Proofreader & Editor: Lotas
Stepping out from the canal path, the location of White Snake Path is actually at the very northern end of the canal.
Li Hengsheng and Wu Santong were originally discussing their next plan in the carriage when, before even half an hour had passed, the entire carriage began to jolt crazily.
Clatter, clatter.
Wu Santong felt his buttocks had been jostled into three separate parts.
"Uncle Xu, could you go a bit gentler, my buttocks," Wu Santong hurriedly shouted inside the carriage.
"What can I do, the road here is just too bad," Xu Kui complained as well, "Ever since we left Zhenguo Mansion, the road has gotten worse and worse. It seems the closer we get to White Snake Path, the poorer the conditions become."
"Can't be, can it?"
Wu Santong quickly lifted the curtain and looked outside, instantly shocked by the road before him.
Potholes were everywhere, and some areas had accumulated water from the rain a few days ago, making the road narrower and narrower. The surrounding stones were more and more scattered, and the trees on both sides were in disarray, looking like a barbaric wasteland.
Thankfully, the carriage was pulled by Zidian; if it were any other horse, it would have probably died of exhaustion by now.
"This road…"
Li Hengsheng looked out the window, frowning as well.
The road leading to White Snake Path was in such disrepair, it didn't bode well for the conditions there.
But there was no other choice.
There was still a long way to go to White Snake Path, and they had to rush to the city of Slaughter Mountain to reach the Inspector's Office of White Snake Path.
For now, there was no other option but to proceed slowly.
"Uncle Xu, no rush, we just need to arrive by tomorrow evening."
Li Hengsheng asked Xu Kui to be a little more careful.
No sooner had he spoken than the entire carriage suddenly plummeted with a thunderous crash, flinging Wu Santong out of the carriage.
Fortunately, Wu Santong had some strength and managed to stabilize himself in mid-air before landing on the ground.
"It's over."
Wu Santong was shocked to see that the entire wheel rut had broken and the wheels had been jolted to pieces.
They couldn't move forward at all.
Li Hengsheng also stepped out of the carriage, shaking his head helplessly.
The road was just too bad.
"Young Master, it looks like we'll have to proceed on foot," Xu Kui said with a frown.
"Let's go," Li Hengsheng looked ahead, "It's just as well, we can take a look around and see what White Snake Path is really like."
"Let's go."
Xu Kui took some luggage, and the rest was hung on Zidian.
The group slowly made their way toward the distance.
By evening, as the sky gradually darkened, just when they were preparing to camp in the wild, they suddenly discovered a small village ahead.
The village wasn't large, but it was surely better than staying in the wilderness, right?
Upon entering the village, Li Hengsheng and his companions found that there weren't many people around. Although there were quite a few houses, only about thirty or so were emitting smoke from cooking fires, indicating inhabitants; the rest were empty.
"Uncle, we're passing through and would like to stay for the night, is that okay?" Li Hengsheng approached an old man who was tending to firewood at the entrance and asked.
The dark-skinned old man turned to look at Li Hengsheng and his companions, his expression clearly surprised.
It seemed he hadn't seen outsiders in a long time and was somewhat at a loss.
Seeing the old man's panicked eyes, Wu Santong stepped forward with a smile and said, "Uncle, we won't stay for free, we'll pay you."
With that, he took out a silver tael and handed it to the elder.
"Ah? Silver."
"Old partner!"
The old man exclaimed, then hurried into the house.
Soon after, an old woman came out and quickly said, "Come in, sirs, but we're quite poor and don't have much, I hope you don't mind."
"No worries."
Li Hengsheng and his companions entered the house.
They found it to be quite spacious but empty, with virtually nothing inside.
There was only a broken bed, a table, and some simple daily necessities – hardly anything else.
"The bed is for you, we'll sleep on the floor," the old man quickly offered.
"No need, we'll sleep on the floor, we're used to it," Li Hengsheng had hardly ever slept in such a dilapidated place; even on the Peak of Ten Thousand Slaughters, it was countless times better. Upon entering and seeing such living conditions, he was still somewhat shocked.
How could the people here live in such poverty?
The couple hesitated, clearly conflicted. They had taken Li Hengsheng's silver, but he refused to sleep on the bed.
Li Hengsheng looked around, feeling a twinge of sadness in his heart.
Now that he was the Inspector of White Snake Path, it wasn't only his duty to ensure the safety of the people here, but also to improve their living conditions.
But along the way, he hadn't seen any good places.
If even the roads were in such disrepair, what else could be in good condition?
The group set down their luggage.
"Uncle, what may I call you?" Wu Santong was the first to greet.
"Just call me Old Zheng."
"Uncle Old Zheng, why are there so few people in this village?"
"Ah, they're not in the village anymore, some ran away, and some were taken to work," Old Zheng said, shaking his head.
"Taken?"
Li Hengsheng was startled, "Taken by whom?"
Old Zheng sighed and then said, "Who else but the Hua family?"
"Why take people?"
"Because we couldn't pay our taxes, so the young people were taken by the Hua family to work."
"Doesn't the Inspector's Office care?" Wu Santong asked incredulously.
"The Inspector's Office?" Old Zheng paused, then said, "Care about what? The Inspector's Office is in cahoots with the Hua family, what's there to care about? The taxes are set by the Inspector's Office, and the Hua family is responsible for enforcement, how would they care?"
Hearing this, Li Hengsheng suddenly understood.
Looking at the state of White Snake Path, it seemed that Fang Zhiliu had been lining his own pockets, and now he wanted to move to a new place to continue exploiting, so he ran off to Black Tiger Pool.
Leaving this mess for Li Hengsheng.
Li Hengsheng understood completely.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Just then, there was a sound of banging on the door.
"Old Zheng, open up!"
A loud shout followed, and before Old Zheng could react, the door was kicked open.
Old Zheng and his wife shrank back in fear.
A man in white walked in, followed by several henchmen.
Their gaze swept over Li Hengsheng and his companions, frowning but not paying them much mind. Instead, they turned to Old Zheng and asked, "Old Zheng, why did you only chop so little firewood today? This isn't enough to pay off your debts!"
"You said before, chop wood every day to pay off debts, then we would release your son. You only chopped this little, are you playing us?"
The man in white leaned in and said.
"Hua Liuye, I really wasn't feeling well today, so I chopped less. I'll make it up tomorrow."
"Alright, you said it."
Hua Liuye didn't say much, but his gaze fell on Li Hengsheng and his companions. Seeing that they were dressed decently, he smiled and walked over, looking them over and asked, "Where are you from?"
"None of your business," Li Hengsheng was not polite.
"How dare you!"
Several henchmen were furious, "You dare to speak to Hua Liuye like this, do you know who our Liuye is?"
Old Zheng and his wife quickly signaled Li Hengsheng with their eyes, advising him not to offend them.
But Li Hengsheng acted as if he hadn't seen.
"Quite the character!" Hua Liuye tapped his fan in his palm and then said, "You look decent, I won't extort you. If you want to stay here, in White Snake Path, you have to pay an overnight fee, ten taels of silver per person."
After saying that, he reached out his hand for the money.
Wu Santong was shocked at the price, "Ten taels of silver, why don't you just rob us?"
"It's funny, is White Snake Path yours? You say there's an overnight fee, and there's an overnight fee? I've read through the laws of Kingdom Zhen on the way here, and I haven't seen any such rule in the laws of Kingdom Zhen or even the entire human race."
"Did the Inspector's Office issue this decree?" Li Hengsheng asked with a sneer.
"The Inspector's Office?"
Hua Liuye paused at these three words, then burst into laughter.
Even the other lackeys couldn't stop laughing.
"What's the Inspector's Office? In front of our Hua family, even if the Inspector's Office's divine arresters came, they could only beat a hasty retreat."
"Moreover, there's no Inspector right now."
"Even if the Inspector did come, in front of our Hua family, he has no say! Our Hua family makes him kneel, and he can only kneel. If he doesn't cooperate with us, then White Snake Path has no place for him. What our Hua family says is the law!"
Hua Liuye was very domineering.
This complete disregard for the Inspector's Office surprised Li Hengsheng and his companions. Could the Inspector's Office really be so powerless?
It was like being at the mercy of others.
"Gentlemen, hand over the silver," Hua Liuye extended his hand towards Li Hengsheng and his companions.
"Wu Junior Brother, give it to them," Li Hengsheng glanced at Wu Santong.
"Alright."
Wu Santong said to the men, "Come with me, we've hidden the silver outside."
With that, he walked out first.
Hua Liuye and his men quickly followed.
However, moments later, there were several muffled thuds from outside, and then silence.
Wu Santong returned just like that.
Hua Liuye was just a Postnatal Realm martial artist, while Wu Santong had already reached the full circle of the Postnatal Realm. Moreover, Wu Santong was a true disciple of Dao Mountain Ancient Land, far stronger than any miscellaneous Postnatal Realm outside. Hua Liuye might have seemed arrogant, but he couldn't even withstand two punches from Wu Santong before falling.
"Senior Brother, it's done," Wu Santong said with a smile as he walked in.
"Did you kill them?" Li Hengsheng asked indifferently.
"Ah?"
Wu Santong was taken aback, then quickly said, "I just knocked them out."
"Why didn't you kill them?" Li Hengsheng's gaze turned cold.
"This…" Wu Santong was nervous for a moment; he had been practicing for so long and had never killed anyone. He thought a lesson would suffice, but Li Hengsheng actually wanted him to kill these people.
"This isn't the sect."
Li Hengsheng said calmly, "You can't always stop at just enough. The place we're in is dangerous, White Snake Path. One misstep and we could be devoured. If we're not ruthless, if we don't kill, endless troubles will follow."
"If you want to follow me, go out and kill them," Li Hengsheng said slowly, "Otherwise, go back to Dao Mountain Ancient Land. I don't want to end up collecting your corpse here on White Snake Path because of your indecision."
With those words, Wu Santong's face changed, and he gritted his teeth before stepping out the door again.
Xu Kui looked at Li Hengsheng, feeling that since leaving Dao Mountain Ancient Land, Li Hengsheng had become much more mature.
Killing them was indeed a very wise choice.
Not killing would only bring a lot of trouble.
After a while, Wu Santong came back, his face pale and his body stained with blood, his lips even trembling.
"Senior Brother, I did it," Wu Santong said, taking a deep breath.
"Good, that's how it should be," Li Hengsheng patted Wu Santong's shoulder, "This is a place where people are eaten. If we're not fierce, our enemies who are fierce will be us. So here, we absolutely can't have any mercy. If we're not decisive, we'll be eaten by others."
"Senior Brother, I understand," Wu Santong nodded firmly.
Old Zheng and his wife were startled, not expecting the Hua family's men to be killed by the three guests who had just arrived.
They were extremely frightened for a moment.
Later, seeing the couple's pale faces, Li Hengsheng pondered for a moment and decided not to continue staying.
He took Xu Kui and Wu Santong out to find an empty room and spent the night.
The next day, they woke up and hit the road again.
The closer they got to Slaughter Mountain City, the more Li Hengsheng felt the eerie atmosphere of White Snake Path.
The faces of the common people they saw were all weary, almost devoid of any smiles, and the environment was poor, with refugees and beggars everywhere.
It was like arriving at a refugee camp.
What saddened Li Hengsheng even more was that his previous guesses were correct; everyone's impression of the Inspector's Office was dismissive.
Apart from colluding with evil forces and acting as their dogs, if the common people went to the Inspector's Office to complain, it was basically fruitless.
Over time, the people of White Snake Path had lost all confidence in the Inspector's Office.
"Young Master, Fang Zhiliu must have done many evil deeds to make all the people of White Snake Path have such a bad impression of him, even to the point where the Inspector's Office has no credibility at all. With this, when you take office as the Inspector, I'm afraid things will become even more troublesome," Wu Santong said worriedly.
"It doesn't matter, can things get any worse?" Li Hengsheng had already gotten used to it.
Finally, they arrived at Slaughter Mountain City.
The situation in the city was much better than outside, with some semblance of a normal city, but the atmosphere was still off.
Li Hengsheng could feel that since they entered the city, many eyes were watching them.
But Li Hengsheng didn't care.
He carefully observed the city's situation.
Many businesses in the city bore the Hua family's sign, as well as a character for "Mu."
Clearly, it was the legendary Mu government.
At least for now, it seemed that the Hua family and the Mu government controlled the city's economic lifeline.
On the streets, there were many laborers, and some were whipped by overseers while carrying heavy loads, which was very brutal.
Li Hengsheng didn't intervene, as dealing with such matters now would be pointless.
The three of them led their horse to the entrance of the Inspector's Office.
There was a tea stall at the entrance of the Inspector's Office. Li Hengsheng didn't rush in but sat down and ordered a pot of tea, quietly observing the Inspector's Office.
The exterior of the Inspector's Office was very dilapidated, even the sign hanging above seemed about to fall off.
There were no guards at the entrance of the Inspector's Office.
It was empty, the doors wide open.
Originally, Li Hengsheng thought it was to facilitate people coming in to complain, but upon closer inspection, it turned out that half of the door was missing, apparently due to years of neglect.
"Boss,"
Li Hengsheng asked the tea stall owner, "This is the Inspector's Office, right? Why does it look so shabby?"
The tea stall owner glanced over and then said, "No money to repair it, quite normal, it's been broken for a long time."
"So the Inspector works in such a dilapidated place?" Wu Santong couldn't help but be shocked as well.
"The Inspector?"
The tea stall owner chuckled and then said, "You can tell you're from out of town. Let me tell you, I've been setting up this stall for over two years, and since I started, I've never seen what the Inspector looks like. He probably never came, right?"
Hearing this, Li Hengsheng and Wu Santong both smiled wryly.
If the person in charge never comes, why bother repairing?
"Let's go, let's go in," Li Hengsheng felt there was no point in looking any further and led the two into the Inspector's Office.
The entire Inspector's Office was like an empty shell, with no one inside. The place was not small, but it was empty, with either cobwebs or thick layers of dust everywhere.
"What are you doing?"
At that moment, a somewhat hoarse voice came.
Li Hengsheng turned his head to see an old man with white hair walking out from the back yard. The old man was wearing the clothes of an officer and looked like a constable from the Inspector's Office.
He looked at Li Hengsheng and his companions warily and scolded, "Who are you? This is the Inspector's Office, don't barge in!"
"Is it just you here?"
Li Hengsheng couldn't help but ask.
"What's wrong with just me?" The old man snorted coldly, drawing a knife from his waist, "Even if it's just me, I'm not afraid of you three. I'm a constable of the Inspector's Office! My grandfather was once the divine arrester of the Inspector's Office, renowned throughout White Snake Path!"
"I am the new Inspector."
Li Hengsheng didn't waste words and directly took out his token.
Seeing the gleaming token, the old man was stunned.
Clang.
The knife fell to the ground, and he seemed somewhat excited, even with tears in his eyes.
"Inspector!"
The old man immediately knelt before Li Hengsheng.
"Descendant of the Iron-blooded Divine Arrester Yan Beigui, Yan Wanghou greets the Inspector!"
"I've been waiting for the Inspector's arrival, and finally, you are here."
Although Yan Wanghou was of an advanced age, he was very excited at the moment, and Li Hengsheng could feel an astonishing passion emanating from the old man.
"Get up quickly."
Li Hengsheng hurriedly helped Yan Lao up.
"Yan Lao, no need for formalities. Today is my first day on the job, and I'll need to rely on Yan Lao a lot in the future," Li Hengsheng said quickly.
"Of course, of course," Yan Wanghou replied eagerly, "Please come to the back. The front is dirty; it hasn't been cleaned."
"Yan Lao, how come you're the only one at the Inspector's Office? Where are the other guards?"
"They went home to harvest wheat."
"???"
"Because we can't pay out salaries, so they all left."
"So I'm an Inspector without any staff?" Li Hengsheng felt it was absurd.
He had already imagined the situation to be very tough, but he hadn't expected it to be this tough.
Not even a single person to assist him.
"Don't worry, sir. As long as we can make up the salaries, they are all willing to come back. If you need it, this old man is willing to run errands for you."
"Alright, then I'll have to trouble Yan Lao."
After all, it was just a matter of arrears in salaries. Li Hengsheng might as well pay it out of his own pocket for now.
"Wu Junior Brother, go find some people to clean up the entire Inspector's Office, see if you can fix that door, and even replace the signboard with a new one."
Li Hengsheng gave his orders.
Now that he had arrived, it was time for a new atmosphere.
Everyone quickly got busy.
However, Li Hengsheng's arrival also attracted the attention of many forces.
A new Inspector had arrived.
Naturally, they wanted to test the new Inspector. If he was as compliant as the previous one, they were willing to make money together. If he was a fool who didn't know the times, they wouldn't mind teaching the new Inspector a lesson.
"I've heard about it, but it's just a Postnatal Realm martial artist, here for a gilded experience, or perhaps to make a quick buck and leave."
In the Mu government, a man twirled two jade balls in his hand and said with a smile, "Send five thousand taels of silver to this Inspector, tell him to behave, not to cause trouble. We can all live in peace, and he won't miss out on future benefits."
"Yes!"
In their view, appointing a Postnatal Realm martial artist as the Inspector was somewhat of a joke. If they said he wasn't here to make money or wasn't a relation of someone influential, they definitely wouldn't believe it.
Could it be that he was sent here to die?
Wu Santong found people to thoroughly clean the entire Inspector's Office and even found a door to replace the broken one.
Li Hengsheng and his companions spent their first night.
The next morning, Yan Wanghou returned.
Following Yan Wanghou, there were more than twenty people, all wearing the Inspector's Office uniforms in a disheveled manner. They had heard that they were going to be paid salaries, so they hurried back.
Li Hengsheng glanced at them. What kind of ragtag bunch was this?
Most were in the Transcendence Realm.
There were three in the Postnatal Realm.
One at the full circle of the Postnatal Realm.
And then…
That was it.