Chapter 755: The Map

The commander of Shengle City was surnamed Hu. His name was Hu Huai, a Yan man.

He had begun his career years ago as a military clerk. Later he was promoted and sent into Yanjing to serve in the yamen of one of the Six Ministries. After Great Yan's campaigns against Qian and Jin began, he was assigned as an ordnance officer responsible for escorting supplies to the front.

His luck had been good.

At one point, he led a group of laborers in disarming a routed force of Wenren troops and captured one of the Wenren Clan's young masters alive. That earned him a reward and promotion. In the several major battles that followed, he accumulated further merit.

Most notably, during the Second Battle of the Wang River, when Prince Jingnan personally commanded the army, Hu Huai represented the Yan logistical system and coordinated smoothly with Xu Youdao and the others, preserving the stability of the army's supply lines.

Around that same time, Marquis Zheng was promoted to Chief Commander of Snow Sea Pass.

Hu Huai inherited the title of General of Shengle and took charge of Shengle City.

The State of Yan was unlike Qian. The line between civil and military officials had never been particularly rigid in Yan. Civil officials becoming military commanders, or military officers transferring into civil posts, happened all the time.

Xu Wenzu himself had once gone from civil office to becoming Chief Commander of Nanwang City.

When Hu Huai first learned that he had been appointed to Shengle City to replace the then Count Zheng, he had been beside himself with delight.

At that time, the Jin lands had only recently been occupied, and the Yan court was carrying an enormous burden. In practice, it became an era when the various military chiefs in Jin "marked off pasture with galloping horses."

Whoever controlled the richest territory lived the best life.

And Marquis Zheng's present reputation for governing a region well had first been established in Shengle City.

Back then, Shengle had workshops.

Industries.

Merchant caravans coming and going.

Goods circulating through its markets.

And to the north, it connected with the resources of the Tianduan Mountains.

It was flourishing.

Hu Huai had thought his luck truly excellent.

He would simply arrive and pick a peach someone else had already ripened for him.

Then... he led his men into Shengle City.

His eyes nearly fell out of his head.

Motherfucker.

Nine households out of ten inside the city were empty.

Fine.

But the villages across the surrounding countryside were nearly deserted as well.

And worse... even Shengle City's gates had been dismantled and hauled away!

For a very long time afterward, Hu Huai hated Zheng Fan to the bone.

Since ancient times, who had ever seen anyone "scrape the ground three feet deep" like this?

But as Zheng Fan rose step by step, as his authority and prestige climbed higher and higher, until now he had reached something close to the zenith...

Hu Huai's resentment had long since evaporated.

He now liked to present himself as Marquis Zheng's successor in Shengle.

Every festival and New Year, Hu Huai would send gifts to Marquis Pingxi Residence.

Siniang handled the Residence's gift exchanges.

This General of Shengle had effectively thrown himself at their feet, and the Residence had never treated him coldly. Every time Hu Huai sent something, a return gift went back.

His location was genuinely useful as well.

If Marquis Pingxi Residence ever decided to raise troops in rebellion, Shengle City would be an excellent position for receiving and supporting them.

And so General Hu's name remained firmly written into the Residence's gift register.

His birthday.

His mother's birthday.

When one of his wives or concubines gave birth.

The Residence would send gifts.

Occasionally, General Hu would even receive a "personally handwritten" letter from Marquis Zheng himself, expressing the Marquis's sincerest regards.

Yet when Marquis Zheng had been in Shangchuan County, he had still asked:

Who is the current General of Shengle again?

Once a power grew large enough, it naturally attracted the smaller forces around it.

Those forces drew closer.

Relationships formed.

Networks followed.

Marquis Zheng himself was usually either out fighting wars or at home practicing the saber and needlework.

Naturally, he had no time to personally build these connections.

But the people below him would do it on his behalf.

That was why the new sovereign had informed Zheng Fan early, preferring to hand Yupan City, that strategic nail in eastern Jin, over to Zheng Fan in exchange for Zheng Fan's silence regarding the lands west of the Wang River.

Hu Huai was only one example.

What about all the other military chiefs throughout Jin?

Li Fusheng could be set aside.

How many officers stationed across the various regions under Li Fusheng believed they had once fought shoulder to shoulder with Marquis Pingxi and still maintained warm relations with him now?

Still...

General Hu's life had been far from easy lately.

First, a woman from Marquis Pingxi Residence arrived.

The moment she came, she demanded he send troops to help seize every force around Shengle involved in human trafficking.

Years ago, when Zheng Fan left for Snow Sea Pass, he had moved every usable part of Shengle City's foundation with him.

Hu Huai naturally did not possess Zheng Fan's talent for regional development.

But one business had survived.

The trade in Savage slaves.

That business became the pillar that allowed Hu Huai to maintain troops in Shengle and barely keep his life running.

Now... with so many people in that trade suddenly being arrested... how was the business supposed to continue?

But Hu Huai understood one thing even more clearly.

That woman represented the will of Marquis Pingxi Residence.

He did not dare offend her.

More importantly, the new sovereign had now ascended the throne.

The old Sixth Master's faction had become the imperial faction.

Marquis Pingxi's position had risen yet again.

If Hu Huai offended Marquis Pingxi Residence, they would not even need to use underhanded tricks.

One word.

One casual memorial to the throne.

And he, the General of Shengle, would be packing his belongings and moving elsewhere.

Since that was the case... better to cling firmly to the Residence's thigh.

So Hu Huai personally accepted the woman's orders and led his troops into the Tianduan Mountains in the middle of winter to attack a settled Savage tribe.

And today... a blind man entered Shengle City surrounded by guards in Flying Fish Robes.

...

"Did you find it?"

The Blind Man asked the instant he saw Siniang.

"We found the middleman who received him. But the ones who actually trafficked him in were a settled Savage tribe inside the Tianduan Mountains."

The black-market chain had formed long ago.

Savage slaves were good business.

Especially under current conditions.

Years of warfare had sharply reduced the population throughout Jin.

Now that the situation had stabilized and development needed to resume, the labor shortage was severe.

That only drove demand for Savage slaves even higher.

Although people throughout all Xia called them Savages, the Savages themselves did not actually believe they were one single people.

That was especially true of the settled Savage tribes.

They often saw themselves as closer to Jin people and believed they had nothing to do with their uncivilized kin.

So once the slave trade arose, settled Savage tribes began attacking and capturing wild Savage tribes... then selling those captives to Jin people.

Little Monk Liaofan had been captured by one such settled Savage tribe.

He had been brought into Shengle City together with a batch of other Savage slaves.

Then he changed hands several times before eventually being sold to a red-tent brothel in Shangchuan County as a trainee male courtesan.

"Mm."

The Blind Man nodded and sat down.

"Have you examined the little monk?" Siniang asked.

"I have. But everything useful is basically already inside this picture."

The Blind Man took out the drawing Zheng Fan had made and unfolded it.

"I ran into Master on the road after leaving. Master gave me this drawing. I performed some treatment and mental guidance on the little monk in Shangchuan County, but all I really accomplished was adding a little more detail to the scene shown here."

"I thought you'd already dug the time, place, and people involved straight out of the little monk's head."

In truth, all they really needed was the location.

Once they had a precise position, troops could march out from Snow Sea Pass.

The Blind Man shook his head.

"I examined him. The little monk did eat some Black Grass, which caused mental problems. He also suffered severe fright, so he developed cognitive disorder, dissociation, perhaps something resembling schizophrenia. Those things can all be treated. If we didn't care whether he became a complete idiot afterward, I could even search his soul directly. The problem is... it would be useless."

The Blind Man tapped one finger against his temple.

"Master thinks the little monk's mind malfunctioned. In truth, what happened was that his mind suffered a direct psychic impact."

"Impact?"

"Yes. A sweep of mental force. Not stimulation. More like the methods I myself prefer to use."

"I understand."

"That's the point. The mind is much like the body. Minor injuries can slowly recover. But if you cut off a foot or a hand, can it grow back? The same principle applies here. The little monk's memories are not simply forgotten or inaccessible. A portion of them was destroyed. His mind was wounded and left disabled. I cannot restore what is gone. Even at my peak, I would not have possessed that ability. It would be like the greatest surgeon in the world. At best he can reconnect a severed limb, transplant something, or fit you with a prosthetic. He cannot conjure the original missing part out of nothing and restore it perfectly."

"Who do you think inflicted that kind of damage on him?"

"Probably something in the painting."

"Deliberately?"

"Probably not. Deliberately targeting one little monk would be meaningless. Using a cannon to kill a mosquito just for amusement? I think this was more likely some kind of broad mental saturation. Not brainwashing. Not fanaticism. Not conversion. More like direct psychic force attempting to penetrate and control people. Those with stronger wills usually resist more effectively. But the damage they suffer can also be worse. I met the little monk and his master before. His master proudly told me the child possessed true Buddhist roots. That was not the usual begging-alms flattery, like telling some lady benefactor she has affinity with the Buddha. More precisely, his master believed the child was the reincarnation of his sect's founding patriarch. Whether that's true doesn't matter. At minimum, it proves one thing: the boy's Buddhist faith was extremely firm. So when an outside force tried to use psychic power to forcibly alter his belief, his own Buddhist heart produced an extremely violent rejection."

"And then?"

"Then two things probably happened. First, what you see now. His brain was injured. His mind was left crippled. Second, while everyone else was being controlled, he may have broken free. That would explain how someone with almost no martial ability managed to escape."

The Blind Man traced several lines across the tea table with one finger.

"Everyone else may have been assimilated. They developed an extremely powerful centripetal pull toward some object or some existence. Or... call it faith. Under those conditions, there would be no reason to guard them too heavily. Bonds placed on the mind and will are often stronger than physical chains. Harder to break too. He was the exception. That is why he escaped."

"What about his master?"

"His master's Buddhist heart was probably not as firm as the boy's. Heh. That's normal."

"So in the farthest north of the snowfields, the existence beneath that ice possesses psychic power?"

Siniang pointed toward the dark figure beneath the ice in the drawing.

"Not necessarily him. If the fox among Tian Tian's pets cultivated deeply enough, it could accomplish something similar. A human born with the right talent could do it too after proper training. Qi Refiners who specialize in this path possess techniques for suppressing and controlling the mind, don't they? There should be psychic-type mages in the West as well. To put it even more plainly, the Savages' Guides of Stars, Barbarian priests, anyone who truly reaches a high enough level in this line of work will inevitably understand methods like these."

"Master takes this matter very seriously," Siniang said.

"I know. Master and I talked on the way here. I agree with him. Once we confirm the position, we act. I don't care whether that prophecy is real, nonsense, or a blind cat happening to catch a dead rat. Once something becomes the pea under our mattress, it has to be removed. That analogy was Master's, by the way. Heh. Our Master is becoming more and more of a princess."

At that point... the Blind Man suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Forgot to tell you. Master and the Sword Saint were attacked on the Wang River while returning."

"Attacked?"

"Mm. Two people from the jianghu and one Qi Refiner. It was dangerous, but they got through it."

At that moment... someone entered to report:

"My lords, our General has returned."

General Hu had returned victorious from the Tianduan Mountains.

Because the assault had been launched by force, he had suffered some casualties.

General Hu himself had even taken a saber wound to the shoulder and now wore a heavy bandage.

Although the Blind Man could "see at a glance" that there was no wound beneath the bandage at all, he still greeted General Hu with tremendous warmth and concern.

At the same time, speaking on Marquis Zheng's behalf, he made promise after promise.

General Hu thumped his chest and declared that this was nothing.

He was willing to die for the Marquis.

Climb mountains of blades.

Descend into seas of fire.

And so on.

The Blind Man patiently accompanied Hu Huai in finishing the whole little performance.

Yes.

Ji Chengjue had become Emperor of Yan.

But the Blind Man had never stopped preparing for a future rebellion.

Heaven brought unpredictable storms.

Men met fortune and disaster overnight.

Master and the new sovereign might presently be close enough to share honey from the same jar... but who knew what would happen in the future?

Tian Tian liked sachima because the Blind Man had taught him to.

Once Master had children of his own... he could teach them too.

Just imagine.

Master and Siniang's child... standing in front of all the Demon King uncles... shouting that he wanted the Dragon Throne.

Tsk, tsk.

Would these uncles really have the nerve not to help?

As for how that child was actually supposed to be born... they could take their time figuring it out.

An old pear tree could still press down crabapple blossoms.

There was plenty of time.

Hu Huai left satisfied and comfortable.

From this day onward, he believed he had truly become one of Marquis Pingxi Residence's own men.

The poor bastard had no idea...

Marquis Pingxi himself had never even remembered his name.

The prisoners began to be interrogated.

They were settled Savages, so many could speak the Xia tongue.

That made the questioning easy enough.

The Blind Man and Siniang, however, focused on the captured goods.

Siniang had already said they did not need gold, silver, or ordinary valuables.

So what remained were anything bearing writing and any object that clearly did not belong to normal daily life.

"I don't think we should expect too much," Siniang said.

The Blind Man shook his head.

"There's always hope. Look..."

From among the captured items... the Blind Man picked up a kasaya.

It had been used to wrap a piece of jade.

The Blind Man tossed the jade aside and spread the kasaya flat.

Siniang walked over.

Drawn across the kasaya... was a map.

Crude.

Rough.

Extremely simple.

There was no way to know whether Liaofan had drawn it or his master had.

"See? You have to believe in hope."

The Blind Man smiled.

The map was inaccurate.

But it pointed them in a direction.

The snowfields were vast.

The far north itself covered an enormous area.

Without this map, finding the place would be like searching a fishpond for a needle.

With the map... it became like catching a live fish from the pond.

"Good. We can go home now," the Blind Man said.

"And after we get back?" Siniang asked.

"According to Master's wishes... we march immediately."

[End of Chapter 755]