Chapter 1 A Cold Blade

Head Constable Fang was forty-three years old this year, of medium build.

He had a very upright, square face, but between his eyebrows, there was a faint hint of cold and stern killing intent.

The moment he walked into the inn, every seasoned veteran who saw him had a consensus in their hearts—this person was not to be trifled with.

They were right…

The Fang Jin before them was at the peak of his career in terms of physical strength, martial arts, and experience.

Within the Six Doors, he could be considered one of the best.

If not, he wouldn't have been dispatched to such a border town during such a time.

"Innkeeper." Fang Jin stepped into the inn, looked straight ahead, and spoke these three words in a loud voice.

"This humble one greets you, sir!" The innkeeper of the Ke Lai Inn hurriedly responded, and came out from behind the counter, "May I ask what your orders are, sir?"

Fang Jin didn't even glance at him: "I ask you… is the one lying outside a guest of your establishment?"

"Uh…" The innkeeper had nothing to hide, because similar things had happened several times in the past month, and this wasn't the first time he and Fang Jin had such a conversation. "Yes… he… he's staying at my inn."

"Good." Fang Jin immediately added, "I'll take the body…" As he spoke, he took out some loose silver from his pocket, held the silver in his fist, and stretched it out in front of the innkeeper. "This money… was found on the corpse. Take a look, how much do you need to cover his room and the broken items?"

"Aiyo~" The innkeeper quickly raised his voice, "Sir, what are you saying… my small shop, smashing a few odds and ends, how much could they be worth… As for the room fee… he… he already paid it."

Although this innkeeper was greedy, he wasn't stupid. He knew very well—some money could be taken, but some money… he wouldn't touch even if he was beaten to death.

"Oh… is that so…" Fang Jin muttered, putting the money back into his pocket. Throughout the entire process, his hand holding the silver never loosened. "Then… this money will be… handed over to the government by me."

"Yo~ Sir." The innkeeper quickly nodded and bowed in response. "Everyone in our town knows that you, sir, are honest and upright, a reincarnation of the heavens… you can handle this money, not a penny will be embezzled."

"Hmph…" Hearing this, Fang Jin glanced around the inn lobby, snorted softly, and then turned and walked out.

"Alright, alright, everyone disperse! Nothing to see!" As soon as he went out, he shouted a few times, dispersing the surrounding onlookers, and then called a few constables he had brought with him to roll up the corpse, load it onto a flatbed cart, and then the team left.

This wasn't the first time Fang Jin had done this, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

In this era, the imperial court and the martial world had returned to a relationship of "not interfering with each other"; those martial arts vendettas, as long as they didn't involve ordinary people, officials usually wouldn't bother with them; anyway, it was superfluous to interfere, letting you seek revenge, which saved the government some trouble.

So, in the current situation in Linlu Town, when a death occurred, Fang Jin only needed to show his face, confirm that the deceased was a member of the martial world, and then he could take the body and leave; if the deceased had family members or fellow disciples who could handle the body themselves, then Fang Jin could even save himself the trouble of collecting the corpse.

However, Fang Jin didn't mind doing this kind of corpse collecting a few more times, the reason being… everyone had seen it.

These martial world people always had some money on them, and it was just the right amount that even if you embezzled it, no one would say anything.

Of course, Fang Jin was a thorough and meticulous person… even if no one would say anything, he still had to have that conversation with the innkeeper, and do it in front of many people.

No matter how fake the act they put on was, at least the plot of this act was flawless, and if anyone wanted to make a fuss about it in the future, they wouldn't be able to find any fault with it.

From this small matter, it can also be seen that Fang Jin was clearly a veteran with very rich experience in struggle…

…………

After finishing his official business, Fang Jin instructed the constables and yamen runners to transport the corpse back to the nearby county yamen as soon as possible. He himself went to a teahouse at the entrance of the town, ordered a bowl of hot tea and a few steamed buns.

Fang Jin was a head constable who was quite capable of "making money," but he rarely spent his money on eating, drinking, and having fun.

He wasn't picky about what he ate, he never drank alcohol, and he could wear the same blue constable's uniform from the beginning to the end of the year; even in terms of female companionship, he was very restrained.

This kind of self-discipline, this "restraint," was an extremely valuable quality.

Many people couldn't live such a day, but Fang Jin could live like this for a year, ten years, twenty years…

Therefore, he could stay sober most of the time.

Therefore, he rarely revealed flaws and weaknesses.

Therefore, his martial arts and physical fitness were outstanding among his peers.

More importantly, he could use the money that others spent on eating, drinking, and having fun to do something more meaningful.

When mixing in officialdom, it was important to have some "savings," which could be used for promotion and advancement, and even more so for survival in desperate situations… who knew when the ship you were on would capsize, and at that time, "money" would be the life-saving driftwood, and those who hadn't saved anything could only sink into the abyss with the ship.

Click—

"Hmm?" Just as Fang Jin was about to put the second steamed bun into his mouth, suddenly, the saber at his waist… trembled lightly in its scabbard.

Others might not even notice this slight movement, and even if they did, they wouldn't care.

Perhaps the tip of the scabbard touched the chair, perhaps the scabbard was blown by the wind and bumped into something, or perhaps someone passing by brushed against it…

No one would overthink it.

However, Fang Jin, at the moment the saber trembled… his whole body tensed up.

"Who is it?" He immediately asked himself this question in his heart, and began to observe the surrounding passersby without showing any sign.

It was afternoon, and there weren't many people entering or leaving the town, but after all, this was the only main road in the town, and there were quite a few pedestrians, carriages, and horses.

Fortunately, Fang Jin quickly found the person he was looking for in the mediocre crowd…

It was a woman, a woman with a saber.

She was dressed in white, with a graceful figure and lithe gait.

She covered most of her face with a piece of cloth, revealing only the part above her nose; however, just by her eyes and forehead, it was enough to determine that this was a beauty.

"Such a thing actually happened…" At this moment, Fang Jin had no time to consider whether the woman's covered face was really beautiful, he was only concerned about the pair of sabers she wore at her waist.

Fang Jin knew very well that the "trembling" of his saber just now was a reaction similar to "resonance."

Few people knew that Fang Jin's saber was no ordinary saber.

Although this saber was sheathed in a very ordinary scabbard, it looked no different from the waist sabers used by ordinary yamen runners.

But… Fang Jin himself knew that what he was carrying at his waist was one of the four great divine weapons of the world—the Qingniao (Bluebird).

手卷真珠上玉钩，依前春恨锁重楼。
青鸟不传云外信，丁香空结雨中愁。

(Shou juan zhenzhu shang yu gou, yi qian chun hen suo chonglou.
Qingniao bu chuan yunwai xin, dingxiang kong jie yuzhong chou.)

This was a quatrain known to everyone in the martial world today, and the [Yugou] (Jade Hook), [Chonglou] (Lofty Tower), [Qingniao] (Bluebird), and [Dingxiang] (Lilac) in it corresponded to the four divine weapons.

[Yugou] (Jade Hook) was a scimitar, an "Wu Hook" style, cast from a strange black jade; the last time it was seen was in a treasury of the Wang Qiong family.

[Chonglou] (Lofty Tower) was a long halberd, a "hollow" long halberd; because it was hollow, it was as light as a bamboo pole. However, after touching blood, it would absorb the blood into the halberd, the more it absorbed, the redder the color of the Chonglou, the heavier the weight, and the more violent the aura… Legend has it that after killing a thousand people in a row, the power of the Chonglou could split mountains and seas.

However, Chonglou was the only one of these four divine weapons whose whereabouts were unknown, and no one had ever dared to pat their chest and say that they had seen the real Chonglou, everyone was just hearsay. Therefore, there were also rumors that Chonglou was simply a fabricated weapon, and was only made up to match the other three to form the poem.

[Qingniao] (Bluebird) was a short saber, slightly smaller than the waist sabers used by ordinary yamen runners, and was currently undoubtedly in Fang Jin's hands; and Fang Jin had inherited it from his master "Saber Phoenix - Meng Qing."

As for the last [Dingxiang] (Lilac), it was a sword, and the current owner of this sword was named Xie Wuhua.

This Xie Wuhua was the young master of the famous martial arts family Xie, and everyone should be no stranger to his ancestors, who was the legendary swordsman Xie San of that year.

In the years after the "Cangling Sword Debate," the Xie family also rose and fell, floated and sank, and when it was passed down to the previous generation "Confucian Swordsman Xie Xiuwen," it prospered again; and Xie Wuhua was the eldest grandson of Xie Xiuwen's eldest son.

In the previous text, the young man called "Young Master" in the inn lobby was Xie Wuhua. The "Uncle Liu" next to him was also a figure who was famous in the martial world when he was young, known as "All-Seeing Liu Xilai," but Liu Xilai suffered a tragic defeat when he was forty years old, not only was he seriously injured, but he also became disabled; he originally wanted to retire from the martial world, but fortunately Xie Xiuwen took him in, and later became a steward of the Xie family.

Getting back to the point, let's talk about Fang Jin's side first.

As the saying goes, "When the Bluebird cries, divine weapons appear," Fang Jin's master Meng Qing said when he passed the treasured saber to him, that the Qingniao was a saber with spirituality, and if there were other divine weapons nearby, it would react.

Therefore, after feeling the saber's cry, Fang Jin naturally thought that one of the other three divine weapons had appeared nearby, but what he didn't expect was… after searching, he found that the only expert with a super aura nearby was a person who used double sabers.

"Could it be… that there is a fifth peerless divine weapon in this world?" Fang Jin was muttering in his heart, when suddenly, his [Qingniao] (Bluebird) trembled again…