Plan an Escape

The three beneath the tree were chatting idly, but Chen An and Li Yin were clearly distracted, glancing toward the Marshal's Residence gate from time to time. When they saw Li Yan emerge, delight immediately appeared on their faces. They had asked Liu Chengyong about the situation earlier. Though they had heard it was merely a matter of completing personal military records, they could not help feeling doubtful. Such a matter could be major or minor. Major, because a military commander still bore responsibility for officials appointed by the imperial court; minor, because this was hardly a crucial post. To put it bluntly, it was merely a word from a regional official.

Seeing the three of them come forward, Li Yan smiled. "It's settled. Hehe, next I still need to visit Li Shan and the others. Then how about we go drinking at noon?"

Liu Chengyong naturally had no objection. Although Li Yan's swift return still made him feel something was amiss, Li Yan had emerged smiling, so presumably there truly had been nothing serious on the Marshal's side. Besides, noon would give him another chance to draw closer to Li Yan. He immediately agreed.

Though Chen An and Li Yin wanted to return sooner, they did not dare say so aloud and could only nod in agreement.

The four of them first went to the Ironworks Pavilion to find Li Shan. Li Shan was overjoyed to see Li Yan arrive. Li Yan immediately sent Chen An and Li Yin to personally request leave for Li Shan from his master, Lü Kui, while he and Li Shan entered the inner room of the Ironworks Pavilion to talk.

With nothing to do alone, Liu Chengyong wandered around the Ironworks Pavilion. Whenever he spotted a fine weapon, he would pick it up with great interest and give it a few swings. When Chen An and Li Yin came out, the three men, all of military stock, eagerly began studying the weapons together.

A short while later, Li Yan and Li Shan emerged. Li Shan's face initially carried a trace of confusion, but Li Yan draped an arm around his shoulders and chatted amiably, asking him to call his senior brother Liang Shi along as well. Everyone then headed to Natural Wine House to find Li Yu. At noon, they set a table there, and the seven of them drank heartily.

That afternoon, Li Yan and the other two rode back slightly drunk. Over the days that followed, Li Yan's cultivation visibly improved again, and his mood remained remarkably steady. Seeing him like this, Strategist Ji finally set his mind at ease and would come out every so often to offer guidance.

Time flew by, and spring was boundless. The grass had grown tall and orioles were flying. Li Yan had already spent more than half a year at the military residence. At this moment, he was soaking in the cold pool, his eyes slightly closed, his upper body bare, with only the part above his shoulders exposed. Steam rose from his body in curling wisps. His aura had already reached the peak of the early stage of the first layer of the Qi Condensation Realm, but he did not look well. Faint traces of blood lingered at the corners of his mouth.

Since last winter, he had cultivated diligently, and his realm rose after each stretch of time. Yet his temperament had become increasingly irritable. Apart from entering the city every so often, he had also developed many strange habits. Whenever he returned from the city, he bought even more clothes, belts, boots, and such items. Even Strategist Ji's Divine Sense grew weary from probing into it.

Aside from cultivation, he either soaked in the pool or shut himself in his room and scribbled wildly. Later, for some unknown reason, he uprooted every vegetable in the garden south of the pool. Then he brought back many unidentified wildflowers from the mountains beyond the valley and planted them there. Before long, all kinds of wildflowers and grasses flourished throughout the valley, their scents mingling together. Even the clothes hung out to dry became stained with floral fragrance. Several times when Strategist Ji went into the city for military affairs, he was covered in the scent of flowers, drawing sidelong glances from Marshal Hong and the officers alike. Strategist Ji could only smile bitterly in helplessness.

That garden had once contained vegetables and a few flowering plants grown by Strategist Ji. He would occasionally water and fertilize them, lingering among them for a while. It had been one way for him to soothe the restless agitation in his chest. Now Li Yan had turned it into something dazzlingly gorgeous. From afar, it looked like a huge dye vat splashed with every color under heaven. Strategist Ji merely shook his head and let it be.

So long as Li Yan's cultivation continued to improve, Strategist Ji now basically let him do as he pleased. Yet recently, the agitation in Li Yan's chest seemed to be growing stronger by the day. After cultivating, blood often seeped from the corners of his mouth, as if he could no longer suppress it. This worried Strategist Ji greatly. He examined Li Yan's internal condition and discovered that the wood spiritual energy within him was faintly impure, as though some fire spiritual power had emerged. This made him begin to worry. Fortunately, Li Yan could still suppress it for now, and his cultivation was still advancing. Otherwise, Strategist Ji had already considered taking advantage of the purity of Li Yan's spiritual power to absorb it ahead of time. Yet over the following period, the wood spiritual power in Li Yan's body gradually became pure again, and the number of times he coughed blood also decreased. Only then did Strategist Ji suppress that thought.

Li Yan soaked in the pool, several streaks of blood hanging at the corners of his mouth. His eyes were half-closed, as though he were enjoying the pool's chill, but that was not the case. At this moment, Li Yan was using the spiritual energy slowly seeping up from the bottom of the pool to circulate the Gui Water True Scripture.

After several months of bitter training, his Gui Water True Scripture had reached the middle stage of the first layer of the Qi Condensation Realm. His cultivation speed was exceptionally fast. Even within an immortal sect, such speed would have been respectable. Yet for him to progress like this in a place where spiritual energy was so scarce was rather strange.

Li Yan had no one with whom to compare cultivation methods. He simply felt that he was still cultivating far too slowly. Though he spent most of every day soaking in this pool to cultivate, and often came here again at midnight to soak and cultivate, he still felt pressed for time. But there was nothing he could do. He still had to spend his remaining time pretending to cultivate the Wood Yin Technique and putting on a performance. In the mornings, he had to put on a show in his room and cultivate the Wood Yin Technique for a while, while at other times he also had to throw the occasional fit.

He had only one thought now: raise his spiritual power cultivation and make it the capital with which he could stake his life.

Another half hour passed. Li Yan's eyelashes trembled, but his eyes did not open. He had finished circulating his cultivation technique for the day, and now he carefully considered everything that had happened over these past months.

My cultivation speed is still too slow. These past few days, I've clearly felt very little improvement. I don't know why.

Li Yan did not know that his speed had been fast at the outset for several reasons. First, he had only recently entered the first layer of the Qi Condensation Realm, and his meridians were several times wider than those of ordinary cultivators who reached that realm, so he absorbed spiritual energy relatively quickly. Second, his physique and cultivation method were perfectly compatible, and he was still in the early stage of the first layer of the Qi Condensation Realm, which did not require much spiritual energy. Moreover, he was soaking above a spirit spring, so naturally his progress had been swift. But once he entered the middle stage of the first layer, the spiritual energy here began to fall short. Besides, cultivation became harder the further one went. Especially upon reaching the Golden Core Realm and Nascent Soul Realm, being stuck for several hundred years was entirely normal.

Though I haven't revealed all my strength and have only shown a little, enough to seem at the peak of the early stage of the first layer of the Qi Condensation Realm, that is also one of the conditions ensuring my survival for now. Otherwise, if I remained at the entry level after several months, he would probably have decided I was useless and lacked the patience to wait any longer.

After cultivating the Gui Water True Scripture for some time, Li Yan discovered that his cultivation speed was extremely fast. He could not help worrying that Strategist Ji would notice something unusual. However, after entering with his Divine Sense and carefully studying the Gui Water True Scripture, then repeatedly experimenting, he had more or less solved this problem.

"Qi may grow, gather in the sea, scatter and lie hidden." At first, he did not understand it. Only after some experimentation did he learn that the spiritual power cultivated by the Gui Water True Scripture could be freely dispersed from the dantian into five spiritual power vats. What appeared on the surface would then be the level of the fullest vat. However, this could only deceive cultivators whose cultivation was not much higher than his own, preventing them from seeing his true realm. Furthermore, all five spiritual power vats had to remain unfilled. Otherwise, there would be nowhere left to disperse the power, and the strongest spiritual power would still show itself. At that point, he could only charge toward a higher layer.

My cultivation some time ago injured me by mistake and made me cough up blood. I had no choice but to disperse some fire spiritual power as well, making it seem as though fire poison was the cause. That made him somewhat unable to hold himself back. Fortunately, my cultivation has progressed recently, and I concealed the fire spiritual power, so he suppressed that thought again. But as my spiritual power rises, I can now sense that the fire poison in his body is also growing stronger and stronger. It seems there is not much time left.

Although Li Yan's Divine Sense could not leave his body, now that he was a cultivator himself, his senses allowed him to faintly detect that the fire poison in Strategist Ji's body was increasing. Once it was nearly impossible to suppress, that would be the moment of his death. At that time, no matter what level Li Yan had cultivated to, Strategist Ji would wait no longer.

On these trips out, I have also reached certain understandings with Hong Linying through Liu Chengyong's letters. As long as he helps me escape this predicament, I will give him the Wood Yin Technique's cultivation method. Now all that remains is to find the right opportunity, but I absolutely cannot wait too long.

Li Yan calculated in his heart. What he was considering now was not merely how to escape. He had an even greater plan: how to kill Strategist Ji. Otherwise, his family might not be able to escape Strategist Ji's wrath.

Yesterday, Strategist Ji had come to guide his cultivation again, but even the way he looked at Li Yan had changed. His gaze had become gentler, more genial. Yet displayed upon that face, now grayer and blacker than before, it made Li Yan feel the urgency of time.

Then two months from now. By then, it will be early summer. No matter what, I have to stake everything on one attempt.

Li Yan sat in the pool with his eyes closed, his hands beneath the water clenched tightly into fists.

Millions of li away from Green Mountain Pass, within a deep forest, stood a grand palace atop a mountain peak that pierced the clouds.

"Elder He, what brings you here today?" The blue-robed scholar smiled at the hawk-nosed old man in a dark green robe.

"Peak Master, the once-every-five-years competition among the peaks has already been discussed by this subordinate and the other elders. This time, around twenty elite disciples and several true disciples from our peak will participate. They were all selected through layer upon layer of screening by the inner hall some time ago."

"Oh? The number of true disciples is one thing; there were never many to begin with. But this year, there seem to be rather few elite disciples from our peak competing. Five years ago, I recall our peak had as many as thirty."

"Yes, there are fewer than before. In recent years, the new disciples entering each peak have not been numerous. Many with spiritual roots have been taken away by those so-called righteous Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian sects." The hawk-nosed elder spoke somewhat awkwardly.

"Hehe, those 'famous righteous sects'? They certainly know how to make use of the hearts of people in the mortal world. Using Daoist temples, Buddhist monasteries, and lecture halls among mortals to endlessly wash their minds clean, they have indeed gathered in quite a few fine seedlings of immortality."

"Yes, Peak Master. For sects like ours, we truly do not have much contact with mortals." After pausing, he continued.

"Still, even if our peak has fewer people, we have more than Small Bamboo Peak. They practically send only a handful of people to every competition." The hawk-nosed elder chuckled.

"You mean Junior Brother Wei's place. Hehe, their entire peak has fewer than twenty people even counting the menial servants, and only seven disciples under their sect. If the three who have already entered the middle stage of Foundation Establishment or above are excluded, then naturally only those few can compete." Hearing this, the scholar revealed a helpless expression.

"Enough. Let us not speak of Junior Brother Wei's side. Of these twenty-odd people from our side, I expect two or three to enter the top ten in the early Foundation Establishment competition, and three to enter the top ten in the Qi Condensation Realm competition. Do you understand?"

"Peak Master..." The hawk-nosed elder's face turned bitter.

"What? You have no confidence? Have the people below spent these five years cultivating immortality to such a sorry state?" The scholar frowned.

"Peak Master, the other peaks are no pushovers either. Take Small Bamboo Peak, for example. Though only a few of them are participating, those few have a very good chance of entering the top ten in competitions corresponding to their own realms."

"Hmph. That is your concern. Pass these words down: if this competition's results are poor, the stipends of you elders will all be deducted."

"Very well, Peak Master." The hawk-nosed elder spoke helplessly, but inwardly he thought, When I return, I will discuss with the other elders how to put more pressure on these little brats. Otherwise, we will ruthlessly deduct their cultivation resources for the next five years.

"Fine. If there is nothing else, you may leave first." Seeing that the hawk-nosed elder had nothing more to say, the scholar waved a hand.

"Reporting to the Peak Master, there is one more matter. News has arrived today concerning the search for the person of the Immortal-Seeking Lineage," the hawk-nosed elder hurriedly said.

"Oh? You mean the person who took the cultivation method from that traitor of the outer sect?"

"Yes. We expanded the search area and finally found clues in a place called Green Mountain Pass, at the eastern edge of Great Green Mountain. Among the imperial troops stationed there, a strategist may be the person we seek. Over the past few years, he has purchased medicinal herbs from apothecaries in nearby towns, and those herbs are all ingredients from our secret formula."

"Stationed troops? A strategist? Then you must investigate carefully. Otherwise, moving against an official among mortals, especially a border military official, will give other sects grounds for criticism and leave us with a handle for them to grasp. Immortals and mortals walk different roads. Unless mortals provoke us, we do not act against them. Though we are no famous righteous sect, this principle must still be upheld."

"Yes, Peak Master. That is how I arranged it as well. Since the sect's five-year competition is near, some law-enforcement disciples outside the sect who need to participate have already returned one after another. Only some people in the middle and late stages of the Qi Condensation Realm remain over there. Once the matter is confirmed, they will begin the arrest."

"That will do. If he has still been searching everywhere for medicinal herbs these past few years, his realm cannot be very high. Disciples in the middle and late stages of the Qi Condensation Realm will be enough."