Dan Ying was chopping firewood in his small courtyard. In the day of flying snow, he was bare-chested, his robust body wreathed in hot vapor. Snowflakes falling on his body immediately turned into fine water droplets, making his body seem coated with a layer of grease.
With a light kick at his feet, half a section of pine wood would always stand upright on the chopping block. Without visible movement, only a flash of cold light, and the pine wood would evenly split into four pieces. With a flick of his axe, the split firewood would fly under the eaves, neatly arranged there. On the wooden rack in the courtyard hung a sheep that had already been cleaned, covered with white snow.
Wang Cai was very afraid of Dan Ying, hiding behind Yun Ye, poking out his large head to vigilantly watch Dan Ying. Han Zhe shook both arms, and the luxurious fur robe on his body flew off, hanging high on a hook under the eaves.
Dan Ying glanced at Han Zhe, stood up holding the axe in his hand, and said quietly, “You have boundless grief and indignation in your chest. This greatly increases your fighting spirit. White Stone Palace martial arts rely on a belly full of resentment for support. Come try!”
Han Zhe said with reddened eyes, “That’s exactly my intention. I very much want to kill someone today, almost unable to restrain myself. Whether it’s someone else’s blood or my blood, as long as I see blood, that’s enough.”
Throwing away the gold-inlaid and jade-embedded scabbard in his hand, shouting, he tore off a piece of his clothing and bound his hand to the knife handle. His strength simply couldn’t compare to Dan Ying’s. This fellow was going all out today.
Dan Ying just stood there, leaning on his wood-chopping axe. Seeing Han Zhe already charging over with shuffling steps, he kicked, and a piece of pine wood flew toward Han Zhe. Immediately following, the snow-bright axe traced a semicircle, slashing toward Han Zhe’s neck…
These two fighting wouldn’t determine victory or defeat quickly. Yun Ye led Wang Cai far away. Ignoring the fierce wind-breaking sounds of their weapons, he walked to the rack and pressed the mutton with his hand, discovering it hadn’t frozen hard yet. In this condition, it was perfect for cooking hand-held meat. He added some firewood under the pot. Seeing the pot boiling, he used his short knife to divide the mutton.
He picked out a clean pine stick and threw it into the large pot, then cut the mutton into large pieces and tossed them in. Boiling over high heat for half an hour would make it ready to eat. Looking at the fire and feeling it was good, he returned to the kitchen to prepare salt and pepper. After preparing the salt and pepper, he added a bit of salt to Dan Ying’s dried chili powder. Eating mutton was most flavorful this way. Dan Ying liked eating it this way the most.
After finishing these tasks, he held a very large basin and squatted by the stove watching the rolling mutton in a daze. Wang Cai couldn’t get to the beans in the bag, so he ran over and nudged Yun Ye with his head, finally waking Yun Ye from his stupor. He found a smaller basin, filled it with some black beans, and placed it beside himself, listening to Wang Cai crunch the beans loudly. Wang Cai never ate cooked beans.
Han Zhe and Dan Ying’s battle had passed the probing stage. Earlier, the sound of weapons clashing couldn’t be heard, but now it rang out incessantly. As long as weapons started colliding, it meant Han Zhe was about to lose. Holding a saber much lighter than the axe yet unable to match Dan Ying’s axe in speed already showed inferior skill.
Looking up at the two fighting people, Dan Ying stood in place, breaking moves as they came. No matter which direction Han Zhe’s blade came from, he would meet it with the back of his axe. After repelling Han Zhe, he would step forward, turn the axe and use the snow-bright axe blade to slash at Han Zhe’s neck again. If Han Zhe didn’t dodge fast enough, Yun Ye even thought the axe would chop off Han Zhe’s head in the next moment.
Yun Ye vigorously stirred the mutton with the cooking fork, making sure all the meat cooked properly. Only this way would it not produce half-raw, half-cooked mutton.
Yun Ye’s mutton-cooking skill had now reached the perfection stage. He no longer added those random seasonings to the mutton pot. Tender mutton itself was the best delicacy. Adding seasonings would only lose the true taste of deliciousness. Only Li Er ate mutton by wrapping it with over ten pounds of spices, then roasting it.
Han Zhe was kicked flying by Dan Ying, falling with a splat beside Wang Cai, frightening Wang Cai into quickly hiding beside Yun Ye, even abandoning his food bowl.
Usually, when fighting reached this point, it should end, but today Han Zhe seemed to have no intention of stopping. He got up and continued attacking Dan Ying desperately. Before long he was kicked flying again, crashing into the wall with a sound that made Yun Ye’s teeth ache. It must have hurt terribly. However, it seemed Dan Ying was already showing mercy, because Dan Ying could break a bowl-thick jujube wood stake with one leg. Yun Ye had seen this—his two legs were no different from two giant axes.
Until now, Han Zhe only had blood flowing from the corner of his mouth and could still get up. This was quite telling. Old Wu She said Dan Ying was definitely the world’s number one expert now. He himself was old and weak and could only compete with Dan Ying for the time it takes to burn one incense stick. If they exceeded this time without determining victory or defeat, Wu She believed he would certainly lose!
The frequency of Han Zhe being kicked out increased. When Han Zhe charged forward again, after Dan Ying’s axe deflected Han Zhe’s saber, the axe marvelously cut through the cloth binding Han Zhe’s hand, then hooked with the axe and retrieved the saber. The saber spun circles on the axe. Dan Ying casually waved, and the saber embedded in the door plank. Laughing heartily, he tossed aside his axe and threw himself forward, sometimes fists, sometimes palms, his two hands continuously striking Han Zhe’s body. Han Zhe was like a human-shaped sandbag being beaten with thumping sounds. Finally, with one arm passing under Han Zhe’s ribs, Dan Ying lifted his arm and Han Zhe was heavily slammed to the ground. This time might have been a bit heavy—Han Zhe curled up his body and didn’t get up for quite a while.
Regarding Han Zhe’s abuse-seeking behavior, Yun Ye had no opinion. He continued stirring with the fork, found a chopstick to poke the mutton, felt it had reached the most tender moment, and called out to Dan Ying and Han Zhe, “The mutton is cooked. If you’ve fought enough, let’s start eating meat. If you haven’t fought enough, you continue.”
Han Zhe tremblingly climbed up from the ground, spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and said, “Not fighting anymore. Eat meat, drink wine! I want the strongest kind! My bones are about to fall apart—perfect for reviving the blood.”
Dan Ying brought out three wine jars from the house, threw one to Han Zhe and grinned, “Next time you want to loosen your muscles and bones, feel free to find me.”
Dan Ying limped over with the wine jar to the meat pot, speared a piece of fatty tender meat with his fork, sat by the pot and began eating heartily, a mouthful of meat, a mouthful of wine—seemingly very satisfying.
Yun Ye pushed the seasoning bowl over saying, “No salt added. Dip it in this to eat.” Han Zhe readily complied, immediately imitating Yun Ye’s manner, rolling the meat in the bowl before tearing into it in large bites.
Three people, three forks. No need for bowls, no stools either. They just squatted by the pot and chewed. Not talking while eating was a very good habit. No toasting either—those formalities had no use here.
One sheep wasn’t very filling. Yun Ye didn’t feel he’d eaten much—how was the meat in the pot already gone? He could only regretfully drop his fork, embrace the wine jar, take a drink and say to Dan Ying, “It’s too dangerous now. Otherwise I wouldn’t have called you over to help me. Dugu Mou—this person is inscrutable. We don’t harm people, but we must guard against him a bit.”
Dan Ying threw away the meat bone and said, “When it’s time to determine victory or defeat, we’re family—who else would you look for if not me at this time? Rest assured, I’ll watch Dugu Mou closely. He can’t play any tricks. In critical moments, I’ll directly kill him!”
“He told me this round of court struggle is best without bloodshed. I’ll tentatively accept that. If he really has one set of actions in the open and another in secret, his Dugu family clan will turn to flying ashes.”
Han Zhe looked at Yun Ye strangely and said, “If you’re truly worried, Dan Ying and I can go eliminate him tonight. Why bother with so much trouble? Hesitation when decisive action is needed will only bring chaos!”
Yun Ye smiled, “This is a trap the Emperor laid. In the future, the court will likely have a tripartite balance of power. I am military, Zhangsun Wuji is political, and now it looks like what Dugu Mou will take is financial power!”
“In these three powers, the imperial family occupies the primary position in each one. The Emperor has appropriately delegated authority in each. He may be testing a new political system. This is progress. We can’t let the Emperor walk the old path backward. Although the three things he’s established aren’t quite right, this is still progress, beneficial to the people of the world. He’s gripping enforcement power tightly without letting go—actually, he wants to place himself in the arbiter’s position. Forever standing in the active position.”
Han Zhe was even more confused. Looking at Yun Ye, he said, “He already has all power under heaven concentrated in himself. Why do these things? He’s so strong—whether it’s you, Zhangsun Wuji, or that Dugu Mou, don’t you all have to live by watching his expression? Doing this is almost unnecessary.”
Yun Ye smiled, “The current Majesty is naturally a divine dragon in the nine heavens. Dragons flying in the nine heavens can naturally control clouds and rain at will. But he cannot guarantee his descendants will be equally wise and decisive. This method is prepared for his descendants, because he’s discovered his sons or grandsons don’t all seem particularly outstanding. This is a father’s painstaking care!”
“You truly have no ambition to sweep across the world? In Tubo, I heard Ludongzan say you have natural rebellious bones. If you truly have thoughts of becoming emperor, I can persuade the Tubo people to help you!”
Han Zhe said with a smile to Yun Ye.
“Then kill until the whole world is a sea of blood? And then you Tubo people take advantage to occupy Hexi, Qingtang, and the Western Regions? Han Zhe, abandon this thought. Honestly be an immortal on your plateau. If you truly anger me, your plateau is not insurmountable. I only need to arm those surrendered Tubo people to make your plateau strewn with corpses and the people unable to survive. I don’t need to send a single soldier to the plateau. Those who can defeat you are only your own people!”
Yun Ye took a drink and said to Han Zhe.