Chapter 16: Return to Han Zhou, The Whole City Welcomes the Sword

The day Jiang Che returned to Han Zhou, the entire city was silent.

It was not that no one came to welcome him.

Rather, everyone in Hanzhou City had come.

From the North Gate to the Jiang Family Old Residence, the long street was lined with commoners on both sides: elders leaning on staffs, women holding children, children standing on tiptoe, and soldiers standing without armor.

There were no gongs or drums.

There were no cheers.

Only the sound of wind blowing through the white banners on the street corners.

For in this battle, three thousand Zhenbei Old Soldiers had marched out of White Bone Pass, yet fewer than a thousand returned.

White Bone Pass was reclaimed, and the Heavenly Gate shattered, but Han Zhou had once again lost too many people.

Jiang Che sat atop his horse, his face pale, draped in a black cloak. The Green Bamboo Sword hung at his waist, but half of the Wooden Sword was gone.

That Wooden Sword, which had accompanied him from the Broken Temple to Tian Duan Cliff, had shattered before the Heavenly Gate.

Chen Shanhe, his arm severed and stained with blood, personally held a wooden box.

Inside the wooden box lay the register of the fallen old soldiers.

With every stretch of street they passed, someone knelt.

Jiang Che dismounted.

He did not let the commoners kneel.

Instead, he walked to an elderly woman with white hair at the very front and helped her up.

The old woman spoke with a trembling voice: "Young Master, did my third son... return?"

Jiang Che remained silent.

Chen Shanhe lowered his head and opened the register, his voice hoarse: "Zhenbei Old Soldier, Li Cheng, died in battle at White Bone Pass."

The old woman's body swayed, yet she did not weep.

She only asked: "When he died, did he ever retreat?"

Chen Shanhe, his eyes red, replied: "He did not retreat a single step; before dying, he slew two enemies."

The old woman nodded and raised her hand to wipe the corner of her eye.

"That is good."

She turned to the grandson behind her and said: "Remember, your father did not bring shame."

The child nodded in confusion.

Jiang Che stood in place, a stone seeming to press upon his chest.

The further he walked forward, the more such people there were.

Some asked about their husbands.

Some asked about their elder brothers.

Some asked about their fathers.

And some asked nothing at all, merely casting a distant glance at the wooden box before turning away to wipe their tears.

By the time they returned to the Jiang Family Old Residence, the sunset had already faded.

Before the manor gate, Xie Tingxue stopped.

She had been silent the entire way, but now she suddenly said: "You feel unwell in your heart."

Jiang Che said: "They went out with me."

Xie Tingxue said: "But they also went of their own will."

Jiang Che looked at her.

Xie Tingxue said calmly: "A Sword Cultivator draws his sword, and a soldier goes to his death; neither does so to make the living bear a debt for a lifetime."

"They want you to remember, not to stop."

Jiang Che was silent for a moment, then nodded.

Inside the manor, the ancestral hall was brightly lit.

Jiang Che placed the register of the fallen before the spirit tablets of the Jiang ancestors, and separately ordered new spirit tablets to be erected in a row.

They were not members of the Jiang clan.

They were the heroic souls of the Northern Garrison Army.

Chen Shanhe knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his aged face.

"Young Master, this goes against the rules..."

Jiang Che lit three sticks of incense.

"They died for the Jiang Family, they died for Han Zhou."

"From this day forward, the heroic souls of the Northern Garrison Army shall share the ancestral hall with the Jiang Family."

Chen Shanhe bowed his head heavily to the ground.

"This old soldier thanks the Young Master on behalf of his brothers!"

After night fell, Jiang Che sat alone on the threshold of the ancestral hall.

The Green Bamboo Sword lay across his knees.

The Heavenly Gate was shattered, but the Sword Spirit had also dispersed.

Subconsciously, he wanted to hear that lazy voice scold him a couple of times, but he only heard the night wind blowing through the corridor.

"Senior."

Jiang Che said softly: "I have returned."

No one responded.

Only the Green Bamboo Sword chimed softly, as if offering comfort.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed from outside the manor.

A scout knelt on the ground.

"Young Master, an edict from the Capital City!"

Jiang Che looked up.

The scout's face was grim.

"The Emperor has issued a decree, ordering the Young Master to enter the Capital City within three days to receive an appointment."

"There is another Imperial Edict..."

Jiang Che asked, "Speak."

The scout gritted his teeth and said, "The Court says that although White Bone Pass has been restored, the Young Master privately mobilized troops, unlawfully killed Prince of Zhenhan Lu Heng, and the Shattered Heaven Gate triggered a natural disaster; the guilt cannot be escaped."

Chen Shanhe flew into a rage: "Nonsense!"

Yet Jiang Che smiled.

The smile was very cold.

He looked up toward the south.

The Heavenly Gate had just shattered.

The blade of the Court had arrived.