Chapter 112: The Strong Man
The old man carrying the lantern, the Director of the Ministry of Rites' Department of Sacrificial Ceremonies, chose a secluded street and finally arrived at the City God Temple of Red Candle Town. Just as he was about to step over the threshold, the lantern in his hand entered the doorway first, passing through what seemed like ripples of water—a barrier used to separate Yin and Yang, ensuring the realm of the living and the dead did not interfere with each other. The ripples vanished in an instant, but within the old man's vermillion lantern, wisps of fireflies began to fly about, colliding against the walls, their light brilliant and flowing.
On the lantern in the old man's hand, someone had used a vermillion brush to write four ancient, simple characters: "Where the soul goes, so shall return."
Inside the City God Temple, which, along with the county government, managed the affairs of Yin and Yang, a Confucian-robed old man with a face as red as a jujube bowed to the newcomer and said in a clear voice: "The City God of Red Candle Town pays respects to the Director."
Flanking the Confucian-robed old man stood a civil official holding a jade tablet and a martial general clad in armor with a sword at his waist, a civet cat perched on his shoulder. Both were divine spirits that could be classified as Yin beings. Their postures, appearances, and features were identical to the clay statue of the City God in this temple, and the civil and martial statues enshrined in the Wenchang Pavilion and the Saint of Martial Arts Temple.
The old man carrying the lantern nodded in acknowledgment, his expression grave as he said: "You three must have already received the court's secret order. Within a thousand miles in every direction, all the great and small mountain and river gods, land gods, river goddesses, as well as the deities enshrined in the City God Temple and the civil and martial temples, are to intercept and kill a sword-wielding man named A-Liang. In the four cardinal directions, along one of his retreat routes, if anyone dares to shrink back in fear of the enemy or deliberately conceals their strength, they will have their golden bodies shattered after the event. The fragments of a water god's golden body will be buried at the root of a mountain, and a mountain god's fragments will be sunk to the bottom of a river. Those of you from this temple and the two pavilions can expect a similar fate, after which all of you will be erased from the local county records."
The old man allowed a slight smile to ease the tension: "I'm not asking you to rush to your deaths, only to do your utmost to block him. His Majesty is personally orchestrating this, so it's also an excellent opportunity for all of you to earn merit. Now that the iron cavalry of Great Li is advancing southward with unstoppable momentum, once our territory expands, many better and higher positions will open up on the lands of fallen kingdoms. As for what this means for you, and the intricacies involved, you have held your divine positions for a long time, so I believe you understand."
The three local deities spoke out generously in turn.
"Your subordinate would never dare to be perfunctory!"
"We will surely give it our all!"
"Having already died once for Great Li in my mortal life, and having enjoyed incense offerings for centuries, I am prepared to shatter my golden body if it means making that vicious dog pay with his life here!"
The old man nodded with satisfaction. "In the south, with its magnificent rivers and mountains, Great Li will certainly need to rely on all of you in the future to help stabilize the destiny of the land. In short, let us work together with one heart, to accomplish this great undertaking."
---
In the Jade Liquid River God Temple, a little closer to Red Candle Town, stood the burly man who had once appeared on Guan Water Street with the lantern-bearing old man. His true identity was the Director of the Ministry of War's Department of Military Appointments. One could say that this robust man held the power of life and death over most of the wandering martial artists in the Great Li Dynasty. However, compared to the old man's Department of Sacrificial Ceremonies in the Ministry of Rites—which was described as dealing with the mudfish and turtles of a swamp—the former dealt with celestial beings, discussing the art of immortality with a smile.
Inside the River God Temple stood two River Gods with imposing auras. One held a pitch-black iron spear, occasionally flickering with golden inscriptions. The other had a green snake coiled around his arm; the lively snake intermittently opened its small mouth, exhaling puffs of snow-white breath.
Both River Gods were shrouded in a misty, watery aura.
The burly man said in a deep voice: "Once the net is cast, the swordsman will most likely flee southward. That's why I've asked you to meet here. When the time comes, I will make the first move to block him. The saying 'death to a friend, not to oneself' is something I would like to follow, but since His Majesty might be watching us right now, I wouldn't dare even if I had ten times the courage. I hope both of you won't disappoint His Majesty either."
After speaking, the man strode out of the River God Temple, facing north toward Red Candle Town. He stripped off his upper garment, revealing a body of robust muscles and ferocious tattoos—a dragon across his shoulders, a pattern that ordinary martial artists would never dare to inscribe, and a tiger emerging from a forest on his back.
Under the moonlight, the man stood with his arms crossed over his chest, as immovable as a mountain, his presence soaring.
---
On the long street leading to the Pillow Post Inn, the woman who had tried to persuade Lin Shouyi to return with her to the Changchun Palace had not gone far. Instead, she had chosen a tavern by the roadside. A young, beautiful woman was serving as the barkeep, trading crude, vulgar jokes with the customers without batting an eye, while her timid husband simply busied himself with the work.
This Supreme Elder of the Changchun Palace sat beside the young girl who had once rowed the boat on the painted vessel. The girl came from a family of hereditary low-status boatmen. But now, she had received a great blessing: her newly found master had taken a liking to her and was bringing her to the Changchun Palace to cultivate the legendary immortals' arts. According to her master, who had seemingly fallen from the sky, the girl had considerable talent, likely due to her family's generations of living by the water and her karmic entanglement with Chongdan River. As a result, she was naturally attuned to water, possessing the kind of aptitude that might allow her to reach the fifth tier.
The girl didn't know what the fifth tier meant. At that moment, imitating her master, she was taking small sips of strong liquor—not because she feared getting drunk—no boatman's daughter couldn't drink—but because her master's innate, effortless grace made the girl instinctively want to emulate her.
The girl asked softly, "Master, why was that boy unwilling to come with us to Changchun Palace?"
The woman, whose true age was nearly 120 years, smiled calmly. "One can't exactly say he doesn't know what's good for him. It's simply that their destiny hadn't arrived yet. Cultivation is, of course, about building power, like constructing a house—you need to tamp down the foundation firmly. But what determines the ultimate height you can reach is still the cultivation of the mind—how far you've advanced on that path. That Lin Shouyi has a steadfast nature; he's a naturally excellent candidate for the Dao. Even if he doesn't enter our Changchun Palace, he can still go very far. So you must work hard, so that when you meet again someday, you won't feel inferior."
The girl hummed in acknowledgment and lowered her head to take a sip of wine.
One must admit, this woman, who seemed to never age, possessed remarkable bearing and magnanimity.
Red Candle Town experienced its first tremor.
Fortunately, though the momentum was great, the actual impact on the town's buildings was minimal—just the shaking of tables and chairs on the shore and the rocking of painted vessels on the river.
The woman's expression changed slightly. "So it's a fifth-tier Qi refiner."
Her heart heavy, she whispered, "I only hope it's not a legendary twelfth-tier or an eleventh-tier military Qi refiner."
She said to the girl, "When I leave later, no matter what happens, don't panic. Just stay right where you are."
When gods at their level fought, ordinary people suffered the consequences. Even if they knew disaster was imminent, they might not be able to escape.
It was truly unimaginable: if the world didn't have seventy-two academies to maintain order, if the most powerful military cultivators outside the Three Religions weren't inherently dependent on dynasties, if there weren't so many mountain and river deities to help the monarchs keep watch over and restrain the forces on the mountains—how chaotic would this world be?
She dared not imagine it.
Even though she herself was an immortal from the mountains.
---
A-Liang reached the open space outside the corridor. With his sleeves fluttering in the wind, he pressed one hand on the green bamboo knife and the other on the narrow blade Xiangfu. He took a deep breath, as if without the hat to shield him from the celestial mechanisms, without a certain deliberately applied suppression, this man could finally stretch his limbs, no longer constrained.
Seeming a bit uneasy, A-Liang looked in a certain direction and added another warning: "Although you are a Yin spirit with accomplished cultivation, the national fortunes of Great Li are currently flourishing. Every important pass and major city burns with intense Yang energy, which is inherently antagonistic to spectral beings like you. You can have Lin Shouyi try to refine a few of the Pure Yang talismans from that stack of talismans; they will serve as your travel permits."
Not far from the corridor, after A-Liang spoke, a shadow appeared. A figure slowly emerged into the view of Chen Ping'an and the other three. Wreathed in swirling black mist, except for a clearly visible head with distinct features and eerie, pupil-less, snow-white eyes, its tall form was faint and hazy, like a dragon entering the clouds, showing its head but not its tail.
This so-called Yin spirit nodded.
A-Liang laughed. "Then I'll entrust these children to you. You must escort them at least to Great Li's Savage Pass. After that, it'll be up to their own fortunes. It's not good to always be a mother hen protecting her chicks. 'A thousand people's compliant hums are not as good as one man's blunt truth.' I trust you."
The Yin spirit, speaking in a perfectly authentic local dialect, asked hoarsely, "Senior, why are you willing to trust a Yin being of unknown origin?"
A-Liang was amused and replied bluntly, "I'm judging by your face. With such an unfriendly appearance, you look like someone with a cold exterior but a warm heart and a chivalrous nature."
The Yin spirit hesitated. "Is it because it resembles senior?"
A-Liang was taken aback. "You damned ghost, half-human, half-spirit... you've got quite a mouth on you."
The Yin being grinned, saying nothing.
Li Huai had long since hidden behind Li Baoping. Tugging at the little girl's red cotton-padded jacket sleeve, he said fearfully, "Baoping, Baoping, it's a ghost! It's really a ghost!"
Lin Shouyi was full of curiosity but tried to restrain it, avoiding staring too directly, so as not to offend the Yin spirit. *The Books of Cloud-Soaring Scriptures* had briefly mentioned that Yin beings could achieve godhood through several paths: first, by relying on the power of incense and prayers from believers; second, by parasitizing the courage of military cultivators; third, by cultivating like Qi refiners—this path was the roughest and most difficult, but once they succeeded, the Yin spirit's soul was also the most stable. Even under the scorching sun, in the blowing of fierce winds, or bathed in chanting, they could use it to hone their own cultivation.
The Yin spirit glanced at Chen Ping'an, then at the coward Li Huai hiding at the back.
Li Huai said with a bitter face, "Stop staring at me! Look at Lin Shouyi, look at Chen Ping'an, or even A-Liang!"
The strange Yin spirit, which had been following them while carefully maintaining its distance, slowly dispersed its form. The gloomy corridor returned to normal.
A-Liang looked into the distance to the north but did not hurry to leave. He chuckled. "A slight surprise. So we still have a little time to chat. If any of you have anything you want to say, hurry up. Flattery, sycophancy, brown-nosing—bring it on! Who knows when we'll meet again?"
Li Baoping was the first to speak. "A-Liang, if the sword breaks, you don't have to return it. Because you and I are friends!"
A-Liang laughed heartily and gave the little girl a thumbs-up. "That warms my heart! I like that! But I'll definitely return Xiangfu intact to you, don't worry."
Lin Shouyi asked seriously, "A-Liang, in the future, during my physical training, do I need to make my body tougher than a pure martial artist or a military Qi refiner?"
A-Liang shook his head and said gravely, "No. Some people are suited for that, like me. Some people aren't, like you. Your path of cultivation, Lin Shouyi, can only be pursued through hard work in the direction of depth and subtlety. Do not waste your energy on miscellaneous practices."
The man, who had lost his hat, spoke these words with great seriousness.
The cold-faced, ambitious young man nodded gently, indicating he understood.
Li Huai muttered that A-Liang couldn't go a day without boasting. The child was about to step forward and go stand beside A-Liang for a closer chat when the elusive Yin spirit suddenly placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Don't wander off. Senior A-Liang is... truly too powerful. If he hadn't deliberately left space for us, his mere condensed, almost physical presence would be enough to annihilate a Yin being like me within a few feet. Besides, with a great battle imminent, Senior A-Liang's mind is already a thousand miles away in the north. He can't afford to be distracted looking after us."
Li Huai was stunned. Perhaps because these words were so shocking and absurd, the child momentarily lost some of his fear of the Yin being beside him. "Are you kidding me? That's A-Liang! I can even chase him around and hit him! You're not just saying that because you owe A-Liang a lot of money, are you?"
This Yin spirit, which was on the verge of condensing the beginnings of a golden body, smiled stiffly. To that reckless little bastard, it gave a forced grin. "It's a miracle you've managed to grow this old."
A-Liang leisurely withdrew some of his wandering consciousness. He looked at Chen Ping'an, Li Baoping, Li Huai, and Lin Shouyi. He suddenly felt that this encounter, which could barely be called an adventure, with all its trivial, mundane, and brief moments, actually felt pretty good in the end. This man, who was straining to suppress the power surging out of him, laughed. "Alright, that's enough."
His momentum was overwhelming, like a waterfall plummeting. He couldn't fully conceal it. The specially custom-made bamboo hat from before was meant to suppress this surging, violent energy.
Qi refiners of the world only lamented that their magical treasures and artifacts weren't enough to increase their cultivation.
A-Liang was not like that.
On the other side of that Great Wall, he could be uninhibited. There, a millennium's worth of accumulated sword qi and sword intent helped suppress the fierce and formidable spirit within him.
After slaying that great demon, he had first carved a character into the city wall, then passed through the Inverted Suspended Mountain to arrive in this world. From then on, A-Liang had to wear his hat and "keep his head down" to avoid being too conspicuous, lest the people above the heavens, gazing down at the Milky Way of this world, might catch a glimpse of his movements with a single glance. It wasn't that A-Liang was afraid of a fight; it was that he dreaded trouble.
A-Liang had never been afraid of anything in his life.
In that barbaric and desolate world, where eighteen ancient great demons ruled their respective territories, A-Liang's favorite pastime was to travel alone with his sword, venturing deep into enemy territory. He had fought eleven of them face-to-face, with life and death on the line. The longest fight lasted a full two months, stretching east and west for millions of miles. In the end, the Sword Qi Great Wall had no choice but to dispatch four great sword immortals to coordinate with A-Liang against six great demons.
A-Liang laughed heroically. "You four must always remember that the freedom of every strong person should have the freedom of the weak as its boundary! A true strong person's opponents are the invisible rules of heaven and earth, the powerful inertia of worldly customs, the iron law that everyone is subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death—these unseen existences. No strong person has ever become strong by trampling on the weak. They must become stronger by facing the strong, and they become more resilient through adversity."
A-Liang pointed a thumb at himself. "For example, me, A-Liang. After I finish dealing with this group from Great Li, I'm going to go elsewhere and defeat all the strongest fighters there."
Li Baoping clenched her fist, her face radiant. "A-Liang, well done!"
Li Huai was crying, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Lin Shouyi was flushed red. For the first time in his young life, he finally had a goal and a direction to pursue.
Chen Ping'an looked at A-Liang. At the moment of parting, he found himself unable to speak.
Finally, A-Liang turned to the straw-sandaled boy with his hair tied up with a jade hairpin and winked. "At such a young age, having such a heavy heart is no good. Chen Ping'an, you're a handsome young lad! Come on, give Brother A-Liang a smile."
Chen Ping'an forced a smile.
"If you're going to fight, fight big. The little fish and shrimp aren't worth it. I'm off!"
With a burst of laughter, A-Liang's figure shot into the sky in an instant. A series of rumbling thunderclaps echoed through the air.
Each time a thunderclap sounded, a huge cloud of mist appeared high in the sky.
The entire town of Red Candle shook violently, raising a cloud of dust that blotted out the sun.
The Yin spirit, his expression dazed, stood at the top of the corridor, looking up at those strange sights. He murmured, "Too strong... unreasonably strong..."
---
In the Great Li capital city.
A middle-aged man clad in bright yellow ceremonial robes was led, with bated breath, by two eunuchs from the Directorate of Ceremonial to a high platform for offering sacrifices to the gods of earth and grain. In the eyes of the dynasties of East Vase Continent, Great Li was considered an uncivilized northern barbarian, crude and vulgar in matters of rites and music. This wasn't entirely an unfair assessment of the Song clan of Great Li.
Beneath the high platform stood a tall, white-robed man. It was the Great Li military god, the Prince of the Realm, Song Changjing, who had traveled from Pearls of Li Cave Heaven to the capital.
There was a faint resemblance between Song Changjing and the man in the ceremonial robes approaching him, especially around the eyes and brows.
Even the proud and unyielding Song Changjing slightly bowed his head, cupped his fist in salute, and said, "Your Majesty."
Upon seeing Song Changjing, the middle-aged man smiled and patted him twice on the shoulder. He said with satisfaction, "The tenth tier, eh? Not bad, not bad. Worthy of being my little brother. When will you break through to the eleventh tier? When you do, I'll set off firecrackers for you myself to celebrate. If you think that scene isn't grand enough, I can issue an imperial decree for the entire court and the whole realm to set off firecrackers together. Hmm, that way, I can secretly stockpile firecracker materials beforehand..."
Song Changjing watched the Great Li Emperor, whose mind seemed to be wandering across the heavens. He couldn't help but feel exasperated. He changed his form of address. "Elder brother, how about we get down to business? Once we're done with the real work, we can chat?"
The middle-aged man smiled and nodded. "Oh, right. Business first. Making money can wait."
Leaving Prince Song Changjing behind, he walked alone toward the high platform and began to ascend the steps. Suddenly, he turned his head and asked with a grin, "Want to come along?"
Song Changjing replied with irritation, "I can't stand dealing with those two old men with strange temperaments. I'm afraid we'll end up fighting over a single disagreement."
The man laughed heartily as he continued his ascent, turning his head to tease, "Agreed. I'll definitely help you with small scuffles, but if you're really going to fight for your life with them, I'm not helping you."
Song Changjing's smile faded. With a serious expression, he asked, "Elder brother, did this have to be such a big deal? If I had known earlier that the man wasn't some Wei Jin from Snow Wind Temple, but an extremely dangerous guy who might be eleventh or even twelfth tier, I would have stopped you from setting up such a grand formation."
The man had already turned around again. He said calmly, "Great Li needs to tell the entire East Vase Continent that anyone below the thirteenth tier can be killed."
(This chapter ends)