Schemes

A cold front sweeping south from the Northern Border had formed dark clouds stretching ten thousand li, blanketing the entire imperial capital region. Yet at this moment, a slender rift had been torn open right through the middle of the cloud layer. Drawing closer, resplendent light poured down like a waterfall. The rain had just ceased, leaving the earth still muddy, while a brand-new trench stretching over a dozen li cut across the forested mountains like a scar upon the earth. And the origin of it all was merely an edgeless heavy sword roughly ten feet long. The terrain had been transformed: a gaping breach had been gouged into the rolling mountain ridges, and the dense forest looked as though it had been plowed through by a mad bull. The once-lush sea of trees lay shattered and scattered, splintered giant trunks strewn creaking across the ground. The ten-foot heavy sword rested at the bottom of a colossal crater gouged into the earth. Its surface was as dark as ink, swallowing the surrounding light, and the dawn rising from the east cast its long shadow. Yet at this moment, upon this divine heavy sword stepped a boot with a black base and gold patterns, pinning the front half of the heavy blade firmly into the earth. The battle had ended too quickly—so quickly that there was simply no time to react. The entire world seemed to have fallen into an eerie standstill at this hour of dawn. The sickly old man floating in midair. The white-haired middle-aged man stepping upon the heavy sword. And, on the distant horizon, the terrifying military array belatedly rising into formation. Li Yaoxuan looked down upon the crater below and the trench connected to it, deep in thought within his cloudy eyes. After a long pause, he casually called out to the restless military array along the skyline, "Hold your positions," and slowly descended. His gaze lingered for a moment on the Imperial Preceptor, of whom only a pair of legs remained where he had stood, before Li Yaoxuan strolled toward the Prime Minister who had his foot on the great sword. As he walked, he sighed with feeling: "Your brat forced through the new laws in court. Once Zhen returned to the palace, Zhen could still have set things right and dismissed it as a reckless decree. But with the Imperial Preceptor dying here in the Imperial Dragon Forest, this matter has been set in stone. After all, this Northern Hunt was Zhen's imperial decree. No matter how the sects view it, they will think this was a two-man show staged between emperor and prime minister. Chancellor, you wish to trap Zhen in an unjust position." Xu Yinhe turned slowly, withdrawing the hand adorned with a black ring, his gaze profound: "There has never been a flawless method in this world. When Your Majesty set this Hongmen banquet, you should have considered the possibility of being countered." "Of course Zhen considered it." Li Yaoxuan stopped about ten feet away, his tone hardening slightly as he cut him off: "What Zhen did not expect was that Ran Jianli would die so quickly. Should Zhen say you hid your strength too well, or that Ran Jianli was simply too weak?" The instant they had heard the transmission from the sky, all three had realized their respective ways out of the impasse. The Prime Minister would forcefully slay the Imperial Preceptor to cement the new laws. The Imperial Preceptor had to either flee—leaving the imperial and prime minister's factions to squabble over the new laws while he returned to the Sword Sect to rally the Sect Alliance and prepare for war—or forcefully slay the Prime Minister, forcing the imperial faction to strike at the Chancellor's faction. And if the Emperor wished to preserve room to maneuver, he had to ensure that neither the Imperial Preceptor nor the Prime Minister died. All three had thought this, and all three had acted upon it. The battle erupted. Ran Jianli and Xu Yinhe struck almost simultaneously. The Son of Heaven's land palace, towering nine stories high, together with the surrounding ceremonial guard, was instantly vaporized. Yet the result was utterly horrifying. The Imperial Preceptor, Ran Jianli, was instantly killed by the Prime Minister without the slightest ability to resist. His hair slightly disheveled, Xu Yinhe brushed the dust from his black dragon robe, drew his boot back from the heavy sword, and lowered his gaze: "Your Majesty, matters have reached this point. Rather than reminiscing over the past, it would be better to direct your eyes toward the future. Or does Your Majesty still wish to continue this Hongmen banquet right now?" The puddles after the rain reflected the azure blue of the sky. Along the skyline, tens of thousands of armored soldiers quietly converged, forming a dense military array tailored against peak powerhouses. Li Yaoxuan stood in place without replying immediately, seemingly weighing the strength of the Prime Minister before him. Killing intent gradually suffused the air, only to be broken by a soft chuckle. As the northern wind swept past carrying chilling frost, Li Yaoxuan suddenly raised his eyes toward the sky and asked: "Putting that matter aside for now, Chancellor, what is that thing up in the sky?" "..." Xu Yinhe looked at Li Yaoxuan with a hint of surprise in his gaze. Heaven's Will was colorless and formless; even when it descended, ordinary people could not see it. Li Yaoxuan glanced at this old friend and shook his head gently: "In the path of cultivation, Zhen is indeed inferior to you, but after all these years, Zhen has not fallen too far behind. That thing injured you just now, and not lightly at that. Zhen can still discern this much." "Your time is insufficient." "Is that so?" Hearing this, Li Yaoxuan murmured softly, with no intention of pressing further. With his lifespan drawing to an end, there were too many things his heart desired but was powerless to achieve. Over time, he had instead grown open-minded about such matters and would not force them. He merely sighed with a touch of emotion: "Heaven, the Son of Heaven... Heh, Zhen never imagined there truly was such a thing hovering above our heads. Had Zhen known, that phrase 'Mandated by Heaven, May He Live Long and Prosper' would need to be changed quite a bit." As he spoke, Li Yaoxuan casually beckoned toward the giant sword embedded in the ground. The ten-foot ink sword instantly spiraled into flight toward him. He caught it in his grip, yet his hunched, frail frame looked strikingly discordant beside the majestic great sword. Even so, in Xu Yinhe's eyes, this sickly old man seemed to have returned to that dashing, valiant prince of years past. Li Yaoxuan effortlessly held the heavy sword level before him, looking at the man across from him past the edgeless blade: "Yinhe, after suffering that severe wound twenty years ago, Zhen knew that Zhen's time was running short. Upon learning that the injury would corrode Zhen's lifespan, Zhen was truly anxious. Zhen constantly pondered how to break the deadlock—how to make this realm move forward as you and I envisioned in our youth after Zhen passes away. But that is how things go: haste was useless, yet an inadvertent seed grew into a shady willow. "Do you still remember Empress Mu's attempt to stage a palace coup and seize power? "Zhen has no wish to judge a short-sighted woman, but Zhen must thank her. Thank her for bringing someone into Zhen's view. "That was also why Zhen abandoned the thought of ordering that woman's death. Zhen merely gave her a light reprimand, cut off her channels of communication with the outside, and continued playing the devoted imperial couple with her. "Because Zhen needed her alive to cover up certain matters, and Zhen needed the Mu family's power to suppress many dissenting voices and support certain things—such as the Crown Prince acting as regent, such as suppressing Li Zhaoyuan, and such as allowing Li Qingyan to command troops out in the field... "Zhen's final hour approaches, so there is no harm in telling you some things. "The person Zhen wishes to pass the throne to is Li Qingyan. "After Zhen was severely injured, this daughter whom Zhen had sent to the Northern Border became the solution to breaking the deadlock instead. To achieve this, Zhen deliberately began to groom her, deliberately orchestrating agonizing partings and deaths so that she would despise the sects, and forbidding the Crown Prince from contacting her to sever her familial attachments." At this point, Li Yaoxuan looked at Xu Yinhe's darkening expression and suddenly gave a self-deprecating laugh: "It seems you have guessed as much. Your third son's 'innately severed meridians' was indeed Zhen's doing. The goal was to ensure your Xu family produced a cripple... to serve as the future imperial consort."