Jade-Flower County was a gentle place, well-governed by a prince under the Tang's distant authority, and its trouble began not with a demon but with admiration, which is a rarer and sweeter engine for a chapter this late.
The prince had three young sons, boys who loved the martial arts, and when the pilgrims passed through, the three princes saw the disciples' weapons — iron cudgel, nine-tooth rake, staff — and were seized with a boy's pure covetous wonder, and begged to be taught to wield them, and to have copies made for themselves so they could train.
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