Chapter 80: The veteran who has been trapped for three years emerges from seclusion! The core team is basically complete!

As night fell, in the East Courtyard duty room.

The candlelight flickered twice, blown by the wind leaking through the window cracks, causing shadows to stretch and shorten against the wall.

Lin Chen spread a sheet of white paper on the desk, dipped his brush in ink, and wrote down the information he had gathered from Zhou Tie and Chen Tiezhu earlier that day, point by point.

The City Defense Battalion and its commander, County Lieutenant Liu Kun, are related by marriage to the Wang family's second branch; they are as solid as a monolith.

At the Garrison Division, the Registrar won't even show his face, driving people away through the window; the Wang family stands behind him as well.

In the Patrol Division, Director Wang Gang holds the reins on personnel approvals; the organizational regulations are the blade in his hand.

After finishing the three lines, the tip of the brush hung over the paper, and a drop of ink fell, blurring the last word into a blob.

Lin Chen placed the brush back on the inkstone's rest and tapped his finger on the paper three times, with each tap separated by two breaths.

The recruitment channels for the city's regular armed forces were completely blocked.

The roots the Wang family had cultivated for a hundred and twenty years were not something that could be easily pried loose.

Lin Chen folded the paper, pressed it under the inkstone, leaned back against the chair, and closed his eyes.

Two soft knocks sounded at the door.

Shen Yue's voice drifted in through the door crack, kept low, just enough to pass through the thickness of the wooden board.

“Centurion Lin, Nangong Yao sent someone with a letter.”

Lin Chen opened his eyes, stood up, and walked to the door, pulling it halfway open.

Shen Yue stood outside, holding a sealed bamboo tube. The opening was tightly sealed with wax, and a nail-sized impression was pressed into the surface.

Lin Chen took the bamboo tube and weighed it in his hand; it was heavy.

“Where is the messenger?”

Shen Yue tilted her head toward the courtyard gate.

“Left. It was a maid from the Governor's Mansion inner court; she dropped the item and left without saying a single extra word.”

Lin Chen nodded and closed the door.

He returned to the desk, crushed the wax seal with his thumb, pulled out the bamboo tube's plug, and extracted a thin roll of silk from inside.

Unrolling it, the candlelight illuminated the silk surface, revealing lines of extremely small and dense handwriting.

It was Nangong Yao's handwriting.

The letter mentioned only one thing.

There were currently forty-seven prisoners awaiting trial in the Prefectural Prison, at least fifteen of whom had been thrown into prison over the past three years on various charges.

The charges varied: inflating grain prices, looting property, concealing prohibited items, and inciting crowds to create disturbances.

But these fifteen people had one thing in common.

Before their imprisonment, they had all had conflicts of interest with the Wang family.

Some were merchants who refused to bow down when squeezed by the Wang family in business, some were Loose Cultivators who had competed for resources with them, some were minor officials who had publicly opposed them in the yamen, and some were retired soldiers.

Some had been locked up for over a year, some for two, and the longest-held had been there for a full three years.

Not a single one had been formally tried.

All were held under the guise of 'awaiting trial,' left in the prison and ignored.

At the end of the letter, a line of small characters was written.

“Father is already aware of this. The items you need will be delivered tomorrow.”

Lin Chen read the thin silk a second time, his gaze lingering on the number fifteen for two extra breaths.

Then, he brought the silk close to the candle flame.

The flame licked the corner of the silk; the silken material burned extremely fast, and the orange firelight danced twice between his fingers, devouring the lines of handwriting one by one until they were gone.

Ashes fell into the copper basin at the corner of the desk, curling into several black flakes.

Lin Chen leaned back and closed his eyes, thinking for ten breaths.

Then he pushed open the door and called out toward the courtyard.

“Zhou Tie.”

The sound of Zhou Tie's footsteps approached from the middle courtyard, his armor plates clinking softly.

He stood at the duty room door, waiting with hands cupped in a respectful salute.

Lin Chen gave only one instruction.

“Tomorrow at the Hour of the Rabbit, take two men and follow me to the Prefectural Prison.”

Zhou Tie didn't ask questions; he gave a word of acknowledgement, turned, and retreated to the middle courtyard.

The next day, before the sun had fully risen.

A layer of gray-blue clouds piled up on the eastern horizon, and the morning light squeezed through the gaps, shining on the rooftops of Chengen Ward and coating the tiles in a layer of cold white light.

Lin Chen led Zhou Tie and Han Shan out of the East Courtyard side gate, walking along the back street toward the Prefectural Prison.

When the three reached the iron gates of the Prefectural Prison, two squads of jailers were changing shifts.

The leader of the jailers on duty was a lean man in his early forties with a sallow face and a bean-sized mole on his cheekbone; he barely raised his eyelids when he saw the three men in Patrol Division uniforms approaching.

“Patrol Division? Do you have an interrogation warrant?”

Lin Chen did not show his Patrol Division waist token.

Instead, he took a copper plate from his robe and held it up before the jailer leader, face up.

The copper plate was the size of a palm. On the front, four large characters were carved: 'Governor's Special Permission'. On the back was the official seal of the Governor's Mansion, cast deeply with sharp edges.

The jailer leader's eyes flickered over the copper plate, and his expression shifted several times.

His lips moved as if to say something, but he swallowed his words.

Finally, he reached for a ring of iron keys at his waist and, without a word, bent down to unlock the iron gate of the prison.

The chains on the iron gate rattled as they were dragged across the ground, and rust flakes showered down.

The gate opened.

A wave of cold, damp air surged out from the doorway, mixed with the smell of rust and rot, stinging the nostrils as it entered.

Lin Chen stepped over the threshold and walked down the corridor.

The cells on both sides of the corridor were lined up one after another, with years of filth caked onto the iron bars, which were so rusted in some places they were nearly broken.

The first cell.

Behind the iron bars curled a middle-aged man as thin as a bamboo pole, his clothes tattered and his hair matted into a clump, his cheekbones jutting out from beneath his skin like two stubborn rocks.

Hearing footsteps, he looked up, his eye sockets deep and his whites bloodshot.

Lin Chen came to a halt before the iron bars.

“What is your name?”

The middle-aged man's Adam's apple bobbed twice, his voice as dry and raspy as sandpaper.

“Liu... Liu Sihai.”

“What is your background?”

Liu Sihai's fingers clenched against the straw-covered floor.

“A grain merchant from the south city. My family has been selling grain in the south city for three generations.”

“What was the charge?”

Liu Sihai's mouth twitched, pulling at a scabbed-over old wound on his face.

“Price gouging.”

His voice sank, carrying a foul stench like something that had been rotting for over a dozen months.

“The Wang family's second branch wanted me to transfer my three grain shops in the south city at a discount; the price they offered wasn't even thirty percent of the cost.”

He paused, his dry lips curling into a grimace.

“I didn't agree. The next day, someone went to the yamen to report me for price gouging, and I was locked up that very night.”

Lin Chen's gaze lingered on his face for a breath.

“How long have you been imprisoned?”

Liu Sihai lifted his hand from the ground; the fingernails on all five fingers were a dark, bruised blue-black.

“Fourteen months.”

Lin Chen said nothing more and walked toward the next cell.

In the second cell, a man in his early thirties sat cross-legged in the corner, wearing an old cloth shirt washed to a faded white. There was a particular steadiness in his features unique to practitioners.

His aura was weak, but the circulation frequency of the remaining True Qi in his Dantian was fairly even.

Early Stage Tongmai Realm.

“Your name?”

“Qin Yuanshan.”

“A Loose Cultivator?”

The man raised his eyelids and studied Lin Chen for two breaths.

“I suppose so. I made a living gathering herbs outside the city.”

“How did you end up here?”

Qin Yuanshan's lips quirked, looking somewhat like a smile, yet not quite.

“I gathered a century-old Astragalus on the wild ridges thirty miles outside the city. On my way back, I was intercepted by the Wang family's people. They claimed they had discovered the Astragalus first and that I had stolen it from them.”

He rested his hands on his knees; several old scars on his palms glowed a dull red in the dim light.

“We fought. Their three Middle Stage Blood Refining Realm cultivators couldn't beat me, so they went back and filed a complaint, saying I had looted Wang family property.”

He paused for a beat.

“It's been nine months.”

Lin Chen withdrew his gaze and continued deeper into the corridor.

The third cell, the fourth, the fifth.

A small merchant falsely accused of inciting a disturbance, imprisoned for eleven months.

A retired soldier framed for possessing prohibited items, imprisoned for a year and two months.

A Rank Nine Junior Clerk who was thrown in for dereliction of duty after publicly rejecting a document from the Wang family while serving at the Prefectural Yamen, imprisoned for a year.

At every cell, Lin Chen stopped before the iron bars to ask for a name, background, and the reason for imprisonment.

With every cell he questioned, the pressure from the thumb he rested on the hilt of the black abyss grew heavier.

Zhou Tie followed half a step behind, clutching an open notebook and recording the information Lin Chen elicited, point by point.

Han Shan stood guard at the entrance of the corridor, his back against the stone wall and his hand on his sword hilt, watching their rear.

After passing more than twenty cells, Lin Chen's footsteps stopped at the very end of the corridor.

The final cell.

This cell was a size larger than the others, but the iron bars were thicker, the chains were more numerous, and there were several residual rune carvings on the walls, as if they had once been used to reinforce a seal.

Inside the cell sat a white-haired old man.

He sat cross-legged atop a pile of straw, his back perfectly straight, hands resting on his knees with fingers interlaced.

Though his clothes were old, they were worn neatly, and the folds at his collar and cuffs were pressed flat.

The old man's aura was very weak, so weak he seemed no different from an ordinary person.

But as Lin Chen stood outside the iron bars, the dark golden True Qi core in his Dantian vibrated slightly.

Deep within the old man's Dantian, a wisp of extremely fine and faint True Qi was circulating; its frequency was slow and powerful, its texture dense.

Late Stage Tongmai Realm.

Imprisoned for three years, with his True Qi suppressed by the sealing runes in the cell for three years, his cultivation was still intact.

The old man opened his eyes, his clouded pupils shifting in the dim light as his gaze passed through the iron bars to rest on Lin Chen.

He looked from the Patrol Division uniform to the black abyss at his waist, and then from the black abyss back to his face.

He didn't speak.

Zhou Tie walked to Lin Chen's ear, lowering his voice so only the two of them could hear.

"Instructor Qi Boyuan."

He paused for a beat.

"The former Instructor of the Nanyang Prefecture Military Training Hall, he taught there for a full twenty years."

Lin Chen's gaze did not shift from the old man's face.

"How did he end up in here?"

Zhou Tie's voice dropped another half-step.

"Three years ago, on charges of concealing prohibited martial arts manuals."

He closed the small booklet and tucked it into the inner side of his breastplate.

"The real reason is that during his time at the Military Training Hall, he refused to give priority to the Wang Family scions when assigning elite Disciples. The Wang Family found people to impeach him seven times. The first six were suppressed by the Governors Mansion. The seventh time, they changed the charge from dereliction of duty to concealing contraband. Taking advantage of the Lord Governor's absence for an inspection, the City Defense Battalion directly executed the arrest."

Lin Chen's thumb rubbed a full circle around the mouth of the scabbard, from beginning to end.

The rasping sound of the ray-skin scales rubbing against his thumb-pad echoed through the deep corridor.

Sitting in the cell, Instructor Qi Boyuan heard the sound, and his white eyebrows twitched.

Lin Chen spoke.

"Instructor Qi."

Instructor Qi Boyuan's gaze fixed on his face.

Lin Chen didn't beat around the bush.

"You've been locked up in here for three years; the world outside has changed."

Instructor Qi Boyuan's lips pressed together, then opened.

"Changed?"

His voice was hoarse and low, like an old bell that had been rusted for three years being struck once.

"How has it changed?"

Lin Chen crouched down, one knee touching the ground, his line of sight level with Instructor Qi Boyuan's.

The shadow of the iron bars fell between them, cutting their faces into alternating strips of light and dark.

"The Wang Family touched the Governor's reverse scale."

Instructor Qi Boyuan's brow twitched.

"The Governor wants to move against the Wang Family."

Instructor Qi Boyuan's fingers tightened slightly on his knees.

"I am helping the Governor handle this matter."

Lin Chen lowered his tone. His voice hit the stone walls of the cell without an echo, instead striking directly into the pair of cloudy eyes opposite him.

"I'm short on people."

In three sentences, he had revealed all his cards.

No beating around the bush, no testing the waters, no playing word games.

Instructor Qi Boyuan looked at him, looking for a long time.

The old man's gaze moved from his young face to his hand resting on the mouth of the black abyss scabbard, then to his posture of kneeling on one knee, and finally back to his eyes.

The cell was silent for five or six breaths.

Then Instructor Qi Boyuan laughed.

Three years of accumulated dust in the wrinkles at the corners of his mouth shook loose and fell onto the backs of his folded hands.

"You're a straightforward lad."

He lifted his hand from his knee and waved it in the air of the cell.

"But what makes you think I'll work for you after I get out?"

Lin Chen's answer came without any hesitation.

"You taught soldiers in the Military Training Hall for twenty years; the people you trained are scattered throughout the Prefecture city as low-level soldiers."

His finger tapped once on the horizontal bar of the iron fence, making a dull sound.

"I don't just need you alone."

The smile on Instructor Qi Boyuan's face vanished.

The way he looked at Lin Chen changed, shifting from sizing up a young man to scrutinizing an opponent, and then from scrutiny into something indescribable.

The cell was silent for another three breaths.

Instructor Qi Boyuan stood up, supporting himself with his hands on his knees. His bones, which hadn't moved for three years, made a series of dense cracking sounds in his joints.

He walked to the front of the iron bars and faced Lin Chen across the finger-thick iron rods.

"What is your name?"

"Lin Chen, a Hundred-Household of the Patrol Division."

Instructor Qi Boyuan's white eyebrows arched slightly.

"How old?"

"Seventeen."

Instructor Qi Boyuan stared at him for two breaths, a short huff of a laugh escaping his mouth.

"A seventeen-year-old Hundred-Household, coming to the prison to fish someone out, and wanting to help the Governor topple the Wang Family."

He placed his hand on the horizontal bar of the iron fence, the veins on the back of his hand intertwined with the prison grime.

"Young man, do you know how deep the Wang Family's roots are buried in this city?"

Lin Chen stood up, stretching his leg that had gone numb from crouching.

"I know."

"You know and you still dare to come?"

Lin Chen's thumb moved away from the scabbard's mouth, hanging at his side.

"It's not a question of daring."

He tilted his head, glancing at the twenty-odd cells on both sides of the corridor, each holding someone stuffed in there by the Wang Family.

"It's a question of whether it should be done."

Instructor Qi Boyuan's fingers gripped the iron bars, his knuckles turning white.

He didn't respond, but his breathing rhythm changed, becoming a bit heavier than before.

Lin Chen turned and walked toward the corridor entrance.

He walked up to the head jailer, took out the Governor's Special Permission Bronze Medal and a release order stamped with the Governors Mansion's seal from his robes, and placed them on the duty desk.

"These fifteen people are all to be released today."

The head jailer turned the bronze medal over to look at the front and back, then opened the release order and scanned it.

His hands were shaking, both of them, and the fingers holding the release order trembled so much the paper rustled loudly.

But he didn't dare not to comply.

He unhooked the heavy bunch of iron keys from his waist and walked into the corridor with a hunched back.

The iron locks were opened one by one.

The sound of chains clattering to the ground echoed down the corridor, from the first cell all the way to the last.

Fifteen people walked out of the prison's iron gates and stood in the sunlight.

The morning light poured down directly from above the eastern rooftops, bright and white, making everyone squint.

Someone knelt on the ground, covering their face with both hands, shoulders twitching as tears flowed through their fingers.

Someone looked up at the sky, silent, the moisture in their eyes gleaming in the sun.

Someone just stood there blankly, feet rooted to the steps, eyes unmoving, as if they hadn't yet emerged from that dark corridor.

Instructor Qi Boyuan stood at the very back.

He rubbed the prison grime accumulated over three years from the back of his hand, the gray flakes scattering onto the steps in the wind.

Then he looked up at the sky.

The sunlight shone on his white hair, making his eyes sting; two cloudy tears welled up and flowed down his wrinkles, dripping onto his tattered collar.

Lin Chen stood in front of them, his boot soles on the top step.

He didn't say anything sentimental.

"Those who want to go home can leave now."

His gaze swept across the fifteen faces one by one.

"Those who want revenge, follow me."

The fifteen people stood below the steps; some wiped away their tears, some straightened their backs, some clenched their fists.

Not a single person turned away.

Instructor Qi Boyuan walked out from the back of the crowd. His steps were a bit stiff, his legs and feet having not moved for three years were not quite obeying him, but each step was steady.

He walked up to Lin Chen and bowed slightly.

"Then this old man will also go with you."

His voice was soft but steady, as if he had crushed three years of silence and kneaded it into this single sentence.

Lin Chen looked at him.

Instructor Qi Boyuan straightened his back, and that faint glimmer of True Qi in his cloudy eyes flashed again.

"But before I go, there's something I must tell you first."

He tilted his head, glancing at the fourteen people behind him, then turned back, his gaze landing on Lin Chen's face.

"I taught at the Military Training Hall for twenty years. I've trained no fewer than two hundred students, and at least fifty or sixty of them can fight."

He paused, putting his hands behind his back, his left hand grasping his right wrist.

"Among these people, about thirty have been assigned to the lower ranks of the City Defense Battalion and the Garrison Division."

Lin Chen's thumb stopped at the mouth of the scabbard.

Instructor Qi Boyuan continued, speaking slowly.

"They are not the Wang Family's people; they never were."

His voice dropped half a step.

"They're just being suppressed by those above, not daring to move, unable to move. If they move, they'll become the second Seventh Patrol Squad."

He looked into Lin Chen's eyes.

"If you have a way to move them somewhere else—not far, just out from under the Wang Family's thumb..."

"They will follow me."

Thirty people.

Lin Chen turned this number over in his mind.

"Existing manpower thirty-one, plus today's fifteen people, makes forty-six."

"If Instructor Qi Boyuan's thirty former subordinates from the lower ranks of the City Defense Battalion and Garrison Division are added..."

"Seventy-six."

His hand moved away from the scabbard's mouth, hanging back at his side, his finger lightly tapping against the outside of his thigh.

"Instructor Qi."

Instructor Qi Boyuan looked at him.

"Can you list the names and locations of those thirty students of yours before tonight?"

Instructor Qi Boyuan's white eyebrows shot up.

"No need for tonight. I can do it now."

He tapped his finger against his temple.

"The soldiers I taught over twenty years—every single one of their names is stored in here. I haven't forgotten a single one."

Lin Chen nodded and turned to walk out of the Prefectural Prison.

The morning light cast a layer of warmth on his shoulders, his shadow stretching long and straight on the steps.

The fifteen people followed behind him, their footsteps messy but their direction unified.

Instructor Qi Boyuan walked at the very end of the line, his white hair fluttering in the wind.

Zhou Tie walked half a step to Lin Chen's right, his lips moving as he whispered in an extremely low voice.

"These thirty people are embedded within the City Defense Battalion and the Garrison Division. To dig them out, we alone aren't enough."

Lin Chen's boots stepped on the stone slabs, his rhythm steady and unhurried.

"Therefore, I'll have to make another trip to the Governors Mansion tonight."