Chapter 1156

The front lines suffered another defeat.

Li Xianghan sighed sorrowfully, spread her arms, and collapsed flat on the insect chamber's fungal mat.

Two old mice extended their hairy paws, scuttling out of the insect jar with soft scraping sounds, dragging out the dried fruit they had hoarded in their nests, and pushed it toward their master as a small comfort.

Bai Awei held a large azure pill, rolled it into a ball, and mindlessly gnawed at it—gnaw, gnaw, gnaw—until the table was littered with pill fragments; hearing the words, he stopped chewing with his hooked mouthparts and spun in place.

"Hmph, who else could it be? Liang Qu. Everyone in the stronghold, young and old, says he is the First Marquis of the Great Shun, the greatest scourge of Nanjiang, riding a winged azure dragon, summoning wind and rain wherever he goes, thunder and lightning flashing—those caught in the rain drown, even masters are no exception. I think they're just scared silly, telling tall tales."

Li Xianghan fed the dried fruit back to the mice, stroking their back fur, "I heard over a hundred and ten Entering Zhen Xiang have died this month alone, nearly sixty of them killed by him. The Red Water Poison and Black Water Poison—one captured, one missing.

If not for him, the Longwan Bay front couldn't have been held. The tribal leader flew into a thunderous rage, wanting to gather the remaining Five Venoms and Nine Toxins to jointly deal with Liang Qu once and for all. The stronghold fell into chaos; several elders disagreed with continuing resistance, planning to demand compensation from the tribal leader and withdraw their own people from the front lines.

Sixty, huh—tsk tsk. Xiao Lan, you say, can one person really be that strong?"

Bai Awei opened and closed his mouthparts.

Li Xianghan frowned, lifting her head: "How can you be so certain, speaking as if you'd seen it yourself?"

The two mice climbed onto her shoulders, stood upright, hands on hips, adding grandeur to their master.

Bai Awei repeatedly waved his limbs.

Silence.

Li Xianghan rested her head on the fungal mat, paying no mind, merely thinking it was a naive insect unaware of the world, not knowing how formidable true Entering Zhen Xiang masters are—that's entirely another level of existence.

Sixty.

A number she dared not even dream of—ordinary people couldn't muster the strength to slaughter sixty pigs, but if all sixty were her die-hard loyalists, Li Xianghan could take the seat second only to the Wu Sheng in Qinggu Valley today, speaking with absolute authority.

Now sixty have been condensed into one—so that pig, no, person must be incredibly strong.

What does Liang Qu look like?

I heard he married extremely early, has a dragon girl wife whose beauty and figure are unparalleled under heaven. Li Xianghan thinks that's just flattery for the talented—people even praise the chamber pots used by the talented as beautiful, all hot air. In reality, who knows if she even has eight-tenths her beauty and seven-tenths her figure?

Alas, for such a great figure, I estimate I'll never see her in my lifetime—let alone have any connection.

A holy maiden of the stronghold, to ordinary eyes, already stands beyond reach; common folk glance at her and feel it's divine grace, dreaming of her for ten days—peerless beauty, unmatched status...

Yet beyond the heavens there are still heavens, beyond people there are still people—the higher you stand, the farther you see.

"Liang Qu is so formidable, he hunted tigers at eighteen and a half. Yuan Yuwen is nineteen, only half a year behind—surely not much different? It's no wonder the deathless old-timers get ahead; if the deathless can deceive people, Yuan Yuwen has had twenty more years of cultivation than Liang Qu—so Liang Qu might not even be worth looking at..."

"Pfft."

Bai Awei spat out a mouthful of pill residue.

The two mice, quick-eyed and quick-pawed, leapt from her shoulders, beating other poisonous insects to it, and licked the pill residue from the ground clean.

Li Xianghan showed concern: "What's wrong? Today's big pill not to your taste?"

Bai Awei shook his head, ran to the side to rinse his mouth with precious plant nectar, spat it on the ground, and the two mice turned into wind-and-fire wheels, reversed direction, came swiftly, and in the blink of an eye sucked it clean.

Li Xianghan laughed: "No need to eat so fast—no insect is competing with you. If it's not enough, I'll have someone get more, but you eat so much—can you really digest it? Won't you get heartburn?"

Bai Awei patted his chest.

"Fine, you know your own mind—I'm going to cultivate." Li Xianghan stretched lazily, revealing her lovely curves, "Half a year of unstoppable momentum—I thought I could really take Lingnan, but in the end, nothing got done.

The deathless is out there; he shouldn't be back anytime soon. Best to follow him and die together down there, so my grandparents can punish this wanton hussy!"

Bai Awei: "?"

The blue-armored centipede spun in circles, thinking it had misheard.

"I'm adopted, didn't I say that?" Li Xianghan said matter-of-factly, "Oh, right—I never told you. Yuan Yuwen died less than thirty years ago, I'm twenty-eight this year, the deathless couldn't possibly sire two generations even if he tried—at most, I'm his daughter.

I share the deathless's surname; she's my grandfather's younger sister. Love parasites are never one-sided—they're poisonous insects where the caster must also bear the consequences—so I think the deathless is foolish, actually believing a wastrel.

Yuan Yuwen died, the deathless suffered backlash, was severely wounded and recovered, unable to bear children in this life—perfect, since I'm also a 'Soul Nurture Heart Source,' my family died early too, so the elders decided, making me his disciple and granddaughter. The deathless is exactly forty years older than me—perfect as a grandmother, the ages work out."

Bai Awei's head felt dizzy.

Grandmother, grandfather's younger sister...

Wait, the ages still don't add up—I need to chew a big pill to calm down.

Crack, crack, crack.

Peach blossoms blaze bright, filling the trees, each fruit weighing down the branches.

Fruit bends the branches, hanging like brocade pellets, the tree full of clusters of rouge.

Blooming and fruiting in cycles for a thousand summers, no summer, no winter for ten thousand years of delay.

Beneath the tree, strange flowers and unusual herbs bloom, colors unchanging through the four seasons. Left and right, pavilions and halls stand, clouds and rainbows often seen draped in the sky. Not an ordinary tree of the mundane world—this is the Queen Mother of the West's own planting in the Jade Pool.

"Crack, crack."

Lu Mengyao cultivates beneath the peach tree; Liang Qu transforms into a blood ape, leans against the trunk, reaches up, plucks a peach, and finishes it in three bites, revealing the red peach pit inside.

Not some purple-patterned paulownia pit—this is exactly a fifth-grade blood treasure!

When Liang Qu first arrived at the Shuoyu Pavilion, he truly jumped in fright—this peach tree actually bears blood treasures, using low-grade blood treasures as fertilizer. He immediately understood why the Heaven Fire Sect assigns elders to guard it.

"There must be more than just peach trees producing this way—blood naturally crystallizes in the Blood River, peach trees produce it—these are two methods..."

Liang Qu pondered, then casually tossed the blood treasure into his mouth to bite and refine it.

"Master, you're sneaking snacks again." Lu Mengyao struck a pose of having caught him red-handed.

"This is reasonable loss—you don't understand a thing! So many peach trees, even first-grade ones abound—I eat a few fifth-grade ones, what's wrong with that? Shouldn't I?" Liang Qu plucked another and tossed it to Lu Mengyao.

Lu Mengyao stuck out her tongue, happily hugging a peach: "Master, why have you been missing the monkey lately? Are you off to meet the mistress in secret?"

"We are lawfully married—what secret meetings? And adult matters—children don't interfere. Practice your martial arts."

"Oh."

"By the way, how's your brother lately? Has he come to see you?"

"No, just like you, Master—always busy with who-knows-what, never seeing anyone." Lu Mengyao replied.

Liang Qu's eyes flashed—he knew Lu Yingtian was running around for the matter of his promotion to first-grade disciple.

Spring was drawing ever closer, and Liang Qu's biggest problem now was not knowing how to handle the Netherworld.

If he couldn't freely enter and exit after resurrection, it would undoubtedly be a huge trouble; the Blood River Realm retained far too many secrets, and his unexplained disappearance meant the Heavenly Fire Sect wouldn't let the slightest clue slip by — Lao Mengyao and Lao Ying Tian would be investigated inside out, the treasury matter couldn't be concealed, and the River God Sect would be destroyed in one fell swoop.

If worst came to worst, he at least had to take his cheap disciple and the disciple's relatives away.

Sim Zhongyi died and was brought in as a matter of course, but how to bring a dead person out?

If he could find a way to also freely enter and exit after resurrection, that would be best of all.

Liang Qu sank his mind, his gaze falling upon the Black-Robed Great Emperor.

Time was always too short and yet too long.

Resurrection took too long, the Position Fruit was too far, the Flood Dragon was too pressing, the Southern Frontier was too urgent, life was too short.

Nothing quite went as he wished.

A long while.

He plucked two more peaches, gnawed one and tossed one.

"I'm heading out for a bit. If anyone comes, you receive them and cover for me."

"Got it, got it. This bribe your direct disciple accepts; we're grasshoppers on the same rope. Master, go find your wife with peace of mind." Lao Mengyao twirled the peach in her palm, smiling as she wiped off the peach fuzz.

……

"Phew, the mortal world is still better."

"What's better?" Long Eying kept her eyes closed, rolled over and hugged him, a long pale leg hooking around his waist.

"The person is beautiful, the scenery is beautiful too."

Returning from the Netherworld, the Human Form Returning to Origin Transformation bore into his flesh; Liang Qu opened his eyes, savoring the long-lost tactile sensation and the fragrance and softness inside the quilt, pinched a thigh, and rolled over to sit up.

The repaired Dragon Spirit Gauze shook clean, and he stepped out of the camp.

"Lord Liang!"

"Duke of Liang!"

"Baseless nonsense, don't spout rubbish!" Liang Qu laughed and cursed.

The Passing Master roared with laughter.

The vast front line had almost entirely been rained on by Liang Qu; the air held a long-lost dryness, the sunshine was bright, and there were no mosquitoes or insects.

Flattered all the way, Liang Qu walked into another large tent.

"I reckon there's no going back for the New Year this year." Ko Wenbin sat with legs crossed. "The Southern Frontier definitely won't let up easily, the imperial court doesn't want to bleed heavily either, so we'll have to tough it out for a good while — at least half a year."

"Heard the former Southern Frontier Holy Maiden came to the front to comfort the troops. Yo, Ashui." Fang Su greeted him.

Liang Qu nodded and sat down.

Ko Wenbin asked curiously, "Which Holy Maiden? The Southern Frontier only has a few per generation — could it be the one who had an affair with Yuan Yuwen?"

"Don't know. Heard it's a married woman, looks a bit old, should be around seventy." Xu Yue shook his head.

"That probably isn't it. Yuan Yuwen isn't dead; even alive he's not yet fifty, right?" Liang Qu recalled Awei's intelligence, guessing the Southern Frontier likely dispatched several at once.

"Hey, that's not necessarily true." Bai Yin grabbed a tangerine. "Who said the Southern Frontier Holy Maiden is the same age as Yuan Yuwen? I remember that Holy Maiden was twenty years older than Yuan Yuwen; when they had their affair, that Holy Maiden was already around forty, so this year she'd be exactly seventy."

"?"

A question mark popped up over Liang Qu's head, and he immediately recalled the sense of incongruity in Awei's intelligence.

Indeed, Yuan Yuwen wasn't dead, and was fifty today — how could he have a thirty-year-old granddaughter?

Could it be…

"A twenty-year gap is too exaggerated, right? For ordinary people, at forty you're practically a grandmother." Liang Qu complained.

As his words fell.

Everyone swiveled their heads in unison.

Liang Qu's hand peeling the tangerine paused: "Why are you all looking at me?"

"Talk about others, but isn't yours fourteen years older than you too?" Ko Wenbin curled his lip. "Forty-one or forty-two next year?"

"How can that be the same?"

"Hah, hit a nerve." Ko Wenbin mocked.

A short while later.

"Cough, cough…" Under death stares, Ko Wenbin coughed twice, stifling his smile. "That… fourteen and twenty are indeed different, but martial artists cultivate by realm, not age. That Holy Maiden at forty was just a Tiger Hunter, same realm as Yuan Yuwen. We all marry late too — same principle."

"A woman is fine wine; the older, the more mellow and fragrant." Fang Su added.

"Hahaha."

Liang Qu tossed the tangerine into his mouth.

They chatted idly for a bit.

"Is Ashui going back this year? We probably can't go back; you might be able to return to the capital midway to receive your enfeoffment reward — you'll be a Duke then, right?"

"Forget the Duke title, too troublesome. And this year I probably can't go back either."

"What do you mean 'Duke is troublesome'? How can you even say that? Getting more and more pretentious."

"Worried the Southern Frontier will sneak attack while you're gone? Shouldn't be that bad; we've consolidated the front now, not completely without resistance. Holding out a month or two is no problem."

"Not that reason. You'll know when the time comes."

Everyone was stunned.

Liang Qu patted his butt, stood up, grabbed the sand tangerines from the table, tucked them into his robe, and left.

Ko Wenbin and the others stared at each other.

"What does that mean?"

"Don't know. Ashui's getting more and more mysterious."

"Right, what did he come for anyway?"

"Stealing our sand tangerines!"

Liang Qu wandered about with nothing to do, seemingly just to hear people call him Duke of Liang.

Leaning against a tree trunk by the field ridge chatting with Xu Zishuai, watching the common people gradually resume production and busily transplant rice seedlings in the paddies, a sense of achievement welled up in his heart.

Two-thirds of Lingnan had fallen; retaking half had undoubtedly greatly eased the survival pressure.

"Here it comes!" Liang Qu looked up.

Crimson light appeared on the horizon, streaming across the sky.

"Right then, you've got business, and I've got to get busy too." Xu Zishuai clapped his hands and stood. "The front-line logistics are just too tight; Senior Brother Lu and I have been working non-stop, swinging hammers until our arms are a full circle thicker."

Liang Qu laughed heartily: "I'll have General Xu credit Senior Brother with extra military merit."

"That's more like it."

Holding a grass stem between his teeth, Xu Zishuai strolled along the field ridge; the crimson light from the horizon descended.

Snort!

Chishan let out a loud snort, and Ling Xuan flipped down from his horse.

Liang Qu composed his expression, a seriousness showing in his eyes; all leisure vanished in an instant: "How did it go?"

"His Majesty says we can make an attempt!" Ling Xuan handed over the long cylinder from behind his back, twisted it open, and a strange fragrance wafted out.

Imperial edict!

White jade axle, golden kui-dragon pattern.

The highest-specification imperial edict of the current era!

Liang Qu lifted the jade axle, unrolled the edict; dazzling reflections flashed, and he narrowed his eyes to scan it.

South Sea Appointment Order!

A finger trembled.

"Who is going?"

"The Grand Secretariat believes Prince Chong is the best choice!"

"Good." Liang Qu rolled up the edict, shoved it back into the wooden cylinder. "Go, no time to lose — let's go find Prince Chong right now!"

……

There are three kings in Lingnan.

Prince Xingjin, Prince Chong, Prince of the South Sea.

The Prince of the South Sea holds the best fief, possessing the number one port under heaven, Heaven Port; to its south lies the South Sea, where land and water meet, spiritual opportunity is most abundant, and he is also the strongest in power.

The tax revenue of South Sea Commandery alone is even several times that of a barren fief!

Prince Chong comes next, and is also the person with the greatest hope of implementing the plan.

Liang Qu paid a secret visit; the Prince's mansion steward dared not slight him and immediately arranged a secret-room meeting.

Prince Chong entered the room in quick strides; he looked to be a man in his mid-thirties, a dark blue silk sash at his waist, quite the air of a scholar. Seeing Liang Qu and Ling Xuan, he was puzzled but still cupped his hands: "Marquis Xingyi, this one is…"

"Imperial Envoy Ling Xuan, Purple-Gold Imperial Guards of the Three Law Offices!"

"Greetings, Prince Chong!" Ling Xuan saluted.

Prince Chong was startled: "His Majesty has issued an edict?"

"Prince Chong, please look at this edict!" Liang Qu drew out the edict, stepped forward, and unfurled it.

A long while.

Prince Chong fell silent.

"Bai Yuan… not dead?"

"Faked death to escape."

Prince Chong said: "If there truly exists a method for a fledgling dragon to hide and move unseen, would that not throw the world into chaos? At that time the threat would be too great, and we would be attacked from front and rear."

"That is why the opportunity exists only this once, cannot be replicated — only success is permitted, failure is not!" Liang Qu put away the edict. "Prince Chong must have seen it; this edict bears no name."

Prince Chong remained silent.

Ling Xuan kept a stern face: "Bai Yuan is newly advanced; Pan Dong is not. He adds inherent strength, but the concrete battle results still depend on just how far Prince Chong you are willing to go!"

Crash…

Raindrops spattered against the window sill.

A fledgling dragon is so formidable — this is not about victory or defeat, not about stalemate, it is about deciding life and death!

Without staking one's life, without firm resolve, there is no way to secure a battle outcome before Southern Border reinforcements arrive.

If you cannot stake your life, cannot set your resolve, your name cannot be branded onto this imperial edict!

Powerless in the Northern Court back then; came to the Southern Border, now things are different. At the moment of spring's revival, Liang Qu intends to accomplish one final great deed.

What are the Five Gu, Nine Poisons, Twenty-Four Sha?

What can seventy Grandmasters count for?

The battle line contracts, Southern Border Martial Saints gather steadily, regain their footing, hoping to negotiate for benefits.

Stalemate? Delay? Negotiate?

Wait for internal contradictions in the Southern Border to explode?

No.

Too slow, far too slow.

Cutting through hemp requires a sharp knife.

We must make the Southern Border not dare to offend again for a hundred years!

(End of chapter)