"Open the gates!"
"Let us in!"
The soldiers retreated into the city, pulling down the heavy gates with a thud. The people, who had been driven out by the soldiers, swarmed back like a dark tide, pounding on the doors. Soldiers on the city walls shouted, "Move back! Move back! Those who received provisions, head east and don't linger!"
However, the people of Eternal Peace had left their homeland, fleeing famine, and arrived at the gates of the nearest imperial city. The city's gates were closed to them, forcing them to skirt around the city and head for a more distant settlement to the east.
But just reaching here was fraught with peril, with countless deaths and injuries. How could they muster the energy to continue? Even if they were given some provisions, water, and dry rations, how many days could they last on the road?
These people, covered in dust and grime, dragged pots and pans, carried babies, or moved on makeshift stretchers. While some supported the weak, others lay down, unable to move any further, sprawling across the dusty ground outside the city walls. The young men, still with some strength left, angrily pounded on the city gates and shouted, "You cannot do this! Are you trying to kill us all?"
"Isn’t it enough to push us Celestial Music people to the brink?"
A man’s voice was hoarse with shouting, "Fine, keep us out, but let my wife and children stay, will you?"
Like ants trying to shake a tree, the gates remained unmoved.
Xie Lian stood atop the city walls. His white robes fluttered in the wind as he leaned over the battlements to look down. Outside the imperial city, he saw a mass of slowly moving heads, resembling nothing so much as the ant swarms he had seen playing in the imperial gardens as a child.
Back then, curious, he had wanted to reach out and prod them, only to be hastily prevented by a court servant. "Your Highness, it's filthy, don't touch them!" Sweeping her skirts, she rushed over and stamped the ants to death.
Living ants were not pleasant to look at with their swarm, and dead ones, squashed into unrecognizable pulp, were even less so.
Meanwhile, inside the imperial city, the lights were bright and joyous music filled the air. A single city wall separated two very different worlds.
The later arrivals from Eternal Peace were denied entry, and even those from within were being forced out. Cold though this was, Xie Lian understood it was because, over the past months, tensions between the city dwellers and the settlers from Eternal Peace had been mounting. Leaving all these men within the city risked them acting as a liaison and causing trouble.
But there was one point he thought worth discussing further. He asked absently, "Why must the women and children also be expelled? Some can't travel far anymore."
Feng Xin and Mu Qing stood respectfully behind him. Mu Qing replied, "If one group is moved, all must be moved. What's to fear is not poverty but inequity. You can't treat people differently, or it will only provoke them. Why should they be allowed to stay when others cannot?"
Feng Xin added, "You're overthinking this."
Mu Qing responded coolly, "There are always people who think that way. Besides, if the wife and children remain, the men won't go far, and they’ll eventually return. Leaving people inside the city is leaving a rear threat."
The people of Eternal Peace refused to leave, and the soldiers inside the gates couldn’t move either. They all said, "Fine, we’ll just wait this out!"
Since the ruler gave the order, did he think sitting here in a stalemate would work? They might hold out for a day or two, but certainly not for months or years?
This was what the city’s soldiers and citizens thought too. Some people from Eternal Peace, in despair, resigned themselves to their fate and took a gamble on heading further east, but not many. Most stayed hopeful, lingering at the gates, wishing the city would open to let them in, providing a place to rest before the arduous journey continued. More new arrivals joined them, holding the hope that if so many people were waiting, surely the gates would open eventually.
So, three or four days later, the crowd grew to tens of thousands near the gates, almost camping there as if they had formed a new settlement. They survived on the water and dry rations distributed by the ruler, but it was reaching a breaking point.
That breaking point came on the fifth day.
In those past five days, Xie Lian divided his time into three parts: one for the Crown Prince’s worshippers, one for arranging rain through water control, and one for overseeing the citizens of Eternal Peace outside the city. Despite the support of Feng Xin and Mu Qing, it was often overwhelming and felt unmanageable. On this day, in a moment when he wasn’t on duty outside the city, a sudden scream pierced through the scorching air.
The scream belonged to a couple with a small child. People gathered around, asking, "What happened to the child?" "Is it hunger or thirst?" For a moment, murmurs rippled, "Share some water around, the child looks terrible!"
The mother cried as she tried to feed water to the flushed child, only for it to be spat out. The father said, "I don’t know what's wrong, he's sick. A doctor—he needs a doctor!"
Cradling his child, he rushed to the city gate, pounding on it desperately. "Open up, save us! My son is dying!"
The soldiers inside dared not open the gates. Whether the death was real or not, there were already thousands outside. If the gates were opened, they couldn’t be closed again. The plea was passed up the chain. The heat had made the guards impatient after days of watch, and their response was curt, "Give him water and food." So, a bit of both was lowered by rope. The man replied, "Thank you, thank you all. But we don’t need water or food, can you help us find a doctor?"
That was a difficult request. Not allowing them entry to seek a doctor or letting a doctor out was complicated. Who knew what the starving people outside, after four or five days without food, might do? So, the officers decided, "Ignore it, they won’t die. If pressed, say it’s reported and waiting on the ruler’s swift decision."
The ruler had been irate and stressed over the Eternal Peace issues, so no one dared disturb him over this. Soldiers repeated this answer, reassuring the man, who thanked them profusely, thanking the ruler and kowtowed. But as hours passed, shadows shifting with the relentless sun, no doctor came, and the child grew hotter and hotter.
The couple, child still trembling in their arms, the man's head drenched in sweat, murmured helplessly, "Will anyone come? Will they save us?"
Unable to wait any longer, he hoisted the child onto his back, speaking a few words to his wife. She removed an amulet from her neck, placing it on him. The man ran to the city walls, attempting to climb them.
The wall, hard to grip from the outside, offered little purchase. Still, he tried, helped by others who made a human tower, pushing him up several feet. Grasping onto the rope used earlier for water and food, he began climbing. Thousands watched tensely, too afraid to cheer lest they be caught. The soldiers, slack after days without incident, only noticed when he was halfway up, shouting, "What are you doing? No climbing! Offenders will be executed, hear me, executed!"
Threatened, the man shouted back, "I mean no harm! I just want a doctor for my child, I’ll do nothing else!" He continued to climb. An officer, interrupted mid-meal by the commotion, was furious. If this man got up, it would set a precedent, inviting countless others. He had to stop this. So, he strode to the wall's edge, pulled out his sword, and cut the rope.
The man, clutching the now-severed rope, plummeted from mid-air. Amidst countless screams, he crashed on the hard ground outside the gates.
This was when Xie Lian arrived.
The man fell back-first, with the child strapped to him. With a sickening splat, they were crushed, blood spraying several feet outwards. The man’s neck still bent awkwardly, and the guardian amulet with "Celestial Music" in gold fell from it, clearly one blessed by the Crown Prince.
Just before climbing, husband and wife had clutched the amulet, silently praying for the Crown Prince’s protection. This plea reached Xie Lian, bringing him here.
Yet, unlike the heroes of legends, he couldn’t always arrive at the last possible moment to save the day.
The woman lacked the courage to see her child, crushed beyond recognition. Screaming, she ran blindly at the wall, slamming into it, falling still.
In the blink of an eye, three lives were lost at the foot of the city walls before Xie Lian’s eyes!
But the citizens outside the gates couldn’t endure anymore.
Someone cursed, "A whole family, dead! Look, these are the 'good officers' serving our ruler! They won’t save us, only drive us to death!"
"They won't let us in or anyone out, what do they expect?” asked one, pointing to the three bloody corpses.
"What about the wealthy people of Eternal Peace who didn’t get expelled with us? Just because we’re poor, do we deserve to die? I see through it all now!"
"They can’t keep covering this up... No more, no more. All those taxes, and what happens when there's a disaster?" someone spat.
"They’d rather feed their corruptions, build their son’s temple rather than aid us! We’re given only water and dry bread, nothing more. What do they take us for? Fools? Fools!" another shouted.
Guards, stationed on the wall, yelled for silence. The officer, shrugging off this commotion, underestimated its impact. But things had slipped out of control. Thousands of furious hands pushed against the gate; others rammed it with their bodies.
The simple cries from before were now a full-blown uproar shaking not just the gate but the entire wall.
Since birth, Xie Lian had never witnessed such chaos. The people he saw were always kind and harmonious, well-fed and lovable. Faced with these distorted faces, screaming and crying, he felt as if in a foreign world, chilled to his very core. Not even when facing the most fearsome demons had he felt such terror. Then, a thunderous voice rang out from the wall.
Turning abruptly, Xie Lian saw a tall and thin shadow gripping the officer who had severed the rope, snapping his neck with a sharp, cracking sound.
The surrounding soldiers, startled by this unexpected entrance, rushed forward, swords drawn, "Who are you?!" "How did you get up here?!"
But Xie Lian’s attention was drawn to the man’s hands—raw and bloodied. This stranger had scaled the virtually smooth wall with his bare hands. The figure turned, revealing himself to be Lang Ying!
Surrounded by soldiers, Lang Ying remained unflustered. He leapt onto the battlements and tossed the officer’s body below, using it as a break to fall from the wall.
Just before leaping, Lang Ying looked straight at Xie Lian, but his gaze didn’t linger. It pierced through Xie Lian, resting instead on the heart of the imperial city—the Imperial Palace.
From this day, the Divine Joy Kingdom descended into outright chaos.