Chương 19: A Warning to Player Killers

The intricate talisman gradually took shape beneath her brush. Gu Zhiwei could clearly feel her Spirit power flowing through the hand that held the brush. The final stroke fell. The yellow paper suddenly lifted into the air on its own and hovered before her. The cinnabar bled along the talisman's lines, like tiny streams of blood seeking out their own veins. The next second, the entire talisman blazed with light. Something unseen reached down from the dark sky above and seized hold of her senses.

A great chunk of Gu Zhiwei's Spirit power was wrenched away. A piercing whine rang in her ears. The Nine Heavens Thunderfire Talisman was complete. Muffled thunder rolled from somewhere impossibly high and far away. At some point, vast banks of storm clouds had swallowed the moon. Lightning raced through their depths, bolt after bolt, throwing the entire night sky into alternating light and darkness. Then a thunderbolt plunged straight down from the clouds.

Blue-white lightning illuminated the palace walls, upturned eaves, and tier upon tier of halls. In the next instant, it struck the roof ridge of the north hall of Qizhen Court dead center. Boom! Glazed tiles exploded in sheets. Shattered tiles flew into the air trailing sparks, and a gaping breach split open across the ridge. Cries of alarm rose nearby. Before anyone could react, the second bolt had already fallen, followed immediately by the third.

The two bolts tore through the shattered roof one after another, their white glare nearly merging into one. The massive crossbeams shuddered violently. Great swaths of roofing collapsed into the hall with a deafening crash. Flames leapt up, raced along the beams, and engulfed the curtains, wooden screens, and hanging drapes in the blink of an eye. At last, the shrill clang of gongs rang through the palace.

"Fire!"

"The Qizhen Court is on fire!" The shouts had barely begun when a fourth thunderbolt tore down from the clouds. Then came the fifth. The sixth. Each peal of thunder crashed into the next, leaving no room to breathe. It was as if nothing remained between heaven and earth but that blinding white. The overturned lampstands and oil lamps inside the hall were swept into the inferno, and the blaze swelled violently, rolling toward the bodies within.

Crimson waves of fire rushed down the corridors toward the side halls, then climbed the towering wooden pillars all the way to the bracketed eaves above. The north hall of Qizhen Court, once hidden in the night, was illuminated inch by inch by fire. When the seventh bolt fell, the eastern roof collapsed completely. The eighth followed close behind. Broken timbers crashed into the sea of flames, throwing sparks thirty feet into the air. At that very moment, the gale finally swept across the imperial city once more.

It howled through the palace lanes, carrying vast clouds of sparks into the air before scattering them across the towers behind the Qizhen Court. The lightning within the clouds had yet to fade. One final bolt remained. Gu Zhiwei raised her head. The heavy storm clouds had pressed impossibly low. Silver-white lightning raced and converged within them until every thread gathered directly above the imperial palace. The next moment, the ninth thunderbolt struck before the Yong Emperor's Purple Pole Hall.

Heaven and earth turned white. After the deafening blast, fire erupted before Purple Pole Hall and instantly climbed the fabrics and draperies outside. A brief, deathly silence. Then the entire imperial city descended into chaos. Bells and drums thundered in the distance. Palace gates flew open. Imperial guards, eunuchs, and attendants carrying buckets came running toward Purple Pole Hall from every direction. Shouts, gongs, and pounding footsteps dissolved into pandemonium. All nine thunderbolts had fallen.

Even through the palace's many walls, Gu Zhiwei could still see the flames churning above the Qizhen Court. Half the night sky had been stained red.

"Move!" The other three were still transfixed by the towering spectacle. Only Gu Zhiwei's shout snapped them back to their senses. They hurriedly helped her gather things, then blended into the palace servants fleeing in every direction. Following the route they had planned, they soon escaped the imperial city. Before the group split up, Gu Zhiwei sent Oliver a party invitation. Oliver accepted without hesitation.

Only after returning to the Gu residence did Gu Zhiwei have time to deal with the updates on her panel. Remembering how it had felt to exhaust her Spirit power while drawing the talisman, she assigned two points to Strength and three to Spirit. Heat swiftly seeped into her limbs. The hollow sensation left by her drained Spirit power receded somewhat, and her head no longer hurt as badly. The three-point increase in Spirit brought another dramatic change to her senses.

Now, if she focused, she could clearly hear someone speaking hundreds of meters away. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Damn, this is useful. No wonder those bastards are hunting players like their lives depend on it. After some thought, Gu Zhiwei made a post under Greenfeather's ID. 【To anyone still hunting players: 】 【Fang Yan, Amanda, and Lee Jae-young are dead.

】 【Starting today, if you frame other players in the name of the baleful star or murder the innocent, I'll come for you one by one and harvest your Evil. I trust you understand what that means. 】 Within ten breaths, the reply count began to skyrocket. Some questioned the claim. Others demanded to know who she was. Then someone posted the news that the Qizhen Court had been destroyed by heavenly thunder.

More players erupted in cheers at their narrow escape from death, thanking the legendary Greenfeather with heartfelt sincerity. Before long, the discussion shifted to what kind of skill Greenfeather could possibly have. For the first time, the ID "Greenfeather" rose above the Forum's endless clamor and seared itself into everyone's memory.

A sudden, urgent pounding came from outside the gates of the Gu residence. A palace eunuch bearing an imperial summons had rushed over in the middle of the night. Holding the Yong Emperor's order, he cried in a shrill, frantic voice, "Lord Gu! His Majesty summons you!" Gu Zhao was about to leave for the palace when Gu Zhiwei stopped him.

"Brother, this is the perfect chance to save those in jails." Gu Zhao froze, then immediately understood what she meant. He gave her an approving look and strode away. The Yong Emperor had been too terrified to sleep all night. His own Purple Pole Hall had been more than half consumed by thunderfire, forcing him to relocate to Yanying Hall before dawn. When he saw the thunder-ravaged north hall of the Qizhen Court with his own eyes, his entire body began to tremble.

Then several imperial guards reported that Consort Shu had summoned outlanders into the palace late at night before the thunder fell. In his fury, the Yong Emperor had Consort Shu thrown directly into prison and expelled every adept from the Qizhen Court before the night was over. The Empress stayed by his side in Yanying Hall. Princess Yihua knelt outside the hall and wept for half the night, begging for mercy on her mother's behalf, yet she was not even allowed through the doors.

It was then that Gu Zhao was summoned into the palace. The moment the Yong Emperor saw him enter, he hurried forward and seized his hands.

"Minister Gu, Minister Gu! Quickly, explain this to me. Why did heavenly thunder descend tonight?!"

"Your Majesty, this celestial manifestation was a warning. Though the source of the calamity has been removed, thunder shook the Purple Pole and Heaven's might was made plain. This was a warning bestowed by Heaven itself. I implore Your Majesty to cultivate virtue and examine your own conduct, so that this calamity may be averted." Seeing that the Yong Emperor still hesitated, Gu Zhao put it another way.

"Because of those within the Qizhen Court, wrongful arrests have swept through the capital of late. Commoners have abandoned their homes and fled, and their resentment now rises straight to the palace. This divine punishment has descended precisely to show Your Majesty where the root of the calamity lies. I dare petition Your Majesty to revoke the outlander adepts' authority to seize and interrogate suspects at will.

In every baleful-match case, regardless of who makes the accusation, the Bureau of Astronomy must conduct a second review." The Yong Emperor immediately came to his senses.

"Yes. Yes, of course. I was deceived by those treacherous scoundrels!" The Empress added her support from beside him.

"Zhao is quite right. I too have recently heard of several false charges and miscarriages of justice, all caused by these outlanders. Even the children of great families have been implicated and imprisoned." The Yong Emperor flew into a rage.

"Those wretches have done me grievous harm! Then we shall proceed as Minister Gu proposes. Every baleful-match case is to be investigated anew." Gu Zhao knew the Yong Emperor would never abandon the hunt for the baleful star. This concession was already the best outcome they could hope for, so he bowed low and accepted the order. Before daybreak, the imperial edict had gone out across the capital. The mass searches were to stop.

Instead, suspects' birth dates and places of origin were to be registered and sent to the Bureau of Astronomy for investigation. No one was permitted to seize or execute a suspect without authorization. The case files for the Vice Minister of Personnel's third daughter and the others arrested with her were sent to the Bureau of Astronomy that very morning. Every so-called "baleful-match judgment" had been fabricated by Fang Yan. Some even contained typos.

With a stroke of Gu Zhao's red brush, the cases were dismissed, and the prisoners were released that same day. The round-faced girl returned home from prison. The first thing she did was post on the Forum. 【I hereby declare Lord Gu my new god!! He's handsome, he's smart, how is one man this perfect?! 】 【I got out because Lord Gu reviewed my case too. Back in prison, everyone was just waiting and hoping he'd get to theirs next.

Even when those bastards were still throwing their weight around, he kept pushing back and saving people. 】 【I've genuinely fallen for an NPC!! 】 【I volunteer to be Gu Zhiwei's sister-in-law. All in favor? Any objections? 】 Time flew. As the first year since the three hundred players arrived in Great Yong drew to a close, the Forum gradually returned to the way it had been before, with players banding together and exchanging information. But no one ever shared their personal details or location again.

No matter how many people tagged the legendary Greenfeather to thank her for descending from the heavens when other players were hunting them, Gu Zhiwei never replied.

Aside from regularly scanning the capital with her Spirit power and occasionally going out to deal with players who still dared to commit crimes, she spent her time at home reconstructing the star charts her father had left behind. Her Strength had now reached 26, and her Spirit stood at 34. She had thought every multiple of five might offer a chance to advance, but the Personal Panel showed no response. The requirements for advancement still needed further investigation.

She repositioned the star disk countless times. She broke down and reconstructed the algorithms in Gu Yaozhi's notes. Every celestial event involving guest stars, Mars, and the Purple Tenuity Enclosure since the first year of Chongjing was marked anew. She had handled those fifteen star charts so often that their edges had begun to fray. She had even spent entire nights atop the star-gazing terrace, attempting to sense the celestial manifestations. The result remained chaos.

The broom star's portents followed no pattern she could trace. They could not be matched to any record in the mortal realm. It was as if someone had deleted the most crucial condition from the problem, yet still demanded that she produce the one correct answer. The others in the group were also searching for leads wherever they could. Throughout the year, Chen Li had investigated while expanding his grain business from the prosperous south all the way into the impoverished north.

He had even started a chain of teahouses. A true titan of commerce. Drop him into any market, and he could build an empire out of it. Before the new year, he traveled north to the capital to meet Gu Zhiwei and formally joined the party. He also brought her a longbow of dark, understated wood. Its body gleamed with a warm luster, and its string shone like silver thread. One glance was enough to tell that it had cost a fortune.

When Wang Pu heard about it, he was violently jealous in the group chat and practically got down on his knees, begging Uncle Chen to come a little farther north and show him some love too. Over the year, Wang Pu's combat skills and stats had also improved by leaps and bounds. He had even worked his way up to squad leader, commanding ten men on the battlefield as they fought and scraped their way through one battle after another. He had built up a fair amount of prestige.

There had been no further leads on the bandits. He returned to the abandoned post station countless times and had even become friendly with the old woman selling noodle soup at the entrance to the alley, stopping by every so often to give her some business. He did, however, share one unusual discovery. After killing a Beirong commander who had repeatedly raided and burned local villages, slaughtering their inhabitants, he had also unlocked the Virtue and Evil system.

So killing evil players was not the only way to acquire Virtue and Evil Values. The system also applied to locals whose crimes were monstrous enough. Its standard was simply far stricter. At the very least, Wang Pu guessed, they had to have many thousands of lives on their hands. Matt had also flourished in the Insignia Guard with his immense strength and wealth of combat experience. Yang Jingchu valued him greatly and had even promoted him to serve as his deputy. By now, Matt commanded a force of thousands.

Oliver continued to appear and disappear throughout the capital like a ghost, helping Gu Zhiwei cover her blind spots and crack down on crimes committed by players. He also brought any suspicious information he uncovered to her so they could discuss it together. Sometimes he came by simply to cadge a cup of wine and chat about amusing things from their original world, literature, films, and the like. For a little while, it let them forget the seemingly unsolvable riddle of the quest before them.

Aglaya soon stopped taking part in their conversations. She felt as if she and those two existed on entirely different wavelengths. Her assessment of Oliver also changed from "that hot guy who actually had a brain" to "that pretentious British poser." Over the year, she developed a new fondness for local adventure tales. Every so often, she would drag Gu Zhiwei to West Market to watch a performance. Winter snow began to drift down in silence. Year One ended. Quest progress: 0%.