I Alone Devour All Under Heaven

Chapter 6

The closeness between Yang Zhen and Mo Qian had its roots in the fact that both of them had grown up as orphans, though their circumstances after that point had diverged considerably.

Yang Zhen's second uncle was an accountant at an herbal medicine shop.

For warriors training in martial arts, supplementing with food alone was never enough. Medicinal supplements were equally important.

The medicines ordinary people took when ill were generally common ingredients, and even those were expensive enough.

The medicinal materials that warriors used to support their practice were typically rare and precious herbs, with a single preparation costing more than most ordinary families spent in an entire year.

The margins involved were enormous.

Running a business like an herbal medicine shop was not something just anyone could do. Without the right connections, there was no way to tap into those profits.

To work as an accountant in such a shop, a person needed not only an impeccable ledger and fast arithmetic, but the genuine trust of the proprietor.

Yang Zhen's second uncle clearly had the ability to hold that position, and it was that same ability and those connections that had gotten Yang Zhen placed as a constable in the government office.

It had long been said that the government was a fine place to make a life.

Though they were childhood friends, Yang Zhen's prospects were many times brighter than what the original occupant of this body could have hoped for.

Yang Zhen pulled a leg off the roast chicken and handed it to Mo Qian, then took one for himself and ate it with a mouthful of rice wine.

"Do you know a man called Xu Ruhu?" Yang Zhen asked casually, his voice slightly muffled as he chewed.

"What? Xu who?"

"Xu Ruhu." Yang Zhen swallowed and repeated the name clearly.

"No." Mo Qian shook his head, his attention on the food in front of him. "Never heard of him."

Yang Zhen rolled his eyes at Mo Qian. "Xu Ruhu is a renegade from Taiyi Sect. He was apparently an outer disciple there at one time. He has been wanted by Taiyi Sect across the entire country for assaulting a fellow disciple."

"Assaulting a fellow disciple, that bold?" Mo Qian looked up from the food and wine.

"This man has been wanted by Taiyi Sect for years. He has been drifting through the four prefectures and eighteen counties in the southeast of Qingzhou, committing crimes as he goes."

Mo Qian blinked.

Taiyi Sect was one of the eight major sects on the Jiuzhou Continent, and it held dominion over Qingzhou, ruling the region as its master.

For Xu Ruhu to have been roaming Qingzhou all this time, wanted for years and never brought to justice, he clearly had no small amount of ability.

After all, Taiyi Sect had informants spread throughout every corner of Qingzhou.

When Mo Qian's soul had first crossed over, the social structure of this world had caught him off guard, but after slowly digesting it over the past few days, he had largely come to accept it.

The Jiuzhou Continent was, in essence, governed by its sects.

Taiyi Sect held authority over the entirety of Qingzhou. The county magistrate of Xiangu County was himself an outer disciple of Taiyi Sect.

It had struck Mo Qian as strange at first, but over the past few days he had begun to feel the deeper logic of it.

Jiuzhou was a world where martial strength was paramount, and the inheritance of martial arts knowledge lay in the hands of the sects.

Whoever controlled the inheritance of martial arts could command the greatest warriors.

Whoever commanded the greatest warriors held the standing to rule.

It was, in its own way, no different from the principle that power flows from the barrel of a gun.

"This man was recently caught by our police chief, Jie Daohan." Yang Zhen suddenly lowered his voice and leaned in carefully. "He had been seriously injured and was hiding in a brothel to recover. Somehow, Chief Jie ran into him while he was there drinking."

"Chief Jie receives that wanted portrait every year at the office. After all these years, his eye for faces is sharp."

"He recognized the man on the spot. The two of them came to blows. Xu Ruhu was already badly hurt, and even so, Chief Jie only barely managed to capture him and took several of Xu Ruhu's palm strikes in the process. He has been coughing up blood at home ever since."

"The man is that fierce?"

Jie Daohan was a well-known figure in Xiangu County. He had come from a poor background, and the fact that he had risen to the rank of police chief in the county government spoke to both his martial ability and his skill in handling affairs.

For Xu Ruhu, already seriously wounded, to still push Jie Daohan to the point of vomiting blood showed just how formidable he truly was.

"He is locked up in the dungeon right now, with a heavy lock driven through his shoulder blade. Chief Jie is badly hurt, so he has put me and Jie Lei on duty guarding the dungeon." Yang Zhen said this with evident pride, poured himself a bowl of rice wine, and drank half of it in one go.

Mo Qian smiled slightly. So that was what all this had been building toward.

Yang Zhen simply wanted to show off that Chief Jie had trusted him with something important, assigning both him and Jie Lei to guard such a significant prisoner. Jie Lei was the chief's own nephew, and Yang Zhen had only been a constable for half a year. Being included in a task like this already marked him as someone in the chief's confidence.

"Why keep him locked up instead of executing him immediately?" Mo Qian deliberately shifted the subject.

Yang Zhen's face fell slightly when Mo Qian offered no flattery. He pulled a frown and said: "The county government has already sent an urgent message to the sect. The sect replied that they are sending someone to the county to collect this criminal and bring him back to face punishment at the sect."

When Mo Qian stepped out of the restaurant, his face was flushed.

In his previous life he had been in insurance sales, and he had also had a natural aversion to alcohol in that life, never touching a drop throughout the year.

Since crossing over, this was the first time he had truly experienced the taste of wine. At the beginning he and Yang Zhen had been politely deferring to each other, but by the second half of the jar they had simply been fighting over it.

For the last half bowl, Mo Qian had nearly torn Yang Zhen's sleeve off grabbing for it.

Mo Qian muttered with bright eyes: "After crossing over, it turns out I can drink. That is a genuine discovery."

He patted his stomach, said his farewell to Yang Zhen, and made his way back toward Yuanshun Escort Agency.

Mo Qian swayed slightly as he walked into the stable. Old Man Sun was using a rake to turn the softened fodder in the trough.

It seemed he had been working too hard and had strained his back. Old Man Sun let out a grunt, steadied himself on the rake, and pressed a hand against his lower back.

Seeing the situation, Mo Qian stepped forward quickly, reached out, and took the rake, saying: "Old Sun, you go and rest. I will take care of what is left."

Old Man Sun had been expecting Mo Qian to return by noon, but when noon came and went with no sign of him, he began to suspect he had been deceived and that Mo Qian simply would not be coming back that day.

He had pressed on alone, seeing to the fodder and tending the horses.