Wen Zhongyong stood at Sima Ting's side, standing slightly shorter than the prime minister.
"According to information from our inside operative, this may be connected to one person. A year ago, Empress Jin Li retrieved a treasure from the imperial vaults known as the Exquisite Jade Seal."
"That treasure?" Chancellor Sima Ting asked in surprise.
The artifact was naturally born as a pair, allowing the two people who possessed them to communicate with each other. Yet its use was limited strictly to those two, making it inferior to modern communication treasures.
"According to what the operative said, Empress Jin Li has continuously communicated with a mysterious figure through the Exquisite Jade Tide. Old Madame Qin's breakthrough to the Sovereign rank may very well have been aided by this person!" Wen Zhongyong shared his assessment.
Hearing this, the indentation on Sima Ting's forehead became even more pronounced, clear proof of his rising fury.
"How dare someone sabotage my grand affairs! Have you uncovered the other party's identity?"
Wen Zhongyong shook his head. "The other half of the Exquisite Jade Tide vanished without a trace over a thousand years ago."
"Can you guess who it might be?" Sima Ting asked. "To be capable of helping Madame Qin break through to the Sovereign rank, this person is surely anything but simple!"
He had many enemies. Even within the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect, he had foes.
Now, someone was helping Empress Jin Li, making trouble for him. This could be targeted at him, or it could be targeted at the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect.
The Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect was the paramount sect of the human race. More than a dozen human kingdoms revered it as their sacred land.
It stood in the northernmost realm, both suppressing human fortune and intercepting great demons from the Demon Ancestral Court.
The Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect stood high above, like immortals overlooking the world. In recent years, however, it had also begun meddling in secular imperial authority.
Sima Ting could be counted as one of the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect's pawns. In truth, the other nations were also gradually being eroded by the sect.
Aside from the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect, there were many other sects within the human race. Quite a few had joined forces to resist its reach.
In Sima Ting's view, the figure on the other end of the Exquisite Jade Tide might very well be an expert resisting the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect.
However, a sudden thought struck him, and Sima Ting asked, "It couldn't be the demon race, could it?"
He felt some trepidation.
In his early years, in order to rise to prominence, he had collaborated with a great demon. Later, once he secured the powerful backing of the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect, he had decisively severed all contact with that great demon. He was terrified that this matter might be connected to it.
"Who he is does not matter." Wen Zhongyong spoke with full confidence. "We only need to know that he is our enemy. Anyone who dares disrupt the chancellor's arrangements and the Sacred Sect's plans must die, even if he is a Supreme Sovereign."
"Could you mean...?" Sima Ting's face lit up with delight.
"Indeed. I already know his name. It is Qi Yuan. Paired with the Exquisite Jade Tide, that is sufficient to curse him to death. Even if it is an alias, my curse will still strike him down."
Hearing this, Sima Ting showed a hint of concern. "What if the opponent is a Supreme Sovereign?"
Wen Zhongyong produced a section of bamboo ruler. "This object is called the Nation-Stabilizing Ruler. It was bestowed by the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord himself and bears his supreme cultivation. Channeling this object to cast my death curse, even a Supreme Sovereign will not escape death."
This ruler had been bestowed personally by the Sacred Lord. Envoys like him had all carried these items across the various kingdoms to gather fortune in accordance with the Sacred Lord's instructions.
"If the other party merely assumed the persona of a nameless nobody to communicate with the empress, wouldn't that be a waste?" Sima Ting asked again.
"It costs me nothing, nor does it deplete the ruler. At most, it wastes a little time, and it will serve to knock the mountain and frighten the tiger. Chancellor, please wait a moment. Once I gather the necessary jade vessels, I will cast the death curse! Even a Supreme Sovereign will perish!" Wen Zhongyong said, brimming with confidence.
"Then I must trouble you, sir!" Sima Ting said.
He too harbored some anticipation.
Nothing would please him more than if this Qi Yuan turned out to be the great demon he had once conspired with, only to be cursed to death. Then he could comfortably take the throne as Lord of Southern Qian.
And if not, the person still had to die!
Helping Empress Jin Li and offending him was a capital offense!
...
Heavenly Fortune Sacred Mountain.
The sacred land of the human race.
The mountain rose ten thousand zhang high, looking down over the entire Wangyue Continent.
An ordinary-looking young man scrambled out of a brothel.
A casual, carefree expression rested on his face.
"Traveling through wind and dust, roaming the mortal world, nothing compares to the taste of a beauty."
If placed on a crowded street, this plain-faced youth would be utterly unremarkable.
Yet if his identity were revealed, it would shock everyone beyond measure.
For he was none other than the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord!
"Three thousand years... I can finally leave Heavenly Fortune Mountain by three hundred li. Not bad, not bad at all."
The Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord had originally been a land tortoise in the mountains. Three thousand years ago, a single drop of blood had fallen upon it.
He had awakened spiritual awareness, taken human form, and gained a lifespan of ten thousand years.
Through that drop of longevity blood, he acquired numerous secret arts and knowledge he had never possessed before. The cost, however, was that he could not leave Heavenly Fortune Mountain.
He laid low and cultivated, year after year.
His natural aptitude was terrible. It took him a full five hundred years just to step into the Sovereign rank.
It took fifteen hundred years to reach the Supreme Sovereign rank.
Twenty years ago, he had even stepped into the legendary Heavenly Domain realm.
Because his talent was modest, he was exceptionally cautious. When encountering enemies, he mostly just outlived them. Then, over their graves, he would open a brothel and enjoy a night of wanton pleasure.
Naturally, that had been restricted to the vicinity of Heavenly Fortune Mountain.
He would even force the descendants of those who offended him into prostitution, taking them into his bedchambers. He had no taste for women from respectable families; he had a peculiar fondness for courtesans.
As his strength grew, however, his ambitions swelled. He had gone so far as to establish the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect and become its Sacred Lord.
None of the sect elders knew that every successive generation of the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord was merely one of his alternate identities.
Walking along the road, the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord hummed a little ditty. "Sure enough, I was far too timid before. Stirring up a thousand years of war between humans and demons, the blood qi gathered from the fallen barely pushed me into the Supreme Sovereign rank—far too slow. Seizing the national fortune of the human race, taking the demon bloodlines, and sacrificing them all is the true path!"
Feeling his strength steadily climbing, the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord could not help but sigh with satisfaction.
His talent was poor, and his cultivation was agonizingly slow. In accordance with the secret arts from that drop of longevity blood, he had incited wars between humans and demons to absorb the resulting blood qi, gradually raising his cultivation. Humans and demons were inherently opposed, so covertly stirring up trouble required little effort.
Yet as his strength soared, he grew dissatisfied with such slow growth.
Thus, he set his sights on the strongest, most vicious and sinister art among the secret techniques: the National Fortune Blood Sacrifice!
He had dispatched the Nation-Stabilizing Rulers into various kingdoms to siphon their fortunes.
In just one more sixty-year cycle, the National Fortune Blood Sacrifice would achieve complete success.
When that time came, he would unleash the blood sacrifice to offer up both the humans and the demons of this world. He would leap over the dragon gate, turning from a lowly softshell turtle into the divine Xuanwu, becoming the true master of the Wangyue Continent.
Reflecting on his life, the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord took immense delight in his journey.
His life had been truly magnificent.
Taking caution to the absolute extreme.
A late bloomer through and through.
"Once I bowed low to serve the powerful, once with a few words I stirred the wind and clouds."
"Let your peerless talent overshadow the ages; won't you still turn to dust and become a laughingstock?"
"The evergreen, undying tortoise of the ages; a late bloomer coming into bloom today!"
The Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord frequented brothels and often hummed little tunes, but his education was lacking. Forget tonal patterns—his verses did not even rhyme.
He prepared to return to the Heavenly Fortune Sacred Sect and resume his secluded cultivation.
For the final sixty years, just to be safe, he would cultivate inside a coffin, leaving an alternate persona to oversee the sect's affairs. He would not emerge unless something momentous occurred, venturing out at most for a few visits to the brothels.
Just then, a crow flew overhead.
The Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord cursed his rotten luck.
With a flick of his finger, he blasted the crow into utter oblivion.
For reasons he could not fathom, a sudden, alarming shudder gripped his heart.
"No, I can't stay out fooling around anymore! And brothels... I'm not going to those either."
The Heavenly Fortune Sacred Lord made a decision that went against his very ancestors.
Chapter 44