Chapter 892: The New Sovereign of Qin Is Your Student

While mother and son were still lost in thought, Zhuge Chi added, "The late Emperor also had this old slave hold half of the treasury's secret key so the three great sects could not casually replace one dynasty with another. He probably never imagined the situation would become what it is today. The three great sects did not replace the dynasty, but Zhao itself rashly began a war and forced itself onto the road to national destruction. This old slave can guard the treasury, but I cannot guard this vast State of Zhao."

Had Zhuge Chi said such a thing before, Hai Wuji would undoubtedly have taken offense. The words were plainly accusing him of having started a war he should never have begun.

Now, however, after personally witnessing Zhuge Chi's abilities, Hai Wuji could hardly speak of punishing him.

At the moment, he only wanted to understand certain things. The corpses covering the underground palace were all experts of Zhao's three great sects. Even their Supreme Elders had died in an instant at the Chief Steward's hands. Zhuge Chi's true strength was obvious.

Hai Wuji twisted his mouth and asked, "My imperial great-grandfather instructed my imperial grandfather, my grandfather instructed Imperial Father, and Imperial Father in turn instructed me. All of them said you were to be treated well. Looking at it now, Great-Grandfather, Grandfather, and Imperial Father all knew you had hidden your abilities deeply. I alone knew nothing. Did you deliberately conceal this from me, or did you think I was inferior to my ancestors and unworthy of knowing?"

In his aged voice, Zhuge Chi said, "Your Majesty, with matters already in such a state, is there still any meaning in arguing over this? We should leave first."

"Of course there is meaning!" Hai Wuji's emotions rose. "If I had known earlier that you possessed such abilities, surely there would have been some way to relieve the siege of Zhao's army. How would Zhao ever have fallen to this state?"

Zhuge Chi shook his head. "Your Majesty is thinking too much. Whether or not this old slave could have relieved the army, I could not have acted. If I had, not only would I have died, I would have implicated Your Majesty as well. As things stand, Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager may still have a road to survival. If outsiders learn the truth about this old slave, Zhao will not merely be reduced to ashes. Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager will also be sent to their deaths. Misty Pavilion will never let us go, and there will be nowhere beneath Heaven for us to stand."

"The Emperor before the late Emperor never dared leak a single word of this. The late Emperor likewise never dared reveal it. Otherwise, calamity would have descended on us all."

Hai Wuji looked pained and indignant. "Then why hide it from me?"

Seeing that he plainly would not leave until he had received an explanation, Zhuge Chi could only sigh helplessly. "In my early years, when this old slave was young, the old sovereign favored me and kept me at his side to teach me. Because my aptitude for cultivation was passable, I eventually stepped onto the path of cultivation. Even the old sovereign never imagined that this old slave would one day reach my present cultivation. But he treated me almost like half a son, and before he died, he entrusted me to the Emperor who succeeded him."

"When the imperial palace gathered rare treasures from across the realm, it once happened upon a forbidden item controlled by Misty Pavilion that had been lost in the outside world. The item was hidden secretly inside the palace, and everyone who knew of it was silenced. When this old slave reached a bottleneck in cultivation and could not break through, that Emperor secretly had me consume the forbidden item. I truly did break through in one stroke. Neither he nor this old slave ever dared breathe a word of it."

"Before that Emperor died, he told the late Emperor about this old slave's situation. By the time the late Emperor himself approached death, however, there was an unavoidable reality before him. This old slave had already served through three reigns. If I continued remaining inside the palace, my lifespan would become a problem. If I kept appearing before the world after living beyond the normal lifespan of the Golden Core Realm, Misty Pavilion would inevitably notice."

"Some matters were no longer suitable to be passed down from generation to generation. The late Emperor had his own reasons for not telling Your Majesty, and it was also for Your Majesty's own good. This old slave did not deliberately conceal it. The world is simply full of unforeseen changes, and in the end this little matter of mine was still exposed before Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager must remember this. Nothing concerning this old slave can ever be leaked. Otherwise, none of us will have a road to survival."

"A road to survival?" Hai Wuji gave a faint, self-mocking smile, his expression miserable.

Zhuge Chi said, "Your Majesty, let us go. This capital cannot be held. Leave the capital first and find somewhere to hide. Once this storm has passed, we can decide what comes next."

Hai Wuji turned toward Shang Youlan. "Your son is useless. I have to drag Mother into wandering beneath Heaven with me."

Shang Youlan forced a smile and shook her head. "It is still better than losing our lives."

Zhuge Chi said, "The Empress Dowager need not suffer such hardship. This old slave will arrange for someone to send the Empress Dowager to the Grand Princess. No matter what grievances the Grand Princess may hold, she will not treat her own mother harshly. It will at least be better than wandering from place to place."

Shang Youlan fell silent.

Hai Wuji turned back toward the treasury. "Then leave whatever is inside to whoever rules this place next. Carrying it with us would only become a burden and make others unable to stop thinking about it."

The fact that he could say this proved that he himself knew the capital could no longer be held. They had no choice but to leave.

Zhuge Chi said, "That is precisely why this old slave killed them. As far as anyone else knows, the things have already been taken away by those men. Whatever should be removed from inside, Your Majesty may now take without worry."

Hai Wuji finally understood what Zhuge Chi meant.

...

Afterward, the remaining veteran elders of the three great sects were once again "invited" into the underground palace. Anyone who went inside was never seen again.

Later, disciples of the three great sects grew suspicious when their senior figures failed to emerge for so long and went down to search. They discovered the treasury standing wide open and completely empty.

When they came back out and questioned Hai Wuji, his side claimed to know nothing and even appeared astonished. They said that after the treasury was opened, the three Sect Leaders had obtained what they wanted and ordered everyone else to leave. Hai Wuji's people supposedly had no idea where the senior figures of the three sects had gone afterward.

The disciples of the three great sects were left somewhat bewildered. They had heard no sounds of battle. Not even in their dreams did it occur to them that Hai Wuji might somehow have dealt with those experts himself.

...

The capital truly could not be held.

Everyone knew Zhao's elite army had been annihilated. Military morale had collapsed completely, and there was no will left to resist.

Most importantly, the cultivation sects had either fled or defected to Xiaoyue Pavilion. Even the disciples of Zhao's three great sects, unable to find their own senior figures, fled in advance once they heard the enemy army was approaching.

Without cultivators to help defend it, how could the capital possibly hold?

The moment Xiaoyue Pavilion's rebel army arrived, it broke into the city with ease.

Zhao's civil and military officials knelt outside the imperial palace and begged to surrender. Mr. Yucang led troops into the palace, only to find Zhao Emperor Hai Wuji nowhere to be seen.

Throughout the rear palace, imperial beauties had hanged themselves in great numbers.

In almost every residence of the imperial consorts, women who had once been as beautiful as flowers now hung dead from the beams, their faces contorted, tongues protruding.

Many plainly bore signs of having struggled before death.

They had not wanted to die.

But someone had wanted them dead, and so they had been given no choice.

All the glory and wealth they had enjoyed in life had, at this final moment, become nothing more than swaying bodies hanging from rafters and unwillingness that could no longer speak.

There were simply too many people. It was impossible to take so many along in a secret escape.

Only a small number could be taken away.

The rest had to die.

The territory could be given to others.

The capital could be given to others.

Even the imperial palace could be given to others.

Only the women who had lived inside that palace could not be left for someone else to inherit.

Even a man as widely experienced as Mr. Yucang felt his scalp go numb at the sight of so many hanged women.

When he turned to leave, he sighed and shook his head.

...

In Jinzhou's provincial capital, the Governor's Residence was bustling.

Its owner had returned, and the entire residence was being cleaned and repaired anew.

A carriage arrived outside.

From it descended an elderly woman wearing a thornwood hairpin and plain homespun clothes, a headscarf wrapped around her hair. Two attendants stood respectfully beside her.

Before long, Hai Ruyue came rushing out, skirts gathered in her hands.

At the sight of the elderly woman beside the carriage, she stopped for a moment and looked her up and down, apparently surprised by the woman's dress.

Then she quickly descended the steps and forced out a smile.

"Mother!"

The old woman in common dress was none other than Zhao's former Empress Dowager, Shang Youlan.

Shang Youlan smiled as well.

But as she smiled, tears began to fall.

Suddenly grief broke through her voice.

"Yue'er, Zhao is gone!"

Hai Ruyue hardly needed reminding. She already knew the capital had fallen.

Yet until this moment, the news had felt strangely unreal.

Now she froze.

In the next instant, hot tears spilled from her eyes.

She opened both arms and embraced her mother.

The two women held one another and wept, sobbing until neither could compose herself.

From the window of an inn around a distant corner, a man with trimmed brows, a shaved beard, and a face darkened with disguise watched the reunion between mother and daughter.

Unable to bear the sight, he slowly closed his eyes.

All rights and wrongs, all that had been and gone, seemed suddenly like a dream.

The man was none other than the ruler of a fallen state, Hai Wuji.

From this day onward, however, he would no longer be called Hai Wuji.

Standing beside him was an old man in plain, frugal clothes, his eyes bright and sharp and his back perfectly straight.

Anyone who knew his true identity would have found it difficult to believe this was Zhuge Chi, former Chief Steward of the Inner Palace of Zhao.

The wrinkles had vanished from his face.

His back was no longer bent.

The decrepit appearance of old age had disappeared.

Even his voice had changed.

Beside Hai Wuji, he reminded him softly, "Master, you can be at ease now. Let's go."

Hai Wuji opened his eyes.

Only after he watched the mother and daughter disappear through the distant doorway did he slowly turn away and leave, sleeves swaying.

A sigh drifted behind him.

"Jade tiles, golden realm—a guest in the mortal dust..."

Early in Wu Calendar Year 533, the State of Zhao fell.

Zhao's territory was divided in two.

Yan occupied one portion, while the greater part fell into the hands of Zhao's rebel army.

Not long after the rebels broke through the capital, they enthroned a new sovereign.

The state name was Qin!

Misty Pavilion sent men to verify the Shang Mirror, Zhao's former state-protecting divine artifact, and thereafter permitted Qin to establish itself as a state.

The new sovereign offered sacrifices to Heaven and Earth and publicly proclaimed the names of his ancestors to comfort their spirits in Heaven.

Only then did all beneath Heaven learn the truth.

Xiaoyue Pavilion was actually made up of remnants of the former Qin, destroyed three hundred years earlier.

The revelation shocked the world.

...

At Zijin Cave, Sect Leader Gong Lince returned.

At last, in a quiet part of the mountain, he met Niu Youdao again.

The two looked at one another and smiled.

Niu Youdao raised a hand and invited him to sit inside the pavilion.

After they sat, Gong Lince glanced toward the plaque over the courtyard entrance.

It had already been replaced with four words:

Maolu Annex.

Amused, Gong Lince said, "You move quickly enough. Without asking anyone's permission, you've simply moved Maolu Villa over here."

Niu Youdao raised a hand, signaling Guan Fangyi, who had been preparing the tea, to step aside.

He personally poured tea for his honored guest.

"Shouldn't I?"

Gong Lince ignored that question and asked another. "How are your injuries?"

"Recovered."

Niu Youdao pushed a cup of tea across to him.

Gong Lince idly turned the cup with his fingers.

"Have you heard? Those people from Xiaoyue Pavilion were actually remnants of the former Qin."

Niu Youdao nodded. "With such a commotion, it would be difficult not to hear. It was truly unexpected."

Gong Lince sighed. "They endured in silence for more than three hundred years, all for this one goal. Who could possibly have imagined it?"

He shook his head, lifted the tea, and took a sip.

Then a hint of amusement appeared in his expression.

"The new sovereign of Qin is your student. I wonder how you feel about that?"

Niu Youdao did not know whether to laugh or cry.

He shook his head.

"Back then, Mr. Yucang told me that boy was the Pavilion Master of Xiaoyue Pavilion. I only half believed him. Now I finally understand what was really going on."

"That boy isn't suited to being an emperor. From now on, the one truly controlling Qin's government will probably be Mr. Yucang!"

[End of Chapter 892]