The plague had already escalated to such a degree by today. As the Governor of Rizhao, if you refused to take responsibility for this, then who the hell should?
Jiang Chen really wanted to plant his sword, Xiangxiang Si, right against this old man's neck and ask him that.
But he could only endure.
The reason was simple — he lacked the strength!
No matter what, the Governor of Rizhao was the master of an entire commandery. In terms of both power and status, he was someone the current Jiang Chen simply could not shake.
He could only seize this moment, while the old man had not yet openly turned hostile, and hurriedly say, "Given the Bone Path's methods, the plague is likely only the beginning. They certainly have follow-up actions planned. If you do not prepare a response in advance, the consequences will be unimaginable! It could very well endanger the entire commandery!"
"Tracing the history of the Bone Path, it first appeared in the State of Zhuang. I grew up in the State of Zhuang — I understand it!"
Upon hearing this, the Governor of Rizhao furrowed his brow. "You came to the State of Yang as the Chongxuan family's representative, yet you yourself are from the State of Zhuang?"
Jiang Chen was momentarily stunned, somewhat confused by this man's point of focus. "I am indeed from the State of Zhuang. That is precisely why I understand the horror of the Bone Path. They..."
But then the Governor of Rizhao actually stood up without another word and swept out of the room.
Only after the old man had walked completely out of the reception hall — without so much as a single backward glance — did Jiang Chen realize with some shock that he had... been discriminated against!
Simply because he came from a remote, insignificant little state, this noble Yang governor had deemed himself too proud to exchange another word with him.
Chongxuan Sheng, born into one of the State of Qi's top aristocratic families, had never discriminated against him for being from the State of Zhuang. Xu Xiangqian, an alumnus of the world's four great academies, had never discriminated against him for being from the State of Zhuang.
He wanted to ask: You yourself come from a vassal state that cannot even assert its own political stance among the world's nations — what gives you the right?
He, Jiang Chen, had opened his meridians at seventeen. Within a short year he had crossed the Roaming Meridian realm and the Cycle realm. By eighteen he had reached the Heaven-Piercing realm and could open the Gate of Heaven and Earth at any moment.
He was destined for the Inner Palace realm through a divine skill. He was qualified to contend for the title of the strongest Heaven-Piercing cultivator of his generation. He had defeated Jiang Wuyong. He had defeated Chongxuan Sheng when Chongxuan was still in the Heaven-Piercing realm...
And yet someone like him could still be discriminated against because of the country he was born in?
If this Governor of Rizhao had been some ordinary old man, it would not have mattered. But the man was the master of an entire commandery. His mindset was astonishingly arrogant, and his vision was astonishingly narrow!
Living within a vassal state of the State of Qi, he somehow felt even more haughty than the Qi people themselves.
Without waiting for anyone from the governor's office to drive him out, Jiang Chen left in a fury.
The entire State of Yang had only three commanderies, and the Governor of Rizhao controlled one of them alone — his status could easily be imagined.
But for a figure of that caliber to be so shallow and greedy left Jiang Chen utterly appalled. With a governor like this, it was no wonder the Xi family had grown ambitious.
Even a pig placed under such an old scoundrel would surely feel resentful!
He had originally intended to wash his hands of the matter, to sit back and watch how the Bone Path stirred the world into chaos, and then see how this old scoundrel would handle the fallout.
But the Bone Path was a heretical cult he was determined to destroy. Allowing it to grow only meant increasing his own difficulties in the future.
A momentary burst of temper was not worth it.
Moreover, while this short-sighted old fool perhaps deserved death, the ones who would be buried alongside him were countless ordinary civilians. What had the common people done to deserve this?
Returning to the present — from the Governor of Rizhao's office, he would clearly receive no support.
In the entire State of Yang, the region suffering the worst plague outbreak was Rizhao County. And within Rizhao County, the place with the most severe outbreak — aside from Jiacheng — was Yuecheng.
The plague that had erupted in Yuecheng could ultimately be traced back to Jiacheng.
The earliest person to contract the plague was a man surnamed Li, who ran a pie shop in Jiacheng. He made a trip back to Yuecheng and brought the plague with him. He then traveled abroad and carried the plague to the State of Rong.
These facts had already been uncovered and publicly disclosed by Jingye of Yinguang City in the State of Rong, and Jiang Chen had been able to learn of them.
Old Man Li had also been one of Hu Shaomeng's covert agents in Green Sheep Town. After both Hu Shaomeng and Old Man Li had died one after another, this fact had become known to no one. Naturally, no one could have imagined that Old Man Li's reason for running all over the world had actually been to lure Jiang Chen into pursuit.
Even Jiang Chen himself had not considered this point — but that did not prevent him from listing Yuecheng as his next destination.
One thing he was very clear about was that the Bone Path certainly still had operatives active in the State of Yang.
And the location of those operatives was almost certainly the place with the worst plague outbreak.
So wherever the plague was most severe — that was where he would go.
...
...
Wu Yinquan was a prison warden in Yuecheng, with four guards under his command.
This was actually a pretty easy job.
Any dangerous situations were handled by the constables and city garrison soldiers who carried out arrests.
If there was a danger too great to handle, it would never even make it into the main prison in the first place.
Furthermore, across the entire territory under the State of Qi's control, there were no particularly formidable bandit heroes. The State of Yang was no exception.
So things like prison breaks were as distant and legendary as myth.
The government's power was absolute authority — there existed no rival force to challenge it. If you accidentally offended someone powerful, there was no path forward except to submit.
Of course, the prison had its share of profit to be made.
The people locked in cells were not truly formidable figures. But in such a harsh place as a prison, many people were willing to pay a good deal just to make their time slightly less miserable.
But every rule had its exceptions. There were always those with hard heads and stubborn bones.
Like that old man who had just been thrown in.
He looked like a well-off scholar.
His charges were unclear — something about spreading rumors and causing trouble, a jumble of nonsense. Perhaps his family had paid off the city garrison soldiers who brought him in, because they had arranged a private cell for him.
Of course, the prison had its own rules. Whether such an arrangement could be maintained ultimately depended on whether the local powers — people like Wu Yinquan — agreed to it.
The garrison soldiers had received their tribute. Shouldn't the prison wardens receive theirs as well?
In Wu Yinquan's experience, people like this usually only had such hard bones because they had never truly suffered.
After several rounds of pointed hints yielded nothing, Wu Yinquan gave an order and had the old man thrown into the main cell with the serious offenders.
In prison terminology, this was called the "Earth-Number Suite" — the place that made every inmate's face go pale at the mere mention.
Here gathered the most vicious group of prisoners in the entire facility. Even a tiger sent in here would be broken into a dog.
As for the "Heaven-Number Suite," where the death-row inmates were kept, Wu Yinquan still did not dare to send the man there.
People died in that place frequently, and this wealthy scholar had been officially registered with the city garrison. If there was ever a need to interrogate him later, having him dead would create serious complications.
The previous night, Wu Yinquan had been greedy for drink and had a few too many. The next day, he did not wake until noon.
He slapped his forehead and thought, oh no. It was not that he was afraid of being late for roll call — in prison, nobody bothered with such things, and as a warden, showing up late or leaving early was not an issue at all.
What he worried about was that by arriving so late to collect the old man, the scholar might not have survived the ordeal and could have died in the "Earth-Number Suite."
Setting aside the silver he had counted on — if the city garrison soldiers came asking about it later, that would be plenty unpleasant.
Wu Yinquan practically jogged all the way to the main prison and headed straight for the "Earth-Number Suite."
To his surprise, the cell was completely at peace.
Those prisoners who were usually fierce as demons were all sitting or lying about quietly and obediently, some staring blankly into space, some picking at lice.
Occasionally someone whispered a conversation, but they kept their voices low, as if afraid of disturbing someone.
Wu Yinquan poked his head in and scanned around.
On the second bed from the left, a figure slept on its side — that was the only spot in the entire cell that faced the ventilation opening and remained somewhat cool. And who else could that be but the wealthy scholar?
Le Wen.