Wuyuan Prefecture, Yanping City.
Yun Shu arrived riding her sword, her figure as swift as the wind.
She landed at the city gates. Tucked into her hair was the Floating Cloud Hairpin, a hair accessory component of the Mystic Sound of the Nine Heavens Set. Its skill was stealth, which could conceal both her figure and her voice.
At the city gates, commoners coming and going brushed past her, but not a single person noticed her presence.
Wuyuan Prefecture was relatively close to Longyou Prefecture. During the last major drought, Longyou Prefecture had been the hardest hit, followed by Wuyuan Prefecture. However, in terms of sheer losses, Wuyuan Prefecture had suffered even more severely than Longyou Prefecture. This was especially true for Yanping City, where animal husbandry was the main livelihood; the drought had scorched to death all the cattle and sheep raised by the local people.
There was nothing she could do about this. The outfits she possessed could revitalize withered trees, make a hundred flowers bloom, and even perform the miracle of bringing a bountiful harvest, but they could not bring dead cattle and sheep back to life.
With their cattle and sheep gone, most of the commoners in Yanping City were neither good at farming nor did they want to farm. For the officials who wished to govern and improve the livelihoods of the people, the obstacles were seemingly endless.
Yet, despite this, many students from Yecheng Academy had still traveled thousands of miles from Zhenbei Prefecture to Wuyuan Prefecture. They had come harboring the dream of governing Yanping City well, never imagining they would pay for this dream with their lives.
What made it worse was that the oldest of these students was no more than twenty-five. They were still so young, with boundless potential, destined to become the pillars of the nation who would benefit the common people.
If that student had died in an accident, she would have felt only regret. But as it turned out, the student had been murdered!
How could she not feel heartbroken and furious?
Yun Shu could not swallow this anger.
After entering the city, she was met with a scene of utter desolation.
The streets and alleys were empty. The occasional figures she saw were mostly elderly people hobbling with walking sticks; not a single young face was in sight.
She looked around, the doubt in her heart deepening. “Where are the people of this city? Where did all the young people go?”
Even if they were affected by the drought and famine, prompting some to flee elsewhere, she had brought rain in a timely manner, and Zhenbei Prefecture had sent plenty of disaster relief supplies to Wuyuan Prefecture. This should have been enough to stabilize the situation and gradually improve the people's livelihoods.
Logically speaking, there shouldn't be so few people.
There was definitely something wrong with Yanping City!
The little fox followed beside her and said, “Host, when I checked the surveillance earlier, there's a Black Wind Stronghold on Cang Mountain that always hands out porridge at the city gates. They also persuade the people who receive the porridge to go up the mountain with them to farm. It actually counts as doing quite a few good deeds.”
A trace of confusion flashed in its eyes. “However, one thing is very strange. They only want young, strong adults and children; they don't want the elderly. And once those people go up the mountain with them, they never come back down. But they should be fine, because they send grain and money back to their families every year...”
Yun Shu was not as naive as the system. As soon as she heard this, she knew there had to be something fishy going on.
Still, she was not an all-knowing, all-powerful true deity who could divine everything with a pinch of her fingers.
Fortunately, she could currently turn invisible. It wouldn't be difficult to investigate the student's cause of death and find the real culprit.
“System, when do the people from the Black Wind Stronghold usually come to the city gates to distribute porridge and select people to farm on the mountain?”
The little fox glanced at the surveillance again. “Host, they come every day. Looking at the time, they should be arriving soon.”
Hearing this, Yun Shu asked no further questions. Holding the little fox, she sat down in a dilapidated tea shed near the city gates.
Her red dress was exceptionally eye-catching, looking completely out of place in the tea shed and on this street.
Occasionally, commoners walked past her with walking sticks, but none of them noticed her, clearly unable to see her.
She waited for about half an hour.
Arriving before the people of the Black Wind Stronghold were Shen Yu and his companions. They alighted from their carriage and walked toward the tea shed.
Lu Sui had the others head to the Governor's estate first, while he supported the barely walking Shen Yu and sat down to rest in the tea shed, choosing the exact same tea table where Yun Shu was sitting.
The three of them sat at the same table.
But Lu Sui and Shen Yu could not see the invisible Yun Shu. Naturally, they had no idea that the Divine Lady they constantly thought of was currently sitting right across from them, watching them.
“Fuyan, I told you that coming to Wuyuan Prefecture would definitely trigger your altitude sickness, but you refused to believe me.”
Lu Sui looked at the deathly pale Shen Yu. Knowing his friend already had poor health yet still loved to push himself, he was both angry and anxious, but he couldn't bring himself to speak harshly to him. “I'll have someone send you back to Longyou City tomorrow. I'm begging you, alright?”
As he spoke, he took out the medicine given by Physician Zou along with a water skin and handed them to Shen Yu, watching him swallow the medicine.
Shen Yu recovered slightly. He raised his eyes to look at the exceptionally desolate Yanping City. “Now that I'm here, I'm not leaving until I've improved the livelihoods of the people here.”
“You... sigh...” Lu Sui looked at the stubborn Shen Yu. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he remained silent.
Across from them, Yun Shu listened to their conversation, her gaze falling upon Shen Yu's paper-pale face.
After some thought, she took out the Orchid of the Blue Void, the hand-held component of the Floating Dream Set. She controlled it to use its healing skill, letting it exert less than one-ten-thousandth of its effect to eliminate the physical discomfort caused by Shen Yu's altitude sickness.
Before coming to Yanping City, she hadn't realized it.
But now that she was here, she realized that this city truly needed Shen Yu in order to restore its people's livelihoods.
When it came to internal administration, Lu Sui was ultimately no match for Shen Yu.
A gentle breeze blew past, carrying a faint scent of orchids. If one did not sniff carefully, it would be entirely imperceptible.
The next second, the listless Shen Yu felt as if he had suddenly acclimated to Wuyuan Prefecture's climate. The dizziness and weakness in his legs vanished instantly.
“Buyan, Physician Zou is truly a miraculous doctor!” His eyes lit up. “Her medicine works wonders!”
“???”
Seeing Shen Yu suddenly brimming with energy, Lu Sui couldn't help but marvel, “It truly is the favor of heaven.”
His maternal grandfather's family lived in Wuyuan Prefecture, and he had seen many southerners like Shen Yu come here. Unable to acclimate, they could barely last a single day before leaving in misery.
“Heaven has never favored mortals.”
Shen Yu gazed into the distance.
“It is the Divine Lady who favors mortals, bestowing the celestial book of medicine upon us. Otherwise, how could there be so many miraculous medicines in the mortal realm?”
A layer of mist gradually welled up in Lu Sui's eyes.
“Indeed, the Divine Lady treats mortals incredibly well. A single celestial book of medicine has saved countless lives, let alone the fact that what She has bestowed upon the mortal realm is far more than just one celestial book of medicine!”
Taking advantage of the fact that Lu Sui and Shen Yu could not see it, the little fox kicked off with its hind legs and leaped onto the table, leaning in close to the two of them.
It tilted its head and studied them for a moment, then turned back to say to the silent Yun Shu:
“Host, you made them cry again.”
Seeing this, Yun Shu's lips twitched. She reached out, grabbed one of the little fox's tails, and dragged it back.
Right at that moment, the sound of horse hooves echoed from the city gates.
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