It was said that in the city of Baichuan.
The young general who should have been stationed at the checkpoint had appeared on the city tower instead, speaking to a fat man who was sunken into a large chair.
This fat man was corpulent, his expression gentle, and by appearance alone, he possessed no aura of authority whatsoever.
Yet on the city tower of this border city, every guard stood at perfect attention, their bearing cold and rigid. He alone sat, and by that very fact, he naturally exuded an air of dominance.
"Just like that. Anyone who dares skim from my profits, Chongxuan Sheng, I'll skin them clean!" the fat man said viciously.
"And the others from the Four Seas Trading Alliance?" the young general asked. "Do we follow the usual precedent?"
"All people from Qi will be held for inspection. Once confirmed free of plague, they'll be released to return home. Foreign nationals are forbidden from leaving the borders—any who attempt to breach will be killed on sight. As for the Four Seas Trading Alliance... regardless of which nation they belong to, all goods and wealth will be confiscated, and all personnel will be detained."
Chongxuan Sheng narrowed his eyes. "Is there anything unclear about my uncle's military orders?"
His uncle was none other than Chongxuan Chuliang, known as the Fierce Butcher.
He was also the supreme commander who had led the Autumn Slaughter Army here.
This military order carried no qualifiers before the words "killed on sight."
That meant not only were people from weaker states like Yang and Rong forbidden from entering—even those from great powers like Jing, Chu, Qin, and Mu who happened to be in Yang would receive no exception.
This was the dominance of the State of Qi as overlord of the Eastern Domain, and Chongxuan Chuliang's unmasked bloodlust.
In his normal state and in his commanding state, he was practically two different people.
"Crystal clear!" the young general stated immediately.
"Then go."
Behind Chongxuan Sheng stood Fourteen, clad in full armor.
Unlike Chongxuan Sheng, who wore his wide robes like a fitted tunic, Fourteen's bearing blended far better with this border garrison's city.
No matter what Chongxuan Sheng said to others, Fourteen maintained her habitual silence, and Chongxuan Stunt didn't mind in the least.
"My arrival was so sudden. Do you think Jiang Chen will take offense?"
Without waiting for Fourteen's answer, he answered himself. "Holding a grudge is only human nature. I hope Manager Qian lets him vent his frustration fully."
If Manager Qian learned that his repeated defeats, his failure to escape despite advance warning, were all due to Chongxuan Sheng's hidden manipulations, who knew if he would regret his earlier extortion at Green Goat Town.
Perhaps he would, perhaps not, but it no longer mattered.
Because there was no medicine for regret!
Chongxuan Sheng gazed into the distance from atop the city tower and couldn't help but say again, "Having to borrow my uncle's name to suppress the army is really quite unpleasant."
He carried countless concerns at every moment, burned through so much mental energy, that his body became ever more reluctant to move.
Such a massive frame—once it moved, the effort had to be worth it.
"I'm too fat, you see."
Chongxuan Sheng gripped the armrests and, atop this city wall of Baichuan, stood up.
"This chair... is too small!"
...
...
Green Goat Town.
Jiang Chen had gathered every resident of the entire town into the settlement itself, and the place was suddenly packed to the brim.
He had also confiscated all supplies and implemented a rationing system, setting per-person limits to ensure everyone had something to eat.
No one could understand his decision. In everyone else's view, the only way to combat the plague was to isolate the interior from the exterior and halt transmission. Though the plague had mutated and become more dangerous and terrifying, the core principle of dealing with it shouldn't change.
That was exactly what Green Goat Town had been doing all along.
To suddenly change course and gather everyone together was undoubtedly an extremely risky decision—even though the plague in Green Goat Town's territory was already almost completely under control.
But in Jiang Chen's view, the fact that the plague afflicted cultivators meant the only force capable of directly confronting it had been neutralized. Without a new alternative, the collapse of the situation was all but inevitable.
In certain extreme circumstances, people were more terrifying than the plague!
Those circumstances Jiang Chen refused to imagine, but he couldn't deny their existence.
Ultimately, his measures were not meant to combat the mutated plague, but rather... the potential riots that could erupt after the situation collapsed.
In the Ethereal Realm, Chongxuan Sheng hadn't responded at all. Jiang Chen guessed it was related to the military secrets he'd mentioned earlier. But now that he was in the State of Yang, he truly didn't know who the State of Qi's armies were aimed at, let alone what role Chongxuan Sheng played in it.
But without a doubt, the Chongxuan Zun he had yet to meet had put far too much pressure on Chongxuan Sheng—so much so that this fat man never dared relax, even now, with a seat at the table to bet, he still walked on thin ice.
Jiang Chen could only focus on himself: first, strengthen his own power; second, solidify his forces. He couldn't manage the rest for the time being, and had no way to do so.
He didn't yet know about the State of Qi's armies surrounding the State of Yang. With Qi's power, it was effortless to cut off all contact between Yang's interior and exterior, turning everyone inside into blind men, deaf men, mute men.
Moreover, after years as a vassal state, the State of Yang had never maintained defenses against the State of Qi. To do so would imply disloyalty—how would Yang dare?
That was why Qi's military deployment to lock down Yang was so abrupt yet executed so tightly.
Of course, in Jiang Chen's current view, the State of Yang would eventually receive the State of Qi's aid. After all, Yang was Qi's vassal, representing Qi's face to some degree. Qi couldn't simply ignore it.
Everything he was currently preparing for was meant to hold out until Qi's help arrived.
Based on his interactions with numerous Yang officials, the entire Yang bureaucracy was complacent and blindly arrogant.
With an overlord state beside them, they had no room for ambition. The complacent ones were exemplified by the City Lord of Yue City—you could even say they were drawing pay for doing nothing.
And the arrogance lay in the fact that officials like the Administrator of Rizhao Commandery wore their status as a Qi vassal state like a badge of honor, taking Qi's glory as their own, Qi's strength as their own—all of them were Qi subjects in spirit alone.
At least from what Jiang Chen had seen and heard, he truly couldn't believe that the State of Yang would perform well against the mutated plague. The Rizhao Commandery had an extremely high chance of collapse.
Despite this assessment, Jiang Chen couldn't possibly save the entire situation of Rizhao Commandery. Green Goat Town alone was already his current limit.
Even Green Goat Town, he had no absolute certainty he could protect.
But once he did, he could leverage Green Goat Town as a base to seize the largest piece of the pie for himself and Chongxuan Sheng.
Imagine a collapsed State of Yang—a nation rebuilding from ruins, everything waiting to be restored. How many opportunities would that contain?
And regardless of how powerful external forces were, regardless of how many people coveted this place, none could match Green Goat Town's inherent advantage.
All of this hinged on whether Green Goat Town could become the unyielding banner amid the ruins.
These thoughts were entirely Jiang Chen's own independent reflection.
From the State of Zhuang, to the State of Yun, to the Heaven-Blessed State, and now to the State of Qi and the State of Yang, everything he had witnessed had once left him confused and adrift. He had been contemplating the meaning of nations, the power of systems.
Now he was beginning to form some ideas—though perhaps not yet mature, they were already quite clear.