Chapter 64: Regent King

After writing this sentence, Changsun Wuchou paused his brush.

Previously, to mobilize certain covert agents within the Duke's mansion, he had written a letter outlining the general situation—but he never expected Li Guanyi to return so quickly, and not only was he alive, he had even made a tremendous name for himself.

He could only write another letter after nightfall to explain the circumstances.

He penned every detail of the young man killing seven bandits and riding back on horseback.

At the end, he set down his brush.

He continued writing that concise, unadorned verse, yet brimming with the spirit of youth.

He summoned Jin Yu the falcon and sent the letter off.

………………

When Li Guanyi lowered his battle bow, his face was pale; the technique Rolling Tide had drained all his strength—it could only be unleashed by concentrating every ounce of his being, coupled with the Heart's Realm of stirring a storm and torrent.

Xue Shen's Rolling Tide, Chen Duke's Mountain Shatter.

In pure technique, they were identical in style and had reached the ultimate extreme.

The magnitude and strength depended entirely on the user.

Having learned both techniques, Li Guanyi felt a faint, draining ache in his spirit, as if his essence had been sapped; whenever he reached his limit, he heard the lute's melody, and his Shen—his spirit within Jing, Qi, and Shen—recovered at an unimaginable speed to roughly thirty percent of his safety threshold.

Xue Daoyong looked at Li Guanyi and said, "What did you just see?"

"I caught a glimpse of battlefield miasma emanating from you."

Yao Guang was still in the Mystical Realm; Li Guanyi concealed the Mystical Realm and directly answered regarding today's transmission: "It was the battle spear techniques of Xue Shen, five hundred years ago. If Xue Lao desires, I can write down the spear techniques and give them to you."

After a moment of silence, the elder replied, "No."

Xue Daoyong said, "If you write down the spear techniques, I will inevitably be tempted to have Xue family disciples learn them. But the Xue household is vast, and there are inevitably disloyal elements within. If word spreads that the ancestral spear techniques have returned, it will be a great disaster."

"One of these—bow or spear—is enough to become a warlord in chaotic times."

"If you possess both, you hold the power to vie for the throne."

"Did my good brother send assassins to kill me with the Emperor's tacit approval? At this moment, if we Xue family do not conceal our sharp edges but instead display the spear techniques, aren't we handing over our own weaknesses?"

"This is a thing that invites disaster. Old man doesn't want it—but it is our ancestor's martial art."

The elder smiled, looked at Li Guanyi, and changed the subject casually:

"Li Guanyi, pass the spear techniques to Shuangtao."

"It takes years just to begin mastering the spear techniques."

"For the next few years, her Wu Gong will be taught to her by you, Shoubashou Sect style."

"Oh, by the way, if you have spare time, give a little guidance to Changqing as well."

Li Guanyi agreed. Seeing his pale face, the elder made him drink a cup of ginseng Qi-restoring brew, then let him leave; as Li Guanyi rose to go, the elder warned: "You've just entered the realm; your internal cultivation is still the pre-entry type, focused on body forging—it clearly lacks power for offense and recovery."

"Your martial path follows the lineage of my Xue ancestors: brutal techniques, extremely energy-intensive. Your pre-entry internal art cannot sustain even a few uses. The post-entry cultivation methods require spiritual transmission—you cannot receive them now. Wait a few days until you've rested."

"Come together with Shuangtao."

"I will take you both to the Xue ancestral lands to choose a post-entry internal art."

Seeing the faint expression of "only one?" in Li Guanyi's eyes, the elder lightly kicked the youth and scolded with a laugh:

"Ha, don't look at me like that. Greed leads to indigestion. First, perfect your internal art. As for body forging, fist techniques, weapons, footwork—my Xue household is vast; how could we possibly lack anything for you?"

"Learn one, burn one—it's more than enough for you."

Before today, Xue Daoyong had treated Li Guanyi well, but as an experienced elder showing favor to a promising junior. Today, seeing him ride forward without regard for his life, his attitude changed.

Previously, the elder would see Li Guanyi to the gate.

Today, he merely waved his hand, signaling him to leave on his own.

"You know the way—don't trouble me."

"Old bastard is going to sleep."

Li Guanyi grinned.

The old man holds grudges—yet he's a hero who treats the world as a chessboard.

Grand in spirit, petty in heart.

As he stepped out, the usually cold-faced steward unexpectedly smiled and bowed, saying with warmth:

"Young master, take care on your way."

Li Guanyi was unaccustomed to such a title.

He did not return directly to his quarters but went to the Xue family's library to borrow many books. In the past, as a guest minister, he could freely read but not take or copy them; this time, he borrowed these books and took them away.

A Retainer carried them back on a shoulder pole.

Auntie had already slept.

Li Guanyi moved quietly, returned to his room, and opened all the scrolls.

These books contained miscellaneous records, casual talks, essays, and records of annual events by scholars; official histories compiled by the court were forbidden to commoners—these writings by scholars across the land would, centuries later, become what was called "wild histories."

"Regent King…"

Such a magnificent, tyrannical title—Li Guanyi had never heard of it.

The assassin said it was the Regent King—was the Regent King responsible for his parents' deaths? Did his parents die because of the Regent King's affairs? Or was the Regent King his own kin? At this moment, Li Guanyi even regretted pressing the assassin too hard during interrogation, forcing him to answer too many questions.

Li Guanyi recalled that Xue Daoyong had once mentioned Xiao Wuliang, saying he had fought at age thirteen during the Regent King's rebellion. Li Guanyi found Xiao Wuliang's records and searched until he found the description:

【Taiching Year Three: Prince of Puyang defied the Emperor, failed to attend the state sacrifice. The Emperor, enraged, launched an expedition. Prince of Puyang raised troops to resist. At thirteen, Wuliang rode out alone; none in the army could stand against him.】

"Prince of Puyang?"

Li Guanyi found the key name and quickly searched: the incident began when the Prince of Puyang refused to come to Jingcheng for Chen's grand sacrifice, instead drinking and reveling privately—so the Emperor, furious and fearful of his martial prowess, sent troops to arrest him.

Fundamentally, it was a conflict between regional feudal lords and the capital's Emperor.

It also signaled the Emperor's weak authority.

Xiao Wuliang was a fearsome general under the Prince of Puyang.

Li Guanyi found the records of the Commandery Prince.

This Commandery Prince abolished market taxes, land rents, and head taxes at city gates within his jurisdiction; the people rejoiced, and he arranged marriages between the children of commoners and military officers and soldiers, permitting commoners to live near military camps.

He also demanded funds from the imperial court; the reigning Emperor, having suffered a previous defeat and with the Yiguo on his flank, could not deploy large armies, so he tacitly permitted such behavior—perhaps believing the Commandery Prince's greed and lust made him easier to control—and sent him envoys bearing gifts and silver.

So numerous were these envoys that the unofficial histories described them with the phrase "messengers in constant sight."

Li Guanyi smirked; he understood, from Xue Shen's teachings, what would happen next.

Indeed, five years after the Grand Sacrifice, the Commandery Prince claimed he was out hunting.

In truth, he led his troops straight toward Jiangzhou.

His army abandoned the era's heaviest armored cavalry; eight thousand light cavalry rode through the night, feigning intent to attack the left flank of Jiangnan, yet headed straight for Ducheng. The records describe the Commandery Prince as a Wang Hou who understood Wu Gong—he was clumsy in footwork, yet possessed first-rate strategy and mounted combat skill.

Chen claimed over a hundred thousand armored soldiers; its night-riding cavalry was famed throughout the land.

Yet the Commandery Prince struck at the perfect moment, under the banner of "purifying the court," and his eight thousand light cavalry pierced straight into Ducheng. That day's siege saw nearly all eight thousand light cavalry perish—but Jiangzhou was shattered, and finally, the eighteen-year-old Xiao Wuliang shattered the city's defenses with the Weight in Hand.

The officials of Chen's Ducheng were steeped in literary qi, capable of repelling enemies and weakening their fortune.

But faced with such a surprise assault, they proved no match for these armored brutes; the eighteen-year-old Xiao Wuliang, through this "nation-destroying war," rose to the ranks of the world's famed generals, while Jiangzhou burned in roaring flames.

The Commandery Prince rode his horse into Ducheng; officials kneeling on either side cried "Ten Thousand Years!"

At that time, the Southern Emperor devoutly believed in Buddhism; southern Jiangnan had countless temples, said to number four hundred and eighty.

The Commandery Prince locked the Emperor inside the palace, letting his devout Buddhist brother starve to death.

When the door was finally opened, the Emperor was skeletal, eyes wide open, pounding the door with his fists; his fingers were like white bone, clawing the ground, nails shattered; the red-lacquered pillars bore bite marks, revealing white wood pulp; the Emperor was dead, and inside his abdomen lay a mass of indigestible matter.

He had eaten candles, cloth, and died in utter starvation and agonizing abdominal pain.

"Your beloved Buddha never came to save you."

Later, the Commandery Prince sat before the body of his younger brother, his armored palm pressing down over his brother's unblinking eyes, his voice cold and hard, saying:

"This is a chaotic age—iron and fire are all that matter, brother."

In the unofficial histories, the Commandery Prince dropped his blade, stared at his brother, and felt nothing but emptiness.

At his side stood the young general Xiao Wuliang, watching this back.

He did not become Emperor.

Instead, he installed the Crown Prince as Emperor, pacified the civil and military officials and great clans, and made himself Grand Tutor, Minister of Works, and Minister of War; he razed every temple, turned the monks into the vanguard of his army, gave them wooden staves and cloth robes, and sent them to clash head-on with the Turkic Tie Futu.

He seized the farmland; over the next three years, Chen changed two Emperors.

The Commandery Prince declared himself Regent, allowed to wear sword and boots in court, and enter without bowing.

Each time he installed a new Emperor, he proclaimed a general amnesty—while simultaneously ordering his troops to conquer the rest of Jiangnan.

His military methods were brutal; during the conquest of Jiangnan, he permitted the slaughter of civilians—after a city fell, his troops were given three days of pillage. That year, the Emperor's Empress gave birth to a child; then the Emperor abdicated, the Regent ascended the throne, and the former Emperor died in the palace.

It was also that year.

Tai Ping Gong, who had dominated the Western Regions, rode eight hundred iron cavalry back to Huicheng—just as the Commandery Prince had shattered the city gates—this famed general of Chen smashed through the gates, spear in hand, wearing a dark-gold mask, and killed the Regent before the Taihe Hall.

The tyrant who starved his brother to death died beneath the very red-lacquered pillar his brother's fingers had gouged.

Once a bold conqueror who slew the Emperor, shattered the empire, and reduced the pinnacle of power to a plaything in his palm, this tyrant ultimately met his end with his head pierced by a spear, becoming merely a stepping stone for another famed general's glory.

Tai Ping Gong's Captain, Yue Pengwu, aged twenty, led the assault, slew the general, and seized the banner.

Afterwards, the unofficial histories suddenly grew sparse.

It seemed part had been torn out.

"The Regent died in the Taihe Hall."

"Prince Jing was refined, virtuous, and ascended the throne; he proclaimed a general amnesty; Tai Ping Gong was enfeoffed as a Prince."

Then it ended. Everything after concerned the reigning Emperor—as if the famed general who had returned from the Western Regions had never existed. Li Guanyi flipped through the records for a long time, and at the very end, he found Tai Ping Gong's conclusion.

"In the third year of Taihe, Tai Ping Gong died violently."

Beyond that, there was no further record of Tai Ping Gong.

Even the Regent, who committed countless atrocities, was clearly documented in these scholars' writings—his brilliance and cold madness laid bare—but for Tai Ping Gong, why he was called Tai Ping Gong, how he rose, how he became a famed general of the realm—

Nothing was recorded.

Only that in that year, Tai Ping Gong returned from the Western Regions, spear in hand, and stabbed to death the shadow that loomed over Chen.

As if everyone feared to speak of this famed general.

Li Guanyi exhaled. Even in the unofficial histories, the past of these tyrants stirred him—cold, domineering, mad Regent; grim, silent Xiao Wuliang; Tai Ping Gong like a falling star; and Yue Pengwu, just emerging in this chaos of white bones.

But the Regent…

Li Guanyi frowned. If the Regent had ordered it, the timing didn't match.

When he fled, the Regent was already dead.

Unless… it was connected to the Regent?

Li Guanyi suddenly had a flash of insight. He pulled out all the scrolls, laid out the chronology, and calculated each date—

In the third year of Taiqing, the Regent first rebelled; Xiao Wuliang became famous at thirteen.

In the eighth year of Taiqing, the Regent killed the Emperor; Xiao Wuliang was eighteen.

In the following two to three years, the Regent replaced two Emperors, forced abdication, and ascended himself; Xiao Wuliang was twenty; Tai Ping Gong arrived from the Western Regions; Yue Pengwu became famous at twenty; Prince Jing ascended; Chen's state name became Taihe.

In the third year of Taihe, Tai Ping Gong died violently.

According to the Central Plains Emperor's calendar, it is now Tianqi ten.

Chen's Taihe year is thirteen.

Li Guanyi put down his brush; the timeline lay before him.

The last Emperor, who abdicated to the Regent, had his son born thirteen years ago.

Tai Ping Gong arrived from the Western Regions and killed the Regent—also thirteen years ago.

Tai Ping Gong died violently on—

Li Guanyi paused.

【Ten years ago】.