Chapter 106 - 95: Gongyang of Jiangnan Raises the Banner for 800 Li to Save His Wife
Chapter 106: Chapter 95: Gongyang of Jiangnan Raises the Banner for 800 Li to Save His Wife
"..."
After a long moment, the man in the green robe finally managed to tear his gaze away from the city hidden in the forest behind him. He met the old man’s eyes, paused for a moment, and then suddenly chuckled. "No, thank you."
"You’re mistaken. I’m not actually a martial arts fanatic."
"I just want to kill the people who deserve to be killed."
"To me, being a Cultivator means I can kill wherever I please, without having to lie in wait like an idiot."
"However..."
"My goal on this trip is to storm the territory of a powerful faction. It’s a suicide mission. My only objective is to kill as many people as I can before I die."
"My original plan was to make an excuse to slip away before we left and go alone."
"So, don’t worry."
"I was never going to bring her with me, and I certainly wouldn’t let her die."
"Not many people have been kind to me."
"If she died,"
"I might not have a single person left to burn incense for me. That would just make me seem pathetic."
The old man fell silent for a long time before asking again, "Are you sure you won’t stay?"
"I’m sure."
"The Training Room holds no appeal for you?"
"It does."
The man in the green robe tilted his head, gazing at the dark clouds hanging over Jiangbei. "But the hatred of the past coils around my head like a Heart Demon," he said softly. "Whenever I think of it in the dead of night, the memories are impossible to suppress."
"They must die."
"I pursue Cultivation to kill people. A Cultivation without killing is meaningless to me."
"Fine!"
After another long silence, the old man’s expression grew grim as he spoke in a hoarse voice.
"I will allow her to go with you."
"But not in two and a half months. You will go in half a month."
"You will take her and leave for Jiangbei during that window of time when the rainy season in Jiangbei ends, but before the rainy season in Jiangnan begins."
"In half a month."
"My daughter will set off with you. Accompanying you will also be... the Supreme Elder of the Sheep Race, Gongyang Yiyue."
"The Sheep Race’s merchant caravan will accompany you the entire way, flying the Clan Banner."
"She will not enter the faction’s territory with you."
"She will wait outside."
"If you make it out of their territory alive, the Sheep Race will help you clean up the aftermath."
"If you die in there, the Sheep Race will go in to retrieve your body, but we will not avenge you."
"I can’t possibly let my daughter sneak into Jiangbei with you, unknown to anyone. It would be too easy for you to die."
"..."
The man in the green robe slowly let the ever-present smile fade from his face. For the first time, he looked at the old man before him with true seriousness. He had expected this conversation to be full of insults—something he was long used to—but the result surprised him.
After a long while, he spoke softly.
"Impressive courage."
"But why leave in half a month? The family I plan to kill won’t be holding their celebration for another two and a half months. That was the time I had set to make my move."
"You’re most likely going to die this time. Is it too much to ask for you to spend two months with her in Jiangbei before then?"
"..."
The man met the old man’s clouded eyes, shook his head, and agreed, "No, it’s not."
’The Supreme Elder of the Sheep Race, Gongyang Yiyue.’
He had heard the name before.
A Night Watcher.
They had been deployed once, and that single deployment had dealt a devastating blow to a rival faction. Not many factions possessed a Night Watcher, but those that did held a trump card, a powerful deterrent.
They didn’t have to do a thing.
Their mere presence was enough to make anyone think twice.
And the Sheep Race’s caravan accompanying them, flying the Clan Banner, was a form of deterrence in itself.
For any renowned family,
raising the Clan Banner sent a clear message to the outside world.
’We are merely passing through your territory. We bear no ill will and are on an important mission. Any faction that dares to obstruct us will face the full, unbridled retaliation of the Sheep Race.’
The Clan Banner was not something to be raised frequently.
Doing so would diminish its deterrent power.
The last time the Sheep Race raised its Clan Banner for a traveling caravan was seventeen years ago.
That was when...
The Patriarch of the Sheep Race had a daughter in his old age, but a few months after childbirth, the Lady of the House suffered a Cultivation deviation. She desperately needed a Life Reviving Pill to be saved. The clan poured out all its resources, dispatching a caravan that raised the Clan Banner and traveled through the night, risking death to cover eight hundred li and seek a Life Reviving Pill from the Pill Sect.
They charged straight through the core territories of several factions along the way.
They did not take any detours.
Not a single faction dared to stand in their way.
Even factions stronger than the Sheep Race did not interfere.
That year, it was winter.
The Sheep Race’s Clan Banner, racing across the snow-covered land, gave rise to the legendary tale of the Jiangnan Sheep Race Patriarch who raised the banner and traveled eight hundred li to save his wife.
The "Gongyang" in that tale was the old man standing before him.
Gongyang Gao.
And now, seventeen years later,
the Clan Banner of the Sheep Race was about to fly over Jiangnan once more.
This time,
it was solely to protect his daughter and ensure her safe return home.
The man in the green robe remained silent for a long time before speaking no more. With a light tap of his toes on the treetop perch, he vanished into the dense forest in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace.
...
Not long after the man in the green robe had left,
a commotion arose below the old man in sackcloth. A girl in a white dress was clinging to the trunk beneath the canopy, climbing upward in a rather ungraceful manner with her legs wrapped around the tree.
Seeing this,
the old man in sackcloth couldn’t help but chuckle in resignation. With a wave of his sleeve, he sent out a stream of Spiritual Qi, lifting his climbing daughter and placing her on the treetop perch in front of him. He then used his Spiritual Qi to steady her feet.
"Father, what did you say to him?"
The girl in the white dress, having just found her footing, paid no mind to her appearance as she asked, slightly out of breath.
"What’s the rush?"
"I was going to tell you when we got back."
The old man in sackcloth said, a bit exasperated, "I’ve agreed to let you go to Jiangbei with him. The clan’s Supreme Elder, Gongyang Yiyue, will be with you the entire time, and the caravan will fly the Clan Banner to ensure your safety."
"That’s wonderful!"
The girl in the white dress pumped a small fist in the air excitedly. "This way, the Jiangbei Old Demon won’t die!"
"..."
The old man glanced at his daughter, not bothering to correct her. He had said he would ensure *her* safety, not *their* safety. He simply took an ancient-looking box from his robes, stroking it for a moment before silently handing it to her.
"This is the Life Reviving Pill the Sheep Race sought from the Pill Sect seventeen years ago."
"As long as a single breath remains,"
"no matter the ailment—"
"cultivation deviation, poison, soul invasion by a Ghost Object, or anything else."
"What the altar cannot save, this can. One pill is all it takes to bring someone back from the brink of death."
"Back then, this elixir never made it to your mother in time."
"I hope..."
"...that it will keep you safe on this journey."
"—Father."
The girl in the white dress accepted the Pill Box, her eyes reddening and glistening with tears. She looked up at the familiar old man before her and threw herself into his arms, whispering, "You’re the best. I thought you were going to force me to stay."
"..."
The old man said nothing, merely patting his daughter’s back as he stared into the distance toward Jiangbei, his expression dazed.
’If circumstances allowed, he would even want to go himself.’
’But it was not to be.’
’When the Clan Banner is deployed, the Patriarch must remain to oversee the clan. Otherwise, who would have the authority to command the clan to retaliate at any cost? By staying here, he was offering his daughter the greatest protection he possibly could for her journey.’
’Before his late wife died, her greatest regret was the one thing he had persuaded her to give up in her youth...’
’It made him feel as if...’
’...the girl he loved had died long ago, right after he refused to let her pursue her dream. For decades afterward, she had lived in a daze, only to wake up on her deathbed and regret it all over again.’
’Rather than live with a lifetime of regret,’
’it was better to just go for it.’
’Even death would be better than regret.’
’And his role was to remain and guard the clan.’
...
The old man fondly ruffled his daughter’s hair, then sent her to the ground with another wave of Spiritual Qi. "Go and play for a while. I’d like to stay here alone for a bit. It’s been a long time since I last stood here."
Not long after he sent his daughter away,
a sturdy man, dressed in black with his face covered, leaped from treetop to treetop, rapidly approaching. In the blink of an eye, he was beside the old man, handing over a Bamboo Scroll with a grave expression. He spoke in a low, serious voice.
"My lord."
"We’ve completed the full investigation on the Jiangbei Old Demon. It’s all here."
Then he added, with some hesitation,
"His life story... can hardly be described as ’glorious.’ Are you certain you want to entrust the young miss to someone like him?"