In the east of South Phoenix, in Antlerville, a teleportation portal glittered with bright light as Xu Qing and the Captain materialized.
Like usual, Xu Qing had disguised himself, as had the Captain, who looked like a middle-aged man. As he walked off the teleportation portal, his legs seemed to be shaking.
Xu Qing was shocked. “Captain, why are you trembling?”
“Trembling? I would never! You’re seeing things, Xu Qing.” Clearing his throat, the Captain smacked his thighs.
Xu Qing didn’t say anything. It didn’t take much imagination to speculate that the Captain must have done something big back in the sect. And it must have been really?big. Otherwise, the Captain, who was used to doing crazy things, wouldn’t still be shaking.
But since the Captain didn’t want to talk about it, Xu Qing wasn’t going to pry. After leaving the teleportation portal, he looked around at Antlerville, which seemed both familiar and unfamiliar. This was the very same place he had passed through after razing the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.
Thinking back to those days, he led the way through the city. Although the place was owned by Seven Blood Eyes, it was in a remote location surrounded by rugged terrain. Because of that, the place was a lot dirtier and more chaotic than the capital city. Noxious things could be seen everywhere, and on most street corners, emaciated figures huddled, staring with vacant eyes up into the sky. A constant pressure seemed to weigh down on everything.
As they walked along, no one caused problems for them. Though inhospitable places like this were usually full of violent people, those people also wanted to stay alive, and they weren’t stupid. People like that usually instinctively knew who they could pick on and who they should avoid provoking. Xu Qing and the Captain were the latter.
“Aren’t you curious, Xu Qing?” the Captain said as they reached the city’s main gate. Producing an apple, he took a bite. He didn’t seem concerned at all about their surroundings, and was more interested in why Xu Qing wasn’t asking any questions.
“I’m curious,” Xu Qing said, not bothering to look back at him. After leaving Antlerville, he looked in the direction of the city where he had lived for over six years until the eyes of the god above opened and turned the place into a forbidden region. Antlerville wasn’t very far from that little city.
“You don’t look curious at all…. Ah, whatever. Considering you used to work for me, and also owe me 50,000 spirit stones, I suppose I can let you in on the secret.” Looking furtively left and right, he lowered his voice and continued, “The patriarch is involved in a very complicated game of Go! I can’t say more than that. If I did, the patriarch would most certainly skin me alive!”
“Oh,” Xu Qing said. Then he started moving faster. He didn’t plan to go to the ruined city. There was nothing for him there, and besides, during the Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior incident, he had settled matters with the grues there. There was no point in going there. Instead, he headed toward the scavenger basecamp.
The Captain kept pace. Spring had just come to the wilderness, but there was still a bit of snow on the ground. And the wind didn’t contain any of the pleasantness of spring. It wasn’t freezing, but it was cold.
Seeing that Xu Qing wasn’t going to ask any questions, the Captain couldn’t hold it in and said, “Let me tell you, Xu Qing, Master Sixth… is quite the old trickster. Everything that happened back on Seastar Island was actually an act!”
The Captain really wanted to explain what he had seen, but obviously didn’t dare to reveal everything.
Xu Qing nodded.
“Aiyaa! Xu Qing, I have to offer you some constructive criticism. This attitude of yours just won’t do!” Looking a bit irritated, he took a bite of his apple. “You really have no idea. What I saw in the Sixth Peak was absolutely astonishing. Completely unexpected. I’m telling you, this game of Go is being played on a board as large as heaven! I suppose it makes sense. The older someone gets, the more clever they become. The old fogies in Seven Blood Eyes are all the same. They can toy with you with their eyes closed.”
The Captain sighed emotionally.
Xu Qing frowned. He had no idea what the Captain was getting at, but could tell it had something to do with his latest escapade, whatever that was. Presumably it was related to the Sixth Peak. Then he thought back to how the Captain’s eyes had glittered when he looked at the Sixth Peak, and his heart started to pound.
“Captain, did you take a bite out of something on the Sixth Peak?”
The Captain’s eyes shot up in displeasure. “What do you mean ‘take a bite,’ huh? Is that the way you talk to your superiors, Deputy Captain?”
“I’m the director of the Seventh Peak’s Violent Crimes Division,” Xu Qing said.
“Furthermore, I’m your Elder Brother!” The Captain finished his apple and took out a pear, all the while looking at Xu Qing knowingly.
“I haven’t been formally accepted as an apprentice,” Xu Qing replied.𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
Ignoring the comment, the Captain looked down his nose and said, “Beyond all that, you still haven’t paid respects to Grand Highness!”
Xu Qing didn’t say anything. As it turned out, he was having trouble out-talking the Captain this time. Therefore, he pretended not to have heard. Moving quickly, he was able to get from Antlerville to the scavenger basecamp in about an hour.
In fact, as they reached this point in their conversation, they passed over a mountain crest and found themselves looking down at the basecamp, and the pitch black jungle beyond it. From this vantage point, the forbidden region seemed covered with black clouds, within which lightning danced, occasionally striking down into the jungle below.
The Captain took a look at the forbidden region, and he seemed surprised. “What a big forbidden region. And there are fluctuations of godliness in it!”
Xu Qing nodded. Before, his cultivation base had been too low for him to sense godliness. But now, he could clearly sense such fluctuations in the jungle.
After a moment, Xu Qing looked away and focused on the basecamp. It looked as chaotic as it had before, and he could hear faint, unscrupulous laughter even from this distance. As he started walking down the mountain, the Captain cleared his throat and followed.
“I could only say so much earlier, little Ah Qing. Don’t feel discouraged. This matter is too important for me to reveal any of the real details to you. You see, it pertains to the war. Seriously, you have no idea how shocked I was to see what’s in the Sixth Peak.
“Let me just say that, under the leadership of this group of crafty old-timers, the future of Seven Blood Eyes is going to be a bright one…. You’re really not curious at all? How about this: you say a few nice things, and I’ll risk being skinned alive to tell you more details.”
Clearly, the Captain had a secret that he wanted to share, but considering Xu Qing wasn’t interested in hearing the details, he was starting to get a bit flustered.
Xu Qing, meanwhile, didn’t say a word as he walked down the mountain and into the basecamp. Things were basically the same as he remembered. There was trash in every corner. Everything was dilapidated. Scavengers in animal skin jerkins were everywhere, some grimy and dirty, some covered in scars.
When Xu Qing and the Captain entered, the noisy camp slowly went quiet. At the same time, the scavengers backed away from them with fawning expressions on their faces. Of course, Xu Qing knew that those fawning expressions were fake. The scavengers were really studying them in the hopes of robbing them.
Xu Qing ignored them. He didn’t see anyone familiar here. Two years had passed, and for most scavengers, that was like a lifetime.
Xu Qing stopped in front of his old house. Someone had taken it over. Sighing, he turned and left. As for the Captain, he looked at the house, and guessed that it must have been where Xu Qing lived in the past. He followed Xu Qing through the camp, and they were just about to leave it when the Captain noticed one particular tent that stood out.
A feather hung above the entrance.
The Captain had not grown up like Xu Qing, so he had no idea how things worked in slums and basecamps. That made him curious about the feathered tent. However, he soon noticed someone stepping out of the tent and buckling the belt on their pants, and everything clicked.
So that’s how it is. It’s like a brothel. But in scavenger basecamps, they use feathers instead of official signs. He was about to look away, when suddenly his eyes locked onto one of the feathers for a moment before looking at Xu Qing.
“Say, Xu Qing, remember back in the Merfolk Isles when I lost my lower half, and you offered to give me a feather…?” The Captain’s eyes went wide.
Xu Qing looked back at him, produced an apple, took a bite, then walked off.
The Captain snorted coldly, glanced at the feather again, then hurried over to the tent. It was hard to say what he said, but shortly thereafter, he hurried after Xu Qing with seven or eight feathers in his hand.
“These things are great. I’m going to give one to Zhang San when we get back.”
Xu Qing left the scavenger basecamp and walked in the direction of the forbidden region. He only spared a glance for the feathers in the Captain’s hand. When they were getting close to the forbidden region, he suddenly said, “What did you see in the Sixth Peak, Captain?”
A smile broke out on the Captain’s face. This was exactly what he had been waiting to hear. He had been biting his tongue the entire trip and had been reaching the point where he couldn’t take it any more. Putting the feathers away, he looked around furtively, then lowered his voice and said, “Before I explain, I want you to think back to how this war actually played out.
“It started with the Seventh Peak’s Grand Competition on the Merfolk Isles. That drew out the Seazombies, and then the patriarch suddenly achieved his breakthrough…. After that, the Merfolk Isles became our forward base of operations.
“After declaring war on the Seazombies, we advanced step by step, taking over their fortified islands, and eventually reaching the point of attacking their ancestral land.
“Now, in your mind, draw a line on the Forbidden Sea. Originally, Seven Blood Eyes was a long way from Revered Ancient. But if we take over the Seazombies’ ancestral land, we’ll be very, very close to the mainland….”
Xu Qing’s pupils constricted.
“So,” the Captain continued quietly, “what exactly is the sect trying to accomplish? Is it just about defeating the Seazombies? There’s no way. Defeating the Seazombies… is just part of a much bigger plan. When I was in the Sixth Peak, I saw… a zombie ancestor statue that isn’t one of the nine from the Seazombie ancestral land. That thing is the real power source of the Sixth Peak fortress!”
1. Xu Qing passed through Antlerville after razing the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect in chapter 46.
2. Xu Qing made the comment about the feather in chapter 126.