Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 594 - 536: Mediation

Considering that the top-secret plan to rescue the Old Khan could be discovered by Zhao Ming in advance and ambushed, who knew if there were any Zhao Ming spies within the higher echelons of the Yu Country. It might be better to leave this Bronze Fragment with Lu Yunan.

"Okay." Lu Yunan didn’t decline and pocketed the Bronze Fragment.

CLIP-CLOP, CLIP-CLOP. The sound of hoofbeats quickly approached. Lu Yunan’s Black Mountain Clan members arrived, dismounted one after another, and one of them brought forward two fine, masterless horses.

Lu Yunan took the Turkic attire handed to him by a subordinate and draped it over himself. He then retrieved a disguise from the horse’s saddlebag and applied it to his face.

"This horse is for you," Lu Yunan said, turning around. "Until we meet again."

"Until we meet again."

Li Ang nodded, watching as Lu Yunan stepped into the stirrup, mounted his horse, and with a flick of the reins, led his men away.

The dust kicked up by the cavalry gradually receded, the riders shrinking into tiny black dots in the distance. Only after they had crested a hillside and vanished completely from sight did Li Ang slowly exhale, step into his own stirrup, and ride off.

He used Mo Si to disguise his appearance as Turkic and conjured a travel permit with Spirit Summoning Paper. It didn’t take much effort to pass through several checkpoints and infiltrate a small town less than a hundred miles from the Turkic Royal Court.

He led his horse down the street, arriving at a slightly desolate snack shop.

The shop owner, a man with a large beard, pushed aside the cloth curtain and stepped out, asking in a gruff voice, "What will you have, guest? Leg of lamb or lamb soup?"

Li Ang replied in the Turkic language, "Two bowls of lamb soup, three parts fat to seven parts lean, with extra scallions, another sesame pancake, and a cup of horse milk wine."

Horse milk wine, also known as kumis, is made from fermented mare’s milk, usually brewed in spring and summer and difficult to find in autumn and winter.

The shop owner’s gaze flickered, but he still said, "We’re out of kumis."

"Cow’s milk is fine."

Li Ang found a seat. The shop owner quickly prepared and brought over the food. After eating and drinking his fill, Li Ang excused himself to use the latrine and went to the shop’s backyard.

The shop owner was already waiting there.

Just as the Turkic sent spies to the Yu Country, the Yu Country also stationed secret agents in Turkic territory. The conversation they just had was the recognition signal.

Li Ang asked directly, "What’s the situation in the Royal Court? Who is in control now?"

The shopkeeper, startled and unaware of Li Ang’s identity, was puzzled as to why this contact would ask such a commonly known question. He answered, "The Old Khan passed away from illness two days ago, his soul returned to Eternal Heaven. Prime Minister Ashide Keluo has installed the Old Khan’s eight-year-old grandson, Ashina Modu, as his successor."

The Old Khan is dead... his grandson has succeeded... and Prime Minister Ashide Keluo still holds power...

Li Ang fell silent. He and Galuo had been trapped in Li Yuan for nearly four days, and this was the news he heard upon resurfacing.

This also meant that Qiu Feng and He Fanshuang’s backup plan had also failed.

He rummaged in his robes, pulled out a small Jade Pendant, and handed it to the shopkeeper. "I need to use the Nearby Worm."

The shopkeeper took the Jade Pendant and inspected it closely. After verifying the intricate patterns and designs on it, he confirmed Li Ang’s clearance and led him to an inner room. From a corner, beneath a pile of sundries, he dislodged a stone brick and dragged out an iron box.

He opened the iron box, removed some old clothes and other items used for concealment, revealing a Nearby Worm nestled inside.

The shopkeeper took out a soundproof talisman, stuck it on the wall, then walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Li Ang watched the shopkeeper’s figure disappear before he picked up the Nearby Worm, adjusted its antennae, and called Galuo.

"Hello?"

Li Ang switched back to his original voice. "It’s me."

"Li Ang?!"

Galuo sounded incredibly surprised and quickly lowered her voice to ask, "Where are you?"

"Jiegu City."

Having climbed up from Li Yuan with great difficulty, Li Ang naturally felt a flood of emotions upon hearing the voice of an old friend.

But it was not the time for pleasantries. Li Ang got straight to the point, asking the questions he cared about most: how the Old Khan had died, and the whereabouts of Qiu Feng and the others.

After Galuo’s explanation, the whole situation finally unfolded before Li Ang.

That day at Li Yuan Cliff, Li Ang and Lu Yunan had fallen into the abyss. Since people from Taihao Mountain could pursue them at any moment, and with the whereabouts of Qiu Feng and the others unknown, Galuo had no choice but to return to the Royal Court first.

That very night, she received news—Qiu Feng and the others had managed to shake off Yuan Sou and escape Tongluo City, successfully reuniting with her.

Following the original plan, with the help of the Ashina Clan members, Shen Tuyu led a team and infiltrated the Khan’s tent, only to find the Old Khan’s body, preserved in ice—he had likely died days ago, after a banquet.

With the Khan dead, they had to resort to the backup plan.

Shen Tuyu had Sui Yi and the others withdraw first while he, in disguise, incited a disturbance to draw away the cultivators from Taihao Mountain and the Wolf Garden.

This allowed the Ashina Clan members to seize the ice coffin and rescue the Ashina Clan heirs, who had been imprisoned by Prime Minister Ashide Keluo.

The Royal City was in chaos. The Ashide Family and the Ashina Clan confronted each other, each accusing the other of assassinating the Old Khan. Their forces clashed, nearly igniting a civil war.

The overly intensified conflict forced the cultivators from Taihao Mountain and the Wolf Garden to abandon their pursuit of Shen Tuyu and return to the Royal City to mediate.

After a series of complex political negotiations, conflict resolutions, and distribution of benefits, the internal strife was finally quelled with the following ruling:

The position of Great Khan was to be inherited by the Old Khan’s young grandson, who had not attended the banquet.

Ashide Keluo would remain as Prime Minister, but two additional Prime Minister positions would be created, to be filled by Wolf Garden scholars unaffiliated with either the Ashina or Ashide clans, thereby distributing power more evenly.

This judgment seemed acceptable to all parties involved: the Ashina Clan retained the Khanate, the Ashide Family kept a Prime Minister, and the Wolf Garden gained political influence.

For Taihao Mountain, the succession of a young Turkic leader meant they could gradually guide him towards the Haotian faith, potentially transforming the Turkic Khaganate into a devout state like the Zhou Kingdom and Jing Kingdom.

Even for the Yu Country, this outcome was somewhat acceptable. The Old Khan’s mysterious death would remain a thorn between the two Turkic clans, hindering their united front against the Yu Country and slowing their full commitment to war. It could even provide the Yu Country an opportunity to choose allies from among the Turkic factions, and potentially to stir up internal conflict within the Turkic Khaganate itself.

After receiving this intelligence from Galuo, Li Ang comforted her for a few moments, asking her to take good care of the Wolf Head Armor. He then ended the communication and called the Yu Country’s Academic Palace.

Sacrificial Officer Chen Danqiu was equally astonished to hear that Li Ang was still alive. During the days Li Ang had been missing, the Academic Palace and the Yu Country had exhausted all means to find him, even deploying spies within Jing Country’s territory to search the surface along the thousand-mile expanse of Li Yuan.

Unexpectedly, he had returned on his own.

Li Ang omitted certain details, saying only that he and Ghost Shovel’s corpse had fallen off the cliff and that he had managed to climb back up over the past few days. He did not mention Lu Yunan.

At the end of the call, Li Ang declined Chen Danqiu’s offer to send someone to bring him back to the Yu Country. Zhao Ming’s spies had already infiltrated the upper echelons of the Yu Country, perhaps even the Academic Palace itself.

He couldn’t trust anyone now and decided he had to return to Yu Country territory on his own.