"My men are all at the estate in the south, I didn’t have them come over."
Bai Qinghan said earnestly, "I was afraid you would kill them, although they probably wouldn’t mind, these are my family assets, and I can’t afford to waste them ."
"You have them come over and help."
An Jing said, "I am not one to kill on sight. Right now, stability is definitely the most important. With more hands, we can restore order within the city faster and surely save even more people."
"Oh." Hearing this, it was Bai Qinghan who was surprised, "I thought that after experiencing the affairs in Kanming City, your penchant for killing had intensified. It turns out that’s not the case?"
An Jing shook his head slightly, "According to what you said, your people from Mysterious Yin Peak have always been on standby at Heaven’s Will Mountain, not having committed any evil deeds, naturally, I wouldn’t kill indiscriminately."
At this point in the conversation, he turned his head to look at Linjiang City, which had become much more desolate compared to the past, almost ghost-like, and couldn’t help but sigh, "In the end, after seeing the Linlang Commerce Chamber, I realize that those snow plains horse bandits, though detestable and hateful for killing, only took dozens or hundreds of lives; even the great horse bandits who’ve roamed our old home for many years, rallying people and marauding, totaled just a few hundred or a few thousand."
"But here in Da Chen. A single malevolent action or decree can decide the life and death of a hundred times more civilians."
An Jing watched the ruins of the city center, the place where the government offices once stood, and said with a touch of irony, "Me? In your eyes, I have a strong bloodlust? But from the moment I was born until now, have the number of people I killed exceeded five hundred?"
"But the officials from my homeland, knowing full well that the Frost Calamity had arrived, concealed the truth, I don’t know what kind of peace they were covering up... with such a move, they could kill residents of hundreds of villages."
"What followed was the inexplicable retreat of the Northern Border’s defending army, allowing Green Jade Pass to fall, including Among the Clouds City and other important places to be occupied by the Northern Barbarians one after the other, leaving countless people displaced. How many tens of thousands died then?"
"Lastly, the state militias, to avoid the impact of rebellious and disaster-stricken citizens, set restrictions at various checkpoints – with such a move, guess what?"
Bai Qinghan didn’t speak... but did she need to guess? She had already experienced everything An Jing mentioned in her earlier years.
An Jing knew Bai Qinghan understood this all too well; he said calmly, "It’s not just nine out of ten households empty, the entire Northern Border is empty—those millions of residents, I don’t know if they were captured by Iron Li, or if they found a way out early and moved to the south, or if... they all died in their hometowns."
"Not to mention being killed by horse bandits, even if you asked Iron Li to do it, they definitely couldn’t finish killing them all, it’s impossible."
"It’s so empty that when Iron Li’s tribe came over, they didn’t even need to expend any effort to take over large swathes of towns with city walls and defenses. They call digging out Da Chen’s snow-covered cities and villages ’mining,’ because the various resources left behind are like gold, enabling each poor Northern Barbarian tribe to rapidly grow wealthy."
"That’s real killing. You and I understand this best, don’t we?"
"I understand, Eldest Senior."
Bai Qinghan gazed at the murky ice and mud on the ground and said softly, "Only systematic evil can systematically annihilate life... a single person, no matter how mad, can never compare to the enormity of such an evil."
"Exactly." An Jing turned his head to look at Linjiang City, "Similarly, a systematic order can better accomplish more things."
"Linjiang City has been abandoned by Da Chen, there’s no order here, so I will take charge, I will establish the order."
"But I don’t have enough people, the people from Hanlang Escort Agency are reliable, but there are too few of them... Qinghan, call your team over, even if they are from the Heaven’s Will Demon Sect as long as they can help me establish order here, they too can help save more lives."
"I won’t kill them, as long as they obey my commands, as long as they don’t oppress the common folk, suppress the people."
"Understood," Bai Qinghan nodded slightly and immediately went off to summon more hands.
"Oh, right." After Bai Qinghan had given the orders, An Jing thought of something and called her back, instructing, "You haven’t developed your Inner Strength yet, have you?"
Bai Qinghan nodded slightly: "My ’Quiet Moonlight’ is a Divine Abnormality of the Fate Pattern, independent of the five physical Divine Abnormalities, so currently I have not formally stepped into the realm of Inner Strength."
"Then this is a good opportunity."
An Jing, thinking of how You Ruhui had recently broken through to Inner Strength with the help of Dragon Qi but hadn’t had the chance to use his experience, decided to share his own insights with her: "If one’s talent is sufficient and soul and spirit are strong, there’s no need to follow the sequence of body first, then soul; instead, do soul first, then body."
"In this way, the soul and spirit can be tempered in each condensation of Divine Abnormalities, and the physical body can be guided by the soul and spirit to become tougher—this is the comprehensive approach."
With that, An Jing untied his Martial Robe on the outside to show the Ghost Scale inner armor: "In my recent battle with the True Demon Sect, apart from the special material of this inner armor resisting the Demonic Qi, it was also because my soul and spirit are tough."
"Thinking back on it now, during the battle, there seemed to be a faint noise, as if mumbling something, but I was too focused, intent on killing them all, so I didn’t notice it. This is probably also a benefit of having a tough soul and spirit."
—No, no, no. Bai Qinghan thought to herself. This has nothing to do with mental tenacity, if mental tenacity could withstand a Heavenly Demon, then wouldn’t all of those great cultivators have unbreakable, iron-willed Dao Hearts?
But explaining this to An Jing seemed a bit difficult because her Eldest Senior really seemed to be immune to the Heavenly Demon’s various deceits... Ah, befitting of the Eldest Senior.
An Jing had no idea that he seemed a bit overly impressive in Bai Qinghan’s eyes, and he continued to meticulously instruct: "The only downside is that very few people possess the talent for soul and spirit, I naturally meet the criteria, and you, Xiaobai, awoke to Divine Skill as soon as you became aware of your Fate Pattern—you should definitely give it a try."
"I will heed Eldest Senior’s instructions."
Bai Qinghan bowed solemnly to An Jing once more, causing An Jing to have a strange illusion: did he really defect from the Heaven’s Will Demon Sect?
Just what is going on with these people... Xiaobai is still okay, but if someday another member of the Heaven’s Will Demon Sect were to salute him as seriously as this, An Jing might really start feeling confused!
After Bai Qinghan and Xu Tai left, both of them calling for more hands, and with the speed of Martial Artists, responses would likely come quickly.
Before reliable help arrived, An Jing intended to check his loot—he had gotten quite a bit from the True Demon Sect bandit leader and Mo Li—then he planned to see how his mother’s condition was.
But when he turned around and saw the body of the Great Hui, which was about to transform into a Flood Dragon, he remembered another important matter: "Right, we need to settle the method of storing the Dragon Qi... better contact Ruohui."
Before An Jing could initiate contact, however, a slight vibration in his Divine Sea came from the Emperor’s Blood—it was You Ruhui reaching out spontaneously.
"Oh?" An Jing was curious. He connected to the communication, and then heard You Ruhui’s excited voice: [An Jing, An Jing, I have great news!]
"What great news?" He inquired curiously and then received a very Heavenly Mandate-like answer: [The Ancestral Dragon Hall, having seen my development of the True Martial Spine, has given me all sorts of tomes regarding the True Dragon Spine from their side!]
[Do you need them? If you do, I can send you all this information right now!]