Chapter 473: Zouzi Ranked No. 108

Chapter 473: Zou the Fourth's Ranking - One Hundred and Eight

After concluding his conversation with Su Ce, Li Jun chose not to remain resting in the medical room, but instead made his way to the top floor of the Centurion Office.

By this time, darkness had fallen. Across the street, the Confucius Temple had already dismissed its scholars, and the surrounding fields were wrapped in silence.

As for the bustling city districts in the distance, they had even less to do with this Centurion Office perched on the edge of the urban expanse.

Li Jun sat astride the edge of the rooftop, exhaling heavily into the night wind.

Huangshilie was not the ritual for his promotion to the Lone Wolf Martial Sequence Four—this had indeed caught Li Jun by surprise.

With Honghu’s exit from the stage and the deaths of Tokugawa Hiroshi and other pirate leaders, the implementation of the New Policy faced no further obstacles.

This was the goodwill conveyed by the Embroidered Uniform Guard of the Yamato Sector to the New Donglin Party, as well as a tacit acceptance of the impending disbandment.

The next step was simply to wait for those children of the powerful clans to finish dividing their shares of the spoils. Afterward, the Yamato Sector would completely become a mere term buried in piles of old documents, replaced by a new province of the Great Ming Empire.

But this did not mean that during the coming period, the Yamato Sector would be calm and tranquil.

On the contrary, there would likely be several more vicious struggles.

After all, not everyone was willing to hand over the achievements they had worked so hard for to others, even if the counterparts were the high-and-mighty aristocratic clans.

Otherwise, Su Ce would not have told him to help these brothers onto their horses and escort them one last leg of the journey.

Therefore, Li Jun urgently needed to raise his own strength. As long as he could advance to Sequence Four, while he might not be able to gouge out all the eyes greedily watching from the shadows, he would at least be certain of protecting his own people in this Centurion Office beneath him.

Yuan Mingfei, Fan Wujiu, Xie Bi'an, Yasha, Painted Skin, Brothel Ghost... and even Chen Qisheng and Zou Sijiu, these specially engaged guest ministers.

Li Jun was not a man who took everything upon himself, much less a saint-hearted hypocrite who would fly into a rage upon seeing unrelated people lose their lives.

He was merely a man who, from the moment he arrived in this world, had begun to struggle for his life without a single pause.

But he also knew very well that without these people, he would probably have died long ago on some dimly lit street corner, his chest sliced open and his organs harvested by others.

The Lone Wolf of the Martial Sequence meant that there was no one ahead who could block the path, not that there were no brothers following behind.

"The road ahead must be walked by yourself."

Li Jun softly repeated Su Ce’s words, and the thoughts in his mind grew increasingly heavy.

Yet, if the road were truly that easy to find, there would not be so many lost souls.

Moreover, the path he was walking was one where no predecessor had gone before, a path that even a martial sequence champion like Su Ce could not offer guidance on.

Li Jun rubbed the space between his eyebrows and began to review from the beginning all the ritual checkpoints he had encountered during his rise.

If the generation of the Lone Wolf Martial Sequence’s rituals stemmed from those genes recording various martial arts, from the regrets of the martial sequence predecessors who died in the 'World Division of Martial Arts'...

He had killed quite a few sequencers by his own hand, from the three teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, and he had even slain those of the sect martial sequences.

But by the time he advanced to Scourge, the content of the rituals was clearly no longer confined to sequencers of a specific line, but had instead evolved into some ambiguous events.

In truth, even though Li Jun had now reached the peak of the Martial Sequence Five Scourge, he still did not fully understand why, after killing Yu Canghai in Osaka Castle, he was able to fulfill the requirements of that 'calamity' and thus attain advancement.

In the past, Su Ce had mentioned to him that the sign of breaking the lock and advancing sequence was that the currently awakened genes boiled to the absolute peak, the most intuitive manifestation being that one's essence, energy, and spirit reached a state of ultimate refreshment simultaneously.

The so-called ritual, simply put, was the method and steps to guide oneself toward achieving this requirement.

But now, Li Jun could not think of anything that could make the genes throughout his body boil. Could it be that he had to overthrow the entire New Donglin Party?

Thinking of this, Li Jun could not help but laugh out loud.

This might be a method, and might even allow him to advance more than one sequence level, but he would have to be capable of pulling it off first.

"What happy thought came to mind?"

Xie Bi'an's voice came from behind. Li Jun looked back to see Xie Bi'an holding two bottles of bottled Ming liquor in his hands, 'walking' onto the rooftop step by step along the stairs.

Those were two external mechanical prosthetic limbs used to replace his feet. Upon stepping onto the rooftop, they deformed back into the shape of a wheelchair.

"Can your body really not be used anymore?"

When Xie Bi'an woke up on his own, Li Jun was leading men in Osaka Castle, but Yang Baize, who was responsible for caretaking, had still informed him of the news immediately.

"I’ve already asked Guest Minister Zou. There is still hope, though it might be a bit troublesome and will take some time."

Xie Bi'an's tone was relaxed as he casually handed a bottle of liquor to Li Jun.

"But even if it can't be cured, it doesn't matter. Anyway, the Inuyama Castle Centurion Office doesn't need me to trade blows with others now. I can just hide behind the scenes and wag my tongue."

Li Jun took the bottle, threw his head back, and took a fierce gulp. A violent line of fire shot straight from his throat into his stomach, and his mind, which had been somewhat groggy from just waking up, instantly cleared.

"Jiannan Shaochun?" Li Jun smacked his lips and lifted the bottle to glance at it.

Xie Bi'an smiled and nodded: "I knew you liked to drink this when you were in Chengdu Prefecture, Brother Jun. I specifically had someone ship it over from the Empire's mainland. This kind of unadulterated, genuine Ming liquor is hard to find in the Yamato Sector."

"Actually, with my palate, I can't tell the real from the fake at all. I just think of an old friend every time I drink this liquor."

"Who?"

"A fat man who died a long time ago."

Li Jun poured another mouthful into his throat and said, "Without him, I might still be a street thug in Kowloon Street. Riding my motorcycle, weaving through streets and alleys, collecting money by day and hacking people by night. When free, I'd have a hotpot meal, and then find a low-modification streetwalker to vent my fire."

"Hearing you say it like that, this fat man was quite a benefactor."

Li Jun froze for a moment, then suddenly burst into loud laughter: "Hahaha, a benefactor indeed. Pity his fate wasn't tough enough, and my bad luck crossed him to death."

"To compare toughness of fate with you, Zou Sijiu would have to calculate thoroughly whether such a person exists in this world."

Xie Bi'an laughed along. When the laughter faded, he said slowly, "Sister Yuan wanted me to tell you, Brother Jun, that after the events in Osaka Castle, she and Guest Minister Chen have all taken a step forward. She wants you not to worry too much."

Li Jun nodded, "I see."

"And there's Yasha, Brothel Ghost, and the rest. They didn't have the guts to come say it themselves, so they pestered me downstairs for half the day, insisting I tell you that none of them like working under people of the Confucian Sequence. Even if they have to strip off this uniform, they are unwilling. Anyway, the stipend of the Embroidered Uniform Guard is just a pittance, losing it is no great loss."

Xie Bi'an paused, then said softly, "The same goes for Xiao Hei and me."

Li Jun remained noncommittal, saying only flatly, "Actually, that kid Yang Baize is a decent, good man."

"A good man is a good man, but a pity he is too refined. He can't piss into the same pot as rough fellows like us." Xie Bi'an shook his head.

"So you all consider yourselves quite thick, crowding everyone else out so there's no room left?"

Li Jun grinned and said, "But my fate is tough. Are all of you really so bold?"

"Our fates aren't soft either. Since we are all calamity stars, we might as well not go around ruining other people. Let’s just play by ourselves."

Xie Bi'an said with a serious expression, "They also said that if you don't agree, they'll have Fan Wujiu lead them to join Honghu, to go shout 'Are kings and nobles born to their status?' If that really fails, they'll just take to the hills on the spot, take all the equipment from the office, and become bandits outside the city. Since they have to find another livelihood anyway, they might as well pick a familiar trade to work."

Hearing this, Li Jun sneered, "I didn't expect that in such a small Centurion Office of ours, there would be so many hidden geniuses wanting to rebel! If I'm not mistaken, that line must have been said by that bastard Fan Wujiu, right?"

Xie Bi'an laughed out loud, choosing to remain silent as confirmation.

"Actually, everyone's thoughts can be understood."

Xie Bi'an licked his lips and said slowly, "The Old Ghost once said a line: people like us, the Embroidered Uniform Guard of the Yamato Sector, are all crossing-river pawns who can only advance and never retreat. In life, we can only grip the blade in our hands; only after death can we see the hometown moon again."

"But after being a pawn for too long, there will always be times when one wants to break free from the shackles and look back. Others won't give us this chance. Yang Baize might give it, but he doesn't have the ability to give it yet. So we can only rely on ourselves to earn this freedom, following you, Brother Jun, to earn it."

At this point, Li Jun did not hesitate further, nor was there any need to waver.

"To follow me down a path to darkness, no problem. But you help me tell those little rascals in a moment that their Centurion is dead broke right now. So every single one of them better stay alive for me. If they die, this old master has no money to pay out their death benefits."

"No problem. With the character of our Inuyama Castle Embroidered Uniform Guard, if there are no death benefits, they can't afford to die."

Xie Bi'an secretly let out a long breath. Grasping the liquor bottle, he took a shallow sip. His head of white hair was bound atop his head with a wooden hairpin bearing burn marks, and his sliding sleeve revealed a peach wood amulet tied to his wrist with a red string.

“Still can’t let go?”

Li Jun subtly averted his gaze and asked calmly.

“If you let go, you’re no longer human—you’re a beast.”

Xie Badian rested the wine bottle on his leg, his brow slightly furrowed, his eyes fixed on the distant night sky.

“The last image that appeared before my eyes as Luo City was transforming me into a Yellow Turban warrior was her lying in a pool of blood. She was such a clean person, but when she left, she was covered in blood—it must have been very uncomfortable.”

“Actually, during the time I was unconscious, my consciousness remained in a broken fairyland. There were no streets or people there—only a small sake shop where she and I sat on either side of the stove. She played the piano, and I sang.”

Xie Badian paused, raised his head, and drank half a bottle of wine in one go, exhaling a strong smell of alcohol.

“Day after day, year after year. The same song kept looping, singing over and over again: ‘Waiting for his lover to return in glory.’ Damn it, how could it ever end?”

“Later I got tired of it and stopped singing. She just sat there in front of me, crying, and stared at me with her eyes.”

Xie Badian’s lips trembled, and his fingers pointed at his own bloodshot eyes.

“Do you know, Jun Ge? She didn’t want me to leave.”

Xie Badian’s voice was hoarse: “Because this was the last trace she left in this world. I was willing to stay here with her, really willing, even if the time here was so short that I couldn’t even finish one song.”

“But I left in the end, because I had to go and avenge her. Even if the other side was the high and mighty Gezao Mountain, and I was just a tiny ant in the dust!”

Xie Badian drank the rest of the wine in the bottle, raised his face to look at the sky above.

“When I woke up, she had disappeared. Jun Ge, her name is Fei Yi. Can you help me remember it? I’m afraid I’ll forget one day. Because the road to avenge her is too high and steep, I’m afraid I won’t have the energy to remember it.”

“No one has the right to help you remember this name—you can only rely on yourself. But there’s one more thing you need to remember.”

Li Jun turned around and jumped off the roof, holding the now empty wine bottle, and patted Xie Badian on the shoulder: “The road is long, I’ll carry you. The mountain is high, I’ll carry you up. As long as we aren’t all dead, we’ll eventually take you to Gezao Mountain. Then we’ll settle scores with them, avenge our grudges and clear our grievances!”

Xie Badian’s head was bowed low, and he didn’t respond, but if you looked closely, you could see his shoulders trembling slightly.

Li Jun didn’t stay any longer and walked towards the escalator, holding the empty wine bottle.

At the entrance of the stairs, Yuan Mingfei leaned against the wall, holding an ancient tobacco pipe in her hand. She lightly opened her red lips and exhaled a faint white smoke.

“Your way of comforting people is really rough.”

“What’s the use of saying it so nicely?”

Li Jun casually stuffed the wine bottle into Yuan Mingfei’s arms and took a step towards the stairs.

“Tell Yang Bazei that he helped me solve a fifth-rank martial arts technique, and I’ll help him deal with Wang Changting!”

Bai Di Bathhouse.

The Horse King took the diligent and studious Fan Wuji and Chi Zhu to the lower floor for practical training, while Zou Siqiu, who was not in league with them, went alone to the top-floor bath. He quickly stripped off his clothes and immersed himself in the hot spring water. His slightly bruised face immediately showed a contented expression.

“Life isn’t just about fighting and killing—it’s also about balancing work and rest.”

Zou Siqiu soaked a piece of white cloth, covered his eyes, and slowly exhaled a long, turbid breath.

“Zou Magistrate, it’s been a long time since you last visited Bai Di Bathhouse. I’ve been missing you a lot!”

The bath attendant, kneeling by the pool, smiled and spoke with particular enthusiasm.

“You don’t need to miss me. Even if I begged for every single sign, we wouldn’t have that kind of fate.”

Zou Siqiu lifted a corner of the white cloth, revealing one eye that glanced over.

The bath attendant smiled apologetically: “You’re joking, Magistrate. Not only I miss you, but all the girls in Bai Di Bathhouse miss you too.”

“That’s more like it.”

Zou Siqiu lazily said: “Zou Ge, it’s been so long since I last came. Have you developed any new tricks here?”

“Of course. Whether it’s from the Ming people or the barbarians, whether it’s from books or imagined out of thin air, as long as you ask, I have it all here.”

The bath attendant smiled: “I wonder what the Magistrate is interested in tonight?”

“Tonight I want to fight a tiger. Choose the one for me that’s most capable of eating people.”

“I’ll go right now.”

The bath attendant knelt and retreated silently, exiting the room without making a sound.

After a while, the sound of light footsteps echoed again in the room.

“Uncle.”

Zou Siqiu’s body twitched like he had been electrocuted, sending shivers through his limbs. He tore off the white cloth from his face and slammed it hard on the water’s surface.

“Ah, Sister-in-law, come quickly.”

In the rising water mist, a slender white body slipped into the pool from the other side, swimming towards Zou Siqiu.

The sound of water disturbed people, and the atmosphere was ambiguous.

“Uncle.”

The soft call floated on the surface of the pool, but a sharp leg suddenly appeared in front of the woman’s eyes, full of charm.

Bang!

The pool water splashed and made a rustling sound.

The woman’s back hit the edge of the bathpool hard. Her wet hair covered her drooping head, and she didn’t know what to do for a moment.

“I don’t care who you are. If you want to talk to Zou Ge, can’t you choose a better time than this to disgust people? You’re a bitch!”

Zou Siqiu casually retracted his foot, grabbed the towel on the shore, and wrapped it around his waist.

“Don’t pretend to be dead. Show your identity.”

As the words fell, the woman, who had almost been kicked into the wall of the bathpool, pulled out her hands, lifted her long hair, and revealed a pair of eyes as black as ink.

“Yin Yang Order, Donghuang Palace, Zou Zi ranked 108, Lu Chou.”