A Father’s Lesson, a Friend’s Burden

“The killer is Ji Ning?” Beishan Baiwei asked, his voice filled with anxiety. “Father, what are you talking about? A killer? What do you mean?”

“Can you not guess?” Beishan Heihu looked at his son.

This was the son in whom he had placed his greatest hopes, the one he had tirelessly groomed and educated. If he hadn’t held such expectations, he would have simply let Beishan Baiwei be, allowing him to live his life as a carefree, ignorant wastrel. But precisely because he had such high hopes, he was so demanding.

“Father means…” Beishan Baiwei was no fool. He frowned and said, “When Ji Ning went to the Heavenly Treasures Mountain, he didn’t want anyone to know, which means he was doing something that couldn’t see the light of day. He went to kill an enemy with connections? Of the three—Dong Qi, Yu Tong, and Shui Yi—only Dong Qi had some real backing. Could it be that he killed Dong Qi? But even Dong Qi only had a Primal Daoist behind him; that’s nothing for you to be so concerned about.”

Beishan Heihu nodded. “Not Dong Qi. He went to kill Yu Tong.”

“Yu Tong? A nobody,” Beishan Baiwei said dismissively.

“But Yu Tong’s master, the Crippled Moon Realperson, happened to be there at the time. Because he tried to stop Ji Ning, he got caught up in it and was killed,” Beishan Heihu said, looking at his son. “And this Crippled Moon Realperson was a retired member of the ‘Mystic Army,’ one of our Anchan Northmont clan’s elite cultivator legions.”

“What?!” Beishan Baiwei’s expression changed instantly. Of course, he knew about his clan’s secret, elite cultivator legions.

Any marquis would have some such armies of cultivators.

The Grand Xia Dynasty was aware of this, of course. The secret lay in just how many hidden armies a marquis possessed, how many cultivators were in each, and what powerful figures were lurking among their ranks.

“A retired member of the Mystic Army?” Beishan Baiwei murmured. “If he was allowed to retire, he must have served for a very, very long time… and must have a lot of old brothers in arms. Those who live long enough to retire are usually a sore spot for these cultivator legions.”

“Exactly. A sore spot,” Beishan Heihu said in a low voice. “They fight and die for our Northmont clan. Those who live long enough to retire are few and far between. If a retired old soldier is killed… it naturally makes the cultivators in the army furious. They will never tolerate such a thing. If it happens, they will find out who the killer is and avenge their old brother.”

“This is the inviolable rule for these cultivator legions. Touch it, and you die!” Beishan Heihu’s eyes were solemn.

It was an unwritten rule of any army.

They would not allow their old brothers to suffer!

Never!

“Ji Ning and his people were very thorough,” Beishan Heihu said. “The Mystic Army’s intelligence branch started their investigation. They searched the memories of countless mortals on Crippled Moon Peak. They even found that blood robe the Crippled Moon Realperson was wearing at the time, though it had been thrown into the deepest part of the planet’s magnetic field.”

“But because three people died—the Crippled Moon Realperson, his disciple Yu Tong, and his daughter Yue Wei—the Mystic Army intelligence branch also began investigating Yu Tong and Yue Wei.”

“Very quickly, they found out that someone had recently purchased information about Yu Tong from the Heavenly Treasures Mountain.”

Beishan Heihu looked at his son. “Following that lead, the Mystic Army traced it to the estate of your father, Beishan Heihu. That’s how I learned of this.”

“Then what do we do?” Beishan Baiwei asked, worried.

“The Mystic Army is currently following several leads,” Beishan Heihu said. “But if Shui Yi and Dong Qi also end up dead, the Mystic Army will likely conclude that the killer is most likely the person who bought the information on all three from the Heavenly Treasures Mountain.”

Beishan Baiwei said urgently, “Then I’ll find Brother Ji Ning right away and tell him to hold off on killing Shui Yi and Dong Qi for now.”

“It’s useless.”

Beishan Heihu shook his head. “The other leads will be ruled out soon enough by the Mystic Army. Then they’ll come to my estate to question me about this matter.”

“So what do we do?” Beishan Baiwei was worried.

“Two options,” Beishan Heihu said.

Beishan Baiwei looked at his father.

“First: abandon Ji Ning,” Beishan Heihu said. “This way, we won’t have any trouble.”

“No,” Beishan Baiwei said, shaking his head.

Upon seeing this, Beishan Heihu actually burst into laughter. “Hahaha! Good, you’re my son after all. That’s right… never abandon your friends and brothers easily. If you do, you’ll never make any real friends or brothers! If you want others to risk their lives for you, you have to give your all for them. Do you understand?”

Beishan Baiwei was stunned.

“Then there’s only the second option,” Beishan Heihu said. “Take responsibility. Admit that it was you and your people who did it.”

“Me?” Beishan Baiwei was taken aback.

“Right. Go directly to the Mystic Army and admit that it was you. Say that you sent people to gather the intelligence, then led them to kill Yu Tong. But Crippled Moon Realperson tried to stop you… so you killed him too,” Beishan Heihu said bluntly. “You didn’t know he was a retired member of the Mystic Army. ‘Innocence is a valid excuse.’ The Mystic Army can’t forcibly punish you for it. As a direct descendant of our Northmont clan with hopes of becoming the next Marquis of Anchan, killing a retired member like Crippled Moon Realperson by accident is only a small matter.”

“If you take the blame, it’s a small matter. No matter what, the Mystic Army is still an army raised by our Northmont clan. Their cultivators wouldn’t dare to make a big fuss over an unintentional mistake by a direct descendant.”

“But if anyone else takes the blame, they’ll almost certainly die.”

Beishan Heihu looked at his son. “Of course, this will mean that some of the old-timers in the Mystic Army will come to dislike you.”

“Just dislike? A retired Wanxiang Adept… there can’t be more than one or two Loose Immortals who were truly close to him. The number of people who will actually hate me for this will be extremely small,” Beishan Baiwei said, shaking his head. “I can’t even come into contact with the Mystic Army right now anyway. And from what I can tell, Brother Ji Ning is the type of person who would go through fire and water for his friends. I’ll take this on.”

“Alright.”

Beishan Heihu nodded. “I’ll also fabricate a good reason for why Yu Tong, Shui Yi, and Dong Qi offended you.”

“I leave everything to you, Father,” Beishan Baiwei said respectfully.

“Remember this!” Beishan Heihu said, looking at his son in a low voice. “You did well by giving your all for a friend. But you must also remember this: you have to let Ji Ning know what you did for him.”

“Let him know?” Beishan Baiwei was taken aback.

“Yes. Let him know what you sacrificed for him,” Beishan Heihu said calmly. “If you pay a huge price and he doesn’t even know about it, wasn’t it all for nothing? If he discovers the truth by ‘accident,’ then he will naturally feel grateful to you.”

Beishan Baiwei frowned. “That’s too deliberate.”

“Deliberate?” Beishan Heihu glanced at his son. “Just make it so that he ‘accidentally’ discovers the truth. After all, you really did take the blame for him. Remember, when dealing with friends and brothers, you must be completely sincere. But you also need to use a little strategy. This is how you manage people!”

“Think it over yourself.”

Beishan Heihu frowned as he looked at his son. The boy was clever, and he had placed great hopes in him. But his son was also heavily influenced by his mother and was sometimes too sincere in his dealings with others. While this allowed him to make good friends, a personality like this would make it very difficult for him to truly lead a faction.

“Let’s go.” Beishan Heihu and the triangular-eyed elder left directly.

The atmosphere in the courtyard, which had been frozen, instantly relaxed. The beautiful serving girl who had been singing nearby suddenly came to her senses. “What happened? What just happened?”

She hadn’t heard anything, seen anything, and had even lost a portion of her memories.

She only vaguely remembered that the Prefectural Lord, Beishan Heihu, had appeared. When she came to again, she saw the Prefectural Lord Beishan Heihu leaving.

“Strategy? The art of managing people?” Beishan Baiwei frowned. “Father, you scheme against everyone… That’s why Mother left you. You are you. I am me.”

His father wanted to groom him, to turn him into another Beishan Heihu.

But he was Beishan Baiwei.

The unique Beishan Baiwei.

“I wonder how Ji Ning is doing now,” Beishan Baiwei thought, worried.

The group led by Ji Ning had traveled for over half a month and finally arrived at the Yáng River Bay area of the Anchan Commandery.

The Yáng River Bay region was roughly the same size as the Yan Mountains.

“That Shui Yi’s tribe is really pathetic.” A boat drifted along the Yáng River, a river that was two hundred zhang wide. The Yáng River was a massive waterway over a million li long, cutting through nearly half of the Anchan Commandery.

Mu Northson, who was on the boat, complained, “They don’t even have one Grand Xia city!”

“They are very weak,” Ji Ning agreed.

Even the Ji clan had a Grand Xia city, the Ten Thousand Swords City. To be a truly established local power, a clan had to possess at least one Grand Xia city.

But the Shui clan, the tribe of Shui Yi, was genuinely weak.

Before Shui Yi’s rise, their tribe was just an ordinary tribal settlement. Later, because Shui Yi became a servant of the massive ‘Dong’ tribe, he was nurtured within the Dong clan. He gradually improved his cultivation until he became a Zifu Disciple, even following Young Master Dong Qi for a long time. Naturally, he gave back to his own Shui clan.

With Shui Yi’s help, the Shui clan slowly grew stronger. They built a city of their own, but it wasn’t a Grand Xia city. It was a self-built city, similar to the Ji clan’s Western Prefecture City.

The Shui clan was also a vassal of another regional power.

Still, because the Shui clan had Shui Yi serving in the Dong clan, no one bothered them. The Shui clan grew and even had a mid-stage Zifu Disciple safeguarding their city.

“Senior apprentice-brother, how are you planning to lure Shui Yi out and make him leave the Dong clan?” Mu Northson asked Ji Ning with a smile.

“Too easy,” Ji Ning said, shaking his head. “His Shui clan is far too weak. They only have a single Zifu Disciple guarding the entire tribe. I have plenty of ways to throw the Shui clan into chaos, forcing Shui Yi to come rushing back.”

There were indeed many methods.

The Shui clan was just too weak. If they encountered a major problem, they would definitely send word to Shui Yi, begging him to come to their aid.

“Master, we should just go on a killing spree! That’ll cause chaos!” Qingqing called out.

Ji Ning shook his head. “No need.”

Just as he had not implicated Jiang He’s son when he killed the Riverside Tribe’s Jiang He back then.

Ji Ning would not implicate the other members of the Shui clan.

As for whether the Shui clan would decline after Shui Yi’s death, Ji Ning would only watch it all happen with indifference.

As a cultivator with a powerful Dao-heart, Ji Ning was supremely confident in himself. He would not do anything that went against his Dao-heart… If he had killed Jiang He’s child back then, it would have affected the faith of his Dao-heart and had a tremendous negative impact on his path of cultivation.

“Not killing anyone? Then how will you cause chaos?” Qingqing muttered.

“It’ll be quick. You two wait here. I’ll go take care of it and be back in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.” A sword-light appeared beneath Ji Ning’s feet, and he shot into the sky, flying straight toward the Shui clan’s home city, Yishui City, which was several thousand li away.