"Infallible predictions, fortune-telling in yin and yang!"

"Fortune telling costs three copper coins, while defying fate costs six taels of silver. One tael of silver won't make you lose out or get you ripped off, but it will buy you a specially made exorcising cinnabar talisman from the Taoist priest of Sanqing Temple!"

"Oh dear, madam, I see that your face is dark and your spirit is in disarray. You are destined for a bloody disaster today!"

...

In the bustling market, a simple horse-drawn carriage moved smoothly.

The carriage swayed, and a long, slender hand gently lifted the faded curtains from the inside, revealing a young man's slightly upturned phoenix eyes.

Seeing the curtain being lifted, a young man dressed as a servant quickly approached with a respectful smile.

"Lord Shen, we have now entered Jiangyuan County. Once we leave Jiangyuan County, we will reach the dock after traveling about 20 li north along the forest road."

"Hmm, who has been making all this noise since just now?"

"Hey! I've been wondering about that too! A lousy fortune teller has been following the carriage around Jiangyuan County ever since he came here, shouting his quack tricks. One minute he's telling a young woman how to have children, the next he's telling a young woman how to find a husband, and he even took the time to tell an old man who barely has any teeth about his future, telling him that seventy is the perfect age to go out and make his way in the world."

Zhao Jiu started cursing and wouldn't stop: "Luckily, our Master Fu went ahead to scout the way in the woods first, otherwise he would have arrested that swindler and put him in jail!"

Shen Suqing listened in silence for a while, and he subconsciously peeked out from behind the curtain at the source of the sound.

In the bustling crowd, the fortune teller was thin and looked no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. He wore an oversized, tattered indigo Taoist robe, and his features were handsome and his smile was cheerful. Unfortunately, a birthmark the size of half a palm on his left cheek ruined the overall harmony.

At that moment, he was forcibly holding the woman's hand, pulling and tugging at her passionately, determined not to let her leave.

A clear and crisp young voice.

"Madam, you'd better buy one, or you'll definitely suffer a bloody disaster!!"

"No, no, go away! I'm going home to cook."

The woman in coarse linen clothes looked away, and she waved her hands repeatedly while carrying a vegetable basket.

Having finally managed to break free, the woman hurriedly disappeared into the crowd.

Shen Suqing withdrew his gaze, and Zhao Jiu, who was standing to the side, came closer with a smile.

"Hehe, Lord Shen, if that swindler disturbs your rest, how about I go and chase him away?"

"No need."

The young man lowered the curtain.

Leaning back in the car with my eyes closed to rest, for some reason, Shen Suqing felt uneasy and had a bad feeling.

The boy seemed somewhat familiar... but upon closer reflection, he couldn't quite place him.

However, he thought this trip would be extremely dangerous, but after five or six days away from the capital, the journey was surprisingly smooth and uneventful. Not to mention assassins or killers, he didn't even see a single suspicious scout.

Could it be that the news that Lan Jiang was trying to lure him out of the capital to Yaozhou was false?

Thinking of Lanjiang, Shen Suqing's eyes gradually darkened.

Nine years ago, this organization, which appeared out of nowhere, used the name "Creation" to create chaos, sow discord among the vassal kings, and support foreign tribes to incite wars throughout the Great Sheng territory, with the aim of destabilizing the imperial court and the state.

The worst incident occurred when the people of Lanjiang somehow foresaw that Nancheng would be hit by months of torrential rain and flooding. They sent people to blow up the river embankment with homemade gunpowder, causing Nancheng to be submerged overnight and tens of thousands of people to perish in the riverbed mud.

After that, starvation was rampant in the southern part of the city, and the people suffered terribly.

Then, the people of Lanjiang infiltrated the crowds of disaster victims, forming cliques and creating panic everywhere. They claimed that the current emperor was not the legitimate emperor recognized by Heaven, and that this was why disasters frequently occurred in various places after his ascension to the throne, saying that this was a warning from God.

What's even more chilling is that these people usually hide among the most simple and honest ordinary people.

They have wives and children, parents, and live peaceful and ordinary lives, but once they receive an order, they become like emotionless assassins, willing to do anything to complete the mission.

Even at the cost of their lives, even if their own wives, children, and parents were in Nancheng, even if their whole family ended up as floating corpses on the water.

Although the emperor had secretly assigned the Dali Temple to investigate and find the mastermind behind Lanjiang in the early years, for the past nine years, Lanjiang, which comes and goes without a trace, has been developing and expanding like a cult.

By now, the forces operating in the shadows have almost reached a point where they can rival the imperial court.

In fact, Shen Suqing did not learn of Lanjiang's existence only after coming to the capital to report on his duties. In fact, he had been fighting Lanjiang for much longer than the Dali Temple had known of Lanjiang's existence.

Or rather, he was the first person in the world to be targeted by Lan Jiang.

Nine years ago, when he was still a poor scholar in the countryside, he had experienced sixteen assassination attempts. If it weren't for his good fortune in escaping each time, it would be hard to say whether he would have made it to the capital alive.

Over the years, although the frequency of assassination attempts has decreased, the people of Lanjiang have never given up on taking his life.

This is also why he lives alone.

Regardless of why the other party was so determined to kill him, Shen Suqing did not want to implicate other innocent people.

After Azhi arrived, he repeatedly told her not to talk to strangers, not to go with strangers, and not to go out casually. Even in the capital city, he never dared to relax his vigilance.

However, the people of Lanjiang always found a way to force him to leave Beijing.

"The Dali Temple received intelligence that a few days ago, someone deliberately spread rumors on the streets that they would create a plague in Yaozhou in half a month, and that Yaozhou would become a dead city three days after the outbreak of the plague..."

Shen Suqing's hometown is Yaozhou.

That day in the study, Fu Shou'an's expression was unusually somber.

Knowing full well that this was a blatant trap, designed to force Shen Suqing to leave the capital, they were helpless. Both knew that if the news were true, tens of thousands of innocent people would die…

The carriage slowly drove away from the bustling market. Shen Suqing, who had just come out of his reverie, pinched the bridge of his nose to calm himself down. His tense consciousness had just begun to relax when he was jolted awake by a sudden loud bang of the gavel.

A gentle breeze stirred the curtain, lifting a small corner and revealing a glimpse of the outside world through the window.

In a riverside tavern not far away, a thin old storyteller spoke eloquently and rhythmically, his eyebrows dancing with excitement as he occasionally stroked his goatee to appear profound.

"The Immortal Venerable Du Hua, dressed in white, stood atop the mountains, aloof and solitary. He slowly drew a Dragon-Slaying Saber with an extremely high drop rate from his crotch, causing all the sects to gasp in horror."

'Du Hua, will you admit to colluding with the demons or not?'

Upon hearing this, Immortal Venerable Du Hua twisted the paralysis ring on his hand. Suddenly, he let out a delicate cry, revealing half of his fragrant shoulder, and sobbed mournfully: "Since you all slander me like this, I truly have no way to defend myself..."

"???"

"Is this plot correct? Isn't the protagonist a Celestial Venerable? If he's so powerful, why doesn't he just use that crotch-shaped magic knife to fight directly?! What's with this 'unable to defend himself' nonsense??"

"Damn, I haven't heard such a terrible story in my entire life."

"Damn it! This lousy story has made my grandfather's seven-day-old corpse turn red with anger..."

Inside the teahouse, there was a chorus of boos and curses.

The audience grabbed melon seeds and peanuts from the fruit plate next to them and threw them at the stage, while the old storyteller nimbly dodged them and accurately grabbed the collar of a man in a straw hat in the chaotic crowd.

"You think you can run away after offending me? If you don't pay me ten or twenty thousand, I'll be sleeping in the same bed with your mother tonight!"

...

Shen Suqing: "..."

For some reason, he always felt that the people of Jiangyuan County were a bit too simple and honest. Fortunately, the journey was relatively uneventful.

The carriage slowly left Jiangyuan County and soon stopped at the entrance of a dense forest. Zhao Jiu wiped the sweat from his forehead and respectfully jogged forward to report.

"Lord Shen, Lord Fu and the others are back!"

Ahead, several fine horses were leisurely munching on grass in front of the bamboo forest, while Fu Shou'an was squatting on the ground, investigating something with several plainclothes guards.