Chapter 1531: Untitled

“Who goes there?” Zhao Ting barked.

The man in the tree turned his head. It was Hei Shi. Zhao Ting hurriedly saluted.

Looking somewhat drunk, Hei Shi swept him up and down with his gaze, gave a small hiccup, then turned back and continued drinking straight from the wine jar in his arms.

What filled his belly, however, was not wine but a bellyful of thoughts.

Without being told whether to stay or leave, Zhao Ting found himself in an awkward position.

By rights, if the other man ignored him, he ought to know enough to withdraw. Yet after turning and walking a few steps, he could not help looking back. He went a few more steps and looked back again.

At last he stopped. The people coercing him from behind had instructed him to make contact with Hei Shi, but he rarely had any chance to be alone with Hei Shi. Now he seemed to have stumbled upon exactly such an opportunity.

The problem was that what those people wanted him to do made him feel as though he were standing at the edge of an abyss. He was frightened.

Yet step by step, he had already sunk too deep. He had done too many things from which there was no turning back, while every piece of leverage and every weak point he possessed was clenched in the hands of those coercing him. Since they dared force him, he had no choice.

After hesitating again and again, Zhao Ting finally turned around. His steps somewhat timid, he slowly returned to the cliff edge and approached the pine tree. Tentatively, he called, “Elder.”

Hei Shi looked back. “What is it?”

Zhao Ting tried asking, “Why is Elder drinking alone here?”

Hei Shi said coldly, “Am I not allowed? What, even you intend to keep me in line?”

“I wouldn’t dare.” Yet Zhao Ting caught something strange in those words. What did he mean by “even you”? In the whole of Tianmo Sacred Land, this man could be said to stand beneath one and above ten thousand. Other than the Sacred Venerable, who else could keep him in line?

Why did those words seem to carry a trace of resentment?

Coupled with the task forced upon him by the people behind the scenes, Zhao Ting vaguely felt that the opportunity before him could hardly be better. To be alone with Elder Hei Shi while Hei Shi was slightly drunk was a chance that might not come once in a thousand years.

As his eyes flickered and he wondered how to begin, Hei Shi suddenly flung the wine jar toward him and barked, “Drink!”

Caught off guard, Zhao Ting caught the jar and froze. From its weight, there seemed to be about half a jar left.

Hei Shi reached out with a grasping motion. Another jar flew from a stone recess beneath the tree and landed in his hand. He slapped away the clay seal and once again tilted his head back to drink.

Holding the wine jar, Zhao Ting still hesitated.

Hei Shi, already doing everything he could to create an opening for the man, cursed inwardly. Gutless rat. You think I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to do?

His side had Maolu Villa’s secret correspondence in hand. From beginning to end, Hei Shi understood the whole affair even better than Zhao Ting did.

After dawdling for a while, Zhao Ting finally decided to try. The people behind him had only instructed him to probe first. Being too direct was obviously unrealistic.

After thinking it over several times, Zhao Ting drifted onto a neighboring branch. Working up his courage, he slowly sat down, facing Hei Shi at an angle, and took a drink from the jar in his arms.

The two drank in silence, one mouthful after another. After they had dragged things out for quite some time, Zhao Ting finally could not hold back anymore. “Elder seems troubled. This subordinate is willing to share your burdens.”

“Share my burdens? You?” Hei Shi threw his head back and laughed. Then, still sounding drunk, he gave a long sigh. “Back then, never mind everyone else—just look at you Misty Pavilion people. You ran rampant beneath Heaven. Outside the Sacred Realm, who didn’t obediently bow their heads? And now you’ve fallen to this. Share my burdens? Do you have some way to solve the problem?”

Zhao Ting hurriedly said, “For a matter this great, this subordinate naturally has no ability to solve it. But with the Sacred Venerable’s wisdom and Elder here, I believe none of this will be a problem.”

Hei Shi snorted. “Flatterer! What use is it that I’m here? The Wuliang Fruit was stolen. That means a group of Nascent Soul cultivators is hidden somewhere beneath Heaven. Even when I go outside now, I have to be careful, or I may not keep my life!”

Zhao Ting felt that the man truly was a little drunk. Normally, he would never say something that raised the enemy’s morale while diminishing his own. Zhao Ting’s eyes flickered. Tentatively, he said, “If Elder obtained a Wuliang Fruit and broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm, those rats would no longer be worth fearing. Elder, is there truly no Wuliang Fruit left anywhere beneath Heaven?”

Hei Shi sneered. “The people who stole the fruit have probably eaten every last one long ago. Are you going to find one for me?”

Zhao Ting said, “What if those rats didn’t use all the Wuliang Fruits in their hands? With the Sacred Venerable’s strength, once he seized one, he would surely bestow it upon Elder.”

Hei Shi said indifferently, “Is a Wuliang Fruit something that can simply be bestowed at will?”

Gathering his courage, Zhao Ting pushed the conversation one step further. “What if Elder found one yourself? Would Elder dare use it?” The implication was obvious: would he not fear provoking the Sacred Venerable’s displeasure?

Hei Shi gave him a sidelong look and said meaningfully, “If it were you, would you dare use it?” He stopped there and raised the jar to drink again.

Some things did not need to be stated openly. By putting himself in the other man’s place, Zhao Ting understood. He too continued drinking.

Hei Shi waited for him to say more, but nothing came. After finishing the half jar of wine, Zhao Ting excused himself on the grounds that he was still on duty and took his leave.

An initial probe reaching this point was enough. He could report the situation back and let those behind him decide what to do next.

That was it? Hei Shi turned his head and stared at Zhao Ting’s departing back, thoroughly speechless. Yet he could hardly force the man to say anything. Being too proactive would not fit.

Still, he could sense just how cautious both Zhao Ting and the people behind him were.

And Zhao Ting’s probing words had indeed stirred thoughts in Hei Shi’s heart that he could not quite describe. Did Maolu Villa truly still have a Wuliang Fruit in its hands?

He had entertained the thought of secretly maneuvering to obtain one, but Wu Chang was no fool. Hei Shi was certain that Wu Chang would never entrust everything below to him alone. There had to be other people operating secretly behind the scenes. This Zhao Ting was surely under another layer of Wu Chang’s surveillance. Most likely, even Hei Shi himself was no exception.

He thought it over again and again but could find no suitable way forward. In the end, he could only sigh inwardly. This time genuinely full of melancholy, he drained the rest of the wine, left, and went to report the entire encounter to Wu Chang.

Wu Chang said, “Good. After probing you, the other side should make its next move.”

Yet events did not seem to proceed in the direction he expected...

The armies of Jin were mobilizing. Supplies were being gathered and transported forward. Jin’s ambition to march east had become obvious to all.

Han and Yan were likewise gathering troops and supplies and sending them west. Their posture of joining forces to resist Jin was equally clear.

For a time, the atmosphere of a great war spread beneath Heaven, and people everywhere grew uneasy.

Before the armies of the three states actually clashed, the contests behind the scenes had already begun. Intelligence agents from every side fought one another to the death on an invisible battlefield.

At the same time, the states were locked in diplomatic confrontation before the war.

Jin was courting Song. Once the war began, Jin wanted Song to stab Yan and Han in the back, and naturally promised enormous benefits in return.

Yan and Han, meanwhile, issued Song severe warnings. If the two states were defeated, Song should ask itself honestly: would Jin keep its promises? Would Jin refrain from annexing Song? The two states warned that if Song dared create trouble, then at worst they would fight to mutual ruin, fish dead and net torn, and cripple Song first.

That threat alone could not truly intimidate Song. If Yan and Han were already struggling to protect themselves, would they still have the strength to carry it out?

But Song was not stupid. It knew Jin’s promises were unreliable. Jin’s purpose in marching east was to dominate all beneath Heaven. Once Yan and Han were defeated, Jin would certainly not spare Song.

Song had its own position. It warned Jin not to cross Xiping Pass. Otherwise Song would send troops to aid Yan and Han and resist Jin together with them.

The attitude was hard and overbearing enough to reassure both Yan and Han.

From Song’s perspective, the best outcome was for Yan and Han to check Jin’s advance while all three sides exhausted themselves. That would benefit Song, and perhaps even create an opportunity for Song to expand westward.

Yan and Han had swallowed Qin’s territory, something that had always stuck in Song’s throat like a fishbone. If an opportunity arose, Song would not mind evening out the three sides’ spheres of interest.

If Yan and Han truly could not hold, however, then Song would have no choice but to send troops to reinforce them. Otherwise Song would inevitably follow in their footsteps...

Inside the imperial palace of Song, Aque returned to the place where she had lived for many years. She knew the palace layout intimately.

But things remained while people had changed. The master of this place was now someone else—a burly man with a full beard.

“A beauty! Truly a beauty capable of toppling a state and a city. Enough to make even me pity and cherish you!”

Wu Gongling personally lifted the veil hanging before Aque’s face. After admiring her for a while, he threw back his head and laughed, delighted beyond measure.

He made no attempt to restrain himself. Suddenly he swept Aque up in both arms. Ignoring the strange looks from the palace maids and eunuchs, he carried the beauty away to enjoy her in private.

Given the present situation, it would have been strange if Song had not seized the chance to demand some benefit. Aque was precisely the benefit Wu Gongling had coveted for a long time.

At a moment like this, he was still thinking about women. Many officials at the Song court were dissatisfied.

Wu Gongling, however, spoke with perfect righteousness, saying he intended to wash away Song’s humiliation.

Aque had been an imperial consort of Song, yet another state had forcibly demanded her away. How could such a humiliation be left unavenged?

The court officials were not fools, but faced with such a high-minded justification, even they were left speechless. To some extent, Wu Gongling’s words did contain reason. For a Song imperial consort to have been forcibly taken away by another state had indeed been humiliating. Asking for her return was not entirely unjustified, and it could certainly be called a restoration of honor.

The problem was Wu Gongling’s true intention. He had no plan to bring her back and settle her properly, nor was this truly about washing away humiliation. He plainly wanted her for his own pleasure.

Forget it. Song’s court officials had long since grown accustomed to their emperor’s shamelessness.

Over in Han, Song’s envoys indignantly elevated the fate of one woman into a matter of national humiliation and dynastic grievance, insisting that this grievance could not be endured and that she had to be returned. Given the present situation, it was not worth provoking conflict over a foreign woman whose loss would cost Han nothing.

Nie Zhenting did not want to hand her over. Yet under pressure from his ministers, in the end he still let her go.

He was not like Mu Zhuozhen or Shang Jianxiong. He had never been especially attached to Aque. More than that, from the day she entered the palace, she had caused him one headache after another.

Beginning with Grand Marshal Jin Jue, officials up and down the court had, for all sorts of reasons, repeatedly called the woman inauspicious and pressured him to dispose of her. Some spoke from public considerations, while others were driven by struggles of interest extending out from the inner palace.

After Shang Jianxiong too was overthrown in a coup and followed in Mu Zhuozhen’s footsteps, claims that she was inauspicious became louder still.

Now Song had chosen precisely this moment to demand her return. Nie Zhenting could no longer keep her. Though unwilling and feeling that he had lost face, he had no choice but to let her go.

Amid the surging winds and clouds shaking all beneath Heaven, who would truly care about a powerless woman whom most people regarded as little more than a plaything? The moment she touched upon the needs of greater interests, she could be discarded without hesitation.

[End of Chapter 1531]