Blade - Unbound

"Young Hero Li, th-this... what kind of creature is this?"

Along with his shock, Yan Bonian’s fury was now roused. How could he fail to realize that his wife had been secretly plotted against?

No sooner had he spoken than the strange worm began struggling frantically. Its body trembled at the same time, producing a sound.

"Chaa!"

The noise was abnormally shrill, like a sudden burst of tinnitus.

Without another word, Li Yan stabbed down hard with the sewing needle, pinning the strange worm's head to the wooden table. The sound stopped abruptly, and the worm ceased moving.

"This isn't a Gu parasite." Li Yan shook his head slightly, his expression grave. "Do you have any peachwood branches in the house? Find some and burn this worm to ash, then have Madam take the ashes."

"Quickly, fetch some peachwood!" Yan Bonian immediately ordered the maid to obtain it.

He had never heard of such a bizarre method, but so many others had failed to discover what was wrong, while Li Yan had managed to uncover the anomaly. Naturally, that made him far more worthy of trust.

In Ezhou customs, five kinds of plants were regarded with particular reverence. The first was sacred reed, which was believed capable of communicating with the divine. The second were peachwood and maple trees, believed capable of warding off evil. The third was bamboo, whose condition was seen as an omen of fortune or disaster, with flowering bamboo considered especially taboo.

As a result, many households hung peachwood charms and fashioned peachwood bows with willow arrows to hang over their entrances. Similar practices appeared in many tales of gods and spirits as well.

The Yan Family possessed considerable wealth, so naturally there was no shortage of peachwood.

Crackle! Pop!

As the peachwood burned, everyone watched in astonishment as the worm rapidly shriveled and yellowed, before turning into a thin layer of black ash, like the residue left behind after spirit paper had burned.

Li Yan carefully gathered the ashes and stirred them into some water. The sturdy woman immediately took it from him and carefully fed it to the unconscious Madam Yan. Soon afterward, her breathing visibly became steady.

Only then did Li Yan breathe a sigh of relief. A serious expression then appeared on his face as he asked, "Before Aunt Yan fell ill, did she ever visit any strange places? Caves in particular."

"This..." Yan Bonian looked somewhat embarrassed and shook his head. "To tell you the truth, my wife is devoted to Daoism. Whenever she had free time, she would visit various Daoist temples to burn incense, always accompanied by her maids and older female servants. When this first happened, this old man was in a foul temper, and those people had also failed to attend to her properly, so I drove them all out."

Li Yan frowned. "That makes things troublesome..."

At that moment, the sturdy woman hesitated, then gritted her teeth and spoke. "Master, I just remembered something. I've heard of this thing before."

Seeing everyone turn toward her, she sighed. "Master knows that this old woman comes from Eastern Mountain Cave Village, not far from the mountain settlements of the native tribes. When I was young, I heard the elders tell a story about a monster in the mountains called the Silkworm Woman.

“It supposedly hides in caves, and anyone it so much as looks at will go mad and die. I always thought it was only a legend, since I'd never heard of anyone actually seeing it. Could Madam have been harmed by this monster?"

"That's not a monster." Li Yan shook his head. "It's an evil art. Most of those who cultivate it are women, and they must hide in caves year-round, unable to expose themselves to sunlight. They lure people into caves, frighten them by pretending to be gods and ghosts, then cast their evil arts.

“This worm hides inside the human body and devours the victim's soul while they sleep, eventually driving them insane. Over time, the worm grows larger and larger. Once the victim dies, it transforms into a human-faced moth, flies out through the mouth, and is then absorbed back into the evil practitioner.

“This art isn't related to Gu parasites. Because the human-faced silkworm absorbs its host's soul, its aura becomes almost identical to the host's, making it extremely difficult to detect..."

In truth, Li Yan had concealed quite a few things. After capturing the fugitive spirit on Mount Taibai, Yu Linzi had told him that there existed a forbidden secret art in the world known as the Immortal Longevity Treasury. It had been discovered by a mysterious organization of the ancient Daoists who had excavated ruins left behind by the ancient War of the Investiture of the Gods.

Every one of these arts was bloody and cruel, and all required the worship of evil gods. Since quite a few of them disrupted the boundary between life and death, their practitioners were also targets for living yin emissaries. Thus, Li Yan had asked the Taixuan Orthodox Sect to help gather information.

The original text of the Immortal Longevity Treasury had long since been scattered throughout the Divine Continent. The records of the Taixuan Orthodox Sect did not contain the cultivation methods either, but they had documented the distinguishing characteristics of these evil arts. Although those records were fragmentary and incomplete, they still described more than thirty different arts.

Moreover, as a living yin emissary, Li Yan had learned even more secrets. These longevity arts were all part of a vicious inheritance. They did not just contain techniques for extending one's life, but all manner of secret techniques as well. More troublesome still, the demonic gods worshipped by those cultivating these arts actually existed, and had been suppressed beneath Mount Luofeng.

The art before him was known as the Divine Silkworm Longevity Art, one of the techniques within the Immortal Longevity Treasury. The demonic god it worshipped was named Taonu.

Perhaps it, too, was connected to the ancient War of the Investiture of the Gods.

Anyone cultivating the Immortal Longevity Treasury who worshipped a demonic god for an extended period could potentially allow some of that demonic's qi to escape. In fact, they had captured one such strand of demonic qi during the incident in Shangjin City.

Dangerous though it was, it had also brought enormous benefits for Li Yan. Capturing demonic qi would earn him a strand of underworld divine killing qi, which could not only repair his Great Luo Dharma Body, but also strengthen his Soul-Hooking Chain.

Li Yan had already formed a vague conjecture. Someone near the sturdy woman's village was definitely cultivating the evil art. However, their cultivation was probably still insufficient, since they had neither disturbed the boundary between life and death nor drawn down any demonic qi.

"The mountain settlements of the native tribes?" Yan Bonian suddenly came to a realization. He cursed furiously, "Those damned fools! So they had already made a move against my family three years ago!"

Seeing Li Yan's puzzled look, he sighed. "This was originally a family matter, but now that you've come all this way, it wouldn't be right to hide it from you. Please come with me."

He instructed the maids to take good care of Madam Yan, then led Li Yan back to the main courtyard of the rear hall and into a study.

The Yan Family's study was undoubtedly the most lavishly furnished room in the residence. The bookshelves and display shelves were all crafted from top-quality golden-thread sandalwood. Their designs were simple and elegant, and their rich patina lent them an even more dignified and antique air. A stick of expensive ink rested on the desk, giving off a faint fragrance.

Through the window, one could see a small garden beyond, with layered artificial hills and the branch of a plum tree reaching into view. It looked almost like a traditional landscape painting and possessed a charm all its own.

Yet Li Yan immediately noticed something strange. There were many bookshelves, but they were almost completely empty. Even the display shelves held nothing at all, as though everything that had once been here had already been moved away.

Only a single booklet remained on the desk.

Yan Bonian picked it up and sighed. "The root of everything lies in this booklet. Young Hero Li will understand once you read it."

Li Yan took it and saw four large characters written across the cover: Ten Strategies for Strengthening the Realm. Opening it, he immediately understood that it was a policy treatise written for the imperial court by someone named Yan Jue.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Yan Jue...

If he remembered correctly, that was Yan Jiuling's grandfather. Li Yan continued reading, growing increasingly astonished.

"The policy of maritime prohibition may have suited its time, but the world changes with the age. The maritime ban should now be lifted, that the realm may profit thereby..."

Good heavens! The very first strategy recommended lifting the maritime prohibition.

"As for the system of native chieftains, it is an institution of long standing. Yet the governance of the realm should, above all, pursue justice and order. Though the system of native officials has its historical origins, many of its flaws have now become apparent..."

The second strategy actually advocated replacing native chieftains with centrally appointed officials!

Of course, these were merely the polite arguments on the surface. Between the lines, the text was saturated with an obsession with unifying the realm and an intensely domineering vision of imperial power.

Several of the strategies that followed sounded rather extreme as well, but the first two alone had already become national policy in the Great Xuan.

For a moment, Li Yan could almost picture an old man with a head full of white hair, blowing his beard and glaring furiously as he sprayed spittle everywhere and gesticulated wildly while arguing his case...

A trace of nostalgia flashed through Yan Bonian's eyes. "In those days, my father had a heart full of ambition to serve the country, but his temperament was too stubborn and forthright, and others disliked him for it. Even after passing the jinshi examination, he was only given an honorary post with no real authority. He spent his days bitter and frustrated, and eventually went to teach at an academy.

"In his spare time, he wrote this Ten Strategies for Strengthening the Realm. At the time, people looked down on it and dismissed it as the ravings of a madman.

"Only after the imperial court had fought several wars and emptied the state treasury did someone present these strategies, borrowing my father's words to seek benefits for their own faction. No one expected His Majesty to actually approve of them. Thus began the opening of the seas and the replacement of native chieftains with centrally appointed officials. Yet by then, my father had already been dead for many years.

"The matter caused considerable controversy among Confucian scholars. Some supported it; some cursed it, while several of my father's students even took up his ideas as their banner.

"Although the Yan Family is also a scholarly household, we truly cannot bear such a reputation, nor would we dare act wantonly because of it. Even so, in the end, we still offended those native clans.

"I imagine that three years ago, the imperial court had yet to resort to force and was merely sending people to persuade them with courteous words. That was why those native clans did not openly make a move, but instead secretly sent someone to cast an evil art on my wife.

"Now, they no longer bother concealing themselves. Jianghu bandits frequently lurk outside the residence, clearly harboring malicious intentions. But I sensed that something was wrong. Fearing Jiuling would be affected, I sent him away ahead of time. Afterward, I sent my children, wives and concubines, as well as the Yan Family's collection of books, all to Hankou..."

"So that's what happened." Li Yan suddenly understood and shook his head. "No wonder there are so many guards in the residence."

Yan Bonian shook his head. "They are all righteous men from Yichang's Divine Fist Association. When they learned of the matter, they were outraged and came to guard the residence."

Li Yan frowned. "A storm is clearly gathering over Yichang City. I imagine those people are getting impatient as well. Uncle Yan, why didn't you leave earlier?"

"This old man cannot leave!" Yan Bonian's expression turned solemn as he grunted, "I have spent my entire life studying and pursuing scholarship, yet accomplished little of worth. If I leave now, it would mean I was afraid of them, and my father's Ten Strategies for Strengthening the Realm would become a laughingstock.

"Even if Yichang City falls, this old man will not leave. Even if I am secretly murdered and die inside this residence, the Yan Family's honor will not fall!"

Li Yan's expression became respectful. "Uncle Yan is truly righteous!"

He did not try to persuade him any further. He knew it would be useless.

"This old man's abilities are limited. This is all I can do." Yan Bonian spoke calmly. "The reason I told Young Hero Li all this is because I hope that if you encounter Jiuling someday, you will explain the entire matter to him. If I die, then I will have died for a worthy cause. There will be no need for him to grieve."

Li Yan did not know what to say. He could only cup his hands solemnly. At the same time, he made a silent decision that if he heard any rumors of trouble, he would act to eliminate some of the threats surrounding the Yan Family.

Just then, the maid from earlier came running over in great haste, exclaiming excitedly, "Master! Madam is awake! Madam is awake!"

"What?!" The moment Yan Bonian heard her, he hurried out.

The group rushed back to the side courtyard and entered the room. Sure enough, Madam Yan had regained consciousness. She was sitting up in the bed while someone fed her water.

Yan Bonian hurried forward and took the elderly woman's hand, asking anxiously, "Are you all right?"

His wife had been properly married into the family from a prestigious household, and had herself been a well-bred young lady in her youth. She had a gentle temperament and managed the household capably. Yan Bonian had always respected her greatly, and now that he knew her three years of madness had actually been caused by enemies of the Yan Family, the guilt in his heart only deepened.

"Husband." Madam Yan was still somewhat weak, but she forced a smile onto her face. "You've suffered these past few years."

Hearing this made Yan Bonian feel even worse. Gritting his teeth, he said, "You were harmed by an evil art cast by villains. Do you remember visiting any caves back then?"

Madam Yan frowned. "I can't remember much of what happened before I lost consciousness. I only remember having a very long dream.

"I dreamed that I was trapped inside a cave the entire time. There was a woman in yellow hiding inside. Her complexion was sallow and her body bloated. Then she transformed into countless moths that flew at me..."

As she spoke, a trace of fear appeared in her eyes.

"Don't think about it anymore!" Yan Bonian hurriedly changed the subject and smiled. "Jiuling has made something of himself. He's already passed the provincial examination and become an imperial examination candidate. He's in the capital taking the palace examination now. Perhaps we'll receive news before long..."

Madam Yan finally smiled. "Oh, Jiuling finally settled down and focused on his studies!"

She spoke a few more words before exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep once again.

Li Yan stepped outside and smiled. "The spell has already been broken. You only need to obtain some medicine for calming the spirit and have Aunt Yan take it for a while. She should recover."

"I truly must thank you this time, young friend." Yan Bonian's face was filled with smiles. Then he said, "By the way, Jiuling also mentioned in his letter that I should pass some things on to you."

With that, he led Li Yan to a study in another courtyard. This study was clearly much smaller; it was probably the one Yan Jiuling used. Unlike the study in the main courtyard, however, it had not been completely emptied. Quite a few things remained.

Yan Bonian said, "We left in a hurry at the time and could only move away the truly precious books, so some things were left behind."

As he spoke, he walked to the display shelf, took down a wooden chest from the third level, and blew the dust from its surface.

Shaking his head, he said, "Jiuling has been fascinated with tales of gods and spirits since childhood and bought quite a few useless toys.

"This old man lost his temper with him over it more times than I can count. Who would have thought these things would actually be useful to you..."

After setting the wooden chest on the desk, Yan Bonian smiled. "Today, a guest has come from afar, and my wife has recovered from her illness. You could say two joyous occasions have arrived together. Make yourself comfortable, young friend. This old man will have the servants prepare a banquet immediately. You must accompany me for a few drinks."

The old man was clearly in an excellent mood, so naturally Li Yan did not refuse. After Yan Bonian left, he slowly opened the wooden chest.

Back then, Li Yan had shown Yan Jiuling the ancient golden token and asked him about it. Unexpectedly, Yan Jiuling had known quite a bit and had even said that he had collected several similar ancient objects.

Those items were also one of Li Yan's objectives in coming to the Yan Family's residence.

The moment he opened the chest, his expression turned grave. Books and handwritten manuscripts had been placed on one side, while various miscellaneous objects were piled on the other. Among them was, astonishingly, another of the same token, this one even more complete than the last.

Excitement surged through Li Yan as he picked up the token. Sure enough, a scorching stream of energy immediately poured into his dantian before flowing into the Soul-Hooking Chain.

Unfortunately, the token had not become a heavenly treasure. It contained even less of that aura than the one Yuan Ba had given him as it only increased the Soul-Hooking Chain's length by only about the length of a palm.

Still, something was better than nothing. A warm smile appeared on Li Yan's face. For the Great Luo Dharma Body to devour fortune, it had to absorb the fortune of a heavenly treasure before that fortune had fully settled.

Yet so far, he had discovered two exceptions.

The first was the dinosaur egg that had turned to jade. Perhaps because of the eras in which they had formed, their fortune settled at an extremely slow rate.

The second exception was those ancient tokens.

Li Yan now knew that the aura contained within them was considered divine killing qi, something he could also obtain after completing missions for the Underworld. There had to be some unknown secret connecting the two.

Li Yan set the token aside and continued searching through the remaining objects. There were tokens, stone carvings, carved wooden tablets, and other items, all connected to the shamanic traditions of Ba and Chu. Unfortunately, everything else was ordinary.

Slightly disappointed, Li Yan turned his attention to the books and manuscripts on the other side. He picked them up and flipped through several pages.

Slowly, his brows knitted tighter and tighter...