An evening banquet was held, and both host and guests enjoyed themselves to the full.
During the feast, You Mei asked Qin Nana why she had suddenly decided to join a cultivation sect.
As it turned out, back when Qin Nana was ten years old, a slight tremor shook Dongshan Prefecture. Ordinary citizens, mistaking it for an earthquake, panicked, which triggered a minor stampede.
Commandery Governor Qin Anbang immediately dispatched men to comfort the populace while summoning the Commandery Protector, Sima Nan, to determine whether the disaster was natural or man-made.
The post of Commandery Protector was a military office within the empire, belonging to the violent apparatus of the Imperial Capital's Sky Patrol Division. After all, some commandery governors, city lords, and town lords were scholars ignorant of the cultivation arts. To prevent martial artists from using their prowess to transgress the law and casually slaughter officials, the empire established town protectors, city protectors, and commandery protectors. These imperial protectors possessed off-the-charts combat strength, each capable of suppressing an entire region single-handedly. In Dongshan Prefecture, for instance, everyone knew the strongest figure was the Heavenly Blade Sect's master, the Blade Saint, who stood at the Late Saint Entry Stage. Thus, the Commandery Protector must be at least at the Peak Saint Entry Stage. These local protectors held authority over the Arrest Bureau, taking charge of local security.
To prevent officials from tyrannizing the populace, the empire also provided designated avenues for commoners to voice grievances. However, if anyone relied on their martial might to forcefully slay a local official, then regardless of who they were or what their motives might be, they would pay the price.
According to Sima Nan's calculations that day, the tremors were the aftermath of a clash between powerful experts at Guju Ridge outside the city. Qin Anbang was furious. According to data just reported by his subordinates, three citizens had been trampled to death in the city, dozens were injured, and beyond Guju Ridge lay a small mountain village of over a hundred households called Wang family village. Situated close to the epicenter, the extent of the damage there was yet unknown.
Enraged, Qin Anbang summoned thirty members of the Arrest Bureau under Sima Nan's command, and they flew toward Guju Ridge. Those at the Tongxuan Realm could fly independently, while Saint Entry, Saintly Sage, and Saint King constituted the Three Realms of Holy Path. Those at the Saint Entry stage had already begun to comprehend the holy path and could wield various divine abilities. For Sima Nan, supporting an entire mountain peak with his "Heaven-Covering Hand" was effortless.
Within dozens of breaths, Sima Nan had already arrived at Wang family village beside Guju Ridge.
However, what remained was now merely the ruins of Wang family village. Qin Anbang shook his head to steady his fear of heights, then looked at the villagers rebuilding their homes in twos and threes. He hurriedly arranged for his men to assist, then summoned a busy middle-aged man to inquire about what had happened.
According to the middle-aged man, two god-like figures—a man and a woman—had been fighting a duel. The female immortal seemed to be losing, and the male immortal's strike would have completely obliterated their village had the female immortal not intercepted it. Shaken until she lost all sense of direction, she only knew that the female immortal had fled into Guju Ridge with the male immortal in pursuit.
Having heard the full account, Qin Anbang looked at Sima Nan and asked, "What do you make of this, Master Sima?"
Sima Nan replied, "Judging by the traces of the battle, they should have gone deeper into the ridge. Lord Commandery Governor, why don't you wait here while I go take a look? If possible, I will bring the two of them back to be dealt with by you, My Lord."
Qin Anbang had originally wanted to follow Sima Nan inside to see who was audacious enough to wage such a fierce battle right at the doorstep of his Dongshan Prefecture. Then he reflected that he was merely a scholar and need not tag along like dead weight; sitting here to oversee the rehabilitation of Wang family village was a better use of his time. He thus said to Sima Nan, "Then I must trouble Master Sima. Please exercise utmost caution."
No sooner had his voice fallen than Sima Nan transformed into a streak of black shadow that soared into the sky, shooting straight toward the depths of Guju Ridge.
Watching Sima Nan vanish from his sight in an instant, Qin Anbang felt a wellspring of envy. He was merely an ordinary mortal. Although he wielded sky-high power in this Dongshan Prefecture, he had a lifespan of only a brief century. Even if he could easily obtain life-extending elixirs refined by cultivators, the limit of his mortal physique would still fall short of doubling that to two hundred years. Yet someone like Sima Nan, who had reached the Saint Entry Realm, enjoyed a lifespan nearing a millennium. When he was nothing more than a poor scholar who could not afford a wife, all he wanted was to eat his fill every day, live for a few decades, and ideally take a wife and have children along the way. But now, possessing overwhelming power and prestige, he found himself wishing that this very moment could last forever.
The people of Wang family village knew that the middle-aged man before them was the very sky of Dongshan Prefecture. The villagers retrieved the only intact chair salvaged from the ruins for Qin Anbang to sit on, and had a woman draw fresh water from a well to respectfully present to him.
Less than half a cup of tea later, a black shadow descended from the sky with a swoosh, landing steadily before Qin Anbang.
Qin Anbang, who was sipping the sweet well water, started in alarm and quickly raised his head. It was Sima Nan who had returned, dragging a white-robed figure that looked like a dead dog.
Sima Nan said to Qin Anbang, "My Lord, this is the female combatant from the duel. She is at the First Layer of Saint Entry. Judging by the techniques she used, she should be a high-ranking member of the Heavenly Star Sect in the neighboring Dongzhen Prefecture. As for that old man, he is an evil cultivator at the Third Layer of Saint Entry. After exchanging a single palm strike with me, he fled using a blood-escape art."
Before Qin Anbang could speak, Sima Nan hurriedly added, "The blood-escape art trades one's lifespan for a speed several times greater than one's own. Cough, cough. It's not that I couldn't defeat him; it's simply that he fled too fast. But fear not, I have brought this woman back." With that, he hauled the limp, dog-like woman and dropped her right in front of Qin Anbang.
Grown experts cared about their dignity, so he simply had to emphasize the blood-escape art; otherwise, if Sima Nan, a Ninth Layer Saint Entry expert, failed to capture a Third Layer evil cultivator, wouldn't he become a laughingstock?
Qin Anbang stood up hurriedly and said to Sima Nan, "It is no matter. You have worked hard, Master Sima. I shall report this to the Regional King and arrange for a saint-level wanted notice." With that, he walked over to Sima Nan and looked down at the white-robed woman dangling like a dead dog.
Qin Anbang parted the woman's slightly disheveled hair to reveal delicate eyebrows, phoenix-like eyes, rosy cheeks, and cherry lips. In appearance, she seemed to be around eighteen or nineteen years old, and she turned out to be an absolute beauty. Although her eyes were tightly closed, her slightly fluttering eyelids and gradually deepening breathing proved that the woman was wide awake and merely feigning unconsciousness.
And understandably so. With a Saint Entry cultivation level, she belonged to the elite tier of cultivators across the entire East Domain. First ambushed and wounded by an evil cultivator, then easily captured by an imperial commandery protector who hauled her about by the collar of her tunic like a dead dog for public exhibition—being conscious was truly far worse than being knocked out.
Seeing Qin Anbang stare at the woman for dozens of breaths, Sima Nan assumed Qin Anbang had discovered something. After all, he was a scholar; his brain had to be sharper than a crude lout like himself—otherwise, why was he the Commandery Governor while he was merely a "bodyguard"? Furthermore, he had just let the primary culprit slip through his fingers. What if the Commandery Governor filed a report to swap him for a different Commandery Protector? Wouldn't he become the laughingstock of his colleagues in the Sky Patrol Division?
Thus, Sima Nan felt he should show initiative and help the Commandery Governor solve the case promptly. He viciously shook the woman in his grip until she was thoroughly dizzy and disoriented, demanding, "Still playing dead? Won't you introduce yourself to Lord Qin? And then honestly confess your crimes?"
Qin Anbang had just been about to tell Sima Nan to put the white-robed woman down so they could talk—after all, they had just established she was a senior figure of the Heavenly Star Sect, and the villagers had testified that the female immortal had tried to protect them, suggesting she was hardly a villain; it would be wise to afford her some dignity and discuss the cause and effect of the whole affair—when he was utterly stunned by Sima Nan's handling of the situation... Did you really have to provoke her into a mortal enmity? Even if we aren't afraid of them, wouldn't it be much sweeter to build a bridge and make a friend?