Mister Li looked at Cao Lie and said, “What I now suspect is that the Shanhe Seal was not created by your Cao family ancestors — and furthermore, the destruction of the Shanhe Seal does not quite add up either.”

Cao Lie did not dare to argue, but at the same time he was reluctant to accept Mister Li’s conjecture.

His father had said: the Shanhe Seal was the Cao family’s enterprise — no one could take it from them.

But thinking about it more carefully, the Cao family’s rise to prominence truly only began in his father’s generation. To be precise, it owed a great deal to his aunt’s marriage into Prince Wu’s household.

If the Cao family had truly founded the Shanhe Seal hundreds of years ago, then the Cao family’s power should have far exceeded what it was now.

Imagine: a Cao family that had been dominant for centuries — would they not be a true underground dynasty?

Though he considered the Cao family already extremely powerful — powerful enough that even with the Shanhe Seal gone, he could still do largely as he pleased across most of the Central Plains.

Even so, that was nothing compared to the magnitude of power that centuries of accumulated strength would represent.

Thinking this through, Cao Lie could only offer a slight nod.

“Where is your father?”

Mister Li asked.

Cao Lie looked toward Li Chi, and Li Chi answered, “At Qipanshan.”

Mister Li thought the name Qipanshan vaguely familiar — as if he had heard it somewhere before.

After a moment’s haze, it suddenly came back to him: Yu Jiuling had just spoken of the pig farm capable of producing a hundred thousand hogs a year being at Qipanshan.

So Mister Li instinctively asked, “The family enterprise has been restructured?”

Cao Lie: “…”

Li Chi: “…”

Yu Jiuling: “…”

Mister Li had entered the Plum Garden not long ago and had just been saying to Yu Jiuling that once he had handled his business, he simply had to go see Qipanshan’s pig farm.

He hadn’t expected they would be heading there so soon.

No time to waste. About half a shichen later they had already left the Plum Garden, the column moving under the protection of the Tingwei army’s black cavalry, out of Yuzhou toward Qipanshan.

In the carriage, Mister Li said to Cao Lie, “Your father certainly knows something — that is why we must see him.”

Cao Lie sighed inwardly. He was not quite ready to face his father. Especially in circumstances like these — it felt all wrong somehow. That feeling of being an unfilial son had grown stronger and stronger.

Strong enough to become something like dread. He was afraid to face his father, afraid to meet his father’s eyes.

But he also wanted to know the truth — wanted to know what exactly the Shanhe Seal had been, and what kind of people those shadowy figures Mister Li had spoken of actually were.

Mister Li said his father certainly knew something — something even his own son had never been told…

Either it could not be shared with him, or it could not be allowed to reach him.

Perhaps the one truly happy person on this entire journey was Yu Jiuling, for she was genuinely proud. She was about to let Mister Li see for himself just how vigorously the pig enterprise she had personally overseen had flourished — pride welled up of its own accord.

“Why are you so happy?”

Xiahou Zuo noticed Yu Jiuling’s excitement and couldn’t resist asking.

“How could I not be happy?”

Yu Jiuling sat in the carriage, swinging her legs with an expression of self-satisfaction. “Would those pigs at Qipanshan have thrived that way without me? Let my Master see — those thousands upon thousands of piglets are all to my credit. Of course I’m delighted.”

Xiahou Zuo: “…”

Yu Jiuling: “Why are you making that face?”

Xiahou Zuo: “…”

Yu Jiuling asked earnestly, “Did I say something wrong?”

Xiahou Zuo replied earnestly: “Actually, no.”

Yu Jiuling lay back, propped her head on her arms, and smiled contentedly. “My Master said — of all the people in this world, he only acknowledges one disciple: me. Not even our lord can call Mister Li Teacher, right?”

Xiahou Zuo said, “What you study is different.”

Yu Jiuling: “That’s right. Master’s finest knowledge — passed to me alone.”

Xiahou Zuo sighed, at a loss for what to say — because Yu Jiuling was right. A man of Mister Li’s extraordinary talents — a man with the capacity to order heaven and earth itself — and yet his greatest pride was pig-raising. How could you blame Nine for being so proud?

Yu Jiuling drew a long, contented breath. “Master just taught me as well — from now on the pigs I raise need to be given a name, registered with the authorities, so that across all under heaven only pigs raised by me can carry that name. No one else’s pigs can use it.”

Xiahou Zuo: “I’ll bow to you — will you please shut up?”

Yu Jiuling: “Go ahead and bow.”

Xiahou Zuo raised his hand, and Yu Jiuling immediately flipped sideways out of the way.

In another carriage, Cao Lie had been silent the entire time. Li Chi of course knew what was weighing on him, so he reached out and patted Cao Lie on the shoulder. “Don’t be too tense.”

Cao Lie said, “I’m not tense. I was worried just now about what I’d say when I see my father — worried it would feel awkward and distant. But not anymore.”

“Then what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking about the Shanhe Seal.”

Cao Lie looked toward Li Chi. “Mister Li means to say that roughly several hundred years ago, one or perhaps several people who did not belong to this place came here, and using ideas that surpassed ours, founded the Shanhe Seal.”

Li Chi nodded. “That’s the meaning.”

Cao Lie asked Li Chi, “Then why does he not say where these people came from? Nor where he himself came from?”

Li Chi said, “I asked Teacher. Teacher said I would not be able to comprehend it — and explaining would be too much trouble. He has always been someone who hates trouble.”

Cao Lie sat with head bowed in thought, then after a long while asked Li Chi, “Have you ever considered whether Mister Li, the Shanhe Seal, and those people hidden in the shadows… are they connected?”

He looked at Li Chi, and Li Chi’s gaze flickered slightly.

Li Chi shook his head. “Probably not. Teacher has never meddled in the world’s affairs. When I was at the academy, he concealed his name and hid inside it. Then he went off to Cloud Hidden Mountain. And then he ran away to the Western Regions. If he truly wanted to accomplish something, why would he act like this?”

Cao Lie nodded. “That’s true… I was just wondering whether Mister Li and those people hiding in the shadows are from the same origin — only their goals are different.”

Li Chi said, “Teacher has many things he is unwilling to speak of. But since he has come to find us, it means he and those people are not of the same kind.”

Cao Lie let out a heavy breath. “Doesn’t this all sound rather surreal… like stories a storyteller would spin in a teahouse or a wine shop — myth and legend.”

He still couldn’t fully accept it — that the Cao family had also been merely a chess piece being used by others. A man as proud as he could not bring himself to admit that everything the Cao family had was never truly their own — just something that those people had entrusted to the Cao family to manage for them.

“Once we reach Qipanshan, perhaps we will have answers.”

Li Chi looked out the window. “There are many things in this world we cannot explain. But there will certainly be ways to resolve them.”

Cao Lie gave a sound of agreement and also looked out the window. “This realm is quite entertaining.”

Those were words Li Chi himself had said not long before.

The journey offered nothing particularly remarkable. After about six or seven days of travel they arrived at Qipanshan.

The last time Li Chi had come here was when they attacked this place. After it was converted into a pig farm he had never returned — but Yu Jiuling had been here many times.

Qipanshan was distinctive: on the outside was a ring of mountains with only a single entrance. Once through, there was fertile ground within — excellent for growing crops.

To reach the pig farm itself one had to pass through another ridge of mountains like a folding screen. Only then did you arrive.

The place was genuinely easy to defend and difficult to attack — which was precisely why the Cao family had once chosen it as their last refuge.

The massive structure on the mountain was still there: a fortress the Cao family had built with everything they had, sprawling across the hillside like a giant crouching above the valley, gazing down.

This time Mister Li did not ride a pig back into the Central Plains. Everyone had been too occupied with serious matters earlier, so no one had thought to ask him about it.

Once out of the carriage, Yu Jiuling couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked, “Master, where is your pig?”

Mister Li asked, “Which pig?”

Yu Jiuling said, “The wild boar king you used to ride.”

Mister Li said, “Sold it.”

Yu Jiuling asked, “Why did you sell it?”

Mister Li said, “Because it was valuable. A prince from a small kingdom in the Western Regions offered a chest of jewels for it. Where do you think my little wine shop came from?”

Yu Jiuling sighed. “A whole chest of jewels…”

She shot a pitiful look at Li Chi. Li Chi said, “Close your eyes — and close your mouth too!”

Yu Jiuling said, “Who knew the divine hawk was worth so much — and to think I always wanted to eat it. A whole chest of jewels. I don’t deserve it!”

Everyone entered the pig farm, and Mister Li understood at once why this farm could operate at such a scale.

Yu Jiuling had not explained it clearly — she had only said this was the Qipanshan pig farm. More precisely, it should be called the Qipanshan prison pig farm.

That made it entirely different from an ordinary pig farm. Civilian pig-raising meant constant comings and goings, and disease could spread easily.

But this place was enclosed, and Yu Jiuling had arranged everything according to what Mister Li had taught: even the men who came to haul away finished pigs were not permitted inside the farm itself. The finished pigs were driven out of the farm to a separate holding area where they were loaded onto carts, completely cutting off contact between the outside world and the pig farm.

The prisoners fed the pigs on schedule and cleaned on schedule — which was how such a yield was possible.

“What a fine place. What fine pigs.”

Mister Li sighed with admiration.

Li Chi reminded him, “Teacher, shall we attend to the real business first?”

Mister Li said, “You don’t understand — the moment I see a pigsty, I feel a certain… warmth.”

Everyone looked at one another, and even Yu Jiuling couldn’t quite make sense of that remark.

The party was welcomed inside, and before long Cao Lie’s father, Cao Ziluo, was brought in. He actually looked somewhat stouter than before.

The moment Cao Lie saw his father, he strode quickly forward, and barely through the door he went down on both knees with a thud.

All that he had been thinking about moments before — all of it forgotten. In a single form of address, every feeling he had was contained.

“Father.”

His head touched the ground.

Cao Ziluo, the instant he saw Cao Lie, could not hold back — tears streamed down his aged face.

The two spoke for quite some time before Li Chi and the others went over, giving the father and son space to reunite without interruption.

“You look in good health.”

Li Chi smiled and offered the remark.

Cao Ziluo did indeed appear considerably more at peace. He bowed toward Li Chi, then said, “Life here is steady and grounded. There is nothing much to worry about each day, and without things festering in the heart, the color in one’s face stays good.”

Li Chi looked toward Mister Li. “This is Cao Ziluo, former master of the Shanhe Seal. Teacher may ask him whatever you wish.”

Mister Li gave a quiet sound of acknowledgment, walked to stand before Cao Ziluo, and looked him up and down.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for Mister Li to ask — and waiting for Cao Ziluo’s answers.

Mister Li opened his mouth. Everyone held perfectly still.

Mister Li said, “Can this place genuinely produce a hundred thousand hogs a year?”

Cao Ziluo said, “Not quite — roughly eighty thousand or so. We call it a hundred thousand.”

Everyone present: “…”