Chapter 583: - Fire Phoenix!

“Your Highness is mighty!”

“Your Highness is mighty!”

“Your Highness is mighty!”

The Jingnan cavalry waved their weapons and shouted themselves hoarse.

In this age, a commander who seemed like a god of war was unquestionably worthy of worship and following.

A commander who personally fought like a war god could create a similar effect.

Prince of Jingnan, however, carried both roles on his shoulders at once.

Add the long string of military achievements bright enough to shine through the history books, and it was hardly strange that even Yan armies outside the Jingnan Army bowed beneath his princely banner.

The prestige of the man.

The prestige of authority.

The only thing missing was a yellow robe placed upon his shoulders.

But inside the army, he already was a true god.

The soldiers genuinely believed that following such a commander, even dying in battle beside him, would be the greatest honor of their lives.

No wonder Wu Mazi had sighed before death:

How could someone like Your Highness possibly exist in this world?

The Zhenbei Army had six garrisons.

It had the accumulation of the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence across a century.

The Jingnan Army, setting aside those earlier commanders whose rule had been close to doing nothing at all, had existed in its true form for barely more than ten years.

Yet today, the name of Great Yan’s Jingnan Army had already overshadowed the Zhenbei Army.

Partly this was because the present Prince of Zhenbei had to remain in the desert.

But the reason he could remain leisurely in Beifeng Commandery, gazing at the scenery, was also because on every other battlefield, one Southern Marquis had already been enough.

Old Minister Zhong of Qian had just died.

The armies of the Three Frontiers and the other regional garrisons immediately lost their head.

Every level of Qian command understood perfectly well that they should launch a northern expedition to relieve pressure on Chu.

Yet after straining every muscle, they somehow could not actually throw the punch.

The Regent of Chu appointed Nian Yao commander-in-chief because he did not trust the other Pillars of State and great nobles.

Look instead at Yan.

The Southern Marquis served as commander-in-chief and never lost a battle.

At the same time, Yan could still afford to leave a Prince of Zhenbei sitting comfortably in Beifeng Commandery.

Extravagant.

Extravagant beyond words.

No one naïve enough to believe that the Marquis of Zhenbei lived only on inherited merit could possibly be taken seriously.

For any state, to possess one military god of this kind in a single era would already be immense fortune.

Great Yan had two.

Of course, men like these often came to ugly ends.

Back in Qian, the Tattoo-Faced Chancellor had pacified the southwest and then begun sharpening his blade for a northern expedition, hoping to wash away the disgrace of Emperor Taizong.

In the end, he was imprisoned and died under fabricated charges.

A fine horse required a worthy saddle.

Possessing a military god was one thing.

The man sitting on the Dragon Throne still needed the courage to use him.

Tian Wujing put Wuyai away.

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the broken saber toward the Pixiu behind him.

The Pixiu opened its mouth.

Wuyai vanished inside.

Then the creature stretched its neck and silently burped.

Afterward, Tian Wujing walked toward the Lingyin standing before the palace gate.

The Lingyin still wore a smile.

He extended his tongue and licked his cracked lips.

The Shadow was dead.

And truthfully, he had not died with much practical value.

Or perhaps the value was simply something an old man like the Lingyin, who knew nothing of martial cultivation, could not perceive.

Even so, the Lingyin still sighed:

“Your Highness, it really is a pity you never became emperor.”

Tian Wujing ignored him.

“Your Highness, a figure like you could long ago have defied Heaven itself. Why insist on becoming the blade of the man sitting on that Dragon Throne? The blood of your own kin... does it not hurt your eyes? Does it not stink in your nose?”

Tian Wujing still ignored him.

The Lingyin opened his mouth.

Then raised one hand and rubbed the tip of his nose.

He suddenly felt like a powerless dog barking at the moon.

Words alone could never meaningfully disturb this military god before him.

A man like this had a heart like stone and a state of mind like ice frozen for ten thousand years.

But what else could the Lingyin do now except enjoy a little final satisfaction with his tongue?

“Your Highness, do you know how your wife died?”

Tian Wujing stopped.

Not because of the words.

Because he had already reached the Lingyin.

“Whole corpse. Blood spray?”

The Lingyin nodded.

“In truth, the Phoenix Nest Guards found no evidence either. I know nothing myself. You... have my condolences.”

Tian Wujing reached out.

His hand closed around the Lingyin’s throat and lifted him into the air.

Then he released his grip.

The Lingyin’s body began to fall.

Tian Wujing punched forward.

His fist struck the Lingyin in the chest.

The old man’s body did not burst apart.

It merely shuddered.

Then from his back, a cloud of blood sprayed outward, splashing across the palace gate.

Thump!

The Lingyin’s corpse fell to the ground.

Whole.

Exactly as requested.

After that, Tian Wujing did not spare either corpse another glance.

He raised his head and looked at the palace gates before him.

Great Chu’s imperial palace stood directly ahead.

“Open the gates.”

“Yes!”

A group of Jingnan cavalrymen immediately dismounted and began trying to force the palace gates open.

Another group took out grappling hooks, preparing to climb the palace walls.

But the gates had not been barred from behind.

The first group of soldiers pushed them open directly.

No hidden arrows came from within.

No ambushers suddenly charged out.

Instead, everything seemed unusually quiet.

The Pixiu came to Tian Wujing’s side and crouched down silently.

Tian Wujing waved it away.

Then walked straight through the palace gates on foot.

Jingnan cavalry entered from both sides, expanding the security perimeter in case something unexpected remained inside.

Yet there were no palace maids.

No eunuchs.

No guards.

The entire imperial palace seemed empty.

Then, before long, a cavalryman came to report.

Beyond the Golden Hall, in another broad open court, there were people.

Yes.

People.

Banners filled the space.

At the center was a sunken pit.

Below lay a forest of sharpened spikes.

Mottled colors gleamed across their surfaces.

They had clearly been poisoned.

Above the pit, six adult men were bound to a wooden frame.

Their mouths had been sealed.

The moment they saw Yan cavalry appear, they instinctively began struggling and making frantic muffled noises.

Apart from those six bound men, there was also one white-haired old eunuch.

The old eunuch seemed to have been dozing.

The noise of Jingnan cavalry entering had only just awakened him.

His gaze wandered across the area, then finally stopped on Prince of Jingnan.

“This old slave greets Great Yan’s Prince of Jingnan.”

The old eunuch rose with some difficulty and bowed from a distance.

His voice was hoarse, but carried with remarkable force.

Barring the unexpected, he was probably an occult practitioner.

Beside him lay a command flag and a geomantic compass.

Inside his eunuch robe, one could faintly see a lining patterned with the Eight Trigrams.

“According to proper etiquette, Your Highness should first pay respects to our princes of Great Chu.”

Our princes of Great Chu?

Tian Wujing’s gaze shifted toward the six bound men.

These were the six princes who had once triggered Great Chu’s Rebellion of the Princes.

One by one, after they rebelled, the Regent had defeated them cleanly and confined them.

Under normal procedure, they would have remained imprisoned until death.

Children born to them after confinement could still retain some qualification and standing within the imperial clan.

After all, the Xiong line needed branches and leaves.

But that was normal procedure.

This was plainly no longer normal.

The Regent had already abandoned the imperial capital and departed early.

To do so, he had not hesitated to blind the eyes and ears of every great noble in Ying Capital.

Proceed gradually?

That had originally been the Regent’s plan too.

But circumstances forced his hand.

Zhennan Pass had not truly been the beginning.

The real beginning had come beneath Yupan City, when the Chu army and Savages failed to stop the Yan west of the Wang River.

After that, Nian Yao repeatedly suffered setbacks and remained on the defensive against Tian Wujing.

Then the Wang River embankment broke.

Count Pingye rode ships downriver in a surprise attack on Jing City and burned its granaries.

That already signaled that Chu had essentially lost any chance of winning this national war.

Finally, once word came that another Yan force was advancing rapidly south, the Regent no longer hesitated.

He simply discarded every piece of the old order, together with this old capital.

Since he was throwing it away, he might as well throw everything away cleanly.

These brothers who had once fought him for the throne had originally been kept alive so he could preserve a reputation for benevolence.

Now, that reputation no longer mattered.

Why bring them along?

The old eunuch smiled.

Bent at the waist, he said:

“I have embarrassed Your Highness. Truly embarrassed you.”

Tian Wujing raised one hand and pointed forward.

Immediately, dozens of riders beside him drew their bows and loosed.

Yet as the arrows flew toward the platform, they seemed to strike an invisible current.

Every shaft was turned aside and fell around the pit.

The wooden frame shook violently.

It looked as though it might collapse at any moment.

The six princes struggled even more frantically, uttering terrified muffled cries.

The old eunuch raised one hand and stabilized the frame.

Then he floated upward and landed atop the wooden platform, looking down at Tian Wujing and the Yan soldiers.

“Your Highness, do not be impatient. Our sovereign still entrusted this old slave with several words for you.”

Tian Wujing lifted his head and looked at the old eunuch.

“Our sovereign said: Great Chu seems to have lost because it lacked a Prince of Jingnan. In truth, it lost because of national strength. Why can Yan, with the poorest land and smallest population among the Four Great States, support hundreds of thousands of iron cavalry capable of sweeping across all four states? If Yan can do it, then Great Chu could have done it too. If the Emperor of Yan can do it, then We can do it too. Victory and defeat are decided in the temple and court, not by Tian Wujing, not by Li Liangting, and certainly not by that Count Pingye who stole Our younger sister.”

Tian Wujing listened quietly.

He could sense that the barrier before him was already extremely weak.

But the key to the barrier lay in the small flag held by the old eunuch.

The moment the old eunuch willed it, he and all six Chu princes would fall into the forest of poisoned spikes below.

And this Great Chu imperial palace...

Princess Xiong Liqing had once said that Great Chu’s imperial palace was several times grander than Yan’s.

Seen from outside, the truth was difficult to grasp.

But after entering, after seeing this arrangement, one could finally understand why the Chu emperor of that generation had used the excuse that “the Fire Phoenix rested beside the Mijiang” to construct a new capital along the river.

This imperial palace was not merely a palace.

It was a massive formation.

“Great Chu lost. We lost as well. But We will not accept defeat. We regret only this: in Our eyes, this age of great contention has barely begun, yet those opponents We admire, those We respect, are already beginning to find that Heaven grants them too little life. We can already imagine that in the future, We will be very lonely. Fortunately, We have already prepared to endure that loneliness, because We understand that the one who lives to the end is the one who laughs best. Tian Wujing, you broke into Ying Capital. So what? Can you hold it? Can the Yan behind you, can the Jin lands behind you, continue feeding you enough to keep this war going? Even you yourself... now that you entered today, We truly look forward to seeing whether Great Yan’s Prince of Jingnan can walk out of this imperial city, can walk out of Ying Capital alive. We know perfectly well that even knowing We are not here, you would still enter this palace. Because you want to trample every shred of Chu pride beneath your feet. We give it to you to trample. This pride that has been lost, We will spend ten years, twenty years, gathering it again. And when that day comes, We would very much like to see whether your Great Yan still exists at all. We have time. We have hours enough to spare, years enough to wait, years enough to squander. Those who understand Us, perhaps it will be the Spring and Autumn Annals. Those who condemn Us, perhaps it will be the Spring and Autumn Annals.”

After reciting all of that, the old eunuch smiled rather apologetically.

“Your Highness, that final sentence was something this old slave overheard you saying outside to the Shadow. I thought it fit our sovereign’s words perfectly. Your Highness and our sovereign are both heroes destined for the ages. Merit and blame across a thousand autumns should naturally be left to a thousand autumns to judge. This old slave truly regrets... that I will not see it. I will not see it.”

“You can still be called a figure of some stature. You are loyal to him as well. Why did he not take you with him?”

The old eunuch answered:

“This old slave made a mistake. Once a mistake is made, one must remain behind and accept punishment. That has been the principle since ancient times.”

“What mistake?”

“Six years ago, when our sovereign was still the Fourth Prince, he ordered this old slave to bring a bowl of soup to the late emperor while the late emperor was reviewing memorials. Ah...”

The old eunuch lifted one hand and stroked his own throat.

Memory entered both his expression and his voice.

“Ah... this old slave served the late emperor for more than half a lifetime. I thought, if the late emperor had to go, then for the sake of decades of affection between master and servant, should he not go a little more comfortably? So this old slave took it upon himself to reduce the dose in the soup. Hehehehehe...”

The old eunuch began laughing.

Then lowered his head and looked at Tian Wujing below.

“Your Highness, guess what happened? Ah... our sovereign had already measured the dose perfectly. It would cause the late emperor’s illness to erupt suddenly, leave him lingering for half a month, and even the finest imperial physician would be helpless to save him. But because this old slave softened his heart and reduced the dose, the late emperor fell ill, yes... yet stubbornly refused to die. He remained upon that Dragon Bed for years. Years.”

The old eunuch began wiping tears from his eyes.

He cried:

“This old slave regrets it. Hates it. Tell me, why the hell did I soften my heart back then? I made the late emperor suffer several more years for nothing. I made our sovereign wait several more years for nothing. Your Highness, tell me. If this old slave had not committed that mistake, would Your Highness still have been able to fight your way into Ying Capital today? Could you still have fought your way into this imperial city? Tell me. Was this old slave’s mistake serious enough? Should I remain behind and be punished for it?”

The core of power was always a changing state.

Situ Lei had borrowed a sword from the Sword Saint and used one stroke to kill his own father.

Afterward, he smoothly took control and ascended the throne.

That was because before that day, Situ Lei had already controlled the court and sent his two most threatening elder brothers away to Snow Sea Pass to chew snow.

But six years ago, the Regent, still only the Fourth Prince, might likewise have possessed confidence that once his father died, he could defeat every rival and take the throne.

The premise, however, was that his father had to die.

Once the old emperor died, Great Chu needed a new emperor.

Then the princes could fight openly.

Let them finish quickly.

Let one man win.

Let him sit on the throne.

And everyone could go on living.

But the problem was the Chu emperor did not die.

Instead, he clung stubbornly to life for several more years.

If the emperor remained alive, the men below could not move freely.

There was no righteous cause.

And because of the poisoning attempt, the nerves of many factions had been touched.

There were clearly people at court who remained loyal to the late emperor.

The Shadow in the imperial city lane, for example.

The great nobles, meanwhile, were perfectly happy to keep a bedridden emperor above their heads.

That allowed everyone to preserve outward harmony without worrying about any genuine threat from imperial power.

So every faction tacitly maintained that political state.

Even the Regent back then did not possess enough confidence to seize the throne openly through a coup.

He could only wait.

Wait several years.

Let his wings grow fuller.

Then, when the late emperor finally died, the Regent dealt with his brothers as easily as taking objects from his own palm.

The Imperial Clan Guards stood behind the Regent after the emperor’s death.

The great nobles also acknowledged the Regent’s ability and tacitly accepted the fact that he would sit in that position.

Because someone genuinely needed to sit there.

And by then, after Great Yan trampled its aristocratic clans, attacked Qian, then attacked Jin, Chu itself faced immense outside pressure.

Earlier, the nobles had wanted an emperor above them who lay sick in bed and could not govern.

Later, the nobles themselves began hoping:

Perhaps we really should replace him with an emperor who possesses ability, methods, and skill.

Different moments.

Different circumstances.

In the end, the Regent obtained what he wanted.

Yet at the same time, he lost those few years that had mattered most.

Fall one step behind.

Then another.

And another.

By the end, the board genuinely could no longer be played.

So the Regent chose to overturn it completely and begin again.

The old eunuch sighed.

Then

Tian Wujing moved.

The old eunuch smiled faintly.

The small flag in his hand burst into flame.

In the next instant, an immense pressure shattered the barrier.

The old eunuch and all six princes fell together into the pit of poisoned spikes.

Tian Wujing stopped.

In the end, he had not reached them in time.

Though before moving, he already knew he could never reach them in time.

The bodies of the six princes were pierced through by countless spikes.

The old eunuch was the same.

Even with spikes punching through his neck and face, he still forced his voice outward on a wave of power:

“With the blood of the imperial clan, consecrate the spirit of the Fire Phoenix! Let sacred flame descend, cleanse all filth, and remake Heaven and Earth! May Heaven bless the Xiong Clan! May Great Chu rise reborn from nirvana!”

The blood of the six princes was drained dry in an instant and vanished beneath the earth.

Ahead, the Fire Phoenix sculpture upon the eaves of the great hall suddenly ignited.

An enormous phantom of a Fire Phoenix rose into the sky and released a piercing cry!

Below, the old eunuch lay pierced through in countless places.

At the edge of death, he smiled.

“Great Chu has a phoenix... silent until it cries... and when it cries... it startles the world!”

Above the great hall, the Fire Phoenix spread its wings.

With supreme, disdainful bearing, its gaze fell downward.

“Roar!”

Prince of Jingnan’s Pixiu immediately rushed forward and roared at the Fire Phoenix above.

The Pixiu was Great Yan’s totem.

The Fire Phoenix was Great Chu’s.

Years ago, Master Zang of Qian stood outside Yanjing and cut Great Yan’s dragon vein.

Today, Great Yan’s Prince of Jingnan stood inside Great Chu’s imperial city to destroy Chu’s totem.

The difference was this.

Back then, Master Zang had only Baili Sword beside him.

Neither man had managed to take even one step into Yanjing.

Today, Great Yan’s Prince of Jingnan had led iron cavalry into Ying Capital and then into the imperial city itself.

The former had cut illusion.

The latter would destroy hope.

The next instant, Tian Wujing gripped Kunwu and leapt upward.

Facing the overwhelming phantom of the Fire Phoenix before him, he brought the saber down in one slash!

[End of Chapter 583]