Chapter 1414: Golden-Faced Monkey

"What's wrong?" Huyan Wuhen asked, holding the infant.

Third Madam Pei said, "Supreme General, don't worry. She's only hungry. I've already had someone prepare mare's milk."

"You still haven't found a wet nurse?"

Ordinarily, Huyan Wuhen would never have concerned himself with such a thing. It was rare indeed.

"We've already sent people to look," Third Madam Pei said. "But the common people have been scattered by the war. It isn't easy to find someone suitable on short notice."

Huyan Wuhen nodded silently. Looking again at the wailing infant, grief gradually appeared on his face.

The child was crying herself hoarse over nothing more than a mouthful of milk, yet those heart-rending cries tugged loose the grief he had been suppressing in his heart.

She had lost both father and mother almost as soon as she was born. It almost seemed as though that was what she was crying over.

His eldest and second sons had both died in battle, but their family lines remained. Each had left sons behind. Only his third son had left no male heir, merely this one daughter, and even she had escaped the catastrophe only because she had been born prematurely.

For this old general, the ending of his third son's line could also be said to be his own doing. Huyan Wei had been given many chances to live, yet Huyan Wuhen himself had closed every one of them.

His third son, Huyan Wei, could almost be said to have been driven to death by his own father's hand.

The infant's crying made the grief in his heart impossible to suppress, and he became especially protective of the tiny child in his arms. Even in the middle of an army camp, he came to see her whenever he had a moment, afraid something might happen to a premature infant. Again and again, he instructed the cultivators to take proper care of her.

Seeing the grief on Huyan Wuhen's face, Zha Hu stood nearby and silently raised his eyes to the sky. He sighed inwardly, unable to understand what meaning there was in such foolish loyalty. Why put himself through this?

He even suspected Hao Yuntu had harbored ulterior motives when he helped keep Huyan Wei behind. To Zha Hu, Hao Yuntu's actions had been abnormal.

Perhaps Hao Yuntu had deliberately wanted Huyan Wuhen to lose all his grown sons, minimizing the possibility that Huyan Wuhen might establish himself as sovereign.

Or perhaps he had deliberately wanted Huyan Wei to die, so that all three of Huyan Wuhen's sons would have perished at enemy hands, binding Huyan Wuhen to fight the State of Jin to the bitter end.

Whatever the truth, it had died with Hao Yuntu. There was no longer any way to investigate it.

"Report!" A messenger suddenly called from outside the tent. "News from the forces surrounding the capital! Prince Ying Hao Zhen and the three imperial grandsons have escaped safely!"

Upon receiving the news, Huyan Wuhen set down his granddaughter and quickly went to meet with the Sect Leaders of Qi's Three Great Sects.

In fact, when the rebels broke into the capital, several of the imperial princes had managed to escape ahead of time.

But Huyan Wuhen, having received Hao Yuntu's final edict, had remained silent. He did not consider any of them suitable successors to the throne.

Hao Zhen's old steadiness and low profile, however, had not gone unnoticed. There had been a reason Shao Pingbo married his younger sister to Hao Zhen all those years ago. Shao Pingbo had not been the only one to see something in him.

Huyan Wuhen, who had always refrained from expressing opinions on succession, finally spoke and supported Hao Zhen's accession.

Hao Yuntu was dead, and the State of Qi had fallen into chaos. This was precisely the moment when a new sovereign had to be established to steady people's hearts. Thus, Qi's Three Great Sects urgently summoned Hao Zhen to the army, where he was hastily enthroned and became the new Emperor of Qi.

During the crude enthronement ceremony, the deposed Empress and Crown Prince watched from far away. Stripped of their fine robes and reduced to camp laborers, the two knelt with everyone else and paid homage.

With that kneeling, all the events of the past and all their beautiful dreams shattered like bubbles.

The state-protecting divine artifact they had obtained from Hao Yuntu was handed over as well. Refusing was not an option. Hao Hong had no say in the matter.

He had gone to endless lengths to obtain it, even accepting the infamy of killing his sovereign and murdering his father, only to make wedding clothes for someone else.

Qi's Three Great Sects would never allow the mother and son to rise again. Hao Yuntu's edict deposing the Crown Prince gave them the perfect excuse. Hao Hong was the one who had plotted treason; all responsibility could be pushed onto him.

The Three Great Sects would never admit that they themselves had started the entire farce. They would never admit that it was their own actions that had driven matters to this point.

...

Atop a pavilion of the Imperial Academy, Shao Pingbo stood high above the ground, leaning against the railing and gazing into the distance with melancholy on his face.

He had already received the news of Hao Zhen's enthronement. Hao Zhen had become Emperor of Qi, which naturally meant Shao Liuer had become Empress of Qi.

Was that not precisely one of the reasons he had married his younger sister to Hao Zhen all those years ago?

Yet back then, he could never have imagined matters developing into what they were now. At the time, he had still been in Beizhou. He had never imagined that one day he would defect to the State of Jin.

Now his sister had finally reached this position, but the State of Qi itself was battered by wind and rain and might sink at any moment—and that situation was something he had personally created.

He no longer knew whether he had helped his sister or harmed her, especially now that he had personally dragged her into another dangerous struggle.

...

Niu Youdao, in Nanzhou, received the same sort of news. He only glanced through it as intelligence and did not take it seriously.

Who sat on Qi's throne no longer mattered to him. He had his own affairs to handle. The first thing he did after returning was contact Demon Ridge, ordering Zhao Xiongge not to leak anything and instructing the Demonic Sect to continue maintaining the appearance of searching for its Holy Son.

Meanwhile, the States of Yan and Han had also begun making major moves. Both assembled their forces and launched attacks on the State of Qin.

The two states joined hands, ignored Qin's protests, and sent armies in simultaneously. They began taking cities and territory according to the partition they had agreed upon beforehand.

Qin was a newly established state to begin with, and the Qin court had governed poorly. Popular support had never stabilized. Instead, many people remembered how much better things had been under the State of Zhao. On top of that, Qin's defending forces were weak and powerless before the offensive. Along the invasion routes, armies either collapsed or surrendered.

Given the situation, Yan and Han had little choice. Jin was steadily growing stronger, and the two states had to prepare to resist it together.

The State of Song also protested fiercely, but its objections were useless. Yan and Han were acting jointly. At the same time they invaded Qin, they also moved troops to Song's border as a deterrent, guarding together against the possibility that Song might strike them from behind.

Yan and Han were astonishingly united this time, with neither playing any tricks to obstruct the other. The reason was simple: the steadily strengthening State of Jin had become the greatest threat to both.

Naturally, Jin did not want to see this happen either. But its reach did not extend that far, so for the moment it could do little beyond condemn Yan and Han verbally.

Jin was plainly fighting Qin's army itself, yet it now publicly spoke in support of Qin. In shamelessness, there was probably no one beneath Heaven who could surpass it.

Such were relations between states.

Of course, Jin's support was not merely verbal. It actively extended an olive branch and opened negotiations with the Qin army, offering to let Qin's troops pass through Xiping Pass and return home to resist the invading enemy.

The intention could not have been more obvious. Jin wanted to weaken resistance in Qi's territory while using the Qin army to consume the strength of Yan and Han.

But at this point, there was no possibility of the Qin army accepting.

Even setting every other concern aside, marching a great army back and forth took time. By the time they arrived, the State of Qin might already be nearly finished.

The various states cursed one another back and forth. This was precisely when the civil officials came into their own: now it was a contest to see whose denunciations cut deepest and whose rhetoric could produce the most elaborate abuse.

Gao Pin was not idle either. While sending men to negotiate with the Qin army, he continued tightening the screws inside Qi, worsening its difficulties. On land and at sea, he cut off every possible source of supply.

Cultivators were dispatched over the sea to destroy every merchant vessel attempting to reach Qi.

At the same time, he kept forcing the regional lords inside Qi to rebel. Anyone who refused was threatened with publication of the evidence proving their earlier collusion.

Gao Pin remained committed to his larger strategy. He would not fight Qi in an all-out decisive battle. Instead, he would keep impoverishing it, occasionally sending troops to harass the enemy. In plain terms, he refused to give Qi any opportunity to recover.

At the same time, he issued invitations to the refugees inside Qi who had suffered under the war. He claimed that the former lands of Wei had abundant grain and were willing to accept them, while spreading fabricated stories about how wonderfully those who had already fled there were living.

This was the cruelest move of all, a blade driven straight into Qi's weakness. After the Qi and Qin armies had previously requisitioned grain, countless common people of Qi had been dragged into hardship and were already close to starvation. What did the state matter beside staying alive? Streams of refugees began heading toward the former territory of Wei.

People were the foundation of restored agriculture. Without enough population, there would be no foundation for production.

But what could Qi do? Qi was unlike the other states. Across the grasslands, roads lay everywhere; there was no practical way to block the refugees. Even if they stopped them, then what? How much life-saving grain could the court provide?

Gao Pin simply wanted to see how long the provisions held by the Qi and Qin armies could last. If they could endure half a year, he would grind them down for half a year. If they could endure a year, he would grind them down for a year. He could afford it.

In plain terms, he meant to subdue the enemy without fighting.

After taking the throne, Hao Zhen tried to turn the collapsing tide. His first act was to pardon the regional lords who had been in contact with Jin, promising that no matter what had happened before, once he took the throne he would let bygones be bygones. His intention was to stabilize people's hearts first.

But the great edifice was already toppling, riddled with wounds from top to bottom. A vicious cycle had taken hold within. The longer matters dragged on, the worse Qi's position became. Anyone could see that the state was swaying on the verge of collapse and that its momentum was spent. All that remained was to gasp for breath a little longer.

...

Deep underground, inside a separate secret chamber Yun Ji had newly excavated, Yuan Gang stood bare-chested in a horse stance.

A hemispherical bulge in his abdomen rolled back and forth without pause. Blood mist cycled constantly between his mouth and nose, making a whooshing sound like a bellows.

At the acupoints across his skin, blood-red tracery like tiny snakes moved in and out repeatedly, all of it broadly converging toward the place where his arm had been severed.

With the Dharma Eye open, one could see spiritual qi from the unseen reaches continuously being absorbed into Yuan Gang's body.

Day after day passed.

The arm that had been severed at the shoulder had long since extended outward again. A palm had formed, and writhing buds of flesh were continuously weaving themselves into new fingers.

Perhaps because the demand for blood was too great, Yuan Gang's normally red skin began changing color. First it turned deathly pale, then gradually became waxen yellow.

The blood mist cycling through his mouth and nose changed along with it, slowly fading into a pale yellow.

The buds of flesh at the ends of the unfinished fingers also seemed to quicken with the transformation. Their writhing became visibly faster, accelerating the pace of repair.

The instant all five fingers regained their full shape, and the flesh buds finally ceased moving, Yuan Gang seemed unable to suppress a cough. His chest heaved violently once, and he suddenly choked out a mouthful of golden mist.

The golden mist began cycling continuously between his nose and mouth. Within it came the faint rolling sound of thunder.

With one deep inhalation, he drew all the golden mist back into his lungs.

The hemispherical bulge rolling through his abdomen gradually settled. Then Yuan Gang abruptly opened his eyes, and a vigorous, majestic gleam flashed from them.

Only after the burst of vitality and spirit gradually receded did he spread both arms and suddenly clench his fists. The crisp cracks of his knuckles seemed almost to echo through the chamber.

...

At a table, Niu Youdao was leafing through reports from various sources, reading with a thoughtful expression.

Beside him, Yun Ji turned her head, then suddenly froze. Staring at Yuan Gang as he emerged from underground, she slowly raised a hand and nudged Niu Youdao's shoulder.

Niu Youdao looked at her, then followed her gaze. He too froze instantly. A moment later, he slowly rose, staring at Yuan Gang as though he were some kind of monster.

The red-faced Monkey was gone.

Bare-chested, Yuan Gang now had pale golden skin.

His red face had become a golden face.

"What happened to you?" Niu Youdao blurted.

Yuan Gang extended both arms and looked them over. "I don't know either."

[End of Chapter 1414]