Inner Demons

Chapter 156: Black Powder

“Second, regarding the strange beast of the Li Kingdom.” Diwu Boyu paused for a moment. “Just one afternoon is, after all, a bit tight on time. We didn't manage to find any valuable information.”

Li Yunxin sighed, “It must have been difficult for you. I understand. Just tell me what you did manage to find out.”

“Yes. This afternoon, we detained some souls from outside the city. Some were from the Ye Kingdom, and some were from the Li Kingdom. They had been dead for over ten days, and their minds were not very clear. It’s a mystery why they weren’t taken away by the Yama King. After careful questioning, we learned that it wasn't a strange beast. It was about the Emperor of the Li Kingdom—”

This “second” matter took a bit longer to explain.

Li Yunxin listened quietly. After Diwu Boyu had said all he knew, he stared at the ghost of the great general of the Jinwu Guard for a long while without speaking.

The ghost general felt a little uneasy under his gaze and clasped his hands. “Dragon King, please forgive me. Time was truly tight, and besides—”

“I like you too much, you fellow—why don't you come work for me?” Li Yunxin shook his head and let out a long breath. “Your information isn't worthless; it's incredibly valuable. Come work for me. When I become a true Dragon King in the future, how about I make you the Wave-Pacifying Great General? You’ll command the hundred thousand aquatic beings of my Wei River. How cool is that?”

Diwu Boyu bowed solemnly. “Dragon King, please do not jest with your subordinate like this. I am loyal to His Majesty and will never have a second thought.”

Li Yunxin sighed with regret, counting on his fingers as he spoke to himself. "That Majesty of yours is clearly not as handsome as me, nor as smart, yet he has a great general like you who is efficient, low-key, and loyal. Those clowns under my command...alas, forget it. We'll talk about this later."

He fell silent for a moment, then another, and paced back and forth a few times, his expression gradually turning grave.He was processing the intelligence Diwu Boyu had brought him.

Although it wasn’t as detailed as what Yue Yunzi knew, the words “Heavenly Emperor,” “power of faith,” “cultivators,” and “Yazi,” when combined, were enough for him to deduce the information he wanted.

Last night, he had used the Nine Heavens Thunderflame to kill Qingliangzi. His original plan was to use a mix of truth and falsehood to observe Yue Yunzi's reaction and divert the trouble towards Dongting. Who would have thought that Yue Yunzi’s subsequent reaction would be so unexpected—he seemed frightened.

He had vaguely guessed a few things, but he wasn't certain.

Today, seeing that Yue Yunzi still hadn't made a move, he felt that things were a bit abnormal.

And now, after hearing what Diwu Boyu said… he couldn’t help but feel that some good fortune was watching over him in the shadows—letting him hear what Qian Sanniang called the “calamity,” prompting him to investigate carefully, and having this ghost general check it out.

His killing of that Qingliangzi…

It had been a spur-of-the-moment move.

Looking at it now, the timing was perfect.

If he wasn't mistaken, and if that Yue Yunzi was indeed a clever man—the kind of clever person who was far more clever than the average “clever person”—then right now, he would be suspecting that the one who killed Qingliangzi last night was a Dragon's Son.

Just not the Ninth Dragon's Son, but… the second son, Yazi.

Clever people all share a common trait—they overthink.

Only by overthinking can one notice more clues and see the big picture from small details.

For example, given the known premises that “Chiwen is dead,” “Qingliangzi was killed by the Nine Heavens Thunderflame,” “only the Dragon Clan possesses such ability,” “the Divine Dragon Cult,” and “Yazi is severely injured”…

A clever and bold strategist would deduce a shocking possibility—

The one who killed Qingliangzi that night was the second son, Yazi.

That second son, Yazi, was severely injured and knew he had made too many enemies over the years. He fled to the waters governed by the ninth son.

After all, this place held the prestige of the Divine Dragon. Ordinary demons were neither willing to occupy these not-so-vast waters nor willing to provoke the potential wrath of a Divine Dragon.

Subsequently, he discovered that his ninth brother had been killed, and this area was surrounded by powerful enemies. So, he colluded with that Lord of Dongting, followed the old fellow's scheme to create a Divine Dragon Cult to absorb some incense and faith power—that Divine Dragon Cult worshipped the Dragon's Son Chiwen, so Yazi also had to take on the title of a Dragon's Son.

Li Yunxin thought for another moment, then looked up at Diwu Boyu, an idea sparking in his mind. He shared all these thoughts with him.

The ghost general had some difficulty understanding, so Li Yunxin paused to explain some key points.

After he had made everything clear, he asked him—

“What do you think of my theory?”

The ghost general was silent for a moment. “The Dragon King is farsighted. But… an ordinary person might not think like the Dragon King.”

“An ordinary person would be confused and would want to solve the problem. However, their line of thinking… would lean as much as possible towards common sense, rather than… an extraordinary stratagem. The Dragon King's deduction is, after all, a bit wishful.”

Li Yunxin shrugged. “If you were Yue Yunzi, what would you think?”

This time, the ghost general was silent for even longer. Finally, he answered honestly, “I would not be able to think of anything. I would just have to investigate everywhere and try my luck, or have a proper talk with that Lord of Dongting. Or… directly exterminate the Divine Dragon Cult.”

Li Yunxin pursed his lips. “Investigating everywhere would expose you to the enemy's sight, and you’d be killed from the shadows. Have a proper talk with the Lord of Dongting? How do you know this wasn't all set up by the other party precisely because they want you to do that, to force you into submission?”

“Directly exterminate the Divine Dragon Cult? Heh, utterly foolish. That kind of method—”

As he said this, Li Yunxin paused.

After a moment's pause, he clapped his hands. “This is why I said I like you, you fellow.”

He felt as if his mind had been opened.

His original plan was to incite a conflict between the Lord of Dongting, Yue Yunzi, and Bai Yunxin. But the death of the Li Kingdom Emperor tens of thousands of miles away had disrupted his plans. However, because of the words of this ghost general, Diwu Boyu…

He felt he had a different plan in mind.

Thus, his mood improved slightly. He wiped his hand over his fan, and from somewhere, he produced a green plum, taking a bite that made him grimace.

The ghost general stood in the night like a statue cast from black iron. Seeing him like this, he hesitated for a moment and asked, “If it's so sour, why do you still eat it?”

“Because my mouth is tasteless.” Li Yunxin thought for a moment, then asked, “What about the third matter?”

At this question, a strange expression appeared on Diwu Boyu’s face. It seemed he wanted to express an opinion, but due to his status and the situation, he had to be cautious with his words. So he only said, “His Majesty's affairs… are not for me to inquire about. If there is a result, I believe His Majesty will inform the Dragon King.”

He paused, then added, “…I will be bold and say something for which I deserve to die ten thousand times. Our Great Ye… perished because of that demoness. And now His Majesty is with that demoness again…”

Li Yunxin shook his head and smiled. “That way of thinking of yours is wrong. What do you mean, perished because of a demoness? Your head is full of feudalistic ideas. If your Ye Kingdom was rich and strong, and its people were prosperous and peaceful, then even if all the officials started seeking death, they could do so for dozens or even a hundred years. Don’t make excuses for yourselves and blame it all on a woman. Enough. Let’s not argue about this. I have business with that person, you can leave now.”

The great general of the Jinwu Guard still seemed to disagree with Li Yunxin's words, but the other party had already walked straight towards the other end of the street.

He sighed like a human, and his warhorse silently moved its four hooves, slipping straight into the darkness of the night.

Li Yunxin was five or six steps away from the stationery shop when the window, which had been slightly ajar, closed. He paid it no mind, walked straight under the window, and reached out to knock on the window frame.

There had been some noise in the room, but it immediately ceased.

After a long while, Li Yunxin knocked again. Only then did the person inside say, “…We’re closed.”

“I don’t want to buy anything from you; rather, I want to give you something.” He leaned against the window outside and said unhurriedly, “I have a scroll I obtained from the Shangqing Elixir Cauldron Sect's residence in the city, the Direct Guide to Divine-Grade Elixir Formulas. Do you want to see it?”

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound in the room, as if something had been knocked over. After another moment, the person inside asked, “…Who are you? I don’t know you. What do you want?”

Li Yunxin didn't speak.

The person was also silent for a while—he seemed to be holding back uncomfortably, but his tone finally softened. “I just heard you talking to yourself across the street… Are you… mad?”

“I know you are a son-in-law of the Yu Family, and you are not successful. Your legal wife is the daughter of a concubine from the fourth branch of the Yu Family, and her looks and temperament are not good. She couldn't climb any higher branches, so she married down to you.” Li Yunxin said slowly, playing with the half-eaten green plum in his hand. “You were originally a scholar, but you weren't good at your studies. You have no head for business either, and you’re thin-skinned and not good at socializing. So you can't make use of the Yu Family's resources and connections at all.”

“Yet you see those people in the Yu Family—who in your eyes lack ambition and have poor character—all living comfortable and satisfying lives. So your heart grows ever more resentful, and you always think about doing something great and different to show them, to make the old master of the Yu Family look at you with favor.”

The voice of the person in the room became alarmed. “Who on earth are you? I have no gold or silver here. Not at home either! In my house…”

“Yes, your family is so poor that your wife has had to use her dowry jewelry to get by. As far as I know, the day before yesterday, your wife also dismissed two of the maids, leaving only the girl who came with her as part of her dowry.” Li Yunxin said unhurriedly, “You haven’t been home for days, just messing around with your arts of lead and mercury here… You’re not a disciple of the Shangqing Elixir Cauldron Sect. Just playing around on your own, do you think you can be more proficient in the way of alchemy than them?”

“And look at the way you’re doing this—you’ve refined away all the money earned from this shop. Your children at home are crying from hunger… Brother Wang, you are a failure as a person.”

The person in the room suddenly pushed open the window and stuck his head out. He was a scholar in his twenties, but he looked slightly older, perhaps due to long-term exposure to smoke and fire. His hair was disheveled, and his face was dirty; it was impossible to know how long it had been since he left the room.

But Li Yunxin had already leaped onto the roof.

This Scholar Wang looked left and right but couldn't find him, so he just said in a low, furious voice, “Who are you? What right do you have to meddle in my family affairs?”

“And what do you know? Do you know what I’m doing? The thing I’m making is not some ordinary elixir!”

Li Yunxin sat on the roof and said leisurely, “I know that too. You aren't refining elixirs, but igniting powder. I’d say the name ‘igniting powder’ isn't good either; let's just call it gunpowder. But you’ve been refining it for so long, do you know what the Daoist priests of the Shangqing Elixir Cauldron Sect use? It’s just a waste of effort.”

Scholar Wang heard the voice coming from the roof but didn't dare to actually stick his head out and look up. He gritted his teeth, thought for a moment, then went back into the room and fetched a short bamboo pole from somewhere. Hiding by the window, he turned his face to the side and poked at the roof. As he poked, he said, “What business is it of yours, what business is it of yours, where did this madman come from—Hey, how do you know I don't know the formula? It's just saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, hmph—Aiya!”

He poked around for a while without hitting Li Yunxin, but he did manage to knock down a green roof tile. The tile fell and hit his wrist, and the dust got in his eyes. Scholar Wang was in so much pain that he dropped the bamboo pole, clutched his hand, and hissed. He then lifted his eyelid to blow on his eyeball, tears streaming down his face.

Then he heard the person on the roof say unhurriedly, “Oh, so you know that. But you only know saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. Do you know the ratio? How many parts saltpeter, how many parts sulfur, how many parts charcoal?”

Scholar Wang clutched his wrist and said angrily, “Don't tell me you know?!”

But no one answered him. He rubbed his wrist a few more times, as if waking from a dream. He quickly shouted, “Could it be that you know?! Hey? Tell me quickly—I, I… Since you investigated my wife and my concubine so thoroughly, ah, I can give you my concubine—”

After shouting for a while, the voice from the roof came again, leisurely. “What would I do with that sallow-faced woman of yours? Listen well, I'll only say this once. My igniting powder is black in color, and it's called black powder. As for the ratio, it's seven point five… uh, fifteen parts saltpeter, two parts sulfur, and three parts charcoal. Mix it according to this ratio, gently hammer it fine with a wooden mallet, and then—never mind, you should know all this. This way, you can obtain black powder.”

Scholar Wang didn't dare to breathe, his eyes wide as he memorized it, silently repeating it in his mind several times. He casually grabbed something and quickly scratched it onto the dirt floor, then asked again, “…Why are you telling me this? What do you want?”

The person on the roof was silent for a moment, then said, “I know you are looked down upon by the Yu Family, your heart is full of depression, and you hate those snobbish Yu Family members. I, too, have a grudge against the Yu Family. If you want to know who I am—have you heard of the Qian Family Fort?”

Scholar Wang was stunned for a moment, frowned slightly, then was greatly shocked. “You… you… you’re from the Qian Family Fort? Wasn't that the wealthiest and most powerful family in the martial world during the former Great Qing Dynasty? Weren't they later wiped out by the Flying Eagle Fort?!”

Li Yunxin sat on the roof and shrugged silently—it seemed that Qian Sanniang wasn't bluffing; that Qian Family Fort was indeed quite famous.

He then said with a deadpan, hateful voice, “Yes. That very Qian Family Fort. The Qian Family Fort was annihilated, but you can’t kill all the people of the Qian Family Fort. We originally came to Weicheng to settle down and opened an escort agency. Who knew that the agency was framed by the Yu Family and a large escort firm, and now we can't continue the business.”

“Tonight, we will leave Weicheng. But I thought, before I go, humph… I can't let that Yu Family have it too easy. I have observed you for several days and know that you are not willing to be a dependent of the Yu Family. Therefore, I am giving you an opportunity for advancement.”

“In a few days, an opportunity will naturally arise for you to display your talents. At that time…sigh.” Li Yunxin sighed pretentiously. “When you have gained wealth, power, and status, do not forget the scornful looks you suffered from those Yu Family members today, and do not forget that it was my Qian family who gave you this fortune! I’m leaving!”

And then he really left.