Chapter 145: Emperor Shu’s Finale
Emperor Shu sat on his throne. At this moment, he had returned to his familiar domain; Heaven’s Mandate had granted him the perception to foresee crises, and as each threat in his perception was dealt with, he began to particularly enjoy this sense of control.
The Palace Attendant carefully handed him the list of those to be executed. Emperor Shu glanced at it and casually picked up a pen. He did not select the “less guilty” from it, but directly drew a large cross, meaning all hopes in the prison cell of those awaiting His Majesty’s wise judgment were completely dashed.
Outside the Meridian Gate, heads rolled under the executioners’ blades. These were all people like disciples and servants implicated in the great case of “corrupt ministers plotting rebellion.” The real offending officials were brought outside the hall, struck with golden melons, and died spitting blood.
…The clouds encircling the suspended Nine Palaces were dyed blood-red…
Prince Zhou, who had already moved out of the Eastern Palace to his former Prince’s Mansion, was tremblingly awaiting the imperial decree; everything he had in the Capital City this month had vanished in an instant. Before Emperor Shu returned, all information in the Imperial Court had gathered around him, but now, his access to information was sealed within his small mansion. Only a very few people deeply bound to his interests were still secretly helping him pass messages.
And today, the news of the new round of executions in the imperial decree came, making his chest tighten.
Because among those executed by Emperor Shu were his close attendants, and the families of his two principal consorts had also been taken down.
Just as he sighed and returned to his room, a Mu Luan fell down. This was a message from Su Kang’s soul-possessed wooden puppet, but Su Kang himself had already become a wooden figure in the prison cell. However, this wooden figure was like a black hole, absorbing the vengeful spirits in the prison cell and turning them into curses.
He looked around and quickly put away the Mu Luan. Then he opened the secret letter, and his expression froze slightly.
The content of the letter was very brief: “The shadowless people (vengeful spirits) in the Heavenly Prison are increasing.”
Due to the involvement of plotting witchcraft and sorcery, Prince Zhou burned the wooden kite after reading it. His heart pounded. In fear, his mind buzzed with wild thoughts; in worry, he seemed to see “Emperor Shu sitting on the throne smiling at him, fully aware of his little tricks.” He quickly soaked his face in cold water, but a wisp of blue infiltrated his pupils.
The current Prince Zhou’s faction was actually a very broad concept. That is, all families who had submitted letters to attach themselves during the period when Prince Zhou was regent were now within the strict interrogation scope of the Imperial Guards.
In other words, when the Imperial Guards were specifically carrying out the purge of Prince Zhou’s lineage, they did not act directly on the concept of “capture the ringleader first to capture all the rest.” Instead, they started with families with lesser power, and through interrogation, step by step excavated handles, implicating larger family forces and pulling them down.
This was a very typical form of harsh officials handling cases in the feudal era, expanding the scope of attack from “outside to inside.”
For the current Prince Zhou’s faction, most of their faction’s peripheral members had been taken down on a large scale. Although this brought Prince Zhou fear like death by a thousand cuts, it also gave him the last chance for a dying struggle.
In struggles, the priority is to take out the opponent’s leader first, then the core members of the enemy side, and finally sideline the other widely implicated personnel to peripheral positions.
For example, in a coup, only the participating ministers at the minister level are dealt with; as for those promoted by the ministers, such as section chiefs in the civil official stratum or second lieutenants in the military official stratum, their careers are simply ended there. The influence is kept to a minimum, and they would never first take down the minor officials attached to Prince Zhou, torture out evidence, and then implicate upwards to expand the case like this.
In Xuan Chong’s eyes far away in Bo Prefecture: Emperor Shu stirring up this kind of ‘major case’ was absolutely an immature method; but there was no way around it, this was the old era. When the upper stratum could exert cross-level influence on the lower stratum, it led to the necessity of such implicating punishments once a faction fell.
When Prince Zhou’s lineage began hinting to Da Yao’s troops and made arrangements in the Imperial Court to “attempt to bypass Emperor Shu in mobilizing related troops,” Emperor Shu actually resolved to purge the civil official group.
The Imperial Guards were still diligently searching, dragging one implicated person after another into the imperial prison. The smooth, mirror-like steps of the imperial prison occasionally reflected nonexistent shadows.
Yao Capital had accumulated intense resentment. —At this point, people in Prince Zhou’s faction had reacted and formed the idea of banding together for a desperate fight.
But now, Emperor Shu was watching too closely, and no one dared to act rashly.
In the evening, Li Shi actively served the distraught Prince Zhou, and after Prince Zhou vented violently like a storm, Consort Li gently wiped the sweat from Prince Zhou.
Prince Zhou sobered up and, seeing the bruises on Consort Li’s body from his violent venting, asked with some guilt: “Does it hurt?”
Li Shi delivered the key blow: “Your Highness, compared to giving birth to Ying’er last month, this is nothing.”
This Li Shi was naturally the woman he had snatched from the Prince of Northern Tranquility’s Mansion a year ago out of lust.
In these months, as he lost power, the other two consorts in the Prince’s Mansion were implicated because their families committed offenses. Thus, under the supervision of the eunuch sent by His Majesty, these two consorts were also confined by Prince Zhou’s Mansion.
Li Shi, who had originally been confined in Prince Zhou’s Mansion, was released. But she did not leave this place of trouble. Instead, she used her means to occupy the vacancy in Prince Zhou’s heart, so much so that the son she bore was also entered into the jade slip.
In Da Yao, princely families could identify bloodlines; but the son born to Li Shi at this time passed the inspection in Prince Zhou’s Mansion.
This was thanks to the “cuckoo borrowing nest” technique taught to Li Shi by Xian Daoren. Cuckoo fledglings can make the host of other bird’s nests think they are their own offspring, and Li Shi had now successfully applied this method, which even made Prince Zhou feel even more affectionate toward the child she bore.
This was also because after Emperor Shu’s defeat in the west, the imperial family’s auspicious qi waned, allowing this infiltration.
Hearing Li Shi’s words, Prince Zhou’s gaze shifted from hesitation to eerie fanatical ambition, with blue and purple swirling in his eyes. Yes, for his son not to be confined for life, he had to take a gamble.
After putting on clothes, Prince Zhou went to the study, opened a box, took out a wooden puppet from it, hesitated for a moment, pricked his fingertip with a needle to draw blood, and engraved Emperor Shu’s true name and birth chart with the blood.
And in the Heavenly Prison, witchcraft and sorcery runes emerged on the dazed Su Kang’s back, and at the core part, a spark appeared in Su Kang’s originally dull eyes, then as if relieved, he let out a long sigh and collapsed to the ground with a thud, his head facing the direction of the palace.
At the same time, in the military camp stationed outside the Heavenly Prison, Mu Xingyu looked at the sky, where yin energy was exceptionally heavy; sensing the turmoil in the court situation, he sighed.
…”Fate” is twisting…
In Yao Capital, in the central Ziwei Hall among the suspended palace clusters, Emperor Shu smashed the jade cup. What made him so furious was his disobedient daughter, Princess Xiasheng.
After returning to the capital, he was busy consolidating inner court power, but always felt like he had forgotten something, until this incident reminded him of this key point.
A few days ago, he summoned Mu Xingyu, this promising new star in the capital he favored, who was running toward the imperial prison. This made him very concerned; Mu Xingyu controlled the capital’s armed forces, and at this time, was he going to defect?
So he had him brought in for questioning, and upon learning that Mu Xingyu was doing it for a certain minister’s daughter in the imperial prison, he couldn’t help but laugh and curse: “Heroes are hard pressed over the beauty pass.” Thus, he issued a decree to release that official and family from the death cell.
If Mu Xingyu, the former playboy of the capital, was now a “hero,” then what about Wu Fei, who brought out this batch of heroes?
Emperor Shu suddenly remembered: his daughter who was supposed to be married to Wu Fei had not yet been married off.
Wu Fei was at the border, recently busy fighting wits and courage with that Great General of Hao State, so he hadn’t mentioned this matter.
However, just as Emperor Shu wanted to handle this matter, the Palace Attendant at his side hemmed and hawed. This made this “benevolent ruler” sense that something was wrong.
After detailed questioning, he was so angry his lungs nearly exploded. Princess Xiasheng had hooked up with the Star Diviner of the Directorate of Astronomy, and this matter had spread in a small circle. The Directorate of Astronomy had no choice but to send that young Star Diviner back to his sect for reflection. Even then, Princess Xiasheng was desperate to leave the capital privately to find her lover and get answers.
Emperor Shu slapped the imperial couch: “How dare this disobedient daughter act like this!”
As the supreme ruler of a family dynasty, Emperor Shu had never considered giving his daughter the possibility of free love; as a father, he needed his children’s compliant emotions; but as the emotionless imperial family, he would not consider his children’s emotional needs.
In the emperor’s eyes, Wu Fei was very key in the current power structure. But Wu Fei was very wooden in terms of “how to cozy up to the imperial family.”
After learning from the Secret Guards that Wu Fei had diverted his rewards and the gift money sent by Wu Hanluan to military use, and hadn’t even sent Princess Xiasheng a letter during festivals, Emperor Shu couldn’t help but feel annoyed at Wu Fei: “My daughter is unwilling to marry, and you don’t urge her?”
…Phoenix seeks phoenix, but the Vermilion Bird ignores the silly chick…
Little did he know, Xuan Chong (Wu Fei), who was fighting at the frontline, was terrifyingly realistic: “In a society of interest clashes, so-called free love is a false proposition. Middle-class men and women don’t freely love village girls and villagers, but aspire to idol drama romances, projecting upwardly mobile roles to freely love with young ladies and young masters.”
Rather than waiting for “high-stratum men and women to be blind and willing to downwardly compatible free love with him,” it was better to steadily do his own thing.
Sure enough, Xuan Chong remained silent about the storms in Yao Capital, didn’t actively seize any relations; instead, in Bo Prefecture, he was painstakingly building a local faction similar to the Beiyang.
And this faction was not limited to the line from Bo Prefecture to Yao Capital; the places where he had previously conscripted able-bodied men and issued military vouchers as IOUs, Xuan Chong was now giving back to. Relying on the future Imperial Forest Army’s golden signboard, he wedged into localities, providing protection umbrellas to local gangs and chamber of commerce forces, creating interest bodies beyond the “military-political” scope.
Xuan Chong: “Tsk tsk, the clowns speculating on fake love are the most ridiculous. The bald one’s control in politics and military can be learned, but that experience chasing Miss Song III can be spat on—no, pissed on before walking away.”
Princess Xiasheng now looked down on Wu Fei’s background, but how was Xuan Chong not despising Princess Xiasheng?
In this world, cultivation of immortality couldn’t directly destroy heaven and earth; each sect and faction was strongly constrained by the Human Realm.
As the top imperial family origin in the Human Realm, she was elevated to the heavens by the masses of the human world. She didn’t think about her own bases, treated those who worked for Da Yao with a trampling disregard attitude, but fawned over so-called otherworldly immortal path disciples.
Xuan Chong complained: “Marrying her would be like marrying Princess Gao Yang, ending up with a good heroic family destroyed.”
Therefore, Xuan Chong did not urge Princess Xiasheng to complete the marriage. —Because it was just an exchange of political chips; with his current merits, even without the princess, Emperor Shu had to make it up in other ways.
…Regrets when grace is needed but found lacking…
So now Emperor Shu was also troubled about how to give Wu Fei in the north sufficient “interest exchange chips.”
Wu Fei already had the rank of Ting Marquis (previously in the Southern Border, Wu Fei was already Far-Reaching Ting Marquis); further enfeoffment could only be County Marquis, but to do that, Wu Fei must resolve the northern warfare and hand over military power before it could be arranged.
Emperor Shu knew well that for a capable and young general like Wu Fei, sooner or later there would be no ranks left to grant. If left unchecked at the border, he would sooner or later be more dangerous than other northern fiefdoms. Only after this campaign ended, granting generous ranks and keeping him by his side. Speaking of which, sending Wu Hengyu now was an attempt to dilute Wu Fei’s merits.
This way, the Imperial Court would also have deterrence against the northern fiefdoms. For example, for fiefdoms like Zhu Dali, if they showed rebellious intent, the court could release Wu Fei to check them.
Emperor Shu was already prepared to promote Wu Fei to a proper General after the marriage grant, but his daughter was completely clueless.
Narrator: Emperor Shu didn’t think Wu Hengyu could snatch the Town-North General from Wu Fei; first breaking Gu Shou Pass for the Northern Expedition General order was just putting a “catfish” to the Eastern Market Army to urge them to work faster.
Returning to the present, Emperor Shu reviewed his control over Wu Fei—it was not like a sparrow uncaged, but no leg ring at all; more fatally, Emperor Shu had heard that Wu Fei’s original fiancée had been taken by Prince Zhou. This was like plucking a feather from the uncaged sparrow’s rear.
If it were a year ago, Prince Zhou taking her would be that; Wu Fei was just a hostage sent by the southern border Wu Family, and had to endure even great grievances.
In Mu Xingyu’s retelling: There was a rift between Wu Fei and Prince Zhou, causing some unrest in the border military morale. Because the officers and soldiers didn’t know if this would affect His Majesty’s judgment of the Eastern Market Army’s merits.
Emperor Shu inexplicably felt a surge of irritation, but unknowingly, the sky suddenly darkened.
He raised his head and asked: “What’s going on?”
The Palace Attendant beside him said: “Your Majesty, it’s a solar eclipse.”
Emperor Shu waved his hand: “Mm, have Sitian Cheng’s people analyze the celestial phenomenon.”
However, before he finished speaking, with a crack, a hole exploded in this Palace Attendant’s chest, and a wooden puppet crawled out from it.
Immediately after, Emperor Shu heard footsteps of many people outside the palace, and the palace gates were being urgently closed.
Following that, an unprecedented crisis awareness enveloped Emperor Shu—he vaguely saw himself beheaded. And this time it seemed unsolvable.
…The eerie influence is about to spread to all directions…
Shifting perspective to the other side, Wu Hengyu was now transporting troops through mountains and rivers water veins from the Great Grotto-Heaven to the North.
Compared to Wu Fei being favored by the City Gods, Wu Hengyu was now favored by immortal family sects, seen as the son of auspicious qi. Various sects and factions sent disciples under Wu Hengyu, following him in the Great Grotto-Heaven to open up the water vein network paths.
Wu Hengyu could now freely shuttle troops through the Five Lakes because they were particularly vast; with Da Yao in great chaos now, the governors’ control over distant lakes, marshes, mountains, and rivers away from prefectures had declined, so Wu Hengyu could now shuttle freely.
But if it were during Da Yao’s prosperity, the prefectures could perfectly mobilize mountains and rivers power for Yao Calculation, and the Great Grotto-Heaven with “Five Lakes” as entrances would be sealed to Wu Hengyu.
And what can be closed can be opened; now as long as the people controlling the prefectures allow, Wu Hengyu could shuttle through the Great Grotto-Heaven water marsh network paths to small marshes in that prefecture outside the Five Lakes.
For example, now at Giant Wild Marsh in southern Bo Prefecture, where spring thunder showers had accumulated massive water vein power, Wu Hengyu held Emperor Shu’s golden tally, and under the governor’s mobilization of water vein power, he brought a troop of three thousand and over ten thousand refugees here, forming a large camp.
Zhu Liqiang in Dai Commandery sensed this new Wu Family Army arrival and set up a banquet, but Wu Hengyu did not attend; upon arrival here, he rode alone north to meet Wu Fei.
Here at Huangyu City, a small change appeared in the mountains and waters flow; Wu Xiao Que, who was repairing the ditch, sensed it first.
Wu Fei now had a pair of wise eyes, able to sense spatial distortion in the south through changes in sky flow field markers; the depression in the sky flow field indicated a huge passage appearing on the corresponding ground.
And due to his own Vermilion Bird bloodline, he also sensed the Guiche brought by Wu Hengyu.
Wu Fei knew his family had come. Thus, he began assembling the military officers in the army, preparing to introduce his family’s “humanoid Gundam” for the upcoming joint operations.
One shichen later, Wu Fei rode Nine Phoenix to meet Wu Hengyu; why not ride the peacock?
That thing (peacock) was too flashy. Every time he rode it to meet others, the peacock would directly fan its tail, debuting in a dominant posture no less than others.
And Wu Hengyu’s mount Wuzhui was not one to “lower its head” either; Wu Fei feared his mount would fight his mount.
This meeting took place in the sky; upon seeing Wu Hengyu, Wu Fei said: “Didn’t expect you to come help me out.”
Wu Hengyu: “The Son of Heaven asked me to come.”
Wu Fei paused slightly, then quickly said: “Don’t say that carelessly.”
Wu Hengyu didn’t care: “No big deal, no third person here.”
Wu Fei: “Mm, you and I brothers, let’s hold up the sky in Da Yao’s north.”
However, just as Wu Fei uttered his heroic words, a flash appeared in the southern sky; Wu Fei frowned, turned to look, calculated, and was stunned—that was the direction of Yao Capital.
