Chapter Sixty-Seven: Advancing by Retreating

The clerks and officials of Danding County all hurried to comply, and although Chen Busi concealed it well, Wang Zhenling could still see delight flickering across his face.

“This must be the magistrate’s handiwork behind the scenes, is it not? And this sudden assault on the City God’s office was too much of a coincidence as well. It hardly looks like the work of the Mist Valley cultivators. Could it be a master sent by the Chen family of the Riverlands?”

Though suspicion stirred in his heart, Wang Zhenling was not foolish enough to pursue the matter.

He had only been temporarily seconded to the county office as a clerk serving the county inspector—or rather, he had been placed there precisely to deal with the City God.

Now that he had resigned, the matter seemed to have nothing further to do with him.

Yet just as Wang Zhenling thought to leave it at that, before he departed Chen Busi had called him aside and spoken earnestly, telling him not to overthink things and to go home and rest for a few days.

He hinted that Wang Zhenling had just taken a thunderbolt on his behalf, and that he would never forget it; given the chance, he would see to it that Wang Zhenling’s office was restored.

Wang Zhenling could only laugh inwardly and wryly, realizing that Chen Busi had misunderstood.

He had taken Wang Zhenling’s resignation as an act of self-protection, a way of deflecting the county magistrate’s wrath and avoiding suspicion by stepping down to shield Chen Busi.

The turn of events left Wang Zhenling uncertain whether to laugh or cry, and he could not help murmuring to himself that no wonder there was a saying from his former life: in the mortal world, one is never master of one’s own fate.

For this reason, those who cultivate must sever themselves from the Way and escape beyond the red dust of the world, so as to cut off all those entanglements of cause and effect.

Still, Wang Zhenling was young and resolute. Such dispirited thoughts passed through him only for a moment before he soon gathered himself again.

Hidden greatness belongs in the marketplace; lesser concealment in the wilds.

The farther one can cultivate amid the dust and noise of office and worldly affairs, yet still attain fruition through supreme wisdom and divine power, the higher one’s achievement will be, far surpassing those who flee to mountains and wastes to live on wind and dew alone.

But whatever the case, after something like this happened, he naturally had to give his elders an explanation.

So after returning to Jiande Ward, Wang Zhenling went to see the clan head, Wang An.

He had originally expected a severe scolding, perhaps even a stern lecture.

After all, he had casually thrown away the post of county-inspector clerk.

For a prominent county clan like the Wang family, that office was still of considerable importance.

Though not a grand position, it was by no means insignificant.

Having “run amok” in such a manner, he had already prepared himself to be rebuked by the clan head.

Yet to his surprise, Wang An said nothing of the sort, only remarking, “It is no bad thing to give up the county-inspector post…”

Wang Zhenling was slightly taken aback, but Wang An continued, “You’ve angered the magistrate this time. If you kept serving as clerk, I fear he would soon start suppressing our Wang clan.”

This left Wang Zhenling speechless.

Who had told him to appear so eager for quick success, barging in to seize power from the City God and throwing all of Danding County into upheaval?

No superior would ever like a subordinate like that.

Wang Zhenling himself had resigned precisely because he had considered this.

“Good that you still know how to retreat while the tide is high…”

The clan head cast him a sidelong glance, swallowing the rest of what would have been, “You’re not quite so foolish after all.”

Wang Zhenling could only smile bitterly. He had never intended to make a career in office; he had only wanted to use the government’s power to gain benefits for himself.

“You should go back and study in peace at home. I expect it will not be long before County Inspector Chen finds a way to restore your position.”

To this, Wang Zhenling could only think that it was obvious.

So long as Chen Busi still needed to win hearts and minds, he could not afford to treat Wang Zhenling, one of his meritorious men, poorly.

No matter what Wang Zhenling might have done in private, objectively speaking, he had greatly aided Chen Busi.

This time they had made such a huge move, drawing on the strength of the four great clans of Danding and using a tactic that was almost no different from forcing the court’s hand, compelling the magistrate to deal with the City God of Danding. That had crossed a dangerous line.

If Magistrate Wang Guang did not want to be completely stripped of power and turned into a mere puppet, then it was not something he could tolerate.

And Chen Busi did not want the reputation of having insulted a superior.

Though he came from the Chen family of the Riverlands, the greater the noble house, the more it must cherish its feathers.

Wang Zhenling’s voluntary resignation had been a great help to him.

Besides, once Wang Zhenling was recommended as a man of filial conduct and integrity, what was there to regret in no longer holding an ordinary county post?

For the time being, it would be best to stay at home and study and cultivate in earnest.

More importantly, since so much effort had been spent bringing down the City God, it was only right to enjoy the fruits of victory.

In this matter, Wang Zhenling and the Danding Wang family had contributed the most.

Thus the greatest reward for the Danding Wang clan would be that one of its ancestral spirits from the Underworld branch would take up the office of City God of Danding County.

For the Danding Wang family, this was an immense piece of good news.

So long as the Wang clan’s ancestral spirit held the office of City God, the overall strength of the family would inevitably rise dramatically.

Not only would it soon become the foremost clan in Danding County, but if carefully managed over several decades, the Wang family could rise from a mere county gentry clan to a family of regional standing.

And after struggling for hundreds of years, the Danding Wang clan had remained only a county power, never finding an opening to become a house of regional renown.

This time, at last, the chance had come, and it was no wonder the Wang clan was willing to take such enormous risks to bring down the City God.

With so important a position, naturally many had their eyes on it.

Yet the matter had long since been settled with Chen Busi. With him orchestrating things from behind the scenes, the affair stirred up a few ripples here and there, but more than a month later the Wang family ancestor from the Underworld finally succeeded to the position of City God.

Of course, to repay the assistance of the other great clans of Danding and to draw them closer, the new City God also recruited a number of ancestral spirits from the major clans of Danding as ghost officials under his command.

For a time, all was joy and harmony.

But that is for later.

At this point, Wang Zhenling returned to the house his family kept in Jiande Ward, where both the inner and outer rooms had been cleaned thoroughly by Wang Zhong and his wife, to his great satisfaction.

When he had served as a village patrol officer, Wang Zhenling had lived in the township office.

And as a county-inspector clerk, he had lived in the official quarters of the county offices.

He had not been home for a very long time, and compared with the county office lodgings, this house was rather inferior in furnishings and in every other respect.

But Wang Zhenling did not mind; after all, he had lived for so long in the thatched hut on Little Plum Mountain.

Once home, he shut himself away and gave the impression that he had locked himself in to study.

In truth, the reason he had once enjoyed so much freedom was largely because he was still young and had done well in his studies.

That was why the clan had granted him such liberty.

If he had been poor at books, and looked to be incapable of any real achievement, they would probably have assigned him back to family business early on and made him work honestly in the fields.

But by now Wang Zhenling had served as a village patrol officer and county-inspector clerk, and in the future he could well hope to be recommended as a man of filial conduct and integrity.

At present, even within the clan, he was one of the most prominent figures.

So now there was even less anyone could do to control him.

He put on the guise of a man shut away with his books, and no one dared disturb him.