It was night.
The full moon hung pristine, pouring autumn moonlight like a cascading waterfall.
Di'an was bathed in lantern light, teeming with bustling prosperity.
Yet current Di'an was like a besieged city.
Those inside could not get out, and those outside could not get in.
Great Yan's Imperial Guard had already blockaded every route—water, land, and air—connecting the Imperial Capital to the world. But that did nothing to stifle the flourishing vitality within the city walls. Pedestrians of every stripe flooded the streets and alleys of Di'an. Taverns, gambling dens, and brothels saw an endless stream of patrons.
Scholars talked grandly in wine houses to flaunt their learning.
Cheating cardsharps had their cultivation crippled before being tossed into the street outside gambling halls.
Potbellied wealthy merchants emerged from parlors, pinching the pert buttocks of courtesans before the gates of pure courtesan houses.
And behind them, courtesans turned away with coy smiles, their lips curling downward in disdain as they softly spat on the ground.
The blockade of Di'an, the tension hanging high like a sword above their heads, perversely made every sleepless street thrive all the more.
Xu Yuan wove through the bustling streets, his figure shrouded in a wisp of mist, observing the spectacles of all living things like an invisible phantom.
He moved swiftly.
With every step he lifted and placed, a hundred zhang slipped behind him.
Li Junqing had already left, and the person he was meeting tonight had no love for these pleasure quarters either, so there was no reason to linger.
Tonight was the appointed time agreed upon before Li Junqing's departure.
Sishui Temple was built in the eastern part of Di'an. Xu Yuan had heard of its elegant reputation before, but had never visited, nor had he ever been interested in doing so.
Sishui Temple could be described as a Daoist temple, but it could also be called an elegant guest lodge cloaked in the name of one. Most who stayed here were dignitaries and nobles who preferred quietude.
For high-ranking cultivators, traveling by carriage was more about projecting dignity and ritual. Tonight Xu Yuan was traveling for a clandestine meeting, so naturally he had no need for such display. His Transcendent Realm cultivation allowed him to reach his destination in no time.
It was a cluster of buildings nestled amid dense woods.
Moonlight fell across scattered lanterns, projecting an air of serene elegance at first glance.
As Xu Yuan swept his spiritual vision lightly over the area, his brows twitched involuntarily.
So many experts.
Within this estate, barely two li across, seven or eight Origin Realm cultivators were living in seclusion.
With no intention of announcing himself, Xu Yuan used Void-Treading Slash to cross the boundary of the defensive arrays and restrictions, heading straight toward the courtyard lodge situated deepest within Sishui Temple.
In that courtyard,
He saw a middle-aged man in a python robe sitting quietly, admiring the moon.
He drank no wine and poured no tea, merely gazing up at the moon.
His eyes were gentle, his jade-like warmth seeming to melt into the soft moonlight.
Li Yucheng.
Facing the reigning Crown Prince, Xu Yuan did not wish to be overly discourteous. He followed a shaded path to the courtyard's front gate.
The moment he came to a stop,
A dark shadow flickered,
And a red-robed eunuch instantly blocked the closed gate.
Wang Lingchi did not strike blindly. Staring at the figure enveloped in black qi and sensing the unfathomable aura, his effeminate voice carried sharp vigilance:
"Halt. This servant has no wish to offend, so please state your identity and purpose, sir."
Xu Yuan dispelled the black qi to reveal his true face. Looking at the Crown Prince's senior attendant, whom he had met once before, he said with a chuckle:
"Eunuch Wang, step aside. This young master has important matters to discuss with your master tonight."
The moonlight was tranquil.
Wang Lingchi stared at Xu Yuan for a long moment before asking hesitantly:
"You are... the Third Young Master?"
Xu Yuan gave a soft laugh and strolled closer.
"What, having not seen me for over a year, you've forgotten who I am? Or do you need to see the Chancellor's medallion on my person?"
Last year, on the journey back to the capital with Li Qingyan, Li Yucheng had sent this very eunuch to recruit them.
Back then, the man's Transcendent Realm cultivation had seemed an insurmountable peak.
Seeing him now,
It was merely average.
As Xu Yuan drew nearer, Wang Lingchi felt such pressure that he instinctively circulated his cultivation technique.
He suspected the Xu Changtian before him was an imposter.
When they had met before, the boy had only been at Soul Condensation.
In just over a year, leaping from Soul Condensation to the Transcendent Realm?
What kind of joke was that?
Amid the silence,
Wang Lingchi's effeminate voice dropped slightly:
"I must ask the Third Young Master to present..."
"Attendant."
Before he could finish,
A gentle voice drifted out from inside the courtyard.
Li Yucheng possessed profound cultivation and had naturally sensed the disturbance outside the walls.
"Please invite the Third Young Master in."
Wang Lingchi froze slightly at the order. He was about to speak when, under the moonlight, he caught sight of the finely dressed young master, who had somehow already arrived quietly at his side.
Xu Yuan raised a hand and patted the eunuch's stiff shoulder, his tone mild:
"Castrated slave, you locked onto me with Source Qi just now. Seeing your loyalty, this young master will let it slide, but you won't be so fortunate next time."
With that,
Xu Yuan brushed past Wang Lingchi, pushed open the gate, and entered the courtyard.
Inside, lush green grass spread out, the delicate scent of blossoms teasing the nose. Only a single stone table and two stone stools stood quietly within.
The instant Xu Yuan stepped in, Li Yucheng had already risen to greet him.
Earlier he had been too far away to see clearly, but now that they were face-to-face, the man had changed quite a bit.
Compared to their meeting a year ago, Li Yucheng's features remained the same, yet at a glance he looked far older.
Threads of snowy white streaked his bound black hair, and deep weariness filled those starry eyes, usually as placid as a lake.
It seemed this Crown Prince had not had an easy life over the past half-year.
Approaching him,
Li Yucheng stood in the moonlight, looking at Xu Yuan beneath the gate's shadow. Cupping his hands in greeting, he began:
"Third Young Master, a year ago..."
"Shh."
To his surprise, Xu Yuan not only refrained from returning the courtesy, but cut him off directly.
Xu Yuan's gaze slipped past Li Yucheng. Squinting his eyes, he stared toward the rear courtyard for several breaths, the corners of his mouth curling into a peculiar arc as he asked:
"Crown Prince, do you have two personal attendants?"
Li Yucheng started, then quickly realized what he meant. Lowering his gaze, he shook his head:
"The imperial clan has always trained only one personal attendant for each member of the royal family."
"Is that so..."
Xu Yuan murmured. Staring toward the back, he said softly, "This young master just said he dislikes having eunuchs lock onto him with Source Qi, yet here comes another. Isn't Your Excellency being a bit too indecorous?"
"..."
The night wind brushed across the lawn, rustling the grass like waves in a wheat field.
Li Yucheng stood to the side, his expressionless face betraying none of his thoughts.
He had a rough idea of who was hiding in the rear courtyard.
The Emperor's senior attendant, Eunuch Nie.
Li Yucheng knew he would be surveilled, and he had been prepared to speak in riddles or converse via voice transmission with Xu Yuan. But he had never expected Xu Changtian to flip the table right from the start.
In the absence of a response, a silent killing intent began to spread.
After a long pause,
Xu Yuan suddenly grinned.
In truth, he hadn't noticed anyone hiding in the rear courtyard at first. It was only when that person recklessly probed him with an intent soul that he realized the Crown Prince's outing was being monitored.
Still, Xu Yuan could understand the situation.
His words just now had been meant as a warning to retreat.
If the other party knew what was good for him, he should have departed immediately. After all, once discovered, remaining hidden was terribly undignified.
Yet he actually dared to ignore him.
Nodding slightly to the Crown Prince, Xu Yuan stepped straight past him toward the rear courtyard.
As he walked, Xu Yuan said languidly:
"I've already said so much, yet you still refuse to leave?"
The moment the words fell,
Xu Yuan's figure vanished on the spot.
And almost simultaneously, a thunderous blast erupted in the rear courtyard!
*Boom——!*
The tranquility of Sishui Temple was shattered by the sudden burst of airwaves.
Lights flared to life in the residences scattered among the woods.
Powerful figures with profound auras were disturbed, preparing to investigate the direction of the noise...
"If you value your lives, you had best learn to mind your eyes."
A flat voice echoed above Sishui Temple, accompanied by the sweeping pressure of a pinnacle Transcendent Realm cultivator.
Sensing this aura, the Origin Realm experts secluded here withdrew their probing intent souls one after another. Two of them even transformed into streaks of escaping light and fled on the spot.
Once everything settled back into quiet,
Xu Yuan finally fixed his gaze upon the black-clad figure before him.
A crater several zhang wide had opened in the rear courtyard.
At its center,
Xu Yuan held the pose of a downward slash.
The black-clad figure stood where he was, his eyes profound.
The cold edge of the blade was frozen a mere inch from his forehead, unable to advance another millimeter.
Everything seemed suspended in time.
Only the trails of blood-ink sword light that Xu Yuan had unleashed drifted through the air in graceful arcs.
This was probably the first time Xu Yuan had seen someone wearing actual night-prowling clothes.
Head-to-toe black, made of a seemingly exceptional material that, combined with the man's breath-concealment technique, had escaped even his spiritual vision earlier.
"The Third Young Master's temperament is truly unchanged."
The black-clad figure's voice came from beneath his cloth mask, muffled and disguised, concealing his original tone. "Such cultivation can indeed be called brilliant, but accumulating time on the path of cultivation is also crucial."
Xu Yuan flipped his palm, the blade vanishing from his grip. Glancing at the man, he turned back toward the front courtyard.
"Get lost now. I don't want to tear off the veil of civility just yet."
The black-clad figure dusted himself off and stared at Xu Yuan's back with a smile:
"Third Young Master, that won't do. I cannot abandon the orders I have received halfway through."
Xu Yuan paused in his tracks. He glanced back at the blood-ink streaks lingering in the air, then at the black-clad figure, and asked:
"When you say that,
"Are you confident in your own cultivation, or in your backing?"
"..."
The corner of the black-clad figure's eye twitched.
Xu Changtian clearly believed he had deduced his identity, yet dared to speak such words.
Ignoring his silence, Xu Yuan's pupils flashed with murderous blood-red light.
"I'll say it one last time. Get lost."
The black-clad figure suddenly chuckled.
"Third Young Master, I have already explained. I cannot leave."
Xu Yuan laughed as well, remarking cryptically:
"Castrated slave, this young master is no pure swordsman. If you won't accept a dignified exit, I'll have to help you find one."
With that,
He vanished from the rear courtyard.
Just as the black-clad figure felt puzzled, the sudden shift in the surrounding atmosphere made his pupils constrict violently.
The blood-ink marks drifting in midair underwent a sudden metamorphosis, glowing with a bewitching red light as they wove into a net-like cage, enveloping the entire rear courtyard!
At the same time,
Above the courtyard,
A swirling vortex of blood qi had appeared without anyone noticing.
Amid the churning currents of air,
An ink-colored sphere the size of a fingertip condensed at the dead center of the blood qi.
The heart-stopping fluctuation rippling across it made the corner of the black-clad figure's eye twitch uncontrollably. He suddenly realized that he had still underestimated the audacity of this plague god.
Knowing full well who he was, the boy still dared to deliver a killing strike.
Even as the thought crossed his mind,
The black-clad figure raised a hand and conjured a shield of light, preparing to block the incoming technique.
Yet in the very next instant,
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a sight that made every hair on his body stand on end.
That fingertip-sized ink sphere appeared at his side without the slightest warning.
Moonlight fell across it, completely swallowed without a trace of luster.
"..." the black-clad figure.
A flash of white light erupted, and the fingertip-sized ink sphere expanded to more than a dozen zhang, swallowing the entire rear courtyard.
When it dissipated,
Everything in the courtyard aside from the black-clad figure had been annihilated, leaving only a spherical crater in the ground.
The black-clad figure gasped for breath, his eyes filled with shock and bewilderment.
Though it was a sudden ambush-style spell,
How could someone on the verge of becoming a Saint
Be pushed to such dire straits in a single move by a boy who had just entered the Transcendent Realm?
In an instant, thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind.
As the black-clad figure looked toward the front courtyard,
Xu Yuan's smiling voice drifted over languidly:
"Eunuch Nie, a wise man submits to circumstance. That spell just now only displayed thirty percent of its power. Please return. The Emperor will not blame you."
"..."
After a moment of silence, Eunuch Nie cupped his hands toward the front courtyard:
"This servant will relay the Third Young Master's words verbatim to His Majesty."
"As you please. But before that, I'll trouble Eunuch Nie to deal with the Imperial City Division and Imperial Guard rushing over."
"As the young master wishes."
"Then many thanks. I will consult you later on the matter of eunuchs consorting with palace maids."
"..."
Eunuch Nie's cheek twitched, and he leaped into the air, departing directly.
Sensing the senior attendant's departure, Xu Yuan, who had already returned to the front courtyard, cupped his hands toward the middle-aged man in the python robe beneath the moonlight, smiling calmly:
"All right, Crown Prince, the irrelevant onlookers have left. We can now talk business. Please."
With that,
Xu Yuan lowered his eyelids halfway and gestured toward the stone table and stools in the courtyard.
Li Yucheng's expression remained unchanged, but he stood rooted to the spot.
What a formidable show of strength.
After a brief silence,
Li Yucheng said quietly:
"By acting like this, the Third Young Master has truly placed this prince over blazing flames. One misstep, and I will be consumed by fire."
Xu Yuan chuckled and shook his head. Treading across the greenery, he took a seat by the stone table and said with a smile:
"The Crown Prince is mistaken. This young master is actually helping you."
Saying so,
He glanced up at Li Yucheng, who remained standing, and asked with a smile:
"Crown Prince, aren't you going to sit?"
"..."
Xu Changtian had thoroughly seized the initiative, yet Li Yucheng found he had no way to refuse.
Silently, he walked to the table and sat opposite Xu Yuan.
"Crown Prince, will you have wine or tea?"
Asking casually, Xu Yuan retrieved a bottle of fine wine and cups from his Sumeru ring, pouring a cup for each of them as he laughed:
"The last time I drank was with Junqing. With him gone, finding someone to share fine wine with will likely be difficult."
Li Yucheng had no desire to fall into Xu Yuan's negotiating rhythm, saying only:
"By doing this, Imperial Father will inevitably conclude that this prince is conspiring with your Prime Minister's Manor."
"You can't blame me for that. That fellow Li Junqing was the one who called me here. Given his temper, he almost certainly gave you a heads-up before leaving the capital. Your waiting here tonight already signifies your tacit consent, does it not?"
"Junqing could not have foreseen that the Third Young Master would strike directly at Imperial Father's senior attendant."
"Does it make a difference?"
Xu Yuan took a small sip of the fine wine. Staring into Li Yucheng's eyes, his voice carried a sigh:
"Crown Prince, let us stop deceiving ourselves.
"Li Zhaoyuan has stationed a hundred thousand troops north of Di'an, ready to enter the city the moment imperial orders arrive. Once he enters the capital, for you, there will truly be no turning the tide."
Chapter 722