escaped, it would be useless. He could not help becoming dejected.

Inside the punishment hall, Xia Youxin saw that the two did have cultivation, and that their cultivation was not weak. She immediately asked Lu Wuxing, who managed the punishment hall and prison, to give each of them a broom strike, and also wanted to tie them up and beat them with paddles after pulling down their trousers.

Lu Wuxing had the nickname Broom Star in Zhaoge. Anyone struck once by his broom would be unlucky for an entire day. The Wei Huo brothers had originally been about to recover some spiritual power, but after his sweep, their qi was disrupted, and that tiny bit of spiritual power they had just recovered could no longer be used.

Seeing that their trousers were about to be pulled down and that they were about to be beaten with paddles in front of everyone, the two no longer had the pride of mid-level practitioners from the past. They cried and shouted as they raised a box, saying that this was the thing Immortal Master Chi wanted.

Lu Wuxing and Xia Youxin originally did not believe them. Fortunately, Fan Huilan happened to pass by then and recognized the brothers, which was how they were fished out.

But after this chain of blows, the brothers had lost more than half their vigor and spirit. Even after they were scrubbed clean and brought to the small residence, they no longer had any thought of claiming credit.

The item they had dug out from the sewer was also delivered before Chi Yixuan.

It had to be said that this box was much cleaner than the two brothers had been from head to toe.

Chi Yixuan was in no hurry to open it. He had already learned what had happened to the brothers. Even though he had held some prejudice against these two at first, now he could not help feeling the slightest bit of sympathy.

He soothed them with a few words and had someone take them away to rest. Only then did he throw several cleaning spells onto the box, which did not look very smelly.

Even after throwing cleaning spells on it, he was still not at ease. He wrapped it in a handkerchief before opening it.

Inside was a sandworm.

[Your Majesty, do you still remember the trading caravan that brought sandworms in back then?]

Of course Chi Yixuan remembered. At the time, he had even watched from afar and personally seen the sandworm on that person’s body be picked out and thrown into the fire.

[One of them went through the flames but did not turn to ash. Like wild grass with a withered surface, it remained in Zhaoge. Later, after Zhaoge’s spiritual qi erupted, it followed the water flow into the sewer and obtained extra nourishment.]

Extra nourishment?

Chi Yixuan suddenly remembered Song Dianlai, whom he had thrown into the sewer. He thought, surely not. Had this sandworm swallowed all the nutrients from Song Dianlai’s decomposition?

Chi Yixuan could not help looking at this sandworm more solemnly.

Ordinary sandworms were the color of sand and soil, but this one was faintly tinged with gold. It must have been very eye-catching when it clung to the sewer pipe walls.

He rinsed the sandworm several times. During the process, this unintelligent plant instinctively tried to suck his blood. In the sewer, it had even evolved a row of sharp teeth that other sandworms did not have. However, the moment it bit Chi Yixuan’s skin, that row of teeth snapped off all at once as though it had struck steel.

The sandworm instinctively shrank back. But it had no brain, so it quickly forgot everything that had just happened and kept wriggling toward Chi Yixuan’s hand, constantly searching for an angle to suck his blood.

After Chi Yixuan finished rinsing it and was just about to ask the life-bound artifact how to deal with this thing, someone came in from outside to report that an envoy from Fengcheng requested an audience.

An envoy from Fengcheng?

Someone from the Donglai Kingdom court?

Chi Yixuan was shocked. “No way. Did they discover that I stole their spiritual vein?”

No, no, that was not likely. If that were the case, the people from Tyrant Blade Sect should have already come charging in. They would not send an envoy with such good manners.

“Come to think of it, the land Zhaoge occupies is still nominally Donglai Kingdom territory. If they’re coming over at this time, could it be that Zhaoge’s reputation has spread to Fengcheng and they’ve come to collect taxes?”

Because of this guess, Chi Yixuan’s mood turned slightly sour. After all, Zhaoge’s accounts were still in the red right now. Where would they get the money to pay taxes?

[What if they really are here to collect taxes?]

Chi Yixuan was extremely barefaced. “Paying taxes is impossible. I have no money. We’ll just openly rebel!”

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