The tragedy of Cao E and her father had never occurred in this world, so the Shun River was still called the Shun River. Open sky, broad water, and scattered fishing boats came together into an ordinary yet peaceful scene.
Elio’s Notes: Cao E was a famous Eastern Han filial daughter said to have drowned while searching for her father’s body. In our history, the river associated with her was later known as the Cao’e River; in CU’s alternate history, that tragedy never happened, so it remains the Shun River.
Zhang Wei rowed the little fishing boat they had rented at the last minute. He clumsily spun several circles on the river before finally drawing close to a mengchong warship anchored in midstream.
Several soldiers in leather armor stood aboard the warship, hands never leaving their sabers and eyes never leaving the newcomers. The moment Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin boarded, those gazes locked tightly onto them. Standing in front of the two men, Zhang Wei’s presence naturally shrank by a whole level.
Only after passing through that “formation of stares” did Zhang Wei whisper, “They’re the Prince of Yue’s direct troops, the Iron Saber Battalion.”
His personal troops were here?
Fu Xi Yan suddenly formed a guess about the person they were about to meet.
Two more soldiers stood outside the cabin door. Their armor was inlaid with bronze, so their rank was probably higher than those at the entrance. As they continued inside, Fu Xi Yan discovered that although the vessel did not look large from outside, it held a surprising amount of space. There had to be at least fifty or sixty soldiers aboard.
At the end of the corridor, one door had deliberately been left open. Zhang Wei stopped and said softly, “Young Master, please. Young Madam, please.”
His forms of address drew the attention of the soldiers beside the door. Their cold gazes swept over, making sweat bead faintly on Zhang Wei’s forehead. Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin ignored the silent exchange completely and crossed the threshold with perfect composure.
Forgive their arrogance, but in their eyes, the ship held plenty of people and not a single genuine expert.
Fu Xi Yan had already dismissed his earlier guess, but when he saw the person seated inside the room, he immediately dismissed his dismissal.
If nothing else, the young man before them looked at least fifty or sixty percent like Qin Xiao Xun. His brows and eyes were broader, however, and his features more rugged, giving him the appearance of a scholarly general who could mount a horse and ride into battle at any moment.
The instant Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin entered, the man had already risen from his seat. He was not especially tall, perhaps half a head shorter than Fu Xi Yan, but his presence was formidable. He possessed the strange natural aura of someone who could look up at you while somehow making you feel as though you were looking up at him.
He came forward and cupped his hands. “I, Qin Zhao, have long admired the great name of the Immortal Treasury Palace. To meet you both today is truly my good fortune!”
So it really was Qin Zhao, Prince of Yue!
Fu Xi Yan had guessed correctly, yet he was still startled. The Shun River was a tributary of the Qiantang River, while Lin’an and the Qiantang River had both been famous even in his previous life. For Qin Zhao to come here was practically the same as openly strolling beneath Qin Xiao Xun’s eyelids!
Fu Xi Yan returned the greeting, then praised him. “Your Highness has remarkable courage!”
Qin Zhao accepted the praise calmly. “My father was isolated in the imperial court and faced the Spirit Sect directly, yet he never retreated even half a step. As his son, I cannot let him look down from Heaven and regret that he left no worthy successor. Besides, messages always suffer distortion along the way. If we cannot meet in person even once, I fear both sides will inevitably retain doubts about any future cooperation.”
True. After Qin Xiao Xun’s string of absurd maneuvers, Fu Xi Yan had finally accepted Zhang Wei’s suggestion to meet the Prince of Yue’s envoy. He simply had not expected the “envoy” to be the Prince of Yue himself.
Fu Xi Yan said, “Your Highness coming in person certainly proves your sincerity. But there is one matter I do not understand. The Spirit Sect has operated in Southern Yu for many years and is deeply rooted here. Ban Qing Yu and Wu Xuan Yin are now fighting for control. If Your Highness wishes to oppose Qin Xiao Xun, why not ally with Ban Qing Yu?”
Qin Zhao’s smile vanished. “My father died in the Lin’an imperial palace. I would gladly hack her into a thousand pieces.”
Fu Xi Yan deliberately said, “One who seeks great achievements should not be constrained by trifles.”
Qin Zhao immediately rejected that. “Great principles reveal themselves through small ones. A person who abandons small principles cannot preserve great ones. Besides, Ban Qing Yu and Wu Xuan Yin are jackals of the same lair. Today they turn against each other for power. Tomorrow they may reunite for profit. People so fickle cannot be partners.”
Fu Xi Yan had only just met him and naturally would not be moved by a few sentences. He probed further. “The Immortal Treasury Palace is in a difficult position at present. Is Your Highness not afraid our troubles will drag you down?”
Qin Zhao smiled silently, gestured for them to sit, and personally poured two cups of tea. “The danger posed by the Spirit Sect is obvious to all. A parasite feeds on its host, then turns and devours it… To tell you the truth, with that example before me, I initially wanted nothing to do with jianghu sects. Later I heard that the Immortal Treasury Palace single-handedly saved twenty thousand civilians in the new city. Such chivalry moved me deeply. The jianghu is vast. It contains demons who treat human lives like grass, but also benevolent people who grieve for the suffering of others. If demons can ally with demons, why can the benevolent not ally with the benevolent? My own perspective was too narrow before. That is why I shamelessly invited you here, both to avenge my father and to seek justice for Southern Yu’s innocent people.”
Fu Xi Yan had to admit that Qin Zhao’s confession, first restraining and then uplifting itself, genuinely moved him.
But he glanced at Pei Yuan Jin and thought of the Immortal Treasury Palace’s enormous number of people depending on them, then forced down the impulse. “I’ve met Qin Xiao Xun. Judging from the way he speaks, he doesn’t seem completely deranged.”
Qin Zhao said, “Better to observe a person’s actions than listen to his words. I’m still young and have few achievements to speak of, but my father lived a life worth telling. If you two don’t mind listening, I’ll speak briefly of a few things.”
Fu Xi Yan noticed that Qin Zhao had changed from calling himself “this prince” to simply “I.”
Qin Zhao looked into his cup and sank into memory.
“Back when my father and the late emperor fought over the throne, the Spirit Sect volunteered its support. Their condition was the construction of the new city. My father was upright by nature and could never tolerate harming living beings or treating human lives like weeds. He refused them on the spot and even sent people straight into their stronghold, intending to wipe out those heterodox demons entirely! He devoted himself to destroying the evil sect, but the late emperor took the opportunity to spread rumors accusing my father of hoarding troops and manufacturing war. My grandfather believed the slander, stripped my father of military authority, and soon afterward passed the throne to the late emperor. Only later did my father learn that the Spirit Sect had divided its effort into two routes: one tried to persuade him, while the other colluded with the late emperor. The late emperor agreed to their terms.
“At that point, my father should have returned to Rongcheng, hidden his strength, and become a peaceful prince. But in the end, he could not bear to watch the realm be ruined by the Spirit Sect’s monsters. He used his remaining military power as leverage and stayed in Lin’an as regent. He never stopped worrying about the new city. Before his death, he had already planned an operation to eliminate the traitors. He never imagined the late emperor would use his own death to join forces with the Spirit Sect and kill my father!”
At this point, tears filled Qin Zhao’s fierce eyes. He choked up for a long while before continuing. “He was a hero of his generation, loyal and unyielding, treating the people like his own children, yet he died beneath a stained name. How desolate must his heart have been?”
Fu Xi Yan could not help growing somber as well.
Qin Zhao’s story was naturally moving. Whether every detail was true or only part of it, compared with Qin Xiao Xun and his father, Qin Zhao and the former regent appeared especially noble.
But Fu Xi Yan understood perfectly how dangerous one-sided accounts could be. He did not immediately declare a position and instead asked, “How does Your Highness want to cooperate?”
Today’s words contained performance, but also genuine feeling. Qin Zhao took a deep breath and calmed his emotions.
After the regent died, Qin Zhao became Rongcheng’s pillar and had to carry too many expectations and too much pressure. He could only lock his heart shut and rapidly grow into a king people could rely on, capable of standing alone. Yet who still remembered that he was also a son, a son who had lost his father?
“I once promised my father that I would never imitate the late emperor and raise another state religion. However, my father left many people throughout Southern Yu. If there is anything inconvenient for the two of you to handle, say the word and I will do my best. I ask nothing else from you. I only hope that one day, when your Palace moves against the Spirit Sect, you will let me know. Then I can settle the final account with Qin Xiao Xun!”
The wording was extremely skillful. What Qin Zhao truly feared was the Spirit Sect interfering when he fought Qin Xiao Xun, and what he wanted was for the Immortal Treasury Palace to hold the sect back. Yet he phrased it in reverse, making it sound as though he were handing the initiative entirely to them.
Still, it was good that Qin Zhao possessed schemes of his own. Nobody wanted a stupid partner who only dragged them down.
Fu Xi Yan said, “As it happens, we have two matters we’d like to ask Your Highness to help with.”
He called them two matters, but one of them could actually be unfolded into two separate tasks.
Once Southern Yu issued the wanted notices, the scholars who had seen them finally lost the last trace of hope they still held toward the Southern Yu court. They no longer entertained any fantasies and became completely obedient.
With most of its personnel withdrawn, the Immortal Treasury Palace would have found it difficult to smuggle this group of scholars through Southern Yu’s blockade. But once the task fell into the hands of Qin Zhao, who had inherited countless networks left behind by the former regent, it became extremely simple.
The scholars hid inside wagon after wagon of grain, passed inspections with ease, then transformed into boat workers and boarded seagoing vessels openly and lawfully.
Of course, compared with crossing the sea to Northern Zhou, Rongcheng would actually have been a better destination for them.
These scholars had survived the new city and escaped attempts by both the Spirit Sect and Southern Yu court to silence them. They were living witnesses to the crimes of both powers. In Qin Zhao’s hands, they would inevitably have much greater value.
But cooperation between the Immortal Treasury Palace and Rongcheng had only just begun. Their foundation of trust was still too weak for the Palace to hand over something that important. Sending some subordinate personnel into Rongcheng territory, however, was acceptable.
Most of the Immortal Treasury Palace’s operations in Southern Yu had been concentrated in the eastern regions around Jinling and Lin’an. Rongcheng had only branches of the Wind and Rain Divisions, and neither had been especially well developed. Ying He and Wang Fa Cai volunteered to move there and build them up.
After playing crucial roles in the escape from Lin’an, both men had largely disappeared into the background. They knew that once they boarded the Immortal Treasury Palace’s ship, there was no going back. Ying He had provided the imperial palace’s secret passage, so the young emperor would never forgive him. Wang Fa Cai had taken every piece of wealth he could carry. Both had already prepared themselves to relocate to Northern Zhou.
But cooperation between the Immortal Treasury Palace and Rongcheng offered them a new path.
If Ying He stayed in Rongcheng, all the information and connections he possessed concerning Lin’an would remain useful. Wang Fa Cai could likewise rebuild his businesses through the Prince of Yue’s network. That was far better than starting from nothing in Northern Zhou.
Pei Yuan Jin had never been stingy when rewarding people who earned merit, and he was also trying to change how the Immortal Treasury Palace selected its management. Ying He and Wang Fa Cai each possessed distinct abilities and made good test cases. The two were therefore promoted respectively to Chief Manager of the Wind Division in the Yue region and Chief Manager of the Rain Division in the Yue region. The scope of their authority would rise and fall alongside Qin Zhao’s sphere of influence.
Fu Xi Yan had to admire Pei Yuan Jin’s skill at dangling carrots.
Of Lin’an’s four chief managers, two now had clear destinations. Two remained.
Zhang Wei went without saying. Once his identity as a covert agent was exposed, he could only return to the Palace for a promotion and raise. Shen Bo You, meanwhile, had resolved to return to the Immortal Treasury Palace. As for Zhao Tong Qu… A hot gust of wind carried no coolness, yet it woke many people from their drowsiness.
Elio’s Notes: The supplied raw breaks off after Zhao Tong Qu’s name and jumps directly into the next scene. I’ve preserved the gap rather than inventing missing text.
They opened their eyes wide and sat up, looking toward the rear of the carriage.
They had no idea who was inside, but the horses were running so quickly that something major had clearly happened. Ordinary people possessed their own kind of wisdom. At least when judging certain omens, their instincts could be frighteningly accurate.
The street was hot. Inside the carriage was even hotter.
Especially with a natural furnace sitting beside him. Yet Fu Xi Yan’s chest did not feel stifled in the slightest. Instead, he felt exhilarated. Merely thinking about what he was about to do made the hand gripping Pei Yuan Jin’s tremble faintly with excitement.
Ahead stood the Lin’an Prefectural Office.
His wrist tightened slightly. Meeting Pei Yuan Jin’s curious gaze, Fu Xi Yan leaned over and planted a heavy kiss on the lips that had parted slightly in surprise.
“I’ll start with a little foreplay!”
With that, he released Pei Yuan Jin, slipped agilely out of the carriage, grabbed the whip from beside the driver’s seat, leaned toward the prefectural office, and right in front of the yamen runners cracked the whip around the Petition Drum. He sucked the entire drum toward them and flung it onto the carriage roof.
The runners stared at one another. A moment later they jumped in alarm. “Someone’s stealing the Petition Drum!”
At Lizheng Gate, the imperial guards saw the carriage charging straight toward them. Their expressions changed, and they drew their sabers in unison. “Insolence! Who goes there?”
Fu Xi Yan looked at the towering imperial city. The last time he came here had been at night, sneaking and skulking as though he were the one who could not bear to be seen. In truth, the people who could not bear the light were the ones living inside this palace.
He shifted aside. Pei Yuan Jin threw out a square black box. An arrow immediately pierced straight through it, splitting it apart with a crack. A tremendous rotten stench burst outward as a decaying human head, skewered on the arrow, was nailed firmly through the character “zheng” above the gate.
In the end, Guo Ju Ying had still been beheaded.
It was not that Fu Xi Yan deliberately wanted to torment a corpse. The weather was simply too hot and the body spoiled too quickly to carry. Keeping a head packed in ice was already the absolute limit. Unfortunately, even that ice had melted by the end.
The imperial guards were already rushing forward. Fu Xi Yan flipped onto the carriage roof, kicked the Petition Drum upward, then struck its surface with soft, yielding force. A long, resonant boom rolled out with his fist wind, passing Lizheng Gate, passing South Palace Gate, and echoing through the entire inner palace.
Just as the sound began to fade, Fu Xi Yan projected a thunderous question with true qi.
“Qin Xiao Xun! Southern Yu’s one hundred thousand dead are crying out for justice. Do you dare listen?!”
Dong dong dong dong…
The drum fell to the ground and bounced through a rapid series of booming impacts.
At the same time, the carriage had already charged into the imperial guards’ encirclement. Several steel blades slashed toward the horses, only to be blasted aside by a force like a mountain flood.
Fu Xi Yan used the Air-Stepping Walk, crossed over the guards, and charged directly into the inner palace!
“Roar!”
A Dong let out a beastlike roar and sprang from the densely packed imperial guards. A gleaming golden saber filled his hands. The blade was razor-sharp, and even in the hot weather its descending edge carried a faint chill.
Fu Xi Yan pressed his palms together. The Cloudsilk Gauntlets were soft on the outside and hard within. When the saber edge struck the gloves, it failed to damage them in the slightest. Fu Xi Yan immediately followed the blade down toward the hilt, trying to seize the weapon.
A Dong growled as though offended and gripped the saber even tighter. Fu Xi Yan, however, had only feinted. The moment he felt A Dong pulling with all his strength, Fu Xi Yan released the weapon and let him topple backward under his own force.
More and more imperial guards surged toward them. Fu Xi Yan repeated his earlier tactic, leaping into the air and stepping across spearheads and saber tips as he continued charging inward.
He did not even look back as he advanced.
Because he knew the support behind him was rock solid.
Pei Yuan Jin followed one step behind. The Crimson Dragon King remained pinned firmly in his hair. He merely spread both arms, and the enormous pressure rolling from him made the imperial guards lower their heads one after another, unable even to straighten their backs.
One in front and one behind, the two men fought their way to Funing Palace for the second time.
Qin Xiao Xun sat inside the palace with a livid expression. Zheng Yu stood beside him, gently fanning him. Before the hall stood two brothers with similar faces, none other than the Taoshan brothers, both already at the late phase of the Martial King Stage.
Before they became Martial Kings, the two had already been infamous figures of the unorthodox path. When they fought together, their power doubled and they were almost unbeatable. The only person who had ever defeated them was Shi Yi Ming, master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror.
But that had been many, many years ago.
Years of constant victory had left them rarely regarding anyone as worthy opponents. Hearing that two inexperienced boys who knew neither Heaven nor Earth had dared fight their way into the palace, they merely sneered.
The elder Taoshan brother said, “Someone came to deliver himself to death. Wonderful.”
The younger brother followed, “It’s been far too long since I stretched my muscles.”
Zheng Yu saw both men preparing to leave together and said cautiously, “Why use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken? Great experts, perhaps one of you might remain here and watch the show with His Majesty?”
The elder brother glanced sideways at the younger. The younger looked back at him.
The elder said, “You’re the little brother. Something as fun as fighting should naturally be yielded to your elder brother.”
The younger shook his head. “The elder brother should yield to the younger.”
The elder sneered. “There is order between senior and junior.”
The younger said, “Respect the old and cherish the young.”
The elder brother’s eyes turned. “Fine. Watching is more comfortable anyway. I’m the elder brother, so naturally I should stay.”
The younger immediately grew anxious. “No, the younger brother should be more comfortable. I should stay.”
“Fine, then you stay.” The elder Taoshan brother shot outside at top speed.
The younger froze, then hurried after him. “Brother, wait for me.”
…
Zheng Yu said to Qin Xiao Xun, “A body worth a thousand pieces of gold should not sit beneath a dangerous roof. This old servant begs Your Majesty to withdraw for the moment.”
Qin Xiao Xun said, “Pei and Fu are full of schemes. Moving may be worse than remaining still. I want to see how they break through two Martial Kings!”
Zheng Yu thought for a moment, then said nothing more.
Outside Funing Palace.
Fu Xi Yan seized the Soul-Chasing Chain Zhu Shou Xin had repaired and, during the instant Zhu Shou Xin reeled it back, lunged toward him.
Zhu Shou Xin raised one hand and struck with his palm.
Fu Xi Yan did not dodge. He crashed straight into it.
Zhu Shou Xin’s palm struck Fu Xi Yan’s abdomen, and he immediately felt a strange suction seep from his palm through his meridians, dragging his… At the same moment, a simple thrust of the Crimson Dragon King stirred the surrounding spiritual energy and naturally forced Fu Xi Yan and Zhu Shou Xin apart.
Elio’s Notes: The raw is damaged here as well, cutting off mid-sentence before jumping to Pei Yuan Jin’s sword strike. The missing source text has not been reconstructed.
But by then Zhu Shou Xin’s hair had already turned gray. His entire body looked more than twenty years older, and his eyes had sunk deeply into their sockets. He was still immersed in relief at surviving and had not yet realized how much he had changed.
Fu Xi Yan saw Pei Yuan Jin draw the Crimson Dragon King, planted one hand on the ground, sprang upright, smashed through the doors of Funing Palace, and charged inside.
The imperial guards hurried after him.
Seen from above, it almost looked as though Fu Xi Yan were leading the imperial guards in an assault on Funing Palace.
A Dong followed close behind and suddenly pounced. Fu Xi Yan moved as though he had eyes in the back of his head. Several spins of his feet sent A Dong veering aside.
The door to the hall where Qin Xiao Xun sat had been left open.
Zheng Yu was rushing over, trying to close it.
This was the first time Fu Xi Yan had seen him, but Qin Zhao had introduced him in detail.
“Zheng Yu, the late emperor’s foremost strategist, and the chief culprit behind the alliance with the Spirit Sect.”
Fu Xi Yan threw a punch. Zheng Yu’s body twisted strangely as he tried to evade. Like Wang Yu, Zheng Yu was a hidden martial expert, but unlike Wang Yu…
Wang Yu had been lucky. His martial arts had been more than enough to deal with Liu Yan Sheng after the latter was refined into a King Puppet. Zheng Yu and Fu Xi Yan, however, were both at the Mortal-Shedding Stage.
And Fu Xi Yan had already reached peak Mortal-Shedding Stage!
The essence of the Soft-Gentle Fist was softness like water, penetrating everywhere. Zheng Yu’s footwork might have been bizarre, but in the end he could not escape. The instant Fu Xi Yan’s fist struck his body, Zheng Yu heard his own bones produce a crisp crack.
A dagger slipped soundlessly into his heart.
Fu Xi Yan yanked the dagger out with brutal force while simultaneously evading A Dong’s attack. He did not look at Qin Xiao Xun, but every word was meant for him. “When you treated ordinary people like ants, did you ever imagine that one day, in someone else’s eyes, you would also be nothing but an ant?”
Zheng Yu died quickly. By the time he collapsed, the light had already left his eyes.
Qin Xiao Xun wanted to scream. He wanted to roar.
I am the supreme ruler, lord of ten thousand people. Who dares call me an ant?
But looking at Fu Xi Yan’s calm yet merciless face, Qin Xiao Xun felt as though his voice had been blocked in his throat. Not a single word emerged.
A Dong held Fu Xi Yan back for only a short while before Fu Xi Yan kicked hard enough to break his leg bone and send him collapsing onto one knee.
At that moment, the straight-line distance between Fu Xi Yan and Qin Xiao Xun was less than two zhang. No barrier remained between them.
The three unnamed little arrows Fu Xi Yan had kept hidden until now finally shot forward. The three arrows Duan Qian had given him finally received their name: Nameless.
Those who cried out and released their anger might ultimately be swallowed by the river of history and leave no names behind. But at the very least, they had come, lived, and existed.
As the arrowheads shot toward him, Qin Xiao Xun thought of many things. He thought of Wu Xuan Yin, who had gone to Jinling to seize power from Ban Qing Yu. He thought of the late emperor’s relieved expression on his deathbed when he believed the overall situation settled. He thought of the new city he had never once visited, and also…
All three arrows were swept aside by a palm-leaf fan. The younger Taoshan brother, who had finally remembered his actual mission was to protect the emperor, arrived at the last possible moment. Fu Xi Yan was sent flying out of the palace. The instant he struck the ground, the bones throughout his body shattered violently, but after one wave of terrible pain, they rapidly restored themselves.
The Crimson Dragon King forced back the elder Taoshan brother. Pei Yuan Jin helped Fu Xi Yan to his feet.
Fu Xi Yan looked at the palace that seemed close enough to touch yet once again impossibly far away. Calmly, he said, “Let’s go.”
Killing Zheng Yu had already recovered his cost. As for Qin Xiao Xun’s debt, Ban Qing Yu’s debt, Wu Xuan Yin’s debt… he remembered every one clearly. The day of settlement would come eventually.
Pei Yuan Jin’s body burned like fire, but his face was covered in frost. Taking Fu Xi Yan with him, he leapt into the air. Yet before leaving Funing Palace, he turned and slashed backward. A long rainbow of sword energy cleaved toward the hall, as though intending to split the man seated inside cleanly in two.
For one instant, Qin Xiao Xun stared at that sword energy and felt as though divine punishment had descended from Heaven.
The Taoshan brothers blocked it together.
The sword energy recoiled, struck the ground, and carved a deep scar into the earth!