Zhao Qian grew more convinced of his own logic as he spoke, his voice rising in volume as if trying to persuade himself.
“She is the true evil spirit! She and that monster must be in league! If you believe her, you are handing the lives of every citizen in Xindu City over to demons!”
He knew that mere words were no longer enough.
“Guards! Bring the city guards to me!”
Before long, a chaotic din of footsteps and the clanking of armor echoed from a distance.
A squad of city guards, armed with long spears, swarmed toward the ritual altar from the direction of the city gates.
Zhao Qian’s heart settled. He pointed a finger at Yun Shu, Shen Jue, and Shen Yu. “Seize these fanatics who spread heresy and disrupt the sacrifice! Kill them on sight!”
He no longer cared about the consequences. If he let these people leave Xindu City alive today, it would be his own head on the block!
“Understood.”
The soldiers responded in unison.
In the next instant, they leveled their spears at the trio, the tips of the weapons reflecting the cold glint of the torchlight.
Right then.
A sharp shout erupted like a sudden crack of thunder.
“All of you, stand down!”
The sound of galloping hooves approached rapidly as a jujube-red warhorse charged from the city gate.
The man on horseback was clad in iron armor, his face resolute, with a sharp, battle-hardened aura between his brows. He pulled the reins, causing the horse to rear up high before its hooves slammed back down. Amidst the rising dust, the man vaulted off his horse and strode onto the altar.
Zhao Qian’s face turned deathly pale. “C-Commandant Zhou... Why are you back? Didn’t I tell you to go...”
“Go where?” Zhou Bai’s gaze cut across Zhao Qian’s face like a blade. “To patrol outside the city? So you could stay here and burn commoners alive?”
“Zhou Bai!”
Zhao Qian’s lips trembled. “I am the Governor of Xindu, your superior officer! How dare you commit such an act of insubordination?”
Zhou Bai didn’t even bother to acknowledge him.
He studied Shen Jue for a moment, then suddenly dropped to one knee, his voice thick with undeniable excitement.
“This humble officer, Zhou Bai, greets the General!”
Shen Jue stepped forward to help Zhou Bai up. “It has been two years since we parted at the border. I did not expect you to still remember me.”
“I would never dare forget,” Zhou Bai said. He then turned to the soldiers. “Lower your spears! Who gave you permission to draw weapons against General Shen?”
Hearing this, the soldiers looked at each other in confusion before lowering their spears one by one, the weapons clattering against the ground.
Just as Zhao Qian was about to say something in a fit of rage, another commotion broke out among the crowd below the altar.
“Make way! Everyone, make way!”
A cacophony of footsteps approached from afar as the crowd automatically parted to form a path.
A large group of people flooded through the opening.
There were about thirty or forty of them, all young or middle-aged men. They were travel-worn and dressed in rags, their faces etched with the exhaustion of a long journey. Deep dark circles hung under their eyes, and their lips were cracked and peeling, clearly showing they had traveled a great distance.
Yet, their eyes were bright, filled with a certain light.
A flicker of surprise crossed Yun Shu’s eyes, vanishing so quickly it was almost imperceptible.
She wasn’t surprised that Zhou Bai had appeared.
She just hadn't expected that the refugees from Creek Valley would show up in Xindu City.
Even by carriage, it had taken her four hours to get from Creek Valley to Xindu City. On foot, it would have taken them at least a full day.
“Why have you come here?” Her voice remained cool, but it was slightly softer than before. “Are you not afraid of evil spirits?”
“Divine Lady, we’re definitely scared. Who wouldn’t be weak in the knees after seeing that swarm of locusts?”
The man scratched his head and gave a sheepish smile. “But you came to Xindu City to exorcise demons, Divine Lady. We just couldn’t rest easy.”
“Brother Erniu and the others are watching over the Divine Seeds, so we didn’t have much to do back in Creek Valley anyway. We were just worrying ourselves sick, so we figured we’d come to Xindu City to see if we could help with anything.”
“Exactly! If we hadn’t come to Xindu City, we wouldn’t have known there were people actually slandering you, Divine Lady!”
“Divine Lady, you came to Xindu City out of the goodness of your heart to get rid of the demons, yet they’re so ungrateful! It’s despicable!”
Yun Shu’s gaze swept over the faces of these refugees one by one, finally landing on their feet.
Straw sandals.
No, they could hardly be called sandals anymore.
The straw was worn through, exposing their toes. Some were simply barefoot, their soles covered in bloody blisters and scabbed-over scars.
Her expression faltered for a moment.
“Was the journey... difficult?”
The refugees looked up at the ritual altar in a daze.
For some reason, their eyes suddenly grew red.
It took a long while before they managed to respond.
“Divine Lady, it wasn’t hard at all. We took a shortcut. Besides, back when we were fleeing the famine, we’d have to walk for three or five days before we could stop for a rest. This little trip was nothing.”
“That’s right, that’s right,” several voices chimed in sporadically.
Yun Shu remained silent for a long time.
She knew it wasn’t truly easy. It was just that for these refugees, suffering was the norm. They had long since grown accustomed to swallowing their pain and convincing themselves it didn’t hurt.
After a few seconds of silence, a thin young man squeezed forward from the back of the group. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an emotion that had been suppressed for a long time and could no longer be contained.
“Divine Lady, just now... we heard everything that dog of an official named Zhao said to insult you.”
The surrounding refugees nodded one after another, their expressions flaring with a shared sense of righteous indignation.
“I can’t let him slander you like that!”
The thin, dark-skinned man turned to face the citizens of Xindu City.
“In my hometown, the drought lasted for three years. The cracks in the earth were wide enough for a small child to fall into. We ate all the bark and grass roots we could find; eventually, we couldn't even dig up a few bites of Guanyin clay.”
“I had no choice but to follow my fellow villagers north. People fell along the way—by the roadside, in ditches, on nameless desolate mountains...”
His voice choked up for a moment. “When we finally made it to Xindu City, Governor Zhao shut the gates. He called us bandits who were terrorizing the region and refused to let us in. He even sent men on horseback to drive us away, and several people were trampled to death.”
“At that time, I really felt like I couldn't go on living.”
“Then, I met the Divine Lady. It was the Divine Lady who gave me a bowl of porridge and saved my life.” He looked directly at the deity on the altar, his gaze burning and devout.
“The Divine Lady is the best deity in this world!”
The other refugees began to murmur their agreement, starting with a few and quickly growing into a chorus.
“Exactly! He’s right! We’re just humble peasants who toil in the dirt and don’t understand fancy logic, but we know this: whoever gives us a way to live is a Bodhisattva!”
“The Divine Lady didn’t just give us porridge and a place to stay; she even brought us Divine Seeds from the Heavenly Palace! That dog official Zhao claims the Divine Lady is a demon, but if you ask me, he’s the demon—a wicked, soul-devouring monster!”
Humans are naturally inclined toward a crowd mentality.
Hearing one person speak might not evoke much feeling, but hearing a whole group say the same thing made it impossible to remain unaffected.
Furthermore, Yun Shu exuded an aura of righteousness and had just saved Su Aheng and her grandfather. The scales in the hearts of the Xindu citizens unknowingly began to tilt in Yun Shu’s favor.
“What they’re saying must be true...”
“I heard someone mention it recently—that a Divine Lady Temple was built outside the city, and the Divine Lady descends every day to grant porridge...”
Seeing the tide turn completely against him, Zhao Qian collapsed to the ground, his face the color of ash.
Suddenly, an arrow whistled through the air, grazing Shen Jue’s cheek before thudding into a wooden post behind him, its fletching vibrating.
Dozens of black shadows descended from the sky, their cold blades clashing.
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