Qin Luo was startled upon hearing this.

"What? When was the prefect killed?"

The old man looked at the two of them and suddenly became wary.

"Why are you two little kids asking these questions?"

Jingming bowed in Buddhist homage to the old man.

"Esteemed benefactor, please do not panic. This humble monk is from Fuhua Temple and harbors no ill will towards you. I merely nearly ended up in the prefectural city, and thus am quite curious about its affairs!"

The old man lowered his guard only after hearing that it was Fuhua Temple.

"Oh, it's the young monk. When we arrived, we saw that Fuhua Temple had been looted by bandits, and we thought all the monks were..."

Seeing Jingming's sorrowful expression, the old man changed his tone.

"It's good that you're alive, it's good that you're alive!"

Jingming bowed to him.

"Could you please tell me about the situation in the prefectural city?"

The old man nodded.

"Including today, it's been exactly ten days. The day we entered the city, the gates were locked, and a lot of men with knives came out!"

"Are they government officials?"

The old man immediately denied it.

"They don't look like government officials, yet they insist we hand over the murderer. We disaster victims have no idea who the murderer is!"

Seeing that the old man was getting more and more upset, Qin Luo pressed him for more information.

"And then what? Was the murderer found?"

The old man shook his head with despair in his eyes.

"I didn't see any murderer. They took all our belongings, saying we had to exchange them for the murderer!"

Qin Luo frowned

"Isn't this robbery?"

The old man slapped his thigh excitedly.

"Isn't that right? Not only the disaster victims, but also the city's residents, weren't spared their looting. Shops and the mansions of the wealthy were all ransacked!"

Qin Luo was full of question marks.

"What about the sub-prefects and their subordinates under the prefect? ​​Aren't they managed?"

"What do we care! We don't even know if they're alive or not! Those people looted and then started killing people, and finally burned the city to the ground. There were only a small group of refugees to begin with, and now look, everyone who survived in the city has become a refugee!"

The old man pointed to the people around him who were dressed in tattered clothes...