Chapter 493: Auspicious Winds; The Qin Wang Comes of Age

Three days earlier.

"Get out, get out!"

The splendid wine cup smashed onto the ground and shattered, the fine wine inside spilling out. The attendants cleaned up the mess and stepped outside, leaving only Li Yuanchang alone in the room. His breathing was rapid, and he felt a kind of helpless bewilderment and utter powerlessness.

Ever since his elder sister seized the position of lord of Xiyicheng.

The entire Xiyicheng seemed to have changed utterly.

His elder brother learned of his deeds, and from that day on, he almost never met with him face to face. Even when Li Yuanchang personally brought gifts to call on him, he would not see him—only accept the gifts.

He had been fully convinced that, since his elder brother had accepted the gifts, there was still a chance to mend things between brothers.

But he soon discovered that the gifts he had sent his elder brother had ended up with Qin Wang. Li Jianwen had given everything he received from Li Yuanchang to Qin Wang, and Qin Wang's attitude toward Li Jianwen grew ever more warm and generous.

Although Li Jianwen was not a top-tier hero of the age, under Li Shude's cultivation, after more than ten years of participating in Xiyicheng's various affairs, he was nonetheless a remarkable figure of his generation.

Unlike Li Yuanchang.

Li Yuanchang deeply hated his elder brother's heartlessness and his second elder sister's cold indifference.

He felt that, between heaven and earth, they had no blood ties of kinship at all, that they had all abandoned him. He ran to his father, wailing, threw himself at his father's legs, sobbing as he cried out that he was his son too—how could he be treated so heartlessly?

Li Shude held him and wept as well, saying that blood ties were all he had, and that he too felt the pain.

Then, after Li Yuanchang left, he immediately took to dallying with the concubines he had earlier married for the sake of political alliances. In the past half year alone, three of them had become pregnant, and it was suspected that several singing girls and dancing girls had also fallen victim to the old lecher's hands.

Diligently producing more heirs.

Li Yuanchang's face turned green.

In his youth, Li Shude had also been a hero who could take up thirty arrows and go forth to quell rebellions. Having gained Jiang Wanxiang's trust, he had expanded Xiyicheng's power. Such a man was a far more seasoned old fox than the younger Li Zhaowen.

Li Yuanchang went several times, wailing and throwing tantrums, but every time Li Shude would weep and comfort him, embrace him in shared grief, and then, the moment he turned away, immediately redouble his efforts at begetting children—making it perfectly clear he couldn't be bothered with him.

Li Yuanchang felt that the world was vast and there was no place where he could stand. On top of that, Li Zhaowen did not chastise him at all—whatever Li Yuanchang wanted, he was given; he simply would not come to see him, and strictly restricted his movements. Li Yuanchang instead felt an indescribable oppression.

Yet there was only one thing—

Li Zhaowen told him that he was to be sent to Master Yan Daiqing of the Western Regions.

Before, Li Yuanchang had not cared in the slightest. He had even cursed outright, saying that they shouldn't think that throwing out the name of some so-called Master Yan Daiqing of the Western Regions would make him afraid, would make him yield—he absolutely would not be afraid, and he would not bow his head!

That had been his temperament half a year ago.

But three months ago, a great shadow had already fallen over him. Sometimes, when drinking, he would suddenly freeze. Whenever anyone mentioned Yan Daiqing, or any words associated with those three characters, Li Yuanchang would suddenly fly into a violent rage.

One breath he was still laughing and chatting amiably; the next moment he would upend the table.

The food and wine on the table crashed to the floor.

Let no one eat.

By a month ago, he had already become panicked and anxious, unable to sleep night after night, simply staring at the ceiling with open eyes. In less than a month, he had grown considerably thinner.

But on this day he finally could not bear it any longer. He went to pay respects to Li Shude, only to be refused at the door. His state of mind was thrown into chaos—despair, then from despair to irritability, and after the irritability, he actually became self-abandoning. Yet he went to the place where he had feasted and drunk in the past, squandering freely, drinking deeply, longing to numb himself.

In his stupor, he heard a soft, delicate voice say: "Young Master, Young Master…"

Li Yuanchang opened his eyes blearily and saw an extraordinarily beautiful woman right before him, her expression tender and worried, her eyes brimming with tears, speaking with heartfelt sincerity: "A noble scion like you—how could you harm yourself in a place like this?"

"When this concubine saw it, her heart ached…"

Li Yuanchang said: "You, you are…"

He suddenly said, in self-abandonment: "You—noble scion? Ha! What do you know, what do you know? What noble scion! The old man won't save me, my elder brother won't see me—blood ties, kinship, the way of heaven and man—they don't care about any of it, they've abandoned me!"

"Second sister, that wretched woman!"

Li Yuanchang's expression turned vicious and he said: "She actually helps outsiders deal with her own blood brother. I am her own blood brother, and she actually, actually wants to hand me over to that Master Yan Daiqing of the Western Regions, to that poisonous schemer!"

"She wants me to live unable to live, die unable to die."

"Even beasts know to care about blood ties—yet she is beneath even the beasts!"

Li Yuanchang was drunk, his face flushed. He seized the singing girl's wrist with such force that she winced in pain. The woman's eyes reddened, and she comforted him with worry for a long while. After Li Yuanchang had vented that emotion, he instead became dispirited and listless:

"What's the use of telling you? What's the use of telling you?"

"That Qin Wang has already left."

"I'm about to be sent to Jiangnan, sent to Jiangnan, and never come back…"

The beautiful woman said: "Young Master is a man blessed by heaven; it is not certain he cannot turn misfortune into fortune. Do not belittle yourself and become a laughingstock to others…" She poured wine and offered it to Li Yuanchang. Li Yuanchang, drunk, drained it in one gulp, and went on drinking pot after pot.

"More, wine, where's the wine… cough, cough, cough, cough…"

Li Yuanchang suddenly began to cough violently. His expression changed, and looking at the beautiful woman in light gauze, slender and graceful, a flash of panic and viciousness crossed his eyes. He said: "You?!!!"

"Poison?! You wretched woman!"

Li Yuanchang drew his sword. There was only heard the ringing hum of a sword, and the blade emitted a streak of sword Qi, which he slashed forward in an extremely vicious killing stroke. At this moment his heart was filled with a resentful, baleful energy, which instead aligned with the essence of that killing move.

Though it was only one sword, it had already attained a certain level of mastery.

Accompanied by a sound like tearing silk.

The woman's light gauze fluttered as it was torn apart directly by the sword Qi, but her body drifted lightly and unhurriedly, retreating backward. A slender finger flicked against Li Yuanchang's sword, and the weapon dropped straight to the ground with a wailing ring.

Li Yuanchang tried to strike again, but that one all-out sword stroke had already stirred his qi and blood into turmoil, invading his internal organs. A taste of blood filled his mouth, and as he looked at the woman before him, his vision seemed to overlap into three or five layered shadows.

The woman let out a pleasant, light laugh: "What poison?"

"This is 【Wu】—one of the Shiwaisan Sect, a branch of the Wu Gu lineage. It developed in the Western Regions over several hundred years, combining with our local Western Regions shamanism to give birth to a new school."

"Do not call it poison."

Li Yuanchang felt his vitality shifting.

He possessed Wu Gong at the early stage of the Third Heaven, which should have given him surging qi and blood sufficient to don armor and fight fiercely on the battlefield, the caliber of a commander leading a thousand men. But at this moment, that qi and blood—no weaker than a charging bull—was cooling bit by bit.

He was going to die…

Li Yuanchang realized this. He parted his lips with difficulty and said: "You, why? Is it—is it that Qin Wang, Your Majesty, sent you?! Or that wretched woman Li Zhaowen!?"

"I've already come to this point, I've already lost everything!"

"I've already agreed to be sent to see that so-called Master Yan Daiqing of the Western Regions, I didn't even run. You—why do you still want to kill me, why!"

The beautiful woman laughed and said, "Oh my, so the Young Master calls his greatest opponent, his enemy, 'Your Majesty the Qin Wang,' and yet he heaps abuse on his own elder sister—what kind of behavior would that be?"

"Bullying the weak and fearing the strong?"

"Throwing one's weight around to bully others?"

"Seems like none of those are right."

"However, everything you said is wrong. I, this one here, was not sent by those two."

Li Yuanchang's lips went pale as he said, "Then, you intend to use my death to frame and trap them? I—I can help you. Me alive is more useful than me dead, isn't it?"

The woman let out a laugh, playful and teasing: "Then beg me."

"Properly, sincerely, beg big sister here, and perhaps big sister might still give you a way out."

However, contrary to this woman's expectations, Li Yuanchang—who had previously appeared ruthless and calculating—suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly as he said, "Please, I beg you, spare my life, spare my life!"

"You—you're going to deal with the Qin Wang—no, I mean deal with Li Guanyi, right?"

"I can see it. I can help you, I really can help you."

Li Yuanchang crawled forward on his knees, his face pale, wearing a panicked look and an ingratiating smile: "I am Li Zhaowen's younger brother, and I might even become Your Majesty the Qin Wang's brother-in-law in the future. Even the poison-scholar of the Western Regions, Master Yan Daiqing, wouldn't really do anything to me."

"Right? Spare my life, and I'll do anything."

The woman gazed deeply at this fawning noble Young Master and said, "Yes, strictly speaking, I do indeed share a blood feud with that His Highness the Qin King, it's just…"

"I don't actually plan to avenge it."

She smiled and raised her foot, placing it on top of Li Yuanchang's head and pressing it down.

The woman said, "Do you still remember, when His Highness the Qin Wang came that day, he brought along a white-haired young girl, and the things you said to those three women of the Holy Sect?"

The Qin Wang, a white-haired young girl?

Li Yuanchang froze, his face pale.

He recalled how he had told those three women of the Mo Sect that he wanted to make a move on the little maid of the Xicheng city lord at that time, and so on, but unfortunately Li Zhaowen had protected her very well, placing her in the best-guarded courtyard in all of Xiyicheng.

Li Yuanchang understood and said, "It's the Qin Wang?"

"No, it's the last order left to me by that child's mother."

Elder Wu Xuefei lowered her eyes; she truly could not understand it—the Saint, the Sect Leader herself.

Clearly, she had done such things to her own biological daughter, yet at the very end of her life, she had ordered her trusted confidant—herself—to leave. At that time, the Qin Wang's momentum was like a rainbow, the Whale-Riding Guest had reappeared in the jianghu, and Xiao Yuxue told her to leave.

"I told you, you are the person I trust most."

Xiao Yuxue's eyes were gentle and serene as she said, "I hope you can do one more thing for me."

Elder Wu Xuefei had originally assumed it would be something like what those death warriors did, but she hadn't expected it to be a request to kill those who had harbored improper thoughts toward the silver-haired young girl.

"Although in the eyes of the world I am the lord of the Mo Sect, the continuation of my lineage was also protected by her. Before, with Li Zhaowen present, I could not make a move against you. Now that the Qin Wang has gone out and Li Zhaowen has gone with the Qin Wang, only then did I dare to come out."

"No, no, please, spare me, spare my life!"

"Back then, back then I was just bewitched, just bewitched, it was only because that Miss was too beautiful, please!" Li Yuanchang wept bitterly. Elder Wu Xuefei raised her hand and pressed down.

The sorcery internal force within Li Yuanchang's body erupted.

His body stiffened, collapsed there, and then stopped moving. Then, standing there woodenly, he rose as if he still possessed his own consciousness, walked out of this tavern, and finally step by step made his way to a luxurious villa.

Paying no heed to the wives and female relatives of other high officials and nobles around him, he let out a series of shrill, wild laughs, then leaped into the lake with a great splash, startling everyone nearby. The crowd recognized him as the Third Young Master who had now fallen from grace.

Afraid he had gone mad, they dared not approach, but soon they noticed something was wrong—the bubbles in the lake grew murky, and quickly, blackish-red blood rose up, spreading in a patch across the late-autumn lake.

Screams and shrieks erupted, shattering what should have been a tranquil autumn day.

The crowd panicked and shouted, rushing to try to fish the person out, their faces filled with terror. Elder Wu Xuefei stood outside the crowd, watching this chaotic scene, tugged at her hood, and murmured to herself:

"Those who betray their kin die for betraying their kin."

"Those who lust after beauty also perish for the greed in their hearts. Is good repaid with good and evil with evil, just like that? Living Buddha."

Elder Wu Xuefei thought of the old Monk she had once seen, sighed, and took out from her bosom the personal letter Xiao Yuxue had given her. She walked casually outward, crumpled this letter, and tossed it into the wind.

The wind blew past, and under the surging of Grandmaster-level internal force, these fragments of letter were utterly consumed, transforming into sparks in the wind, then burning out completely, becoming a flurry of snow—white and vast across the sky.

Elder Wu Xuefei departed.

The last high-ranking member of the Mo Sect, which had plagued the world for hundreds of years and left endless poison in its wake, vanished into the jianghu, and the branch of the Shiwaisan Sect that had flowed into the Western Regions during the calamity of sorcery also disappeared without a trace.

Only several decades later, a traveler on the roads of the Western Regions happened to see, among the thickets and wild mountains, a Buddhist nunnery, with a nun whose age and appearance were unknown. When the past was spoken of, she knew everything in detail, and she urged the traveler to seek goodness and not fall into the evil path.

That night, the wooden fish was struck, its sound clear and resonant, its lingering echo never ceasing.

And in this turbulent era, Li Zhaowen personally escorted Li Guanyi and the Master Jiankuang for a hundred li before turning back, only to learn of Li Yuanchang's death. Her Wu Gong and experience allowed her to identify the manner of Li Yuanchang's death.

But Li Zhaowen did not pursue the person who had killed Li Yuanchang.

If between her and Li Jianwen there still remained sibling affection, and she was especially unwilling for things to come to swords drawn between her and Li Jianwen, then as for Li Yuanchang, Li Zhaowen only felt that this scourge had finally departed.

Li Yuanchang was, according to propriety, buried outside.

All matters were kept simple.

Mourning and funeral rites were forbidden.

Later, there were rumors in the jianghu, and unofficial histories later claimed that Li Yuanchang had been wicked and arrogant, a wastrel who would not heed the sage's teachings, and that the Qin Wang had intended to entrust Li Yuanchang to Mr. Yan Daiqing of the Western Regions for supervision and instruction, to set him on the right path.

Li Yuanchang was terrified and uneasy in his heart, and in the end, after getting drunk, drowned himself by leaping into the water.

How shocking, how lamentable.

The name Yan Daiqing, the poison-scholar through the ages, so majestic and awe-inspiring, had come to this.

—————《Secret Tales of the Jiuzhou Troubled Times · Volume Three》

Li Guanyi paid no particular attention to Li Yuanchang's death. After confirming that the fellow was truly gone and not faking his death to escape, he stopped caring. With the help of the Nine-Colored Divine Deer elder, he successfully made contact with the Divine Eagle representing the grasslands.

"What? You want me to help you?"

"You?!"

The golden-winged auspicious beast of the grasslands almost looked at Li Guanyi with a sidelong, squinting gaze, disbelief in its eyes, its entire expression saying, 'You? Just you?'

'On what grounds?' was the look on its face.

The Nine-Colored Divine Deer's voice was gentle as it said, "It is for the peace and tranquility of the world. You and I, as Auspicious Omens, were both born bearing the harmonious breath of heaven and earth. Now the world is in chaos, blades and swords clash, resentment fills every corner — it is no longer a place fit for us to live."

The Divine Eagle of the Grassland laughed loudly, "Ha, that's you!"

"Old hag!"

The Nine-Colored Divine Deer's expression faltered.

The Divine Eagle of the Grassland, like a confident and proud grassland man, said bluntly, "Whether the world is in chaos or not, what does it have to do with me? So long as the grassland remains vast, so long as the sky remains far, let the humans fight and kill each other — I don't care at all!"

"Hahahaha, I'm off!"

"Humans, don't come over. If you still plan to do something, be careful — this Auspicious Omen won't be polite to you, hahaha, or else, come and defeat me!"

"How would you humans understand the way Auspicious Omens communicate?!"

"Last time you came, I saw you weren't easy to deal with. This time you're not in the same state as last time."

"Get lost!"

The Nine-Colored Divine Deer was downcast and grieved. Li Guanyi had finally managed to comfort the senior Nine-Colored Divine Deer. The Seventh Wang Ashi was also seeing for the first time the Auspicious Divine Eagle that only appeared in myths and legends, as well as that foul mouth whose origin was unknown.

Ashi couldn't help but say, "My lord, do you truly intend to subdue the Divine Eagle? Such a Divine Eagle is extremely wild and untamed. It was born bearing the long winds of heaven and earth over the grassland, the Auspicious Omen of the vast grassland, representing the freedom of the wilderness."

"Even the Great Khan should not dream of subduing such a great Auspicious Omen and Divine Beast."

Li Guanyi said, "Originally I only hoped to give it a try."

The Nine Provinces Cauldron was already his divine weapon; forging the Nine Cauldrons fixed the fate of the realm, equivalent to having two sovereigns over the grassland, able to contend with the Great Khan, able to restrain the current Great Khan.

After all, having witnessed the terrifying Auspicious power of the Primeval Taigu Chilong's physical body halting an entire army's momentum.

And how, once the army's momentum vanished, the Master Jiankuang could nearly cut off an enemy's general's head amidst ten thousand troops with his terrifying sword art, the Great Khan had picked up again the shrewdness and caution of his youth, lurking in the rear, refusing to move out lightly.

Li Guanyi said, "We must unite every force that can be united, and seek the greatest alliance."

"Then defeat the enemy, defeat the opponent, it's just…"

He looked at the Nine-Colored Divine Deer, which had been insulted by its junior Auspicious Omen, and the latter seemed somewhat sorrowful.

Li Guanyi said, "But I've now changed my mind."

Ashi said, "Then, shall we continue negotiating with the Auspicious Omen? Or shall we choose another method?" Qin Wang said, "I don't really understand the way Auspicious Omens communicate, which is why I asked the Nine-Colored Divine Deer for help."

"But, since the senior Nine-Colored Divine Deer's method of communication is different."

"I think, there should be other methods."

Ashi was puzzled, "What?"

…………

The next day.

A bold and hearty aged dragon's roar shook heaven and earth.

Golden-red firelight illuminated the sky.

Ashi stared blankly as the free, proud, foul-mouthed Auspicious Omen of the grassland was seized by the neck with a claw the size of a mountain, then with two snaps — crack, crash — its head was pressed against the cliff face of the grassland's greatest mountain, Dashan.

The Primeval Taigu Chilong caught this Auspicious Omen in one claw.

Laughing heartily.

The Divine Eagle's cheek was scraped against the cliff face as it said, "I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying."

"Hold on, hold on."

"I yield, I yield."

The Primeval Taigu Chilong lowered its head, opened its mouth, its fangs grim like a forest of weapons, golden-red light rising from its throat, laughing as it said, "I told you, Li Guanyi — what treating with courtesy, what proper discussion, what willingness to cooperate. Hahahaha, boy."

"You, and the Fire Qilin, and that little dumpling, are still too young."

"You are too immature, you don't have my magnificent wisdom."

"You simply don't understand how Auspicious Omens communicate."

It laughed as it shoved the Divine Eagle of the Grassland's head into the mountain cave, finally slamming the Divine Eagle onto the ground — also a colossal creature, but one that could not compare to the Primeval Taigu Chilong. The Taigu Chilong's dragon claw pressed down on the Auspicious Divine Eagle, slowly lowering its head.

Golden-red firelight rose from its throat as it said, "Do you yield now? Will you cooperate?"

"I will, I will."

The Primeval Taigu Chilong said solemnly, "Good, then, hand over eight hundred years of lifespan."

The Divine Eagle of the Grassland was stunned, "What?"

"What eight hundred years of lifespan? How would I know about that?"

"When this human was negotiating with me earlier, he never mentioned this."

A glint of ferocity that had terrorized the entire Auspicious Omen realm for eight thousand years flashed in the Primeval Taigu Chilong's eyes, "Nine hundred years of lifespan."

The Divine Eagle of the Grassland cried out, "But this…"

"One thousand eight hundred years!"

"I—!"

"Three thousand years!"

The free, skilled at singing bright and resonant songs, Auspicious Omen of the grassland nodded in humiliation:

"I am willing!"

At this moment, Qin Wang Li Guanyi's equal cooperation seemed so beautiful, so missed — but unfortunately one cannot turn back. With the help of the Primeval Taigu Chilong, the forging of the fourth cauldron was successfully completed, though this time the Nine Cauldrons could only be considered at half its power.

Still not yet complete.

A portion of its radiance still remained upon the Great Khan.

Li Guanyi felt that he had advanced another step on the path of the Martial Arts Legend, but it was still not enough to break through—

The barrier of the Martial Arts Legend seemed to be only that half-step away.

But this half-step felt like the distance between heaven and earth.

There was a feeling of seeing a mountain and running a horse to death — seemingly extremely close, yet every time one drew near and looked up again, the distance remained just as far, despairing. Even a figure like the Great Khan, for his entire life, still fell short by this half-step.

Li Guanyi, however, was neither discouraged nor impatient.

After entrusting the various affairs of this place to Ashina's oversight, and before the twentieth letter from Murong Qiushui arrived, in the eleventh month of the fifteenth year of Tianqi, the Qin Wang returned to his Jiangnan.

All under heaven breathed a sigh of relief.

The Qin Wang's withdrawal from Xiyicheng meant that the level of conflict there had dropped by a tier, which meant that even if there were fighting in the realm, it would only be small-scale skirmishes on the border between the State of Chen and the State of Ying.

It would not escalate into a chaotic great war across the whole realm.

At once, the scholars of the realm and the people of Jiangnan fell into a mood of anticipation, delight, and ease, because a great event was about to take place.

As a symbol that the realm was still at peace.

The Qin Wang was going to begin preparations for his capping ceremony.

?? Begging for monthly tickets, friends~