The city was filled with the cries of weeping women, children and elderly. Many places were draped in white cloth. Poor families without money to buy proper white silk just tore some white fabric to hang, going into mourning.

The street surfaces were also riddled with pits and hollows in many areas, as if something had smashed down and caused such conditions.

As Lu Sheng circled through, he saw Jiulian City was already half-ruined after this calamity.

After looking over the city, he also visited the homes of martial arts masters he previously learned from one by one. Fortunately, these shifus were prudent folks who protected themselves well without suffering tragedy. After seeing them, Lu Sheng gave each a generous sum of silver notes before heading to the Zheng residence.

Slap! Zheng Xiangui loudly clapped his hand.

"Brother Sheng, I'll go with you! Can I and Yu'er travel alongside your family's convoy? Damn it all, this is an official military escort, the treatment of county magistrates!"

Lu Sheng was rendered speechless as he glanced over the pitch-black Zheng residence everywhere, clearly not without troubles either.

"Just you and Yu'er?" he casually asked.

"Yeah. Like your place, the rest have split off towards other cities. This time my old man truly saw that there's only trouble brewing in Jiulian City. Even if peace returns later, if something like before happens again, we won't get so lucky dodging it next time. If it wasn't for Brother Sheng introducing Elder Yin this time, our Zheng family would've also suffered greatly."

He paused and sighed, "It's just a pity about Lady Qingqing..."

Lu Sheng remained silent.

After some quiet, he asked again, "So nothing happened at your place?"

Zheng Xiangui was stumped by the question. He lowered his voice and looked left and right before softly saying, "My eldest brother's gone..."

"I see... then this is good fortune for you," said Lu Sheng blandly. "Since you two will join me, I plan on setting off tomorrow. Quickly prepare and also notify Yu'er."

"Got it!" Zheng Xiangui promptly nodded. The two understood that after Jiulian City's events, both their families harbored intentions to relocate. Things wouldn't be so blatant if this happened in a large city and martial artists wouldn't run so rampant. That massive fire wouldn't have occurred so openly either.

Leaving the Zheng residence, Lu Sheng had Little Bao start packing. As he was departing to study this time, Dongshan Academy was extremely famous not only in Lianshan City but all cities nearby. It had strict regulations that prohibited attendant maids, so Little Bao could only temporarily remain in Jiulian City.

After hurried preparations, Lu Quanan stuffed 10,000 silver notes for Lu Sheng to carry before allowing him to leave the city with the official convoy.

Yet faintly, as Lu Sheng was departing, he overheard that Jiulian City's Magistrate Song Duanchi seemed to have suddenly fallen extremely ill sometime earlier, bedridden and on the verge of death. Connecting this to the prior massive explosion at the Pearl Manor, he guessed this was likely collateral damage from that incident. This Magistrate Song was also an unfortunate soul...

They set off at dawn when the sky had just brightened.

Standing amidst the convoy, Lu Sheng's complexion was sickly pale. He wore a thick, snowy white fox fur coat that seemed to enswathe his entire person like an entire white fox pelt, keeping him exceptionally warm and distinguished. This coat alone would cost several thousand silver.

He silently gazed at Jiulian City behind him. Perhaps he would never return here again. His father Lu Quanan had clearly told him before leaving that the entire family would be moving to a large city.

"Brother Sheng? What is it?" Zheng Xiangui stood nearby with rosy-cheeked Zheng Yu'er.

"Nothing much, just feeling some emotions... cough cough..." Lu Sheng started coughing again. He had forcefully cultivated Dark Destruction this time, injuring his lungs. Along with ingesting many cooling yin-natured medicinal ingredients, his body couldn't endure it.

"Let's return to the carriage first. We're setting off soon, Young Master Sheng," said the official troops leader, Old Niu, as he came over.

Lu Sheng nodded. Taking one final look at Jiulian City, he turned and took the lead boarding a carriage.

"Off we go, everyone!" Zheng Xiangui immediately yelled impatiently. He had been waiting for a while now.

Lianshan City, Month 2

The breath of spring was in the air. The swathes of flowering apricot trees outside Lianshan City were slowly transforming into crimson clouds. Endless little red flowers rained down before blooming nonstop, blanketing the ground and trees in red.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Inside an eight-sided octagonal pavilion situated by a small river south of the city, several clean and presentable academy students wearing grey-white long robes sat chatting. Their long hair was tied by black ribbons while they all held the same style of folding fans.

"Brother Lu? Brother Lu??"

A slightly zealous voice pulled Lu Sheng out of his wandering thoughts.

He turned his head, retracting his gaze that was engrossed by the apricot blossoms covering the mountains. Looking around at the others inside the pavilion, the voice came from Song Zhenguo who, like him, was a northern city student that came to study. From a wealthy clan that granted him an extravagant upbringing skilled in leisure, pastimes, drinking and pleasures of all sorts, he also had an elegant and dashing appearance. Song Zhenguo frequently organized like-minded companions on scenic outings.

Song Zhenguo was an acquaintance Lu Sheng met through Zheng Xiangui's introduction. The rest were also mostly fellow northerners, academy students who came from northern cities. Naturally they banded together on this recreational trip.

"Brother Song, pardon me. My thoughts wandered briefly," smiled Lu Sheng.

Nearly half a year had passed since seeing off Yan Kai's group last time.

During this half year, he traveled from Jiulian City to arrive in Lianshan City where he had already resided for a few months without anything peculiar occurring the entire time.

Public security in Lianshan City was excellent. The Flying Incorrupt Guards rotated patrolling day and night within a dozen li radius, ensuring peace of mind to sleep with doors wide open. This was simply worlds apart from Jiulian City.

There were no misfortunes, ghosts or even many homicide cases here. Ordinary commoners walking the city streets or outskirts all wore intact clothing instead of the indecent states back in Jiulian City.

Not long after his arrival, he and the Zheng siblings were admitted into Dongshan Academy where he had already studied for three months now.

During this time, Lu Sheng finally barely managed to recuperate his injuries from forcefully raising Dark Destruction and gradually recovered his health.

Collecting himself, Lu Sheng observed the pavilion's few denizens. These academy students were playing a drinking game akin to drifting cups.

Cups were filled with wine and floated along the rippling stream's surface as servants set them adrift from one end of the pavilion. The academy students waited inside to see who the cups stopped before. That person had to down the wine and answer a personal question decided by everyone else.

Besides Song Zhenguo, there were also five to six academy students who were merchants' heirs sitting inside the pavilion. Additionally, two girls wearing white and azure dresses sat watching the games, softly giggling whenever something amusing happened.

One of the girls was also from the northern cities, exceptionally beautiful in appearance.

The other girl was called Chen Yunxi. Of jade and blossom countenance with cherry lips, she was a native.

Chen Yunxi's looks could be considered proper and correct. Although not as gorgeous as many academy campus belle's, she did possess fair skin and one of the best figures matched by few with an extremely eye-catching slender waist and long legs.

Yet with such qualifications, she could only be rated as middling by the standards of this age. From Lu Sheng's perspective however, Chen Yunxi absolutely qualified as a bombshell, especially that pair of perfect long slender legs sculpted flawlessly.

Unfortunately... the preference here trended towards petite and delicate figures. Long legs especially were undesirable. Thus Chen Yunxi who could be called a stunning beauty in Lu Sheng's eyes became rather mediocre by local assessments.

Thinking of this, Lu Sheng noticed Chen Yunxi's gaze unconsciously settling upon him again. He couldn't help letting out a bitter laugh inside.

He only briefly chatted with her several times, mainly due to Song Zhenguo's introductions too. Never expecting that small talk to accidentally gain high affinity with each other as their conversation flowed freely, soon becoming friends of the opposite sex. Alas, the good times didn't last. For some inexplicable reason, the looks Chen Yunxi gave him started becoming odd, carrying some subtle unsuitable implications.

Chen Yunxi's eyes frequently lingered on Lu Sheng. The brightness inside already betrayed her inner thoughts to anyone.

"Brother Lu seem to always have Miss Yunxi's attention," one student on the side teased.

"A beauty's admiration! Don't you all agree this deserves a penalty drink?" Another stirred up trouble.

"Miss Chen's family wealth numbers ten thousand strings of cash. Her father's an overlord across Lianshan and dozens of nearby cities. Brother Lu best seize this opportunity lest you lose your chance!" murmured Song Zhenguo softly by Lu Sheng's ear.

Lu Sheng shook his head. Amidst everyone's instigations, he picked up a cup of wine from the stream and downed it in one go under collective clamoring.

After finishing the drink, he beamed the empty cup towards everyone. With graceful deportment and fine looks, paired with his fit and strapping build differing from the other students due to high fighting ability that nurtured both internal and external aspects, as well as the spiritual light flashing through his eyes that deeply impressed people at first glance, Lu Sheng gave off an extremely striking presence despite originating from some frontier town called Jiulian City compared to the scions of wealthy clans sitting here from those northern cities.

Under a bout of jests and jeers coupled with Song Zhenguo's efforts playing matchmaker, Lu Sheng was quickly arranged to sit together with Chen Yunxi before long.

The open-mindedness of women during this era meant there were no peculiar stares so long as they didn't expose themselves as extremely as someone like Duan Mowan.

Chen Yunxi whispered to her female companion for a bit before sitting down. Shortly after, they were boldly 'driven' out of the pavilion together under everyone's encouragement.

The two slowly strolled nearby the grasslands, gaining some private space.

At dawn, amidst the calls of birds and fragrance of blossoms, apricot petals covered the entire mountain ranges in gorgeous crimson clouds.

"They just love fooling around so much," said Chen Yunxi, her pair of large eyes openly watching Lu Sheng without concealment. Such 'expulsion' from the group wasn't the first time.

The two took a leisurely walk atop the soft, tender green grassland. Striding over a hillock blocked them from occasional peeks by the rest.

Lu Sheng examined the Chen Yunxi beside him. She wore a pure white dress that reached down to mid-thigh, using a pair of long boots to cover her revealed lower legs. Slim at the waist with jutting twin peaks, the long hair draping past her waist accentuated her pictured image of what words like autumn moon, white orchid and purity would describe upon first sight.

"They're just trying to show goodwill," smiled Lu Sheng. He wasn't the sort to play pretend gentleman or remain aloof from beauty. If a pretty girl took the initiative to pursue him while he had no marriage arrangements, he held no objections and just went with the flow.

Especially since the finest trait about the girl before him were her long legs yet that was seen as a negative here. This caused him some regret.