Jiangnan Gongyang: Eight Hundred Li under the Clan Banner to Save His Wife

To the north, the Jiangbei Wasteland met the sea; to the south, it bordered the desert. To the east stood Jiangbei City. To the west lay Pingcheng. Farther south, beyond the desert, a great river descended from the distant heavens, sweeping along the desert's edge before flowing into the sea. South of this river was Jiangnan. North of it was Jiangbei. North of the Great River, the land was an endless vista of dunes and parched, cracked wilderness. South of it lay fertile plains and lush forests teeming with life. In terms of resources, Jiangnan was vastly richer than Jiangbei. In terms of cities, Jiangnan boasted several renowned metropolises, while Jiangbei did not possess a single decent settlement to its name. Consequently, the people of Jiangnan had always looked down upon Jiangbei, writing it off as an impoverished backwater. At this moment— High atop the tallest bough in a Jiangnan forest stood two figures. One wore green robes, and the other wore coarse hemp garments. "What should I call you?" "Old Demon Jiangbei?" "Or... do you have a name you can actually say out loud?" The old man in hemp had a full head of silver hair. Deep wrinkles lined his weathered face as he gazed into the distant horizon and spoke calmly. The rainy season had not arrived early in Jiangnan. The weather was mild and the sun shone bright. Yet far off on the horizon, dense swathes of black clouds hung heavy over Jiangbei, like a divine punishment descending from heaven. Without waiting for the green-robed man to answer, the elder continued in a steady voice. "The settlement down there is called Hidden City. It is an estate our ancestors forged for us. The name was chosen to signify that in this world, we must keep ourselves safe and remain dormant until the Eternal Night fades away." "The Eternal Night descended several centuries ago. It did not exist before then. Whatever caused it, there will come a day when it recedes." "The Eternal Night is an accident, not the norm." "Our highest-grade Living Workshop in the city has reached Level 7. It is more than capable of crafting fine, luxurious clothing. Yet every single member of our Jiangnan Gongyang clan still wears coarse hemp garments simply to remind ourselves at every waking moment:" "This world is no longer ours." "It belongs to ghost creatures." "Even if we appear to possess power, we remain utterly frail before true catastrophe. There is only one thing we must do: survive like ants, rather than scurry around like fleas thinking we're something special just because we can hop a little higher." "When you look up at the heavens..." "You will realize that the height you took such pride in leaping is virtually nothing compared to the sky." "There are still two weeks left." "Then Jiangnan will also welcome its rainy season." "And two and a half months from now, in winter, you intend to take my daughter to Jiangbei." "Do you understand what that means?" "It means the sole heir of the Jiangnan Gongyang clan—my only daughter—could die in Jiangbei." The green-robed man perched on the branch held a stalk of foxtail grass between his teeth. He shook his head with a roguish grin. "I don't want her tagging along either. Having a woman hanging around when I'm trying to kill people is a real nuisance. It works out great if you can convince her to stay in the city and not run off." The old man in hemp fell silent for a long while before speaking softly. "I do not know your name, nor do I care to know it." "However..." "Last night, my daughter told me in all seriousness that she wants to go with you, even if it means dying in Jiangbei." "I have never seen her look so resolute." "Countless clans tear themselves apart over succession. I refuse to let mine share that fate after I am gone. Over the years, I have purged every unstable element. Today, the Gongyang clan stands completely united." "If you are willing to stay..." "You can take over the Gongyang clan. All you need to do is have your children take the surname Gongyang to inherit the family. Bloodlines don't amount to much these days anyway; they are merely a way to gather people together for warmth." "Don't be in such a rush to refuse." "I know you are a martial fanatic." The old man paused briefly before continuing, "Every faction possesses its own secrets, and the Gongyang clan is no exception. In the deepest heart of Hidden City lies a... Training Chamber." "So long as you stay..." "You may use this Training Chamber as you please. Once you have fully taken the reins of the Gongyang clan, it won't be too late to seek your revenge." "..." The smile that had lingered on the green-robed man's face vanished. His pupils contracted sharply, and he turned involuntarily to look down at the city tucked away within the forest, showing a breach of composure unlike anything he had ever displayed before. A Training Chamber! If word ever got out that a faction possessed a Training Chamber, it would draw countless people begging to join! Without exception, only renowned, colossal powers possessed such a structure. While the Gongyang clan was far from weak, they were still nowhere near worthy of owning a Training Chamber. "Well?" Seeing his reaction, the elder couldn't help but chuckle. "Not many people use that Training Chamber. After all, our faction has not yet hit a bottleneck, so we have no immediate need for it." When developing a faction, pouring ghost stones into structures offered the highest return on investment. However, later building upgrades came with all sorts of constraints, requiring the collection of various heavenly materials, earthly treasures, and exotic relics. A Training Chamber only truly came into its own when structures could no longer be upgraded and ghost stones had nowhere else to be spent. "To be honest, I don't understand martial fanatics like you." "You are currently a Level 9 cultivator." "Not just in Jiangbei—even in all of Jiangnan, that is an impressive level of cultivation." "Yet—" "What of it?" "The city walls below boast forty-eight Level 5 cannon towers. Would you dare take a hit head-on from even a single one of them?" "You couldn't endure it." "Trying to take it means death." "The sole purpose of a cultivator is to serve as the clan's extended arm once they step beyond family territory. But none of that matters. So long as you are willing to stay, that Training Chamber is yours." Only after a long silence did the green-robed man tear his gaze away from the forest-shrouded city with great effort. He met the elder's eyes, paused for a moment, and suddenly broke into laughter. "No." "You're mistaken. I'm actually not a martial fanatic." "I only want to kill the people who deserve to die." "Another purpose of being a cultivator is that I can kill wherever I please, without having to wait around for my prey to show up." "Still..." "My goal on this trip is to breach a rival faction's territory. It is a suicide mission. All I intend to do before I die is kill as many of them as possible." "My original plan was to find an excuse to slip away right before leaving and go alone." "So rest easy." "I never planned to take her along in the first place, and I certainly won't let her die." "Not many people have ever treated me well." "If she dies..." "I might not even have a single person left to burn incense for me. That would make me look a bit too pathetic." The elder went quiet for a long while before asking again, "Are you certain you won't stay?" "I won't." "Does the Training Chamber hold no appeal for you at all?" "It does." The green-robed man tilted his head toward the dark clouds looming over Jiangbei and murmured softly, "But past grudges cling to my mind like inner demons. Whenever the dead of night settles in, I cannot stop myself from remembering." "They must die." "I cultivate to kill. Cultivating without killing is completely pointless." "Fine!" After another extended silence, the elder spoke in a raspy voice. "I grant her permission to go with you." "However, it cannot be two and a half months from now. It must be in two weeks." "You will take her to Jiangbei during the window when Jiangbei's rainy season has ended and Jiangnan's has yet to arrive." "In half a month..." "My daughter will set out with you. Traveling alongside you will be... the Gongyang clan's Grand Elder, Gongyang Yiyue." "A caravan from the Gongyang clan will accompany you the entire way under the raised clan banner." "She will not enter that faction's territory with you." "She will wait outside." "If you walk out of their territory alive, the Gongyang clan will help clean up the aftermath for you." "If you die in there, the Gongyang clan will go in to collect your corpse, but we will not avenge you." "I cannot allow my daughter to sneak into Jiangbei with you without anyone knowing. It is far too easy to die that way." The green-robed man gradually dropped the perpetual smile on his face. For the first time, he looked at the old man before him with utmost gravity. He had expected this conversation to consist of verbal abuse—something he was thoroughly accustomed to—yet the outcome caught him entirely off guard. After a long time, he said softly, "Impressive resolve." "But why leave in two weeks? The family I plan to slaughter won't be holding their birthday banquet until two and a half months from now. That was the timing I settled on long ago." "You are almost certainly going to die on this trip. Is it too much to ask that you take her around Jiangbei to enjoy herself for two months before you meet your end?" The man looked into the elder's cloudy eyes, shook his head, and agreed. "No, it isn't." The Gongyang clan's Grand Elder, Gongyang Yiyue. He had heard the name. A Nightwatcher. They had been mobilized once in the past, and that single deployment had dealt a devastating blow to a hostile power. Few factions possessed a Nightwatcher, but any that did effectively held a trump card capable of absolute deterrence. They didn't need to do a thing. Merely standing there was enough to strike deep fear into anyone. And an escort from a Gongyang merchant caravan under the clan banner was an equally potent deterrent. For any renowned clan, raising the family banner was a clear declaration to the outside world: Passing through your territory is purely a transit; we bear no malice and are on an urgent mission. Any power bold enough to obstruct us will face deranged retaliation from the Gongyang clan. A clan banner was not something that could be raised casually. Doing so too often would dilute its deterrence. The last time a Gongyang caravan had raised the clan banner on a journey was seventeen years ago. Back then... The Gongyang clan Patriarch had fathered a daughter late in life. A few months after giving birth, the matriarch suffered qi deviation during her cultivation and desperately needed a Resurrection Pill to save her life. The clan had mobilized all its reserves, and the caravan raised the clan banner to rush through the night, risking death to ride eight hundred li to the Dan Sect to plead for a Resurrection Pill. They had cut straight through the core territories of several factions along the way. They did not take a single detour. Not a single faction dared intervene. Even factions stronger than the Gongyang clan held their hands. It was winter that year. The Gongyang clan banner had galloped across the snow, giving rise to the celebrated tale of Jiangnan Gongyang riding eight hundred li under the banner to save his wife. The 'Gongyang' in that legend was the very elder standing before him now. Gongyang Gao. And seventeen years later, the Gongyang clan banner was about to flutter over Jiangnan once more. This time, it was solely to protect his daughter's safety and ensure she returned home in one piece. The green-robed man said nothing more. With a light tap of his toes against the branch, he vanished into the dense foliage within the blink of an eye. Not long after the green-robed man departed, a rustling arose beneath the old man in hemp. Lower down the canopy, a girl in a white dress was clumsily hugging the trunk with both legs, awkwardly scrambling upward. At the sight, the old man couldn't help but let out a helpless chuckle. With a flick of his sleeve, a wave of spiritual energy caught his climbing daughter, sweeping her onto the branch before him and settling around her feet to steady her stance. "Dad, what did you say to him?" Having barely found her footing, the girl in white disregarded her unkempt appearance, panting slightly as she asked. "What's the rush?" "Won't I tell you once we get back?" The old man answered with mock annoyance, "I agreed to let you go to Jiangbei with him. Grand Elder Gongyang Yiyue will accompany you the entire way, and the merchant guild will escort you under the clan banner to guarantee your safety." "That's wonderful!" Thrilled, the young woman clenched a tiny fist and pumped it in the air. "That means Old Demon Jiangbei won't die!" "..." The elder glanced at his daughter, not bothering to correct her that he had said 'your safety,' not 'both of your safety.' Instead, he drew an antique box from his robes. After gently caressing it for a long moment, he handed it to her in silence. "This is the Resurrection Pill the Gongyang clan obtained from the Dan Sect seventeen years ago." "So long as a single breath remains..." "Regardless of the condition—" "Qi deviation, lethal poison, soul corruption by ghost creatures..." "Whatever an altar cannot bring back, this can. Swallow it, and it brings the dead back to life." "All those years ago, this pill couldn't make it to your mother in time." "I hope..." "It will keep you safe on this journey." "...Dad." Taking the pill box, the girl's eyes reddened and shimmered with tears. Looking up at the familiar elder, she threw herself into his embrace and whispered, "You're the best. I thought you'd force me to stay." "..." The elder said nothing, merely patting his daughter's back as he gazed in a daze toward Jiangbei. If circumstances allowed, he would have loved to go himself. However... When the clan banner mobilized, the Patriarch had to remain behind to oversee the family. Otherwise, who would possess the authority to order full-scale retaliation at any cost? His presence at the clan's core was his daughter's greatest protection while she was away. His late wife's greatest regret before her death was that matter she had abandoned in her youth after he talked her out of it... It made him feel as though the girl he had loved had died long before that—dying the moment he refused to let her pursue it. For the decades that followed, she had lived in a daze, only snapping to clarity right before her death, regretting it all over again. Rather than living a lifetime of regret, it was better to simply let her go. Even dying would leave no regrets. And all he needed to do was hold down the fort at home. The old man affectionately ruffled his daughter's hair, then flicked his sleeve with spiritual energy to lower her gently to the ground. "Go play down there for a while. I want to stay here alone for a bit. It's been a long time since I stood in this spot." Shortly after sending his daughter off, a masked man in black leaped swiftly across the distant treetops, arriving at the elder's side in the blink of an eye. He presented a bamboo scroll, his expression solemn as he spoke in a low voice. "Master." "All intelligence regarding Old Demon Jiangbei has been thoroughly compiled. It is all here." Then, with a hint of hesitation, he added: "His past conduct can hardly be described as honorable. Are you truly going to entrust the young miss to a man like this?"