This was indeed what Ling Zhang was fairly worried about as well. This journey of his to the Millennium Pavilion was about bringing his father back and in passing figuring out the clan leader’s take on the current situation in this country. After all, this organization was too powerful. If it became their enemy, things would get very troublesome, so he decided to do whatever was necessary to prevent that.
At midnight, Ji Yin showed up promptly. Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong had also got everything ready, and the three of them left the place where they’d put up.
They rode for ten full days before reaching their destination.
Yuwen Tong gazed at the border town in front, a grave look on his face, appearing to be fully aware of what kind of place they had just arrived in.
Ling Zhang was also astonished, for they’d been traveling north-west all along…
“Grandfather?”
“Here we are.”
Ling Zhang widened his eyes. This little town ahead of them was where the Millennium Pavilion was? No way. How was this secluded? How come nobody had ever found it for hundreds of years?
While Ling Zhang’s mind was in a whirl, Ji Yin continued, “We’ll spend the night in this town and set off for the mountain at the first light of day.”
Ji Yin pointed forward and Ling Zhang looked in that direction.
This frontier town was called Tongguan Town, lying to the south of Youzhou, bordering Shengzhou to the north, not far away from the fort of the North-western Army in the north. The geographical location of Tongguan Town was somewhat special. Although it was a fairly short distance away from the fort as the crow flew, a trip to the fort would take a very long time, what with the winding and narrow route between the two. Tongguan Town was surrounded with mountains, and to its west and north, in particular, vast mountains stretched to as far as the eye could see; those to the south and east were relatively low, with passable paths amid them.
The mountain Ji Yin was pointing at was the Sanguan Mountains, which was behind Tongguan Town.
The range of the Sanguan Mountains was very, very long, covering a vast area whereby the Great Yue, the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom separated from each other. Standing loftily on the border between the three countries, it boasted countless towering, snow-capped peaks and precipitous cliffs. Birds could fly over it, but no human being could cross it, which made it the most secure border between the three countries.
It was rumored that in the depths of the Sanguan Mountains, windstorm that could devour people was a frequent occurrence, that there were also boundless poisonous miasma, ferocious beasts like jackals, wolves, tigers and so on, which were yet another reason deterring people apart from the dangerously steep terrain. Barely anybody would venture into the depths of the Sanguan Mountains. Even the most audacious ones living in the three countries didn’t dare go any deeper into it than the periphery.
Only when he saw Ji Yin pointing to the depths of the Sanguan Mountains did Ling Zhang came to realize that he’d misunderstood. This town was only a town, not the Millennium Pavilion, but the fact that the Millennium Pavilion was sited right in the depths of the Sanguan Mountains came as yet another great surprise to him.
Nobody could have foreseen this. Even Yuwen Tong was amazed. Having spent many years in the north-west, of course he had heard of the rumors about the Sanguan Mountains. He had taken some men to explore it out of his worries about the impassability of this natural barrier. Forbidding as it was, with his kung fu skills, it was not necessarily impossible for him to climb over it. However, due to the toxic miasma in the depths of the mountains, there was a very high risk of getting lost or even poisoned there. Trying to climb over the mountains would be perilous. On top of that, there was also icy windstorm there…
It was after scouting out the lie of the land several times that Yuwen Tong had finally confirmed that no common soldier could cross the Sanguan Mountains. Even if people with consummate kung fu skills might be able to force their way through, they posed no threat to him, for this kind of people were few and far between, and there were probably only a couple of them in the whole world. If someone with this kind of skills wanted to cross the border, going through a checkpoint would be a far better choice than climbing over the Sanguan Mountains at considerable risk to their own life. After confirming that the Sanguan Mountains were indeed a solid barrier impassable for most, Yuwen Tong had made arrangements for the periphery to be patrolled on a regular basis and had never again paid any special attention to them. Who could have thought that the Millennium Pavilion was actually in a place like this?
“There were toxic fog and miasma and windstorm in the mountains, and the boundaries of the Millennium Pavilion are protected by many defensive formations, so you must stay close to me all the time after we enter the mountains. In no circumstances should you lag behind,” exhorted Ji Yin.
“Grandfather, the habitability of this kind of place must be really poor. Why did you choose to live here?” Ling Zhang was very confused.
Ji Yin smiled, “Well, it has its compensations – nobody would disturb us, and as it’s on the border between three countries, none of the governments have jurisdiction over it. Moreover, although the Sanguan Mountains are a dangerous area, not all parts of them are uninhabitable. You’ll know what I mean when we get there.”
Ji Yin’s mysterious tone piqued Ling Zhang’s curiosity.
They put up at an inn in Tongguan Town that night and left the town to enter the Sanguan Mountains at daybreak the next morning.
…
Along the roundabout path, they proceeded. When they just entered the Sanguan Mountains, they kept hurrying forward without any of them saying anything. Ji Yin and Yuwen Tong both excelled at lightness skills. Although Ling Zhang still relied heavily on his Qi to keep up his speed, he moved a lot faster than common people could. Swooshing like the wind along the rugged mountain path, the three of them soon reached the area which residents of Tongguan Town, in the ordinary course of things, wouldn’t venture into.
After crossing this borderline, Ji Yin, with Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong hot on his heels, kept streaking deeper into the mountains. It was half a day before he slowed down.
Ling Zhang’s breathing had become somewhat uneven when they got to this place. His powers of endurance couldn’t hold a candle to Ji Yin’s or Yuwen Tong’s. Had they kept traveling at this pace, he wouldn’t be able to last long.
Ji Yin, quite gratified to see that his grandson hadn’t straggled behind so far, said, “The path ahead is much tougher, and we’ll have to start to beware of poisonous fog and miasma about half a day later. I’ll be going slower from here. Mind your step and follow close behind me, Zhang’er.”
“Okay.” Ling Zhang nodded.
And then Ji Yin led the way, Ling Zhang following in his wake, Yuwen Tong bringing up the rear. As expected, the terrain was growing much more dangerous, and there were a lot of places that even average kung fu practitioners couldn’t get through, which Yuwen Tong carried Ling Zhang and used his lightness skills to leap over. There were giant boulders with sharp edges, high precipices, slippery steep mountain paths, and tall dense thorns. Large beasts like bears could also be seen.
After half a day, Ji Yin came to a halt. It was already dark. Ling Zhang could see clouds of white fog in the area ahead. The fog was uneven in color and smelled somewhat weird. Ji Yin took out two alexipharmic pills and had Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong each swallow one.
“We could easily get lost if we travel in these mountains at night. Let’s just spend the night here and resume our journey tomorrow morning.”
Ling Zhang naturally raised no objections. His kung fu was not as good as theirs. If he insisted on continuing, he would only wind up becoming a burden.
Yuwen Tong went hunting and brought back a pheasant and some other wild animals, plucked and cleaned them in a stream and roasted them. They had anticipated that they’d have to stay overnight in the mountains, so they’d bought a lot of seasonings beforehand in the town. The meal turned out to be quite satisfying.
Ling Zhang took a couple of sips of the water he brought with him, heaved a sigh of contentment and looked at Yuwen Tong, eyes glinting. In the knowledge that he’d enjoyed the food very much, Yuwen Tong reached out a hand to stroke Ling Zhang’s cheeks and then used his thumb to wipe away the water at the corners of his mouth.
Ji Yin sneaked a glance at them and inwardly gave a snort. Seeing that this Yuwen boy dared take liberties with his grandson in his presence, he pointedly let out a soft cough, interrupting the affectionate eye contact of the two youngsters opposite him.
Embarrassed, Ling Zhang tore his eyes away from Yuwen Tong. Yuwen Tong, however, appeared pretty composed.
Ji Yin, who had a below-average appetite, hadn’t eaten much roast meat. He added some firewood into the campfire and said, “We put up here tonight. By the end of tomorrow we should get to our destination.”
Ling Zhang rose to his feet, cleared a space beside the fire, carried over a pile of broad withered leaves that he’d collected a while ago, spread them over the ground, took off his overgarment and lay it on top of the leaves. “Grandfather, you may sleep here.”
The corners of Ji Yin’s mouth unnoticeably curled in a faint smile at the sight of the primitive “bed”, but the words came out of his mouth were, “You sleep there. My skin is quite thick. There’s no need for you to go to such trouble.”
Ling Zhang had specially prepared it for Ji Yin, so of course he wouldn’t sleep on it himself. After coaxing Ji Yin for a few moments, he managed to convince him to accept the offer.
Yuwen Tong had also made a simple “bed”, but due to the presence of his grandfather, Ling Zhang was ashamed to share it with Yuwen Tong. That “bed” was not very broad, and if the two of them were to sleep on it together, they’d have to cuddle up against each other, which Ling Zhang felt would be quite embarrassing.
Ling Zhang simply squatted on his hams to perform Qi circulation. Having traveled in such dangerous terrain at Ji Yin’s and Yuwen Tong’s usual speed for a full day, he felt rather tired. Performing Qi circulation would be helpful in restoring his strength and easing the soreness in his legs.
Yuwen Tong drew him over to sit down on the spot he’d cushioned with leaves. “I’ll keep you company.”
Thus, that night, Ji Yin was sleeping on the side. Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong, in a cross-legged sitting position and a state of self-oblivion, kept circulating their internal energy throughout their meridian networks.
With Ji Yin and Yuwen Tong beside him, Ling Zhang was fully relaxed and didn’t have to worry about potential disturbance by wild beasts at all, spending the whole night in self-oblivion.
At daybreak the next morning, as the gray light of dawn went through his eyelids, he woke up from his Qi circulation and saw that the campfire they’d made last night had burnt out some time ago. Ji Yin and Yuwen Tong had awoken before him and were eating pancakes with water.
“You woke up. Have some food. We’ll set off in a while.” Yuwen Tong walked over, pulled him to his feet and handed him water and pancakes.
Ling Zhang took them, finished a big pancake with water, put on his overgarment, took Yuwen Tong’s hand and followed Ji Yin into the thick woods pervaded by poisonous fog and miasma.
…
Ling Zhang didn’t dare let down his guard for a single moment, holding Yuwen Tong’s hand tightly all the time for fear of getting separated from him, because the fog was thickening as they progressed deeper, and he could barely make out his own hands. Fortunately, Ji Yin was ahead of them all along and they stayed on his heels.
In this foggy area, apart from toxic fog and miasma, there were also dangerously abrupt mountain roads and clusters of thorns.
Just like Ji Yin had told them, it indeed took them nearly a full day to get through the foggy area. When they rid themselves of the fog, it was almost dusk. Then Ji Yin led them onto a circuitous path. Ling Zhang vaguely felt that this was a huge formation. On the surface they were taking one turn after another at random in Ji Yin’s wake, but actually their every step was following a certain pattern.
When Ji Yin told them to stop again, stars could be seen twinkling in the sky.
“Ahead of us is the last hurdle, and the Millennium Pavilion is right behind it. We sleep in the open here tonight. Tomorrow morning, you two are to stay here waiting, and I’ll go inside to report to the clan leader first and then return to take you in. This is my token. If anybody comes here while you’re waiting, show this to them.”
Ji Yin handed his token to Ling Zhang, who solemnly took it. The next day, he would meet the leader of the Millennium Pavilion and… his father. If truth be told, he was somewhat nervous.
The next morning, Ji Yin left. Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong stayed where they were, waiting for Ji Yin to return. When it was almost noon and Ji Yin was still not back, Ling Zhang became rather worried. Yuwen Tong, who was much more composed than him, consoled him, “Take it easy. I’m sure Mr. Ji will come back to take us inside. Let’s have a bite of lunch. I saw a brook there. How about I go get another couple of pheasants and roast them?”
Ling Zhang inclined his head. “Sounds good.”
