Chapter 735: The Beginning of Heavenly Vision and Earthly Hearing

Chapter 735: The Beginning of Heaven's Sight and Earth's Hearing

In the guest courtyard, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.

Yue Hongling leaned against the pavilion, drinking wine, watching Zhao Changhe sit in the yard with his eyes closed, practicing his skills. A smile never left her lips.

Whether it was this frantic, every-second-counts approach to cultivation, or the conversation they had just had, it made Yue Hongling like him more and more with each passing moment. Almost every word he spoke seemed to strike a chord in her heart.

She didn’t see him as some kind of hero; she simply felt that this was how things ought to be. This was the man who had made her wandering heart settle down, unchanged since the day they met. Regardless of whether Li Shengtong and the others remained the same, Zhao Changhe certainly would.

Whether he was the bandit from Mount Mang of old, or the Prince Zhao who now held sway over the Han Empire.

But if she knew that Zhao Changhe’s so-called “every-second-counts cultivation” was actually him talking to other women, she wondered if her smile would freeze on her face.

—That woman had bested her more than once.

“Let me tell you news from afar?” The Blind Woman sneered in Zhao Changhe’s sea of consciousness. “Do you want me to convey your longing to them as well?”

Zhao Changhe said, “That would be best…”

The Blind Woman said, “Do you take me for QQ or WeChat?”

“Looks like you’ve been having quite a time in the modern world… If I ever get back, I could indeed add your WeChat.”

“Scram.”

“No room for negotiation?”

“Are you referring to passing messages for you, or adding my WeChat?”

“…Adding your WeChat was just a polite gesture. Forget it.” Zhao Changhe said earnestly, “Tell me, what’s the situation in Jinzhong now? Is Qing’er in any trouble?”

“You’re really quite casual about it, aren’t you? Asking like that, just as you casually treated this place as if it were the Shu Commandery of the Han Empire, leaving Li Shengtong’s mind spinning?” The Blind Woman sneered. “Do you take me for some muscle-brained fool?”

“You think Li Shengtong’s mind was spinning because I was being casual? Do you really think he’s stupid?” Zhao Changhe sighed. “He was genuinely shaken by my mention of land distribution and education, too bothered to quibble over other things. Guess what would happen if I really swaggered around treating this as Shu Commandery, appointing officials and arranging personnel—see if he wouldn’t throw me out.”

The Blind Woman let out a “hah” and made no further comment.

Because she couldn’t understand. Distributing land to others—why would that shake Li Shengtong? Those lands could have been his. Shouldn’t he be even more inclined to throw you out?

Gods and demons were lofty; what they cared about was always different.

“There’s nothing much to talk about with Li Shengtong. I want to see Qing’er.” Zhao Changhe wheedled. “Tell me… We’re so familiar with each other.”

The Blind Woman was caught between laughter and tears. “Do you have any idea how nauseating it is to see a big, burly man like you acting coy?”

“You’ve seen me in my most embarrassing moments. What’s the big deal?… After all, it’s you.”

After all, it’s you… The Blind Woman was startled for a moment, then snorted coldly. “You may be familiar with me, but I’m not familiar with you. Enough nonsense. I won’t be your eyes and ears—what kind of talk is that? If you have the ability, see for yourself. This is nothing more than the power of Heaven’s Sight and Earth’s Hearing. It’s not exclusive to me; you can achieve it too.”

Zhao Changhe said, “In other words, I need to expand my current omniscient vision to encompass the entire world. That would require at least the third level of the Imperial Realm. When will that ever happen?”

“No matter when, you have to train. If you don’t train, you’ll never have it.” The Blind Woman folded her arms. “Day in and day out, you avoid the Heavenly Book, avoid training your omniscient eye—you avoid everything. Then you turn around and say, ‘Blindie, we’re so familiar, after all, it’s you.’ Don’t you find yourself disgusting?”

Zhao Changhe: “…I haven’t been avoiding the omniscient eye that much.”

“Pfft.” The Blind Woman let out a derisive snort and ignored him.

But Zhao Changhe really hadn’t been avoiding the omniscient eye that much. From earlier tests, he had felt that the omniscient eye was merely the result of extending his spiritual sense and five senses outward—an upgraded version of the early “sound discrimination and location” technique.

It was just that, with the enhancement of the Eye Behind, the range might have increased, and he might “see” more clearly than others. For normal people, it should only be a kind of “perception,” but for him, it was as if he were witnessing it with his own eyes. This was the effect of the Eye Behind’s enhancement, not that the entire outward extension was brought about by the Eye Behind.

This kind of outward extension was something anyone could practice. It was just that whenever he trained this, it always ended up being used together with the Eye Behind. But you couldn’t avoid training it—the higher your cultivation, the larger your field of vision and the clearer you could see. That was a decisive factor in strength comparison. How could you not train it? Anyone who had played a game knew the effect of revealing the map, right?

The reason he had trained it so little was that there were simply too many things to learn. Time was so short; he couldn’t cover everything. The omniscient eye had long been forgotten to the nine clouds. It wasn’t really deliberate avoidance.

Having been looked down upon by the Blind Woman this time, Zhao Changhe suddenly seized the opportunity to climb up the pole: “Then teach me how to train it. The Wind Control I learned from the Thief Saint is very helpful for hearing—I can hear the sounds carried by the wind clearly, and the range is much larger. But it’s only hearing. What about sight?”

The Blind Woman said offhandedly, “You have the ability to perform the Night Sky. By nature, you should know everything under the cover of night. Isn’t that your domain? Why do you need Wind Control? What nonsense.”

She paused there, then added mockingly, “The new Night Emperor, and all you do is use that identity to play with the Venerables. If the Night Emperor knew, he’d probably stab you seventeen or eighteen times!”

“Hey, hey, hey? You know the situation with my Night Emperor identity as well as anyone, don’t you? No, wait—when did I ever use that identity to play with the Venerables? Everything between us was mutual affection!”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m not familiar with brothels.” The Blind Woman’s tone was chilly.

Zhao Changhe: “…”

The two of them stared at each other expressionlessly for a while. Suddenly, Zhao Changhe released his spiritual sense outward.

These days, he had been using the Star River Sword to refine his resonance with the Star River. Although he hadn’t broken through to the Imperial Realm, he was indeed becoming more and more familiar with resonating with the Star River.

In a hazy state, he felt his consciousness floating up to the sky, drifting under the moonlight, overlooking the earth.

Wanting to see the entire world like the Blind Woman was naturally impossible, but the effect was surprisingly good. Previously, his omniscient eye could at most see a radius of one li. Now that his cultivation had improved, he thought seeing an entire city would be about right. But his consciousness kept expanding, not only overlooking the whole of Chengdu but even extending beyond the outskirts, stretching for who knew how many li.

This was the effect of mastering the Star River, combined with the enhancement of the Eye Behind—it wasn’t just a matter of cultivation level. One could imagine how much the visible range would increase when he truly broke through to the Imperial Realm.

That was for later. For now, he could vaguely see someone quietly leaving the city, flying swiftly outward.

Zhao Changhe smiled slightly and withdrew his spiritual sense.

The reason he had been buttering up the Blind Woman was first to find out about the situation with Vermilion Bird and the others far away, and second, for this.

—Every word he had said to Li Shengtong was sincere, but the other party might suspect he was bluffing. The line between truth and falsehood was whether these words were spread, putting the other party on the fire of public opinion. He had no intention of using public opinion to coerce anyone. What he wanted was Li Shengtong’s genuine assistance. If he were misunderstood, it would only create unnecessary trouble.

In that case, would there be a third party unwilling to see him cooperate with Li Shengtong—for example, hidden agents of the Listening Snow Pavilion—who would deliberately go out to spread the word?

“I’ll help you root them out,” he had said at the banquet, precisely as a countermeasure.

But at that time, he hadn’t been thinking of catching them through this kind of spiritual sense surveillance. He had planned to use the Art of Observation to look for hidden sword qi deep within them. That was obviously less reliable. What if the person had no sword qi inside them at all, but had simply been bribed? Then the Art of Observation would have a hard time detecting it, only revealing that the person’s heart was not upright, which wouldn’t convince anyone. Now, being able to catch them red-handed was far more straightforward.

Zhao Changhe opened his eyes.

Yue Hongling was leaning against the pavilion, also cultivating. When Zhao Changhe opened his eyes, she seemed to sense it and opened hers as well.

Zhao Changhe said, “You were… guarding me?”

Yue Hongling smiled. “Of course. For a while just now, you were in a deep meditative state. Naturally, I had to guard you well.”

“Uh…” That was actually the state of extending his spiritual sense outward, where he couldn’t be distracted. But in truth, the deeper he was in that state, the clearer everything around him became. He didn’t really need anyone’s protection. Yet Yue Hongling’s thoughtfulness warmed his heart. He said softly, “You didn’t say a word throughout the entire banquet earlier. You’re also an honored guest. Don’t act like you’re really my guard.”

Yue Hongling said bluntly, “In these matters, I am your guard, and I am willing to be your guard.”

Zhao Changhe: “…”

Yue Hongling said, “You suddenly fell into cultivation. Did something occur to you?”

Zhao Changhe took her hand. “Come on. Someone is sending us a way to break the deadlock. Of course, we have to go and accept it graciously.”

He paused for a moment, then suddenly smiled. “It’s good to have you. If it were just me, I wouldn’t be able to handle everything.”

“Sect Master, Zhao Changhe and his wife have suddenly left the guest courtyard, heading north.”

Li Shengtong stood up, a hint of regret in his heart. “So they’re trying to go out and spread the word, are they… Let’s go and see.”

Under the moonlight, several figures left the city from different directions, quickly disappearing into the dense forest, speeding northward.

The words Zhao Changhe had spoken at the banquet had made some people’s hearts tremble with fear. Whether or not the Han Empire and Bashu would unite because of these matters, they could not tolerate it.

That was digging at their roots.

Equalizing land, opening education… This was demonic conduct!

Once it was truly implemented, it would not only be the death knell for aristocratic families and powerful clans, but it could also be the death knell for many small sects, and even for local petty officials. From then on, inheritance and monopoly would become things of the past. Everything would be laid out for open competition. Li Shengtong had massacred aristocratic families, but he hadn’t gone this far. With just a few words, Zhao Changhe was about to uproot Bashu entirely!

Let alone others—even within the Divine Flame Sect itself, there were not a few opponents.

Because the Divine Flame Sect itself was a powerful force that monopolized martial arts techniques, and a representative one at that.

Everyone had assumed Li Shentong would never agree to such things, but judging by his reaction, he seemed quite moved... Whether it would actually be implemented was another matter, and his attitude suggested he might not truly consent, but once doubt crept in, it was a warning bell.

Regardless, since Sect Leader Li believed that if it were spread, it would mean Zhao Changhe was untrustworthy, why couldn't we be the ones to spread it? That wouldn't harm the sect leader either.

Just as they were thinking this, in the forest ahead, someone sat on a rock, grinning at them.

The group halted abruptly, their feet scraping long skid marks on the ground, terror gripping their hearts: "...Zhao, Zhao Changhe!"

At this moment, seeing Zhao Changhe sitting there under the moonlight in the woods was like an ordinary person stumbling upon a white-browed tiger in the mountains at night—the overwhelming aura could chill one's blood and spirit.

Zhao Changhe jumped down from the rock: "Gentlemen, the winter night is bitter cold, the dew heavy and deep. Why not rest well at home instead of coming to this remote forest to drink the northwest wind..."

He hadn't even drawn his blade, yet the men before him instinctively trembled, their legs weak. Fear dominated every heart, and they cried out in unison, drawing their blades and charging at Zhao Changhe.

—By now, his Blood Fiend aura no longer required deliberate activation; it was omnipresent. But how much of this fear-inducing effect was due to the Blood Fiend remained unknown; it was entirely the force of his presence. Zhao Changhe, the slayer of gods and demons, was too legendary in the eyes of the world, and the cauldron still stuck in the city gate had yet to be pulled out by anyone.

"Clang, clang, clang!" Several crisp sounds rang out as multiple blades struck Zhao Changhe simultaneously.

Zhao Changhe tilted his head slightly, pinching the blade at his neck between two fingers, and grinned: "The Divine Radiance Sect's offensive power shouldn't be this weak, you know. The explosive force of the Divine Radiance Wind-Thunder Palm still serves me well; you haven't mastered it."

Wait, who exactly is the Divine Radiance Sect here? How can you be slashed by blades without even a mark?

Zhao Changhe suddenly moved. With a series of "ding ding ding" sounds, all the blades and swords were in his hand. He twisted them together, turning them into a tangled mess, and tossed them to the ground.

"Come, follow me back to the city. We'll settle this before Sect Leader Li."

Before his words faded, Li Shentong's sigh echoed from afar: "Which of us is the Divine Radiance Sect?"

Zhao Changhe laughed: "Still not up to par. Care to offer some guidance, Sect Leader Li?"

Li Shentong emerged from the mist of the dense forest, speaking calmly: "That move of yours—when the blades were about to strike, you temporarily altered your muscle composition... Quite taxing, and if you misjudge the point of impact, it could go wrong."

Zhao Changhe said: "Indeed. But for now, it's all I can do."

Li Shentong nodded: "There's still room for improvement."

With that, he said no more, his cold, sharp gaze falling on the men: "I thought the ones behind this would be the Listening Snow Pavilion, but it turns out to be my own Divine Radiance Sect!"

"Sect Leader!" one man shouted. "He's undermining our roots! Don't be fooled by his lies!"

Deep disappointment flickered in Li Shentong's eyes: "If you have objections, you can raise them with me privately. Acting on your own like this, sabotaging relations between forces—can you bear the consequences? Besides... why did we raise our armies in the first place?"

Was this heart still the same as before?

Whether Li Shentong's heart remained unchanged or not, the arms beside him might not be the same.

People are different.

Even Li Shentong himself had to keep asking himself—and even then, he might not find a true answer.

Just like now, no matter how disappointed he was, he didn't want to punish these men too harshly. If there was a reason for punishment, it was "acting on their own" and "damaging diplomatic relations."

"All of you, return to the sect and be confined in the heavenly prison for ten..." He meant to say ten days, but before he finished, the sound of someone landing cut through the air.

Yue Hongling descended from the sky, holding a hemp rope with five or six people tied to one end, like a kite in her hand. Landing before Zhao Changhe, she casually tossed the captives to the ground, laughing: "These people scattered in all directions, making them a hassle to catch... But I've completed my mission."

No matter how they scattered, before Zhao Changhe and Yue Hongling, who could now fly, it was merely an extra bit of effort.

The Divine Radiance Sect members, who had been ready to argue, suddenly turned ashen-faced. Li Shentong's expression darkened like the bottom of a pot.

These weren't Divine Radiance Sect people. Though he didn't recognize them, it was obvious they were servants sent by certain officials in Bashu. And the officials who would do such a thing were undoubtedly the "heavyweights" present at the banquet hall, of no small importance.

The Divine Radiance Sect members naturally knew that Bashu was riddled with Listening Snow Pavilion spies. The identity of these people was now all but clear.

"The enemy's actions, you chose to emulate—do you think you're clever?" Li Shentong, who had just said "confined in the heavenly prison for ten days," changed his decree: "Imprisoned for ten years, bitten day and night by venomous insects, no reduction of sentence!"

He bent down, grabbed a servant by the neck, lifted him with one hand, and said coldly: "Take me to your master. One second late, and I'll crush one finger."

Zhao Changhe and Yue Hongling sat to the side, hands folded, as if the matter no longer concerned them.

Though it was said that many of the killings earlier weren't by their hands, at least half of that was Si Tu Xiao whitewashing for his master. But now, pulling up this radish would drag out a whole clump of mud. Zhao Changhe's aura-reading skills weren't even needed. The furious Great Western King—what would he do now...

...

Whatever the Great Western King might do, Zhao Changhe's "authenticity" had been thoroughly proven through this incident.

The young couple slept soundly in the warm inn, the fire crackling. The next morning, Si Tu Xiao knocked on the door: "Get up and pee."

They washed up hastily and stepped into the courtyard, where Si Tu Xiao had already laid out breakfast. Before they even came out, he was devouring a bowl of Dandan noodles with gusto: "Damn, you two slept like logs, but I couldn't get a wink of sleep thanks to your mess."

Zhao Changhe sat down across from him, laughing: "So, how many did you kill?"

Si Tu Xiao was too embarrassed to say, holding up one finger: "Less than a hundred."

"Less than a hundred? That's fewer than I thought. Quite restrained, huh?"

"I meant a hundred clans."

"Pfft..." Zhao Changhe had just taken a bite of noodles and spat it out, hissing as he inhaled.

In just one night!

Si Tu Xiao's face was expressionless: "Chaotic times call for harsh laws. What you did in the capital wasn't any gentler than us, and that was under the famously refined Tang Wanzhuang's command... Damn it all, spies lurking among us—did you think we had no temper?"

"No..." Zhao Changhe gasped. "Last night's banquet was all spicy, and now breakfast is spicy too?"

"What do you think Bashu is?"

"Can I get some steamed buns? You can't make those spicy, right? As I recall, steamed buns originated from Marquis Wu, which is also part of Bashu."

Si Tu Xiao ordered someone to fetch buns, muttering: "Can't handle spice, and you call yourself a hero. Look, Miss Yue can eat it."

Yue Hongling smiled but said nothing.

"It's not that I can't handle spice, but can't we have something light in the morning?" Zhao Changhe grumbled. "Besides, I never claimed to be a hero."

"But my master was at the ancestral hall this morning, muttering 'hero, hero' over and over."

"..."

Si Tu Xiao sighed softly, lowering his voice: "What you said really shook him. Before, they didn't know if you were real, so it was fine. But once they confirmed it, I feel like my master aged a few years."

Zhao Changhe was surprised: "Is it that serious?"

"It is." Si Tu Xiao said earnestly: "He thought he was fighting for the people, but looking back, some things are hard to judge. And your perspective hit him like a club, making him feel like a fool."

"You're the fool." Li Shentong's voice came from outside the door. "How did I raise such a turncoat?"

Si Tu Xiao buried his face in his noodles.

Li Shentong stepped inside, personally placing a bundle of steamed buns on the table, forcing a smile uglier than a cry: "Poor hospitality, forgive me, King Zhao."

Zhao Changhe happily grabbed a bun and bit into it, saying: "To be honest, Sect Leader Li, I have some skill in aura-reading. Do you need me to take another look and dig out any other hidden sword slaves?"

"Then I won't stand on ceremony with you, King Zhao. Yes, I do." Li Shentong said calmly: "In return, when the Han Empire goes to war with Guanlong, Bashu will coordinate an attack on Hanzhong. My junior brother Shi will handle the military, with Si Tu assisting. As for me, I will accompany King Zhao northward."

Si Tu Xiao opened his mouth, looking at Zhao Changhe with pleading eyes, hoping he'd lend another person.

But Li Shentong said: "Don't even think about going north. At best, you'd serve as a general under Huangfu Yongxian, because you can't participate in the Imperial Realm battle. What a waste you are—you're about the same age as King Zhao, and look where your years have gone."

Si Tu Xiao choked, but didn't say that you, at your age, are only half a step ahead of Zhao Changhe—where have your years gone?

Zhao Changhe said: "Si Tu has fought under General Huangfu before; he's familiar with it. He could go to Yanmen instead."

"Then Yanmen it is." Li Shentong didn't dwell on it, turning to say: "You said yesterday that the Kunlun gods and demons have no interest in worldly conquest. That's not entirely true. Since I've decided to cooperate with you, let me tell you what's happening here—a token of goodwill."