The Southern Yu emperor’s imperial carriage traveled farther and farther away, marking the abrupt end of the equally abrupt battle by tacit agreement between both sides.
West Lake stretched vast and boundless before them. After being washed clean by the rain, its pavilions and towers looked even more delicate and transcendent, carrying something of the immortal air of jade palaces in the heavens. Yet if a passerby had been standing there, his gaze might not necessarily have settled on this beautiful lake resembling an immortal realm. The two grown men beside it, for instance, were currently staring with complete concentration at the two tiny paper figures dancing gracefully on the ground.
The little paper figures danced with great dedication. There was no music, yet from the rhythm of their movements, it was obvious that someone had carefully choreographed the performance.
When the imperial carriage finally disappeared completely beyond the horizon, the paper figures’ dance also reached its conclusion. They finished, bowed toward Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin, then turned to face each other. At the same moment, each reached out and tore off the other’s head. Four scraps of paper fluttered briefly through the air, landed on the ground, and became completely motionless.
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
He had been observing the paper figures through the Spirit-Sight Art the entire time. At first they contained a faint trace of white spiritual energy. After they destroyed each other, that spiritual energy vanished.
This probably counted as sacrificing one’s life for art.
Fu Xi Yan stomped on the paper figures twice to make sure they had no reaction before pulling Pei Yuan Jin home.
Shou Nan Shan had spent half the day waiting inside the residence. Although he never actually had to act, the waiting itself had been exhausting. Once the alert ended, he went to the kitchen in search of food. Xiao Sang and the others returned to their respective positions, and the small lakeside residence settled back into its usual peace.
Fu Xi Yan saw Pei Yuan Jin take out a silk handkerchief, wet it with rainwater gathered on the leaves, and use it to wipe the blood from his sword. Finding the scene rather elegant, Fu Xi Yan brought over a palm-leaf fan and sat nearby, fanning himself, watching, and chatting.
He asked, “Who do you think was behind those paper figures?”
Pei Yuan Jin said calmly, “Who else can openly use Puppet Arts under Senior Master Song’s nose?” He had narrowed the suspects directly down to one person.
Fu Xi Yan’s expression tightened. His gaze became complicated, and only after a long time did he say, “Doesn’t the Master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror ever control his own people?”
If Fu Xi Yan were not certain he had arranged this journey independently, he would almost suspect that they had somehow signed up for the same tour group as Mo Xiao Ran and Song Qi Yun. First they met in Northern Zhou, then again in Southern Yu. What kind of cursed fate lasting eight lifetimes was this?
Pei Yuan Jin said, “When ascension is involved, Shi Yi Ming may not remain entirely upright.”
That was an extremely severe judgment.
After Mo Xiao Ran married into the family, the Immortal Treasury Palace and the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror had gone their separate ways, but the Palace had still maintained a certain degree of respect for Shi Yi Ming, Master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror. Now, however, his son-in-law and disciple had repeatedly appeared and seemed intent on stirring the world into chaos. That respect was plainly thinning by the day.
Looking at the righteous and imposing Young Master Pei beside him, Fu Xi Yan secretly felt fortunate. If the person he had become bound to that day had belonged to some other martial faction rather than being Pei Yuan Jin, he might now be forced to help a tyrant commit evil.
Pei Yuan Jin misunderstood the meaning in his gaze and assumed he had grown afraid. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked you what you think of the new city.”
Naturally… he could not stand it.
Fu Xi Yan had wanted to voice his opinion for a long time. He immediately said, “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to survive. But murdering innocent people for your own sake means you’re no longer walking a path to ascension. You’re walking a blood-soaked path of slaughter. No country’s laws should ever tolerate murderers.”
Pei Yuan Jin was very satisfied by his answer.
Fu Xi Yan asked in return, “I still don’t know what your father thinks.”
Everything they currently believed about the Immortal Treasury Palace’s position had been inferred from the Spirit Sect’s reactions. In reality, the Immortal Treasury Palace had never once stated that it intended to interfere with the new city. What if Pei Xiong Ji was ultimately just an ordinary old man facing the pressure of his own death?
Pei Yuan Jin lifted the newly restored, gleaming Crimson Dragon King and gently wiped a droplet of water from its blade with one finger. “I received a letter from Uncle Jing this morning.”
Fu Xi Yan immediately perked up. “What did he say?”
He then realized the question was unnecessary. Pei Yuan Jin’s attack on Qin Xiao Xun had already made his own position opposite the Spirit Sect perfectly clear.
Sure enough, Pei Yuan Jin said, “The game at the new city begins in seven days. My father has already left seclusion and is heading there to stop it. We need to leave Lin’an as soon as possible.”
Fu Xi Yan had not expected the timetable to be so tight. He blurted, “Where are we going?”
Pei Yuan Jin slowly gave him two words. “Rongcheng.”
The regent had died in Lin’an, but his son Qin Zhao remained entrenched around Rongcheng with troops under his command. Using the slogans that Qin Xiao Xun had “seized the throne illegitimately” and “persecuted loyal ministers,” he openly stood against the imperial court.
The enemy of one’s enemy was a friend.
At a time like this, Rongcheng was undoubtedly far safer for them than either Jinling or the new city.
From how readily Pei Yuan Jin answered, Fu Xi Yan knew he had planned this long ago. He looked at him resentfully. “No wonder you fought so happily today. You could’ve warned me.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “I wanted to test the cards in the emperor’s hand.” Now that they had confirmed the Southern Yu emperor, Wu Xuan Yin, and the Spirit Sect were all on one side, their future movements would inevitably be obstructed by both factions. Naturally, Pei Yuan Jin needed to know what they were holding.
Fu Xi Yan’s fan stopped. “And the result?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Difficult.”
…
Fair enough.
Wu Xuan Yin. Song Qi Yun. Mo Xiao Ran.
Any one of them was enough to cause a headache. Unfortunately, all three had appeared at once.
Seeing the worry on Fu Xi Yan’s face, Pei Yuan Jin comforted him. “Don’t worry. Someone will come to meet us.”
Fu Xi Yan asked curiously, “Who?”
Pei Yuan Jin gave him a name. Fu Xi Yan did not dare admit he had no idea who that was, so he merely arranged his face into an expression of confusion.
Pei Yuan Jin fell silent for a moment. “Do you know my father’s name?”
“Pei Xiong Ji.” Fu Xi Yan answered without the slightest hesitation!
Pei Yuan Jin nodded, finally looking somewhat reassured.
＊
After the heavy rain, Lin’an enjoyed two consecutive clear days, and the temperature slowly began climbing again.
From early morning onward, crowds surged around the city gates. People entered and left without pause, creating an image of complete peace.
For ordinary people who spent every day dealing with firewood, rice, oil, and salt, their own lives already contained enough hardships. Where would they find the energy to concern themselves with affairs among those above them? Information in this era did not flow anything like it had in Fu Xi Yan’s previous life. Ordinary people had neither the channels to understand such events nor any real way to participate in them.
Fu Xi Yan stood on the street watching the people of Lin’an living and working in peace, then thought of the people several hundred li away in the new city. The world suddenly seemed terribly fractured. Under the same sky, within the borders of the same country, people could face completely different fates.
Yet such fractures existed in every era.
Just as in Fu Xi Yan’s previous life: within the same country, an ordinary existence could collapse into displacement and misery because of a war; on the same continent, separated only by a national border, one side could be filled with birdsong and flowers while the other lay poor and desolate; even within one city, someone might be celebrating in heaven while another struggled in hell.
Some people attributed all of it to luck in choosing one’s reincarnation. Yet looking through history, the peaceful and beautiful lives people enjoyed in the present often concealed behind them some unbearable past.
Peace and happiness had never been innate. They were achievements created by human effort.
Humanity had never surrendered to the world. People struggled against Heaven, fought the earth, and battled every kind of disaster, disease, and suffering. Not merely to live, but to live beautifully—to live magnificently!
Pei Yuan Jin watched Fu Xi Yan stare at the street for a while. Then, without caring whether people were around or whether the ground was dirty, Fu Xi Yan sat down cross-legged right there and entered meditation. When Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang returned from shopping, they saw their Young Master standing powerfully beside Young Madam like a guardian deity. Every passerby who approached automatically quickened his pace and detoured around them.
This time, Fu Xi Yan remained in meditation even longer than before.
Daylight faded into night. Shops opened and closed. Pedestrians went from filling the street to disappearing entirely. Night patrols passed down the road several times and watched with their own eyes as a chubby young man remained seated on the ground without moving, while a cold and handsome young man sat beside him, leisurely drinking tea. No one knew how many times the kettle had been boiled, how many cups he had drunk, or whether tea could possibly fill his stomach. They only knew he never moved from his place.
When Fu Xi Yan awoke, the darkness was just beginning to retreat. The eastern horizon had not yet whitened. The sky was a faintly luminous lead-gray, signaling that the city was about to awaken from sleep.
Pei Yuan Jin put down his teacup and helped Fu Xi Yan up with one hand. “Let’s go.”
Fu Xi Yan felt wonderfully light all over, but his mind was still immersed in the profound experience and had not fully returned to reality. He followed Pei Yuan Jin for a while before belatedly looking back toward where he had been sitting.
“How long was I there?”
“One day and one night.”
Fu Xi Yan sighed in relief. He had been afraid he would close his eyes, open them again, and discover seven days had passed. “Hey, do you think there might be something wrong with my body?”
Pei Yuan Jin immediately stopped and frowned. “Where do you feel uncomfortable?”
Fu Xi Yan complained, “Who enters meditation anytime and anywhere like this?” What if he suddenly had an emotional revelation in the middle of fighting an enemy and immediately sat down cross-legged? Wouldn’t that be delivering his own head from a thousand li away?
Pei Yuan Jin’s expression became indescribable.
For a martial artist, encountering one or two opportunities in an entire lifetime to enter enlightenment because of something seen in the world was already evidence of exceptional talent. Someone like Fu Xi Yan, who experienced it again after only a few days, might not be impossible for anyone in the future—but there had certainly never been anyone like him before.
And yet he was complaining.
Pei Yuan Jin had feelings for him and could therefore restrain his tongue. Shou Nan Shan had no such concern, especially now that Fu Xi Yan had implicitly accepted the identity of Young Madam. He immediately abandoned all concern about protecting him, jumped out from the shadows, and said, “Indeed, nobody enters meditation anytime and anywhere. So anyone who can enter meditation anytime and anywhere probably shouldn’t be counted as human.”
Fu Xi Yan was choked speechless. He poked the person beside him. “Does this count as insubordination?”
Pei Yuan Jin dispensed justice impartially. “It counts as speaking the truth out of loyalty.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
＊
Far too many people had witnessed Fu Xi Yan suddenly enter enlightenment and meditate in the street. Naturally, word soon reached the Southern Yu imperial palace, which had been closely monitoring their movements.
As always, Qin Xiao Xun first finished handling the day’s government affairs before listening to news unrelated to official business.
Because of Wu Xuan Yin, he had spent some effort learning about the martial world and martial arts. Hearing that Fu Xi Yan had entered enlightenment in the middle of the street, he frowned slightly. “We remember that after Fu Xi Yan cultivated true essence, he made no further progress at all and was a complete martial-arts waste. How did he suddenly begin improving by leaps and bounds?”
Ever since Fu Xi Yan’s name became bound together with Pei Yuan Jin’s, his entire life history had been placed on the Southern Yu emperor’s desk. After Fu Xi Yan entered Lin’an, Qin Xiao Xun had deliberately taken it out and read it again. He remembered every detail very clearly. Before Fu Xi Yan met Pei Yuan Jin, he truly had been a complete failure in martial arts.
Since Pei Yuan Jin’s group entered Lin’an, the Vice Minister of Rites had been responsible for receiving them, so he continued monitoring their later movements as well.
However, he was ultimately a civil official. Faced with the emperor’s question, he could only reason according to his own logic. “I have heard that Pei Yuan Jin’s martial art is highly unusual and that only someone who has taken Harmonized Yang Pills can dual-cultivate with him. Fu Xi Yan happens to accompany Pei Yuan Jin everywhere, and their daily life resembles that of an ordinary married couple. This subject ventures to guess that perhaps the two are already dual-cultivating.”
Qin Xiao Xun had considered the same possibility. “But Senior Master Song told Us that Pei Yuan Jin’s cultivation remains at the Dao-Entry Stage.”
The Vice Minister of Rites had an explanation for that as well. “Perhaps he wishes to advance alongside Fu Xi Yan?”
Qin Xiao Xun felt there was some logic to this and temporarily set the question aside. “What did they buy yesterday?”
The Vice Minister replied, “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, fabric… ordinary household necessities. It looks as though they intend to stay for a long time.”
After Pei Yuan Jin had dared attack him so ruthlessly only a few days earlier, Qin Xiao Xun refused to believe he had obediently decided to remain. But asking the Vice Minister of Rites any further was like asking directions from a blind man. It would only waste time.
He waved the minister away, then summoned the young eunuch and told him to invite Senior Master Song.
This young eunuch was the same one whose long claws had been exposed while fighting Fu Xi Yan. He was one of the Four Great Protectors the Spirit Sect had assigned to safeguard the emperor. His name was Jin Tan. After entering the palace, he had followed local custom and changed it to “Xiao Jin Zi.”
Of the other three Protectors, two had been seriously injured while fighting Pei Yuan Jin and were still recuperating in bed. The remaining old man was the leader of the Protectors and was known as Elder Wei.
In his youth, Elder Wei had been the chief of a bandit stronghold. Later, when the Spirit Sect rose to power and Southern Yu made it the state religion, it began helping the court suppress banditry throughout the country. Seeing that the situation was turning against him, Elder Wei decisively led his men to surrender. Because his martial arts were strong, the Spirit Sect accepted him. Using the connections he had accumulated during his bandit years, he then led the Spirit Sect in destroying many of his former greenwood comrades and climbed steadily upward to his current position.
Unfortunately, he still carried a strong bandit air. The emperor disliked him and therefore did not keep him as a personal guard.
Xiao Jin Zi trotted off to fetch the guest. Before long, Song Qi Yun leisurely entered, still wearing that somewhat ridiculous chubby-child mask. Compared with his attitude toward Northern Zhou’s Emperor Jianhong, Wang Yu, he treated Qin Xiao Xun far more casually. Perhaps in his heart, he regarded him merely as a child and therefore felt neither much caution nor much respect.
Qin Xiao Xun had seen this attitude far too often before ascending the throne and had long grown accustomed to it. The fact that he had survived until today meant he already possessed his own set of survival methods. Sometimes being underestimated was actually an advantage.
If he and Northern Zhou’s Wang Yu ever sat down and talked one day, perhaps they would discover they had many things in common.
The differences between them, however, were equally obvious—Wang Yu had been overlooked because two excellent peers stood above him, while Qin Xiao Xun had been overlooked because he was simply too young. That distinction had produced Wang Yu’s contradictory personality of extreme inferiority mixed with extreme arrogance.
Qin Xiao Xun, by contrast, understood perfectly well that every day he grew older was another day people would take him more seriously. Just as now, after he had assumed personal rule, the ministers at court naturally regarded him as their sovereign. Song Qi Yun’s casual, unconscious disregard actually made him feel safer. If the other man ever decided to deal with him, he probably would not put too much thought into it.
“There is something We would like to ask Senior Master Song.”
“Please.”
Qin Xiao Xun said, “What price must We pay for Senior Master Song to take the initiative and capture Pei Yuan Jin, Fu Xi Yan, and their people?” Ever since his meeting with Pei Yuan Jin, the image of that man skewering two people on the Crimson Dragon King like candied hawthorn and walking toward him step by step had repeatedly surfaced in his mind, leaving him deeply uneasy.
After thinking it over again and again, Qin Xiao Xun concluded that someone so dangerous would be far more reassuring under his control.
Song Qi Yun said, “Your Majesty does not fear offending the Immortal Treasury Palace?”
Qin Xiao Xun raised his chin slightly, a trace of unruly pride in his bearing. “We are not Wang Yu. Within Southern Yu, We have the Spirit Sect; outside it, Senior Master Song and Master Mo are assisting Us. If We must still fear one mere martial sect, then We would be living far too wretchedly for an emperor!”
“They have made no move. If Your Majesty strikes first, I fear it may achieve the opposite of what you want.”
Qin Xiao Xun said, “We do not believe that Pei Yuan Jin, a man whose Dao is to advance without retreat, will obediently allow himself to be captured. Shopping in the streets may simply be a way of confusing us into thinking he has abandoned escape while secretly planning something else. We cannot sit by and ignore it. If Senior Master Song acts and succeeds, excellent. If not, keeping Pei Yuan Jin so overwhelmed that he has no attention to spare for anything else would still achieve Our objective.”
Song Qi Yun regarded him with fresh interest.
The young emperor’s methods might be rough and simple, almost like those of a hooligan, but his nerve was considerably stronger than Northern Zhou’s Emperor Jianhong’s.
After some thought, he said, “Your Majesty need not be impatient. As far as I know, the Spirit Sect already has other arrangements.”
Seeing the young emperor’s expression darken, he added, “Or before Your Majesty acts, you might inform Lingyun Palace. Family need not speak as two separate households. Everyone should direct their strength toward the same place.”
Something in that sentence seemed to touch the young emperor. The faint anger in his eyes gave way to a trace of bashfulness.
He nodded with great maturity. “Senior Master Song speaks reasonably.”
He immediately sent a palace servant to deliver a very thick letter.
Most of the letter consisted of diary entries he had written over the past several days. Wu Xuan Yin did not like writing herself, but she loved reading what he wrote and said it was more interesting than storybooks. Thus, he had developed the habit of keeping a diary.
Her reply came quickly.
It contained only two words: “Wait there.”
Even so, it made him happy for a very long time.
But after reading those two words over and over, what remained inside him was an even greater emptiness.
He thought: I can wait. I can keep waiting. I just don’t know how much time I have left to wait like this.
＊
Just before the city gates closed that evening, an inconspicuous carriage quietly entered Lin’an. The guards conducting rigorous inspections at the gate saw the passenger’s identity token and immediately stepped aside with great respect.
Lin’an was Southern Yu’s capital, and countless nobles and important people entered and left every day. Receiving treatment like this meant the person inside the carriage was at minimum a proper third-rank official, perhaps someone even more distinguished.
After entering the city, the carriage continued at the same unhurried pace, showing no intention of speeding up despite the approaching night.
It passed inns and restaurants, traveled all the way to West Lake, circled halfway around it, and finally stopped before an ordinary residence. The driver knocked on the door.
With a creak, the door opened.
Xiao Sang stood behind it.
Because he talked so much, the Phoenix-Roosting Unit had unanimously elected him gatekeeper. Unfortunately, there were rarely any visitors, so his specialty had received almost no opportunity to shine.
“Who are you? Who are you looking for? And why did you wait until evening to come?”
Having gone half the day without finding anyone to talk to, Xiao Sang was nearly suffocating. He fired off an entire string of questions at once. The other person froze, then produced a token.
Xiao Sang recognized the words “Spirit Sect Headquarters” on one side and “Acting Sect Leader’s Authority” on the other. Within the Spirit Sect, possessing such a token was practically equivalent to an imperial plaque declaring As if the sovereign were personally present.
Xiao Sang said, “Even if you’re here on behalf of the Acting Sect Leader, you should at least identify yourself and explain what you want, shouldn’t you?”
He said that aloud, but internally he was a little worried. Wu Xuan Yin, Song Qi Yun, Mo Xiao Ran, Qin Xiao Xun… Their enemy roster in Lin’an was already enormous. Add Ban Qing Yu to it and—well, once you had enough debts, you stopped worrying about adding another.
The driver said nothing and merely lifted the carriage curtain.
Xiao Sang assumed the person inside would climb out. He waited a while, but there was no movement. Unable to resist, he craned his neck to look. When he saw the person inside clearly, he froze. “Who is that?”
That question stunned even the driver.
The driver looked from the passenger to Xiao Sang and back again, seemingly unable to understand how Xiao Sang could possibly fail to recognize him.
The man inside the carriage finally opened his eyes and stared directly at Xiao Sang. In an extremely soft, hoarse voice, he said, “Wind Division… Tan Bu Ju.”
Before joining the Phoenix-Roosting Unit, Xiao Sang had always served under Qi Zhong of the Shaanxi Lightning Division, so naturally he had never met the Haojing Wind Division’s chief manager.
Tan Bu Ju was Elder Tan’s son, however, and Pei Yuan Jin had seen him several times as a child. Naturally he recognized him. Seeing how weak the man looked, Pei Yuan Jin felt an uncontrollable surge of anger.
He had originally assumed that Tan Bu Ju’s capture by the Spirit Sect would amount, at worst, to being forced to remain as a “guest.” The Spirit Sect had no reason to inflict serious harm on him. Apparently, Pei Yuan Jin had still overestimated the deterrence the Immortal Treasury Palace exercised over the rest of the martial world.
Perhaps it had begun when Pei Xiong Ji entered seclusion with the elders. Perhaps even earlier, when the Immortal Treasury Palace failed to destroy the Puppet Path and broke with the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror. Either way, the colossal organization that had once inspired admiration and fear in countless martial artists had been slowly losing the deterrent power it should possess—at least in the eyes of the Spirit Sect, which was itself steadily growing into the next great colossus.
After all, the Immortal Treasury Palace’s Southern Yu branches were truly pitiful.
Pei Yuan Jin summoned a physician to examine Tan Bu Ju. Setting aside the external injuries, his martial arts had been sealed and his body contained a disorderly collection of poisons. According to the physician, the fact that he was still breathing at all was a miracle.
Tan Bu Ju thoroughly demonstrated what it meant to possess extraordinary vitality. The physician prescribed several gentle restorative medicines. His spirits immediately improved—and the moment they did, his mouth became impossible to stop. He began boasting about how heroic and unyielding he had been after the Spirit Sect captured him.
“They knew my father was an elder, so they kept asking me what the elders were doing in seclusion. Ha! If I knew that, I’d be an elder too.”
Xiao Sang applied medicine to his wounds while enthusiastically playing along. “They really were blind.”
“Exactly! I’d already planned my final words. One sentence: I didn’t live this life for nothing!” Tan Bu Ju became too excited and immediately started coughing. After several coughs, blood came up.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Shut your mouth and stay still.”
Everyone else feared him, but Tan Bu Ju did not. He was several years older, and in his eyes Pei Yuan Jin had always been nothing more than an awkward little brother. “Don’t do that. I had to hold my tongue in prison. Now that I’m out, let me talk until I’m satisf—cough, cough cough!”
This was Fu Xi Yan’s first time meeting someone who valued talking more than his own life. He was awestruck.
Pei Yuan Jin asked, “Was the driver who brought you here mute?”
Tan Bu Ju sighed. “Not only mute. Deaf too.”
Xiao Sang suddenly understood why Tan Bu Ju’s eyes had lit up the moment he saw him.
Probably because… Xiao Sang could talk.