Just as Yun Ye’s convoy passed through the last patch of farmland, there were still a few farmers with rolled-up trouser legs watering the fields. A small river flowed slowly past, turning at the large willow tree ahead like a jade belt encircling that ordinary village.

Yun Ye stood on that simple little wooden bridge, appreciating this rare tranquility. Just the manor walls built up from mud bricks made his thoughts leap across a thousand years. He loved this kind of quiet. He could even say he felt he should belong here. The moss on the walls, the incomplete brick tiles, the mooing yellow ox—all of it set his imagination wandering. The morning sun rising, the chorus of birds singing—the remote mountain village seemed even more serene.

He stood on the bridge viewing the scenery, not knowing that people viewing scenery were watching him.

In the farmland, several farmers were watching him. If Yun Ye’s eyesight were a bit better, or if he happened to have a telescope in hand, he would discover that among these five or six farmers were actually two of his acquaintances.

An old man in hemp clothes with a face full of wrinkles pulled up some wild grass, selected a grass stem with a sweet taste and placed it in his mouth to chew lightly. Only after squeezing out the last trace of sweetness from the grass stem did he spit it out. The several people sitting around him seemed filled with respect for him. No one made a sound, only waiting for the elder to speak.

“Lishi, you’ve spent the longest time with this child. Do you believe what he says? Does he truly come from those marvelous and mystical places? Tell us your views.”

“Master Ming, Lishi spent a total of five months and ten days with him. I judge him to be a very good child—intelligent, wise, learned. Especially rare is that his heart and mind are extremely broad. This disciple once questioned him using many schools’ secret teachings, discovering he seemed to know something about all of them, and moreover they were all pertinent, absolutely not wild ramblings. Although some things were incomprehensible, this disciple is willing to believe the answers he gave would be correct.”

“The path of learning is merely a minor way, not what we seek. This old man only wants to know how he knows of the White Jade Capital. From what he said, his master once had half a foot in the Heaven-Reaching White Jade Capital. For some unknown reason, he retreated back. Is his principle that becoming an immortal means becoming a stubborn stone true? Regardless of truth or falsehood, this old man has lived in seclusion for over fifty years. What I seek is that one day I can ascend to the Heaven-Reaching White Jade Capital and achieve the Great Way. Even if I become a stubborn stone, this old man would not hesitate. The heart seeking the Way needs to be firm. Lishi, you’ve rolled in the red dust for too long. Your Way-heart has gradually become polluted. Worldly people to us are like ants—one must not rashly give rise to compassion.”

Lishi bowed his head with hands in sleeves, clasping his hands in agreement.

The elder asked the big man beside him again: “You searched for his traces in the mortal world. Did you find anything?”

That big man was actually Xi Tong. At this moment, he wore old hemp clothes, stood barefoot in the field with his calves covered in mud, with not the slightest shadow of a chivalrous warrior remaining.

“This disciple turned the wilderness of Longyou upside down but found not a single clue. Following the trail from his little horse, I traced it back to a small horse herd. That should be where he first appeared. Sixteen disciples only discovered campfire ashes and wild rabbit remains beside a spring. No other findings. He seems to have appeared in the mortal world in an instant. Whether he’s truly the young son of the Yun family cannot be determined. At that time there was sudden disaster. The parties involved long ago either died or fled. Added to the passage of time, it can no longer be verified. This disciple disguised himself as a chivalrous warrior to approach him and discovered he has no martial skills—just an ordinary young man. Nothing more.”

“You don’t know that Ye Tuo, following the route Lishi provided, went to the Heavenly Lake of the Queen Mother of the West on Mount Kunlun that Yun Ye spoke of. He confirmed it’s indeed as he said. The winter climate there is cold. Ye Tuo lost sixteen men before reaching the Heavenly Lake. He didn’t speak wrongly. There’s only a pool of azure water. Indeed there are no flowers that bloom in all four seasons—only boundless ice and snow. It’s truly a barren land. Ye Tuo is among the most skilled in this world, spending years traversing wilderness and desert. Even he nearly didn’t return. How could Yun Ye, a mere child, have reached there?”

The elder had always been an omnipotent existence in his disciples’ eyes. Now facing a youth’s problems, he furrowed his brow, greatly troubled.

“This disciple also obtained the potato from the imperial palace. Now it’s the second planting, and the yield is astonishing. The wild claim of fifty shi does indeed have basis. However, to obtain the actual item, we lost an insider who had been planted in the palace for many years. Yun Ye’s home has a strange seasoning called chili peppers. This disciple questioned all the barbarians, yet no one recognized it. His home also has five stalks of crops. Yun Ye seems extremely concerned about them. I heard him tell the old madam at home they’re called corn and in the future will also become priceless treasures like potatoes. This disciple is dull-witted and still cannot discover where these three crops originated.”

The elder looked at Yun Ye on the bridge, his face revealing a smile as he muttered to himself: “Could you truly be wood without source, water without root? Boy, you should be an immortal, must be an immortal. Otherwise, this old man’s fifty years of persistence becomes a joke…”

Chinese people’s hope for immortality was fanatical. From ancient times to the present there were those seeking longevity, from high and mighty emperors to hermits wandering the wilderness. They thought of many methods to achieve the purpose of longevity. Regrettably all failed. They could only fabricate some legendary stories for self-comfort. For the sake of longevity, some didn’t even care about their existing lives.

When the elder first learned the name White Jade Capital from another’s mouth, he was greatly delighted, wildly joyful. Afterward he kowtowed before the ancestral tablets to confess his crimes, saying he shouldn’t have doubted his ancestors. So the stories passed down by the ancestors were true, had not deceived later descendants. The Heaven-Reaching White Jade Capital truly existed. Someone had once reached there. Who reached it first, the hemp-clothed elder didn’t care. He only cared that the road he walked had an endpoint, wasn’t an endless path to the horizon.

Yun Ye’s appearance was too strange. How many reclusive families were all investigating his background, all seeking his master, all wanting to know what he experienced in those fifteen years. They unanimously gave up directly contacting Yun Ye, only wanting to figure out the mystery of Yun Ye through meticulous investigation.

He gave many qi-cultivators extremely great confidence, gave many people wanting to pursue longevity a concrete example. These people approached Yun Ye through various channels, blocked countless troubles for him, even killed for him.

“In heaven the White Jade Capital, five towers and twelve cities. An immortal strokes my head, I bind my hair and receive long life.”

These were Li Bai’s poetic lines, the only bit Yun Ye knew. Before this, he didn’t even know what the White Jade Capital was, only felt these lines of poetry were very ethereal, very immortal-like. To make his own story consistent, he fabricated a mysterious place. He didn’t know what price others paid.

If the hemp-clothed elder knew the truth of the matter, he would tear Yun Ye to shreds alive and swallow him. Regrettably, all clues pointed to Yun Ye being a master’s disciple. So the affair still had to continue developing. People would still die, energy would still be expended. Those delusional about obtaining longevity arts were merely delusional.

“Deceiving people to death without compensation!” Old He huddled in the horse cart beating his chest and stamping his feet. Watching the earth become increasingly desolate and the grass grow increasingly tall, his heart felt utterly cold. Seeking a path to wealth on a battlefield with blades and spears dancing wildly and crossbow bolts like locusts—how foolish he was! His entire person brought less than five hundred strings of cash. He couldn’t see the slightest hope of turning these five hundred strings into five thousand or even fifty thousand.

This leaky broken ship that was Yun Ye—he had rashly climbed aboard. He didn’t know if this was fortune or disaster.

Biting the hard dry biscuit in his mouth, washing it down with cool water from the leather pouch was difficult. Several blood blisters had already formed on his throat, all cut by the dry biscuit. Tears welled in his eye sockets but he wouldn’t let them fall.

For the whole family, I must persist. Thinking this in his heart, Old He immediately felt his image become lofty.

After persisting two days, Yun Ye could no longer persist. Riding a horse wearing armor running back and forth in the formation was very impressive. After a long time, his inner thighs were rubbed raw and swollen by the saddle. The slightest touch made them burn painfully. Sun Simiao didn’t care either, saying chafing from horseback riding was perfectly normal, didn’t require treatment, just needed persisting a few days and it would be fine.

Most hateful was traveling in ancient times. A section of road on the map no longer than a finger had to be traveled for more than half a month.

Thinking back to the Warring States period’s Wei Wu soldiers: “Wearing three layers of armor, wielding twelve-shi crossbows, carrying fifty arrows on their backs, placing halberds atop, wearing helmets with swords at their waists, carrying three days’ rations, and marching one hundred li in half a day.”

What kind of people could run one hundred li in half a day? He asked Old Niu and was scolded for his trouble, even mocked that Yun Ye had studied his books into a dog’s belly. The chi measurement at that time was thirty percent smaller than the present chi. In other words, running sixty or seventy li in half a day—and these were elite troops. Ordinary soldiers who could run one hundred li in a day were qualified soldiers.

Still not satisfied after scolding, he grabbed the hard bow in his hand and randomly shot into the grass. After shooting, he had his personal guards carry back the game to add a dish for the evening. Then he lay down, saying he felt dizzy and needed quiet rest. He chased Yun Ye out of the horse cart and went to sleep himself.

Very worried the personal guards would carry out a person from the grass. Roasting human meat late at night—Yun Ye would respectfully decline.

Actually not bad—a sickly person could still shoot a gray wolf to death. He quite admired the old fellow. On this journey he was enjoying blessings! Old Sun, Yun Ye treated him like a giant panda, taking care of him. The daily meals were all personally made by Yun Ye. Plus Sun Simiao gave him acupuncture and applied medicine every day. Blessings even the emperor didn’t have—he alone enjoyed them all.

The troop actually didn’t need Yun Ye to manage it. They were all veterans. Early on, alert scouts were sent out. Both flanks also had cavalry sentries. It was completely a standard marching posture. For these fellows who crawled out of piles of corpses, there was no difficulty whatsoever.

Lying on the cart shaft looking down at the ground, watching the road slowly retreat, after watching for a while he got dizzy. Then he lazily slept a bit. One little nap, one little nap—grinding his way toward Shuofang City.

Ahead came the sound of horns. Old Niu sprang up at once, standing on the ground with arms spread wide. Immediately personal guards helped him don helmet and armor. The coordination was skilled. By the time Old Niu’s warhorse was led over, he had already finished dressing. He mounted, removed the horse lance from the victory hook, shouted to Yun Ye “Hide yourself well,” then lightly tapped the stirrups and shot forward.

Yun Ye had just finished putting on armor when he heard two more horn blasts. Those veterans who had been concentrating fully preparing for battle immediately relaxed. Everyone did what they were supposed to do.

After asking someone, he learned they were actually their own people, not Turks. After comforting Old He who nearly wet his pants and getting him to release his grip on his armor, he was about to walk forward to see exactly who had come to greet them. But he saw Xu Jingzong crawl out from under the horse cart, calmly dust off his body, and seeing Yun Ye looking at him, came forward and clasped his hands: “Marquis Yun, is this the military force Shuofang sent to meet us?”