So That Was It

The trunk was slender and its foliage sparse, yet it was already the sturdiest tree within two li. Two hundred years ago, there certainly would not have been a tree here. "Up." The two of them swished up into the branches, climbing to the very top to peer at the corner watchtower. Fortunately, the first level was lit with lamps. Peering through the window, they saw a man wearing a tall crown seated before a table, his fingertips lightly tapping the surface. Though he had changed his attire and no longer wore military garb, He Lingchuan recognized him at a glance: this was the King of Yuan! This entire palace city belonged to him. Why would he secretly meet someone in a corner watchtower in the dead of night? What could not be said in his own hall or study? Official Shao hurried up and dropped to his knees in greeting. "Paying respects to my King!" "Rise." The King of Yuan stood up as well, pacing a couple of steps. "Is your father well?" The moment he stood, He Lingchuan's eyes went wide. In the previous illusion, when the King of Yuan rode into battle, he had wielded a spear on horseback with a sword at his waist. But this time, he wore a ring-pommel saber. The ornament on the pommel ring was a flood dragon's head! Though a carving on a hilt could hardly be lifelike, and an ox head and a flood dragon head looked quite similar at a glance, those two straight, unbranched horns, those bulging dragon eyes, along with the hilt and the guard... Every single detail was intimately familiar to He Lingchuan. Without even needing to see the blade, he could tell that it was Fusheng—no, Fusheng's predecessor! Before the broken saber had been snapped in his hands, it had looked exactly like this. Although it had been slightly altered later through the saber-planting method, he had held the broken saber for months; he knew every inch of it and could never mistake it. Why was Zhong Shengguang's saber on the King of Yuan? After his astonishment passed, He Lingchuan suddenly remembered what Sun Fuling had told him: The King of Yuan's nephew had been Commander Zhong's classmate and close friend, and had even gifted Commander Zhong a treasured saber. Back then, he had blindly guessed that this saber might be Fusheng, but facing a beauty, he had not thought much more of it. Now, seeing it worn at the King of Yuan's waist, He Lingchuan recalled that the historical juncture of this illusion seemed to precede Zhong Shengguang taking charge of the Panlong Wasteland by quite a few years. In other words, the treasured saber had originally been in the King of Yuan's hands, and only later became Zhong Shengguang's saber. Chronologically, they aligned in succession. Yet the saber was said to have been gifted to Zhong Shengguang by the King of Yuan's nephew. He Lingchuan's gaze shifted to the man named Shao. Was this the King of Yuan's nephew? "Father has switched to a new prescription, but his condition shows no improvement. The imperial physician says it will likely be... within the next fortnight." The King of Yuan paused mid-stride and softly murmured, "Is that so? Even he can't hold on." "Among my brothers, your father had the strongest constitution when we were boys. He couldn't drown in water, nor break his neck falling out of trees. Our bond was the deepest, too. At your age, we swore a grand vow to deliver the people from suffering and strife. And yet..." Fu Shanyue tilted his head slightly, somewhat perplexed. "Were the people of the Yuan Kingdom truly living in dire straits back then? Surely not? Compared to the states outside Beijia, were the people of the Yuan Kingdom not living happily?" "You're asking me?" He Lingchuan shot him a look of disdain. The man hadn't done his own homework, yet turned around to ask an outsider. Fu Shanyue rubbed his nose. "If I had surrendered to the gods and ingested the elixir of immortality, though I would have been subject to their whims like the other monster kings, the living beings of the Yuan Kingdom would not have had to suffer this cataclysm," the King of Yuan murmured. "I wonder if ending up like this counts as things turning out contrary to my wishes?" Shao Jian immediately replied, "We will die without regret." The King of Yuan's melancholy lasted only a moment. He paced a couple of turns before saying, "Shao Jian, I summoned you here tonight to entrust you with a matter of grave importance." Addressed directly by his personal name, Shao Jian bowed his head deferentially. "You will set out tomorrow morning for the Xiluo Kingdom." Shao Jian was startled, abruptly looking up regardless of propriety. "Your Majesty?!" "Not allowing you to see your father off to his grave violates filial duty. But this matter is of utmost urgency, and no one else can do it." Shao Jian's expression flickered through shock, resistance, and grief. The King of Yuan said slowly, "This matter is more important than your life, your father's life, my life, and the lives of every citizen in the Yuan Kingdom!" Stunned, Shao Jian's chest rose and fell several times before he lowered his head, speaking in a heavy voice, "Pray instruct me, my King!" The King of Yuan produced a black box, placed it on the table, unbuckled the treasured saber from his waist, and set it down beside the box. "Deliver these two items to that classmate and close friend of yours, Zhong Shengguang." Hearing this, He Lingchuan's breath hitched. As expected, this was how the treasured saber had passed into outside hands! Shao Jian, however, looked bewildered. The King of Yuan gestured for him to rise, then personally cracked the box open a sliver to grant him a glimpse. "Isn't this—could this be...?" Shao Jian's face turned pale, and he looked around anxiously. "Your Majesty, it should not be displayed here!" The King of Yuan said calmly, "Do not panic. There are at least five layers of barriers set here, and a Wind-Biting Beast watches from the roof. I have also employed a method to obscure cause and effect." Shao Jian stared fixedly at the black box. "This is the Da—Da...?" "The Dafang Pot." A sudden gust of wind swept in, but aside from their clothes and hair, there was nothing else for it to disturb. The King of Yuan pressed his hand onto the box. "More than half the blame for the calamity of war befalling our Yuan Kingdom lies with this. Yet it must never fall into Beijia's hands; otherwise, catastrophe will strike the myriad living beings of the mortal realm, plunging them forever into Avici. Cultivators, monsters—none will exist anymore." He paused, then added, "Word arrived from the north this evening: Dayan Pass has fallen." Shao Jian closed his eyes and hung his head. A dire blow. "With Dayan Pass lost, it is only a matter of time before the enemy reaches the gates of Thousand Stars City." The King of Yuan looked at his saber again. "These two items must be entrusted to someone trustworthy." Shao Jian swallowed hard, feeling the crushing weight of the mission. "Why Zhong Liyao?" Zhong Shengguang's courtesy name was Liyao. "Once Thousand Stars City and I are destroyed, Beijia will turn the earth upside down searching for the Dafang Pot. Any lead connected to me or the Shao clan will not escape their notice." The evening breeze fluttered the sleeves of the King of Yuan's robes. "Zhong Shengguang is a foreigner. He only visited the Yuan Kingdom during his travels as a scholar and took a tour of the palace, but shares no ties with me. There are countless scholars like him from every nation every year; they will never suspect him. "Furthermore, though I have only spoken with Zhong Shengguang in depth twice, we hit it off like old friends from the start, and we have secretly corresponded over the years." The firelight cast shifting shadows across the King of Yuan's face, yet his voice remained resolute. "His ideals align with ours. I thought back then that if our uprising failed, he could inherit our dying wishes." He patted Shao Jian's shoulder. "You are a good boy, but the weight of these two items is more than you can bear." Shao Jian considered this and answered with complete candor, "Zhong Liyao has grand designs in his heart and a will like iron and stone. What is truly rare is that while unyielding, he also knows how to adapt. He is indeed the finest choice to entrust with these supreme treasures. Your Majesty is right; I cannot compare to him." "The saber is a gift for him. As for the Dafang Pot—" the King of Yuan said solemnly, "I have tried no fewer than three or four hundred methods, yet none could destroy it. Tell Zhong Shengguang to keep trying. It must be destroyed! Otherwise, the Beijia Kingdom will eventually find a way to track it down, no matter how far to the ends of the earth it goes." He let out a long sigh. "How laughable that in my youth I refused to believe the warnings, thinking I could use it to oppose the gods, thinking I would not follow in the footsteps of those before me. Only today has it been proven that this thing can be nothing but a source of disaster, bringing nothing but ruin to all living beings." Crack. A branch beside He Lingchuan snapped. Hearing this, his grip had tightened involuntarily. Fu Shanyue shot him a reproving glare. Fortunately, this was merely an illusion. If they had been eavesdropping on a conversation with the Human King and dared to make a noise, they would already be fleeing for their lives. Naturally, the King of Yuan in the illusion did not react to He Lingchuan's disturbance. He continued on his own, "Heh, my failure lies in being too trusting. Warn him to take heed from my example." With that, he sighed softly. "There is also a letter inside the box. Once he reads it, he will understand." Shao Jian stepped forward to receive the box and the saber. The King of Yuan stroked the scabbard for a moment before withdrawing his hand. "Take them." Taking both items, Shao Jian was about to salute and withdraw when the King of Yuan added, "Once you have handed over the items, leave immediately. Do not let anyone connect you to the Xiluo Kingdom. The heavenly gods can divine cause and effect. Keep this item close to your person at all times; it can obscure heavenly secrets and leave them utterly helpless." Saying so, he handed over an object the size of half a finger, resembling jade yet not jade, bone yet not bone. Seeing this, He Lingchuan instinctively pressed a hand against his lapel. Wait—did the King of Yuan just take out the divine bone necklace? Though the form was different, the material looked identical! Could the three-piece set he had obtained have all originated from the King of Yuan in a single go? Shao Jian reverently accepted it, turning it over to examine it. "This is...?" "This was crafted from the little finger bone left behind in the mortal world by the god Mitian." "The God Mitian?" Shao Jian murmured. "No wonder." He stowed the divine bone away, knelt down, and kowtowed three times to the King of Yuan, his voice choked with grief. "Your nephew departs. Take care, Royal Uncle! I leave my father in your hands." The King of Yuan nodded and waved him away. "Go. Ensure they are delivered." No sooner had he finished speaking than his figure rapidly blurred. Under the watchful eyes of He Lingchuan and Fu Shanyue, the corner watchtower, the palace walls, and the entire magnificent Thousand Stars City vanished into the darkness. A bank of dark clouds had drifted across the horizon, blocking the moonlight. With the show over, Fu Shanyue leaped down to the ground and shook out his legs. "What was that just now? Royal secrets?" No response, no sound. He looked up to see He Lingchuan still clinging to the tree, seemingly lost in thought. "Hey! The show's over, aren't you coming down?" Only then did He Lingchuan snap out of his reverie and jump down to the ground. "Oh, what did you say?" "Why didn't this illusion appear before?" Fu Shanyue wondered aloud. "And why did it show up tonight?" He Lingchuan pointed to his own nose. "You're asking me?" "Is there anyone else here? Seeing you thinking so hard, I thought you had a clue." He Lingchuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What clue could I possibly have?" Fu Shanyue muttered, "What is this Dafang Pot, and why does Lingxu City want it so badly?" "Whatever it is, its whereabouts are unknown anyway." He Lingchuan's mind was in turmoil, and he was merely forcing a smile. "The Yuan Kingdom is gone, and the Xiluo Kingdom is gone too. Where could anyone even look for it? It doesn't matter anymore. Besides, isn't this something from over two hundred years ago?" Fu Shanyue hissed softly through his teeth, eyeing He Lingchuan's waist. "Why do I feel like the saber the King of Yuan gave away looks a bit like the one you're carrying?"