Outside New Zheng City lay a small mountain village with a name as commonplace as could be. How commonplace? The village was nestled in a valley shaped like a horse trough, so it was simply called Horse Trough Village.
The villagers here hailed from all over, having fled into the mountains to escape the chaos of war. As more people arrived, it naturally formed a village. This showed that not everyone craved military glory—at least the common folk yearned for peace, even if it meant hunkering down in the mountains, reclaiming barren wilderness rather than facing the horrors of battle.
This place also served as a temporary haven for Tian Ze and his Baiyue group. With the entire kingdom of Korea hunting them, only here—without a Korean-appointed village head or officials overseeing things—could they find refuge closest to New Zheng.
What no one could have imagined was that the Corpse Driver had become a feng shui master in this village, helping people locate lost bodies and arrange proper burials. As for Yan Ling Ji and Tian Ze, they rarely showed their faces in the village, so no one knew they were the wanted criminals with bounties on their heads from Korea.
People needed money to survive, after all, so the Corpse Driver had become their sole source of income. Originally, there had been the Hundred Poisons King as well, but who would have guessed that in this place, the Hundred Poisons King had posed as a barefoot doctor? Now that he was dead, their earnings had dwindled.
Tian Ze had no choice but to take up work as a schoolteacher. It was hard to picture him—usually clad in snake-head chains—donning a scholar's robe. In a mud-brick hut, he taught a dozen or so children how to read and write. Meanwhile, Yan Ling Ji had learned to raise silkworms and spin silk.
They had been here for a long time—ever since Baiyue's fall. The Hundred Poisons King and Corpse Driver had settled in over a decade ago. Who could have imagined that these remorseless killers would be respected as a feng shui master and a barefoot doctor?
Today, Horse Trough Village received two visitors—or rather, Tian Ze did. Two people he had never expected or even known.
"Who would have thought that Tian Ze, the one who turned New Zheng upside down, would be holed up in a little courtyard like this?" Li Haimo remarked, gazing at the modest yard before him.
Calling it a courtyard was generous—it was just a thatched mud-brick house with a bamboo fence enclosing a small space. The windows were patched with straw, simple and dilapidated.
Tian Ze, fresh from dismissing his students and still in his scholar's robe, frowned at the man and woman standing before his yard. He didn't recognize them, but he knew they were here for him. Anyone who could find this place was either friend or foe—and these two were neither.
"Who are you?" Tian Ze asked gravely.
Though he could kill without batting an eye and stop at nothing to achieve his goals, he didn't want this village exposed because of him, drawing in Korean troops.
Xiao Meng, dressed in green robes, studied Tian Ze. It was hard to believe this man, exuding the refined air of a gentle scholar, was the deposed Baiyue crown prince who had thrown New Zheng into turmoil.
"I'm Wu Chen Zi, and this is my wife, Xiao Meng," Li Haimo introduced himself, glancing at her.
"Wu Chen Zi? Xiao Meng? You're from the Daoist school?" Tian Ze furrowed his brow.
If he were more versed in the jianghu of the Seven Kingdoms, he would know Wu Chen Zi as the Human Sect leader of the Daoists and Xiao Meng as the Heavenly Sect leader. But Tian Ze and his group had been isolated in Korea, focused solely on its affairs, so he was unaware of their identities. Still, "Wu Chen Zi" sounded distinctly Daoist.
"You don't know us?" Li Haimo asked in surprise. For someone so bent on revenge and restoration like Tian Ze to be ignorant of the Hundred Schools' key figures explained why the Blood-Clad Marquis had him so thoroughly under control.
Tian Ze eyed them. Were they famous? But the Daoists—well, he knew little about them, only that they pursued immortality and ignored worldly matters. He couldn't fathom why these two had come. If not for the heaven-man clash outside New Zheng, where a Daoist expert had slain Hēi Bái Xuán Jiǎn with a single finger, he wouldn't even know the Daoists had such formidable figures.
"You're here for me?" Tian Ze gestured for them to sit on the crude stools made from wooden stumps around a simple wooden table in front of the house.
"Yes. How much do you know about the Daoist school?" Li Haimo nodded before asking. He felt it necessary to educate Tian Ze on the Daoists among the Hundred Schools.
"They withdraw from worldly affairs, ignore mortal concerns, and single-mindedly seek the Dao, emulating the natural ways of heaven and earth," Tian Ze recited what he knew.
"That's the Heavenly Sect of the Daoists. There's also the Human Sect, which engages with the world, experiencing the myriad facets of human life to achieve transcendence," Li Haimo explained.
"Then why have you come to find me?" Tian Ze asked, puzzled. If the Daoists were like that, seeking him out made no sense—they inhabited different worlds, with no possible overlap.
"Do you seek revenge or restoration?" Li Haimo countered. Tian Ze's actions were all about retaliating against King An of Han, yet his hunt for Duke Zhuang of Zheng's treasure suggested ambitions of rebuilding Baiyue—and making it strong enough to withstand the Seven Kingdoms.
"Is there a difference?" Tian Ze asked. To him, it was both—he wanted revenge and restoration.
"Revenge is merely retaliating against King An of Han for the massacre in Baiyue. Restoration involves far more—like facing the vast might of Korea, the even stronger Chu, and a Qin that none of the Seven Kingdoms dare ignore," Li Haimo said, tapping the table.
"I have Duke Zhuang of Zheng's treasure—that should suffice against Korea and Chu," Tian Ze replied after a brief silence.
Li Haimo looked at him and smiled. "In Duke Zhuang's time, Zheng was powerful with at most a thousand war chariots. Today's Korea has 100,000 armored soldiers. Chu can muster no fewer than 300,000 troops at any time. As for Qin, if they get serious, a million soldiers aren't out of reach. Do you really think Duke Zhuang's treasure can restore Baiyue and prevent its destruction by the Seven Kingdoms?"
"The Seven Kingdoms are strong, but Baiyue is no weakling. Once unified, we could field hundreds of thousands of soldiers," Tian Ze argued. Baiyue was vast and sparsely populated, earning its name from the multitude of tribes within.
"You're not weak, but you lack a leader who can command all of Baiyue, and generals who are invincible in battle and unassailable in defense. You know better than we do how Baiyue fell," Li Haimo pointed out.
If Tian Ze truly allied with the Farmers, he'd likely end up as a puppet—sold out and still counting the money for them. And even with Farmer help, who could stand against Wang Jian? Almost no one in the Seven Kingdoms—only Li Mu and Xiang Yan, perhaps.
"What is your purpose here?" Tian Ze asked gravely, eyeing them. Were the Daoists meddling in the Seven Kingdoms' affairs now?
"Your choices are your own, but we advise against imposing your personal will on all Baiyue people. I'm no lobbyist for Qin; I simply don't want the war to extend unnecessarily," Li Haimo replied.
"As descendants of the War God, Baiyue will not submit to the Seven Kingdoms' tyranny," Tian Ze declared.
Baiyue's lack of recognition stemmed from the Seven Kingdoms all being descendants of the Huaxia Yellow Emperor, while Baiyue traced back to the War God Chi You. They never acknowledged Central Plains Huaxia and refused exchange, leaving Baiyue undeveloped.
"The War God Chi You? He was indeed a venerable ancestor worthy of respect, but that was a tribal conflict, not a racial one. We all live on the same land, with the same skin color and the same eyes," Li Haimo said. Fifty-six ethnic groups are one family. He almost mentioned the same hair color too, but with Xiao Meng and Xue Nu both having white hair, he held back.
"You're familiar with Baiyue's lands—they rival the Seven Kingdoms'. Yet why do its people still live by hunting? Because you lack knowledge and learning. Qin can provide that—even help build irrigation systems and open up farmlands. At that point, which kingdom one belongs to won't matter," Li Haimo continued. What the common people truly sought was simple: food and shelter.
"We don't expect you'll listen, but if someone comes offering to help restore your rule, we hope you'll think carefully about what Baiyue's people truly need and want. One generation lost to war and destruction is enough—spanning millennia would claim far too many lives," Li Haimo concluded.
Tian Ze fell silent. He might be stubborn, but he understood these truths—he just couldn't let go. Even ordering the Hundred Poisons King to kill the Baiyue refugees outside New Zheng stemmed from pity for them: refugees! Reduced to that after their kingdom's fall! He didn't want Baiyue people living like that, so he had them killed.
"Our purpose today is just this—whether you heed it is up to you. Anyone can tell you about the Daoist school's ways," Li Haimo said, then departed with Xiao Meng.
Tian Ze watched the two figures vanish. As expected, heaven-man unity experts. Wu Chen Zi, Xiao Meng—Han Fei and the others might know them. But suddenly, he didn't want to tell Han Fei about meeting these two. He also wondered who else had set their sights on him, only to be spotted by the Daoists, prompting this preemptive visit and warning.
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