All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 146 - 5 Anyway, I’m Just a Sword

Chapter 146: Chapter 5 Anyway, I’m Just a Sword

"After the Frost Calamity, I never saw such a peaceful and harmonious city again."

As he walked with the flow of people, An Jing looked around the streets with emotion.

In the northwest region, Kanming City was a very economically developed large city, where the walls of the street-side houses were covered with pasted ink paintings, and there were continuous shadow plays in the courtyards.

What was even more fascinating was the Wengtang and brothel near the city center in the distance, where people, having just bathed and still steaming, disregarded the howling cold wind and headed straight to the neighboring buildings, with enticing folk tunes swaying in the wind.

In the teahouses, scholars in blue robes read and sipped tea, watching the snow from the railings; in the taverns, sword-carrying warriors laughed boisterously, drinking and eating meat.

An Jing could clearly see all of this.

A great river ran through the city, and large mill water wheels turned slowly, with the flags of Xuan on both sides being the emblem of Da Chen.

An Jing saw with his own eyes how disciples from the city’s Martial Arts Academy, by their own strength, pushed carts, clearing the snow from a whole street and piling it into a small mountain, then carrying this small mountain of snow out of the city to dump it outside.

There were also flying shuttles that crossed the skies, landing at the City Lord’s Mansion.

An Jing, unremarkable, walked along the edge of the street. Indeed, some pedestrians noticed this young man dressed in a Dust Li style robe as strange, but they didn’t pay too much attention.

In the northwest Kanming, a place for trade and commerce between Da Chen and the Dust Li tribes, a young man in peculiar attire was nothing noteworthy.

The only thing that attracted attention was that this young man had proper features, a handsome face, hair as black as raven feathers, and skin that was even more white and tender. It was unknown which prominent family’s young master he was, who had been let out to wander outside, seemingly unafraid of being kidnapped by human traffickers and sold.

To tell the truth, this appearance was merely based on the possibility of "An Jing never practiced martial arts," slightly altered from that basis.

After all, An Jing’s Houtu Skills had only minor success, and he couldn’t freely change his appearance, only being able to slightly modify his original facial structure.

But An Jing grew up practicing martial arts and had the Fate Pattern in him, his aura was too sharp and fierce. His real appearance compared to his disguised appearance, even if somewhat similar, would never make anyone think these were the same person.

That day, An Jing did nothing special; he just wandered around Kanming City like a true Dust Li, listening to the rumors in the streets, the laughter in the taverns, the trivial matters in the teahouses, interacting with people, testing his endurance by walking around the city...

Finally, when the sun was slanting, he found himself back in the trading area on the outskirts of Kanming City.

"In the era of Embracing the Void, compared to those days, it has declined a lot... it’s even fair to say, it has become a mess," said Sword Spirit, evaluating the situation: "Although the people here seem to live peacefully and contentedly, everything is built on an excellent geographical location—if it had been years ago, Kanming City would have definitely become a huge frontier trade metropolis, rather than the mediocre trade port it is now."

"Moreover, as the impact of the Frost Calamity continues to spread, the livelihoods of the Dust Li people will surely be affected, the peace maintained between the Hundred Desolations Tribes and Da Chen might be broken... Although Kanming City appears prosperous now, in reality, it is absorbing the Dust Li people who can’t find livelihoods in the north, coming to Da Chen to work, essentially devouring more than it can chew, unsustainable in the long run!"

"Honestly," An Jing interjected skeptically, "an ordinary Immortal Sword wouldn’t understand all this, right? You’re really quite professional."

"Of course," Subdue Evil responded seriously, "A sword is the king of weapons, an artifact of Immortal Instruments, conquering is just a necessary means of violence, a Sword Bearer should understand everything in the world... Although I also can’t think of a solution, spotting problems and pointing them out isn’t hard."

"It’s the same principle as with swordsmanship: I can spot the flaws in an enemy’s swordsmanship, but I might not be able to fix those flaws for him."

"After all, I am just a sword."

——So it’s just a long bar that argues but does not solve problems... Hmm, indeed, a sword doesn’t need to solve problems; it just needs to eliminate those who cause them.

Muttering to himself, An Jing shook his head slightly, "That said, Kanming City’s issues are far from trivial; there are many hidden bombs."

He had also noticed the instability lurking behind the bustling metropolis, though not as bluntly as the Sword Spirit.

Besides, through chats in the streets and alleys, An Jing had learned about some recent news from Kanming City.

Not to mention future crises, even now, Kanming City was hardly peaceful.

First of all, Kanming City’s Guardian Grandmaster ’Wei Yang Quan Shuzheng’ had been missing for a long time.

It was said that every autumn and winter, he would conventionally go hunting alone in the deep mountains, but it was the first time he had neither shown up nor sent any messages for over a month.

With no one in charge, the upper echelons of Kanming City were negligent, the city guards slacked off, and even the recent invasions of demon beasts were blamed on the absenteeism of their superior.

An Jing suspected that if Master Shu did not return to the city soon, Kanming City’s bureaucracy would use his absence as an excuse to "burn the warehouses to balance the accounts."

Secondly, from a conversation he recently overheard among the street-side women, there have been sporadic disappearances of vagrants and people living alone in Kanming City.

Even children who went out to play alone had gone missing, causing considerable shock and outrage among the people.

The women chatted with palpable anxiety, their fearful tone about their own children potentially being trafficked did not seem feigned.

"Demon Sect?"

Hearing this, An Jing frowned, "Again?"

Although he had just managed to escape the Heaven’s Will Demon Sect’s pursuit and did not want to get involved again... how could he not act when faced with such situations!

If it really came down to it, he would go to the authorities!

However, An Jing also harbored some doubts.

From his own experiences, even if the Demon Sect consumed humans, their requirements were quite high.

Simply put, they generally disdained consuming people without a Fate Pattern or children who had not undergone special training.

Most of the servants and riders were those children whom even eating would yield no value, essentially those without a Fate Pattern.

Even people like Instructor Li, who failed to awaken their Fate Pattern, were rare, which was why he was the leader of the team and the instructor— with each step he climbed in his own social status, the likelihood of his Fate Pattern awakening increased compared to others.

Unless there was a special circumstance that required a sudden need for consumables, why would the Demon Sect come to a place like Da Chen to abduct people when they had their own cities, villages, and gathering spots in Western Mountain?

An Jing didn’t doubt the morality of the Heaven’s Will Demon Sect, because the Demon Sect lacked such a thing; he doubted that the Demon Sect’s standards would be so low.

But even if it was not the Heaven’s Will Demon Sect, it was most likely some other minor demon sect; whoever was kidnapping and abducting people in Kanming City surely had deep connections behind them.