The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, becoming a disciple of Yue Buqun.

"Jiang Shenxian..."

"Jiang Shenxian..."

Jiang Ning couldn't help but laugh when he saw how these people addressed him.

"I am not a god."

"Why aren't you a god?"

Others, however, said, "You're not a god, so how could you have such godlike abilities? You're a god sent down from heaven to save us."

"That's it."

The others chimed in with their own opinions.

The "divine means" they referred to were the extraordinary martial arts skills Jiang Ning displayed when he saved them.

They witnessed Jiang Ning moving effortlessly across the raging river, rescuing them from the floodwaters, and saw even more incredible feats they had never seen in their entire lives. They came to regard Jiang Ning as a deity.

Faced with these terms used to refer to the disaster victims, Jiang Ning didn't know what to say. No matter how he described them, they were all the same, and Jiang Ning felt somewhat helpless.

Du Lanyin, who saw this scene from afar, couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

Du Lanyin only came over after Jiangning had finally seen off these disaster victims.

"Junior brother is very popular."

Du Lanyin smiled.

Jiang Ning smiled but said nothing more.

"Let's go."

……

Several more days passed, and Lantian County still hadn't received any grain.

Jiang Ning found the magistrate of Lantian County.

"Magistrate He, why hasn't the grain arrived yet?"

Jiang Ning asked directly.

The magistrate of Lantian County was a plump middle-aged man.

"This... I don't know either. I wrote to the Prefect a while ago, and he said that he has already started to collect grain, which will be delivered in the next few days."

Magistrate He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stammered.

"Master Jiang... Master Jiang, shall we wait a little longer?"

Jiang Ning couldn't help but frown.

"I can wait, but can the people wait?"

"Yes, yes, what Master Jiang said makes sense."

Magistrate He nodded in agreement, but then said with a bitter face, "This is the arrangement of the prefecture. I am just a small magistrate, and for now I can only wait."

Jiang Ning then asked, "How long can the county's grain reserves last?"

Magistrate He hurriedly replied, "We can only hold out for five more days."

"Five days..."

Jiang Ning frowned, then turned and left.

"I need to go to Xi'an Prefecture."

Seeing Jiang Ning leave, Magistrate He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why would this jinx come to my county?"

Since Jiang Ning came to Lantian County to help with disaster relief, Magistrate He has been on tenterhooks every time Jiang Ning comes to visit after learning of Jiang Ning's identity. He is afraid that Jiang Ning will cause trouble for him if he does not do a good job in disaster relief. During this period, he has been doing his best in the disaster relief work.

Seeing that Jiang Ning was going back to Xi'an Prefecture, Magistrate He finally relaxed a little.

"Go, go, and it's best if you don't come back."

Magistrate He thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ning was already on his way to Xi'an Prefecture.

Upon arriving in Xi'an, Jiang Ning went straight to the government office to find the Xi'an Prefect. After identifying himself, he entered the government office and was led to the main hall by government officials.

As soon as I entered the hall, I saw that the Xi'an prefect looked very unhappy, as if he was very angry.

Chapter 637: Arrival in Xi'an

"Hero Jiang".

Upon seeing Jiangning, the Xi'an prefect immediately composed himself and asked a question.

"Master Jiang has been busy with disaster relief in Lantian County these past few days. Why are you back today?"

Jiang Ning didn't mince words and said directly, "Lantian County is short of grain and has been waiting for the grain allocation from Xi'an Prefecture for a long time. I've come to ask what's going on."

Upon hearing that Jiang Ning had come to inquire about this matter, the Xi'an Prefect replied, "There is currently a shortage of grain, but we are already procuring more. Once the grain is procured, it will be immediately sent to the disaster-stricken counties for relief."

Jiang Ning nodded, not saying much about it, but asked, "When I first arrived, I saw that the prefect looked troubled. Did you encounter some trouble?"

The prefect of Xi'an was taken aback by what he heard, but still shook his head and said, "It's nothing, just some trivial matters in the government office. No need for you to worry about it, Master Jiang."

"Ok."

Seeing that the other party was unwilling to tell him, Jiang Ning did not say anything more.

"In that case, I shall take my leave."

"Take care, Master Jiang."

The Xi'an Prefect bowed and said.

After Jiang Ning left, the Xi'an prefect looked irritable again.

Not long after, another person walked in.

"Why doesn't the Prefect tell him about this? With his abilities, he should be able to resolve the troubles that have been plaguing the Prefect lately."

Upon seeing this man enter, the Xi'an prefect was not surprised. After hearing what the man said, he shook his head and said, "He is not a person of officialdom, so telling him is useless."

This person was an advisor to the prefect of Xi'an.

Upon hearing this, the aide said, "Although he is not a government official, his martial arts skills are enough to accomplish things that we cannot."

"No!"

The Xi'an prefect shook his head again: "Precisely because he is a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person of the martial arts world), we cannot let him know, otherwise things will get out of hand and it will be difficult to handle."

"I will report the matter of the granary to the imperial court truthfully. As for the matter of those grain merchants, I will find another way."

……

After leaving the government office, Jiang Ning did not rush back to Lantian County, but walked on the street.

Now that Xi'an Prefecture is suffering from disaster, in addition to the disaster victims in the subordinate counties, there are also many people in Xi'an Prefecture whose houses and fields have been flooded and who are homeless and living on the streets. The government has set up tents to temporarily accommodate them.

At this time, Jiang Ning arrived at a place in Xi'an Prefecture where the government was distributing porridge, and many disaster victims were queuing up to receive porridge.

"This porridge isn't enough to fill me up."

"Yes, just like water."

"The porridge being given out every day is getting thinner and thinner, I really don't know why."

The disaster victims in line whispered among themselves.

Jiang Ning went up to look at the porridge bucket and found that the porridge inside was very thin, not much different from that in Lantian County.

"Stop complaining, you should be grateful to have something to drink."

Other victims said.

"It's good enough that the imperial court can take care of us. I guess the imperial court is also short of food; they're almost out of food now."

"What if we run out of food later?"

Listening to the whispers of the disaster victims, Jiang Ning glanced around, didn't linger, and left.

Jiang Ning continued walking down the street, passing several grain shops along the way. He noticed that all the shops were either closed or open but had signs saying "Closed".

Jiang Ning went up to one of the grain shops, and before he could finish speaking, a shop assistant came over.

"Closed for business, closed for business."

He urged Jiang Ning to leave as he spoke.

Jiang Ning glanced at the sky: "You're closing so early? I came to buy grain."

The shop assistant said impatiently, "Didn't you see there's no food left in the shop?"

There wasn't a single grain of food in the grain shop.

Seeing that the shop assistant was unwilling to say more, Jiang Ning turned and left. But as soon as he left, a commoner rushed to the grain shop, obviously to buy grain, but he received the same answer.

"How could there be no food? I clearly saw that your store had so much food yesterday!"

The people didn't leave; instead, they started making a scene in the shop.

"Didn't you understand when I said no?"

The shop assistant kicked the man out, but he continued to shout.

"You must still have some grain. Please sell me some. I've been to so many grain shops but haven't been able to buy any. If we run out of grain, my whole family will starve to death. Please, I'll pay any price."

The shopkeeper ignored the people's complaints and slammed the door shut.

The man, dejected, prepared to leave.

"This fellow."

Jiang Ning stepped forward and asked, "You just said that this grain shop had grain yesterday, but it's empty today. What happened?"

"How should I know? I clearly saw it yesterday, and they still said it wasn't there."