章 3: Chapter 3 Lost Child
The grand hall and corridors of the Jiang family were eerily empty, with only the occasional servant sweeping. The practice field, usually bustling with fierce competition, was deserted, but the degree of wear and tear suggested countless battles had taken place here.
Jiang Li wandered through the Jiang residence like a spectral presence.
He followed the paths etched in his memory, but five hundred years had passed, and the present-day Jiang residence was vastly different from the one he remembered.
The closest semblance to his memory was the small room where he had lived at the start of his journey, with an eight-tenth resemblance.
He guessed that after his departure, someone might have moved in, and once he became the Human Emperor, the Jiang family must have tidied up the room, striving to restore its original appearance.
Jiang Li shook his head in a bit of regret and made his way to the ancestral hall.
During the ancestral rites of the Jiang Family, the eldest members knelt in the ancestral hall to pray for ancestral blessings, while the others stayed in their rooms, fasting for nine days, not uttering a word, to show their devotion.
In the ancestral hall, an old man with a weathered face covered in wrinkles, practically obscuring his eyes, knelt in reverence.
Jiang Li approached him and cast a minor spell. He made out the man's youthful features beneath the ravages of time. The man bore a striking resemblance to Jiang Yixing, he was either Yixing's son or grandson, or perhaps even further removed from Yixing.
And Jiang Yixing's memorial plaque was conspicuously placed at the very bottom of all the Memorial tablets.
Jiang Li exhaled softly and turned to leave the Jiang residence.
Jiang Yixing was, after all, long gone.
Although he'd been expecting this, he still felt a sense of desolation.
As Jiang Li stepped out of the Jiang residence, his somber reflections were snapped by a shrill voice.
"Sir, it's been ten days. Why hasn't there been anyone sent to find our child!"
"We demand an audience with the City Lord!"
Directly across from the Jiang residence was the City Lord's Mansion. Several couples were pleading desperately with the mansion guards for an audience with the City Lord, but the guards remained unmoved, as if they hadn't heard their pleas at all.
"Without the City Lord's permission, no one is allowed to see him. Please leave immediately."
Another guard, seemingly more compassionate, began to explain patiently, "Folks, we're understaffed and spread thin here at the mansion. All you've said is that your child was stolen, that you traced the trail to Qingcheng and then lost it. There are so many people coming and going in Qingcheng every day, for all we know, the kidnappers might have just been passing through. Even if we wanted to locate your child, we wouldn't know where to start."
"Children have been disappearing from several surrounding cities, and all the traces end in Qingcheng. Our child must be here!" Another man responded angrily.
He had tied a charm with a tracking spell on his child's wrist. After his child disappeared, he traced the spell until reaching Qingcheng, where the trace vanished. And he wasn't alone; he encountered several other parents in Qingcheng who had experienced the same circumstances. Some had lost their children right here.
He would never believe that there was no issue in Qingcheng.
"My child disappeared right here in Qingcheng, how could the kidnappers just be passing through!"
Another expressionless guard responded, "Please understand our constraints. If you can provide proof that the kidnappers are in Qingcheng, we'll certainly use our resources to find them. Is that acceptable?"
"What a load of nonsense!"
"We demand an audience with the City Lord!"
"Our children go missing here, yet our officials do nothing. Is this what goes on in the homeland of the Human Emperor!"
"My child got lost right here in Qingcheng, and I need proof? What a farce!"
The heated exchange between the guards and the distraught parents escalated, eventually catching the attention of the Jiang family's law enforcement officers.
"How disgraceful! On the day of the Jiang Family's ancestral rites, how dare you make such a racket!" One of the law officers stepped out of the Jiang residence, sternly reprimanding the crowd.
"As guards of the City Lord's Mansion, you allow these rabble-rousers to make a scene on your doorstep, aren't you worried about incurring the City Lord's wrath!"
Upon hearing this, the guards immediately tried to disperse the crowd. Watching the scene, Jiang Li could not bear it anymore. He deactivated the spell cloaking his presence and let out a cold laugh from the side.
"What a grandiose show of power by the Jiang family, extending all the way to the City Lord's Mansion. If you all are so fond of meddling in affairs that don't concern you, why not take up the responsibility of cleaning the entrance of the City Lord's mansion as well?"
Upending by these words, the law enforcement officer shouted angrily, "How dare you disrespect the Jiang family! You've got quite the nerve!"
The parents of the missing children and the guards from the City Lord's mansion were both left stunned. Given that the current Human Emperor was from the Jiang family, not a single soul in Qingcheng, let alone the entire Great Zhou Dynasty, would dare disrespect the Jiang family like this. They wrote him off as a rash youngster.
Suddenly, a middle-aged man appeared from the crowd, quickly grabbing Jiang Li's arm. With one hand he tried to placate the Jiang family law enforcement officer, and with the other silence Jiang Li.
Young man, are you tired of living? Stirring up trouble with the Jiang family as soon as you step into the world? Let's go, this matter involves the Human Emperor Jiang, best not to blunder into such murky waters!
The middle-aged man rapidly pulled Jiang Li away, quickly disappearing from sight.
Given the man's strength, there was no way he could have physically moved Jiang Li. However, Jiang Li felt this person knew something more, and hence, allowed him to lead him away.
Especially considering his mention of "the matter involving Human Emperor Jiang".
"Whose brat are you? Didn't anyone tell you before leaving home not to provoke great families!"
Hiding in an alley, the middle-aged man scolded Jiang Li.
Seeing his young naive face and impulsive actions, coupled with his quality clothes, he assumed Jiang Li was some wealthy family's child who'd run off to gain life experience.
"If this was any other dynasty, of course, I wouldn't dare provoke an unreasonable aristocratic family. But we're in Great Zhou, where law and order prevails, even the great families wouldn't dare to ignore the law."
Hearing so, the middle-aged man was even more convinced of his initial assumption, that Jiang Li belonged to some highly prominent sect or family. Otherwise, he wouldn't have such a broad view, comparing different dynasties right off the bat.
Given the vast territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty, even a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator might not venture out of its borders in an entire lifetime, let alone compare the Great Zhou with other dynasties.
"Law and order, huh? You can claim that anywhere in Great Zhou except for the Jiang family." The middle-aged man paused, then continued, "The Jiang family has the backing of the Human Emperor Jiang, who in Great Zhou would dare punish them? Everyone says the Human Emperor is virtuous and impartial, but who can guarantee he holds no bias for his own family?"
Jiang Li frowned at this, "Based on my understanding, the Human Emperor Jiang left the Jiang family five hundred years ago and hasn't returned since. Isn't that proof that he has distanced himself from his family?"
The middle-aged man scoffed, "That's all just propaganda set up by the Human Emperor to cultivate his image of impartiality. Blood is thicker than water, can you truly believe he hasn't been visiting his family secretly?"
"Don't be so naive to believe everything you hear; the world isn't as sunny as you think."
The middle-aged man tried to project an air of understanding the dark undercurrents of the world.
Jiang Li thought to himself, when did I ever return here, and how come I don't know about it?
"Do you have evidence to back up your claims?" Jiang Li hinted skepticism in his question, but the middle-aged man, basking in his seeming enlightenment, didn't catch the frosty edge to Jiang Li's question.
"Of course, there is." The middle-aged man asserted confidently, "I once overheard a conversation between the City Lord of Qingcheng and the head of the Jiang family. In between the lines, it was suggested that the Human Emperor often visited his family in secret."
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