chsdbacks Chapter 121 Cangwu Mountain, the Land of Inheritance
Chapter 121 Cangwu Mountain, the Land of Inheritance
When Lin Yan returned to the mansion, Madam Chen was sitting in the courtyard mending clothes. She looked up when she heard Lin Yan's footsteps, and Lin Xiu also ran over.
He reached out and rubbed Lin Xiu's head, then took out three silver notes from his pocket and handed them to Chen.
"Mother, here are three hundred taels of silver notes. Please use them for the time being."
Chen didn't take it, but just stared at him blankly. "Yan'er, where are you going this time?"
Lin Yan stuffed the silver notes into his mother's hand. "I've been assigned some errands by my superiors. I need to go to Jiangzhou. It will probably take about three months."
"Jiangzhou?" Chen shuddered, a thin cut appearing on her hand from the slipping embroidery needle. "Why go so far?"
"It's not far. With my cultivation level, I can get there in seven or eight days if I travel at full speed." Lin Yan squatted down to look his mother in the eye. "This time, the higher-ups sent me there to investigate a few cases. There's nothing dangerous. Please keep this three hundred taels. Don't be stingy with the money while I'm gone. Have the soldiers at the gate get the medicine. Buy whatever Xiu'er wants to eat."
Lin Xiu, who was listening nearby, suddenly asked, "Brother, are you going to get into another fight?"
Lin Yan was stunned for a moment. "You silly girl, why are you fighting? Your brother is a high-ranking official now, why would I need to fight? If anyone messes with your brother, he can just talk and a bunch of people will come and beat him up."
"You're lying. Every time you were about to fight, you would squint your eyes and look fierce."
Have it?
Was his murderous aura this obvious before?
Lin Yan subconsciously opened his eyelids and widened his eyes.
Madam Chen sighed, tucking the silver notes into her sleeve. "Yan'er, I know I can't stop you. Go do whatever you want. When are you going to take this job?"
Three days later.
"Then stay home and eat well for the next three days, and don't go out anymore." Chen stood up, turned around and went into the kitchen.
Lin Yan watched her mother's retreating figure, knowing that she understood everything but simply remained silent.
After comforting Lin Xiu, he changed into clean clothes and went out.
He wanted to investigate the specific situation of Cangwu Mountain.
Upon arriving at the Defense Department, Lin Yan went straight into the duty room and said to He Jin behind the desk, "Chief He, does the Defense Department have any files related to Cangwu Mountain in Jiangzhou?"
He Jin sensed the profound and powerful true energy emanating from Lin Yan and knew that he must have broken through to the next level, so he dared not be negligent in the slightest.
"General Lin... I have never heard of Cangwu Mountain in Jiangzhou. After all, I am in charge of matters in the capital, and Jiangzhou is thousands of miles away. I'm afraid there are no relevant records in the Defense Department."
"Take me to the library, I'll look through it myself," Lin Yan said, unwilling to give up.
He Jin had no choice but to put aside his official duties and lead Lin Yan to the door of a side room at the back.
"This is the Defense Department's archives, General Lin, please."
The two entered the room, and Lin Yan, without saying a word, began scanning the titles of each case file from the very front of the bookshelf.
As He Jin said, the files here are indeed all related to the capital, with at most some records of cities within a radius of several dozen miles, but Jiangzhou is not mentioned at all.
Lin Yan lowered his head and stroked his chin, pondering whether there might be any records related to Cangwu Mountain there.
He went through in his mind everyone he had ever met and had any meaningful conversations with since arriving in the capital.
Finally, a location was identified.
Perhaps someone in that place knows the relevant information.
Wenyuan Pavilion.
Lin Yan bid farewell to He Jin and then went to the southeast corner of the capital, gently pushed open the door of Wenyuan Pavilion and went inside.
Just as I walked to the plaque that read "Literature carries the Way," an old voice slowly rang out from above.
"Young man, it's only been a little over a month. What brings you here today?"
Upon hearing the voice of the Pavilion Master of Wenyuan Pavilion, Lin Yan bowed slightly and replied, "Reporting to the Pavilion Master, I have come to inquire about a place from you."
"Oh? Where?"
"Cangwu Mountain in Jiangzhou".
A slight silence.
"Come on up."
Lin Yan went up to the fifth floor, where the Pavilion Master of Wenyuan Pavilion was still sitting in the small room, writing something with a brush.
As soon as Lin Yan entered, before he could even speak, a withered hand pressed down on his wrist.
"Hmm...hmm...hmm?"
The expression of the Pavilion Master of Wenyuan Pavilion slowly changed from doubt to surprise.
"Boy, in just one month, you've already cultivated the 'Dragon Elephant Body Forging Technique' to the mid-stage of the Skin Refining Realm. How did you do that?"
The old man stared at Lin Yan with eyes as sharp as an eagle's and asked.
Lin Yan was startled by his sudden action.
"S-Senior, I just... made up for my lack of talent with hard work, and practiced a little more each day, that's all."
The old man glanced at Lin Yan suspiciously a few times, then clicked his tongue in amazement.
"No wonder you insisted on choosing this cultivation method despite my advice. It turns out you have such talent. This bet doesn't seem too difficult for you. Tell me, what brings you here to inquire about Cangwu Mountain?"
Lin Yan clasped his hands in a fist salute. "I've been given a mission by my superiors. I need to go to Cangwu Mountain in Jiangzhou to retrieve something."
"Oh? You didn't go there for the heritage site of Cangwu Mountain?"
The old man walked to the window, opened it, and continued, "The Cangwu Mountain area was already a forbidden area before the fall of the Liang Dynasty. It is said that Emperor Wu of Liang's mausoleum was built there, and it took a full thirty-seven years to build. It is said that nearly half of the Liang Dynasty's national treasures were buried there as funerary objects."
"Later, the founding emperor of the Great Yan conquered Liang capital. The last emperor of Liang, Emperor Ai, fled into the forbidden area of Cangwu Mountain with the remaining national treasures, sealed the entrance, and committed suicide inside. Over the past few hundred years, many people have gone in to search for treasures, but very few have come out alive. Even those who did come out alive went mad, shouting about monsters and inheritances."
"Inheritance?" Lin Yan looked up.
"Emperor Ai of Liang was, after all, an emperor and a powerful spiritual cultivator at the fifth-grade Creation Realm. After being defeated by the founding emperor of the Great Yan, he committed suicide on Mount Cangwu, leaving behind all his life's learning deep within the forbidden area."
The old man walked to Lin Yan's side, casually waved his hand, and a parchment scroll appeared in his hand. Opening the parchment scroll, he found a map inside.
He pointed to a location marked with an X on the map, "Emperor Wu of Liang's mausoleum is here. However, according to the cultivators who came out, each underground palace is guarded by a demon beast. Those demon beasts were raised in there as guardian beasts during the Liang Kingdom period. Now, after hundreds of years, who knows what kind of monsters they have grown into."
Lin Yan stared at the map, memorizing the route.
The old man looked at Lin Yan and said, "You said you went to Cangwu Mountain not for this so-called place of inheritance, but to find something? Who sent you there?"
Lin Yan hesitated for a moment before revealing the Crown Prince's identity: "It's His Highness the Crown Prince."
"What are you looking for?"
"I don't know either. We'll find out what we're looking for when we set off in three days."
The old man didn't ask any more questions, but simply waved his hand to indicate that Lin Yan could leave.
Lin Yan bowed, packed his luggage, and turned to go downstairs.
But then he heard the old man call out from behind, "Kid, come back alive. I'm still waiting for you to come and pay up your bet."
Lin Yan paused, but didn't turn around.
Over the next two days, Lin Yan arranged the official business of the Defense Department and then went to Ji Ren Tang to buy twenty doses of herbal medicine for treating external injuries and pills to replenish qi and nourish blood, which cost more than one hundred taels of silver.
The night before she left, Ms. Chen prepared a huge feast.
Braised pork belly, steamed fish, and Lin Xiu's favorite spare ribs.
Three people sat around the table, their shadows swaying on the wall in the candlelight.
"Eat more." Madam Chen put a piece of meat on Lin Yan's plate. "It's not like home outside. Who knows if we'll be able to eat our fill."
Lin Yan ate two bowls of rice and finished all the dishes.
Lin Xiu was unusually quiet, but kept secretly putting food into his bowl.
After dinner, Lin Yan helped wash the dishes and then divided the medicine for Chen's cough into portions and placed them in the cabinet.
Lin Xiu didn't go to play in the yard as usual, but just followed him around.
"elder brother."
"Um?"
"You must come back soon."
Lin Yan squatted down and looked at Lin Xiu. "I promise you."
Lin Xiu extended her little finger, "Pinky promise."
Lin Yan smiled and hooked his little finger around hers, "Pinky promise."
On the third day, before dawn, Lin Yan got up.
Madam Chen also got up early. She was already sitting in the main room before Lin Yan came out, with a cloth bundle on the table.
"Yan'er, here are three sets of clothes for changing, as well as some dry food and medicine for the journey."
Lin Yan took the bundle, slung the Zhenyue Blade over his shoulder, and looked back at his mother as he walked to the door.
"Let's go," Chen waved her hand. "Come back soon."
Lin Yan gritted his teeth, turned around and went out.
……
The meeting place was an old ferry crossing ten miles outside the city.
When Lin Yan arrived, it was just dawn, and there were already more than a dozen people standing on the open ground at the ferry crossing. They were the third-rank martial artists he had seen in the pavilion that day.
Chen Yi also stood by the dock, with three carriages parked beside him. The carriages were covered with tarpaulins, and their outlines suggested they were carrying some kind of equipment.
Once all seventeen people had arrived, Chen Yi took out a scroll from his pocket and unrolled it. Everyone craned their necks to look, and saw a palm-sized object drawn on the scroll.
It is spindle-shaped, pointed at the front and rounded at the back, and looks very simple and ancient.
"This is what you're going to retrieve from Cangwu Mountain." Chen Yi held up the scroll for everyone to see. "Just bring this out; you don't need to worry about anything else."
Someone asked, "Lord Chen, what... is this thing?"
Chen Yi put away the scroll. "Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask."
"You can form your own teams. Regardless of success or failure, you must return to Kyoto to report within three months. If you don't come out by the deadline, you know the consequences. Now hand over your Dragon Martial Tokens."
Lin Yan subconsciously touched the Dragon Martial Token in his pocket.
He still wasn't sure whether this thing had been sealed or not.
He examined the token and his own body repeatedly and carefully, but found nothing unusual.
Seeing how confident Chen Yi was, the others also believed him and handed over their Dragon Martial Tokens to him.
"Alright, now you can form your own teams and head to Jiangzhou." Chen Yi said before turning and leaving.
As soon as he finished speaking, the seventeen people present immediately stirred and gathered in small groups to talk.
Lin Yan stood at the edge of the crowd, observing their movements.
These people are all henchmen of the Crown Prince, and their lives are controlled by the Dragon Martial Decree.
Teaming up with such people not only restricts your freedom of movement, but also risks having your secrets discovered, and you have to guard against being stabbed in the back at crucial moments.
He decided to go alone and then adapt to the situation once he entered Cangwu Mountain.
He had just turned around and taken a few steps when someone patted him on the shoulder.
"Brother, all alone?"
Lin Yan turned her head and saw a thin face.
He was not old, only in his early twenties, dressed in a light blue outfit. He looked like a scholar with fair skin, but his hands were covered in calluses.
It was the person in the attic who wanted to strike up a conversation with him.
Behind the young man stood another man, dressed in an animal skin vest, with dark skin, who looked every bit the rough, uncouth mountain man.
Lin Yan also remembered this person; he was the first man to drip blood onto the token.
How did these two end up together?
"My name is Wu Meng, and this is my brother Yang Tie." The man in the animal skin grinned at Lin Yan, revealing a set of white teeth. "Brother, when I saw you a few days ago, I knew you were no ordinary person. You looked so refined in your official robes, but I've been in the forest for a long time and I can smell blood. This brother of yours smells very strongly of blood; you've probably killed quite a few people. This mission is dangerous, so why don't we travel together and look out for each other?"
Lin Yan glanced at the two of them.
If you directly refuse at this point, it will seem very abrupt.
So he nodded and said, "Okay."
Wu Meng's smile widened even more. "That's great! May I ask your name, brother?"
"Forest."
"Brother Lin!" Wu Meng patted him on the shoulder familiarly again. "Let's look after each other along the way."
In this way, the seventeen people were divided into five or six teams, with some having four or five people and others having two or three.
"Let's go."
Lin Yan followed Wu Meng and Yang Tie south along the official road.
After walking only thirty miles, Wu Meng couldn't hold back any longer and began to talk non-stop.
They talked about everything from which restaurant in the capital had the best braised beef to how ruthless the cheaters were in the casinos of Qingzhou, and how fair-skinned the women of Jiangzhou were.
He also mentioned that when he had no food, he rebelled and robbed wealthy merchants every day, living a very comfortable life.
"Since Brother Wu was once a hero of the mountains, why did you then pledge allegiance to His Highness the Crown Prince?"
"Speaking of which, when the rebellion started, I was only a second-rank official, and most of my brothers were just ordinary people. How could they withstand the government troops' suppression? After three or four purges, my brothers were either dead or crippled. That's when the Crown Prince's men approached me, saying they saw my potential and were willing to give me a chance. So I joined the Crown Prince. Hey, brother, what about you? I think you must be a fairly high-ranking official. How did you end up following the Crown Prince?"
"I'm about the same..."
Lin Yan listened and responded only half-heartedly.
Yang Tie walked silently ahead, occasionally glancing back at Wu Meng with disdain in his eyes.
Lin Yan keenly noticed this.
These two don't look like old acquaintances.
Lin Yan and his group traveled at full speed, and five days had passed when they had traveled more than 600 li from the capital.
The official road gradually narrowed, and the woods on both sides became denser.
Wu Meng stopped talking, beads of sweat constantly forming on his forehead, and he would occasionally glance back at the way he had come.
"Brother Lin... do you have a feeling that someone is following us?"