Chapter 39

The group exchanged glances, their expressions shifting in an instant.

Fu Ming asked, "What's going on?"

Zhou Yu's brows knitted tightly together. Panic was written on his face, and he had to pinch his own arm hard to steady himself before answering. "They got word from somewhere—they're adamant that the heavens are enraged..."

Lin Yu cut him off. "Get to the point. How bad is it out there?"

Zhou Yu said, "At the hour of dawn today, a villager claimed he'd been entrusted with a message by a famous astrologer. The astrologer said this heavy snow is divine punishment—that the common folk must pay with their lives!"

"To beg heaven's forgiveness, that villager drenched himself in kerosene and burned himself alive in front of everyone."

That astrologer, of course, was Hu Sheng. Everyone's gaze turned silently to him, but he wore the aggrieved expression of a man falsely accused.

Hu Sheng cursed, "Preposterous! What divine punishment nonsense? I've never believed that drivel in my entire life!"

Hu Sheng said, "I was frozen stiff out there, stranded in the middle of nowhere. I thought I was going to die. Then I ran into an old woodcutter, and I crawled up to him and begged him to pass along a message—to tell the people that a natural disaster was coming, so they could prepare. But that woodcutter took one look at my wretched state and didn't believe a word I said. What was I supposed to do?"

Zhou Yu's brows shot up. "So you told him you used to be an astrologer and dropped your famous name—Hu Sheng—to convince him?"

Hu Sheng stroked his beard. "What else could I do? My life was hanging by a thread. I didn't even know if I'd survive. How else was I supposed to make someone believe me and pass on the message?"

Zhou Yu was getting angry. "Don't you realize you'd cause a panic? Everyone knows about your past! The moment your name gets out, people will inevitably think of divine punishment!"

Off to the side, a new idea had suddenly struck Lin Yu. If the people were causing a commotion, it would draw attention—and that made her plan all the more likely to succeed...

The sound of Hu Sheng and Zhou Yu's argument drowned out everything else. Lin Yu leaned in and whispered something to Zhang Yulin. Zhang Yulin's expression changed when she heard it, but she quickly accepted Lin Yu's idea.

Zhang Yulin said, "Then I'll head off first?"

Lin Yu said, "Go."

Lin Yu's gaze shifted back to Fu Ming. He was lounging lazily nearby, listening to the quarrel.

Beside him, Zhou Yu demanded, "Do you have any idea what's happening out there right now? This is all your doing!"

Hu Sheng was never one to have a good temper either. He rolled up his sleeves and shot back at Zhou Yu, "They're the idiots! They overthought it and twisted my words. How is that my fault? I was thinking of them even at death's door—isn't that enough?"

Seeing that Hu Sheng and Zhou Yu were about to come to blows, Lin Yu pulled them apart. "Arguing won't solve anything now. What matters is going out there and stopping them!"

Lin Yu's head ached. Neither side was truly at fault—Hu Sheng, even at death's door, had forced himself to warn the villagers about the disaster, hoping to save them. That was already going above and beyond.

But the people had twisted Hu Sheng's meaning, believing the heavens had sent divine punishment, and so they set themselves ablaze to beg heaven's mercy. Zhou Yu, seeing the people's actions, blaming Hu Sheng was only natural.

Zhou Yu shoved Lin Yu aside and grabbed Hu Sheng by the collar, saying to Lin Yu, "Let him go out there and atone! He's just an astrologer—he's always loved playing the hero, always thinking he can save the world and rewrite mortal fates. All he does is bring even greater calamity!"

Hu Sheng refused to back down, grabbing Zhou Yu by the hair. A brawl was about to break out!

Fu Ming raised his eyes and glanced at the two men on the verge of violence. He spoke flatly, "Shut up. Keep squabbling, and you can join those people out there as targets for the fire."

The air went still in an instant. Zhou Yu and Hu Sheng both froze, not daring to move, though they remained locked in their tug-of-war pose.

Fu Ming raised a hand, about to summon someone to haul the two out and burn them, when suddenly Zhou Yu and Hu Sheng broke apart.

Zhou Yu let go of Hu Sheng's collar, and Hu Sheng released Zhou Yu's hair. Both lowered their eyes, heads bowed, hands clasped in front of them, standing like two schoolchildren who'd been caught misbehaving.

Zhou Yu stammered, "Your... you... sir, please calm your anger..." His tongue seemed to trip over itself as he cycled through several different titles.

Lin Yu seized the opening. "Where did they start the commotion?"

Zhou Yu darted a glance at Fu Ming before quickly looking away. Figuring Fu Ming probably wouldn't kill him on the spot, he answered, "Near the Golden River..."

...

An old man with a white beard, dressed like a cultivator, stood on a raised platform. He held a long-spouted oil can, and before him knelt an elderly man past sixty. The cultivator raised the oil can above the old man's head.

The can tilted, and thick black diesel oil poured down over the old man's scalp. The cultivator shouted, "We beg heaven to forgive our sins!"

The people on the ground knelt in the snow, facing the southeast, and echoed, "We beg heaven to forgive us!"

Hu Sheng and Zhou Yu, as if locked in a rivalry, both rushed off to persuade the people. This time there was no part for Lin Yu, so she stood on a rooftop nearby, watching their movements.

A gentle breeze came from behind her. Lin Yu turned to look and found Fu Ming standing there, having appeared without her noticing. The two of them sat on the roof of the Lu residence.

Lin Yu said, "You got here fast. All taken care of?"

Fu Ming looked at the crowd ahead and replied, "Mm."

Lin Yu asked, puzzled, "You know him?"

The words were out before she realized her mistake. Ten years ago, Hu Sheng had just begun to gain fame when the Emperor summoned him to the Imperial City. Of course Fu Ming knew Hu Sheng.

Lin Yu had almost forgotten—despite his youthful appearance, the man before her had been emperor since he was seven or eight.

But Fu Ming answered anyway. "He was once the Imperial Preceptor I personally appointed."

"He was the Imperial Preceptor?"

Fu Ming said, "For three days... The public never knew."

Back then, Hu Sheng was the first person Fu Ming had ever met who dared defy heaven's will. Even when divine punishment was decreed, Hu Sheng didn't take it seriously at all. Fu Ming admired him greatly—he needed people like that by his side.

Whether it was Hu Sheng back then or Lin Yu now, both were Fu Ming's hope.

After that mountain fire, Fu Ming had overridden all objections and chosen Hu Sheng as Imperial Preceptor. He'd thought that this nation, shrouded in the gods' shadow, was finally about to see a glimmer of change—and then Hu Sheng's wife hanged herself.

Fu Ming had only been sixteen that year. He watched his carefully chosen Imperial Preceptor's hair turn white overnight, watched him lose his mind and flee the Imperial City in a frenzy, never to be heard from again.

Fu Ming's gaze settled on Lin Yu's black hair as the cold wind stirred the strands. Almost unconsciously, he reached out to touch it.

Lin Yu gave a soft "Oh" in response to Fu Ming, unaware of his emotion.

She looked back toward the platform. The old man was now soaked through with oil, drooping like an animal whose fur had been drenched. The cultivator lit a torch, and the oil reflected countless glimmers of light across the old man's body.

The blazing, searing torch circled once before the old man, and his skin took on an unhealthy red glow.

"How many more must burn before the gods above will be appeased?" someone cried out.

Another spoke up indignantly: "Our folk here are the most simple and honest! What kind of person could have angered the heavens to bring this calamity upon us?"

"Who cares? If it's divine punishment, the gods wouldn't wrongly accuse us mortals, would they? Since we've done wrong, we just need to atone—we'll keep offering sacrifices until heaven is satisfied!"

The cultivator stepped back two paces and hurled his torch at the old man, who was drenched in oil and about to be sacrificed!

"Hold it!"

Hu Sheng ran out from the end of the alley, shouting at the top of his lungs, "The heavens have not sent divine punishment! This is merely an unprecedented blizzard—one in a hundred years! It'll stop in a few days!"

Zhou Yu came running up behind Hu Sheng, panting. The crowd stared blankly at these two strange figures who had appeared out of nowhere. The two rushed straight up, snatched the torch from the cultivator's hand, and threw it to the ground.

The torch buried itself in the snow and went out in an instant.

Zhou Yu said, "This is all a misunderstanding! Don't be so quick to believe rumors!"

Before the cultivator could say a word, the old man who was about to be sacrificed grew frantic. He shot to his feet, glaring at Hu Sheng and Zhou Yu with fury. "What do you think you're doing? Who are you two scoundrels?"

Hu Sheng looked baffled. "Old sir, we're trying to save you! Why are you talking to us like that?"

The black oil dripped down over the old man's eyelids. He wiped his face with his hand and said harshly, "Who asked you to meddle? I'm offering myself up willingly to beg heaven's mercy—this is a great deed that benefits the people! After I die, I'll ascend directly to become an immortal attendant and leave the mortal world behind. Don't you dare ruin my future!"

Lin Yu rubbed her forehead. She never understood why some people were so convinced they had boundless merit and profound cultivation, and would voluntarily sacrifice themselves to heaven in exchange for a job as a servant fetching tea and water for the gods.

The cultivator joined in the abuse, sneering, "What do you think you're doing? Who asked you to save him?"

Hu Sheng's mouth twitched with rage. "You—!" He pointed at the old man, but couldn't get another word out.

Zhou Yu said, "Senior, you must be joking. I'm the senior disciple of the Xianzun of Heaven's Mandate Tower. I can guarantee there was never any divine punishment—this is nothing more than people spreading rumors."

Zhou Yu continued, "Since it's not divine punishment, aren't your sacrifices just a waste? Where's the salvation of the people? Where's the boundless merit? You're just dying pointlessly and patting yourselves on the back."

The crowd, which had been silent, suddenly grew restless. "Heaven's Mandate Tower? What was that senior disciple's name again?"

Zhou Yu gave a slight nod, feigning modesty. "I am Zhou Yu."

"Oh! Right, that so-called senior disciple who loses every single sect competition! That shameless fool who only has his status because of his family—he doesn't have a lick of real skill!"

"Isn't he the one from that family that threw piles of money at building temples for the gods?"

"That's him!"

Zhou Yu: ...

He had no real talent. He'd gotten his position as the Xianzun's personal disciple by having his family dump money into building temples, and he'd climbed his way to the respected position of senior disciple by sheer time served in the tower. Everyone knew that well enough—but did they have to say it to his face?

The villagers who hadn't known the story had initially been cowed by Zhou Yu's title, but once they heard he was useless, their attitude shifted instantly. They jeered and swarmed forward, shouting for Hu Sheng and Zhou Yu to get lost.

Once a rumor of divine punishment had spread, it was nearly impossible to correct. Deceiving a crowd was always the easiest thing—they thought they'd learned the truth, and even without any proof, they'd believe it with all their hearts.

Hu Sheng and Zhou Yu had no evidence to offer. The crowd told them to get lost. Hu Sheng tried to speak several times, and after what seemed like a long internal struggle, he finally said, "I am—"

"Whoosh!"

A green leaf, brimming with vitality, appeared out of place in the dead of winter, brushing past Hu Sheng's shoulder and cutting off his words.

Lin Yu leaped down from the rooftop and landed before the crowd.

Zhou Yu, seeing Lin Yu like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline, shouted to the crowd, "If you don't believe me, at least believe her! She is the Divine Maiden of my Heaven's Mandate Tower—possessing boundless merit and deep blessings! She can vouch for everything I've said!"

In his desperation, Zhou Yu heaped lavish praise on Lin Yu, just to add credibility.

Lin Yu beside him: ...

The crowd's attention turned to Lin Yu.

Zhou Yu had overdone the praise, and Lin Yu was a bit embarrassed, but she had to go along with it. "Ah, yes... that's right..."

Just as the crowd's expressions were softening, on the verge of believing, a clear female voice rang out from the darkness. It was a voice Lin Yu knew all too well.

"Do you know why the gods above have sent down this divine punishment—this disaster? It's because of this Divine Maiden standing before you!"

"She bears the empty title of Divine Maiden, but she is narrow-minded and kills the innocent without cause. She murdered someone she shouldn't have, and that is what has enraged the gods above!"