NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 120:
Chapter 120: Civil Strife Breaks Out in Dagan:
[The arrival of the tax collector will surprise you.]
[You never imagined that in a border region plagued by increasingly rampant demons and amidst the turbulent state of Dagan, a tax collector would still arrive to demand taxes from people who already have nothing.]
[You stopped practicing martial arts.]
[You stopped training.]
[As winter approaches, the biting wind cuts through the branches. Yet, as it brushes against you, it is dispersed by an invisible force.]
[The young girl is furious, far more impulsive than you. She declares her intent to pierce the tax collector with a hundred holes using her spear.]
[You tell her to stay behind for now and rush to the town gate alone.]
[There, you see the tax collector riding a green-scaled horse, flaunting his authority and berating the terrified people of Qingniu Town.]
[The familiar faces before you tremble in fear.]
[You knock the tax collector off his horse, but you know that this act alone is insufficient.]
[To the impoverished people of Qingniu Town, the “tax collector” remains a looming figure of oppression, weighing heavily on their hearts.]
[Simple folk cannot grasp the bigger picture; they do not understand the concept of power and hierarchy.]
[You do not attempt to discuss lofty ideals.]
[Instead, you calmly explain the brutal reality. You tell them that the tax collectors are here to take their last scraps of food, leaving everyone to starve.]
It was natural for people to feel afraid.
Fear makes them cower, tremble, and withdraw.
When faced with a force greater than themselves, people instinctively shrink back. But hunger changes everything. When their emaciated bodies convulse and ache with each passing moment…
When death approaches, fear dissipates.
Death was the erasure of all things. For those on the brink of death, there was nothing else to fear. The primal instinct to survive takes over.
These people want only to live.
But now, the tax collector seeks to take away their final reserves of food—their last rations, carefully saved for their children and loved ones. Food so precious that, though their throats burned with hunger, they never dared touch it. This was their last shred of dignity, their final act of defiance.
And yet, the tax collector wants to strip even that away.
Aniu, an honest and simple man, felt his throat tighten with a burning heat. An invisible fire ignited within him, making his hands tremble. His usually kind and gentle face now revealed a grief and fury that Xu Xi has never seen before.
Others begin to step forward, their emotions boiling over.
“I won’t allow it! That food is for my mother—it’s not for you to take!”“You destroyed my sister’s life! You’re the one who stole our food!”
The ones who rise are farmers hardened by the soil, blacksmiths who toil endlessly at the forge, and even merchants once well-off but now exiled and stripped of everything for offending the county magistrate.
At this moment, they share one identity: they are starving people, teetering on the brink of death.
The tax collector stammers, his voice trembling. “W-what are you doing?!”
He scrambles to his feet, only to stumble and fall again, his movements clumsy and desperate. He looks ridiculous, a man of power now reduced to pathetic irony.
Though he was a martial artist, merely at the 2nd stage body training realm, he was still a warrior.
Under normal circumstances, a warrior would easily subdue untrained mortals. But now, faced with their piercing glares and their crude dung forks, hoes, and sickles, fear took hold of him.
For the first time, the tax collector realized an undeniable truth.
He was human too. He bleeds when cut, dies when struck in the heart.
He was no immortal monster but a man, just like these “untouchables.”
“Wait! Please, wait!” he cried.
But it was too late. The people, driven by starvation and desperation, surge forward. Their fury, long suppressed, erupts. Some hold his arms, others tie his legs. Fists pummel his face; feet kick his body.
…
[One punch, then another, and another.]
Wu Yingxue watched from a distance, her gaze somber.
“The progress on ‘Primordial Energy Technique’ was stagnant. At this rate, everyone in Qingniu Town might not survive the winter.”
The girl, once eager to attack, now hesitated.
She worried about the consequences of the tax collector’s death.
[At the same time, across the thirteen prefectures of Dagan, some counties and towns, unable to bear the crushing taxes, are also rising in rebellion.]
This was merely the beginning.
[You realize that the growing wave of demonic threats each year has affected not only Qingniu Town but the entire border region of Dagan.]
[Countless displaced people, fleeing demons, now attack garrisons in desperation.]
“Sir, is this really okay?” a familiar voice calls from behind Xu Xi.
[The brewing storm makes you realize that the people of Qingniu Town are not alone in their struggle to survive.]
“Once the imperial court learns of this, Qingniu Town might…”
“Yingxue, that doesn’t matter,” Xu Xi replies.
[The tax collector, battered and broken, begins to beg for mercy. In his desperation, he reveals the information you sought.]
[You learn what you need about the current state of Dagan and the rebels.]
The cold autumn wind stings the tax collector’s wounds, amplifying his cries. Wu Yingxue frowned as she watched him writhe and struggle, only to be beaten down again.
[Though the immortal powers of Dagan can move mountains…]
[Civil strife has engulfed the empire.]
[The blows delivered by the people are weak, but each punch lands with raw emotion.]
The tax collector lowered his head, once held high, before the very people he had scorned.
[You do not pity him. His countless crimes have made him a figure of terror even among children.]
[You only seek to understand the state of Dagan and the latest news about the rebellion.]
[You step in to stop the beating.]
[As Dagan’s armies suppress uprisings across the land, the people of Qingniu Town face a dire future.]
Xu Xi glanced at Aniu and the others, their gaunt faces, their crude tools.
He looked at Wu Yingxue and said, “The people of Qingniu Town cannot survive on their own. The frontier troops of Dagan have never stepped beyond the pass.”