Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The wind stopped.

The nauseating smell of blood in the air grew even stronger, so thick it seemed to stick to one's mouth and nose.

Su Qing walked ahead, her boots making a soft rustling sound as they stepped on the scorched earth.

Gu Xiang followed behind, his face ashen, his legs feeling like they were made of lead, each step requiring immense effort.

This place should have been a village.

Now only ruins remain.

The house collapsed, and black smoke still rose from the broken walls.

Several crows landed on a section of earthen wall, pecking at something. When they saw someone coming, they flapped their wings and flew up, making hoarse and unpleasant cries.

Gu Xiang's gaze followed the crow as it landed, and then he froze.

It was a corpse.

Or rather, it was a dried-up corpse.

Skin and bones, sunken eyes, as if all the blood in his body had been instantly drained, leaving only a layer of skin like withered tree bark clinging tightly to his skeleton.

The corpse's fingers were claw-like, reaching towards the sky, and its mouth was wide open, as if it had let out an extremely mournful wail before dying.

Not just this one.

Looking around, the ruins were filled with these dried corpses lying haphazardly.

There were elderly people, women, and even... children who were only a few years old.

"vomit--"

Gu Xiang finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He rushed to a dead old locust tree by the roadside, leaned against the trunk, and vomited violently.

I vomited up all the roast chicken I ate for breakfast, along with the acid in my stomach.

After vomiting until my stomach was completely empty, all that was left was dry heaving.

Tears and snot streamed down Gu Xiang's face. He trembled all over, his fingers digging so hard into the tree bark that his fingernails flipped up.

"What...what kind of world is this?"

Gu Xiang's voice was hoarse and choked with sobs; it was unclear whether he was asking Su Qing or the heavens.

"You can't even handle this?"

Su Qing stood to the side, still waving the folding fan in her hand, her face showing no emotion whatsoever.

She even had the leisure to use the handle of her fan to clear away a piece of broken tile by the roadside, revealing a flattened cloth tiger.

"Scholar, put away your Confucian doctrines."

Su Qing casually tossed the cloth tiger aside, her tone as indifferent as if she were discussing the weather, "This is the law of the jungle. Welcome to the real world."

Gu Xiang suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, staring intently at Su Qing: "Brother Su! This involves hundreds of lives! Hundreds of living, breathing people! And you...and you're not even a little bit angry?"

Is anger useful?

Su Qing countered, "Can anger bring them back to life? Or can it kill a murderer with words?"

Gu Xiang opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

A deep sense of powerlessness came over me.

Yes, what's the use of anger?

He had read so many books of sages and learned so many principles of governing the country and bringing peace to the world, but faced with these corpses scattered all over the ground, he couldn't even utter a complete sentence.

Su Qing ignored him.

Her divine sense had already spread out, covering the entire ruins.

The life force I smelled in the wind just now, though as faint as a candle flickering in the wind, was definitely there.

Su Qing walked to a collapsed earthen wall.

This place used to be a decent tile-roofed house, but now all that's left is a pile of broken bricks and tiles.

"Come and lend a hand," Su Qing called out.

Gu Xiang wiped her face and stumbled over.

Su Qing didn't make him move the bricks; she simply waved her sleeve.

An invisible force surged forth, instantly blasting away the massive pile of rubble weighing a thousand pounds, revealing the scene beneath.

Gu Xiang gasped.

A person is trapped under the rubble.

He was an old man.

He was wearing a tattered black and red official robe, and the character "捕" (meaning "capture") on his chest was stained black and purple with blood.

He lay on the ground, his back a bloody mess, his spine clearly broken, his lower body pinned down by a broken roof beam.

Even so, he still held a broken knife tightly in his hand.

"It's still breathing."

Su Qing squatted down and placed her fingers on the old man's neck.

A wisp of pure spiritual energy flowed from his fingertips into the old man's body.

The old man, who was already on the verge of death, suddenly trembled and his cloudy, gray eyes snapped open.

"Heh...heh..."

The old man's throat emitted a wheezing sound like a broken bellows, and his withered fingers gripped Su Qing's clothes tightly.

His strength was astonishing; his knuckles turned white, as if he were about to tear Su Qing's clothes off.

"Help...help..."

The old man managed to squeeze out two words, his eyes filled with terror and resentment.

Gu Xiang saw the old man's official robes clearly, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

"This is... the official robes of the Six Doors in the capital!" Gu Xiang exclaimed. "He's an official appointed by the imperial court!"

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Six Doors constables held an extremely high position, specializing in apprehending notorious thieves and criminals.

Those who can wear this kind of black and red official robes are at least top-ranking constables, and their rank is not low.

Upon hearing Gu Xiang's voice, the old man's eyes darted around, as if a sliver of clarity had returned.

He looked at Su Qing and felt the spiritual energy within him that was keeping him alive. A glimmer of hope flashed in his eyes.

"S-senpai..."

The old man's voice was hoarse and broken, "I am... Iron Claw Li San of the Six Doors of the Capital..."

"Don't talk, save your energy," Su Qing interrupted him. "Who did it?"

Actually, there was no need to ask; Su Qing already had the answer in her heart.

This method of draining one's life essence is something only evil cultivators could pull off.

Li San gave a bitter laugh, and a stream of black blood gushed from his mouth.

"Black Wind Stronghold...Chief..."

Gu Xiang was stunned.

Black Wind Stronghold?

Is that the bandit's den where they robbed people on the road?

"How is this possible?" Gu Xiang exclaimed incredulously. "Black Wind Stronghold is just a bunch of bandits, how could they possibly have injured you like this? You're a top-ranking constable from the Six Doors!"

Although Gu Xiang had never practiced martial arts, he knew the value of being a top-ranked constable in the Six Doors.

Those were all top-tier experts, renowned figures in the martial arts world. How could they have been beaten so badly by a group of bandits?

Li San looked at Gu Xiang, a trace of sorrow in his eyes.

"Bandits? Ha..."

"I possess the cultivation of a peak-stage Casting Cauldron Realm cultivator, and have practiced the Golden Bell Shield for forty years, making me impervious to blades and spears, and immune to water and fire..." Li San panted heavily, his eyes beginning to glaze over, seemingly lost in terrifying memories. "I was ordered to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, and I've followed the trail all the way here..."

"I thought... he was just a slightly more formidable bandit..."

Li San's body trembled violently, and the fear in his eyes was almost overflowing.

"He...he was just standing there..."

"No weapons were used, and no techniques were employed..."

"Just grabbed it randomly..."

Li San's voice turned shrill, "It was like grabbing a chick! My Golden Bell Shield... it shattered like paper! All my vital essence... was drained in an instant!"

Gu Xiang felt a chill run down his spine.

The peak of the Casting Cauldron Realm is the ultimate goal of mortal martial arts, just one step away from becoming a legendary cultivator.

Such a master was actually crushed like an ant?

"Then...what about these villagers?" Gu Xiang pointed to the surrounding mummies, his voice trembling. "They were too..."

"Haha...cough cough cough!"

Li San suddenly burst into laughter, a laugh that brought tears and blood to his eyes. "That demon... drained me dry, then complained that my life force was too weak to even fill a tooth gap..."

He said... "Since we're here, let's not waste this opportunity..."

"I just set up a formation on the spot..."

"The whole village has three hundred people...men, women, and children..."

"In an instant...it was all gone..."

Li San's voice grew softer and softer, and the light in his eyes began to dim rapidly.

That was the last glimmer of light before the sun set.

Gu Xiang felt a chill run through her body, as if she had fallen into an ice cave.

Just because he didn't think one person's blood was enough, he casually killed all three hundred people in the village?

What's the logic behind this?

What kind of beastly behavior is this?

"This is what cultivators are like."

Su Qing's cold voice broke the deathly silence, "In their eyes, mortals are nothing more than leeks in the field, to be harvested and eaten at will. Law? Justice? Those are just rules of the game made for the weak."

Li San's body began to stiffen.

With his last breath, he shakily pulled a blood-stained waist token from his pocket.

It was a constable's waist badge made of pure gold, stained with black and red blood.

"Book...scholar..."

Li San shoved the waist token into Gu Xiang's hand, staring intently at him. "If you manage to get to the capital alive... give this token... to the Chief Constable of the Six Doors..."

"Tell him... that Black Wind Stronghold... has... a great demon..."

"You absolutely must... report it..."

Before he could finish the last word, Li San's hand suddenly fell to his sides.

Those cloudy eyes remained wide open, staring intently at the sky, as if questioning why the heavens were so unjust.

Do not look down.

Gu Xiang held the cold waist token in his hand, as if he were frozen in place.

The bloodstains on the waist tag were still wet, sticking to his palm, making it slippery.

He looked down at Li San's lifeless face, his mind replaying his earlier words.

"Just grabbed it..."

"The whole village has three hundred people..."

"Disliking the decline of qi and blood..."

Gu Xiang suddenly felt that the waist token in his hand was as heavy as a thousand pounds.

This is not just a plaque made of gold; it carries the weight of three hundred lives and represents the final obsession of an old constable who dedicated his life to serving his country.

"Brother Su."

Gu Xiang spoke up.

His voice no longer trembled; instead, it was surprisingly calm.

Su Qing raised an eyebrow and looked at this bookish idiot who had always only ever spouted pedantry.

Gu Xiang slowly stood up, clutching the waist token tightly, her fingernails digging deep into her palm, blood flowing down between her fingers and dripping onto the scorched earth.

He raised his head and looked in the direction of Black Wind Stronghold.

That face, which always carried a hint of pedantry and naivety, was now filled with an expression unlike any other.

That was anger.

It's the kind of anger that could burn the heavens and the earth.

"you're right."

Gu Xiang gritted his teeth, each word seemingly squeezed out from between them, "This is a cannibalistic world."

"Since reasoning doesn't work..."

Gu Xiang took a deep breath, and the scholarly air that had been somewhat superficial about him underwent a strange transformation at that moment.

A surge of righteous energy rose from his thin body; though faint, it was incredibly resilient.

"Then I'll go to the capital!"

"I'm going to file a complaint with the emperor!"

"I implore His Majesty the Emperor to execute these beasts!"

Gu Xiang turned around, bowed deeply to Li San's corpse, and then strode forward.

His back was still thin and his clothes were still tattered, but that timid and hesitant demeanor had completely disappeared.

Su Qing watched his retreating figure, a playful smile curving her lips.

"Tsk."

Su Qing shook her folding fan and chuckled, "This fool is finally starting to look like a 'saint'."

A system notification sounded in my mind:

[Target character Gu Xiang's mental state has broken through, and his Righteous Spirit Awakening progress has increased by 5%.]

Current favorability rating: 25%.

Su Qing put away her folding fan and followed after him.

"Hey, my dear brother, wait a minute, I'll take care of you."

"The journey isn't over yet, don't rush to your death."

The two figures gradually disappeared at the end of the ruins.

All that remained were corpses scattered on the ground and a tattered tiger swaying gently in the wind, as if silently telling the story of the injustice suffered here.