Chapter 977 - 816: To Jinling

Feng Daban remembered, the last person who liked to use silver as if it were a knife was that Prime Minister who sat in silence in the Jiefan Building for decades.

The three volumes of the ancient book series caused heads to roll in Changsha Prefecture and Southern Zhili, thirty thousand taels of silver prompted betrayal and deceit in the Jianghu, and the empty title of Martial Arts Alliance Hierarch forced major sects to turn against each other.

Back then, the Jianghu wasn’t like it is now.

Back then, the Jianghu had the Young Master Kongxu, the Golden Bell Saintess, knights, female knights, respected sect leaders, and righteous butchers. In teahouses, storytellers had endless tales, and the Jianghu was full of living legends.

When the three blades of the Jiefan Building fell, eighty percent of the national Executive Offcier gates belonged to the Jiefan Building, wrapped up in some layer, not knowing where.

In the vast Ning Dynasty, only the court remained, the Jianghu was no more.

Feng Daban recalled these things and felt a bit dazed, realizing that grand era had long since passed. Yet now, he felt a faint sense of déjà vu.

Chen Yu sat on his horse and teased, as if reminding him: "Lord Feng, although that amount of silver is large, whomever wants to pursue, let them pursue it; you shouldn’t allow yourself to get stabbed."

Feng Daban laughed: "Thank you, Imperial Censor, for the reminder. Also, please teach me what Feng should do next? Or, what instructions does he have?"

Chen Yu replied meaningfully: "Isn’t Songjiang Port still not taken back? That too is a huge sum of silver... all silver of Your Majesty."

"Understood," Feng Daban nodded and instructed the thousand households: "Escort Wang Changzhen and his men back to Jinling, I’ll lead people to Songjiang Port. From now on, the Jiefan Guard Camp will split between two ports, collecting fine silver according to Anti-Japanese Army customs for both incoming and outgoing ships."

The Jiefan Guard Thousand Households cupped his fists: "Yes."

Hearing this, Chen Yu immediately rode away, and when he reached under the archway of the pier, he suddenly looked back at Feng Daban: "By the way, by the way, he asked me to ask Lord Feng on his behalf, where were Feng Daban and the Jiefan Guard when Jingjiang was besieged?"

Feng Daban kept silent, his expression inscrutable.

Chen Yu laughed heartily: "I understand, we all understand, so that’s how it is! I still have to rush to the post station to send a four hundred-li urgent message, so I won’t stay here longer, see you in Jinling!"

With that, Chen Yu and Chen Xu sped away, as Feng Daban also led more than two hundred Jiefan Guards to Songjiang Port.

Dinghai Port returned to its former quietness.

Zheng Jiye was momentarily confused and turned to ask his uncle: "Uncle, the Minister of War has been arrested, where do we go?"

Prince Fu rode up beside him: "Zheng Thousand Households, today the treasure ship of the Huqiu Xu Family will pass by, when the time comes you will accompany me on board to Jinling, you’re going to the Ministry of War to take office, and I will return to Jinling to handle matters; along the way, you can also tell me about the Anti-Japanese Army."

Zheng Jiye was flattered and shocked: "Travel on the treasure ship with you? Impossible, impossible!"

Prince Fu laughed heartily: "You are a great hero who has achieved two victories in the Anti-Japanese wars, maybe one day even Your Majesty will summon you into the palace to meet him, nothing is impossible."

Zheng Jiye thought for a moment: "Well, that’s true."

Prince Fu was pleased, turning to Zhang Xia: "Sister-in-law, you also come aboard to Jinling... The ship has the Second Miss Qi, Third Miss Qi, and that Qi Zhenzhu."

Zhang Xia shook her head: "Thank you for the offer, Your Highness, but Xiao Man is on the way to Dinghai Port, I need to take the official road to meet up with her."

Prince Fu nodded: "Then I won’t delay you, see you in Jinling... Does Second Miss Zhang know where the Anti-Japanese Army Chief and his five foster sons have gone?"

"I don’t know," Zhang Xia, not wanting to discuss further, cupped her hands and quickly rode out of Dinghai Port.

At the berth pier of Dinghai Port, the Jiefan Guards fished the corpses one by one from the sea, the blood-stained waters were swept away several times by the waves, the water as blue as ever.

On the other side, Zhang Xia traveled along the rammed earth official road, not seeing Xiao Man coming forward until noon.

Xiao Man halted her horse, seeing Zhang Xia alone, hesitated for a moment, and cautiously asked: "Sister Axia, where is the Young Master?"

Zhang Xia slowed her horse in front of Xiao Man, expressionless as she rode past her: "He ran off again."

Xiao Man shrank her neck: "Why did he run off again... The Young Master must have important matters to attend to, um, related to competing with Lord Zhang for the position of Grand Secretary."

Zhang Xia sighed, reined in her horse, and stood still: "Xiao Man, I’m not upset because he keeps running around, I’m just not wanting him to bear everything by himself. Even if it’s a matter as big as the sky, he can say it out loud and we all can deal with it together. Others may listen to the two battles and victories of the Anti-Japanese Army as merely exciting, they hear about Dinghai Port collecting taxes cornered by Wang Zhi’s hundred ships, in the end without bloodshed, some praise him for his composure in distress, some commend Wang Zhi’s heroic spirit..."

Zhang Xia looked at Xiao Man: "But this isn’t a fabricated drama in fiction, this is a life-and-death matter. To my ears, it sounds like he plans to settle my debts and doesn’t care if he lives."

Xiao Man muttered: "The Young Master is fine, how could he not want to live?"

Zhang Xia looked up at the sky: "Xiao Man, he’s always carefree in front of you all, so you’ve never seen him utterly dejected, but I have."

Xiao Man was startled: "When was the Young Master utterly dejected? I don’t recall."

Zhang Xia softly said: "When he felt everything was meaningless."

Xiao Man remained puzzled: "I don’t remember such an event?"

Zhang Xia did not explain further, continuing forward on her own.

Xiao Man urged her horse to follow, smiling as she said: "Sister Axia, don’t be angry, for all we know the Young Master might have already gone to Jinling? He doesn’t know you came to Dinghai Port, he only knows you’re in Jinling, so he must have gone there to find you."

Zhang Xia mused, "Oh right, he doesn’t know I’ll be coming to Dinghai Port."

Xiao Man breathed a sigh of relief...

...

...

In Jinling, the Chaotian Palace was bustling with devotees, men and women coming in pairs to the Great Tongming Treasure Hall to pray for wealth, marriage, and health.

In front of the hall, the incense was flourishing in the bronze incense burner, and a Big Green Ox lay drowsing beside the burner, as wisps of blue smoke flowed backward into its nostrils like a waterfall with each breath. The devotees clicked their tongues in wonder as they passed, stepping forward to touch it, though the Big Green Ox didn’t even lift an eyelid, utterly lazy.

Couplets hung on either side of the hall: the upper line read, "Illuminate the Upper Realm, Sovereign of All Heavens and Spirits," and the lower line read, "Celestial Commander at the Highest, Overseeing Creation on Nine Lands."

Inside the hall, a young Daoist sat with legs crossed on a corner table, engrossed in a blue-covered book.

He would occasionally slap the table in admiration or clutch his belly laughing.

In the center of the hall, devotees knelt on mats woven from Dragon Beard Grass, shaking divination sticks with eyes closed, filling the hall with the sound of rattling sticks.

At this moment, a devotee shook out a stick, which read, "Don’t bitterly seek wealth in abundance, exhaustiveness can cost hard work, a single-minded effort to ride forward, unable to cross the solitary wooden bridge by the river."

The devotee’s face changed, "A most inauspicious stick? How can it be the most inauspicious?"

He looked around holding the cylinder, and his gaze eventually landed on the young Daoist in the corner. He hurriedly got up and walked over, "Daoist, I’ve drawn a most inauspicious stick, what should I do? Is there a solution?"

The young Daoist glanced at him and stretched out his hand, "Give it here."

The devotee handed the most inauspicious stick over, and the young Daoist smacked it aside, "I told you to give me the cylinder."

The devotee was taken aback, then handed over the cylinder.

He watched as the young Daoist fished around in the cylinder, picked out another stick, and tossed it to the devotee, "Just draw another one."

The devotee looked down to read, "Collaborate with a generous heart, like bees and butterflies under no shadow, going like the fortune horse has no staying, return with a bag full of ten thousand gold... the most auspicious? Daoist, can this count?"

The young Daoist waved a sleeve, "It counts, it all counts."

After the devotee left, he quickly looked back at the Wordless Heavenly Scripture in his hands. The scripture was swiftly revealing characters like tiny fly prints, "Five tiger cubs, five personalities, bickering all the way unwilling to settle..."

Zhang Li burst into laughter with tears almost falling when he saw Yuan Xing tying up Yuan Xi and then Yuan Xi helping tie up the remaining Five Tigers.

As the scripture recorded Chen Ji and others heading south to Jinling, this page was filled.

He turned the page and, seeing Zheng Jiye capturing Jin Zhu, Heavenly Horse, Chen Yu, and Chen Xu, calculated with his fingers, "Is this old boy not some prosperous star reborn?"

He pondered over it for a long time but couldn’t figure it out.

Zhang Li continued reading and, seeing the pirates break the city with the Folangji Cannon, became anxious. Only when he saw the Salt Gang and Cao Guild reinforcements arrive did he relax.

Until he saw Huang Que performing Burning Turtle Divination and Scapula Sacrifice, he was taken aback, "How can this be? Who passed down these sacrificial methods of the Shang Dynasty? Wasn’t it said that King Zhou burned them all?"

Zhang Li, uncertain and anxious, counted repeatedly on his fingers but still couldn’t understand.

He muttered to himself, "With so many killed in living sacrifice, what realm has this boy reached now? The Third Heaven of the Seeking Dao Realm?"

He was about to continue pondering, but the Wordless Heavenly Scripture didn’t wait for him and kept writing on its own. He could only lower his head and continue reading.

Zhang Li sat in the Great Tongming Treasure Hall like this, watching from the fine imposed at Dinghai Port to the deliberations at Shi’en Hall, then from deliberations back to the gathering at Dinghai Port, watching from morning till midday, and then from midday till evening.

Until the Wordless Heavenly Scripture provided a judgment: "As it is said, faking death to escape the fire, the true body plunges into turmoil again. The tiger-headed mask acts as Yama, the sword seed nurtured by the blazing sun."

"Refusing to receive peerage at the Dragon Court, only caring for sea tax. Where the silver knife falls there is grief, looking back the evening glow is like fire."

"To all watching, don’t question who is under the mask making a silver knife game again. You only need to know, silver words line up in a formation, tumbling in the money holes, here the silver knife rises, there the heads fall. Don’t laugh at greed, don’t laugh at ruthlessness, in the end, who isn’t making a wedding dress for the Emperor."

Zhang Li seeing this point, thinking this act was complete, sighed repeatedly wanting to turn back to see again, but unexpectedly found new words after the judgment: "If you ask where the masked one goes? See that the person wearing the mask is now walking through the Chaotian Gate, heading directly to the Great Tongming Treasure Hall..."

"Oh dear!"

Zhang Li, seeing this, suddenly looked up towards the hall door.

As he raised his head, he saw Chen Ji standing at the hall entrance, accompanied by Old Ears and the Five Tigers among others.

The sunset outside silhouetted them, Zhang Li’s gaze passed over each figure, and finally settled on Old Ears’ face.

Zhang Li was instantly taken aback, "You you you you..."