The appearance of Xiongnu people in the capital city Jingcheng was quickly reported to the Emperor. The Emperor ordered an immediate and thorough investigation.
At the same time, in an inconspicuous residence in the south city.
A tall man asked his subordinate: "Has the appointment at Andong Hospital been made?"
The subordinate replied: "Yes, my lord, the appointment has been booked for three days later."
The man rubbed his aching temples: "Can it be moved up? My eyes are getting worse."
The subordinate shook his head: "No, it can't. Qiu the Miracle Healer is too famous, there are far too many people looking to see him. Appointments are booked for two months out. What I got is already an exception."
"Fine then, you may leave." As if recalling something, he added: "Where is Abalu?"
The subordinate replied: "Unknown, should I send someone to look for him?"
The man looked at the darkening sky: "Go, discreetly, don't let anyone notice."
"Yes!"
An hour later, the subordinate returned, looking rather flustered: "My lord, this is bad. The Seventh Prince, he..."
The man's wolf-like eyes glinted coldly: "What happened to him? Speak!"
"The Seventh Prince, he was captured by the Five City Military Office."
"What!" The man was furious. "How did he get caught?"
The subordinate had an odd expression, seemingly at a loss for words: "He was arrested on the street for robbing a roast chicken from someone. He even brandished his saber, attempting to harm people. While running away he knocked himself out."
The man: "..." Unable to restrain himself, he smashed the cup in his hand. Shards scattered everywhere.
The man tried hard to restrain his anger: "Pack up, we need to move."
"Move where?"
The man looked at him with a "Are you stupid?" expression.
The subordinate: "..." He had nothing to say. Whether it was the prison or inn of Da Xia, it was still Da Xia.
Just as the master and servant finished packing, Da Xia's officers came knocking on their door.
Flickering firelight illuminated the visitors’ faces. The man saw the leader was none other than Da Xia Ministry of Rites’ head, Minister Zhou Yifu. He was followed by a squad of elite troops.
With an insincere smile, Zhou Yifu cupped his fist towards the man: "Greetings, Crown Prince. Long time no see, hope you are well."
Huyan Xuri Gan casually pressed his chest and bowed slightly: "Minister Zhou, nice to see you."
"The Crown Prince has traveled a long way to our humble country, yet resides in such shabby lodgings. Truly our Da Xia has been remiss in propriety and hospitality. Please, allow me to invite you to the diplomatic residence, with kitchen and quarters convenient to you. There will also be elite guards protecting you every moment. It will certainly guarantee the safety of both princes."
Huyan Xuri Gan smiled, not reaching his eyes: "Then you have my thanks for the Emperor’s kind intentions."
He paused, then added: "Whether you believe me or not, I came to your capital purely for personal reasons this time. After my business concludes I will take my leave without causing any trouble!"
Hearing this, Zhou Yifu's mouth twitched slightly. He thought, I'd believe a hungry wolf in a chicken coop before I believed you. With a beckoning gesture, he said: "After you, Your Highness!"
Huyan Xuri Gan didn't move. Staring straight at Zhou Yifu, he asked: "When will Abalu be released?"
Zhou Yifu yelped in pain: "You mean the Seventh Prince of your country?"
Putting on a pained expression, he elaborated: "This is truly a misunderstanding. Today at noon, while patrolling, some brothers from our Five City Military Office captured a robber. This robber snatched a roast chicken from a child and even brandished his saber, attempting to harm people. While running away he knocked himself unconscious.
According to Da Xia's law, the penalty for robbery is fifty heavy blows from the plank, a fine of 100 taels of silver, and exile for 3,000 li. After we verified the Seventh Prince's identity, naturally the fine and exile no longer applied. Even now, the Seventh Prince of your country should have already been escorted to the diplomatic residence. The doctor is likely tending his injuries right about now."
Upon hearing this, Huyan Xuri Gan's face fluctuated between black and green. The veins on his temple visibly pulsated beneath his eyelids.
He had heard of Da Xia's plank punishment - stripping people naked and beating their buttocks while pinned over a stool. More shameful than painful.
Although Abalu was an utter fool whom he had no respect for, he was still a Xiongnu warrior. Xiongnu warriors can die, but cannot suffer such humiliation! Thinking of his fierce warriors suffering such humiliation from these Da Xia cowards made him see red.
Fortunately he still had some sense left, knowing he had to bow his head when under another's roof. He could only swallow the insult for now.
He swore to the Snow Wolf God he would repay this debt someday.
After being "escorted" to the inn, Huyan Xuri Gan did see Huyan Abalu having his injuries tended.
Unable to contain his anger, he took out his whip and fiercely lashed Abalu's bloody buttocks. Abalu jerked violently with a shriek.
Huyan Xuri Gan yelled furiously: "Have you lost your mind? Can’t you see he’s already injured?"
Huyan Xuri Gan sneered coldly: "The insane one is you! Before coming to Da Xia I warned you repeatedly to keep a low profile and not cause trouble. Yet here you are openly robbing people in broad daylight, even daring to brandish your weapon!
Do you think the people of Da Xia are as stupid as you? Now look, all of our years of secret work in Da Xia has been ruined because of you!
You are a disgrace to us Xiongnu!"
Looking at his enraged clansman, Huyan Abalu opened and closed his mouth, but ultimately said nothing. Indeed, he had not imagined things would spiral out of control like this.
Huyan Xuri Gan vented his anger then stormed off furiously. If he stayed any longer he feared he would kill this fool.
Meanwhile, everything said and done here was reported to the Emperor. The Emperor just coldly laughed and ordered them to continue monitoring closely.
The next day, before lunch, Li's Roast Chicken Shop delivered sixty roast spring chickens for Jiang Yuqing's order. The entire residence had one chicken per person.
Three chickens were left over. Jiang Yuqing kept them in her Spirit Realm dimension so she could take them out to eat whenever.
She informed Lady Yuqing that she would be in secluded cultivation these next days, then entered her Spirit Realm.
She had just broken through to the eighth layer of Qi Condensation last night. Now her hands could revive vegetation within at least an eight li radius, and save a dying critically ill patient within a few tries.
Her various minor spells had reached consummate mastery. Her spell formations had also cultivated to the second level - she could set up soundproofing, cloaking, and barrier formations easily now. Simple trapping and illusion spell formations were no problem either.
In the inheritance hall she found an array flag and disk. But couldn't bear to use them.
She wasn't an artifact forger. Without the ability to repair artifacts of such high quality, she'd have nowhere to replace them if damaged.
Upholding the doctrine that all things could become spell formation tools, anything around Jiang Yuqing could be taken by her to practice using as an array flag.
Sometimes it was pebbles or dirt, other times flowers or trees. There was nothing she couldn't or wouldn't use.
At the start, nine out of ten trials ended in failure. But she persevered, calming herself to carefully analyze where she went wrong each time.
Slowly her success rate rose from 10%, to 20%, 50%, 70%, until she could set them up perfectly with her eyes closed. Only then did she finally stop.
Next she began studying killing formations.
There were many types of killing spell formations. The one Jiang Yuqing found on that jade slip was called Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches Devil-Slaying Formation.
As the name suggested, it gathered the might of the Thirty-six Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches into the formation. When catalyzed by spiritual power, its killing potential was enormous. It was once the exclusive battle formation used by a certain legendary sect.
Jiang Yuqing wouldn't miss out on such an incredible formation. After comprehending its intricacies for a while, she used thirty-six small pebbles as the array flags to test it out. It worked!
She felt spell formations were somewhat of a talent of hers. Of course, killing formations had to do more than just look pretty. She still needed to verify its final power.
To test out the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches Devil-Slaying Formation, Jiang Yuqing specially brought Bai Xiaoshi to a mountain ridge near the Inheritance Hall to trap a group of third-order Bladehorn Minotaurs with an entrapment formation.
Equivalent to a mid Foundation Establishment cultivator's strength, Jiang Yuqing would absolutely stand no chance fighting one alone without formations.
Her Verdant Overgrowth's Breath had an attractive force on ordinary animals. It worked the same for these spiritually-aware demonic beasts.
The only difference was, in ordinary animals' eyes she was a treasure, the trustworthy Great Mother Earth. But in these demonic beasts' eyes, she was just weak prey, a delicious supplement.
After trapping them, Jiang Yuqing immediately turned the trap formation into a killing formation. In order to arouse the ferocity of the cattle herd, he wickedly threw a string of firecrackers into the herd.
As expected, the Black Rock cattle herd was infuriated. Their fierceness greatly increased, and they randomly charged and gored with their two sharp horn-knives, maddened.
Seeing the timing was right, Jiang Yuqing quickly made hand seals to inject spiritual power into the eye of the "Heavenly Gang Slaying Immortal Formation" to activate the formation.
Next, a bloody scene appeared.
I suddenly saw gale winds arise within the formation, all kinds of plants, rocks and sand blocking the sun. The cattle herd couldn't keep their eyes open. Countless invisible blades of wind, like lingchi torture, mercilessly reaped the lives of the Black Rock cattle, bursting up groups of bloody mist.
In just a few breaths, only a field of corpses and shredded meat remained in the formation, the land dyed red with blood. This was slaughter!
After a while, Jiang Yuqing withdrew the formation.
Although he had seen countless bloody scenes in his previous life, even he couldn't help but turn pale at this sight.
This "Heavenly Gang Slaying Immortal Formation" was truly too terrifying. Jiang Yuqing hoped he would never have to use it again in his life.
He collected some fresh cattle blood in an empty jade bottle, then used magic to dig a large pit to bury the cattle herd's corpses and shredded meat, along with the blood-stained soil, bundled in vines.
After finishing all this, only then did he ride Bai Xiaoshi back to the Legacy Palace with the cattle blood.
The talismans that ordinary Daoist priests drew used cinnabar and yellow paper as materials, while the talismans drawn in the immortal cultivation world used demon beast blood as paint and paper made from demon beast hides + certain special spirit grasses + certain special minerals.
She had not found any legacy related to refining talisman paper, and thought she could try experimenting by combining demon beast blood with ordinary yellow talisman paper from the mortal world, and see if it would work.
She didn't have any yellow talisman paper either, and planned that after ending her secluded cultivation, she would go to the book store to look for some. If that really didn't work out, she could only go to a Daoist temple with flourishing incense offerings and take a look there.
After leaving the Legacy Palace, Jiang Yuqing dug up quite a few top grade medicinal materials from the medicine fields. She prepared to give some to Master and a few senior apprentice brothers.
The places she had dug up were resown with seeds, watered with spiritual spring water, and before long the medicinal materials would grow back again.
The rice in the fields had already ripened its sixth or eighth season this year? She couldn't remember clearly, but once it ripened it was time for the harvest.
The grains she had harvested were already piled up in mounds. Fortunately the storehouses had unlimited capacity, otherwise there would be nowhere to store them all.
Originally there had only been fruit trees common in southern regions in the fruit orchard. After arriving in the capital, Jiang Yuqing had eaten offerings from all over the country in the palace. She had planted all the fruit seeds in her spirit space.
Such as the extremely sweet giant loquats, tropical region's dragon eyes, lychees, mangoes, grapes from the Western Regions, etc. They had now each grown into their own sizable fruit orchards.
Other than eating these fruits herself at home, she hadn't even sent any to the palace.
If there were more than they could finish eating, Bai Xiaoshi would make them into dried fruit or fruit jerky, or press them into fruit juice to store up, since they wouldn't spoil anyway.
As for those grapes, Jiang Yuqing had dried grapes a few times before. Now she felt she could try making grape wine or something.
When she returned to her hometown of Qingzhou this year, she would get a few more saplings to plant in her yard at home. If the grapes turned out well, she could consider buying a mountain slope somewhere to cultivate them.
Next to the fruit orchard was the watermelon field, covered in round, plump watermelons.
Feeling lonely without Bai Xiaojiu, Bai Xiaoshi had caught a first rank little white furred demon beast from the mountain range by the Legacy Palace to keep as a pet.
The little demon beast wasn't very intelligent, but it loved making trouble here the most. It even directly treated the watermelons as toys, rolling and playing with them until they broke - destroying who knows how many as a result. Naturally it was beaten by Bai Xiaoshi countless times.
But this thing was incorrigible, and Bai Xiaoshi couldn't stand it anymore. He chased it to the mountain range east of the medicine fields.
That mountain range was filled with ordinary animals. Not long after this little demon beast arrived, it trampled all the other animals and became the mountain king there.
It really left one laughing and crying.
