He Lingchuan raised his cup and said to Du Shan, "For that line alone, you deserve a hearty drink! Cheers!"
Du Shan smiled as well, and the two raised their cups and drank together, draining them dry.
He Lingchuan waved the waiter over and declared, "Bring five jars of Qinxiangchun and fill everyone's cups! If five isn't enough, bring another five!"
The scholars rejoiced. "He Xiao has style!" Not every Imperial Academy student came from wealth; very few could casually indulge in Qinxiangchun at five taels of silver a jar.
"After Crown Prince Huan set the fire, the Demon Emperor summoned Crown Prince Yue and me to the Heavenly Palace to offer compensation." He Lingchuan tossed a hefty silver ingot to the waiter, his generosity brimming with swagger. "What use do I have for restitution money? Far better to treat everyone to wine today!"
Beaming smiles spread across the crowd.
Yet Zheng Zewu, Gao Jilin, Du Shan, and a few others frowned.
The Demon Emperor usually stayed at Lingxiao Palace on Tianxin Island. Why summon people from Chiyan up to the Heavenly Palace for an audience?
Could this somehow involve the celestial gods?
The waters here ran deep indeed.
The gathering drank at Xiangman Restaurant until the sun sank in the west, finally preparing to depart while spirits were still high.
When He Lingchuan went to settle the bill, before he could even pull out his purse, the innkeeper beamed with genial warmth.
"No need, Master He. Manager Fang of Dun Garden already settled it on your behalf."
He Lingchuan asked in surprise, "He left ages ago, and we drank so much after that. How could he have settled it?"
"Manager Fang often entertains guests here. He usually puts it on his tab, settled at the end of each month."
Wealth truly bought a different kind of luxury. They had polished off at least thirteen jars of wine just now—that came to sixty-five taels of silver, or sixty-five thousand standard copper coins!
Compared to that, the cost of the food was negligible.
"Manager Fang is a thoughtful gentleman indeed." He Lingchuan knew Fang Canran had done this to give him face in front of the academy scholars. Not one to stand on ceremony, he dusted off his sleeves and prepared to leave, when the innkeeper lowered his voice. "Manager Fang also left a note for you."
With that, he handed over a slip of paper.
Blocked by He Lingchuan's back, the Tongxin Guards couldn't see the exchange between their hands.
He Lingchuan swiftly slipped the note into his storage ring and laughed heartily. "It would be impolite to refuse! I'll take my leave, then."
***
That night, the moon climbed high above the treetops.
He Lingchuan slipped stealthily to the back mountain of Pianxiang Villa. Tall, dense firs grew into an impenetrable living wall of trees.
He picked his way through the firs and came upon a real stone wall.
This boundary wall divided Pianxiang Villa from its neighbor.
The neighboring property was occupied year-round; the master of the house was surnamed Shi, an official serving in the royal court.
Tonight, lanterns blazed throughout the estate, and voices drifted over continually, as though a banquet were underway.
Atop the wall stood a small turret built for enjoying the view. He Lingchuan spotted someone waving to him from within.
Fang Canran.
He leapt up in two bounds and discovered low stools placed inside the pavilion.
"Why did Manager Fang invite me to a place like this?" Gloomy, secluded, and completely deserted.
"I'm a guest at the Shis' tonight, so it was convenient to meet you here." Fang Canran gestured with his chin toward the main house, laughter drifting in on the breeze, sounding as though hosts and guests were making merry. "With cups clinking and toasts flying over there, no one will notice if I slip away for a bit."
He took out a rectangular mirror. "The Heart-Piercing Mirror has been repaired and can be used as normal." Saying so, he taught He Lingchuan the incantation and explained how to operate it.
This was one of the apologies he owed He Lingchuan.
He Lingchuan accepted it, committed the instructions to memory, and sat down. "What else did you want to talk about?"
Fang Canran casually threw up a boundary ward to keep their voices from leaking out. "Juju."
He Lingchuan paused, scanning him up and down.
His late-night guest had actually come to discuss the mountain spirit of Mount Xu?
"Are you really that surprised?" Fang Canran asked. "Didn't you already know what I was going to bring up?"
He Lingchuan blinked. "Bring up what?"
When mutual trust was in short supply, holding a conversation was indeed difficult. Fang Canran had no choice but to lay his cards on the table. "Juju asked me for certain intelligence, claiming someone needed it."
"Oh—" He Lingchuan adopted a look of sudden comprehension. "So it was you."
In truth, the moment he received the note from the restaurant innkeeper that afternoon, He Lingchuan had guessed as much.
It didn't require rigorous deductions; it was pure intuition.
Fang Canran was scheming for grand stakes in Lingxu City, so he wouldn't miss out on drama like this.
"How did you know to seek me out?" He Lingchuan asked. "Juju shouldn't have seen my face."
"I wasn't certain." Fang Canran smiled. "But I figured I might as well test the waters with you directly. After all, you're the only person who has mentioned Juju to me recently. Heh, and now aren't I sure?"
Their eyes locked, and both suddenly burst into laughter.
Fair enough—a game of wits and deceit. Fang Canran had won the upper hand this round.
Though they had previously bound each other with a Chain of Oaths, neither had been willing to disclose his true mission in Lingxu City. Now, with Juju standing between them, that paper-thin barrier had been unintentionally punctured.
Fang Canran knew He Lingchuan had come to Lingxu City to cause sabotage, and He Lingchuan knew Fang Canran was secretly dealing with Juju with ill intent—both of which directly violated the taboos of the Heavenly Palace.
Having confirmed their common enemy, the distance between them evaporated at once.
Fang Canran wiped away his smile. "What do you plan to do?"
Leaning against a pillar, He Lingchuan said leisurely, "I want to present the Heavenly Palace with a generous gift."
When Panlong City fell in years past, it had appeared on the surface to be the work of the Xianyou and Baling allied forces. But He Lingchuan had long recognized that the true mastermind pulling the strings behind the scenes was Beijia.
To someone who had inherited the trio of divine bones and the legacy of Panlong, this was an old grudge.
When he first entered Lingxu, he had come to do solid, beneficial work for Beijia's vast demon populace, yet the celestial god had invaded his sea of consciousness without a second thought, subjecting him to a soul judgment.
To him personally, this was a fresh score.
Vengeance was not forsaken, merely awaiting its hour.
And he would certainly find the perfect moment. Even if old grudges and new scores could not be settled in a single stroke, they could at least be paid off in installments!
The first installment would begin with presenting this grand gift to the Heavenly Palace.
Fang Canran looked perplexed. "A grand gift?"
"A lively, kicking, completely free Juju—how does that sound?"
Fang Canran stared at him for a long while. Only after confirming he wasn't joking did he shake his head. "You are courting colossal death."
He understood: this madman actually intended to sabotage the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation right under the Heavenly Palace's nose and set Juju free.
That had been Juju's wish for years. Fang Canran had established contact with it long ago, but had never dared put such a scheme into practice.
Had he not crossed hands with He Lingchuan before, he would likely have wondered if the lad was truly insane or just hopelessly stupid.
He Lingchuan rubbed his nose.
"How do you need me to cooperate?" Fang Canran asked. "Juju is intensely suspicious. It took me years of approaching it before I managed to obtain an avatar from it. You only went once?"
"That's right." A feral cat was prowling below; He Lingchuan flicked a pebble down, sending it scampering away. "Juju had an old friend. I carried that friend's token, so I took a shortcut."
"Let's be clear upfront: I can assist, but you must carry out your grand venture on your own." Fang Canran raised a finger and wagged it. "Don't drag me into the water with you."
"Rest assured. I'll only buy goods and seek intelligence from you; I don't need you acting alongside me."
With that, the deal was struck.
"Then here is a piece of intelligence to start with," Fang Canran said. "I obtained a figure showing that over the past seven years, the Heavenly Palace has procured fifty thousand jin of meat every single month."
"Fifty thousand jin?" He Lingchuan was taken aback. "How many people are in the Heavenly Palace?"
"Apart from a few top leaders, there are seventy-two lamp wardens, four hundred divine attendants, nine hundred Heavenly Palace guards, and eighteen hundred Mount Xu guards. In addition, there are eight hundred menial servants." Fang Canran had these figures committed to memory. "Fewer than four thousand one hundred in total. The numbers fluctuate slightly from time to time, but that's roughly it."
"Four thousand one hundred people consuming fifty thousand jin of meat a month?" He Lingchuan counted on his fingers. "Twelve jin per person each month, four liang a day... My, that's splendid fare."
Fang Canran smiled, knowing he was being sarcastic. "How many menial servants have you ever seen eating meat at every meal? Even the divine attendants and guards don't receive such generous rations."
Those two thousand-odd guards were merely garrison troops; they fought no battles and ran no heavy drills. Where would such massive consumption come from?
He Lingchuan recalled that commoners in the Yuan Kingdom's capital could only afford to eat meat once every thirty days or so. By comparison, even the ordinary folk of Lingxu City had no chance to eat meat daily. Taking a hundred steps back, even if the Heavenly Palace treated everyone equally and provided lavish meals, three liang of meat per person each day would amount to just over thirty-six thousand jin a month. Where did the remaining ten-odd thousand jin go?
Fang Canran continued, "Furthermore, among the meats procured by the Heavenly Palace, they specifically purchase large quantities of hooves, tails, and heads from cattle, sheep, donkeys, and horses. Do you think that sounds like normal food?"
"It's certainly not for Juju." A great fire spirit had zero appetite for bloody flesh, so that could be ruled out immediately. He Lingchuan rubbed his chin and pondered. "Perhaps some of the demons guarding the Heavenly Palace just love gnawing on heads and trotters."
Just as he enjoyed duck necks and chicken feet, provided they were well smoked and braised.
"Still, you're right. Going out of their way to buy such scrap parts suggests an entirely different purpose—unless, of course, the Heavenly Palace's procurement officers are passing off inferior goods as premium to line their own pockets."
"At any rate, now you know," Fang Canran said, looking at him. "Mount Xu is heavily defended. In the past, countless experts sought to infiltrate and sabotage it, and every one of them failed. Juju knows this full well, yet still believes you're worth a shot... What card do you have to play?"
Now they were back to the core issue. "The Spirit Gathering Grand Formation is Mount Xu's foundation. I have a way to shake it, provided I can locate its formation eye."
Fang Canran shook his head. "The formation eye is usually hidden in the void. Unless you take the teleportation array directly from Zhaixing Tower, no one can find it."
"No. Right now it hangs suspended in the sky above Mount Xu. It simply shields itself from the perception of living beings, so even Juju cannot see it."
"Are you sure?"
"Not completely. I still need an opportunity to test it." A plan had to proceed one step at a time. "That is the prerequisite for our operation."
"Does Juju play a major role?"
"Very major," He Lingchuan said solemnly. "Without it displaying its divine might, I can't turn heaven and earth upside down on my own."
"Its avatar isn't here right now, is it?"
He Lingchuan shook his head.
Fang Canran then reached into his robes, took out a pair of shackles, and handed them to He Lingchuan.
"The Chain of Oaths you asked for. The last one I have."
How to ensure Juju executed their agreement to the letter was something He Lingchuan had been pondering repeatedly of late, and he had devised several contingency schemes.
Yet none were as clean and straightforward as the Chain of Oaths.
"I've seen Juju screw people over before; we can't repeat those past mistakes. Your choice is wise."
Chapter 641