In times like these, travelers moving between towns did their best not to attract attention.

Only Demon Suppression Division carriages had the standing to drive empty-looking vehicles down the road without a care. As time passed, merchant caravans began grouping themselves behind the procession, some even sending guards up on horseback to deliver dried provisions and meat as offerings.

“Better reputation than any constable I’ve ever known.”

Chen Ji sat hugging a pile of food they’d been given, something young and excited breaking through his face.

Nearly two days of continuous travel without rest.

The carriages slowed to a stop beneath towering city walls. Above the arched gate, two characters — Qingzhou — had been carved with a stroke that left no doubt about the city’s standing.

Li Xinhan tossed his identity token to the gate guard, dismounted, and walked his horse in on foot.

Old Liu suppressed a smile. “Learned from last time, did he.”

Seeing the puzzled looks, he explained: “Division rules — riding at speed within city limits without urgent cause gets you three lashes and two months’ docked pay.”

It was late afternoon. In Baiyun County at this hour, the streets would have been nearly empty.

Here, the broad road paved in grey brick — wide enough for eight carriages abreast — was thick with people and noise.

Shen Yi stepped off the carriage and felt something like his old life surface as a half-memory.

No towering buildings. And somehow even more alive.

They followed Li Xinhan through the flow of the crowd.

Until they stopped at a place in the middle of the city that struck a strange note.

Walls two zhang high ran in an unbroken line until they disappeared from sight — as if someone had drawn a city inside the city.

“Twenty-eight hundred mu of land, approved personally by the Governor. The Division’s headquarters.”

“This way.”

The beggar led the family members and the six new recruits in a separate direction. Li Xinhan took a side gate.

“Plenty of rules in there, but most of them don’t apply to Outer Division. All you need to know for now is where the dining hall is, where your room is, and where you collect your pay.”

Old Liu narrated the layout as he led Shen Yi through the compound.

First stop: the registry office. Names entered. Li Xinhan handled it himself, and within moments a folded set of uniform, a small medicine bottle, and a jet-black identity token were placed in Shen Yi’s hands.

“Your saber looks decent so I didn’t request another blade. If you need anything else, come back here and ask Xiujie.”

Liu Xiujie clicked his tongue. “Where’s he staying?”

Li Xinhan hesitated for a moment, then turned back. “Per Deputy Commander Lin’s instructions.”

Old Liu’s expression shifted slightly. “Why make trouble for the man.”

Shen Yi stood quietly watching them, not entirely following what was being said.

Liu Xiujie sighed and led him deeper into the compound.

“By standard procedure, Outer Division Commanders are housed in the western quarters…”

About the time it takes to burn a stick of incense later, Liu Xiujie stopped in front of a quiet courtyard and smiled in a way that conveyed something other than happiness.

“Watch yourself in there.”

“What is this place?”

Shen Yi looked at it with a slight frown.

“Where the General lives when she’s here. And her five disciples — two Condensate Realm generals, one deputy commander, one demon hunter, and one who’s been in the sect for five months and is already a three-band Commander.”

“You might not know the Division well enough yet, so — take a guess at why there are no guards at the entrance.”

Liu Xiujie drew a breath and rubbed his temple. “Let me put it differently. Inside, aside from the General’s quarters, the other rooms belong to two people at Condensate Realm, two at Jade Liquid Perfection, and one at mid-Jade Liquid.”

“And you — with nothing behind you but a letter — are also being moved in.”

“I’m not sure this is a good situation. There’s a saying about tall trees catching wind.”

He frowned, genuinely unable to work out what Deputy Commander Lin had been thinking. He understood how the other Commanders in this compound would see it far better than he understood her reasoning.

“Forget it. Follow me.”

Liu Xiujie pushed inside with the resigned air of someone walking into a den of something dangerous.

Listening to the description and connecting it to what Zhang Tuhu had told him about the jianghu, Shen Yi’s earlier guesses about Lin Baixi’s actual standing were now fully confirmed.

What he still couldn’t work out was what she intended.

He stepped into the courtyard.

One scholar tree. One old well.

A bare-chested young man sat on a stone stool, body built like poured steel, muscle definition clean and sharp. He was carefully shelling beans. Across from him, a white-haired old woman pinched sprouts with her fingertips.

Entirely peaceful.

“Outer Division’s Liu Xiujie, paying respects to Commander Fang.”

Old Liu produced a smile and nudged Shen Yi forward. “Commander Fang, this is—”

“I know. My martial elder sister’s letter arrived.”

Fang Heng kept shelling beans without looking up. The old woman, on the other hand, looked at Shen Yi with frank curiosity.

“Right, very good.”

Liu Xiujie kept the smile in place — he was measurably less relaxed than he’d been with Li Xinhan — and angled a look at Shen Yi. “Shouldn’t you greet your martial elder brother?”

“No need for that,” Fang Heng said without inflection. “First names are fine.”

Liu Xiujie’s smile turned a little wooden. Internally, he exhaled.

As expected. One letter wasn’t enough to absorb an opportunity this large.

“Boy, look at someone when you speak to them.” The old woman smacked the back of Fang Heng’s head.

He took it without reaction, apparently accustomed to it. He raised his eyes and pointed toward the smallest side room. “Stay there for now. Whatever my martial elder sister owes you — I’ll settle it.”

This time it was Liu Xiujie’s turn to not understand.

Shen Yi let out a quiet breath.

That makes sense.

He’d be lying if he said there’d been no expectation at all. But an opportunity this large dropping out of nowhere — he genuinely hadn’t known whether he could take it without it collapsing under him.

Now that the arrangement was clear, it felt considerably more solid.

Lin Baixi had promised him two Jade Liquid Realm cultivation methods. The Four Harmonies True Astral Force counted as one — and honestly, after the trouble was resolved, he’d half-expected her to either forget about it or offer some standard Division technique to close the account. The fact that she’d taken it seriously enough to arrange this—

If the person in front of him was also the General’s disciple, and had been this deliberate about it, whatever was being passed on wouldn’t be weaker than the Four Harmonies.

“Right.”

Liu Xiujie could see there was nothing more for him here. He clasped his hands and excused himself, leaving Shen Yi one last look that conveyed considerable sympathy.

He’d given the warning. Fang Heng’s flat refusal of the elder-brother address was going to sting — the drop from expectation to reality could break a person.

“…”

Shen Yi looked at him sideways, turned, and walked into the small room.

The uniform issued to him was silk — smooth to the touch. Even the standard Commander’s belt had a piece of jade set into the clasp. No wonder Zhang Tuhu’s eyes had gone green whenever the Division’s resources came up.

He tried it on. The fit was roughly right.

No mirror, unfortunately.

He adjusted his cuffs, picked up the small medicine bottle, and looked at it.

Liu Xiujie hadn’t explained it clearly on the way out.

This is what they call rare medicine?

He hung the identity token at his waist, picked up Erhei, and moved to go outside.

Then the old woman’s voice came through the door.

“Young man — come eat.”

(End of Chapter)