Green Mountain

The sky darkened extremely early in the Jing Dynasty; the mountains and forests sank completely into ink-black, with only some lonely lamps in the county town.

Chen Ji drew his horse to a halt in the distance and looked from afar at Siping County. The county had only low, earthen ramparts, pockmarked and ravaged by time, long since unrepaired, and there were only two old soldiers before the gate.

Those two old soldiers were not there to fend off foreign enemies; they only supervised the tax when commoners came into town with firewood and mountain goods on their backs, collecting a dozen or so coins, not even bothering to check travel permits.

Chen Ji did not enter the county town, but turned his horse into the depths of the forest, riding another two li before stopping.

He swung down from his horse, first tossing Yuan Xing into the snow, then helping Zhaolei remove the saddle, only then patting Zhaolei’s back. "Go play."

Zhaolei stretched his hooves and galloped madly through the forest, his head topped with Wu Yun as he vanished from sight.

Chen Ji picked up dry firewood. Yuan Xing lay on the ground with his hands and feet bound, struggling to lift his body to remind him, "Foster Father, you still haven’t untied me, Foster Father. How could you personally do something as coarse as gathering firewood? Untie me, let me do it."

Chen Ji glanced at him, stepped forward and loosened the rope for him. Yuan Xing got up, rubbing his hands and feet and flexing his joints. "Foster Father can just sit here; I’ll go gather firewood for Foster Father."

"Go."

Yuan Xing raised his hand to snap dead branches from the trees and hugged them to his chest. "It has to be these dried branches to burn well. I’ll break off more, so Foster Father can have a peaceful sleep..."

As he spoke, Yuan Xing’s eyes rolled about, walking in the direction of the county while sneaking glances at Chen Ji. Seeing Chen Ji absorbed in clearing the snow and not watching him, he finally relaxed and continued to slip away.

But he had gone no more than fifty paces when the two sword seeds inside his collar trembled lightly, carving two thin bloody marks into the skin of his neck.

Yuan Xing immediately turned back on the spot with the dry firewood in his arms, muttering to himself, "Can’t go too far, Foster Father will worry..."

A moment later, he came back to Chen Ji with a large bundle of dry wood in his arms, asking with concern, "Foster Father, are you hungry? I’ll go to a village and steal a few chickens and ducks for you to roast."

As his words fell, he saw Wu Yun dragging back a roebuck. Passing by Yuan Xing, Wu Yun glanced at him, then tossed the roebuck down beside the pile of firewood on his own.

"Deal with the roebuck," Chen Ji tossed Yuan Xing a short knife, while he himself took a fire inch from the saddle and lit leaves and dead branches.

Yuan Xing sat in the snow, gutting and cleaning as he covertly sized Chen Ji up. "Foster Father is Marquis Wu Xiang of the Southern Dynasty; why have you come to my Jing Dynasty?"

Chen Ji paid him no mind, only stretching his hands out to the fire, quietly warming them.

Yuan Xing was silent for a moment. "Foster Father, ahead lies Siping County, which is the fief of my lifelong friend and most cherished kin, Siping County Marquis Yuan Xi. He is presently in his fief. Take him and bind him off to the Ning Dynasty together with me. I’m a County Marquis, he’s a County Lord—add us together and the merit will be greater."

Chen Ji raised his brows slightly. "Isn’t he your most cherished kin?"

Yuan Xing cried out in pain and indignation. "To think I’ve fallen into being a prisoner, while he sits with beautiful maids, eating meat and drinking wine—I can’t accept it!"

Chen Ji sighed. "What a ’can’t accept it’..."

Yuan Xing began naming names. "And Chengping County Man Li Si, Hualai County Son Zhou Chang, Hou’an County Lord Uncle Jiang Chai... These were all my closest friends at the Imperial Academy. They’re all on Tokyo Road. Take them along too—I’ll lead the way for you!"

Wu Yun and Zhaolei were dumbfounded at the side.

Chen Ji said offhandedly, "I don’t care to invite extra trouble."

"Is Foster Father worried the Tokyo Road troops will hunt you down? Impossible!" Yuan Xing’s eyes widened. "Foster Father must have some dealings with Jiang Yu of Tokyo Road, right? We left Shangjing City three days ago. By rights the Tokyo Road troops should long since have received a six-hundred-li urgent dispatch and sealed off the whole region. Yet these few sparse guards clearly don’t take it seriously at all. You just go ahead and take those nobles I mentioned. Then I’ll have company in the Ning Dynasty."

Chen Ji ignored him, cutting a few ribs from the skinned roebuck, skewering them on branches to roast.

Yuan Xing probed cautiously, "From where did Foster Father learn this Sword Seed Path? Your line has actually managed to hide for hundreds of years without being discovered... Your ancestors must have been from my Jing Dynasty as well, right?"

Chen Ji looked up at him. "Why do you say that?"

Yuan Xing recalled, "When I was young, I heard my uncle talk of it. This branch of sword seed was originally cultivated jointly by two brothers of Mrs. Lu, who raised the Mountain Gate of the Temple of Martial Arts on Changbai Mountain. Later, when Old Tuoba of Great Wei sank into debauchery and tyranny, the elder brother came forth down from the mountain to uphold justice, and thus a branch of the Sword Seed Path wandered out into the world."

Chen Ji’s heart stirred. His Sword Seed Path had not come from that lineage. By Xuanyuan’s generation, he was Xuanyuan’s disciple, which made him senior grand-uncle to all Sword Seed Inheritors...

Yet in the world today, aside from him and Mountain Master Lu Yang, there was still one Sword Seed Path lost outside. Where were that branch’s inheritors? Might they be secretly watching him from the shadows?

They could not touch the Mountain Master, so naturally they would turn their thoughts to him.

Chen Ji kept a calm face. "I don’t know much about my ancestors. Where did that Mrs. Lu branch go afterward?"

Yuan Xing thought for a bit. "When Great Wei was destroyed and the Ning and Jing Dynasties were set up side by side, that branch of Mrs. Lu’s sword seed inheritor died in battle outside Chongli Pass. At the time, everyone thought that Sword Seed Path was lost, but back then the Martial Temple Mountain Master was certain the sword seed had not died out, that there were still people cultivating it. My Jing Dynasty has searched back and forth for hundreds of years, but has never again found a trace of any Sword Seed Inheritor."

Chen Ji lowered his head in thought.

Yuan Xing kept up his coaxing. "Why doesn’t Adoptive Father go to the Temple of Martial Arts to acknowledge your ancestors and return to the clan? Anyway, the Mountain Master still hasn’t taken any disciples. If you go up now, you can just wait till the Mountain Master passes on and then take over the Temple. Then we’ll count as one family. Down in the Southern Dynasty you’re just a little Marquis Wu Xiang, but once you’re on Changbai Mountain you’re the next Martial Temple Mountain Master. Even if the Southern Dynasty offered you a Duke’s title, you wouldn’t trade it!"

Yuan Xing indulged in his own daydreams. "By then, as your one and only adopted son, I’ll be Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, Prime Minister of the World. You write me a letter, whatever you want I’ll send it up the mountain. First three hundred little boys and little girls, then three hundred beautiful maidservants..."

Chen Ji lifted his eyes to look at him. "Not going."

Yuan Xing’s voice cut off. After a moment he finally burst out, pained and indignant, "What’s some worldly royal power compared to being the Martial Temple Mountain Master, huh?"

Chen Ji said casually, "All that you’ve babbled, front and back, boils down to just two words: want to live. Don’t worry. As long as you stop stirring up trouble, I’ll leave you a road to survive."

Yuan Xing leaned forward. "Adoptive Father, truly?"

Chen Ji gave a quiet "Mm." "Truly."

Yuan Xing relaxed back. "Fine, then I won’t make a fuss... But Adoptive Father really won’t consider going to the Temple of Martial Arts to acknowledge your ancestors and return to the clan? With the Mountain Master’s protection, why would you still need to run for your life? Don’t think my ways are petty—this world’s like this: whoever feeds you is your dear parent. Who isn’t racking their brains to harm others for their own gain? To have power and not borrow it, that’s what’s truly stupid."

Just then, someone in the forest stepped on a branch and snapped it.

Chen Ji sprang up and looked toward the depths of the woods. Only when Wu Yun gave a meow did he slowly relax his taut body and sit back down by the campfire.

Yuan Xing turned to look.

He saw the silhouette of an old man rise out of the dark forest and into the flickering firelight. He slowly widened his eyes, watching the man walk toward them step by step.

Yuan Xing looked at the old man, then turned back to look at Chen Ji, pointing behind him. "He, he, he..."

Chen Ji said blandly, "What about him?"

The next instant, Yuan Xing suddenly jumped up and ran toward the old man. Just as he reached him, he hurled himself forward, crying out for help. "Mountain—"

The old man turned sideways, avoiding Yuan Xing, so Yuan Xing dove headlong into empty snow.

Yuan Xing took a mouthful of snow and lifted his head, only to find the old man looking down at him, voice thin as a mosquito’s buzz. "Dare let slip who this old man is, and I’ll twist off your head and use it as a ball."

Yuan Xing froze on the ground, suddenly not knowing what had just happened.

The old man ambled toward Chen Ji with a squinty smile. "Where’d you run off to, boy? That morning I was right in the middle of my cakes, and you up and rode Zhaolei off without a word. Had this old man searching left and right."

Chen Ji used a branch to poke at the dry wood in the fire. "Where all did you look?"

Old Ears sat down by the campfire. "First I went to the Hai City Posthouse, then to Yingkou. Later I heard the Hu Ben Army and Tiger and Leopard Cavalry still couldn’t find you, so this old man guessed you’d gone back to Shangjing City. But last night I’d only just reached Shangjing when I heard you’d broken out of the city again."

Chen Ji raised his head to look at him. "Doesn’t sound right."

Old Ears lifted a brow. "What’s not right?"

Chen Ji drawled, "You should’ve gone to the mountains first and stolen Jingzhe away."

Old Ears slapped his knee, crying injustice. "What would I steal Jingzhe for! This old man’s been worried sick about you, searched till my legs were about to snap, and this is how you misjudge me? Jingzhe’s a tiger, an old tiger at that. A tiger’s got to roam around hunting for food. How can you not find Jingzhe and pin it on this old man’s head?"

Chen Ji smiled without smiling. "Whether you stole Jingzhe or not, you know perfectly well in your own heart."

By now Yuan Xing had obediently sat back down by the campfire, watching Chen Ji for a while, then watching Old Ears for a while, his eyes full of sheer disbelief.

Chen Ji handed a strip of roasted roe deer meat to Wu Yun. "Eat."

Old Ears shamelessly chimed in, "And this old man’s?"

Chen Ji took another strip and tossed it to Old Ears. "You sure know how to pick your timing. Nowhere to be seen when I’m gathering firewood or running for my life, but you show up just when the meat’s done."

Old Ears chuckled. "Better to arrive by luck than early. This old man hasn’t had a proper meal in days. This roe deer will do nicely to fill the belly."

Just as he finished, Yuan Xing looked at Chen Ji with utter sincerity. "Adoptive Father, I’m hungry too."

Old Ears’ hand, holding the meat, paused. He turned to look at Yuan Xing. "...Adoptive Father?"

Yuan Xing spoke with firm conviction and a serious air. "Honored master, this is the adoptive father I just acknowledged a few days ago. No mistake."

...

There’s another Chapter tonight, read it tomorrow morning.