Chapter 416: The Hem of the Western Heaven
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 416: The Hem of the Western Heaven
Beijing, the metropolis of the lofty.
Jeong Yeon-shin paused mid-stride. He was on his way back from meeting the Head Eunuch when he felt a gaze boring into him.
Beijing's night was bright. The pale glow of lanterns spilled onto the straight, sprawling streets, illuminating the marketplace.
Through the glow, he could easily spot a boy standing in the distance, flanked by two servants, staring intently at him.
He looked to be about fifteen or sixteen. His jade-colored robes were pristine, without a single speck of dirt—the clear mark of a noble scion. His very bearing set him apart from the common passersby who walked with hushed footsteps.
"It must be him..." the boy muttered, staring openly. He was entirely different from how Jeong Yeon-shin had been in his own youth. A strange, innate authority was woven into his youthful voice.
When their eyes met, the boy flinched slightly. However, he didn't back down. Instead, he approached, keeping one hand tucked behind his back.
"Are you Lord Seomye, the Lotus Nezha?"
"What is your business?" Jeong Yeon-shin replied curtly. The boy's face brightened ever so slightly at the response.
"I have come to convey gratitude on behalf of my busy parents. Since my family estate is at the very edge of Beijing's outer city, I only recently heard the rumor that the Commander of the Demonlight Wing had arrived in the capital. As you know, the city is vast."
His tone was polite yet precocious. The boy then brought his hand out from behind his back and extended it toward Jeong Yeon-shin in a slightly awkward gesture. Clutched in his palm was a single golden reed.
"Please, accept this." He looked like someone who had never been intimidated a day in his life, yet his manners were strictly formal.
But it failed to pique Jeong Yeon-shin's interest. His mind was already cluttered with thoughts of his Purple Rank promotion. To the common folk, Beijing's nobles were no different from the martial artists of the Jianghu. Perhaps because the pointing fingers he had suffered in Beijing reminded him too much of the Jeong Family Manor, he hid his apathy behind indifferent eyes.
"I don't understand what this means."
"It is a recent custom. As the years go by and bad harvests persist, people have taken to offering fine reeds, ears of rice, or blades of grass as a gesture of goodwill. It is a wish for a future filled with good fortune..."
Jeong Yeon-shin accepted the reed and stared down at the stalk. Just as the boy had said, a faint golden luster rippled along it. Perhaps it had been preserved through some mysterious art of the Brightfolk. It was a fitting greeting from a noble house.
"Thanks to you, a great trouble plaguing my family was resolved. My parents' positions are rather delicate, so they likely could not express their gratitude openly. But that is no way to behave, is it? I believed it only right to thank you in person."
"A trouble plaguing your family?"
"My father was appointed as the Thousand Celebrations Gate Guarding Envoy, who oversees the formations of Beijing's outer city. And my mother is the Grand Coordinator of Shanxi. Until the Jegal Clan Leader died, she suffered from a massive headache. Every time she visited our home, she would vent her frustrations."
The Thousand Celebrations Gate Guarding Envoy was a post that existed only in Beijing, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. It was a high-ranking position of the junior second rank, responsible for activating and coordinating the grand formations laid out within the city walls in the event of an invasion by Jianghu martial artists or foreign enemies. Meanwhile, the Grand Coordinator of Shanxi was the supreme local administrator governing a territory comparable in size to an entire country. Since Shanxi bordered Beijing, her influence over the Forbidden City was immense.
Jeong Yeon-shin ran his fingertips down the long reed. The current Commander of the Demonlight Wing was indeed well-versed in worldly affairs.
"The color is very beautiful." He treated the reed as if it were a precious sword. Since Jeong Yeon-shin was now hailed by many as a peerless swordsman, the boy's lips twitched, on the verge of breaking into a wide grin.
"I hope you do not pay any mind to the opinions of those spiteful people. They are all utterly insignificant... and Beijing is not entirely filled with twisted souls. Perhaps because I am the child of local officials, I understand the hardships you and the Divine Sword Corps face very well—"
Right then—
A fight? I don't feel any massive energy.
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly furrowed his brow. A familiar resonance had faintly brushed against his skin. A vibration that sounded like clashing metal. A sword song.
"Take care. Go home."
Jeong Yeon-shin leaped into the air before the boy could utter another word. Leaving his footprints far behind, he vanished from the spot in an instant.
Whoosh!
There was no need for a long run. After crossing countless roof tiles using the Ten-Mile Light Grace lightness skill, Jeong Yeon-shin quickly landed at the source of the sword resonance.
He was in Beijing's outer city.
A metallic stench drifted to the tip of his nose. The scent of fresh blood from those who had only just died.
Two corpses. Eight Embroidered Uniform Guard officers collapsed in the alleyway. A dark red pool of blood soaked into the sand, its scent carrying on the humid breeze of early summer.
"..."
He could no longer follow the wishes of Yong Hee-myung, the Commander of the Divine Sword Corps. Jeong Yeon-shin decided then and there to stop delaying his entry into the palace.
* * *
An hour later, massive chaos descended upon the Forbidden City.
* * *
It was a place filled with golden silence.
A sculpture of a yellow dragon clutching a wish-fulfilling jewel in its maw looked down upon the hall from the center of the ceiling, its golden body coiled in countless circles. Beneath this yellow dragon—the symbol of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the grandest palace in the Forbidden City—the civil and military officials were gathered.
A sleek luster emanated from the red, yellow, and blue silk official robes they wore with neat precision. Sharp, biting words poured from their mouths.
"I am deeply sorry for my late arrival, but there is something we must address. That man over there... How can we allow a black-robed martial artist of the Desolate Fortress in a place where the great affairs of state are discussed? I am utterly bewildered."
"You had better watch your tongue. It is no exaggeration to say that a Black Sword of the Divine Sword Corps holds a higher status than you. I fear you might meet an untimely end one of these days without anyone knowing. They are people who treat the necks of officials no differently than the heads of Jianghu ruffians."
"Only to criminals," a giant woman clad in red official robes muttered, instantly silencing the hall.
Soon, bewildered gazes flickered toward Jeong Yeon-shin. He stood at the edge of the carpet that divided the palace interior in half, offering a polite nod to the Head Eunuch who had just defended him.
The Head Eunuch could not respond, forced to turn his head toward the seat of honor at the front of the palace.
"Eunuch."
The voice was dry and flat.
Silence enveloped the palace. The air inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony seemed to dry up rapidly. The voice came from the figure seated in a red-painted metallic chair, situated directly beneath the golden throne—which remained empty, as no one was permitted to sit upon it.
"Yes, Your Highness," the Head Eunuch bowed his head.
"It is noisy. Dismiss everyone. You leave as well, Eunuch," said the man leaning askew in the red-and-gold seat.
The pitch-black dragon robe draped over his upper body and the red skirt known as the hongsang bore witness to his status as the Crown Prince of this empire. His posture was indolent, treating the backrest of the golden seat like a bed. It was a clear sign that he didn't care for the gazes of his ministers. He didn't even spare a glance for Jeong Yeon-shin.
He was the longest-serving Crown Prince in history. His father, the Emperor, was a half-blood of the noble Brightfolk and a peerless master who had occupied the throne of the Son of Heaven for a long time without issue. With a father who went so far as to personally face the 108 Arhat Formation of Shaolin just to experience their martial arts, there was no way the Crown Prince would ever be given the chance to sit on the golden throne. He had remained a prince for decades.
"I cannot bear the sight of you all. Spouting meaningless babble as if it were grand counsel... Get out of my sight."
The civil and military officials turned on their heels immediately. None of them wished to exchange words with the Crown Prince. They were high-ranking officials of an empire founded upon the Jianghu. Fundamentally, they had to be scholars and masters versed in both the literary and martial arts. With rumors circulating that the Crown Prince might pass away before the Emperor, there was no reason for them to confront or argue with him.
It is just as the Commander said, Jeong Yeon-shin thought silently.
"It seems the Great Commander is dead...? That would be beyond the Emperor's expectations," the Crown Prince muttered.
A look of boredom lingered beneath his sharply defined, sculpted eyebrows. At a glance, he almost resembled a deeply enlightened high monk.
Thus, only two people remained in the Hall of Supreme Harmony: the Crown Prince and Jeong Yeon-shin. After a brief silence, the Crown Prince raised his head slightly and glanced at him.
"You do not resemble Ma Yeon-jeok much."
"I am humbled."
"...?" Tilting his head slightly, the Crown Prince gestured toward Jeong Yeon-shin's hand. "What is that reed?"
"I received it from a boy in the marketplace before entering the palace. He said his family benefited from my mission..."
"And you managed to enter the palace without throwing it away. You must have been distracted. Then again, how could you have known that Beijing would be in such disarray?"
Muttering to himself, the Crown Prince looked down at Jeong Yeon-shin again. Then, he spoke slowly. "You have come to ascend to the Purple Rank, have you not?"
"I entered the palace because of the dead officers," Jeong Yeon-shin said in a flat tone. Unlike the Imperial Grandson, with whom he had shared a few private interactions, he felt no particular affinity for the father, the Crown Prince.
"The death of the officers. That is indeed very... very regrettable. But what can be done? In the first place, the current world is sustained by sacrificing the few for the many."
"I do not understand what you mean."
"Never mind. You wish to ascend to the Purple Rank, do you not? Wait a moment. A testing ground has been prepared for you."
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly felt that something was amiss. Even after learning of the officers' deaths, even after hearing how difficult it was to identify the traces of the monstrous martial arts that had completely crushed their bodies, and even after receiving reports on the disappearance of the Great Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Crown Prince remained entirely unperturbed.
What is this?
Jeong Yeon-shin's breath hitched slightly. A strange intuition struck him.
Perhaps sensing this, the Crown Prince, who had been staring blankly at the yellow dragon sculpture in the air, lowered his gaze.
"Do you know the tale of Crossing the River on a Reed?"
It was the anecdote of Bodhidharma crossing the vast Yangtze River on a single reed. A story of how he evaded pursuing soldiers using a mysterious body protection scripture.
"He did nothing. He did not use his martial arts against the soldiers of Emperor Wu of Liang who sought to kill him, nor against Emperor Wu himself. He merely avoided the fight."
The Crown Prince's fingertips tapped the armrest of his chair. A slow, rhythmic tapping began to fill the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
"When I was young, I could not understand it. Why would a man who might have been the greatest under heaven, or perhaps the greatest in history, flee from mere soldiers to begin wall-facing meditation? But he was a man who looked at the bigger picture. Because his prowess reached the heavens, he knew that if he were to strike even once, he would have to face the entire world. There is no way the rulers of the world would tolerate such a being."
"...Your Highness."
"To avoid when one must avoid, and to refrain from wielding one's martial arts on a whim... Such are the peerless masters who do not disrupt the realm. Your maternal grandfather was simply an exception to this."
The Crown Prince continued. "I hear you are a grandmaster rare to see in a thousand years. If so, you should be able to wait like Bodhidharma. In the first place, the Purple Rank is not a rank that can be granted solely by the will of the Imperial Family. The common folk, the scholars in the wilderness, the proud nobles of Beijing... ultimately, the entire world must acknowledge it. They must recognize that a Purple Rank has the right to wield their sword regardless of the opponent's status."
"What is happening outside right now?" Jeong Yeon-shin asked quietly.
Indeed, when the Head Eunuch closed the doors upon leaving, Jeong Yeon-shin had felt a sensation of being completely severed from the outside world. Even now, he could not sense any energy. Not the internal power waves of the civil and military officials—which usually felt as obvious as the snorts of macaques—nor even the energy of the Head Eunuch.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony.
It was the place where the Emperor discussed state affairs. It was only natural for it to be more profound and mysterious than the dwelling of a great sect's leader. Some kind of formation had clearly been erected.
"Wait a little longer. There are trends in this world, and new rumors in particular usually spread from Beijing. Know that if this place does not acknowledge you, you cannot become a Purple Rank. Furthermore, with certain threats, the relief felt when they disappear is only profound after one has experienced them firsthand."
His voice was like a cold blade. His intention was clear. He planned to plunge Beijing into danger, only to have Jeong Yeon-shin save the metropolis.
"I heard that a sinister spirit beast might be roaming around. Was the death of the officers the work of that spirit beast? Is that what I must slay?"
Jeong Yeon-shin asked, touching his empty waist. He had temporarily entrusted his Divine Sword: Lingering Thunder to the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Even here, one could not carry weapons into the residence of the Imperial Family.
The Crown Prince nodded.
"Even if a little blood is spilled... there is only one way to dispel the grim atmosphere caused by the gathering of the Divine Sword Corps and create a justification for granting you the purple robes. Did you truly think we could bestow the authority of the Purple Rank without proper reason to someone who, even for a moment, threatened imperial power? Yet, it is an undeniable fact that the current Imperial Family needs a peerless master like you. So in the end, it is a matter of sacrificing a few for the greater good. To rule a country, one must look at the bigger picture. Of course, it is not a country I rule, but..."
It was a tale devoid of any vitality. Jeong Yeon-shin could not begin to imagine what kind of life the Crown Prince had lived in the Forbidden City. The prince's voice did not sound like that of a living person.
Not that it was any of Jeong Yeon-shin's business.
Standing on the red carpet, Jeong Yeon-shin's fingers twitched. At the same time, the eyebrows of the Crown Prince, who was looking down at him from the golden seat, furrowed.
"Do you intend to disobey?"
"I intend to save Your Highness's people."
"There are no subjects in this world for me to embrace. Furthermore, you have no sword in your hand. I have heard that your palm techniques are unmatched in the Jianghu, but what can a man known as a peerless swordsman do bare-handed?"
Staring blankly at the Crown Prince, Jeong Yeon-shin caressed the reed with one hand. In his mind, he constantly questioned whether this was the right path. Was it acceptable to act like this on the cusp of attaining the Purple Rank? Would he be expelled from the Desolate Fortress?
Within a span of time split into dozens of fleeting moments, deep contemplation ensued—and that contemplation ultimately conjured the face of one person.
Maternal Grandfather.
The aging Crown Prince had spoken of his grandfather with casual familiarity. The Hegemon Hero Ma Yeon-jeok was a Purple Rank. There was no reason why the Gentleman Jeong Yeon-shin could not do the same.
"If I deem it a blade," he decided, "then this, too, is a sword."
Within Jeong Yeon-shin's mind, a dragon clutching a fan rose, coiling itself around the reed in his hand.
It took but an instant for the Fan Dragon Lotus Art to burst into a resonant hum within his upper dantian. The reed stalk, soaring lightly from his palm, crashed through the ceiling of the Hall of Supreme Harmony with a resounding boom and shot endlessly into the sky.
Simultaneously, Jeong Yeon-shin's blurred figure leaped into the air alongside the reed. In that instant, a monstrous gale swept violently through the palace interior.
Rumble!
Splintered pieces of wood scattered in all directions amidst a haze of dust. Within the abandoned grand hall, a brief murmur drifted out.
"Again..."