According to the information he had received, Ningxi Commandery—the commandery Xu Zhijie had governed—boasted the biggest land out of the four commanderies of the Shattered Realm, but also possessed the smallest population. Its people had suffered terribly, and discontent had boiled over everywhere.

Xu Zhijie also had a large army that was considered the strongest out of all the commanderies. However, it could never score a victory when it went up against the Shamans. Each time, the main branch of the Xu Clan had to step in and rally the surrounding sects and their grotto-heaven to form a coalition army before they succeeded in repelling the Shamans. Even then, years of warfare had left the people in great suffering and struggling to survive.

During the decade Xu Zhijie had served as the commandery administrator, Ningxi Commandery had conceded two hundred li of territory and lost eight hundred thousand of its population. Countless people were secretly cursing Xu Zhijie to an early grave using the Shamans’ secret arts. This continued until the Xu Clan finally arrested him and uncovered various heinous crimes including but not limited to embezzling military provisions, pocketing the salaries for non-existent soldiers, and even colluding with foreign races. In the end, the man was beheaded, and his kins were exiled to serve in the military.

When Xu Zhijie died, countless Ningxi households lit fireworks in celebration. However, not even half a year after his death, the Shamans’ armies overran all four commanderies and conquered the region. A couple more intense battles followed, and the region transformed into the Shattered Realm.

Xu Zhijie’s crimes were so numerous that he earned himself a spot in a chronograph. A full two hundred and twenty words had been devoted to chronicling his wicked deeds and condemning him before all future generations.

All information issued by the Palace of Absolute Beginning were verified before they were published and could not be falsified. As far as the records were concerned, Xu Zhijie was a classic example of an official who had brought ruin to an entire commandery. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he deserved to die ten times over for his crimes. Ningxi Commandery originally had a population of over two million, yet only one and a half million remained after his ten-year tenure.

Xu Wan’er told a different story, however.

Xu Zhijie was a direct descendant of the Xu Clan, but he rejected the arranged marriage his family had set up for him and instead married a commoner. This caused the young lady from the Lü Clan—the one who would have been his wife—to harbor deep resentment toward him. At the same time, he had a few male patrilineal cousins who had always been jealous of his talents. Thus, they cooperated with each other to undermine and sabotage Xu Zhijie.

Despite facing suppression, Xu Zhijie proved remarkably capable. Through his achievements, he steadily rose through the ranks until he was finally appointed as the commandery administrator of Ningxi Commandery and tasked with defending the frontier. However, not only was Ningxi Commandery caught in a web of competing factions, the shadows cast by the various branches of the Xu Clan lurked in every corner. Every staff general in the army was backed by a powerful backer, and not even a general-in-chief could command them, much less Xu Zhijie. The empty payrolls and embezzlement of military provisions were all the work of these factions. Forget intervening, he could not even access the military supply ledgers.

And yet, through skillful maneuvering and years of meticulous groundwork, Xu Zhijie ultimately managed to take down four of the eight staff generals. Simultaneously, he cracked down hard on large landowners’ land grabs, prosecuting several major landowners and confiscating their lands. He had retrieved it in the name of the office before redistributing them to landless peasants for cultivation.

But of course, these measures alienated nearly every branch in the Xu Clan, especially the landowner whose relatives held various positions in the Western Jin court. They relentlessly impeached Xu Zhijie and smeared him with all sorts of slander.

A few days before his conviction, Xu Zhijie hurriedly sought out Xu Wan’er and taught her a sophisticated method that was capable of concealing her Dao Foundation. He also provided her with several life-saving mystic artifacts. He revealed that he had inadvertently uncovered an earth-shattering secret and was in the middle of investigating it. He then handed her a piece of jade paper, instructing her to keep it safe and flee to the Swelling Water God Palace to avoid what was to come.

But before Xu Wan’er could make her escape, a large, unidentified force had assaulted the commandery administrator’s office and killed anyone they found that very night. Thankfully, the method that concealed her Dao Foundation allowed her to flee amidst the chaos. Later, she ran into Yun Feifei and finally managed to repel the pursuers.

Not long after, news that Xu Zhijie had been convicted and imprisoned and the numerous charges raised against him spread everywhere. The people, already suffering from dire poverty and unaware of the truth, naturally harbored extreme hatred toward him. Those who had received favors from Xu Zhijie dared not speak out, and anyone who questioned the accusations was arrested and labeled as an accomplice. Less than a month after his conviction, the former commandery administrator was publicly beheaded. That day, the execution ground was packed with spectators, and the man himself was pelted with rotten eggs and stinking meat until he was completely covered in filth.

Wei Yuan listened to Xu Wan’er’s story with a mixture of belief and doubt. On one hand, there were many suspicious points about Xu Zhijie’s downfall. For starters, the time between conviction and execution was far too short. Regardless of his crimes, the man was an important minister of a whole commandery. Under normal circumstances, even the swiftest conviction process would take several months to complete. Following that, the conviction must go through various imperial departments for review before receiving the approval of the King of Jin himself. Only then could the execution be carried out. In reality, Xu Zhijie’s sentence had been carried out less than a month after his crimes were discovered. This suggested that there were likely hidden circumstances.

On the other hand, Wei Yuan had come to take Yun Feifei back to the Palace of Absolute Beginning, not to vindicate Xu Zhijie. To put it bluntly, carrying out an Immortal Lord’s design was far more important than clearing the name of a commandery administrator who might or might not have been rightfully accused.

Meanwhile, Xu Wenwu had been listening after he was done emptying the contents of his stomach. As he listened, he grew increasingly indignant to the point where he felt compelled to denounce the ills of the times and voice his own opinions. However, he never did because Wei Yuan had gagged him with a Dao spell and a rope the moment he opened his mouth.

Wei Yuan mulled over the subject for a few moments before asking, “What did your father give you that night?”

Xu Wan’er carefully recalled her memories before answering, “The paper contained mostly trivial-looking records—records of farmlands and household registrations from over a dozen counties within the commandery and the neighboring commanderies, spanning several decades. There were also numerous records of military logistics, accounts of passing merchant caravans, over a dozen ledgers, and entries on the inflow and outflow from various banks. It all seemed quite ordinary. I did not understand what it all meant, and father never explained it to me at the time. He only said that I should find a way to bring it back to the Swelling Water God Palace.”

Wei Yuan remained perplexed despite listening to the end. Just then, Xu Wenwu’s spell-induced silence wore off, and the man blurted out urgently, “These records may seem chaotic, but there must be a connection somewhere! As long as we analyze them carefully and uncover the patterns, we will—”

Wei Yuan raised a finger, and the rope gagged Xu Wenwu once more.

Xu Wan’er’s eyes were brimming with tears after she finished recounting her family history. She suddenly bowed to Wei Yuan and said, “My three brothers and two sisters all died at the hands of those villains. It was a horrible death. If you can clear my father’s name, benefactor, this humble maiden has no way to repay you. I can only... only....[1]”

Wei Yuan got up to his feet and said, “It’s time we depart.”

Xu Wan’er gave him an aggrieved look.

Wei Yuan did not get on his horse immediately. Instead, he found a level patch of ground and sketched an array diagram on it. He placed various spiritual objects at designated positions before setting a small array disc at the center of the array. When he pointed a finger at the array disc, a humanoid figure appeared from within its core—it was an old man with flowing white beard and radiating an immortal presence.

The array’s name was the Mortal World Immortal Inquiry Method. It was a technique he had learned during his Techniques Theory class. It was used to divine the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of a specific action. Typically, the results of the divination were very vague, offering only a general indication of fortune or misfortune. The accuracy of the divination depended on the caster’s own level of existence, the quality of the spirit objects in use, and the nature of the matter being divined. The higher the existences involved in the matter being divined, the more ambiguous the results would become.

This was an extremely basic divination method. Its advantages lay in its simplicity and ease of use. It required neither a special environment nor sacrificial offerings. These days, it had become a habit for Wei Yuan to consult fengshui before any major undertaking. This was doubly true since he was in possession of the Immortal Lord’s array disc, an item that made the divination particularly favorable for him.

Wei Yuan knew that the array had taken form when he saw the immortal floating in the array. He asked mentally, “What danger will I encounter during this trip to Swelling Water God Palace?”

Wei Yuan had intentionally limited the scope of the divination to himself. Xu Wan’er was one thing, but Xu Wenwu hailed from another world. Although he was uneducated and ignorant, his fortune was quite strange. It was difficult to say what would happen if he had included him in the divination.

Wei Yuan continuously injected his Dao energy into the array after mentally asking the question. The white-bearded immortal had been smiling this whole time, but his smile suddenly turned into a frown, and his skull abruptly turned black. Then, a bird’s claw penetrated his chest and covered his whole body in pus and blood. He then crumbled into a pile of mud in no time at all.

1. She can only marry him and slobber all over his handsome bod is what she’s implying. ☜