*Thud! Knock, knock!*
A sudden knock sounded at the courtyard gate before dawn had even broken.
Sha Lifei had already changed his clothes. Quickening his steps to the door, he kept his voice low through the wood. "Which friend is calling?"
"Drilling through mountains, entering forests, earning my bread under Boss Wan."
A slightly raspy voice answered from outside.
Sha Lifei hurriedly unbolted the door. Standing outside was a young man with plain features, marked only by a straight unibrow across his forehead. Clad in a sheepskin coat and black trousers wrapped with puttees, he looked thoroughly rustic.
*This is the treasure stalker?*
Sha Lifei muttered inwardly, yet he dared not let the slightest hint of condescension show on his face. Raising his hands with eager warmth, he said, "You must be Brother Zhao. Please, come in!"
By this time, Li Yan and Wang Daoxuan had also stepped out into the yard. Both were dressed for a long journey, bamboo hats pulled low.
Catching sight of the young man, Li Yan felt a flicker of surprise.
He could not detect even the faintest scent from the visitor!
Now, that was truly bizarre.
According to Shopkeeper Wan of Wensheng Pavilion, this treasure stalker possessed an inherited craft. His name was Zhao Lvzi, and for generations his family had roamed the deep mountains, specializing in locating prime timber for Xuanmen craftsmen.
Though not considered an exceptional master among treasure stalkers, he was nonetheless a man of the Xuanmen, bound to possess something out of the ordinary.
*Could he be carrying some treasure that masks his scent?*
This put Li Yan on his guard.
It seemed his divine sense of smell was not all-powerful after all. If an expert used such a treasure to conceal an assassination attempt, Li Yan might not notice them until they were already right beside him.
"No need. Ancestral rules forbid entering the gates of a residence."
The young man rejected Sha Lifei's invitation outright, remaining firmly outside without taking a single step across the threshold.
Perplexed, Sha Lifei was about to ask why, but Wang Daoxuan stepped forward and held him back, smiling. "If that is so, we shall follow Brother Zhao's arrangements."
Li Yan and Sha Lifei instantly realized that this was likely a taboo of his lineage.
Certain Xuanmen schools had all manner of inherited rules. Peculiar though they seemed, every one had its roots, and breaking them invariably invited trouble.
"Let's go."
Zhao Lvzi wasted no words, nodding once before turning away.
"You go on ahead. We'll meet up out there," Li Yan instructed softly. Pulling his bamboo hat down, he slipped into a dark alley.
Without asking questions, Sha Lifei and Wang Daoxuan pulled the courtyard gate shut, swung their travel packs over their shoulders, and followed Zhao Lvzi down the old street.
***
On the other side, once Li Yan entered the dark alley, he hugged the bases of the walls. Moving swiftly and soundlessly, he soon skirted around to the exterior of a small courtyard.
With a light leap, he caught the rim of the wall, flipped himself over effortlessly, and dropped into the yard, darting straight toward the left wing room.
A burly man was fast asleep inside. Startled awake by the intrusion, he instantly braced his right hand against the bedframe and lashed out with a flying kick toward Li Yan.
The strike was swift and fierce, faintly bearing the form of a monkey.
Expressionless, Li Yan ducked and leaned aside. In the very same breath, his Guanshan blade cleared its sheath with a sharp clang, slashing diagonally upward.
*Shhk!*
Blood sprayed. The man hit the ground with a muffled groan, crimson gushing from his right leg. Just as he tried to scramble to his feet, a cold blade came to rest against his throat.
Li Yan asked calmly, "Who sent you?"
Yesterday morning, the White Ape Gang thugs in the opposite courtyard had already pulled back. Li Yan had assumed the Zhou family was too preoccupied with greater matters to bother with them, yet in the dead of night, someone had crept back to spy.
The fellow moved nimbly enough, but how could that escape Li Yan's nose?
Li Yan had tracked the scent here last night. To avoid alerting the enemy prematurely, he had waited until just before their departure to slip in and resolve the trouble.
The man on the floor gritted his teeth. "Where did you bandits crawl out from? I was asleep in my own home, yet you break in and attack me! Aren't you afraid of the court hunting you down?"
Li Yan furrowed his brow. "Save your breath. I've just seen the Zhou family's Zi Monkey Fist for myself. That leg of yours is still pouring blood; get it tended to quickly and you might keep your miserable life."
Noticing the hesitation in the man's eyes, Li Yan's face broke into an easy smile. "Brother, there's no grudge between you and me. We're all just trying to make a living in the jianghu. Why throw your life away for someone else?
"Are you doing it for the cheap pine coffin the Zhous might toss your way?"
"You... you won't kill me?"
"Not worth the trouble."
Feeling the weakness seeping in from the blood loss, the man finally gave in. "It was Third Master Zhou—Zhou Peide sent me."
Li Yan raised an eyebrow. "Not Zhou Pan?"
The man shook his head. "The Master said to keep behind closed doors and swallow whatever comes until this storm passes."
Li Yan nodded. "Zhou Peide is Zhou Bai's father, so it's only natural he'd seek revenge. Why didn't he come himself?"
The man hesitated, but seeing the impatience darkening Li Yan's eyes, he gritted his teeth and confessed, "Third Master Zhou hired bladesmen and ordered me to tail you. As soon as you left Xianyang, they were to take care of you outside the walls."
"I see."
Li Yan smiled faintly. "With the city in chaos right now, if I quietly turn up dead outside the walls, nothing can be pinned on the Zhou family. A fine scheme indeed."
With that, he flicked the blood from his blade, sheathed it, and strode out the door. Vaulting over the courtyard wall, he vanished into thin air.
The man slumped in relief, hurriedly fumbling to bandage his wound...
***
Deep autumn had arrived, and the air grew colder by the day.
Compared to the south gate with its ferry crossing, Xianyang's north gate was far more desolate, though nearby villagers still came and went, driving ox carts laden with firewood for sale.
Keeping his bamboo hat low, Li Yan passed through the gate and followed the official road. After walking less than a few li, he spotted Wang Daoxuan and the others waiting beside a roadside grove.
Ever since arriving in Xianyang, they had been scraping by on next to nothing.
From their job in Gushui Village, only Li Yan had gained a horse, which he had promptly sold, while Wang Daoxuan and Sha Lifei had not netted a single copper coin.
The task of spirit-invoking for the Spring Breeze Troupe had been settled by receiving the Divine Drum Cloud Thunder Sound method instead of silver. Fortunately, Sha Lifei had won some money on bets, which was barely enough to keep them fed.
Buying horses was out of the question. Luckily, Xianyang's Taixing Livery was also aligned with Zhang Yuanshang, so they had managed to rent several mounts without putting down a deposit.
Wasting no time, the three spurred their horses forward. Before noon, they had arrived near Chunhua County.
At this point, Zhao Lvzi, who had remained as silent as a sealed gourd the entire way, finally spoke. Pointing toward a distant mountain range, he said, "That lightning-struck wood is in the mountains ahead."
"So it's Yetai Mountain," Wang Daoxuan stroked his beard and remarked with a smile. "That mountain holds some renown within the Xuanmen as well. Many temples have stood there since antiquity. The folks of Guanzhong address deities as *Ye*, so Yetai means 'Spirit Altar.' In the Tang dynasty, people often gathered tea there, commonly calling it Divine Rabbit Ridge.
"What's more, there is a lesser-known legend here. According to Xuanmen lore, Dragon-Ending Ridge—where Grand Preceptor Wen perished at the end of the Shang dynasty—is none other than this place."
Sha Lifei's eyes lit up at once. "Are there treasures?"
Wang Daoxuan chuckled helplessly. "Even if there were, others would have beaten us to them long ago. In all of Guanzhong, whatever sits above ground has already been scoured countless times.
"As for what lies beneath the earth: whatever could be disturbed was emptied long ago, and whatever couldn't spells certain death to anyone who dares enter. Only in the Qinling Mountains are there still secrets undiscovered.
"Brother Zhao here would know this best of all."
Saying so, he glanced toward Zhao Lvzi.
Zhao Lvzi was clearly not a man of many words. Seeing their eyes on him, he scratched his head and said in his raspy voice, "My family's heritage belongs to the mountain-driving branch; we've never dealt with those grave-crawlers. But the Qinling Mountains are indeed perilous. My father went in and never came back out."
"My condolences, Brother Zhao."
Li Yan was intensely curious about the treasure-stalking craft. After all, his Daluo Dharma Body required absorbing heavenly spirits and earthly treasures to repair itself. Seeing that Zhao Lvzi had finally spoken, he seized the chance to draw him out.
Zhao Lvzi had thin skin; under Li Yan's flattering words and Sha Lifei chiming in, he mumbled out a few details about the treasure stalkers.
The profession of treasure stalking had existed since antiquity.
In primordial eras, tribal shamans discovered the miraculous virtues of certain heavenly spirits and earthly treasures, regarding them as gifts from the gods. Yet lacking proper methods to retrieve them, they often sought the guidance of ghosts and spirits.
They carved all of these secrets onto oracle bones.
Later, when Fangxian Dao reached its zenith during the Qin and Han dynasties, those fangshi traversed thousands of mountains and rivers, plumbing strange and secluded realms in search of the elixir of immortality, gradually compiling their findings into treatises.
According to legend, the lost Heirloom Seal of the Realm had been carved from a heavenly spirit and earthly treasure.
The treasure-stalking craft was divided into three branches according to their specializations: mountain driving, sea exploring, and mystery seeking.
Mountain drivers ventured exclusively into deep ranges; sea explorers excelled at underwater foraging; while the mystery-seeking branch specialized in ancient tombs, caverns, and forgotten ruins. Each had their own domain.
Furthermore, because the Divine Land was vast, with vastly differing climates and geography, treasure stalkers operated only within regions they knew intimately.
For instance, if a Guanzhong treasure stalker traveled beyond the passes to the white mountains and black waters of the north, they would be completely at a loss when encountering unfamiliar phenomena.
As for the mystery seekers, they differed from ordinary grave robbers. Their primary targets were the heavenly spirits and earthly treasures born within ancient tombs and caverns; finding silver, coins, or antiquities was merely incidental.
If they ran across an ominous artifact, no matter how valuable it was, they would never bring it into the light.
***
Upon entering Chunhua County, the group headed straight for an inn with stables, intending to leave their horses there. They also needed to arrange cart handlers in advance to haul the timber out later.
After all, according to Zhao Lvzi, that lightning-struck jujube wood was quite large. Even if they found it, the few of them would never be able to haul it out on their own.
While they were discussing the matter, a nearby tavern boy could not resist speaking up: "If you guests are heading to Yetai Mountain, forgive this humble one's loose tongue, but things are far from peaceful up there."
Li Yan raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
The boy glanced at the innkeeper. Seeing no objection, he lowered his voice and said, "Have you ever heard of... the Red-Haired Blood Face?"
Chapter 53