Volume One: Autumn Festival Chapter One: The Fourteenth Year of Changping

Year fourteen of Changping: a mirage stood tall against the endless night, and a vast number of monsters known as the Luo Yong suddenly appeared. Many houses on Qixia Street in Hun City were destroyed, but fortunately, there were no casualties...

Within the Governor’s Office, the Magistrate of Hun City was receiving two guests from the Yuyuan Academy.

They were a man and a woman.

The man, dressed in black with a sword at his waist, frowned deeply as he read the records.

The Magistrate offered a flattering smile. “It’s rather odd. These Luo Yong monsters seemed to appear out of thin air—and all on Qixia Street. The incident happened so suddenly. By the time we arrived, the monsters were all frozen in place. We didn’t encounter any resistance and managed to eliminate them all.”

There was clearly something amiss.

The woman, dressed in a white gown, spoke softly, “Senior Brother Su, we must go to Qixia Street to investigate further.”

Ancient texts stated that whenever an immortal descended into the world, strange phenomena would accompany their arrival.

It was rumored that there was an immortal in the divine capital of Sui.

Now, Hun City had witnessed the miracle of a “mirage” and suffered an attack from monsters not seen in decades—just as described in the old records.

They had come on orders, and if they could find another immortal, it would be a great achievement.

...

At the entrance to Qixia Street, an incongruous rattan chair sat in the open.

Jiang Wang lay upon it. His face, as finely sculpted as a statue, was pale and sickly, as though he were mortally ill.

Beside him, a one-armed man squatted, tidying up the paintings before him, grumbling, “If you’re ill, you should be resting at home, not running around. What if more monsters appear?”

Jiang Wang swept his searching gaze over the passersby, thinking, Yes, where are the monsters?

“The Governor’s Office is loudly proclaiming its triumph over the monsters, but I think it must have been some hidden cultivator who intervened. Otherwise, why would these ferocious creatures suddenly freeze and let themselves be slaughtered?”

Jiang Wang hesitated. “If I told you the monsters were controlled by me, would you believe it?”

Zhao Si turned to look at Jiang Wang. “Do you think I’d believe that?”

Of course not.

Even Jiang Wang found it hard to believe.

Yet the emergence of monsters on Qixia Street was undeniable.

Two days earlier, he had just come of age.

The old steward had presented him with a knife, said to have been salvaged by his father through great peril, as a gift.

As soon as he touched the blade, a vision of a mirage shrouded in mist appeared in his mind.

Before he could make sense of it, countless monsters swarmed Qixia Street.

The Luo Yong—spider-like monsters with four large eyes, eighteen long legs, and towering twice the height of a man—rushed toward him.

Jiang Wang had only one thought.

Don’t come any closer!

And then.

All the monsters stopped.

He suspected the knife was the cause.

For his father to have braved so much just to retrieve it was already extraordinary.

The knife must have a remarkable history.

But the old steward could offer no useful information.

Wishing for another monster attack just to test his powers was not exactly moral. Still, if he wanted to confirm whether he could control monsters, he needed to encounter them again.

Now, every passerby on the street looked like a monster to him.

Yet, as it turned out, not a single monster appeared.

At that moment, the sound of hooves echoed.

A young man and woman, dressed in black and white respectively, rode two tall horses toward him.

The woman in white reined in before the rattan chair, looked down at Jiang Wang, and mocked, “Isn’t this the young Marquis? In just a few years, you’ve squandered your family’s fortune and now resort to selling paintings on the street?”

“I’m now enrolled at Yuyuan Academy. I may even have the chance to meet His Majesty in the future. You must regret your past choices, don’t you?”

Jiang Wang glanced at her, uninterested, thinking that monsters would not appear today.

In truth, such monster attacks were rare in Hun City. What happened two days ago was an event not seen in decades, even across the entire Sui kingdom.

This thought left him a little melancholic.

The woman in white stiffened.

What did that look mean?

Was it provocation?

Or did he simply look down on me?

Memories surged back.

The first time she met Jiang Wang at the Marquis’ residence two years ago, he had been just as aloof.

Back then, her family sought to marry into the Marquis’ household, and being looked down on was nothing new.

But now, she’d entered a broader world, her status transformed. How dare he still look at her so dismissively?

Du Yanru’s expression grew cold. “Look at you, half-dead and useless. What use is your pretty face? When the Luo Yong monsters appeared on Qixia Street, why didn’t they kill you? You must have been terrified. Pity I didn’t get to see that for myself.”

Jiang Wang finally couldn’t resist looking at her. “And you are?”

His tone remained lazy and indifferent.

He simply thought this woman was inexplicably blocking his view and chattering nonsense.

Du Yanru’s face darkened.

The man in black, observing this, seemed thoughtful.

Two years ago, as he passed through Hun City with Tutor Cai Tanggu, they came across Junior Sister Du alone in a bamboo grove outside the city.

Tutor Cai noticed her potential and wished to bring her to Yuyuan Academy.

Upon visiting the Du family, they learned she was to be married to the young Marquis of Hun City, but had been refused—hence her running away in humiliation.

Had the Marquis not refused, she would never have had the chance to enter Yuyuan Academy. Still, the man in black now wished to help his junior sister vent her anger.

He smiled faintly.

Deliberately riding forward, he let his horse’s hooves trample the stall, damaging the paintings.

Zhao Si’s face darkened.

Jiang Wang’s brows drew tight.

Had Zhao Si offended someone?

He was about to tell Zhao Si to keep his distance when the man in black suddenly drew his sword.

As the sword tip hovered before him, Jiang Wang was speechless.

“You’ve got the wrong person. There’s always a cause and a culprit. Yes, I’m here with the artist, but we’re not close. I haven’t offended you.”

Zhao Si’s face grew even darker. “They’re clearly not here for me!”

Jiang Wang was bewildered.

He’d been sick since birth, his body perpetually weakened.

Before coming of age, he’d hardly ever left the house. Whom could he possibly have offended?

The man in black spoke coldly, “A fallen young marquis who doesn’t know how to adapt will sooner or later be beaten to death.”

Du Yanru said, “Senior Brother Su, there’s no point stooping to his level. The Marquis’ family means nothing to me now—just a bigger grasshopper. Speaking to him only sullies our status.”

With his sword pointed at Jiang Wang, Su Lingyi said, “Don’t dirty your hands, junior sister. Let your senior brother handle this for you.”

Du Yanru fell silent, merely watching coldly.

She assumed Jiang Wang pretended not to recognize her, perhaps to conceal his pride in the face of their changed positions.

But as the sword trembled, a strange aura surged forth.

Jiang Wang felt a suffocating pressure.

“I’m just sitting here enjoying the sun. You show up and start acting out—now you want to kill me? Isn’t that a bit much?”

Du Yanru, determined to expose his pretense, said coldly, “I am Du Yanru of the Du family from Hun City. Do you still claim you don’t recognize me?”

Jiang Wang looked suddenly enlightened. “So it’s you.”

He played the part perfectly.

Seeing Jiang Wang’s feigned surprise, Du Yanru’s anger flared anew.

She was about to ask her senior brother to teach him a lesson when she noticed something strange about Su Lingyi.

The aura radiating from his sword had vanished.

Su Lingyi still held his sword, but sweat dripped from his brow.

He stared intently at Jiang Wang. “What did you do?”

Jiang Wang blinked.

As if recalling something, he tapped Zhao Si’s shoulder, signaling him to hand over a pebble from the ground.

He tossed the pebble at Su Lingyi’s face.

Su Lingyi’s mouth twitched, his eyes burning with rage, yet his body remained motionless.

Jiang Wang muttered, “Could it be I can control people’s bodies too?”

Zhao Si, hearing this, seemed thoughtful.

Control people’s bodies?

A sly smile crept onto his lips.

Jiang Wang glanced at him. “You haven’t said a word, but judging by your expression, you’re definitely thinking something indecent.”

Zhao Si hastily wiped the corner of his mouth and protested self-righteously, “I am an artist, well-versed in the classics! My thoughts are pure—don’t judge me by your own sordid standards!”

Jiang Wang couldn’t be bothered.

He was feeling rather excited now.

If one looked closely, there was a faint warmth in the air around him—subtle but real—encircling only Su Lingyi.

Still, further testing was needed to be sure.

Jiang Wang remained seated, but leaned forward, beckoning at Su Lingyi with a provocative curl of his finger. “Come on, hit me.”

Su Lingyi was furious.

The veins on his hand bulged as he gripped his sword, straining with all his might to take a step forward.

But nothing happened.

Gradually, fear crept into his heart.

This was not normal.

Could this frail young marquis be a cultivator as well? And a powerful one at that?

Su Lingyi’s face turned deathly pale, sweat streaming down.

Du Yanru, seeing Jiang Wang’s composure—even provocation—shifted her attention from Su Lingyi, not thinking too deeply. She said coldly, “Senior Brother Su is already half a step into the cultivator’s realm. What you’re doing is courting death.”

Jiang Wang replied with a laugh, “You’d better have him kill me soon, but I don’t think he’s up to the task.”

“Senior Brother Su,” Du Yanru said angrily, “with our status, even if we kill him, no one would dare speak against us. You have nothing to fear.”

Su Lingyi hesitated, words caught in his throat.

Looking at the smiling Jiang Wang, his fear grew.

He wished, desperately,

that Jiang Wang would just shut up.