Chapter 36: Chapter 34: Sacrifice

The seventh day of the seventh month. The River God Festival.

It was Gaolin County’s grandest annual event.

Every household had hung mugwort and calamus by their doors to ward off evil and pray for blessings.

The calls of street vendors and the faint, endless sounds of gongs, drums, and string instruments from a distant stage filled the air.

Temporary stalls, like mushrooms popping up after a rain, crammed the sides of the streets.

The crowds were like a raging flood, pouring from the riverbanks into the city’s narrow streets and alleys, creating a lively spectacle.

As a River Patrol officer, Chen Qing naturally had no time to rest. He was currently on patrol at the South River Pier, his saber at his hip.

He was guarding against potential stampedes caused by the surging crowds or troublemakers looking to take advantage of the chaos.

His patrol led him to an old teahouse by the river, where the roar of the crowd seemed somewhat muffled by a bamboo awning.

Chen Qing lifted the door curtain and walked in, found an empty seat in a corner, and called out, “Waiter, a bowl of jasmine tea.”

“Right away! One bowl of jasmine tea!”

The attendant, a cloth draped over his shoulder, responded crisply and soon brought over a bowl of tea.

Just as Chen Qing picked up his bowl, he heard a familiar voice. “Junior Brother Chen!”

“Brother Sun?”

He followed the voice and saw Sun Shun and Zhou Yu standing at the teahouse entrance. Sun Shun had shed his training clothes for a dark blue tunic.

Beside him, Zhou Yu had changed into a simple yet elegant, pale pink dress. A single, unadorned Wooden Hairpin was tucked into her cascading black hair, accentuating her delicate and beautiful features.

Following closely behind Zhou Yu was another female disciple from the Zhou Institute, Li Rongrong. She wore a brand-new, goose-yellow dress and her makeup was exquisitely done. Though pretty in her own right, her radiance was dimmed standing next to Zhou Yu.

Li Rongrong had been at the institute for over a year and had a Manifest Force Cultivation. She was on good terms with Zhou Yu, but Chen Qing had little interaction with her.

“Brother Sun, Senior Sister Zhou? What are you two doing here?”

Chen Qing put down his teacup, stood up, and greeted them with a smile. “Come in and sit. Tea’s on me.”

Sun Shun sat down. “It’s the River God Festival today. None of the brothers at the institute are in the mood to train; they all ran off. My junior sister and I don’t like crowds, so we’re just wandering around.”

Zhou Yu gave Chen Qing a slight nod, a gentle smile playing on her lips. “Then thank you, Junior Brother Chen.”

Li Rongrong also gave a reserved nod, her gaze lingering for a moment on Chen Qing’s plain River Department uniform.

Chen Qing called the waiter over again to add two more bowls of jasmine tea.

The teahouse was bustling with noise, but their corner was remarkably quiet.

Li Rongrong picked up her coarse pottery bowl, taking small sips of tea. Her eyes scanned Chen Qing before she asked, “Junior Brother Chen, you hold a post at the River Department?”

“Yes,” Chen Qing replied.

Li Rongrong set down her teacup, her tone tinged with casual probing. “Haven’t you thought about finding a post somewhere else? The River Department is a quiet job, but the salary… I’m afraid it’s barely enough to buy Blood and Qi Powder, isn’t it?”

Chen Qing smiled, his tone neutral. “With my level of strength, the places I can go are limited. The River Department is stable, so it’s a decent fit.”

“Well, there’s a good opportunity right now,”

Sun Shun smiled and said, “Junior Brother Chen, haven’t you been paying attention? All the major powers in the county are scrambling to recruit people. They’ve lowered their standards quite a bit.”

“Oh?” A flicker of doubt crossed Chen Qing’s eyes.

Sun Shun lowered his voice. “You’ve heard about the Lord Captain’s victory banquet a few days ago, right? On the surface, it was a celebration, but in reality, it was to win people over. He recruited a lot of young talent.”

“There’s a rumor that the Captain’s Mansion plans to expand its forces. It’s hard to say if it’s true, but once word got out…”

He paused, his voice dropping even lower. “The other powers panicked. The Five Great Races, in particular, reacted the fastest. Their offers are getting higher and higher as they desperately recruit all kinds of experts.”

“It’s not just the Five Great Races.”

Li Rongrong cut in, her tone showing off her access to information. “The Wangyuan Escort Agency, the Weapon Forging Shops in the Inner City, Renhe Hall—all these old establishments are also snatching people up. The going rate for a post in the county is like a rising tide lifting all boats. For a Manifest Force Martial Artist, the monthly salary has already hit eight taels of silver! As for a Dark Energy Expert…”

She deliberately emphasized her words, her eyes sweeping over Chen Qing. “The starting salary is thirty taels. And that’s just the official monthly pay. The extra provisions, like medicinal supplements, Weapons, and armor, are even more generous!”

Chen Qing was secretly astonished to hear this.

’A Dark Energy Expert starts at thirty taels of silver? I could earn that much in a month without lifting a finger?’

He knew that Ms. Han worked herself to the bone weaving fishing nets and only made five or six taels of silver in an entire year.

Zhou Yu advised in a gentle voice, “Junior Brother Chen, this is indeed a rare opportunity. With your Manifest Force Cultivation, it shouldn’t be hard to find a post with one of the smaller powers.”

Her voice was soft and sincere.

Chen Qing took a deep breath and nodded. “Thank you for the reminder, Senior Sister. I’ll think it over carefully.”

’There’s no such thing as a free lunch. For these major powers to be willing to spend so much recruiting people, they must be after something significant.’

’What kind of risks and responsibilities are hidden behind this seemingly generous compensation?’

’Is it just guarding a compound, or will I have to fight for my life with real weapons?’

He needed to weigh his options calmly.

The pay at the River Department might not be much, but the risks were manageable.

Just then, Li Rongrong’s gaze accidentally swept over the entrance, and her expression changed. “Senior Sister Zhou! Look over there… it’s Gao Sheng from the Songfeng Martial Arts Hall!”

’Songfeng Martial Arts Hall?!’

Hearing this, Chen Qing and Sun Shun immediately looked in the direction Li Rongrong indicated.

Four or five burly men with bulging temples were just lifting the curtain to enter the teahouse.

The man in the lead was about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, with coarse features and eyes as sharp as a falcon’s. He wore the signature dark green Martial Attire of the Songfeng Martial Arts Hall.

This was none other than Gao Sheng, a top expert from the younger generation of the Songfeng Martial Arts Hall.

“It really is him.”

Zhou Yu’s delicate brows furrowed, and her expression grew solemn.

Sun Shun’s face also turned grim. He explained in a low voice to Chen Qing, “Junior Brother Chen, you joined late, so you might not know. Back when Master first founded the Zhou Institute, he challenged several other martial arts halls to make a name for himself. One of them was the Songfeng Martial Arts Hall.”

“Their master has held a grudge ever since, viewing it as a monstrous humiliation. In previous years, whenever disciples from our two schools met on the street, they would often start fighting at the slightest disagreement. There was constant friction behind the scenes. It’s only in the last two years, with Master enforcing stricter discipline and our Zhou Institute gaining a firm foothold, that things have quieted down a bit.”

He paused, his tone cautionary. “The Songfeng Martial Arts Hall is not weak. It’s one of the six major martial arts halls in the Inner City, and its foundation is much deeper than a Martial Arts Institute like ours. If you run into anyone from the Songfeng Martial Arts Hall, try to avoid them so you don’t get the short end of the stick.”

Chen Qing nodded silently, committing the name “Songfeng Martial Arts Hall” to memory.

Feuds in the world of martial arts were often more about saving face than gang disputes, and thus much harder to resolve.

Just then, Gao Sheng noticed them as well. He glanced over before leading his men to a table deeper inside the teahouse, not immediately coming over to start trouble.

Chen Qing retracted his gaze and picked up his teacup, but the vigilance in his heart did not relax.

The clamor in the teahouse seemed to quiet down a bit after this small interlude, and an invisible tension filled the air.

However, this brief, oppressive silence was soon completely drowned out by a commotion that swept in like a tidal wave.

“Something’s happened! Something terrible has happened by the river!”

“Run! Someone’s been killed!”

Like a drop of water hitting boiling oil, a massive wave of commotion erupted from the direction of the riverbank and spread into the city with unprecedented speed.

The sounds were no longer those of a festive celebration, but screams filled with terror, chaos, and disbelief.

The noisy chatter and shouts inside the teahouse were instantly cut off. Everyone stared in shock toward the door and windows.

The flow of people in the street, like a startled ant colony, began to surge wildly in the opposite direction.

“What’s going on?”

“What happened?”

The teahouse patrons all stood up, craning their necks to look outside, their faces etched with alarm and uncertainty.

Amidst the chaos, a panicked man squeezing past the teahouse entrance cried out, “The Lord Captain… the Lord Captain… at the grand ceremony… he’s been assassinated.”

BOOM—!

The words struck the small teahouse like a bolt from the blue!

“What?!”

“The Lord Captain… assassinated?!”

“How… how is that possible?!”

“Heavens! Who did it?!”

“This is a disaster! The sky is about to fall on Gaolin County!”

A tide of discussion instantly engulfed the teahouse, disbelief written on every face.

Captain Pang Qinhai was the sky over Gaolin County.

He was the ruthless man who had once killed the leader of the Cao Sect with a single spear thrust, his might shaking the region.

For such a figure to be assassinated at the highly anticipated River God Festival ceremony?

It was simply beyond anyone’s imagination.

Sun Shun was completely stunned. “How… how is that possible?!”

Zhou Yu’s beautiful face was also filled with shock and gravity.

Li Rongrong was so frightened her face turned pale, and she trembled all over.

Chen Qing was also deeply shaken.

’Assassinate the Captain?’

’This was no ordinary Jianghu vendetta. The implications ran so deep, the impact so enormous, that it could plunge all of Gaolin County into a storm of blood.’

Images of Qin Lie participating in the bandit extermination, cozying up to the Captain’s Mansion, and attending the victory banquet flashed through his mind, and a chill quietly crept up his spine.

Just then, Old Li from the River Department stood in the chaotic street and yelled hoarsely, “Ah Qing, something terrible has happened! Come with me, quick!”

His voice was raspy, filled with unprecedented panic.

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