The Chancellor had emerged from seclusion. At noon on the seventh day after Li Zhaoyuan's visit, Xu Yuan, who was reviewing official business in Moyin Pavilion, learned the news at once.
Upon stepping into the inner courtyard, Xu Yuan noticed that nobody seemed to have returned home over the past few days. Bereft of life, the courtyard felt desolate and cold.
In the past, someone was always around the inner courtyard year-round—if not his old man, then the three juniors. When the other three were there, they would find time to tidy up the grounds. And while Xu Yuan never lifted a finger, simply loitering around was enough to leave traces of a human presence.
Lately, everyone in the inner courtyard had been busy. Xu Xinyao had holed herself up in the Institute of Natural Philosophy, while Xu Changge had remained stationed at the Sword Pavilion ever since his defeat that day. With no one at home for the better part of a month, the century-old ginkgoes planted in the yard had shed all their lush foliage. The golden leaves blanketing the ground were withering and rotting under days of continuous autumn rain, and weeds had even sprouted across the earthen yard.
At a glance, it looked bleak and dilapidated.
When a grand courtyard lost its life, it always ended up like this.
Pondering whether he ought to move his workspace to the inner courtyard, Xu Yuan walked down the narrow corridor connecting several rooms and arrived at the study.
Across the leaves carpeting the courtyard lay a single line of footprints leading straight to an ajar wooden door. Following them inside, he saw his old man, clad in black robes patterned with red, sitting upright behind the desk, silently browsing through a dossier.
Midday sunlight filtered through the window lattice. The dust inside the study had already been cleared away, but dossiers and official files were stacked neatly across the entire room—so many that finding a place to step was difficult.
Xu Yuan swept his gaze across the room, faintly surprised, then quickly understood.
The administrative workflow of the Prime Minister's Manor was not overly complex. Local regions compiled reports of various matters and forwarded them to the imperial capital, where they were submitted to higher authorities according to jurisdiction. Organizations such as the Black Scale Guards, the Institute of Natural Philosophy, and the Tian'an Chamber of Commerce had their affairs reviewed by the Xu family's high ministers before the Wenshu Court organized them and submitted them to Moyin Pavilion—meaning Xu Yuan himself.
Yet there were exceptions.
Like internal reference reports, the manor's internal affairs were categorized by importance into ten ranks following the Heavenly Stems: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, and so on. In ordinary times, matters of Bing rank and above would bypass both the Wenshu Court and Moyin Pavilion, submitted directly to the Chancellor by Lou Ji and others.
Of course, those were ordinary times.
Before entering seclusion, his old man had instructed that all affairs within the manor were to be decided by Xu Yuan. Thanks to that verbal order, Xu Yuan had already reviewed the vast majority of the dossiers stacked in the study—except, of course, the secret missives submitted by the Black Qilin Army.
"Find a seat."
Hearing the stir at the door, Xu Yinhe did not look up. He uttered the casual instruction and focused his attention on the dossiers. Entering seclusion for half a month at such a critical juncture meant that even he required time to digest the accumulated backlog of affairs.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan made no move to disturb his old man. Shifting in a flash, he sat cross-legged on a futon beside the tea table.
Ever since returning to the capital, he had been working around the clock. Moments of leisure were exceedingly rare, so taking advantage of the wait, he decided to brew a pot of fine tea to reward himself.
The thought crossed his mind, and Xu Yuan felt a pang of wry amusement.
Since when did brewing a pot of tea count as a reward?
Sighing inwardly, he took out the various tea utensils he hadn't touched in a while. Boiling water and warming the cups felt somewhat unfamiliar to his hands. Before long, the bubbling and churning of boiling water echoed softly through the quiet study.
Jing tea from Mount Longxin brewed with Kunlun glacial spring water tasted slightly astringent on the tongue, but left a rich, lingering sweetness. Downing a cup of the fragrant tea, Xu Yuan unconsciously exhaled the stale breath that had weighed on his chest for over a month.
Time ticked away. The warm late-autumn sun bathed him, and his fingertips rubbed against the raised porcelain patterns on the cup as he savored this long-absent, leisurely afternoon.
When the pot of tea was finished, Xu Yinhe's voice rang out right on cue:
"Rested enough?"
Xu Yuan paused slightly as he reached for fresh tea leaves. Glancing back, he saw that the stacks of dossiers in the room were already more than half gone. The question was a reminder that it was time to talk business. After a brief hesitation, he asked softly:
"Going out?"
"Not quite."
"Then can't we talk over tea?"
"..."
Xu Yinhe stared at his third son, who showed no inclination to rise from the tea table, for several breaths. A flicker of helplessness passed through his eyes, and in the end, he got up and walked over himself.
Xu Yuan briskly prepped the fresh tea and set it to brew.
Father and son sat facing each other.
Xu Yuan glanced at the extra white hairs among his old man's locks and remarked offhandedly:
"Father, your hair has gone considerably whiter."
Xu Yinhe brushed his sleeves, picked up his cup, and replied flatly:
"It has passed. No need to worry."
*As expected.*
Xu Yuan sighed softly to himself.
Given his old man's temperament, with the Immortal-Calming Tax Law having just passed and the great momentum already set in motion, he would never have entered seclusion at such a moment unless it was absolutely necessary.
After some deliberation, Xu Yuan chose to ask:
"Father, what on earth was that thing in the sky? Could it truly be what they call Heaven's Will?"
Xu Yinhe raised his eyes and pondered for a moment. Looking at his third son's cultivation, which had reached the Transcendent Realm, he decided to disclose a little:
"It cannot be considered Heaven's Will. It is merely a Dao."
Xu Yuan was perplexed. The answer was far too cryptic.
"What do you mean?"
Xu Yinhe indeed refused to say more:
"Once your cultivation is sufficient, you will naturally understand what I mean. If your cultivation hasn't reached that level, no amount of explanation will make you comprehend."
Xu Yuan could tell he was unwilling to elaborate, but pressed on regardless:
"Does that thing possess subjective consciousness?"
"Subjective consciousness..."
Xu Yinhe frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and shook his head gently. "I do not know yet, but perhaps I will in the future."
Xu Yuan opened his mouth to speak, but Xu Yinhe cut him off. Smiling faintly, the Chancellor asked:
"You must have been exhausted since returning to the capital."
Xu Yuan hesitated, but followed his lead in the end:
"A bit. I feel the administrative system of the Prime Minister's Manor has serious flaws. It relies far too heavily on an individual leader. That is not a long-term solution."
Xu Yinhe naturally knew this. He remarked wistfully:
"When the manor's system was first established, it was never designed to endure for thousands of generations. In the end, I was too idealistic, so I can only leave you to bear the hardship."
Xu Yuan fell silent for a short while, then said:
"It is bitter now, but perhaps once I develop a taste for power, I will come to relish it."
Xu Yinhe shook his head gently. Picking up the boiling Kunlun spring water to warm his cup, he said softly:
"Relish it? Doing less and taking more is who you really are, Changtian."
Xu Yuan curled his lip. His old man could actually crack a joke. He replied:
"The giant ship has set sail into the waters; there is no turning back. Even if I want to do less and take more, I will have to wait until the ship docks again."
At this point, Xu Yuan shifted the topic and reported:
"Father, Li Zhaoyuan came to see me."
Hearing this, Xu Yinhe withdrew the smile in his deep eyes and nodded, asking:
"The Black Scale Guards have already informed me of this. Did he come that day seeking your support?"
Xu Yuan pondered for a moment and said with a touch of irony:
"He said he could give me an opportunity to kill him in order to bridge the rift between us. Looking back now, it really could count as seeking my support."
Xu Yinhe looked at his third son with a somewhat complicated expression:
"Is that so..."
Xu Yuan raised his eyes and said earnestly:
"Father, he said Li Yaoxuan consented to this."
"Li Yaoxuan?"
Xu Yinhe murmured the name. His face remained expressionless, but a flicker of contemplation passed through his eyes. He asked:
"What do you intend to do?"
Xu Yuan's gaze was firm:
"I accepted."
"This is not like when you forced through the new law."
"I know."
"..."
Hearing this response, Xu Yinhe did not reply right away. Instead, he sank into deep thought.
After a long while,
he asked, enunciating each word:
"Changtian, do you understand what this signifies?"
"..."
Xu Yuan naturally understood what it signified.
The root of power sprang from violence.
In other words,
whoever held supreme power inevitably possessed supreme violence.
Across the world's fourteen provinces, the transition from a world of sects to a world of dynasties was fundamentally because the wielders of supreme violence had shifted from individual cultivators to military arrays.
And the master of the dynasty was the possessor of the military array.
If Li Yaoxuan intended to support the Second Prince's ascent to the throne, he would inevitably pass down the imperial family's highest military array technique to him. This directly rendered Li Zhaoyuan's offer an empty promise that was virtually impossible to fulfill.
To kill him, personal might alone would not suffice; one had to counter with an equivalent military array. And the moment a military array was deployed, it would no longer be an assassination, but a declaration of war!
That night, Li Zhaoyuan claimed he came to bridge the rift between them, but in truth, he brought an inquiry from the imperial family—or rather, a challenge of war.
A challenge of war to be fought once the sects were pacified.
If Xu Yuan accepted, it meant a battle between the imperial house and the Chancellor's manor was inevitable.
With these thoughts churning in his mind,
Xu Yuan took a deep breath and explained slowly:
"Father, what I agreed to was that if he survives, I will join hands with him to pacify the sects."
"..."
Hearing this, Xu Yinhe visibly relaxed quite a bit.
Regarding the relationship between the imperial house and the Chancellor, his attitude was aligned with Li Yaoxuan's: transform a devastating hot war into a power struggle among the highest echelons of the central court, granting the common people at the bottom a chance to recuperate.
Great Yan could not endure two civil wars.
And Xu Yuan's intention was also simple.
He would carry out the assassination before Li Zhaoyuan ascended the throne; but if Li Zhaoyuan truly took the throne, the matter would be laid to rest.
Seeing this,
Xu Yinhe said no more on the matter:
"As you wish. Be prudent."
Seeing that he had received consent, Xu Yuan felt deeply conflicted inside.
Before broaching this, he had prepared himself to be rejected. After all, if this went awry, it could trigger a civil war between the throne and the Chancellor. Yet he hadn't expected his old man to grant his wish after all.
As though discerning his thoughts, Xu Yinhe chuckled faintly and said:
"My time is limited. The future will ultimately change according to you. Even if I were to restrict you now, you would eventually do it in the future anyway."
Silence lingered for a long while before Xu Yuan spoke softly:
"Father... thank you."
Xu Yinhe merely shook his head and said:
"In this matter, I broke my promise to you first. Back during the plague in the Northern Border, I promised you that I would kill Li Zhaoyuan. Now it seems I cannot fulfill that. Agreeing to your request is merely making amends for that promise."
At this point,
Xu Yinhe paused slightly, then continued:
"However, another promise I made to you has been kept."
"..."
Xu Yuan froze for a moment, thought it through, and quickly caught on, asking hesitantly:
"...The Tianyuan Sword Sect?"
Xu Yinhe nodded.
"Yes."
"But hasn't the Imperial Preceptor already..."
"Did Lou Ji tell you that?"
"Yes."
"Her intelligence was wrong."
Xu Yinhe picked up the poured fragrant tea, took a light sip, and said:
"Ran Jianli is still alive. But the situation requires him to fake his death and stay out of sight. You should be able to deduce the reasoning behind this yourself. Do not spread word of it."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan let out a long breath.
If his own old man had slaughtered Ran Qingmo's master, he had already braced himself to be chased and hacked at with a sword by that big block of ice.
Now that he had a definitive answer, the boulder hanging over his heart for more than half a month finally came to rest.
*Tap, tap.*
Xu Yinhe tapped the tea table lightly, drawing Xu Yuan's attention back, his voice solemn:
"Don't celebrate too early. There are certain lines I must draw for you in advance."
As he spoke, he gestured, drawing through the air a document stamped with the Black Qilin Army's insignia and placing it on the tea table:
"This is military intelligence sent by Zong Qingsheng. Sixty percent of the armaments near the Two Rivers Basin have already been gathered, and Yuan Hao has rushed there from the Northern Border. At the current pace, the first surprise attack against the sects will erupt in two months.
"Though I promised to grant you an opportunity, a plan a century in the making can never be delayed for personal reasons. In other words, Changtian, you only have two months."
"..."
Xu Yuan fell silent.
In *Cangyuan*, the conflict between the court and the sects originated with the destruction of the Tianyuan Sword Sect. Now, under his interference, even though various hidden sects lurking in the shadows had surfaced ahead of schedule, the court still had no choice but to strike the Sword Sect first.
The Tianyuan Sword Sect was situated in the plains between the Two Rivers Basin, a land contested by all sides since ancient times. Of the other major sects, the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion lay in Great Yan's southern borderlands, while the Wen woman was directly in the sects' stronghold along the Jiangnan coast.
The court's surprise attack could only be launched against the Tianyuan Mountain Range!
With these thoughts in mind, Xu Yuan slowly stood up.
"Then I shall set out today—"
"Sit down!"
"..."
Xu Yuan quietly sat back down.
Xu Yinhe drew a manual from his sumeru ring and handed it to him, saying:
"This is the military array matrix technique of the Black Qilin Army. It won't be too late to go once you've learned it."
Chapter 743