Da Xuan Martial Saint

Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

Yu State, State Government Office.

The grand city of the State Government Office was far more spectacular than the Prefecture City of Yu County; merely the common people within the city numbered in the millions, and the entire city was not as simple as that of Prefecture City of Yu County. As the capital city of the State Government Office, the whole city, similar to the Seven Profound Sect, was situated upon a majestic Earth's Veins, suppressing the Earth Pulse with the city's formation power, channeling the Earth Pulse's power for its use.

In Yu County, disasters that were common there, such as droughts and cold disasters, did not exist in the State Government Office. The entire city was controlled by a unique Earth Vein Formation, so a vast area enjoyed good weather all year round.

However.

Even so, the State Government Office still showed a clear divide. The closer one got to the Inner City, the more splendidly dressed were the people walking the streets, always surrounded by a group of attendants when they were out and about.

The closer one got to the Outer City, the fewer people wore long robes, until eventually, not even those in neat attire were seen; their clothes were all patched and mended, and in those remote areas, they were even more ragged and filthy, obviously unwashed for a long time.

No matter whether children or elders, almost all had an expressionless demeanor, with vacant stares, hardly showing any vibrancy.

The laughter and cheer from the distant Inner City seemed like they could never reach here.

On the relatively spacious streets, a group of people was surrounded as they walked forward, leading them was Chen Mu, dressed in a simple blue cloth robe, and the many individuals behind him were also dressed simply.

Even so, walking on the streets close to the Outer City was still very uncommon. Many women and children in tattered shirts saw Chen Mu and his group passing and hurriedly cleared the way, not daring to raise their heads to look, each bowing their heads to the sides, fearful of colliding with Chen Mu and the 'masters.'

"I didn't expect even the State Government Office to be in such a state,"

Chen Yue, walking beside Chen Mu, after a sweeping glance at a stretch of the street, spoke with a slightly complex expression.

Xu Hongyu and others like Xiao He and Yu Ru didn't feel much about this, but she had experienced the harshest days alongside Chen Mu. On the road, as Chen Mu spoke about the State Government Office having a unique Earth Vein Formation, perpetually enjoying good weather and keeping away demons, with vast farmlands yielding harvests every year, she had thought it would be different from Yu County, but it turned out to be the same.

"The State Government Office is fundamentally just a larger Yu City; there's no real difference,"

Chen Mu said calmly, "The six major families in Inner City of Yu State all have intricate connections with the elders and peak masters of the Seven Profound Sect, much like the four families of Xue, Xie, He Yu, and others in Yu City back in the day."

Seven Profound Sect ruled over Yu State, but internally there were conflicts and their opinions were not unified. The extensions into Yu State's State Government Office naturally followed the same pattern, including the earlier Yu County, which was essentially a miniaturized version of the Seven Profound Sect.

Yan Jingqing, serving as the Inspector in the State Government Office, once tried to change this situation, but the ultimate outcome was no change at all.

By his sole effort, he couldn't change this pattern.

The only difference between the State Government Office and the past Yu County was that order was slightly better managed, not as chaotic, without cases of murder being ignored randomly, but due to the major families' mutual strife and competition for resources of the State Government Office, corruption was inevitable. Thus the exploitation continued layer by layer; even if the State Government Office had years of plentiful harvests, the plight of the common folk was no different from that of Yu County.

Of course, if one had to say, the State Government Office was still slightly better because it wasn't as remote as Yu County and was adjacent to the main Seven Profound Sect. Capable individuals still had the chance to climb higher, escaping the lower class, and those with exceptional martial arts aptitude were not buried in obscurity.

"Hmm."

Listening to Chen Mu's words, Chen Yue nodded slightly.

If one were to compare the six major families in the State Government Office to the sects and factions like the Heavenly Sword Sect or Mysterious Mechanism Pavilion in Yu County, then life in the State Government Office was not much different; it was the same as the past.

Chen Mu's gaze swept across the street, watching the poor in tattered shirts continually moving aside on the road, all cautiously bowing their heads. For a moment, he felt a wave of emotion; despite the Outer City area being filled with many impoverished households bearing the marks of years of toil, there are indeed people willing to fight tooth and nail to live in the State Government Office.

After all, despite its exploitation, the State Government Office was still much more peaceful compared to the outside world.

Like him, taking Xu Hongyu, Chen Yue, and others from Yu County all the way here, traveling on official roads for nearly a month and a half, encountering no fewer than four groups of bandits who openly blocked the road and robbed.

Others who secretly followed but gave up because they felt it too challenging were even more numerous.

Such bandits were, in fact, proactively purged by the State Government Office and various other prefectures every few days, but due to the chaotic world, they were not completely eradicated, and when one group was eliminated, another emerged.

As for the Seven Profound Sect, so high and aloof, such ordinary banditry barely caught their interest, unless it involved great criminals who had entered the Five Viscera Realm, which might prompt the Seven Profound Sect to dispatch genuine disciples or protectors for capture.

The group continued along the main road.

Soon after passing through the outermost city district, they arrived at a slightly inner area, where the view began to change; there were gradually fewer people in ragged clothes, and more in long robes. The streets also visibly became much cleaner and tidier, including some of the buildings which began to show some style.

The closer they got to the Inner City of the State Government Office, the busier the streets became. On the roads, some well-to-do local gentries swaggered by, flanked前 and后. While they didn't recognize Chen Mu and his group, they could still tell from their clothing that Chen Mu and his group were not ordinary people, so naturally, no conflict arose, and all passed by with polite nods.