Chapter 296: Sidelined

So he suddenly turned to Wolf Daoist and said, "Then let's go see—it's the first time I've encountered such a rare thing."

As he spoke, he prepared to step toward them. To his surprise, Wolf Daoist actually grabbed his sleeve from behind: "Great King... you can't go!"

Li Yunxin turned sharply and stared at him sternly. The Wolf Demon then realized he had lost his composure in his urgency and hurriedly let go as if he had been electrocuted. But he still said: "Great King... you can't go!"

"Touch me again, and I'll refine your soul immediately." Li Yunxin stared at him for a long while until a layer of shiny sweat appeared on Wolf Daoist's nose. "Why can't I go?"

The Wolf Demon hesitated for another moment, then raised a hand to scratch his furry ear and sighed: "Sigh, Great King... Oh, how should I say this? Are you a Human Cultivator or a demon cultivator?"

Li Yunxin thought for a moment: "What do you think?"

"If the Great King is a demon cultivator, I'm really not sure if I should say this. If the Great King is a Human Cultivator... it might be fine to say." Wolf Daoist stared at Li Yunxin in the dark—his eyes reflecting the distant firelight with a faint green glow. Then he said, "But I think... the Great King is a Human Cultivator, right?"

"If you think so, then I am," Li Yunxin said casually. "Get to the point."

The Wolf Demon took it as Li Yunxin's admission. He suddenly puffed out his chest, no longer as timid as before, and showed a bit of the air of the Master of Banyan City: "Then the Great King should know one thing. In this Banyan City... I'm not entirely the one in charge right now."

Li Yunxin thought for a moment: "Does that mean the Prefectural Office in this city still manages things?"

The Wolf Demon shook his head: "I'm not talking about that. Those mundane Yamen Runners can't control us—it's been that way since I took over Banyan City. I'm talking about the dozen or so demon cultivators the Great King saw in my Levelplain Temple this afternoon. The very ones the Great King is looking at now. The Great King might not expect the details, so I'll break it down for you—"

"You mean they don't entirely listen to you. Or rather, your philosophies differ, and to some extent, you've been sidelined. Right?" Li Yunxin interrupted him.

The Wolf Demon was prepared to give a long speech, but he didn't expect Li Yunxin to say everything he was going to say—using only three sentences. He was stunned for a while before exclaiming: "Eh? How did you know?"

Li Yunxin smiled: "It's just children playing house. So, what does that have to do with now?"

Wolf Daoist sighed: "The Great King only knows one part but not the other. My Levelplain Temple is an officially registered temple under the Sword Palace. In terms of status, it's equivalent to the Prefectural Office of Banyan City in the mundane power structure. Since I am the Temple Master, I am also a legitimate cultivator registered in the Sword Palace. Logically, those dozen demon cultivators in my temple should be under my control and follow my orders. But now they ignore me entirely and only pay lip service. Does the Great King know why?"

Li Yunxin didn't speak. Wolf Daoist didn't expect an answer and continued: "Earlier in the Southwood Residence, the shopkeeper spoke to the Great King about the Sword Palace Law. Sigh, that kind of thing was supposed to be gradually eased. The Great King is a Human Cultivator; hearing such a thing, you must think I'm lording it over Banyan City and oppressing these people—little did you know I don't care about them. The Great King also saw that I keep chickens and ducks in my own backyard."

"Who are the ones who care about whether people eat such things? It's exactly the dozen you see. And who is their backer? Sigh..." Wolf Daoist sighed deeply here, "It is Jackal Daoist."

"Oh, so there's a Jackal Daoist too." Li Yunxin thought for a moment and said, "So you mean—before you took over Banyan City, Jackal Daoist was in charge. After you came, although he's no longer in power, he instigated these dozen demons to cause trouble for you."

He paused again: "Could it be... when Jackal Daoist was in charge, he was what I call a fundamentalist—forbidding people from touching living creatures. Only after you came did you start following the trends of the Capital City, feeling it was fine to eat some meat at home?"

The Wolf Demon hurriedly said: "Exactly, exactly! Great King, how did you know all this?!"

"Just an old cliché plot," Li Yunxin sighed softly. "Tell me in detail. About your Sword Palace and this Jackal Daoist."

Actually, it was only now that Li Yunxin began to truly be interested in the Sword Palace—interested enough that he was even willing to spend more time here. Because the more places he traveled and the more things he saw, the more he realized there were many secrets in this world.

If the world was originally a blank sheet of paper, then undoubtedly over these thousands of years, it had been deeply and comprehensively changed by some people. The world was not as he thought; the traces left by some former existences... seemed to be everywhere.

Initially, he intended to follow the Divine Dragon's previous approach—quickly killing a few great demons to deter the small fry. But now he realized that the value of the Sword Palace Master, Yang Jianzi, seemed to be more than just a "character who can be killed."

Wolf Daoist was a bit hesitant about his suggestion. But Li Yunxin said again: "What are you hesitating for? At least in this Banyan City, under this tree, I am the butcher and you are the meat. If you're a bit cooperative, you might turn from meat into salted fish—whether with me or the Sword Palace, you still have a chance to turn things around. If you're not cooperative—"

He pointed over there: "There are a dozen others waiting in line for me to interrogate. If I were you, I'd worry about the present first. You only have the capital to talk about the future if you're alive."

Wolf Daoist's eyes darted between Li Yunxin and the dozen demons, and he finally sighed, twitching his furry ears: "Sigh... fine."

"I came to Banyan City fifty years ago. Banyan City is a small border city of the Yu Kingdom, deep in the mountains. Although it's only a thousand miles from the capital, it's actually surrounded by mountains, making transportation very inconvenient... it should have been a barren land. But the nobles in the Capital City say the soil and water in Banyan City are good and love to use the earth and stones from here. So, the Great King sees that most of the people in Banyan City are in that trade."

"If you go twenty miles out of the city, there are several earthen hills. At the foot of the hills is a stone quarry called Red Ridge. The young men in the city all work there, excavating earth and stone to be transported out—I don't know what the people in the capital use them for. This task was assigned by the Sword Palace—it's been excavated for hundreds of years. I came to Banyan City actually to supervise this matter."

"As for Jackal Daoist. He was in charge here before I came. Later, he was recalled to the capital to see the Palace Master because he made a mistake, and then he was dismissed. But after I came, I gradually learned that Jackal Daoist had actually escaped from the capital—gathering a group of demons to occupy Red Ridge. He's a fugitive criminal, but no one from the capital has come to arrest him. My cultivation is not as good as his, so I have no way to deal with him. And I heard... he has a backer."

Li Yunxin smiled when he heard this. He liked this kind of thing—intricate matters involving various factions. If the water isn't muddy, how can he catch any fish?

So he asked: "A backer. What kind of backer could make it so you can't deal with him and even let him pull away the demons in your temple? According to you, you were legitimately sent by the Sword Palace—does the Sword Palace not care about this?"

Wolf Daoist clapped his hands: "The Great King is exactly right!"

But after saying this, he hesitated. He glanced at Li Yunxin a few times and stammered: "As for what backer... I don't know either. I only heard Jackal Daoist say it's someone with extremely high cultivation... even he submits to them. Jackal Daoist is in the Manifestation Realm, and even he submits..."

Li Yunxin thought for a moment and laughed: "Ha, you're worried I'm that person. Then you're overthinking. I'm not. Keep talking."

By this point, fifteen minutes had passed. The situation down the street changed again—firelight appeared from the end of the street. It looked like a group of people carrying torches were rushing over. However, according to the "Sword Palace Law" Wolf Daoist mentioned, people weren't allowed out at night. He didn't know if those coming were humans or demons.

Seeing that it would take some time for the firelight to reach the woman's house, Li Yunxin wasn't in a hurry and just turned back to look at the Wolf Demon.

The Wolf Demon composed himself: "What I think is... that high-level cultivator should also be a demon. A few years ago, the capital already stopped forbidding people from eating living creatures; actually, this trend has slowly reached the lower prefectures and cities. When I first came to Banyan City, the city was livelier than it is now... it wasn't unheard of for people in the city to slaughter pigs and sheep in their own homes. Oh... I also love to eat blood food, so of course I was happy to see this, which is why I keep chickens and ducks in the backyard."

"But then Jackal Daoist came back and colluded with that cultivator, gathering a crowd of demons to make things the way they are now. It's not just our Banyan City; other prefectures are the same way. This is what I really can't figure out—what is the background of the person Jackal Daoist relies on? To actually openly oppose the Sword Palace! So now... it's really difficult, oh, difficult. I want to go to the capital to see the Palace Master, but the Palace Master is not someone I can see just because I want to. It's even more puzzling—perhaps only if a major event really happens here and shocks the Palace Master will he pay attention!?"

As he spoke, he couldn't help but look at the situation in front of the woman's door and then quickly withdrew his gaze.

Li Yunxin also turned to look. By now, he could see who was coming—

It really was "humans," and not ordinary civilians. Leading them was a sturdy man in black clothes wearing a square hat with peacock feathers. There was a dark red patch on his chest with the character for "Constable" written in Yu Kingdom script. Although the style of clothing was different from the Green Kingdom's, Li Yunxin guessed this was likely the Yu Kingdom's "Head Constable."

Peacock feathers weren't something you'd find anywhere; only officials with status could use them. For example, senior constables in the Green Kingdom could only use a pheasant feather.

Behind the Head Constable were a dozen or so other officials, and looking at their clothes, they were clearly Yu Kingdom constables. The Yu Kingdom was naturally not as wealthy as the Green Kingdom, as seen from these officials' attire. Moreover, their uniforms looked like they hadn't been touched in a long time—Li Yunxin's sharp eyes could even see fold marks on the clothes. They had probably been at the bottom of a chest for a long time and were only worn tonight.