Strategist Ji

As Li Yan moved forward with the line, he pondered, Marshal Hong's gaze from the reviewing stand was fixed on this side. Perhaps there was more inside this tent than merely registration. Could there be some other consideration? But the tent did not look very large—there was hardly room to stretch one's arms and legs. Could the army be testing literary talent as well?

With his head lowered, he walked and thought. Then suddenly, Li Yan felt the space before him brighten. The last person ahead of him had entered the tent, leaving a broad empty stretch before him. But when he raised his head, the man had already gone in and the curtain had fallen, so he could not see what lay inside. Li Yan stopped thinking about it and simply waited quietly where he stood.

After only several dozen breaths, someone lifted the curtain and came out. It was the very person who had just entered. One hand was pulling down the sleeve over his other wrist, yet his face was filled with bewilderment, as though he could not make heads or tails of it. Urged on by the soldier beside the entrance, he walked toward the end of the line in the middle of the drill ground. One of the soldiers pointed at Li Yan. "You. Go in." Li Yan obeyed and walked toward the tent entrance.

Lifting the curtain and entering the tent, Li Yan felt his vision darken. He closed his eyes briefly, allowing them to adjust to the light, then opened them again. Only then did he see that there was just one low table inside. Behind it, a man sat cross-legged on a small carpet. He appeared to be around forty, wearing a scholar's cap and a loose black robe. The hem of the robe spread across the ground, concealing his lower body. Even seated, he was only slightly shorter than Li Yan; he must have been exceptionally tall when standing.

His face was thin and narrow, his complexion ashen. A long strand of beard drifted over his chest. His hands were tucked into his sleeves and folded before his chest and abdomen, half hidden by the low table. As his narrow eyes opened and closed, a glint of sharp light occasionally flashed within them. He was currently assessing Li Yan. Seeing Li Yan look at him, he extended a long, fair finger from his sleeve and pointed at another small carpet before the table. "Sit." Then he said no more.

Li Yan obeyed and walked to the table. Only then did he notice an opened cloth pouch on its surface. Rows of small pockets had been sewn upright across the pouch, their openings facing upward. Each pocket held a varying number of fine needles, their exposed silver tips gleaming.

Li Yan looked at the rows of silver needles shining with cold light, and his heart began to drum. There are no brushes, ink, paper, or inkstone here. How are they supposed to register us? Why have they set out this thing? What is it for? His heart immediately rose and fell like seven buckets drawing water, and he did not know what to do.

Seeing Li Yan standing before the table, staring at the silver needles in hesitation rather than sitting down, the man in black spoke again. "Rest assured. I am only testing your meridians. If your meridians are especially good, there may well be a great fortune waiting for you."

After hearing this, Li Yan considered it briefly, then sat cross-legged like the black-robed man behind the table. Since he had already come this far, he had to pass this hurdle no matter what. Otherwise, he would not even be able to enter the next stage of assessment on the drill ground. No amount of thinking would help.

Seeing Li Yan become so straightforward, the man in black smiled faintly. "Expose the meridians at your left wrist and place it on the table. It should take only a few breaths." Li Yan stopped overthinking it. He used his right hand to roll the coarse cloth sleeve at his left wrist up several folds, then placed his palm-up wrist on the table beside the cloth pouch.

After Li Yan placed his left hand as instructed, the man in black extended his right hand. With two long, fair fingers, he plucked a silver needle from one of the opened pockets with lightning speed. Before Li Yan could see clearly, he felt his wrist go numb. When he looked closely, most of the silver needle had already sunk into his meridian.

After doing this, the man withdrew his hand into his sleeve. Once more, his hands were folded within his sleeves and lowered before his abdomen, while he swept his gaze over Li Yan's face.

After his wrist went numb, Li Yan felt no other unusual sensation. But just as he was wondering about it, barely two breaths later, he suddenly felt a current of cool air rise from his abdomen straight into his head. His mind turned cool, and a sense of comfort spread throughout his body.

The black-robed man had narrowed his eyes as he watched Li Yan's face remain unharmed, and he had already felt a faint sense of regret. He had seen this situation countless times over the past few years. Yet every time he inserted a needle, he still held onto that sliver of expectation. Only once, at the beginning of last year, had he been beside himself with joy—but the final result had left him furious.

Just as he intended to remove the silver needle from Li Yan's wrist, he saw a layer of black qi slowly rise over Li Yan's face. The black-robed man froze, then inwardly rejoiced, though his expression remained calm. His hands immediately moved like the wind, fluttering like butterflies among flowers. Four more silver needles sank into Li Yan's wrist meridians. This time, after only one breath, Li Yan felt four currents of hot, dry, heavy, and warm qi rise from his abdomen straight toward the crown of his head.

Now he felt as though he were being fried alive in a cauldron of boiling oil. His head seemed to have suffered a heavy blow. He could not help letting out a muffled groan, pain appearing on his face as it began to twist beneath the shrouds of differently colored qi.

After inserting the four needles, the black-robed man stared at Li Yan's face without blinking, as though afraid of missing anything. When a second stream of green qi rose over Li Yan's face, he became somewhat tense. Then a third stream of crimson qi surged upward, and he clenched his fists even tighter. But when yellow and white qi rose in turn, he loosened his clenched fists in disappointment. His expression shifted between light and shadow as he frowned in thought.

Li Yan was undergoing agonizing torment within his body. Several currents of qi crashed wildly about inside his abdomen, causing him unbearable pain. He had gone from sitting cross-legged to curling on his side on the ground, his body bent like a shrimp. Fortunately, he had not touched the five silver needles in his wrist. Otherwise, who knew what the result might have been.

If anyone had looked closely at his face now, they would have seen five colors of qi alternating across it. Black qi was the strongest, followed in order by green, crimson, yellow, and white; by the time it reached white, the qi was already quite faint. They flashed past repeatedly in the same sequence: black, green, crimson, yellow, white. The pain became increasingly unbearable, and Li Yan let out several more low, heavy moans.

Those groans jolted the black-robed man out of his thoughts. After looking at Li Yan, he hesitated again. Finally, as though reaching a decision, he rose to his full height. Without any visible movement, he had already drifted to the front of the table and stood before Li Yan, silent and soundless, ghostly and unpredictable.

With a sweep of his wide right sleeve, five streaks of cold light flashed from Li Yan's left hand and vanished. Several soft thud, thud sounds rang out. A neat row of inch-long silver needles had been nailed into the tabletop, their tails still trembling. Though the table was not made of particularly fine wood, military supplies valued quality over appearance. This table had been fashioned from jujube wood and was exceptionally sturdy. Such a feat could not have been achieved by anyone below the first-rate or pinnacle masters of the martial world.

The black-robed man looked at the silver needles on the table, then at Li Yan's complexion, which was rapidly returning to normal. He could not help sighing inwardly. My level is still not high enough. I do not dare enter those places, so I can only use this crudest, most primitive method for testing. The consequence is considerable pain for the person being tested.

Fortunately, it caused no lasting harm to body or mind—only temporary suffering. If only I had a Spirit-Testing Stone or a Spirit-Testing Pillar... At that thought, he sighed again. Those were things he could not currently reach. But perhaps after this time, he could. The thought made his heart burn hot. Yet when he saw Li Yan on the ground, he muttered to himself, "That one last time had actually possessed a Mystic Spirit Root, with aptitude even better than mine. But what a pity—he was illiterate. He could barely understand even the most basic cultivation formulas. Such heaven-defying aptitude bestowed by Heaven itself had been wasted for nothing, and in the end he could only meet such a fate."

Thinking of this, he sighed again. This one may have a Mixed Spirit Root, but that is still better than having none. Time is short. Though these two appeared one after another within two years, it was merely coincidence. Over these past years, I have tested nearly a hundred thousand people. I thought of coming to the army to test the soldiers already here and the newly recruited ones, yet after all these years, there have only been these two. This must be the greatest stroke of fortune possible. And I likely have only one or two years left. Even if I later stumbled into heaven-defying luck and found another suitable person, there would be no time left.

"A Mixed Spirit Root, if used well, can still be worth a gamble." With that thought, he let out a long breath and looked at Li Yan, who was slowly returning to normal on the ground.

Li Yan felt as though he had endured a brutal torture, except that this torment had struck the depths of his soul. The pain was so intense that he could scarcely control himself, yet he could not cry out loudly. He could only release low, heavy groans. After what seemed an interminably long period of unbearable suffering, Li Yan finally felt his hand meridians go numb. The pain then receded like the tide, vanishing without a trace, as though it had never happened. What had just occurred seemed like nothing more than an illusion.

Supporting himself against the edge of the table, Li Yan rose from the ground. He looked at the row of silver needles glinting with a sinister sheen, then looked fearfully at the black-robed man before him, as though he were a vicious ghost from the underworld. He did not believe that it had merely been an illusion. The pain had truly pierced his organs and marrow. Otherwise, how could the row of silver needles embedded in the tabletop be explained? Seeing Li Yan's fearful expression, the man in black smiled at him gently. "Do not be afraid. My surname is Ji, and my name is Ji Wenhe. Others call me Strategist Ji, or Lord Ji."

Li Yan was startled. He is Strategist Ji, the man as famous as Marshal Hong, who jointly governs Green Mountain Pass with him? His name is known far and wide. But why had such a great figure used those methods just now?

Seeing Li Yan remain silent, Strategist Ji smiled and continued, "Though I caused you some pain just now, it was worthwhile. Over the past few years, so many people have come through here, yet none received such a fortunate outcome. I once roamed the martial world. Because I suffered an incurable injury several years ago, I came to the army to occupy myself while searching for one with fate. I have neither son nor daughter, and I have always wished to find an heir to my mantle, someone to whom I could impart all I have learned without reservation. Otherwise, if my death someday severed my sect's inheritance, I would be unable to face my sect's ancestors even in the Yellow Springs. The method I used on you earlier is my sect's means of selecting disciples. The martial arts of my sect require a strong constitution, broad meridians, and abundant inner organs before one may enter the gate. Otherwise, learning them would be useless, and one might even die when one's qi flowed backward and burst through the meridians. So, are you willing to enter my school and inherit all that I have learned?" By the end, Strategist Ji's voice had turned solemn, and he stared at Li Yan without blinking.

Li Yan thought, The method for entering his school is so vicious, enough to make one wish for death rather than life. The techniques must be difficult to learn as well. And how can I simply believe what he says? As he considered how to refuse, he suddenly remembered something the squad leader named Liu Chengyong had said when he entered the city gate earlier that day.

"The scoundrels of the Meng Kingdom sent their armies to the border three times and still failed to break through. Strategist Ji even took the enemy deputy commander's head." That was what Liu Chengyong had said. If so, this strategist was a foe to ten thousand men. According to what he had said just now, he had entered the army only after being injured. Before that injury, what kind of peerless hero must he have been?

He looked again at the row of silver needles on the table. After the pain had vanished, his entire body had gone weak and limp. When he stood up, he had needed to support himself against the tabletop. Though he was not particularly large, if such a small table had been made from ordinary wood, most of his weight pressing down upon it would have made some sound. Yet this table had not made a single noise. Its sturdiness was clear.

He looked again at the row of silver needles, and his heart grew even more alarmed. The village quack had possessed silver needles too, and Li Yan had seen them before. A mere flick of a finger could bend them easily. How then had these needles been driven into such a sturdy wooden table? Li Yan was no fool.

Young men always worshipped heroes. Every youth harbored dreams of heroism, imagining himself saving all living beings and rescuing those he loved from peril. Li Yan was no exception. Though his thoughts were more meticulous than those of others his age, he was still, in the end, young at heart. In just those few moments, countless thoughts had shifted through his mind.

With that, an impulse rose within Li Yan. He had long forgotten the pain from before, pain that had made death seem preferable to life. He only felt that following the man before him would allow him to learn the heaven-piercing, earth-shaking abilities of his dreams. Raising his head, he looked at Strategist Ji and said seriously, "Since my lord has shown me such favor, how could this boy dare refuse?"

Upon hearing this, Strategist Ji showed no particular delight. He had expected it all along. Had Li Yan refused, that would have truly surprised him. Strategist Ji asked, "What is your name?"

"This boy is Li Yan, a native of Great Green Mountain," Li Yan answered.

"Can you read and write?" Strategist Ji asked again.

"This boy attended a private school for several years. Though I do not possess the talent to pass the scholar's examinations and earn a degree, I have read the classics thoroughly," Li Yan answered. He was not boasting. When he attended the village private school, the old scholar had valued him above all the others and hoped he would seek official honors. But given Li Yan's family circumstances, they likely could not have supported him if he continued studying. The old scholar had found it deeply regrettable. Even so, Li Yan had read through all nearly one hundred books in the old scholar's collection, diligently seeking instruction wherever he encountered something he did not understand.

"Have you learned any martial arts or internal cultivation methods?" Strategist Ji asked after hearing that Li Yan had also read the classics thoroughly, and the hope in his heart rose several degrees.

"This boy has only learned a few crude fighting techniques in the village. I have never studied profound martial arts, much less encountered any internal cultivation methods," Li Yan continued.

Strategist Ji smiled lightly. "Then that is good. Your body and meridians suit the requirements of my sect's cultivation method very well. I will tell you my sect's rules after we return. As for your family background and identity, I will send people to investigate them. I hope you have not concealed anything. You are also the last person to enlist today. Since that is so, come with me." With a flick of his wide sleeve, the silver needles and cloth pouch on the table vanished.

Li Yan was even more astonished, then bowed and answered, "Yes, my lord." But hesitation appeared on his face again, and he did not immediately follow.