I'm Just a Beast Tamer

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: The Coming Storm

While Jiang Zuo was getting a headache over his sudden rise to fame.

「Red Fox Town, in the inner courtyard of the Government Office.」

A middle-aged man in an azure robe scooped up a ladleful of water and watered the peonies at the edge of the courtyard.

This man was Zhang Bingjun, the County Magistrate of Red Fox Town.

"Sigh... these are turbulent times. In just half a year, the court’s struggles have already spread to this place. I wonder how much longer I’ll be able to enjoy these flowers."

After pouring out the ladle of water, Zhang Bingjun set the wooden ladle down and sighed.

He was originally a Cabinet Attendant in the imperial court. Although it was just a sinecure, it was still a Standard Sixth Grade position.

The Da Xi court was roughly divided into two factions: the Civil Servants and the Military Officers.

This didn’t mean the Civil Servant faction was composed solely of Civil Servants. The conflict between the two factions primarily manifested in their foreign policy stances on war and peace.

A small minority, like Zhang Bingjun, belonged to the neutral faction.

In nations other than Da Xi, the court was often dominated by Civil Servants.

But Da Xi’s founding emperor came from a Martial Artist background and styled himself as Emperor Wu.

For a thousand years, Military Officers had held significant power in the Da Xi court.

If not for successive emperors constantly working to weaken the Military Officers, the Civil Servants would have likely been overwhelmed long ago.

The conflict between the civil and military factions wasn’t always so intense.

A decade or two ago, for a considerably long period, the civil and military factions coexisted in relative harmony, even though they still existed.

At that time, Zhang Bingjun had just entered the court. Young and full of passion, he dreamed of acting as a neutral party to make the two factions shake hands and make peace, creating a prosperous golden age for the dynasty.

In Zhang Bingjun’s view, instead of wasting time fighting to the death in court, they should be vigorously developing the people’s livelihood and allowing the common folk to live prosperous lives.

If he could accomplish this, his name would undoubtedly be celebrated for generations to come.

Thinking back on it now, Zhang Bingjun felt his younger self had been far too naive.

’Forget making the Civil and Military Officers drop their factionalism. The truth is, the only reason I could even stand in the court as a neutral party was because both factions needed one.’

’When relations between the two factions grew too tense, they needed someone to give them a way to back down gracefully.’

’If they no longer needed me, I wouldn’t even be able to maintain my neutrality.’

After more than twenty years in court, while it couldn’t be said that Zhang Bingjun had accomplished nothing, calling his career mediocre would not be an exaggeration.

Over half a year ago, the struggle between the Civil and Military factions grew increasingly fierce, and even Zhang Bingjun’s sinecure became a target.

He had long since lost the naive passion of his youth and knew that staying in that position would not end well for him.

Coincidentally, the previous County Magistrate of Red Fox Town’s term was ending. After some thought, Zhang Bingjun decided to give up his position as Cabinet Attendant in exchange for an appointment as the County Magistrate of Red Fox Town.

For a Standard Sixth Grade court official like him, coming to a remote little place like Red Fox Town was a complete waste of his talents.

But in the nation of Da Xi, Red Fox Town was a very special place.

An Immortal had once hailed from here, and it was highly likely that this Immortal, Venerable Red Fox, was still alive.

The Da Xi Imperial Family placed great importance on Venerable Red Fox’s place of origin.

At least, a long time ago, they had wanted to curry favor with Venerable Red Fox.

For the first one or two hundred years, anyone who could become the County Magistrate of Red Fox Town invariably had a powerful background and could have otherwise held a high-ranking position.

They dreamed that this would allow them to catch Venerable Red Fox’s eye and thus achieve a meteoric rise.

But such a person never appeared. Venerable Red Fox seemed to have never once inquired about the affairs of Red Fox Town.

Over time, ambitious officials with bright futures were no longer enthusiastic about the post.

They concluded that rather than wasting five precious years in this small place chasing an illusory dream of sudden success, it was better to be pragmatic and advance one’s career step by step.

But the Da Xi Imperial Family’s original intentions for Red Fox Town never changed, and the town still held a very special status within Da Xi.

In other places, all collected taxes had to be handed over to the imperial court.

On the surface, Red Fox Town was the same.

But after collecting the taxes, the court would approve a large sum of funds for Red Fox Town’s maintenance and public welfare.

For example, that unreasonably large town wall could never have been built without funds approved by the court.

Furthermore, officials who came to be the County Magistrate of Red Fox Town, regardless of their conduct elsewhere, had to be incorruptible here and absolutely must not stir up public resentment.

A few hundred years ago, before this unwritten rule was established...

At that time, the craze for official posts in Red Fox Town had long since faded. The town gradually fell into decline and received less attention from the court.

A corrupt official took office in Red Fox Town, and seeing how unusually wealthy it was, he couldn’t resist secretly embezzling all sorts of funds.

Most of the various funds approved by the court, for example, went into his own pockets.

Eventually, he couldn’t even restrain himself from exploiting the people of Red Fox Town, which led to widespread public resentment.

When the Da Xi Imperial Family learned of this, they were utterly enraged.

Not only was the corrupt official beheaded, but his entire family was implicated as well.

Those within three generations of him had their assets seized and were executed, while those within nine generations were exiled to the frontier.

This was an unprecedentedly severe punishment since the founding of Da Xi.

Only then did the officials of Da Xi realize just how important Red Fox Town was in the eyes of the Imperial Family.

At first, many court officials couldn’t understand why, until news slowly began to leak out later on.

It turned out that after several hundred years, the Da Xi Imperial Family had managed to establish a firm foothold in the Cultivation Realm and had founded a Cultivation Clan.

But compared to Venerable Red Fox, they were still leagues apart.

Therefore, no matter what, even if Venerable Red Fox never asked a single thing about it, the Da Xi Imperial Family had to protect Red Fox Town.

Even if the Da Xi Imperial Family couldn’t curry favor with Venerable Red Fox, other Cultivators had no idea what the Venerable’s true attitude toward Red Fox Town was.

They would, to some extent, be wary of the connection to Red Fox Town and wouldn’t be so ruthless when dealing with the Da Xi Imperial Family.

And how could a mortal emperor possibly compare to a Cultivator, who could live a long life and wield immense personal power?

The Da Xi Imperial Family were already mortal emperors; as long as they could practice Cultivation, they had no attachment to the imperial throne.

After establishing their foothold in the Cultivation Realm, the Da Xi Imperial Family would only send back those descendants who lacked a Spirit Root to serve as the emperor of Da Xi or become other imperial relatives.

A mortal emperor’s greatest ambition was normally to expand their territory and unify the world.

But the Da Xi Imperial Family, having started on the path of Cultivation, had lost interest in such things.

Because no matter how large a Mortal Territory was, it offered almost no help to their Cultivation.

A larger territory was, in fact, just more trouble.

If not for the fact that the Da Xi Imperial Family was still weak in the Cultivation Realm, that the nation of Da Xi could serve as their retreat, and that they could use Da Xi to bask in a bit of Venerable Red Fox’s reflected glory, the Da Xi Imperial Family would have likely abandoned the nation of Da Xi already and poured all their efforts into the Cultivation Realm.

In truth, since its founding, Da Xi had always possessed abundant national strength, with experts of the Martial Dao emerging one after another.

If the Da Xi Imperial Family had been so inclined, the surrounding nations, large and small, would have long since been absorbed into Da Xi’s territory.

Alas, the Da Xi Imperial Family’s ambitions lay elsewhere.

As for the surrounding nations, with the exception of rare occasions every few decades or even a century when some country would get overconfident because Da Xi hadn’t mobilized its army in too long and, courting death, attempt to invade and occupy Da Xi...

Only then would Da Xi strike back with lightning speed.

But other than that, most of the time, Da Xi possessed immense military might with no outlet for it.

The civil and military officials could only focus their energies on the court’s factional struggles.

The Da Xi Imperial Family turned a blind eye to this.

As long as things didn’t go too far, they could squabble however they pleased.

If the factional struggles became too intense, to the point where even the neutral faction couldn’t mediate, the Da Xi Imperial Family would step in and punish both sides equally.

Thus, while the two factions fought, they would consciously keep their conflicts within a certain limit.

More than half a year ago, the struggle between the two factions became unprecedentedly fierce.

Zhang Bingjun could never figure out why, but he sensed the danger and chose to proactively step aside.

It wasn’t until recently that Zhang Bingjun heard a piece of news.

The Da Xi Imperial Family had suffered an unprecedented setback in the Cultivation Realm and could no longer concern themselves with the nation of Da Xi!

The moment Zhang Bingjun heard the news, he had a premonition of an impending storm.

’In the past, with the Immortals of the Da Xi Imperial Family looming over them, all of Da Xi’s civil and military officials, no matter their discontent or conflicts, could only endure it and not dare to overstep their bounds.’

’Over several hundred years, who knows how immense that discontent has become. It has long since secretly transformed into a simmering resentment, ready to erupt.’

’If the Da Xi Imperial Family has truly run into trouble in the Cultivation Realm, this resentment will inevitably explode.’

In Zhang Bingjun’s view, the criminals who had appeared in Red Fox Town this time were undoubtedly an extension of the conflict spilling over from the court.

’It’s highly likely the Military Officers are behind this, with the aim of testing the Da Xi Imperial Family!’

’If the Da Xi Imperial Family is fine, they would certainly intervene after such a blatant provocation!’

"Your Excellency, we’ve caught the culprit."

A figure appeared in the courtyard. It was Steward Luo, whom Zhang Bingjun had brought with him from the Imperial Capital when he took up his post.

Steward Luo had a rather thin frame and was more than a decade older than Zhang Bingjun.

"Caught him? How? Have you identified his origins and background?"

Zhang Bingjun couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"His background hasn’t been determined yet, but we were able to catch him thanks to that person we heard about before. I went to see that Great Black dog myself; it is indeed very well-trained. If the situation is as you predicted, Your Excellency, I think it would be best for you to buy a Great Black. It’s better to be prepared."

Steward Luo then recounted how the thief was captured.

"I remember that young man is about to sell a newly-trained Great Black soon, isn’t he?"

Zhang Bingjun asked after a moment of thought.

"Yes. I made some inquiries. It seems the Great Black he’s raised this year is the best one he’s ever had."

"Then buy it. It doesn’t matter if we have to spend a few extra silver taels!"

Zhang Bingjun said immediately.

’If a man doesn’t look out for himself, heaven and earth will destroy him.’

’To avoid getting dragged into the factional struggles, I already took the initiative to step aside and come to a small place like this to serve as County Magistrate.’

’For the past few hundred years, as long as the person serving as Red Fox Town’s County Magistrate didn’t make any major mistakes or proactively stir up trouble and get involved in disputes, the position was basically an invisible Protective Talisman.’

’After all, no one knew when the Da Xi Imperial Family might want to learn about the happenings in Red Fox Town from a retired County Magistrate.’

’If you were unlucky enough to make a move against the Red Fox Town County Magistrate with a flimsy excuse, you could get dragged down with them.’

’If you angered the Da Xi Imperial Family because of it, that would be a completely undeserved disaster.’

Zhang Bingjun had come here precisely for that invisible Protective Talisman. He never expected to be provoked just half a year into his term.

’This is intolerable!’

Even a saint would be angered by this, to say nothing of a mere man like Zhang Bingjun.

’As long as I am in office, if anything happens in Red Fox Town, I can’t escape responsibility, no matter who is pulling the strings in the shadows.’

’If the Da Xi Imperial Family is unharmed, they will hold me accountable sooner or later.’

Since that was the case, Zhang Bingjun wouldn’t hold back either.

’I’m not sure who’s behind this, but no matter how many of these petty thieves they send, I’ll catch every single one!’

’I’d like to see just how many people the mastermind can send.’

’For this, spending a little extra money to buy a Great Black from Jiang Zuo is completely worth it.’

As long as he could get through the rest of his term without incident, Zhang Bingjun couldn’t care less about the floods raging elsewhere.

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