After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 296: Chapter 295: Ajin

The expression of the soldier guarding the tent shifted, but his body remained still.

Then, Zhao Pan’s voice came from inside. "Let him in."

Hee Lingchuan strode in to find only Hee Chunhua and Zhao Pan inside.

’So they were the ones arguing?’

"Dad, what happened?"

Hee Chunhua plucked a twig from his son’s hair. "General Zhao and I were just exchanging some insights." ’He’s covered head to toe in sand and dirt. Where did this boy get himself so filthy, looking like a little monkey?’

"Winning and losing are the fortunes of war, but you leave family out of it." Zhao Pan, however, didn’t bother with pleasantries for the father and son. "Chief Steward Hee, what you’ve done is rather underhanded."

’Leave the family... out of it?’ Hee Lingchuan froze. ’What did Dad do?’

"They pillage Xiazhou’s common folk and kill our sons and daughters. You want me to speak of honor with these invaders?" Hee Chunhua gave a faint, cold smile. "General Zhao, you’re being too pedantic."

"Honor isn’t useless," Zhao Pan said gravely. "You abducted Hong Chenglu’s wife. He will surely stop at nothing in his retaliation against you."

"He raids my grain supplies and harasses Xiazhou; even your frontline strategies have been severely affected. Is that not already stopping at nothing?" Hee Chunhua shook his head. "All warfare is based on deception. As long as there’s a chance to win, is there anything the people of Xunzhou won’t do? Look at Hong Chenglu! He used more than a hundred of his own wounded soldiers as bait, using my hand to kill off those burdens. How can he be a good person?"

He had seen it all as clear as day during their last clash.

He sneered again. "General Zhao, that Truce Flag you’ve raised at your gates? I see it as nothing but a sham. The Xunzhou people will attack whenever they please; they won’t honor this agreement with you!"

"Hong Chenglu is only doing his duty, even though he stands in our way." Zhao Pan felt he was already being as discreet as possible. What he’d really wanted to say was "humiliated you." This Chief Steward Hee was a clever and capable man, but he was obsessed with his reputation and achievements. Hong Chenglu had burned half his grain supplies, and he was desperate to regain what he’d lost.

Otherwise, his prestige would be damaged. After returning to Dunyu, it would be difficult to govern the people and to deal with the four great families.

"I’m not asking Hong Chenglu to fall on his sword," Hee Chunhua said, amused. "Besides, she’s already been captured. What reason is there to let her go?"

Hee Lingchuan understood. "Dad, you found Hong Chenglu’s wife?"

A few days ago, Hee Chunhua had asked him for a comb. He hadn’t thought much of it then, but now he knew what it had been for.

Before going to war, Hong Chenglu must have hidden his wife away securely. ’Dad is certainly resourceful. To find Ajin with just a comb...’

Hee Chunhua nodded. "What?"

He felt a flicker of displeasure. ’Is my eldest son going to oppose me, too?’

"It’s nothing." As a soldier, obeying a superior’s command was his sacred duty. No matter what Hee Lingchuan thought, he couldn’t openly defy Hee Chunhua.

Especially in front of an outsider like Zhao Pan.

Hee Chunhua snorted. "It’s a good thing I brought you on this trip." ’If my second son were with the army, he would have surely gone soft.’

He stood up and said to Zhao Pan, "My mind is made up. We’ll proceed as planned." With that, he strode out, head held high.

Hee Lingchuan could only follow behind him, asking in a low voice, "Dad, how did you catch her?"

"Just a few crude tracking tricks," Hee Chunhua said dismissively. "Now that we have her, we’ve turned the tables. We’re finally no longer on the defensive."

They had been exposed, while the enemy lurked in the shadows. Hee Chunhua was certain that the scouts Hong Chenglu had dispatched were still wandering near the front lines, keeping an eye on his party.

Zhao Pan’s opponent was the Xunzhou Army, but Hong Chenglu’s focus was fixed solely on Hee Chunhua.

’Hmph. Unacceptable!’

Hee Lingchuan opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated, and finally said nothing. The woman was already captured, and the die was cast. His father was determined to see this through.

Outside, a Personal Guard held up an umbrella, escorting the two back to their respective tents.

The river water outside was a murky yellow. Hee Lingchuan had to retrieve a bucket of fresh water from his Storage Ring to wash the mud and sand from his body before changing into clean clothes. He was probably the only one in the entire army who could be so extravagant as to bathe with drinking water.

Ever since his ordeal in the Panlong Desert, he had developed a habit of stockpiling water and grain. His Storage Ring was large enough to support it, after all.

The wind and rain raged outside. With nothing else to do, he simply sat cross-legged on a chair, regulated his breathing, and entered a state of Meditation.

Perhaps it was the enlightenment he’d gained from practicing his Sword Technique in the waves, but his True Power flowed a little more smoothly than before as it completed several Circulations.

This was the way of Cultivation. One’s Daoist Practice could deepen slowly with time, but breakthroughs in one’s realm relied on opportunity and comprehension.

It was something mysterious and profound, impossible to articulate.

That was why powerful experts like the Red General and Xiao Maoliang advocated for real combat, to comprehend the Dao by teetering on the edge of life and death.

...

He remained in Meditation for two double-hours.

When he came out of his trance, Hee Lingchuan could hear that the storm outside had grown fiercer. The wind and rain nearly drowned out the soldiers’ shouts, and it sounded like a tent had been blown away.

He pulled out a raincoat, draped it over himself, and walked outside.

The moment he stepped out of the tent, raindrops larger than soybeans splattered across his face.

The Hanhe River was already raging. No matter how much he’d mastered the Wave Slash technique, if he jumped in now, he’d become a Wave Scroll himself, and that would be the end of that.

Amid the storm, all the soldiers were busy.

A Personal Guard informed Hee Lingchuan that the Water Spirit had said the Hanhe River’s flood season was arriving early. Their current location was no longer safe; the entire camp had to be relocated to higher ground.

Striking camp for a large army was no easy feat, especially in such atrocious weather.

Especially with a Wild Bull Team.

When the storm hit, some of the Ox Demons had been spooked and needed to be calmed. Now, they had to be mobilized to move along with everyone else.

And ox tempers were not easy to deal with.

The only good news was that the enemy couldn’t cross the river by boat in this kind of weather either.

Hee Lingchuan turned his head and suddenly saw a civilian carriage.

The carriage was very crude. It had no proper cabin, just cloth curtains for walls. In such a heavy storm, the curtains were instantly soaked through, clinging together. This allowed Hee Lingchuan to see a pile of dry hay on the carriage bed, with a person lying on it, covered by a blanket.

The driver was leading the two draft horses forward, but a wheel had gotten stuck in a crack between the stones and couldn’t be dislodged.

Hee Lingchuan walked over, bent down, and grabbed the wheel. "I’ll help you," he said to the driver.

As the driver urged the horses on, Hee Lingchuan channeled True Power into his arms. With their combined effort, the stuck wheel was suddenly lifted from the crack, sending up a spray of muddy water.

The carriage started moving forward again with a CLIPPITY-CLOP.

Hee Lingchuan looked up to see the person on the cart looking back at him. They even offered a polite, "Thank you."

It was a woman with a pale face. Her hair and the blanket covering her were soaked by the cold rain.

Just then, a soldier escorted an old woman over, shoving her toward the cart. "Watch her carefully! No slacking off!"

The Yuan Army retreated over five hundred feet from the riverbank and made camp again.

It would have been safer to be even farther away, but General Zhao didn’t dare. He had to guard the riverbank to prevent the enemy from crossing and establishing a beachhead.

The Hanhe River was a natural defensive barrier. If it were breached, the Yuan Army would be put on the back foot.

The civilian carriage was also pushed into a tent for shelter. The tent was narrow and small, barely big enough to cover the cart, and couldn’t compare to the ones Hee Lingchuan and the others used.

However, there were quite a few soldiers guarding it. Hee Lingchuan recognized them as members of the Grain Transport Team—his own men.

The old woman tasked with caring for the invalid had gone to find a towel to wipe her face. Hee Lingchuan walked to the side of the cart and looked down at her. "You’re Hong Chenglu’s wife, Ajin?"

The corners of her mouth twitched in what might have been a smile, and then she sneezed.

Hee Lingchuan stepped out of the tent and called the old woman over. "Get her into dry clothes and a dry blanket. She’ll get sick lying like this."

The old woman seemed reluctant, but at Hee Lingchuan’s glare, she pouted and said, "There are no extra blankets."

Hee Lingchuan glanced at Shan Youjun, who stood behind him. The man understood, disappeared for a moment, and returned from somewhere with a set of dry bedding.

Hee Lingchuan stepped out, giving Ajin space to change.

A quarter of an hour later, the old woman came out. "It’s done."

Hee Lingchuan sent her to boil some hot water and went inside. Ajin looked much better than before, but her smile was gone. She just stared at Hee Lingchuan and asked, "What do you want?"

She could tell this young man held a high position in the army.

"Just to make you a little more comfortable." ’Everyone has a compassionate heart,’ he thought. He was, after all, facing a paralyzed woman.

Ajin said slowly, "Whatever you’re planning, it won’t work."

"Oh?" Hee Lingchuan was curious. "And what do you think we’re planning?"

"That Mr. Hee said he wants Mr. Hong to retreat his troops and leave." Ajin gave a weak smile. "That’s impossible. You’re a soldier, too. You should know that a military order is absolute."

Hee Lingchuan folded his arms. "I’m curious. Did he sheathe his sword and retire from his post for you all those years ago?" ’The more I understand about Hong Chenglu, the better our chances in the battles to come.’

The smile vanished from Ajin’s face. She remained silent.

"You’ve lived in seclusion in Bailu Town for many years. Why would he break his vow now?"

"For me," Ajin blinked. "The Beiga State Master promised to find a certain medicine for him, one that would allow me to stand again."

Hee Lingchuan frowned. "Not for himself?"

"That kind of medicine isn’t easy to obtain, even if we were back in the Beiga Kingdom."

"I heard from the old woman that you’re Chief Steward Hee’s son?" Ajin looked at him and said softly, "Someone like you has probably never experienced the kind of suffering we have, have you?"

Hee Lingchuan didn’t say a word.

’It’s true. Not in this life, or the last.’

"When Mr. Hong and I were children, we fled a cannibalistic village, fought wild dogs for scraps of food, and were even kicked off a cliff, barely surviving the climb back up." She said slowly, "Back then, he dreamed of growing up strong so he could live a good life. But after he resigned from his post and we moved to Lingzhou, and then to Bailu Town, we realized there’s no such thing as a secluded life in this world—only struggle. For common folk, just staying alive takes every ounce of strength they have."

In times of chaos, a human life is as worthless as grass. Even the suffering of the common people is too insignificant to be mentioned.

Her gaze was placid, but it held a deep sorrow. "If you were in his shoes, wouldn’t you want to go back and reclaim your power?"

Hee Lingchuan pondered for a long moment before asking, "So you think he won’t agree to Mr. Hee’s terms?"

Ajin looked up at the roof of the tent.

"I don’t know. But I hope he doesn’t."

If Hong Chenglu were to withdraw from Xiazhou, it would mean defying a direct order from his superiors.

Hee Lingchuan chuckled. "It seems he’s also one to adapt to the circumstances."

"What does that mean?"

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