Chapter 927: Advancement

The noodles had excellent bite and went down smoothly. The broth was fresh and rich as well.

That meant Gou Moli had brought plenty of spices with him. He had prepared thoroughly.

“Master, I really didn’t bring any dry-fried soybeans. But I do have some pickled ginger. Want a little?”

The Prince nodded.

Gou Moli took out a small cloth pouch containing several chunks of pickled ginger.

Zheng Fan did not bother slicing them. He picked up one piece with his chopsticks, bit off a mouthful, then dropped the rest into his bowl.

Gou Moli picked up a clove of garlic for himself, bit it in half, and said:

“Actually, Little Dog understood what Master was saying earlier.”

“Oh?”

Zheng Fan drank some broth and gave him the barest response.

“The snowfields are a little better in that sense. The environment there is brutal. If people don’t band together and fight for pasture, surviving winter is difficult. Comparatively speaking, the tame and wild Savages living in the Tianduan Mountains have it much easier. Food is still hard to come by, of course. But if you use your head a little and imitate the mountain beasts, foraging here and there for enough to barely fill your belly, it is actually difficult to reach the point where Heaven gives no answer, Earth gives no road, and you simply starve to death. Clothing certainly isn’t warm either. But gather some dead branches, find a small cave, and so long as your body is healthy and there is a little food in your belly, freezing to death is not that easy. Life in the mountains really is far more comfortable than life on the snowfields. And they live close to Jin. Some of the tame Savages have habits nearly identical to Jin people now. But in the old days, the Helian Clan and Wenren Clan loved entering the Tianduan Mountains to hunt Savages whenever they felt like it. Sometimes they killed them simply for sport, taking their heads as trophies to boast of martial merit and courage. Other times they captured them as slaves and sold them for profit. When Little Dog was there back then, I could never understand it. There were so many Savages in the mountains, one tribe here, another tribe there. And their lives were far easier than those of their kinsmen on the snowfields, where every winter froze huge numbers of people to death. Yet they had such a comfortable life in front of them and still lived like livestock waiting to be slaughtered. Even when they groveled before Jin people, the Jin still refused to treat them as human. And yet they still did not dare resist. I kept wondering... why not rebel?”

Zheng Fan paused with his noodles halfway to his mouth.

Why did Little Dog’s comparison sound suspiciously like he was comparing Zheng Fan to... that sort of person?

Gou Moli, however, had already sunk into his own story.

“At first, I hated them for refusing to struggle. Trash. Absolute trash. It was precisely because there were so many people like that among my Sacred Race that for centuries we could only curl up in the bitterly cold corners beyond the passes and cling to survival. Then Little Dog began preparing to do something. And little by little... I understood. When I served as an auxiliary in Beifeng Commandery and secretly studied the Zhenbei Army’s formations and methods of war, the days were dull and hard. Many nights, Little Dog fell asleep holding that embroidered shoe. Back then the Commandery Princess was still young. Just a little girl. Not grown at all. What Little Dog could not let go of was her, yes... but also not truly her. She was only something to hold onto. When people live through days like that, they need to find something to cover themselves with. Not to keep out the cold. Only to feel protected. Back then, Little Dog often had the same dream. In the dream, Marquis Zhenbei recognized my talent and married the Commandery Princess to me. Then I devoted myself to being the perfect son-in-law of Marquis Zhenbei Residence. Hell, I even helped my father-in-law seize the throne of Yan. Heh-heh-heh. In that dream, all that grand talk about reviving the Sacred Race, leading the Sacred Race back to our old homeland, returning to fertile lands... wasn’t worth a damn. In fact, I felt like kicking all of it as far away as I could. After I left Beifeng Commandery, I spent several more years wandering around, looking at things, thinking. Then I returned to the snowfields and began building something of my own. It was exhausting. Truly exhausting. Some people were as stupid as pigs, and you still had to throw an arm around their shoulders and call them brothers. You did not even hope they would help you because you shared blood. You only hoped they would stop dragging you backward. In the earliest days, I would lie outside the tent alone at night, look up at the stars just like now, and think: Why not just become a small ranch owner on the snowfields? A few hundred warriors. A small pasture. Submit to some larger tribe. Life would still be decent. Take a wife. Have children. Have several. That would be enough to pass the rest of my life quite comfortably. Then my strength grew a little, and I had men and scale beneath me. I would lie beneath the stars again and think: Being a tribal chief isn’t bad either. Take a large pasture. Command several thousand warriors. Keep my dignity. Design a tribal totem of my own. Pass everything down to my children. And when I finally became one of the great powers of the snowfields... when breaking through the passes became so difficult... I still lay beneath the stars and thought: Maybe I should stop trying to enter the passes. Keep my head down at home. Unify the snowfields first. Even if the land is poor, even if the people of the snowfields still live the same hard lives, at least I can found a state and proclaim myself king. I can make the woman I love my queen. I can make my children princes and princesses. Entering the passes was so damned difficult. So damned exhausting. The Jin were hard to fight. Then the Yan came into Jin too. And the Yan were even harder to fight. As for all those promises I made to the people following me, that I would lead them home to fertile lands and free them from cold and poverty... well. It was enough that everyone had been happy when I said it. Why insist on taking it seriously? Because once you gamble... what if you lose? Wouldn’t half a lifetime of effort vanish like water through a wicker basket? But there was no choice. Situ Yi and Situ Jiong, those two ridiculous brothers, were opportunities that might not appear once in a century. And it looked as though the Situ Clan planned to surrender directly to Yan and keep ruling under them. If I missed that opportunity, then there genuinely might never be another chance to enter the passes. So Little Dog entered. And then, a few years ago, Master cut off Little Dog’s retreat and Prince Jingnan crushed me directly. Gone. Gone. Everything gone. Completely gone. At the time I thought: Maybe I should find a chance to return to the snowfields. Go find Sanghu. Find the old followers. Rising again was impossible. But at least I could settle the rest of my life. I had already lived magnificently once. Perhaps it was time to herd sheep, raise horses, and find a comfortable blanket to lie on. But... Little Dog still sought Master out on my own initiative and revealed my identity. Because from the very beginning, Little Dog had already sensed that the Marquis of Snow Sea Pass was no creature meant to remain in a pond.”

Gou Moli had spoken in one long breath.

At last... he sighed.

“So Master’s dream earlier, Little Dog truly understands. It is the same as those Savage tribes in the Tianduan Mountains. People are greedy for comfort. Even when they despise that comfort on the surface, every so often they still get tempted by it. But people are different from one another. Some people sink into that feeling and can never climb back out because they themselves are simply not enough. Someone like Master... really is a little like Little Dog. You wake up. Lean against something. Look at the stars. Remember the past. Yes, you really are tired. But all you do is turn those memories over, look at them, think about them, miss them. Then that wave passes. And in the end... all that changes is garlic becoming soybeans—ah, no, soybeans becoming pickled ginger. Even if you tear a hole through Heaven, at most you change the flavor of the side dish. In the end, you still have to pick up the bowl, eat the noodles, and drink the broth. Why? Because it keeps you from going hungry.”

Zheng Fan took a huge mouthful of noodles, then washed it down with an equally large mouthful of broth.

He opened his mouth and sighed toward the man opposite him.

“People say small dishes help the wine go down. You’re using words to help my noodles go down.”

“Heh-heh.”

Gou Moli shrank his neck slightly.

“Little Dog’s first half of life has been scattered enough. If it can at least serve as something for Master to eat one bowl of noodles with, then it was worth it.”

Zheng Fan set down the bowl.

He reached out.

Placed a hand on Gou Moli’s shoulder.

And patted twice.

Gou Moli did not show any exaggerated expression of being overwhelmed by favor.

He remained calm.

“After being posted out here again, you’ve recovered some of the old presence you used to have,” Zheng Fan said.

“That is only because Master trusts me and gives me the opportunity.”

“Don’t let your horse-raising skills rust.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“You don’t need to sleep in the stables anymore either.”

“This...”

“An inn opens its doors to do business, yes. But there is no reason to make the guests sleep in the side rooms while our own people sleep in the stable.”

Gou Moli stood.

Then knelt low.

“Master is benevolent.”

...

Escorted by Gou Moli, Zheng Fan and the Demon Kings returned first to Fan City.

They did not actually stay there, however, nor did they show themselves publicly.

Given the present situation, Yan truly did not fear Chu.

But if Prince Pingxi suddenly appeared openly in Fan City, there was a good chance the Chu would react in sequence, and then eastern Jin would have to start redeploying troops in response.

They were not afraid of fighting.

They were afraid of trouble.

The real great war was five years away.

Even if one wanted to play games of attrition and troop training in the meantime, this sort of pure nuisance was not the way to do it.

Water routes between eastern Jin and Fan City had already matured.

So on the return journey, just like last time, they traveled by ship.

For one thing, once you had turned homeward, going a little faster or slower stopped mattering very much. The heart naturally settled.

For another, although this excursion had given Zheng Fan the genuine life-and-death combat opportunities he could almost never obtain under normal conditions, allowing him to solidify his new realm and letting the Blind Man, Xue San, and Fan Li recover another level, the method for this round of advancement was still unclear.

Once they returned to Fengxin City, Zheng Fan himself would still be fine.

But most of the Demon Kings would immediately be buried beneath mundane affairs.

So they might as well use the days aboard ship to gather together and think the problem through properly, hoping to extract some sort of path from the experience.

Thus... during the dull days aboard ship...

Master usually slept until nearly noon.

In the mornings, the Demon Kings gathered on deck for their “Dao of Licking” conference, reviewing past experience and proposing new hypotheses.

Once Master woke in the afternoon, the period from then until the first half of the night basically became experimentation time.

Nobody found it annoying.

Nobody needed urging.

Master himself cooperated fully.

Yet even by the time the ship passed Mount Meng, entered Jin territory, and joined the Wang River waterway... not a single new advancement had succeeded.

...

“So what is it? Are our licking techniques getting stale, or has Master developed drug resistance?”

Third Master sat on the gunwale, all three legs swinging back and forth in the river wind.

The Blind Man stood nearby gently massaging his neck.

The previous night, he had accompanied Master in a heart-to-heart conversation until Master fell asleep.

There was nothing he could do.

He had ended up sleeping for a while too.

Unfortunately, Master slept in the bed while he slept on a bench.

Now he had a crick in his neck.

“Want a medicated plaster?” Xue San asked after noticing.

“Good.”

The Blind Man agreed.

Xue San pulled a plaster from his pocket and slapped it accurately onto the Blind Man’s neck.

Then he still could not resist mocking him.

“This whole ‘heart-to-heart truth’ angle really can’t work. Siniang sleeps beside Master every night. How could she possibly have gotten no effect from it? She even gave Master a son. Besides, Demon Child still hasn’t moved either.”

“I know,” the Blind Man said. “But elimination still needs to be tested personally.”

“Fine, fine. Then what methods do we have left?”

“Theoretically? None. The threshold for this round is probably simply too high. Ordinary things may not even touch it.”

“Tsk.”

Xue San sighed.

“Hard times.”

“The operation is no longer a problem,” the Blind Man said with a smile.

He and Xue San had both advanced another level.

Their strength had recovered further.

They still had not caught up with Master’s newest layer, but handling the craniotomy was no longer especially difficult.

Most importantly... the Emperor’s little tumor had grown in such an adorably well-behaved place.

“So we still need to make a trip to the capital?” Xue San asked.

The Blind Man nodded.

“We can hardly call the Emperor out and crack his skull open somewhere on the road.”

Fan Li, standing behind them and chewing flatbread the entire time, immediately spoke:

“Opening the skull is my job.”

Xue San turned and rolled his eyes at him.

“If you do it, we really might not make it out of the capital alive.”

The Blind Man stopped joking.

He estimated their position and said:

“We should be able to leave the ship tomorrow.”

Traveling west to east, the most common route naturally passed through Yingdu, followed the Wang River through Yupan City, then continued straight toward Fengxin City. The three major cities lay almost along one line.

But Zheng Fan’s group had no need to keep traveling upstream all the way to Yingdu before disembarking.

Leaving earlier and taking the overland route would actually be faster.

At the same time, not far along the eastern bank, a unit of Brocade-Clad personal guards was already traveling parallel to the ship, preparing to receive the Prince and escort everyone back to the Residence.

“All right. I miss my godson,” Third Master said.

The godson he meant was naturally Zheng Lin.

An Heir Prince born with the bearing of a Demon King was already the treasure of all the Demon Kings’ hearts.

Ironically, Zheng Fan and Siniang, his biological father and mother, did not fuss over the boy nearly as much.

Siniang was happy to be free of the work. Most days, she could not even be bothered to nurse him personally.

Master probably still thought more about Big Girl.

Who told daughters to be so lovable?

At that exact moment... three boats appeared opposite them.

The vessels were not large, but crowded with people.

Each flew interwoven azure-and-black banners. At the bows stood handsome men and women dressed in white robes, holding horsetail whisks and various ritual implements.

Large numbers of commoners crowded the banks to watch.

Farther back on both shores, sacrificial platforms had been erected.

“What are they doing?” Xue San asked curiously.

Before anyone on Zheng Fan’s side could send a man over to ask... the three boats were already approaching.

Their boatmen even signaled for Zheng Fan’s larger vessel to move aside first.

“Well, damn.”

Third Master laughed out loud.

On Jin territory, even if the Son of Heaven wanted Master’s ship to give way, he would still need to discuss it first.

Who else in the world possessed that qualification?

The ship they were traveling on was nominally a cargo vessel.

Long ago, it had belonged to the Fan Clan’s smuggling fleet.

No princely banner flew from it.

At that moment, a small skiff came from the bank.

A middle-aged man in official robes stood aboard, while several subordinates dressed as yamen runners worked the oars.

“Whose cargo ship are you? Move aside for now. Today we invited immortal disciples of the Yuanshan Sect to pray for favorable winds and rain this year. This is an important matter. Give way first.”

The official did not hold a high rank.

His tone, however, was anything but small.

That was normal.

The ritual had been ordered from above.

Since the start of summer, the Wang River had been unusually gentle.

So they were holding a sacrifice to thank Heaven and pray that Heaven would continue giving face.

“What the hell is the Yuanshan Sect?” Xue San asked the Blind Man.

Siniang, who had originally remained inside accompanying Master in sleeping a little longer, heard the commotion and walked out as well.

The Blind Man had read broadly and controlled large quantities of intelligence. Matters of court and jianghu alike lived inside his head.

He answered immediately:

“A Qi Refiner sect. Their founding ancestor was once an outer disciple of Qian’s Back Mountain. After returning from Back Mountain, he founded the sect. They were obscure in the early years, but seem to have developed fairly well recently.”

“Back Mountain?”

Siniang frowned slightly the instant she heard those words.

The grudge between Master and Back Mountain was enormous.

“They sit somewhere between a respectable school and a gray-market operation,” the Blind Man continued. “No great expert has ever emerged from them, but they’re not bottom-feeding trash either. Their disciples tend to have pleasant appearances. They aim for the mid-market.”

Third Master leaned over.

“The 798 sort?”

The Blind Man frowned, considered it, then said:

“Close enough.”

Siniang swept her gaze across the two men.

Then held one hand out before Xue San.

“Give me the signal flare.”

“What for?”

Xue San looked puzzled.

“Call the Brocade-Clad personal guards on the eastern bank over. I don’t care whether these Qi Refiners are genuine practitioners or gutter frauds. Take every last one.”

“Huh?”

Third Master muttered.

Still, he handed it over.

Siniang accepted the signal flare, pulled the cap free, and fired it.

The flare shot into the sky.

Almost immediately, hoofbeats thundered from the eastern bank.

Disciplined and utterly loyal, the Brocade-Clad personal guards were forever waiting for their Prince’s summons.

The sudden movement startled the commoners gathered along the shore.

Even the handsome men and beautiful women aboard the three boats, in the middle of conducting their grand jiao ritual, began to panic.

Siniang issued another order:

“Our ship is larger. Pass the order down. Ram them directly.”

The men below obeyed at once.

Very soon... the ship drove straight forward.

The three smaller vessels were already packed close together and were completely unprepared.

One was smashed over immediately.

Xue San steadied himself and laughed.

“Siniang, you’re not even Empress yet and you’re already planning to exterminate every Qi Refiner beneath Heaven?”

Siniang snorted disdainfully.

“I don’t have that kind of free time. But any Qi Refiner connected to Back Mountain—whether a true practitioner or some bottom-tier fraud—if I happen to run into them, I’ll kill them while I’m here. Master once swore that one day he would flatten Back Mountain. I’m merely collecting a little interest for Master in advance.”

Their own ship began rocking from the collision.

Not long afterward... the Prince stumbled out, one hand pressed to his forehead.

He had probably knocked his head against something.

But Siniang’s earlier words... had reached his ears clearly.

The next instant...

Siniang’s aura surged violently upward!

Xue San and Fan Li’s eyes widened at once.

Third Master immediately drew his dagger.

Fan Li immediately lifted his axe.

Then both leapt over the side.

“Fuck! Kill them all!”

The Blind Man did not join the blood-crazed charge.

Instead... a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“So this time... the trigger is shared purpose?”

[End of Chapter 927]