Volume 5, Chapter 98 – Meeting (2-in-1)

“Your Highness, the weather is hot. Are you thirsty?”

Taking advantage of the rest stop, a maid came up to the sedan chair and cautiously asked the person inside through the curtain.

“I am fine.”

A voice came from within, somewhat crisp, yet undeniably possessed of a stately grace. “You may rest yourselves. There is no need to mind me.”

“How can that do?” The maid frowned. “Protec… the Chancellor specifically told us to take good care of Your Highness on the road. Especially since this whole journey was arranged according to Xuan protocol, and we did not even have a car. Your Highness has already endured enough travel fatigue. You absolutely must not neglect your health.”

No sooner had she said that than the curtain was lifted, revealing a fairly spacious interior. Inside sat a woman in a red dress, with an oval face, a slender figure, and a reserved, inward elegance. One hand held up the curtain, while the other held a thread-bound ancient book.

“Your… Your Highness!?”

The maid had looked calm a moment earlier, but now that the woman inside had shown her true face, she was visibly ill at ease. Even this inquiry was tinged with timidity, as though she were carrying a guilty conscience.

“I said there is no need, so there is no need.”

After staring at the maid for a long moment, the woman in red fluttered her lashes and spoke again with her pale-violet lips moving softly. “I do not care what Protector Xian said. I only know that my body is mine to decide over. I am not about to mistreat myself.”

Rustle.

With that, she let the curtain fall without waiting for the maid’s response, then sank back into her study of the ancient volume.

After traveling like that for a day and a half, the party finally made its slow way past Longchuan and arrived at Lianshui Circuit by Jing Lake. They rested there only briefly, then spent a little over another day reaching Zhennan.

When they arrived, the atmosphere within the party was rather heavy, because they did not see the reception they had expected. The northwestern gate of Zhennan looked instead to be under strict guard. They were questioned and screened multiple times, and only after their identities were confirmed to be in order were they waved through.

“Outrageous!”

Song Qiaoshu was extremely dissatisfied with this.

Could those people not see what sort of status Her Highness had now?

People always said that a mother rose by her child’s standing. Given the prestige the Xia Emperor now enjoyed, never mind that Her Highness herself already held a certain position in Xuanxia, even if she were some destitute beggar or refugee, these people still should not have treated her this way!

Song Qiaoshu insisted on making an issue of it, and at one point even tried to argue reason with the Dao troops guarding the gate, but each time Chongniang pulled him back.

“Do not cause trouble,” Chongniang warned him.

“Judging by the current situation, the Xia Emperor very clearly does not want this matter to attract too much attention. This treatment is understandable. Your behavior will only make the matter bigger, and that is without question defying her will. Do you want to anger her?”

She was right.

Song Qiaoshu might not have listened to anything else, but once Chongniang invoked the Xia Emperor to suppress him, he immediately calmed down.

After all, Song Qiaoshu knew far too well how terrifying the Xia Emperor was.

He had been paying attention to her since before she had fully revealed her brilliance. He had even tried to establish ties with her before, but the people responsible for contacting her had been too stupid, still carrying the habitual arrogance they had possessed when they held high positions in the sect, and had ruined every attempt.

Even so, he still insisted on reminding Chongniang, “When we address her ourselves, it is better to call her the Imperial Daughter.”

Chongniang curled her lip, looked him up and down as if seeing him for the first time, then quickly moved away from him, as though afraid of getting something filthy on herself.

?

Song Qiaoshu was stunned. What had he said wrong this time?

“Uncle Song.” A young man with the look of a pale-faced scholar walked over from the side and said to Song Qiaoshu in a low voice, “About this… judging from Eastern Xia’s attitude toward us, I’m afraid we need to prepare for the worst.”

“For example?” Song Qiaoshu frowned at him.

“For example, High Emperor Ancestor Xia may refuse to acknowledge Her Highness and instead use force against us.” The scholar raised his brows. “…Uncle Song, can you really not see that?”

“Scholar Dong, there is no need to speak in the same manner as Chongniang. If you have something to say, say it plainly.” Song Qiaoshu said, “I am not so incapable of keeping my composure.”

You’re exactly that incapable.

The scholar rolled his eyes inwardly. In his heart he thought, with this ramshackle little group of ours, including Her Highness herself, who doesn’t know we are really just discarded pieces, bargaining chips? You are the only thick-headed one still harboring expectations toward the Xia Emperor, thinking she is bound to acknowledge kinship with you.

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Oh, so when I was down and out, you never came. Now that I rule the world, punching Northern Yu and trampling the Federation underfoot, you come running over wanting to acknowledge me as kin, and still think I’ll obediently accept you.

What, am I cheap? I’m practically invincible under heaven now. Why would I go looking for a living Buddha to sit on my head? To patch some system bug so I can wake up in a good mood every day?

Putting himself casually in the Xia Emperor’s place, the scholar felt there was no way this kinship would ever be acknowledged.

Acknowledge my ass.

People like them were nothing more than marionettes on strings in the hands of the higher-ups. Never mind acknowledging kinship. If they made it out alive, that alone would mean smoke had risen from their ancestors’ graves.

Shaking his head, the scholar did not bother explaining further to Song Qiaoshu. He quickly went past the group and headed up front to find Chongniang.

“Scholar Dong has changed,” Song Qiaoshu muttered where he stood.

“He isn’t even true to his own name anymore.”

Like every giant base city in Great Xia, Zhennan too had towering gate towers.

After passing through the gate towers, then crossing a section of “military-administered zone” laid out around the inner city, the group was forcibly made to board vehicles at the boundary with the urban district. Over the next several dozen minutes, the vehicles carried them to an empty courtyard residence built in an antique style.

“There is a yard inside, stables, and water and electricity as well.”

The officer leading them instructed them expressionlessly, “Your online activity will be monitored. Do not post untrue statements. We have the right, under local law, to ban your accounts.”

Chongniang, who was at the front, was just about to agree, when Song Qiaoshu immediately squeezed forward from behind and asked with displeasure on his face, “Where is this place?”

?

The officer froze for a moment, then frowned. “Naturally, it is the place arranged for your lodging.”

“Here?” Song Qiaoshu demanded loudly. “This broken-down house, and you’re telling me this is what you arranged for us? Let me ask you, why aren’t you taking us to Shenming Mountain? Do you know whom you are slighting?”

The officer’s expression shifted slightly. Narrowing his eyes, he reached for the walkie-talkie at his waist.

“Please wait, sir!”

Chongniang and the pale-faced scholar rushed up at once. One seized Song Qiaoshu’s arm, the other covered his mouth, both smiling apologetically toward the officer. “There is a bit of a problem with this man’s head… please, don’t… we will behave and stay here.”

Mm…

Only then did the officer’s brows ease somewhat. He looked back at the residence, then at the people before him, and asked the scholar, “What is your name?”

“My surname is Dong, Dong Biyan.” The scholar smiled. “You could say I’m the ‘steward’ of this group for the trip.”

“Mr. Dong, then.” The officer nodded. “You need to understand that your identities are very sensitive. After all, what sort of place is Xuanxia? You all know better than I do. We can’t just believe some voice emerging from a place overrun with demonic aura every time it claims to be someone. There is a high probability the news is false. Until it is verified, I can only trouble you all to stay here.”

This… how could it be false?

Song Qiaoshu grew even angrier. Even if Her Highness in Xuanxia had to look to Protector Xian’s face, their identities were real! They had even submitted an application to this side before departure, complete with border-passage documents. Was this officer illiterate?

He wanted to struggle, wanted to rebuke the man, but the two companions held him down tight, leaving him able only to make muffled sounds.

“Food, clothing, and daily necessities will all be specially delivered.” The officer glanced at him, then warned the scholar, “Do not let your people step outside the courtyard.”

“Yes!” The scholar nodded at once. “I will keep them in line.”

The officer nodded and turned to leave.

“Please wait.”

A voice pierced through the crowd, and the step he had taken immediately stiffened.

Turning around, the officer saw a woman in a crimson palace gown, her black hair pinned up, wearing a gold phoenix hairpin of auspicious design, walking toward him under the escort of several maids.

The woman was obviously no longer young. Though her looks and skin had been well maintained, and she could still be called beautiful, there were already two faint nasolabial lines at the sides of her nose, making one instinctively think of all the rumors and stories that clung to her.

Could this be… her?

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He had indeed heard certain rumors. As for this lady’s identity, the officer truly did not dare to be certain.

Naturally, that affected his attitude. With a somewhat stiff yet still courteous frown, he asked, “Madam, what is it?”

“May I ask when His Majesty the Xia Emperor will come here to see me?”

The woman was blunt. Then she raised the thread-bound ancient book in her hand for the officer to see.

“And if I wish to learn more profound material, where should I go to seek it?”

This…

The officer narrowed his eyes and lowered his gaze to the book. To his surprise, he discovered that it was actually a copy of the Shenming Qi-Refining Formula.

Blue cover, thread-bound edition. There was no mistake. This was the most widely circulated version outside.

He could not help giving the woman another surprised look. He seemed unable to understand why, with her identity… or rather, her political position, she would think to study this sort of thing.

Could it be that she truly intended to join Great Xia?

But how could those cultists of evil methods genuinely let someone go?

“I’m afraid I cannot answer the first question,” the officer said. “But if it is qi methods you seek, and if you have need of them, we can provide more books. We can also bring in lecturers from the universities to give you guidance.”

With his authority, that was the most he could do.

“Good.”

He had expected the woman to make more demands, but instead she merely nodded, said nothing further, and entered the courtyard.

That went so smoothly?

The officer lingered there a while longer. Only after confirming that everyone had settled into the residence, their rooms had been arranged, and all of them had retired to rest did he finally leave and report everything he had seen.

“The conditions here are not bad.”

Upstairs, in a bedroom on the third floor, the woman in red opened the window and let brilliant sunlight spill in. She turned and gave her assessment of the furnishings and the bed.

“Your Highness.” At this moment, there was no one else in the room besides Chongniang. The latter reminded her, “Protector Xian said that once we arrived, we were to use the ‘silverflow device’ to contact that side immediately.”

The “silverflow device” was one of the very few communication tools capable of bypassing network surveillance. It was produced by the Starsea Federation. Its appearance was similar to a phone, but its material was a mercury-like fluid that could change shape.

The thing possessed a certain biological nature. After devouring the metal tissue of another “silverflow device,” it could achieve long-distance communication.

In the early years, the Starsea Federation had relied on this very thing to reconstruct its organizational power. Otherwise, with their rotten signal infrastructure alone, they would never have been able to govern such a vast territory.

“I know.”

The woman in red frowned slightly. “I will bathe first, then do it.”

“Chongniang.”

She suddenly called the other woman back and said to her, “Go soothe Attendant Qiao. He… meant well too.”

“…Yes.”

Chongniang parted her lips, then nodded in acknowledgment. After observing the proper etiquette, she withdrew, not forgetting to shut the door behind her.

The woman smiled, put away her modest luggage, and then went to wash up, experiencing for herself a bath chamber full of modern technology.

“Ah…”

Steam flushed her face faintly red. Amid the hazy fog, the woman opened her eyes and sighed softly. “It really has been a long time since I experienced this…”

Afterward, she took a gold hairpin from among the ornaments she had removed. With a series of manipulations, she controlled it as it lengthened and changed shape from its original form, becoming a thin silver mirror. Within it, she saw ripples stirring like water.

The rippling continued for three or four seconds. Very soon, the gathered mercury formed a protruding face upon the surface, its lips writhing like those of a living creature as it demanded, “Why have you reported to me so late?”

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The woman narrowed her eyes and said coolly, “I was somewhat tired. I rested a little longer.”

Many wrinkles surfaced on the mercury face. It clearly belonged to an elderly man no longer young. Hearing that excuse, he frowned slightly. “Very well. Whether this mission succeeds depends entirely upon you. You do indeed need to preserve your health and suffer no mishap.”

The woman asked again, “Can I know what my task is now?”

“You can.” The old man nodded. “I will send it to you in written form.”

Written form?

Why go to such unnecessary lengths?

The woman froze for a moment, then understood. She was now in Zhennan Circuit, Maozhou, Great Xia.

This was a blessed land watched over by the qi-path divine pool, where even the holy will lingered and listened.

If one wanted to deal with that person, this level of secrecy was necessary. Those people truly were professionals.

Sneering inwardly, the woman saw ripples rise again on the silver mirror’s surface, assembling themselves into lines of text.

[There is a “soul gu” inside your body.]

That very first sentence made her expression change violently, and a fierce light even flared in her eyes.

[You need not concern yourself with when it was placed there. Not only are you unable to resist this matter, even we ourselves had no way to refuse.]

[Your mission on the surface is naturally to acknowledge kinship with her, but the difficulty of that is high. That lord is not making things hard for us. The only requirement is that you delay as much as possible. In other words, no matter what method you use, stay there for as long as you can, and if possible remain by her side.]

“What use is that?” the woman asked coldly toward the other side.

“That lord? Fang Yang is already dead. Where did you people find yourselves a new master?”

“He doesn’t even dare show his face before her… does he really think a method like this will work?”

[You are saying too much!]

A rebuke appeared on the mirror’s surface.

[Under the surveillance of the qi-path divine pool, too much cannot be spoken. Do not forget that!]

“There is no evidence that she can hear this.” The woman closed her eyes. “Besides, this is not enough for her to make anything out… Is there anything else you want me to do?”

[Yes.]

[Meng Wanyu of the Silver Sea Merchant Guild will contact you. When I am not present, there is information you are to obtain through her. If there are matters along the way that require your cooperation, cooperate as much as possible. Do not concern yourself with the reason or the outcome. Just do what you are told.]

“That does not sound difficult.” The woman opened her eyes. “But why should I listen to you?”

“After all, I have already reached her territory. Most of the control you used to exert over me has already failed. I can decide for myself whether I wish to obey these orders… I could even sell all of you out to her.”

[…You will not.]

This time, several seconds passed before the response came in text.

[Because you are still a person of Great Xuan. You still believe in the ideal of ‘co-governance.’ You cannot possibly agree with her way of slaughter. Such actions would betray your oath and your dreams.]

“…”

The woman did not refute him. She merely narrowed her eyes.

[I know that, for people like you, this is very difficult.]

Perhaps realizing that she needed some measure of reassurance, the tone of the text softened.

[But please, think of Great Xuan as well.]

[The reason we have spent all these years hiding here and there, even at times forced to sell our services to both sides while wedged in the cracks, was not for anything other than the hope that the flourishing age might return and Great Xuan might rise again.]

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[The hope is admittedly very slim, but it is still better to choose a direction and strive for it than to hide forever in the shadows and do nothing.]

[You are the last hope, Your Highness.]

[You understand exactly where the key to breaking this deadlock lies… That person clearly does not know that the “soul gu” has a hidden mechanism. Only those of our Feathering Sect can bring out its true power.]

“You want me to…” The woman narrowed her eyes. “Your courage truly is not small.”

[I, this old servant, have already thought through everything.] The other side stated frankly. [Success or failure, right or wrong, all will be decided in this one stroke.]

The communication ended. The woman kneaded the silver mirror back into a gold hairpin, then sat before a real dressing mirror and arranged her hair, soon restoring her appearance from loose post-bath strands to the same stately elegance as before.

“Protector Xian… he wants me to make use of the ‘soul gu’ in reverse, to control it through the secret method of the Feathering Scripture, devour it, and even replace it…”

“At that point, I would be able to shed this shell of flesh and become the ‘soul gu’ itself, then select a nearby body to inhabit and possess…”

She did not say it aloud. She only turned the matter over in her mind, thinking about how she could possibly achieve the goals Protector Xian had spoken of.

The difficulty was far too high.

Never mind using a secret method to turn the “soul gu” back on itself. Even now, she could not sense whether such a thing even existed inside her body.

If she could not sense it, how was she supposed to counter it?

So what exactly was she supposed to do… Surely he had not truly sent her here just to die?

After thinking it over and over, the woman suddenly came to a realization. She felt that the progress of the matter would likely have to rest upon her “identity.”

“I…”

“Even if I personally do not care that much, and presumably she does not care that much either, in the end… in the end, I am still her birth mother.”

“If I make use of this identity and can remain with her for a long enough time, perhaps I may have a chance to ask how she interpreted the Xuandi Scripture. Then I can use the methods within the Xuandi Scripture to control the ‘soul gu.’”

“Yes. A path like that is far more reliable.”

But did she truly not care?

At that thought, the woman’s brows drew together slightly, and her mind drifted back several decades, to that rain-lashed, blood-soaked night.

At the time, the branch of cultists she belonged to had been discovered by the Yu people, while she herself had happened to be on the verge of giving birth. In the end, in order to preserve the sect’s strength, she could only abandon the child. The only thing she could do for that child was leave it at the gate of a temple, hoping the monastics there would take it in.

Back then, she could never have imagined that the child, once grown, would blaze with such dazzling brilliance. Never mind that even Great Yu, which had plagued the sect for so many years, had been overthrown by her. Her prestige now even surpassed that of the ancestor Emperor Feng, reaching a height where “under heaven, no one dares contend with her.”

It was only a pity… she did not entirely agree with Emperor Feng’s ideals.

She agreed only with the part concerning humankind.

As for the part concerning the demon race, she did not agree with it at all.

Creak.

The sound of the door being pushed open.

“Chongniang?” The woman frowned. “Why are you coming in at a time like th…”

She could not finish the sentence.

Standing in the doorway was not Chongniang, but a tall white-haired woman dressed in a black dragon robe embroidered with golden patterns.

At that instant, even the air seemed to freeze.

In a daze, the woman in red heard thunder and rain.

And also the crying of an infant, gradually fading farther and farther away upon the ripples of memory.