“Xi Tong, you’re also a man—why speak confused words before someone who understands? If before I only suspected, now I can be certain you have connections with those people. All the secrets lie in this head—it has told me many things. Do you still want to lie?” Being deceived by Xi Tong made Yun Ye somewhat heartbroken. He had held the most beautiful hopes, thinking he had seen a true gallant hero. Who knew it was all just an act?
After the heartbreak came anger. Did he need to watch you act? In the future world, how many actors performed better than you, more realistically than you? In Great Tang, only I get to fool others. Being fooled myself is an utter humiliation.
Although unwilling to admit it in his heart, the pride of a transmigrator had long been imprinted in his bones. Seemingly easygoing but actually arrogant, this innate sense of superiority had been interpreted by Li Er as the pride of a master’s disciple, inadvertently fitting the requirements of Yun Ye’s identity.
Xi Tong was bound up with high-quality hemp rope as thick as a finger. Seeing his unconcerned appearance, Yun Ye pulled out a section of leather cord from his pocket. He had the guards loosen the binding ropes and used only this leather cord to tie his two thumbs together. After Xi Tong secretly exerted force, he found it was useless. His hands couldn’t apply leverage, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t break free. This was the first time tension appeared on his face.
“Marquis Yun, I came with good intentions, traveling a thousand li to bring you your enemy’s head. Why treat me like this?”
“Xi Tong, I hope your name is real and not used to deceive me. That way I might feel a bit better inside. Tell me, what do you want to know? If I know, I’ll certainly tell you. But don’t expect to step outside this military camp again.”
Li Jing sat smiling in the commander’s seat, watching Yun Ye and Xi Tong clash. Yun Ye could actually get angry? Li Jing watched with great interest from the side.
“Where did I slip up?” Under Yun Ye’s furious gaze, Xi Tong proved himself a true man after all and stopped making pointless excuses.
“At first I thought you came to see me, and my heart was full of joy. Meeting an old friend in a foreign land—how comforting is that? If not for this head, I wouldn’t have discovered anything. I would have just thought this was a chance encounter. I never want to look at friends with suspicious eyes, because once you’re suspicious, you can’t be friends anymore. But you brought a head—and a head full of doubts at that. What do you take me for? This head belongs to Ye Tuo, not Fan Yuqi. I’m just a small marquis, not the First Emperor of Qin. Is it necessary to scheme against me so elaborately? Even if you want to scheme against me, at least prepare more thoroughly. Don’t let me see the clues. Even if I had to be a deceived fool, I don’t want to see myself deceived by a friend. This is the cleanest piece of land in my heart. If you insist on defiling it, then you are my enemy.”
Yun Ye’s fury instead calmed Xi Tong down. He asked word by word: “Where did you see through it?”
“You kill people all year round—haven’t you discovered that cutting a head from a dead person’s body is very different from cutting it from a living person’s body?”
“Boy, quickly tell us what’s different?” This time it was Li Jing asking. His left hand held a lamb leg while his right hand grasped Ye Tuo’s head, looking left and right, seeming very interested to know.
“A head cut from a living person’s neck will have muscle contractions. No matter how fast the blade, there’s no way to cut such a smooth incision. Only one cut from a dead person’s neck will be so neat. Xi Tong, didn’t you notice? You probably forgot—I’m a pretty good doctor. Ye Tuo had less than two months left to live. Did you think I couldn’t see that? Do you really take me for a fool?”
Li Jing chewed the mutton while looking at the dead man’s neck, nodding repeatedly. Those who didn’t know would think he was gnawing on a human head.
“The Hidden Gate—on the third day after you told us about that place, forty people set out ahead to scout the way. Now three months have passed and not one has returned. Only a carrier eagle brought back a letter. We can’t understand the contents—we need you to explain. The power of the Hidden Gate is beyond your imagination. If you don’t want anything to happen to your family, tell me—what are white bears?” Xi Tong looked coldly at the people in the tent.
Li Jing waved his hand to dismiss the guards. Only three people remained in the tent.
Yun Ye retreated to sit on a wooden stump, saying with a smile: “If my family members experience anything at all from now on, including accidentally tripping on the road, I’ll count it against you. You also know I’m not a person easily threatened. Once something happens that exceeds my tolerance, the retaliation you receive will be cruel beyond your wildest dreams.”
The words were said with a smile, but Li Jing felt a chill from them. Xi Tong narrowed his eyes to slits and said: “You don’t even know where we are—how will you retaliate?”
“There are no eternal secrets in this world. Someone will know. Someone will definitely know. There are still many reclusive families in this world. I’ll ask them one by one until I find out.”
Yun Ye seemed to lose interest in Xi Tong and turned to leave. After walking a few steps, he said to Xi Tong again: “Don’t think you’re very powerful. You haven’t seen what powerful really means. I’ll wait for you to harm my family members. As long as there’s harm, I’ll magnify that harm a thousand times and return it to you.”
“Wait! Tell me—what are white bears? What is the kun? Do those things really exist there? As long as you tell me, I, Xi Tong, swear on my ancestors that I will never harass your family.”
Li Jing lay on the table with his hands propping up his cheeks, watching with great interest.
“White bears, also called polar bears, are covered in white fur all over their bodies, extremely ferocious, weighing a full thousand jin—the largest exceed two thousand jin. The kun? Your scouts probably mistook giant whales for kun. I’ve heard the largest whales weigh hundreds of thousands of jin—even the largest ships we build now aren’t as big as them. Moreover, you actually went to that place now, unfamiliar with the people and land, and it’s always nighttime there. Those forty people probably can’t come back.”
“Ha ha ha! Good that they exist! So white bears and the kun-peng really do exist! The unknowable land—shouldn’t it be in the wilderness? Marquis Yun, we remember this favor and will certainly repay it generously in the future!” After Xi Tong finished speaking, he became somewhat crazed. If his thumbs weren’t bound, he would have been dancing with joy.
Yun Ye looked with pity at Xi Tong who had fallen into madness. These people feared not even death to achieve the immortal way—he really didn’t know what to say about them. No wonder the Falun Gong would have such a broad market in the future world. Let these perverted lunatics go die. The purely primitive Arctic tundra would make them pay a heavy price. If last time he had some guilt about being forced to trick them into going to the Arctic, now there wasn’t a shred of hesitation in his heart.
Leaving the tent, Li Jing said to Yun Ye: “Did my third brother also go to that damned place?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know your third brother. There’s more than just one big-bearded man in this world, right? The place they’re going to is extremely dangerous—truly wilderness. Though there are also people there, they’re no different from savages. ‘Nine deaths and one life’ isn’t enough to describe how dangerous that place is. If your third brother really went, you’d better set up a memorial tablet for him.”
Yun Ye was in a very bad mood at this time. Just thinking about how Xi Tong had actually threatened his entire family’s lives made anger involuntarily surge out. So when Li Jing asked, he answered without thinking.
The dignified Grand Commander of the expedition had been disregarded. Li Jing naturally became furious with shame and shouted: “Someone!” Immediately guards came running to receive orders.
“Take the fellow in the command tent right now and behead him for this old man! Hang his head on the flagpole for public display!”
Yun Ye quickly intervened. Now wasn’t the time to fall out with those people. Beheading Xi Tong would be easy, but if his companions ran to Chang’an for revenge when his family had no preparation at all—if something happened to Xiao Ya and the others, could he even go on living?
“Grand Commander, we’re returning to Chang’an tomorrow. Let’s take this fellow with us. At least we have a hostage in hand. This fellow’s status probably isn’t too low. When the time comes to bargain, we’ll have some capital, won’t we?”
“If you want this fellow to live, then honestly tell me the whole story from beginning to end, without omissions.” Yun Ye forgot that half of Li Jing’s skills came from Han Qinhu’s teachings and half from Daoism. Hearing such bizarre and strange tales, how could he not be curious?
Having no choice, Yun Ye could only tell Li Jing the whole story. Who knew Li Jing would say with a smile: “That reclusive sect you mentioned—this old man has heard a bit about them. Back in the former Sui era, they frequently appeared in the mortal world. At that time they were competing for the *Treatise on the Causes and Symptoms of Various Diseases*. This book was written by Chao Yuanfang, the Imperial Physician Scholar of the former Sui. It’s said the book recorded miraculous skills for raising the dead and growing flesh on white bones. For this book, over three hundred people died in total. This old man was ordered to thoroughly investigate the matter. When pursuing them to Taihang Mountain, they completely disappeared. This old man only knows their leader’s name is ‘Tian Xiangzi.’ You can call them the Tian Clan. They are descendants of the ancient Mohists. I’ve heard they betrayed their ancestral teachings—regarding labor as shameful and luxury as honorable, running completely contrary to Master Mo’s teachings. They use their own ingenious and depraved skills to amass wealth wantonly. It’s said they have the art of turning stone into gold.”
“Grand Commander, there’s no such thing as turning stone into gold in this world. Even if you see it with your own eyes, don’t believe it. Human eyes sometimes make errors and deceive you without you knowing. If you have leisure after returning to Chang’an, this humble one will perform stone-to-gold transformation for you. I remember Tian Xiangzi wasn’t he the Mohist Juzi? How did he become a traitor?”
“This old man doesn’t know about this matter either. If you want to know, you can only ask the person inside the tent.” After telling Yun Ye about these past events, Li Jing immediately extricated himself.
Yun Ye always felt something was wrong somewhere, but he couldn’t find the source for the moment and could only let things be.