Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 1598: Gathering Troops from Qinghe

There were not many knowledgeable people in this world, but Li Ruhua was one of them. The red spot on her palm was the biggest secret that she had.

Regarding her identity, it was a secret that was strictly guarded by the Li Family’s inner circle. It was to the extent that there were fewer than three people who knew thoroughly about her origins. Of the two people who knew, one of them was as powerful as a divine dragon who traveled the world all year round and had not shown his face in the family for a long time.

In the Central Desolate’s Li Family, even though Li Ruhua had a very ordinary name, she was really not ordinary at all. Her status and position was far above the other third-generation descendants. Even whatever Li Ge knew about her barely scratched the surface.

In the cave dwelling, Li Ruhua’s eyes were bright as she lowered her head and continued pondering. She looked in front of her and said, “Chen Sanglue, go outside and guard the entrance.”

Chen Sanglue opened his eyes. He had an indifferent expression on his face and his eyes did not waver. However, in the deepest parts of his eyes, there was a faint glimmer. He nodded and went out without a word.

Li Ruhua raised her hand and spread her fingers to reveal the red spot on her palm and said, “Heaven Fire.”

As she spoke with a low voice, she suddenly raised her head. Her eyes and long hair turned crimson at the same time. They were like burning flames, but at the same time, they were also the color of fresh blood.

Li Ruhua’s aura changed. It was ice-cold and indifferent, like a god had descended upon the earth and looked at all living creatures beneath its feet as if they were ants. She raised her hand and pointed at the space in front of her. A small world was formed around her, completely separating herself from the outside world.

“Li Mu.”

A calm voice emanated from her mouth.

……

Seascape City.

As Marquis Chongwu’s carriage fleet moved into the Teleportation Portal, it was only then that the city’s great figures really breathed a sigh of relief. Even though Marquis Chongwu had taken the initiative to reject their offer to escort him to the border, no one knew if he was plotting something secretly. He was a great general in the military, and a marquis. His status and position was very high, and if he wanted to do something, he was definitely able to suppress anyone who got in his way easily.

Ye Gui was here too.

Back then, from the moment he left the Later Ye Family, he was already a dead man. Now that he was still alive, he was just a lonely ghost without any roots. He was not afraid of death, but he had already promised the marshal that he would give up his life to repay the Later Ye Family. Therefore, he had always been seeking an opportunity.

When he saw Marquis Chongwu’s carriage fleet step into the Teleportation Portal, Ye Gui turned and left. He returned to where he was staying in the city, and on the table in the room, he saw a green jade slip.

It was made of a very ordinary material and could only record a few simple characters. He glanced at it for a moment before taking it in his hands, then after a few breaths, he exerted some strength with his fingers and the jade slip shattered into powder without a sound.

Ye Gui got up and faced the direction of the Imperial Capital. He kowtowed thrice, and when he got up, there was a smile on his face that looked like he was being relieved of a huge burden.

……

“Your Majesty, I have always felt that Li Four Season’s words cannot be trusted after he went mad. It’s highly possible that he’s just part of a scheme. It is understandable that you have become very cautious when facing Marquis Chongwu, but this time, it is really risky.”

The young eunuch rarely had this solemn expression on his face as he bowed towards the hall. In a serious tone, he continued, “What if this was truly a plot by that clan and the Central Desolate’s Li Family? After all, Marquis Chongwu Ning Qin has now become an important chess piece; if he is destroyed…Your Majesty, your whole plan would be compromised to a stage where it would be irreparable.”

The dignified West Desolate King had a calm expression behind the bead curtain, “Li Zhouqing, in what capacity are you issuing this advice to me?”

The young eunuch bowed even lower and continued calmly, “I am merely your servant, Your Majesty, but I am also a servant of the West Desolate. I am sincere and only have the best interests of the empire at heart. Your Majesty, please take my words into consideration.”

“Hmph!” the West Desolate King scoffed. “I don’t need your reminders to carry out my plans…I have my own discretion regarding Marquis Chongwu. But you, don’t forget to continue searching for the whereabouts of the Min Residence. As long as that old monster is still in West Desolate territory, even if you have to flip the earth upside down, you had better find him!”

The young eunuch smiled bitterly and obeyed the king’s order. He retreated into the shadows and disappeared. His capacity? What capacity did he have? In the realm of the shadows, under the broad eunuch robes, his fists were clenched tightly and his fingernails dug into his palms.

Your Majesty, it is not me who owes the Imperial Clan, it is the Imperial Clan that owes me!

……

After stepping into the Teleportation Portal at Seascape City, they reached Qinghe, which was a stronghold of the imperial troops. Having the position of Marquis Chongwu and a first-ranked great general in the military was, of course, not just an empty title.

The number of troops that he controlled had also increased greatly. When Lord Chengtian brought the West Desolate King’s imperial decree that summoned Qin Yu back to the West Border Army’s main camp, he had also given him a Tiger Amulet which gave him the power to dispatch troops.

Evidently, Qinghe had already gotten advance notice of Marquis Chongwu’s arrival. This time, Marquis Chongwu’s carriage fleet did not need to report to anyone in order to meet with Qinghe’s ambassador. This was because they had been waiting here ever since the imperial order of Marquis Chongwu being sent back to the West Border Army was spread throughout the military.

Marquis Chongwu’s position was extremely different from General Jinwu’s back then.

General Zhongshan was in the crowd too. However, he was now about seven or eight ranks behind the top figurehead. Back then, when Hundred Saint said that General Zhongshan ‘oversees the training of the Qinghe Army’, he was just trying to give Qin Yu the best impression.

In reality, Qinghe Twenty Eastern Counties really contained twenty counties’ worth of territory, which was why it could gather tens of thousands of troops and become the most important stronghold of the imperial military.

The one who was truly overseeing the training of the Qinghe Army was actually a retired, old general of the army whose name was Ye Qianxing. That’s right, this man was from the ancient Old Ye Family.

They were known as one of the pillars of the military – these were not empty words.

Even if they only had half their limbs now, had become someone else’s puppet, and had trouble walking, Ye Qianxing was still the top figure in the Qinghe Army.

“Marquis Chongwu, the 400,000 new troops have already been prepared. They will be ready to move out in two days,” Ye Qianxing extended his arm and said, “Marquis, please come with me to settle in first.”

Qin Yu cupped his hands and said, “I’ve troubled you, General.” According to the arrangements made by the imperial military headquarters, they could stay in Qinghe for three days at most.

Ye Qianxing turned around and looked at the carriages behind Qin Yu, “I heard that your wife is with you…”

Qin Yu smiled lightly, “My wife does not like big crowds, so you don’t have to pay your respects to her.”

Ye Qianxing nodded his head and did not say much afterwards. The journey was smooth and they quickly reached the inn that had been prepared for them in advance. Of course, this place was different from the place that they stayed in the last time they were here. Qin Yu did not care much about these things, so the innkeepers, who had been restless for days, breathed a sigh of relief. They became much more eager in the way they served him.

If they continued to travel west beyond Qinghe, they would no longer be able to pass through Teleportation Portals that would bring them across the West Desolate’s territory. They would have to transport their troops to the border via an airship, which would take a month.

If the West Desolate King and Li Family wanted to make their move, they would do it in this timeframe. After all, if they waited longer than that, when the airship reached the West Border Army’s main camp, it would be inconvenient for them to do anything. It was also highly likely that they would cause turmoil to unfold in the military.

And as for these 400,000 new troops, they were still very unfamiliar with their commander since they did not have any interaction at all. One just had to plant a few capable people within them, and they could make use of an awry situation to turn their blades and backstab their commander, forcing him into a desperate situation. Even if this happened, there would not be much trouble that came with it afterwards.

Of course, Qin Yu could not be completely sure whether things would truly get to this stage or turn out the way he was expecting them to, so he could only be patient and continue waiting. The good thing was that he was not afraid, so he was not having a very hard time over this. Rather, he was just passing time. This lifeline that he had was indeed amazing, and no one could understand this feeling unless they held onto it themselves. Whoever had it would rejoice; it was simply a great feeling!

Smiling a little, Qin Yu closed his eyes and continued to cultivate. The Incense Child had stealthily entered the West Desolate’s Incense Territory, which was equivalent to opening a small stream in a large, flowing river. There was an endless source of incense power that flowed into Qin Yu’s body, which meant that other than his own cultivation, there was another catalyst that could boost his cultivation.

Of course, the effectiveness of this incense power could not be compared to the Incense Feedback that he received back then when he was breaking through, but it was still rather remarkable. After the darkness that followed Qin Yu had been broken, and on top of that, he had received the Incense Gift, it was enough to keep him in a state of ‘heavenly paradise’ cultivation efficiency that every cultivator had hoped for. It was a bit of an exaggeration to say that he could achieve in a day the cultivation amount that normal cultivators achieved in a year. It was more accurate to say that he could achieve in a day what normal cultivators could achieve in about three to five months.

This made Qin Yu unwilling to waste any time that he could spend cultivating. Ever since he broke through to the Ruler realm, whenever he had free time, he would cultivate painstakingly. However, there was one thing that worried him. As his power continued to increase, there was a growing pressure inside of him that felt like he was becoming a bigger fish caught in this world’s net which contained all living beings in this world, unable to escape.

Rourou had said before that, ‘Even if the sky falls down, there are powerful beings to hold it up’. But…why would the sky fall? Would these ‘powerful beings’ really be able to hold the heavens up? What if they couldn’t? What would be the result then?

Qin Yu continuously told himself that he should take one step at a time and not ‘bite off more than he could chew’ and worry about things that were beyond his concern for now. However, the anxiety deep in his heart refused to go away, even if he was now hugging onto a very huge lifebuoy.

This was because Qin Yu could not help but feel that even this mysterious being from space time could not hold up the heavens.

Not far away from the Qinghe inn he was staying at, Rourou looked in the direction of where Qin Yu was cultivating and she raised her eyebrows.

Indeed, there was a problem.

Who exactly was Qin Yu? Was he the reincarnation of someone mighty? However, there was no trace of reincarnation on him. Even if Qin Yu was so special that she could not understand exactly who Qin Yu was, as one of the most special and oldest existences between the heavens and earth, Rourou did not remember owing any mighty being any debt in the long time that she had been alive.

As for eating mighty beings, well, she had indeed eaten some of them.

Therefore, this could not explain why she always uncontrollably did something reckless, or something that was unlike her, when facing Qin Yu.

Rourou rubbed the spot between her eyebrows and froze slightly. With a gloomy expression, she retracted her hand. She took a deep breath and suppressed whatever emotions she was feeling and looked up into the distance.

Her eyes brightened, and then returned to calm after a few moments. She seemed to ponder for a while, before a cold smile appeared on her face, “Well, it seems you’re not all useless. If so, then I’ll let you live for a while longer.”

……

Since the original arrangement was to stay only for two days, they were really going to stay for only two days. After completing the transaction with Ye Qianxing, who was the figurehead of Qinghe, the 400,000 new troops greeted their commander. After that, they boarded the airships. As there were so many of them, they were very densely packed. The airships were huge and the sheer number of them covered a large area of the sky, casting an endless shadow.

It was a majestic scene to behold, and the aura that emanated from these troops could swallow mountains and rivers! Whether or not these 400,000 troops would eventually rebel against their commander was a topic for another day. This feeling, right now, of being in control of these troops, was a great one.

The moment these 400,000 troops saluted and knelt to the ground, Qin Yu felt the thrill of ‘holding immense power’. The incense power stolen by the Incense Child also started to surge. It was as if it was closely related to Qin Yu’s fortunes.

“Let’s set out!”

Qin Yu waved his hand, and the formation pattern carved on the airships lit up. The space around the airships started to vibrate quickly, like numerous big fish in the deep ocean swimming faster and further away.