Chapter 130

Not long after dawn, several riding horses galloped out in sequence from a side alley of the Li Fu, racing through the rain toward the outer city, their riders urgent and hurried.

On a distant side street, Constable Fei Ji, eating breakfast at his baozi shop, gazed at the three figures disappearing into the distance, lost in thought:

"The Chiwu steeds from Fengzhou aren't fast, but they have endurance—they're headed beyond the Jingzhao Prefecture; riding in the rain, they carry hay, dried rations, water skins, and bedding rolls—clearly planning a quick trip and return with no stops; the lead rider is Du Mushan, a trusted aide of Li Gongpu…"

Yang Dabiao, disguised as a rough-looking man, devoured baozi across the street, three steamer baskets already emptied beside him; hearing this, he glanced over too:

"Monk Fei Ji Bei, why are you staring at the Li Gongpu residence so early?"

"To catch the Thief Saint! Anyone who commits a major crime always returns to the scene—don't think I'm boasting, but with these eyes of mine, if the Thief Saint so much as blinks within my sight, I'll nab him on the spot."

"Oh, I thought you were checking whether Li Gongpu's concubines were sneaking around with lovers…"

…

Fei Ji was indeed watching the Li Gongpu residence for signs of secret courtship—but not of women being abducted, but whether anyone was secretly courting the Crown Prince.

Yet Fei Ji couldn't voice these thoughts; his gaze followed Du Mushan's retreating figures as he reached into a baozi basket and felt around…

The basket was empty.

?

He turned back—several baskets were spotless, not even a crumb left!

"Hey? You little brat, I just glanced out the window and you didn't leave me a single one?!"

"Uh… I thought Constable Fei had no appetite and didn't want to waste them… Shopkeeper, two more baskets of baozi!"

"You pay for them yourself!"

"Then I'll just spit them out…"

"Get out, get out, get out…"

…

As the two bickered, a Constable rushed into the baozi shop, holding a letter, his expression odd:

"Constable Fei, take a look at this."

Fei Ji, baffled, took the letter and read it—soon his expression turned equally strange.

Yang Dabiao seized the moment, gulping down baozi one by one, frowning:

"What's going on?"

"Someone anonymously accused Xie Jinhuan of being the 'lover' of Empress Dowager Guo of Bei Zhou; for three years, he secretly trained in eighteen martial arts within the Bei Zhou palace, and returned to Da Qian to gain favor and sabotage it from within…"

"Huh?!"

Yang Dabiao snatched the letter and examined it closely:

"This is real? My brother slept with the Bei Zhou Empress Dowager? Who the hell made this up?"

"Probably the Mingshen Sect bastards—Xie Jinhuan hurt them, so they're 'diverting the water eastward,' trying to shift the imperial court's attention."

"Then why tie it to Empress Dowager Guo?"

"Maybe they noticed Xie Jinhuan used the Zhujì lineage's divine art in Lindian Palace yesterday. This framing technique is called 'inverting cause and effect'—using the outcome to reverse-engineer the process. It sounds plausible, and gossip about men and women spreads fast, and Bei Zhou will definitely believe it."

Yang Dabiao frowned: "Why?"

Fei Ji spoke solemnly:

"If Xie Jinhuan isn't a mole, this is a 'divide-and-conquer' scheme—making Da Qian suspect its own talent and cut off its own wings. With Empress Dowager Guo's cunning, she'd accept this claim. If Xie Jinhuan is a mole, then exposure forces her to rescue him—which also counts as accepting the claim. Since either way she accepts it, how can the court tell the truth?"

"The forger likely planned exactly this: if Bei Zhou accepts it, Xie Jinhuan gets smeared with scandal and must scramble to distance himself—this will inevitably delay the hunt for the Mingshen Sect."

"But the court isn't stupid—Chen, the Prefect, laughed outright when he saw this letter and sent it straight to the county office, telling Xie Jinhuan to have a good laugh too…"

Yang Dabiao nodded thoughtfully: "The person behind this scheme is a genius. Once this sticks, no matter how much Xie Jinhuan denies it, he'll be stuck in 'Twelve Volumes of Wild Histories, each volume bearing his name.' Future campaigns against Bei Zhou? He'll be branded a heartless traitor—his name will echo through eternity. Brilliant, brilliant…"

"True. If Xie Jinhuan catches this bastard, he'd better beat him into baozi filling…"

As they chatted, Fei Ji reached again for the baozi basket—what happened next?

"You little brat! You're utterly lawless, utterly insane!"

"Hey hey! Don't hit me—I'm an official, mind your image when out in public… Shopkeeper, two more baskets!"

…

——

East of the Imperial City, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

The Eight-Direction Illuminating Tower stands outside the Imperial City, its base housing the Astronomical Bureau, where officials and astronomers from all Geliu Sects reside; Lu Wu Zhen, the Abbess of Taiyin Palace, also maintains her office here permanently.

Dark clouds loomed over the city, turning the vast square a blackish-blue under the rain.

Nan Seeing Nan Gong Ye stood alone beneath an oiled paper umbrella before a six-zhang-tall stone qilin sculpture, gazing up at the legendary beast said to guard Da Qian's national fortune.

For this official occasion, Nan Seeing Nan Gong Ye wore the black-and-white robes of the Danding Sect, his hair tied in a Bai Yu crown, a yellow-brown sword case strapped to his back, radiating divine aura.

Now standing alone beneath the heavens, before the qilin, his sharp phoenix eyes gleaming, he looked like a peerless swordsman confronting a monstrous beast, ready to charge alone toward Bai Yu Jing—a figure whose aura resembled a glacial valley, untouched by any human desire.

Yet appearances aside, last night's chaos still stirred ripples in his heart.

After pushing Xie Jinhuan out last night, Nan Seeing Nan Gong Ye focused entirely on the yang poison within his body, unsure whether it was excessive adherence to discipline or sheer heat—he even forgot to keep his clothes on while bathing.

He took them off in the parlor…

Xie Jinhuan was caught off guard, and she moved fast—surely she didn't see the details…

But she still saw…

A girl he treated like a daughter, secretly falling for a righteous hero—only for the hero to catch sight of his beloved's master…

Even among Wu Sect demonesses, this would be legendary; let alone the Danding Sect, with its strict precepts…

Even now, Nan Seeing Nan Gong Ye felt as if daggers pricked his back—he believed his Dao heart had been damaged, and this trial could not be overcome.

Tap-tap…

As he wandered in thought, a man in Daoist robes emerged from the Gao Ta behind the qilin sculpture.

He too wore Danding Sect robes, his temples streaked with white, yet his face appeared only forty or fifty, his steps and bearing exuding ethereal grace, holding a black lacquered wooden box.

Nangong Ye shook off his distractions and stepped forward with a bow.

"You've worked hard, Master Lu."

"Don't mention it—just a small favor."

Lu Wu Zhen handed Nangong Ye the medicinal box, then added a warning:

"The imperial treasury holds few Jiazi Lotus; cultivating another takes a full sixty years. Nangong sister, do your best to return it early. If the court urgently needs it and demands it from Mount Zihui, we'll have to dig up live plants—and that would be a loss with no gain."

Lu Wu Zhen took refuge under a master during the Wu Sect upheaval; now his disciple's disciple, Jing Wuniang, is the same age as Nangong Ye—but Nangong Ye is a disciple of the True Person Qixia, and by internal Danding Sect seniority, they are peers.

Though Nangong Ye called him "brother," she held deep respect for the Danding Sect's Zhang Sect, and after a moment's thought, asked:

"Lately, Mingshen Sect has been stirring up trouble—could they be searching for the Corpse Ancestor's tomb?"

Lu Wu Zhen clasped his hands behind his back and gazed at the Qilin statue.

"No matter how powerful the Corpse Ancestor was, he was an old man. Each generation produces its own talents; after a hundred years of sedimentation, the demonic path may yet birth another unparalleled genius."

"Judging by Mingshen Sect's recent moves, it seems they've nurtured another great dragon, inch by inch, doing what the Corpse Ancestor failed to accomplish."

Nangong Ye, still too young to have lived through the Wu Sect upheaval, frowned:

"What did the Corpse Ancestor want to do?"

"For cultivators, it's always about longevity, eternal life, and ascending to immortality."

Lu Wu Zhen lifted his eyes to the sky choked with black clouds:

"But now, this sky is too low. No matter how much you cultivate, you can't reach that level. The only path is to plunder the world and gather all heaven and earth's fortune upon yourself. To plunder the world, you must first throw it into chaos—otherwise, all sects stand united like a solid iron block, and the demonic path cannot succeed."

Nangong Ye nodded thoughtfully: "So Mingshen Sect wants to spark war between north and south?"

"Not just that—there's also sectarian strife."

Lu Wu Zhen sighed softly:

"Those bald monks of the Buddhist sect have been pushing this 'Golden Sutra Rewriting' nonsense, slowly devouring our Daoist foundations."

"Master Sikong Tianyuan, that ancient immortal, forced a mob of poison and gu sectarians into the Wu Alliance—and even infiltrated the streets of Jingcheng."

"Wei Wu Yi has proposed several times that the Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau should rotate among all sects, not be monopolized by the Danding Sect."

"Over a hundred years, tensions between sects have piled up deeply. The peace holds only because the world remains tranquil, and all sects cherish their feathers—they dare not be the first to stir chaos."

"Once someone strikes the first blow, all sects will instantly descend into a boiling mess. The orthodox will each pursue their own agendas, and the demonic sects will get their chance."

Nangong Ye, having traveled the world for years, could see the growing rifts between sects—like her own clashes with the Wu Sect's demoness.

If that demoness didn't strip naked and humiliate herself, her Dao heart would never rest!

"So Master Lu, you mean all these conflicts are secretly stirred by Mingshen Sect?"

Lu Wu Zhen shook his head, then lifted a hand and gently beckoned—a long green-bladed sword flew into his grasp, engraved with the words "Wuzhen."

"Wuzhen, Wuxin, Wei Wu Yi, Tianyuan—our masters warned us not to kill each other over doctrine or treasures, not to repeat past mistakes. But now, it seems more like a prophecy come true."

"Wuxin the Monk lives only by the heart, always dreaming of turning the whole world into a Buddha's Pure Land; Tianyuan was the first to break from the orthodox, changed his name, and secluded himself to pursue his own ends..."

"All three thousand paths can lead to sainthood—there's no need to exclude others. But if I, Lu Wu Zhen, don't hold 'Dao as truth,' and instead dream of shared governance, those bald monks will turn Daqian into a realm of only Buddhism. If you were Zhang Sect, what would you do?"

Nangong Ye now wanted to tear down the ancestral hall of Fanyun Temple—and she thought Lu Wu Zhen's radical faction was too conservative!

"It seems we're all still worldly beings, lacking the hearts of our sect's ancient masters. I'll investigate Mingshen Sect's affairs more closely in Jingcheng. If I find any leads, I'll notify you immediately, Master Lu."

Lu Wu Zhen paused briefly, then added:

"Your disciple is acquainted with Xie Jinhuan—if convenient, you might quietly probe his background."

Probe his background?

I've already been probed clean by this brat...

Nangong Ye took a quiet breath, revealing no sign of disturbance, only asked:

"Do you suspect Xie Jinhuan's origins are suspect?"

Lu Wu Zhen shook his head: "I'm merely curious which elder taught such a fine disciple. Even when Xie Jinhuan attends a palace banquet, he never misses a chance to slay demons and exterminate evil—even if he truly were the former favorite of Empress Dowager Guo of the Northern Zhou, the court would pretend not to see it, waiting until he's dug out every last demonic element."

?

Nangong Ye had no idea about the little brat's false accusations; she stared blankly:

"How could Xie Jinhuan possibly be entangled with Empress Dowager Guo? With her temperament—if a steppe barbarian dared steal one of her people's sheep, she'd march her army to the border and force the Northern Court to kneel and return it. Why would she hand her weak point to Daqian? That's asking for trouble."

Lu Wu Zhen smiled slightly: "So this rumor is baseless. But if you get the chance, Nangong sister, ask Xie Jinhuan about his master—it's safer to know."

"Those old immortals of the Hidden Immortal Sect are always scheming 'grand strategies,' and nine out of ten are just stupid blunders. It's not hard to guard against demonic masters with heavenly-level cultivation—but the silent, foolish orthodox fools? They're impossible to guard against!"

Nangong Ye knew this insult was aimed at Sikong Shitang, the father of Master Sikong.

Sikong Shitang once took in a promising disciple; many said his nature was corrupt, but he believed he could reform him, raised him almost like his own son, and even secretly shielded him from scandal when he committed grave errors.

Then one night, the ancient masters of all sects across ten thousand miles south were horrified to discover:

My god! The Corpse Ancestor has emerged!

Though Sikong Shitang nearly sacrificed his life to purge his own sect, earning him a top-tier merit among the ancient masters, it couldn't undo the fact that he had raised a tiger to become a threat—this incident directly caused the entire Wu Sect's decline, leaving only Zhuji Sect as the lone surviving branch still allowed to appear openly.

Nangong Ye believed Xie Jinhuan's heart was utterly upright, at most a little fond of beauty.

And Xie Jinhuan clearly could not, because of a woman, overturn the entire world—so no matter how bizarre his master might be, there was no possibility of raising a tiger to become a threat. Master Lu's concern was clearly groundless.

But she said none of this aloud—only nodded vaguely, exchanged a few idle words, and departed with the Jiazi Lotus...

———

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(End of Chapter)