The Road Ahead

In the capital of the State of Zhao. Upon arriving in the capital, a secret report was divided into seven copies and delivered to seven different places. One of the dispatches was brought directly into a magnificent estate. Passed through checkpoint after checkpoint, it was finally laid upon a desk and picked up by an impeccably groomed hand. The man sitting behind the desk was slightly advanced in years, dignified in bearing, and naturally exuded a graceful nobility. He read through the dispatch word by word with intense focus. Having finished the report, he pondered in silence for a moment before shaking his head. "Thirty thousand foot soldiers pitted against ten thousand iron cavalry, yet the Northern Border Iron Cavalry was completely wiped out. If it were me... No, I would only ever lead cavalry." He set the dispatch down and raised his voice. "Men, ready my horse! I must enter the palace to see Father!" Moments later, he stood within the royal study of the palace. The King of Zhao, still in the prime of his life, had laid out a sand table surrounded by figurines representing infantry and cavalry. On one side of the study stood three princes and a princess, while several generals stood on the other. At that moment, a general frowned and said, "We have simulated it countless times, yet we cannot produce such a result. Even if the soldiers wielded repeating crossbows and were thoroughly trained, once the cavalry closed in, panic would inevitably set in. The slightest disorder, and the cavalry breaking into their ranks, would make a rout unavoidable." A prince with a short beard remarked, "If my Gallant Cloud Guards were mingled into the infantry, perhaps they could put up a fight. But I have only trained five thousand Gallant Cloud Guards." Another prince, the youngest among them, said, "Eldest Brother, you trained your Gallant Cloud Guards for three whole years, but their domain was established barely three months ago." The King of Zhao, who had remained silent all this while, spoke up: "It seems Qingming did not employ ordinary methods. Guessing here will yield us nothing; it is best to go take a look in person. Perhaps those old bastards of the Palace of Grand Beginning are playing tricks and secretly piled some lethal weapons over there. Chonghu, I leave this matter to you." One of the generals in the room immediately replied, "Your Majesty's will shall be done." The King of Zhao looked at the somewhat disarrayed sand table and said slowly, "Whether they used sorcery or deployed immortal artifacts, they could not have used anything too outrageous right under Lu Ming's nose. Thus, Qingming now possesses the strength to annihilate ten thousand elite iron cavalry in head-on combat. That is a fact. As it happens, Anguo sent a letter outlining a scheme, and I believe it is worth a try." "Your Majesty, what sort of clever plan is it?" the generals and princes asked in curiosity. Before she married far away to Western Jin, Li Ruyi's title had been Princess Anguo. Although her prominence had grown so great in recent years that she had completely marginalized the empress—to the point where all of Western Jin knew only Consort Yuan and forgot an empress even existed—those who knew her in Zhao still customarily addressed her as Princess Anguo. The King of Zhao said, "Confer upon Wei Yuan the title of Military Commissioner of Ningxi, permitting him to establish his own administrative commission and appoint his own officials." Everyone was astonished, yet the more they thought on it, the more profound the subtleties seemed. The eldest prince said, "Lu Ming will certainly never tolerate such a thing. But what if he truly proves so muddle-headed that he ignores it?" The King of Zhao made a pressing gesture with his hand. The sand table shifted, transforming into a map of the Western Regions. He drew a line across it with a finger, connecting Zhao to Qingming, and said, "Since he would be a military commissioner of our State of Zhao, we must naturally connect that land back to us. We will push west, then north, cutting a road straight through the Shaman territories. That way, Western Jin's western gateway will be entirely in our Great Zhao's hands!" The graceful Third Prince, who had not spoken until now, remarked, "Eldest Brother, Lu Ming is not muddled to that degree. But with our conferment coming first, whatever he gives cannot be too far below ours. Yet Ningxi Prefecture has already been established; if he offers too high a reward, his own officials will be displeased. As long as we deliver our decree into Wei Yuan's hands before him, we can sit back and watch Western Jin fall into internal strife." A scholarly-looking general observed, "By my estimation, the Crown Prince's faction had likely been suppressing Qingming—and through it, seeking to suppress the Palace of Grand Beginning—which led to this offensive. It is just that they never expected such a catastrophic defeat, leaving them riding a tiger from which they cannot dismount. Eradicating Qingming now would probably require raising an army of three hundred thousand, not to mention thoroughly alienating the Palace of Grand Beginning; thus, I believe that is no longer possible. Leveraging the King of Jin's conferments, Princess Anguo may even take this opportunity to clip the Crown Prince's wings. A single stroke achieving many ends." "Pass down my decree: dispatch envoys to the Western Regions immediately!" the King of Zhao commanded. *** Anzhao Commandery, prefectural seat of Ningxi. Chen Dao and Yue Jinshan sat facing each other. Handing over a secret letter, Chen Dao said, "His Majesty intends to issue an edict docking three years of your salary, demoting you two ranks, and retaining you in your post on probation." Yue Jinshan showed no flicker of emotion. "I was headstrong, foolish in a moment of rashness, and moved troops without authorization. Such a handling is already an act of exceptional grace." Taking a sip of tea, Chen Dao said slowly, "Old Yue, I want to hear the truth: can Qingming be broken?" A sharp light glinted in Yue Jinshan's eyes. "Their spear formation has a critical flaw: it is difficult to turn. If iron cavalry were to outflank them from both wings, victory would not be difficult. It was only that on that day I was too conceited, stubbornly launching a frontal assault, which led to such a disastrous defeat. Give me an army of two hundred thousand and mobilize all the northern border elites under my command, and Qingming can be taken within a month." Chen Dao nodded slowly. "Just as I thought." He stood and paced back and forth, weighing his words before speaking. "Originally, I believed Qingming was merely an itch on the skin, but after this battle, I realized they have become a disease in the heart of our Great Jin! If not eradicated now, future catastrophe is inevitable!" "However..." Chen Dao raised a hand to cut Yue Jinshan off. "I know you want to say that we should stand together against the Shamans, that there is no need for fratricide. But defending against the Shamans is important, and under whose name we defend is just as important. Nurturing this tiger will bring calamity. In twenty or thirty years, the one resisting the Shamans here might well be a State of Wei, or the Palace of Grand Beginning. Old Yue, we are ministers of Western Jin, after all!" Yue Jinshan was struck speechless for a time. Chen Dao waved his hand forcefully. "Let you and me work together in full accord once more! I will lobby the court dignitaries and the gentlemen of the Hall of Political Affairs to secure you ample coin, provisions, and troops. There is no need to worry about the Palace of Grand Beginning either; both Four Sages Academy and Sword Palace can act to pin them down. All you need to do is flatten Qingming, and preferably execute Wei Yuan. If this lad is not eliminated, he will certainly become Great Jin's gravest menace!" "Isn't this... going a bit too far? Wei Yuan is currently nothing more than a minor Dao Foundation cultivator. Even if he attains True Monarch in the future, the sects and our kingdoms each have their ways of accommodating such figures. Why go to such lengths?" Chen Dao let out a sigh. "I have dedicated my life to the study of numerology and karmic luck. These past days, feeling constantly unsettled, I have been divining incessantly. Not long ago, the karmic luck of heaven and earth shifted abruptly, as if an extraordinary treasure had appeared in the mortal realm. On a whim, I performed numerous divinations; though I found no trace of that supreme treasure, I inadvertently caught a glimpse of heavenly secrets." He paused, speaking word for word, "Wei Yuan's karmic luck is pitch-black laced with blood, running completely counter to our Great Jin's destiny. He is either a star of calamity or a rebel! It was only that his karmic luck had been heavily veiled before, making divination utterly impossible. Looking back now, when the Palace of Grand Beginning sent him west, it could hardly have been for ordinary training—they harbored ill intent from the start." Yue Jinshan could only sigh. If Wei Yuan's karmic luck was truly such, then he could not be allowed to live, whether he had actually harmed Western Jin or not. Chen Dao was never a man to speak lightly. For him to speak with such certainty meant he was completely confident. Even if the Palace of Grand Beginning stepped in to shield Wei Yuan's heavenly secrets, Chen Dao still stood a very good chance of persuading the court ministers and convincing the King of Jin. Just then, an attendant arrived outside the study and announced, "My Lord, a secret imperial edict from the royal capital!" Chen Dao received the secret edict and unfolded it, his expression drastically changing at once! Only after a long while did he let out a heavy sigh, a bitter look on his face, before handing the edict to Yue Jinshan. This was a secret edict dictated by the King of Jin and drafted on his behalf by the Hall of Political Affairs, carrying the same force as an official imperial edict. In it, Chen Dao was ordered to select elite troops and fierce commanders to disguise themselves as horse bandits, intercept Zhao's secret diplomatic mission nearing the Western Regions, and make sure at all costs that the decree appointing Wei Yuan as Military Commissioner of Ningxi never reached his hands! Having read the secret edict, Yue Jinshan instantly envisioned the various ensuing developments and could only sigh as well. *** Meanwhile, Wei Yuan had already completed his patrol around Quliu Town and taken a detour along the borders of Anzhao Commandery. The garrison of Anzhao Commandery did not flee at the mere whisper of trouble like Ningxi Commandery had, but faced with several hundred masked horsemen acting like bandits, they swallowed their indignation and gave them a wide berth. Wei Yuan did not press Chen Dao and Yue Jinshan's bottom line. Having tested the reaction of Anzhao Commandery's garrison, he returned the way he came, riding through the deserted streets of Quliu Town once more, and knocked on the gates of the commandery governor's office. This time, the governor was truly absent. According to the gatekeeper, the governor had left the city several days ago without any retinue to inspect the local customs of the commandery and had yet to return. Yuan Qingyan was a dharma idol cultivator after all; Wei Yuan had no hope of tracking him down across the boundless wilderness, and so he passed the gates of the commandery office a second time without entering. After two such visits, Yuan Qingyan's reputation was thoroughly ruined. Having completed his show of force abroad, Wei Yuan returned to the domain. He exchanged merits for another batch of history books, then sat before the map and sand table, researching how territorial ownership was determined when humanity expanded its borders. At present, Tang still held rightful legitimacy; the Tang Son of Heaven was the sovereign of all under heaven, the sole Son of Heaven. All lands under heaven, whether occupied by humanity or not, theoretically belonged to the Tang Son of Heaven—not only in the eyes of the Nine Kingdoms, but also the Four Great Immortal Sects. Next was territorial expansion by the Nine Kingdoms: whoever owned the boundary stone owned the land. After serving as a commandery governor for a century, the domain lord was required to hand the domain over to the respective vassal kingdom; in very rare cases, it was handed over to the imperial house of Tang to become directly administered territory of Great Tang. However, in this era, the vassal lords across the realm were strong while the Son of Heaven was weak; the Tang Son of Heaven's directly administered territory ranked in the bottom three among the Nine Kingdoms, barely avoiding last place. Most newly acquired human territory ultimately fell under the jurisdiction of the various vassal kingdoms. From this, one could see the division and checks-and-balances between the vassal kingdoms and the sects: governing mortals and controlling frontiers fell primarily to the kingdoms, while the sects were responsible for cultivating advanced cultivators, drawing their disciples from the kingdoms. The final path lay in the mountain gates of the sects. These were directly administered territories of the sects, true extraterritorial domains exempt from the rule of the Nine Kingdoms, acknowledging the Tang Son of Heaven as sovereign in name alone. For instance, the Palace of Grand Beginning had three mountain gates. The northern gate, located north of Yunzhou and Ganzhou, was the smallest, yet it spanned over six thousand li. Among the immortal sects, Great Treasure Radiance Pure Land had only one mountain gate, yet the Baohua Pure Land spanned over ten thousand li—virtually a Buddhist kingdom on earth, where no royal decree could ever hold sway. Now, Wei Yuan could not help but begin pondering the road ahead for Qingming—which path it should ultimately take in the future.