Day and night alternated, tracing the path of time.

The ancient city rose and fell once more between crimson and ashen hues.

On the fringes of Jiangning City, order had become increasingly chaotic. Large and small-scale brawls and killings erupted intermittently. Only the teams under the command of the Fair King "Dragon Sage" Fu Pingbo and the "Military Sage" Lin Jiao Jiu were still trying to maintain order and drive away the combatants. However, even these law enforcement teams occasionally faced challenges from large groups.

The core circle of the city maintained a certain degree of peace. The martial arts tournament had entered the semi-finals, and the winners occasionally held banquets at the Golden Pavilion. For the chivalrous individuals participating in this lively event, although the situation was somewhat chaotic, the more chaotic it became, the more it attracted the attention of the world. As far as the Jianghu (martial arts world) was concerned, being able to participate in such a grand gathering was an unparalleled honor. As for how to protect oneself in such circumstances – the war hadn't even started yet, so what did a little murder, robbery, or street brawl matter?

Everyone said it that way.

Of course, regarding the progress of the Fair Party's five-way Jiangning conference, most people were actually unclear about what was happening. The five great Kings had clashed with each other, causing chaos at the conference, and thus the situation within the city became increasingly worse – this was a result that many were more willing to accept.

Even the various forces that had come from all over to try and place their bets and form alliances largely saw the friction caused by the Reading Club as an ordinary political game. The game was played on stage, and the actions were taken off stage. Once a compromise was reached, all the conflicting parties would naturally cease their hostilities. After all, the Fair Party, which had been harmonious in the past, had always developed smoothly, and the Jiangning conference had been building momentum for so long. It couldn't possibly collapse just because of someone's willfulness, right?

People participated in this infighting with either bewilderment or frenzy…

Of course, the message that the Fair King was going to reveal his hand on September 20th had spread and brewed in the city for a day, and everyone generally understood that things were about to enter a new phase.

After the martial arts competition on this day, the celebrations within the city's inner circle and the conflicts and killings in the outer circle became even more intense. All sorts of clamor resembled a carnival, only occasionally calming down until dawn. Those seeking revenge took advantage of this "last" moment of chaos to do as they pleased. Some mid-level groups under the command of several great Kings also tried to flaunt their power and muscles before the Fair King made a statement, hoping to give their superiors more bargaining chips in the formal negotiations.

People came and went, screams and moans rose, and then gradually disappeared in the clamor. Blood flowed, blood dried… Under the arch of the bridge in front of the ruins of the Five Lakes Inn, the people hiding here also witnessed scene after scene of farce. Those figures appeared from time to time, disappeared from time to time, sometimes falling into sight, some falling off the stone bridge, their corpses drifting away with the current…

When the sun rose, the city seemed to calm down for a while. After several days of chaos, the road above the river embankment was full of garbage. In the burnt ruins on the other side of the embankment, displaced people had set up shacks, temporarily living with meager means. And along the ruins, around more still-formed courtyards, walls had been erected and barriers piled up, with people patrolling on top at all times.

The sounds of chaos came from far to near.

"Stop!"

"Don't let them get away..."

"Kill them..."

All jumbled together.

The morning mist had just dissipated. At this time, the first to run from the road were three figures carrying baggage and bearing injuries. Seven or eight Jianghu (martial arts world) men were chasing behind them, each holding knives and guns. Among these people, two had flags of "Abyssal Butcher" under the "King Yama" behind them, shouting loudly, just like bandits.

Behind the houses beside the road, people poked their heads out from behind the fences, sizing up this chaotic but common scene. Among the shacks in the ruins of the Five Lakes Inn, seeing the changes coming, several men holding knives and guns also stood together at the edge of the ruins, nervously watching the movements, also protecting the weaker family members in the shacks behind them.

"Help..."

The three being chased had injuries of varying degrees, one of them covered in blood, dripping all the way. While running, they cried out to the surroundings for help. But seeing the flag of "Abyssal Butcher" behind them, no one around the houses dared to step forward at this time, only guarding against the other side from coming towards them. As for the pursuers behind them, while running and shouting, they were also surveying the surroundings, occasionally showing warning expressions, even shouting loudly: "What are you looking at!"

"Abyssal Butcher is doing things—"

"Arresting the rebellious Reading Club members—"

Beside the arch of the bridge by the river, Little Baldy clung to the roadside, also watching this scene. The three people carrying packages ran past, followed by the pursuers also panting and shouting past. He turned his head back. A fire was burning by the river, permeating a medicinal smell.

Little Monk said to Big Brother Long Aotian, who was sitting by the fire: "Abyssal Butcher is killing people again."

Inside the arch of the bridge, both figures lying there seemed to have entered a state of dying. The woman, Yue Niang, had been convulsing all night. After fainting, she had not moved for a long time. Xue Jin curled up beside her, not knowing if he had fallen asleep - his condition was only slightly better than Yue Niang's. Deprived of food and medicine, and in a state of long-term mental exhaustion, a person's consciousness had actually become hazy. Ning Ji also couldn't discern whether his consciousness was clear from his breathing. He sat in front of the medicine pot, also seeming to be stuck there.

"Amitabha." Little Monk chanted softly, "Little Monk knows why Master asked me to come here... This is also the suffering of all living beings."

He grew up in Jin, and Jin also had famines, and wars, even cannibalism, but it wasn't as violent and chaotic as Jiangning showed it.

When he first came here, he even felt that there was hope here, that people wanted to obtain a good future, but the more it was like this, the more intense the infighting between people became, even most of the time, it became even more inexplicable.

"I'm starting to hate it here."

After a while, Big Brother "Long Aotian" from the bridge arch said with disgust, then said: "... They're back again."

His second half of the sentence referred to another matter. As soon as he finished speaking, two people came down from the river embankment, poking their heads out and glancing at the bridge arch. These were two of the pursuers from before, one with a flag stuck on his back. They looked here, then turned their heads to look at the small camp in the ruins on the other side of the road, confirming that the two sides shouldn't be together.

"Hey, there are two little brats here..."

"They actually have medicine..."

In troubled times, medicine is a precious thing.

The two came here with weapons, looked at the two adults who weren't moving under the bridge arch, and had already made a calculation in their hearts. This looked like a family, both adults were sick, perhaps they had exchanged their last belongings for some medicine.

"Hey, your parents..."

The person with the flag on his back spoke. The older teenager was sitting cross-legged by the medicine pot, propping up his chin, still not moving. Little Baldy had his back to the two, sighed: "Amitabha..." He reached out and picked up the stick on the ground.

"...They are sick..."

The two spoke as they walked forward. The long stick in Little Monk's hand swished out behind him, simply hitting the abdomen of the person walking in front, retracting, and then pointing lightning-fast upwards, knocking on the Adam's apple of the flag bearer slightly behind.

"Ooh..."

"Woo..."

These two strikes were concise and fast, with almost no time difference visible, not even Little Monk had carefully looked at the enemy. One person clutched his abdomen and curled up on the ground, one person clutched his neck and fell backwards, then rolled on the ground, both unable to make any sound.

"Amitabha, Little Monk also finds it a bit annoying here, but the cultivation of the mortal realm may be like this..."

He put the stick aside and sat down bored.

The two figures rolled on the beach behind for a while, gradually bending over and getting up. Someone started to groan in pain, someone coughed with difficulty. At this time, the other pursuers returned, some standing on the road beside the river embankment, some coming down from above, looking at the scene under the bridge arch, surprised and uncertain.

"Hey..."

"Hey, hey..."

"W-w...what's wrong..."

"W-we are Abyssal Butcher under King Yama, wh-what kind of person did this..."

The two on the ground were helped up by their companions. The flag bearer who was hit in the Adam's apple reached out and pointed fearfully at the bridge arch. The other person was already able to make a sound: "The guy is tough... B-be careful..."

The teenager beside the medicine pot put down his hand propping up his chin.

"This is my old home, the place my mother liked the most... They shat in my heart."

After Ning Ji finished speaking, his gaze turned to the few people here, then stood up, walking towards them with a cold expression. He wasn't tall, and didn't see any weapons, just that his pace was as calm as if he wasn't an ordinary person.

The few people above and below the river embankment were horrified, looking at each other, many even looking around warily. Then, they saw another person carrying a flag beside the road on the embankment change his expression, looking towards the direction they came from, waving his hand.

"Go, w-we're just arresting rebels..." He said, "D-don't disturb the people..."

The others quickly helped the two injured people climb up from under the embankment.

The approaching teenager blinked his eyes, somewhat surprised, but then still coldly watched these people, watching them climb onto the street and run away one after another.

Similar things had happened more than once in the past few days. The two teenagers had beaten up many people, and there had also been several times when they scared people away. Now that the trouble was temporarily resolved, their mood wasn't necessarily good. Ning Ji walked back under the bridge arch, looking at Yue Niang, who had a weak aura, with a depressed expression. Little Monk sat cross-legged, looking down at his toes.

"I heard that something happened to that damned villain called Heaven Killer, so the people under King Yama are very angry, and they're going to fight chaotically again today..."

"They're going to fight chaotically whether something happens or not," Ning Ji said.

As he spoke, Yue Niang's body on the ground suddenly had a slight movement. Her hand moved, then her body convulsed, shaking a few times. A "uh-" sound came from her throat. They saw that her eyes were open, revealing a weak and painful expression.

Ning Ji squatted down, quickly checking her problem. But in fact, the medical knowledge he had received in the past was mostly battlefield first aid knowledge. He had seen the most serious injuries and deaths. For Yue Niang, who had been tortured by weakness and illness for a long time to the point of being almost dried up, he actually didn't have much experience. Now he was just forcibly prolonging her life.

Hearing this movement, Xue Jin, who was curled up on the ground, also woke up. He scrambled over, trying to help.

There was a flurry of activity under the bridge arch. After a while, Ning Ji sucked a mouthful of phlegm from Yue Niang's throat, rescuing her from the brink of death. When Xue Jin held her and sat there, this gaunt woman stared at him with her eyes wide open. Perhaps having returned from the brink of death, her face actually had a slight flush, and the expression between her breaths didn't seem as painful.

She stared at Xue Jin with wide eyes, her gaze like a baby's. After a while, she shook her head slightly in Xue Jin's arms. She still kept her eyes open, this time slowly looking at the scenery outside the bridge arch. After these days of chaos, looking out from the bridge arch, there were first a few tattered weeds and black river water filled with silt. Above the river embankment, the black city heavily pressed on this land, a pillar of smoke rising, looking like a pile of burning garbage.

Xue Jin shed tears, and after a while, he wanted to kowtow, but Ning Ji stopped him. He said: "I'm going out to find medicine."

Little Baldy saw him out from under the bridge arch.

"I'm going to look for Shishi (shit) Baby," he said to Little Baldy, "To see if their family is doing okay."

"Weren't you going to find medicine?"

"...There's no medicine left."

In the continuous chaos in the city in recent days, the medicine in the nearby clinics had long been used up, and even several doctors had been killed in the chaos. Now, if he wanted to snatch medicine, he had to go to the military camp. More importantly, Ning Ji already didn't know what medicine to use.

He left a few slices of old ginseng for Little Baldy.

"...Amitabha." Little Baldy was silent for a moment, then said softly, "I heard they're holding a big meeting today."

"...A memorial service is also a meeting."

Ning Ji frowned, answering irrelevantly.

……

"...Some time ago, Big Brother, you asked me to investigate the news. Now I have verified a few things... As for that new army under Shen Ling, it now seems that it is very likely in Jingjiang... It seems the Fair King has been planning for a long time and has long made plans..."

The sun had already risen a lot. In Jiangning City, the house used for meetings was crowded with people. When the deputy of "Grudge Gathering" and Meng Zhutao walked to a hidden corner, they briefly reported some things in an extremely soft voice, then handed the note with the message to him to confirm.

Meng Zhutao put the note into his sleeve.

Turning around, there were already a lot of people gathered in this courtyard. "Heavenly Blade" Tan Zheng, ""Raven" Chen Juefang, ""Martial Hegemon" Gao Huiyun, ""Five Luo Slashes" Tang Qinghua, ""Tuo River Hermit" Xu Longbiao, etc. had all arrived, as well as various middle and high-level personnel.

Xu Longbiao and others greeted him: "Old Meng, come, come... He Wen said he wants to be frank and not play tricks anymore. What do you think he wants?"

"As long as there's something to talk about, it's a good thing. I'm just afraid he's hiding something and playing dumb."

Meng Zhutao smiled and chatted with everyone for a while.

After a moment, the figure of "Wheel King" Xu Zhaonan appeared in the courtyard. Everyone clasped their fists to greet him. When entering the main hall of this courtyard, Meng Zhutao pushed aside the crowd and walked over.

There were four figures following Xu Zhaonan, all carrying weapons. Seeing that it was Meng Zhutao approaching, they smiled and made way.

"Master Xu, there's some news, let's talk in private."

"Okay, let's go to the side hall."

Xu Zhaonan nodded and led the way. Meng Zhutao and the other four guards followed. After entering the room, Xu Zhaonan and Meng Zhutao walked to the side, but also smiled and pointed to the four guards not far away: "We all know each other, it doesn't matter, speak."

Meng Zhutao nodded and took out the information from his sleeve: "The news that just came in, Shen Ling's people are most likely in Jingjiang. This new army has been training for some time. It's hard to say what their combat strength is. If it's true, He Wen's outburst is also a prepared move."

Xu Zhaonan took it and looked at it, his brow furrowing, then said: "It's similar to the news on my side... Not surprising, he He Wen can get to where he is today, he's not some three-year-old child. Even the thugs under us know that fighting a few more battles before negotiating is better to have more bargaining chips. If he doesn't have a knife in his hand, who will listen to his jabbering."

"My men, Tang Rui and his group, are rushing to Taihu. I will issue an urgent order to have them transfer to the vicinity of Jiangyin for joint defense."

"Well, good job." Xu Zhaonan patted Meng Zhutao's shoulder.

"Master Xu, what do you say He Wen will say today?"

"Whatever he says, we'll block it with soldiers and dam it with earth. As long as he's willing to speak, willing to talk, we'll always have a way... It's not like whatever he says goes, right?"

"...I don't think it's that simple."

"Whether it's simple or not, it can only be like this." Xu Zhaonan took a breath and exhaled it slowly, "Anyway... What if he's prepared? Stationing troops in Jingjiang, stationing troops in Taihu, if they really wanted to fight, why wait until today? If they had suddenly acted ten days ago, or two months ago, when everyone wasn't prepared, he could have taken a temporary advantage. But to put it bluntly, four against one... Even if everyone lets him cut once, he's the one who dies."

Meng Zhutao nodded.

The two walked out of the side hall.

The courtyard became more lively.

At Si hour (9-11 am), the conference began, and everyone entered the venue.

……

The main venue of the Fair Party's conference was set in the most spacious area of ​​this Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze River) mansion. In order to hold this meeting, everyone erected a huge canopy above the courtyard square. Rows of tables and chairs were arranged in a large circle in this spacious space, with the five Great Kings, led by He Wen, sitting next to the five wooden tables at the core. Behind them were the middle and high-level personnel belonging to various parties, as well as representatives of emerging groups such as "Big Boss".

The conference, which was held every two days, had reached its eleventh session on September 21. The first few sessions went fairly smoothly. After Shi Baofeng brought up the Reading Club, the entire conference fell into a stalemate. Several Great Kings had not attended several times, allowing middle and high-level members to come here every two days for a war of words.

Today, He Wen returned to the venue, so Xu Zhaonan, Shi Baofeng, Gao Chang, and Zhou Shang also arrived. The venue was divided into five distinct factions, and the atmosphere was murderous. The few representatives of small forces could only hide in the back and watch quietly at this time.

After a few polite greetings, He Wen, dressed in a gray robe, began to speak after asking people to put down a large pile of documents.

"...Since the convening of this Fair Party conference, I have raised several issues that must be resolved at this conference. These days, all of you brothers have discussed these issues a lot, and some people have asked me what my specific ideas are. Today, I will tell everyone all my thoughts clearly."

He Wen picked up a notebook and slapped it on the table, but then pushed the notebook away and reached out to move over a large stack of record materials next to him.

"But before I talk about the ideas for solving the problems, I want to tell everyone in detail the problems that have appeared in our Fair Party... Abuse of power, wanton slaughter, bandit behavior, fratricide, forced abduction of women, setting up various pretexts, corruption and embezzlement... Item by item, this is the various evils of our Fair Party that I have investigated and collected since last year... A part of it!"

He Wen's finger tapped on the stack of materials: "I will read them to you one by one, and then we will see how to solve them."

Among the crowd, some tilted their heads, some frowned. Zhou Shang clapped his hands with a "pa": "Good—"

Some people also applauded: "Fair King is magnanimous!"

He Wen calmly opened the first page: "Most of our problems must be from the matter of fighting the local tyrants and dividing the land. In August last year, in Changshu Haiyu County, after the battle, the people had a good attitude and were willing to hand over everything, but we killed the whole family. The women in the other party's family were all raped and killed, and the men were tortured and killed. The specific process is like this..."

He Wen's finger pointed to Xu Zhaonan. Xu Zhaonan raised his thumb: "It's a good thing that the Fair King is willing to talk about our problems!"

Applause then resounded in the venue. He Wen looked over there. He didn't wait for the applause to stop, and began to state calmly according to the records in the materials.

The Fair Party's fight against local tyrants and dividing the land also had a basic set of regulations. For example, there would inevitably be accidental injuries during battles, or there would often be accidental injuries in the first round of searching homes. This was not difficult to understand, but after the first round of searching homes, since the other party had admitted their guilt, then to deal with the criminals, there had to be a crime. This was the most basic bottom line, but in the actual operation level, there were naturally outrageous practices everywhere.

This incident that occurred in Haiyu County in August last year was just one example of many incidents. The first round of searching homes had actually killed many people from the landlord's family, but the soldiers in the past were not satisfied. Two days later, they tortured and killed all the members of the landlord's family who had already sealed up their property but hadn't been driven out of the courtyard yet... This was something that could not be said out loud no matter what, after all, even Zhou Shang, who was so fond of killing, would organize "White Rakshasa" to frame the victims and then kill the entire family on the grounds of public outrage.

But such things were not isolated cases. The unrestrained refugees of all parties could do anything in private – or rather, especially after having the name of "Fairness", people who could not be restrained would be even more enthusiastic about doing such things.

He Wen sat there, reciting these collected cases one by one.

Occasionally someone applauded, occasionally someone tried to interrupt, but He Wen remained unmoved and continued to read.

The atmosphere in the venue became boring. Xu Zhaonan and others sat there, instead starting to laugh. Everyone knew the situation of the Fair Party, or rather, in the stage of large-scale inciting refugees and disorderly expansion, these problems were bound to appear. It was so easy to grab things from the other party's home and kill the entire family, right? After breaking through a town, if the supervision was not enough, it was so normal to find a few women to play with, right? Of course, it was wrong to say it, but with such rapid expansion, who could control these things?

Besides, everyone was sitting here today to control these things, right? As for whose head these things landed on – that was all excusable, and they could be corrected in the future.

He Wen read aloud, and everyone first applauded, then listened, then someone started to yawn. Time gradually passed in this boring process of announcing case after case. At noon, He Wen closed the materials and announced that the meeting would be temporarily adjourned. Everyone ate lunch in the courtyards of each faction, discussed for a while, and when the afternoon meeting began, they heard He Wen start jabbering about the case files again.

As Wei hour (1-3 pm) was coming to an end, He Wen slowly closed the unfinished materials. He took a sip of water and let out a long sigh.

Everyone applauded again.

He Wen waited for them to finish applauding, and then took out the original notebook.

"...In the past two years, there have been countless problems in the Fair Party, and I can't finish reading them all... But according to these problems, at this Fair Party conference, I hope that we can quickly have these changes... First of all, we must have more detailed laws and principles. Among these principles, there are some key points that I think are like this..."

Xu Zhaonan and others sat up straight, but then, they heard He Wen say another long and stinky nonsense, such as the standardization of home-searching steps, such as not allowing indiscriminate killing, not allowing the use of public office to seek personal revenge... These things were originally what everyone was talking about, even Zhou Shang supported these articles.

"...Second, we must admit our mistakes and correct them... Can we immediately take some action..."

After that, there were various ideas and suggestions that seemed detailed, such as "establishing a supervisory board", "establishing a voting mechanism", "making decisions that are prohibited", and "establishing new law enforcement teams".

Everyone applauded again and again. Xu Zhaonan, Shi Baofeng, Zhou Shang and others occasionally cheered for it, and their eyes became a little confused.

When Shen hour (3-5 pm) had passed for the most part, He Wen briefly introduced the various reform ideas in one breath. After a slight pause, there was a sense of bewilderment and whispers in the venue. The ideas of these things were ordinary and radical, and many of them drew on the experience in the Southwest. However, no matter what, if they were really implemented, it would depend on people and the will of the wielders of power. He threw these things out, and although everyone would not accept them completely, they didn't see anything that needed to be hidden when they talked about them.

As the whispers were getting louder, Zhou Shang suddenly slammed the table and stood up.

"Well said! I agree with the Fair King's statement!"

Zhou Shang waved his hand and shouted loudly. After a while, he looked around and spread his hands.

"What I want to add is that Zhou Shang's side - is the fairest!"

Xu Zhaonan's side also laughed: "I basically agree with the Fair King's ideas, of course, there are a few things we can talk about slowly."

A group of people expressed their opinions one after another, some made positive comments, and some made negative comments. He Wen sat there watching this scene of chaos for a long time. He slowly began to tap the table, gradually silencing the sound in the venue.

"...It seems that all of you brothers and comrades... agree with my He Wen's ideas. It is impossible for our Fair Party to not reverse these problems on the table. It seems that everyone agrees that we must correct our mistakes, we must enforce bans, we must have more detailed laws and regulations, and we must have more strict law enforcement and supervision system..."

"I agree with that statement."

"We can talk about it, we can talk about it..."

"Laws and regulations, push them step by step..."

Everyone started to express their opinions one after another, while Xu Zhaonan and others sat there watching him. He Wen nodded.

"Good. Since everyone has promised to correct our mistakes, we can slowly push these articles next, and slowly discuss how to build these things... At the same time, while we are having a meeting, there is one thing that is making a lot of noise, so we must stop it..."

He paused: "As for those so-called members of the Reading Club, they are also official members of the Fair Party. They are just reading some books from the Southwest and discussing some useful words. Many of the things they discuss are the same as what I said... In the past few days, some of us have hated them, arrested them, and wanted to kill them directly without interrogation. This is also something that is absolutely not allowed to happen on the previous Fair Party! It seems that everyone agrees that this matter must be stopped immediately."

Xu Zhaonan looked at him: "I think it makes sense. We can discuss this matter and let everyone talk about how to do it specifically..."

He Wen slammed his palm down: "Since everyone says this matter is wrong, and everyone admits that they should correct their mistakes, then first of all, we must stop this matter. I don't care how many members of the Reading Club some of us have arrested in the past few days. In the name of the Fair King, I demand that these innocent companions, our own brothers, be released immediately, and no innocent people are allowed to be killed. I have arranged manpower for this matter. Starting tomorrow, these things must never happen again in Jiangning City, and starting tomorrow, people will be in the city to accept grievances and lawsuits for this kind of wrongdoing. Anyone who knows their mistakes and does not correct them, or has too many bad unjust and false cases, we will accept them, and these people who mess around will be the enemies of my Fair King and the Fair Party!"

Gao Chang, who had been silent all along, spoke. His voice was deep: "Such a big thing, we can't not discuss it."

He Wen spread out his hands: "Please support me for such a right thing! Let's start with correcting our mistakes."

"Does the Fair King get to decide who is right and who is wrong alone?"

"The Reading Club is our own brother, so of course we must stop killing our own brothers immediately!" He Wen laughed, "Everyone said just now that we must correct our mistakes. I have already drafted the order, no matter what, it will be issued tomorrow. Anyone who doesn't even recognize this matter, my Fair King He Wen doesn't recognize him either. Whoever doesn't stop tomorrow is not a member of the Fair Party!"

He Wen put his hands on the table, his voice echoing in the venue. His internal force was not the most powerful in the venue, but after all, the Fair King was bursting out in a posture of splitting, and no one, except the other Great Kings, could directly confront him for a while.

Xu Zhaonan sat there, his brows furrowed and his eyes serious;

Gao Chang sat in his chair, holding his hands in front of his chest, expressionless;

Shi Baofeng's face twitched, his muscles twitching, looking like he wanted to laugh, but then became fierce again. He didn't seem to be able to figure out whether to smooth things over or make harsh remarks.

Some people whispered in a small voice: "We can discuss it, we can discuss it..."

"Hey..."

Someone laughed, and raised their hand suddenly.

With a bang.

Shadows flipped into the sky, and countless pieces of paper flew up.

Zhou Shang, in the center of the venue, flipped the table towards He Wen—