A swollen sensation filled Ren Qing's eyes as, in a daze, he was plunged into darkness.
He found himself completely unable to close his eyes. All he could feel were heavy footsteps drawing nearer, coming from the direction he was facing.
Just as the presence in the darkness was about to reach him…
"Constable…"
Someone nudged Ren Qing, and all the strange sensations vanished.
He opened his eyes to find everything around him had slowed down. He could almost see the very patterns on the wings of the flies drawn by the scent of blood.
Two streams of tears slowly trickled from Ren Qing's eyes, making his face look all the more horrifying.
Li Mian and his brother stumbled back several steps. Their backs hit the wall, and though they wanted to flee, they had no strength left in their bodies. All they could do was repeatedly call out to Ren Qing.
Ren Qing took a few breaths to come to his senses. Although he had reached the introductory level of the No-Eyes Technique by sacrificing some of his Lifespan, it would still take time to master it.
[Ren Qing]
[Age: Seventeen]
[Lifespan: Five years and eighty-three days]
[Skill: No-Eyes Technique]
Moreover, after grasping the No-Eyes Technique, it felt like something in his mind had changed. He would have to wait until he returned to the Government Office to figure out the specifics.
"My blood just rushed to my head, and the sand in the wind made my eyes sore."
Ren Qing casually offered an excuse, and the Li Brothers didn't press the matter. Instead, they took the initiative to handle more of the physical labor.
People died violent deaths in Sanxiang City every day, and Fireworkers were the ones who inevitably had to deal with the bodies. Therefore, the people White Servants feared offending most were the Government Constables who oversaw them.
Otherwise, if they ever ran into trouble, they might not even know how they died.
They finished cleaning up the bookshop, leaving only large patches of dried blood inside. The rest was a job for the Black Slaves.
The bookshop door was sealed shut with an official strip of paper.
Ren Qing led the Li Brothers out of the alley. Laden with bags of various sizes, they headed for the open area where the body had been left.
Xiaowu had been waiting for a long time and was now pacing about anxiously.
The corpse beside him had been placed in the most conspicuous spot in the morning market, and the sackcloth wrapping it was soaked through with blood.
"Brother Qing... Constable, you're finally here."
Xiaowu cried out in relief. For a boy his age, being left to guard a corpse on an empty street was indeed asking a lot.
"Let's go. We've been busy all morning. Once we're back at the Government Office, we can finally get some rest."
Ren Qing's brow relaxed. Now that things were on the right track, the pressure from his dwindling Lifespan had eased considerably.
The four of them chatted as they crossed the street, returning to the more bustling parts of the city.
A few sword-wielding constables were standing nearby. Seeing that the corpse had been handled, they nodded to Ren Qing and departed.
In the Government Office, constables were mainly responsible for patrolling the streets and didn't have to handle gruesome corpses, a fact that the Fireworker Black Slaves couldn't help but envy.
But the post of Government Constable was a hereditary one, usually passed down from father to eldest son, and one's duties could not be easily changed.
Ren Qing's predecessor, for example, had actually come from a village called Eight Characters Village, located a hundred li northwest of Sanxiang City.
He originally had an older brother who inherited their deceased father's post as a Government Constable, but he died in an accident just over half a year later.
Left with no choice, his predecessor couldn't abandon the hereditary "iron rice bowl," so he had to report for duty at the Sanxiang City Government Office. As it turned out, he too met the same fate not long after.
The predecessor's mother was likely still at home in Eight Characters Village, and Ren Qing sent some silver coins home every month.
What was strange, though, was that most families in the city had four or five children. It was as if raising them was no trouble at all.
'I wonder what supports such a high birth rate. It can't be some kind of Divine Power Technique, can it…'
Ren Qing had no real memory of his "mother," but he had pieced together a general idea from Xiaowu. Since he rarely had a chance to see her, he wasn't worried about his cover being blown.
The four of them passed through the West City District and arrived at the center of Sanxiang City, the location of the Government Office.
The main gate featured red walls and green tiles, with a plaque that read "Sanxiang County Office" hanging above it. Government Constables were constantly coming and going through the entrance.
For a city that was home to over a hundred thousand people, the scale of the Government Office was far greater than one might imagine.
The grounds alone were estimated to cover over 10,000 square meters, containing 254 separate buildings. The complex had four main gates—east, west, south, and north—and was likewise divided into four districts.
Each district had an identical set of buildings, and their personnel rarely interacted with one another on a normal day.
Forbidden Soldier Hall, Arresting Officer Hall, Firework Hall, Black Slave Hall, Prison Cell, Kitchen Courtyard, Magistrate's Residence, Immortal Buddha Temple, Public Trial Hall, Martial Arts Training Ground, Si Bu Hall…
As a Government Constable of the West City District, Ren Qing was only permitted to use the main west gate, so he'd never had any contact with the other districts.
"We're finally here…"
Xiaowu rubbed his wrists, a hint of exhaustion on his face.
A dead body was heavy as stone. Even with four people taking turns, carrying it was exhausting, to say nothing of all the other miscellaneous items they had to haul.
The Li Brothers didn't complain, but their expressions visibly relaxed.
"Let's go."
Ren Qing sighed helplessly. 'I have so few men under my command. Otherwise, why would I need to do manual labor myself?'
After entering the Government Office, they saw numerous plaques hanging everywhere, bearing inscriptions extolling virtues like "Impartial as a Clear Mirror" and "Incorruptible as Pure Water."
They followed a path paved with West Sandstone and arrived at the Firework Hall.
The Firework Hall was situated in a somewhat remote area. Its courtyard contained several water wells, a necessity as the furnaces were frequently lit for cremations, requiring the hall to be located far from residential areas.
The Government Office's West District had three Firework Halls in total, each housing the Fireworkers responsible for two street districts.
Twelve side rooms stood in a row. At the far end were the morgue and, near the corner, the furnace.
The furnace was forged entirely from iron, shaped like a hollow Gourd. Its clever design allowed a load of wood to burn for seven or eight hours straight.
However, in Ren Qing's Firework Hall, the other crew of Fireworkers—the one from Hexing Street—had been temporarily reassigned outside the city. Apparently, a plague had broken out in one of the villages.
The Li Brothers moved the Shopkeeper's body into the morgue. Inside, there were already over a dozen other corpses—all of them Fireworkers who had died with unsettling smiles on their faces.
The furnace could cremate three bodies at once, but with Ren Qing working alone before, he hadn't been able to keep up. The bodies were piling up and now beginning to reek of rot.
The new body would have to wait its turn for a few days.
"You all, prepare the furnace. I'm going to my room to rest for a bit."
After giving the three of them a few instructions, Ren Qing returned to his room.
The Li Brothers started moving the bodies and lighting the firewood, while Xiaowu went to the Kitchen Courtyard to get some food, as it was already noon.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged on his bed, closed his eyes, and activated the Information Flow.
He felt the information of the No-Eyes Technique converge, melting into a single point to form an illusory seed.
The moment his consciousness touched the seed, it instantly took root and sprouted.
The seed sprouted three tender shoots, and the pattern on the surface of each leaf resembled a strange eye.
As Ren Qing watched in confusion, text formed from pure information appeared on the shoots, complete with annotations.
[Single-eyed: See Through Illusions]
[Hundred-eyed Man: Create Illusions]
[Repeater: Anticipate the Enemy]
He froze for a moment, then noticed that each line of text corresponded to one of the new leaves.
[Select "Single-eyed" branch? Cost: 1 year of Lifespan.]
Ren Qing checked the other two options. He found that both the Single-eyed and Hundred-eyed Man branches cost one year of Lifespan, while the Repeater branch cost one year and six months.
He hesitated for a moment before choosing to dismiss the Information Flow.
'The No-Eyes Technique is already bizarre enough. Choosing a branch might lead to uncontrollable consequences.'
'Until I understand the power system of this world, risking a year of Lifespan would be incredibly foolish.'
He took out the copy of the *No-Eyes Technique* from his robes.