Hunting the Deer

Under the yellow silk canopy, meeting those turbid eyes, Xu Yinhe spoke in an earnest, grave tone: "Your Majesty, this minister still has duties yet unfulfilled. Please forgive this minister for being unable to accompany Your Majesty this time." Li Yaoxuan's emaciated frame trembled faintly. Narrowing his eyes, he chuckled: "Yet We must finish what duties remain to Us." At those words, Xu Yinhe slowly lowered his gaze. Sitting upright on his knees, he closed his eyes to rest his spirit and uttered two words: "As you will." "......" The words fell into silence. Killing intent, tangible as substance, bore down until the surrounding space faintly warped. Ran Jianli squinted, grinning with a low chuckle. He made no move, simply watching these two men who had spent their entire lives fighting for a shared ideal turn their weapons against one another at death's door. Yet in truth, Ran Jianli could not understand why Xu Yinhe dared to venture out alone at such a critical juncture. The dying Emperor's invitation to a northern hunt, however one looked at it, was a Hongmen banquet laid by the imperial clan—a banquet targeting the heads of the Sect Alliance and the Prime Minister's Manor. Ran Jianli's willingness to attend this harrowing banquet had been forced by circumstance. He needed to know whether the dying Emperor intended to turn his blade against the Prime Minister's Manor or against the Sect Alliance, and even more, he needed the prestige of attending this perilous meeting alone to consolidate his standing within the alliance. Even before setting out for Di'an, however, Ran Jianli had already prepared himself to perish, body and soul. Yet Xu Yinhe's situation was entirely different from his. To the Sect Alliance, he, Ran Jianli, was expendable and replaceable. But to the Chancellor's Manor, Xu Yinhe was indispensable. While both led their respective camps, Ran Jianli was less an absolute master of the Sect Alliance than its presiding representative. Without him, the Sect Alliance might plunge into brief chaos, yet it would still function and elect the next alliance leader to take charge of the overall situation. On the other hand, if the Chancellor's Manor lost Xu Yinhe, its centralized system might continue running normally in the short term, but over any prolonged span, the issues they would face would not be as simple as mere chaos; it would very likely collapse entirely. Did Xu Yinhe dare attend this assembly because of that damned brat Xu Yuan? Ran Jianli had no way of knowing. Grudging though he was to admit it, Xu Changtian was indeed an uncanny brat who defied common sense. Yet no matter how extraordinary a prodigy he was, it was impossible for him to step up and succeed Xu Yinhe in so short a time. Even as the Prime Minister's Manor infiltrated the Sect Alliance, the alliance continuously encroached upon the manor. Thus, as leader of the Sect Alliance, Ran Jianli understood all too well what it took to sit securely as the master of the Chancellor's Manor. Without exaggeration, even if he, the leader of the Sect Alliance, were to take office as master of the Prime Minister's Manor, he would scarcely be able to handle Xu Yinhe's playbook anytime soon. Amid these wandering thoughts, Ran Jianli gathered his wits and spoke with a grin, breaking the knife-edge tension between the two: "Your Majesty, Chancellor, if you have no intention of coming to blows here, why don't we begin the hunt?" Ran Jianli could sense that the two had already locked their qi dynamics onto each other, yet he did not believe for a second that they had truly shed all pretense. Who didn't know how to feign moves and spread false reports? On matters of internal interest, the Sect Alliance indeed suffered plenty of factional strife, but did they really expect the alliance to fall for it and believe Emperor and Chancellor had broken apart based on a few words and the deaths of a few thousand common foot soldiers? Was that not insulting the intelligence of everyone under heaven? If you want the Sect Alliance to believe that Emperor and Chancellor have severed ties, by all means—show some real substance. At the very least, Your Majesty, you'd have to slay the Prime Minister right here, wouldn't you? Yet here you dither for ages without striking, just standing there staring blankly at each other... Everyone here is an old fox; who are you trying to fool with this wolf act? In the silence, Li Yaoxuan took a deep breath and exhaled a plume of white vapor: "The way you put it, Prime Minister, sounds as if We intended you to be buried with Us." "......" Just as Ran Jianli suspected, Li Yaoxuan did not make a move. Yet this backing down was an ominous signal for him. There were only three people present. If the Emperor wasn't going to strike the Chancellor, who else was left to strike? Yet nothing was absolute. Xu Yinhe's act of attending the meeting alone was far too bizarre. Given the old fox's methods, he would never have made such a suicidal move without a trump card in reserve. With that thought, Ran Jianli cast an unobtrusive glance at Li Yaoxuan. Perhaps the Emperor was waiting for Xu Yinhe to show his hand. He just wondered what method Li Yaoxuan would use to force Xu Yinhe's hidden card into the open. Even as he pondered, Li Yaoxuan suddenly clapped his hands and called out clearly: "Senior Attendant, bring forward that auspicious beast." "Oh? What manner of auspicious beast?" Ran Jianli asked. Li Yaoxuan replied with a smile, "A Glazed Snow Deer." As they spoke, Eunuch Nie had already led a white deer to the side of the Son of Heaven's mobile palace. Amid the persistent drizzle, the white deer's coat was as translucent as colored glaze, its eyes clearer than mountain lakes. Five-colored divine radiance swirled about it as it tread upon empty air, sending swirling gusts that stirred the drizzling rain. Seeing this beast, a hint of surprise surfaced in Ran Jianli's eyes: "That truly is a rare, exotic beast." The Glazed Snow Deer shared a natural affinity with heaven and earth; wherever it roamed, precious heavenly treasures and earthly wonders often came into the world. Upon reaching maturity, all possessed cultivation at the Origin Realm. Yet their disposition was gentle, with no love of violence; against prying eyes, they merely summoned gales to blow them away. Over time, the Glazed Snow Deer had become an immortal beast presented as an auspicious omen among the highest ranks of the dynasty. Li Yaoxuan smiled faintly and rose from his cushion. Xu Yinhe opened his eyes and asked softly in a placid tone: "Your Majesty, is this the deer we are to hunt today?" Ran Jianli gave an odd chuckle: "The Glazed Snow Deer commands yang wind and treads the void without a trace. Yet for the likes of us, isn't hunting it a bit too simple?" An imperial hunt was fundamentally an occasion prepared for juniors to showcase their prowess. For the three paramount Saints gathered here, their cultivation stood absolute—not to mention an auspicious beast of the Origin Realm, even a demonic beast of the Transcendent Realm, so long as it lacked intellect, would take merely a single arrow. "Be not in haste, Imperial Preceptor." Li Yaoxuan smiled faintly and casually retrieved a simple, archaic wooden bow from his Sumeru ring, saying, "With our cultivation, hunting this auspicious beast is far too easy, so let us use this bow to add a bit of challenge." Ran Jianli raised his brows, piqued with interest. A single glance told him the material of the wooden bow: "A mundane bow of merely two dan?" Li Yaoxuan nodded and laid out the rule: "Drawing upon only this bow's strength, without allowing it to shatter, each may use whatever means they wish." With that, he glanced at Xu Yinhe, who showed no reaction, and asked: "Chancellor, what do you think?" Xu Yinhe pondered briefly and asked: "Are there arrows?" "Naturally there are." Li Yaoxuan casually tossed three wooden shafts without arrowheads or fletching onto the floor. Under the gaze of the three, they clattered and rolled a few feet away. "......" Hearing this, Ran Jianli narrowed his eyes in contemplation. Mundane objects could not withstand Source Qi. While saint origin was an exception, an excess would still easily shatter ordinary material. To hunt the Glazed Snow Deer with this wooden bow, one first had to infuse saint origin into the bow's body, permeating every corner with exquisite, uniform precision, and then coat the wooden shaft with lethal saint origin. Ran Jianli swept his intent soul over the Glazed Snow Deer below the mobile palace, only to discover that judging purely by its Source Qi, this white deer was already comparable to the Transcendent Realm. Sensing this, Ran Jianli's brows furrowed involuntarily. The Glazed Snow Deer was already exceedingly swift, and the yang wind swirling around it offered tremendous deflection against physical projectiles like arrows. Relying on this mundane bow to shoot and kill a Transcendent Glazed Snow Deer was nothing short of a pipe dream. He could not do it. At that thought, Ran Jianli's pupils constricted slightly. He suddenly realized what the Emperor was trying to do. Li Yaoxuan... wished to test Xu Yinhe's cultivation? Subconsciously, Ran Jianli glanced at the black-robed, middle-aged man a zhang away, deep vigilance creeping into his eyes. Li Yaoxuan understood this Prime Minister better than he did. For him to do this, he must believe that Xu Yinhe was capable of pulling it off. In that case... just how terrifyingly high was this fellow's cultivation? At this point, Ran Jianli hardly dared pursue the thought further. Because if this conjecture held true, he could somewhat understand why the Chancellor dared attend this banquet alone. Yet this conjecture was simply too preposterous. Ran Jianli took a deep breath and proposed: "Chancellor, why don't you go first?" Li Yaoxuan chimed in: "Yinhe, We have not seen you take action for over twenty years as well. How about letting you take the first shot?" Under their gaze, Xu Yinhe's pitch-black eyes were bottomless. Lightly smoothing his black robe with the back of his hand, he rose from his cushion without haste: "It seems this minister has no choice." Li Yaoxuan handed the wooden longbow to his old friend, smiling: "Proof is always required of something." [To prove that you, Xu Yinhe, possess the strength to cut through the military arrays alone.] The dagger was revealed as the scroll unrolled. Just as Xu Yinhe understood him, Li Yaoxuan understood this old friend with whom he had shared a common aspiration. This old friend had always held fast to their original vision, and to realize that vision required cooperation with the imperial clan. Thus, even knowing this was a Hongmen banquet set against him, his old friend had still kept the appointment. And right now, even knowing this was a life-and-death test, Xu Yinhe still had to accept it. If he did not, the Emperor, the Imperial Preceptor, and tens of thousands of troops would instantly form an encircling death trap around him. Whether he could fight his way out or not, Emperor and Chancellor would irrevocably rupture. Only by slaying that Transcendent Glazed Snow Deer with this wooden bow, only by proving his own immense strength, only by proving that he was capable of breaking through the encirclement single-handedly, could this Hongmen banquet be defused. And even then, only temporarily. This was Li Yaoxuan's first test of Xu Yinhe before his end arrived. The purpose was to plumb the depths of this Great Yan Prime Minister's cultivation, preparing for the next deadly trap. Did Xu Yinhe know this? Of course he did. Yet he had to do it. For the lifelong ideal they shared. Thinking of this, Li Yaoxuan sighed inwardly. The essence of this northern hunt was, in truth, the process of him willfully trampling upon their shared ideal... In the silence, Eunuch Nie severed the Glazed Snow Deer's tether. In an instant, the white deer tread the void, transforming into a white blur that fled like lightning toward the Dragon Emperor Forest. Xu Yinhe silently took the wooden bow and drew one slender wooden stick to his hand with his power. Waves of terrifying aura began to emanate from his body. And it was at this very moment that the rain-laden cloud bank across the sky began to churn. Heaven and earth shifted violently; howling gales erupted. A dense, spiraling eye of the storm gradually emerged, like a colossal eye supporting the heavens... Sensing that prying presence, Xu Yinhe's expression remained calm as he hooked his fingers and nocked the shaft. The bow curved, the string drew taut, and the shockwave radiating from his body instantly swept across a radius of a hundred zhang. And just as this awe-inspiring arrow was about to loose, across the storm-cloaked horizon, three urgent voice transmissions arrived at the same moment— "Lord Chancellor! The Third Young Master has presented the Law of Immortal Taxes before the court—" "Your Majesty! The Crown Prince has defected to the Prime Minister's Manor! He has illicitly used the Heirloom Seal of the Realm—" And, "Sect Master, flee!!!!"