Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Heavenly Realm, the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month in the 17th year of the Yuanping reign…
After nearly three months of arduous trekking, Yan Liqiang and the people from Four Seas Escort Agency finally arrived within the borders of Lai Province. At this time, the temperature in Lai Province had dropped steeply, welcoming the first snowfall of the winter for this year.
The chilly wind and snow about the size of goose feather blew against their faces. Feeling as though his face was being stabbed by an icy knife, Yan Liqiang pulled up his face veil while riding on his rhinodrake steed to prevent the snowflakes and chilly wind from getting into his collar. Without even touching it, Yan Liqiang could feel a thin layer of snow on his eyelashes.
Yan Liqiang rode with gloves, but he only used one hand to hold the reins. He clenched his other hand into a fist and then unclenched it. Repeating this in an endless cycle, he switched to another hand after a while. He stretched out the hand that was previously holding onto the reins, then started clenching and unclenching his fist again.
In such cold weather, this was the only way to prevent one’s fingers from getting stiff. It kept the hands nimble at all times, so that a bow could be drawn in the shortest amount of time and accuracy could be guaranteed when encountering any dangers. This was the experience that Yan Liqiang had picked up along the way.
The public road was quite empty and the snow was already more than a foot thick. Rhinodrake steeds started slowing down as the party trudged heavily along the way. The travel and all kinds of dangers they encountered during their journey over the past few weeks made everyone exhausted both mentally and physically. Despite running into quite a lot of dangerous situations, the size of the party fortunately didn’t suffer further reduction under Yan Liqiang’s protection with the powerful bow in his hands. Only a few escorts sustained some injuries, but they were not life-threatening.
“Cheer up, everyone! We’ll try to make it to Su’an City before nightfall today, then we’ll be back at the Divine Sword Sect tomorrow…!” Yan Liqiang, who was walking in front of the party, turned his head around and shouted to everyone, trying to boost the party’s morale.
At this moment, Yan Liqiang’s position in the party was completely different from when they were still at Jinling. He was definitely the core and leader of the party now. A few escorts in the party even looked at Yan Liqiang the same way as they did toward their former escort leader. Like just now when Yan Liqiang shouted, Wang Hui and a few others also shouted along with him. “Cheer up, cheer up! Don’t be moody now…!”
The shouts of the escorts slowly roused the silent group.
Before they even reached Lai Province, everyone had been thinking about returning. Now, apart from their physical exhaustion and being able to immediately loosen up, the group didn’t really feel that much excitement. If anything, it was more like they were relieved to have survived the calamity and there was also an indescribably complex feeling within them. A few months ago, the party had left in such a spectacular manner. Little did anyone expect for only a few of them to return today. The chaos they saw along the way and the rumors floating about cast a shadow over everyone’s hearts.
They all continued walking on the public road for a while before they made a turn and spotted another border checkpoint ahead of them.
Yan Liqiang recalled that there weren’t any checkpoints along this road when they left Lai Province a few months ago, but there were now two additional sentry towers. On the public road outside the border checkpoint, there were some spiky barriers with a wooden log placed in between them to obstruct cavalry.
When the people defending the border checkpoint noticed Yan Liqiang’s party advancing toward them, a group of armed people came out from the sentry tower at the side, seemingly on alert.
“What’s going on? Why is there a checkpoint up ahead…?” Wang Hui urged his rhinodrake steed to speed up a little to Yan Liqiang’s side so he could ask for his opinion. “Why don’t I take a look over there first while everyone wait here…?”
During the journey, everyone had been on edge by the string of endless unexpected situations they got caught up in — they had no idea where all these White Lotus Society, brigands, bandits, local evil tyrants, and soldiers had come out from. It was still relatively safer around the cities, but as they moved further away from the cities, there were people setting up checkpoints, plundering, killing, and robbing. It was extremely chaotic everywhere. Hence, the escorts from the agency and the others in the party grew tense as soon as they noticed the border checkpoint up ahead of them.
Yan Liqiang had silently removed his gloves. He clenched his fist, then shifted his bow bag to the side where it would be easier for him to access his bow. He observed the situation around the checkpoint through his squinted eyes. “No need, they have already noticed us. We will go there together. Being too cautious will make them even more suspicious of us and they’ll be on guard instead. It might lead to trouble. We’re already at Lai Province. The mountain gate of the Divine Sword Sect is less than several hundred li from here. The sect probably won’t allow anyone to wreak havoc in the province. Just act on my signal later!”
“Alright!”
The orders were passed down and everyone in the party was energized. Zhao Huipeng and Gu Zexuan, who had been following Yan Liqiang, silently rode to Yan Liqiang’s sides and put on their guard.
“Stop where you are! Dismount for inspection…!” They were fifty steps away from the border checkpoint when someone shouted from the top of the sentry tower. An arrow then came flying from top and embedded itself in the ground, seven or eight meters ahead of Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang raised his hand and the party stopped. He was the first to dismount and pull down his face veil. Crushing the thick snow beneath his feet, he made his way toward the checkpoint. The others dismounted and followed behind him with their rhinodrake steeds.
Yan Liqiang observed the several dozens of people stationed at the checkpoints while walking. They were armed and fully-armored like soldiers, but their clothes were different from regular army uniforms. The standard uniforms of the Great Han Empire’s army were either red or dark red. However, the soldiers defending the checkpoint were dressed in black attire and this raised some suspicion from Yan Liqiang. However, from their appearance and temperament, they didn’t look like bandits who were blocking the road either. This was slightly reassuring to Yan Liqiang.
“Where are you all from? What business do you have in Lai Province?” The man, who looked like their leader with a longsword hanging on his waist, barked at Yan Liqiang loudly from the checkpoint.
“We are from the Divine Sword Sect!” Based on the experience he had accumulated from his journey, Yan Liqiang shouted the name of his sect first to intimidate the other party so that they wouldn’t try to pull anything funny on them. “We came from Jinling and we are on our back to the sect!”
“What? You all are from the Divine Sword Sect too? I believe you have an identity paiza from the sect then?” The man who looked like the leader was slightly taken aback.
‘Too?’ Why did he say ‘too’?
Yan Liqiang secretly wondered. Even so, he still fished out his paiza which indicated that he was one of the Divine Sword Sect’s external disciples, and showed it to the man.
“Ah. There’s no mistake about it. This is indeed the paiza from the Divine Sword Sect. That makes us a family!” Everyone was immediately relieved when they heard the man’s words. However, Yan Liqiang grew even more perplexed as he wondered if this border checkpoint had been set up by the sect.
Just then, a low-ranking soldier beside the man seemed to recall something. He swept his glance across Yan Liqiang and the rest, then quickly whispered a few words to his leader.
“Oh that’s right, you said you all came from Jinling City. Did you run into the party from the Four Seas Escort Agency along the way?”
“If the Four Seas Escort Agency hasn’t dispatched any escort parties to Jinling in the past few months, then yes, we are the party that has returned from Jinling City.” Yan Liqiang stashed his paiza away and responded calmly.
“Ah…!” The leader’s eyes instantly widened as he had a look of shock on his face. After carefully looking at Yan Liqiang for a moment, he was worked up. “Your escort leader is Feng?”
“That’s right, our escort leader’s surname is Feng!”
The man nearly jumped at Yan Liqiang’s reply. He quickly ordered a soldier at the side, “Quick, go inform the sect that the Four Seas Escort Agency party that was on an escort mission to Jinling has returned…!”
“What’s going on?”
“Please forgive us. We were told to inform the sect immediately if the Four Seas Escort Agency party led by Escort Leader Feng has returned!”
“Are you all from the Divine Sword Sect too?” Yan Liqiang asked curiously.
“Yes. Currently, our Divine Sword Sect has assumed control over the entire Lai Province…” the leader replied proudly.
As soon as he finished speaking, some flapping noises rang out atop the other sentry tower. A post-carrying pigeon rose from the top of the tower and flew into the distance at high speed. In just the space of a few breaths, it completely vanished into the snowy sky.
Although Yan Liqiang had some speculations and had seen all kinds of chaos along the way, he still couldn’t help but be rather shocked when he heard the leader said that the Divine Sword Sect had assumed control over the entire Lai Province. This was an indication that the Great Han Empire had already descended into unimaginable chaos and disorder. Hence, a supreme sect like the Divine Sword Sect could forcefully take control of the entire Lai Province and no longer be bothered about showing respect to the imperial court, especially if the imperial court still existed at this point in time…
……
Two hours later, Yan Liqiang’s party met the cavalry from Su’an City on halfway. After making their identities clear to each other, the cavalry escorted Yan Liqiang and the rest back to Su’an City.
The moment they met up with the cavalry that was sent to escort them, everyone in Yan Liqiang’s party completely loosened up, feeling as though they were finally coming home…
