In the Southern Jin palace, Huaipu held a vase in his hands, watching it slowly roll from his grip and shatter into pieces on the floor. Inside and outside the study, countless palace maids and servants were silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to utter a sound.
For some time now, Huaipu had been mercurial and unpredictable. Every day he put several consorts to death, and palace maids and supervising eunuchs were slaughtered with utter abandon.
Though the King of Qi remained outside the city, his imperial princes frequently entered, even barging straight into the forbidden palace to toy with the concubines, treating Huaipu as though he were already a dead man.
The palace of Southern Jin had become a living hell.
Only after a long while did Huaipu squeeze out two words through gritted teeth: "Li Zhi—"
Just then, an elderly minister hurried in and reported, "Sire, Li Zhi has not surrendered, nor has he accepted the King of Qi's proclamation. By the looks of it, he intends to fight on."
"Fighting on is good!" Huaipu rallied, an unnatural feverish excitement flushing his face. "He is the one who ruined my grand designs! If he surrendered just like that, wouldn't he get off with his life for nothing? I want to see his bones ground down and his ashes scattered to the winds! Only that will slake the hatred in my heart!"
At that moment, another figure appeared in the study. Duke Yansheng manifested, frowning as he said, "Look at you. What have you become? Do you have even half the bearing of a sovereign of men?"
Huaipu gave a self-mocking laugh. "Am I still a sovereign of men? I am the descendant of a Sage! Before a Sage, what does a co-ruler of the mortal realm amount to? What is the King of Qi's background? Nothing more than a subject and a servant! Li Zhi is not even from the primary lineage! If people like them can rise to power, while I—"
"Silence!" Duke Yansheng snapped sharply. A gentle breeze stirred around him; wherever the soft wind passed, all the palace maids and guards around the study collapsed silently, dead.
Duke Yansheng said in a measured voice, "Pull yourself together! You can't even stomach a minor setback like this? Whether you are a sovereign of men or not is not for you to decide!
"Hmph, useless trash! If there were anyone even remotely decent among my descendants, do you think it would ever have been your turn? If this old man had not already ascended to immortality, for the sake of ten thousand generations of progeny, I would have taken the throne myself. But while I could serve as a sovereign of men, could you ascend to immortality?"
Huaipu hung his head and said nothing, but a twitch at the corner of his eye betrayed his defiant resentment.
Duke Yansheng naturally caught it. With a cold snort, he said, "The State of Song's strength remains intact, and Southern Jin still retains half its power. As for Northern Qi—hmph, those bald monks of the Pure Land are the slickest of all. Do you truly think they couldn't withstand the army of Southern Qi?"
Hearing this, Huaipu was both startled and overjoyed. "Could there still be a turn of fortune?"
Duke Yansheng glared at him and said coldly, "Why wouldn't there be?"
"But what of the Venerable Master—"
Duke Yansheng cut him off: "The Venerable Master may be powerful, but he cannot command the four great immortal sects. Though none of our four great sects possesses an Immortal Lord, which of us lacks our own deep heritage? Would any of us truly fear the Venerable Master? Among the four great sects, the Palace of Grand Beginning may rank first in strength, but their foundation and heritage are actually the shallowest.
"Even in his normal state, the Venerable Master could do nothing to us. What is more, the Martial Ancestor very likely left behind a contingency strike aimed directly at him. The Venerable Master does not dare manifest in earnest within the immortal heaven, so what reason do we have to fear him?"
Huaipu felt surprise and joy, but then said in chagrin, "Curse that Li Zhi for crippling most of Southern Jin's elite! If not for him—"
"Shut up! Haven't you disgraced yourself enough? In a matter of years, fighting a mere Li Zhi, you let him swell from a hundred-odd thousand troops into an army of several millions! If not for the King of Qi stepping in to help, your royal capital would have been overrun!"
Huaipu did not dare speak further, though venomous hatred showed plain in his eyes.
Duke Yansheng could only sigh inwardly. "During this time, I will make plans. Just wait quietly for word."
In a few strides, Duke Yansheng stepped out of the royal palace and beyond the capital. Following the official road westward, he walked into a roadside pavilion.
The realm had long been embroiled in warfare, and this pavilion appeared utterly dilapidated, looking ready to collapse at any moment.
Yet someone was seated inside, tea ware laid out on the stone table.
Duke Yansheng took a seat across from the young cultivator dressed in dark robes with red lining. Glancing at the empty teapot on the table, he said, "Vessels without tea are hardly the way to treat a guest."
The young cultivator smiled faintly. "When it comes to tea leaves, where under heaven could compare to the Academy?"
Duke Yansheng's expression softened slightly. From his robes, he produced an unremarkable tea caddy, drew out a single half-yellowed tea leaf, and placed it into the pot.
Mountain spring water naturally welled up to fill the teapot. In the blink of an eye, a faint wisp of fragrance drifted out, elusive yet present. Taking a single breath of it, the young cultivator instantly felt his thoughts clear; mathematical problems he had long pondered in vain suddenly unraveled, each gaining a train of thought!
The person seated opposite Duke Yansheng was none other than Wei Yuan's Dharma God avatar. He had never expected this tea to be so marvelous: merely smelling it through an avatar could enhance his natural aptitude. And what it enhanced was wisdom—the very thing Wei Yuan had never been able to raise, no matter what he tried.
Duke Yansheng took in Wei Yuan's shock with evident satisfaction, and his demeanor softened further. "This tea was harvested from two mother trees of the Academy, both planted by the Sage's own hands back in the day. The water comes from the wellspring behind the Sage's former residence. A single cup of this tea can awaken wisdom."
Wei Yuan naturally did not stand on ceremony. Taking the cup, he drained it in one gulp. Instantly, he felt the turbid sink and the pure rise within his divine soul; a soul he had once thought pure and flawless purged a considerable amount of grime and dross once more.
Wei Yuan felt his mind turn exceedingly sharp—he even conceived a train of thought for chapter nine of Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Realm!
Wei Yuan set down the teacup, looked at Duke Yansheng, and asked, "Is there more?"
Duke Yansheng was somewhat taken aback, then assumed a solemn tone. "This tea produces only three leaves every hundred years and is a treasured heritage of our Academy. Truly, I can offer no more; please forgive me."
Wei Yuan had only asked offhandedly, knowing it was impossible to get more.
Wei Yuan said, "Duke Yansheng, you summoned me to meet. What instructions do you have?"
Duke Yansheng replied, "Was it not the Realm Lord who summoned this old man? Otherwise, why would your precious avatar come here in person?"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "I intended to come, and Duke Yansheng intended to meet. It seems we have matters to discuss."
Duke Yansheng narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly, "Indeed we do."
Then, like statues, the two foxes—one old, one young—sat in silence until the moon hung high in the sky, neither willing to speak first.
In the end, it was Duke Yansheng who placed a piece of remnant ink on the table first. "This treasure of mine can seal off the Venerable Master's divine sense, but it cannot be used without end. If the Venerable Master discovers an area he cannot see through no matter what, it will only invite trouble."
Wei Yuan immediately said, "Very well, let us be direct then. Is there any need to continue the contest for the imperial throne?"
Duke Yansheng said, "What do you think?"
Wei Yuan fell silent again. Duke Yansheng frowned slightly, realizing that dragging it out worked against him, so he said, "This old man believes the dust has yet to settle."
Wei Yuan nodded. "Indeed. But a contest between two parties carries too much certainty. Better to add a third party to increase the variables."
Duke Yansheng pondered for a moment and realized that Huaipu's current situation was exceedingly dire; the more variables there were, the more advantageous it was for him. He nodded and said, "The logic holds. However... do you intend to enter the fray yourself? Are you willing to incur the karma of the realm's co-ruler?"
Wei Yuan shook his head. "Of course not. Thus, I want the two commanderies of Jiaonan and Linshui in Southern Jin. If Huaipu emerges victorious in the future, the lands of the Three Jin will belong to me."
Duke Yansheng said in a measured tone, "Taking those two commanderies into your hands is to open a corridor connecting you with Li Zhi, is it not? That karma is by no means small either."
Wei Yuan said, "It is indeed to forge a corridor. As for karma of that magnitude, I have my own means of handling it. However, my current forces are limited, and military supplies dispatched to Zhenshan may sometimes lack sufficient escort. At such times, I will need Duke Yansheng to watch over them."
Understanding his meaning, Duke Yansheng said, "The world is in turmoil, and bandits run rampant. I cannot guarantee that cargo caravans will be entirely safe."
Wei Yuan sighed and said, "That would be a pity, then. If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave."
Duke Yansheng sat motionless, watching Wei Yuan's avatar depart, and only then put away the remnant ink on the table. The moment the ink was stowed, an elusive strand of divine sense descended, sweeping across the surrounding area and finding nothing.
Duke Yansheng was already gone. Inside the pavilion lay complete ruin, the tea vessels shattered into fragments as though weathered by years of wind and frost, as if no one had set foot there for ages.
Wei Yuan's Dharma God avatar returned to the immortal city, brushing past an avatar in green robes and grizzled hair. The Dharma God avatar would remain to preside over the immortal city, while the Green-Backed Azure Dragon avatar was to depart Qingming to lay further plans.
In the meeting with Duke Yansheng, the Duke had offered a relic of the Sage, two commanderies of Southern Jin, and permission for Li Zhi to re-enter the imperial contest as conditions in exchange for Wei Yuan letting go of the grudge over his obstructed ascension to immortality and ceasing to block Huaipu's path to the throne.
Now that the King of Qi stood unmatched, with the realm seemingly already settled, Huaipu and Li Zhi were forced to unite against Southern Qi.
Wei Yuan had not expected that the enemy second only to the Venerable Master on his list of Dao-obstructing vendettas would be reconciled with so quickly. One could only say that as circumstances shifted, even immortals could hardly foresee and calculate every outcome. Yet Wei Yuan's original plan had been to set aside this enmity in exchange for qualifying Li Zhi to re-enter the contest; now that the deal was struck, along with an extra leaf of wisdom-awakening tea and two commanderies, he was well satisfied.
Traveling eastward, Wei Yuan soon entered the lands of Zhenshan.
Currently, over thirty commanderies in eastern Southern Jin were in Li Zhi's hands, but the Qi army was swarming in and had already taken several commanderies in succession. The Zhenshan Army fought desperately, contesting every mountain pass and checkpoint repeatedly. The Qi army often had to pay several times the cost just to advance a single step.
With Wei Yuan's present divine powers, he naturally moved unhindered. This avatar possessed a touch of temporal divine power: when others caught sight of him, they saw only Wei Yuan of the preceding moment. By the time they tried to focus their gaze, Wei Yuan had already stepped into the next moment, a hundred li away.
Half a day later, Wei Yuan walked into Li Zhi's central command tent as though traversing an empty plain.
Inside the tent, Li Zhi was issuing a stream of military orders, erecting defensive lines one after another to stall Qi's advance. He wore only a single long robe, beneath which bandages could be seen wrapping his entire body. The skin of his left hand looked newly formed and moved awkwardly, clearly showing that his grievous injuries had not yet healed.
Seeing Wei Yuan walk in, the generals were startled and immediately unleashed an array of magical treasures and Daoist arts at him. Yet Wei Yuan stood at the tent entrance, and those treasures and arts passed straight through his body as if rippling through water, leaving not the slightest trace.
Shocked, the generals instantly encircled Li Zhi, glaring intently at Wei Yuan. They all knew an unprecedented high cultivator had arrived—perhaps not even the immortals in heaven possessed such divine abilities. Combined, they would not be enough to withstand a single flick of his finger.
Yet despite the terror evident on some faces, they gritted their teeth and stood before Li Zhi; not a single one fled.
Just then, Li Zhi's weak voice sounded: "Do not panic. This is an old friend. All of you, withdraw."
A moment later, the generals withdrew from the tent, leaving only Sun Chao'en behind. Li Zhi's discernment was far beyond what it once was; he could tell that Wei Yuan had briefly retreated into the past just now, waiting for the attacks to pass before returning to the present. Such divine power was something ordinary immortals likely could never achieve.
Before Li Zhi could speak, Wei Yuan said, "I hear... you intend to transfer the Zhenshan Fief to me?"
Li Zhi was visibly taken aback. When had he ever said such a thing? Even so, following Wei Yuan's lead, he nodded and said, "That is indeed so."
Wei Yuan smiled slightly. "Good that you agree. Now let us see how this territory should be valued."
Wei Yuan approached the map on the desk and said, "The realm currently spans seven thousand li across and possesses one divine wonder—"
"Two wonders. After the boundary stone reached great completion, another wonder appeared," Li Zhi interjected.
"Very well. The realm currently has a population of seventy million, and its various industries yield thirty million Qingyuan annually?" Wei Yuan looked at Li Zhi.
"Indeed so." The figures Wei Yuan quoted were actually on the high side, but Li Zhi, uncertain of his purpose, did not correct him. For now, whatever Wei Yuan said went.
"Good, then. I will give you this land in exchange for your Zhenshan Fief." With a casual stroke across the map, Wei Yuan circled the two commanderies of Southern Jin, along with a small tract belonging to Qingming.
That tract was not large, encompassing merely several counties, completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of the realm. Its only special feature was that it held a military encampment and a warehouse.
Chapter 1482