Chapter 283: Great Desert (1)
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If the greatest enemy of the martial world was the Demonic Cult, then the greatest enemy of the Empire was probably the Northern Di, based in the Great Desert.
The Northern Di were called one of the Four Barbarians along with the Eastern Yi, Western Rong, and Southern Man, but their scale and stature were different.
Cavalry bands of several thousand crossing the desert were truly the terror of the Central Plains.
What made the Northern Di more frightening than the other barbarians was that the Great Desert bordered the northern frontier. If they wished, the Northern Di could strike Beijing directly. That was why the enemy the Empire watched most closely was the Northern Di.
“Very well. You may pass.”
The border from the northern frontier into the Great Desert was strict. Under ordinary circumstances, only soldiers could cross directly from the northern frontier into the Great Desert for truly special purposes.
Of course, we had a special purpose, so we passed easily. In this Empire, what purpose was more special than the Emperor’s request?
Not long after crossing the border, sand began to crunch hard beneath our feet.
“The Great Desert—I have never been.”
“Me neither.”
“Really?”
“Is that surprising? What reason would someone from the Empire have to go to the Great Desert?”
“Fair enough. But you have traveled so much, Junior Brother. I wondered if you might have been once.”
I gave a bitter smile. No matter how busy a merchant was, there was no mad trader who crossed the Great Desert. In the first place, every trade route into the Great Desert was guarded by soldiers, and even without that, merchants did not approach near the Great Desert.
“When I am on the road, there are times I have to run. When I meet bandits or mountain robbers. If it is obvious we cannot communicate, I have no choice but to flee. Merchants are the weak.”
“That makes sense.”
“But you can never run from the cavalry in the Great Desert. The reason the Empire cannot easily subdue the Northern Di is mobility. Their horsemanship is several times superior to the Empire’s.”
“Hmm.”
“On top of that, it is hard to make camp in the desert. Even if you go a little out of your way, passing through the Empire is the right choice.”
There was no proper place to camp, the day-night temperature swing was extreme, and if a gravel storm blew even once, you had to worry about your life, let alone your goods. As a merchant, there was absolutely no reason to go to the Great Desert.
“But how do we find one person here. This really is hopeless.”
Myeong-gyeong took a paper from his robes. It was a drawing of the Mad Buddha’s appearance.
“How are we supposed to find him with this?”
“And it is from years ago. His face has probably changed. He may have grown his hair out too.”
“Can we just not do it?”
Myeong-gyeong stared at me blankly. I shook my head.
“If I had not accepted there, perhaps—but I said I would do it myself, so I cannot back out. The one who asked was the Emperor, and the one who accepted was me.”
If the one asking were Uncle Jang from the neighborhood and the one accepting were Auntie Lee, it would not matter. But the Emperor and the New Justice Association Master—every word carried considerable weight and responsibility. I could not back out here.
“Anyone can see it is a trap.”
“We do not know what kind of trap. It might not be a trap at all.”
Prince Xian had declared it a trap, but I thought I could not be certain yet. Nothing was more frightening than being sure about something I had not observed myself.
“Even if it is not a trap, there is definitely an angle. Big Brother is that kind of man. I do not know exactly either.”
Myeong-gyeong murmured. I agreed at least with that. Even if it was not a trap, there was an angle. There was no reason to send me to the Great Desert unless there was one.
“We need to handle it as quickly as possible.”
“But how do we handle it. It is too hopeless.”
A hot sand wind blew. Though it was the moment summer turned to autumn, the sun was fierce.
It was not only the sun. The heat rising from sand and rock under the sunlight was no joke either. Standing on a dune and looking out over the desert, the air seemed to shimmer.
“The result matters more than the process. We only need to find him somehow.”
“Can we find him?”
“We can raise the odds of finding him.”
“We have spent days in the Great Desert, and the scenery is all more or less the same.”
“That is what a desert is.”
Myeong-gyeong looked slightly tired. Even I thought our sleeping arrangements had been poor.
It was a mistake to think nights in the desert were hot because it was a desert. At night it became terribly cold. There was a separate way to sleep in such a desert.
You had to climb onto rock that had been heated through the day and sleep there. So by the time you slept, you had to find flat rock, but flat rock was still rock. It could not help being uncomfortable. You could not sleep on sand either, because poisonous scorpions, centipedes, and other dangers were there.
“But how is there not a single person?”
“It is a border region. Fighting breaks out often in places like this. If soldiers are here, tension rises, and it is not a place commoners should come.”
“We came.”
“It is a special situation.”
“What if we run into the Gale Sands?”
Myeong-gyeong spoke with worry. Everyone in the Empire feared the Northern Di.
Among the Northern Di, the elite cavalry called the Gale Sands were objects of terror in the truest sense. With insane mobility they invaded the Central Plains and returned to the Great Desert.
“Do not worry. I have my sensory range spread out.”
“No matter how wide you spread it, there must be limits.”
“Trust me.”
“It is not that I do not trust you……”
I knew why Myeong-gyeong said that. This was a plain where almost nothing caught the eye.
On such a plain, visibility was about four li. More than one jiao on foot to reach that distance. No matter how wide I spread my sensory range, it would not extend that far.
“Ah.”
And sure enough. Far away, I saw a red banner fluttering. On the red banner, the character for wind was woven in golden thread. It was the Gale Sands Myeong-gyeong had been so worried about.
As we saw them, they would see us. As I understood it, people of the Great Desert had far better eyesight than Central Plains people.
The ground trembled. They had spotted us and were charging at high speed. Soon an unintelligible war cry came from far away.
“Run!”
“I knew it would be like this!”
Myeong-gyeong immediately tried to use lightness skill. I grabbed the nape of his neck then.
“Urk.”
“I said run, not use lightness skill.”
“What nonsense is that?”
“Just run. Like commoners run. Do not use internal energy.”
I kicked off the sand and sprinted. Even running without using internal energy at all, my trained stamina kept it from being too hard.
“Why do we have to do this? We will really get caught at this rate.”
Myeong-gyeong grumbled, but he matched my pace and ran.
In truth, once the Gale Sands had us in their sights, we had to consider ourselves already caught.
We could use internal energy in the short term to achieve explosive speed faster than horses, but after one shichen we would be overtaken.
If this were the Central Plains with mountain ridges and side paths, we might shake them off, but here was the vast Great Desert where the horizon was visible to the end. We could not outrun the Gale Sands spreading out in pursuit.
Of course, if I used my immortal arts, I could blend with the desert and deceive their eyes, but I had no reason to do that.
“Senior Brother. Listen carefully. Before long they will abduct us.”
“What?”
Myeong-gyeong whipped his head around in disbelief. I ignored his resentful gaze and continued.
“We must not let them discover we have martial arts. As I understand it, the Gale Sands can handle a blade themselves. If they find out we have martial arts, they may try to kill us at once.”
“I thought the Gale Sands killed anyone they caught, commoner or martial artist alike?”
“No. That is a tall tale the Empire spread on purpose to instill fear of the Great Desert. As I understand it, they abduct people.”
“How do you know that?”
“There are mad merchants who cross the Great Desert from time to time. I heard it from them.”
Of course they did not cross the Great Desert because they were busy. Then they would be truly mad.
Merchants who usually crossed the Great Desert were those bringing goods the authorities considered illegal. Even when the goods were not illegal, there were often those who smuggled to avoid taxes.
Of course, in my past life and this one I had done only normal trading, so I had never gone to the Great Desert myself, but that did not mean I lacked knowledge.
“So what happens if we are abducted?”
“I do not know.”
“What?”
Myeong-gyeong asked again in disbelief.
“Anyway, they will not kill us. If they wanted to kill us, they could just kill us in the desert. What reason is there to abduct us and then kill us?”
“Is that not too optimistic?”
“Please call it reasonable inference.”
“So you mean we are letting ourselves be abducted on purpose?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To find a person, you have to go among people.”
“Surely you do not mean to let barbarians with lots of people abduct us?”
“That is correct.”
Myeong-gyeong shook his head back and forth. Yet the fact that he did not use lightness skill showed his trust in me was considerable.
“Nothing for it. If that is what you want to do, Junior Brother.”
“Thank you.”
“You really are a headache, Junior Brother.”
“I am sorry.”
“Not while you are not sorry.”
Myeong-gyeong glared at me. Just as I knew Myeong-gyeong, Myeong-gyeong knew me exactly.
In the end, before long we were surrounded by the cavalry.
“Heh heh. It has been a while since I saw a Central Plains person in the Great Desert. Welcome.”
Surprisingly, one among them could speak the Central Plains tongue. I did not know the language of the Great Desert either, so that was fortunate.
“Ah, oh dear. Spare us. We are ignorant fools who know nothing.”
I immediately knelt and pressed my forehead to the sand. Myeong-gyeong, reading the room, knelt with me.
“Haha. Rise. The Empire calls us barbarians and frightens you, but we are not so barbaric.”
“A-Are you from the Central Plains as well?”
“I am a brave warrior. That is a grave insult to me.”
“Oh dear, I am sorry, I am sorry!”
As a merchant, my acting was already extraordinary. We absolutely could not let them think we had let ourselves be abducted on purpose. Of course they would not think that anyway.
The man who spoke Central Plains tongue laughed loudly.
“Yes. Sorry, but you must come with us.”
“You are sparing us?”
“Indeed. As I said, we are not barbarians.”
If you are not barbarians, do not abduct people either. But in any case I had to go with them. They truly were not on guard against us. Though they had swords at their waists, they seemed to think them mere decoration.
“Very well. Mount up.”
Still, the people of the Great Desert were more courteous than I had expected. I had only heard about abduction—I had never heard about this attitude, so I was slightly surprised.
We each mounted behind the Great Desert riders’ horses. Their horsemanship was truly superb. Whether the horses were good or the riders were good.
How far had we gone. Soon we faced an astonishing sight.
“This is where we mainly live. Hohhot.”
The man spoke with confident tone.
I had thought the Northern Di at most lived in wooden fences and felt tents, but that was not the case at all.
Different from the Central Plains, but striking and splendid building styles caught the eye. Many people moved about, full of vitality.
For now, the first objective had been lightly achieved.