The official was fair-skinned with a sparse amount of facial hair on his face. After he entered the room, he clasped his hands together in salute and said with a smile, “My apologies for keeping you waiting, Upper Immortal Wei. However, Lord Sun is currently in secluded cultivation, so I shall receive you in his stead instead. I am Ren Youwei, county assistant of Quyang. What might you require of me today?”

A county assistant was a reserve candidate for the magistrate position. Basically a ceremonial post, it held a high rank but wielded no real authority. That said, it would be folly to take his harmless appearance as weakness. He was a Dao Foundation stage cultivator.

Wei Yuan rose to his feet and returned the salute. Then, he got right to the point, “I have come to seek justice for the three hundred militiamen of Flying Sand Village! It’s been months since they have answered the call to arms and fought many battles. However, they have not received a single tael of military pay or seen a grain of military provisions, much less compensated for their loss. I have come to ask where their pay, provisions, and compensations have gone!”

Ren Youwei feigned a look of realization and answered, “I see! You may not be aware, upper immortal, but military pay and provisions are both matters of the utmost importance, and the imperial court has strict regulations that none may violate. For starters, one cannot simply form a militia without first submitting a formal application to the court and obtaining official approval. Otherwise, if everyone could train their own militia, wouldn’t that lead to chaos throughout the realm? In this county, the authority to approve militia applications lies not with the county office, but with Staff General Liao. In truth, we have forwarded Teacher Fang’s petition for militia approval to him long ago. Yet for some reason, the approval has been delayed. Without it, how could we dare allocate a single tael of silver? It would be a matter of life and death, would it not?”

Ren Youwei was an old fox. He had kicked the ball to Staff General Liao and washed himself of the blame completely.

Wei Yuan was inexperienced. He could not think of a way to catch this slippery eel. However, he also knew that he would be doing what Ren Youwei wanted if he took his leave now, so he stayed exactly where he was and asked, “I will be paying Staff General Liao a visit. Setting the matters of military pay and provisions, Flying Sand Village had lost thirty-seven people in total in the past few months. They deserve compensation for their loss. What standard do you intend to follow in granting the compensation, Lord Wei?”

Ren Youwei wore a troubled look. “A militiaman who died in battle does deserve to be compensated, but they must one be registered, and two die in a battle that was assigned by a superior to be eligible for compensation. I’m sorry to say this, but the villagers of Flying Sand Village do not meet any of the requirements.”

Wei Yuan said again, “Many of the elderly living in the village have starved to death, and it is the imperial court’s responsibility to give relief aid. I won’t put you in a difficult position. Just allocate some grain for emergency relief—this is a matter of life and death.”

Ren Youwei let out a long sigh and said, “It pains me deeply to hear that people are starving to death. Alas! What can we do in these troubled times? We’re at war right now, and our county is part of the front lines. According to imperial law, all food counts as military supplies during this time. Without a joint decree from the county magistrate and the staff general, no one can move so much as a single grain. Even the biscuit stalls in the county have been shut down. There is truly nothing I can do to help in this regard.”

Wei Yuan’s anger grew with every word Ren Youwei spoke. His complexion darkened, and a sneer escaped his lips. “You are quite proficient at deflecting blame, Lord Wei! The county yamen buys the Liao’s heads for the price of one tael and sells them for a thousand taels! But a militia who risks their lives on the frontlines enjoy neither pay nor provision, and even lose family members to starvation! Can you truly sleep soundly at night knowing the kind of blood-soaked silver you’re making?”

“Selling Liao head for a thousand taels? I’ve never heard of such a thing!” Ren Youwei exclaimed in feigned astonishment. “Lord Sun and I are buying the heads simply as a way to reward the locals for guarding the realm. We are even paying out of our own purses!” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

“Is that so? Where are the heads then?”

“We’ve sent it directly to the commandery city. What the commandery administrator does with the heads, this lowly official cannot possibly know.”

Not only did Ren Youwei feign ignorance in every matter, he had also deflected all responsibility. The more Wei Yuan listened, the angrier he became. Slamming his fist against the table, he yelled, “Lord Ren! Do you need me to show you how much your Dao Foundation weighs?”

Putting on a panicked expression, the county assistant stammered, “This lowly official only possesses some crude mystic abilities—there is no way I could withstand the might of an upper immortal. If you insist on ending my life, then this lowly official shall accept his death. But surely you will at least let me die with clarity? Or is an upper immortal of the immortal sect allowed to kill indiscriminately without reason?”

Wei Yuan had never encountered such a stubborn and uncooperative pain-in-the-neck before. The county assistant was acting like he would rather die than fight back as well. This made it truly difficult for him to resort to violence.

That said, the countless history books he had stored in his stomach finally became of use. Recalling an example, Wei Yuan calmed himself down before staring at Ren Youwei emotionlessly. He waited until the man’s gaze had wavered before finally saying, “It looks like this situation has nothing to do with you, Lord Wei. That is fine. Instead, please inform Lord Sun that I, Wei Yuan, have only received ten auxiliary soldiers despite having arrived at the defense zone for two days. According to the law of Great Tang, someone’s head—multiple people’s heads, actually—has to fall for this crime. If you do not wish for this to happen, then I expect to see two hundred soldiers in my defense zone in two days! I don’t care how you or Lord Sun do this, but anything less than two hundred is unacceptable! Make up that number with your concubines if you must; with yourselves if you must! If you truly cannot do this, then I will simply report this to a True Lord and ask him to fork over some Dao soldiers.”

For the first time, Ren Youwei’s smile grew a tad unnatural. Ultimately, heads would roll if such matters were pursued until the bitter end. And whose heads would be cut off for the offense? That was truly difficult to say. Besides that, there was no way a True Lord would simply dispatch the Dao soldiers as Wei Yuan claimed. If they did, it would be to cut off the heads of those they deemed responsible.

Wei Yuan added, “Since you mentioned that Staff General Liao is the one refusing to give you a response, please write a letter so I may ask him in person.”

There was no way for Ren Youwei to reject this, so he had no choice but to do as he said.

Wei Yuan did not linger. As soon as he received the letter, he rose to his feet and left immediately. Before he was gone, he said, “You best watch yourself, Lord Ren!”

With that, he put the man out of his mind and left the county yamen. He then empowered himself with a Godspeed spell before running toward the stronghold outside the city. It took him just moments to reach it.

The walls of the fort were two zhang tall and constructed primarily from rubble and straw pulp[1]. A construction technique that was unique to the north, it was both sturdy and easy to repair. The walls weren’t particularly high, but Wei Yuan immediately felt stings on multiple parts of his body when he approached the main gate. It was because the elite soldiers of the fort were aiming their crossbows at him.

After he had reported his identity, several soldiers escorted him into the main command hall. Seated at the head of the hall was a burly man with a scar across his face and a short beard. His eyes resembled a hawk’s, and his gaze was dark and bruising. From his uniform, Wei Yuan recognized him as the staff general, Liao Jingwu.

He saluted him and declared, “Wei Yuan of the Palace of Absolute Beginning greets you, Staff General Liao!”

Liao Jingwu’s gaze swept across him and made him feel like a ball of fire had just rolled past him. He felt a small jolt as he realized that Staff General Liao was no Dao Foundation novice—he had most likely advanced into the second stage.

Besides that, his Dao Foundation was Earth-tier. If they had to fight, it would be a little annoying. Wei Yuan reckoned that he would have to use up all of his Dao energy to defeat him.

After both men had saluted each other, Liao Jingwu asked, “So, why have you come today, young immortal master?”

Liao Jingwu’s voice sounded like two pieces of metal rubbing against each other. It was quite unnatural.

As a disciple of the Palace of Absolute Beginning, Wei Yuan did not fear a Dao Foundation stage cultivator from another sect as a matter of course. In fact, he could even treat an Avatar as an equal. Such was the weight of his background. Besides that, he did not fear Liao Jingwu in combat even though the staff general was an Earth-tier Dao Foundation stage cultivator. Thus, he divulged his intentions directly and asked why the villagers of Flying Sand Village had not been acknowledged as militiamen.

Liao Jingwu’s expression remained natural after Wei Yuan was finished. He asked a commandant to hand over the relevant documents before he started reading right in front of him. If Wei Yuan didn’t know better, he would have thought that the man was completely clueless about the situation. It would appear that Staff General Liao was a seasoned actor as well.

A while later, Liao Jingwu put down the documents and asked his commandant a couple of questions. Finally, he said, “Firstly, Fang Hetong did indeed submit a list of names, but upon investigation, we discovered discrepancies between the militia roster and the standing personnel. Secondly, the list consists entirely of elderly and infirm peasants, which could mean that he was inflating the numbers to fraudulently obtain provisions and pay. We’re in the middle of a war, and this general has quite a lot of duties to attend to. Unable to spare the time to personally investigate this matter, I decided to set it aside until a later date.”

A surge of anger welled inside Wei Yuan’s heart. Liao Jingwu made it sound like he was just meticulous and rule-abiding, but in reality it was just the rhetoric of a seasoned bureaucrat. The reasons he presented were flimsy and far-fetched at best, incapable of withstanding any scrutiny.

For example, his claim that there were discrepancies between the militia roster and the actual personnel was complete horseshit. The villagers had fought several bloody battles since submitting the roster, and each battle had cost them a not insignificant number of lives. Of course there were going to be discrepancies. His second reason was even more ridiculous. What militia force wasn’t made up of peasants, and how often was a peasant strong and healthy? Most of them were thin and infirm. Forget the peasants, even the auxiliary soldiers he saw fell under the elderly and infirm category.

This was different from Ren Youwei’s deflection. The guy was straight up making careless excuses to brush things off, too lazy to even give it a second thought.

The problem was this: Wei Yuan knew that Liao Jingwu was making excuses, and Liao Jingwu knew Wei Yuan knew that he was making excuses. Despite this, he did it anyway.

It was the height of audacity.

1. The straw pulp is used to glue the rubble together. Don’t ask me how, I ain’t an engineer or a historian. ☜