Chapter 36: The Life-and-Death Struggle Begins
In the mountain pass, within the Marshal's residence inside the city, the rear hall remained as empty as ever. Amidst the silence, a muffled, resonant voice suddenly echoed.
"Senior Brother, are we just going to keep waiting like this? The initiative isn't in our hands, and unexpected changes may occur at any moment."
Bright sunlight slanted through the doorway, casting the hall in brilliant light. Hong Linying sat in a broad chair, shifting his slightly reflective bald head.
"That kid isn't just cautious, he's slippery too. The last few times, he only conveyed his intentions through a few verbal messages from Liu Chengyong, along with letters that corroborated the meaning.
Liu Chengyong's verbal messages always carried the key information, while the letters never mentioned cultivation techniques or plans to escape. They merely stated that if there was good wine next time, he'd bring his family's secret recipe pickled meat to drink together, extremely careful.
He's worried the letters might fall into Ji Wenhe's hands and be used as leverage. We offered him a way to escape last time, but he refused…"
Hong Linying spoke with a hint of helplessness, after all, he had given Li Yan suggestions, but the latter had rejected them.
He had advised Li Yan that, next time he entered the city, he could arrange for someone disguised as an assassin from the Meng Kingdom to sneak in and assassinate a key figure on their side. The idea was to encounter Li Yan in the street and identify him as Ji Wenhe's disciple, after which he would "kill" Chen An and Li Yin in public.
Then Li Yan would hide in a secret tunnel for one to two months. After Ji Wenhe searched fruitlessly for a long time, the matter would naturally be left unresolved.
At that time, Li Yan would hand over the cultivation technique to Hong Linying and then be quietly escorted out. However, Li Yan firmly disagreed, completely shattering Hong Linying's plans to capture and coerce him.
"Senior Brother, why don't I just dress as an assassin next time he comes to town, capture him directly, and find an opportunity to bring him to the secret room?"
"I've considered that too, but there are problems with that approach. If we forcibly capture him, will he cooperate? Will he hand over the cultivation method? And then do we torture him or not?
Who can guarantee he won't harbor resentment? If he changes even a few key parts of the technique, for those who practice internal cultivation methods, it could mean eternal damnation."
"So this won't work, and that won't work either. It's really infuriating! I don't believe that under my muscle-splitting, bone-twisting hands, he won't tell the truth."
"Junior Brother, calm down. Let's wait a little longer. If all else fails, we'll proceed with that plan."
Hong Linying slapped his bald head.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps came from outside. Shortly after, the footsteps stopped at the front door, followed by a voice announcing:
"Marshal, Captain Liu requests an audience."
"Oh? He's here? Quickly, bring him in!"
Hong Linying straightened his posture, a flicker of emotion flashing through his eyes.
Meanwhile, Chen An and Li Yin looked ahead in shame as Li Yan galloped ahead on horseback. They helplessly slapped their mounts and gave chase amid a clamor of clanking and rattling sounds.
After entering the city today, Li Yan had not only bought some clothes, but also took a keen interest in some items from Liu Chengyong's army.
In the end, Chen An and Li Yin's horses were loaded with helmets, armor, military boots and most embarrassingly, a large pot and a big ladle were even tied to the horse's rear.
In the military camp, facing all the mocking and curious stares, Chen An covered his face in shame. In this chaotic clatter, they raced toward the North Gate.
Once they entered the military strategist's residence, they drew even more surprised and awed gazes as they made their way toward the inner valley, this time even leading their horses inside.
As soon as they entered the valley, a divine sense swept over them. When it scanned the two warhorses, the divine sense suddenly trembled, then withdrew as if it had seen something it shouldn't.
Walking in the front, Li Yan curled his lips into a cold smirk when he felt the divine sense retreat. Behind him, Chen An and Li Yin kept their heads down, leading the horses into the valley as if trying to avoid any interaction with him.
"Keep scanning, I'll just bring more and more stuff back each time so you can enjoy your snooping."
Li Yan thought to himself.
Then, swaggering, he turned and pointed to the outside of his house.
"Put today's stuff right there."
When Chen An and Li Yin saw this, their faces fell.
"Young Master, your doorway is already getting blocked!"
In front of the stone house where Li Yan lived, there were already two or three wooden cabinets. The cabinet doors were wide open, filled with plows, rakes, shovels, stone mortars, and other farm tools.
Leaning next to the door was a candied hawthorn stick, still skewered with several dried sugar-coated fruits. That was something Li Yan had brought back in a moment of whim during a previous city visit, he had even brought the whole vendor's pot with him.
"Cut the nonsense. I told you to put it there, what you want to bring it inside? Then how would I sleep?"
Li Yan shot the two of them an unfriendly look.
"Got it, we'll do it right away!"
Chen An and Li Yin shivered and quickly agreed.
Amid a clatter of metal and wood, they unloaded all the miscellaneous goods onto the ground. Then they swiftly led their horses away, faces covered.
From start to finish, there was no movement or anyone emerging from the first stone house.
Li Yan nodded in satisfaction, then circled around the items a few times, picking up the helmet and armor to try them on.
After a moment, seemingly dissatisfied, he casually tossed them back into the pile with a loud "clang" and muttered a few words before turning to walk into the house.
Once inside, he poured a cup of water, took a sip, then lay on the bed and lazily closed his eyes, a look of contentment on his face.
In truth, he was anything but calm. It had been over half a month since he made his decision. Today, he had entered the city and delivered the letter to Liu Chengyong.
In the letter, he mentioned that in a month and a half, during the start of the farming season, his uncles would bring the family's secret pickled meat. Around noon, he would go pick up the meat, and with travel time, it would take about an hour. Liu Chengyong should prepare fine wine in advance.
At that time, they would go to the tavern and drink together. If the wine wasn't good, he'd take the meat back for himself.
This was part of the secret code agreed upon between him and Hong Linying, meaning:
He planned to escape on the day of Lixia(the beginning of summer), a month and a half later. At noon, Hong Linying would find a reason to lure Strategist Ji out of the valley for about an hour.
After that, Li Yan would meet Liu Chengyong to act. If all went well, he would hand over the cultivation technique to them.
Now that he had truly decided, tension welled up in his heart. Coming back, he lay on the bed and closed his eyes, trying to calm the storm within.
His real plan, however, was not simply to escape on his own, but to figure out a way to eliminate the Strategist Ji, so that even if he vanished, his family would not be implicated.
Although he had spent several months repeatedly planning, as of today, Li Yan still had only a slim chance of success. Just thinking about the terrifying martial prowess of Strategist Ji made him feel utterly helpless.
No, it should be called immortal magic. Even though he had never witnessed techniques like Wood Spike Spell, Fire Bullet Spell, or Wind Blade Spell, just hearing those names was enough to fill him with a sense of powerlessness.
But he no longer had time to prepare. Judging from Strategist Ji's complexion, he would probably come looking for him in another six months at most.
Facing someone skilled in immortal arts, especially someone who had already resolved to kill him, meant that he would have absolutely no chance at all by then. But now, if he acted with the element of surprise, there might still be a sliver of hope to survive through the attempt.
At worst, he would just die. If he really did die in front of Strategist Ji, then Ji would likely be so focused on extending his own life that he wouldn't bother going after Li Yan's family anymore.
After lying on the bed for quite a while, Li Yan finally felt his mood settle somewhat. He stood up and walked out toward the water pond outside his room...
Time passed, and the willow catkins were already floating in the air. The sun grew warmer, and the valley was in full bloom. Some trees had already shed their dark-colored leaves and sprouted tender green buds.
Strategist Ji gazed over the valley, rubbing his forehead with one hand. Li Yan had almost entirely transplanted the wildflowers from the surroundings outside the valley.
Now, from the pond stretching south to the foot of the mountain, and north from the pond to within several zhang of the stone house, the area was covered in wildflowers of every kind big and small, tall and short...
All sorts of mixed fragrances wafted through the warm spring air, so thick and intense they made one dizzy. Even inside his house, the scent of flowers was overwhelming.
He shook his head and looked at the pond among the flowers, where Li Yan was calmly cultivating. His current spiritual aura seemed to have just surpassed the middle stage of the first level of Qi Condensation.
"Let you mess around as you please. At this rate, you might break through to the peak of Qi Condensation first level within another half a year. When the time comes, whether you've truly reached that level or not, we'll settle this thing!!"
Right now, just to suppress the fire poison, he couldn't even use more than 30% of his spiritual power.
In another year, he might only be able to use 20%. And 20% was the absolute minimum required to deal with someone at the peak of first-level Qi Condensation. If he waited any longer, who knew who would suppress whom by then?
Standing with his hands behind his back at the edge of the wildflower field, Strategist Ji's face streaked with threads of black energy revealed a faintly savage expression.
Half an hour later, around the Chen hour (roughly 7–9 am.), Li Yan walked out from the pond. After changing into a clean black robe back at his house, he came to stand in front of the first stone house.
"Teacher, I'd like to go into the city today. I haven't delivered last month's silver to my family yet."
"Go."
A voice came from inside the house. Strategist Ji was already used to Li Yan's routine of leaving the valley once every half month or so. Every time he came back, his cultivation would make some progress, and his mental state would also stabilize for a while.
Li Yan bowed respectfully, then turned to return to his house to retrieve the silver. But just then, a hesitant voice came again from behind him, Strategist Ji.
"My disciple… this time when you go into the city, try to leave more silver for your family. Don't waste it all on useless things. Every time you come back, you're carrying loads of stuff, but I never see you use half of it."
Li Yan paused, then smiled knowingly and turned back to reply:
"Teacher, rest assured, I won't buy much this time."
"Oh."
The room fell silent.
Not long after, the peace outside the valley broke into the clamor of chickens flapping and dogs barking. Amid shouts and calls, Chen An and Li Yin led their horses and left...
As noon approached, within the Military Advisor's Mansion:
"My lord, someone from the city has come to see you. Marshal Hong asks that you come over, he says it's an urgent matter to discuss."
"It's already almost noon. What urgent matter could it be?"
Inside, Strategist Ji opened his eyes, a look of confusion on his face.
Ever since returning from Great Qing Mountain six months ago, he had gone from visiting the city once every few days to only going once every ten days or even half a month. Most of the time, he stayed in the valley meditating and adjusting his breath.
Just two days ago, he had gone into the city to discuss the military defenses against Meng Kingdom. Why would they call him again so soon? Though he was reluctant, he still needed to rely on them for now, and couldn't completely ignore things.
Thinking this, Strategist Ji stood tall and headed outside.
Li Yan looked at the sun in the sky, then smiled at Li Yu and Li Shan sitting at the same table. Today, it was just the three of them, he hadn't invited anyone else. Chen An and Li Yin were assigned to a separate table not far away.
"Li Yu, in the past half-year, I've really seen your cooking skills improve. You've gone from kitchen helper to assistant chef. I'm really looking forward to the day I can finally eat something you cook yourself, haha..."
Li Yu's face turned red.
"Brother Yan, it'll still be a while before I can do the actual cooking! Mmm… probably about another year, then I might start learning. When that time comes, you can eat whatever you want, I'll make it for you."
"Good. Brother Yan will definitely come eat then."
As he spoke, a subtle trace of loneliness flashed across Li Yan's face.
Li Yu and Li Shan didn't really notice the change in his demeanor. Their minds were half-focused on enjoying the delicious food in front of them. Every time Li Yan came into the city, he would treat them to a good meal, which made them overjoyed each time.
Li Yan paused for a moment, then smiled and turned toward Li Shan.
"Li Shan, that belt I asked you to buy last time, did you get it?"
Li Shan's cheeks were stuffed with food. He looked up with a smile and replied through a mouthful:
"Got it, got it, it's right here."
As he spoke, he reached into his clothes and pulled out a belt, handing it to Li Yan.
Li Yan took the belt, it was a wide, purple belt, palm-width in size. He stood up, removed the black belt from his waist, and quickly tied the purple one on. Paired with his black robe, he actually looked quite dashing and refined.
Chen An and Li Yin glanced over from their table, then returned to drinking their wine, completely speechless at this young master's shopping obsession. He bought all sorts of things on a whim, most of which he barely even used.
After a moment of hesitation, Li Yan handed the original black belt to Li Shan.
"Li Shan, take this, along with the silver I gave you before. Give them to the Uncle that enters the city next time. Have him deliver them to my parents."
As he finished the sentence, his voice grew a little heavy.
Li Shan and Li Yu exchanged a glance, they both felt something seemed off about Li Yan today.
(Chapter End)