Jin Se

Chapter 67

The Demon Lord Bai Li had been missing for three months already. They'd searched far and wide, yet there was still no news of him.

Song E looked at Zou Yanlai with disdain. When he issued three orders in quick succession, ordering the search to continue, he couldn't resist butting in with, "On the battlefield, it's swords and sabers that do all the talking. Whoever's fist is harder, whoever wins.

As long as I, Song E, stand here, that coward named Gu won't set a single foot in Xunan. You're so unreasonable. You don't prepare your defenses while you have the time, you instead consort with a bunch of sect cultivators who're only good for posturing and dragging the rest of us down. You're even spending so much time looking for that creature!"

Song E was a very capable general. It was only too bad that he was a coarse ruffian. Even though he knew how to write, he wasn't at all refined or scholarly. Just because one knew a few quotes and memorized a few poems didn't mean that one was a cultured person. Despite having them memorized, he still didn't know how to speak politely. Every time he opened his mouth, he'd offend a whole crowd of people, for example, Zou Yanlai - he was already numb to being offended.

General Song had never taken the sects seriously, and the cause was somewhat of a long story. There were basically two factions in the court. One was composed of the civil and military officials with a sect background, and the other was composed of those who'd risen through the ranks via the civil and military imperial exams.

Normally, only the descendants of the extremely rich, extremely noble, or extremely powerful had the qualifications to study in the sects. Not only that, they needed to be extremely lucky and extremely smart too.

The poor commoners only rarely had such opportunities. Because of this, those officials who came from the sects boasted of their pure, lofty statuses, and held most of the court's power in their hands. Those who'd come from destitute families had to toil for decades before they could even grovelingly exchange courtesies with their highborn colleagues.

It was unfair. No person was able to placidly accept those circumstances.

How long had it been since a carp had been able to leap through the dragon's gate? And how many people... would plan to set up their own dragon's gate?

Unrest arose not from scarcity but from inequality.

As luck would have it, Song E was one of those peasant boys who'd elbowed his way into the court. He'd scored amongst the top of his class in the imperial martial exams, yet after decades of rising and sinking in the court, charging into the jaws of death as he put his life on the line, he was still one step lower than his young junior, Zhang Zhixian. Of course he couldn't tolerate the sects.

And yet the sects were, after all, powerful. No matter how much people like General Song despised the sects, not many of them would say it out loud.

Especially since anything they said could be misinterpreted by a biased listener. And this listener happened to be Sir Zou, an honorable born and raised disciple of the Mi Sect.

Zou Yanlai frowned in displeasure, yet these were extraordinary times. A capable general was hard to find, so he didn't give him too much trouble. He could only pinch his nose and ignore him as he thought irritably: if it weren't for the fact that the court had no one to replace him, he'd definitely find a way to have him sent far far away so that he couldn't swagger around annoying him all day.