Everyone lacks a mentor, and thieves are no exception. Li Yifu was a great thief of the imperial dynasty—only Yun Ye knew this. Right now, no matter who looked at Li Yifu, they would say he was a man of utmost sincerity and integrity. From some details of how he treated his parents and brother, Yun Ye discovered that this fellow’s hypocrisy was ingrained in his very bones. It would probably not be easy to grind it away.
If weeds cannot be removed, then the best method is to fertilize the weeds as much as possible, making them grow even taller and larger. When a tall and large weed grows in the field, looking down on all others, destruction will follow close behind.
Scheming against one’s own student was immoral, so Yun Ye regarded the process of fertilization as a kind of care for his disciple. Xiang Yu developed ambition and ended up overthrowing the Great Qin Dynasty. Who knew whether Li Yifu, once he developed ambition, would finish off the Great Tang? A cat-like figure such as this had a life that was truly too spectacular. It remained unknown whether he could shine brilliantly under Li Er’s command.
Liu Jinbao’s greatest ambition was to get his adopted son into the academy. The twelve-year-old youth constantly wandered before the Marquis’s eyes, so the impatient Marquis sent this young lad into the elementary school of Yushan Academy—having him in plain sight was very obtrusive.
As for the fellow currently sitting in the Yun family’s great hall, his greatest ambition was to unify the maritime trade rights in the Arabian Sea region. He had been preparing for this for a long time, constantly emphasizing that he could provide sufficient protection for the Great Tang’s maritime trade. If possible, he could also eliminate some forces that shouldn’t exist for the Great Tang. Of course, the Lingnan Navy would have to give him a certain degree of protection.
Hu Tonghai sat in his chair as if on pins and needles. He kept watching the main gate, ready to run if he discovered anything amiss, because Yun Ye had already glanced at him twice.
“Look, Marquis Yun, I, Zhang Zhongjian, never speak empty words. Maritime matters ultimately must be resolved at sea. Even if you want to keep a thief to justify your position, I, Zhang Zhongjian, am more of a threat than that Japanese woman. If I’m finished, the Great Tang’s long-distance vessels will have no protection. You won’t be able to sit securely in the capital either, will you?”
Yun Ye looked at Qiu Ran Ke with a playful expression and said: “What gave you the confidence to come and discuss ocean jurisdiction rights with an imperial marquis? According to the Lingnan Navy’s account books, at this time you should be fishing and making babies on that deserted island. If you have the ability to reproduce an entire race, I’ll admire you. Not only did you not go reproduce a race, but with this fellow’s help, you actually broke out of prison. I don’t believe Gao Shan Yang Zi dares to rob Great Tang cargo ships. As for the Arabs, I killed too few of them on Crab Island. As long as I find another small island in the Arabian Sea and fill it with human stakes, I think Great Tang merchants shouldn’t dare to touch them. Your conditions don’t attract me. Ocean rights belong to the empire, not to me personally, and not to you either.”
“The Arabian Sea region doesn’t belong to the empire. Yun Ye, don’t bully people too much. I, Qiu Ran Ke, am not easy to bully either.”
“Have you forgotten the saying ‘Under heaven, there is no land that is not the king’s’? As for whether you’re easy to bully or not, one must bully you to find out. Ever since you slapped my face with a shoe sole, I’ve always wanted to bully you. It wasn’t convenient at Li Jing’s house. Now you’ve finally run off to the great ocean—if I don’t bully you, who will I bully?”
“Just because I threw a shoe at you, you’ve held a grudge until now?” Qiu Ran Ke’s body trembled slightly.
“It’s not just that you threw a shoe at me—our feud goes back a long way. On the Longyou wilderness, you even kicked me. Have you already forgotten? Everyone in the world knows that Yun Ye is petty. How dare you forget?”
When Longyou was mentioned, Qiu Ran Ke clutched his head and roared. To this day he still didn’t understand why he went to the Longyou wilderness. This matter shouldn’t have happened, yet he could clearly remember every move he made on that wilderness.
It was a clear afternoon. He swept past a large clump of green grass, passed through a patch of shrubs, and then clearly saw a crude thatched hut. Strangely, the area around the thatched hut was all withered wild grass. An immortal-like old man with white hair and a white beard sat under a shed in front of the thatched hut. A lazy youth was lying on a reed mat listening to the old man speak. When he approached, the old man lifted his head and smiled, saying: “You’ve come?”
He didn’t know the old man, but the old man seemed to know him. The young lad poured him fresh water and curiously examined his backpack, even secretly opening it to look inside. He playfully kicked that youth, causing him to fall on his bottom. After that, what exactly happened after that? Qiu Ran Ke violently struck his own head, but unfortunately gained nothing.
If he hadn’t seen Yun Ye, he would have thought he was dreaming. But Yun Ye stood right in front of him, alive and well, and could describe everything from that dream. That dream was no longer a dream.
After Qiu Ran Ke roared once, he fiercely punched himself in the thigh. The intense pain made him suddenly become clear-headed. He looked up at Yun Ye and said: “What exactly did you master and disciple do to me?”
Yun Ye unhurriedly took a sip of tea, spat out the tea leaves that had entered his mouth, and then said to Qiu Ran Ke: “My pettiness is inherited from my master. The old man’s pettiness is even worse than mine. From childhood to adulthood, my master never bore to hit me even once. No matter how much trouble I caused, I never received punishment. You, on the other hand, kicked me hard, so… hehehe.”
Many people were listening to the conversation between Yun Ye and Qiu Ran Ke. Li Jing and Hong Funv were behind a screen. Dan Ying sat beside Yun Ye with his eyes closed, resting. Duan Hong was observing with great interest the potted plants in Yun Ye’s reception room. When these people unexpectedly heard Qiu Ran Ke mention Yun Ye’s master, they all without exception pricked up their ears. Even Xinyue, who was accompanying Hong Funv in drinking tea, was no exception—she had long been full of curiosity about this great-grandfather master of her family.
Qiu Ran Ke’s hand holding the teacup tightened. The entire teacup was actually crushed by him, yet his hand was completely unharmed. Only the scalding tea water flowed out from between his fingers. When he released his hand, the porcelain shards fell to the ground. He said weakly to Yun Ye: “Is this how immortals deal with ordinary people? Although I, Qiu Ran Ke, have killed countless people in my life, I dare say I killed all great treacherous and evil people. Moreover, I came to deliver things to you. The potatoes should have been delivered by me, right? Your Yun family’s current prosperity relies on the merit of potatoes, doesn’t it? Why did my good intentions bring great disaster?”
Yun Ye brought Qiu Ran Ke a new cup, poured tea, and looked at him with contempt, saying: “Could you choose not to deliver them? When did you ever have room for choice? Just like the Arabian Sea region—do you have room for choice?”
“Listen, it’s still the same words. As long as one pirate dares to pass through the strait, I will impale him on wood and stand him at the strait’s edge. You can compete with other pirates, but Great Tang merchants cannot be harmed. Recently, pirates in the Arabian Sea region have been too rampant. The Lingnan Navy is preparing to go eliminate a batch. Don’t let the navy’s warships see you—if they see you, they’ll eliminate you just the same. As long as you’re a pirate, you’re within their attack range. You’re no exception.”
Qiu Ran Ke understood this was Yun Ye’s maximum concession. Hu Tonghai was even somewhat overjoyed. The Lingnan Navy was going to eliminate pirates. As long as their group continued to honestly hide on their sea island, they couldn’t possibly be affected. On the contrary, those Goguryeo people, Japanese people, Arabs, and various other pirates would definitely suffer great misfortune. Perhaps after this campaign, the maritime power structure would undergo very significant changes.
Having achieved his objective, Qiu Ran Ke took his leave from Yun Ye. When departing, he twitched the muscles on his face and said to Yun Ye: “The greatest regret of my life is making that trip to Longyou. My entire being was controlled like a walking corpse. I would rather never recall this memory. This is the greatest humiliation of my life. Yun Ye, can immortals act with such impunity?”
Fearing Yun Ye would become angry, Hu Tonghai hastily dragged Qiu Ran Ke away. In his view, being used by an immortal once was by no means a shameful matter for an ordinary person.
Those feeling grief and indignation were not only Qiu Ran Ke, but also Li Jing and Hong Funv. Only today did they learn that the bold and brave Qiu Ran Ke, in Yun Ye’s master’s hands, didn’t even have the power to resist and was manipulated like a puppet. For the proud and arrogant Qiu Ran Ke, this was indeed the greatest blow.
Li Jing had today specifically requested an imperial decree from Li Er to bring Qiu Ran Ke to discuss South Sea matters with Yun Ye. Li Er believed that whether or not to help Qiu Ran Ke depended on hearing Yun Ye’s opinion, so he sent Duan Hong over, only letting him bring his ears to listen, not allowing him to interrupt. He only wanted to hear the negotiation process.
Duan Hong seemed to have discovered an enormous secret—a secret concerning immortals. Whether Yun Ye’s master was actually an immortal was something all the civil and military officials were speculating about. Holding to the idea that “the gentleman does not speak of strange powers and chaotic spirits,” they believed that Yun Ye’s master, Xiaoyao Zi, was merely a learned and profound scholar, absolutely not some immortal. Yun Ye had always said so as well. Now, it seemed there was a new interpretation.
Duan Hong knew very clearly what Qiu Ran Ke’s martial abilities were like. If it came to a life-and-death struggle, he himself would definitely not be Qiu Ran Ke’s match. Yet in Yun Ye’s master’s eyes, such an expert was like a puppet. This was truly astonishing.
Li Jing and Hong Funv left the Yun residence without even saying goodbye. No matter who it was, being toyed with in the palm of someone’s hand was not a pleasant matter, so they naturally had opinions about Yun Ye as well.
Duan Hong said with a smile: “Only today did I learn of Marquis Yun’s prestige in the South Sea. In your presence, Qiu Ran Ke had no choice but to lower his head—he had no other options. Who could have imagined that the person who truly decides ocean ownership rights is in Chang’an, not in distant Lingnan? Marquis Yun truly devises strategies within the command tent and achieves victory a thousand miles away!”
“If you have any nonsense to say, just say it. Say less pleasant-sounding things. The one who truly decides their fate is His Majesty, not me.”
“This is natural. It’s just that this servant very much wants to know what kind of existence Marquis Yun’s honored master is. I believe not only does this servant want to know—His Majesty certainly wants to know very much as well.”
“Not only does His Majesty want to know—I myself want to know. To me, my honored master is just my master—a kind old man, a benevolent old man, a wise old man, an old man unknown to anyone his entire life.”