Within the dense forest.
Countless bandits lay hidden in ambush, coldly watching the prison carts below.
Whoosh—chirp chirp—
A rhythmic birdsong rang out. Bloodthirsty gleams flashed in the bandits' eyes as they sprang from behind rocks, out of the grass, and down from the trees.
"Brother, lend me your clothes."
A voice sounded behind one of the bandits. Before he could turn around, he had fallen completely silent.
Zhou Yi changed into the man's clothes, circulated his Mana to perform the Bone Shifting Skill, then altered his face further with a disguise technique. He now resembled the dead bandit by seventy or eighty percent.
At this time.
The Imperial Guards on the mountain road had already noticed something amiss.
When Imperial Guard Commander Yang Shou saw birds taking flight in alarm from the mountains, he waved for the march to halt and ordered scouts to investigate the slopes.
After waiting a long while without seeing the scouts return, he had already concluded there was an ambush in the mountains.
"Form ranks! Meet the enemy!"
The men under Yang Shou were Imperial Guard elites. They swiftly gathered the prison carts together and formed a circular formation, waiting on alert.
"Hahaha! Heaven bears witness! I am a guardian under the Heavenly King! Today, I shall slaughter every member of Butcher Li's clan and offer them as a sacrifice to the Heavenly King!"
Deafening laughter rolled over them. Then dozens of enormous boulders came flying down from the mountains, raining upon the military formation like raindrops.
"Catapults!"
Yang Shou cried out in alarm. Before he could disperse the formation, the boulders had already come crashing down upon their heads.
The boulders hurled from the mountain were beyond what human strength could withstand. As they smashed into the crowd, screams rose without end.
Three or four successive rounds of boulders shattered the Imperial Guards' formation.
"Kill! Kill..."
War cries erupted from the mountains on both sides. Judging by the sound, there were at least several thousand men.
"Form ranks! Form ranks!" Yang Shou shouted.
The Imperial Guards barely managed to reform their formation, only to be met by a rain of arrows. Once again, they suffered grievous casualties.
"Resist the enemy!"
Despair flashed through Yang Shou's eyes. It was not that he feared the enemy's numbers, but that another possibility had occurred to him.
At least a dozen catapults and organized ranks of archers—how could mere bandits or rebels afford such forces? The enemy's deliberate cries of their supposed origins clearly meant they were borrowing a name as cover.
The moment the Imperial Guards clashed at close quarters with the bandits, they sensed something was wrong.
These were dignified Imperial Guard elites who trained their bodies every day, yet their strength could not match the bandits' savage power.
Yang Shou used his twelve-foot spear to skewer several bandits. From atop his horse, he could see even more clearly that the Imperial Guards were retreating step by step.
"I can't die like this!"
The commander had already begun thinking of retreat. How could the soldiers beneath him possibly fight to the death? Whether by design or oversight, there were no bandits blocking the mountain road ahead or behind.
Thus, after Yang Shou was the first to spur his horse and flee, the Imperial Guards scattered in rout both forward and backward.
The bandits' target was the prison carts. They did not pursue the Imperial Guards, instead brandishing their weapons and massacring the prisoners.
The members of the Li Lineage inside the prison carts wore shackles on their hands and feet. They had no ability to resist and could only watch helplessly as they were slaughtered.
Within the mountain forest.
Zhou Yi stood upon a tree branch, holding the young Li Hong by the collar.
"It's time to go. Once they inspect the corpses, they may notice something unusual."
While the Imperial Guards and bandits were locked in chaotic battle, Zhou Yi had rescued Li Hong amid the confusion. He had left behind a bandit of similar build, his face smashed beyond recognition, in the prison cart.
"Senior, wait a moment. I want to watch my clansmen die with my own eyes, so I can carve this hatred deeper into my heart!"
Li Hong neither cried nor showed grief. He listened as his mother, elder brother, and relatives wailed and screamed, dying one after another beneath the bandits' blades.
A moment later.
Every member of the Li Lineage had died. The bandits opened the prison carts and laid out the corpses one by one.
Several men in long robes emerged from among the bandits. After counting the bodies, they saw that several corpses had faces reduced to bloody pulp, so they carefully identified them by their builds and clothing.
"The Jiangnan Aristocratic Families were behind this."
Having clearly heard the conversation among the robed men, Zhou Yi said, "They didn't suspect you. They merely assumed your face had suffered a severe blow in the chaos of battle."
"Those few were my uncle Li Chi, my cousin Li Yi, and my younger cousin Li Liang. They were only one or two years apart from me in age, and their builds were similar. My eldest brother was meticulous in his planning. Fearing I might be hunted by the Brocade Guard, he sent people to destroy their faces."
Li Hong's voice remained calm and still, but his eyes were bloodshot red.
"To be honest, I think more highly of your brother. Whether it was the disfigurement or the people who carried it out, they probably never knew why your brother did this!"
Gripping Li Hong by the collar, Zhou Yi leaped several times and vanished into the forest.
Northern frontier.
Barren City.
Its name alone told one it was a bitterly cold land.
The Fengyang Kingdom exiled its prisoners here. There was an iron mine nearby, and they dug until they died or received a grand amnesty.
The clatter of hooves rang out in waves, waking the soldiers on guard duty.
"Halt!"
The soldiers drew their blades and stopped the two riders rushing toward them. "What are you doing in Barren City?"
"Visiting an old friend."
Zhou Yi dismounted, and two silver ingots rolled onto the ground. "Eh? Brother, it seems you dropped your silver."
"Huh?"
The gate official seemed never to have encountered someone so brazen in offering a bribe. Even the most shameless officials exchanged silver in secret.
Disgusting. Couldn't he at least cover it up?
The gate official sneered inwardly, but his movements were swift. He stepped forward, picked up the silver, wiped it clean, and tucked it into his robes. "Who are you looking for, sir?"
Zhou Yi said, "I only know his surname is Wei. He is from Yu Province and likely arrived around the thirty-sixth year of Chongming."
The gate official drew out his words. "That was nearly thirty years ago. Who knows whether he's still alive? This is rather difficult!"
Zhou Yi flicked his sleeve, and another two silver ingots fell out.
The gate official said helplessly, "Go into the city and find Liu San. He manages the miners from Yu Province. If the man is still alive, Liu San can certainly find him."
Zhou Yi took two silver ingots from his robes. "Is there a way to see him? And arrange some easier work for him?"
The gate official only felt the silver burning his hands. "For that, you'll need to visit Steward Sun of the Household Office at the yamen. Spend enough silver, and he can be assigned to do odd jobs at the yamen."
Zhou Yi continued handing over silver. "Is there anything else I should be aware of?"
"Sir, you're truly generous!"
The gate official pounded his chest. "I'll take you to handle it. Forget finding one person—even taking someone out of Barren City can be arranged."
Zhou Yi asked in surprise, "You can even take someone away?"
"You don't understand, sir. If people couldn't be taken away, how could so many men die in the mines every year?"
The gate official instructed his soldiers to stand guard properly and not let any thieves into the city, then led Zhou Yi and the other two inside.
The city was filled with crumbling walls and ruined buildings. Weeds grew wildly along the streets, and not a single person could be seen. The shops on both sides stood empty; broken windows and shattered doors creaked in the wind like ghosts and monsters.
"This was originally a garrison for frontier troops. It was quite prosperous back then. Now that the frontier army has moved to Yi Province, only this empty city remains..."
Perhaps feeling guilty over taking the silver, the gate official took the initiative to act as their guide, recounting the changing history of Barren City.
"Look at that Muster Platform. Back then, the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation beat his war drums there..."
"That tavern used to have fine wine from Shenjing. Whenever the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation returned from a victory, he would come drink there..."
"..."
Eight or nine out of every ten things the gate official spoke of involved the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation. Only upon reaching the northern frontier did one understand how immense Li Wu's reputation was, and how deeply his influence ran.
Following the gate official's words, Li Hong seemed to see his father commanding troops upon the Muster Platform and drinking freely in the tavern.
Zhou Yi patted Li Hong on the shoulder and transmitted his voice, "Remember your eldest brother's instructions!"
Li Hong nodded faintly, suppressing and restraining his emotions.
"Rest assured, sir. Before I reach the Innate Realm, I will change my surname to Zhou."
Silver was even more useful in Barren City than Zhou Yi had expected.
After the gate official introduced him, Steward Sun of the Household Office proved quite reasonable and named his price directly.
"One thousand taels for each living person, plus another two hundred taels to register them in the household records. Fair prices for young and old alike!"
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