Testing (II)

"This lowly one will certainly give it his all," Li Qi immediately replied.

"Shh, keep your voice down." Young Master Zhu raised a finger, then said, "Do you know Baiyue?"

"Uh... I saw it on the notices before. I heard that Great Deer Kingdom falls within Baiyue's borders?" Li Qi answered.

"That's right. Great Deer Kingdom is no more than a tiny speck. Within Baiyue's Myriad Mountains, there are over a hundred countries like Great Deer Kingdom, while all of Baiyue is merely the size of a single province of Tang Kingdom. As for me, I come from Wushen Mountain, and I am a shaman of the Shaman Path."

"And that is not even counting Southern Yue beyond Baiyue, then Annam, and Later Le—who knows how many tens of thousands of li they span. So-called Great Deer Kingdom is not even one-thousandth of Wushen Mountain's territory."

"However, this part of Baiyue lies close to Tang Kingdom and has been deeply influenced by it. Great Deer Kingdom, Song Kingdom, and the like are especially so. That is why you can see that this region resembles a tributary state of Tang Kingdom more than land under Wushen Mountain."

Hearing this, Li Qi immediately pricked up his ears and silently committed every word to memory.

Clearly, these were not things ordinary people could hear. Remembering them could only benefit him.

"And now, you have seen Lady Luofu's wanted notice as well. She has fled from Jiannan Circuit and escaped into Baiyue," Young Master Zhu said. "Considering the relationship between Baiyue, Great Deer Kingdom, and Tang Kingdom, what do you think I want you to do?"

Before he had even finished asking the question, cold sweat had already broken out across Li Qi's back.

Because he immediately thought of something.

Jiannan Circuit!

On the road, he had encountered a demon who claimed her family came from Jiannan Circuit.

What did she have to do with Lady Luofu?

And what did she have to do with Baiyue?!

At once, he understood just how deep the waters behind this matter ran.

Putting all the pieces together, one only needed to let one's thoughts wander a little to reach the conclusion.

That Wushen Mountain and Tang Kingdom were surely rivals, but both were probably colossal powers spanning billions upon billions of li. When such giants wrestled with one another, countless people would inevitably be caught in the fallout.

Now that he thought about it... was Great Deer Kingdom the chessboard upon which they were vying?

No, Great Deer Kingdom was nowhere near qualified. It should be the entire northern region of Baiyue—Song Kingdom, Great Deer Kingdom, and a cluster of other countries—all serving as the chessboard for these two great powers' contest!

So that was why Great Deer Kingdom now... used the commandery-county system? Why its political state was such a mess?

He had previously complained about the chaotic system of travel permits, but looking at it now, the chaos seemed to extend beyond travel permits alone. The government's attitude and the strange circumstances among the common people had apparently shown signs long ago.

The government had rules, its control was strict, and all manner of laws and decrees were highly detailed. There were even requirements that every murder case must be solved.

Yet in actual enforcement, things were extraordinarily lax—so lax that if an official could not be bothered to act, even a murder case would not be filed.

Even a system like travel permits, akin to identity documents, existed, yet each permit only circulated within its own city. Once one left the city, it became useless, and in another city one could even obtain a new one under a different identity.

Laxity and severity, orderly laws and the self-rule of gangs—these conflicting, contradictory phenomena all highlighted something strange.

This... might be the difference between Wushen Mountain and Tang Kingdom?

Then viewed from this angle, Wushen Mountain... seemed to be at a disadvantage?

The region that had originally belonged to Baiyue had now taken on Tang Kingdom's systems: its laws, its various official posts, even its government offices had all assumed the shape of Tang Kingdom's institutions.

Then at a time like this... with Lady Luofu's affair arising, what would Wushen Mountain want to do?

Without question, the enemy of one's enemy was one's friend. Though he had no idea how formidable Lady Luofu was, for the Tang Kingdom Emperor to personally issue an edict ordering her death, her standing could not be low.

Wushen Mountain wanted to find Lady Luofu? To discuss cooperation?

Was the woman he had encountered Lady Luofu?

Pah, impossible. If Lady Luofu had that level of intelligence, she would never have escaped Tang Kingdom alive.

But that demon had also said she came from Jiannan Circuit.

Unless the place names happened to be identical, there was a ninety-nine percent chance she was connected to Lady Luofu.

Judging by her appearance, though, her status could not have been high.

In other words, his identity as someone of the Outer Path possessed the trait of being impossible to divine.

Which meant that Young Master Zhu had not actually divined his location before coming here. Perhaps... he had been following him for a long time already.

And if he pushed that deduction further, had everything—including the Ox-Strength Technique—been part of the other party's arrangement?

Had the sacrificial prayer he improvised really worked?

Had he truly been able to exploit a loophole in something like the River Opening Rite?

Could it be... that Young Master Zhu had been watching from the sky while he fiddled with that sacrificial prayer?

Then, following this assumption further, had everything that happened to him on the road also been watched by the other party all along?

Was this an assessment?

Did it have something to do with the task he wanted to entrust to him?

And he had just happened to run into a demon connected to Lady Luofu.

Had that demon escaped?

She definitely could not have. This Young Master Zhu before him clearly possessed vast divine abilities. That demon was foolish, as though her brain had been flooded; she might possess supernatural powers, but she was certainly no match for him.

Putting the clues together, he dared to make a bold guess.

The demon connected to Lady Luofu had been captured, while he himself had been singled out by Young Master Zhu because of his identity as a person of the Outer Path...

Would the traits of one from the Outer Path have some special effect in this matter? Was it necessary?

In the time it took to speak, all of this had been sorted out in Li Qi's mind in mere seconds.

As he pondered these things, "Young Master, could it be that you wish for me to serve as your envoy, led by one of Lady Luofu's people to meet Lady Luofu and discuss matters concerning Wushen Mountain and the Tang Kingdom?" Li Qi answered cautiously.

Young Master Zhu showed a surprised expression, but still nodded. "As expected, you're clever. Only with such quick wits are you qualified to meet Lady Luofu. That is indeed what I mean. Do you remember the Rabbit Demon you encountered yesterday?"

"That demon was a Rabbit Demon?" Only then did Li Qi learn that Shen Shuibi was actually a Rabbit Demon.

"She is a rabbit, so naturally she is as stupid as one. Yet she happens to be Lady Luofu's personal maid. I imagine she must know how to find Lady Luofu. When the time comes, as one of the Outer Path, you cannot be located through the Art of Divination. That will also demonstrate Wushen Mountain's sincerity toward Lady Luofu."

"Take her with you and find Lady Luofu. That is the task I give you. As for the reward... join Wushen Mountain and become my apprentice. What do you think?" Young Master Zhu said.

Upon hearing this, Li Qi immediately bowed. "This disciple greets Master!"

What a joke. If he didn't cling tightly to a thigh like this, wouldn't he be a fool?

"Don't be in such a hurry. You would be an apprentice, not a disciple, so there is no need to call me Master. Also, back to the subject at hand—do you know why I said you were about to die?"