Chapter 4: The Way of the Nine Provinces

  "Xiao Yu, you've got quite a nerve, provoking the monks of Honglian Jingtu Sect."

  Bai Qi's wet nurse reached out, and Xiao Yu reluctantly took off her own bundle and handed it over to her mother.

  "After hearing some rumors, you dared to go to the Red Lotus Temple and even stole my silver hairpin. What do you think I should punish you for?" The beautiful woman spoke calmly but with an air of authority, while Xiaoyu hung her head in shame and said: "Please, Mother, punish me."

  The beautiful woman looked at Xiaoyu for a while and sighed, saying: "You go back first. If there's a second time, you don't have to follow me into the capital."

  The little rain secretly stuck out its tongue and hastily left.

  Bai Qi returned to his room, unsure of what to do. He had also lost the short sword that his father had given him. The events he had just experienced seemed like a dream.

  Feeling annoyed, Bai Qi threw down his sword scabbard and paced around the room, only to hear the sound of his wet nurse's laughter right behind him.

  "What's wrong, young master?" The wet nurse was also half a teacher to Bai Qi, but no one knew about this matter. Bai Qi felt embarrassed and rubbed his hands together.

  "That short sword is just a mortal's weapon, this one is for you." The wet nurse said, taking out a package from somewhere, which was exactly the one Xiaoyu had stolen from Honglian Temple.

  The package was opened, and inside were three things quietly placed: a broken long spear, a black iron ball, and an exquisite waistband. The waistband was made of unknown animal skin, with a buckle on the front carved from dark green bone in the shape of a dragon head. The belt had dragon patterns, like natural scales that seemed to come alive.

  "This belt you must wear from now on, it cannot be taken off." The wet nurse said as she casually took the broken sword and inserted it into the bone clasp of the belt. Bai Qi widened his eyes, wanting to see how the wet nurse had done it, but the belt looked normal.

  The wet nurse's expression turned serious as she said to Bai Qi, "Bai Qi, what happened today is not to be spoken of. This sword pill... swallow it first."

  "Swallow?" Bai Qi looked at the black iron ball, thinking he had misheard.

  "Hmm, Eternal Night Sword Maru is indeed incomplete without its counterpart, Angry Sun Sword Maru. However, if you embark on the path of cultivation, it will be sufficient for your use within three to five hundred years."

  "Mother, are there really immortals in this world?" Bai Qi held the iron ball, and these words were not asked to his wet nurse, but to himself.

  Since he was young, he indeed liked reading legendary stories and miscellaneous books. However, he thought those were just fantasies that couldn't exist in this world. After reading many books, one naturally doesn't believe in ghosts and gods, as Confucius said, and Bai Qi deeply agreed with this.

  The wet nurse simply stared at Bai Qi, her eyes having turned a deep green color. It was as if countless runes were flowing within them.

  Bai Qi looked and felt a chill in his heart, but he also knew that this was an answer. The wet nurse and Xiaoyu were both monsters. However, if the wet nurse wanted to harm him, she would have done so long ago. Bai Qi thought of this and resolutely swallowed the iron ball into his abdomen.

  The iron ball slid down Bai Qi's throat, and to his astonishment, it didn't enter the stomach but somehow fell into a hollow place in the abdomen, disappearing without a trace.

  The wet nurse saw Bai Qi swallow the sword pill and only then said, "You lost your short sword, don't mention it to Master Guo. Your father has been having some troubles lately. As for entering the capital, I'll follow you, just act as if nothing's wrong."

  Bai nodded, the nanny's endurance, he roughly knew that even if his father had trouble, it seemed that the nanny would not stand idly by. He casually asked: "What about Xiaoyu?"

  "Hmph, that girl almost scared you out of your wits. I'll lock her up and let her reflect on her actions."

  Bai Qi didn't dare ask for mercy either. This pair of mother and daughter monsters hid in their own home, probably also to avoid disaster. Bai Qi immediately thought of this point.

  It is said that the imperial court holds the fate of the world, and gods and ghosts cannot get close. The wet nurse has a relationship with me, and it's normal to rely on my father's protection. However, my father's enemies are those great ministers in the court, so I suppose the wet nurse's magic will be needed to deal with them?

  Bai Qi thought for a moment and couldn't help but say: "Mother, can you teach me magic?"

  The wet nurse smiled, turned around and sat down on a chair, pointing to the ground. Bai Qi was stunned for a moment, but still knelt down, facing the wet nurse. By reason, he shouldn't have knelt, as men only kneel to their lord or father, not to a wet nurse. However, Bai Qi understood that this was the wet nurse agreeing to teach him her skills.

  In that case, a wet nurse is also a teacher, and it's only natural for students to kneel down before their teachers.

  "Get up, you know, I am a member of the demon tribe." The wet nurse's voice was calm as she looked at Bai Qi on the ground.

  "I know."

  "Do you want to learn magic for Gu Gongye?"

  "Hmm." Bai Qi didn't want to lie, the wet nurse said that his father was in danger and wouldn't shoot without a target, he himself was only a martial artist after all, and couldn't really help his father.

  The wet nurse nodded and said: "Good, but what I'm going to teach you is not any magic, it's the Tao."

  "Way?"

  "The Tao is actually the truth, the principle. When you have a thorough understanding of this world, you can call upon all its powers, which is what we call magic. The Tao is the foundation, the law is the branch."

  Bai Qi understood as soon as he heard it, and although he was young, he was also well-read and exceptionally wise.

  "Since I'm your master, you should know my real name. I'm a member of the demon clan, with the surname Yuwen, but to avoid calamity, I changed it to Yu. My current name is Yu Linzhong, and my daughter Qingcheng also shares my surname. She's younger than you, so from now on, consider her your junior sister."

  "Yes."

  "There are some things you need to know before I start teaching. Don't think that just because I'm being nice to you, I have a good impression of the demon tribe. The demon tribe is no different from humans, and even if you do a lot for them in the future, there will still be powerful demons who want to deal with you. You must remember this."

  Bai Qi didn't understand why the wet nurse said that, he just nodded and indicated that he remembered.

  Bai Qi's wet nurse, Yu Lin Dang, reached out and pressed down on Bai Qi's head, and he felt a surge of icy air flood in, his whole body shuddering as all the pores on his skin burst open, spewing out countless impurities.

  Bai Qi naturally didn't know that this trick of the I Ching was so exhausting for the wet nurse, he only felt his body suddenly light and floating, the broken military energy that had been cultivated with difficulty was instantly dissolved, dispersed to the four limbs and hundred meridians, disappearing without a trace.

  Suddenly, in the lower abdomen, it felt as if countless icy **were pouring in, expanding a huge space. If not for still being able to see things, Bai Qi would have thought his belly was swelling up and about to burst. This feeling wasn't comfortable at all, but rather extremely violent.

  Bai Qi finally understood what it meant by "heartbroken".

  It was only the stubbornness of his nature that made him grit his teeth and not utter a single sound of pain. Yu Lin Ting watched with satisfaction, then withdrew her hand and said: "I'll let Xiao Yu come to serve you, the password for entering the door will be taught by her."

  Bai Qi was unable to respond, his body underwent a heaven-shaking and earth-shattering change. The broken military aura was refined, but it transformed from acquired to innate, increasing its power by more than tenfold. That innate primordial energy also did not undergo any cultivation or refinement, purely thick and heavy.

  It was like this for about an hour, and the room had already become unbearable. Bai Qi's clothes were all wet through, but the pain in his muscles had eased a bit. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Xiao Yu was already inside the room.

  "Xiao Bai Ge, smells like death." Xiao Yu changed into a red skirt and was testing the water at the edge of the wooden bucket for Bai Qi.

  Bai Qi's muscles ached and his bones felt like they were cracking, but what he couldn't bear was the smell emanating from his own body. He wanted to stand up, but his body swayed and almost fell to the ground.

  Xiao Yu covered her nose and smiled: "Little White Brother, I'll help you up."

  "No need, no need!" Bai Qi was also hard to bear with his own smell. Although he wore simple clothes and often used old things in his daily life, they were all exceptionally clean.

  Xiao Yu covered her mouth and smiled: "Little White Brother, don't be shy. In the past when you took a bath, it was also me who served you."

  Bai's heart skipped a beat as he thought of something, but couldn't grasp the root of it. The current situation was awkward, and he didn't have time to think deeply, so he let Xiaoyu support him, undo his clothes, and soak himself in the large wooden tub.

  "What is this fragrance?" Bai Qi felt that as soon as he entered the water, all the strange smells disappeared, and his whole body felt much lighter. The heavy feeling brought by muscle soreness disappeared, and his mouth and nose were filled with fragrance, and his mind also cleared up a lot.

  "Little White Brother, what fragrance is there? It's just some clean water." In Xiaoyu's hand, a handful of flower petals were added to the wooden bucket, and the fragrance began to thicken. Bai Qi felt dizzy, only then did he feel his body was too weak, so he leaned his back against the wooden bucket, relaxing his body.

  Xiaoyu took a silk handkerchief and wiped his body. Bai Qi felt that Xiaoyu's hands also had a cold breath entering his body, but it was not as icy as the wet nurse's, and it felt very comfortable.

  Unconsciously, Bai Qi fell asleep. In his dream, he was horrified to find himself transformed into a monster, surrounded by the army of the Great Jin State and trapped on top of a solitary peak.

  The black-armored Imperial Guard rushed up the mountain peak, Bai Qi wanted to draw his sword, but there was nothing under his ribs.

  "Little rain!" Bai Qi shouted loudly, waking up from his dream to find himself already lying on the bed, his body had been wiped clean long ago, and a set of clothes was placed beside him.

  Xiao Yu was not there, but the wet nurse responded from outside. Bai Qi's daily food and drink were originally taken care of by many maidservants. Now they had all been driven away by the wet nurse, Bai Qi turned over and sat up, putting on the clothes that had been prepared for him.

  Yu Lin Ting walked near Bai Qi's bedroom and signaled him to sit on the bed and not come down.

  "You're still weak, just talk like this, I think you must have something to ask me."

  Bai Qi didn't persist, he knelt down and sat back on his heels, thinking for a moment before saying: "I don't have anything good to ask either, I might not believe others, but Mother...".

  "Son, sooner or later, you will think that even your mother is not trustworthy."

  Bai Qi smiled, this time showing a very firm attitude. He was raised on the milk of a wet nurse after his mother's early death, and his feelings for the wet nurse were not much different from those for his own mother.

  "To understand the world of Qi Refiners, you must first understand the geography of this world. Let's start with something simple, do you know about the Nine Provinces?"

  "Ji Province, Jizhou, Qingzhou, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Jingzhou, Liangzhou, Yongzhou, Yuzhou." Bai Qi was well-read and very familiar with the geography of the Jin Dynasty.

  "That's just what ordinary people say." Bai Qi's wet nurse, the great demon Yu Lin Ting, said proudly: "The real Jiuzhou can only be traveled by cultivators, Qi'er, you'd better listen carefully."