Chapter 59: Enemies and Friends

"Kill Si Cao?" Wu Hongbiao's heart skipped a beat. "The two of us?"

"Exactly, the two of us."

In the fabric shop's small room, empty and still, Wu Hongbiao sat cross-legged on the floor. Chen Ji leaned against the doorframe of the doorway. The two faced each other in silence.

At this moment, Wu Hongbiao looked towards the doorway. Chen Ji was just standing with his back to the moonlight, his expression hidden.

He patiently advised, "You've only been in the Military Intelligence Department for a short time, and haven't interacted much with Si Cao. You might not have come up with such a dangerous idea."

Chen Ji realized that even Wu Hongbiao, the most elite spy, was hesitant about "killing Si Cao."

He couldn't help but ask, "How formidable is Si Cao?"

Wu Hongbiao said solemnly, "You're not an official, so you don't know how formidable officials are. I'm just a Houtian realm martial artist. Si Cao has been in the military for a long time. He's at least a peak Xiantian realm official, probably only a step away from the Seeking Dao realm."

Chen Ji's face showed confusion.

Wu Hongbiao was helpless. While gnawing on a coarse grain bun, he explained, "Forget it, you wouldn't understand these realms even if I told you. I'll give you the simplest example. Once in Jinling, Si Cao's whereabouts were exposed. Over a hundred people in the Secret Spy Department's military formation couldn't take him down. He hardily killed dozens of people and finally escaped by diving into the Qinhuai River."

Chen Ji pressed on, "If the Xiantian realm is already so formidable, how formidable would the Seeking Dao realm be? Is it difficult to cultivate to the Seeking Dao realm?"

"Of course it's difficult!" Wu Hongbiao sighed. "Look at me, I want to break through from Houtian to Xiantian and can't find a way, let alone Xiantian to Seeking Dao? Looking at the entire Lu City, there are probably only two Seeking Dao realm experts. One is Liang Doger, and the other person should be hidden in Yanshi, controlled by the Liu family."

Wu Hongbiao said seriously, "Once someone reaches the Seeking Dao realm, unless they are rushed and killed by a military formation of over five hundred people, it's absolutely impossible to take down this kind of expert. Liang Doger stepped into the Seeking Dao realm at the age of twenty-four. That year, he went to the border army of the Ning Dynasty and, in a confrontation between two armies, consecutively chopped down eight generals of our Jing Dynasty. His fame resounded far and wide. Unfortunately, Liang Doger's cultivation path was cut off by someone. Otherwise, he would be the most promising character for further advancement within the Ning Dynasty."

"Cut off by someone?"

Wu Hongbiao thought for a moment. "I always felt this might be the work of our Jing Dynasty, maybe even your uncle's work."

Chen Ji was startled for a while. "Why do you say that?"

Wu Hongbiao explained, "After Liang Doger's cultivation path was cut off, a female swordswoman once appeared in our Jing Dynasty's border army. She assassinated a quite talented general of the Ning Dynasty's border army. Someone recognized that she used the Liang family's sword art. She should be a character specially cultivated by someone in our Jing Dynasty to marry Liang Doger in the Ning Dynasty, just to ruin Liang Doger's state of mind and cut off his cultivation!"

"This female swordswoman not only cut off Liang Doger's cultivation path but also tricked away the Liang family's inherited sword method. It can be said to be killing two birds with one stone, truly a struggle of schemes."

Chen Ji doubted, "But why do you say this is your uncle's doing?"

Wu Hongbiao pulled out the stopper of a bamboo tube and took a sip of water. "Three years ago, your uncle was assassinated, and a female swordswoman also appeared by his side."

Chen Ji: ...

This uncle of his has a very complex background.

Even now, he hasn't been able to clearly understand that uncle. He always feels that the other side is always covered in a layer of fog, seeming good, seeming evil, achieving goals without regard for means.

Chen Ji murmured, "Houtian, Xiantian, Seeking Dao... What's above the Seeking Dao realm?"

"Divine Dao realm!"

Wu Hongbiao said, "According to your uncle, there are only a handful of people in this realm in the whole world. The head of our Jing Dynasty's Martial Temple, 'Lu Yang,' is one of them, and the head teacher of Huangshan's 'Apostle Zi' in the Ning Dynasty is also one of them. Even the Dao Court of Lu City, Old Jun Mountain, and the Luo Tian sect in the Ning Dynasty don't have such characters."

"Characters like the head of Martial Temple, Lu Yang, are grandmasters who have already touched the threshold of heaven and man! Furthermore, people in the Jing Dynasty always relish the legend of his 'Jia Zi Demon Purge.' Have you heard of it?"

"Never! Jia Zi Demon Purge? Are there still demons in this world?"

"They are demon sects scattered throughout the territory of the Jing Dynasty. They use sacrificing human lives as their cultivation path, often abducting children and women, and even slaughtering villages. They are extremely evil! The head of Martial Temple, Lu Yang, purged the demons, killing them completely, not leaving a single one!"

"Because he killed them in the Jia Zi year, it's called the Jia Zi Demon Purge?"

Wu Hongbiao shook his head. "No, the purge lasted for a Jia Zi."

Chen Ji choked. A Jia Zi is sixty years. No demon sect could withstand being locked in a death struggle with a Divine Dao realm grandmaster for sixty years.

Martial Temple!

Liang Doger once mentioned this place.

The other side once mentioned that Chen Ji shouldn't practice swordsmanship but should go to the Jing Dynasty's Martial Temple to learn the other side's 'Sword Seed'.

Until today, Chen Ji finally had a vague concept of the officials in this world.

But he himself... probably doesn't even count as a Houtian martial artist right now.

Facing a character like Si Cao, he even worried that using gunpowder wouldn't kill the other side.

How to make the other side honestly stay in the original place to be bombed by him is a problem.

Wu Hongbiao said, "Do you still want to kill Si Cao now? Give up!"

Chen Ji was silent for a long time. "But if I don't kill him, he will kill me."

Wu Hongbiao was also silent.

His expression seemed to show struggle and hesitation. He was different from Chen Ji. Precisely because he knew how formidable Si Cao was, he knew it was impossible to rely on the two of them.

But finally, Wu Hongbiao said, "Then kill him, but how?"

"I'll think of a way, there will always be a way!"

Chen Ji pondered for a moment and suddenly asked, "You say, why doesn't my uncle let me return to the Jing Dynasty?"

Wu Hongbiao thought for a moment. "I also can't guess his mind, but he once said that all noble sons should be tempered on the front lines, otherwise they will only become one by one idlers, fighting dogs and whoring women all day. That year, he risked his life to come south to the Ning Dynasty and returned to our Jing Dynasty with the supreme merit of assassinating the Chen family's Minister of War, single-handedly establishing the Military Intelligence Department! I think he might hope you become the same kind of person as him!"

Wu Hongbiao said with longing, "Our Jing Dynasty's military doesn't know how many people worship your uncle and want to become the same kind of character as him. I feel you should also set your ambitions this way and walk the path he once walked."

Chen Ji was startled. Did the Military Intelligence Department originate from his uncle?

It's truly a new discovery every day...

But if he has to assassinate a Minister or Grand Secretary to return, then he might as well not return to the Jing Dynasty.

The Ning Dynasty is quite good. "I still have one question. You were clearly almost dead, why did you still come to deliver a letter to me?"

Wu Hongbiao grinned and smiled. "I said we are brothers!"

"Understood!" Chen Ji turned to leave. "It's not convenient for me to stay here long. These next few days, I will send some food and water over every night. You take care of your injuries!"

Outside the door, Chen Ji stood under the moonlight in the backyard of the fabric shop, exhaling a long breath.

Thinking about killing Si Cao, perhaps he needs to plan carefully. At least, he needs to know what the other side looks like and what identity he usually uses to cover himself.

He forcefully flipped out of the courtyard and returned to the apprentice's bedroom to lie down. The sound of snoring was still in the room, but Chen Ji felt particularly peaceful in his heart.

The wounds on his chest and thigh began to ache again.

These pains constantly reminded him that weakness was the original sin of this world.

Chen Ji lay quietly on the communal bed, looking at the house beams. His mind was always filled with those words about officials from tonight.

He slowly closed his eyes, mobilized the molten flow of the sixteen lamp furnaces within his body, and divided half of it to condense within his heart.

Instantly, the power of the furnace fire declined, like a dying candle in the wind, seemingly ready to extinguish at any time.

The ice flow in Chen Ji's Dantian felt the weakening of its protective power and began to move restlessly.

It seeped from the Tianshu acupoint and spread all over Chen Ji's body.

The long-lost cold attack came, and Chen Ji once again fell into that mysterious and unknown dark cloud sea, returning to that ancient battlefield.

In the past, he had always been forced into this place. Before he was twelve years old, he had been plagued by this nightmare more than once. His parents even thought he had a serious illness and took him to see a psychologist.

And this time, Chen Ji actively came back.

As the little monk said, Chen Ji's body always had a gambling nature. It's just that other people gambled with money, and he gambled with his life.

Feeling the mist of the cloud sea flowing by his side, he was like a meteorite penetrating down from the sky, bringing a full body of black luck to fall on the green mountain.

Strangely, there was no more sound of shouting and killing on this ancient battlefield this time, as if everything had stopped.

Chen Ji saw a three-legged golden crow solidified in the sky, its tail wings not having the slightest shake.

He saw a golden feathered arrow just shuttle out of the battle formation, yet suspended in the air by some unknown power. The person who had drawn the bow in anger was also frozen in place.

He saw a giant, like Kuafu chasing the sun, rushing towards the battlefield, yet stopped in the posture of stepping out with one foot.

This battlefield was like a huge and lonely amber, imprisoning everything for ten thousand years.

Only that emperor wearing golden armor, holding a king's banner, and commanding the battle formation was nowhere to be seen.

"You still came to this place?"

A majestic voice resounded behind Chen Ji.

Chen Ji suddenly turned around and saw that figure, as majestic as a mountain range, the golden-armored person, standing just behind him, overlooking him from the mountaintop of the green mountain.

He felt no fear, just calmly asked, "What is your name?"

"My name is 'Xuan Yuan'!"

The sound of the two words 'Xuan Yuan' was like a great bell, seemingly resonating with heaven and earth. Even the black clouds above the sky slowly rippled open.

Chen Ji asked again, "And who am I?"

Xuan Yuan laughed heartily as if he had heard something funny. "You don't remember, you actually don't remember anything."

As he laughed, Xuan Yuan's tone became desolate. "The peach blossoms of Return to Ruins, the snow of East Kunlun Mountain, the sea outside Penglai, you don't remember any of it..."

Chen Ji frowned. "Exactly who am I?"

Xuan Yuan turned his head to look outside the green mountain. "This is the biggest joke I've heard in fifteen thousand years. Even you forget who you are, so who am I? What does my loneliness of these fifteen thousand years count for?"

Chen Ji quietly looked at the other side. He suddenly realized that this was absolutely not a real battlefield. Those battle formations, those divine birds and beasts, those people, were all fake.

And the golden-armored emperor 'Xuan Yuan' in front of him was the only living being in this world.

He saw the other side slowly calm down, and his voice said majestically, "Why do you come to my world? Aren't you afraid I'll borrow you to re-enter the world?"

"Afraid!"

"Then you still dare to come?"

Chen Ji said seriously, "Pass me the Sword Seed!"

He would not go to the Jing Dynasty's Martial Temple. Perhaps one day he would really go to the Jing Dynasty, but that was too long, and he couldn't wait.

Xuan Yuan was obviously startled when he heard Chen Ji's words, as if he had heard something unbelievable. Then he laughed heartily again. "Pass you the Sword Seed? Hahahaha, this is the second joke I've heard in fifteen thousand years."

Chen Ji was speechless for a moment. "Is it that funny?"

Xuan Yuan turned around and propped the king's banner on the mountaintop. He said in a deep voice, "Perhaps you know, you and I were once enemies?"

"I don't know, but perhaps we were also friends once!"

This time, it was Xuan Yuan's turn to be silent. After a long time, he said in a deep voice, "Then perhaps you know, what you once most looked down upon is precisely the Sword Seed I cultivated?"

Chen Ji quickly said, "I admire it, I admire it now, it's amazing, amazing!"

Xuan Yuan: ...

On the green mountain, the two faced each other in silence, falling into a suffocating awkwardness.

Xuan Yuan seriously sized up Chen Ji, seeming to need to re-recognize him. "You've changed too much!"

Chen Ji said seriously, "Actually, what I want to say is, I am not the person you know. My name is Chen Ji, just a little apprentice in the Taiping Medical Hall. I don't look down on the Sword Seed, and I don't have any grand ideals. I just don't want to be easily killed by others. I don't know what grudges you and that non-existent person have. I just want to gamble with you."

"Oh?" Xuan Yuan became interested. "How do you gamble?"

"You want to borrow me to re-enter the world?"

"Correct!"

"You pass me the Sword Seed. If one day you borrow me to re-enter the world, then my cultivation this time is just helping you cultivate!"

Xuan Yuan thought, "You want to gamble that I will never be able to re-enter the world?"

Chen Ji raised his head and looked directly at that majestic mountain range. "Gamble?"

The golden-armored emperor laughed. "Even you will use the method of provocation. The Sword Seed can be passed to you, but not because of this laughable game."

Chen Ji doubted, "Then for what?"

Xuan Yuan played a riddle. "For the ten li of peach blossoms in Return to Ruins."

Chen Ji didn't understand.

But if it's for peach blossoms, then it's for peach blossoms. For pear blossoms is also fine, and for camellias is not bad either.

"How to cultivate the Sword Seed?"

Chen Ji asked.

Xuan Yuan said profoundly, "To cultivate my sword path, you need to nurture sword intent with stars and seize others' sword intent to forge the Sword Seed. I chose the Ziwei Emperor Star. Among the myriad stars in the sky, you can choose one yourself. Remember, once chosen, it cannot be changed."

"How to nurture a sword with stars?"

"I will teach you now. To nurture a sword, you must have patience. The stars are distant and unreachable. The first time I touched the Ziwei Emperor Star with my divine sense, it took me four hundred and thirty-four years."

Chen Ji: ...

He didn't know how long passed. The ice flow seeped into Chen Ji's heart, attracting the surging counterattack of the molten flow and suppressing all the ice flow back into the Dantian.

The morning rooster reported the dawn.

Chen Ji slowly opened his eyes. Enduring the pain in his thigh, he lifted the quilt, got up with difficulty, and slowly moved into the courtyard.

He looked at the stars all over the sky and quickly found the location of the Ziwei Emperor Star.

The so-called Ziwei Emperor Star was actually just the North Star, located about 434 light-years away from his position.

The seven stars of the Big Dipper rotated around it throughout the four seasons.

If the sky were compared to a funnel, then the Ziwei Emperor Star would be the tip of this funnel, located exactly in the middle.

Chen Ji thought about what Xuan Yuan had said. Once the nurturing sword star is chosen, it cannot be changed, so he must be careful and careful.

But according to what Xuan Yuan said, just contacting the so-called divine sense to the Ziwei Emperor Star took a full four hundred and thirty-four years. If he wanted to cultivate this path, his lifeline would have to grow from his palm to his sole.

Even if he died of old age, he wouldn't be able to cultivate it.

Chen Ji leaned against the apricot tree, dressed in his clothes. Besides the pain of his wounds, he also felt some youthful melancholy.

The crow curiously sized him up, not knowing what was wrong with him again.

Chen Ji asked, "Uncle Crow, how do you think one can live to be four hundred and thirty-four years old?"

The crow opened its mouth and silently mocked him.

However, at this moment, the sun was just rising. A wisp of golden light shot from the farthest point on the horizon, dyeing the entire layer of clouds.

Chen Ji was suddenly startled...

Everyone knew that the sun was the nearest star to him!