As the Radiant Light Formation circulated, it did not take long for the murky miasma that filled the streets and alleys of the city to be completely swept away.
The infected citizens were all gathered, isolated, and treated. A disaster that had been on the verge of erupting was thus quietly extinguished without a trace.
For the first time, the people of Lengshan experienced the profound mysteries of the Radiant Light Formation firsthand. At the beginning, they were naturally filled with gratitude. Throughout the city, voices rose in unison, praising, “The great magistrate is wise and just!”
Yet the good times did not last long.
For some unknown reason, the formation’s various other wondrous effects soon became widely known throughout the entire city.
And so…
“What? They are requesting access to the formation’s cooling effect?”
Fang Xun stood before the hall, staring at the vast crowd kneeling outside the county office gates. For a moment, he could hardly believe what he had heard.
“These insolent rabble!”
Fang Xun laughed in anger and immediately gave the order, “Wu Kuang, drive all these ungrateful wretches away! If anyone dares to gather again and stir trouble, arrest them all and subject them to severe punishment!”
“Yes, sir!” Wu Kuang replied with a murderous expression, leading his constables as they rushed out.
In no time, waves of miserable screams rose from outside the county office.
Fang Xun’s face remained cold as frost. “Utterly ridiculous! They dare to bargain with me? Allowing them to benefit from the purification effect at all is already a tremendous act of grace, yet they still dare to demand more…”
At that very moment, it was as if a bolt of lightning split through the fog. Fang Xun’s brows suddenly furrowed.
In that fleeting instant, he seemed to have grasped something.
Yet before he could reflect further, that flash of insight vanished like melting spring snow. No matter how hard he tried to recall it, he could not recover even the slightest trace.
A vague sense of irritation and unease began to cloud his heart.
Only when he strolled into the inner residence, hands clasped behind his back, and saw Huan’er’s innocent, carefree smile did the restlessness within him gradually subside.
Now, the one nursing Huan’er was a wet nurse he had hired at great expense.
As for Yu Niang, that foolish woman, she had long since been confined after repeatedly pestering him about marriage and status without knowing her place.
Fang Xun looked at the child on the couch, stretching out his soft, chubby arms and babbling for attention. Casting aside his authority, he broke into a warm smile and scooped him up into his embrace.
“Huan’er, just watch as your father secures a grand future for you!”
The next morning, the Radiant Light Formation stirred once more.
A refreshing, cooling aura descended upon the entire city like gentle rain.
The people of Lengshan, who had long suffered under the scorching heat, finally tasted a long-lost sense of cool comfort.
The oppressive agitation and resentment hanging over the county were forcibly suppressed by this wave of chill. The tense atmosphere throughout the city eased considerably.
The streets were no longer filled with endless quarrels and fights. Everyone indulged greedily in this rare peace.
Naturally, they did not forget to once again raise their voices in praise of Magistrate Fang’s wisdom.
Yet few noticed that, as the formation was forced to simultaneously maintain both “purification” and “cooling,” the protective barrier enveloping the city was gradually becoming more transparent and fragile.
Three days later, the fourteenth day of the sixth month.
Under the pretense of completely resolving the flooding crisis, Fang Xun led the Black Armored Army out of the city in full view of the public.
It was not until nightfall that he returned, bringing with him uplifting news.
The water level in the silted inner lakes surrounding Lengshan had already begun to drop significantly. At this rate, the flooding would be completely resolved in no more than ten days.
Upon hearing the news, the city’s citizens grew even more jubilant.
On the fifteenth and sixteenth of the sixth month, for two consecutive days, Fang Xun continued leading the Black Armored Army out to dredge the waters.
The results were remarkable. The once looming waterline, heavy and oppressive above everyone’s heads, had been forced down to just a few feet above the city battlements.
After being trapped for so long, the people of Lengshan finally glimpsed hope once more.
The eighteenth day of the sixth month.
Fang Xun set out again as usual.
To hasten the drainage, he even took along the majority of the constables this time.
The morning passed peacefully. Throughout the streets, faint murmurs of relief and excitement drifted among the citizens, like survivors of a great calamity.
Mid-afternoon, around the Hour of the Monkey[1].
“Who goes there?!”
A series of explosive shouts suddenly rang out in front of the Lengshan County office.
A towering figure suddenly burst forth from the far end of the long street, wrapped in a chilling aura of killing intent, charging straight toward the gates of the county yamen.
The constables left behind immediately braced themselves as if facing a great enemy. Golden light flared around the outer perimeter of the yamen as the Radiant Light Defensive Formation was silently activated.
Yet the incoming figure neither dodged nor retreated in the slightest. In his hands, he gripped a pair of massive warhammers.
With a violent stomp, he launched himself into the air. His burly body twisted midair, and the two hammers, each as heavy as a small hill, came crashing down one after the other with overwhelming force.
“Boom! Boom!”
Two earth-shattering explosions rang out. The ground of the entire Lengshan County trembled violently, as though unable to bear the strain. Ripples surged across the protective barrier of the Radiant Light Formation, frantically dispersing the terrifying impact.
But with every wave of shock, its glow dimmed further, as if it could collapse at any moment.
The burly figure did not pause after his initial strike. His assault followed like a raging storm. Those terrifyingly heavy warhammers moved in his hands as lightly as if they were made of clay, swinging without the slightest hindrance.
Under his relentless barrage, afterimages began to streak across the air.
Bang!
Moments later, the county yamen’s defensive formation was actually shattered.
The burly figure surged forward, transforming into a streak of light as he rushed straight toward the inner residence.
He seemed intimately familiar with the layout of the yamen, taking not a single wrong turn. Before long, he arrived outside the room where Fang Xun’s son, Huan’er, was staying.
From within, the faint cries of an infant could be heard.
The target was right before him.
Yet at that very moment, the burly figure suddenly halted.
Everything had gone too smoothly on his way in, and a trace of unease flickered through his heart.
He instinctively tightened his grip on the twin hammers.
Just then, the door ahead creaked open.
His pupils shrank abruptly, because the one who stepped out from within was none other than Fang Xun, who had supposedly left earlier that morning.
Fang Xun was no longer dressed in his magistrate’s robes. Instead, he wore a suit of heavy silver armor.
With a cold sneer, he said, “With a small trick, I lured you right into the trap. Let’s see where you can run today!”
“Take him down!”
At Fang Xun’s explosive command, the previously silent side rooms and adjacent chambers suddenly erupted with movement. Teams of black-armored soldiers and hardened constables poured out like a tide.
In the blink of an eye, the burly figure was surrounded on all sides with no path of escape.
Faced with certain death, a flicker of panic initially surfaced in his eyes. But it was quickly swallowed by an overwhelming surge of battle intent.
“You think you can capture me? You’re nothing but a pack of trash!”
A crimson hue surged into his eyes. Accompanied by a series of crackling sounds from his bones, his already towering physique swelled even further in an instant.
Compared to everyone around him, he now resembled a giant descended upon the mortal world.
“The Master does not speak of the bizarre, of brute strength, or of supernatural chaos!”
Fang Xun’s expression turned solemn as he chanted in a low voice. Using his hand as a brush, he began to write in the air.
The moment his words fell, an invisible shackle seemed to descend upon the burly man.
Visible to the naked eye, the giant-like figure was forced downward as though crushed beneath a mountain.
“Excellent! Now this is a fight!”
Even under such immense pressure, he seemed completely unaffected. Instead, he seized the initiative and charged directly at Fang Xun.
……
“Quite the commotion,” Li Shun muttered as he hid within his residence, watching the distant county yamen where thunderous booms echoed from time to time.
“That guy who stormed the yamen just now…”
“Why does he look a bit like Xiong Jin?” Li Shun stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Just as he was lost in thought.
“Still trying to run? Radiant Light Formation, seal!”
Following Fang Xun’s furious shout, the Radiant Light Formation around the yamen suddenly blazed with brilliance, solidifying into something almost tangible.
But correspondingly…
The defensive barrier that had originally enveloped the entire outer perimeter of Lengshan City instantly thinned to something as fragile as a cicada’s wing.
The surging floodwaters that had long been blocked outside finally found a fatal opening.
An endless ocean poured in.
From the heavens above.
[1]:- The Hour of the Monkey (Shen hour) is a two-hour period in Chinese astrology, typically representing the time from 15:00 to 17:00 (3:00 PM to 5:00 PM).