Forging Immortality: The Undying Blacksmith

Chapter 39: Entry

A horse as a reward?

The words hung in the air, and the eyes of the other refugees began to burn with a feral light. They had lost their homes and fields to the war, and the gnawing hunger had long since erased any respect for Feng Country’s laws against slaughtering horses. A horse wasn’t a ride; it was meat.

A few of them shot venomous glares at the beggar boy who held the key to the city, but Li Qing’s silent, imposing presence kept them in check. For now. They were just as desperate to get inside the walls. Out here was a death sentence. Inside, there was at least a chance—theft, robbery, begging—anything was better than starving in the desolate wastes.

The beggar boy wiped a grimy hand across his face, his eyes flickering with indecision before hardening with resolve. He dropped to his knees.

“I don’t want the horse,” he declared. “I want you to take me as your disciple. I want to learn martial arts!”

The request was unexpected. Li Qing’s brow furrowed slightly. “And if I refuse?”

The boy slammed his forehead into the dirt. “I will still show you the way, Young Master,” he said, his voice muffled but firm. “I only ask that you let me stay by your side, to serve you.”

A humorless smile touched Li Qing’s lips. He cast a sweeping glance over the starving crowd. “Everyone,” he announced, his voice carrying easily, “these bandits were a plague. I’m taking one of the remaining four horses for my journey. The other three are yours to divide as you see fit.”

Without waiting for a response, Li Qing gestured for the beggar boy to follow. He turned, grabbed the reins of a sturdy-looking horse, and walked away, leaving his back to the chaos he had just unleashed.

The moment he spoke, the fragile peace shattered. The refugees cared for nothing else, erupting into a desperate, violent scramble for the three remaining animals.

The boy, seeing Li Qing’s signal, scrambled to his feet and hurried after him, his face alight with a mixture of fear and elation.

On the main road to Wangyuan City, Li Qing swung himself onto the horse. He was no master equestrian, but his raw physical power was more than enough to bully the ill-tempered beast into submission. The young beggar boy, looking every bit the part of a servant, walked ahead, leading the horse by its reins.

“What’s your name?” Li Qing asked, his tone casual.

“Qi Kang, Young Master!”

Li Qing nodded from his perch. “Alright, Qi Kang. Tell me about this way into the city. And why are you out here with the refugees instead of using it yourself?”

A bitter smile twisted Qi Kang’s lips. “It’s not that I didn’t want to, Young Master. I just couldn’t.” He explained, “Besides the main gates, Wangyuan City has a hidden entrance. People used to use it to sneak in and avoid the entry tax.”

He paused, his voice growing tight with anger. “But when the war started, the people who had already gotten inside… they blocked it. They sealed it from the inside with something heavy so no one else could follow.”

Qi Kang gritted his teeth, his knuckles white. “If it weren’t for them, my family would have made it into the city. They wouldn’t have… they wouldn’t have died in the fighting.” His voice was thick with hatred, his eyes turning red as the memory of his family’s slaughter played out behind them.

A sudden gust of wind swept across the plains, kicking up a blinding cloud of yellow sand that blotted out the sun and plunged the world into a dim twilight.

Ahead, the fortress of Wangyuan City loomed. Its mottled stone walls stood silent and immense, exuding the ancient, unyielding presence of a mountain range. It was an impregnable defense, a man-made cliff connecting two steep, rugged mountain ridges. To reach the heartlands of Feng Country, one had no choice but to pass through this formidable, easily defended stronghold. The towering peaks and massive walls formed a barrier, sealing off the harsh wilderness from the lush, temperate lands within.

Li Qing waited until the sky had deepened to a starless black before he had Qi Kang lead him to the sealed entrance.

“This is it, Young Master.”

Under the cloak of darkness, Qi Kang brought him to a point where the city wall met the natural mountain face. It was far from the gates, a patrol blind spot made even more secure by the pitch-black night.

The “entrance” was a natural fissure in the earth, a narrow crack just wide enough for a single person to squeeze through. Li Qing had imagined a hidden door or a breach in the wall itself, but he knew that was foolish. A weakness like that in such a vital fortress would have been repaired instantly.

He crouched, examining the crack. It was definitely a work of nature.

“Not bad,” he grunted, untying his luggage from the horse. “A shame the horse can’t come.” He gave the animal a final pat and squeezed himself into the fissure alone.

The inside was pitch-black and cramped, the ceiling so low he had to stoop to move forward. The tight space was strenuous to navigate, but its small size was also what kept it a secret. Halfway through, the passage narrowed further, forcing Li Qing to turn and shuffle sideways.

Qi Kang, with his scrawny frame, followed with far more ease.

“Young Master,” he whispered from behind, his voice echoing faintly in the dark. “Just ahead is the city side. It’s covered by a wooden plank with a heavy stone on it. It’s impossible to move!”

Just as he’d said. Li Qing reached the end of the fissure, a space so tight it was difficult to even stand. Anyone who reached this point would have to rely on their own strength to push open the cover above.

*Thump. Thump.*

Li Qing rapped his knuckles against the wood overhead. The sound was a dull, solid thud. It was pinned down tight. For any normal person, it might as well have been a mountain, especially in this confined space where it was impossible to get any leverage.

Of course, that was for a normal person. Whoever had sealed this passage had never imagined a martial artist of immense power would try to crawl through it.

Li Qing braced himself, planting his hands on the plank above. He tilted his head, pressing his shoulder and the side of his skull flat against the wood.

“Hnngh!”

With a low grunt, he unleashed his Outer Force. Power flooded his limbs, and the muscles across his back and shoulders swelled with terrifying density. His slightly crouched body became an unstoppable jack. With a deep groan of protesting timber, the impossibly heavy plank began to rise.

By the time he straightened his legs, his head and shoulders had cleared the opening. He scanned the area—a secluded, garbage-strewn alley within Wangyuan City. Seeing it was deserted, he shoved the heavy plank aside and hauled himself out of the fissure.

The source of the weight was immediately obvious. Several massive, circular millstones had been lashed to the plank with thick hemp ropes.

Seeing them, Li Qing felt the corner of his mouth pull into a dry smirk. *No wonder it was so heavy.*

Qi Kang scrambled out after him, his eyes falling on the millstones. A fresh wave of raw, impotent fury flashed across his face.

Li Qing ignored him. His first act was to drag the plank and its heavy burden back over the hole, sealing it as tightly as it had been before. He covered his tracks by instinct.

“Let’s go,” he said, his voice calm. He turned his gaze toward the distant clusters of buildings, the warm lights flickering in the night. A feeling he hadn’t realized he’d been missing washed over him—not excitement, but a profound sense of relief.

After so long in the lawless wilds, he was finally back in the civilized world.