"What on earth are you doing right now?"
Inside the inner courtyard study of the Prime Minister's Manor, the furnishings remained as they had always been, but the master's seat had seen one generation yield to the next. Meeting his younger brother—now the head of the Xu family—once more, Xu Changge's voice carried its customary detachment, though tinged with weariness.
"Changtian, do you have any idea how much panic your actions over this past month have caused among our subordinates?"
Behind the desk, Xu Yuan was buried in official affairs. "Someone actually went and complained to you, Big Brother?"
Xu Changge stood before the desk, frowning. "Who in this entire manor could lodge a formal complaint against you now?"
"So they sought you out to remonstrate with me instead. Who was it?"
"..." Xu Changge fell silent.
Though the tone of the two brothers' exchange had not shifted drastically, the substance showed that their roles had begun a subtle reversal.
After a brief pause, Xu Changge said in a low voice, "Many people."
Xu Yuan looked up from the burdensome paperwork. Sunlight slanted through the window lattice and splashed across his face. The shifting light made his eyes narrow slightly, revealing neither joy nor anger. With a faint smile, he asked, "Meaning I can't touch them right now?"
Xu Changge's brow furrowed even deeper in warning. "Winning hearts through slaughter is the most foolish way."
"Just a joke."
Xu Yuan dropped his hollow smile and leaned back into his chair. Gazing at Xu Changge with weary eyes, he murmured, "Big Brother, I foresaw how the people below would react, but I didn't expect it would spill all the way to you."
"The fact that it reached an idler like me is proof enough of how grave the situation is!" Xu Changge's voice sharpened slightly. "As a leader, you must at least set a clear direction for your subordinates to follow. Your attitude toward the imperial family has already thrown the foundation of the Prime Minister's Manor into disarray!"
Hearing those words, Xu Yuan fell silent.
Of course he understood these principles.
Society as a whole was like a colossal, delicate machine. Every move made by a strongman leader would be overinterpreted, amplified layer by layer, and passed down to the very base.
After their father's departure, Xu Yuan's stance toward the imperial family could hardly be called an outright capitulation. Yet in the eyes of outsiders, the manor's knees had bent at least a fraction. Passed down through the ranks, the consequence was that bolder men at the lower levels would begin accepting benefits they previously dared not touch, forging alliances they previously dared not make. That in turn would sway more subordinates, which would rebound upward to constrain the middle, high, and even supreme decision-makers.
Xu Changge's worry likely stemmed from this. But what his elder brother overlooked was that such malignant changes required time as a catalyst to ferment, and that everything Xu Yuan had done was contained within this precise window of opportunity.
After a brief locking of eyes, Xu Yuan offered no defense. He merely looked at his elder brother and asked softly, "Brother, if the one in charge right now were Father, what would you do?"
"..."
Hearing this question, Xu Changge instinctively started to reply, but when he grasped the implication beneath Xu Yuan's words, his indignant gaze suddenly froze.
What would he do?
If the man before him were their father, he certainly would not object. He would have told those gossiping veterans to shut their mouths and obey, rather than marching up to this desk to interrogate him for reasons.
Now that Changtian had taken his place, he ought to do the same—or even more so. What his younger brother, newly ascended to the supreme seat, needed most was his support, not his interrogation.
In the silence, Xu Changge averted his eyes and murmured two words: "I'm sorry."
Seeing this, Xu Yuan grinned teasingly. "When did you become so sentimental?"
His tone was unchanged, yet seeing the deep exhaustion lurking at the bottom of his third brother's eyes, Xu Changge could not help feeling a pang of guilt and heartache. He whispered, "I will put an end to the petty maneuvers of the people below. But as for those higher up, I cannot help you."
Xu Yuan let out a long breath and smiled. "That is more than enough."
Xu Changge nodded gently. After a moment's contemplation, he still offered a reminder: "Changtian, what you brought back from your trip outside indeed granted you authority rivaling Father's for the time being, but that authority has its limits.
"Because you wanted to find someone, the Black Scale Guard lost nearly all the spies it had planted in the palace. Because you chose to withdraw from northern Hongnong, the Tian'an Chamber of Commerce lost vast tracts of raw material mineral veins. Still, Lou Ji and Hua Hong have doted on you since childhood; they will likely help you smooth over the dissenting voices within their jurisdictions. But the situation within the Black Scale Army is far more complicated.
"Father departed in haste. There was much hidden in the shadows that he never had the chance to tell you.
"Zong Qingsheng should be trustworthy. But as you know, military power is not something Father would ever entrust entirely to a single man. Aside from Zong Qingsheng, the commander on the surface, Father supported many factions within the middle and upper echelons of the Black Scale Army to keep him in check."
"Such as Yuan Hao?" Xu Yuan asked.
"Yuan Hao doesn't really count."
"Why?"
"Don't you know he's a madman?"
"...Uh." Xu Yuan was at a loss for words.
Recalling the issues he had observed during his years running Moying Pavilion, Xu Changge continued, "Changtian, Father's decision to place Yuan Hao in critical positions in recent years had already stirred discontent among the veteran generals. Yuan Hao's rise within the Black Scale Army severely eroded the power that originally belonged to them. Constrained by Father's prestige, they dared not show such sentiments openly, but now that Father is gone, the situation is naturally different.
"Having fought for the Prime Minister's Manor for half their lives, these veterans were already unconvinced by a new master whose military merits were nothing compared to their past deeds. Your previous actions—abandoning Hongnong and transferring vast amounts of military supplies to the underground palace remnants—deeply provoked them. And now, you have permitted the imperial family's hand to reach into the Black Scale Army..."
At this point, Xu Changge sighed softly.
"...No matter your true objective, your conduct over the past month does not resemble that of an enlightened lord in the eyes of the Black Scale Army. Weak toward external foes, nepotic toward internal ranks. I know you must have your reasons, but going on like this is truly no long-term solution."
Xu Yuan looked at his worried brother and did not answer immediately.
He had considered all of these matters.
The degree of centralized authority in the Prime Minister's Manor surpassed even that of the imperial house, yet it lacked the millennial momentum of imperial bloodlines. For turmoil to erupt once their father departed was only natural.
Pondering for a moment, Xu Yuan said evenly, "Perhaps in the eyes of you hawks, my actions appear weak. But at a higher level, these temporary compromises are necessary byproducts."
Xu Changge fell silent for a short while, then said in earnest, "I don't understand, but I am willing to believe you."
Xu Yuan smiled faintly and rose slowly to his feet. "Since you believe me, Big Brother, why don't you handle the administrative affairs for me for a bit?"
"..."
Hearing that, the solemn mood Xu Changge had just mustered instantly evaporated, replaced by bewilderment. "I can, but what are you going to do?"
"I intend to leave the capital for a trip."
Xu Changge's eyelid twitched. "Leave the capital? Now?"
"Mm," Xu Yuan replied.
Xu Changge's eyelid twitched again, blue veins faintly throbbing on his forehead. He snapped in a low voice, "Do you know what time it is? In two days, the new emperor ascends the throne, and you, the new master of the Prime Minister's Manor, are going to play the absentee again and run off?!"
Xu Yuan walked over to Xu Changge's side, paying no heed to his brother's fury, and clapped him on the shoulder. "Rest easy. I won't be away for long this time."
Xu Changge could hardly contain himself. He spun around, glared at Xu Yuan, and hissed, "Xu Changtian! Don't you take this absurdity too far..."
Before the words left his lips, his younger brother had already vanished without a trace.
Left standing where he was, Xu Changge trembled with rage. Yet after a dozen breaths, he silently took his seat behind the desk and began handling the administrative duties for his runaway brother.
***
Forty-eighth year of Jiajing, fourth day of the second month, two days before the new emperor of Great Yan's ascension to the throne.
At the Northern Border, night fell.
A military camp stretching for a dozen li blazed with torchlight in the snowy dark.
For most armies across Great Yan, it was wartime, and camp security should have been stringent to the extreme. But for most troops stationed at the Northern Border, until the new emperor ascended the throne—or until he seized full command—they remained in a state of regular training and readiness. Consequently, the atmosphere within this Beifeng Army encampment felt rather relaxed.
Lights-out had not yet arrived. Having finished their day's drills, soldiers of the Beifeng Army sat beside their tents chatting and shooting the breeze, or gathered in groups of three to five playing cards and board games. Those with energy to spare congregated at the drill grounds, setting up sparring rings for wagers.
Perhaps because of the two female bodyguards leading the way, many soldiers cast curious glances at the man enveloped entirely in a hooded cloak as he made his way through the camp.
Yet precisely because the two female guards escorted him, the hardy soldiers paid the stranger little heed. After a passing glance, most returned to their own amusements.
Walking through the snow, the group eventually came to a halt before the commander's grand yurt at the heart of the encampment. The two female guards paused, cupped their fists in salute toward the cloaked figure behind them, and spoke respectfully:
"Sir, Her Highness is waiting for you."
Lifting the tent flap, Xu Yuan found the cavernous council quarters nearly empty. Apart from the sand table and strategic array maps at the center, only a woman of peerless beauty sat quietly behind the head seat.
Li Qingyan wore no armor. A vermilion robe wrapped her curvaceous, flawless frame. Watching the man step inside, the long-delayed reunion with her beloved set her heart fluttering despite herself. Yet she was Li Qingyan after all. The tender emotion was suppressed by reason in an instant, and a teasing smile curved her crimson lips.
"What a rare guest."
Lowering his hood, Xu Yuan brushed the fallen snow from his shoulders and walked over to the desk, glancing around the relatively spartan quarters. "I never imagined you would hole up in a second-line unit's camp."
Li Qingyan leaned against the back of her chair and smiled. "There are no major campaigns on the Northern Border. All the army does daily is drill, or at most dispatch troops for disaster relief. The subordinate officers can handle all of that. Where the commander stays makes no difference. But Prince of Han, what suddenly prompted you to come looking for me?"
At her words, Xu Yuan rolled his eyes noncommittally. "Prince of Han? Are you mocking me?"
Li Qingyan shrugged, stood up, and pointed toward the commander's personal quarters behind the tent. Walking inward, she remarked, "Hardly mocking. I simply find it difficult to understand what you're trying to do."
A familiar fragrance drifted from her fluttering long hair. Xu Yuan followed behind, watching her gallant, slender figure. He said softly, "Many people have asked me that question over the past few days. But isn't my choice a good thing for your imperial family?"
Creak—
The wooden door behind the tent swung open. The furnishings within were as simple as ever: a bed, a wooden table, and a stand holding gilded armor, no different from her quarters in Beifeng City.
Li Qingyan took a seat by the square table and fixed her gaze on Xu Yuan behind her. "It is indeed a good thing—a great deed benefiting both country and people. But the man in my heart is not someone who swallows grievances in silence."
Xu Yuan pulled out a chair and sat opposite her, his back to the wooden door. "True enough. But Qingyan, do you know? What I have done these days is actually fulfilling the vision your imperial father and my father shared for the future.
"To merge the imperial house and the Prime Minister's Manor into a single entity during this war against the sects. Only then, once the sects are purged and total unification is achieved, can we prevent a second civil war from erupting between us."
Hearing this, Li Qingyan leaned forward slightly, resting her chin on a delicate hand, her phoenix eyes narrowing. "I have heard whispers of that matter as well. But that shouldn't be your true intention."
Xu Yuan showed a trace of helplessness. "A woman who is too clever isn't endearing."
Li Qingyan paused briefly, then smiled with curved eyes. "I have always been like this. Besides, if I played dumb right now, you would be disappointed in me, wouldn't you?"
Her smile remained as enchanting as ever. Xu Yuan was momentarily dazed, then smiled as well. "Indeed, it wasn't my original intent. Over these two months, everything I did was actually waiting for one person's attitude."
"Li Zhaoyuan?"
"Mm. But it seems I failed to get the attitude I was waiting for."
"From my perspective, he hasn't done poorly these past two months."
"Do you truly think he did well, Qingyan?"
Xu Yuan's smile did not waver, but his eyes narrowed slightly. "It has been two months since the Black Scale Army landed in Jiangnan, and two months since he took power. Yet what has he done during this time?"
"..." Li Qingyan lowered her gaze and fell silent.
Xu Yuan sighed softly and murmured, "Qingyan, do you think Li Zhaoyuan could fail to understand the impact of the Black Scale Army's massive landing in Jiangnan on the Sect Alliance?
"The Sect Alliance would be completely jolted awake by that landing. Under such peril, the process of centralizing power in that behemoth would shorten to a pace that caught the imperial court unprepared. You understand better than I do that military opportunities are fleeting. This period was a vital window of opportunity. Yet what did Li Zhaoyuan do during this window?"
As he spoke, he gently tapped the wooden table before him, his voice echoing through the quiet room with strange amusement.
"Such a splendid military opportunity, a window that could have granted the court total initiative in the war, was used by Li Zhaoyuan to seize internal power, to weaken the influence of the Prime Minister's Manor, and to consolidate his own rule."
His words drifted softly as the snow fell outside.
In the quiet, Xu Yuan asked her, "Given your temperament, Qingyan, you must already be deeply dissatisfied with the new emperor, aren't you?"
Li Qingyan looked at Xu Yuan, her exquisite, flawless face revealing nothing of her inner thoughts. She did not answer directly, saying only in a low voice, "Li Zhaoyuan's foundation is unstable. There is nothing wrong with him consolidating power first."
Xu Yuan smiled softly. "I didn't say he was wrong. You should know very well that consolidating imperial power does not conflict with what I mentioned. If handled properly, the latter could have greatly bolstered the former, helping him establish absolute prestige within the imperial faction."
"..."
Li Qingyan remained silent, her phoenix eyes downcast.
Looking at her quiet form, Xu Yuan spoke in a tone so calm it seemed rehearsed ten thousand times. "Qingyan,
"Do you still remember the words I said to you in the Golden Chime Hall that day?"
***
The cold wave from the far north had receded considerably, but over recent days, snow still fell heavily upon the Northern Border. A single night often left drifts nearly ten feet deep.
Across the boundless snowy plain outside Qinlong Pass—the gateway from the three northern provinces into the Capital Region—rustling sounds were buried beneath the wind and snow. Pairs of eyes peered out from the deep drifts, staring through the dark at the brightly lit gate tower and the stern, vigilant Great Yan elites patrolling atop it.
They had finally arrived.
By day they lay concealed beneath the plains' snow; by night they marched slowly through the drifts.
After crawling like tortoises through this frigid snow for over a dozen days, after countless numbers froze to death or suffered frostbite without a single sound escaping, without a single soul circulating cultivation to ward off the cold, the underground palace remnants had crossed the boundless plain south of Qinlong Pass in total silence, arriving beneath this towering fortress.
Born in desperation, they had nothing left to lose. To secure a place to survive beneath the rising sun, the underground palace remnants were willing to sacrifice everything—including their lives.
Drifting snow descended from the heavens. Frigid air entered their lungs and dissolved into plumes of white mist upon exhale. In the darkness outside the pass, the underground palace remnants waited for their young master's command, waiting for the end that belonged to them...
***
"Qingyan, do you remember my words in the Golden Chime Hall that day?"
The small room sank into silence. The night wind seeping through the cracks carried a bone-chilling cold.
Li Qingyan wanted to say something, but seeing the dark, resolute emptiness in the man's eyes, the words caught in her throat.
At that moment, Xu Yuan suddenly offered a gentle smile and rested his clasped hands on the table.
"I know this choice is difficult from your standpoint. So it won't be too late to answer after you look at these."
With that,
he drew a sealed letter and a map from his Sumeru ring, sliding them before her.
Li Qingyan stared at the sealed letter, hesitation flickering in her eyes. "This letter carries Imperial Father's qi?"
"Yes. I retrieved it from Eunuch Nie," Xu Yuan said, his tone dark and cold. "To find him, the Black Scale Guard lost almost every spy it had inside the palace."
Li Qingyan's phoenix eyes fixed upon the envelope, yet she did not open it. She knew what was inside, and she knew what breaking the seal signified. But she did not understand why Eunuch Nie would hand this letter over to Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan did not press her. Supporting himself against the table, he stood up, strolled toward the window lattice, and said softly, "Did you know? The late emperor drafted three testamentary edicts of succession in total: one for the Crown Prince, one for my father, and one for you, Li Qingyan. The child he valued most was not the Crown Prince, nor Li Junqing, and certainly not Li Zhaoyuan now. The old man... gave almost every shred of favoritism he could spare to you."
An imperial daughter, yet permitted to command armies in the field.
Not the Crown Prince, yet possessing the imperial family's supreme military array holy art.
She even held prestige second only to the Marquis of Wucheng among the three hundred thousand troops of the Beifeng Army.
All of these bore witness to Li Yaoxuan's partiality toward his daughter, Li Qingyan.
Had Xu Yuan not emerged out of nowhere, Li Zhaoyuan would have had no chance of prevailing against Li Qingyan for the throne.
Curfew had arrived. Beyond the window lattice, utter darkness stretched out, with only scattered sparks searing the falling snow in the sky.
Xu Yuan raised his hand, tracing the wood grain on the window frame. His voice was as calm as an abyss. "At first, I wanted to kill Li Zhaoyuan out of disgust. But by now, I have long lost the right to despise him. So I could overlook what he did in the past, and I could overlook that he sees only power. I only hoped he could become someone who walked beside me. But you saw the outcome.
"I ordered the Zhenxi Army to march east to connect our control zones in the southwest; his southwest border army did not move.
"I ordered the forces in northern Hongnong to request joint defense from the Imperial Guard along the Tianhe defense line; his Imperial Guard remained motionless, forcing the Black Scale Army to abandon that vital strategic region of Hongnong.
"My father answered the pact of emperor and chancellor made years ago by trampling Jiangnan beneath iron hooves. Qingyan, you should know what a reckless military gamble that was, and you should know what a devastating blow the Sect Alliance would suffer if it succeeded. But what was the result? Once in power, Li Zhaoyuan was unwilling even to have the Qilu army move south along the coast to support Yuan Hao, who had driven deep into enemy lines alone!"
"..."
Silence followed his words.
Listening to the man's recount, an ominous premonition stirred in Li Qingyan's heart. Her voice turned slightly hoarse as she asked the question burning in her chest—the most crucial question:
"Changtian, why did Eunuch Nie give this letter to you?"
Xu Yuan did not turn around. He said softly, "You can take a look at the contents of that map."
Li Qingyan silently unfolded the map, only to discover it was a military map of Hongnong, meticulously marked with numerous red dots.
"...What are these?"
"Secret realms. Secret realms across Hongnong."
Xu Yuan offered the words without hesitation, adding casually, "The imperial house has always constrained my Prime Minister's Manor using various raw materials. The secret realms I spent a month tracking down have already far exceeded the manor's own needs."
Li Qingyan froze. She stared blankly at the man by the window, her phoenix eyes narrowing with hesitation. "What do you mean by that?"
The snowy night deepened.
Xu Yuan turned slowly to face the peerless woman, speaking evenly:
"Do I need to make it any plainer?
"Within the Prime Minister's Manor, my father was always a conservative when it came to the imperial house. Now that the old man is gone, and having given Li Zhaoyuan far too many chances over this period, my patience with him has reached its limit. I don't intend to wait for him any longer, nor do I have the time."
At this point,
the gentleness in Xu Yuan's eyes vanished, replaced by an abyss of dark, hollow finality.
Amid their shared silence, he turned and pushed open the wooden door.
A fierce, freezing gale surged inside in an instant, howling violently.
He cast one final backward glance at the hesitating woman in the room, then stepped into the boundless darkness outside. His voice carried on the biting air like a whisper from the depths of the underworld:
"Qingyan, choose with care.
"This is no longer a probe, but a notice.
"The nature of what I am about to do will depend entirely on whether you tear open that testamentary edict from the late emperor.
"Whether it is a coup d'état or a mutiny.
"Whether it is a rebellion, or a purge under a forged decree.
"If you cannot bear the burden of the throne of the supreme sovereign, then I, Xu Changtian, shall bear it!"
Chapter 801