The time for distributing scripts, road markers, crafting painting cards, and studying muddy artifacts passed quickly in preparation.

Three days later, the Red Moon arrived.

In that moment, all creatures in the world seemed to sense the anomaly of the Earth Vein, beginning to slowly contract.

It was as if a giant tree was drawing back its roots, preparing to suck away all the Embers rooted upon it.

A massive Ash Disaster began to appear, not only embodying the remnants of various humans but also the remains of wild beasts and demon beasts who died in the mountains.

South of Pingchang City.

A single courtyard with three rooms.

Zhang Huaping walked into the courtyard, dense with Yin Qi, and a chilling, somber aura greeted her.

She kicked the wooden door open with one foot, surveying the surroundings in the dim light: "Do you know the clover?"

The Medical Fairy in her hand thought for a moment: "Three leaves, signifying luck, a flower that blooms with three leaves?"

Zhang Huaping looked heavy:

"Mothers use the heart blood of newborn infants to embroider clovers on their stomachs, which can enhance the aptitude and perception of their next child, allowing many struggling families to more easily produce a Confucian Scholar."

"However, the children raised by this method are innately violent and extreme, often stepping onto the path of a Demon Cultivator, and many Demon Cultivators are born this way."

"After all, flowers bloom with three petals, 'I know who I am', but knowing that I am a bad person is also a kind of self-awareness."

The air was filled with a decayed and corrupt stench, Zhang Huaping pinched her nose, found the corpse of a woman on the bed with the Sword Fairy.

Four delicate scarlet tattoos were vividly depicted on her skin.

"Right now, this woman's abdomen was already embroidered with the fourth clover... She lost four children, accumulating perception to such an extent, with rather ambitious goals."

"They say, after ten years of pregnancy, a highly perceptive demonic child would be born."

"Unfortunately..."

"Her fourth child became a ghost, and so she died."

The Sword Fairy heard and was silent for a while, then sighed: "Really disgusting, yet pitiable, and even more hateful."

Zhang Huaping's expression was grave, and she spoke coldly:

"It's a normal infant ghost, originally a kind easy to handle, but the evil technique resulted in something special, stacking up until the fourth child. This time, we should be careful."

Zhang Huaping eventually joined the governmental constable's commission work under the Red Sun, responsible for handling ghostly matters throughout the city.

The Red Moon erupted, chaotic phenomena emerged everywhere.

She took the Sword Fairy with her to attend to affairs.

The Sword Fairy had no concept of death; no matter how bloody or brutal the scene, she didn't feel scared, only lamenting that the world wasn't as peaceful as imagined.

The tranquility, harmony, laughter, and liveliness in the mountain villa were displayed by their own blacksmith, living within the dove cage symbolizing peace, without ever touching the true outside world.

The people here, many lived in shabby lanes, worrying about their daily livelihood, exhausting every effort to support their children's education.

At present, governmental constables, mansion guards, and the Demon Suppression Bureau were fully operational, pressed to their limits, sacrificing tragically.

"Rip!"

Zhang Huaping's face suddenly turned cold, she drew the Sword Fairy, slashing fiercely at a flying lump of rotten meat.

Slosh!

The flesh separated, turning into individual meatballs.

Zhang Huaping left without turning back, continually leaping off the eaves, "Let's go to the next place, Pingyuan Lane, where there's more demonic aura; something more terrifying may have emerged."

"Every day is like this?" the Sword Fairy asked.

"According to records, during the Red Moon, every day is like this because ghosts are drawn to blood, they are inherently attracted to it. The city's blood aura rises sky-high, swarming in, creating scenes of spectral attacks on the city, and ghosts from the wild also appear, the local accumulation also increases, making it defenseless."

Zhang Huaping looked grave:

"But people can't go without sleep for a whole month, we'll take turns to rest, endure a bit of hardship and it will pass. It only happens once every a hundred and fifty years, many people won't face it in their lifetime."

Over these days, the Sword Fairy had also come to know Zhang Huaping's origins and background.

Childhood sweethearts met while studying, unfortunately, her husband was killed by a few local ruffians, merely because they felt his poetry was better and hurt their pride.

But Zhang Huaping bore no hatred because the perpetrators had already faced punishment.

The Court governed harshly, difficult to manage outside the city, but within, law was enforced equally for all, even the highest cultivator shared punishment with commoners for crimes.

In the "Nine Rice Law", a section reads:

A petty thief, beheaded.

Maliciously injuring others, or causing their death, drawn and quartered.

Corruption and bribery causing mass civilian casualties, extracted Four Viscera, or skinned and stuffed with straw, mounted on the city walls as a deterrent.

Rebellion and insubordination, attacking government sites, heart extraction.

...

Heart extraction is essentially execution.

Five Elements, Four Viscera, Three Elements, Two Phases, One Heart, Self-Transformation.

Reached Ninth Grade of the Body in Five Elements and Four Viscera, yet not cultivated the heart, the heart is the only weakness of an undying body, heart extraction means death for most Great Cultivators.

Those who killed Zhang Huaping's husband were drawn and quartered, torn by five horses.

They had not achieved Five-Body Great Perfection, only three-body cultivation, so two limbs couldn't regenerate, their bodies were deficient, completely cutting off their future.

Born into a scholarly family, generational pursuit of studies, others' cold stares and ridicule, it hurts more than death.

Of course, most children from Immortal families are well-mannered, avoiding misdemeanors as it significantly drops their social standing, as scholars despise unskilled ruffians.

They're mostly elegant and courteous or rather, arrogance describes them better.

"The punishments in this world..." the Sword Fairy couldn't find words, the difficulty and layers of torture had produced immense variations.

For untrained commoners, petty theft is beheading, execution.

For trained cultivators, petty theft is injurious, rest a bit and it's fine.

The same sentencing resulted in differing effects depending on the individual.

Crunch!

Zhang Huaping slaughtered a black worm-like wriggling grotesque ghost, "Tomorrow, let's go to the villa, we need to retrieve the twenty blind boxes every three days."

"Hmm, I still need to deliver a letter." The Sword Fairy spoke.

"I'll send you back to the Red House first." Zhang Huaping smiled.

They returned to the street, surrounded by pavilions and mansions.

The ground was paved with bluestone slabs, and shops were still in business, although the atmosphere was tense compared to usual, but all had Saint's Images, couplets, and talismans to suppress ghosts.

Zhang Huaping thought for a moment, "By the way, you, this apprentice courtesan, haven't had any clients to recite poetry with you?"

"They have narrow vision!"

The Sword Fairy blushed angrily: "After all, it's the Red Sun, everyone's busy, who's got the time to stroll around the brothel, but I'm getting along very well with several sisters studying medicine."

Given that the Red House mostly houses individuals with special skills, among them are quite a few Medical Women proficient in medical skills.

The Red House is essentially a place for interaction.

This interaction is not only for clients but also for the courtesans within each building.

Zhang Huaping smiled, like a gentle neighborhood sister, "You, study hard, I believe in your aptitude."

"Of course, I'm going to be famous worldwide, be the first Mechanical Sword Immortal." She became proud, "Renowned across the Nine-State! First on the Divine Weapon List, and first on the Sword God List too."

Zhang Huaping smiled without refuting.

Not too long ago, the common tradesmen along the road were also as filled with youthful ideals as us, wearing white shirts and carrying folding fans.

Yet ultimately they became old shopkeepers, street vendors, longshoremen, supporting their kids' education.

Early the next morning.

Zhang Huaping checked in with the old shopkeeper, then entered the Teleportation Array with the Sword Fairy: "Let's go, we're going up the mountain!"

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