A Fish Hook Without Bait

"General Deng, what do you think I'm doing here next to the lake?"

Deng Jue answered, "Your Highness, perhaps you are cultivating skills in martial arts while breathing the air of heaven and earth at the dawn of the new sun?"

Xia Ji shook his head.

Deng Jue tried again, "Is Your Highness contemplating how to take over the Imperial Palace and the Imperial City?"

Xia Ji shook his head once again.

Deng Jue replied once more, "Then is Your Highness thinking about how to solve the turbulence in the Imperial City?"

Xia Ji still shook his head.

Deng Jue sighed, "I truly have no idea. Your Highness, do enlighten me."

Xia Ji said simply, "I'm fishing."

With that, his hands reached out to pick up his teacup and he took another sip of tea.

Deng Jue was curious. "Your Highness, there is no fishing rod and no bait. How are you fishing?"

Xia Ji laughed. "There is a type of strange fish under the heavens that remains invisible under the water and is undiscoverable. Even the most skilled fishermen will never be able to catch them as they are deeply hidden. They will escape at the sight of bait and can only be hooked without bait."

Deng Jue's expression was filled with confusion. "I am slow on the take. I do not understand what Your Highness means."

Xia Ji took out the tiger tally from his pocket and passed half of it to Deng Jue. "General, lead the Imperial City Army out of the Imperial Capital after three days and take them to the Northern camp for training." 

Deng Jue accepted the tiger tally, baffled. He looked utterly bewildered as he could not fathom the meaning of His Highness's actions.

Xia Ji took another sip of tea and changed the topic. "I'd like to ask General Deng something."

"Do go ahead, Your Highness."

"Is there a method of reference for the strong and weak of this world's powers, or any categorizations such as realms?"

Deng Jue was stunned. His Highness had clearly demonstrated his mighty power as a warrior who had surpassed his peak during the last few days of major battle. How could he not know this?

With that, Deng Jue collected his thoughts and mentally organized the information he had obtained for more than half his life, then explained slowly.

"In this world, anyone who has cultivated physical skills or internal skills good enough to pass the thresholds of becoming a warrior, and also possesses a few commoner skills up his sleeves as well as having the experience of being out in the world, would be recognized as part of the brotherhood of martial artists."

"However, unless others are aware of what skills you have cultivated and the level of said skills, no one will be able to give you a ranking. For such a case, it would require you to create a name for yourself in the martial arts world. This would not only serve to validate what you have learned, but also to confirm your position in the martial arts world.

"There is the Heaven Ranking, Earth Ranking, and Mortal Ranking in the martial arts world.

"The warriors on the Mortal Ranking are recognized elites from the martial arts world.

"The Earth Ranking is composed of first-class masters.

"The Heaven Ranking, on the other hand, is composed of superior-class masters.

"If you want to prove yourself, you will need to get your name onto the rankings.

"However, there is also another category of people besides those of the Mortal, Earth, and Heaven Rankings.

"These people do not belong on the rankings.

"This is because they have achieved the peak on the path of martial arts, and have created divine forms by resonating with heaven, earth, and space. For example, the black Buddha's form created by Your Highness, or the three-headed and six-armed form of Asura, or the divine form of the Flying Dragon created from one swing of the Black and White Double Blades, and many other such examples. To put it simply, these are all fairly unimaginable.

"Or rather…

"It would be impossible to judge who is strong and weak among such people.

"These individuals would hide themselves away from the world, otherwise, there will be a huge commotion once they display their powers to the world.

"They will be known as legends once they have taken part in and resolved several major events.

"Once Your Highness's reputation starts spreading beyond the Northern lands, you will become a legend."

Xia Ji thought about this in detail. He had the internal skills of the inner vitality of the Nine Suns, the physical skills of the Eighteen Levels of Hell Suppression Energy, the Aryaacalanatha Form, and even his spirituality possessed Trailokya Dhyana. Every skill and power of his was capable of creating Buddha forms. Did that mean he was already at the peak?

However, this did not make him happy at all. Instead, he asked, "General, do you know what is the maximum level for skills?"

Deng Jue replied, "The Ninth level is the maximum. All concepts of skills stop at the Ninth level, which means that is the pinnacle of achievement."

Xia Ji asked, "Has there ever been a Tenth level?"

Deng Jue answered, "Perhaps it is simply due to my ignorance, but I have never heard of any mention of the Tenth level."

Xia Ji was silent for a moment before he pressed on, "What about other powers besides those of warriors?"

Deng Jue took a sip of tea to wet his throat and continued the explanations.

"The Ninth level exceeds the ordinary, converting the mind and intentions into divine forms whose names will become legends. This would be the pinnacle of an individual's power.

"To my understanding, the next step to pursue after that would be about spellbinding military formations, divine weapons, type of species, et cetera.

"There are people in this world who have grasped the secret of mysterious spellbinding formations. They are known as Gods of Combat. Such people possess powerful spellbinding formations that are able to fuse thousands, millions, even tens of millions of people's strength into one, culminating it into one terrifying offensive blow. Anyone would end up obliterated when faced with such power, but spellbinding formations are a very mysterious order. Few are able to command them. I have only seen it once long ago, and what I saw astounded me. I wanted to find out more by making investigations about it throughout the lands, but my efforts were in vain as no one knew about it and I ended up with an inconclusive result.

"As for divine weapons, legend has it that only a gifted person of great wisdom is able to refine such an item, but most of the existing specimens are remnants from wars of the olden days or inheritances passed down by ancestors. Another story tells of great Buddhist scholars who are able to refine Buddhist instruments, but I have never seen one in my life. Such instruments surpass all domains of the path of martial arts and are able to garner a victory in battle in one fell swoop.

"As for species, you have also seen it for yourself, Seventh Imperial Prince. An example would be the abnormal existence of the Frost Giants. Once they are fully grown, they can be much stronger than any warrior who has worked hard in cultivating. Their blood lineage alone is enough to go up against a human who has cultivated extensively the most supreme skills. According to legend, there still exist many other strange creatures. Some of them need only be fully grown and humans would never stand a chance against them."

Xia Ji asked, "What about Immortal Weapons and Demonic Blades?"

Deng Jue answered, "Immortal Weapons and Demonic Blades contain embryos of Intelligence, but almost all of those embryos are not awakened. They end up waiting for new masters over and over in an endless loop of time, and jeopardize their masters over and over until they vanish from the world of martial arts.

"These Immortal Weapons and Demonic Blades can gift their masters some extent of power, but at the same time, they disrupt their masters' minds. However, if these weapons were to be truly awakened, I have no idea what would happen. I have never heard of such a thing happening, but I imagine that anyone who possessed it would have a great advantage over others. These weapons might even surpass divine weapons, but if the master of such a weapon is unable to control it, I'm afraid that person would end up perishing in a mad state of insanity."

Xia Ji nodded. This was information he had never been able to obtain while being trapped alone deep within the palace. Today, he had been informed in full, whole-heartedly by a veteran general, and he considered it his initial understanding of this world. At the same time, he had been given an idea of the positioning of the power he possessed. Even though he knew that his power was considered to be at its peak, he was not pleased by the news.

It was still… Not enough!

He felt that his achievement of reaching the peak, might simply be a case of him not knowing enough of this world.

Maybe he had not even discovered the tip of the iceberg of this world.

He did not feel delighted over his achievement, rather, it served as a warning for him.

After that, the two continued chatting over more casual matters.

Deng Jue chose to take his leave after a while.

When he returned to his mansion, Deng Jue instructed his eldest son, Deng Gongjiu, to return to camp and make arrangements for the soldiers. Deng Jue himself, however, walked around his courtyard with the Seventh Imperial Prince's words reverberating in his mind. He could not figure out the true meaning behind his intentions.

Suddenly, he spotted a young girl dressed in purple practicing her sword skills. Her form was rather impressive. Every slash was forceful and during each final motion of the sword, a ringing tremble would sound through the air. It was clear that she had cultivated internal skills. 

The young girl in purple stopped practicing when she spotted Deng Jue. She ran toward him and called out warmly, "Grandpa."

Deng Jue stared into the bright, intelligent eyes of the young girl and immediately voiced out the thing troubling his mind. "Kongchan, do you know of any strange fish in this world that would swim away at the sight of bait, yet get hooked in the absence of bait?"

This beautiful, young girl in purple was the granddaughter of Deng Jue, Deng Kongchan. She had just turned sixteen this year and when she heard the strange question voiced by her grandfather, she was taken aback and shook her head in bewilderment.

Deng Jue could not help laughing. His Highness was seventeen, after all, and was instilled with Zen. Kongchan was only sixteen, so how could she know the answer?

Deng Jue decided not to continue questioning her, but said immediately, "I'll be leaving for the Northern camp with your father after three days to train our soldiers. Don't create trouble at home and remember to work hard at practicing the Deng family's sword skills and mental cultivation methods."

"Yes, I will."

With that, the young lady in purple left to continue her practice.

Deng Jue watched her back and continued to think about his query. Suddenly, a thought flashed in his mind and he felt he was coming close to an answer.

"A strange type of fish exists in the world that stays well-hidden in the water. They remain obscure and no matter how skilled a fisherman was, he would be unable to find them because they remain so deeply hidden and swim away at the sight of bait. Is His Highness referring to the many invisible enemies hidden in the Imperial Capital who would bring upon great calamity in the future? Close to a hundred soldiers had been executed previously because of the interference of such an enemy, but His Highness has no idea who these people are. He is unable to do anything despite his power," Deng Jue mumbled.

He walked to and fro as he continued talking to himself. "That is why High Highness said that only without bait would the fish be hooked. Does His Highness want me to take the army and leave the Imperial Capital in order to draw out the enemy and trap them in one swoop?

"Even so, why is His Highness acting so impatient about this? Wouldn't it be best to keep me within the Imperial Capital and stabilize the situation?

"As long as I am around, even if contemptuous buffoons were scheming against him, they would still need to consider that I control more than twenty thousand elite soldiers.

"This doesn't make any sense."

Deng Jue thought about it longer and suddenly was able to vaguely understand. His Highness… He might be looking incredibly far ahead and has incomparable ambition. One must stabilize internally before facing foreign aggression. He wanted to clear the Imperial City of internal enemies before he had to face the real enemy coming from the outside. 

If that was the case, who was this external enemy?

Deng Jue instinctively thought of two words, 'Imperial Emperor'. 

His breathing became faster…