Chapter 87: The Bright King

The remaining masters of the Liu clan dared not even breathe.

After a while, one of them asked cautiously, “Ancestor, what should we do now?”

“Investigate. Send more men. I want to know where this Lu Yan is. Once you find him, do not act. Report to me first. He wants to hold me in his grasp, but I will also hold his life in mine.”

The old ancestor’s killing intent grew ever more fierce, then slowly subsided.

In truth, he understood perfectly well: he had indeed been pinned down, and by a mere upstart at that.

He feared that Lu Yan had already planted many hidden pieces, and that if he were slain, those pieces would expose the fact that he was a spirit warrior.

A spirit warrior was taboo in the Great Chu Empire.

At the empire’s founding, all rites and methods for communing with spirit warriors had been burned to ashes, and an imperial decree had declared that anyone discovered attempting such communion was to be executed without mercy, along with all nine branches of their family.

Though the Great Chu Empire now existed in name only, its power extending merely over a few provinces centered on the Central Lands, the noble families of each region fought among themselves and the lords contended for supremacy; no one cared for the empire’s statutes.

But in the Six Prefectures of Eastern Ridge, spirit warriors remained taboo.

For the ruler of three provinces there was the Bright King.

The province of Azure State, where the Six Prefectures of Eastern Ridge lay, was one of the three under his dominion.

The Bright King was of the rightful imperial bloodline of the Great Chu Empire, and one of the three most renowned lords in the world today.

Though he had long ceased to heed the imperial commands, carved out his own domain, and become one of the strongest lords under heaven, he still strictly observed certain ancestral laws of the Great Chu Empire.

Among them was the matter of spirit warriors.

Even if someone spread the word that he was one, he could simply deny it.

But there was no guarantee the Bright King would not send men to investigate.

The Bright King detested spirit warriors to the depths of his being; he would rather kill an innocent than let one escape.

Once an investigation was launched, he would be exposed without fail.

He did not dare gamble on that.

His internal force mastery was hard-won; how precious was his life?

“Yes.”

The masters took their orders.

After three days and three nights on the road, they finally reached Hundred Herbs City.

They entered in shifts and then took lodging at an inn.

After that, Lu Yan, Wang Lin, Zhang Jun, and the others began looking for houses, and in the end each bought one.

Hundred Herbs City was a great city, and property prices were naturally higher. A house of roughly the same size as one in Longwind City cost about fifty percent more.

But Lu Yan lacked nothing in money. Wang Lin and Zhang Jun had also accumulated some savings over many years in the Scarlet-Clad Guard, so buying homes was no problem for them either.

Soon, they had settled on their houses.

Lu Yan bought a residence twice the size of the one in Longwind City, fully furnished and complete in every respect, for twelve hundred taels of silver.

The main reason was that he needed a training room. Later on, when Shen Yinuo prepared martial food, she would also need a large room; anything smaller would not do.

A few days later, they moved into the new home and settled down.

One difference from before was that there was now one more person in the house, naturally Shen Yinuo.

So during these days, the smile on Wang Cui’s face never once faded.

She kept glancing at Shen Yinuo, looking more and more satisfied the longer she looked.

These past few days, she had seen with her own eyes how Shen Yinuo and Lu Yan were always together.

That evening, Wang Cui prepared a table full of delicious dishes.

The four of them sat around the table.

“Yinuo, come, eat more. Look at you, you’re still a little too thin. Have some more meat and nourish yourself.”

Wang Cui kept adding food to Shen Yinuo’s bowl until the rice could no longer be seen beneath the pile.

Lu Yan was speechless. In the past, she had always been serving him, and now he had been completely left out.

“Thank you, Auntie. Uncle, Auntie, you should eat too. Mm, Auntie, your cooking is really delicious.”

Shen Yinuo had a sweet tongue, and she ate quickly as well. In just a few sweeps of her chopsticks, she had finished her bowl, devouring it like a gale sweeping through the clouds.

Wang Cui smiled so hard her eyes nearly vanished.

“If it’s good, then eat more. From now on, Auntie will make delicious food for you every day.”

“Okay, Auntie.”

“Yinuo, if that brat ever bullies you in the future, you must tell Auntie. I’ll teach him a lesson for you.”

“Okay, Auntie.”

Lu Yan: “...”

The next morning, Lu Yan and Shen Yinuo went out to the Hundred Herbs Trading Company.

It was time to prepare for the martial food they would cook later.

And cooking martial food required many tools, such as all kinds of martial kitchenware and various seasonings for martial food.

Lu Yan did not leave in his original appearance, but disguised himself as a vigorous man in his thirties.

They had not yet passed the period of danger; if the Liu clan sent masters after them, caution was still the wiser course until the situation became clear.

He also instructed Lu Qingshan and Wang Cui to avoid going out as much as possible during this time.

Hundred Herbs City truly deserved its reputation as a great city. Martial kitchenware that was hard to find in Longwind City could be found here in abundance. The only drawback was the price: a full set cost five thousand taels of silver.

Lu Yan could only grit his teeth and buy it.

After all, Shen Yinuo would be helping him prepare martial food from now on.

He also bought a large quantity of different beast meats, which Shen Yinuo, in polished courtesy, said she would use to practice on first.

Lu Yan and Shen Yinuo personally carried the martial kitchenware home in two trips.

He could have hired others to move it, but after spending such a conspicuous sum, he was afraid of attracting ill-intentioned eyes. Better not to expose their address. He himself was not afraid, only of implicating the two elders.

After bringing everything back, Yinuo’s martial kitchen was already beginning to take shape.

Then the two of them went to the market for a stroll.

The reason was simple: Lu Yan mainly wanted to see whether he could find dao food.

Unfortunately, after circling the market and repeatedly communicating with the Dao Book, he still found nothing.

There seemed to be no great pre-Chu ruins around Hundred Herbs City, so it was indeed not easy to find dao food.

“That martial fanatic has set up a challenge stage again.”

“No idea where he borrowed the silver from, but he boasted that anyone who could withstand ten moves of his blade techniques without defeat would receive five thousand taels of silver.”

“Who’s so generous as to lend him that much silver?”

“I heard he’s old friends with Young Master Li Cangqing of the Li clan.”

“Before it was a blade gift; now it’s directly silver. Let’s go have a look.”

Voices of discussion rose all around as a crowd ran toward a certain direction.

Lu Yan’s expression moved.

“Let’s go take a look too,” he said.

Shen Yinuo nodded.

The two followed the crowd to an open square, where a crude challenge stage had been set up. A figure stood there with arms folded around a blade, and who else could it be but Wang Dao?

“It seems Wang Dao has not yet entered the unity of man and blade.”

Lu Yan mused.

True enough, he had only displayed a single strike back then. Even though it had revealed a trace of the charm of unity between man and blade, it was indeed difficult to use that alone to break through.

Lu Yan even felt a little sorry for him; he had promised once that, if he had time, he would spar with him. Yet with so much happening lately, he had nearly forgotten about it.

“Is there anyone who dares to come up and fight? As long as you can survive ten moves of my blade techniques without defeat, I will give you five thousand taels of silver!”

Wang Dao shouted.

But no one went up.

People had already tried before. Without using vital energy, relying solely on blade techniques, few could last more than five moves, let alone ten.

Most of the onlookers were there merely for the spectacle.

After quite a while, still no one stepped forward, and Wang Dao’s face showed disappointment.

“This fellow... could he be here looking for me?”

Lu Yan guessed inwardly.

“Let’s go.”

Lu Yan and Shen Yinuo turned back.

“You know that man?” Shen Yinuo asked.

“We’ve met once. He’s a martial fanatic, utterly devoted to the blade,” Lu Yan briefly explained.

After returning home and resting for a while, Lu Yan went out alone. In an empty alley, he used the shifting technique to transform into a burly man of about forty.

It was exactly the same appearance he had worn when he last met Wang Dao.

Then he headed toward Wang Dao’s home.

The door of Wang Dao’s house was not closed. Lu Yan walked in and found that Wang Dao had already returned, and was practicing blade techniques in the courtyard.

Compared with before, the confusion in his eyes had only deepened. They were bloodshot, and he looked almost frenzied.

He wielded his blade with rapt concentration, not even noticing Lu Yan enter.

“Brother Wang,” Lu Yan called out.

Only then did Wang Dao react. He turned around, and his body jolted. Immediately after, he was overjoyed.

“Brother, good brother, you’re finally here. I missed you to death.”

“Brother Wang, my apologies. I’ve been tied up with urgent matters these past days and truly couldn’t get away,” Lu Yan said.

“No matter, no matter. Come, come, spar with me for a few moves.”

Wang Dao hurried back into the house, brought out a black iron blade, and handed it to Lu Yan.

Lu Yan had come precisely with the intention of offering guidance, so he did not stand on ceremony. Taking the blade, he began to spar with Wang Dao.

After several exchanges, Wang Dao fell into deep thought.

“Brother, once blade technique reaches that godlike level, how should one cultivate further in order to...”

Wang Dao asked several questions that had troubled him for years.

Lu Yan had a good impression of Wang Dao. This man kept his promises; even the divine weapon Blood-Red Blade had been given away without hesitation.

During this battle against the Liu clan’s blood earth vein, Blood-Red Blade had provided him with considerable aid.

So Lu Yan held nothing back, pouring out everything he had painstakingly understood over many years of blade cultivation.

The more Wang Dao listened, the more excited he became. His eyes shone, and he looked almost mad with delight.

Lu Yan knew that this would be enough for Wang Dao to digest for some time, so he took his leave and agreed to return after a while.

In the days that followed, Lu Yan kept close watch on the news from Longwind City.

Li Quan, Cao Hu, and the others had remained in contact with the brothers scattered throughout the region, and every few days they would relay the latest developments to Lu Yan.

This was the advantage of having people under one’s command.

If one were alone in the world, one could only grope in darkness; even if one found some information, it would already be outdated.

These past few days, the news that the Liu clan’s old ancestor had become an internal force master had spread far and wide like a gale.

Hundred Herbs City was not far from Longwind City, and the news had already spread here as well.

A noble clan with a grandmaster in residence could already be called a grandmaster-level clan. It was equivalent to having a lion crouched beside the bed of the Li clan.

It was impossible for Hundred Herbs City not to pay attention.

Thus, gathering information there was quite easy.

As Lu Yan had predicted, the Wei clan soon made a move.

The Liu clan’s old ancestor attaining grandmaster status was like a sharp sword pressed against the Wei clan’s back, causing them immense discomfort.

The Wei clan was already at war with the Qiu clan of Da’an Prefecture in the north. This was tantamount to facing enemies at both front and rear, unable to focus on either end.

To pacify internal troubles, external ones must first be settled.

At once, the Wei clan halted its war with the Qiu clan, contracted its front lines, and took defense as its priority. Then it drew a martial army, led by a grandmaster, and marched on the Liu clan.

This battle drew the attention of dozens of great and small noble clans nearby.

Especially those not far from Longwind City, who were all increasingly uneasy.

If the Liu clan were not destroyed, the situation in Li’an Prefecture would change beyond recognition.

How, then, were the martial-master-level clans near Longwind City to conduct themselves?

Could they still continue to pay tribute to the Wei clan and maintain their current independent status?

Certainly not.

The Liu clan would never allow it. By then, those martial-master-level clans around Longwind City would either be swallowed up by the Liu clan or submit to it, paying tribute year after year and severing all ties with the Wei clan.

The Liu clan was also making preparations, gathering strength to meet the enemy.

Half a month after the Liu clan went to war with the Wu clan, a great battle erupted outside Longwind City.

The outcome, however, astonished everyone.

Although the Liu clan’s old ancestor had only recently broken through to grandmaster level, his combat power was astonishing. He fought the Wei clan’s grandmaster outside Longwind City in a hundred clashes, and in the end neither side gained the upper hand. The Wei clan’s grandmaster led the martial army to retreat dozens of li and temporarily regroup.

Once news of this battle spread, countless people fell silent.

A newly ascended grandmaster could actually stand equal with an established grandmaster. The Liu clan’s old ancestor had strength far beyond expectation.

As for the martial-master-level clans around Longwind City, they grew even more restless, struggling over what choice to make.

One wrong choice could mean calamity and death.

If they chose the Liu clan, they feared the Liu clan might not withstand the Wei clan’s ensuing counteroffensive.

But if they did not choose the Liu clan, the Liu clan could destroy them right now.

They hesitated, they wavered, but most still chose to continue watching from the sidelines.

The Wei clan could not simply withdraw.

As long as they sent another grandmaster over, with the two grandmasters joining forces, the Liu clan’s old ancestor would certainly be defeated.

But news soon arrived that the Qiu clan in the north had seized the opportunity to send a great army against the Wei clan, preventing the Wei clan from drawing away another grandmaster to attack the Liu clan.

Thus the Wei and Liu clans formed a temporary stalemate.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Liu clan sent people to the surrounding martial-master-level clans and, with a hard-line attitude, forced them to make a choice.

These clans had no choice left. They could only declare one after another that they were leaving the Wei clan and joining the Liu clan, and send experts to rendezvous with the Liu clan’s army to jointly resist the Wei clan.

The Liu clan’s strength surged dramatically.

The End