Futile Devices Scans

In truth, the battle situation in the capital at this time was not as dangerous as Qiao Shen imagined.

Or rather, the most dangerous moment had already passed.

More than a month ago, the Xiao army had marched south in two routes, east and west. The western route had been blocked at Kuiyuan City, while the eastern route had driven straight in, pressing directly toward the Yellow River. His Majesty had been so terrified that he lost all composure and immediately abdicated to the Crown Prince, becoming Emperor Emeritus himself, preparing to flee south with the Empress and his consorts. The sobbing new Emperor was carried by the hundred officials onto the imperial throne, and the moment the yellow robe was placed upon him, he was frightened into a grave illness, burning with high fever, unconscious, and not long for this world. Fortunately, an “Immortal Master Shen Xiao” cast spells and offered medicine, and only then did he recover his life.

On the third day of the first month, Grand Preceptor Tong “escorted” Emperor Emeritus out of the capital. On the fifth day of the first month, Li Si and the others followed the Commander and left the capital as well, heading to Kuiyuan in search of the Fire Vein. The Yellow River defenders collapsed and fled without fighting, causing the eastern-route Xiao army to arrive in the blink of an eye. On the third day after Li Si left the capital—the seventh day of the first month—the eastern-route Xiao army was already at the capital’s walls, and immediately launched an attack on the city.

The capital had sturdy walls and ample troops, and the official in charge of defending the city also commanded properly. After attacking the city for several days without taking it, the Xiao army ceased hostilities with them, and negotiations had continued until now.

On the eighth day of the second month, the day Li Si and the others returned to the capital, the Xiao army had already been stationed beneath the capital’s walls for a full month, and the two sides had also been negotiating for a full month.

As for Great Xuan’s various reinforcement armies, totaling two hundred thousand troops, they had also long since arrived beneath the capital’s walls one after another.

The reinforcement armies occupied the southeastern side outside the city, while the Xiao army occupied the northwestern side outside the city. Li Si and the others happened to return from the northwest, so they happened to run straight into that vast, dark mass of Xiao troops.

–

Li Si had everyone wait briefly, then rode alone to look for a nearby slope. Climbing high and gazing out, his eyesight was extraordinary, and sure enough, he discovered the clue—although the Xiao army seemed numerous, the armies in the southeast were faintly flying red banners, and the ones stationed there were actually Great Xuan’s reinforcement armies.

He then turned his horse back, ordered everyone to abandon the carriage, and had Qiao Shen ride with him on the same horse. The group took a long detour to avoid the Xiao army, spurred their horses on at full speed, and before sunset, reached the south side of the city.

–

The capital had sixteen gates in the outer city alone. The south side had the fewest gates, yet even there, there were as many as three; among these, two city gates were also accompanied by water gates. Outside the city gates were barbicans, and outside the water gates were angled defensive enclosures, layer upon layer of protection, solid as golden soup.

Together with the arrival of two hundred thousand reinforcement troops, this city of the Son of Heaven looked even more indestructible.

–

Ever since Qiao Shen had approached the capital and seen that dark mass of Xiao troops, his heart had been pounding in fear the entire way. Sitting behind Li Si on the horse, both hands tightly clutching his fourth brother’s robe, his palms were covered in cold sweat.

Only after he saw the South Gate tower soaring high into the clouds and saw the large expanse of reinforcement army camps did his heart finally settle.

He thought that Kuiyuan City was only half the size of the capital, yet facing the same one hundred thousand enemy troops—so they claimed—it had still managed to hold firm until now with only three thousand defenders. Since even Kuiyuan could hold out, then this towering, majestic capital city should have even less trouble.

–

Li Si’s thoughts at this time were more or less the same as Qiao Shen’s. He also felt that the capital was still fairly safe, and therefore brought Qiao Shen into the city with peace of mind. Along the way, he held the Imperial City Directorate token high, and sure enough, they passed through without obstruction.

The highest-ranking officer among the reinforcements stationed outside the city’s south side was the famous Great Xuan general Zuo Shi Dao, who was already seventy-six years old this year. When this old general, whose face was full of the hardships of age, heard that an envoy had returned from Kuiyuan, he even came over specially and asked Li Si a few questions about the situation at Kuiyuan City. Afterward, he sent a squad of personal guards to escort everyone into the city through the side gate at the southwest corner.

–

After the Imperial City Directorate token was passed up to the city tower, the tightly closed city gate was actually opened specially for this envoy party. Under the protection of the soldiers outside the city, a temporary wooden bridge was laid across the city moat, gaps were cleared through the layers of defensive works by the soldiers, and the two thick vermilion city gates were slowly pulled open. The city-defending soldiers inside the gates stood in two rows; it was both a posture of protection and a posture of welcome.

Li Si was only a minor instructor. When he had left the capital, he had slipped away furtively under cover of night, yet when he returned, he received such grand treatment. For a moment, he was somewhat dazed, always feeling that there ought to be someone walking in front of him—whether it was the Commander or Second Uncle.

In any case, it should not be him at the head.

Above and below the city, all eyes gathered on him. If Brother Xiao had been here at this moment, he would have hidden behind Brother Xiao.

Sitting behind him, Qiao Shen secretly gripped his robe and tugged at him, signaling that he was the lead horse! It was time to go! Fourth Brother!

Only then did Li Si quickly urge his horse forward, his eyes wide open as he looked around blankly, and passed through the heavy city gates, finally entering the city.

—Fortunately, his expression had always been wooden and cold, so the city-defending soldiers only felt Envoy Li’s icy sweep of the eyes and did not notice his helpless bewilderment.

–

Once they entered the city, the official in charge of defending the city came forward to verify their identities again, then sent people to escort them all the way toward the imperial palace.

The capital was divided into three layers: the outer city, the inner city, and the inner imperial city. Even Li Si himself, because he lived in the military camp in the outer city, rarely entered the inner city on ordinary days.

As soon as they entered the outer city, Qiao Shen’s mouth could not close.

When the Xiao army attacked the city in the first month, they had only attacked the north and west gates. The south gate had not yet experienced the flames of war, and still vaguely retained its prosperous appearance. Although the people in the city were panicked and unsettled, most commoners kept their doors shut and did not go out, and the pleasure quarters and entertainment houses had all withdrawn one after another, those wide, level streets, the lake surface with weeping willows on both banks, the stone bridges with carved railings and painted pillars, the tall and spacious houses, the multicolored glazed roof tiles… still left Qiao Shen staring in stunned amazement.

There were four rivers within the capital, known as “four waters running through the capital.” They traveled north along the Huimin River, and after entering the inner city, crossed the widest Bian River. When Li Si guided the horse onto Xingguo Temple Bridge over the Bian River, he suddenly heard Qiao Shen ask from behind him, “Brother Sisi, what place is that?”

Li Si looked westward along with his words. Xingguo Temple Bridge stood on higher ground, and he could see beside the Bian River a deep mansion compound, broader and more magnificent than several neighboring courtyards added together.

Li Si did not know much else, but he was very clear about this household—because when Second Uncle was young, he had once repaired the courtyard wall of this family’s estate. Second Uncle had said that if one casually chiseled off a chunk from the artificial mountains in that courtyard, it would be priceless.

“Chancellor Cai’s residence,” Li Si said.

Qiao Shen muttered softly, “I thought it was some prince’s estate, it’s so big.”

Chancellor Cai had also long since fled south together with Emperor Emeritus and Grand Preceptor Tong, but Second Uncle had never mentioned this matter, so Li Si did not know. He had originally wanted to look at the “priceless artificial mountains” Second Uncle had spoken of, only to see that the courtyard walls had collapsed, and the rocks were nowhere to be seen.

The soldier leading the way heard this mutter and also glanced in that direction, then said too much, “Chancellor Cai’s household was confiscated. Defense Commissioner Li sent people to move all the stones from his courtyard out and use them to fill beneath the west city’s water gate, to prevent the Xiao bandits from attacking by boat.”

Qiao Shen knew of Chancellor Cai and asked curiously, “Who is Defense Commissioner Li?”

The soldier said, “Li Gang, Right Assistant Director. He is now Defense Commissioner of the Four Western Walls of the Capital.”

The soldier beside him jabbed him with an elbow, signaling for him to be quiet. He hurriedly said repeatedly, “Envoy, forgive us. We lowly ones spoke too much!”

Li Si shook his head to indicate that it was nothing. The soldiers no longer dared speak. Qiao Shen softly asked Li Si again what the Defense Commissioner of the Four Western Walls of the Capital was. Li Si had never heard of this office at all, nor had he heard of Li Gang, and was even more bewildered than Qiao Shen.

–

These two inexperienced elder and younger brothers, who had neither seen much of the world nor understood the situation, followed the soldiers leading the way and successively passed Yanqing Temple, the Capital Prefecture Office, Xingguo Temple, Qisheng Temple… Along the way, the towering pavilions and magnificent halls had already far exceeded Qiao Shen’s imagination of the capital’s grandeur and beauty.

By the time they reached the foot of the imperial city, Qiao Shen lifted his head and looked at that splendid, golden-glittering gate tower, and his mouth could not close at all.

Li Si had been born and raised in the capital for more than ten years, but this was also the first time he had come so close to the imperial palace. He did not have the leisure to be amazed and admiring like Qiao Shen; he still had to quickly carry out his responsibility as envoy—

He helped Qiao Shen down from the horse, then quickly stepped forward to salute the high-ranking palace official who had come to receive them.

–

Having received the news early, those already waiting outside the palace gate were a eunuch and several Imperial City Directorate soldiers. It was precisely the eunuch who, on the morning of the day they had left a month ago, had said that he “supervised the Imperial City Directorate.”

Everyone dismounted and saluted the eunuch. When the eunuch saw that the one leading them was not the Commander, but had instead become Li Si, his brows furrowed slightly; then, seeing that Daoist Ma was also nowhere to be found, though fortunately the lion-headed Strongman was still in the party, he relaxed slightly.

The eunuch only hurriedly took Qiao Shen, Li Si, and the Strongman away, leaving everyone else to remain where they were and await “arrangements from their superiors.” As Li Si walked, he kept looking back and saw Tao Shi and the others left in place, all looking somewhat tense and at a loss.

—They had completed His Majesty’s entrusted task, and the eunuch had originally promised that they would be “promoted three ranks and rewarded three thousand strings of cash.” Why was not a single word of it mentioned now that the time had come?

Li Si did not know much about the etiquette of the imperial palace, and since there was doubt in his heart, he simply stepped past Qiao Shen and moved a few steps forward, wanting to directly ask that eunuch.

But someone behind the eunuch suddenly reached out and stopped Li Si, signaling for him not to speak, then pulled Li Si back several steps, making him retreat behind Qiao Shen.

Li Si tilted his head and swept him a faint glance. The man was about fifty, his temples streaked with white, and judging from his clothes and ornaments, he seemed to be a superior officer whose status was second only to that eunuch.

Seeing that the eunuch had walked some distance ahead, this old superior officer reminded Li Si in a low voice, “Young Envoy, once you enter the imperial palace, be cautious in word and deed.”

Li Si looked at him seriously again and saw that unlike his beaming superior, this man’s eyes were faintly wet, and his cloudy eyes were filled with an unconcealable grief.

–

They entered the imperial city through the western side gate.

At this time, the setting sun was sinking in the west, its remaining glow a deep red. Along the way inside the palace, there were high walls and broad roads, deep courtyards and red mansions, carved beams and painted rafters, coiling dragons and flying phoenixes, an even more magnificent scene than anything the two of them had ever seen before. But by this point, Qiao Shen had become extremely nervous and no longer dared to lift his head and look around. Li Si also remained “cautious in word and deed,” following closely behind the party without looking aside.

The road seemed to become long and tormenting. They passed one wall after another and turned one corner after another. A rich scent of incense and spices filled the air of the imperial palace. Somewhere, smoke was curling upward, yet it seemed as though incense smoke was curling from every corner. Li Si vaguely heard the chanting of Daoists; the road ahead seemed to lead into the vermilion palaces of the Divine Empyrean, and by the roadside, the palace maids’ sky-blue skirts were lifted by the cold wind, like immortal maidens from the Nine Heavens, dreamlike and illusory.

“You wait here for now.”

Suddenly, the eunuch’s sharp, thin voice called out softly and startled Li Si awake from this hazy dream. He hurriedly lowered his head and dropped his eyes. In his field of vision, there was only the wrinkled hem of Qiao Shen’s robe, and a large patch of mud upon it dragged Li Si back to reality.

He could not help reaching out to tug Qiao Shen’s clothes into order and scraped off a clump of mud. With nowhere to throw it, he could only quietly hold the clump of mud in his own hand.

That bit of dust and mud in his palm made him remember who he was, waking him completely from his trance.

He remembered the flames rushing into the sky and the rolling mountain rocks. He remembered everyone’s scattered corpses beneath the falling stones. He remembered Second Uncle’s bluish-white face. He remembered his own fists, clenched so hard that he had gouged them bloody…

What did the Numinous Heaven’s jeweled palace or the Nine Heavens immortal realm have to do with him? For the sake of this moment, for him to reach this place, Second Uncle had lost his life for nothing!

–

The eunuch inside called for them to enter in his sharp voice, so Li Si lowered his eyes and followed Qiao Shen inside.

The moment they stepped in, incense smoke curled throughout the room, and a rich fragrance came rushing into their noses. This incense was precious, called Jiangzhen, and was said to be able to summon immortal cranes. But Li Si knew nothing of it. Too much incense had been burned, and it only made his nose sting as he lowered his eyes and endured it.

Inside was not a grand hall. The room was smaller and seemed to be a quiet chamber for a Daoist’s secluded cultivation. Some divine statues were enshrined there, but Li Si had no time to lift his eyes and look. His Majesty sat beside a red-lacquered enclosed couch; some calligraphy and paintings were drawn on the enclosure, but Li Si did not understand them, nor could he raise his eyes to look carefully.

Together with Qiao Shen, he saluted and knelt, calling out “Your Majesty,” his head lowered so that he could only see the hem of His Majesty’s robe.

Unexpectedly, he did not see the coronet robes and dragon robe spoken of by storytellers in the entertainment quarters, nor the golden crown and crimson robes he had once glimpsed from afar during the military review. This new Emperor, who had only sat upon the dragon throne for a single month, wore only a white casual robe patterned with clouds, a narrow-sleeved long robe that made his figure look thin and frail, making him appear like an ordinary scholar.

The new Emperor’s speaking voice also resembled that of a humble and approachable scholar. He even personally walked closer and helped the slightly trembling Qiao Shen up from the ground.

“Little Brother has come from afar and suffered hardship. We are brothers of the same family, so there is no need for courtesy. Sit and speak with me. You may all rise as well.”

Li Si did not know that these words were directed at him and the Strongman too, and remained prostrate on the ground without moving. Only when the Strongman, lying behind him, secretly tugged at his trouser leg did he stand up.

He was the tallest person in the whole room, and once he stood, he could clearly see His Majesty’s face—not especially distinctive, neither fierce nor imposing, still like an ordinary scholar.

His Majesty was only in his twenties, with a thin mustache, his cheeks gaunt and sunken, haggard and exhausted, and his brows revealed a deep melancholy. That melancholy faded a little when he spoke to Qiao Shen. He led Qiao Shen to sit beside the couch, truly as intimate as brothers, and asked Qiao Shen about his family background with a pleasant expression, then expressed concern for Qiao Shen’s hardships along the journey.

Qiao Shen was so moved that his voice trembled. When he spoke of losing both parents in childhood and being raised by the old steward, he could not help shedding tears.

His Majesty even comforted him gently.

“The young master is blessed by Heaven; after misfortune reaches its extreme, fortune turns.” A Daoist’s voice suddenly came from outside the room.

Li Si turned his head and saw a man in Daoist robes entering leisurely with a fly whisk in his arm. Behind him, the Strongman hurriedly called out, “Immortal Master!”

This Immortal Master was forty or fifty years old, with a snake-like face broad at the top and narrow below, long narrow brows and eyes, and a trailing long beard that made his chin appear even sharper and thinner. After spending consecutive days performing rites beneath the sun to pray for blessings, his face had been burned dark, and his cheeks were dry, cracked, and peeling, resembling blackish-blue scales.

The moment Li Si saw his features, disgust and wariness arose in his heart, and his brows furrowed slightly.

The Immortal Master lightly swept Li Si a glance, nodded faintly to the Strongman, then walked straight past the two of them. Standing, he saluted His Majesty and said, “This old Daoist has intruded rudely. May Your Majesty forgive me.”

His Majesty treated him with great respect. “True Master Shen Xiao has finally come. Someone, please offer the True Master a seat.” A young eunuch brought over a round wooden stool and placed it beside the couch, extremely close to His Majesty.

Yet this Immortal Master did not sit at once. Instead, he kowtowed deeply to His Majesty and said, “Your Majesty, great joy is soon to arrive!”

His Majesty said, “Indeed. Today, Little Brother has been found, and True Master may finally perform a state-protecting purification jiao rite.”

“Not only that,” the Immortal Master said, kowtowing. “Today, this old Daoist cast a divination. Kan meets fire; water and fire achieve completion. The young master carries a pure and proper Fire Vein, and has returned safely from the north. The calamity of black water in the north has already been suppressed by the young master’s blessed fate! Great Xuan has reached the end of misfortune and turned toward fortune! Blessings and heavenly favor!”

Joy appeared in His Majesty’s eyes, yet the sorrow between his brows had still not dispersed, as though a dying man had received auspicious words but truly saw no hope of survival. He opened his mouth and was about to say something when an urgent report suddenly came from outside the door.

The eunuch who had led Qiao Shen and the others earlier hurried in, holding a wooden tray in his trembling hands.

“Your Majesty, the Second Prince of Xiao has replied!”

His Majesty hastily stood up, and in an instant, cold sweat soaked his forehead. His likewise trembling hand touched the Xiao state document placed on the wooden tray, and once he unfolded it and looked, his pupils froze. He sat down stiffly on the couch as though he had fallen.

Everyone in the room did not understand what had happened and looked at him nervously.

After a long while, His Majesty finally let out a long breath, and wild joy appeared on his face. “The Second Prince is going to withdraw his army! The Immortal Master’s words were not false. Great Xuan has reached the end of misfortune and turned toward fortune! Blessings and heavenly favor!”

Everyone in the room hurriedly knelt and kowtowed, loudly crying out blessings and heavenly favor, then all praised His Majesty’s virtue and blessing in unison.

–

Li Si also knelt along with everyone else. Amid this joy that seemed to celebrate together with Heaven itself, he nevertheless felt that everything had happened in a hasty and bewildering blur, as though he were still inside a dream of the Nine Heavens immortal realm, and everyone was madly drunk within it.

He quietly turned his head back and saw that the palace maids, young eunuchs, and Imperial City Directorate soldiers outside the room were also kneeling in a great mass. The old superior officer who had earlier reminded him to be “cautious in word and deed” was prostrated at the very front. Amid the joy and bewildered madness of those around him, only he lowered his head without speaking, silently lying prostrate.

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