Chapter Forty-Nine: The Truth About the World
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Just as Yun Zheng found himself plunged into a crisis of assassination, Ye Xi, dressed as a man, and Shui Rouqin arrived with a merchant caravan in the forested region along the border between the Great Ming Province of Guizhou and the Bozhou Pacification Office.
Her mission was not merely to retrace the legendary path once taken by King Ye and secure a decisive surprise force for Yun Zheng.
Deep in her heart lay an even more important purpose: to uncover the secrets of this world.
By “this world,” she did not mean the illusionary realm created by Yang Yinglong, but the real world in which Yun Zheng, Ye Xi, and the others lived.
Yun Zheng had once told Ye Xi that another world existed.
There were no martial arts, immortal techniques, or magic in that world, yet the course of history was almost exactly the same as in Ye Xi’s world—not only were the events identical, but even the names of the people matched.
It was something that should have been impossible.
It was as though, somewhere beyond mortal sight, an invisible hand controlled everything, forcing it to follow a predetermined course.
“Could there truly be such a thing as Heaven’s Mandate?”
To put it in Yun Zheng’s words: two entirely different worldviews, with so many variables, had nevertheless driven historical events toward the same result, with processes that differed hardly at all. The only possible explanation was that some power beyond human understanding had written the ending of every person’s fate in advance.
Ye Xi had read the diary written in her grandfather King Ye’s own hand when she was very young.
On the opening page, King Ye had described himself as “the Chosen of Heaven,” firmly believing that he bore the mission of correcting the distorted currents of history.
Yet within that diary, which carried the deepest voice of his heart, there was no shortage of helplessness and frustration.
He often wrote that he held many visions he yearned to fulfill, but was bound by an invisible force that made it difficult for him to act, as though he were tightly restrained by an unseen chain.
“Perhaps, when Grandfather was still weak, such a magnificent life was a blessing. But after he gained the power to alter so many predetermined paths, the layers of shackles placed upon the Chosen of Heaven became his misfortune.”
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Ye Xi’s destination was Medicine King Valley, a crucial turning point in her grandfather Ye Xiaotian’s legendary life.
Medicine King Valley, as its name suggested, was inextricably linked to Sun Simiao, the Medicine King of the Tang dynasty.
During the turbulent years when the Tang dynasty gradually declined, Bozhou fell into the hands of Nanzhao several times, becoming one of the principal centers of incessant warfare.
Deeply troubled by this, Emperor Xizong of Tang decided to recruit warriors to campaign against Bozhou and recover the lost territory.
Yang Duan of Taiyuan and his maternal uncle, General Xie, answered the imperial summons. Leading a force of elite soldiers and able commanders, they embarked on a southern expedition. With extraordinary courage and outstanding military talent, they succeeded in quelling the Nanzhao rebellion.
After the war, Yang Duan proclaimed himself lord of Bozhou. Thus began the Bozhou Yang clan.
Later, Huang Chao raised an army against the Tang, and the warlords’ partitioning of the realm grew ever more severe. The entire Central Plains sank into chaos and upheaval on a scale never before seen.
Amid this great historical transformation, the Bozhou Yang clan quickly seized the opportunity. They opened their gates wide and welcomed vast numbers of displaced refugees from across the land to settle there.
Among that tide of refugees was a branch of Sun Simiao’s lineage from the Central Plains.
After centuries had passed, the orthodox line of Sun Simiao’s succession in the Central Plains had long since vanished into the dust of history. Yet these collateral branches, hidden in the mountains and forests, had miraculously endured to the present day, passing the flame from one generation to the next.
The mysterious Medicine King Valley was the heart of this tradition.
By now, the caravan had reached the first destination of its journey—a town built on the edge of dense woodland. They would trade the salt and grain scarce among the mountain people for medicinal herbs and furs.
Ye Xi noticed that the representatives sent by the mountain people were not only skilled negotiators but also remarkably generous buyers, nearly taking all the goods the caravan had brought.
Just as her grandfather had recorded in his diary, these towns built along the forests maintained close ties with the tribes hidden among the lofty mountains. In effect, they controlled a little-known network for selling goods. Thus, despite their seemingly simple and unsophisticated appearance, the mountain people were far from inexperienced in dealing with the outside world.
In the real world, Ye Xi had already used the Medicine King Seal inherited from King Ye to take control of Medicine King Valley. As a result, she had acquired a reliable corps of military physicians and, in passing, fulfilled one of Yun Zheng’s most important ideas: cultivating new crops in Guizhou. Without these experienced botanical experts to oversee the work, Yun Zheng could never have domesticated and cultivated foreign crops such as chili peppers and cacti in so short a time.
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The Yun family army had not worried about a lack of money for a very long time, and Ye Xi deserved the greatest share of the credit for that.
But this did not mean Ye Xi could easily locate Medicine King Valley in this era. By the Tianqi and Chongzhen eras, every member of Medicine King Valley had already followed King Ye and moved to the region around Zunyi Prefecture. Thus, the place known by that name on the map was somewhere Ye Xi had never actually visited.
Ye Xi knew only the general location of Medicine King Valley. For that reason, she needed to travel there herself and determine its precise whereabouts.
Now that she stood within the landscape, Ye Xi had also begun to understand why her grandfather had once embarked on that unknown adventure.
“Compared with Yun Zheng’s homeland, the Great Ming where I was born may have given rise to a Yang Yinglong who was far too powerful to have existed. And so, the Chosen of Heaven, Ye Xiaotian, came into being.”
“The reason Yang Yinglong in the illusion is so difficult to deal with is not that Yang Yinglong has grown stronger. It is simply that Ye Xiaotian does not exist in that world.”
At that moment, Shui Rouqin approached Ye Xi with a plain-looking mountain dweller.
“Young master, this mountain dweller has agreed to serve as our guide and lead us to the mysterious Medicine King Valley.”
“Then we shall set out at once.”
As expected, most problems in this world could be solved with money. As long as one paid enough, these mountain people, who spent their lives building bridges between the outside world and the remote highlands, made the finest guides.
Ye Xi knew that even greater challenges awaited her ahead. In those days, Yang Yinglong had extended his reach toward nearly every power he could possibly influence in order to build up his strength. Medicine King Valley was naturally no exception.
In truth, Yang Yinglong had already come to control, directly or indirectly, almost every channel through which tea and medicinal herbs flowed in the vicinity of Bozhou. This was one of the chief reasons the Bozhou Yang clan had grown rich enough to dominate the southwest.
Yet tribes such as Medicine King Valley, hidden deep in the mountains and existing as independent little worlds, were difficult to control completely. Even Yang Yinglong’s arrogance and authority could not give him total command over them.
King Ye, for his part, had cleverly made use of these medicinal farmers beyond Yang Yinglong’s jurisdiction, forming an unexpected surprise force that successfully thwarted many of Yang Yinglong’s schemes.
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