Yefutidaolu

Chapter 313 Meeting Qilin Shen

Do you really think the Hu people are allies?

Gao Jian asked this question with a very clear attitude. Although it was a question, he actually believed with almost absolute certainty that the Hu people were not allies.

This made Yang Ling frown: "Instead of me telling Lord Gao about these things, why don't you let Mr. Gao see for himself what the Hu people are really like? Would you be willing to go to the borderlands and meet Qilin Shen?"

"Sure, then lead the way." Gao Jian agreed almost without hesitation upon hearing this.

In fact, even if Yang Ling hadn't brought it up, Gao Jian would have gone to see for himself anyway, since the Hu people were his target. And now that Yang Ling was willing to make the introduction, it was only right.

Yang Ling then said, "I knew Lord Gao wouldn't refuse, so let me arrange the rest of the matter first, and then I'll take Lord Gao out of the border."

"A brilliant idea is certainly not wrong," he said, taking a few steps back and waiting for Yang Ling.

As Yang Ling spoke, he quickly left, found a place to put the mustard seed bag, and without avoiding suspicion, summoned several people in front of Gao Jian, gave them a few instructions, arranged the progress of border construction, and also arranged the preparation of troops.

Gao Jian, standing nearby, overheard Yang Ling making orderly arrangements.

He first said to an old man, “The granaries and armories should be secured. We need to take stock of the current supplies of grain, arrows, firearms, logs and stones, and report the details. Also, we need to secretly dig three caves in the shady mountains near the pass to store military supplies. We must make sure they are secluded and dry so that the enemy cannot find out.”

Then he turned to the wall and said, “The construction is urgent, but we also need to be prepared. Send beast-taming cultivators with these spirit birds and beasts, divided into three shifts, to patrol in turn. The Sky-Patrolling Falcon will soar through the clouds with its keen eyesight, while the Earth-Listening Beast will lie in wait in the earth's veins to sense the earth's hidden traces. If any experts are found to be hiding, we must detect them as soon as possible and send a message using secret methods.”

"Beacon towers and scouts must be on high alert. Each beacon tower along the border must be reinforced with three bundles of smoke and five cartloads of firewood, with two sentries on watch day and night. Any unusual activity must be reported immediately, day or night, with the beacon and arrows sounded, and the messenger must travel 600 li to deliver the report! The scout teams shall be divided into three shifts, taking turns to go beyond the border and explore 100 li away. All the terrain, whether it is dangerous or easy, where spiritual energy gathers or disperses, and where there are water sources and grasslands, must be mapped and recorded. This must be completed within four days. Time is of the essence, so it is imperative to work in shifts and work overtime."

"These are tools sent by Master Gao. They can convert the power of martial artists to accelerate the progress of the project with brute force. Take them down and study them carefully. Using them in the construction will surely make the work twice as effective and greatly speed up the progress, leaving more time to prepare the military. Have the array masters lead those who are proficient in talismans and geomancy to plant nine array foundation pillars deep under the wall, according to the position of the seven luminaries of the Big Dipper. The pillars are made of Xuan Yin Iron Mother as the bone, and inscribed with the ancient seal characters 'Zhen Yue' and 'Jin Kong'. They are buried three zhang deep, drawing on the spiritual energy of the earth veins as the source, to ensure that the foundation is stable and the spiritual energy is unobstructed."

Afterwards, he gave orders to the people he had summoned, and he had a clear understanding of the entire border defense system, including the maintenance of the defensive formation, the deployment of skilled scouts, and the command of the elite troops stationed there. His words were filled with confidence and a sense of complete control over these matters.

Indeed, Gao Jian saw extreme confidence in Yang Ling. This man had no doubts about his arrangements, as if he had no worries about the many experts and the decapitation operation that was about to take place.

With this confidence, even Yang Ling's subordinates, who were trapped in dire straits, seemed to feel no pressure at all, as if he alone could withstand all the pressure and as if nothing would happen.

This is probably what is meant by "the demeanor of a great general." Putting aside Yang Ling's ideas, just looking at his current appearance, one can tell that this person is no ordinary individual.

After waiting for a while, he finished arranging everything and looked at everyone. Finally, he said, "I will accompany Lord Gao to the border today. If any major events occur, Mr. Qin Long will make the arrangements. In case of any emergency such as being attacked by enemy experts or the disruption of the formation, act as you see fit and report later."

Many people around immediately accepted the order and led their subordinates to move about as if they were their own arms. The entire border area was not shrouded in an atmosphere of despair, but rather filled with an air of hope.

After everyone had received their orders and left, Gao Jiancai sighed, "Yang Ling, if you used your skills in the Divine Dynasty, you would probably rise to great heights."

If such skills were used properly in the Divine Dynasty, they would probably cause a lot of headaches.

But Yang Ling laughed heartily, turned around, and said as he walked away, "Haha, Lord Gao, I have never hidden my abilities in the Divine Dynasty. After all, there is no family with the surname Yang in the Divine Dynasty."

These words made Gao Jian fall silent for a moment, and he didn't say anything.

There's not much to say; this is just the current state of the Divine Dynasty. Talented people aren't guaranteed to rise to the top.

However... it hasn't reached the point of 'holding a position without doing any work,' after all, the internal power struggles within the Divine Dynasty are very serious, and those who can rise to power are mostly capable.

So the two set off.

They were still riding Yang Ling's beast, which was quite fast. It only took about a day to get Yang Ling and Gao Jian to the border region.

However, upon first setting foot in the border region, Gao Jian encountered an invisible wall—a thick, impenetrable "deathly intent." This deathly intent far surpassed the state of 'emptiness'.

In the past, Gao Jian had experienced this firsthand.

Heaven and earth are dead.

Everything is an empty shell, devoid of charm and life.

It wasn't particularly destructive; it just plunged the whole world into a state of mild death.

They're all empty shells.

The deathly aura in the world before him was silent, still, and not intense, yet it was like a heavy, cold, bone-chilling lead coat, pressing down heavily and suffocating Gao Jian's heart and lungs, making each breath feel like swallowing solidified ashes.

Desolate? Lifeless?
He had seen desolation at the border, where yellow sand swirled and white bones were exposed in the wilderness.

He had experienced the deathly silence of ancient battlefields, where crows roamed the barren trees, broken halberds stood against the setting sun.

But that is ultimately another form of "life"—under the gravel lie dormant grass seeds, beside the bones perhaps insects crawl, the cawing of crows is a death knell, yet it also announces that decaying flesh nourishes a new cycle. It is a kind of decay, an end, a dramatic shift that makes room for new life.

And here...

No.

The streams are not dry; they still have water, but the water is stagnant, lacking its flowing spirit, like the cloudy, lifeless eyes of a dying person.

Withered thatch and broken reeds? No, the grass is still growing, even sharper, but its green is lifeless, with a cold metallic gleam, devoid of the softness and resilience of vibrant life.

There was no frost on the path, nor the chirping of insects. Wasteland? Even the traces of fields had become blurred; the earth itself presented a weary, utterly drained, and desolate grayness.

Rubble and debris? Chapped skin in old age? These concepts seem too "vivid" here; they at least still bear traces of the past and the weight of the passage of time.

Here, there is utter emptiness. The earth stretches out beneath your feet, thick and solid, yet like a gigantic corpse whose internal organs have been emptied, leaving only an empty shell. The sky hangs high and vast, yet like a bronze mirror dulled by millions of years of dust, reflecting no sign of life. The enormous lake before you is still and eerily clear, yet it exudes a stagnant, decaying quality, as if even the aquatic plants and fish at the bottom have turned into transparent ghosts, leaving only a huge, cold, and lifeless shell.

Yes, it's just an empty shell.

To describe someone as an empty shell, one would say they have "lifeless eyes."

And this land, this vast and desolate frontier, is a place where "heaven and earth are without gods".

Everything remains, its form unchanged, yet that one spark of life, that invisible "divine spirit," has been stripped away. It is the spark of existence, the rhythm of operation, the unseen yet intimately connected spiritual link between all things. Here, that "divine spirit" is like a candle flickering in the wind, utterly extinguished. Thus, mountains are merely rigid piles of earth and stone, lakes are just sunken pools of water, and the wind is but a meaningless sigh sweeping through the empty valley.

There was no earth-shattering destruction, no horrific carnage. There was only a silent, even, pervasive...faintness that permeated every grain of sand and every breath of air.

A death diluted to the extreme.

A cold, eternal "nothingness" to which all things return.

It is neither ostentatious nor roaring, but simply permeates quietly, like an invisible miasma, eroding the minds of those who stray into it, making Gao Jian truly feel for the first time that "existence" itself can be so illusory, so...empty.

It's not that matter no longer exists, but rather that matter has lost its inherent spirituality.

"Is this the border region? Is the grassland below the Sharp Blade Plain?" Gao Jian asked Yang Ling.

“Yes, the sharp blades were the only greenery here. If it weren’t for them, the place would have been completely lifeless. It’s a good thing that there’s some greenery now,” Yang Ling said with a smile.

Gao Jian remained silent.

Is this greenery really considered 'green'? The greenery that Gao Jian sees should be the rhythm of life, but what appears before us is no different from a green painted on.

But no matter what, this is the current situation.

This place is more desolate than any frozen wasteland or desert sand; it is a true dead land, a kind of 'death' where even heaven and earth have died.

Gao Jian has already felt the 'erosion' here, and this erosion makes his body extremely uncomfortable.

This erosion is not 'active', but rather comes from some kind of naturally occurring rule, like a hot piece of coal being thrown into a refrigerator, where the body's heat and vitality are being drawn away by the surrounding environment.

If he stays here too long, Gao Jian's cultivation level will likely decline, since he is only at the sixth realm. If his cultivation level drops even further, he will probably stop 'growing'.

His physical body will no longer grow; all that remains is decay, just like this world. It has become like this only because its foundation was strong in the past and it has not yet completely decayed.

This land is like a rotting corpse, not yet completely decayed.

Seeing all this, Gao Jian and Yang Ling set off for the Blade Plain.

In an instant, Gao Jian's shoe was shredded.

What he felt beneath his feet wasn't the softness of the earth, but countless fine, cold, maliciously sharp stings. Even through his sturdy, thick-soled boots, the chill and cutting sensation that penetrated to his soles made him furrow his brow. He walked steadily, each step imbued with internal force, crushing and flattening the blades of grass that tried to cut him, leaving a brief trail of crushed grass behind him before being swallowed up by the endless, gleaming blades of grass around him.

Fortunately, his cultivation level was high enough; otherwise, his legs would probably have been turned into mincemeat by the Sharp Blade Original Image.

Yang Ling was quite clever. His shoes must have been specially made magical artifacts, as the sharp blade couldn't penetrate the soles of his shoes, so he looked perfectly normal.

To be honest, Gao Jian had witnessed the prosperity of the Divine Dynasty and also set foot in the desolate borderlands, and he believed he had seen much human suffering. However, the cruelty of this place called "Grassland" before him far exceeded his imagination.

Even though he had used his imagination to contemplate the scene 'outside the Divine Dynasty', this sense of death still shook his heart.

After walking for a while in the Blade Plains, my feet were sore and swollen. Even a martial artist who had opened the gates of the sixth realm could not be immune to the damage from the Blade Plains.

Fortunately, he had a strong ability to recover. He rested for a while and waited for his wounds to heal before continuing to walk forward.

In the distance, a settlement made up of low, dilapidated but exceptionally thick and tough turf tents came into view.

That was the Qilin tribe. It wasn't large, with a few thousand tents and tens of thousands of people. In the Divine Dynasty, it was just a small village, but on this death grassland, it was a rare place to live.

The air was filled with a rusty, fishy smell, mixed with the bitterness of grass seeds and some indescribable, repressed longing.

At the very front, you can see dozens of strong Qilin warriors, their auras steady, clearly indicating that their cultivation is not weak. Such cultivation would certainly make them honored guests in the Divine Dynasty.

But now they were bent over, wearing woven straw sandals, like the humblest farmers, groping and prying through the dense thicket of sharp grass. Their arms and palms were covered with fine bloodstains, new wounds constantly overlapping old ones. They carefully pried open the grass leaves, taking out the tiny, metallic-looking seeds inside, their movements practiced yet numb, as if the pain of tearing flesh was a daily occurrence.

Two elderly people were talking in the distance. Their voices were not loud and they were far away, but Gao Jian's hearing was good, and he could still hear them vaguely.

"...food reserves...enough for six months...to invade the Divine Dynasty...to plunder...the fertile lands..."

The almost greedy gleam in the old man's eyes sent a chill down Gao Jian's spine. He recognized that gleam; it was the look of starving people seeing fat meat during famine.

Gao Jian finally broke his silence. He strode forward, channeled his inner energy, and crushed the sharp grass beneath his feet, producing a soft cracking sound that drew everyone's attention. The warriors gathering grass seeds straightened up warily, their hands resting on the bone knives or short spears at their waists, their eyes sharp as eagles.

However, they relaxed a bit when they saw Yang Ling.

At the same time, a handsome middle-aged man walked out from not far away.

Yang Ling then said, "That is Qilin Shen."

(End of this chapter)