Gu Chengming stood at the center of the ruins, his gaze fixed on that line of newly-surfaced, semi-transparent small characters at the bottom of his field of vision.
[CG Fully Unlocked]
[Hundred Bones Resonance CG / Hundred Heavens Emperor, Aid Me: Comprehended by the Hundred Bones Resonance from the Myriad Forms Creation Fist. It can mimic the overlord-imagery of the Hundred Bones Resonance from the «Primordial Boundless Myriad-Qi Dao-Source True Sovereign, Nine-Heavens-Ten-Earths Cosmos-Sole-Honored Imperial Merit», expending the whole body's strength to throw one supreme punch.]
[Damage Multiplier: 1.0 (increases once the kill count meets the threshold)]
Looking at this newly-appeared line about the damage multiplier increasing once the kill count met the threshold, Gu Chengming felt a little dazed.
So this thing was actually a growth-type technique?
A man-killing fist, no less.
Immediately after, as the CG unlocked, the originally hidden favorability status also began to appear.
[Current Favorability: 205]
[Favorability has broken past two hundred]
[Bond feedback obtained: all current attributes +1]
[The Hundred Bones Resonance is overjoyed; it feels it has taken yet another step closer to becoming Emperor.]
All attributes plus one...
Old Hundred, the rewards you hand out just keep getting more and more generous.
Gu Chengming clenched his fist, feeling that brimming sense of power within his body.
With his current attributes, cultivating that «Red Dust Phantom Body Formula»—a method with extremely high demands on the physical body—was now more than within his means.
In high spirits, Gu Chengming only then turned his gaze toward that pile of mangled flesh at his feet, no longer recognizable as anything human.
It was indeed the Hundred Bones Resonance's preferred style—forget a whole corpse, there wasn't even a single intact bone left.
Amid the wreckage, seven bronze oil lamps of antique, simple design lay scattered about; five of them had already gone out entirely, and the remaining two had likewise been reduced to so much scrap metal in the fist-wind a moment ago.
Gu Chengming bent down and picked up a lamp that was still more or less intact.
The lamp was cold to the touch, its inner wall carved full of dense, fly-head-sized characters, exuding an aura of cold, sinister evil.
"Seven-Malice Blood-Fetus Puppet..."
Gu Chengming pondered.
Though the Eternal Life Sect conducted itself like a pack of madmen, these madmen did indeed have in their hands some methods that were impossible to guard against.
This clone technique could not only split off entities with their own independent auras, but could even cut off karmic investigation. Were it not for the fact that he himself carried the «Yin-Yang Creation Strategy», a great killing tool of causal law, any ordinary Second-Realm or even Third-Realm cultivator would likely have been worn to death alive by this Wang Zheng.
A fine thing like this—even broken, taking it back to show Senior Qin Qing might still let her dismantle some secrets from it; and at the very worst, it could enrich the Night-Watch Bureau's treasure vault in exchange for some merit.
After a simple tidying of the battlefield, he stuffed all seven broken lamps into the hempen sack in one go.
Carrying the sack of "evidence" that was still dripping, Gu Chengming turned and walked out of this half-collapsed underground secret chamber.
The sunlight outside was just right—a fine day, well suited to collecting a reward.
From that hidden underground secret chamber to the Night-Watch Bureau was no more than half a shichen's walk.
Gu Chengming walked the whole way at an unhurried pace. Now and then a passerby would catch sight of that blood-seeping sack in his hand, and every one of them would shy away in fright, giving him a wide berth.
By the time he stepped through the familiar gate of the Night-Watch Bureau, the lieutenant on guard duty merely nodded at him, long since inured to the sight—
—the frequency with which this Lord Gu had lately been coming and going carrying a hempen sack really was just a touch too high.
...
At the Night-Watch Bureau, Vice-Commander Liu was pinching the bridge of his nose, fretting over the mountain of official documents heaped upon his desk.
Although there had been no great upheavals in the Capital of late, those trivial, petty matters came one after another without end.
Just then, the light at the doorway dimmed. Vice-Commander Liu looked up and saw Gu Chengming walk in carrying that familiar hempen sack.
The moment he saw that sack, Vice-Commander Liu's eyelid couldn't help twitching hard a couple of times.
Last time this brat had walked in carrying a sack, there'd been a Third-Realm Eternal Life Sect steward inside it. This time...
"Vice-Commander."
Gu Chengming set the sack down on the floor with a muffled thud, and cupped his hands: "That fly from the Eternal Life Sect who'd been harassing me in secret has been dealt with."
Vice-Commander Liu pointed at the sack, his throat bobbing: "You mean... that one who could split into clones?"
"Correct." Gu Chengming said with a smile: "This subordinate found where his main body was hiding and gave him a punch."
Vice-Commander Liu drew a deep breath, rose to his feet, circled around the desk, walked up to the sack, and ever so carefully untied the mouth of it for a single glance.
Then he swiftly tied the mouth of the sack back up.
Though he'd been mentally prepared, that direct visual impact still set his teeth on edge somewhat.
That had been a Third-Realm Consummation evil cultivator. Although what he cultivated was a heterodox, side-path art and his combat strength was inferior to an orthodox cultivator's, that life-preserving clone technique of his was logged in the case files as a notoriously troublesome thing.
Several squads in the Bureau had suffered at his hands, never so much as touching his shadow.
Vice-Commander Liu said, somewhat glumly: "I was even getting ready to deal with him myself—and you up and killed him just like that, in passing?"
Gu Chengming thought it over, then corrected him: "Actually it wasn't quite 'in passing'—finding him took no small amount of effort."
—Mainly it was to grind out the progress bar, in truth.
Vice-Commander Liu waved a hand, unwilling to keep dwelling on this rather demoralizing topic.
He bent down and picked up a damaged oil lamp that had spilled from the sack, examining it for a moment.
"This is a 'Seven-Malice Lamp.'"
Vice-Commander Liu said in a grave voice: "This thing's forging is exceedingly vicious—it requires the heart's-blood of seven children born in a yin hour on a yin date... these Eternal Life Sect beasts!"
He gave a heavy snort and tossed the lamp back onto the desk: "This Wang Zheng was a nail the Eternal Life Sect had driven into the Capital region, specifically responsible for intelligence relay and assassination. You've pulled him out—pulled him out root and all, no less—and that's a great merit."
At this point, the look in Vice-Commander Liu's eyes as he regarded Gu Chengming carried, besides appreciation, a few more notes of something hard to put into words.
"Counting that steward three days ago, in these few short days you've already slaughtered two Third-Realm evil cultivators within the bounds of the Capital."
Vice-Commander Liu rubbed his hands together, seeming to weigh his words:
"There's some idle talk going around out there now, saying our Night-Watch Bureau has produced a killing god—one who not only slays demons without batting an eye, but who, when it comes to killing people, is downright... ahem, brutal in the extreme."
"The Eternal Life Sect side hasn't made any big moves yet, but I reckon they're pretty stunned right now too. After all, nobody's ever seen the likes of you—someone who plays entirely by no playbook at all, who flips the table the moment you meet."
Vice-Commander Liu had originally meant to advise Gu Chengming to show some restraint when he acted—after all, being too brutal would only hand a handle to that pack of bastards at the Court of State Ceremonial.
But the next moment, he heard Gu Chengming say:
"Since they're evil cultivators, then they don't count as people. Even slaughtering pigs and sheep requires bleeding and skinning them; killing them was merely a matter of somewhat crude methods—the result is the same."
Vice-Commander Liu was momentarily taken aback at these words, but in his heart he only felt how satisfying they were to hear; and on second thought, it was he himself who'd been fussing like an old woman.
"Good! Well said! Slaughtering pigs and sheep... so it ought to be!"
Vice-Commander Liu plopped back down into his grand armchair, feeling thoroughly at ease from head to toe; the irritation that had welled up earlier from the backlog of documents was swept clean away.
He picked up his vermilion brush and drew a heavy circle on that case-closing file concerning Wang Zheng—the mark of a "Special-Grade Merit."
As for that pack of useless cowards at the Court of State Ceremonial who only knew how to fixate on ritual and law... if they had the guts, let them go reason with the evil cultivators themselves!
With that, he fished a hefty command-tally out of a drawer and casually tossed it into Gu Chengming's arms, scolding with a grin:
"All right, take the tally to the storehouse and collect your reward. Stop being an eyesore here—every time I see you, brat, I feel like I've gotten old."
Gu Chengming caught the command-tally steadily, swept it with his divine sense, and upon feeling the merit points it contained, was rather surprised inwardly.
"Many thanks, my lord. This subordinate takes his leave."
He cupped his hands in a salute, turned, and departed with a light, brisk step.
As the door closed once more, Vice-Commander Liu looked at that door, shook his head with a wry chuckle, and then buried himself once again in his paperwork.
...
Just as Vice-Commander Liu had said, though the news of Gu Chengming slaying two Third-Realm evil cultivators in a row had not been trumpeted with great fanfare, it nonetheless stirred up no small wave amid the undercurrents surging through the Capital.
The Eternal Life Sect's stronghold in the Capital was now utterly silent and still.
Ever since Wang Zheng's soul-lamp had gone out, the few remaining cultists in charge of the outer perimeter had been frightened completely out of their wits, and had withdrawn thirty li from the Capital that very night.
In their intelligence, Gu Chengming was no longer simply a "genius sword cultivator."
He was a monster—a monster who could disregard realm suppression, disregard formation restrictions, and even lock directly onto a main body through karma.
The most terrifying part was that he seemed to waste absolutely no words on you at all.
You bargain with him, he gives you a punch; you play dirty with him, he gives you a punch; you go into hiding, he digs you out and gives you another punch.
And among the common folk of the marketplace, the news spread in even more outlandish forms.
In the largest teahouse of the East Market, the storyteller cracked his wakening-block, spittle flying:
"...Honored patrons, let it be told how that Eternal Life Sect fiend unleashed his ghost-and-spirit-confounding clone sorcery, transforming into a thousand black shadows that surrounded our Lord Gu of the Night-Watch Bureau on every side! Sinister winds howled in fury, ghosts wept and wolves wailed!"
"But who exactly is this Lord Gu? He is the Wuqu Star of the heavens descended to the mortal world! See him give but a cold sneer—he doesn't even draw his sword, he merely extends one hand and grasps thus at the empty air!"
The storyteller struck the pose of a wrathful guardian-king, and grasped at the void:
"And then—a single squelch was heard! That fiend's main body, hidden beneath the Nine Earths, was actually crushed to bursting by Lord Gu across the empty air! Reduced to a puddle of bloody water!"
"And thus it is said: Demons, ghosts, and monsters, cease your rampaging—one strength subdues ten skills, the iron fist quells the eight wastes!"
The crowd below erupted at once into cheers, and copper coins rained down onto the stage.
Though it was a touch exaggerated, that impression of "the Night-Watch Bureau's got a ferocious fellow" was branded, solid and true, into the hearts of the Capital's common folk.
The Great Qian, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Compared to the clamor and bustle of the common marketplace, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, situated in the northwest corner of the Capital, appeared exceptionally cold, quiet, and solemn.
Here was the place closest to the heavens, and also the place farthest from the red dust of the mortal world.
Atop the Star-Gazing Tower, the wind whistled fiercely. Vice-Director Song Zhixing stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze cast not toward that vast starry sky, but resting upon the case file in his hands that had only just been delivered.
The file was very thin, just a few sparse lines, recording precisely Gu Chengming's combat record over these past two days.
Beside him, the young Astrological Observer Chen Mo held in his hands the supplementary volume of the «Hidden Dragon Ranking», his expression somewhat conflicted.
"Master Song."
Chen Mo couldn't help speaking up: "This Gu Chengming... isn't he rising a bit too fast?"
He pointed at the ranking in the supplementary volume: "A few months ago, he was still in sixty-fourth place. After slaying the jiao at the East Sea, you promoted him to the twentieth. And now it's only been a few days—and he's to move again?"
"This Hidden Dragon Ranking is bound up with the fortune-qi of all the young cultivators under heaven. If it shifts too frequently, I fear it will provoke censure."
Song Zhixing did not answer at once; he merely turned around and looked toward the armillary sphere behind him.
The enormous bronze celestial rings turned slowly, driven by spiritual power, giving off a muffled, regular sound.
"Chen Mo, what do you think the Hidden Dragon Ranking ranks?" Song Zhixing suddenly asked.
Chen Mo was startled, and answered instinctively: "Potential, combat strength, and past combat records, naturally."
"Not entirely right."
Song Zhixing shook his head, his finger lightly tapping the three characters of "Gu Chengming" on the file.
"The Hidden Dragon Ranking ranks momentum. The so-called potential and combat strength are only a part of momentum."
"Take a look at this file."
Song Zhixing handed the file to Chen Mo: "Slaying the Third-Realm steward relied on the physical body breaking through arts—that is force. Slaying the Third-Realm Wang Zheng, breaking his clones and tracking down his main body, relied on causal insight—that is spirit."
"And the most crucial point is... both men were killed within the bounds of the Capital. What does that tell you?"
Chen Mo leafed through the file, growing more and more alarmed the more he read, cold sweat gradually seeping from his forehead.
"It tells us the Great Qian's dragon-qi does not reject him? That to some degree it even aids him?"
"Just so. As they say—when the time comes, heaven and earth lend their strength in concert."
Song Zhixing thought back to that scene he had once witnessed, borrowing the Heaven-Opening, Earth-Watching, Sound-Hearing technique, upon the flower-boat of the Harmonious Joy Sect—and to that line cried out by the Eternal Life Sect fiend, the line he had long since deleted from the Heaven-Opening sight through his authority: "You are a body-snatched soul of the Great Qian imperial family's ancestor!" Looking at the Chen Mo before him, he could only feel that this disciple of his was still too young.
He sighed: "Decisive in slaughter, untouched by karma—this is not strength alone."
Then with a sweep of his great sleeve, he took the supplementary volume from Chen Mo's hands, lifted the vermilion brush, and dipped it deep in thick ink.
"A figure such as this—if he doesn't enter the top ten, then this Hidden Dragon Ranking is the real joke."
The brush-tip came down, its force biting through the paper. The name that had originally stood in twentieth place was savagely struck out by the vermilion brush.
And among that topmost column of names on the ranking, in the position of the tenth line, several lines of characters had abruptly appeared.
[Hidden Dragon Ranking, Tenth: Gu Chengming]
[Origin: Inner Gate of the Wenjian Sect]
[Cultivation: Early Second Realm]
[Combat Record: In the heartland of the Capital region, within the span of two days, he slew in succession one Third-Realm steward and one Third-Realm incense-master of the Eternal Life Sect. His methods overbearing and fierce, without employing the slightest spiritual power or arts, relying solely on the fist-intent of his physical body, he blasted two Third-Realm evil cultivators into mincemeat on the spot. He broke the Eternal Life Sect's clone secret-technique, regarding the evil cult's foundations as nothing.]
Having written this line, Song Zhixing let out a long breath, as if setting down some heavy burden.
The vermilion brush settled, the ink not yet dry.
Through the night the talisman-officers of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau copied out a hundred copies of the new ranking, and dispatched them by fast horse to every prefecture and every sect.
And the first to see this ranking were, naturally, the Capital's cultivation circles, best placed by proximity.
The next morning, when the first ray of sunlight fell upon the notice board outside the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, it was already crowded with people.
The top ten of the Hidden Dragon Ranking—that was a watershed.
Those able to enter the top ten were, without exception, the foremost disciples of the great peak sects, or monsters whose names had long since shaken a region.
Most of these people were at Second-Realm Consummation, or even masters with one foot already stepped into the Third Realm.
And now, a name marked "Early Second Realm" had just forced its way in.
And it relied not on some narrow victory, not on three hundred rounds of dueling arts.
The commendation spelled it out plainly—"blasted into mincemeat on the spot."
The Night-Watch Bureau, the Hidden Dragon Court.
The colleagues who had originally been drinking tea and chatting were now all gathered around that message jade-talisman.
Li Dujiang didn't even notice that the goji-berry tea in his hand had gone stone-cold, as he looked over at Song Qing beside him:
"Junior Brother Song, didn't you say before that you envied Junior Brother Gu making the ranking? How about now? Still envious?"
Song Qing swallowed, shaking his head like a rattle-drum:
"Not envious anymore, truly not envious. With a frail little frame like mine, if I really did climb to that position, I'd probably have to sleep with one eye open."
Amid the crowd's chatter, the man at the center of it all, Gu Chengming, was sitting at his own desk, holding a formal copy of the ranking that had just been delivered from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
[Hundred Bones Resonance: Emperor Gu, tenth place isn't enough—we're going for first! Let those so-called Wanderers of the World and Daoist Chiefs all become defeated foes beneath our fist!]
[Hundred Bones Resonance favorability +2]
Gu Chengming felt a little helpless. I'm a sword cultivator, Hundred Heavens Emperor.
...….
The turmoil over the Hidden Dragon Ranking had not yet subsided when another, far more bone-chilling wind came howling down from the north.
The Night-Watch Bureau, the Director's office.
The sky outside the window was so overcast it seemed about to collapse. Though it was early spring in the Capital, the wind that had been blowing in these past few days carried within it a disquieting, bone-piercing chill.
Zhou Qingmu sat upright behind the great rosewood desk; the "Persuade-by-Reason" bronze gallbladder-pot she usually loved to fiddle with had for now been left neglected to one side.
Before her was heaped several stacks of urgent reports, their seals stamped with crimson wax.
"Beiliang has lost two cities in three days..."
"Anomalous stirrings in the Snow Plains demon tide, suspected to be led by a Fifth-Realm great demon, assaulting the border passes..."
"The local Night-Watch Bureau has lost over half its strength, requesting reinforcements from the Capital..."
Zhou Qingmu flipped casually through report after report, those slender brows knitting tighter and tighter.
This time the northern demon scourge had come too suddenly, too ferociously. In years past, though demon beasts would also come south at the turn of winter and spring in search of food, they were mostly scattered stragglers, dispersed after a round of clearing by the border army and local cultivators.
But this year was different. Between the lines of these reports there exuded an air of being "organized and premeditated."
Adding in the restless stirrings of the northern frontier earlier...
Zhou Qingmu gave a cold sneer, her fingertip jabbing down hard upon a memorial titled «Comprehensive Survey of the Northern Frontier Demon Calamity».
That pack of beasts holed up in their snow-burrows—it seemed they'd forgotten what pain felt like.
She rose to her feet, her great sleeve sweeping in the wind.
Since the local Night-Watch Bureau couldn't hold the line, then it could only be left to the Capital's swiftest blade to be drawn from its sheath.
"Someone, attend."
Zhou Qingmu's voice pierced through the door-leaves, carrying an indisputable decisiveness:
"Pass down the order, muster the men. The Hidden Dragon Court's Tianshu and Tianxuan squads are to ready themselves at once and head north with this seat."
"This Capital has known peaceful days for too long. This blade ought to go to that bitter, frigid land and taste some blood."
The news spread quickly.
When Gu Chengming received that northbound roster, he was unsurprised to see his own name upon it, along with a host of familiar faces such as Song Qing and Li Dujiang.
One could say that, apart from a few unlucky souls who had to remain behind to keep the Capital's daily operations running, nearly all of the young elites logged on the Hidden Dragon Ranking who had even a bit of strength had this time been scooped up wholesale by Zhou Qingmu.
Looking at the command-arrow in his hand that symbolized setting out to war, Gu Chengming felt things turn a little subtle in his heart.
Old Hundred really was the true child of destiny, wasn't he—whatever was lacking, it would come along.
[Hundred Bones Resonance cheered: The Northern Frontier? Yesss!]
[This rotten place of a Capital has too many rules. Wanting to find a damned evil cultivator to grind combat records on takes a stroke of luck. But the Northern Frontier is different—demons and fiends are everywhere there, and we can finally kill to our heart's content!]
Though Gu Chengming felt helpless, he had to admit that the Northern Frontier was, for him as he was now, a fine place to go.
Ever since unlocking that powerful CG, [Hundred Heavens Emperor, Aid Me], he had been thinking about how to raise the CG's multiplier.
Although this single punch was already overbearing enough, as a "player" with ambitions, who wouldn't want to stack the multiplier up to 10.0, or even 100.0?
In the Capital, he couldn't very well actually play the role of a murderous maniac, scouring the streets for people to practice his fist on.
That Wang Zheng of the Eternal Life Sect had been a good man, delivering five heads—but such kindly souls were, after all, exceedingly rare.
If he went to the Northern Frontier... an image of ten thousand demons galloping forth surfaced in Gu Chengming's mind.
One punch down—it ought to stack quite a bit of multiplier for him, no?
Jishan Ward, the small courtyard.
When Gu Chengming returned, Yu Wenqiu was curled up in the reclining chair, basking in the not-very-warm sun, a wool blanket over her knees, and in her hands she still cradled that plate of pastries that, so long as she was around, would never be empty.
"Elder."
Gu Chengming sat down on a stone stool, weighed his tone for a moment, and spoke: "The Bureau has issued an order. In a few days I'm to follow Director Zhou on a trip to the Northern Frontier."
He had originally expected that little Elder Yu would try to dissuade him, or at the very least show some trace of worry.
After all, the news of the rampant demon scourge in the Northern Frontier was no secret in the Capital these days.
Who'd have thought that the instant Yu Wenqiu heard this, she couldn't even be bothered to eat the mung-bean cake she'd just picked up—her eyes lit up in a flash.
"Oh, lovely! We can go!"
Yu Wenqiu even sat up straight from the reclining chair, slapping her thigh with a face full of excitement:
"No need to fear danger—the Northern Frontier is far safer than the Capital! This elder's coming too!"
"...?"
An enormous question mark popped up over Gu Chengming's head.
He looked at this elder of his, who acted as though she were talking about going on an outing, and asked, baffled:
"Elder, are you still half-asleep?"
"What do you know?"
Yu Wenqiu rolled her eyes at him and slumped back into the chair, saying as though it were the most natural thing in the world: "The reason I say it's safe over there is because Senior Sister Luo is in the Northern Frontier."
Senior Sister Luo? That one who had topped the Hidden Dragon Ranking in past years—the "thigh" that, by this Elder Yu's own account, had let her coast comfortably to easy victories for years on end?
"Senior Luo has been in the Northern Frontier all this time?" Gu Chengming had a sudden flash of understanding.
At first he'd been puzzled as to why he'd never seen her in the Wenjian Sect, nor in the Capital, and had at one point assumed this senior had run into some mishap during a closed-door cultivation, or had simply perished.
So it turned out she'd been off grinding monsters in the Northern Frontier all along?
"You didn't know?"
Seeing the look of utter bewilderment on Gu Chengming's face, Yu Wenqiu explained: "Senior Sister hates all those tangled, twisty headaches within the sect the most, and she doesn't care for the Capital's elaborate etiquette either. About ten years ago, I think, she got bored and took up her sword and went off to the Northern Frontier Great Wall. After all these years, the great demons over there have probably long since been killed off by her until they don't dare poke their heads out, right?"
Yu Wenqiu pointed at the waist-token at Gu Chengming's belt:
"Probe your divine sense in and flip through the past years' 'Heaven Ranking' and you'll know."
Gu Chengming did as told, sending his divine sense into that lustrous jade-talisman.
As his thoughts turned, the ranking flipped rapidly through its pages, passing over those dense, crowded lists of the Hidden Dragon Ranking, and finally came to rest upon a ranking that gave off a faint golden glow.
That was the ranking recording the very strongest batch of Fourth-Realm great cultivators within the bounds of the Great Qian—the Heaven Ranking.
He did not have to search hard.
Because that name was right there, in seventh place on the Heaven Ranking.
[Heaven Ranking, Seventh: Luo Jinyao]
[Origin: Wenjian Sect]
[Cultivation: Fourth-Realm Consummation (sword cultivator)]
[Combat Record: Garrisoned the Northern Frontier for ten years, holding 'Falling Snow Pass' with a single person and a single sword.]
[During that time she slew sixteen peak Fourth-Realm great demons; three years ago, in the depths of the Snow Plains, she encountered the Fifth-Realm Demon King Sky-Devouring Toad, and with a Fourth-Realm body, she fought upward against the grain, battling fiercely for three days and nights, and slew one Fifth-Realm Demon King in a gravely wounded state.]
[Commendation: The sword issues forth in selflessness—the foremost sword of the Northern Frontier Great Wall.]
"...?"
How did this person go on a killing spree all the way from the Second Realm, leaping realms up to the Fourth?
Where's she playing this cracked version of the immortal-gate game? Send me a copy too.
No wonder Elder Yu said the Northern Frontier was safe. With a big shot of this caliber providing cover, so long as you didn't go leaping in front of a demon king's eyes of your own accord, it really would be as safe as being home.
"How about it? This elder wasn't lying to you, was she?"
Yu Wenqiu wagged her head smugly, stuffing a piece of pastry into her mouth:
"So you see, this trip to the Northern Frontier, we'll just follow along behind Senior Sister Luo—she eats the meat, we drink the soup. And if we run into danger, you just announce yourself as a disciple of the Wenjian Sect, then run toward wherever the demon corpses are thickest, and you're sure to spot her!"
A thick thigh to cling to, and you can grind monsters to stack passive effects to boot.
This trip to the Northern Frontier looked like a sure thing.
The day of departure was set for three days later.
Over these three days, the Capital seemed as bustling and prosperous as ever, yet the sharp-eyed could all sense that the young cultivators who usually rode about in fine clothes, holding forth in the streets and alleys, had grown much fewer.
The wind of the Capital always seemed to carry a few more measures of heaviness than elsewhere.
It blew over the red walls and yellow tiles, swept through the long lanes of the marketplace, carrying the rouge-fragrance of some tavern or other.
Before setting off, Gu Chengming made a special point of going to several places and seeing several people.
Some words went unspoken; some gazes merely met for an instant from afar.
But on the path of cultivation, where were there ever so many perfect farewells?
To have once met at all was already a blessing.
The Night-Watch Bureau's rear mountain, the Artifact Forging Workshop.
The furnace fire still blazed, the clang of hammering on iron firm and forceful.
Qin Qing still wore that somewhat loose lotus-pink long dress, leaning lazily against the door-frame, a flask of wine in her hand.
The pungent liquor slid down her throat, making her narrow her eyes slightly.
She lowered her head and looked at her own pair of hands—not delicate, from years of gripping a hammer—and her fingertips seemed to still hold a trace of that karmic thread peeled away from the "Six Harmonies Spirit-Sealing Bells."
"Safe travels, little fellow."
The Imperial Academy, the Medical College.
Li Suizhuang was tidying the medicine cabinet, a few leaves from the scholar-tree outside the window having fallen onto the desk.
She pinched up a withered leaf, her gaze somewhat unfocused.
That Senior Sister Fu, always brash and fiery, forever clamoring to go settle scores, had already returned to her sect; and that young man who had made Senior Sister suffer a setback, yet whom Senior Sister could not stop thinking about, was leaving today as well.
"Everyone's off to contend for that path..."
Li Suizhuang gave a soft sigh and pressed the leaf between the pages of a medical text.
She gazed toward the north: "A smooth journey."
The long lanes of the marketplace, the Suxiang Pastry House.
The queue to buy pastries was as long as ever. The shopkeeper deftly wrapped up a packet of osmanthus cake, then glanced subconsciously toward the back of the line.
That young lord who'd been coming often of late—who bought two big packets every time, who was exceedingly handsome yet always carried a sword—didn't seem to have come today.
"Heard he's gone off to fight a war up north?" someone beside him murmured.
"Yeah, they say it's to go kill demons."
"Now that's a good thing! Lord Gu's got real skill—those demons that run into him are just plain out of luck!"
When the last thread of attachment was tucked away into his heart, the flying boat at last broke through the cloud layer and raced toward the north.
The sea of clouds churned; the sky was high and the land vast.
Upon the deck.
Gu Chengming stood facing the wind, the hem of his robe flapping and snapping.
And beside him, Yu Wenqiu, utterly without any sense of dignity, had hauled out a reclining chair, wrapped herself in a thick white fox-fur, still hugging that snack box that never left her grasp, eyes narrowed like a cat—
Oh right, speaking of cats, that fat orange cat had also been entrusted by Elder Yu to the neighbors.
"Elder."
Gu Chengming looked at her, in this getup like she was off on holiday, and couldn't help saying with amusement:
"We're headed to the Northern Frontier. With that air about you, anyone who didn't know better would think we were going to the Snow Plains to admire plum blossoms."
"Is there any difference?"
Yu Wenqiu stuffed a candied fruit into her mouth and said indistinctly:
"Anyway, once we get there, Senior Sister Luo's got us covered. We just wave the flags and shout from behind, and pick up scraps along the way—how cozy is that?"
"Besides, this is what this elder calls conserving her energy. In case—I mean, just in case—Senior Sister Luo happens to be in closed-door cultivation or away, doesn't this elder need to have the strength to run for it with you in tow?"
Gu Chengming shook his head helplessly. "Elder, you really do have full confidence in that Senior Luo."
Yu Wenqiu instantly perked up and sat straight up from the reclining chair: "You never saw Senior Sister Luo's grace back in the day. The moment her sword issued forth, all arts fell silent. What Dao-son, what Buddha-son—before her they were just a gaggle of babies not yet weaned."
"And Senior Sister, though she seems cold and aloof and doesn't like to talk, is the most protective of her own."
"Back then, when I was bullied in the sect—ahem, misunderstood—Senior Sister Luo, without a word, took up her sword and went straight to his door, and razed that gossipy fellow's cave-dwelling flat."
At this point, Yu Wenqiu seemed both a touch smug and a touch nostalgic:
"So you see, just getting to the Northern Frontier is like coming home. Very safe indeed!"
Gu Chengming looked at this carefree, happy-go-lucky elder of his, and the trace of melancholy in his heart was diluted quite a bit.
Perhaps this was Yu Wenqiu's unique charm—being carefree and foolishly cheerful was a good thing too.
"All right then."
Gu Chengming gave a smile, turned around, and cast his gaze toward that distant, boundless northern horizon.
[The «Qingxin Formula» cupped her face in both hands, that pair of purple eyes reflecting the outer world's sea of clouds, and reflecting your profile as well.]
[The Northern Frontier—it sounds so cold.]
[She gently blew out a breath, as if she could truly feel that chill, then tilted her head and looked at you with a beaming smile.]
[But it doesn't matter.]
[Whether it's the misty rain of the Capital or the wind and snow of the Northern Frontier—so long as you're here, wherever we go, whatever scenery we see, I'll feel very happy.]
Gu Chengming's heart warmed. He had just been about to respond with a word or two when a cultivation method beside her bristled in fury.
[The Huiyuan Sword Formula abruptly hugged the great sword in its arms tight, its eyes brimming with vigilance!]
[Despicable! This woman's started raiding the home base again! This is the crucial moment of heading to a new place—how can she be allowed to steal the limelight all by herself?!]
[It must say something! It must express an even more ardent love than hers!]
[The «Huiyuan Sword Formula» flushed red in the face, racking its brains, and at last squeezed out one dry little line:]
[I want to always be with you too!]
Compared to these two lovestruck fools, a certain Great Emperor's vibe was utterly out of place.
[The Northern Frontier! The Northern Frontier!]
[Emperor Gu! Did you feel it? That ancient, vast aura!]
[There must be lost ancient demon-race inheritances there, must be secret realms burying the bones of countless powerful figures, and those great demons several thousand years old, every inch of them a treasure!]
Besides this, there was yet another voice muttering away in a corner.
[The Northern Frontier is a land beyond civilization; demons and fiends know no propriety, eating raw flesh and drinking blood.]
[This northward journey is not only about exterminating demons, but about civilizing them.]
[Those who won't obey are to be beaten to death; and being beaten to death is itself a kind of culmination of propriety. Mm. Most virtuous.]
And then there was the one whose lower head ruled over the upper.
[Will there be pretty fox-spirit girls in the Northern Frontier?]
Within his sea of consciousness it was noisy and clamorous, in utter disarray. Some were confessing their love, some were vying for favor, some were crying out to kill, and some were talking solemn nonsense with a perfectly straight face.
Yet this very clamor gave Gu Chengming a sense of grounded steadiness he had never felt before.
The road ahead was long—what did it matter if wind and snow were coming?
Sword in hand, a companion at his side, and a place for his heart to return to.
This journey to the Northern Frontier—then so be it: sword startling the wind and snow, fist quelling the frontier pass.
(Volume Two, Sword Song of the Capital, complete.)
PS: You've all probably noticed by now—the past few volumes have each centered on a region, and a volume ending doesn't mean the story of that place is over. I'll come back around and keep writing them later, so it's not that the ending is rushed; it's that the story here itself simply isn't finished yet.
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