It was the middle of the night, and they were inside an imperial palace—a place where, since ancient times, nobility and resentment had always coexisted. Hearing the Puppet Path Grandmaster make an appointment for some future day was, frankly, terrifying.
Yet Fu Xi Yan, whose arms had been too tense to lift moments earlier, suddenly released a very long breath.
He let go of Pei Yuan Jin’s hand and wiped his palm against his clothes. “Thank goodness. Thank goodness. He finally left.”
Pei Yuan Jin, however, looked distinctly unhappy. In addition to his usual coldness, there was a faint edge of gritted teeth in his voice. “In three days, you agreed to leave with him?”
Fu Xi Yan thought, What I said was that within three days, Pei Yuan Jin had to escape Southern Yu and reach somewhere safe. Whether a place counts as safe depends on the person judging it. It’s not like Mo Xiao Ran gets the final say. If Pei Yuan Jin meets up with his father by then, Mo Xiao Ran probably won’t even dare show his face.
If there was anyone in the world capable of making Mo Xiao Ran wary, Pei Xiong Ji was undoubtedly number one.
Fu Xi Yan was afraid Mo Xiao Ran might still be nearby, so he did not dare say any of this aloud. He merely blinked meaningfully at Pei Yuan Jin.
Seeing those eyes rolling around, Pei Yuan Jin immediately knew Fu Xi Yan was concocting some crooked little scheme again. Yet he felt very little relief. If he himself were strong enough, Fu Xi Yan would never have needed to resort to these petty tricks.
Fu Xi Yan saw that he was still unhappy and leaned closer to whisper, “Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Every age brings forth new talent, each commanding the brilliance of his era for centuries’?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Then he can keep being brilliant for centuries.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
Wrong move. Completely wrong quotation.
Elio’s Notes: The classical phrase used here contains fengsao, which refers to literary brilliance or distinction in the original verse but can also sound “showy” or “flirtatious” in modern speech. Pei Yuan Jin deliberately takes it in the less dignified sense.
He hurriedly said, “Wait, I have another one. The waves behind on the Yangtze push the waves ahead.”
Pei Yuan Jin lowered his head and looked at him.
Although the night was dark and moonless, once martial arts had reached their level, the amount of light no longer affected their vision much. The Fu Xi Yan in Pei Yuan Jin’s eyes looked no different from usual, except for the faint worry inside those bright, shining eyes. Fu Xi Yan had always been delicate and perceptive. Pei Yuan Jin’s earlier frustration and disappointment had not escaped him. Yet his way of comforting people was equally subtle. He would never tear the other person’s dignity away and speak too bluntly, but somehow his words still achieved their purpose.
Pei Yuan Jin stared at Fu Xi Yan’s slightly moist lips. Even in the darkness, the fine lines on them were clearly visible… It was this mouth, opening and closing, that always produced so many interesting things.
Seeing Pei Yuan Jin staring at his mouth, Fu Xi Yan thought helplessly, Don’t tell me he thinks I’m talking too much again.
“Let’s not talk about this now. We should—”
Pei Yuan Jin suddenly lowered his head and gently pressed his lips against Fu Xi Yan’s.
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
Pei Yuan Jin touched him only briefly before drawing back. He thought, As expected. Very soft.
Perhaps because he had just done something the moment he wanted to do it, his mood improved considerably. Even his steps became noticeably lighter and more relaxed as he continued walking.
Fu Xi Yan remained frozen in place for a moment. He touched his lips as though confirming that the sensation just now had not been an illusion, then slowly hurried after him.
He actually wanted very badly to grab Pei Yuan Jin and demand: What did you just do? Do you know what that was? Why did you do it? Unfortunately, their present environment did not exactly permit the two of them to stage a romance drama while ignoring everyone else.
…
The two of them walked through the dark, starless night in silence for a while.
After what had just happened, they really should not have seemed this distant. Unfortunately, the time and place were both wrong. Who went on a romantic rendezvous in enemy territory and then swaggered around afterward, reluctant for the moment to end? That would be far too disrespectful toward the Southern Yu emperor. Secondly, both of them were complete novices in romance. Fu Xi Yan might possess plenty of experience from watching television dramas, but those usually involved the heroine slapping the hero after a kiss, or the hero becoming addicted after his first taste and leaning in for a second one. Neither option was especially appropriate right now.
And so, what should have been an opportunity for their relationship to advance by leaps and bounds passed with surprising calm because the timing, location, and human circumstances were all wrong.
Later, whenever Fu Xi Yan remembered his first kiss, two words came to mind: dangerous and thrilling.
After all, at any moment they might have been discovered by the Imperial Guard, trapped inside the palace, and caught like turtles in a jar by the emperor—and yet they had kissed anyway. If there had been scrolling comments floating across the scene at the time, Fu Xi Yan suspected many viewers would have been yelling that they had lost their minds.
As they walked, they eventually reached the entrance of Funing Palace.
Ying He had been unable to discover exactly which room the emperor slept in. Emperors had valued their lives since ancient times. Especially in this world, a young emperor who knew no martial arts could only reduce an assassin’s chances of success by frequently changing sleeping quarters.
But that was not their only problem.
There was also the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard, whom they had yet to encounter. According to Ying He, the two commanders had very different habits while on night duty. The Commander liked wandering throughout the entire palace, while the Deputy Commander generally remained close to the emperor.
Although the Deputy Commander was only at the Mortal-Shedding Stage, he had spent part of his childhood being raised by wild beasts and possessed extraordinarily sharp hearing and eyesight. Before coming here, Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin had already agreed that Fu Xi Yan would hold him back while Pei Yuan Jin captured the young emperor.
There was only one word that mattered in this battle: speed.
Therefore, when they burst into Funing Palace and every door in the complex flew open as a group of Imperial Guards who had been lying in ambush rushed out, neither Fu Xi Yan nor Pei Yuan Jin panicked very much. These guards had not foreseen tonight’s operation and set a trap specifically for them. They had simply been waiting here all along for someone to walk into it.
The Deputy Commander was a rugged man. His childhood years surviving in the wilderness had left him with a lonely, untamed wildness that set him apart from everyone else.
He did not even bother shouting useless questions such as “Who goes there?” The instant they met, he had already lunged forward. Like a wild animal seizing prey, he was fast, ruthless, and precise.
Fu Xi Yan met him head-on.
He had spent plenty of time sparring with Xiao Sang, Xiao Zhang, and the others recently, and his combat experience had grown considerably. He no longer possessed the panic he had felt in his earliest fights. After living two lifetimes, Fu Xi Yan had always followed the principle of treating others kindly. Fighting and brawling had once been extremely distant things to him.
But now that he made his living in the jianghu, he had to adapt to its savage rules: when two opponents met on a narrow road, the brave prevailed, and strength commanded respect.
He thought that even in science-fiction settings where technological civilization had advanced into the interstellar age, humans still fought and killed aliens. Evidently, world peace was an unrealistic dream in every era.
His mind was wandering through completely unrelated thoughts, yet his hands and feet never slowed. His efficiency in handling danger was far better than it had been when he served as a prison officer in Northern Zhou. One somersault and one twist carried him cleanly out of the Deputy Commander’s attack range.
The instant the Deputy Commander landed, he launched a second attack, while the Imperial Guards pouring out around him coordinated to close the encirclement.
It resembled a massive hunt.
Relying on Shattered Stars, Lingering Shadows, Fu Xi Yan weaved through the crowd. The movement art Pei Yuan Jin had given him truly was one of the finest techniques of the age: fast, strange, and almost impossible to predict.
Yet Fu Xi Yan knew this hunt was still only small-scale. The larger one was coming afterward.
Now that they had been discovered here, the rest of the Imperial Guard would inevitably swarm toward them. Ying He had calculated the timing for them beforehand. At most, they had one quarter-hour. If they still had not captured the young emperor by then, this imperial city would become one enormous prison.
Pei Yuan Jin had already left the battlefield at the first opportunity and begun searching Funing Palace. There were secret tunnels inside the imperial palace, so from the instant the guards rushed out, Pei Yuan Jin had been filtering through the surrounding noise for any unusual sounds inconsistent with the present chaos.
Yet until now, besides the sounds of Fu Xi Yan fighting the guards, he had heard nothing else. There were three possible explanations. First, the emperor had not slept here tonight at all. Second, the emperor’s quarters contained some treasure that blocked sound. Third, the emperor had already entered a secret tunnel.
Suddenly, a chain shot out of the darkness.
The Soul-Chasing Chain. An extremely old-fashioned name, yet it was the weapon that had made the Commander of Southern Yu’s Imperial Guard famous. Unfortunately, a weapon that caused countless people in the jianghu to pale merely upon hearing its name had barely appeared before the Crimson Dragon King cut it cleanly in half.
Pei Yuan Jin did not even stop after severing it. One step carried him upward, and he rose into the air. With a light strike of one palm, enormous internal force roared forward. The palace hall before him seemed to be crushed beneath a giant boulder and collapsed by half with a thunderous crash.
The Commander charged forward holding the remaining half of the Soul-Chasing Chain. A metal ball the size of a fist hung from one end, and he smashed it fiercely toward Pei Yuan Jin’s back.
Pei Yuan Jin turned his sword behind him. The metal ball struck the blade with a sharp clang. Red light flashed across the Crimson Dragon King, and the iron ball actually began glowing red, showing signs of melting.
The Commander hurriedly withdrew the chain.
His Soul-Chasing Chain was ultimately nothing more than an ordinary iron weapon. There was no comparison whatsoever between it and the Heaven-grade Crimson Dragon King. In the past, he had relied on his own martial arts and the authority of the Southern Yu court to sweep aside everyone in his path. Naturally, he had never thought of replacing it. Now that he had encountered a genuinely powerful enemy, however, he had suffered a spectacular setback.
During his brief hesitation, Pei Yuan Jin had already leapt onto another row of buildings. One sword stroke fell, splitting the roof into a long trench. The beautiful palace instantly became little more than walls open to the sky.
Unfortunately, there was no trembling young emperor hiding inside.
Before Pei Yuan Jin could begin the next round of architectural destruction, three figures landed on the rooftop.
Besides the Commander from earlier, Xiao Jin Zi and Elder Wei—both of whom Pei Yuan Jin had encountered beside West Lake—had arrived as well. The three attacked from three directions, forming a stable triangle around him.
The Commander might have suffered terribly in the contest of weapons, but he was still an expert at the Dao-Entry Stage. Even without his weapon, he firmly believed his martial arts could not be that far behind Pei Yuan Jin’s.
Xiao Jin Zi’s claws, the Commander’s fists, Elder Wei’s palms—the three attacked Pei Yuan Jin barehanded. They might have been disadvantaged in weaponry, but they possessed the advantage in numbers.
One advantage offset the other. Even with the Crimson Dragon King in hand, no matter which direction Pei Yuan Jin attacked, his back would inevitably be exposed to another opponent.
After splitting apart the eaves with one stroke, Pei Yuan Jin’s momentum had not yet been exhausted. He tilted the blade slightly and swept sideways with the remaining force, drawing a diagonal arc that forced Xiao Jin Zi and the Commander to evade in opposite directions.
Behind him, Elder Wei’s palm was only a few cun from his back.
A faint hum suddenly sounded. A tiny crimson sword circled through the air and slipped into the space between Elder Wei’s palm and Pei Yuan Jin’s back from an extremely strange angle. Its slender point faced Elder Wei’s hand and even trembled slightly, as though it were frightened.
If Elder Wei completed the palm strike, he might smash the miniature sword to pieces and continue on to strike Pei Yuan Jin. Or the little sword might pierce straight through his palm. No one would know until his hand actually came down.
Yet to anyone observing, the second possibility was obviously far greater than the first. The sword contained neither sword intent nor killing intent. It seemed almost as though it had wandered here accidentally, taken a wrong turn, and then become too frightened to move.
That was precisely what made it so strange.
In the middle of a battle among four top experts, a sword containing absolutely no sword qi was somehow flying through the air… Elder Wei could think of only one explanation: the Puppet Path.
And there was only one person inside this imperial palace connected to the Puppet Path—the Grandmaster Mo Xiao Ran.
Elder Wei withdrew his palm.
He had survived until this age precisely because he understood when to advance and when to retreat. He did not know why Mo Xiao Ran would do such a thing, but the relationships among the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror, the Puppet Path, the Spirit Sect, and the Southern Yu court existed at a level he had neither the qualification nor the desire to meddle in.
Pei Yuan Jin, who had already prepared himself to take the palm strike head-on, had not expected Elder Wei to withdraw halfway. He immediately seized the opening and escaped the three-man encirclement, sword pointed toward the ground as he stood ready. The tiny chicken-blood-stone sword followed and floated before him. It was small, yet the posture it adopted was simultaneously fierce and absurdly cute—exactly like its owner.
Pei Yuan Jin’s gaze involuntarily shifted toward Fu Xi Yan, who was surrounded by Imperial Guards.
Fu Xi Yan had just divided his attention to use the Object-Commanding Art and send the little sword to rescue Pei Yuan Jin, making his own situation even more difficult. More and more Imperial Guards continued to arrive from every direction. The open ground before Funing Palace was almost packed with people.
Fu Xi Yan even entertained the childish thought that if he could hide inside a crack in the ground, perhaps all these people would turn into headless flies, buzzing around chaotically until they caused a stampede.
Thinking that, he decided to try something similar.
He did not literally crawl into a crack or lower himself into the dust. Instead, he crouched low and rolled around the guards’ feet like a ball.
It became immediately obvious that if these Imperial Guards had played football in Fu Xi Yan’s previous life, spectators would have booed them mercilessly for their dreadful footwork. Fu Xi Yan rolled around among them for quite a while and was only kicked twice—and even those had been accidental. If they had genuinely meant to kick him, the result would undoubtedly have been different.
Fu Xi Yan found a way to survive by exploiting everyone’s blind spots, while Pei Yuan Jin’s situation also became considerably easier. Elder Wei was now overly cautious, drastically reducing the power of their three-man combination. With the Crimson Dragon King clearing his path, Pei Yuan Jin looked ready to dismantle Funing Palace piece by piece.
Suddenly, the sound of a porcelain vase shattering came from a small resting chamber attached to one of the side halls. Through the doors and windows, surrounded by all the shouting and clashing weapons, the sound was not particularly conspicuous.
But it was the signal Pei Yuan Jin had been waiting for.
He abruptly leapt upward. When his eyes closed and opened again, they had turned crimson. Flames covered his entire body, and even the Crimson Dragon King burned fiercely. Amid the dense black mass of people below, he shone like a god of fire.
In the next instant, he swung eighteen times, almost simultaneously sending eighteen sword strikes in eighteen directions.
Elder Wei and the other two stood closest and therefore dodged fastest. The Imperial Guards farther away, however, had packed tightly together while surrounding Fu Xi Yan and could not evade in time. Those struck by the sword qi were not merely wounded—their injuries even emitted the scorched smell of charred meat.
Eighteen sword strikes opened eighteen paths, and cries of pain rose along every one of them.
Fu Xi Yan seized the opportunity to burst from the encirclement and rush toward Pei Yuan Jin.
Pei Yuan Jin reached out, pulled him forward, and caught him in his arms before charging toward the small chamber where the vase had shattered.
Their chosen direction made Elder Wei and the other two pause.
They knew perfectly well that the emperor had not slept in that room last night.
So why were Pei Yuan Jin and Fu Xi Yan going there?
Were they generously giving everyone the chance to surround the room from every side?
With that doubt in mind, the three did not pursue too closely. Only after both Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin had rushed inside—and even shut the door behind them—did the three cautiously close in.
The Deputy Commander arrived a step later and demanded angrily, “Why didn’t you stop them?”
The Commander had long grown accustomed to his deputy’s complete lack of respect for rank. He said calmly, “Surround the place. I’ll ask His Majesty whether we can simply set a fire and smoke them out.”
“A fine plan,” Elder Wei said, nodding while warily watching his surroundings. He was genuinely afraid that the Puppet Path Grandmaster might suddenly change sides completely and intervene to save them.
The Commander turned to seek the emperor’s permission. Xiao Jin Zi followed him and asked with some anticipation, “I wonder whether Pei Yuan Jin’s Extreme Yang Sacred Body is fireproof.”
That particular question…
Would probably not receive an answer anytime soon.
In truth, after Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin rushed into the room, it was Xiao Zhang who closed the door behind them.
Inside the small chamber, beside the shattered vase, the couch the emperor normally used for resting had been overturned. Beneath its raised wooden platform lay a pitch-black passage. Everyone filed into it, then restored the tunnel entrance behind them.
They had not gone far before they saw the young emperor standing coldly among the members of the Hidden Dragon Unit.
There were also two unfamiliar faces, both already restrained. They could only use their expressions to reveal the anger and frustration inside them.
Only after seeing Qin Xiao Xun did Fu Xi Yan finally release half the breath he had been holding. “We’ve got him. Now the question is how we get out.”
Qin Xiao Xun sneered. “Even if you escape the imperial palace through this tunnel, you will never escape Southern Yu!”
Fu Xi Yan ignored him and began praising the Hidden Dragon and Phoenix-Roosting Units. In reality, the crucial part of the entire operation had been whether they could intercept the emperor inside the secret tunnel. Once that step succeeded, more than half the plan was already complete.
The members of the two units did not dare claim credit.
Compared with Pei Yuan Jin and Fu Xi Yan drawing all the attention outside and ultimately frightening the emperor into retreating into the tunnel, what they had done was truly insignificant. Moreover, the genuinely decisive factor had been knowing that this passage—dug when the Southern Yu imperial palace was first constructed—even existed.
The greatest credit belonged to Ying He.
Pei Yuan Jin had originally been rather dissatisfied with Ying He, almost to the point of looking down on him. After spending this period in Lin’an, however, he had discovered that Ying He was exceptionally gifted at gathering intelligence. Putting him in charge of the Wind Division truly counted as making proper use of talent.
Earlier, it had been Ying He who discovered that the emperor was repeatedly urging the Ministry of Justice to send prisoners to the new city, allowing Pei Yuan Jin to confirm that Qin Xiao Xun had not fallen out with Wu Xuan Yin at all and was secretly helping her instead. Now Ying He had not only smuggled them into the imperial palace but accurately identified the location of the secret tunnel as well. His contribution could hardly have been greater.
Their feet never stopped moving, and neither did their mouths.
Xiao Sang had especially many questions. “Young Master and Young Madam got here so quickly. Did Chief Manager Shou lure both Mo Xiao Ran and Song Qi Yun away?” In his understanding, if even one of those two had remained in the imperial palace, this operation could never have proceeded so smoothly.
Fu Xi Yan’s eyes rolled. “Mo Xiao Ran was there. He even pointed us in the right direction.”
Xiao Sang said, “Huh? Isn’t he allied with the Southern Yu Spirit Sect? But he’s managing the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror now, and the Immortal Treasury Palace has always had a good relationship with the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror. Looks like there’s still some friendship left after all.”
A faint sneer curled at Qin Xiao Xun’s lips, as though he did not believe the attempt to sow discord in the slightest. Fu Xi Yan, however, firmly believed the emperor’s heart was nowhere near as calm as his face suggested. Perhaps a tiny version of him was already screaming wildly inside.
The thought nearly made Fu Xi Yan laugh. Xiao Sang’s ability to mislead people was honestly no worse than his own. Keeping such a talent hidden in the shadows seemed almost wasteful.
Xiao Sang said, “But the most amazing thing was still Young Master and Young Madam working together and scaring the emperor straight into the secret tunnel.”
This stage had looked dangerous, but after careful analysis, the probability of success was actually quite high.
The first issue was confirming where the emperor would be tonight. A crafty rabbit had three burrows, and an emperor might sleep in a different palace. Ying He had nevertheless gritted his teeth and insisted the probability was low. The deployment of the Imperial Guard had been calculated extremely carefully, and changing it required time. Ying He was confident that if the deployment changed, he would hear something. Nor could the emperor simply set up an obvious decoy while secretly moving elsewhere. If anyone who knew his genuine location turned traitor while he was staying somewhere with weaker security, the consequences would be disastrous.
The second step was forcing him into the secret tunnel.
Pei Yuan Jin’s destruction of the palace buildings had looked like a search. In reality, he had been driving the emperor toward the tunnel like chasing a mouse into its hole.
Fu Xi Yan had been reasonably confident about this part as well. In his previous life, he had genuinely seen news reports about presidents retreating into underground bunkers at the slightest sign of major danger. Evidently, political leaders everywhere possessed fairly similar instincts when threatened.
Next came Xiao Sang and the others breaking the vase as a signal so Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin could withdraw toward them.
Of course, the two crucial conditions that allowed them to gamble on this entire sequence were, first, that Wu Xuan Yin had left, and second, that they still possessed one hidden card.
If the plan failed, the worst outcome would merely be returning to the original situation and continuing to hole up beside West Lake.
Fortunately, everything had gone as hoped.
Their side was practically celebrating, while Qin Xiao Xun’s expression was extremely ugly.
From the scattered bits and pieces he had heard, he had already reconstructed the truth behind the operation. Without question, his greatest mistake had been sending the strongest people around him outside while retreating into the tunnel with only two bodyguards whose loyalty was absolute.
Naturally, he had possessed perfectly sufficient reasons for making that choice.
First, and most importantly, he had firmly believed that the existence of this secret passage could not possibly have leaked.
Second, the two peak-Vajra experts beside him had been personally trained by his father and were absolutely loyal. Their martial arts were more than sufficient to handle ordinary assassins.
Finally—and this was the main reason that had driven his decision—he did not trust the Spirit Sect.
Although the Southern Yu imperial family had personally agreed to establish the new city, the Spirit Sect had not explained its true purpose at the beginning. Only after Wu Xuan Yin helped Qin Xiao Xun ascend the throne did Ban Qing Yu reveal the truth. By then, both Jinling and the new city were under the Spirit Sect’s control. The wood had already become a boat; whether Qin Xiao Xun agreed or not no longer mattered.
Furthermore, the outside rumors were not entirely false. Ban Qing Yu and Wu Xuan Yin genuinely did not get along. Everyone believed Wu Xuan Yin had abandoned sect affairs because she was consumed by romance, never realizing that long before she met Qin Xiao Xun, Ban Qing Yu had already pushed her to the margins of the Spirit Sect.
Ban Qing Yu was ambitious and had never intended to support Southern Yu’s legitimate imperial line. The Spirit Sect’s original stance had not been to help Qin Xiao Xun at all. Instead, it had hoped to play both sides, maintaining internal conflict within Southern Yu so that the Spirit Sect could reap the benefits while others fought.
Later, it was entirely because Wu Xuan Yin ignored the condition of her own body and made a decisive move at the crucial moment—killing the regent and intimidating the rebel army—that she created the appearance that the Spirit Sect supported Qin Xiao Xun. That forced Ban Qing Yu to sever ties with Rongcheng.
Yet Qin Xiao Xun’s covert struggle with Ban Qing Yu had never ended.
The Baize spy network was another example. Everyone beneath Heaven believed it belonged to the Southern Yu court, but that was not true. The Spirit Sect had built the entire network itself. Qin Xiao Xun could not touch so much as a fraction of it.
Therefore, shortly after taking the throne, Qin Xiao Xun had used the excuse of striking against the Northern Zhou court to expose the network through the incident involving the Jiangling Prefect.
With all of that in mind, it was no wonder that the instant he came under attack tonight, he had sent Xiao Jin Zi and Elder Wei outside. He had to guard against the possibility that Ban Qing Yu might exploit the chaos to kill him, blame the Immortal Treasury Palace, and churn Southern Yu’s muddy waters into complete disorder.