The Player Across the Board

To Xu Yuan, the news of Ran Jianli's death was undoubtedly a devastating blow. After all, that hulking old man was someone dearer to the Big Ice Block than a father, which made him something like half a father-in-law to Xu Yuan. Yet for some reason, the moment the news truly landed, Xu Yuan's tightly clenched heart began to calm instead. In almost a single instant, he digested the news, and in that same instant, he absorbed the heart-wrenching agony Ran Jianli's death would inflict upon Ran Qingmo. So swift was the process that it bordered on cold-blooded. In the silence where heartbeats and breaths could be heard, Xu Yuan looked at his father, who had been watching him all along, and spoke: "Who did it?" Xu Yinhe slowly turned and resumed walking toward the study, his words echoing through the alleyway of the inner courtyard: "Concealing your expression is good, but your mind has still been unsettled." "..." A brief silence followed his words. Xu Yuan realized that under normal circumstances, he never would have asked such a foolish question. Who did it? Who else could it be? In the entire realm, only a mere handful of people were capable of pulling off such a feat. Footsteps rustled. Xu Yinhe's voice was as solemn and calm as an ancient well, tinged with admonition: "Changtian, the existing order was shattered the moment you submitted that Immortal Law of Equal Taxation. Across the entire realm, rites and propriety have begun to crumble. Before new rules can be established, anyone might perish before your very eyes—Changge, Xinyao, Lou Ji, Hua Hong, and even me. Any one of us could vanish from your sight forever due to circumstances beyond our control. "Changtian. "This is no child's play, nor is it a theatrical story. Since you chose to set this chaotic era in motion with your own hands, you must be prepared to face whatever comes." Silence fell. Xu Yuan's voice was slightly hoarse, faint as the buzz of a mosquito: "...Your son understands." "..." Xu Yinhe lowered his eyes. Having to pass the duties that should have fallen upon him onto the next generation did not sit well with him. His admonition had been spoken softly, yet it had hoisted the child behind him straight onto the highest pedestal. It was a responsibility, and an even greater pressure. Yet at present, he had no other choice. Even if it meant pulling shoots to help them grow, he needed Changtian to mature quickly. In the end, it was Xu Yuan who broke the silence. Taking a deep breath, he asked in a low voice, "Father, what is the source of your information?" His father would never speak without cause, but Ran Jianli was, after all, one of the realm's supreme Saints. To be intercepted and slain so silently was suspicious beyond measure. Xu Yinhe hid nothing as he rounded the corner of the alleyway. "The news came from the Sword Sect. I was not the first to learn of it—or perhaps I should say, by tomorrow, the whole realm may know." At this point, Xu Yinhe glanced back slightly, his dark eyes looking straight into Xu Yuan's. "The Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion personally brought Ran Jianli's corpse to the banquet of the Tianyuan Grand Tournament." "..." Xu Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Xu Yinhe narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze sharp as a hawk's. An immense pressure rolled toward Xu Yuan in an instant. His voice remained placid, yet carried the supreme authority of one who held absolute dominion over the realm: "According to the reports sent back by Yuan Hao, the Saintess has broken through to the Transcendent Realm. Her temperament is drastically different from when you last saw her. She has grown divine and emotionless, seemingly having entered that state which only successive Masters of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion can reach, due to her cultivation art." "..." Xu Yuan fell silent. Back in the Western Desert, that demonic woman Tianye had teased him, wanting to watch the show of what choice he would make if Tianyan forcibly entered that divine, emotionless state. At the time, he had brushed it off without much thought, but in his heart, he knew that this was indeed something that could happen in the future. He just had never expected that day would arrive so quickly. Though he had never asked of Tianyan a promise like the one he shared with the Big Ice Block, how could this opposition fail to leave him torn? In the end, must they truly meet with drawn blades? As if perceiving the grim resolve in his son's heart, Xu Yinhe gradually reined in the aura around him and said softly: "In this matter, I ultimately failed to keep my promise. After clashing with me, Ran Jianli suffered grievous wounds that were slow to heal, and he was left without aid. That was likely the moment those people seized their chance. Perhaps I should have escorted that old fellow part of the way back then." Xu Yuan's lips curved faintly in a bitter smile. "Father, this is not your fault. You did all you could." Though he had not been there in person, he could well imagine the circumstances. His father had needed to exert all his power to deceive the imperial family, and under such full-scale exertion, Ran Jianli's severe injury had been virtually unavoidable. As for escorting Ran Jianli, that was entirely out of the question. His father had already been targeted by Heaven's Will back then; had he borne that pressure while escorting Ran Jianli, the one mortally wounded might well have been himself. Yet the question remained: how did the hidden sects learn Ran Jianli's exact location? From an intelligence perspective, the hidden sects should not have even known Ran Jianli was still alive. An insider? Even more impossible. In this entire affair, apart from the two individuals involved, his father had informed only him. Even the highest echelons of the Prime Minister's Manor had been kept in the dark. Xu Yuan finally voiced the question: "How did they know Ran Jianli's location?" Xu Yinhe fell silent for a moment before saying quietly, "I am not omniscient, but I have two conjectures regarding this matter. First, the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion deduced Ran Jianli's whereabouts through the divination of heavenly secrets..." "That is impossible." "Your reason?" "The future has already plunged into the unpredictable long night of the Great Calamity. Last time, simply to divine my location for an assassination, they did not even hesitate to pay the price of half a volume of the Heavenly Yan Art." "..." Hearing of his third son's fortunate encounter for the first time, Xu Yinhe seemed mildly surprised, but he did not pry. Accepting the reasoning, he turned back to the topic: "In that case, only the second conjecture remains." As he spoke, Xu Yinhe calmly raised his eyes toward the cloudless blue sky stretching across thousands of li. "You mean... Heaven's Will?" Xu Yuan asked instinctively, though the answer lay far beyond his understanding. As they spoke, they had returned to the courtyard of the study. Without entering the room, father and son sat down at the stone table beneath the courtyard's ginkgo tree. Xu Yinhe looked down at his own palm and said slowly, "I have stood at this realm for twenty years. The position I occupy and the burdens I shoulder have prevented me from risking deeper exploration into this realm, yet I still know that every descent of Heaven's Will produces an extraordinarily peculiar fluctuation in the qi dynamic." Xu Yuan caught on quickly. "You are saying that woman surnamed Wen sensed it as well?" "It is possible." "...Is the range of this qi dynamic fluctuation very broad?" "Neither broad nor small—roughly slightly under half of the Capital Region." "The woman surnamed Wen should be in Jiangnan right now. The probability of her sensing it ought to be negligible..." Mid-sentence, Xu Yuan's voice abruptly trailed off. He remembered the woman surnamed Wen's bizarre technique of spirit-infusing avatars. A trace of hesitation crept into Xu Yuan's tone: "Can her avatars... also detect this qi dynamic?" Xu Yinhe said slowly, "An ordinary clone likely cannot, but perhaps there is an avatar of hers possessing a Saint's cultivation hidden within the Capital Region." Xu Yuan said with conviction, "An external avatar technique like that must have a distance limit. Otherwise, it would violate the fundamental laws of cultivation." Xu Yinhe's voice remained calm and unhurried: "Changtian, this Madame Wen may well be the one playing against our Prime Minister's Manor across the board of this realm in the days to come. "In the absence of proof, no level of vigilance is excessive, even if we must assume the worst. "Perhaps from the very moment I clashed with Ran Jianli, she had already begun making preparations, and in doing so, successfully shattered my plan to have Ran Jianli pin down the hidden sects from the shadows. "Or perhaps it was something entirely beyond my knowledge that revealed Ran Jianli's movements to her. "After all, "she has walked and explored this realm for over a thousand years."