Chapter Four: The Dark Truth Revealed!

The river water was crystal clear, and the wharf was busier than even North Sea City’s harbor. It felt like an entirely different world.

“Those dock laborers... are not quite right...”

The pale-faced scholar coughed softly, his brow tightening as he watched the sturdy men coming and going along the pier.

The others wore strange expressions. By the time one reached the Painted Market, what about it could still be considered normal?

Only Master Tian seemed to understand what he meant and gave a slight nod. “Yes, what you say is...”

The workers on the dock were absurdly well-built. In the chill of the eleventh lunar month, they were bare-chested, their solid muscles steaming with heat. Their vitality was even denser than that of the finest troops in the army, and yet here they were, willingly serving as mere porters, looking not the least bit wronged by it.

The real issue was this: were those people... real or not?

The scholar turned to Master Tian with a puzzled expression, and Master Tian also shook his head lightly.

By rights, the people in the Painted Market should not be real. But could such solidly vital martial men be painted into existence? If so, that was terrifying. If anything could be painted, then could an army be painted too?

“Gentlemen, do you need porters?”

They had scarcely disembarked when several men came crowding over.

The accompanying guards stepped forward warily, shielding Master Tian and the scholar. After a moment’s thought, Master Tian smiled and said, “There is indeed some cargo on the ship. If you help carry it, how do you charge?”

“Rest assured, sir!” one of the burly men said, thumping his chest. “We brothers here are famous for being fair. No one can beat our price. Why don’t we weigh the cargo first?”

“All right...” Master Tian hesitated, then agreed. They had to take the first step sooner or later.

The burly men briskly boarded the ship and hauled the cargo down. They did not even use scales, only weighing the goods in their hands before saying with great confidence, “All you brought are fine goods. Rice, wheat, and fine beans are all scarce lately. How about two taels?”

“Cheap?” the guard captain said coldly, stepping forward. “In North Sea City, even in winter when dock labor is in highest demand, it would only cost a hundred or two hundred cash to move these goods, even after prices have tripled. And you open with two taels?”

At those words, the laborers exchanged glances, their expressions turning strange. Then the man who had spoken first suddenly smiled. “You’re right, sir. Then how about half a tael?”

The guard curled his lip. Half a tael was five hundred cash. It was still absurdly expensive, but he had no intention of haggling further. Better to get ashore first and see what was going on.

Master Tian, however, frowned more deeply. Something felt off, though he could not yet say what.

“Sir, we take payment first and work afterward. What do you think?” The burly man rubbed his hands together with a simple, earnest grin.

As the guard stepped forward and was about to reach for his money, the man suddenly asked with a smile, “Will you be the one paying?”

The guard frowned. “What nonsense is that? Don’t you see me taking out silver?”

“I was only asking.” The other man chuckled.

“Wait!” Master Tian’s expression changed abruptly. He was about to stop them, but it seemed too late. The guard who had been reaching for his money answered the man’s question, and then froze in place. In the next moment, his body seemed to cave in like a punctured skin bag. His ruddy complexion faded in a few breaths to a dry, bark-like husk.

The guards behind him went pale and immediately drew their weapons.

Only then did Master Tian understand what had felt wrong. In ordinary transactions, sums under one tael were reckoned in cash. Who ever spoke of half a tael? That half tael had not referred to money at all. They had all been led astray from the very beginning.

Yet the laborers’ smiles faded without any change in expression, and they watched as the guard who had agreed to pay coughed up a mass of dark-red, viscous fluid.

“Half a tael of essence blood, not a drop off...” One laborer weighed the clot in his hand, then smiled again. “Brothers, get to work!”

With that, he paid no mind to the armed guards at all, as though he were not the least bit afraid of them making a move, and strode straight toward the ship to begin carrying the cargo.

The guards stood helplessly. Master Tian and the scholar, by contrast, calmly walked up to the fallen guard, whose body was now shriveled like a skeleton, and examined him closely.

“So that’s how it is...” The scholar looked at the guard who had been drained dry, then at the laborers on the dock whose vitality was so solid and overflowing. The people on the pier were busy with their own affairs, seemingly long accustomed to what had just happened and entirely unconcerned.

A martial man’s essence blood, gone in an instant, while the people here remained one and all so robust with vigor. Could it be that...

“Since this is your first time here, running into us brothers doesn’t count as a loss,” the earlier burly man said cheerfully as he carried several sacks of grain down the gangplank, smiling at the furious guards.

The scholar raised a hand to stop the guards who wanted to strike, then stepped forward and bowed. “Thank you for the warning.”

“No need to be so polite...” The man’s smile remained honest and simple, as though he considered having just cheated a guard to death no great matter.

“May I ask something impertinent?” the scholar said with a smile.

“Please, sir, ask.”

“Listening to your accent, you’re from Taiyuan, aren’t you? Have you ever thought of going back?”

The other man froze, staring at the scholar for a long while. At last he said in a low voice, “As expected, scholars always have too many thoughts.”

And with that, he said no more. He merely continued directing his men to move the cargo, refusing to exchange another word with them.

The guards, seeing their companion die such a miserable death, did not dare act rashly. They could only watch helplessly. The scholar then lowered his voice and asked Master Tian, “Do you think the people here are real or not?”

“The yin energy is too heavy. I cannot tell,” Master Tian replied, shaking his head. The secrets of the Painted Market were only recorded within a few great clans. For a minor family like theirs, there was too little intelligence available. But looking at the brilliantly lit expanse that stretched across two counties, if all of it were walking painted specters, that would be outrageously excessive. Yet if there were living people mixed in among them, that was even more unsettling to contemplate.

“It seems the legend of the Grand Ancestor may be true,” the scholar said quietly.

The others did not understand, but Master Tian, who knew a little of the hidden history of the former dynasty, did. The founding wealth of the Grand Ancestor of the Great Jin had always been a mystery. A mere peasant with no foundation at all, unsupported by any great clan, yet somehow able to produce an incomparably formidable army out of thin air, one that appeared without the slightest trace. To this day, no one could explain how it had happened. Thus there had long been a rumor that the Grand Ancestor could summon heavenly soldiers.

Now, it seemed that all of this was likely connected to the Painted Market.

And if the faction now moving against the crown prince had some connection to the Grand Ancestor of that time, then the waters this time were probably far deeper than anyone had imagined...

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“Madam, may I ask which way to Magistrate Qian’s house?”

“Two taels...”

The old woman whom Zhang Rui had addressed bared a mouthful of yellow teeth and answered with a grin.

Utterly shameless!

Zhang Rui drew a sharp breath. He was only asking for directions—was that really necessary?

Without another word, he turned and left.

“Hey, young man, young man, don’t be in such a hurry. The price can still be discussed.” The old woman hurried after him.

“Two coins...” Zhang Rui said without looking back.

“All right, all right!” The old woman caught up and grabbed Zhang Rui by the arm. “Two coins it is. Come this way, young man. You’re going the wrong direction.”

Zhang Rui was speechless, letting her pull him along as they headed down a side alley. He did not notice that quite a few people nearby, seeing this, all revealed oddly knowing smiles.

“Lord Zhang, Lord Zhang!”

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out, and Zhang Rui quickly turned around. In the bright lamplight, he could see clearly that the one calling to him was none other than Magistrate Qian.

“Oh, Magistrate, you’re here? I was just looking for you.” He hurriedly said to the old woman dragging him along, “Madam, no need to go any farther. I’ve already found the person I was looking for.”

But the old woman paid him no mind and kept tugging him deeper into the alley.

“Madam?” Zhang Rui frowned. “I won’t short you on the agreed fee for asking directions. There’s really no need to go on... I say, madam, what great strength you have...”

Before he could finish, he was yanked so hard that he nearly fell to the ground. Zhang Rui instantly sensed something was wrong and looked up, only to find that the old woman had changed completely.

Her face was still the same face, but there was not a trace of blood in it. It was deathly white, frighteningly so, and the hand gripping his was covered in white fur. Most crucially, she was only one step away from dragging him into that alley where not a sliver of light could be seen.

Damn it!

Zhang Rui was instantly terrified, his scalp going numb. He could not summon the slightest strength. Seeing himself about to be dragged into the shadows, he instinctively raised the painting scroll in his right hand and struck at the thing’s hand.

In the next instant, the other party released him as if shocked by electricity, let out a shriek, and retreated into the unlit alley.

Zhang Rui collapsed onto the ground. Looking up, he saw a dense cluster of green eyes in the darkness of the alley. It felt as though, the next second, countless white-furred hands would reach out and drag him inside. He was so frightened that he scrambled backward on all fours, retreating all the way to the middle of the street.

“Sir, sir...”

Magistrate Qian’s voice came from behind him, and a hand helped him to his feet. “It’s all right now. It’s all right...”

Zhang Rui was still in shock and struggled wildly against anyone who touched him. Yet Magistrate Qian’s strength was astonishing. Not only did he haul Zhang Rui upright with one hand, he could still keep him pinned so he could not move.

“Sir... calm yourself...” Magistrate Qian said patiently.

How am I supposed to calm down?

Zhang Rui looked down at the hands holding him. They were at least twice the size of a normal man’s, pitch-black, shriveled, with fingers unnaturally long. The sharp, black nails were at least an inch in length, and the hands were covered with a hideous black pelt. And you expect me to stay calm when you’re gripping me with those things?

“Don’t be afraid, sir...” Seeing that Zhang Rui had stopped struggling, Magistrate Qian drew those dreadful claws back into his wide sleeves and even stepped away a couple of paces before speaking again. “Were you looking for me just now, sir?”

“I was looking for Magistrate Qian!” Zhang Rui said coldly, watching him keep his distance. He had calmed down somewhat, but remained wary and took two steps back.

“Sir, I am Magistrate Qian.”

“You think I’d believe that?” Zhang Rui said in a frosty tone.

“If it were Lord Zhang, you probably would,” Magistrate Qian replied with a puzzled look. “But it seems... you are not him.”

Zhang Rui: “........”