Chapter 61. Danger at the contest in the Imperial Palace

Xie Chunxi and Yue Chengbo were always on bad terms, which could be clearly seen from how they opposed each other harshly earlier.

But no matter how bad their relationship was, they still acted more or less in solidarity in front of outsiders, lest other countries watch with amusement as they made fools of themselves.

Although cultivators were citizens of no country, if their cultivation was high enough, any country would gladly welcome them as distinguished guests. But if they guarded a palace, like Xie Chunxi, naturally, they had a certain status to maintain.

And, for example, if an honored master of Wanlian Buddhist Temple, which was the official religion of You, came to Luo, their empress dowager would not believe he would remain neutral.

The strong were treated respectfully, but at the same time they were bound by rules.

Of course, people like Jiufang Changming were an exception.

The Qingbei Mountain was a small sect never mentioned in classics, but the same thing could not be said about Lu Zhiyuan.

Never mentioned in classics: unknown

He originated from the Zhuhai Spiritual Shelter, and came to the Qingbei Mountain on his journey later. Because his relationship with the sect head of the Qingbei Mountain was very intimate, Lu Zhiyuan accepted his proposal to stay. Then, he became an elder of the Qingbei Mountain, and his status likewise became a respectable one.

Even though Lu Zhiyuan’s cultivation aptitude was not greater than that of Feng Suhuai, it should not be underestimated.

At the very least, his success in cultivation could not be attributed to his ties to Feng Suhuai.

Xie Chunxi did not dare look down on him and drew his sword immediately.

This sword had followed him around the world, slaying all kinds of demons. As soon as the sword left its sheathe, the wind picked up and a fog lifted up to the highest heavens. Most of the cups and plates on the table started buzzing and shaking at the same time, startling everyone. Furthermore, the cups of white jade shattered at once, and wine splashed all over people holding the cups, making them sit back in their seats in horror.

Xie Chunxi started with forestalling his opponent by showing off strength.

Lu Zhiyuan protected himself with his sword’s qi as well, but felt an overwhelming power akin to that of a raging storm. It was just like a heavy boulder, putting pressure on him. It had caught him off guard, and he was determinedly enduring it, but his barrier was still broken. Lu Zhiyuan’s chest hurt badly, and he took three steps back in a row.

These three steps shattered the tiles under his feet into pieces.

His expression was still calm, but his sword fell to the ground, and his hand hung down helplessly.

At this point, the superiority of one side had already been determined, and there was no use to continue.

Lu Zhiyuan forced out a smile: “This one has lost.”

Xie Chunxi did not conceal his joy: “Daoyou Lu let me win.”

The first round was lost, so the You ambassador’s expression was bad. He could only place his hopes on Feng Suhuai.

The Zhaoyue princess was still wearing the gauze veil. She had not eaten anything, and had not even drunk a single mouthful of wine; all in all, wearing gauze was uncomfortable.

Her appearance attracted much attention when she first entered the city, but now, her eyes had reddened, and she had paled greatly that even the empress dowager could not insist on forcing her to do what she did not want to. So, the empress dowager ordered people to prepare a weaker drink especially for her.

The last emperor’s two elder brothers, King Hui and King Qi, were also present, and, naturally, so was Song Nanyan, who was the prime minister. Beside them, there were also several important ministers.

King Hui and King Qi were chatting and joking in a low voice. They seemed very relaxed, and obviously did not regard this banquet as an important event.

Only Song Nanyan’s expression was ambiguous. Although he seemed to be laughing at ease, he was actually on pins and needles, and anxious internally.

Although the emperor was eating, drinking and talking impeccably, Song Nanyan knew that it was a paper puppet!

Last night, he personally saw Changming get out a white human-shaped paper figure of his sleeve, put it on the emperor, and blow on it lightly. The puppet fell to the floor, floated into the air, and, just like leavening dough figurines [1], transformed into a copy of the emperor that was similar to him down to the tiniest hair. Everyone stared at it blankly.

Not only did the paper puppet have the emperor’s appearance, but it had even copied his voice and expressions. Except for him talking less than usual, there was nothing odd about him. If Song Nanyan had not seen the puppet turn into the emperor with his own eyes, he would have had a hard time believing it.

On top of that, the fake emperor could distinguish ambassadors and address them by their titles, and even knew everybody’s names exactly. He was only afraid of fire and water, but where would he come across these things during a banquet?

Song Nanyan did not expect his shifu, who had come out of nowhere, to be not just a cultivator, but a very skilled one at that. His shifu was one of those cultivators who could even make Zen Master Kuhe bow his head.

However, the most important thing right now was to come up with an excuse to let the emperor leave earlier to prevent him from being exposed.

For the time being, Song Nanyan could not find such an excuse.

Feng Suhuai had already come up to Yue Chengbo.

“I’ve heard a lot about how formidable the Subduing Ghosts Art of the Zhenling Clan is, and today I am finally able to meet their clan master. Please, enlighten me with your instructions.”

The Zhenling Clan was proficient in the Subduing Ghosts Art indeed, but it was actually of the sword type of clans, so they were just as good with swords. Feng Suhuai was obviously insinuating certain things with what she had said, since she only mentioned the Subduing Ghosts Art, but not their sword techniques.

Firstly, she was looking down on the Zhenling Clan’s sword techniques; secondly, she was deliberately provoking Yue Chengbo.

Yue Chengbo had a hot temper. Otherwise, he would not have started quarreling with Xie Chunxi in front of the empress dowager.

When he heard these words, sure enough, he revealed an angry expression.

“Shelter Master Feng is too modest. The Subduing Ghosts Art shouldn’t be used in a place of culture, so today I’ll seek advice from Shelter Master Feng with my sword techniques!”

Feng Suhuai said with a smile: “With pleasure.”

As soon as those words were said, her sleeve rose in the air, and the exquisite unadorned zither appeared, landing in front of Feng Suhuai.

Unadorned zither: literally ‘a zither without strings’, but she is playing it, so I assumed the ‘su’ means ‘unadorned’ here. Also, it’s the ‘su’ from Suhuai

By the time Yue Chengbo had pulled out his sword, Feng Suhuai’s slim fingers had touched the zither strings.

Clang!

As bystanders heard it, this long crisp melody was the beginning of a heavenly, beautiful song.

But this sound was like a sharp knife to Yue Chengbo, piercing his chest directly. Feng Suhuai’s preemptive strike had immobilized him. A third, fourth, and fifth sound from her zither followed. They came one after another in waves and sealed off all of Yue Chengbo’s attempts to attack. Not only had he lost his chance, but he had even been forced to counterattack frantically in defense.

Since he was at a disadvantage, and could not stop it, he was certain to lose!

How could Yue Chengbo be satisfied with this situation? He bit the tip of his tongue, and droplets of blood fell on the sword in front of him. Its spiritual power surged, and the sword shone brilliantly. In a moment, the spiritual power suddenly rushed forwards at Feng Suhuai like a sea tide, toppling mountains and overturning oceans!

Feng Suhuai did not expect him to have a trump card, and was wholeheartedly concentrating on turning the sound of her zither into spiritual power, and the zither’s strings into a formation. When Yue Chengbo lashed back at her all of a sudden, as if striking her hard from the front, she coughed up a mouthful of blood onto the zither.

But the sound of the zither only became sharper!

While this five-string zither sounded chaotic, like droplets of rain pouring down, it actually emitted a mighty force.

An army of millions appeared on the horizon on a grand and spectacular scale, spurring their horses using whips, their long spears pointing forwards. All the bottles burst, and the immense force shook the whole world.

Song Nanyan had learned the basic techniques for maintaining good health, so he had not been growing older. He did have a shallow foundation, however, and when he heard this grating, loud noise, he almost spat blood. The empress dowager was not young, so she shrieked and almost lost consciousness. Xie Chunxi quickly built up a protecting barrier in front of people, so the noise could not come through anymore.

But everyone still had pale and weak complexions.

Lu Zhiyuan squinted.

He was watching the emperor quietly.

Feng Suhuai’s cultivation base was so strong that if she poured eighty or ninety percent of her strength into an attack as she did now, let alone the common people, even he had a hard time enduring it.

But, unexpectedly, the emperor kept a straight face, and did not move at all while others covered their ears.

Lu Zhiyuan could not imagine Luo’s young emperor to be a master keeping his own counsel.

He thought, could it be that the rumors are true?

If so, today was a great chance.

Feng Suhuai put all her power into this attack, and, in response, Yue Chengbo was gradually losing strength.

As others saw it, the two of them were still keeping a certain distance.

In reality, Feng Suhuai was bearing down on him step by step, and Yue Chengbo was retreating.

Yet there was no place to retreat to, and he was forced to stand and fight, still unsure of winning.

He knew that his cultivation was not as powerful as Feng Suhuai’s, and that she was determined to embarrass Luo today, but he was unwilling to accept defeat.

After all, Yue Chengbo was a very competitive person.

At this moment, a fire ignited in the corners of his eyes.

Suddenly, Xie Chunxi’s barrier was completely shattered!

In a moment, shrieks of the palace maids reached his ears!

Feng Suhuai lowered her hands.

Yue Chengbo also turned to the source of the noise, and his expression changed.

The emperor, who was sitting on the seat of honor, had caught fire. The flames had engulfed his clothes, and it was impossible to extinguish them even by taking off the robes, but the emperor was not hopping around anxiously because of this. Not only that, the parts of his body that had ignited had fallen to the ground softly. The maid around him cried in fear, not understanding what was going on.

Anyone who saw the emperor suddenly turn into a burnt paper figure would not react much better.

Many of the ministers were staring at this with their mouths agape, forgetting to close them.

The empress dowager did not expect such an accident to occur.

Changming had repeated several times that the paper puppet should not go near water or fire, but, unexpectedly, it actually started to burn.

“You dare! What kind of sorcery did you use! Why did His Majesty, who was in perfectly good condition, turn into this! Men, seize him!”

Song Nanyan got on his feet abruptly, taking the initiative to strike first.

He saw very clearly that it was Lu Zhiyuan who had snapped his fingers just now, sending a spark towards the emperor.

Who would have expected Lu Zhiyuan to dare to assassinate the emperor? Xie Chunxi could have noticed it in advance, but he saw the empress dowager’s sufferings, and rushed to her side to support her with a barrier. This oversight was enough for Lu Zhiyuan to notice something unusual about the emperor.

Without putting too much thought into it, Lu Zhiyuan had decided to expose them right here!

If this was a paper puppet of the Luo’s emperor, what had happened to the real one?!

Everyone who did not know how these things worked stared at Lu Zhiyuan doubtfully after hearing Song Nanyan’s words.

Lu Zhiyuan laughed coldly: “Could it be that something happened to your emperor, and he can’t appear in public, so you used the art of conferring spirit to a paper puppet to conceal the fact? Is this how your country expresses hospitality towards envoys?”

Xie Chunxi answered nothing and lunged at Lu Zhiyuan to take him down.

But King Hui’s reaction was also fast. He threw the wine cup in his hands onto the ground, smashing it!

“Huangsao wants to gain power over the nobles by taking control of the Son of Heaven?! I always felt that something is amiss, but I didn’t expect huangsao to be fierce enough to assault her own child in order to arrogate all powers to herself!”

Huangsao: the wife of an elder brother who is (was) the emperor

Him smashing the cup was a sign. His subordinates started moving at once, and dozens of people rushed over. Their movements were organized—they had clearly prepared in advance.

The empress dowager knew he had sent his men to enter the palace, but all these guards were favored by the last emperor, who loved and respected this younger brother, King Hui, more than the others, so the empress dowager could not oppose it.

King Hui and the empress dowager had never gotten along. This was partly because she felt he had been gathering his personal army to challenge the central government, and, as such, she had wanted to deprive him of that authority. But the emperor was young, so the country was not too stable, and for now, she did not have a chance to do so. However, she did not expect him to set up a plan on the day of the ambassadors entering the palace; she was too worried about the emperor’s condition, so she failed to discover his scheme.

Xie Chunxi looked carefully, and his expression turned even uglier than the empress dowager’s.

He said to the empress dowager in a low voice, these people King Hui has brought here all possess cultivation bases; even if they all are low-grade cultivators, regular guards can’t compare to them.

King Hui changed all his guards to cultivators overnight; but where did he get so many cultivators?

Xie Chunxi felt powerless in this situation.

It was very hard for him together with Yue Chengbo to get the situation under control.

If King Hui used the chance to capture the empress dowager, they would have an even worse time dealing with it.

As if coordinating with his thoughts, Feng Suhuai suddenly turned around and threw herself on the empress dowager!

She was moving extremely swiftly. Even if Xie Chunxi and Yue Chengbo rushed to block her way, it would already be too late.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind hit one of Feng Suhuai’s temples!

[1] Dough figurines: figures made from wheat and glutinous rice flour.