Chapter 35: Plan to Escape
Beneath the tree, the three men were idly chatting, though Chen An and Li Yin were clearly distracted, their eyes drifting repeatedly toward the gates of the Marshal's Manor.
When they finally saw Li Yan walking out, their faces lit up with relief. They had earlier asked Liu Chengyong about the situation, supposedly, it was just about completing his military personnel file but they couldn't help feeling something was off.
A matter like this could be viewed as significant, since commanding officers were responsible for vetting court-appointed officials. Yet on the other hand, it was also something trivial, easily handled with a single sentence from a local authority figure.
Seeing the three approaching, Li Yan smiled and said, "It's all settled! Haha... Next, I'm planning to check in on Li Shan. How about we go grab a drink together at noon?"
Liu Chengyong naturally had no objections. Although he still felt there was something strange about how quickly Li Yan was done, seeing his relaxed smile made him believe that perhaps the Marshal really hadn't brought up anything serious. Plus, sharing drinks with Li Yan was a good opportunity to build rapport, he readily agreed.
Chen An and Li Yin, though eager to return, dared not say it aloud and simply nodded in agreement.
The four of them first went to the "Ironware Pavilion" to find Li Shan. Seeing Li Yan arrive, Li Shan was overjoyed. Li Yan immediately sent Chen An and Li Yin to request leave from Li Shan's master, Lu Kui, while he and Li Shan entered the back room of the Pavilion to talk privately.
Left idle, Liu Chengyong wandered around the Pavilion, picking up and inspecting various fine weapons with visible interest.
Once Chen An and Li Yin returned, the three military men, all familiar with arms, enthusiastically began discussing the weapons on display.
A short while later, Li Yan and Li Shan also came out, though Li Shan looked slightly confused at first, Li Yan had his arm around his shoulders, chatting and laughing, covering any oddity.
He then told Li Shan to hurry and bring his senior brother Liang Shi along. The group then headed to the Tianran Wine House to find Li Yu. By noon, a full table of seven men was drinking merrily.
That afternoon, Li Yan and the others, still slightly tipsy, rode back on horseback. In the days that followed, Li Yan clearly made further progress in his cultivation, and his mood seemed more stable. Seeing this, Strategist Ji felt reassured and would occasionally come out to guide him.
Time passed quickly. Spring was in full bloom, lush grass and chirping orioles and Li Yan had now been at the Military Advisor's Mansion for over half a year.
At present, he was submerged in a cold pool, eyes closed, bare to the shoulders, steam rising from his body and dissipating into the air.
His aura was on the verge of reaching the peak of early first-level Qi Condensation. However, he didn't look well, traces of blood lingered at the corners of his mouth.
Since last winter, he had cultivated diligently, his realm steadily improving. Yet his temperament had grown increasingly irritable.
Other than occasionally entering the city, he had also developed a number of strange habits. Every time he returned from town, he would buy more clothes, belts, and boots, so much so that even Ji's divine sense grew weary of monitoring him.
Still, seeing Li Yan's cultivation steadily advance, Ji let him be.
When he wasn't cultivating, Li Yan was either soaking in the pool or locked in his room wildly scribbling ink on scrolls, sending black droplets flying everywhere.
Later, for some unknown reason, he even tore up the vegetable garden south of the pool and replaced it with all sorts of wildflowers he had transplanted from the mountains outside the valley.
Soon, the entire valley was swaying with vibrant blooms and thick with the mixed fragrance of countless flowers. Even the laundry hanging out to dry began to absorb the myriad scents.
This led to several awkward moments where, during official duties in town, Ji would find himself surrounded by the aroma of flowers. Marshal Hong and the others would give him odd looks, forcing Ji to smile wryly.
The vegetable garden had once been Ji's way of calming his restless heart, watering, tending, and admiring the plants had brought him peace.
Now, transformed into a dazzling patch of wild color, it resembled a massive dye vat from afar. Ji could only shake his head helplessly.
As long as Li Yan continued to progress, Ji allowed him his eccentricities.
However, in recent days, Li Yan's internal agitation had intensified. After each cultivation session, blood would seep from the corners of his mouth. It was as if the fire poison within him was becoming harder to suppress, this truly worried Ji.
Upon inspecting his condition, Ji found that the wood-element spiritual energy in his body had become slightly muddled, with faint signs of fire-element energy appearing, it was a deeply troubling sign.
Fortunately, for now, Li Yan could still suppress the fire poison, and his cultivation remained on track. But this situation couldn't continue, his impure wood-element energy would harm him in the long run.
At one point, Ji even considered absorbing Li Yan's spiritual power early, while it was still mostly pure.
But a few days later, Li Yan's wood-element energy seemed to purify itself again, and the bleeding decreased. Relieved, Ji put the thought aside.
Now, as Li Yan sat in the cold pool, faint traces of blood still at his lips, he appeared to be enjoying the cold. In truth, he was absorbing the spiritual energy that slowly bubbled up from the pool's depths, circulating it through his body using the Guishui True Scripture.
After months of hard training, he had reached the mid-stage of first-level Qi Condensation, a pace that would be considered decent even in a proper cultivation sect.
Achieving this in such a low-spiritual-energy environment was impressive, though Ji believed this was largely due to lingering medicinal effects in Li Yan's body.
Li Yan himself felt frustrated with his slow progress. Though he spent most of each day in the pool and often snuck back at night to continue, he still felt time was slipping away.
Unfortunately, he had to split his efforts, pretending to cultivate the Wood Yin Art during the day to maintain appearances, while also putting on the occasional wild display to keep up the act.
After another half hour passed, Li Yan's eyelashes twitched, though he didn't open his eyes. His daytime cultivation was complete, and he now quietly reflected on the past few months.
"My progress is still too slow. Lately, it feels like I've hit a wall. I wonder what's causing it…"
He didn't know that his rapid early progress was due to Ji forcibly expanding his meridians with medicinal herbs, allowing him to absorb spiritual energy at a much higher rate than normal disciples.
Secondly, his physique was uniquely suited to his technique. At the beginning of Qi Condensation, spiritual energy requirements were relatively low. And with him cultivating directly above a spiritual spring, rapid progress was natural.
But ever since reaching mid first-level, the ambient spiritual energy had begun to fall short. As with all cultivation, the higher the stage, the harder it became to break through.
Especially at the Core Formation and Nascent Soul stages, it was common to be stuck for decades or even centuries.
"I haven't revealed my full strength yet. By gradually showing signs of reaching the peak of the early Qi Condensation first-level, I'm ensuring my survival for now.
Otherwise, if I were still stuck at the entry level after several months, Strategist Ji would likely deem me unworthy of investment and lose patience waiting for me to progress."
After practicing the Guishui True Scripture for some time, Li Yan discovered his cultivation speed was remarkably fast, which worried him. He feared Strategist Ji might notice something unusual.
However, after carefully studying the scripture with his Divine Sense and experimenting repeatedly, he found a solution.
"Qi flows long, gathers in the sea, scatters, and lies hidden!"
Initially, he didn't understand this passage. But through trial and error, he learned that the magical power cultivated from the Guishui True Scripture could be freely dispersed from his Dantian into his five spiritual energy vats. The level of magical power displayed would then correspond to the highest reservoir's level.
This method could only conceal his true cultivation level from cultivators slightly stronger than himself. Moreover, it required all five vats to be less than full. Otherwise, the magical power would have nowhere to disperse, and his true strength would inevitably be revealed.
"I pushed my cultivation too hard recently, injuring my meridians and coughing up blood. I had to release some of the excess fire energy to calm myself.
He assumed it was due to the Fire Poison and grew restless. Fortunately, my recent progress in cultivation allowed me to conceal my fire spiritual power, which temporarily quelled his suspicions.
However, as my magical power grows, I can now sense the Fire Poison within him intensifying. I suspect his time is running out."
Though Li Yan couldn't yet project his Divine Sense, as a cultivator, he could faintly perceive the Fire Poison within Strategist Ji growing stronger.
When the poison becomes uncontrollable, that would be Li Yan's moment of death. No matter how far his cultivation progressed, Strategist Ji would wait no longer.
"During my recent outings, I've reached some agreements with Hong Linying through letters, mediated by Liu Chengyong. If he helps me escape, I'll give him the Wood Yin Art cultivation technique. Now, all that remains is to find the right opportunity, but I can't afford to wait too long."
Li Yan pondered in his heart. His concerns now extended beyond his own escape; he had a grander plan: how to eliminate Strategist Ji. Otherwise, his family might not survive this military advisor's wrath.
Yesterday, when Strategist Ji came to guide Li Yan's cultivation, the military advisor's gaze had changed. It had become gentler, warmer, but against his ashen, darkened complexion, it felt like the ravenous hunger of a wolf.
"Then let's set it for two months from now. By then, I'll have to risk everything!"
Li Yan closed his eyes in the spring, his hands clenched into tight fists beneath the surface.
...
Deep within the Great Qing Mountains, millions of li from Great Qing Pass, stood a magnificent palace atop a towering peak that pierced the clouds.
"Elder He, what brings you here today?" The green-robed scholar-like man smiled at the hawk-faced elder, who wore a dark green robe.
"Peak Master, we've discussed the five-yearly inter-peak competition with the other elders. This peak will be sending approximately twenty elite disciples and several True Disciples, all carefully selected by the Inner Hall."
"Oh? The True Disciples are expectedly few, but this year's elite disciples are fewer than before. I recall there were as many as thirty from this peak.."
"That's correct. The number of new disciples with Spirit Roots has declined in recent years. Many promising candidates have been snatched up by those so-called righteous sects, the Daoists, Buddhists, and Confucians. Moreover, elite disciples are chosen from among thousands." The hawk-faced elder spoke somewhat awkwardly.
"Heh heh heh... those 'righteous sects'? They certainly know how to manipulate mortal hearts. By using Daoist temples, Buddhist monasteries, and Confucian academies to constantly indoctrinate the masses, they've managed to recruit quite a few good immortal seedlings."
"Yes, Peak Master! But even with our peak's limited number of elite disciples, we still have more than Little Bamboo Peak. They've barely managed to field a handful of participants in each competition."
The hawk-faced elder chuckled.
"As for Junior Brother Wei's peak," the scholar-like man said, "they have fewer than twenty members in total, including servants. With only seven disciples, the distinction between ordinary and elite doesn't even exist. And once you remove the three who have reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment or higher, naturally only a few remain eligible."
The scholar-like man's face showed a hint of helplessness.
"Alright, enough about Junior Brother Wei's situation. If there's nothing else, you may leave."
The scholar-like man waved his hand dismissively.
"Qibing Peak Master, there's one more matter. We received news today regarding the search for members of the Immortal-Seeking Lineage."
The hawk-faced elder spoke urgently.
"Oh? You mean the one who stole the cultivation technique from that traitorous outer sect disciple?"
"Yes, Peak Master. We expanded our search and finally found a lead at Great Qing Pass, located on the eastern edge of the Great Qing Mountains."
"Among the Imperial Dynasty's garrison there, there's a military advisor who is highly likely to be the person we're looking for. Over the past few years, he's been purchasing medicinal herbs from medicine shops in nearby towns, and these herbs are specifically listed in our secret formula."
"A garrison? A military advisor? In that case, you'll need to investigate thoroughly. If we target mortal officials, especially military officers stationed on the frontier, the Sect Master and others will intervene. We can't afford to let this escalate.
The paths of immortals and mortals must remain separate. Unless mortals provoke us, we can't act against them. Though we're not a righteous sect, we must still uphold this principle. Ensure you've verified everything before deciding whether to take action."
"Yes, Peak Master!
That's exactly what I've planned. With the sect's Five-Year Disciple Competition approaching, many Law Enforcement Disciples who need to participate have already returned.
Only a few Qi Condensation mid-to-late stage disciples remain there. Once we confirm his identity, they'll move to apprehend him."
"Good. If he's still scouring for herbs after all these years, his cultivation level can't be too high. Qi Condensation mid-to-late stage disciples should be more than sufficient."
(Chapter End)