Don't blame Li Qing, a Xiantian grandmaster, for mistaking the child's gender. Back when those children first entered White Lotus Island, every single one of them had a shaved head. More than a year has passed since, and though this girl has grown a bit of hair, she still shows no trace of feminine features.
Thinking of how the cultivation of Rong Ku Zen Art leaves one half-withered, half-thriving in appearance, Li Qing sighed to himself: This girl is ruined. Not that she ever looked like a beauty in the making anyway.
After the child finished relieving herself, Li Qing went on his way. Along the road he asked her name. She was called Ling Jiao.
By midday, the towering walls of the imperial capital loomed into view.
At the city gates, streams of people flowed in and out. Those entering far outnumbered those leaving, and most wore nothing but ragged clothes.
Li Qing had traveled across many provinces and seen the state of the world. Times were grim. War broke out everywhere. One rebellion would just be crushed when another flared up somewhere else.
The White Lotus Sect bore some blame for this chaos, but the heavier burden lay with Emperor Jianwu.
In just twenty-five years, Emperor Jianwu had drained the foundation of the Great Qian state. Back then, Li Qing had believed Prince Wu would prove a wise ruler. After all, when he was still heir apparent, he had remembered even a lowly eunuch hidden away in the cold palace, rewarding Li Qing with a Great Origin Pill.
Now the people dared not speak their minds, showing their suffering only through their eyes.
Seeking immortality, chasing the Dao... In the end, only long-lived wanderers like me can afford to. A true ruler ought to keep the fate of the nation at heart.
Li Qing held the horse with one hand and led Ling Jiao with the other as they walked toward the city gate.
At the gate, the city guards were inspecting those coming in. Their main concern was people from the martial world, while ordinary travelers and merchants were usually let through without question.
Martial artists could carry swords into the city, but only if they were disciples of a sect officially registered with the government.
Just as the guards were about to reach Li Qing, an officer from the Western Depot stepped forward from the side. He stopped the guards and bowed to Li Qing. "Greetings, Senior Eunuch Li."
"You know me?" Li Qing asked with curiosity. Being suddenly recognized gave him the strange feeling that everyone under heaven knew his name.
"I once had the honor of seeing you in Yancheng," the officer said politely.
"So that's it."
It had been nearly ten years since that brief encounter in Yancheng, and Li Qing had no memory of the man.
"My name is Li Shan. I now serve as a minor squad leader in the Western Depot. If you ever have need of me, lord, just say the word," Li Shan flattered.
"Very well."
After a few more words of idle talk, Li Qing entered the city. A low-ranking squad leader from the Western Depot was hardly worth his notice.
But...
Ling Jiao had overheard their exchange. When she looked at Li Qing afterward, there was something different in her eyes.
Li Qing paid it no mind.
Before long, he brought Ling Jiao to Wang's Braised Delicacies in the northern market.
After Zhang Yong was killed by the White Lotus Sect, his adopted son had taken the family back to the countryside. The shop was left to the descendants of Wang Li, who ran it exclusively as a single store under the old, established brand. All the other branches had been sold off.
As it happened, Li Qing still held a small share in Wang's, but since he was never short of silver, he had long stopped taking his cut.
"Order whatever you like," he told Ling Jiao once they had found an empty table.
She had grown tired of eating dry rations on the road, and now she ordered without restraint, filling the table with all kinds of braised dishes.
Just as the food arrived, a voice both strange and familiar rang in Li Qing's ear: "Little Li! You're alive after all!"
Li Qing turned his head. It took him two seconds to place the man before he finally said, "Master Gong… what are you doing here?"
It was none other than Gong Yue, a eunuch from the Cold Palace. He was aged and frail now, his back hunched, leaning heavily on a cane.
Gong Yue burst into tears. "Twelve years… I thought you were dead, Little Li! Back then, I couldn't save you, and I caused Master Li's line to end. It's all my fault. It's all my fault..."
Li Qing quickly reached out to steady him. "What happened?" he asked.
Gong Yue lowered himself into a seat, trembling, and wiped away his tears. "Twelve years ago, Empress Yan tried to stage a palace coup. I was fifty-one then, just old enough to leave the palace. When I caught wind of danger, I decided to take the chance and get out. Before leaving, I wanted to warn you, to tell you to hide in the kitchens for a while. But no matter how I searched, I couldn't find you.
"I had no choice but to leave on my own. Afterward, I never heard a word about you from the palace. I thought you were dead. I've always felt guilty for failing to repay Master Li's kindness to me back then."
Hearing this, Li Qing fell silent.
When he had left the palace all those years ago, he hadn't told Gong Yue or the others. There had been no way to explain how he'd managed to escape.
Ling Jiao, listening at his side, nearly choked on a piece of braised pork intestine. This is the man feared as a peerless villain… who on earth could have killed him?
"Let the past rest," Li Qing said, moved. "How have you been since?"
For an instant, countless names flickered through his mind. Old Wang, Eunuch Zhang, Yongzi, Manager Gu, Old Zhang…
Wait. Old Zhang? He couldn't even remember who that was anymore.
"I've been well enough," Gong Yue chuckled.
"I eat well and sleep soundly. After leaving the palace back then, I came here to Wang's. Sometimes I even helped them smooth things over with connections. Now the one running Wang's is Old Wang's grandson, an honest man. He's promised to look after me in my old age. Only pity is, I never managed to adopt a son."
"As long as you're alive, that's what matters," Li Qing replied. "A son isn't important. It wouldn't have been your own blood anyway."
"Yes, yes, you're right."
When the shopkeeper of Wang's learned that Li Qing was an old acquaintance from the Cold Palace, he brought a group of boys to pay their respects, and he waived the cost of Li Qing's meal.
"Business at Wang's is thriving these days, I hope no troublemakers have shown up?" Li Qing asked. As a Xiantian grandmaster, and secretly the White Lotus Sect's leader, protecting a food shop would be the easiest thing in the world for him.
"There was some trouble a few years back," Gong Yue said, "but lately a man called Baili Flying Eagle has been staying here. A chivalrous type. Likes to stand up for others. With him around, troublemakers are few."
Baili Flying Eagle?
Li Qing had never heard of the name. Likely a newcomer who had risen to fame in recent years.
Gong Yue went on to explain: "Hero Baili is now hailed as the foremost chivalrous thief in the capital. He champions justice, robs the rich to help the poor, and his reputation is immense. Many nobles have invited him into their mansions, but he always refuses. He insists on staying here at Wang's."
As Gong Yue was speaking, he suddenly saw a man and a woman walking into Wang's shop.
Their voices carried inside:
"Junior sister, I really am your senior brother. That 'Flowing Step of Water and Fragrance' technique was taught to me by our master. I've wandered the jianghu for years, and only you use that very same technique."
"I told you, my name is Ming Ying. I'm from Wuliang Temple, and my master is Daoist priestess San'nan. I've never even heard of this so-called master of yours."
"No mistake about it. Good junior sister, please, take me to see our master. I beg you."
These two were none other than Baili Flying Eagle and Ming Ying, the pair who had been chasing and fleeing earlier. As the saying goes, no fight, no friendship. Only now their relationship had completely reversed, with Baili Flying Eagle looking utterly eager to please.
Just then...
The two of them caught sight of a man sitting in the shop, and their faces went pale with fright.
Ming Ying trembled and whispered, "The strange man…"
Baili Flying Eagle abandoned all pretense of heroism. He dropped to his knees in a sliding bow. "Master!" he wailed. "Your disciple has finally found you at last!"
"Ugh—"
This time Ling Jiao really did choke. Out of nowhere, some strange man came rushing in, calling this villain "Master." And this stranger even looked like a renowned hero of the jianghu…
Li Qing quickly sent a surge of spiritual energy into her. For someone with a gifted spiritual root to choke to death on a sausage; it would be laughable.
The energy cleared Ling Jiao's throat, and she gasped for breath again and again.
Then Li Qing frowned at the young man clinging to his leg. "Young hero, you must have the wrong person. I don't know you, and I've never taken on a disciple."
With that said, he cast a glance at Ming Ying, displeased. "Girl Ying, you see me and don't even offer a bow?"
Ming Ying snapped to her senses and hurried over in quick little steps. She gave a soft and respectful disciple's salute. "This junior, Ming Ying, greets the master."
It was true that girls change a great deal as they grow, and more than ten years had passed. Li Qing couldn't recall what Ming Ying had looked like as a child. But he did recognize the blue jade pendant hanging from her neck.
On that pendant, the single character "Wei" had been carved by his own hand.