Chapter 398: Man and Monster

And yet the residents there were craning their necks in anticipation. When they heard that the Baoshu King’s seed was finally going to be planted along the northern border, they simply could not stop cheering.

Seems like the northern border isn’t all that peaceful.

Second Boss Shi lowered his voice and said, “Lingxu City’s control over the Twilight Plains isn’t that strict, overall. Different states’ forces come and go.”

At that moment, Prime Minister Tang came out again and said a few more ceremonial pleasantries. Any birthday celebration was incomplete without entertainment, so the open ground in front of Baiyun Residence was quickly cleared out. Soon, a full troupe went up to perform acrobatics, illusion spells, and other shows.

The Soul-Stealing Mirror suddenly said, “Fushan!”

He Lingchuan immediately stepped back and hid behind a pillar before asking, “Where?”

“I mean Fushan’s... people!” The mirror sounded embarrassed. “Down there in the crowd, on the right side of the tanghulu vendor, the one in the black hat!”

He Lingchuan looked down. Sure enough, beside the tanghulu seller stood a sturdy man in his thirties wearing a black hat.

At first glance, he looked no different from any other commoner. He Lingchuan might not have picked him out on his own. But with the Soul-Stealing Mirror calling it out, he quickly remembered that this really was one of Fushan’s men. He had seen him in the noodle shop.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

When it came to recognizing faces, the Soul-Stealing Mirror really was frighteningly good.

The man was staring fixedly at the stage.

He Lingchuan looked at him, then at the ancient treant on stage.

Interesting. Is Fushan here for the spirit seed?

The Soul-Stealing Mirror sensed the shift in his mood and asked in surprise, “Huh? What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing,” He Lingchuan said, eyes still locked on the burly man. “I’m just wondering if I might get to watch a mantis stalking a cicada.”

Before long, the Baoshu King’s seed was placed inside a brocade box and secured by Prime Minister Tang.

The performances on Mount Baiyun would continue for three days and three nights. The common folk would love that, of course, but the officials and envoys would be leaving first.

He did not know how Second Boss Shi managed to sniff out the news, but he soon returned and whispered excitedly to He Lingchuan, “Good news, good news! The escort unit assigned to accompany the envoys to the northern border is gearing up. They’ll depart in one hour. They’re escorting the spirit seed too! If we travel with them, it’ll be perfect!”

He Lingchuan smiled.

Trade routes in Beijia were usually quite safe, but imperial nectar had fallen only days ago, and it was still risky for caravans traveling between regions. This escort unit was an elite force dispatched by Fufeng City. With them clearing the way, the caravan’s journey would be safer by far.

It was like how when refugees migrated, they would always prefer to do so behind a noble retinue. When the strong carved the path ahead, the weak gained a measure of security.

Mount Baiyun lay just north of Fufeng City. Once the spirit seed escort unit finished preparing, it set out directly from here.

Several sharp-eyed caravans immediately fell in behind.

The Stone Gate Merchant Caravan was among them.

Before leaving the immense volcanic crater, He Lingchuan looked back one last time, struck again by the juluo tree’s towering majesty.

A single tree ruling an entire kingdom, he could never have imagined it before.

Monster states truly are a wondrous place.

At this point, the black cat came over to bid him farewell.

It had gotten its fill of excitement for the day, and this employer had been generous; both the silver and the dried fish had been paid in full. But now it had to go back and take care of its kittens.

“Bring the kids along and come with us,” Second Boss Shi offered. “Caravans always run into rats anyway. Food and drink on us.”

The black cat was touched, but it rejected him. “No. It’s easy to find work in Fufeng City. My children have to grow up in a big city. Who’d want to roam around suffering with you?”

“You heartless woman,” He Lingchuan said, laughing despite himself. He extended a hand. “It’s been a pleasure. Thanks.”

The cat raised a paw like a little bamboo shoot and slapped his hand in farewell, then hopped off the ram’s back and left without a trace of hesitation.

He Lingchuan watched it go out to seek another human. This time, it approached a little girl of seven or eight. It even rubbed against the child’s hand and acted cute, probably hoping to hitch a ride back to Fufeng City.

Just then, another familiar face rode up from behind. It was Xu Dongdong.

He was one of the guards of Grand Tutor Sha’s residence who had followed He Lingchuan out of the mirror realm. Over the past few days, he had been carrying out other assignments.

Xu Dongdong said, “Young Master Sha heard you’re about to leave, so he sent me to escort you part of the way. Big Brother Wu is stuck at the Grand Tutor’s side and can’t get away. He asked me to bid you farewell in his place.”

He Lingchuan thanked him, then asked, “Has Fushan been caught?”

“Not yet. He’s strong, and he runs faster than a rabbit. The moment there’s even a hint of danger, he slips away.” Xu Dongdong then whispered, “But we did catch two of his companions. Under interrogation, we learned their leader’s real name is Fushan Yue.”

“Those guys are mercenaries. They’ll do anything, whether it be assassination, robbery, or fighting wars for nobles.” Xu Dongdong’s tone turned grim. “This time, they were hired to ambush the State of Shanyu’s envoy, Bai Zhu.”

“The white python?” He Lingchuan frowned. Somehow, it still felt like misdirection.

“Yeah.” Xu Dongdong scratched his head. “When they were collecting imperial nectar on Three-Heart Plain, they mistakenly killed the deputy envoy of the State of E’ling, thinking he was Bai Zhu. They failed their mission, so they changed plans, planning to strike after Bai Zhu left Fufeng City. As for who hired them, only Fushan Yue knows. The underlings just follow his orders.”

“Where’s Fushan Yue from?”

“Uh, I don’t know.” Xu Dongdong sighed. “That’s all I managed to hear. Before anything else came out, I got sent to find you.”

So He Lingchuan had basically interrupted the rest of the gossip. He cleared his throat.

“Does the envoy know it’s been targeted to be killed?”

“We’ve already warned it,” Xu Dongdong said. “And we’ve assigned extra protection for it all the way to the border. Hopefully, it makes it through safely.” They could not allow the Baoshu King’s celebration to be stained.

He Lingchuan hummed. “It’s just an envoy bringing gifts. Why attack it at all? They’re even risking offending the Baoshu King.”

“How would I know?” Xu Dongdong shrugged. “Sometimes these monsters go reckless and don’t use logic. The State of Shanyu is in civil war. I’ve heard the royal army has been losing ground, so this might be an assassination ordered by their enemies.”

“And that spirit seed, once it’s planted, it grows into a border-guarding sentinel or something like that?”

“More or less,” Xu Dongdong said with a chuckle. “I don’t know the details either, but our king’s avatars are far stronger than ordinary guardian spirits. Wherever one of them stands, there’s no need to appoint a local guardian spirit. The problem is that the spirit seeds are hard to produce. I’ve heard it takes thirty or forty years to nurture just one.”

“So across the entire Kingdom of Baoshu, the juluo avatars guarding it number—at most—only a bit over twenty?” It was simple arithmetic.

“Uh...” Xu Dongdong’s expression went stiff. He realized that he had said too much. How could something like that be revealed to outsiders?

He Lingchuan read his face and understood this line of questioning was not welcome, so he changed the subject, “Is this spirit seed escort unit a temporary formation? I see all humans, and the mounts are just ordinary horses. At most, there are a dozen wolf monsters along with them. It feels...”

Well, it doesn’t feel very grand.

Second Boss Shi cut in, “Yeah, I thought that Fufeng City would send a whole army of monsters with resplendent banners and thundering drumsand all to escort the seed north!”

Xu Dongdong laughed. “Isn’t that a bit much?”

“Shouldn’t it be?”

“If the royal banner goes up, what blind bandit would dare rob them?” Xu Dongdong said. “Besides, do you know how much an army of monsters and beasts eats? Could the post stations and towns along the road even feed them? Horses are still the best. They have a steady temper, great stamina, and they eat grass.”

He Lingchuan chuckled. “So it’s a logistics problem.”

Monsters that were of the kind of tigers and wolves were all bottomless pits. Traveling meant meat, and each one could eat tens of kilograms a day. No logistics chain could support that. As for herbivorous monsters, even they ate several times what ordinary horses did.

In the end, riding horses was simply the most practical.

And He Lingchuan understood that there was another reason. Fufeng City was still quite far from the northern border. If the distance were short, sending an imposing monster and beast honor guard would not be such a burden.

There was also the Baoshu King’s confidence. Who would dare rob the king’s own troops on his land?

He Lingchuan also made another discovery. Even in Beijia, the number of monsters was lower than he had imagined.

Take Fufeng City. After days of observation, the ratio of monsters to humans was not even one to ten. Even in this monster-packed capital of the Kingdom of Baoshu, humans still outnumbered monsters by a wide margin.

The towns they passed through were even more extreme, with humans outnumbering monsters by at least thirty to one. In the most extreme town he had visited, there were over six hundred permanent residents, yet there were only three monsters, at least according to what he had heard.

Here, one needed to distinguish between monsters and beasts. They were not the same thing.

In Zhao Pan’s Yuan army, there had been a bull herd led by a bull monster. He Lingchuan had nearly experienced its might firsthand. But strictly speaking, out of a herd of three hundred bulls, only seven were bull monsters—larger, stronger, and easy to spot. The rest were ordinary bulls, though naturally a bit tougher than normal.

Likewise, most of the Rock Wolf Clan were just ordinary rock wolves. Only true wolf monsters like He Lingchuan’s Lu Xin, or the big black wolf under He Yue’s command, could really be called wolf monsters.

Zhu Erniang’s descendants numbered easily in the tens of thousands, yet the elite spider guards that had actually become monsters totaled fewer than 180. When He Lingchuan had been bored out of his head in Demon Nest Swamp, he had even counted them himself.

And with that many guards, Zhu Erniang could seize the best territory in the swamp while other greater monsters could only swallow their anger.

When He Lingchuan discussed this with Xu Dongdong, the man burst into laughter. “How could monsters ever compare to humans in sheer numbers?”

“I thought Beijia was a realm of monsters,” He Lingchuan said. “Back in Yuan, every opera and storybook made it sound like the northern monster state was crawling with monsters, with monster armies everywhere, humans enslaved and miserable.”

And then I came here and saw it with my own eyes. Ha.

“The monster kings are exalted, and Beijia doesn’t lack powerful monsters,” Xu Dongdong said. “But without humans, how could an empire this huge possibly run?”

Second Boss Shi chimed in with a laugh. “Besides humans, who can manage things? Who can produce anything?”

He Lingchuan had to admit it made sense. A monster like Zhu Erniang, who was skilled in farming, forestry, animal husbandry, side trades, and fishing, was an oddity among monsterkind.

Most monsters followed their nature, free and unruly. They were not as meticulous as humans, and it was hard to make them work in coordinated groups day after day.

If production and management were not led by humans, then the fields would be highly unlikely to yield grain, mines would not be dug, and trade would not be carried out. Without that, where would wealth come from?

At that point, the heart-protecting mirror cut in again, “The weakening of heaven and earth spirit qi is the main reason monster numbers don’t grow. In the early Middle Era, monsters and beasts were everywhere. You could shoot an arrow into the wilderness, and the thing you hit might be a rabbit monster. However, humans are different... even if spirit qi grows thin, a human is still a human; they won’t turn into monkeys or apes.”

And it was precisely because monsterkind had weakened that they needed to huddle together. In Ancient and Middle Eras, monster immortals had run rampant, each staking out their own domains as overlords. Who would have needed a monster state like Beijia?

In the end, it was all just the product of the times.

That night, the convoy lodged at a small town beside the official road.

The escort unit numbered around three hundred. The caravans following behind totaled over a thousand. With carts, horses, and cargo, a single town could not possibly hold them all.

Fortunately, there was a second town about two and a half kilometers away, and the Stone Gate Merchant Caravan went there to settle in.

Other merchants came over to chat, and He Lingchuan heard a piece of news: “Actually, the town where the escort is staying doesn’t just have the escort unit. Three foreign delegations are lodging there too, seems like the State of Xuluo, the State of Chiyan, and the State of Baixiang. The escort invited them to stay together.”