Before they left, Zhang Yuan turned to Tang Dun. "That is your name? Tang Dun?"
"Aye, that's me."
Zhang Yuan smiled. "Dun means honest, sincere. A good name."
Tang Dun scratched his head. "The village teacher gave it to me when I was young."
"Oh?"
"Tangshed Town is poor. Most hunting families don't care for letters. But a traveling scholar stayed three years, taught us what he could. He liked me best. Called me some kind of jade."
That explained it. Wandering scholars were respected across the land. Confucian disciples believed in reading ten thousand books and walking ten thousand roads. Some sought knowledge; others merely sold themselves. Mohist disciples traveled everywhere, experiencing all things firsthand. Had they met Tang Dun, they would likely have taught him combat or crude mechanisms rather than literacy.
The State of Zhuang held Daoism as its national faith, but it did not overly reject other schools. Tang Dun's background raised no eyebrows.
Jiang Chen spoke up. "Since you can read, staying a constable here wastes your potential. After you settle Niu'er's burial, consider testing for the Outer Academy."
He saw something honest in the man. Worth nurturing. But the choice belonged to Tang Dun alone.
* * *
They rode south on the post road, Maple City waiting at the end. Array markings carved into the road kept beasts away. The horses trotted at an easy pace, and Zhang Yuan's voice matched their rhythm.
"Do you know what it costs the court to maintain these roads across Zhuang?"
Jiang Chen shook his head. He had never thought about such things.
"An astronomical sum." Zhang Yuan continued: "And these markings only repel low-level demon beasts. The truly dangerous ones still require cultivators to clear. The court pours enormous resources into keeping the roads open. It pours even more into the Academies. All we can do is grow strong enough to bear the responsibility."
"I understand."
"Then tell me this. Great cities have protective arrays. Why doesn't the court move everyone into them?"
Jiang Chen considered. "Two reasons, I think. First, cities have limits. They cannot house everyone. Second, each city's reach is finite. The court needs these roads extending outward, with towns as nodes, because that represents actual territory. And land is resources."
"You see clearly." Zhang Yuan nodded. "Town and village arrays cannot match city defenses. But towns have irreplaceable value. Tangshe Town exists, so Maple City harvests resources from the Qichang Mountains. If Tangshe Town falls, the mountains become worthless to us."
"The townsfolk hunt in the Qichang Mountains. They have their own experts. That heretic waited until the Punishment Bureau came, did nothing before or after — yet struck precisely when we arrived..."
Zhang Yuan turned, a half-smile on his face. "Junior Brother Jiang. What do you carry that draws their interest?"
Jiang Chen had no answer.
He did hold a secret — the Void Key inherited from Zhuo Lie. Everything had changed inside the Ethereal Realm. In the real world, no one should have noticed. Yet if not for that, why had the first heretic attacked him after he entered the Realm?
He was still choosing his words when Zhang Yuan raised his hand. Middle and ring fingers curled, the other three extended straight at Jiang Chen.
Arcs of lightning leaped from those fingertips, converging into a thunderbolt that streaked past Jiang Chen's ear — and obliterated a poison arrow mid-flight.
Only then did Jiang Chen hear the arrow's shriek and smell the scorched hair where the lightning had passed.
"I've been waiting for you!" Zhang Yuan vaulted from his horse. His free hand twisted through an odd seal, and a whip of crackling lightning materialized from nothing.
"Die!"
He rode the lightning whip like an eagle diving, plunging toward the ambushers hidden in the roadside forest.
He had prepared two Dao arts in advance, splitting his focus. That preparation made his counterattack instant.
Jiang Chen saw the gap between himself and a battle-hardened senior brother.
Then a voice rang from the right forest. "Tough target. Split and run!"
Jiang Chen whirled.
He knew that voice. In that little girl's room at Tangshe Town, only a few words had been spoken. They had burned into his memory.
A Dao essence crystal detonated silently in his Celestial Palace. Jiang Chen lunged like a maddened beast, crashing toward the sound.
Living in Zhuang, every commoner learned one rule before stepping outside: stay on the roads.
Beyond human settlements and post roads lay wild lands — territory of beasts, demon beasts, and worse. Zhang Yuan was strong enough to ignore the danger. Jiang Chen wanted to kill someone. He ignored it too.
He had never been this angry. Fang Heng's betrayal had been hateful, but at least comprehensible. That little girl — she had been so small. So innocent.
His sword trembled in its sheath. It seemed eager. It seemed to know it would shine with the brightest light of its existence.
Ten years he had honed this blade. Its frost edge had never been tested. Today he showed it to the world, asking: who will right the wrong?
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang.
The longsword scraped against its scabbard five times before finally tearing free. Sword like a shooting star. Man like a rising dragon.
A great tree groaned and toppled. The heretic in the branches leaped back, face pale as death beneath wild hair.
Dao essence crystals detonated one after another in Jiang Chen's Celestial Palace. He had never burned through his reserves like this. Power flooded his limbs.
Before forming a Dao vortex, every crystal spent was a step backward in cultivation.
Longevity? Future glory? He cast them all aside.
He would cut down this monster. Only then would his rage find release. Only then would his heart know peace.
Violet Dawn Sword Art — Second Killing Form! Frost light swept outward.
The pale heretic had no time to form seals. His right arm swelled grotesquely, muscles bulging, veins writhing. He punched straight into the sword light.
Blade clashed against that demonic limb a dozen times in an instant.
Jiang Chen realized his mistake. This opponent was strong — far stronger than him. Not merely relying on traps or slightly superior cultivation. If this creature had unleashed its full power at Tangshe Town, Jiang Chen might not have survived.
But Jiang Chen did not retreat. His sword shook again, a sharp whistle rising.
Violet Dawn Sword Art — Third Killing Form!
The demonic arm flew off entirely.
"Damn you!"
The heretic shrieked. He had not expected this desperate youth to force him into a corner. His back foot struck a falling tree. He could not retreat further — retreat meant death. Life came from fighting.
Where his foot touched, the tree withered instantly.
Gray mist poured from his screaming mouth, thick with rot and acrid stench.
Power over life and death. Dao arts of the underworld.
Sword light erupted.
Dao essence drove the blade. The blade cut through the gray mist. Jiang Chen burst from the fog —
Violet Dawn Sword Art — Fourth Killing Form!
At Tangshe Town, this monster had escaped. Jiang Chen had been caught off guard, helpless.
Not this time. Not now.
He would give that little girl named Niu'er her justice.
This was a cultivator's duty to common folk. This was an adult's duty to a child.
Jiang Chen's figure broke through the mist, filling the heretic's widening eyes.
In those eyes, drowning in terror, a brilliant sword light descended from above.
It was the last light he would ever see.