"My name is Chen..."

"Alright, little Chen, nice to meet you," said the woman named Zhao Zi. "I have a question for you."

The man’s Adam’s apple moved slightly, "Please... go ahead."

"Do you think this world is fair?"

The man thought seriously for a moment before answering, "Very fair. As you sow, so shall you reap."

The woman smoking looked pensive, "Yesterday when you were dining at the tavern, why did you slap that woman passing by, and then kick and punch her?"

"I was just joking with her, and she dared to insult me," the man still felt indignant at the memory. "Madam, you tell me, who am I, and who is she? Of course, I admit I was wrong in some ways, and I can apologize to her."

The woman sighed softly, "That’s why I say the world is unfair, but those with power don’t feel that way."

"How could that be? This world is very fair. My power is something I earned through hard cultivation."

"Alright," the woman smiled, "Thank you for clarifying things for me."

"You’re welcome. Madam, is there some misunderstanding between us? My father is the Magistrate of Jiangyong..."

The woman didn’t listen until the end.

She extinguished her cigar, stood up gracefully, and walked out, leaving just one sentence behind, "Burn him. Burn him for 24 hours."

The man named Chen shouted, "No, don’t, madam, we can talk, we can negotiate terms!"

But the woman had already left. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The place was a dilapidated temple, cobwebs and dust everywhere, the deity’s statue had its eyes eroded away by something, staring emptily ahead. One ear was half missing, so it probably couldn’t hear prayers.

Three people walked in from who knows where, one dressed as a fisherman, another as a traveling merchant, and another as a strong man. They circled the man tied to the wooden post for a moment, calculated the weight carefully, then started applying a white ointment on the man’s body.

"What are you doing! What are you up to! By what right?" The man tied to the post struggled desperately, "What are you after? Money? I can give, I can give a lot! Cultivation technique? Weapons? Women? What do you want?"

The fisherman and the strong man said nothing.

The one dressed as a traveling merchant said leisurely, "It’s time for you to see the world’s truth."

"What truth? What truth! What did I do for you to treat me like this? Speak, say something!"

"That woman? She’s just an ordinary mortal woman, while we are all Transcendent Cultivators! Do you care about a mortal? Besides, I didn’t kill her, she’s fine! Even if I’m guilty, it’s not punishable by death. What crime do I have to deserve death? Whether it’s Xia’s law, Qi’s Law, or the laws of the Triple Punishment Palace, none sentence me to death, you must speak of law! What are you doing, stop applying that on me! Stop this! This isn’t fair, this isn’t fair!"

"You’re right," said the one dressed as a traveling merchant, covering the man’s mouth with one hand, turning his remaining cries into ’mmm, mmm,’ while with the other hand, he applied the white ointment all over his face, speaking slowly, "Unfairness is the truth of the world."

After applying it meticulously, he took out a square cloth and began to wipe his hands. After wiping all his fingers, he placed the white square cloth over the man’s face.

He lightly flicked his finger, a stream of flame leaped out, and the ointment on the man began to burn.

Then the three of them filed out.

The one dressed as a strong man, being the last to leave, considerately closed the temple door.

Leaving the screams of the Jiangyong Magistrate’s son in the dilapidated temple.

"He won’t burn to death early, will he?"

"How could that be? I calculated the amount perfectly, it will definitely burn for 24 hours."

"I just saw you apply a bit more."

"Really?"

"It’s true, I saw it too."

"I wasn’t the only one applying it, you all applied it too, didn’t you?"

"But the amount we applied was very standard."

"I was also very standard! If you don’t believe me, stay and watch, if it’s short by even a quarter of an hour, it’s my responsibility!"

"Then let’s go, it’s eerily creepy..."

"Only now you say it’s creepy. Aren’t you the one who developed the corpse-burning ointment?"

"Don’t you understand the principle of ’a gentleman stays away from the kitchen’?"

The voices gradually faded away.

...

"Will a fair world ever come?"

It’s unclear who was asking.

"Of course."

It’s unclear who was answering.