Chapter 59

"Kill Si Cao?" Wu Hongbiao's heart jolted. "Just the two of us?"

"Yes, the two of us."

The small room in the cloth shop was empty. Wu Hongbiao sat cross-legged on the ground, while Chen Ji leaned against the doorframe at the entrance. The two looked at each other in silence.

At this moment, Wu Hongbiao looked towards the door. Chen Ji was standing in the moonlight behind him, his expression unclear.

He patiently advised, "You haven't been in the Military Intelligence Department long, and you haven't interacted much with Si Cao. You shouldn't have such a dangerous idea."

Chen Ji realized that even an elite spy like Wu Hongbiao had reservations about "killing Si Cao."

He couldn't help but ask, "How formidable is Si Cao?"

Wu Hongbiao said solemnly, "You're not in the official system, so you don't understand how formidable officials can be. While I am a martial artist in the Houtian realm, Si Cao has been in the army for a long time. He is at least an official in the Xiantian Completion realm, probably only one step away from the Zhuidao realm."

Chen Ji looked doubtful.

Wu Hongbiao, feeling helpless, chewed on a multi-grain cake while explaining, "Never mind, you wouldn't understand these realms. I'll give you a simple example. Once in Jinling, Si Cao's whereabouts were exposed. Over a hundred people from the Secret Spy Department in a military formation couldn't take him down. He forcefully killed dozens before escaping into the Qinhuai River."

Chen Ji pressed on, "If the Xiantian realm is already so formidable, then how formidable is the Zhuidao realm? Is it difficult to cultivate to the Zhuidao realm?"

"Of course it's difficult!" Wu Hongbiao sighed. "Look at me now, trying to break through from Houtian to Xiantian, I still haven't found the key. Let alone breaking through from Xiantian to Zhuidao? Looking at the entire Lu City, there are probably only two Zhuidao realm experts. One is Liang Gouer, and the other should be Master Yan, hidden under the Liu family's control."

Wu Hongbiao said seriously, "Once you reach the Zhuidao realm, unless you have a military formation of over five hundred people rushing in to kill, you absolutely cannot take down such an expert. Liang Gouer stepped into the Zhuidao realm at the age of twenty-four. That year, he went to the Ning Dynasty border army. In a confrontation between the two armies, he consecutively cut down eight generals of our Jing Dynasty. His fame exploded overnight. Unfortunately, Liang Gouer's cultivation path was disrupted. Otherwise, he would have been the most promising figure for further advancement within the Ning Dynasty."

"Disrupted?"

Wu Hongbiao thought for a moment. "I always feel this might have been the doing of our Jing Dynasty, perhaps even your uncle's doing."

Chen Ji was stunned for a moment. "Why do you say that?"

Wu Hongbiao explained, "After Liang Gouer's cultivation path was disrupted, a female swordswoman appeared in our Jing Dynasty border army and assassinated a rather talented commander in the Ning Dynasty border army. Someone recognized that she used the Liang family's sword art. She should have been someone specially cultivated by our Jing Dynasty to marry Liang Gouer in the Ning Dynasty, just to disrupt his state of mind and break his cultivation!"

"This female swordswoman not only disrupted Liang Gouer's cultivation path but also tricked away the Liang family's world-renowned sword technique. You could say it was killing two birds with one stone, truly a complex and scheming plot."

Chen Ji was doubtful. "But why do you say this was my uncle's doing?"

Wu Hongbiao pulled open the cork of the bamboo tube and took a sip of water. "Three years ago, when your uncle was assassinated, a female swordswoman also appeared by his side."

Chen Ji: ...

This uncle of his was truly complex.

Even now, he still couldn't fully grasp his uncle. He always felt there was a layer of fog surrounding the other party, seemingly both righteous and evil, resorting to any means to achieve his goals.

Chen Ji murmured, "Houtian, Xiantian, Zhuidao... What's above the Zhuidao realm?"

"Shendao realm!"

Wu Hongbiao said, "According to your uncle, throughout the entire world, you can count the people in this realm on one hand. The chief of our Jing Dynasty's Wumiao Mountain, 'Lu Yang,' is one of them. The headmaster of Huangshan in the Ning Dynasty, 'Apostle Zi,' is also one of them. Even the Daoyuan of Lu City and the sect of Luotian in the Ning Dynasty don't have such figures."

"Characters like the chief of Wumiao Mountain, Lu Yang, have already touched the threshold of a celestial-human master! Furthermore, people in the Jing Dynasty always talk with relish about his legend of 'Jiazi Dangmo.' Have you heard of it?"

"Never! Jiazi Dangmo? Are there still demons in this world?"

"They are demon sects scattered within the Jing Dynasty, who cultivate by sacrificing humans and livestock. They often abduct children and women, even slaughtering villages. They are extremely evil! Chief Lu Yang came out of Wumiao to suppress these demons, killing them all, leaving not a single one behind!"

"Because he killed them in the Jiazi year, it's called Jiazi Dangmo?"

Wu Hongbiao shook his head. "No, it means he suppressed the demons for a full Jiazi."

Chen Ji choked. A Jiazi is sixty years. What demon sect could withstand a Shendao realm master locking them down for sixty years?

Wumiao!

Liang Gouer had mentioned this place before.

He had mentioned that Chen Ji shouldn't practice swordsmanship but should go to the Jing Dynasty Wumiao to learn their "Sword Seed."

It wasn't until today that Chen Ji finally had a vague understanding of the official system in this world.

As for himself... he probably didn't even count as a Houtian martial artist.

Facing someone like Si Cao, he even worried that he couldn't kill him with gunpowder.

How to make the other party stay put and let himself blow him up was the real problem.

Wu Hongbiao said, "Do you still want to kill Si Cao? Give up!"

Chen Ji was silent for a long time. "But if I don't kill him, he will kill me."

Wu Hongbiao also fell silent.

His expression seemed to be struggling, seemed to be hesitant. Unlike Chen Ji, it was precisely because he knew how formidable Si Cao was that he knew it was impossible for the two of them alone.

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

"I'll figure out a way, there's always a way!"

Chen Ji pondered for a moment and suddenly asked, "Why do you think my uncle doesn't let me go back to the Jing Dynasty?"

Wu Hongbiao thought for a moment. "I can't guess his mind either, but he once said that all noble children should be tempered on the front lines, otherwise they can only become dandies who spend their days fighting dogs and whoring. That year, he risked death to come south to the Ning Dynasty and returned to our Jing Dynasty with the great merit of assassinating a Minister of the Ministry of War of the Chen family, single-handedly establishing the Military Intelligence Department! I think he might hope you become the same kind of person as him!"

Wu Hongbiao said yearningly, "Our Jing Dynasty military doesn't know how many people worship your uncle and want to become the same kind of person as him. I think you should also set your sights high and walk the path he once walked."

Chen Ji was startled. So his uncle established the Military Intelligence Department?

It really was a new discovery every day...

But if he had to assassinate a Minister or a Grand Secretary to go back, then it was fine not to go back to the Jing Dynasty.

The Ning Dynasty was quite good. "I still have one question. You were clearly close to death, why did you still come to deliver the letter to me?"

Wu Hongbiao grinned. "I told you, we are brothers!"

"Understood!" Chen Ji turned and left. "It's not convenient for me to stay here long. I'll send you some food and water every night for the next few days. Take good care of your wounds!"

Outside the door, Chen Ji stood in the moonlight in the backyard of the cloth shop and exhaled a long breath.

Thinking about killing Si Cao, he might need a good plan. At least he had to first find out what the other party looked like and what identity he usually used to cover himself.

He ate and climbed back over the yard wall, returning to the apprentice's room to lie down. The sound of snoring was still in the room, but Chen Ji's heart felt especially quiet.

The wounds on his chest and thigh began to hurt again.

This pain reminded him constantly that weakness was the original sin in this world.

Chen Ji lay on the bunk, quietly looking at the ceiling beams, his mind constantly filled with the words about officials from tonight.

He slowly closed his eyes and mobilized the melted flow within the sixteen furnace lamps in his body, dividing half of it to condense in his heart.

Instantly, the power of the furnace fire diminished, like a flickering candle in the wind, seemingly about to extinguish at any moment.

The ice flow in Chen Ji's Dantian felt the weakening of its protective power and began to stir, wanting to move up.

It seeped out from the Tianshu acupoint, spreading all over Chen Ji's body.

The long-unseen cold assault came, and Chen Ji once again fell into that mysterious and unknown dark cloud sea, returning to that ancient battlefield.

In the past, he was always forced into this place. Before the age of twelve, he was constantly tormented by this nightmare. His parents even thought he had a serious illness and took him to see a psychologist.

But this time, Chen Ji actively returned.

As the little monk said, Chen Ji always had a gambling nature. Only others gambled with money, while he gambled with his life.

Feeling the cloud sea and fog flowing beside him, he was like a meteorite penetrating from the sky, carrying black luck as he fell onto the green mountain.

Strangely, this time there were no more shouts of killing on the ancient battlefield. Everything seemed to have stopped.

Chen Ji saw a three-legged golden crow solidified in the sky, its tail feathers not shaking in the slightest.

He saw a golden feather arrow just about to pierce through the battle array, yet it was suspended in the air by some unknown power. The person who had drawn the bow in anger was also frozen in place.

He saw a giant, like Kuafu chasing the sun, rushing towards the battlefield, yet stopped in the posture of taking a step.

This battlefield was like a huge and lonely amber, imprisoning everything for ten thousand years.

Only the emperor wearing golden armor, holding the king's banner, and commanding the battle array was nowhere to be seen.

"You still dare to come here?"

A majestic voice rang out behind Chen Ji.

Chen Ji suddenly turned around and saw that figure, majestic like a mountain range, the golden armored person, standing just behind him, overlooking him from the mountaintop on the green mountain.

He felt no fear, only calmly asked, "What is your name?"

"My name is 'Xuan Yuan'!"

The sound of the two words "Xuan Yuan" was like a grand bell, seeming to resonate with heaven and earth, and even the black clouds in the sky slowly rippled open.

Chen Ji asked again, "And who am I?"

Xuan Yuan laughed heartily, as if he had heard something funny. "You don't remember, you actually don't remember at all."

But as he laughed, Xuan Yuan's tone became desolate. "The peach blossoms in Guixu, the snow on Mount East Kunlun, the sea outside Penglai, you don't remember any of it..."

Chen Ji frowned. "Who exactly am I?"

Xuan Yuan turned his head and looked outside the green mountain. "This is the biggest joke I've heard in fifteen thousand years. If even you forget who you are, then who am I? Then what does my fifteen thousand years of loneliness count for?"

Chen Ji quietly looked at the other party. He suddenly realized that this was absolutely not a real battlefield. Those battle arrays, those divine birds and beasts, those people, they were all fake.

While the golden armored emperor in front, "Xuan Yuan," was the only living being in this world.

He saw the other party slowly calm down, his voice majestic. "What matter brings you to my world? Aren't you afraid I will borrow you to re-enter the world?"

"Afraid!"

"Then you still dare to come?"

Chen Ji said seriously, "Pass me the Sword Seed!"

He wasn't going to the Jing Dynasty Wumiao. Perhaps one day he really would go to the Jing Dynasty, but that was too long, and he couldn't wait.

Xuan Yuan was obviously startled when he heard Chen Ji's words, as if he had heard something unbelievable. Then he laughed heartily again. "Pass you the Sword Seed? Hahahaha, this is the second joke I've heard in fifteen thousand years."

Chen Ji was speechless for a moment. "Is it that funny?"

Xuan Yuan turned around, propped the king's banner in his hand on the mountaintop, and said in a deep voice, "Do you know, you and I were once enemies?"

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

This time it was Xuan Yuan who was silent. After a long time, he said in a deep voice, "Then do you know, what you once looked down on the most, was precisely the Sword Seed I cultivate?"

Chen Ji quickly said, "I look up to it, I look up to it now, it's formidable, formidable!"

Xuan Yuan: ...

On the green mountain, the two faced each other in silence, falling into a suffocating awkwardness.

Xuan Yuan seriously sized up Chen Ji, as if he needed to re-recognize him. "You've changed too much!"

Chen Ji said seriously, "Actually, what I want to say is, I am not that person you know. My name is Chen Ji, just a small apprentice in Taiping Medical Hall. I haven't looked down on the Sword Seed, nor do I have any grand ideals. I just don't want to be killed so easily by others. I don't know what grudge you have with that non-existent person. I just want to make a gamble with you."

"Oh?" Xuan Yuan became interested. "How do you gamble?"

"You want to borrow me to re-enter the world?"

"Right!"

"You pass me the Sword Seed. If one day you borrow me to re-enter the world, then this cultivation of mine will be helping you cultivate!"

Xuan Yuan thought, "You want to gamble that I will never be able to re-enter the world?"

Chen Ji raised his head and faced that majestic mountain range directly. "Gamble?"

The golden armored emperor laughed. "You would even use the method of provocation. I can pass you the Sword Seed, but not because of this ridiculous gamble."

Chen Ji was doubtful. "Then why?"

Xuan Yuan spoke in riddles, "For the ten-li peach blossoms in Guixu."

Chen Ji didn't understand.

But if it's for peach blossoms, then it's for peach blossoms. For pear blossoms is also fine. For camellias is also acceptable.

"How to cultivate the Sword Seed?"

Chen Ji asked.

Xuan Yuan said profoundly, "To cultivate my sword path, you need to use stars to nourish sword intent and seize the sword intent of others to cast the Sword Seed. I chose the Ziwei Emperor Star. You can choose any star in the entire sky. Remember, once you choose, you cannot change."

"How to nourish the sword with stars?"

"I will teach you now. To nourish the sword requires patience. The stars are distant and unreachable. The first time I touched the Ziwei Emperor Star with my divine sense, it took four hundred and thirty-four years."

Chen Ji: ...

He didn't know how long had passed. The ice flow seeped into Chen Ji's heart, triggering a counterattack from the surging melted flow, suppressing all the ice flow back into the Dantian.

The morning rooster crowed, signaling dawn.

Chen Ji slowly opened his eyes. He endured the pain in his thigh, lifted the cover, and struggled to get up, slowly moving into the yard.

He looked at the stars in the sky and quickly found the location of the Ziwei Emperor Star.

The so-called Ziwei Emperor Star was actually the North Star, located about 434 light-years away from his position.

The seven stars of the Big Dipper surrounded it and rotated throughout the four seasons.

If the sky were compared to a funnel, then the Ziwei Emperor Star was the tip of this funnel, residing exactly in the center.

Chen Ji thought about what Xuan Yuan said, that once the star for nourishing the sword was chosen, it could not be changed. He had to be extra careful.

But according to Xuan Yuan, it took four hundred and thirty-four years just to use the so-called divine sense to contact the Ziwei Emperor Star. If he wanted to cultivate this path, his lifespan would have to grow from the palm of his hand to his heel.

He would be old and dead, and he still wouldn't have cultivated it successfully.

Chen Ji put on his clothes and leaned against the apricot tree, in addition to the pain from his wounds, there was also some youthful melancholy.

The crow looked at him curiously, not knowing what was wrong with him again.

Chen Ji asked, "Uncle Crow, how can one live to be four hundred and thirty-four years old?"

The crow opened its mouth and mocked him silently.

However, at this moment, the sun was just beginning to rise. A wisp of golden light shot out from the farthest point on the horizon, staining a layer of clouds.

Chen Ji was suddenly startled...

Everyone knew that the sun was the closest star to him!

.