Yet the residents there were craning their necks in eager anticipation, unable to contain their cheers upon hearing that the seed of the Jeweled Tree was finally settling in the northern border.
It seemed the border up there was not very peaceful either.
Second Master Shi whispered, "On the whole, Lingxu City's control over the Twilight Plains isn't very strict. Forces from various countries come and go freely."
Just then, Chancellor Tang stepped forward again to say a few courteous words. Entertainment was indispensable at any birthday celebration, so the open ground in front of Baiyun Residence was quickly cleared, and troupes took the stage one after another to perform acrobatics, illusions, and other spectacles.
The soul-snatching mirror suddenly spoke up. "Fu Shan!"
He Lingchuan immediately stepped back behind a pillar before asking, "Where?"
"I mean Fu Shan's... man!" His master had moved too fast, and the mirror said sheepishly, "Down in the crowd, to the right of the candied hawthorn vendor—the one wearing a black hat!"
He Lingchuan looked down. Sure enough, beside the vendor selling candied hawthorns, he spotted a burly man in his thirties wearing a hat.
At first glance, the man looked no different from an ordinary civilian; He Lingchuan might not have noticed anything out of the ordinary with a casual look. But once the soul-snatching mirror pointed him out, He Lingchuan quickly recalled that this was one of Fu Shan's subordinates, someone he had seen at the noodle shop.
When it came to recognizing people, the soul-snatching mirror truly excelled.
The man stared fixedly at the stage.
He Lingchuan looked at him, then back at the old treant on stage.
*Interesting. Did Fu Shan come for the spirit seed?*
Sensing the shift in its master, the soul-snatching mirror wondered, "Huh, what are you smiling at?"
"Nothing." He Lingchuan kept his eyes on the burly man. "I was just wondering if I might get to see the mantis stalking the cicada."
Before long, the seed of the Jeweled Tree was placed inside a brocade box, safely stowed away by Chancellor Tang.
The performances on Mount Baiyun would continue for three days and three nights. The common folk were delighted, of course, but the officials and diplomatic missions would depart early.
Who knew where Second Master Shi had ferreted out the news, but after a short while he returned and told He Lingchuan, "Good news, great news! The contingent escorting the envoys to the northern border is getting ready and will depart in two hours. They're also escorting the spirit seed along the way—tagging along behind them would be ideal!"
He Lingchuan smiled.
Trade routes in Beijia were generally quite safe, but with the Emperor's Flowing Dew having fallen only a few days prior, traveling was still somewhat perilous for outside caravans. This escort was an elite detachment dispatched from Fufeng City; with them clearing the path, the caravan's journey would be far safer.
It was just like displaced refugees trailing behind a noble's retinue: with the strong blazing a trail ahead, they had an umbrella of protection.
Mount Baiyun sat just north of Fufeng City's outskirts. Once the spirit seed escort finished preparations, they departed directly from here.
Several sharp-witted caravans fell in behind them immediately.
The Shimen caravan was one of them.
Before leaving this massive volcanic crater, He Lingchuan cast one final glance back, marveling at the towering majesty of the Juluo tree.
A single tree ruling an entire kingdom—in the past, he could never have conceived of such a thing.
The demon kingdom truly was a wondrous place.
At this point, the black cat bade him farewell.
It had seen enough excitement for the day, and this employer was quite generous, having paid a fair sum of silver and plenty of dried fish. But now, it had to return home to tend to its kittens.
"Bring your little ones and come with us. Caravans always run into mice," Second Master Shi actually suggested to it. "Food and drink guaranteed."
The black cat was touched, and then rejected him. "No thanks. Work is easy to find in Fufeng City, and my children must grow up in a big city. Who wants to wander about leading a displaced life with you?"
"You heartless woman," He Lingchuan said between tears and laughter, extending a hand toward it. "Pleasure doing business with you. Thank you."
The cat stretched out a front paw resembling a mangosteen segment to high-five him in farewell, then leaped down from the sheep's back and sauntered off without a trace of regret.
He Lingchuan watched as it approached another human—a little girl of seven or eight—rubbing against her hand and acting coquettishly, probably looking to hitch a ride back to Fufeng City...
Right then, another familiar face came trotting up on horseback from behind:
Xu Dongdong.
This fellow was also a guard from the Grand Preceptor's Manor who had broken out of the mirror world alongside He Lingchuan, having spent the past few days carrying out other duties.
He said to He Lingchuan, "Young Master Sha knew you were leaving soon, so he sent me to see you off for a stretch. Big Brother Wu couldn't get away from the Grand Preceptor's side, so he asked me to bid you farewell in his stead."
He Lingchuan expressed his thanks, then asked, "Has Fu Shan been caught?"
"Not yet. That fellow is fiercely skilled in combat and runs faster than a hare. At the slightest sign of trouble, he slips away," Xu Dongdong whispered. "We did catch two of his companions, though. Under interrogation, we found out their leader's real name is Fu Shanyue."
"This band of cutthroats are mercenaries who do whatever the powerful pay them for—murder, robbery, fighting wars, anything. The job they took this time was to ambush Bai Zhu, the envoy from the Shanyu Kingdom."
"That white python?" *Why does that feel like a smokescreen?*
"Right." Xu Dongdong scratched his head. "When they were gathering Emperor's Flowing Dew at Three Hearts Plain, they mistook the deputy envoy of the Eling Kingdom for Bai Zhu and killed him. Having failed the assignment, they changed plans and intended to strike after Bai Zhu left Fufeng City. As for who hired them, only Fu Shanyue knows; these underlings just follow orders."
"Where is Fu Shanyue from?"
"Uh, I don't know." Xu Dongdong sighed. "I only overheard those few lines before I was sent off to find you—never got to hear the rest."
So it was his fault for interrupting the man's gossip? He Lingchuan cleared his throat. "Does this envoy know he's on a hit list?"
"We've already notified him," Xu Dongdong said. "We also assigned extra escorts to protect him all the way to the border. Here's hoping he stays safe and sound the whole journey." *So as not to tarnish the Jeweled Tree King's prestigious name.*
He Lingchuan hummed thoughtfully. "An envoy merely delivering gifts—why would anyone need to attack him? Especially while risking the wrath of the Jeweled Tree King."
"How should I know?" Xu Dongdong shrugged. "When these demons get hot-headed, they throw all reason out the window. The Shanyu Kingdom is in civil turmoil; word is their royal army is losing ground at every turn. It might well be their rivals who sent assassins."
"That spirit seed—planted in the dirt, it grows into a guardian of the border?"
"Pretty much," Xu Dongdong chuckled. "I don't know the specifics, but our King's avatars are vastly more powerful than mountain spirits. Wherever an avatar stands, there's no need to appoint a mountain spirit. Producing these spirit seeds is no easy feat, though; word has it one can only be nurtured every thirty to forty years."
"So across the entire Jeweled Tree Kingdom, there are at most twenty-odd Juluo avatar guardians?" A simple arithmetic problem.
"Uh." Xu Dongdong realized he had let his tongue slip. How could such matters be disclosed to an outsider?
Watching his expression, He Lingchuan knew it was unwise to press further, so he changed the subject: "Was the spirit seed escort assembled on short notice? I see they're all humans, and their mounts are just ordinary horses. At most there are a dozen wolf demons traveling with them. That seems a bit..."
*...a bit underwhelming.*
Second Master Shi chimed in, "I thought Fufeng City would dispatch a grand army of demon beasts, escorting the spirit seed north in tremendous pomp."
Xu Dongdong chuckled. "Sounds magnificent, doesn't it?"
"Doesn't it just?"
"Once the royal banner is raised, what blind bandit would dare stage a robbery?" Xu Dongdong said. "Besides, how massive are the appetites of a demon beast army? How could the post stations and towns along the way possibly feed them? Horses are best—temperate, possessing great stamina, and they only eat grass."
He Lingchuan laughed. "It really does come down to economics."
Demon beasts like tigers and wolves were gluttonous bottomless pits. On the march, they required meat—each eating dozens of jin every single day. What logistical supply line could support that? Even herbivorous demons had appetites several times that of an ordinary horse.
Weighing all the costs, riding horses remained the most trouble-free option.
Naturally, He Lingchuan understood that distance played a role as well; Fufeng City was simply too far from the northern border. Otherwise, sending a demon beast honor guard wouldn't have been out of the question.
Furthermore, it reflected the Jeweled Tree King's sheer confidence: who would dare rob the royal forces on his own territory?
He Lingchuan made another observation: even within the Beijia Kingdom, the number of demons was far fewer than he had imagined.
Taking Fufeng City as an example, after days of observation, the ratio of demons to humans fell well short of one in ten. Even here in the capital of the Jeweled Tree Kingdom, where demons gathered in droves, humans decisively outnumbered them.
The towns and villages he passed along the road were even more skewed, with humans outnumbering demons by at least thirty to one. In the most extreme small town he had visited, there were over six hundred permanent residents, yet reportedly only three demons.
Here, a distinction had to be made: wild beasts and demons were two entirely different things.
In Yuan Kingdom General Zhao Pan's army, there had been a wild bull vanguard led by bull demons; He Lingchuan had nearly experienced their ferocity firsthand back then. Strictly speaking, however, out of the three hundred bulls in that herd, only seven were bull demons. Broadly larger and sturdier, they were very easy to recognize, while the rest were merely ordinary wild bulls.
Similarly, the majority of the Rock Wolf clan were ordinary rock wolves; only ones like He Lingchuan's Lu Xin or He Yue's subordinate Dahei could truly be called demon wolves.
Zhu Erniang's brood easily numbered twenty to thirty thousand, yet the elite spider guardians that had attained demonhood numbered fewer than a hundred and eighty. Bored during his stay in the Demon Nest Swamp, He Lingchuan had counted them by hand.
Armed with just those spider guardians, she was able to dominate the prime territory in the Demon Nest Swamp, leaving other great demons with no choice but to swallow their grievances.
When He Lingchuan discussed this with Xu Dongdong, the latter roared with laughter. "How could demons ever compare to humans in sheer numbers?"
"I assumed Beijia was a demon kingdom, so demons would make up the majority." In the Yuan Kingdom, He Lingchuan had heard plays and read popular stories that claimed the northern demon kingdom was crawling with demons everywhere, detailing how invincible demon armies were and how miserably enslaved human commoners lived.
Now that he had seen it with his own eyes... heh.
"The demon kings are revered, and Beijia certainly has no shortage of formidable demons. But without humans, how could an empire of this scale ever function?"
Second Master Shi laughed as well. "Aside from humans, who can manage enterprises? Who can produce goods?"
Thinking it over, He Lingchuan agreed. Someone like Zhu Erniang, adept at organizing agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sidelines, and fishery, was an anomaly among demons.
Most demons followed their base instincts, remaining unruly and uninhibited. They lacked the meticulousness of humans and could rarely engage in collective labor day after day like humans did.
Without humans leading production and commerce, grain wouldn't grow in the fields, mines would lie unworked, and trade could never take off. Where would wealth come from?
At this point, the heart-protecting mirror interjected, "The waning of the world's spiritual energy is the true reason the demon population fails to grow. Back in the early Middle Ancient era, demon beasts roamed everywhere. If you loosed an arrow at random in the wild, you might well strike a rabbit demon. Humans, however, are different... no matter how thin spiritual energy gets, humans remain humans. They don't devolve into monkeys."
It was precisely because the demon races were declining that they banded together. In ancient and Middle Ancient times, demon immortals ran rampant, each claiming dominion over a corner of the world as a regional overlord. Where would you ever see a unified demon kingdom like Beijia back then?
In the end, it was nothing more than a product of the times.
That night, the party stopped to lodge at a small town along the official post road.
The escort detachment numbered roughly three hundred men, while the trailing caravans had over a thousand. With all the wagons, mounts, and cargo, a single town couldn't possibly accommodate them.
Fortunately, another town lay five li away, so the Shimen caravan went there to settle in.
When other merchants came over to chat, He Lingchuan caught wind of some news:
"Actually, the ones resting in that town aren't just the escort detachment. There are also three foreign diplomatic missions—from the Xuluo Kingdom, Chiyan Kingdom, and Baixiang Kingdom, it seems. The escort detachment invited them to stay together with them."
Chapter 390