"Wait!"
Just then, a young constable suddenly stepped forward, his face filled with indignation. "With all due respect, I cannot agree to such a course of action!"
Liu Ye turned at the sound of his voice to see the speaker was a man named Lin Sheng. His family had served in the Government Office for three generations, and he himself was a skilled martial artist from a young age. This was how he had joined the County Magistrate’s Office as a constable while still in his youth. As he stepped forward, his face was a mask of youthful idealism.
"Sir, we were ordered to vanquish bandits—bandits, not civilians!"
The young constable declared,
"These people were merely deceived by the White Lotus Sect. They don’t know the truth and are not true rebels. If we slaughter them so readily, how will the Court ever win the people’s trust in the future?"
"...People?"
After hearing Lin Sheng’s words, Chen Haoyan’s expression remained unchanged. He merely quirked a corner of his mouth, as if he had just heard a ridiculous joke.
BANG!
The next second, Lin Sheng, who had stepped forward on his own, felt as if a great sledgehammer had struck him in the chest. His entire body shuddered violently as he spat out a mouthful of warm blood.
Then, Chen Haoyan’s voice rang in his ears:
"For offending a superior officer, consider this a light punishment and a stern warning."
"As for your question... that’s fine. Since you’ve joined our County Magistrate’s Office, you’re one of us now, a brother. I’ll give you a reasonable explanation."
At this, Chen Haoyan seemed to summon a bit of patience, chuckling lightly. "For those of us who work in the Government Office, there are certainly many rules to follow. But it all boils down to two things: the public and the private. No matter what we do, we must balance both. That’s the only way to keep our footing."
"Take this matter, for instance."
"What is the ’public’ aspect of this, and what is the ’private’?"
Chen Haoyan’s words left Lin Sheng stunned for a moment, but he quickly collected himself and answered, "The public aspect is vanquishing bandits and crushing the rebellion; the private is the monetary reward..."
The County Magistrate’s Office also received rewards for eliminating rebels.
This was especially true for the White Lotus Rebel Leader, that old fellow named Shouchong. The bounty on his head was a full five hundred taels, a huge sum even for a Chief Constable.
Seeing this, Chen Haoyan nodded. "If that’s the case, then you should understand."
"If we brothers came all this way and didn’t kill a single White Lotus Sect rebel, this trip would be for nothing, and there’d be no reward to collect."
Lin Sheng froze. "But... but we truly didn’t find any White Lotus Bandits..."
"Who says?"
Chen Haoyan pointed to the village ahead. "Aren’t they right over there? The White Lotus Sect was attempting to gather its forces and stir up a rebellion, and we discovered their plot. This is a great merit!"
"Do you want me to report to the County Magistrate that our campaign against the bandits was unsuccessful and they all escaped? Or that we thwarted the rebels’ plot to sow chaos? The first option is a total failure that might even get us all punished. With the second, the County Magistrate will definitely be satisfied, and we brothers can all collect the reward money together."
After speaking, Chen Haoyan produced a silver-white flying knife.
"This is the White Lotus Rebel Leader’s Lotus Saber. We’ve confiscated it, and it will serve as perfect evidence. We’ll just say we heavily wounded him, and he fled in disarray."
"We’ll have witnesses and physical evidence. A happy ending for everyone."
"No... that’s not right!"
Lin Sheng shook his head violently, his jaw clenched. "That’s all for private gain! The problem hasn’t been solved, yet you’re pretending it is. With actions like these, where is the public good?"
"Good question."
Chen Haoyan nodded. "Why do you think we went through all this trouble, making such a public spectacle of coming out here to vanquish bandits and crush the rebellion?"
It was such a simple question that Lin Sheng answered almost without thinking, "The White Lotus Bandits are a plague on the countryside. Naturally, our actions are to protect our territory and bring peace to the people."
"You’re wrong. Dead wrong!"
Chen Haoyan sneered. "We have a White Lotus Sect here. The next county over has a Luosheng Sect. In this world, you can never kill all the rebels."
"Then..."
Lin Sheng was lost. If vanquishing bandits and crushing rebellion wasn’t for protecting the land and its people, then what was it for?
The next second, Chen Haoyan gave him the answer. "It’s to make the powerful clans in the county seat, the gentry, and everyone else *believe* that we are protecting the land and its people."
"And then they will give us money to support us."
"Only when they give money will the County Magistrate have money. And only when the County Magistrate has money will we get our rewards and be able to live well, instead of starving."
"If they believe, the county seat will be stable."
"If the county seat is stable, the world won’t fall into chaos."
"That is the public good."
"So, our actions this time serve both public and private interests without compromising our greater integrity. As for the rest... well, don’t sweat the small stuff. There’s no need to concern yourself with trivialities."
"This... a triviality?"
Hearing this, Lin Sheng was overcome with a profound sense of absurdity. He looked around, only to see the surrounding constables all standing in silence.
"Killing innocents to take credit, slaughtering villagers from outside the city... Human life is of the utmost importance, and you call this a trivial matter?"
"You seem to have misunderstood one thing."
Chen Haoyan’s voice drifted over, carrying a cold indifference that terrified Lin Sheng:
"’Human life is of the utmost importance’ refers to the people living inside the county seat—the powerful clans, the gentry. As for those Common People outside the walls... do they even count as human?"
With that, Chen Haoyan flicked his sleeves and departed.
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to glance at the corpses littering the ground. His gaze lingered on one for a moment, and he shook his head, thinking to himself, ’What a waste of a good man.’
This encirclement of the White Lotus Sect was, in truth, a hastily planned operation.
The reason was simple. After meeting with Wang Ping, he had turned back to gather men for an ambush at River Village—only to discover that the information had been leaked.
But he had already gathered all his men. If he did nothing and abandoned the plan, the informant would be exposed and killed, and the White Lotus Sect would have made a fool of the County Magistrate’s Office. Once word of this spread, he, as the Chief Constable, would have to bear full responsibility. It was even highly likely the County Magistrate would consider him incompetent afterward.
’Damn it all, that would be terrible for my career.’
Thus, Chen Haoyan came up with a desperate solution. He might not have the ability to wipe out the White Lotus Sect, but he certainly had the ability to kill innocents and claim it as a victory.
A great ability, at that.
’As for that informant... a mere commoner born in the countryside. His life is cheaper than dust. If he’s dead, he’s dead. It’s nothing I need to lose sleep over.’
’Besides, it’s not like he can come back from the dead to take revenge on me.’
........
Wang Ping opened his eyes again.
"...Huh?"
The drastic change in the scene before him was so overwhelming that he couldn’t process it right away; his brain couldn’t keep up with the information his eyes were sending.
This time, what greeted his eyes was an endless darkness. In that darkness stood a high platform, and upon it rested a closed book as vast as a towering skyscraper. Wang Ping, who had been certain he was dead, was completely dumbfounded and remained frozen for a long while.
"Where is this?" Wang Ping looked around in a daze.
Just then, the towering book before him suddenly flew open. The great RUSTLE of its pages echoed endlessly before it finally settled on one in particular.
[Taiping Scripture]
[Volume 1: Outer Heaven Demon]
[An existence from beyond the heavens, wandering the Nether Realm, yet not a soul. A singular anomaly between heaven and earth, defying all expectations.]
[Can be resurrected once after death. Resurrection is followed by a seven-day cooldown. After resurrection, can randomly enter a new world or re-enter a previously visited world. Additionally, within specific worlds, one can consume Fortune upon rebirth to obtain a new identity. The more Fortune consumed, the higher the status of the new identity.]
"...So that’s how it is."
Twenty years he’d been in this world, and only now did it all come crashing down.
He slapped himself hard across the face. Feeling the sting, he confirmed it wasn’t a hallucination. Staring at the towering book before him, Wang Ping had only one thing to say:
"Dad, what took you so long!"