Coming to Qipan Mountain, one might say Li Chi and the others had found their answer — yet in truth, the answer was far from clear, or more precisely, far from complete.

Cao Ziluо did not know who those people were, and he was firmly convinced they had long since died.

They were from his grandfather’s era — and now, even he himself could be considered an old man. His father had lived a long life as well. Who could possibly survive for nearly two hundred years without dying?

If such people truly existed, then this world would have been thrown into complete chaos.

*They are lying low.*

That was Mr. Li’s assessment.

Just like himself — except the way they had chosen to lie low was considerably more ostentatious.

“Sir.”

Li Chi could not help asking: “Are they from the same place as you?”

Mr. Li turned to look at Li Chi. He said nothing, gave no indication either way. Under that steady gaze, Li Chi began to feel uncertain, wondering whether he ought not to have asked the question at all.

After a long silence, Mr. Li said, “I’ll go find them. When I need your help, I’ll find a way to get word to you.”

“Sir, to go alone…”

Li Chi said urgently, “If even the Shanhe Seal was something they created, and they are still alive, then they must surely be…”

Mr. Li said, “Extremely powerful — is that what you were going to say?”

He gave a faint smile. “I’m also extremely powerful.”

Yu Jiuling said, “Master, but still — going alone is dangerous. Why not take me along? I’m fast. At the very least, I can carry messages for you.”

Mr. Li shook his head. “I move freely on my own. With you in tow, you’d only get in the way.”

If anyone else had called Yu Jiuling a hindrance, he would have bristled at once. But when Mr. Li said it, what rose in him instead was guilt and self-reproach.

Compared to the master, perhaps everyone was a hindrance.

Yu Jiuling’s disappointment was plain on his face and in his heart. He truly, desperately wanted to go along and help — but he also knew his master was telling the truth.

The disappointment was there, visible and unguarded.

Mr. Li raised his hand and patted Yu Jiuling on the shoulder. “Don’t fault your master for being blunt — your master has always gone his own way. Besides, you’re not a woman…”

Yu Jiuling: “…”

Mr. Li said, “Though this time, I’m a bit worried I might get bored. So I’ll take you along to talk and keep me company.”

Yu Jiuling’s eyes went wide. “Ah!”

Li Chi and the others were equally taken aback. Mr. Li was actually taking Yu Jiuling along…

“Don’t worry.”

Mr. Li smiled. “If I’m willing to take him, I’ll bring him back safely.”

Li Chi said, “But sir — how will you find them? They’ve been hiding for so long. They even destroyed the Shanhe Seal to cover their tracks. Now it will be even harder to follow any leads.”

Mr. Li said, “Perhaps they themselves are wondering whether they managed to kill me or not.”

Li Chi was startled.

In the Western Regions — that encounter had been absolutely unplanned. Perhaps the person who walked into Mr. Li’s small tavern had only stepped in for a brief rest, hoping to enjoy a cup of the Western Regions’ renowned chilled grape wine to ease his fatigue. He could never have imagined that instead of chilled grape wine, he would come face to face with a chilled lager.

His startled reaction inside the tavern had been entirely instinctive — which was precisely why he had turned and left immediately.

Why had he turned and left?

Mr. Li had pondered that question… The only answer was that those people were afraid of him.

Though Mr. Li wasn’t entirely sure why they would fear him, this was undoubtedly a very useful piece of information.

“Where was the Shanhe Seal’s original headquarters?”

Mr. Li asked Cao Ziluо.

Cao Ziluо replied, “In Yuzhou — but not in Yuzhou City itself. It was at Xianming Mountain in Gubang County. My father mentioned it to me once: those seven men gathered at Xianming Mountain to decide to establish the Shanhe Seal.”

Mr. Li looked toward Li Chi. “Focus on what you need to do. This land has been in turmoil far too long. Your task is greater than mine. When I find those people and eliminate them, it will not have much immediate impact on this world — but what you accomplish is different. If you succeed, you will save countless thousands of lives.”

With that, Mr. Li raised a hand. “Little Nine — let’s go.”

“On it!”

Yu Jiuling fell in at once.

After walking a few steps alongside Mr. Li, Yu Jiuling suddenly turned and ran back, jogging up to Li Chi. “Boss, send someone to let my wife and kid know I’ve gone out on business. Tell them I’ll be back in about a year or so.”

Li Chi said, “Alright, you—”

He hadn’t even finished speaking before Yu Jiuling spun around and ran off again, waving over his shoulder as he went. “Don’t worry about me — I’m with Master, so there’s nothing to fear! Master is absolutely the most incredible person in the whole world!”

Mr. Li sighed. Taking this rascal along — was it the right call or the wrong one? *I’m not incredible at all*, he thought inwardly.

Once the two of them were out of Qipan Mountain, Yu Jiuling suggested that since they had a long way to go, they might as well ride horses to Gubang County.

Mr. Li refused flatly. His reason: riding horses was too exhausting.

But Yu Jiuling had a faint, nagging suspicion that Mr. Li simply did not know how to ride.

Mr. Li caught the doubt in his eyes and let out a scornful sound. “You’ve seen me ride a pig across the world — and you think I can’t ride a horse?”

Yu Jiuling: “The pig was big.”

Mr. Li: “Even a big pig is still a pig. A horse is also bigger than a pig.”

Anyone who overheard this exchange without context would likely never guess the two of them were debating whether a pig’s back or a horse’s back was larger.

In the end, Mr. Li climbed back onto his camel carriage, with Yu Jiuling taking up the role of driver.

But he had never driven a camel carriage before and had no idea whether it was the same as driving a horse-drawn cart.

He asked Mr. Li, “Is there a command for it?”

Mr. Li narrowed his eyes. “What command?”

Yu Jiuling said quite earnestly, “Master — when you drive a horse cart, there are commands: *dé*, *jià*, *yù*, *wò*. I wonder if there’s something similar for driving camels.”

Mr. Li nodded. “There is.”

Yu Jiuling asked, “What is it?”

Mr. Li reached behind him, produced a slip of paper, and picked up a charcoal pencil. “I’ll write it down for you.”

He wrote quickly, then handed it to Yu Jiuling. Yu Jiuling had been a little worried he might not recognize the words — after all, some of the characters for horse cart commands weren’t ones he’d necessarily know either.

He lifted the paper and looked — then stared blankly.

Without thinking, he read it aloud: “Dad, let’s go.”

Something remarkable happened: the two camels pulling the cart actually began to walk forward.

Mr. Li watched Yu Jiuling’s expression of utter astonishment and could not help the corners of his mouth curving upward. *At the very least*, he thought, *with this simpleton along, I won’t be bored.*

Yu Jiuling, amazed and curious, asked, “When master drives the cart himself — do you also address these two… elders… the same way?”

Mr. Li: “…”

On the surface, the two of them looked about the same age. It was impossible to tell from appearances alone who was the elder.

Though Yu Jiuling was barely past twenty, he looked old. There was a rumor in the jianghu — that the more often a man did a certain thing, the faster he aged — and truly, what the jianghu talked about sometimes had no sense of decorum whatsoever.

Yu Jiuling already had a mature face to begin with. A young man barely in his twenties who, at first glance, looked closer to forty.

Mr. Li, on the other hand, looked almost youthful. When Li Chi had first met him, he had looked a certain way — yet now he appeared, if anything, a touch younger than he had then. Mostly because the food at the academy had not been particularly good, and he’d often had to rely on Yan Xiansheng’s charity.

The two of them set off in the camel carriage. Yu Jiuling had a map on him. The camels walked at their own pace without needing him to constantly call out “Dad,” which he found rather agreeable.

He unrolled the map and looked it over. From Qipan Mountain to Gubang County was no short distance — roughly seven or eight days of travel, and in a direction away from Yuzhou City.

The two of them chatted idly as they went, and the journey did not feel particularly dull.

There was also one topic that Yu Jiuling and Mr. Li could discuss happily — a topic Li Chi and Mr. Li could never have enjoyed together, mainly because Li Chi lacked the relevant experience.

Of course, whatever little experience Yu Jiuling had was hardly worth mentioning in Mr. Li’s presence.

Appearance was where Yu Jiuling was at a disadvantage. If anyone had overheard their conversation, they would almost certainly have concluded that *he* was the one with the salacious mind.

The seven or eight days passed quickly. When the two of them entered Gubang County, both wore slightly odd expressions.

Even someone as well-traveled and knowledgeable as Mr. Li had not known that within Yuzhou’s jurisdiction there existed a county like Gubang — a thoroughly and entirely ethnic minority county.

Whether in dress or appearance, the people here were quite different from Yu Jiuling and the others.

The residents of this place wore predominantly black, regardless of gender or age.

The distinction between men and women lay in the cuffs of their sleeves. Men’s sleeves were edged with blue, but in varying numbers — the older the person, the more blue borders appeared.

Women’s sleeve edges were not a single color. Yu Jiuling and Mr. Li, the kind of people who noticed such things, had picked out the pattern within moments.

Young girls had white edging on their sleeves. Older girls had red. Women further along in years had yellow. And elderly women had a length of multicolored cord sewn along their cuffs.

Yu Jiuling climbed down from the carriage and asked around, learning that the people here were all of the Yan clan, and had been living here since before the founding of the Dachu state.

According to their own ancestral legends, their forefather had been a great wild goose flying south from the north when it was wounded.

It fell here, and was nursed back to health by a beautiful young woman. Out of gratitude, the goose transformed into human form and took the young woman as his wife, and the two of them lived together in happiness ever after.

When Yu Jiuling came back and recounted this story to Mr. Li, Mr. Li was visibly taken aback.

He asked Yu Jiuling, “How could a wild goose transform into human form?”

Yu Jiuling: “The legend doesn’t say.”

Mr. Li sighed. “Not even a shred of rigor… And besides — a wild goose transforms into a *man*, then marries a young, beautiful woman? And that’s considered repaying her kindness?”

Yu Jiuling said, “I thought that goose seemed a bit improper too.”

Mr. Li said, “Improper hardly covers it — absolutely shameless, if you ask me…”

Yu Jiuling said, “Master, if you put it that way, then I’d argue there’s something unfair about it — all those myths and legends where beings transform into beautiful young *women* to repay a kindness, yet no one says *they’re* shameless…”

Mr. Li looked skyward and sighed, “My dear student, you’ve found the crux of it.”

Yu Jiuling: “What?”

Mr. Li: “Never mind…”

He looked at Yu Jiuling. “I asked you to find out where Xianming Mountain is. Did you ask?”

Yu Jiuling: “I did. Xianming Mountain… is not a mountain.”

Mr. Li narrowed his eyes. “Xianming Mountain is not a mountain — then what is it?”

Yu Jiuling raised his hand and pointed straight ahead. In the distance, something that looked like a stone stele was visible — it appeared to be a naturally formed large rock, perhaps just under one zhang tall.

“That.”

Yu Jiuling pointed at the rock and said.

Mr. Li: “Those seven people deliberated their plans *under this rock*?”

Yu Jiuling nodded. “I asked around — asked more than one person. They all said that is Xianming Mountain.”

Mr. Li looked toward Yu Jiuling. “We may have run into trouble this time.”

Yu Jiuling asked, “Why?”

Mr. Li said, “The last time I heard of seven brothers transforming into a great stone, I was still a child. Those seven transformed into a giant boulder to suppress a demon. The eldest was a man of tremendous strength, a force of nature. The second could see a thousand li and hear the wind from every direction. The third had an iron head, a bronze body, and was invincible. The fourth could breathe fire. The fifth could breathe water…”

Yu Jiuling: “The fifth one sounds fun.”

Mr. Li: “???!!!”

—