The True Lord has arrived

Chapter 30 Chang'an, Zhou Yan

Having located Wang Chun, Zhou Yan, though it was tempting to immediately grab his sword and kill him, knew that such things couldn't be rushed. He told Shen Cangming about Wang Chun.

Then he took the broken sword and went to the Righteous Society.

He had to take care of Zhang Shoutian's funeral arrangements.

When he arrived, another man from the righteous society named Du Fanchuan, in place of Wang Erlang, received Zhou Yan politely, saying:

"Is my lord here to dispose of the body of this Zhang Shoutian?"

"After so many days, even if we've dealt with it, the body has started to smell bad. If you want him to return to his hometown, it will be quite troublesome. Although merchants have carriages, they are generally not willing to transport the dead."

"I was originally planning to cremate him, but this..."

Du Fanchuan twirled a string of Buddhist prayer beads, looking troubled.
"Buddhism is flourishing in Chang'an, so the people are not against cremation. After cremation, they take the ashes back for burial, which is considered as the soul returning to its homeland. However, Buddhism says that people who commit suicide are actually committing the sin of killing and cannot be cremated."

Zhou Yan said, "He was killed."

Du Fanchuan was stunned: "Who killed him?"

Zhou Yan thought about what he had seen, about Uncle Shen's severed arm last night, and about the bandit. He replied, "It's this world that killed him one by one."

Du Fanchuan was stunned.

He chanted Buddhist prayers, but had never heard such words before. His hands paused, and he wanted to retort, but then he thought of the rats running a casino, the giant rats sitting on top while the common people died. He fell silent, looking at the young man holding the knife, and smiled bitterly:

“What you say is true, my lord. I’m a Buddhist monk, but I can’t see things as clearly as you do.”

"The cremation will take two or three days. This time, a scoundrel has appeared in our righteous society, causing great disgrace. Our righteous society will pay for the cremation as an apology to Brother Zhang. If you really decide to cremate him, just let us know."

Zhou Yan let out a breath and said, "Thank you."

When he came out, he saw the constable leading his constables to arrest the gamblers and deal with the aftermath. When the constable saw Zhou Yan, he was stunned, abandoned his constables, and then jogged a few steps forward, bowing with his hands clasped a few steps away.

Under the watchful eyes of the people, this locally influential official, who was skilled at apprehending thieves, maintained a polite demeanor, even displaying a certain awe that he himself was unaware of, and said:

"Lang Jun."

Zhou Yan said, "This, Ah Lang, this is..."

The constable explained the situation and then said, "Thanks to your swift and decisive actions, sir, this cancer has been exposed, and we were able to shut down this gambling den. Everyone says they want to thank you properly and even erect a monument in your honor."

Zhou Yan twitched the corners of his mouth, unaccustomed to the cold-faced thief-catching official's enthusiasm.

Changing the subject, he said, "I heard that Zhang Shoutian found a foreign merchant, learned some things, and then... I wonder where those foreign merchants are?"

The officer immediately provided the merchant guild's location in detail, then naturally asked, "Does the young master need someone to lead the way? Or are these also monsters?"

"Should I bring some of my brothers to accompany you, sir?"

Zhou Yan politely declined.

The constable said regretfully, "Is that so? Then if you need anything, just call me. I can't promise anything else, but I'll help you with anything I can in this small area."

"Come on, drag these bastards away. Today I'm going to break all the canes they've used. Drag them away, drag them away!"

"Crying? Crying won't save you from the beating."

The constables used heavy force, and those who had gambled a lot of money cried and begged for mercy, each one pitiful and saying that they had been bewitched and now knew they were wrong and would never gamble again!

But when they saw Zhou Yan, they dared not howl anymore.

Zhou Yan watched these people leave and went to the courtyard that the Hu merchant caravan had originally rented. This Hu merchant caravan had promised to take Zhang Shoutian back to his hometown and was willing to give him some work so that he could save money and buy seeds for spring planting.

However, it was also the foreign merchants in the caravan who revealed the truth about the copper coin, ultimately shattering Zhang Shoutian's illusory hopes and leading him toward destruction. Zhou Yan felt a mix of emotions and didn't know what to say.

In the end, perhaps all we can say is, "What can we do?"

What else can we do? What can we do? What can we do?

However, even if the foreign merchants had traveled far and wide and had broad knowledge, they shouldn't know about the money used by monsters, let alone that there were women who sold themselves to monsters in the market. He wanted to meet these foreign merchants.

The woman and Zhou Yan were sold around the same time.

These foreign merchants had dealt with Zhao the Butcher during that period and should know more about Qingmingfangzhu and Wang Chun.

Zhou Yan raised his hand and knocked on the door.

The sound was clear and crisp, but no one answered. Zhou Yan knocked on the door for a while and said:

"Zhou Yan from Chang'an, come and pay a visit to the local caravan."

"anyone there?"

"Hello??"

When Zhou Yan knocked on the door again, it wobbled open inwards. The courtyard, where the luggage should have been placed, was empty. Zhou Yan frowned slightly, thought for a moment, opened the door, and went inside.

He asked, "Is anyone here?" while looking around, but there was no one there.

When he asked the neighbor, the neighbor was puzzled and said, "These foreign merchants were here yesterday. I remember that little girl was very pretty. I can't be wrong. Young master, how could they disappear overnight?"

"That little girl is really pretty."

After thanking him, Zhou Yan returned to the courtyard rented by the Hu merchant.

His gaze swept across the area, and there was indeed nothing left behind. However, he could clearly sense something was amiss. As if lost in thought, he reached out and removed the bronze oil lamp from the iron rings on his leather belt.

The oil lamp was lit, and golden light appeared.

However, instead of illuminating the surroundings, it greedily absorbed the light into the vicinity of the wick.

Thus, all things and scenes in the mortal world become blurred and stripped away like a faded canvas. In their place, those traces invisible to ordinary people are revealed in detail under this golden light, like luminous water plants swaying in the water.

The boy stood at the crossroads of Yin and Yang.

Behind me lies the human world, and before the lamp lies the world of strange tales passed down through generations.

Zhou Yan saw wisps of pale yellow aura swirling in the air. He slowly walked to the side of the courtyard, stopped, bent down, picked up something, and placed it in front of him.

It was a single yellow hair. In the light of this oil lamp, it emitted a very faint scent.

The light and ethereal quality is that of spirits and monsters.

A caravan of merchants from the Central Asian countries? Merchants from the Central Asian countries…

Zhou Yan raised the lamp a little higher, and under the light, the originally faint traces became clearer. Perhaps it was also related to his eyesight, but the demonic aura reflected in the lamp was more obvious to him.

These demonic energies spread outwards.

The weather was clear and bright, and the young swordsman closed the door.

He held a knife in one hand and a lamp in the other.

Walk slowly along this road.

Passersby, with their mortal eyes, could not see him.

........................

"Oh dear, disaster! Disaster!"

In another courtyard, a young woman stomped her feet in anger. Behind her long skirt, a fluffy yellow tail lashed out at the side, causing a child of about eleven or twelve years old to be whipped around in the face.

In the end, his cheeks were swollen, and he held his cheeks in his hands, with two big bags of tears in his eyes.

"Sister, sister, it hurts."

"Huh? Saburo, what are you doing behind my sister's tail?"

The woman picked up the child, gritting her teeth:
"That damned weasel, is it stupid? I took pity on him and took that poor man back to his hometown. That bastard figured out where those copper coins came from and insisted on bragging about how knowledgeable he was, which led to Zhang Shoutian committing suicide."

"We don't know where we've attracted a human demon slayer."

“They even chopped up the gambling den owners in this city. What if the demon slayer finds out we’re here and thinks we’re involved in this man’s death? What if he comes knocking on our door with a knife?”

The woman was a little scared.

Its fluffy tail also drooped down.

The little boy she was holding was playing with his sister's hair. The woman turned her head and looked into the yard, where an old woman who looked to be in her fifties or sixties was sitting, with wrinkles on her face and white hair, drinking tea.

The woman ran over in a few steps, approached the old woman, and said in a coquettish tone:
"Grandma! Grandma, why don't we leave?"

The old woman seemed lost in thought, and finally said softly, "We promised to take that man home. If you promise someone something, you have to keep it. If we can't even do this, we'll feel guilty."

The woman said, "But that man is already dead."

The old woman replied, "But we know we haven't been able to keep our promise."

She held up her tea and said, "Humans have their laws and morals, and fairies have their rules too. We are fairies, not monsters or demons. If we promise something and then fail to do it, it will affect our cultivation."

The little boy, Saburo, asked, "Is it for spiritual practice?"

The old woman chuckled and said, "No."

Saburo asked in confusion, "Why is that?"

"Because, he was also a pitiful person."

Saburo tilted his head, puzzled: "That's all?"

The old woman said, "That's all. This is spiritual practice."

She looked at the woman and said, "After a few days, once that human demon slayer leaves, we'll go out and spend some money to redeem Zhang Shoutian's body. You, move your cosmetics aside, and we'll take him home."

"He wanted to go home in the end, so let's bury him in his hometown."

The woman sighed helplessly and said, "Fine, fine."

"Working like crazy."

The old woman smiled and comforted her, saying with absolute confidence, "Don't worry, don't worry."

“Our clan is best at concealment and illusion. That human demon slayer is obviously a lineage that focuses on martial arts and is not good at breaking illusions or tracking. We changed locations overnight and set up a barrier. He definitely won’t be able to find us.”

Dang Dang Dang.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. The little boy, Saburo, sensed something was off, jumped up, and rushed over, shouting, "I'll open the door!"

Who is it? Who is it?

Saburo opened the door.

The old woman suddenly sensed something was wrong; she felt someone had entered her illusion, and it seemed to carry the aura of Buddhism!

The old fox spirit's expression changed drastically, and she cried out:
"Sanlang, come back!!"

late.

The little fox poked its head out.

A young swordsman dressed in an indigo robe stood there, with a leather belt around his waist, a long sword at his side, and a blue lamp in his left hand. The lamp emitted a dim, golden light, and half of his body was in the mortal world, while the other half was hidden in the shadows.

The air around the lights seemed to distort subtly.

The illusion, visible to the naked eye, resembled a thin veil, contrasting with the dim light.

The boy spoke: "Chang'an."

As he announced his name, his right thumb, which was gripping the hilt of the sword, seemed to unconsciously push the guard open by an inch.

A faint yet chilling clang of a blade broke the silence.

"Zhou Yan".

(End of this chapter)