Spoils of War, Scars of the Mind

When Li Huowang asked, Bai Lingmiao nodded and said softly, “That female general had a token. Gouwa thought it was gold at first, but it turned out to be copper. He said it’s not worth much.”

“A token? Bring it here.”

Soon, the object was placed before Li Huowang. It was a square copper plaque. Judging by the name and military rank inscribed on it, this was what identified Peng Longteng.

“There’s a tiger-head seal on it. This should be a military waist token.” Li Huowang pressed his finger against the tiger-head pattern on the plaque, then told Bai Lingmiao to put it away.

Better to have it and not need it. Maybe it would prove useful someday. Even if it never did, carrying a token wasn’t heavy anyway.

That so-called Heavenly Scripture of Danyangzi’s was much heavier than this thing. It had never been useful either, and he still kept it with him.

“Oh, right, Li-shixiong. She also had a book on her. None of us can read, so Gao Zhijian took it to look at.”

“A book?” Li Huowang’s brief relaxation snapped into instant vigilance. “Bring that book here.”

Bai Lingmiao immediately lifted the curtain and walked over, but after a moment, she returned with some hesitation.

“Zhijian says it’s just a military treatise. Nothing worth seeing.”

“He won’t give it up? Call him here. I’ll talk to him myself.” The suspicion that had just flared in Li Huowang grew even heavier. If it was just an ordinary strategy book, why was he hiding it?

When Gao Zhijian appeared before him, his face pale and his body wrapped in bandages, Li Huowang stared at him seriously and spoke.

“I know that strength of Peng Longteng’s—that incredible power—and some of the abilities she had. You might be very eager for them. But some things come with risks. If you handle them wrong, they might cost you your life. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Li Huowang suspected that the book might contain Peng Longteng’s cultivation method, and that Gao Zhijian was secretly training in it.

After everything he had been through, he had long understood that in this mad world, there was no such thing as gaining some kind of power through cultivation without paying a price.

To gain something, you had to give something. All cultivation methods were extremely dangerous. He didn’t want to see Gao Zhijian turn into another Peng Longteng someday.

“It… it really is a military treatise.” Gao Zhijian sounded aggrieved.

“If it’s a military treatise, why are you hiding it? Let me see it!”

After a moment of hesitation, Gao Zhijian finally handed the book over.

“The General’s Garden.” That was the name of the book.

Li Huowang used his blackened fingers to flip open the coarse paper. The contents appeared before him. “In the art of war, the general receives his orders from the sovereign, assembles the army, and gathers the troops. In difficult terrain, do not encamp. On intersecting ground, ally with your neighbors. In desolate territory, do not linger. In surrounded ground, use stratagems. On death ground, fight. There are roads you must not take, armies you must not attack, cities you must not assault, territory you must not contest, and sovereign commands you must not obey…”

“It really is a military treatise?” Li Huowang was extremely surprised. He looked up at Gao Zhijian, then flipped through it again carefully.

The content was dense and hard to understand, and toward the end, Li Huowang struggled to read it. But he looked through the entire thing and found that it was indeed just a book on military strategy.

Smack! The book closed. Li Huowang looked at Gao Zhijian with puzzlement. “If it’s just some old, ordinary book, why do you care so much about it?”

“It’s… it’s good reading,” Gao Zhijian said, reaching out his thick hands to take the book back from Li Huowang.

Just then, Li Huowang noticed that his wounds were bleeding through the bandages again. He quickly said, “Go back and lie down. You can read when you’ve healed.”

Gao Zhijian grinned foolishly, nodded, and clutching the book to his chest, he turned and walked out.

After he left, Bai Lingmiao quickly picked up a thin quilt from the side and draped it over Li Huowang. “Li-shixiong, you’re hurt so badly. Don’t bother with these things anymore. Your health is what matters. Get some rest.”

Li Huowang wanted to sleep, but the searing pain on his back from the Thousand Greats Record kept any drowsiness at bay.

He stared blankly at the roof of the cart, his mind empty, not knowing what to think.

After a while, he spoke. “Miaomiao, help me sit up. I want to see what’s outside.”

Bai Lingmiao clearly didn’t want to do this, but under Li Huowang’s urging, she eventually complied.

The cart curtain was pushed aside. The sight of the refreshing green grassland outside made Li Huowang’s heart feel as comfortable as gulping down a big mouthful of cold boiled water in summer. The grass, brushed by a gentle breeze, undulated like silk.

“Is this Qingqiu? The scenery is much better than before.”

Hearing Li Huowang’s words, Bai Lingmiao nodded beside him. “I’ve heard my father say that Qingqiu is to the left of Liang. They say the horses here are good, and the sheep too.”

Li Huowang nodded. “I see the ‘Qing’ [green], but where’s the ‘Qiu’ [hill]?”

Bai Lingmiao, who had never traveled far from home, clearly couldn’t answer that question.

“Who among us is a local of Qingqiu?” Li Huowang asked.

“Sun Baolu is. And… one shidi, two daotongs. But they’re all dead.”

Li Huowang let out a sigh. “Find their addresses. We’ll send them home to be buried.”

So many had died along the way.

“Mm. But I heard that people here in Qingqiu don’t bury their dead in the ground. We can ask Sun Baolu about it later.”

Bai Lingmiao talked for a while, only to realize that Li Huowang wasn’t responding. She looked at him with concern and saw that he was frozen in place, his eyes wide open.

He looked like he had seen something shocking, but there was nothing out there except the grass!

“Li-shixiong, what’s—” Before she could finish, she saw the heavily wounded Li Huowang grab his longsword, leap out the window, and fall to the ground.

Under the impact, his charred left leg snapped like a dry twig with a sharp crack, and cracks spread across his entire body.

But Li Huowang ignored this. With his remaining arm, he raised the sword, aiming it at his other arm, as if about to cut it off.

Gouwa, who was closest, rushed forward and grabbed Li Huowang’s sword arm. He yelled frantically to the others beside him: “Get the chains! Li-shixiong’s having another episode!!”

Li Huowang turned his neck stiffly toward Gouwa. “Can’t you see it?”

“Huh?” Gouwa was utterly confused. “See what?”

Hearing those words, Li Huowang’s body went limp. He collapsed weakly onto the soft grass.

With his head on the ground, his single eye moved upward. There, visible only to him, stood the headless Peng Longteng like a statue. Her enormous shadow blotted out the entire sky.

The armor on Peng Longteng’s body seemed to glow dark red, as if burned by fire. Blood seeped from the gaps in her armor. She looked exactly as she had on the battlefield when she had clashed with Li Huowang.

“Why is she in my hallucination? Why?” Li Huowang kept turning the question over in his mind.

Then, he saw something moving behind Peng Longteng.

It was Jin Shanzhao. Just his upper body. His rotting entrails spilled from his abdominal cavity, trailing far behind him across the ground.

As the other shixiong and shidi hurriedly chained him up and carried him back to the ox-cart, Li Huowang saw Jin Shanzhao’s mouth open, as if he wanted to say something.

“What are you trying to tell me?”

Jin Shanzhao’s stiff jaw clicked open and shut, but no sound came from his mouth.