Lu Qingshan took a moment to think before he decided to make plans for it. At this rate, the Insect Harmony Mantra would need another half-year to increase its level. But having such worms could give the Seven Mysteries Gate another way to develop quickly, or begin creating loyal death soldiers.

  Since two sects were using this thing, they should last a while, even under the current turmoil in the city. He could afford to wait. And the worms should’ve been developed by an expert, maybe an immortal cultivator, who was possibly in the city. Lu Qingshan hadn’t approached the sects too deeply yet with his flies in fear they could link the Song family flies together.

  Another distraction appeared in their territory, preventing Lu Qingshan from returning to his secluded martial arts practice. Li Fanghua had discovered foreign travelers from another province who seemed to be hiding something.

  He found Qin Ye in a teahouse, listening to a storyteller tell stories to the local populace. Beside the man was a small alms bowl where some money was deposited. Lu Qingshan thought it a good idea to listen in as well, since he didn’t know much about the province’s matters. Most of what he did know came from his Elders and their sources of information.

  “Scholar Yu, what was that story you were interrupted before, about the poet and the lady? We need something less grim,” one of the onlookers said.

  “Alright. I remember that one,” Scholar Yu said with a smile. The man had a medium-sized mustache and goatee. He wore dark colored cloth decorated with a thin red tassel, and on his waist were a few scrolls.

  “Where did I leave off? Ah yes, the poet of Moongaze Lake. It was said the man was just a wanderer when he caught the eye of a lady from a noble family - the Chu family.”

  “That lady had many suitors every day, looking to meet her. Several were from families just as powerful as hers. But she snubbed them all. Instead of these martial arts experts, she wanted someone more scholarly.”

  “The poor become scholars and the wealthy pursue martial arts. When she expressed her desire, almost everybody mocked her. Even her parents came down from their busy schedule to scold her for three days and nights.”

  “Locked in a high tower, she could only stare down the window from her room. But it was here that the voice of the poet from Moongaze Lake carried itself far, and made its way to her ears.”

  “Entranced by the beauty of his verses,” Scholar Yu said, taking a sip of tea, “she told her parents the next night about a compromise. A competition! She would marry whichever suitor could compose a poem most pleasing to the ear.”

  “Her parents were not quite satisfied with this. They were happy she was willing to marry, but they had their own plans for choosing the specific partner. She was allowed to marry many suitors as long as they were not a commoner. Never a commoner.”

  “Four additional judges were brought out. Two were from their family. Two were commoners, but they had been paid off by the Chu family to favor the wealthy. They thought this was enough to convince the silly girl.”

  “As word of the competition spread, the poet from Moongaze Lake heard of it, disguised as a simple competition for money. The man was no scoundrel and never would have participated had he known so many forces would try to take advantage of him.”

  “Wanderers like him needed money. So he went and composed three poems about the world. It was said that those who heard these poems felt their minds become clearer, their hearts calm, and their regrets fade away.”

  Scholar Yu took another drink of his tea. A member in the crowd asked, “Do you know these poems?”

  “Sadly, I do not. Neither did the person I heard it from, who also heard of the story from others,” Scholar Yu said.

  He continued, “Those poems were so great they swayed one of the commoners to immediately choose him as the winner. So did the lady from Chu. But the other commoner, worried about the vengeance from the Chu family, picked another person instead - a third one.”

  “And so it became a tie between the poet from Moongaze Lake and the wealthy young master of the He family.”

  “What happened next?” asked a listener after Scholar Yu took another sip of tea.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” the same person shouted.

  “I do know that the poet of Moongaze Lake went missing a few days after the competition. The Chu family was going to do another round, attract more judges, to solidify the winner. Then the poet disappeared while they were still getting things ready. So did both the commoners for that matter.”

  “The Chu lady called foul play. Obviously there was something wrong for her favored target to suddenly go missing along with his poet judge supporters. The city was teeming with rumors.” Here, Scholar Yu pushed for dramatic effect.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “And then?”

  “And then the other two judges went missing as well. Even the Chu family martial artists disappeared. When the lady’s own father could no longer be found in the city even when he had been seen the night prior, complete panic set in.”

  Scholar Yu’s eyes turned wide. “Everyone involved in the incident suffered a mysterious end. Except for the lady and her mother. But the matter of her marriage was long forgotten, as the Chu family had to contend with the fallout. How’s that? Isn’t that a happy story with a happy ending?”

  The crowd booed the storyteller. “Liar! All your stories are grim!”

  Scholar Yu shook his head. “This was not something I personally experienced, but one I heard from another famed storyteller in the Bright Moon City. Besides,” he said with a smile, “isn’t that why you’re all here?”

  “That’s right!” The crowd’s scolding turned into laughter. “Keep going, then. Tell us the truth of the world.”

  It seemed Scholar Yu specialized in tragedy. After most of the crowd stood up and deposited some more coins into the bowl of alms, Scholar Yu ordered some tea for everyone in the teahouse.

  Lu Qingshan and Qin Ye shared in the revelry for another few stories before he stood up and motioned at Qin Ye to leave. They moved through the streets openly to meet Li Fanghua at her house. Lu Qingshan was still thinking about the first story when they arrived.

  “Moongaze Lake,” he muttered, knocking on the door. Li Fanghua’s mother opened the door with a smile. There were wrinkles on her eyes.

  “Come in,” she said.

  Li Fanghua was upstairs. She was looking over a set of reports detailing the Stone Axe Gang’s movements in the city. When she heard Lu Qingshan and Qin Ye’s footsteps, she stood up to greet them.

  “Hello, sect master,” she said.

  “Li Fanghua,” he started. “What was that you said before about the foreign travelers from another province?”

  “Oh, those people,” she muttered. “They paid their way in through a smuggling caravan. I first got hints of their suspicious background when I overheard them talking in a nearby inn.”

  Li Fanghua peered out the window. “That one,” she said while nodding her head towards it.

  “Should we go and capture them?” Qin Ye asked.

  “I’ve been continuing to eavesdrop on them. They are refugees,” Li Fanghua said. “Apparently they felt an ominous feeling and ran away from their city. They came all the way over here before they finally felt safe enough to take a long rest.”

  “They sound delusional to me,” Qin Ye said.

  Li Fanghua shook her head. “My spiritual senses told me they believed themselves wholeheartedly. And there were six of them thinking the same thought.”

  Qin Ye was still dubious. “There are cases where multiple people believe in the same thing even when it’s clearly wrong. They ignore all evidence and listen to one another instead. Do we have the time to verify their experiences?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I called the sect master over,” she said. “They came from Changshan Province, from the Clear Forest City. One of them is a Marrow Tempering expert from how he acts around our Bone Tempering martial artists. He showed no fear at all when encountering them unlike the other five travelers.”

  “That’s far,” Lu Qingshan said. “You’re sure about this?”

  “I have an intuition that they weren’t lying. One of them must’ve seen something horrifying for them to leave their homes to wander so far. Probably the Marrow Tempering expert if I had to pick who to interrogate.”

  “No need,” Lu Qingshan said. “We should get someone from the Seven Mysteries Gate outside to make the trip. This will take a long time though, and might need more support.”

  Such a faraway event was not an emergency. He believed it was better to leave them alone for now. They could gather more details later, and Lu Qingshan wanted the Seven Mysteries Gate to begin collecting information about the kingdom anyway.

  “Let’s try to get them to willingly divulge their circumstances,” Lu Qingshan ordered. “Talk to them. Make friends with them. Then report back to me with important pieces of information.”

  Li Fanghua nodded. “Will do,” she said.

  The three of them spent some time discussing their next course of action regarding the Stone Axe Gang. Li Fanghua was not satisfied with how they had spent the past year lording over the common people. They weren’t as bad as the Barbarian Bull Gang monetarily, but their attitudes were a major problem.

  “There’ve been multiple conflicts that ended up in injuries,” she said, hands gripping the report. “We should solve this. They should be more like the Azure Wind Gang.”

  “Have you brought this issue up with Meng Zhang?” Lu Qingshan asked.

  “Yes. The man has willingly patrolled the streets himself and has stopped several incidents. So have the Wang brothers when it’s happening right in front of them. But those three are usually not patrolling, so they don’t catch many of the gang’s misdeeds.”

  “That’s indeed a problem,” Lu Qingshan said. He began thinking of a possible solution. The Seven Mysteries Gate couldn’t be too heavy-handed with the gangs under their control as they still wanted to remain out of notice. Meng Zhang’s personal moves were already toeing the line.

  There was no easy solution. Their control over the territory was already delicate, and even a small change might tip things over to chaos once more. That was not what he wanted as it would continue to distract him from his martial arts practice. At least what the Stone Axe Gang was doing was working, even if not the best solution.

  “How’s that Marrow Tempering foreigner’s character?” Lu Qingshan asked. “Do you think they’ll willingly step in for a stranger if they’re in danger?”

  Li Fanghua placed a finger on her cheek. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “The man sounds like a good person from what the others have said about him. But that’s the opinion of his close friends from home.”

  “We’ll have to give it a try.” Lu Qingshan believed the plan was feasible. “Let Meng Zhang know too. We need to start influencing the gang’s beliefs.”

  “What do you have in mind, sect master?” Qin Ye’s eyes were bright and eager. “Can I help?”