The Imperial Guard abruptly withdrew, and the jianghu figures who had sided with the Southern Yu court scattered like frightened birds and beasts. This entire chain of events had unfolded after a single glance beneath the sedan curtain from Zhu Shou Xin.
What exactly had happened inside the sedan?
Aside from Zhu Shou Xin and the people inside, probably no one knew. Even Chai Mi, the famous “Six-Eyed Divine Detective,” could only crouch in his treehouse, watch from afar, and speculate cautiously.
After most people had left the drill ground, he still did not move. He silently watched He Si Yu and Fu Xi Yan, who had only just fought side by side, openly fight each other as though no one else existed, then end the bout almost immediately.
He had thought his hiding place was excellent. It was only when Fu Xi Yan was leaving and waved toward him that he realized his concealment had never escaped the other man’s eyes.
Chai Mi hesitated, then finally climbed down from the treehouse and cupped his hands toward them.
He had risen to become Chief Constable of the Six Doors not only because of his outstanding ability, but because when he was young, his blood had once burned hot. Perhaps even today, it had never completely cooled.
Seeing him respond, Fu Xi Yan circled back and asked, “Did you see what happened inside the sedan?”
Chai Mi was somewhat surprised that Fu Xi Yan had come over to speak with him. The drill ground was surrounded by who knew how many of the emperor’s eyes and ears. After Pei Yuan Jin had killed the Taoshan brothers and Wu Xuan Yin one after another, any interaction with the two of them could easily be mistaken for betrayal.
But Wu Xuan Yin had died on the drill ground. The emperor’s thunderous fury was inevitable. Zhu Shou Xin’s return to the palace would likely bring disaster rather than fortune, and was Chai Mi himself really any different?
Life and death were already in Heaven’s hands. Why not let his words follow his heart?
He answered, “No.”
Fu Xi Yan looked disappointed, but Chai Mi added, “The Imperial Guards aren’t good at carrying sedan chairs. Their steps were unsteady, but they moved very fast. I couldn’t see clearly.”
After saying that, Chai Mi leisurely cupped his hands and took his leave.
Fu Xi Yan pondered his words. “The Imperial Guards aren’t good at carrying a sedan, so their steps were unsteady…”
The Imperial Guards were martial artists. Even if they had never carried a sedan before, how hard could it be to walk steadily? Unless they no longer cared about the comfort of whoever was inside and had no reason to keep it steady.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “I never sensed the presence of the person inside the sedan.”
Given Pei Yuan Jin’s strength, if he could not sense anyone inside, there were only two possibilities. First, there had been no living person in the sedan. Second, the person inside possessed martial arts even stronger than Pei Yuan Jin’s.
Fu Xi Yan said, “Do you remember how Mo Xiao Ran escaped from Luoshi?”
His soul had left his body.
Fu Xi Yan said, “Let’s find somewhere to sit. I have a lot to tell you.”
About the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror.
About the Great Ascension.
About the No-Return Sect.
About cultivating the soul and spirit.
…
Far, far too much.
* * *
What happened inside the sedan was something outsiders could only glimpse through a narrow tube, seeing no more than a few scattered scales and claws. For Mo Xiao Ran, however, the plan stretched all the way back to the battle at Luoshi several months ago.
He had plotted for so long, yet when the time finally came to deliver the last strike, he remained perfectly calm.
Mo Xiao Ran knew that the sedan occupant’s soul had been injured for a long time, and the soul of a Martial God was enormously nourishing to him. After taking Wu Xuan Yin’s soul, the man would have to consume it immediately to prevent it from dissipating.
And the moment he absorbed Wu Xuan Yin’s soul would be Mo Xiao Ran’s opportunity.
He calculated the timing exactly, controlled the round-faced monk into killing the square-faced monk who had just possessed the Southern Ridge Sect’s second disciple so they would not interfere, then personally attacked the person inside the sedan.
The instant Mo Xiao Ran shot into the sedan, the other man lifted his eyes slightly, as though he had already known Mo Xiao Ran would come.
Their gazes met for only an instant. No words were needed. The other man’s soul left his body and plunged into the ground. Without hesitation, Mo Xiao Ran abandoned the body he had occupied for less than a few days and chased him underground.
Lin’an was full of waterways, leaving its soil extremely soft. The two souls crashed blindly through the loose mud one behind the other. In the time it took an incense stick to burn, they had nearly barreled through every section of Lin’an’s city walls, east, west, south, and north.
Yet the man fleeing in front turned back every time he reached the edge of the city walls, almost as though deliberately leading his pursuer in circles. Mo Xiao Ran showed no impatience either, maintaining the same distance between them as when the chase began.
The third time the man in front passed the eastern wall, he finally accelerated and shot out of the city.
Mo Xiao Ran sped up behind him and began gaining ground at an even faster pace.
The distance between them shrank from several zhang to only a few chi. At last, the man in front burst out of the ground. Though he was only a soul, he maintained a human form, and judging from his outline, he was an extremely thin, very tall man.
Mo Xiao Ran, meanwhile, altered the shape of his soul as casually as he pleased. One moment he became a wheel, the next a flying triangular cone with its point aimed forward.
The instant less than a chi remained between them, the man in front finally spun around and charged. Mo Xiao Ran transformed his soul into a sword and shot forward. At the moment of impact, a huge hole suddenly tore open through the other man’s chest, exactly large enough for Mo Xiao Ran’s soul to pass through.
And the moment Mo Xiao Ran passed through him, he reared upright again and transformed into an enormous spear that seemed to connect Heaven and Earth!
The other man’s soul exploded apart. Almost immediately, however, the scattered pieces seemed to be swept together by a fierce wind, gathering from east to west until he regained human form. He stood without making a sound, communicating with Mo Xiao Ran directly through the soul. “You weren’t injured?”
Mo Xiao Ran also slowly returned to human form. Even from his silhouette alone, he looked elegant as jade and effortlessly dashing. Comparing the two made it obvious that Mo Xiao Ran’s soul was brighter and more vivid in color.
He stood with his hands behind his back. “If I had been, how would you have dared leave the northern lands?”
The man said, “The Mirror Master and Pei Yuan Jin were helping you put on an act?”
Mo Xiao Ran replied, “Why would I need their help?”
The man said, “Scholar Mo, the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror has become whole again, and the righteous path is already beginning to rise. Rather than repeat the disaster of the past, why don’t we set aside our grievances and join forces again?”
Mo Xiao Ran said, “Fine. Hand over the Sect Master’s soul.”
The man said, “The Sect Master’s soul already scattered completely back then.”
Mo Xiao Ran said, “Then there is nothing to discuss.”
The man still wanted to continue. “I heard you went looking for Master Yan’s descendants?”
“Actually…” Mo Xiao Ran suddenly lunged and slammed into the man. The other seemed caught off guard and took the hit directly, but the instant they made contact, Mo Xiao Ran knew he had fallen into a trap.
“Heh.”
The man actually spoke aloud. A moment later, his dim soul slowly revealed hair, forehead, eyes, nose, and the rest of his features from top to bottom, almost as though growing a physical body. He became a tall, thin man with pale skin and a long face.
Examined individually, the man’s features were all excellent, but crowded together on a somewhat narrow, elongated face, they diminished his handsomeness slightly.
His right hand clamped tightly around the front of Mo Xiao Ran’s soul. Smiling, he said, “Scholar Mo, the Sect Master always said your calculations never missed. I suppose today I finally managed to outscheme you once?”
Mo Xiao Ran raised his head slightly, seeming to look at him.
The man said, “You put Soul Poison into the Dementors, intending it to infect Wu Xuan Yin’s soul. You knew I would definitely take her soul, and you knew souls are difficult to preserve, so I would consume it at the first opportunity. That is why you were waiting nearby from the very beginning, ready to strike.”
He continued reconstructing Mo Xiao Ran’s plan. “Before this, you made two preparations. First, you created the illusion that Shi Yi Ming had injured your soul on Huaying Mountain, lowering my guard enough to draw me out of the northern lands. Second, you pretended to go looking for Yan Xie, making me believe you would not come to Southern Yu anytime soon. Did I guess correctly?”
As he spoke, his right hand continued absorbing Mo Xiao Ran’s soul. An eerie, satisfied smile spread across his face, only to change almost immediately.
He stared in shock as Mo Xiao Ran’s soul shrank little by little in his grasp and was slowly absorbed into his body. Then, before he could react, a clump of emerald green hidden at the very center of that soul suddenly shot toward a small hill nearby.
The long-faced man’s gaze turned sharp. He lunged after it, but just as he was about to seize the emerald-green mass, the sudden beat of a drum thundered through the air!
The drumbeat boomed like thunder, seeming both to fall from Heaven and erupt from the earth.
The long-faced man’s entire body jolted. In that instant of delay, the emerald-green soul had already flown into the hill. A moment later, a man stepped out from behind it.
He was tall, and his face was so extraordinarily handsome it seemed to exhaust all the artistry of Heaven and Earth. Radiant as a legendary heavenly deity, even in an ordinary white cloth robe he appeared wrapped in multicolored brilliance.
He walked step by step toward the long-faced man. “You guessed most of it. There’s more.”
The long-faced man looked at him and sighed softly. “I didn’t expect General Da to still be alive and helping you. Nor did I expect you to use your own soul as bait and poison it just to deal with me.”
Mo Xiao Ran said, “Back then, I also never expected you to kill the Sect Master, much less return to secular life afterward.”
“Didn’t all of you want to kill him too? I merely moved one step faster. You aren’t trying to kill me now for revenge either. You covet the Sect Master’s soul. The No-Return Sect, the No-Return Sect… once you enter this sect, there is no return.”
The long-faced man sighed as his body suddenly swelled like a ball. Mo Xiao Ran tilted his head to watch him, and the other man watched him in return.
They stared at each other for a long moment before Mo Xiao Ran carefully reached toward the front of his robe. The instant his fingers touched him, the man’s body deflated like a punctured balloon and shot backward.
Of course he would do that.
Mo Xiao Ran remained where he was. From the direction the long-faced man had fled came a sudden heavy boom like a great drum striking the earth. A moment later, the long-faced man and a figure wrapped head to toe in a cloak returned one after the other.
Despite failing to escape, the long-faced man did not seem angry at all. He drifted leisurely back, glancing around. “If Master Yan were here, the four of us would be reunited.”
The corner of Mo Xiao Ran’s mouth lifted. Even his mockery carried a trace of effortless charm. “As expected of Monk Shan. Even now, your mouth is still full of benevolence and righteousness.”
The long-faced man called Monk Shan shook his head. “Scholars are the ones whose mouths are full of benevolence and righteousness. Monks merely ferry all living beings to salvation.”
Mo Xiao Ran said, “Where is the remainder of the Sect Master’s soul?”
Monk Shan spread his hands. “That was decades ago. Even if there was anything left then, there’s nothing now.”
Mo Xiao Ran asked, “You’re not denying it?”
Monk Shan smiled bitterly. “With General Da standing here, how could I deny it?”
Back then, when he decided to kill Cheng He Cheng, he had deliberately chosen a day when Scholar Mo was absent and lured Master Yan away as well. But General Da had been responsible for protecting the Sect Master, leaving Monk Shan no choice but to kill him too.
He simply had not expected General Da to survive.
“Our No-Return Sect really is remarkably difficult to kill.”
As the foremost person beneath the Sect Master of the No-Return Sect in those days, Monk Shan could not help sighing. “Wildfire cannot burn it all away; when the spring wind blows, it grows again.”
Mo Xiao Ran said, “Thank you for the reminder. I’ll make sure I kill very thoroughly today.”
Monk Shan shook his head. “You can’t kill me.”
Mo Xiao Ran raised a brow.
Monk Shan said, “Since I knew you wanted to kill me, why would I come unprepared? The only reason I ran through the eastern, southern, western, and northern parts of the city several times was to find out where you had hidden your body. Everyone in the world knows the Puppet Path’s Grandmaster wears people as clothing, but only the few of us know how dearly you treasure your own body.”
He looked almost jealously at Mo Xiao Ran’s perfect face, the kind that could make every man envious and every woman adore him. “But to kill me, you would have to strike with everything you have. To enter your strongest state, you had to bring your real body here. Destroy that body, and half your will is destroyed with it.”
Mo Xiao Ran asked with a faint, ambiguous smile, “Is that so?”
“The only surprise was General Da. I truly didn’t expect him to still be alive. But it isn’t a serious problem.” As Monk Shan spoke, a confident smile of complete control appeared on his face.
“There are many villages in every direction around Lin’an. The closest one is called Lion Village.”
Lion Village sat on Lion Mountain, where there were no lions at all. Most of its villagers survived by hunting and gathering. Life was hard, but still full of hope. Winter was the most difficult season every year because food grew scarce. To reduce how much energy they used, people rarely went out and tried to conserve their strength.
Today was no different from any other day.
The weather was cold. To save firewood, households on good terms would gather in one home for warmth and pass the time chatting. They told the same old stories, repeated again and again, yet every retelling still received enthusiastic reactions and responses.
That was the peculiar courtesy of Lion Village.
They told stories, listened, repeated themselves, asked questions in return… Their honest faces were filled with smiles that found pleasure amid hardship. Then, in that instant, time seemed to stop.
Nearly a hundred souls rushed down from Lion Mountain like a clear stream, only to surge violently as they neared the small hill. The stream became a raging tide and swept toward the three people below.
Monk Shan stood unmoving like a pillar that could pin the sea in place. His face seemed sunk in deathly stillness, and no light remained in his black-and-white eyes, as though everything before him held no more value than the stones and sand beneath his feet.
Mo Xiao Ran’s Spirit-Control Art was obviously useless here. This was the difference between the Puppet Path and Borrowing from All Living Beings: the Puppet Path precisely controlled individual souls, while Borrowing from All Living Beings treated souls themselves as weapons.
Mo Xiao Ran leapt high into the air. Beyond his Puppet Arts, his martial cultivation had also surpassed the Martial King Stage. He struck downward with an empty palm. Monk Shan threw himself into the wave formed from souls, and the wave instantly surged upward like water crashing against a reef. Spray curled around Mo Xiao Ran’s ankles as the bone-chilling souls invaded his body.
Mo Xiao Ran brushed his left hand lightly and swept them away.
The wave scattered, revealing the “seabed” beneath it. There was nothing there but yellow earth. Monk Shan was nowhere to be seen.
Mo Xiao Ran looked at General Da.
General Da said indifferently, “He ran.”
Mo Xiao Ran asked, “Why didn’t you chase him?”
General Da said, “The favor I owe you doesn’t go that far.”
Once Monk Shan lost control of the souls of Lion Village, they quickly dissipated into Heaven and Earth. Mo Xiao Ran descended to the ground and looked at General Da in some surprise. “Don’t you hate him for killing you back then?”
General Da countered, “Didn’t you want to kill the Sect Master back then too?”
Mo Xiao Ran fell silent.
Clearly, Monk Shan had not been lying earlier. At the very least, he had correctly guessed what was in Mo Xiao Ran’s heart.
General Da turned and walked away. “We’re even now. There’s no need to meet again.”
Monk Shan believed General Da had died, which meant he must once have seen the man’s corpse. Therefore, the General Da of today could not possibly be using his original face. He was not someone who could endure obscurity or loneliness, so he would never have lived namelessly all these years. Then who… was he?
And there was something else. Mo Xiao Ran had used Soul Poison twice, yet neither attempt had worked.
Was Monk Shan’s cultivation simply too profound, or was there something wrong with the Soul Poison?
Thinking of the hunting plan he had spent so long arranging, only for it to fail at the final step because the Soul Poison had not worked, Mo Xiao Ran’s expression cooled slightly.
* * *
News of the martial assembly’s fighting and its outcome reached the young emperor very quickly. Before Zhu Shou Xin had even returned to the palace with the sedan, Qin Xiao Xun had already received word that the Taoshan brothers and Wu Xuan Yin had fallen one after another.
Xiao Jin Zi knelt on the floor and finished his report in a trembling voice. Qin Xiao Xun immediately coughed up a mouthful of black blood and lost consciousness.
When Zhu Shou Xin brought the sedan into the palace, the young emperor still had not awakened. Even so, Zhu Shou Xin said nothing. He simply knelt on the icy steps outside Kunning Palace.
The senior civil and military officials who had been following the news in the capital entered the palace at the first opportunity to inquire after the emperor’s health. Only the Vice Minister of Rites, whose son had also been at the drill ground, dared not cling to any false hope. Holding a memorial confessing his guilt, he knelt beside Zhu Shou Xin.
Chai Mi did not have the authority to enter the palace directly, so he could only kneel outside the palace gates.
But the emperor had vomited blood and fallen unconscious. The Imperial Medical Bureau did not dare administer powerful medicine. After half a day of consultation they still could not wake him. The ministers pressed them anxiously for an answer, yet not one person dared step forward and take responsibility for ordering stronger drugs.
Some ministers even quietly approached the Chief Grand Secretary to ask about the succession.
Given the young emperor’s age, this would normally not have been something anyone needed to worry about for another ten years. But now the intended empress was gone and the emperor’s body seemed on the verge of collapse. The succession could no longer be postponed.
Naturally, the Chief Grand Secretary would not state a position while the emperor’s life and death remained uncertain. But his silence did not mean no one else was thinking about it. According to the order of succession by proximity of blood, if something truly happened to the young emperor and he left no children, then the next in line would be—
“Prince Yue.”
The Chief Grand Secretary heard someone whisper those two words. His heart sank, followed by an indescribable feeling of grievance. At his age, the reason he had earned the young emperor’s favor and reached his current position was precisely because he had contributed greatly when the late emperor moved against the Regent.
If Prince Yue took the throne, how could he possibly come to a good end?
So this was absolutely not an outcome he wanted to see.
At the thought, he spun around and said coldly, “This is the imperial palace. How dare you mention a rebel prince here!”
With the single phrase “rebel prince,” he defined Prince Yue’s status and cut off any possibility of the court officials openly proposing him for the throne.
The court officials had their own worries, while the jianghu had problems of its own to consider.
Xiao Jin Zi carefully stepped across the palace threshold, walked over to Zhu Shou Xin, bent down, and asked, “Commander Zhu, what is the situation outside now?”
With Zhu Shou Xin’s cultivation, he ordinarily would not fear the cold. Yet whether the sky was simply too cold or the ground beneath his knees too icy, his body had grown strangely stiff. It took him a long time to answer. “The Sect Leader and the two Seniors of Taoshan have all… fallen. The others fled too. Both people in the sedan are dead. The crippled monk killed someone from the Southern Ridge Sect…”
His account jumped so badly from one thing to another that Xiao Jin Zi hurriedly interrupted. “How should we make arrangements from here?”
“We await His Majesty’s orders.”
Qin Xiao Xun was already unconscious, so on the surface Zhu Shou Xin had said something meaningless. But considered more carefully, his answer was already a position in itself.
Pei Yuan Jin was a Martial King, and every expert the Southern Yu court possessed who might stand against a Martial King had died at the martial assembly. Sending anyone else after him would be no different from delivering food. As for the other jianghu figures who had supported the Immortal Treasury Palace, Chai Mi did have a list of their names, but whether to move against them and how to do it truly required the emperor’s decision.
After all, the Spirit Sect had now lost two of its greatest experts in succession. Even Xie Yun Ling, whose standing had been just beneath Wu Xuan Yin and Ban Qing Yu, had already died at sea. Below them were the Four Great Protectors…
Zhu Shou Xin suddenly raised his head and looked at Xiao Jin Zi.
Xiao Jin Zi gave him a look that said everything without saying it aloud. “Sect Leader Wu has met with disaster, and His Majesty remains unconscious. Commander Zhu controls the Imperial Guard. You’ll have to shoulder more of the burden.”
Zhu Shou Xin said, “And in your view?”
Xiao Jin Zi said, “Sect Leader Wu is the empress. Disrespect toward the empress cannot go unpunished. But jianghu matters should be settled by the jianghu. It would be inconvenient for Commander Zhu to interfere directly, so we still have to rely on the Spirit Sect’s strength. And the Spirit Sect cannot go even one day without a leader.”
Zhu Shou Xin understood. Xiao Jin Zi wanted him, in his capacity as commander of the Imperial Guard, to pressure the Spirit Sect into selecting someone to take charge as quickly as possible.
Elder Wei had also been at the martial assembly and had clearly lost any qualification. Among the people remaining…
Zhu Shou Xin looked at the ambition in Xiao Jin Zi’s eyes, hesitated, then said, “This is not something I should do.”
Xiao Jin Zi thought for a moment, then looked toward Chai Mi, who was kneeling farther behind them.
Chai Mi hated that his hearing was so good.
That night, the Lin’an palace remained brilliantly lit. Outside the capital, there was no rest either, as memorial after memorial continued arriving at the palace. Qin Xiao Xun had an extremely strong desire for control. Under normal circumstances, he insisted on personally reading urgent eight-hundred-li express dispatches the moment they arrived. Only now that he was unconscious did the Chief Grand Secretary get to read them first.
But some news was no pleasure to receive early.
The Second Grand Secretary, seated not far away, noticed the Chief Grand Secretary’s poor expression and hurried over. “What happened?”
Every minister in the room was advanced in years, and none of them had slept all night. They were already exhausted, but at those words they all jolted awake and turned to look.
The Chief Grand Secretary handed the memorial to the Second Grand Secretary and sighed. “Scholars claiming to be from New City are beating the Petition Drum at government offices across the realm to seek redress. They are accusing His Majesty!”
“Outrageous!”
One minister immediately sprang to his feet, but seeing everyone else remain silent, he sat back down awkwardly.
Quite a few ministers knew the truth about New City, and their opinions had long split into two opposing camps. But the decision had been made while the late emperor was still alive, so even those who objected had never dared oppose it too openly, especially when the Spirit Sect’s power had been at its height.
Amid the silence, an elderly minister past seventy suddenly murmured softly, “Retribution.”