Qingshan

Chapter 60 : Chapter 60

Chapter 60: Enemies and Friends

"Kill the Division Officer?" Wu Hongbiao's heart jumped: "The two of us?"

"Yes, the two of us."

In the cloth shop's small room, empty of everything, Wu Hongbiao sat cross-legged on the ground while I leaned against the doorframe. The two of us gazed at each other in silence.

At this moment, Wu Hongbiao looked toward the door. I stood where my back was to the moonlight, my expression unclear.

He patiently tried to persuade: "You've been in the Military Intelligence Division a short time and haven't really dealt with this Division Officer. Don't have such dangerous thoughts."

I discovered that even Wu Hongbiao, this kind of elite spy, also felt retreat at the thought of "killing the Division Officer."

I couldn't help asking: "How formidable is the Division Officer?"

Wu Hongbiao said gravely: "You're not an enforcer, so you don't know how formidable enforcers are. I'm merely an 'Acquired Realm' martial artist. That Division Officer has served in the military for a long time—at the very least he's a perfected Innate Realm enforcer, probably just one step away from the Path-Seeking Realm..."

I looked puzzled.

Wu Hongbiao was helpless. While gnawing on his coarse grain pancake, he explained: "Fine, you won't understand these realms anyway. Let me give the simplest example: Once in Jinling, the Division Officer's whereabouts were exposed. The Secret Spy Division's military formation of over a hundred people couldn't take him down. He forcibly killed dozens of people and finally dove into the Qinhuai River to escape."

I pressed further: "If the Innate Realm is already this formidable, how formidable must the Path-Seeking Realm be? Is it difficult to cultivate to Path-Seeking Realm?"

"Of course it's difficult," Wu Hongbiao sighed. "Look at me now—I can't even find the trick to breaking through from 'Acquired' to 'Innate,' let alone 'Innate' breaking through to 'Path-Seeking'? Looking across all of Luocheng, there are probably only two Path-Seeking Realm experts—one is Liang Gou'er, and the other should be hidden in 'Yanshi,' controlled by the Liu family."

Wu Hongbiao said seriously: "At Path-Seeking Realm, without a military formation of five hundred or more charging forward, you absolutely can't take down this kind of expert. Liang Gou'er entered Path-Seeking Realm at twenty-four. That year he went to Ning Dynasty's border army and consecutively beheaded eight of our Jing Dynasty's generals during the two armies' confrontation. For a time his reputation soared. Unfortunately, someone severed Liang Gou'er's cultivation path. Otherwise he was Ning Dynasty's most hopeful person to advance another step."

"Someone severed it?"

Wu Hongbiao pondered: "I always felt this might have been our Jing Dynasty's doing—possibly even your uncle's work."

I was stunned: "Why do you say that?"

Wu Hongbiao explained: "After Liang Gou'er's cultivation path was severed, a female blade master appeared in our Jing Dynasty's border army who assassinated a very talented Ning Dynasty border army commander. Someone recognized she used Liang family blade techniques. She should have been a figure someone from our Jing Dynasty specifically cultivated, sent to Ning Dynasty to marry Liang Gou'er just to ruin his mental state and sever his cultivation."

This female blade master not only severed Liang Gou'er's cultivation path but also deceived away the Liang family's hereditary blade techniques—truly killing two birds with one stone.

What a devious and cunning struggle.

I asked doubtfully: "But why do you say this was my uncle's doing?"

Wu Hongbiao opened the bamboo tube's stopper and drank some water: "Three years ago when your uncle was assassinated, a female blade master also appeared at his side."

I: "..."

This uncle of mine had very complex allegiances.

Until now, I still hadn't gained a clear understanding of that uncle. I always felt he was shrouded in a layer of mist—seeming righteous yet evil, stopping at nothing to achieve his goals.

I murmured: "Acquired, Innate, Path-Seeking... What's above Path-Seeking Realm?"

"Divine Path Realm," Wu Hongbiao said. "According to your uncle, in this entire world you could count such figures on one hand. One is our Jing Dynasty Martial Temple's Mountain Chief 'Lu Yang.' Ning Dynasty's Mount Huang's Daoist Master 'Shitouzi' is another. Even Luocheng's Daoist Court Laojun Mountain and Ning Dynasty's 'Luo Tian' sect don't have such figures."

"Someone like Mountain Chief Lu Yang has already touched the threshold of transcendence—he's a grandmaster. Additionally, our Jing Dynasty people have always talked with great relish about his legendary 'Jiazi Demon Purge.' Have you heard of it?"

"Haven't heard of it. Jiazi Demon Purge? Are there demons in this world?"

"It's the Demon Sects scattered throughout Jing Dynasty territory. They use human sacrifice as their cultivation path, often abducting children and women, even massacring villages—extremely vicious. Mountain Chief Lu Yang emerged from the Martial Temple to purge demons, killing them all clean without leaving a single one. That's why it's called Jiazi Demon Purge."

"Because he killed them in the jiazi year, it's called Jiazi Demon Purge?"

Wu Hongbiao shook his head: "No, the demon purge lasted one jiazi cycle."

I choked. One jiazi cycle was sixty years—what demon sect could withstand a Divine Path Realm grandmaster fixating on them for sixty years!

Martial Temple.

Liang Gou'er had mentioned this place before.

He once mentioned that I shouldn't practice blade techniques but should go to Jing Dynasty's Martial Temple to learn their 'Sword Seed.'

Only today did I finally gain a vague concept of the world's enforcers. But as for myself now... I probably didn't even count as an Acquired martial artist.

Facing someone like the Division Officer, I even worried whether I could kill him with explosives. How to make him obediently stay put and let me blow him up was itself a difficult problem.

Wu Hongbiao said: "Do you still want to kill the Division Officer now? Give up."

I was silent for a long time: "But if we don't kill him, he'll kill me."

Wu Hongbiao also fell silent.

His expression showed struggle and hesitation. He was different from me—precisely because he knew how formidable the Division Officer was, he knew that relying on just the two of them was impossible.

But finally, Wu Hongbiao said: "Then let's kill him... But how?"

"I'll think of a way... There will definitely be a way."

I pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked: "You said, why doesn't my uncle let me return to Jing Dynasty?"

Wu Hongbiao thought: "I can't fathom his thoughts either, but he once said all noble children should go to the front lines to be tempered. Otherwise they can only become wastrels, spending their days dog-fighting and visiting prostitutes. Back then he risked his life coming south to Ning Dynasty and returned to our Jing Dynasty with the supreme merit of assassinating the Chen family's Minister of War, single-handedly establishing the Military Intelligence Division. I think he probably hopes you'll become someone like him."

Wu Hongbiao said yearningly: "I don't know how many people in our Jing Dynasty's military admire your uncle and want to become someone like him. I think you should also set this as your aspiration and walk the path he once walked."

I was startled. So the Military Intelligence Division was established by my uncle? What a day of new discoveries...

But if I had to assassinate a Minister or Grand Secretary to return, then I'd rather not return to Jing Dynasty.

Ning Dynasty was quite good.

"I have one more question. You were already nearly dead yourself—why did you still come to tip me off?"

Wu Hongbiao grinned: "I told you we're brothers."

"Understood," I turned to leave. "I shouldn't stay here long. These next few days I'll bring food and water every night. Rest well and recover."

......

......

Outside, I stood in the cloth shop's rear courtyard under the moonlight and let out a long breath.

Wanting to kill the Division Officer would probably require careful planning. At the very least, I needed to first know what he looked like and what identity he used as cover in daily life.

I struggled to climb out of the courtyard and returned to the apprentice dormitory to lie down. The snoring in the room continued. I felt extraordinarily peaceful inside.

The wounds on my chest and thigh started hurting again. These pains constantly reminded me that weakness was the original sin in this world.

I lay on the communal bed quietly looking at the beams, my mind constantly churning with tonight's words about enforcers.

I slowly closed my eyes, mobilizing half the molten flow from the sixteen furnace fires in my body to condense it in my heart.

In an instant, the furnace fires' power waned, like candles in the wind that could extinguish at any moment.

The ice flow in my dantian sensed the power guarding it had weakened and immediately stirred restlessly!

It seeped from the Tianshu acupoint, spreading throughout my entire body.

The long-absent cold struck. I once again fell into that mysterious and unknown dark cloud sea, returning to that ancient battlefield.

In the past, I had always been forced to fall here. Before I turned twelve, this nightmare had disturbed me more than once. My parents even thought I was seriously ill and took me to see a psychologist.

But this time, I had come back of my own accord.

As the little monk said, I'd always had a gambling nature. It's just that others gambled money—I gambled my life.

Feeling the mist of the cloud sea flowing beside me, I was like a meteor penetrating down from the firmament, carrying black cloud vapor and falling onto the green mountain.

Strangely, this time there were no more shouts of killing on the ancient battlefield, as if everything had frozen.

I saw a three-legged golden crow frozen in the sky, its tail feathers not even trembling slightly. I saw a feathered arrow shot with full force from the battle formation piercing through space but suspended in midair by some unknown force, the fully-drawn archer also fixed in place. I saw a giant like Kuafu chasing the sun rushing toward the battlefield but stopped in the posture of one foot stepping forward.

This battlefield was like a vast, lonely piece of amber, imprisoning everything for over ten thousand years.

Only that figure wearing golden armor, holding a royal banner, commanding the battle formation—that emperor—was nowhere to be seen.

"You dare come here again?" A grand voice sounded behind me.

I suddenly turned around to see that towering figure like a mountain range standing behind me, overlooking me from atop the green mountain's peak.

I had no fear, only calmly asking: "What is your name?"

"My name is Xuanyuan."

The two characters Xuanyuan rang like a great bell, as if receiving heaven and earth's response. Even the black clouds above the firmament were slowly parting.

I asked again: "Then who am I?"

Xuanyuan seemed to hear something funny and laughed heartily: "You don't remember. You actually don't remember anything!"

But laughing and laughing, Xuanyuan's tone became desolate: "Guixu's peach blossoms, the snow on East Kunlun Mountain, the sea beyond Penglai—you don't remember any of it..."

I frowned: "Who exactly am I?"

Xuanyuan turned to look beyond the green mountain: "This is the biggest joke I've heard in fifteen thousand years... Even you have forgotten who you are. Then who am I? What do these fifteen thousand years of loneliness mean!"

I quietly watched him. I suddenly realized this definitely wasn't a real battlefield. Those battle formations, those divine exotic birds and beasts, those people—all were fake.

And before me, the golden-armored emperor 'Xuanyuan' was the only living being in this world.

He slowly calmed down, his voice majestic: "Why have you come to my world? Aren't you afraid I'll borrow you to return to the mortal realm?"

"I'm afraid."

"Then you still dare come?"

I said seriously: "Teach me the Sword Seed."

I couldn't go to Jing Dynasty's Martial Temple. Maybe one day I really would go to Jing Dynasty, but that was too far off. I couldn't wait.

Hearing my words, Xuanyuan was obviously stunned, as if hearing something incredible, then burst into hearty laughter again: "Teach you the Sword Seed? Hahahaha, this is the second joke I've heard in fifteen thousand years!"

I was speechless: "...Is it that funny?"

Xuanyuan turned back, planting the royal banner in his hand on the mountain peak, and said in a deep voice: "Do you know that you and I were once enemies?"

"I don't know, but perhaps we were also once friends."

This time it was Xuanyuan's turn to be silent. After a long time, he said gravely

: "Then do you know that what you once looked down on most was precisely my Sword Seed?"

I quickly said: "I look up to it now, really look up to it—fiercely!"

Xuanyuan: "..."

The two of us stood on the green mountain in awkward silence that was suffocating.

Xuanyuan examined me seriously, as if needing to recognize me anew: "You've changed too much."

I said seriously: "Actually, what I want to say is that I'm not whoever you know. My name is Chen Ji—just a small apprentice at Taiping Clinic. I don't look down on the Sword Seed, and I don't have any grand aspirations. I just don't want to be easily killed by others. I don't know what grudges or grievances you have with that person who doesn't exist. I only want to make a bet with you."

"Oh?" Xuanyuan grew interested: "How do we bet?"

"You want to borrow me to return to the mortal realm?"

"That's right."

"You teach me the Sword Seed. If one day you borrow me to return to the mortal realm, then my current cultivation is helping you cultivate."

Xuanyuan pondered: "You want to bet that I'll never be able to return to the mortal realm?"

I raised my head to face that towering mountain range: "Will you bet?"

The golden-armored emperor smiled: "Even you have learned to use provocation... I can teach you the Sword Seed, but not because of this ridiculous wager."

I was puzzled: "Then why?"

Xuanyuan spoke cryptically: "For those ten li of peach blossoms in Guixu."

I didn't understand.

But for peach blossoms was fine, for pear blossoms was acceptable too, even for camellia flowers would work.

"How do I cultivate the Sword Seed?" I asked.

Xuanyuan said profoundly: "To cultivate my sword path, one must nurture sword intent with stars and forge the Sword Seed by seizing others' sword intent. I chose the Purple Wei Emperor Star. Among the myriad stars in the sky, you may choose one for yourself. Remember—once chosen, it cannot be changed."

"How does one nurture the sword with stars?"

"I'll teach you now. Nurturing the sword requires patience. Stars are distant and unreachable. The first time I touched the Purple Wei Emperor Star with my divine consciousness took four hundred thirty-four years."

I: "..."

......

......

I didn't know how much time passed. The ice flow seeped into my heart, summoning a fierce counterattack from the molten flow that suppressed all the ice flow back into my dantian.

The morning rooster crowed.

I slowly opened my eyes. Enduring the pain in my thigh, I threw off the blanket and struggled to get up, slowly shuffling to the courtyard.

I looked at the sky full of stars and quickly found where the Purple Wei Emperor Star was located.

The so-called Purple Wei Emperor Star was actually the North Star, about 434 light-years from my position. The Big Dipper rotated around it through the four seasons.

If the firmament was compared to a funnel, the Purple Wei Emperor Star was the tip of that funnel, positioned right in the center.

I pondered what Xuanyuan said—once the star for nurturing the sword was selected, it couldn't be changed. I had to be extremely cautious.

But according to Xuanyuan, just using so-called divine consciousness to contact the Purple Wei Emperor Star took a full four hundred thirty-four years. If I wanted to cultivate this path, my lifeline would have to stretch from the palm of my hand all the way to the back of my heel.

Even if I died of old age, I still couldn't complete the cultivation!

I sat leaning against the apricot tree wearing my clothes. Besides the pain, there was also a bit of youthful melancholy.

Crow examined me curiously, not knowing what was wrong with me now.

I asked: "Uncle Crow, tell me—how can I live to four hundred thirty-four years old?"

Crow opened his beak and laughed silently with mockery.

However, at this time, the rising sun emerged. A ray of golden light shot from the farthest edge of the horizon, dyeing the layers of clouds.

I suddenly froze...

As everyone knows, the sun was the closest star to me.