Chapter 564: Inevitable
There was no point in pressing the button just anywhere. The gods would quickly realize it was nothing more than a feint meant to lure the tiger from the mountain. There had to be something substantial on the ground there for the divine envoys to investigate, so that they could spin out rich conjectures and conduct a thorough inquiry.
Distant water could not quench a fire close at hand. So for the next twenty-odd days, he would have to hold out on his own.
Li Qingge put away the box, her eyes shifting like liquid light. Then she suddenly looked at him and smiled. “If I’m saving your life, shouldn’t there be some repayment?”
He Lingchuan forced himself to answer bravely, “Of course. Just give the word, Your Lordship. I’ll go through fire and water if needed.”
In the end, this was the price he paid for having too few people of his own. Even a task this crucial had to be entrusted to an outsider.
All he could do now was hope that Li Qingge remained as reliable as ever.
“Good. Then you’ll find out in a few days, at the Dun Garden auction.” Li Qingge pulled on her gloves. “Come, I still have other places to be.”
* * *
For the next several hours, He Lingchuan wandered about near the post station. Only when the eyeball spider confirmed that Fushan Yue had returned did he finally stroll back.
“Where did you go? I haven’t seen you since last night.” Fushan Yue looked puzzled. “Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai sent men looking for you, but I sent them away.”
“The moment you went to Star-Plucking Tower last night, someone came on your heels to search for me.” He Lingchuan gave a small shrug. “So I lay low for a bit and took the chance to look around nearby.”
“They came to search for you last night?” Fushan Yue’s face changed. “Then it was ninety percent likely tied to Star-Plucking Tower as well.”
“The Lord Emperor didn’t make things difficult for you during last night’s audience, did he?”
Fushan Yue casually set up a soundproofing barrier before continuing. “He asked about the elixir of youth case. Since the evidence we submitted was complete, the Lord Emperor praised me first, then turned right around and gave me a dressing-down. He demanded to know why I hadn’t gathered proof that Zhongsun Mou had coached false testimony, to the point that the Zhongsun Family now has the nerve to jump around acting righteous.”
He Lingchuan smiled bitterly. If there had been any way to catch Zhongsun Mou on the matter of coaching false testimony, he would have had plenty of means to deal with that merman long ago. Why would he ever have needed to resort to trickery and have Zhongsun Mou killed?
Wu Kai had forged the evidence too well and sent Zhongsun Mou straight to the Yellow Springs.
Fushan Yue went on, “He also asked about Fushan Ji’s death.”
He Lingchuan glanced sidelong at him.
“My royal father declared publicly that Fushan Ji died of illness. But before the Lord Emperor, I spoke the truth and told him that I killed my brother myself.” Fushan Yue picked up a pear and bit into it. “And for that, I got a full round of scolding.”
He Lingchuan said nothing. The fact that Fushan Yue could sit here now looking perfectly at ease meant the gods and the monster emperor had not truly blamed him.
Fushan Yue had already been favored by the gods to begin with. Now that he had secured the position of crown prince by his own hand, everyone’s minds were set at ease.
“There’s more.” Fushan Yue crunched noisily on the pear. “They already know I went to the ruins of Qianxing City.”
He Lingchuan’s heart sank. As expected.
“The Lord Emperor asked where I’d been two months ago,” Fushan Yue continued. “I figured he already knew. If I kept hiding it, that would become the crime of deceiving the ruler. Better to admit it openly.”
He Lingchuan nodded. Fushan Yue had passed through that test without real danger.
“The Lord Emperor was extremely concerned about the second scene at the Ruins of Qianxing City and asked about it again and again. My guess is that the other case Bai Ziqi is investigating is probably connected to it.” Fushan Yue leaned in and lowered his voice. “Remember this well, I never mentioned what we saw in the King of Yuan’s palace. I only said I wandered around the Qianxing City illusion for a bit, found everything peaceful and quiet, and that nothing happened.”
He Lingchuan quietly let out a breath of relief, but still asked, “Why?”
“My royal father said that the moment anything involves the Twilight Plains or the State of Yuān, Lingxu City loses its mind and stops behaving rationally. They would rather kill the wrong person than let one slip through. Just look at what the Twilight Plains are like now, and what miserable shape the descendants of the State of Yuān are in. Was my father wrong?” Fushan Yue said. “If I told the truth about that exchange between the uncle and nephew of the King of Yuān’s line, then the gods and the Lord Emperor would immediately start pressing the question: why were only you and I able to see it? Even if I had mouths all over my body, I still couldn’t prove our innocence.”
“Forty years ago, the very year I was born, an official historian wrote a history of Beijia’s two-hundred-year past, and in it he said two mildly favorable lines about the State of Yuān. Just two offhand lines.” Fushan Yue’s throat bobbed. “As a result, the gods sent down punishment, and the Lord Emperor flew into a rage. He declared that the historian was summoning back the souls of Yuān’s traitorous remnants and whitewashing rebels and conspirators, crimes worthy of ten thousand deaths. He originally intended to exterminate three generations of the man’s family. Court officials begged for mercy, but that only infuriated the Lord Emperor further. He executed three ministers who pleaded on the man’s behalf and had six others beaten with the rod. In the end, the historian was cut in half at the waist and exposed in the marketplace for seven days. Nearly a hundred members of his three kinship lines were hanged. Not a single one escaped.”
Even He Lingchuan did not know what to say. “This truly is...” wanton!
“Whenever the State of Yuan comes up, both the gods and the Lord Emperor are especially filled with hatred. I’m about to inherit the throne. I can’t afford to touch this taboo.” Fushan Yue fixed He Lingchuan with a fierce stare. “As for that matter concerning the uncle and nephew of the King of Yuān’s line, I’ve forgotten it. And you?”
“What are you talking about?” He Lingchuan blinked in apparent confusion. “What uncle and nephew? What happened?”
“Exactly.” Fushan Yue bared his teeth in a grin. “I know there were several other caravans in the mountains that night as well. What they saw was bound to be more or less the same as what we saw. Even if Lingxu City sends people to investigate, the testimonies they gather will match mine.”
Only he and He Lingchuan knew of the conversation between the King of Yuān’s uncle and nephew. So long as the two of them said nothing, the incident had effectively never happened at all.
Fushan Yue asked, “But that second scene, was it really unrelated to you?”
“Qianxing City has already become a ruin. Can it still distinguish between individuals? Besides, it was my first time ever setting foot in the Twilight Plains. Why would it single me out?” He Lingchuan replied solemnly. “For all we know, it could have been someone in another caravan, or perhaps Peach. She absorbed a huge amount of earth blight in Qianxing City.”
Fushan Yue had considered that possibility himself and nodded. “That’s possible. Just don’t let that slip.”
“I won’t.” Then He Lingchuan asked, “Does your father know about this?”
“Of course he doesn’t!” Did they look like a father and son who lived in perfect harmony and told each other everything without reservation?
By unspoken agreement, both of them shifted the topic and began chatting about the sights and customs of Lingxu City.
At last, He Lingchuan could not hold it in any longer and said, “This place burns money like tinder. Even the food is ruinously expensive. Humans enjoy luxury, yes, but monsters too?”
Fushan Yue burst into laughter. “After soaking in a land of wealth and indulgence for six hundred years, you think monsters wouldn’t learn how to enjoy themselves?” He then pointed up at the sky and added, “The finest gardens on Tianji Island belong to the Zhongsun Family. Apparently, the lakes in their own territory weren’t enough for them, so they had a whole lake carved out in the heavens and named it ‘Sea Hidden Halfway up the Mountain,’ then built an underwater garden there. It’s unlike anything else in all Lingxu City.”
“An underwater garden?”
“Exactly. A garden fashioned beneath the water from strange stones, aquatic plants, coral, and all kinds of fish. It’s much more interesting than anything on land.” Fushan Yue spat to one side. “And the merfolk of the Zhongsun Family weren’t content to enjoy it by themselves. They even built glass chambers beneath the lake so that other nobles and magnates could come to their home and view it together.”
So basically, a giant aquarium? He Lingchuan was momentarily speechless. “So Zhongsun Mou had every advantage as a third-generation official scion, yet still insisted on coming after us?”
“He was so overfed he had nothing better to do,” Fushan Yue answered gravely. “And I’m not just insulting him. Lingxu City is full of official-born wastrels with so much idle time on their hands that they go looking for trouble. There are as many of them as grains of rice.”
The moon was bright that night. He Lingchuan raised his head and looked toward the sky. The outline of the floating island was perfectly clear, looming like a great mountain above everyone’s heads.
He let out a sigh.
* * *
The next day, someone came looking for He Lingchuan.
“A summons from the Heavenly Palace, He Xiao is to proceed to Star-Plucking Tower at once. There must be no mistake!”
There were four or five of them, all staring intently at He Lingchuan. If he dared disobey the summons, they would have no qualms about dragging him out by force.
This should have been dealt with two days ago, but He Xiao had slipped away ahead of them and ruined their chance, which still annoyed them.
Today, they had finally caught up with him.
He Lingchuan understood perfectly well that, so long as he remained in Lingxu City, these people were something he could never avoid forever.
What was meant to come would come.
But before they had finished speaking, Fushan Yue arrived in haste. “Hm? What’s going on here?”
“Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai has summoned He Xiao to Star-Plucking Tower to assist in investigating a case.”
Fushan Yue tightened his belt. “Good. Let’s go, then.”
The men did not move.
Fushan Yue looked at them in surprise. “Why aren’t you going? How long do you intend to keep Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai waiting?”
The lead lamp guardian answered helplessly, “Your Highness, Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai summoned only He Xiao.”
“I know that.” Fushan Yue sounded as though the matter were obvious. “Chiyan is a victim in this case as well. I want to understand the progress of the investigation, so I may as well go and assist.”
The lamp guardian opened his mouth to object, but Fushan Yue glared at him and sneered. “What? Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai has summoned a special envoy of Chiyan. Are there matters there that I, the Crown Prince of Chiyan, am not permitted to hear?”
Fushan Yue insisted that he, too, had every right to assist with the investigation, and the lamp guardian had no way to deal with him.
After all, Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai was summoning Chiyan’s special envoy for questioning. On grounds of protocol alone, it was hard to justify barring the Crown Prince of Chiyan from being present.
So the missed opportunity from the night before was truly regrettable.
With Fushan Yue stepping in, He Lingchuan said nothing at all and simply stood by, watching him perform.
The gods’ and the Monster Emperor’s concern over the scene at the Qianxing City ruins had bound Fushan Yue and him even more tightly together. Fushan Yue also had no wish for He Lingchuan to be questioned alone. That was too likely to expose what ought to remain hidden.
The situation fell into a deadlock.
Then another man came striding in from outside, hands clasped behind his back, and laughed aloud.
“What is all this?”
It was actually Bai Ziqi himself.
“He Xiao and I both want to see the progress of the investigation.” Fushan Yue remained perfectly calm. “The latter half of this case will unfold in Lingxu City. My royal father sent me here to follow up on it and ensure the truth comes fully to light.”
He was pressing Bai Ziqi with his own words. The elixir of youth matter had unfolded in two stages. The first half had been investigated in the State of Chiyan, where He Lingchuan had already dragged Cen Boqing into the open. Bai Ziqi was now supposed to take over for the second half and continue digging up the black hand behind the scenes.
However, the State of Chiyan could do little to help with that second half. In that light, it was perfectly reasonable for the ruler of Chiyan to send the crown prince to Lingxu City to follow the matter.
Indeed, the ruler of Chiyan and the other monster kings were all demanding that Lingxu City give a fair account of this case and provide justice to the monsterfolk who had suffered under it.
So every word Fushan Yue spoke was backed by solid reason.
“Your Highness’s request is entirely reasonable and lawful.” Bai Ziqi appeared wholly unbothered by his argument. Turning to the lamp guardians, he said, “You may all go back now.”
The subordinates saluted and withdrew.
“These young fellows lack tact. They only heard that I wished to see He Xiao and so came clumsily to summon him.”
All three men smiled, knowing perfectly well that he was talking nonsense.
Bai Ziqi then gestured toward the door with great geniality. “We know one another well enough by now, so there’s no need to go to Star-Plucking Tower after all. How about this, my treat, shall we go across the street to Little Qianjin Lodge and have a casual meal?”
