Chapter 505: - The Sword Saint Leaves the City

“Elder Sister, this expense needs special approval.”

Yuexin placed a requisition slip on the Fourth Lady’s desk.

The Fourth Lady was rubbing cooling medicated balm between her brows. Her injuries had already healed. Originally, she had thought that once Master returned, she could finally begin her baby-making plan.

Instead, Master came back with news that they were going to campaign against Chu.

Wonderful.

As chief housekeeper, she immediately became so busy her feet barely touched the ground.

One pile of affairs after another, one matter after another, all of it had to pass beneath her eyes.

This was their own household’s foundation. Even if an outsider possessed the ability to oversee the whole operation, no one would feel comfortable handing over everything they had spent years struggling to build.

Truthfully, the Fourth Lady had begun envying that bastard Xue San a little.

He still had not returned from the State of Liang.

Was he really planning to become Great Liang’s General Tuxingsun?

Maybe marry a Liang princess too and return home in glory?

Once she finished applying the balm, the Fourth Lady picked up the requisition.

It listed a batch of specially made armor, leather armor, and short blades.

Snow Sea Pass’s foundries were already working day and night, hoping to equip more soldiers with armor and forge more sharp weapons before the war began. Producing this specially sized batch of smaller leather armor and short blades was actually troublesome and could easily disrupt the foundries’ existing pace and production schedule.

Yuexin explained from beside her, “Elder Sister, these are for the Righteousness Camp.”

The Righteousness Camp was also called the Adopted Sons Camp.

Ever since Shengle City, they had maintained a tradition: if a soldier died without wife, children, or relatives, his death compensation could be given to the schoolhouse to raise an orphan.

The orphan would take the dead soldier’s surname.

You gave me the grace of raising me.

I carry on your incense line.

The Jin lands had suffered endless warfare over the past several years, displacing the common people and leaving behind an ocean of orphans.

Since this arrangement had first been established at Shengle City and continued after the move to Snow Sea Pass, the Righteousness Camp had grown to nearly eight hundred children.

But...

The Fourth Lady frowned slightly.

“They’re all half-grown boys.”

Half-grown meant no longer small children, but not yet young men either.

The Fourth Lady felt it was still too early to send them onto a battlefield.

Yuexin said, “My husband’s view is that they are the future of our Count’s Residence. This is a great war. They ought to go see the world.”

The Righteousness Camp could be called the purest reserve force Snow Sea Pass possessed.

Every one of those children was an orphan.

They had grown up on compensation left by dead soldiers and support from the Count’s Residence.

Their lives carried none of the entanglements of ordinary families.

What remained was the purest kind of loyalty.

The Fourth Lady knew that by the Blind Man’s standards, the Righteousness Camp was probably his favorite place in all of Snow Sea Pass.

Since the Blind Man insisted, she had no reason to refuse.

The Demon Kings had always possessed a tacit understanding, and Master shared it as well: as long as the greater situation was not affected, everyone could play however they pleased.

“Fine. Approved.”

...

In the small courtyard beside the Count’s Residence, the Sword Saint was feeding chickens.

The swaggering old hen marched with ringing confidence, walked forward, lowered its head and pecked once, raised its head to survey the surroundings, then lowered its head and pecked again.

The posture was exactly like some unmarried young lady from a wealthy household.

In one corner, a duck huddled timidly by itself, visibly depressed.

Liu Dahu returned.

When he saw the Sword Saint, he called:

“Dad.”

Liu Dahu was the Sword Saint’s stepson, but he had never hesitated when calling him Dad.

The Sword Saint looked puzzled.

“School isn’t out yet at this hour, is it?”

Going to the schoolhouse every day was Liu Dahu’s regular duty.

The schoolhouses of Snow Sea Pass taught almost nothing in the way of moral essays.

The children learned to read.

Then they learned arithmetic.

Once they reached a certain age, they could choose either to join the army or enter a workshop.

After a short adjustment period, those who joined the army could rise quickly, while those who entered workshops could soon become junior foremen.

Either route meant a rapid improvement in the family’s standard of living within Snow Sea Pass.

Naturally, most schoolhouse children chose the army.

For one thing, they were influenced by their Headmaster, Count Pingye.

For another, once someone became part of a Standard household, he counted as one of the Count’s Residence’s own people.

The children did not understand phrases like “political treatment.”

But they and their parents understood that becoming a Standard household meant you had begun “eating imperial grain.”

“Dad, I want to talk to you about something.”

Liu Dahu walked up to the Sword Saint on his own.

“Go ahead.”

The Sword Saint found a stool, sat down, and listened seriously to what his child had to say.

The Sword Saint had never truly received the care of a family when he was young.

He and his younger brother had depended on one another to survive.

Later, he found a master, picked up a sword, and finally made something of himself.

Precisely because his own childhood had lacked those things, he hoped the next generation would have no such regrets.

“Dad, the schoolhouse is taking names. I want to go with the Righteousness Camp. I want to go to the battlefield and kill Chu slaves.”

The Sword Saint was surprised.

“You’re still young.”

“Dad, I’m not little anymore. Nobody at the schoolhouse can beat me at wrestling! Even that wolf cub, if he doesn’t cheat, isn’t as strong as me.”

At the Sword Saint’s insistence, Liu Dahu ate extremely well every day.

There was a saying that a half-grown boy could eat his father into bankruptcy, and in this household Liu Dahu had meat at almost every meal.

Living like that was extravagantly wasteful by ordinary standards, but the Sword Saint insisted.

His wife and the old grandmother could hardly object.

The man was treating the Liu family’s child well. What could they possibly complain about?

Every evening, the Sword Saint meditated together with Liu Dahu and taught him breathing methods.

Liu Dahu had no idea this was cultivation.

He simply liked spending time with his “dad,” and after meditating each evening he slept exceptionally well.

Gradually, the routine before bed became something he enjoyed.

As a result, Liu Dahu’s physical condition stood far above most children his age.

The Sword Maid did not participate in their wrestling.

And if the wolf cub did not resort to circling around and playing tricks, then inside the schoolhouse, no one could withstand Liu Dahu.

“Going to war is too dangerous,” the Sword Saint advised.

“Dad, I have to go. Teacher said if we lose this war, our good days at Snow Sea Pass might be over. The Chu slaves could fight their way here!”

The Sword Saint naturally understood that this was the result of the Count’s Residence’s propaganda.

He had understood for a long time that Snow Sea Pass deliberately demonized the Savages and the Chu in its propaganda to soldiers and civilians.

The purpose was simple.

It helped erase the conflict between Yan people and Jin people.

Earlier, when the Sword Saint drank with the Savage King, the Savage King had remarked that the trick had been used to perfection.

If there was no common external enemy, people would soon begin fighting among themselves.

So in the eyes of Snow Sea Pass’s soldiers and civilians, the Savages could invade again at any moment.

It did not matter that every time Count Pingye marched beyond the pass and onto the snowfields, he beat the Savages until their brains nearly came out through their asses.

Everyone still believed the Savages might come charging back through Snow Sea Pass in the near future.

It did not matter that the Chu General-in-Chief had been pressured by the Marquis of Jingnan until all he dared do was curl up and build fortifications.

The soldiers and civilians of Snow Sea Pass still believed a Chu army might appear beneath their walls before long.

Still, how should one put it?

The Sword Saint was one of the very few “commoners” who actually knew what was going on.

And on the road back from Yanjing, Zheng Fan had personally explained to him what this campaign against Chu meant.

The Sword Saint did not care about the significance of victory.

It would simply mean the State of Yan had taken another step toward unifying all the Xia lands.

What the Sword Saint cared about was the consequence of defeat.

If the campaign against Chu failed, the State of Yan would collapse.

Afterward, the Chu would inevitably enter Jin, then march straight to Snow Sea Pass.

So strictly speaking, this war against Chu could not be lost.

“You should still be studying right now,” the Sword Saint insisted.

“Dad, I want to go into battle and kill Chu slaves,” Liu Dahu said stubbornly. “Besides, the schoolhouse is already letting us register. They’ll choose a group of us to go to the front together with the Righteousness Camp. If I think I can go, then I should go.”

“Wait another few years. Then I’ll let you.”

The Sword Saint had already yielded a step.

“Dad, I want to go now. The Count needs me.”

The Sword Saint opened his mouth, but did not know what to say.

“Dad, I’m telling you in advance. I already registered myself. In a few days, help me talk to Mom and Grandma. By then, the raw rice will already have been cooked into porridge anyway.”

“Cooked rice.”

“Right.”

“You absolutely have to go?”

“I do.”

“What if the Count refuses to let you?”

“The notice is already posted at the schoolhouse.”

“If you study a few more years and grow for another two, you’ll be able to kill more Chu slaves once you enter battle,” the Sword Saint patiently reasoned.

“No. I want to go. I can’t wait anymore. Dad, I want our family to become a Standard household so you, Mom, and Grandma never have to worry about food or clothing again. Your son is grown now. I want to go out and fight for something. This is my home. Snow Sea Pass is my home too. We all know how chaotic things are outside now, how many people can’t get enough to eat, and how many people pass through every winter as if they were walking through the gates of Hell. The Count gave us a stable life. We have to stand with the Count, protect our lives, and create our tomorrow!”

The words came out very smoothly.

The Sword Saint knew this was what the instructors at the schoolhouse taught the children every day.

He thought it was much like practicing swordsmanship.

Practice the same sword form day after day, year after year, and eventually it became instinct.

“Fine. Dad agrees.”

“Thank you, Dad!”

Liu Dahu was overjoyed.

“Dad, I’m going to tell the wolf cub. I’m going to campaign against Chu with him! Hahahaha!”

The Sword Saint watched the child leave in high spirits.

Then he slowly stood.

The child was still too young.

It was not that he opposed the boy joining the army.

He genuinely believed Liu Dahu was simply too young right now.

The Sword Saint had often seen the half-grown boys of the Righteousness Camp running drills through the city morning and evening.

They were children with a faint murderous aura already gathered around them.

Yet every so often, they would also voluntarily come out and help the people of Snow Sea Pass work.

Sometimes they tilled fields.

Sometimes they delivered goods.

Sometimes they repaired houses.

Their leaders told them that they ate the “food of a hundred households” in Snow Sea Pass, so naturally they had to work in order to repay everyone.

They were very good children.

The Sword Saint shook his head.

He went back inside and pulled out Longyuan, which had once again been returned to its old place beneath a table leg.

When he came back out, he glanced at the duck still huddled miserably in the corner.

The Sword Saint stepped outside the house.

Turned around.

And closed the door.

Zheng Fan had taken troops onto the snowfields, but the Sword Saint knew there would certainly be people from the Count’s Residence left behind.

If he went and spoke to them, they would unquestionably remove Dahu’s name from the list.

He stood outside the Count’s Residence.

But he did not enter at once.

He was hesitating.

In the end, the Sword Saint did not walk inside.

Instead, gripping Longyuan, he began walking south.

Step by step, the Sword Saint left Snow Sea Pass.

...

Before a war began, provisions were not the only things sent ahead.

So were spies.

One edict from the Emperor of Yan in Yanjing shocked Ying Capital.

Immediately afterward, Great Chu’s Phoenix Nest Inner Guards dispatched most of their strength to probe the coming military situation.

Facing Great Chu’s Zhennan Pass were two major military strongholds.

One was Fengxin City.

Prince of Jingnan Tian Wujing’s command banner had flown from its walls all this time.

The other was Snow Sea Pass.

First, Snow Sea Pass’s geographical position was unquestionably important.

It not only guarded against threats from the snowfields, it was also an extremely important strategic force in eastern Jin.

Second, everyone knew Count Pingye was the personal disciple of the Prince of Jingnan.

When the Prince of Jingnan prepared to fight the main Savage force at the Wang River, Count Pingye led troops in a surprise attack against the rear and seized Snow Sea Pass.

When Count Pingye infiltrated Chu and stole a princess, the Prince of Jingnan marched his army forward and pressed against Zhennan Pass.

Count Pingye was far beneath the Prince of Jingnan in both scale and status.

Yet the two men repeatedly produced coordination that seemed almost instinctive.

So Snow Sea Pass became one of Phoenix Nest’s highest-priority targets for surveillance.

Of course, infiltration and monitoring had never really stopped in the first place.

Not only Phoenix Nest, but also the Silver-Armored Guard had agents here.

Even the Secret Intelligence Department, out of habit, liked planting the occasional nail inside Snow Sea Pass.

But under the Blind Man and Xue San, Snow Sea Pass possessed formidable counterintelligence abilities.

There had even been a Jin spy bought by Phoenix Nest who voluntarily surrendered himself after attending several public rallies inside Snow Sea Pass.

That confession led to another Phoenix Nest spy being uprooted along with him.

Now that war was imminent, infiltration itself was no longer necessary.

Spies could simply be used as mounted scouts and watch Snow Sea Pass’s military movements directly.

Thrum!

Thrum!

Two crossbow bolts flew out and struck a running man.

The man collapsed to the ground, screaming.

Dai Li immediately shouted, “Pry his mouth open! Don’t let him take poison!”

With Xue San away, the little secret-police yamen inside Snow Sea Pass was being run by Dai Li.

Dai Li was endlessly grateful for the opportunity.

He had no idea he had gotten the position largely because his name amused the people above him.

But at that moment, two black-clad men holding short blades dropped silently from a tree behind Dai Li’s group.

Each killed one of Dai Li’s subordinates on the spot.

“Come back with us. We’ll spare your life. You’ll have wealth and rank waiting for you.”

One of the black-clad men spoke.

Dai Li spat on the ground.

“Fuck you. Dream on!”

That was one of Xue San’s favorite lines.

Dai Li had learned it from him.

The black-clad man moved to attack.

Over the past few days, Snow Sea Pass’s scouts and agents had fought with these men every day in the outer regions around the pass.

Both sides had suffered heavily.

But Snow Sea Pass was fighting on home ground, so Phoenix Nest’s Inner Guards had taken worse losses.

This particular man, in particular, appeared to be the chief of Snow Sea Pass’s spies.

His martial arts were mediocre, but he was exceptionally skilled at arranging traps and had already made Phoenix Nest suffer several times.

One black-clad man advanced with his blade.

Dai Li blocked him.

The two traded several hard blows.

The second black-clad man disappeared.

Dai Li knew the other man had certainly circled around behind him.

But his own martial arts were too ordinary. He had no ability to watch his back at the same time.

Desperation hardened him.

His saber strokes became more savage as he tried to drag the man in front of him into death with him.

The black-clad attacker clearly understood what Dai Li intended and immediately began backing away.

Thk!

The sound of a blade entering flesh.

Dai Li’s heart jumped.

He looked down.

There was no wound on his body.

Thud!

Behind Dai Li, the corpse of a black-clad man toppled to the ground.

Dai Li spun around.

A man in an old, worn long robe stood behind him holding a sword.

Old Dai did not recognize the Sword Saint.

The Sword Saint’s existence in Snow Sea Pass was rather like Schrödinger’s cat.

Many people knew the Sword Saint might be in Snow Sea Pass.

Very few knew exactly where he was.

If an outsider wanted confirmation, he would have to come in and test it himself.

Besides, the Sword Saint dressed in white was easy to recognize.

The Sword Saint dressed in the old clothes he wore while feeding chickens was another matter entirely.

Clothes made the man and tack made the horse.

That truth had existed for a very long time.

And not everyone possessed the ability to identify a swordsman merely from the aura of his sword.

The Sword Saint walked past Dai Li toward the remaining black-clad man.

At the same time, he asked:

“You need him alive?”

Dai Li had, after all, been trained by Xue San.

He immediately answered, “Yes. He has poison hidden in his teeth!”

The Sword Saint nodded.

The black-clad man turned to run.

But how could a man outrun a sword?

Longyuan screamed through the air and pierced directly through the man’s calf, pinning him to the ground.

The Sword Saint moved forward quickly.

Before the man could bite through the poison capsule, the Sword Saint struck the side of his jaw with a sword-hand blow and dislocated it.

Dai Li immediately hurried over and removed the poison capsule hidden among the man’s teeth.

The Sword Saint said:

“Question him.”

“Leave it to me. This is what I’m best at. Oh, right, could you possibly be the legendary...?”

The Sword Saint glanced at Dai Li.

Dai Li instantly shivered and swallowed the rest of his nonsense.

Then he began interrogating the black-clad man.

There were plenty of spies willing to face death without fear.

But spies who were both fearless of death and excellent fighters were actually not so common.

Whatever the situation, every additional condition reduced the probability considerably.

Xue San had once taught Dai Li’s people that sentence.

At first, Dai Li had not really understood what “conditions” or “probability” meant.

He still felt that he understood the point.

By coincidence, this black-clad man really was a hero willing to die.

So he exchanged the information he knew for a quick death.

...

In the courtyard of an abandoned village, a beautiful woman dressed like a peasant wife sat beside a well.

A basket hung from one arm.

She was putting flower petals into her mouth and chewing them.

A man knelt in front of her.

He had just finished giving his report.

Looking at the woman’s bare feet, desire appeared briefly in his eyes, but he forcibly suppressed it almost at once.

The woman before him was far too alluring.

And far too untouchable.

She was Qin Yueyue, Master of Great Chu’s Xinian Manor.

Among the Four Great States of the East, the most formidable secret-police organization had once been Qian’s Silver-Armored Guard.

It was not only excellent at internal surveillance.

Its foreign infiltration was equally superb.

Yan’s Secret Intelligence Department and Great Chu’s Phoenix Nest had both appeared somewhat inferior beside the Silver-Armored Guard.

The reason was simple.

The growth of Qian’s scholar-official class had certainly lowered the position of military commanders, but to a certain degree Qian had maintained a relatively unified state structure.

The Zhong Clan once relied on the Western Army to control and restrain the southwest, yet even that had never truly become a military fiefdom because the scholar-officials watched the Zhong Clan too closely.

That meant Qian’s Silver-Armored Guard could operate as a unified yamen.

The situation had been different in the old State of Yan and remained different in present-day Chu.

In Yan, the problem had once been the great clans.

In Chu, it was the fiefs of the great nobles.

Both had severely constrained the soil in which a secret-police yamen belonging directly to the court and sovereign could grow.

Xinian Manor did indeed have Phoenix Nest backing it in secret.

But publicly, it was a jianghu sect.

In ordinary times it accepted jianghu work and enjoyed considerable autonomy.

Now, against the background of a war between states, Xinian Manor had chosen to stand with the court.

There had also long been rumors that Qin Yueyue and the Regent once shared some unknown relationship, and that the only reason Qin Yueyue had failed to enter the palace was because the Empress Dowager disapproved.

During the earlier rebellion of Chu’s imperial princes, the First Prince had contacted Xinian Manor.

The manor agreed to act for him.

Then, when the Fourth Prince sent troops against the First Prince, Xinian Manor immediately sold the First Prince out.

As a result, the First Prince, whose strength had been second only to the Fourth Prince among all the imperial princes, barely had a chance to do anything before General-in-Chief Nian Yao struck straight at his heart, captured him, and hauled him back to the capital.

“Ah. Strange. We’ve lost one team every day these past few days. That shouldn’t be happening.”

Qin Yueyue ate petals while thinking.

A team did not contain many people.

But Qin Yueyue had personally led this mission, and every team was made up of Xinian Manor’s elites.

There were plenty of capable fighters among them.

Admittedly, this was Yan home territory, and Snow Sea Pass’s army stood nearby.

But if the Yan dispatched large military formations, properly trained spies should detect them early enough to avoid them.

If it was only small teams of agents fighting one another, then Xinian Manor’s people should have been able to advance and retreat freely.

Entire teams should not have vanished one after another.

“Pass the order to the remaining teams. Pull back somewhat. We already know Li Fusheng’s force and a Jin camp have entered Snow Sea Pass. They are probably acting under the Prince of Jingnan’s orders and intend to sweep the Savages from the snowfields before the campaign begins.”

“Manor Master, if the Yan still dare divide their troops and sweep the snowfields now, does that mean this Yan campaign...?”

“Foolish.”

“This subordinate...”

“The Yan are doing this not because they take the campaign against Chu lightly. They are eliminating the dangers behind them so they can concentrate entirely on attacking Great Chu. This time the Yan are spending their true capital. Send that information back immediately. Tell them the Yan genuinely intend a war between states.”

“Yes, Manor Master.”

After her subordinate left, Qin Yueyue remained sitting beside the well for a while.

Inside the well lay the corpse of a Yan courier.

She had only finished interrogating him last night.

In truth, Qin Yueyue knew perfectly well what mission she had brought her people into Jin to perform.

Gathering information about the movement of armies was not actually their primary task.

If they discovered such information, excellent.

If they did not, it changed very little.

Unless the Yan had truly gone mad, they could not possibly march a great army through Mount Meng.

Small forces could infiltrate there.

But if an entire army tried to cross, the twisted mountain roads of Mount Meng would kill their logistics before they even emerged.

Great Chu would only need to station one auxiliary army at the mountain exit and the Yan would find themselves unable to advance or retreat.

Besides, the Qu Clan had already organized a dedicated force to watch that route and make absolutely certain nothing went wrong.

The State of Liang front was also under special military observation.

The State of Liang could remain undestroyed for now, but the Yan would not be allowed to repeat their old trick of borrowing a road through Qian to break into Jin.

So no matter how brilliant the Yan troop movements might be, every final piece still had to land before Zhennan Pass.

Both Yan and Chu understood that perfectly well.

Hold Zhennan Pass, and the territory of Great Chu remained safe.

If Zhennan Pass fell, Chu would lie open before Yan cavalry much as Qian did beyond Yinlang Commandery, with flat country stretching before those iron hooves.

And Chu had no Three Frontiers cultivated for a century to rely upon.

Qin Yueyue remembered what she had once told the Regent during the rebellions of Chu’s imperial princes.

She had been willing to help him cut another layer of strength from Great Chu’s nobility.

She knew what he wanted.

Especially after learning Emperor Yan had trampled the great clans beneath cavalry hooves, the Regent had drunk through an entire night.

But in the end, he chose to negotiate with the great nobles and hold the grand rite in exchange for rapid domestic stability.

At the same time, Qu Tiannan, Pillar of State, led the Azure Luan Army north.

Looking back now, Qin Yueyue had to admit he had been right.

He always saw farther than everyone else.

If Great Chu had failed to seize Zhennan Pass at that time, then after the Yan defeated the Savages and captured the pass, Chu’s northern gate would have stood completely open before them.

Great Chu’s infantry might be unmatched beneath Heaven.

But Yan cavalry came and went like the wind.

Whenever she thought of him, a smile appeared on Qin Yueyue’s face.

She had been cold all her life and loved eating flower petals stained red with human blood.

Only when thinking of him did she smile like a flower in bloom.

Qin Yueyue left the abandoned village.

Next, she intended to go to Yingdu.

She wanted to see with her own eyes just how much true capital Yan had committed to this campaign against Chu.

She knew Yingdu was the great logistical hub supporting the war.

But she had not gone far before a middle-aged man appeared on the road ahead.

The man wore an old, worn long robe and held a sword.

The way he carried it looked more like a man holding a fire poker.

His appearance was excessively plain and dull.

Yet Qin Yueyue narrowed her eyes.

She felt danger.

The danger of death.

Ever since becoming Master of Xinian Manor, she had never experienced that feeling again.

Now it told her with absolute clarity: she might die very soon.

Qin Yueyue’s gaze fell on the sword in the man’s hand.

On the road to Yanjing, Count Pingye had once shared a carriage with the Sword Saint.

Count Pingye, famous for poetry yet rarely willing to compose it, had personally recited a couplet for him:

“Fear not the road ahead for want of kindred friends;
beneath all heaven, who does not know your name?”

“Who does not know your name” really was the best possible description of the Sword Saint.

Anyone who did not know him would know him after one sword.

And a master at Qin Yueyue’s level, a woman of her position, did not even need to wait for him to draw his sword before guessing his identity.

Someone capable of making her feel the clear threat of death.

A swordsman.

Here.

Who else could it possibly be besides the former Sword Saint of Jin, the man rumored to remain beside Count Pingye?

Qin Yueyue herself was an expert.

In the past, when the Regent confronted Fifth Prince Xiong Tingshan beside the river, Qin Yueyue had been one of the people who stood behind the Regent.

There were certainly many experts in the world.

Not as numerous as fish crossing a river, perhaps, but across the Four Great States of the East, from those standing in the courts to those roaming the jianghu to those hidden in villages and wilderness, counting them all would still take a long while.

Even so, there were very few who could face the Sword Saint alone without trembling.

Admittedly, the Sword Saint had once been defeated by Tian Wujing.

But at the time, an entire Yan army had pressed down upon him.

How could one Sword Saint hold up a collapsing sky?

Below Snow Sea Pass, he had once moved freely among a thousand riders and cut down an enemy general.

The feat astonished ordinary people.

Those who truly understood martial arts tasted something deeper in it.

The man might already have glimpsed a realm beyond the peak of Third Grade.

Among thousands upon thousands of soldiers, so-called experts were nothing more than slightly larger ants.

Everyone agreed on that.

But this was an empty country road.

He stood at one end.

She stood at the other.

Qin Yueyue was genuinely alarmed.

Yet she still covered her mouth and laughed.

“Well now. Has the former Sword Saint of Jin personally come to draw his sword against this little woman?”

At that instant, a suspicion rose in Qin Yueyue’s mind.

Could the three teams with whom she had completely lost contact have been eliminated by this man?

He?

How could he?

How could someone like him lower himself to that?

An expert of the Sword Saint’s level received courtesy even from sovereigns.

Baili Jian, for example, had served as martial instructor to the Crown Prince. When he entered Shangjing City, the ruler of Qian had personally gone to White Jade Bridge to receive him.

Would someone as proud as the Sword Saint truly lower himself enough to do the work of a court hound and spy?

The Sword Saint sighed.

“Clearly it is my sword. Clearly the sword is in my hand. Yet it seems that no matter whom I happen to meet, they all feel qualified to tell me how I ought to use it.”

Whenever he appeared beside Zheng Fan, people across from him would gasp in shock or sneer in contempt:

The Sword Saint of Jin has actually become a Yan dog!

At first, the words had made the Sword Saint somewhat melancholy.

Gradually, after hearing them often enough, he became annoyed.

We were neither family nor friends.

You did not teach me this sword.

When my younger brother and I struggled to survive in the lands around Jin’s capital, none of you ever gave us half a bowl of porridge.

Yet the moment my swordsmanship reached its height, every last one of you suddenly became eager to lecture me.

Qin Yueyue said, “It merely surprises me. The Yan invaded the Three Jin lands, destroyed the realm of your Yu Clan, and moved the ancestral temples around the old capital to Yanjing. Even after all that, the Sword Saint can still serve the Yan?”

The Sword Saint shook his head.

“I am not a man of the court.”

He had never eaten the ruler’s salary.

Besides, the ruler in question was now living in the Prince of Jin Residence in Yanjing.

According to Count Pingye, he was living quite well.

The Empress Dowager was maintaining herself quite nicely too.

Qin Yueyue picked up a flower petal, placed it in her mouth, and chewed while saying, “Then what about the people of Jin? In the Three Jin lands, the Yan stand above everyone. Jin people and Jin soldiers are treated as inferior people. Can the Sword Saint tolerate that?”

The Sword Saint nodded.

“Indeed. I cannot.”

Qin Yueyue frowned slightly.

The Sword Saint continued:

“Then let us calculate another account together. Below Yupan City, Qu Tiannan used the people of Jin as two-legged sheep and ate them as provisions. Can that be tolerated?”

One side treated them as inferior people.

The other treated them as two-legged sheep.

Which was worse?

The Sword Saint raised his voice.

“Eight hundred years ago, Barbarians lived to the west, Savages to the north, and the hundred Shanyue tribes to the east. Their script and peoples differed from our Xia. Every year they raided the borders, seized Xia commoners as food, and called them two-legged sheep. That was why the Son of Heaven of Great Xia issued an imperial command and the Three Marquises carried the imperial tallies to open the frontier and drive away the barbarians. You Chu have lived in Shanyue lands for so long that perhaps you have already begun thinking of yourselves as barbarians.”

Qin Yueyue raised an eyebrow.

“I never imagined the Sword Saint’s words would be as sharp as his sword.”

The Sword Saint shook his head.

“I did not originally want to say any of this.”

“Then why waste your breath?”

“Because all of you like bringing it up.”

“Is that so?”

“And gradually I discovered that lecturing someone on grand principles before killing them truly does make me feel much better.”

The Sword Saint drew Longyuan.

His gaze narrowed.

The killing intent was unmistakable.

The talking was finished.

Now it was time to kill.

Qin Yueyue reacted without hesitation.

She threw the flower basket in her hand directly forward.

In an instant, petals scattered through the air like falling blossoms, while poisonous powder hidden among them began spreading outward.

If the Sword Saint charged directly through them, even if he avoided inhaling the powder, his body would inevitably be corroded.

Instead, the Sword Saint cut once.

A tyrannical wave of sword qi shredded every petal ahead of him.

Dust returned to dust.

Earth returned to earth.

It happened in an instant.

But that instant created the opening Qin Yueyue needed.

She immediately flew away.

From the beginning, she had never intended to fight the Sword Saint.

She too was a Third Grade expert.

But she had only recently entered Third Grade.

And even among experts of the same grade, different disciplines and different people could produce enormous gaps in actual combat.

More importantly, the man she faced was a swordsman.

Among every cultivation path, swordsmen were the ones most specialized in killing another person face-to-face.

Qin Yueyue’s movement technique was extremely fast.

The Sword Saint himself was not faster than she was.

But the foundation of the Sword Saint’s existence lay in one sword.

Longyuan, personally forged by Great Chu’s Swordsmith, screamed through the air and shot directly toward Qin Yueyue.

Qin Yueyue could gamble.

She could gamble that her movement was faster than Longyuan.

If she won, she would escape with her life.

Or she could refuse to gamble.

Then she would have to turn around and face the sword.

And the moment she turned around, she would lose any chance to open the distance again.

In the end, Qin Yueyue turned around.

She refused the gamble.

She was a woman, but she was also the master of a major jianghu faction who had reached her position through her own skill and ruthlessness.

Light flashed across her fingertips.

Seven translucent barriers formed in front of her.

Longyuan pierced through five in a single breath.

It broke through the sixth as well.

Only then did it finally stop.

But the Sword Saint had already caught up.

“Seal!”

Phoenix-Locking Hand!

Legend said that the first Marquis of Chu had once used this very art to seal the Fire Phoenix before ultimately bringing it under his command.

This was a secret technique never transmitted outside Great Chu’s imperial clan.

Yet Qin Yueyue knew it.

If an outsider witnessed this, it would be ironclad proof that her relationship with the Regent was anything but ordinary.

Blood essence flowed from the tips of all ten of Qin Yueyue’s fingers.

In the blink of an eye it transformed into countless red threads that wrapped around Longyuan.

Then she pressed her palm downward and struck the body of the sword.

Longyuan plunged into the ground.

First use the Phoenix-Locking Hand to seal away the Sword Saint’s Longyuan.

It was the same strategy Tian Wujing had once used when fighting the Sword Saint: strip away the sword itself, then force the Sword Saint to expend sword qi and blood vitality in direct attrition.

The next instant, Qin Yueyue faced the approaching Sword Saint and advanced instead of retreating.

Two daggers dropped from her sleeves.

She threw one directly at him.

The other remained in her hand and slashed diagonally toward him from the opposite side.

Everything happened in less than the blink of an eye.

On one side stood the Master of Great Chu’s Xinian Manor.

On the other stood the Sword Saint of Jin.

It was not an evenly matched contest.

But barring some accident, it should still have been an extraordinarily brilliant duel.

The ruthlessness and decisiveness Qin Yueyue had already displayed were genuinely admirable.

Unfortunately, accidents tended to appear precisely when no one believed they could.

Otherwise they would not be called accidents.

A duel that should have been magnificent, one that future jianghu storytellers might have embroidered into a legendary battle, was forcibly ended in a manner neither participant had imagined.

Qin Yueyue had not expected it.

Neither had the Sword Saint.

After sealing Longyuan and smashing it into the earth, Qin Yueyue had already lunged at the Sword Saint.

At that exact moment, Longyuan suddenly burst out of the ground behind her and pierced straight through her body.

The Sword Saint merely shifted half a step aside to avoid the dagger she had thrown.

Qin Yueyue froze where she stood.

Her expression was stunned.

Once Longyuan entered her body, its sword qi began violently destroying her life force.

She was not a Martial Artist and did not possess that kind of brutally powerful physique.

This wound was already enough to kill her.

Yet Qin Yueyue lowered her head in disbelief and stared at Longyuan piercing through her body.

Why?

Why had the Phoenix-Locking Hand done nothing to this sword?

The Sword Saint stood where he was.

Meeting Qin Yueyue’s questioning gaze, he said:

“This sword was forged by him.”

This was a sword forged by Great Chu’s Swordsmith.

Longyuan already contained many restrictions laid into it during forging.

But no one knew why the Swordsmith had placed one special restriction on Longyuan that specifically made the Phoenix-Locking Hand ineffective against it.

The technique simply could not seal the sword.

The Swordsmith was a core member of the Dugu Clan.

He was one of the Four Great Swordsmen, the Sword of Chu.

Considering his relationship with the Regent and the imperial clan as well, it would hardly have been astonishing if he knew the Phoenix-Locking Hand.

Even if he knew how to use it himself, that would not have been especially strange.

But why had he specifically added a restriction to Longyuan that countered the Phoenix-Locking Hand?

The man himself was not here.

There was no way to obtain an answer.

The Swordsmith, however, had always been an exacting man.

He maintained extremely high standards for every sword he forged.

Furthermore, after the Swordsmith gave Longyuan to the Sword Saint years ago, the Sword Saint had praised him publicly.

That praise helped the Swordsmith remain counted among the Four Great Swordsmen even though he had never personally fought a single public battle.

At that time, the State of Jin still existed.

At that time, the Swordsmith could never have predicted that the Sword Saint’s blade would one day be pointed at the Master of Xinian Manor.

More precisely, he had never imagined Longyuan would one day be thrust at someone who knew the Phoenix-Locking Hand.

So perhaps he had known the restriction was unnecessary.

Perhaps he had known it would never matter.

But out of professional pride, the Swordsmith added it anyway.

And so, a duel that should have been magnificent ended on the spot.

From Qin Yueyue’s perspective, she had not even truly attacked.

She had not actually begun fighting the Sword Saint.

She had only turned around, only prepared to begin killing, and then it was over.

At last, Qin Yueyue forced herself to lift her head.

Her voice trembled.

“How... did you... find me...?”

As Master of Xinian Manor, Qin Yueyue was unquestionably excellent at hiding herself.

The Sword Saint was a man of the jianghu, but he had never been particularly grounded in its practical trades.

Nor was he a pure court hound.

Yet he had still found her.

Qin Yueyue knew that even an experienced professional in her own line of work would have struggled tremendously to locate her.

There was supposedly a little dwarf inside Snow Sea Pass who served as Count Pingye’s scout commander and possessed extremely sharp methods.

Even he would have found it difficult.

Yet the Sword Saint had simply come alone and found her.

“Because of the fragrance on your body,” the Sword Saint answered.

“Fragrance...?”

“My wife works in a workshop at Snow Sea Pass. It is a perfume workshop. Every day they use different flowers, so whenever she comes home from work, I can smell strong floral scents on her. She tells me which flowers they came from. Over time, I became very familiar with the smell of flowers. I found you by following the unusual floral fragrance on your body.”

...

Count Pingye returned in triumph.

A battle that should have been completely resolved in two days had been forcibly stretched by Count Pingye into ten.

He returned with enormous numbers of Savage slaves and vast herds of livestock.

“Little Brother Zheng, I’ll leave my wounded with you for now. I’m taking my army back to Fengxin City to report to His Highness first. We’ve already delayed for quite a while. But in my opinion, these two siege battles were absolutely worth it!”

“Big Brother, we’ll see each other again very soon.”

“Hahahaha! Naturally. Oh, right, Little Brother Zheng. That siege method of yours, could you write it down in a booklet and publish it like your *Zheng Treatise on War*?”

“I can.”

“Good! Excellent!”

Li Fusheng laughed loudly and rode out of the city with his personal guards first.

He was in a hurry to return and report.

Count Pingye went back to his residence.

After returning from campaign, by habit he ought to have enjoyed the warmth and softness of home.

Instead, he found the Fourth Lady waiting for him inside.

“Fourth Lady...”

A smile immediately spread across Count Pingye’s face.

“Master, the Sword Saint’s family came to report that he has been missing for several days.”

“...” Zheng Fan.

The Sword Saint had disappeared.

And he had left without saying goodbye.

The news struck Count Pingye hard.

He had still been thinking about how to coax the Sword Saint into following him to the front at Zhennan Pass.

The report had come from the Sword Saint’s own family.

But Zheng Fan knew perfectly well that the Sword Saint could not possibly have been abducted.

Nor could he have become lost.

If the Sword Saint left, it could only be because he personally wanted to leave.

So had he finally grown tired of living an ordinary person’s life?

Had he decided this game was no longer entertaining and simply walked away without a word?

Whatever the reason, after learning that the Sword Saint had disappeared, Count Pingye became visibly despondent.

He bathed.

He changed into a loose jacket.

Then he sat alone on the threshold of the main hall.

The princess and Liu Ruqing both came to see him.

Their husband had returned from campaign.

One was his wife and one effectively his concubine.

Naturally they should come comfort him.

But when they saw Count Pingye sitting there all alone, Xiong Liqing and Liu Ruqing both stopped.

The princess looked puzzled.

“Husband went out to fight a war. Why does he look like somebody beat apart a pair of mandarin ducks?”

Liu Ruqing suddenly thought of one possibility.

“Could Uncle be like this because Lord Li Fusheng left today?”

...

Count Pingye sat there until evening.

Dinner tasted like nothing.

Then, because there were too many mosquitoes outside at night, he moved indoors and continued being miserable.

Thrum!

A figure appeared outside the doorway.

Creak...

The door was pushed open.

Count Pingye’s eyes immediately lit up.

The newcomer was the Sword Saint.

Thud!

The Sword Saint placed a human head on the tea table in front of Zheng Fan.

The head had been wrapped in cloth, but blood had soaked through.

Disgust immediately appeared on Count Pingye’s face.

He stood and said:

“In the middle of the night, you bring me something this terrifying to look at? Are you trying to give me nightmares? I’ve always been terribly timid. I really can’t stand frightening things like this.”

A Count who had risen through military merit.

A great general whose present power and position had been built atop countless severed heads.

And he actually said something like that.

Fortunately, the Sword Saint had long since grown used to him.

The Sword Saint pointed at the head.

“I want you to promise me one thing.”

“You’re looking down on me. Ten.”

The Sword Saint placed Longyuan on the tea table as well.

Then he said:

“Promise me this. Let the children study for two more years. As for killing people, I’ll do it for you.”

[End of Chapter 505]