What is honor?

A jade belt around the waist, a position of power and authority?

A vault full of gold and silver, unparalleled wealth?

What is solemn honor?

The most luxurious coffin, the most extravagant tomb?

High-ranking officials and nobles offering condolences endlessly, a white affair like a happy event, with carriages and horses stretching like a long dragon before the door?

The living can die, but the dead cannot live again.

In Wu Yinquan’s memory, several years ago he attended the funeral of the City Guard Vice-General’s mother. At that time, the Vice-General was now the General of Yuecheng’s City Guard.

At that time, he was already highly sought after.

All the high-ranking officials, wealthy families, and rich merchants of Yuecheng who could come, came.

Their warden was only seated at the lowest position at the funeral banquet, and they, after sending gifts, couldn’t even get through the door.

At that time, he thought, this must be the ultimate solemn honor, right?

He dreamed that when his own mother died, there would be such a scene.

In this way, his mother might be able to close her eyes in peace at the time of her death. Or she might be able to say, this son was not born in vain!

He had worked so hard to climb up the ladder all these years, playing the grandson to the warden, treating the jailers as brothers, diligent and conscientious, and dedicated to his duty… But for so many years, he was only a small jailer.

He knew that being a small jailer was his limit.

He had no strong connections on the outside, and no extraordinary cultivation on the inside. This was the most he could achieve in this life, and his ambition dissipated. He began to take things as they came and drifted through the days.

The “solemn honor” for his mother could only exist in his dreams.

But until now, until today, at this very moment.

Looking at the scattered sacrificial flowers that filled the long street, though there were not many people present.

He suddenly couldn’t stop crying.

He suddenly understood what “honor in mourning” truly meant!

Some people die, but they still live on.

They live in the hearts of everyone.

People like Old Man Qin were people whom everyone did not want to die.

Because it has always been people like Old Man Qin who support this world.

They allow people, in the darkest and most despairing moments, to see that there is still light in this world.

Li Yang, the guard commander of the Yuecheng City Lord’s Mansion, had no other virtues besides being loyal to the City Lord.

His combat strength was average, his comprehension was also average, and he often could not fathom the City Lord’s thoughts.

But whatever the City Lord said, he did, without the slightest discount, never slacking off.

His old father had told him before his death, “In this life, you have no other virtues except loyalty, but it is enough to maintain this one virtue.”

Li Yang remembered these words very clearly.

The City Lord had more than once considered replacing him, but the most private matters were always entrusted to him first.

This was absolute trust, exchanged for boundless loyalty.

Li Yang personally presided over the lockdown of Zeren Medical Hall, and he dared to guarantee with his head that not a single person in the entire Zeren Medical Hall could get the message out.

Of course, this was not so easy at first, but after he personally killed two people, the entire medical hall quieted down.

Only Qin Nianmin still tried to escape repeatedly.

Climbing over walls in the middle of the night, disguising himself as a night watchman…

He wished he could pretend not to recognize him and kill him directly.

But a person like that could not be killed.

Killing Old Mr. Qin’s son, especially when this son had such a good reputation, would cause the people to point fingers at him.

Li Yang thought about it and couldn’t come up with a good solution. Helpless, he specifically sent him to the prison.

In prison, there should be no walls to climb, right? An old bone, he wasn’t afraid of spraining his back!

In order to avoid tarnishing the City Lord’s reputation, he also made a diversion and specifically had the City Guards do it.

As time passed, Rong Nation’s condemnation of Yang Nation had been publicly announced in the Eastern Region, and Jiacheng had also officially announced the plague situation, notifying the whole country.

The City Lord of Yuecheng also received a stern reprimand from the Prefecture government and finally decided to announce the true situation facing the city.

Li Yang thought he could finally get rid of this hot potato that was Qin Nianmin, as there was no need to block the news.

But at this time, he received the City Lord’s order to kill Qin Nianmin immediately!

He could not quite understand the City Lord’s thoughts, but he would do whatever the City Lord said.

He didn’t have to care about whether he was willing or not, because he didn’t need to have his own will.

What Li Yang found incredible was that in a prison with such tight security, a half-old man with no strength to truss a chicken… actually escaped!

The day before he set off to kill the man in the prison, there was chaos in the prison.

Yuecheng Prison, which had been calm for decades, had a riot in the notorious “Cell Number One.”

Dozens of felons held jailers hostage, broke open cell doors, and fled and rioted everywhere, turning the prison into a mess.

The warden relied on his extraordinary strength to personally suppress the riot. When counting the numbers, they discovered that, apart from the two felons who were killed on the spot, not a single prisoner had escaped. Only Qin Nianmin was missing.

It was as if the prisoners had risked their lives to launch a riot just to send this person out.

The reason why Li Yang found it incredible was not because this matter was so clever. But because it was so meaningless!

This group of rotten people in the prison, putting in so much effort, doing something meaningless.

Even he, who had always been called a fool by the City Lord, found it ridiculous.

The matter itself was not difficult to investigate.

In addition to all the felons in “Cell Number One,” there were also two people inside the prison who participated in the matter.

One jailer’s surname was Ding, and one clerk’s surname was Wu, and they had now all been stripped of their clothes and thrown into prison. Whether they would be killed or punished would be dealt with later.

Qin Nianmin, who had already escaped from prison, was also not difficult to track down. An ordinary person who had not transcended, and was also an old man in his fifties, no matter how good his footwork, where could he escape to?

It just so happened that Yuecheng had already begun to block off various places, with a full-area curfew.

Not to mention a fugitive, even a law-abiding citizen could not go too far!

Li Yang, as the Guard Commander of the City Lord’s Mansion, naturally had unimpeded passage throughout the entire Yuecheng territory, with the support of all parties.

At this point, the truly incomprehensible situation came—

He found that as a Transcendent cultivator, with the order of the City Lord of Yuecheng, and the support of the official forces of the entire city, having mobilized a large amount of manpower, he still could not catch Qin Nianmin.

The man was like a small but agile fly. Li Yang could feel him circling around, but he couldn’t see where he was for a moment and couldn’t catch him.

He felt that there was an invisible force subtly resisting his search, but he couldn’t find out what that force was.

In the entire Yuecheng territory, was there any force that could resist the City Lord’s Mansion?

How was this possible?

After searching for a long time without success, the City Lord of Yuecheng was furious and simply turned the secret arrest into a public manhunt, mobilizing the most famous Transcendent constables in Yuecheng to participate in the pursuit.

One of the constables had worked for a Qingpai constable in Qi when he was young, and his methods were sophisticated and experienced.

With a small test of his skills, Li Yang saw the power of these cultivators who specialized in criminal investigations.

It was also at this time that he learned that what had been hindering his private arrest of Qin Nianmin was not some organization, but those peddlers, shop owners, and waiters in restaurants… ordinary and unremarkable people.

They spontaneously concealed Qin Nianmin’s whereabouts and deliberately led Li Yang and his men in the wrong direction.

This was something that Li Yang had never seen in his limited experience. None of these ordinary people could pose a threat to him. But for some reason, he felt a chill down his spine and a coldness in his heart.

Fortunately, his fear did not need to be taken into account, because he did not need to have his own will.

Fortunately, Qin Nianmin’s whereabouts had been revealed.

Under the methods of the Transcendent constables, a mere Qin Nianmin had nowhere to hide.

When Li Yang followed the two Transcendent constables to catch up with Qin Nianmin, he discovered that the man had unknowingly escaped to the border of Yuecheng.

Under the pursuit of Transcendent powers, he was almost able to escape from here.

This was truly an incredible thing for an ordinary old man in his fifties!

It could simply be called a miracle created by an ordinary person.

But after all, it was just a little bit short.

Sometimes, a step away is a world apart.

“Qin Nianmin!” Li Yang shouted loudly at the old man’s back: “You can’t escape! Come back to the city with me and await the City Lord’s judgment!”

The order he received was to kill Qin Nianmin, but it was not convenient to do this in front of the Transcendent constables. In short, he would arrest him first and then talk about it.

Qin Nianmin’s body trembled very obviously.

He turned around, looking back.

His once well-maintained face was now frighteningly haggard, but his expression was stubborn, without any sign of dejection.

“You are also people of Yuecheng!” he said loudly, “Don’t you know what is happening in Yuecheng today? Shouldn’t someone be held responsible for this? Where is your conscience, where is your humanity!”

The two Transcendent constables looked at each other. Of course, they knew about the plague that was currently breaking out. But the source of the disaster was in Jiacheng, and Yuecheng, as a neighboring city, was inevitably infected.

As for responsibility… The City Lord of Jiacheng had already been killed, so what responsibility was there to bear?

They suspected that there might be hidden secrets in this matter, after all, having them come out to hunt down an ordinary person revealed a feeling of unease in any case. But in the end, it was just suspicion, and those as worldly-wise as the two of them would naturally not show it.

Opening one eye and closing the other, the years were peaceful, and the world was prosperous.

Only Li Yang knew what Qin Nianmin was talking about.

When the plague occurred in Yuecheng, Old Mr. Qin was aware of it as soon as possible. And the reason why it had evolved into the current situation, second only to Jiacheng in severity, was precisely due to the inaction of the City Lord of Yuecheng!

For this reason, he could no longer let this person say more.

He jumped forward, shouting: “Stop spreading rumors! If there are any grievances, speak in the yamen!”

A mere ordinary old man, wouldn’t he be easily captured?

At this moment, a sheathed longsword blocked the way.

This was a sword that would make people exclaim at first glance, its sharpness almost piercing through the scabbard.

Even in its sheath, the sword hummed.

As if it could not be suppressed, it also wanted to speak uprightly.

The person was like the sword, crying out against injustice!

“I don’t know why, but recently I’ve been feeling very uncomfortable whenever I hear the phrase ‘spreading rumors’!”

A clear voice said this.