Volcanic Age

Chapter 235: To The Alliance Leader's Astonishment (2)

He was one of the Phantoms of the Hebei Branch, which was the first of the Valley of Phantoms' branches that Zhou Xuchuan had visited thus far. However, Jia Wuliang was the leader of the Failed Phantoms. The Failed Phantoms were those who couldn't overcome the Mind-Killing process and escaped due to exhaustion.

Luo Xiaoyue could never forget the memories she had of those times. She wanted to ask what was going on, but she stayed quiet because Meng Ge and Tan Xiang were with them.

The two had no idea of his true identity, after all.

"..."

Jia Wuliang glanced at the Plum Blossom Swordsmen before glaring at Zhou Xuchuan with displeasure.

Meng Ge could feel Jia Wuliang's unfriendly gaze, so he turned to Zhou Xuchuan and asked, "Is he really our ally?"

"It is a bit complicated, but yes, he's our ally. If it's okay with you, do you mind giving us some time?" Zhou Xuchuan asked.

"Zhou Xuchuan." Tan Xiang frowned.

"If it becomes dangerous, I'll call you right away," Zhou Xuchuan added, "There's some information I need to hear from him. While I personally would be okay with you hearing this information with me, the circumstances don't allow for that, as it contains confidential information regarding the Martial Alliance."

Meng Ge and Tan Xiang groaned.

From their perspective as escorts, they couldn't just leave such a suspicious person alone. However, Zhou Xuchuan had already explained, so there was nothing that could be done.

More importantly, Zheng Huilian and Wei Zhijie had told them to listen to Zhou Xuchuan, meaning that they couldn't say anything in response.

"You get fifteen minutes. If you don't return in fifteen minutes, we're going to look for you. And don't go too far away."

"Understood."

Zhou Xuchuan left his group behind and moved over to Jia Wuliang.

"This is the first time we're communicating with each other face to face rather than just through letters."

"...Hmph." Jia Wuliang snorted, seemingly displeased.

There were forty-five Failed Phantoms.

They first met about two years ago when Zhou Xuchuan was just nineteen.

At the time, Zhou Xuchuan managed to subdue the Failed Phantoms, who kicked up a commotion in the Hebei Branch using the Divine Phantom Art, but he couldn't get them to obey him.

Not wanting to cause unnecessary trouble by going too far for no reason, Zhou Xuchuan decided to give them their freedom in exchange for a collaborative relationship.

In exchange for their freedom, the forty-five Failed Phantoms had promised to keep their secrets and not join any of the murim's forces. In addition, if the Valley of Phantoms were to contact them and ask for their help, they would help in return for a fair reward.

They still hated the Valley of Phantoms for taking their entire lives from them, but they followed without complaint, as they only obtained the freedom that they had always dreamed of obtaining under those agreeable conditions.

Zhou Xuchuan would occasionally tell them to collect some information, and when it came to intelligence gathering, the quality of their work was far superior to that of ordinary Phantoms.

A Phantom's sense of individuality would die after the Mind-killing process, so they couldn't really think for themselves and could only collect specified information.

On the other hand, the Failed Phantoms still had the ability to think for themselves, so they could obtain quality information through proper judgement and speculation.

Zhou Xuchuan had been holing up in Mount Hua over the past few months and was, for all intents and purposes, isolated from the world. Fortunately, the Failed Phantoms' work was so high in quality that they quickly brought him back to speed.

"We've discovered some information about the Yumen Pass."

Zhou Xuchuan's eyes narrowed. "Tell me everything."

The Yumen Pass was one of the borders between the Central Plains and the Frontier. The Blood Cult somehow managed to use the pass in an instant.

It was impossible to send five thousand martial artists through without any complicated procedures unless the imperial army was on their side.

The Martial Alliance also found this strange and had mobilized the Beggar Gang to investigate, but there hadn't been any significant results. Since Yumen Pass was under the jurisdiction of the imperial government, it was difficult to investigate.

"The Regional Military Commissioner is involved."

There were sixteen Regional Military Commissions within the Ming Dynasty.

The Regional Military Commissions were administrative seats of the imperial government; they supervised the provinces and carried out the orders of the Ministry of War under the command of the Five Military Commissions.

A second-rank official, the Regional Military Commissioner, was tasked with controlling the military administration of the province and commanding the guard post under the Regional Military Commission.

"Is that so?"

"You don't seem really surprised."

A second-rank official was a high-ranking official. The Gansu Province was near the border, making it a remote area, but a second-rank official tasked with overseeing it had to be incredibly strong.

Since someone like that was possibly involved, it was strange that Zhou Xuchuan wasn't surprised by the revelation.

"Well, I expected something along those lines."

The Yumen Pass was a passage connecting the Central Plains to the Western Highlands. It was a gate that guarded the border. To open that gate, one needed the help of a powerful individual.

So, Destructive Soldier had a hand in this, Zhou Xuchuan mused.

The main organization of the Dark Heavens Association, the Seven Stars Division, was in charge of the soldiers within the association. Most of the soldiers in the Seven Stars Division were under Destructive Soldier's Star banner.

There was a good chance that its leader, Destructive Soldier, had some influence over the Military Commissions or perhaps even the palace itself.

The Righteous Faction had Avaricious Wolf, and the Evil Faction had Twisted Melody. Vast Gate was in Black Hand, and Destructive Soldier was in the imperial government.

Blessed Existence, Pure Faith, and Warped Valor were ambiguous.

I've finally caught them by the tail.

The Dark Heavens Association was hiding not only in the murim but within the imperial government as well.

There was a reason the Central Plains' murim was almost destroyed, as the Dark Heavens Association not only had martial might but money and political power as well. However, their true identity, like that of Avaricious Wolf, remained a secret and was hidden for some reason.

It'd be troublesome if it were somehow revealed that someone in a high-ranking position within the imperial government was involved in the murim and had done something so audacious.

If it were revealed that someone in the imperial government was even a little bit involved, no one in the imperial government would be safe.

In the end, martial artists represented both strength and manpower.

The reason those of the Ming Dynasty had been avoiding getting involved with the murim was that they were busy fighting the northern barbarians and the Mongols.

However, another part of it was that the officials were worried about the possibility of getting criticized by the imperial palace for getting involved in the murim.

In other words, they were worried about getting suspected of gathering martial artists to start an uprising.

Even the most powerful of officials were strictly prohibited from recruiting a certain number of private soldiers.

It was all because the imperial palace was afraid that they would turn into traitors.

Thus, it became customary for them not to get involved in the murim, and both sides had been avoiding any interference with each other's territory since ancient times.

However, this unwritten rule was broken in the Era of War and Chaos.

With this, we found out that it was related to the Regional Military Commissioner of the Gansu Province.

Avaricious Wolf was still a mystery, but there weren't many records of Destructive Soldier, either.

"So, how is it related to the Regional Military Commission?"

"The opening and closing of the Yumen Pass at the time was logged as part of military training."

The opening and closing of the gates was more important than one might think, especially during wartime. If one were to open the gates to send out soldiers but couldn't close them quickly enough, the enemy would exploit that to invade.

If one couldn't open the gates quickly enough to receive the retreating soldiers, the enemies would have enough time to infiltrate the ranks of the retreating soldiers.

Thus, the possibility of an enemy infiltration among the soldiers would manifest, and the resulting hesitation could make them miss the opportunity to open the gates, which would end in the deaths of the soldiers outside.

"It was done at the hour of the Tiger[1]."

Security was always tight in the middle of the night, but just before daybreak, just as the people were starting to rouse from their sleep, security would tend to become quite relaxed.

In other words, security was the weakest at daybreak. To make matters worse, the world was still quite dim, which meant that it would be easier to make a move.

"At the hour of the Tiger?"

It was instantly suspicious.

If they were training for night battles, they could have conducted their training immediately after sunset. If they were conducting day training, they could have done it a bit later than daybreak.

"The training was conducted unilaterally by the Regional Military Commissioner. The timing is too odd to consider it surprise training in preparation for an ambush."

Suspiciously, the Blood Cult's forces passed through the Yumen Pass on that same day.

"Anything else?"

"It took four entire months of time, effort, and money just to discover this single fact. Do you really think that there's anything else I can offer?"

Most military training was confidential, and this piece of information had to have been more difficult to obtain, as they were from another organization, which meant that access was incredibly difficult.

On the contrary, it was amazing that they had discovered the so-called training that was conducted in the dark and the person in charge of that training.

"Thank you for your hard work. Please collect the money from Gold Will Merchants as usual."

"Any additional missions?"

"If there is anything suspicious about the Regional Military Commissioner's actions, I would like you to find out without pushing too far."

Excessive curiosity could lead to disaster, especially if the target of that curiosity were connected to both the imperial government and the Dark Heavens Association.

A long tail was more likely to get stomped.

"Moreover, I would like you to visit the Xia Wu Sect Master and the Head Merchant. Tell them what you just told me. Considering the content, it'd be a big deal if I were to send a messenger only for the message to be intercepted."

This was related to the Regional Military Commission, after all.

He couldn't act rashly.

Jia Wuliang's presence disappeared.

There's a lot to uncover. The fifteen-minute mark was approaching, so Zhou Xuchuan decided to go back to the others first to avoid making them feel worried about him.

WMeng Ge, Tan Xiang, and Luo Xiaoyue asked what was going on, but Zhou Xuchuan insisted that it was confidential information couriered to him by the Martial Alliance.

He also told Luo Xiaoyue, who already knew about Jia Wuliang, that he'd give her a separate explanation later.

Five days later, the group arrived at the Martial Alliance.

***

The journey from Mount Hua in Shaanxi to Hefei in Anhui wasn't that long, but they had quite a few tails attached to their trail.

Zhou Xuchuan was already a famous individual. At this point, everyone in the murim knew his name. In fact, perhaps every single child out there had heard of his name at least once.

Of course, the common people were no exception.

Zhou Xuchuan noticed quite a few tails from many different forces attached to him. The majority of them were people from the Evil Valley, and there were some assassins who had received a commission to take his head.

While it was likely that those from the Dark Heavens Association were attached to him as well, there was no way they would find them among the countless people tracking him down.

In any case, they didn't want anyone following them, so they looked for places with few people or passed through rough roads.

Sometimes, they would even run at full speed, using their lightness techniques to the fullest so that no one could catch up to them. In the end, they somehow managed to shake them off.

Upon arriving at Hefei, Zhou Xuchuan and the others received even more suspicious stares. However, Zhou Xuchuan couldn't care less. After all, he knew that he would be discovered once he was within the Martial Alliance's territory.

Since he had sent a letter stating his arrival time in advance, a guide came out early, and they managed to walk in without attracting much attention.

"It's been a while," said Zhuge Xiang, the Knowledge Dragon of the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes.

He's still as handsome as ever. Zhou Xuchuan regretted that thought and stared at his face, which was reflected in a pool of water, muttering, "I'm still pretty decent looking, right?"

He felt like sprawling out on the ground and kicking his legs up in the air.

"The Alliance Leader is waiting in his office. They will guide the Plum Blossom Swordsmen to their guest rooms separately."

"Understood."

The Martial Alliance Leader had summoned him separately, so the others couldn't follow him, even though they were his escort. They gave up any thoughts of following Zhou Xuchuan and headed to their rooms under the servants' lead.

Zhou Xuchuan followed Zhuge Xiang to the Alliance Leader's office.

"Come in."

Zhou Xuchuan opened the door and saw Nangong Weiwu struggling with a mountain of documents.

Zhuge Xiang closed the door and didn't leave. Instead, he stood by Nangong Weiwu's side, seemingly trying to support him.

"You must be tired from your journey from Mount Hu. I'm sorry that the whims of an old man have forced you to come to my office without even a moment's rest."

"It's nothing." Knowing the Mount Hua Sect's predicament, Zhou Xuchuan expected this to happen.

"The Sword immortal… it is truly regrettable," Nangong Weiwu said. His expression and voice were sincere, even though he had spoken but had basically divulged zero information.

"Haven't you sent your condolences in a letter?"

"Is a letter really enough to show my sincerity? I would have loved to go there and pay my respects personally, but…" Nangong Weiwu trailed off.

"You must have been busy with the clean-up following the Great War of Good and Blood. We understand," Zhou Xuchuan replied.

"Thank you for that," Nangong Weiwu said. Then, his brows furrowed as if he were still worried about the fact that he was the one who asked the Sword Immortal to go to Lanzhou.

Of course, there could be another reason behind his worry.

"I'll get straight to the point—Hmm?" Nangong Weiwu paused and tilted his head.

Beneath his wrinkled eyelids were his curious eyes…

"Alliance Leader?" Zhuge Xiang called out.

"…?" Nangong Weiwu didn't respond and simply stared at Zhou Xuchuan.

"Something seems to have changed…?" A master could instantly see through a fledgling.

Zhou Xuchuan could try his best to hide his realm, but there was a significant gap between the Coruscant Realm and the Harmony Realm, so his true realm would inevitably be discovered.

However, it was no longer the case. Zhou Xuchuan had manifested his Path and had ascended to the same realm as Nangong Weiwu.

"Huh? I-Impossible!" Nangong Weiwu's eyes reflected stupefaction. Last year, he could clearly see through the boy's realm, but now, Zhou Xuchuan seemed to be shrouded by fog.

Nangong Weiwu soon realized what that meant, and his jaw fell to the ground.

1. 3 to 5 AM. ?