Chapter 52: The Human Emperor Passes Away

Xiang Huchen had served the Marquis of Radiant Sun for half a year.

At the start of the year, the Marquis of Radiant Sun led his troops west across the Liusha River to Tianmen Town; Xiang Huchen immediately expressed his allegiance. He then served as cavalry commander under him during the decisive battle against the Thirty-Six States Alliance and in the subsequent campaigns to subdue each of the Thirty-Six States.

Because he was familiar with the Marquis of Radiant Sun, upon meeting him again today, Xiang Huchen felt neither the nervousness he had upon first encountering a high-ranking lord from the Central Realm, nor the novelty felt by the common folk of Western Shu.

He felt only one thing: ease and comfort.

Whether or not the Green Pine Daoist Acolyte had lied to him, as long as he reunited with the Marquis of Radiant Sun, no one would dare attack him in front of the Marquis and the Fire Crow Army.

“My Lord, all troops front and rear have entered the camp, and Yunlai Inn has prepared meals and delivered them to the gate—shall I immediately summon the meal?”

Before the Marquis of Radiant Sun’s arrival, he held the highest rank and had been responsible for arranging the camp’s patrols and sentries.

Now that the Marquis had arrived, he had no authority over the camp’s security matters—only logistical matters could be reported.

“Very well.”

The Marquis of Radiant Sun leaned back on his soft couch, reading; he merely nodded slightly, his eyes still fixed on the page, and waved his hand lightly, signaling Xiang Huchen to leave.

Xiang Huchen rose from the ground, stood straight, and prepared to turn away.

“General Guan, wait a moment. My Lord, I have urgent news to report.”

At that moment, “Wind-Ears” pulled back the curtain and strode in, casting a meaningful glance at Xiang Huchen before walking straight to the Marquis’s side and whispering a few words into his ear.

Finally, he handed over a small booklet, palm-sized.

Xiang Huchen recognized this “Wind-Ears.”

Gao Xianjue, Commander of the Fire Crow Army’s Reconnaissance Unit.

During his time serving the Marquis of Radiant Sun, this Commander Gao exhibited all the traits of a spymaster—quiet, unobtrusive.

He had always had low visibility within the Fire Crow Army; the two had barely exchanged more than a few words.

Most of the time, Commander Gao led the Reconnaissance Unit on missions outside to gather intelligence.

Yet with Xiang Huchen, the “Eyes of a Thousand Li,” present, the Marquis of Radiant Sun rarely summoned the “Reconnaissance Unit Commander” when discussing military matters.

At least during Xiang Huchen’s time in the Fire Crow Army, the Marquis would directly call upon him to learn enemy intelligence.

With the “Eyes of a Thousand Li” at his side, the Marquis had no need for Commander Gao’s Reconnaissance Unit.

Now Xiang Huchen suddenly grew tense.

Because he saw that after Commander Gao whispered a few words, the Marquis of Radiant Sun’s expression changed instantly, and his gaze sharpened as it locked onto him.

“My Lord...” Xiang Huchen trembled, bewildered and terrified.

The Marquis of Radiant Sun gave him a cold glance, then lowered his head to open the booklet.

Even without activating his “Eyes of a Thousand Li,” Xiang Huchen’s vision far surpassed that of ordinary mortals.

He could not see the front of the booklet, but the paper was thin, and the tent above had a skylight; sunlight fell upon the pages, allowing faint, dense characters to be glimpsed from the back.

Before he could blink and focus to read the script, the Marquis raised his right hand, flames swirling in his palm, and slammed it onto the desk before him.

“Boom!”

The sturdy, wide peachwood desk shattered into pieces, fragments flying and igniting into tiny sparks.

“Guan Huchen, how dare you have such audacity!”

The fire flickering in the Marquis’s eyes seemed ready to tear Xiang Huchen’s soul apart.

His heart and liver shattered; he collapsed to his knees, “My Lord, your servant—”

“Chiiing~~ Chiiing~~~”

A piercing phoenix cry echoed from above, cutting off Xiang Huchen’s words and momentarily diverting the Marquis’s blazing rage.

“A Green Phoenix messenger?”

“Marquis of Radiant Sun, this is the Three-Transmutation Bone-Transformation Pill crafted by Master Ge. Please deliver it to Master Green Pine, or wait for him to come retrieve it himself.”

The Green Phoenix spoke in human voice—clear and crisp, like a human child of eight or nine.

It lowered its head and pecked once at the base of its left wing.

A flash of green light appeared there, and a small white porcelain bottle fell; the phoenix caught it with its claw and placed it beneath the Marquis’s couch.

“Also, Chancellor Li Si learned that this bird is about to journey west and wrote a Yin Fu, asking me to deliver it to you.”

After placing the bottle, the Green Phoenix pecked again at the base of its wing.

A small white wax pill, the size of a tangerine seed, dropped down.

This time, before it could use its claw to catch it, the Marquis extended his hand and summoned it; the pill flew automatically into his palm.

“Has anything major happened in Xianyang recently?”

As he crushed the wax pill, the Marquis asked casually.

It was an ordinary question; he himself expected no useful information.

But the Green Phoenix hesitated, “Something major—earth-shattering disaster. The Emperor... ah, My Lord, you should just read it yourself—Chancellor Li must have written it on the Yin Fu.”

Its cry grew shrill.

Then it lowered its head, retracting its long, graceful neck, covered in iridescent feathers.

“What happened to the Emperor?”

The Marquis’s expression changed slightly; he hastened his movements, unfolding the brocade within the wax pill.

The brocade bore no text—only a sequence of symbols of varying lengths.

It resembled the secret letters intercepted from messengers in ancient costume dramas, opened and read immediately—something impossible in the real world.

The ancients were merely technologically underdeveloped; their minds were not foolish.

As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, armies began using Yin Fu to transmit classified messages.

“No, impossible!” The Marquis of Radiant Sun, a seasoned soldier, deciphered the Yin Fu in an instant.

He glanced at the brocade, and his face turned instantly pale.

Seeing Xiang Huchen stretching his neck, staring with a “sly, greedy” gaze, his anger flared further; he raised his right hand and unleashed “Infernal Dragon Roar.”

“Aaang~ Aowu~~~” True Qi surged from his dantian, forming a pillar of blazing crimson flame.

The fire pillar, as thick as an adult’s bathtub, crushed Xiang Huchen and hurled him out of the tent.

“Huff, huff, huff~~”

Having killed and vented his rage, the Marquis regained a sliver of reason; his cold, lethal eyes fixed on the Green Phoenix, his voice hoarse: “Green Phoenix Messenger, did Li Si lie to me?”

“If the news is that the Emperor passed away five days ago in Concubine Rou’s chambers, then Chancellor Li did not lie to you, nor had any reason to—because by now, everyone in Xianyang knows, and Empress Dowager Zhao is temporarily overseeing state affairs.” The Green Phoenix replied.

“The Emperor is the Human Emperor—he consumed the Ten-Thousand-Year Elixir. His lifespan has not yet reached three hundred, still over two hundred years from the ‘Five-Hundred-Year Limit.’ How could he die so soon... and while visiting a concubine, from an overdose of the elixir?! This is absurd. I do not believe it.” The Marquis clenched his fist, growling low.

“This bird knows nothing. I am merely a messenger. If you have no message to send back to Xianyang, I shall depart now.”

“Ah, Master!” Guan Zhong’s wail echoed from afar.

“Father~~” A weaker girl’s voice joined in.

“Gao Xianjue, extinguish the fire and repair my tent.”

“Yes, My Lord!”

Though Gao Xianjue had wished to kill Guan Huchen, witnessing the Marquis’s unprecedented loss of composure and hearing the life-shattering news, he too was terrified, prostrating himself fully, shrinking into the corner, fearing he would become collateral damage and a target for the Marquis’s wrath.

At any other time, he would not have been so cautious.

After all, the Marquis of Radiant Sun had always been fair in rewards and punishments, never punishing soldiers without cause.

But Guan Huchen’s death was tied to him—he had deliberately chosen this moment to submit the “Guan Huchen’s Crimes.” If the Marquis investigated further...

Now, hearing the Marquis’s order, he felt as if he had escaped death; his body instantly relaxed, crawled backward a few steps, then rose and fled the tent at top speed, shouting for men to put out the fire.

The Marquis of Radiant Sun ignored the chaos and wailing outside the tent.

He walked to the desk, picked up a brush, and drew a sequence of varying-length symbols on another blank brocade.

“So the General’s calamity was destined to come from the Marquis of Radiant Sun. No wonder, no wonder...”

Looking at Guan Huchen’s twisted, deformed corpse, the Green Pine Daoist Acolyte showed only a flicker of surprise, then clapped his hands and chuckled, nodding repeatedly, “That explains it—offending the Marquis of Radiant Sun without knowing it? Death is inevitable!”

Xiao Yu turned around, tugging his sleeve, crying, “Grandmaster, please use your immortal art, merciful and compassionate, save the suffering!”

Hearing her cry, Guan Zhong, whose face was contorted from wailing, seized this last straw of hope, turned back, and pounded his head against the ground before Green Pine, “Daoist, have mercy—please save my Master!”

Green Pine gently withdrew his sleeve and said coolly, “The dead cannot be revived. Please accept your grief.”

“Grandmaster~~~” Xiao Yu stretched her voice, crying with unbearable sorrow.

Green Pine remained unmoved; he stepped away, heading toward the camp gate.

Xiao Yu followed behind him; Guan Zhong followed behind her.

Soldiers in the camp who recognized Green Pine immediately opened the gate; Xiao Yu slipped inside and rushed toward Guan Huchen’s remains.

“Hey, who are you? Don’t wander around—”

A seven-foot-tall giant raised his spear to block her, but Green Pine called out, “Guan Huchen is her adoptive father. Out of respect for her filial devotion, let her collect his body.”

The Fire Crow soldiers ceased their obstruction.

“Father, hmm...”

Xiao Yu gathered the sorrow of two lifetimes in her mind and finally squeezed out two tear-sized drops, her wail halfway out—when she suddenly noticed something was wrong.

Guan Huchen appeared completely charred, but only parts of his body were burned.

He was still wrapped in roaring flames, yet upon closer look, his Fire Rat Cloak shielded most of the fire.

And his “Serpent Flame Whip.”

Now it seemed alive, transforming back into a fire serpent, slithering inside his armor, devouring the crimson true fire Qi.

Yes, Guan Huchen had not been ignited by ordinary fire—he was ignited by the “Fire Dragon Pillar,” which was the Fire Crow Qi unleashed by the Marquis of Radiant Sun.

Now the Serpent Flame Whip was actively purging the alien Qi from his body.

“Master Zhong, Father can still be saved!” Xiao Yu grabbed Guan Zhong’s arm, excitedly shouting.

“What? My Master isn’t dead? He can still be saved?” Guan Zhong was equally excited.

“Don’t shout so loudly.”

Though Xiao Yu cried out in agitation, she lowered her voice; Guan Zhong, however, raised his own.

As a result, many soldiers in the camp turned to look.

Xiao Yu stood up, glanced left and right, located the position of the Shu cavalry camp, and waved her hand: “Lu Ye Guard Cavalry Camp, all of you, move immediately to retrieve General Guan’s remains!”

Over two hundred armored cavalrymen exchanged uneasy glances, hesitant to act.

“Wei Wu, come here!” Guan Zhong roared.

The military physician Wei Wu’s scalp prickled; he bowed his head and spoke dryly: “Let’s go. At least we should bury General Guan.”

There’s a saying that the law does not punish the many—but now he had been directly named by Guan Zhong.

If he did nothing, whether Old Duck Guan ultimately lived or died, he would become the Guan family’s scapegoat.