They had already gone very far.
After traveling at full speed throughout the morning, the group successfully entered the mountains. Once they confirmed that no pursuers were behind them, they finally slowed down.
The blazing midday sun hung high overhead, displaying the full ferocity of summer. The dense leaves blocked most of the sunlight, yet walking beneath them remained stiflingly hot.
Fu Xi Yan wiped the beads of sweat from his neck and curiously glanced toward Yi Jue in his “iron-barrel” outfit. Every time Fu Xi Yan looked at him, Yi Jue politely acknowledged him, but never initiated a conversation.
After several such exchanges, Fu Xi Yan began feeling embarrassed. It was starting to seem as though he kept getting caught staring.
Shou Nan Shan, walking behind them, found the situation amusing. “Elder Yi still doesn’t like talking, I see.”
Yi Jue heard him.
He ignored him.
Shou Nan Shan lowered his voice and told Fu Xi Yan, “Elder Yi has never liked talking. They say that when the old lord of Xia Family Fort died, the Palace Master sent Elder Yi to pay his respects. By the time Elder Yi came back, Xia Family Fort still had no idea anyone from the Immortal Treasury Palace had visited. They only discovered it later while going through the gift registry.”
Fu Xi Yan looked puzzled. “You can’t tell.” Yi Jue seemed very easy to get along with.
Shou Nan Shan said, “That’s because Chief Steward Jing told him that if he doesn’t like talking, he should at least smile more. Otherwise people who look at him might think they owe him eight hundred taels of silver.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “He even waved at me earlier.”
Shou Nan Shan looked astonished. “Then he’s definitely treating you differently.”
As the two spoke, they both looked toward Yi Jue again.
Yi Jue also turned his head and smiled at them—
Primarily at Fu Xi Yan.
Fu Xi Yan: “…” Now that he knew the truth, the smile suddenly seemed a little too idol-like.
They were traveling light during their escape and had prepared neither food nor water. Water was manageable. There were mountain streams, and they could drink from them in an emergency. But from last night until now, not a single grain of rice had entered anyone’s stomach. Their hunger was becoming difficult to endure.
As they walked, Fu Xi Yan’s stomach began growling loudly.
Everyone present possessed sharp hearing and vision. Several streaks of sword qi immediately shot through the forest, killing a few unfortunate birds passing nearby and converting them into lunch.
Roasting birds required plucking their feathers. Pei Yuan Jin looked at the bird in his hand and passed it to Xiao Shan before going to the stream to catch fish instead.
But fish could not simply be placed directly over a fire either.
They needed descaling.
Pei Yuan Jin’s gaze shifted toward the remaining Hidden Dragon guards.
They were all crouching on the ground plucking feathers.
They truly needed more manpower.
The Young Master of the Immortal Treasury Palace reached this conclusion internally, then released two swift sword qi slashes and directly shaved both sides off a fish whose body bulged slightly.
One look at that display was enough to predict the quality of today’s wilderness meal.
The fish and birds were cooked, certainly, but there was no seasoning. Some meat was dry and tough, some horribly fishy. Eating it could hardly be described as merely tasteless. Everyone wolfed it down as quickly as possible—because if they slowed down, they might actually taste what was inside their mouths.
Halfway through swallowing his portion, Fu Xi Yan suddenly asked, “What kind of bird is this?”
Everyone, who had only paid attention to the fact that the birds possessed feathers and not what those feathers actually looked like: “…”
Tan Bu Ju said, “The kind that doesn’t taste good.”
Shou Nan Shan said, “A forest bird.”
Xiao Zhang said, “It isn’t poisonous.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…” Fine. Given the current ecological environment, there probably were not any species endangered enough that eating one would be forbidden. And if there were, there was nothing they could do. The young emperor had already become a hostage. Could anyone still expect official authorities to contribute to wildlife protection?
The meal might have been crude, but it subtly soothed everyone’s exhausted nerves. Hunting birds, catching fish, roasting food… None of them had done these things specifically to relax, yet the activities themselves carried the leisurely flavor of a wilderness outing. The tension wound tightly inside everyone therefore loosened slightly. Once they began traveling again, Pei Yuan Jin said, “We’re not far from the Fuchun River.”
Fu Xi Yan asked curiously, “We’re crossing the river?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “We’ll take a boat. It will break the trail for anyone tracking us.”
Fu Xi Yan had earlier believed boats were too conspicuous. Once exposed, there was nowhere to hide on the surface of the water. But that only mattered after they had already been discovered. Traveling by land might allow a skilled tracker to follow them from the very beginning.
After all, wherever someone passed, traces remained. A genuine tracking expert might notice details ordinary people would never even consider. In this regard, even Martial Gods and Martial Kings could not compare.
Having been thoroughly brainwashed by novels in his previous life, Fu Xi Yan immediately accepted the explanation.
“Do we have someone meeting us?”
Or were they going to steal a boat on the spot?
Pei Yuan Jin had personally planned this entire escape, and Fu Xi Yan had not asked about the details beforehand. Now he could not help becoming curious and faintly expectant.
Pei Yuan Jin nodded.
The plan had been prepared on extremely short notice with limited resources. Many parts depended partly on luck. Mo Xiao Ran’s appearance in the imperial palace was one example. Yi Jue had not even needed to act before Fu Xi Yan somehow persuaded Mo Xiao Ran with a few sentences. Pei Yuan Jin had never expected such a pleasant surprise.
Of course, it might also become a future danger.
Pei Yuan Jin had never fought Mo Xiao Ran directly, but from the fragments his father had mentioned over the years, he knew the man was cunning and slippery to an extraordinary degree. He would never be fooled so easily.
If Mo Xiao Ran stepped backward once inside the imperial palace, then somewhere else he would certainly move forward twice.
Pei Yuan Jin thought of the copy of Intermediate Puppet Arts Mo Xiao Ran had given Fu Xi Yan.
Was this special cultivation genuinely nothing more than the affection of a “martial grandfather”?
He sank into thought and therefore failed to answer Fu Xi Yan’s previous question.
Fu Xi Yan assumed Pei Yuan Jin had forgotten to arrange this part and imagined that once they reached the river, they would have to re-enact the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each showing off his own supernatural abilities.
He had no idea whether his own cultivation would even carry him all the way to the opposite bank.
Fu Xi Yan was even more worried about the eunuch uniform he was wearing. A scene this stylish should have involved fluttering white robes. Being dressed like this was an outrageous waste of the atmosphere. He feared that if some passerby saw him flying across the river, they might assume Heaven had sent an eunuch down to deliver an imperial decree to the Dragon Palace beneath the water.
Still, he was not the only one wearing eunuch clothes.
At least he and Pei Yuan Jin were suffering together.
He turned and looked at Pei Yuan Jin, then immediately became jealous. The exact same clothes looked nothing like eunuch robes on the other man. Instead, they somehow appeared luxurious and aristocratic.
Were Northern Zhou eunuch uniforms really this good-looking?
Fu Xi Yan looked at Pei Yuan Jin, then at himself, and deeply experienced the dimensional gap between the seller’s promotional photo and what the buyer actually received.
His behavior, however, looked very different to Shou Nan Shan, who had been quietly listening nearby. Shou Nan Shan assumed Fu Xi Yan was angry because the Young Master had ignored his question and immediately walked beside Pei Yuan Jin with a deliberate cough.
Pei Yuan Jin turned toward him.
Shou Nan Shan covered his mouth and said, “Young Madam asked you something.”
His voice was muffled and fairly quiet, but the forest was silent. Naturally, it did not escape everyone’s carefully raised ears.
Pei Yuan Jin turned toward Fu Xi Yan.
Fu Xi Yan shook his head and spread his hands, indicating that he did not mind.
Pei Yuan Jin extended a hand.
Fu Xi Yan hesitated, then put his own hand into it.
Pei Yuan Jin squeezed that soft, fleshy hand, and his heart strangely settled. He did not know whether it was related to the crack that had appeared in his state of mind, but today he seemed to be thinking far too much.
The two walked at the front holding hands.
Everyone else tactfully fell a little farther behind.
Qin Xiao Xun watched the pair walking closely together ahead of him. His expression became increasingly gloomy. His delicate brows drooped, carrying what looked like boundless sorrow.
His two personal guards had already been released. While no one was paying attention to them during the journey, they quietly moved closer to the emperor and resumed protective positions. Their combat ability was almost meaningless beside Martial Gods and Martial Kings, but their loyalty was genuine.
The group pushed through thick weeds and eventually reached a shallow bank at the foot of the mountain.
Four battered little boats that looked nearly abandoned were moored there.
There was just enough room for everyone.
After boarding, they discovered a water-route map carved into the oars. The boats traveled southwest for some distance. As the river deepened, an anchored warship appeared ahead.
The warship had pointed ends and a long, narrow middle. It plainly looked less comfortable than the large purple vessel they had taken from Duan Qian in Northern Zhou’s Shiquan County, but it was extremely fast.
For people fleeing for their lives, speed mattered more than comfort.
Two men stood at the stern. The instant they saw Fu Xi Yan’s group, they waved both hands with restrained but unmistakable enthusiasm.
Fu Xi Yan recognized one as Ying He.
The other…
Pei Yuan Jin apparently noticed his confusion and explained without waiting to be asked. “Ying He, chief manager of Lin’an’s Wind Division, and Wang Fa Cai, chief manager of the Rain Division.”
Fu Xi Yan whispered, “Is Wang Fa Cai that wealthy merchant?”
The story of how Wang Fa Cai joined the Immortal Treasury Palace was rather miserable.
He possessed enormous wealth but no powerful background, which attracted the attention of several aristocratic youths in Lin’an. They nearly fabricated charges against him and had him executed. At the crucial moment, Wang Fa Cai followed the advice of his old friend Ying He and entered the Immortal Treasury Palace carrying an enormous sum of money.
At the time, the Rain Division’s previous chief manager had not yet been transferred away.
That manager had sent several people from the Thunder Division to visit the aristocratic youths’ bedsides in the middle of the night and leave behind a few written words.
Afterward, everything became peaceful.
Wang Fa Cai had personally experienced the sweetness of possessing a powerful backer. From that day forward, he diligently planned, funded, and worked for the Immortal Treasury Palace. Because his contributions were substantial, he was promoted to chief manager after the previous Rain Division head left.
His wealth only grew afterward.
Pei Yuan Jin might look down on the various Immortal Treasury Palace branches stationed in Lin’an, but for the chief managers themselves, life beneath the shelter of such a great mountain was actually rather comfortable.
Wang Fa Cai had hesitated about participating in this operation.
In the end, however, his awe of and reliance upon the Immortal Treasury Palace outweighed calculations of personal profit and loss. He gambled everything—his fortune and his life—on this operation.
The warship before them had been purchased at great expense through his own network of contacts.
The matter gave Pei Yuan Jin much to think about.
People he had considered useless had provided enormous assistance at the most critical moment. Their contribution was no less valuable than that of powerful martial artists.
Clearly, martial arts and family background were not the only standards by which one should judge whether someone deserved to serve as a chief manager.
At least they would no longer be the standards Pei Yuan Jin used.
After everyone boarded, Ying He and Wang Fa Cai hurriedly came forward to salute.
Ying He saw the young emperor and immediately formed a suspicion, but Wang Fa Cai did not think in that direction at all. His assignment had simply been to purchase a ship and meet the group.
Moreover, Qin Xiao Xun had been sleeping when he was abducted and wore only light, cool everyday clothes. Unless someone deliberately examined the subtle woven patterns, there was nothing obvious about his identity.
Shou Nan Shan quickly smashed all four small boats to pieces and scattered the fragments in different directions.
It was an extremely crude method, but not a single person present specialized in tracking or concealment. They could only do what they could and pray Southern Yu would not react too quickly.
＊
How could Southern Yu lose its emperor and not react quickly?
While Song Qi Yun was still standing inside the abandoned residence beside West Lake hoping that “they couldn’t have gone far,” the Commander of the Imperial Guard was already ordering every city gate to tighten security.
He also summoned Chai Mi, Chief Constable of Six Doors, the famous “Six-Eyed Divine Detective.”
After analyzing the possible routes, Chai Mi believed the western and southern gates were the most likely choices.
The north led toward the new city, which was already heavily fortified. The east was a major coastal-defense region containing tens of thousands of troops. The western and southern routes led deeper inland and were comparatively weakly defended.
Then the genuine hunting dogs were released.
Pei Yuan Jin’s group had left hurriedly and abandoned their spare clothing, but the bedsheets and bedding had not been replaced. Chai Mi gave them to tracking hounds to smell.
Dogs were dogs, not people. They could not determine whether a road had been traveled by Pei Yuan Jin’s group before kidnapping the emperor or after escaping.
But Chai Mi and the Imperial Guard Commander quickly realized the problem.
The Commander asked, “Could they double back?”
Chai Mi shook his head. “Unlikely.”
Pei Yuan Jin’s objective was to leave Lin’an, not remain hidden inside the city and continue causing trouble. Before the Imperial Guard could react properly, they had every opportunity to force their way directly through a gate. Remaining inside the city instead would only waste the advantage they had already created.
“We should inspect the city gates.”
They were preparing to split up when the city gate general arrived at the imperial palace to plead guilty, bringing Liu Guang Cheng’s corpse and several of the dead general’s personal guards with him.
The moment the city gate general saw the Imperial Guard Commander’s face looking blacker than the bottom of a pot, his heart dropped.
Did something happen to His Majesty?
But the battle had taken place outside the city gate, while the Imperial Guard Commander had remained inside. How could he have received the news this quickly?
The general did not dare delay. He hurriedly dismounted and was just about to kneel to confess his failures when the Commander grabbed him one-handed and lifted him upright.
“Did you see His Majesty?”
The general clutched the Commander’s arm. “I saw him only a short while ago. His Majesty—His Majesty is missing?!”
＊
Outside the city, the fighting had just ended, and the city gate guard and Divine Martial Vanguard were cleaning up the battlefield.
The Imperial Guard Commander galloped over on horseback with the city gate general draped awkwardly in front of him. The horse raced so fast that the dust it raised got into several people’s eyes. The general was still coughing when the Commander lifted him down.
The Commander’s surname was Zhu and his given name Shou Xin.
He came from a family of lower-ranking military officers. Because of his extraordinary talent for martial arts, he had risen rapidly. In the past he had maintained decent relations with the late emperor, the regent, and the Spirit Sect alike, essentially remaining neutral.
After the regent fell, however, he abandoned all thoughts of balancing both sides and pledged himself to the young emperor.
That was how he eventually became Commander of the Imperial Guard.
He understood perfectly well that if anything happened to the young emperor, his official career would not merely end.
His life probably would too.
Compared with him, Xiao Jin Zi and Elder Wei, who were backed by the Spirit Sect, stood in a much safer position.
At this moment, the only person whose interests truly aligned with Zhu Shou Xin’s was his Deputy Commander, A Dong—the man Zhu Shou Xin normally found almost impossible to tolerate.
The name A Dong commemorated the winter when he returned to human society.
That winter had been exceptionally cold. Unable to find food in the wilderness, the boy had entered a farmer’s home to steal something and been captured. Only then did he discover that he was human rather than an animal.
A Dong was currently still inside the imperial palace.
Now that the emperor had disappeared, someone from the Imperial Guard had to remain behind and shoulder the blame.
A Dong happened to be terrible with words. Language—the tool humanity had developed to improve communication—was almost entirely useless in his hands.
That made him perfect for staying behind, pretending not to understand anything, and delaying everyone.
The city gate general saw Zhu Shou Xin’s terrible expression and rapidly described everything he had witnessed when the Divine Martial Vanguard attacked the emperor’s party.
The thought that the emperor had been taken away directly beneath his own subordinates’ noses made Zhu Shou Xin furious. “Idiot! Even if I wasn’t beside His Majesty, did you not suspect anything?”
Truthfully?
Not at all.
Everyone knew both commanders of the Imperial Guard had joined the emperor’s side only midway through the struggle and were not his genuine longtime confidants. For something as secret as an incognito imperial outing, wasn’t it perfectly normal not to bring them?
The city gate general thought this but did not dare say it.
He could only apologize repeatedly.
Chai Mi had already brought his hunting hounds onto the battlefield to search for traces.
Song Qi Yun stood nearby, sensing the unusually concentrated spiritual energy lingering in the area, his expression grave.
Zhu Shou Xin asked, “Senior Master, what do you make of that yellow sand?”
Song Qi Yun said, “A powerful expert arrived. His martial arts are above mine.”
Song Qi Yun was already half a step from Weapon Venerable.
Anyone stronger than him could only be a Martial God.
The realization that Pei Yuan Jin’s group now contained a Martial God willing to act immediately made Song Qi Yun start reconsidering his enthusiasm for this pursuit.
He asked, “Have you seen Grandmaster Mo?”
The moment someone broke into the imperial palace, Zhu Shou Xin had sent people to find Mo Xiao Ran.
Unfortunately, they still had not located him.
The emperor had disappeared.
Mo Xiao Ran had also disappeared.
It was difficult not to wonder whether the two matters were connected.
Zhu Shou Xin had always remained wary of Mo Xiao Ran and therefore asked tentatively, “Master Mo does not seem to be inside the palace. Does Senior Master know where he is?”
Song Qi Yun said without changing expression, “No.”
Internally, however, he thought that with Mo Xiao Ran’s habit of appearing and disappearing like a ghost, perhaps he had discovered a Martial God had arrived and deliberately hidden himself somewhere.
Song Qi Yun immediately became even less interested in muddying his hands in this affair.
The emperor had plainly been abducted by the Immortal Treasury Palace. Unless the Palace wanted to provoke an enormous crisis, they would eventually return Qin Xiao Xun intact.
Why make such a fuss?
Within an instant, Song Qi Yun had completely adjusted his mentality.
He no longer cared much about capturing anyone.
Instead, he began considering how to show up for work without actually working until these next several days passed.
Tracking people was exhausting.
Unfortunately, Chai Mi was a specialist.
Anyone walking out of a cloud of yellow sand would inevitably carry grains of it on their clothing and shoes. As they traveled, those grains would slowly fall away.
The scattered sand therefore pointed toward the direction the fugitives had taken.
By the time the pursuers entered the mountains, Pei Yuan Jin’s group was roasting birds and fish.
By the time they found the discarded remains of those animals, Pei Yuan Jin’s group had already boarded the ship.
The dense branches and leaves inside the mountain forest prevented the hunting falcon Chai Mi had brought from being useful.
But once the hunting dogs led them to the shallow riverbank, the sky became the territory of its true ruler.
The falcon circled several times before locating traces of the broken boats and helping Chai Mi determine which direction the fugitives had traveled.
Chai Mi said to Zhu Shou Xin, “Judging from the timing, they can be no more than two shichen ahead. They should be somewhere around Liancheng. There are two routes from there—Yanzhou or Ningyue. It depends on whether their destination is north toward the Yangtze or south toward Rongcheng.”
Without hesitation, Zhu Shou Xin asked, “Which does Chief Constable Chai believe?”
Chai Mi possessed enormous confidence in his own profession, but the missing person was the Son of Heaven of Southern Yu. Even he did not dare make reckless conclusions. “Fu Xi Yan is the son of a Northern Zhou earl. The Yangtze forms part of the border between the two countries, so traveling north is somewhat more likely. The question is whether they have any connection to Rongcheng.”
＊
“They don’t.”
At the same time Chai Mi and Zhu Shou Xin were discussing where the fugitives might go, Pei Yuan Jin was discussing the exact same question with his companions.
Even their hostage, the young emperor, was permitted to sit in and listen.
Whatever else might be said, that gave Qin Xiao Xun a faint sense of reassurance.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “We also have no need to contact Rongcheng.”
Qin Zhao was the regent’s son and possessed a blood feud with Qin Xiao Xun over his father’s death. If he discovered the emperor was in Pei Yuan Jin’s hands, it would create many unnecessary complications.
Moreover, their decision to travel toward Rongcheng had always contained two possible plans.
The crisis at the new city would reach its conclusion in two days.
If the Spirit Sect and Southern Yu court abandoned their pursuit afterward and both sides reached some agreement, they could openly return the young emperor, then swagger away in broad daylight.
But if the Spirit Sect succeeded in ascending and became so arrogant that it wanted to kill Pei Yuan Jin to establish its authority—or if the ascension failed, leaving its members so desperate from losing everything that they would rather drag everyone down together and use Pei Yuan Jin as a sacrifice—then their only path would be to go to sea and circle back by water.
No matter what happened afterward, they first needed to reach Rongcheng and escape the Spirit Sect’s sphere of control.
Qin Xiao Xun said, “If you wish to travel north and leave Southern Yu, We can help you.”
Even if Pei Yuan Jin denied having any connection to Rongcheng, Qin Xiao Xun still had to guard against the possibility.
He and Qin Zhao did not merely have a blood feud over Qin Zhao’s father. They were also rivals for the empire itself.
If Qin Xiao Xun fell into Qin Zhao’s hands, the most likely outcome was being forced to write an abdication edict—and then having the edict transformed into a genuine final testament.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “We cannot reach the Yangtze within two days.”
After two days, everyone would know whether the Spirit Sect had gone completely mad or not.
By then there would be no opportunity to regret choosing the wrong road.
And the young emperor would not merely be incapable of helping them.
He might even be unable to protect himself and require their protection instead.
On this particular issue, Pei Yuan Jin saw absolutely no need to follow his Dao of advancing without retreat and gamble recklessly.
Qin Xiao Xun remained somewhat unconvinced, but becoming emperor had taught him that once someone in authority made a decision, he rarely enjoyed other people continuing to interfere.
Qin Xiao Xun therefore saved his breath and stopped arguing.
After dinner, everyone went to sleep.
In the middle of the night, patients, wounded men, and hostage alike were all awakened and told to prepare to go ashore and continue traveling.
Qin Xiao Xun was physically and mentally exhausted and had also suffered from insomnia. He had only just managed to enter a dream before being awakened again. His eyelids now drooped heavily, and he leaned against his two guards while dozing.
Tan Bu Ju, by contrast, seemed delighted. “Traveling through the deep night has such atmosphere.”
Xiao Shan, who was carrying him, said, “If Chief Manager has such refined interests, perhaps you’d like to get down and walk by yourself?”
Tan Bu Ju took the water flask hanging at his waist and sipped some tea brewed before they left the ship. “Stop talking nonsense. Watch the road. Walk steadily. Don’t drop me—my wounds still haven’t healed.”
Xiao Shan: “…”
Xiao Sang’s injuries were severe. Although he had taken medicine, he had developed a fever and now lay half-conscious on Xiao Zhang’s back.
His ears somehow remained excellent.
Hearing Tan Bu Ju, he murmured, “Mm-hm. Don’t drop me either.”
Tan Bu Ju instructed Xiao Shan to move closer to Xiao Zhang so he could chat with the sick Xiao Sang. “How are you feeling? Still uncomfortable?”
Xiao Sang raised a face that made his suffering extremely obvious. “My head hurts. Hot.”
“Being hot is good. Once you get hot enough, you’ll sweat. Once you sweat, the fever will go away. I’ve got tea here. Want some? You should drink plenty of hot water.”
“Mm-hm. Thank you.”
The two somehow managed to continue a complete conversation like that.
After everyone disembarked, Shou Nan Shan took control of the ship and sailed it back several dozen li before abandoning it and hurrying after the group.
The idea had come from Fu Xi Yan.
“If we destroy the ship, that’s practically writing ‘There are three hundred taels of silver buried here’ on the ground. Better to send it backward. Even if they find it, they’ll assume we disembarked somewhere nearby. As long as they waste time searching, we gain more time to escape.”
Since leaving Lin’an, the group’s journey had gone fairly smoothly.
But that smoothness was temporary.
The longer the pursuit continued, the more resources their enemies could gather and the more elaborate the net they could construct around them.
Fu Xi Yan said to Pei Yuan Jin, “Sooner or later they’ll guess we’re heading toward Rongcheng.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “We’ll stay ahead of them.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “I’m not only worried about the Southern Yu court and the Spirit Sect. If Rongcheng receives the news, they definitely won’t let Qin Xiao Xun go.”
Pei Yuan Jin considered this. “The Southern Yu court will suppress the news.”
Surely the Southern Yu court would not be stupid enough to announce loudly that they had lost their own emperor.
Fu Xi Yan smiled bitterly. “But the Southern Yu court isn’t the only side that knows.”
Among the people they had encountered inside the imperial palace were Mo Xiao Ran and the guards the Spirit Sect had assigned to protect the emperor.