In the early autumn of the fourth year of Kaiyuan, more than ten thousand cavalrymen entered Little Cui Ridge with great fanfare.
Yet even such a vast multitude caused no great stir after entering this perilous mountain range that stretched east to west and linked several provinces.
To everyone's surprise, over the next half month, these ten thousand cavalrymen did not head south. Instead, they swept through these deep mountains and ancient forests.
Outsiders could not guess what these ten thousand cavalrymen were searching for. It was exceedingly strange.
As time passed and more provisions were consumed, the people of every region had long since begun to groan in misery.
Thus, in the various provinces of the Wu Dynasty, where the chaos of war had ended only a few years ago, refugees once again raised the banner of rebellion.
This newly established grassland dynasty began to look as though it might collapse at any moment.
To ensure that the Sage Monarch's fiftieth birthday could proceed without a hitch, every grassland tribe dispatched cavalrymen to suppress the rebelling refugees across the land.
At this critical juncture, an unexpectedly familiar guest came to Li Qing's blacksmith shop.
The visitor was a young man with a lean frame and a sharply chiseled face.
"Master Li!"
Hearing the voice, Li Qing raised his head from beside the forge and looked toward the figure before the blacksmith shop.
"Heh, I can hardly bear being called Master Li by you now," Li Qing said teasingly.
The young man standing in the doorway clearly still had youthful features, yet his temples had already turned white, showing signs of premature aging.
This man was Qi Kang, who had cultivated the Life-Extinguishing Art!
"Master, you jest. If not for you back then, I fear I would already have died