Yan Liqiang still acted as Wang Shagen while this old man was the primary perpetrator of the Grand Chancellor’s assassination. The old man told him he was called Cui Lichen. This name was completely unfamiliar to Yan Liqiang. He couldn’t think of any famous master in the Great Han Empire with this name. Perhaps this was the mysteriousness of Jade Luo Palace.
In his battle with Lin Qingtian, while he heavily injured Lin Qingtian, he was heavily injured himself. So, this old man had been recovering this entire time. After leaving the capital city, Yan Liqiang protected him. In return, the old man told Yan Liqiang that he would tell him about Lin Qingtian after Yan Liqiang escorted him home. Yan Liqiang thought about it and agreed because if he didn’t get to the bottom of this, he wouldn’t be able to sleep. He felt there was a huge secret behind this.
The place the old man told Yan Liqiang to escort him to was Lan Province’s Dingyuan Prefecture. It was a small place next to Mount Azure Dragon.
The two were now in Dingyuan Province, and White Dragon Palace was in viewing distance.
After having dinner, Yan Liqiang paid the bill and the two left the restaurant. Yan Liqiang managed the carriage while the old man sat inside. The two made way during the day.
After leaving for less than one hour, the official roads became jammed. Quite a few carriages were stopped there. A few hundred meters ahead, there was a black mass of people, at least two or three thousand. They were divided into two groups and were engaged in a heated argument. Some people had shovels and even swords. They seemed like the nearby villagers, but for some reason they had started a conflict. The traffic on this road was half-blocked too.
“Shagen, go out to see what happened.” A voice sounded in the cart.
“Yes, Master…” Yan Liqiang stopped the carriage and jumped off. He came back soon with a strange face.
“What happened ahead? Did you find out?”
“I did, Master!” Yan Liqiang answered respectfully, “The villagers from two villages are fighting over land. There is a patch of grass next to the river between those two villages. Because there are a lot of sand and stones, it’s hard to grow crops so both villages didn’t care. They would occasionally let their sheep graze there. But this year, wool is becoming more and more valuable. Both villages want that land and so they’re fighting over it!”
“So that’s it. Then how long will it be obstructed for?”
“When I just went over, the local council people were there. It should soon be passable…”
“That’s good, that’s good!” There was a sigh in the carriage, “It’s the wine that reddens people’s faces and the riches that move people’s hearts. The Heavenly Smith of Gan Province, Yan Liqiang, created the wool cloth and even brought chaos here. I remember two days ago in Pingxi prefecture, those big agriculture families gave up their land for agriculture and went to graze sheep instead. Then, the smaller families copied this. The sheep can eat grass, but can humans eat grass? The lambs are fed but not the humans, what societal order is this…”
“Master is right, my family only has that small portion of land. My father still wants me to go home and manage the land to leave some food for the family. If the land is grown with grass, then that wouldn’t work. When I see that Yan Liqiang, I must criticize him, he’s such a bad person…”
“Cough cough cough…” The coughing went on for quite a while before stopping.
After about half an hour, the villagers finally went off. He didn’t know what the resolution was but the road was unblocked.
Yan Liqiang kept going on the carriage.
Two hours later, the road split into two: one toward the east, one toward the west.
“Master, do we go east or west?”
“East. In twenty more kilometers, there’s White Stone Town. I live there!”
“Alright!” Yan Liqiang flung his whip, making the horse go east. Seeing how there were no people on the road, he asked, “What does Master do in White Stone Town?”
This was why Yan Liqiang felt fear and respect toward this old man. His Psychic Serpent didn’t work in front of this old man at all. He didn’t know what the old man was thinking nor if he was telling the truth. The last person who was like this was the Emperor, but he might have some treasure that segregated the Psychic Serpent. But Yan Liqiang didn’t know how this old man could block it.
“Haha…” The old man laughed and seemed to know what Yan Liqiang was thinking, “I’m a retired teacher in the town. I have no children and only an old servant in the house. I have thirty acres of land that I rent out to people. I only take some rent each year and that’s enough for a living. It’s quite a free life!”
“Uh…” Yan Liqiang was shocked. “Is Jade Luo Palace at White Stone Town too?”
“Haha, how is that possible? I’ll tell you what you want to know once we get there. As for where the Jade Luo Palace is, that’s a huge secret…”
“Oh!” Yan Liqiang stopped talking and ushered the carriage.
When the sun was about to fall, a small town appeared in front of Yan Liqiang.
This town was on the east side of Mount Azure Dragon. It was even smaller than Liuhe Town. The town was covered in green and seemed like a utopia. A stream passed through the town from the mountain.
Perhaps because foreigners rarely came, when Yan Liqiang came, quite a lot of people noticed. Some little kids chased the carriage until it stopped outside a yard. When the old man got off, those curious looks disappeared.
“Grandpa Cui, Grandpa Cui is back…” A few kids called and came up.
“Grandpa Cui, did you bring back tasty food?!” a chubby kid sucked his fingers and asked.
The old man took out wheat candy in a cow skin pouch like magic and gave it to those kids, “Here, have it…”
Those kids joyfully took the candy and ran off.
The place wasn’t big — there only seemed to be a few rooms from the outside, along with a small patch of bamboo. The stream passed through the bamboo. Seeing the old man give the kids candy, Yan Liqiang really couldn’t believe that the master who almost killed Lin Qingtian lived in such a place.
“Huh, Master, you’re back…” The doors opened and a healthy-looking servant came out to greet the old man.
Yan Liqiang glanced at the servant. He was an ordinary person and wasn’t even a Martial Warrior yet. It seemed that even this servant didn’t know the old man’s real identity.
“A Fu, this is Shagen. He’s my nephew. He’s going to be staying here for a few days, so arrange him to stay in the guest room in the west wing!”
“Alrighty!” A Fu nodded and drew the horse carriage into the yard and started working.
Yan Liqiang and that old servant made dinner. Yan Liqiang hacked the logs, started the fire, and washed the rice. The servant used the rice to cook vegetables. He also fried some preserved meat and bamboo shoots. Then, he took out some dried carrots from a jar and the three had dinner.
After dinner, A Fu went to wash dishes. Cui Lichen called Yan Liqiang up to the second-floor office. He sat next to the window and poured a cup of tea.
“Try it. I picked these tea leaves myself from Mount Azure Dragon and then roasted it with the fresh sprouts of the pine tree in the spring. It has a special taste!”
Yan Liqiang drank and savoured it. He couldn’t tell if this tea was good or bad but the subtle pine flavor was quite unique indeed.
Yan Liqiang could only nod, “Mm, not bad, not bad!”
Cui Lichen acted like he enjoyed it a lot. When he drank, he even closed his eyes. After drinking, he let out a long breath before opening them. He looked at Yan Liqiang and said, “Alright, you can ask whatever question you have now!”
“What kind of person is Lin Qingtian?” Yan Liqiang asked the question he had been bursting to ask for two months.
Cui Lichen smiled and his eyes looked mysterious, “What, you still think Lin Qingtian is a human now?”
“If he’s not human, then what is he?”
“Demon!” Cui Lichen said cleanly.
“Demon?” Yan Liqiang frowned, “What is that?”
“In the eyes of our Jade Luo Palace, Lin Qingtian is a demon. He’s definitely not human!”
“Huh? How come I’ve never heard of demons on the Silver Continent in all these years?” Yan Liqiang asked with surprise.
“Because these demons aren’t from the Silver Continent — they’re from a foreign realm. Since ancient times, very few people who saw their real faces could live. You’re one of them. The battle between Jade Luo Palace and the demons have raged on for a few hundred years!”
“Huh…”
