Chapter 1074: Night Meeting (IV)

Sha Rulai said, "Of course Misty Pavilion didn't believe they were accidents. The people it planted went wrong one after another—how could there be so many coincidences? Someone dared target Misty Pavilion and could do it with such uncanny precision. How could the Pavilion not investigate? They wanted to see exactly what kind of formidable figure was making trouble, and the investigation at the time was extremely thorough."

At that point, he unexpectedly shook his head with a wry smile.

Niu Youdao immediately asked, "Did they find anything?"

"They did. And the result was rather unbelievable. Someone really was secretly protecting Guan Fangyi. As for who that person was, I doubt you could guess. Go ahead and try."

Niu Youdao muttered inwardly. He thought he already knew.

It was probably the Demonic Sect. He had long known that the Demonic Sect had been secretly protecting Guan Fangyi.

Even so, the Demonic Sect's reach seemed greater than he had imagined. To identify Misty Pavilion's planted spies accurately and eliminate them one after another required no small ability.

Though he had a guess, he deliberately pretended otherwise. "How could I possibly guess? Who was it?"

Sha Rulai lifted his eyes toward the stars above the canyon. "Hao Yuntu, Emperor of Qi."

"Hao Yuntu?" Niu Youdao's jaw nearly dropped. It had not been the Demonic Sect at all, but Hao Yuntu.

He hurriedly asked, "Guan Fangyi's reputation for beauty spread everywhere. Would the dignified Emperor of Qi really oppose Misty Pavilion for her sake? That doesn't seem possible."

"And yet that is exactly what happened. In order to protect Guan Fangyi, Hao Yuntu actually mobilized Qi's enormous intelligence apparatus and used the power of the Office of Investigation to shield her."

"Anyone of uncertain identity or suspicious origin—anyone who infiltrated Fufang Garden and showed even the slightest problem—was secretly eliminated by the Office of Investigation."

Niu Youdao found it difficult to believe. "With Hao Yuntu's strength, he could oppose Misty Pavilion?"

"Openly, naturally he was no match for Misty Pavilion. But planting spies isn't something that can be done openly. It has to remain secret."

"The entire Qi capital was under Hao Yuntu's close control. Inside the capital, he held every advantage of time and place, and both openly and secretly he could mobilize all kinds of forces at any moment. Misty Pavilion's planted agents, meanwhile, couldn't expose what they were doing. A mighty dragon cannot suppress the local snake."

"Think about it. Guan Fangyi remained in that palm-sized patch of the Qi capital almost all the time and barely ever left. You could say Hao Yuntu's power completely surrounded her. Any stirring of wind or grass was difficult to hide from the Office of Investigation."

"Anyone newly inserted into Fufang Garden was immediately watched by the Office of Investigation. And sooner or later, a planted agent had to contact Misty Pavilion. The moment that person made any abnormal contact with the outside, the Office of Investigation discovered it and immediately killed him."

"With the target so obvious, what was Misty Pavilion supposed to do?"

It truly was difficult to believe. Niu Youdao asked, "Why would Hao Yuntu do all that?"

"Once Misty Pavilion discovered that the Office of Investigation was behind it, they found the matter strange as well and began investigating the Office itself. In the end, they discovered it was Hao Yuntu's order."

"And the reason Hao Yuntu protected Guan Fangyi was actually that Hao Yuntu liked her."

Hao Yuntu liked Guan Fangyi?

Niu Youdao stared blankly for a while before asking, "Could there have been some mistake? As far as I know, Guan Fangyi had nothing to do with Hao Yuntu. She never even had any dealings with him... Unless she's been hiding something from me?"

"They truly had no dealings. Misty Pavilion found no sign that the two had ever been in contact."

"That only made the Pavilion even more suspicious. They began to wonder whether some force behind Hao Yuntu was secretly manipulating him, so they continued investigating. But no matter how they searched, they couldn't uncover anything."

"In the end, Misty Pavilion had no choice but to tear away the veil and stop operating from the shadows. They went directly to Bu Xun, Chief Steward of the Inner Palace and the man responsible for the Office of Investigation, and asked him why he was protecting Guan Fangyi. You should know Bu Xun."

Niu Youdao nodded. "You could call us acquaintances."

Sha Rulai continued, "Once Misty Pavilion found Bu Xun, he didn't dare conceal anything and honestly explained it."

"Hao Yuntu protected Guan Fangyi simply because he liked her. But because of Guan Fangyi's reputation, and because far too many eyes were on her, Hao Yuntu had no way to take her for himself."

"He had taken a liking to Guan Fangyi before he ever ascended the throne. He merely saw her once from a distance and was captivated by her grace. You could call it love at first sight."

"But the struggle for the throne concerned life and death, so he had no choice but to suppress his desire. After becoming emperor, his imperial status created even more concerns. He feared the consequences and could only watch from afar and protect her in secret."

"According to Bu Xun, rather than saying Hao Yuntu was protecting Guan Fangyi, it would be more accurate to say he was protecting a cherished longing in his own heart."

"Protecting a 'longing'..." Niu Youdao truly had no words.

Affairs between men and women really were impossible to explain cleanly. Feelings could twist themselves into something this strange.

It left him not knowing whether to laugh or sigh.

So Guan Fangyi had lived amid blessings without ever knowing it. A dignified emperor of a State had secretly loved that woman and protected her from the shadows, while she herself had known nothing.

Of course, had she known, Niu Youdao probably would not have been able to lure her away in the first place.

From this, one could imagine how many men must secretly have admired her back then.

The more Niu Youdao thought about it, the more he sighed inwardly. To make an emperor of a State treat her this way—just how breathtaking must Guan Fangyi's beauty have been in her youth?

No wonder she had once been called the number one beauty beneath Heaven.

But beauty faded easily with age. The splendor of those years was gone now, a thought that could only inspire melancholy.

Sha Rulai continued, "Bu Xun probably guessed that some of the people he'd dealt with earlier were Misty Pavilion agents, and he seems to have promised not to interfere again."

"But once Misty Pavilion had stepped directly into the open, there was no longer any point in planting agents around Guan Fangyi. Any newcomer who entered Fufang Garden would be suspected of belonging to Misty Pavilion even without investigation."

"Secret operations have this particular weakness. Once exposed, they stop being secret. That means the operation has failed completely and there's no reason to continue. Otherwise, it may endanger the handler and let the other side follow the trail back up the chain."

"So Misty Pavilion gave up on Guan Fangyi long ago. The people around her are clean—at least, there are no Misty Pavilion agents among them."

Niu Youdao nodded faintly. He understood.

He looked up at the sky and estimated that the two of them had already been talking for nearly an hour.

They had spoken a great deal. To some extent, remaining together this long was not particularly safe.

But there was no helping it. The two of them would not be able to meet often in the future, so Niu Youdao needed to seize this chance to clarify certain things.

He asked again, "How many people know that I stole Misty Pavilion uniforms and impersonated its personnel inside the Tiandu Secret Realm?"

Sha Rulai understood what he was worried about. "Don't worry. I already cleaned away the traces that needed cleaning. After Ding Wei took over Misty Pavilion, he couldn't see the relevant records either."

Only then did Niu Youdao finally relax.

But the mention of the Tiandu Secret Realm reminded him of a question that had bothered him for a long time.

"I more or less understand why the roster for this Sacred Realm tempering changed. But what happened with the list for the Tiandu Secret Realm back then?"

"I've heard why the original list was sent back, but Misty Pavilion shouldn't make decisions carelessly. If it considered the arrangement inappropriate, that should have been noticed before. Once a decision had already been made, it shouldn't have changed so easily. Why did things suddenly reverse?"

That change had nearly cost him his life inside the Tiandu Secret Realm. Now that he had an opportunity, naturally he wanted to know the true reason.

Sha Rulai said, "Why have the expeditions into the Tiandu Secret Realm existed generation after generation? I imagine I don't need to explain that to you. Every cultivator beneath Heaven understands the reason. No one merely dares say it openly."

"The Nine Saints simply want to weaken the cultivation world's strength and keep it at a certain level of weakness. Otherwise, once the cultivation world's power expands too far, too many people with hidden ambitions will emerge and become difficult to control."

"Adding the independent cultivators was merely because they hadn't been purged in many years, so the opportunity was used to clean them out as well."

"Of course, at first it was merely routine business. The usual purge would proceed as always, and no one thought much about it."

"But later, a man named Jia Wuqun came to Tiandu Peak. He was a trusted strategist under Zi Pingxiu, Chancellor of Song."

"A mere mortal actually dared come to Tiandu Peak as a lobbyist. He argued that while the various States were at war, the sects were keeping their elite disciples on the battlefields and merely sending lesser men to fulfill their obligations in the Tiandu Secret Realm."

Niu Youdao interrupted him. "Jia Wuqun? You mean the man in Song whom people call the 'Hidden Chancellor'?"

He had never dealt with Jia Wuqun personally, but with his present intelligence network and standing, naturally he had heard something of a well-known figure like that. Jia Wuqun simply had never been important enough for Niu Youdao to investigate closely.

Sha Rulai nodded. "Correct. Him."

Niu Youdao gave a thoughtful sound. "What happened afterward?"

"Misty Pavilion isn't made up of fools. Once they learned the man's identity and connection to Song, they understood what he was doing. Song was facing the danger of national destruction, and he wanted to borrow Misty Pavilion's hand to reverse the situation."

"A mere mortal actually dared scheme with Misty Pavilion as his tool. Some punishment was naturally unavoidable."

"Since he liked being a lobbyist, I ordered someone to tear his tongue out by the roots. A small punishment to serve as a great warning and make an example of him. Let's see how he would wag that tongue afterward."

"However, one has to admit that his argument struck directly at the key point and drew the Nine Saints' attention."

"After verification, they discovered that the sects truly had kept their elite disciples on the battlefields. That weakened the Nine Saints' intended purpose. That was why the list was sent back and the wars were frozen."

"Song escaped disaster because the wars were frozen. That also gave the present Emperor of Song, Wu Gongling, an opening to exploit, which is how today's Wu Gongling came to power."

"This is exactly why Misty Pavilion tries to avoid intervening directly in disputes between States. A casual decision can change the entire configuration beneath Heaven and easily create consequences no one can control. We have to be cautious."

Only today did Niu Youdao finally learn the true origin of that upheaval.

He fell into thought. "Hidden Chancellor? One Jia Wuqun quietly struck the precise point needed to lever the entire trend beneath Heaven and preserve the State of Song. It seems this man really does have some ability."

"He does. The three major sects of Song were able to overturn Mu Zhuozhen smoothly and put Wu Gongling on the throne only because the entire civil and military court cooperated."

"The organizer who coordinated the internal and external forces to overthrow the Mu imperial house in one stroke was Zi Pingxiu."

"Judging from the various signs Misty Pavilion obtained from Song, there's a strong possibility that Zi Pingxiu's risky move was planned from behind the scenes by Jia Wuqun."

"Zi Pingxiu's rise to the chancellorship, and every major decision he has made, all bear that man's shadow. That is why Jia Wuqun is called the 'Hidden Chancellor.'"

After hearing this, the ten fingers of Niu Youdao's hands, resting atop the hilt of his planted sword, shifted faintly with unease.

His eyes narrowed. "I, Niu, had eyes yet failed to recognize a true hero beneath Heaven. Hidden Chancellor... it seems the name is deserved. This man truly isn't simple. If I get the chance, I'd like to meet him."

Sha Rulai casually reassured him. "He lives secluded within Zi's residence, comes and goes quietly, isn't tempted by rank or wealth, keeps an extremely low profile, and never flaunts himself. He's only a mortal. It's normal that you never paid him much attention."

Niu Youdao smiled without answering.

He had nearly lost his life inside the Tiandu Secret Realm without even understanding why, only to learn now that a figure like this had been hidden behind the affair. He had almost died without ever knowing whom to blame.

From this moment onward, Jia Wuqun had Niu Youdao's full attention.

[End of Chapter 1074]