Chapter 733: The Beast in the Imperial Palace

Amid billowing smoke, a pair of crimson lights appeared above the black alchemical furnace.

They were lively.

Conscious.

As though whatever lay within was studying everything around it.

Xue San silently took several steps backward.

He was already the sort of person who rarely drew attention.

At a moment like this... the less noticeable he was, the better.

Zike, the Little Eunuch in Red Robes, stepped in front of the furnace.

He swept one arm outward.

In an instant, wind suddenly rose inside the palace hall.

The thick smoke scattered.

And what emerged from within... was the spectral figure of a Pixiu.

Its entire body was black.

It looked almost like a lump of ink that had climbed alive out of a self-portrait.

Yet the pressure radiating from it could not possibly be mistaken for anything false.

The only color that broke the black... came from its pair of crimson eyes.

Those eyes carried supreme majesty.

"The Pixiu's spirit has separated from its body," Zike murmured.

"ROAR!"

The Pixiu suddenly released a furious bellow.

The alchemical furnace began shaking violently.

"It wants to break free of the furnace completely!"

Zike immediately stepped forward.

His hands formed seals.

Wind gathered around him.

"Suppress!"

A sigil appeared above the Pixiu spirit.

The Pixiu raised its head and looked up at it.

Zike completed the seal.

Then slammed both hands downward.

The sigil crashed down!

The Pixiu forced itself upright beneath the pressure.

Even when the sigil struck it... it refused to kneel.

Anyone could see... it desperately wanted out.

In truth...

Zike's earlier words had not been muttering to himself.

He had said them for one very simple reason.

He wanted Marquis Pingxi's two subordinates to help.

Just as A'Ming had immediately sensed that this Little Eunuch in Red Robes was no ordinary person...

Zike, when he looked at A'Ming, could feel that the man's blood and qi were profoundly strange.

Qi Refiners were especially sensitive to things of that sort.

And the dwarf beside him had casually opened the furnace mechanism.

That alone proved both men possessed real ability.

But... there was a problem.

Ask A'Ming or Xue San to cause trouble... and neither would hesitate.

Ask them to put out a fire?

Unless Master personally gave the order, neither one possessed anything resembling that kind of initiative.

Right now, the two of them looked as though they were nervously concerned.

Inside... they were hoping the Pixiu spirit would actually manage to escape and romp around for a while.

It would make for a wonderful spectacle.

A'Ming even asked:

"Why can't this Pixiu come out?"

In everyone's established impression, Master's own Pixiu was extraordinarily obedient and gentle.

The other three Pixiu were similarly hardworking mounts.

Zike shouted back:

"If you'd been suppressed for one or two hundred years, wouldn't you have resentment too?"

That explanation... made perfect sense.

Even a loyal, obedient Pixiu would inevitably have its temperament twisted after being imprisoned here for so many years.

And this one... had been suppressed precisely because it had always been vicious and impossible to tame.

"ROAR!"

The Pixiu bellowed again.

The sigil shattered.

Immediately afterward... something between the furnace and the Pixiu's body seemed finally to snap.

No.

More precisely... a claw suddenly reached out from beneath the alchemical furnace.

Only perhaps a fifth of it still retained flesh.

Most of the claw had already become white bone.

Ancient.

Weathered.

Xue San could not help thinking it was truly a pity Liang Cheng was not here.

That zombie... would absolutely love this sort of thing.

Zike's arrangement was interrupted by the appearance of that claw.

His second sigil failed to form in time.

And the Pixiu apparition above the furnace... finally tore free of its restraints.

It pounced downward.

Zike's left thumbnail cut open the palm of his right hand.

As blood flowed, he began drawing sigils in the air before him.

"Seal! Suppress! Bind!"

Buzz!

But the Pixiu spirit, now free of the furnace, displayed astonishing agility.

In an instant... one became three.

Zike's sealing art had already taken shape.

Yet there was no longer any way to properly lock onto the target and cast it.

The opportunity vanished in the blink of an eye.

All three Pixiu apparitions passed through the doors of the hall and landed in the open courtyard outside.

Then instantly merged back into one.

"Woooooo..."

It sounded almost like the wailing of the dead.

Faintly... one could hear endless crying from all directions.

The Pixiu spirit raised its forelegs.

Then slammed them down against the ground again and again... as though venting some emotion no one else could understand.

Yet it did not actually send sand or stones flying.

The blue bricks of the courtyard remained completely undamaged.

Even so... the terror of that aura was impossible to miss.

...

"Protect His Majesty! Protect His Majesty!"

Rows of armored soldiers rushed to the entrance of the Hall of Mental Cultivation and formed ranks.

Shields stood in front.

Crossbows behind.

On both wings... guards held sabers ready.

At the same time...

Wei Zhonghe, who had originally been serving inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, personally stepped forward.

Eight senior eunuchs in red robes appeared behind him.

Thanks to the existence of the Palace Elder, virtually every eunuch inside Great Yan's imperial palace had practiced some degree of Qi Refining.

Their levels differed.

Their talents differed.

But one thing could not be denied.

The higher a eunuch's Qi Refining cultivation... the higher his position usually was.

Ji Chengjue also walked to the entrance of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Marquis Pingxi Zheng Fan stood beside him.

The assembled senior ministers came out as well to see what was happening.

By now... dark clouds had already gathered above the imperial palace.

Many people recognized the sight.

It strongly resembled the phenomenon that had appeared years ago when Master Cang of Qian entered Yanjing and severed Great Yan's dragon vein.

At that moment... the Pixiu apparition had already appeared outside the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Zike followed closely behind it, trying to stop it.

Farther away...

A'Ming and Xue San ambled after them so leisurely that they might as well have been carrying sunflower seeds to snack on.

Then they spotted their Master standing over by the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Both immediately realized... the situation might be slightly more complicated than they had hoped.

At that moment...

Wei Zhonghe leapt into the air.

From inside his two sleeves... green streams of energy shot outward like long whips and lashed directly toward the Pixiu apparition.

When it came to dealing with spirits like this...

Qi Refiners truly were the specialists.

Yet the Pixiu still chose to evade.

Its body shifted rapidly.

Not with exaggerated rolls or lunges... but through something more like mirrored displacement.

The imperial palace had been built according to formations and geomantic arrangements.

The furnace was one of the formation's central points.

And after being trapped inside it for a century, the Pixiu itself had long since developed a certain resonance with the atmosphere and structure of the palace.

This place... was actually its home ground.

Wei Zhonghe attacked several times.

None of the strikes achieved much.

Shocked inwardly, he still did not dare advance too aggressively.

He feared the Pixiu might suddenly rush forward and endanger His Majesty.

At that moment...

Li Liangshen appeared carrying his greatsword.

He was currently responsible for the capital's defenses.

And the most important part of the capital's defenses... was naturally the imperial palace.

The earlier thunderclap from a clear sky had been more than enough for an expert of his level to sense that something was wrong.

So his arrival now was only natural.

Li Liangshen had just prepared to act when Wei Zhonghe shouted:

"Protect His Majesty!"

Li Liangshen looked somewhat puzzled.

He was not a Qi Refiner.

But once one's strength reached a sufficient level, sword qi alone was enough to tear apart many spirits.

"The thing before us is not an ordinary Pixiu spirit!" Wei Zhonghe shouted. "It carries Great Yan's national fortune and incense!"

This Pixiu had been suppressed beneath the alchemical furnace for a century.

And that furnace had once been used by the Palace Elder for ritual refinement.

After Master Cang severed Great Yan's dragon vein, the Palace Elder had drawn upon the Daoist establishment of Mount Tianhu and taken its accumulated fortune to replenish Great Yan's national fortune.

The medium used for that process... had been this very furnace.

And fundamentally... the true medium had been the Pixiu suppressed beneath it.

Qi Refiners cared deeply about such things.

Li Liangshen... did not really believe in any of it.

But his present position was awkward.

He was a man with guilt hanging over his head who had only just been restored to the new sovereign's favor.

The Emperor had even promised that when the need arose, Li Liangshen would again be sent to the front to command troops.

At a moment like this... regardless of how little he personally believed in such matters... he absolutely could not insist on acting according to his own opinion.

He was not Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan could repeatedly test the new sovereign's patience and touch the dragon's reverse scale.

The new sovereign even seemed to be used to it.

But if anyone else dared do the same... heh.

Did they truly think Emperors of the Ji family were all mild-tempered men?

So Li Liangshen immediately withdrew to the front of the military formation protecting the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

He drove his greatsword into the blue bricks.

Then stood there.

"Follow Us and force it back under seal!" Wei Zhonghe ordered.

The senior eunuchs in red robes behind him acted together.

With Wei Zhonghe at the center, they forcibly cast a joint art, trying to seal off the Pixiu apparition's space of movement.

The safest method... was to press it back.

Back into that palace hall.

Back into that furnace.

The situation... immediately became a stalemate.

The Emperor stood there watching.

The longer he watched... the more irritated he became.

One could only say... he truly was the Emperor who most resembled his father.

He had inherited the late Emperor's distrust and distaste for Qi Refiners and occult techniques almost perfectly.

Years ago, Master Cang had attempted to threaten Great Yan by severing its dragon vein.

The Emperor of Yan had laughed and urged him to hurry up and do it.

Then immediately issued an imperial decree ordering the Yan army south to attack Qian!

Ji Chengjue had lost his mother when he was young.

Under his father's suppression, he had tasted every variety of coldness in the human world.

Men like that found it extremely difficult to place hope in vague and invisible forces.

Because they usually understood one principle very well.

What stood before your eyes... no.

What lay inside your own hands... was what truly belonged to you.

Wei Zhonghe and the others were hamstrung.

Afraid of damaging the Pixiu, they did not dare use full force.

Watching them grind away without result... made the Emperor deeply sick of the whole scene.

He had just been discussing affairs of state with the senior ministers.

Especially after the Right Vice Director suggested appointing Marquis Pingxi as Chancellor.

The Emperor would never permit that now... but he had honestly found the proposal interesting.

Perhaps... someday.

That bastard surnamed Zheng as Chancellor.

Chancellor Zheng.

Heh.

And yet... because of this inexplicable nonsense... everyone had now been delayed here for so long.

If it had suddenly begun to snow, and they had come outside carrying warm wine to discuss music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and admire the snowfall... then perhaps it would not have mattered.

But instead... they could only stand here and stare.

To the Emperor... this was no different from a crowd of fools gathering to watch some village shaman leap and chant.

The Son of Heaven... felt humiliated.

"Transmit Our decree. Order Wei Zhonghe to destroy this beast that dares offend its superior!"

Chu treated the spirit of the Fire Phoenix as a deity.

Yan... bred Pixiu into mounts.

Some things rooted in the bones... truly were different.

No matter what you are... if you dare behave presumptuously before Us... then you will bear the wrath of the Son of Heaven!

"Your Majesty, you must not!"

"Your Majesty, please reconsider!"

The ministers nearby immediately began remonstrating.

Better to believe such a thing might matter than gamble that it did not.

They had all heard rumors that one Pixiu was hidden somewhere inside the imperial palace.

Now that they had truly seen it... they naturally could not bear to throw away such an auspicious creature.

Even if one refused to worship it... how could they destroy it with their own hands?

"Marquis Pingxi."

"This minister is here."

"Transmit Our decree for Us."

"This minister obeys."

Marquis Zheng stepped forward.

Along the way... he casually took a saber from one of the nearby guards.

He walked beyond the military formation.

Stopped beside Li Liangshen.

Then shouted:

"His Majesty has issued a decree! Eunuch Wei is ordered to destroy this creature immediately. No delay will be tolerated!"

Wei Zhonghe hesitated.

But in the end... he did not dare defy the imperial command.

He shouted:

"Change formation! Annihilate it!"

The earlier attempt to seal it off... became an attempt to kill.

But precisely as the formation changed... the Pixiu apparition split again.

One became two.

Two became four.

Four became eight.

In an instant... countless Pixiu phantoms filled the square before the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Then... at the same moment... they roared and charged madly toward the hall!

Wei Zhonghe and the senior eunuchs immediately moved to intercept.

This time... they held nothing back.

In a flash... most of the apparitions were torn apart.

Li Liangshen raised his greatsword horizontally before him.

Sword qi erupted.

Not one of the stragglers that slipped through... managed to pass him.

Marquis Zheng silently let out a long breath.

The Demon Child against his chest... also settled down.

And then... something incomparably strange happened.

A Pixiu apparition seemed to materialize from empty air itself.

It had somehow passed through Wei Zhonghe and the others.

Avoided Li Liangshen.

Leapt over the military formation guarding the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

And appeared... directly before the Emperor.

Some ministers instinctively stumbled backward in fright.

Others instinctively threw themselves toward the apparition to shield His Majesty.

But the Son of Heaven... remained standing where he was.

He did not move.

"ROAR!"

The Pixiu released one furious bellow.

Many nearby ministers immediately grew dizzy and collapsed in pain.

It was as though a piercing wave of sound had exploded beside their ears.

Many of the surrounding guards forced themselves through the agony and prepared to protect the sovereign.

Li Liangshen's body had already flashed closer as well.

Yet... every person capable of acting... stopped instinctively.

Because the Pixiu apparition... was already far too close to the Emperor.

Its nose... had almost touched his body.

The apparition had no solid form.

It could not tear flesh apart.

But it could devour a man's soul.

If this Pixiu were compared to an assassin... then the assassin's blade... was already resting against the Emperor's throat.

It was not that the Little Eunuch in Red Robes, Wei Zhonghe, Li Liangshen, and the others had failed in their protection.

The problem was simply that... this was the imperial palace.

And this palace... was the Pixiu's home ground.

Wei Zhonghe had entered the palace from a princely residence.

This Pixiu... had already lived here for who knew how many years.

No one dared move.

The Pixiu apparition seemed to sniff carefully at the Emperor's scent.

Its crimson eyes repeatedly revealed traces of thought.

Confusion.

The Emperor... from beginning to end... stood there.

He did not retreat.

He did not show fear.

Ji Old Sixth could joke with Zheng Fan in private and cast aside every bit of imperial dignity.

But before his ministers... before the guards around him... he was the Emperor.

He had to maintain the bearing of a Son of Heaven.

You... resemble him greatly.

But... you are not him.

The Pixiu's body began to fade.

Then... it vanished.

And in the next instant... it appeared several hundred zhang away.

No one cared about it anymore.

Everyone surged around the Emperor and sealed him within layer after layer of protection.

The Emperor himself was not nervous.

But the eunuchs around him... were terrified half to death.

Then... someone suddenly cried out:

"It's gone to the Hall of Departed Spirits!"

Years ago, during the reign of Ji Chengjue's imperial grandfather, the palace had greatly favored mystical arts.

Large halls had been opened throughout the imperial complex.

Buddhist and Daoist temples had been constructed.

After the late Emperor ascended the throne, he punished and suppressed those occult practitioners.

The surviving temples and shrines were renovated and handed over to various government offices as administrative buildings, improving the officials' working conditions.

The Hall of Departed Spirits... had also been preserved.

The imperial grandfather's coffin had once rested there.

And now... the late Emperor's coffin rested there as well.

Great Yan's ancestral custom required the new sovereign to ascend first, then conduct the state funeral.

During the funeral period, the Chancellor had then been "assassinated by Barbarians," and the new sovereign had issued an imperial decree declaring war on the Barbarians.

Once war began... the state funeral had to be delayed again.

Now... the war had only just produced its result.

Naturally, they still needed to select an auspicious date to send the late Emperor's coffin into the imperial mausoleum.

But that had not happened yet.

So the coffin... still rested in the Hall of Departed Spirits.

And the Pixiu apparition... was heading directly there.

The Emperor pushed aside the guards around him and said:

"Do not allow that beast to disturb the late Emperor's rest."

...

Zheng Fan had once visited the imperial palace of Qian.

During winter, its sovereign lived inside a heated chamber where he could wear nothing more than a Daoist robe and walk around with his chest exposed.

The old ancestor of the Fan family had possessed a heated residence too.

Inside... all four seasons felt like spring.

By the same principle... with a different structure and different design... if one could create warmth... one could also create cold.

The Hall of Departed Spirits was already colder than the outside.

Blocks of ice reinforced the chill.

Inside the late Emperor's coffin... cold jade had also been placed around the body.

There was no danger of decay.

At the entrance of the Hall of Departed Spirits... stood many guards.

They were the Vigil Guards.

The moment they saw the Pixiu apparition appear, they rushed forward to stop it.

But in the next instant... the apparition vanished again.

Then... the Pixiu spirit appeared inside the hall itself.

Directly before it... rested the late Emperor's coffin.

Found you.

So... you were here.

For nearly two hundred years... it had slept beneath the imperial palace.

It had witnessed Emperor after Emperor stand within this palace while ten thousand voices cried blessings upon their rule.

Yet only one... had ever resonated with it.

You.

I.

Both of us... were trapped inside this imperial palace.

Both endured boundless pain.

You... could sense my existence.

Could see me.

Could answer my call.

You... lived painfully.

And I... did as well.

Once... it had spoken to the only Emperor in nearly two centuries it had ever truly respected.

Reach out your hand.

I... can extend your lifespan.

The Regent of Chu... had actually used a method of this sort.

That was why he believed he could live a very long time.

Why he remained confident he could gather the shattered pieces of his realm... and begin again.

But the Emperor of Yan... had chosen to leave this palace hall.

He had gone to the Rear Garden.

Every day... he swallowed medicinal pills that brought him terrible pain.

He squeezed his own remaining potential dry... all merely to survive a little longer.

Waiting.

Waiting for the two Princes... to enter the capital.

He swallowed pills... yet regarded the true divine creature within the pill furnace with contempt.

The final time... had been not long ago.

The Emperor of Yan returned to the palace.

Again... the Pixiu called to him.

I... can give you a longer life.

You need it.

You crave it.

You hate this.

You hate that Heaven refuses to lend you more years!

For a hundred years...

I watched generation after generation of Emperors live and die with cold eyes.

This is the first time...

I have ever truly... looked directly at one.

You are worthy... of my descent!

...

At that time... inside the Imperial Study... the Emperor of Yan had dozed off.

Wei Zhonghe stood nearby, carefully attending him.

Then... while still dreaming... the Emperor suddenly muttered three words.

The sound made Wei Zhonghe's liver nearly leap from fright.

Those three words were:

"Beast. Get lost."

[End of Chapter 733]