The Azure Mountain

Chapter 69: Whale

Inside Taiping Medical Clinic, the commotion caused by Jin Zhu's visit left everyone subdued and quiet.

In the apprentices' dormitory — one person, one cat.

Wu Yun spoke in a low voice about her findings: "We followed him south the entire way. This person is extremely alert. At the slightest hint of something off, he'd immediately stop and scan his surroundings, then set up decoys to lure out anyone tailing him."

"He pulled this trick four separate times before he finally let his guard down. In the woods near Tuoluo Temple to the south, he drove out a carriage and waited by the temple gates. Before long, I saw Liu Mingxian come out of the temple and climb in..."

Chen Ji was shocked: "He's actually Liu Mingxian's carriage driver? The one who came to the clinic to take Master away for the examination of Old Master Liu — that was him too..."

He pondered for a moment, then said: "I suspect Liu Mingxian doesn't even know there's a Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Division operative right next to him. Otherwise, why would the Military Intelligence Division need me to relay messages through Consort Yun?"

This carriage driver Si Cao's cover was perfectly placed. Not only could he track Liu Mingxian's movements at any time, he could also eavesdrop on Liu Mingxian's conversations.

All the Liu family's carriage drivers lived together. If the other drivers had no suspicions, this Si Cao could even dig up information about where other members of the Liu family had gone, what they did, and whom they met.

But why would such a sharp and cautious Si Cao risk exposure by coming to Taiping Medical Clinic this morning... Was he here to kill him?

Chen Ji replayed the conversation between the two Si Cao. Shopkeeper Yuan had said: "What are you doing here?" The carriage driver Si Cao had replied: "And what are you doing here?"

Then Shopkeeper Yuan had said: "Luo City is my jurisdiction now. Know your place."

Chen Ji murmured to himself: "'Know your place' — under what circumstances would someone say that?"

Wu Yun raised one paw like a student: "I know this one! The day before yesterday, after I absorbed a rival tabby leader into my ranks, it still wouldn't follow orders. So I beat it up again and said, 'Know your place!'"

Chen Ji was startled, and a spark of insight flashed in his mind: "So that's how it is. There's been a shift in power within the Military Intelligence Division in Luo City. The carriage driver Si Cao used to be the one in charge here, but now the newly arrived Shopkeeper Yuan has taken over, and the carriage driver has been sidelined."

A power reshuffle within the Military Intelligence Division. After his uncle was ousted, the balance of power had shifted.

And that carriage driver Si Cao had repeatedly mentioned that Chen Ji's uncle had asked him to look after Chen Ji — he was clearly close to the uncle, making him a natural target for marginalization.

Chen Ji frowned: "But what was he doing at Taiping Medical Clinic this morning? To kill me?"

Wu Yun's expression turned serious: "He wants to kill you?!"

"Not necessarily," Chen Ji shook his head.

Wu Hongbiao had previously claimed it was this carriage driver Si Cao who wanted to kill them as a pledge of loyalty to the new regime. But Chen Ji had always harbored a doubt:

The carriage driver Si Cao looked extremely ruthless, and yet...

When the Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Division suspected Chen Ji of betraying Zhou Chengyi and turning traitor, no matter how his subordinates pressed for it, the carriage driver Si Cao had never struck a lethal blow against him.

The man had indeed hung him upside down for interrogation, but after the interrogation, Chen Ji hadn't even lost a patch of skin.

Chen Ji didn't care what people said — he watched what they did. And based on those two points alone, the carriage driver Si Cao had never actually intended to kill him.

Even if the carriage driver Si Cao had later changed his mind and wanted to kill Chen Ji as a pledge of loyalty, the timing still didn't add up.

Last night, Chen Ji and Liu Mingxian had both been in the Eastern Market. The carriage driver Si Cao had certainly been there too, and must have noticed him.

If he had wanted to kill Chen Ji, there had been plenty of opportunities the previous night. Why wait until this early morning to come to the clinic?

Therefore, the man hadn't come to kill him.

Now Chen Ji was even more puzzled: "Then what was he doing at Taiping Medical Clinic this morning? What could make a naturally cautious man sneak over to the clinic while his employer was burning incense at a temple? Was there some kind of variable?"

'Wait — it was because Shopkeeper Yuan came.'

'The carriage driver Si Cao didn't come to kill me. He came to protect me!'

Chen Ji couldn't help but laugh at his own deduction: "Why would he protect me... But either Wu Hongbiao misunderstood the situation, or he was lying outright. I have to get to the bottom of this. Wu Yun, did Wu Hongbiao go out yesterday?"

Wu Yun answered: "No. You didn't bring him food yesterday, so I went back to the clinic and got a couple of rough grain cakes from Uncle Crow to take to him. Don't worry — I left them by his door while he was sleeping. He didn't see me."

"Drinking really does mess everything up..."

At that moment, Liang Mao'er's voice drifted in from outside the window: "Brother, why didn't you step in earlier?"

Liang Gou'er pursed his lips, pushing a bamboo broom back and forth with his head down: "I've told you before — I have three rules about when I don't help. I don't help the Eunuch Faction, and I don't help those who oppose the Eunuch Faction either."

"But we're friends!" Liang Mao'er sputtered, his face flushed with frustration. "We went to the Drum Tower together this morning to watch the sunrise!"

Liang Gou'er scoffed: "Plenty of people have watched sunsets with me. Am I supposed to help every one of them? Don't take things said over drinks seriously — that's a basic rule of the table!"

Liang Mao'er was so angry he snatched the broom from his brother's hands: "How did you become like this? You weren't like this before!"

Liang Gou'er muttered: "Before was before. Now is now."

Inside the room, Wu Yun looked at Chen Ji: "What just happened?"

Chen Ji was quiet for a moment, then asked: "Wu Yun, if your friend kept a lot of things from you, would you be angry?"

Wu Yun thought for a long time: "I don't know. You're my first friend — my only friend. I have no experience with this sort of thing... But I'd probably be angry."

Chen Ji sighed inwardly. When Commandery Princess Baili had left in frustration moments ago, perhaps what upset her was this: they had all been scolded together, drunk together, watched the sunrise together. In her heart, she had already considered everyone a friend. So why was there someone who wouldn't lift a finger when a friend was in trouble? Why was there someone hiding so many secrets?

But Chen Ji had no choice. Some secrets could only rot inside him.

Wu Yun patted the back of Chen Ji's hand: "I'm off. There's a fight I left unfinished — my troops are waiting for me."

Chen Ji: "...Alright. Don't get blood on yourself."

......

......

After Wu Yun left, Chen Ji slowly closed his eyes and turned over the clues in his mind.

If the carriage driver Si Cao truly hadn't intended to kill him, then had Wu Hongbiao been lying or not? And what role was the carriage driver Si Cao actually playing in all of this? He would have to probe further tonight.

Chen Ji drew his sixteen furnace fires inward, let himself sink through the black sea of clouds, and landed on the Green Mountain.

Once, Chen Ji had despised this dream world. Night after night, the battle cries were like a nightmare — unable to wake, unable to rest.

But now he loved it here. Not just because of the exquisite combat techniques, but because here he didn't have to think about complicated relationships.

No Military Intelligence Division. No Secret Spy Division. No parents. No uncle.

Here, Chen Ji only needed to fight again and again, master one technique after another, and think about nothing else.

He turned and saw Xuanyuan draped in his black king's robe, leaning on his royal banner at the edge of a cliff, gazing into the distance.

Beyond the cliff, the battlefield was frozen in time. Above, clouds rolled and unfurled lazily, and even Chen Ji's mood settled into tranquility.

He sat down silently beside Xuanyuan: "All these years, have you been watching all of this alone?"

Xuanyuan didn't answer.

Chen Ji asked again: "Why are you in my dream?"

Xuanyuan glanced at him: "Me, in your dream? You think you're worthy of that? This is my world."

Chen Ji: "..."

'So this place isn't a dream at all, but somewhere that truly exists?'

Chen Ji suddenly asked: "Have you heard of the Forty-Nine Heavens?"

Xuanyuan frowned: "What's that? Never been there."

Now Chen Ji was truly baffled. It was one thing for the people around him not to know about the Forty-Nine Heavens — but even an "immortal" like Xuanyuan had never heard of it? Was Li Qingniao just making things up?

"Northern Kuru Continent?"

"Never heard of it."

"Then have you heard of someone named Li Qingniao?" Chen Ji asked.

"Never heard the name," Xuanyuan shook his head. "I've seen a 'Qing Niao' — a bluebird — but never heard of anyone by that name... What nonsense are you spouting?"

Chen Ji's mind was in chaos. Could it really be that no one knew the Forty-Nine Heavens existed?

Xuanyuan stood up: "Stop wasting time. Feng Huai — give him a blade and spar with him properly."

The broadsword soldier named Feng Huai nodded: "As you command."

"Wait, wait," Chen Ji raised his hand. "But someone told me I shouldn't be training with blades."

Xuanyuan looked as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world: "Did you come here specifically to amuse me? You shouldn't train with blades? Someone told you that?! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Xuanyuan's laughter rolled out like a great bell, so powerful it scattered the very clouds.

Chen Ji's face darkened: "Is it really that funny?"

Xuanyuan pointed at him from across the distance, bewildered: "You used to wield a blade! That was your weapon!"

Chen Ji: "...That was a thing?"

"The sword is the sovereign of all weapons; the blade is the courage of all weapons. The blade is what suits you best — if not the blade, then what?!"

"Maybe the blade suited who I used to be, but right now I want to learn the sword. The person teaching me said my current temperament isn't suited for the blade — that I'd ruin my fundamentals."

"Your current temperament... He's not entirely wrong," Xuanyuan sneered. "But with your level of fundamentals, what is there to 'ruin'? After you finish with the blade, you'll move on to the sword, axe, spear, staff, hammer — every last one. If you don't master them all, how will you know what methods your enemies might use against you? Once you've completed them all, you'll understand — all paths under heaven lead to the same destination."

Liang Gou'er said not to practice; Xuanyuan said to practice. Whose advice should he follow?

Chen Ji chose to listen to Xuanyuan, because Xuanyuan's level seemed far above Liang Gou'er's...

He looked at Xuanyuan: "If — and I mean if — I really am the person you once knew, what did my blade look like back then?"

Xuanyuan stared at Chen Ji for a long moment, then suddenly reached into the void and drew out a great blade — as tall as a man: "Try this one."

The handle comprised roughly two-thirds of its length, the gleaming white blade the remaining third. Golden dragon patterns traced across the grip.

Xuanyuan tossed it through the air. When Chen Ji caught it, the weight nearly pulled him off his feet.

Chen Ji gripped the great blade in both hands and swung it a few times, then immediately shook his head: "No good. Doesn't feel right."

Xuanyuan pulled another blade from the void — a two-foot saber — and threw it to Chen Ji: "Try this one."

This blade's steel was crimson red, as though freshly drawn from molten lava.

Chen Ji swung it a few times: "No. This one doesn't feel right either. Something's off."

The awkwardness was like a person who had always used one specific pen suddenly being given a different one. Both worked, both were familiar — but he still wanted to switch back to the old one.

Xuanyuan glanced at him, then summoned dozens of blades from the void at once, all hovering in midair: "Pick one. Keep going until you find one you like."

Chen Ji walked up to each blade in turn, taking every one down and testing it in his grip — slashing, chopping. There were sleeve daggers, crescent-moon halberds, straight-hilted blades, and curved scimitars.

He carefully and methodically compared each blade's differences. Time ticked away, but Xuanyuan never uttered a word of hurry.

This time, Xuanyuan was extraordinarily patient.

At last, Chen Ji stopped before a slender, gleaming blade. The blade itself measured about one meter, the handle about seventy centimeters. When planted upright on the ground, the hilt reached his collarbone.

Chen Ji lifted this blade and asked curiously: "What's this blade called?"

"You don't recognize it?"

"Should I?"

"Of course you should. Because it is your blade," Xuanyuan said calmly. "Its name is Whale."

"Did I name it?"

"No. I did."

Chen Ji fell silent. So that was why Xuanyuan had waited so patiently without making a sound — he'd wanted to see whether Chen Ji could pick this one.

And among more than fifty blades hovering at the summit of the Green Mountain, Chen Ji hadn't chosen a longer one, hadn't chosen a shorter one — he had chosen precisely this blade.

Holding "Whale" in his hands, it felt inexplicably familiar, like reuniting with a long-lost friend.

For a moment, he genuinely wondered whether he truly might be the person Xuanyuan spoke of — whether Xuanyuan hadn't mistaken him after all.

The impact of this realization struck suddenly. Before this, although Chen Ji had apologized on behalf of his "former self" and gone along with Xuanyuan's theory, deep down he hadn't believed it. He'd only wanted to learn as many techniques as possible in this battlefield — to learn how to fight, to learn the Sword Seed Path.

But now...

Chen Ji looked up at Xuanyuan: "Why was my blade in your possession? Did you kill me?"

Xuanyuan said nothing.

Chen Ji suddenly laughed: "Ha! Why the long face? Even if you did kill me, look — I'm alive again! By the way, can I have this blade? You said this is your world, so this blade truly exists here, right?"

Xuanyuan looked at him: "If you can defeat Feng Huai within three days, the blade is yours."

Chen Ji casually twirled the blade in a flourish: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Xuanyuan regarded Chen Ji and spoke gravely: "Don't think that defeating the giant halberd soldier in a single day makes you impressive. The bronze halberd is designed for battlefield formations to stop charging warhorses — it has few variations and lacks agility, making its weaknesses easy to exploit. The blade is different. Defeating Feng Huai would prove you're actually qualified to fight on a real battlefield."

Chen Ji asked curiously: "I've noticed the giant halberd soldier and the broadsword soldier you chose are dressed differently from the others. They're not ordinary troops, are they?"

Xuanyuan glanced at him: "They're both Tiger Guards under my command — the finest warriors in the army, weapons instructors for every type of weapon."

Chen Ji sighed. So he'd been fighting the most skilled warriors using their best weapons all along: "Why do I get the feeling... you're determined to teach me everything about battlefield combat?"

Xuanyuan let out a cold laugh: "Feng Huai — cut him down."