Chapter 16: The Truth! (2)

"The Pei Clan — how dare they assassinate the Emperor? This is the height of treason, an outrage against gods and men alike!"

Zhao Lan clenched his fists, his eyes burning red.

Yet Xiao Lin only let out a bitter, desolate laugh.

"And what of it? The Pei Clan has joined hands with the Empress to dominate the court — every man above and below the throne bows to them. How could I dare report it? And who would ever believe me?

"After I fled, I secretly met with a close friend who hailed from the northern lands of Yan and Shuo. When he heard the truth, he was both shocked and furious. He immediately resigned his post and returned to Liangzhou, swearing to inform King Chen of what had happened. I entrusted to him the single drop of the Son of Heaven's blood that had remained on the tip of Dragon-Sparrow's blade. With imperial blood as proof, King Chen would be able to expose the Pei clan's conspiracy.

"Afterward, all word of him went silent. It was only two years later, from the lips of a drunken military commissioner, that I learned my dear friend had long since had his entire family wiped out — on charges of 'colluding with King Chen and plotting rebellion.'

"It was on that day that I finally jolted awake. I spent months making my way back to the Xiao clan's ancestral home in Ganzhou, and what greeted my eyes was utter devastation. It turned out that I…"

His eyes reddened, his voice trembling.

"…had long since had my nine familial lines exterminated as well…"

At these words, Xiao Lin buried his face in his hands and began to weep.

"My poor wife and children, dragged down with me…"

"Uncle Xiao…"

Zhao Lan's own eyes were red as he gripped Xiao Lin's hand with all his strength.

"Lan'er," Xiao Lin placed a hand on Zhao Lan's head, his voice growing ever weaker, "I know this may not be fair to you. If you are unwilling, I will never force you…"

Zhao Lan froze.

"The poison has reached my vitals. I have not long to live. What I wish to do now… is entrust the divine blade Dragon-Sparrow to you."

Xiao Lin pulled away the black cloth behind him, revealing a heavy, ancient blade, and laid it before Zhao Lan.

"Chancellor Pei murdered his sovereign and harmed the loyal. The Empress manipulates the court. Treacherous ministers run rampant in the halls of power. Calamity is about to befall the realm! The Son of Heaven has met with disaster, and the nine provinces tremble — yet this is only the opening of the curtain. If you take up this blade, you must endure in silence, lying in wait, enduring hardship for the sake of a greater purpose…"

Xiao Lin's face had gone ashen. He coughed up a mouthful of dark, clotted blood.

"The root of this world's calamity lies with the Pei Clan! You must face that terrifying noble house alone — a house whose Inheritance spans a thousand years — until the dark clouds are swept away, justice is restored to the Son of Heaven, clarity is returned to the realm, and all of China is once again bathed in… bright and peaceful skies!"

* * *

"I am rather curious — how exactly did His Majesty die?"

Pei Su regarded Elder Wu with a half-smile.

The death of the Son of Heaven was like the collapse of Mount Tai to ordinary people, but for Pei Su, it was not so difficult to accept.

"His Majesty's cultivation was indeed peerless under heaven. The Old Master spent decades scheming, and on that one day, with the Tianque imperial radiance and the dynasty's fate-qi sealed off, even three high-ranking Dharma Manifestation cultivators from our clan could not overcome His Majesty. In the end, the immortal artifact — the Kongtong Cauldron — had to be invoked to suppress and refine him."

As he said this, Elder Wu bore no contempt for the Son of Heaven; there was even a trace of admiration and respect.

An immortal artifact — no wonder.

Pei Su asked nothing further. He knew that the Pei Clan's Inheritance stretched back thousands of years, its foundations far exceeding what the world could imagine.

"Then why was the Emperor's skull escorted north?"

"What does the Young Lord believe was so special about Tianque Pass back then?"

Before Pei Su could answer, Elder Wu suddenly broke into a sinister chuckle:

"Mountains of corpses, rivers of blood — the death-qi of hundreds of thousands of fallen soldiers surged skyward, blotting out the sun and moon, making the mountains and rivers cry out in anguish. A thousand miles of land became a living hell. And by drawing upon that boundless essence of flesh and blood, one could forge a Blood Divine Body for the Emperor's skull…"

Had anyone else heard these words, one could only imagine the depths of their horror.

That a lofty, ancient court noble house would study such blood-sacrifice forbidden arts — the kind passed down only through heretical demon cults…

No — even those of the most crooked and demonic paths would feel a chill run through their entire bodies upon witnessing the Pei Clan's handiwork, as though plunging into a pit of ice.

One must understand: an ordinary evildoer who sacrificed a single village was already considered a monstrous crime that sent every righteous sect into a fury.

But the Pei Clan? In the heart of a battlefield, with hundreds of thousands of corpses, blood-light stretching three thousand miles, and death-qi soaring nine thousand meters into the sky!

To say nothing of the fact that the core of this blood skull was, Fuck, the reigning Son of Heaven himself!

No one could imagine what manner of earth-shaking, terrifying power this Blood Divine Body would possess.

Elder Wu's answers were all deliberately understated, and Pei Su did not press further.

He knew that what Elder Wu described so lightly and casually represented decades of scheming, plotting, and painstaking maneuvering by those old men from long ago.

"So Deputy Commander Xiao Lin — he was the one who saw the Emperor's skull back then?"

"By the time the Pei Manor's shadow guards noticed, the ebony box had been pried open. The Emperor's skull lay on the ground, covered in mud, and Dragon-Sparrow had vanished without a trace…

"That year, when the entire Xiao clan of Ganzhou was put to the sword, the Old Master deliberately ordered a two-month wait for that Commander Xiao. What a pity — the man was truly something. He watched his wife and children be executed before his very eyes and never uttered a single word…"

Pei Su gave a cold laugh:

"He always was something."

Had he not used Zhao Lan earlier without giving a single thought to the consequences for Zhao Lan?

"Then Elder Wu, you left a poison mark and deliberately let them go — does that mean Xiao Lin still has some card left to play?"

Elder Wu was silent for a moment before answering —

"Less than a month after he fled back then, a spy we had planted in King Chen's manor sent word: they had intercepted a court official who was rushing about in a panic. Under secret interrogation, it was revealed that he carried on his person… a single drop of imperial blood."

Pei Su understood immediately.

That was, without question, irrefutable evidence.

"Unfortunately, that man's backbone was unnervingly stubborn. Even with his wife and daughters used as leverage, he refused to give up Xiao Lin's whereabouts. Right up until his death, he was still shouting about the common people, the welfare of the realm, the masses of the world…"

Pei Su was taken aback. "Not even his wife and daughters could shake him?"

Elder Wu let out a cold, mocking laugh.

"Young Lord, there truly do exist such fools in this world — men who prize the so-called righteous path and grand justice, vague and intangible as they are, above their own flesh and blood. They are nothing but frogs at the bottom of a well, fish and shrimp in shallow waters. How could they ever understand that our Pei Clan's act of regicide was done for the sake of all living beings under heaven?"

Pei Su said nothing.

There are ten thousand people in this world, each walking their own road.

At this moment, without Elder Wu needing to say another word, everything had become clear.

Even if a hundred times or a thousand times more people spread word that the Son of Heaven was dead, it would stir no great waves — for it would always be empty words without proof, and anyone could be charged with the crime of insulting the sovereign and have their entire clan exterminated.

But concrete evidence was a different matter entirely.

In recent years, doubts about the Emperor's seclusion had grown ever louder in the Imperial Capital, and resentment over the Empress's regency had been mounting across the realm.

The time had not yet come to truly tear away all pretense, and if their rivals were to obtain evidence at this juncture, it would ultimately be a serious problem.

When the Son of Heaven had held power, the Pei Clan, though still the foremost of the great noble houses, had ultimately not been able to act without restraint — they still had to show deference to His Majesty.

But since the Empress had taken power, the Pei Clan had grown ever more dominant, until now they stood unchallenged over all of Great Jin. Those ancient noble houses that had once been only a hair's breadth behind the Pei Clan — how could they be content to remain beneath them?

If they were to obtain evidence of the Pei Clan's regicide, it would inevitably shatter the delicate balance of the present moment and ignite the most savage conflict this world had ever seen.

Xiao Lin had drawn Dragon-Sparrow from the Emperor's skull, but imperial blood was no ordinary blood. He may have accidentally preserved only one drop — or perhaps two.

Now, under Elder Wu's deliberate release, Xiao Lin had already fled Lin'an Commandery and gone into hiding once more, believing himself free from the poisoner's reach.

Yet his body was riddled with poison, and death was near. So at the moment of his death, if he still carried that drop of imperial blood capable of swaying the fate of the realm — would he, perhaps, tell his adopted son?

* * *

Through a desolate village, amid a sea of wild grass, a young man walked with a blade on his back.

His features were cold and stern, his long hair streaming in the wind. The ancient blade behind him was mostly wrapped in black cloth, yet the exposed portion still radiated a soul-shaking sharpness.

Having passed through great shock and great grief, through the straits of life and death, Zhao Lan felt as though his state of mind had shed its cocoon like a cicada emerging — rising into an entirely new world.

Before today, he had been nothing more than a minor guard at the Governor-General's Office, nothing more than a follower and admirer at the side of the Liu clan's daughter.

He had never imagined that one day, his hand would grip the divine blade Dragon-Sparrow, his shoulders would bear the weight of the common people and the realm, and his heart would hold the fate of all under heaven.

It was as though a person had been reborn. From this moment on, he would no longer live only for himself — he would live for the ten thousand people of the world.

Within his heart, he carried the greatest secret in all the realm!

Whoosh!

Zhao Lan drew a long, deep breath, and felt that in twenty years of cultivation, his mind had never been so clear and unobstructed.

He thought of how, before this, he had given his heart and soul to Liu Zhi, had competed jealously with the Heir of the Northern Marquis, had been toyed with in the palm of another's hand — truly no different from a clown. It was laughable to the extreme.

But where should he go from here?

Zhao Lan suddenly glanced down at his waist. There hung an inconspicuous black-and-white token. He stared at it for a long moment, then raised his head.

The court was the Pei Clan's domain. All of Great Jin was rotten to the core. His foster father was still a wanted criminal of the court — no commandery city or provincial seat could shelter him.

Zhao Lan's gaze swept across the distant mountains and rivers.

There was still the jianghu — the jianghu, where the court's reach was thin. He would…

Take up his blade and walk the jianghu!

Zhao Lan surged forward. In an instant, a silver thread thin as a spider's silk appeared among the falling leaves behind him — and the next moment it split apart into two halves, the shockwave making the mountain forest ring out. It was unmistakably —

The Eight Wilds Blade Canon, Fourth Tier.

A Single Crack in the Sky!