Chapter 724: One Glimpse of a Gentleman, a Lifetime Undone

Zi Pingxiu only listened in silence. From beginning to end, he said not a word. He sat there motionless, his face dark.

When the men finished and received no response, the three cultivators exchanged glances.

At last, Jia Wuqun gave a light cough and walked over. Cupping his hands to the three, he said, "You have all been through much. The Chancellor is overcome with grief and has lost some of his composure. I hope you will forgive him."

The three naturally exchanged a few polite words with him. Jia Wuqun nodded to the steward, indicating that he should personally see them out, while making a small gesture as though reaching into his sleeve.

The steward understood. Jia Wuqun was telling him to give the men some money as thanks. He immediately stepped forward, invited the three to leave, and personally escorted them out.

Once there were no outsiders left, Jia Wuqun turned and watched the silent Zi Pingxiu for a while. At last, he sighed. "Chancellor, this happened suddenly. The dead are gone, and nothing can bring them back. Please restrain your grief."

"Ah..." Zi Pingxiu slowly forced out a breath and gave a bitter, miserable laugh. "He didn't want to leave behind a reputation for relying on a woman? Ha. Did he not know how much Chun'er cared about him? Do you think I wanted to send him into battle at a time like this? Chun'er always felt he had been wronged. She kept begging me to find some way to give him a chance. And this is how he repaid her! He drew his sword across his own throat for that? Good. Very good. For the sake of that little bit of backbone, he could cast aside his own wife and children. A fine hero! He preserved his own integrity and abandoned his family. Is that what makes a hero?"

Bang!

He slammed a palm onto the tea table and surged to his feet, anger spilling from him.

The sudden movement startled Jia Wuqun. He quickly soothed him. "Chancellor, the Great General was a hard-fighting man of the battlefield with plenty of spirit. He could not endure all those rumors and slanders. After so many years, his feelings are understandable."

Zi Pingxiu raised his head and let out a long sigh. "My household is in turmoil. How am I supposed to face everyone's accusations at court?"

"Chancellor, that is not the right way to look at it," Jia Wuqun said. "The Great General's action can also be said to have protected you. Earlier, he fought Meng Shanming and won—and won a great victory. The Myriad Beasts Sect's aid was certainly one factor, but when the battle report reached the capital, the generals at court discussed it themselves. Every one of them praised how beautifully the Great General had won. Without his skillful plan to lure the enemy in, how could such an enormous victory have been achieved? That one great victory is already enough to prove that the Chancellor did not appoint the wrong man. The Great General truly did know how to command troops and win battles."

"He lost because he was outnumbered. He lost because events changed in a way no one could have expected. Who could have imagined the Yan army would suddenly become able to break the Myriad Beasts Sect's secret art? If even the Myriad Beasts Sect's method could not stop them, then with nothing but the rabble the court gave the Great General, who at court would dare stand up and say he could still defeat the Yan army? And beyond that, the Great General fought desperately to the end. He showed no selfishness and made no attempt to save himself. He had an opportunity to escape and refused it, choosing instead to live or die with his army. After defeat, he did not hesitate to cut his own throat. With integrity like that, who would still dare say the Chancellor used the wrong man? With the Chancellor's influence at court and these arguments on your side, no one can do anything to you."

Every sentence made sense. They pulled Zi Pingxiu out of his daze. Stroking his beard, he nodded in agreement, but a measure of doubt remained. He tipped his chin toward the doorway. "Only a few people escaped the battle. There aren't many witnesses. If someone with ulterior motives incites them to change their story, we will have trouble."

Jia Wuqun knew he meant the cultivators who had just left. "Chancellor, you are worrying too much. They do not want to shoulder accusations of abandoning their commander and failing in their duty as protectors. They will not turn around and frame the Great General. They will insist that the Great General himself sought death. They are not so easy for others to use. Besides, this is hardly the time to quarrel over internal factional struggles. The state is in peril. His Majesty will not allow fresh chaos to break out at court."

Under Jia Wuqun's reassurance, Zi Pingxiu's thoughts gradually cleared. His voice sank. "What exactly happened? Why did the Myriad Beasts Sect's secret art suddenly stop working against the Yan army?"

"I looked into the circumstances carefully," Jia Wuqun said. "The Yan army did not use some other method to break the Myriad Beasts Sect's secret art. Those snakes, insects, rats, and ants treated the Yan troops and Song troops exactly the same. I fear... the one who tied the bell was also the one who untied it."

Zi Pingxiu suddenly turned his head, his eyes narrowing coldly. "You're saying the Myriad Beasts Sect went back on its word?"

Jia Wuqun shook his head. "That is exactly what puzzles me. If the Myriad Beasts Sect wanted Yan to win, they could simply have withdrawn their own people and stopped helping Song. At least that would have given the Song army some warning. Otherwise, wouldn't they be offending the court and the Chancellor to the death? There is a contradiction here. Most likely, something happened inside the Myriad Beasts Sect. Perhaps some internal dispute arose. We are outsiders and know nothing about the sect's internal affairs, so there is no way to make a sound judgment."

"One thing, however, is certain. The Myriad Beasts Sect's aid to Song was a sect decision reached by consensus. If someone secretly contacted the Yan army on his own, that would be a betrayal of his sect and would hand an enormous weakness to outsiders. So if someone inside the Myriad Beasts Sect truly did act, the more likely possibility is that some outside power influenced him. After the Yan army's defeat, someone on that side would inevitably try every possible method. Such a thing is entirely possible."

Zi Pingxiu said, "Yan's three major sects?"

"If my assumption is correct, then by ordinary reasoning Yan's three major sects would indeed be the most likely. But..."

"But what?"

"I suspect someone else." Jia Wuqun considered for a moment, then asked, "Chancellor, do you remember the Niu Youdao I mentioned before?"

"Of course. You said that man was extremely dangerous. Do you suspect he had something to do with this?"

Jia Wuqun did not answer directly. "I have been following the fighting closely. After the Yan army was defeated, they showed no intention of withdrawing. While avoiding battle, they kept circling around, as though looking for an opportunity to strike."

Zi Pingxiu was puzzled. "They wanted to salvage the situation and look for a chance to win. Is that not normal?"

"The key is that they behaved that way from the moment they lost, and their strategy never changed," Jia Wuqun said. "They did not even show any intention of obstructing Chen Shaotong or counterattacking to probe him. Meanwhile, the Great General had an unusual force assisting him, and Luo Zhao's army was still withdrawing. What would happen once those two armies joined together? Yet the Yan army's operations seemed completely unaffected. What does that tell you?"

Zi Pingxiu narrowed his eyes. "It tells me the Yan army was confident it could reverse the situation."

Jia Wuqun's voice rose. "And then, afterward, the Yan army suddenly changed its face. In the blink of an eye, it surrounded the Great General and defeated him in a single stroke! Chancellor, can that truly have been a coincidence?"

Zi Pingxiu seemed to understand something, but he was still puzzled. "What does this have to do with Niu Youdao?"

"Chancellor, don't forget. According to the Myriad Beasts Sect's own reply, the people who ran there making a scene and demanding an explanation were precisely the men from Yan's three major sects. Looking at it from the other direction, whoever had been confident from the beginning that the Yan army could turn the situation around was very likely not someone from those three sects."

That single observation woke Zi Pingxiu as if from a dream. Understanding dawned on his face.

"Of course, it is also possible that Yan's three major sects deliberately went to lull the Myriad Beasts Sect into complacency while making other moves behind the scenes. But I calculated the timing and compared it with a number of practical factors—the number of men involved, the quantity of medicine required, and so on. The more I think about it, the less likely it seems that Yan's three major sects were merely putting on a show to deceive the Myriad Beasts Sect."

"Naturally, none of this proves Niu Youdao did it. It could easily have been someone else. But I keep feeling he is the most suspicious. I still suspect he acted from the shadows. It comes back to what I said before: I do not believe he would sit by and watch Meng Shanming suffer defeat without doing anything."

"If my guess is wrong, then so be it. But if I have unfortunately guessed correctly, then judging by the timing and circumstances, someone among those inside the Myriad Beasts Sect who possesses this secret method may very well have been bought off by Niu Youdao. By ordinary reasoning, buying such a person should be extremely difficult. But if he truly was bought, then this matter would be no small thing. It would be an enormous handle in Niu Youdao's hands, effectively placing that person under his control. Unfortunately, I have no way to track personnel movements inside the Myriad Beasts Sect. Otherwise, I could try to verify my suspicion."

"Getting the Myriad Beasts Sect to explain the circumstances of its own internal personnel is unlikely." Zi Pingxiu shook his head and waved a hand, indicating that Jia Wuqun should abandon the idea. Then he looked toward the doorway and sighed. "We couldn't even recover his corpse. As for Chun'er..."

Before he could finish, a servant came running in from outside, shouting in panic, "Chancellor! Chancellor! The Young Lady, the Young Lady..."

Zi Pingxiu and Jia Wuqun both jolted in alarm and rushed out one after the other.

Jia Wuqun remained slightly calmer. He seized the servant by the front of his robe, forced him to explain what had happened first, then ran after Zi Pingxiu.

After news of Chen Shaotong's death arrived, white mourning cloth had already spread throughout the Chancellor's residence.

In the courtyard of the Chancellor's beloved daughter, servants ran back and forth in utter chaos. Zi Pingxiu burst into the room and immediately saw a strip of white silk hanging from the roof beam. The sight struck the eye like a blade.

The Chancellor's wife had already fainted and was being tended to.

On the bed lay a woman dressed in plain mourning white, perfectly still. A deep ligature mark circled her neck.

A cultivator stood helplessly to one side. When Zi Pingxiu rushed in, he said awkwardly, "We found her too late. She's already gone."

"You..." Zi Pingxiu pointed at the woman on the bed. His eyes reddened instantly. Trembling, he said, "You unfilial daughter! After all the years your parents raised you, you actually... actually..."

His entire body swayed. Fortunately, someone caught him in time, while the cultivator quickly used spiritual power to help regulate his breathing.

Looking at the woman on the bed, Jia Wuqun frowned and sighed. Then he found someone and asked what had happened. They had known the Young Lady was emotionally unstable. Why had no one watched her properly?

The maid responsible for attending her burst into frightened tears. She explained that the Young Lady had said she was tired and wanted to rest, then dismissed all of them. No one imagined she had already resolved to die and was merely waiting for the chance. When they finally opened the door and saw her hanging straight from the beam, the sight had nearly frightened their souls out of their bodies.

After asking his questions, Jia Wuqun pulled the steward aside. "Where are the Young Lady's two children?"

The steward said, "The Young Lady was afraid the children would not be able to accept their father's death all at once, so she had someone send them to an estate outside the city to play."

Jia Wuqun sighed. "It seems she had already decided to follow him. She loved the Great General with all her heart. I was careless. Don't bring the children back for now. Let them remain outside and play for a while longer. Send people to protect them properly. We cannot allow anything to happen to the children too."

"Yes, yes, yes! Everyone in the household has lost their heads, and even I have lost all sense of proportion. Only you are still thinking clearly, sir. If anything is amiss, please remind this old servant at once." The steward felt Jia Wuqun was right and nodded repeatedly. Wiping his tears, he looked toward one master of the household after another who had collapsed under the blow.

Jia Wuqun patted him on the shoulder and gestured for him to attend to his duties.

Then Jia Wuqun looked around the room carefully. On the writing table, he spotted a letter. He picked it up and discovered it was the dead woman's final testament. Everyone in the room was in such chaos that no one had noticed it.

The message was, in essence, that marrying Chen Shaotong had been a mistake and that she herself had ruined him. She regretted having used every means she could back then to force Chen Shaotong to marry her. She begged her parents to forgive her unfilial act and, for the sake of family affection, to care for her two children. As for herself, she had gone to follow Chen Shaotong in death.

"I watched you grow up all those years for nothing, foolish girl. What virtue did Chen Shaotong possess to deserve such single-hearted devotion from you? How are your parents supposed to bear this? I can only blame myself for coming back too late that year. If I had stopped the Chancellor sooner, you would never have gone looking for him to vent your anger... One glimpse of a gentleman, a lifetime undone. A doomed bond indeed."

Jia Wuqun looked at the letter, sighing as he slowly shook his head.

[End of Chapter 724]