Action preceded voice!
Vaguely came the sound of rapid, forceful commands: “Qian northwest, Kan north, Gen northeast—each thirteen in black! Zhen east, Xun southeast—each eleven in blue! Li south, Kun southwest—each nine in red; Dui west—each ten in white!”
Footsteps moved in perfect unison, swift as wind and clouds, forming the array as commanded. Red lights could be seen flickering and swaying continuously. As the formation took shape, faint sounds of wind and thunder arose, with screams dimly audible. Qin Chang Ge smiled slightly—mm… to have trained to this level so quickly, truly remarkable…
The rain weakened somewhat, but the wind grew fiercer. Amid the gusts battering the windows, someone said quietly from outside, “You were born into a reclusive family yet remotely control that nation’s political situation from afar. A single word decides life and death, ten thousand households bask in your virtue. Jade halls and golden horses, noble families with official insignia cannot match how the people’s hearts turn to you. Golden imperial edicts and sacred altar brushes cannot compare to a single paper written by your hand—with your stature, you naturally wouldn’t be content to remain dormant in the southern barbarian wilderness. Your desire to stir up worldly storms is understandable—but I advise you: today’s person, you cannot kill.”
The hand wearing gloves that gleamed with strange green light stopped at Qin Chang Ge’s throat. With a light sweep of the little finger, he locked onto Xiao Jue who had already lunged forward. The middle-aged man said flatly, “Oh?”
“To kill him would certainly harm your lord’s mandate.” The other’s tone was indifferent yet firm in meaning, making one feel these words brooked no falsehood or violation.
But the middle-aged man only smiled as usual, asking gently, “May I ask who you are?”
“You naturally know who I am,” the other’s voice was even quieter and more indifferent than his, faint as deep winter moonlight. “So the words I speak, you naturally know whether you should heed them.”
“Given your family’s potential, I should indeed trust you,” the middle-aged man smiled warmly, his bearing noble and saintly between gestures. “But I also know your character. Are you such a kind-hearted person? Are you one to meddle in others’ affairs? You brave wind and rain in the night, rushing out of the city to save people—who is it you wish to save?”
“Regardless of who it is, if I say you cannot kill, then you cannot kill,” the other said indifferently. “Within one month, your family will face upheaval. If you leave now, you might still make it in time. Otherwise your life and death will be difficult to preserve, and you’ll have no burial place. Your killings today already offend heaven’s harmony. To kill one more person will surely implicate yourself.”
Before his words ended, someone in the distance already laughed heartily, “Why waste words with him? He’s not a beauty after all.”
As the voice began, white light flashed like a meteor streaking across the sky. Rolling pillars of light swept by startlingly, like the source of ten thousand rivers beneath the divine mountains of heaven rushing forth with unstoppable force for thousands of miles, or like a phoenix soaring gracefully in the sky, its gorgeous and dazzling tail feathers gleaming brilliantly as it charged forward irresistibly. Countless intercepting black shadows rushed up only to be swept up by that mighty wind and sent tumbling left and right. In an instant, braving wind and rain, he arrived before them.
The newcomer seemed intent on displaying his power. Flying light and flashing electricity, his approach was alarming. Before he arrived, he raised his hand, and a line of silver light bright as moonlight instantly reached the middle-aged man’s chest. He laughed loudly, “I know that if you really act, no one can arrive in time. Feel free to exert force with your finger, but as soon as you become distracted by what’s in your hand, my qi sword can immediately kill you. Would you like to try?”
In the storm, the white-robed man spun and stood on one foot atop the eaves, his posture elegant and carefree. A faint halo arose around him, completely separating the torrential rain from his radiance. His pose of looking down with a slight smile was like gentle moonlight reaching across thousands of miles.
Su Xuan.
With a snap, someone pushed open the rear window. Under a black oil-paper umbrella, a blue-robed man sat quietly, his gaze serene yet cold. Behind him in the crystal wall-like rain curtain, he appeared beautiful and pure, light as a wisp of cloud, cold as a handful of snow, clear as immortal stream water, cold as crystalline ice flowers.
Two brown-robed Phoenix Alliance subordinates—one coldly holding the umbrella with an indifferent expression, the other with fingers on a crossbow trigger, the arrowhead like the cold, dark eye of death aimed directly at the middle-aged man’s throat.
Chu Feihuan.
No expression could be seen beneath the middle-aged man’s mask, his steadily rising and falling chest showed no abnormality. Suddenly he chuckled softly, “My luck really isn’t very good… they’ve all gathered together.”
Qin Chang Ge straightened her sleeves and flicked dust from her hands, smiling at him as she said gently, “Many of your people outside are already dead. If more die, you won’t be able to return to Nanmin. Is killing important, or is your own life important?”
“I really want to kill you,” the middle-aged man sighed while withdrawing his hand. “But there will be other opportunities…”
“The feeling is mutual,” Qin Chang Ge’s gaze also concealed cold steel. “Let’s see who kills whom first.”
With a compassionate smile, the middle-aged man slowly raised his gloved hand, actually lifting that line of illusory silver light. Opposite him, Su Xuan on the eaves contracted his gaze and had already drifted down like flying catkins.
At the same time, several people spoke almost simultaneously.
“Don’t use me (her) as a hostage!”
Startled, Qin Chang Ge laughed and looked at the several men with a smile. “Let me speak instead.” She turned to look at the middle-aged man indifferently. “With your current strength, you can no longer break through their encirclement. You’ll naturally want to use me as a hostage, but unfortunately I’m lazy. I don’t want to get rained on anymore—I’m afraid of fever. I’ll make a deal with you.”
“Speak,” the middle-aged man nodded.
“You release me and promise not to set foot on Xiliang soil again within one year. You must also leave behind all prisoners you captured tonight, and I’ll let you go,” Qin Chang Ge smiled. “I’m afraid you might use underhanded methods while holding me hostage. I don’t dare go with you, so I’m releasing you. All your actions toward me tonight, I won’t hold against you. They’ll also spare you temporarily. How about it? You should know that although I learned your secret tonight, you also got some measure of me. We’ve both suffered losses but neither has truly lost. Continuing this standoff won’t benefit anyone much. If we really want to settle scores, there will be opportunities later. Why rush? Calculate for yourself—isn’t this the right account?”
“You’re quite calculating,” the middle-aged man’s voice revealed no anger throughout, and he agreed extremely readily. “Fine, I trust you. Don’t play tricks either, or I may not be able to kill the world’s greatest, but killing a few who’ve lost their martial arts and are currently ill should be no problem.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Xiao Jue immediately sneered.
Chu Feihuan merely waved his hand indifferently. Countless bows and crossbows suddenly emerged from the darkness, instantly aimed at the middle-aged man. Each bow was immediately drawn to its limit, the creaking sounds clear and cold in the silence.
But the middle-aged man laughed even more clearly. With a wave of his sleeve, without any visible movement, he suddenly became like a wisp of wind, a trace of rain, or a section of silk—flexible beyond the limits of what a human body could achieve. With a swish he crumpled himself up, then expanded. In this one crumple and spring, he had bounced himself like a pellet in the reverse direction out through the rear window.
The moment he left, Chu Feihuan immediately issued an “Open!” command while glancing at Su Xuan.
The Phoenix Alliance formation subordinates who received the order changed their positions to open a life gate, letting the middle-aged man pass.
But they still kept the other black-clad men tightly surrounded.
The middle-aged man didn’t look back, his form like an arrow. His left sleeve swept toward a courtyard nearby, his footsteps touching down twice. The supreme lightness skill of walking on lotus platforms flowed like clouds and water as he performed it. In the blink of an eye he had risen a zhang high into the void, already several zhang away.
Suddenly came a long laugh from the eaves, clear as phoenix song. Su Xuan called out loudly in the storm, “What we agreed just now was not to hold her being bullied against you, but we didn’t say I couldn’t hold you accountable for the people killed in this village, did we?”
In his long laughter, his white shadow had already flashed, pursuing like a startled swan entering clouds.
Qin Chang Ge couldn’t help but laugh, murmuring, “These guys are indeed quite crafty.”
“But he’s also quite crafty…” Qin Chang Ge smiled wearily at Xiao Jue, who was watching her with concern. “He used a gu… I didn’t expect he could use gu too?”
Xiao Jue was greatly alarmed and immediately wanted to rush over. Chu Feihuan, who was just entering, had a cold look in his eyes and was about to speak when Qin Chang Ge already waved her hand. “It’s fine. I have my own ways to remove it. I’ll be well after some rest. You should know there’s no gu in this world that can kill me. This is Qianjue’s secret—only my sect knows it.”
She lightly tapped the table with her finger and smiled. “Maybe I’ll even turn misfortune to fortune. His ‘Jade Miasma’ is quite beneficial for improving one’s power…”
Smiling as she pulled out the charcoal she had hidden in her sleeve pouch earlier, Qin Chang Ge’s eyes gleamed cunningly in the pale dawn light.
“You have your Zhang Liang stratagem, I have my bridge-crossing ladder. You’re crafty? Do you know Qin Chang Ge is the most sinister? Remember the powder I scattered in the straw earlier? That wasn’t poisonous, but it becomes poisonous when it meets charcoal powder. Brother, when I was straightening my sleeves and flicking dust just now, you inhaled quite a bit, didn’t you? Ah… good luck to you.”
After a night of torrential rain, all the spilled blood had been silently washed clean, flowing into ditches, earth, all corners no longer visible to human eyes.
Yet those many lifeless bodies still lay quietly scattered, silently accusing fate’s cruel injustice.
The corpses of killed villagers, black-clad men, and Colorful Gu sect members who had perished were piled together haphazardly. Last night, three factions, each other’s enemies—you died by my hand, I pierced your throat. Now killer and killed would all eventually become white bones.
This stormy night of killing saw two hundred and twelve lives vanish in an instant.
One hundred thirty-one villagers, fifty-five black-clad men, twenty-six Colorful Gu sect members.
Calculating it, only one or two from each of the three forces escaped.
This was a bloody massacre where many victims didn’t even know why it happened.
Long premeditated versus utterly unaware, overwhelming power versus one-sided slaughter. Due to certain conspiracies and upheavals, innocent Shi Family Village was destined to disappear forever from Xiliang’s maps.
Chu Feihuan calmly ordered the immediate cremation of the Colorful Gu sect and black-clad men’s corpses on the spot. The remaining villagers’ bodies would await official inspection and burial after returning to the capital.
Among the cremated Colorful Gu sect corpses, he indeed found the gray-clad man who had appeared that night as the head guard of the Minister of Personnel’s mansion and had pursued him.
The man had a sword through his throat and died cleanly. His wide-open eyes staring at the sky showed endless grief and unwillingness. Chu Feihuan thought of his slightly crazed words and strange psychology that night. He dismissed everyone and personally lifted the man’s robe to examine carefully.
After a long while, he covered the robe, his face showing an expression that seemed part sadness, part hatred, part sigh, part resentment. His expression grew several degrees more somber.
Closing his eyes, he waved his hand. Phoenix Alliance subordinates immediately threw the corpse into the fire.
Roaring flames consumed the remnant body. Death was perhaps better…
The Colorful Gu demon sect… even all of Nanmin’s upper echelons were this sinister and vile, weren’t they?
Chu Feihuan turned with a stern expression. Behind him flames roared while the post-rain blue sky was clear as washing. Ahead the grassland was emerald green and dripping, with bright flowers growing in the grass. Nature’s beauty was forever indifferent to human ugliness. Unlike the turbulent, ever-changing, strange and bizarre mortal world, no matter how cruel or massive the deaths, they would never interfere with this moment’s stunning flower bloom.
Just like a beauty—no matter how bedraggled, it would never interfere with that devastating appearance.
In the mud, having changed hands several times in utter wretchedness, having escaped with her life by selling secrets only to be immediately abandoned by her new master, Yunhua was trying to use her wet, dirty hands to wipe away the dust, blood, and sweat from her face, offering Chu Feihuan a pitiful smile.
Chu Feihuan’s gaze swept past… as if not seeing, he looked beyond her to Qin Chang Ge, who still wore a mask and was covered in mud and water, looking down at Yunhua.
True devastating beauty was never merely dependent on that exquisitely arranged face, but rather the radiance of brilliant light emanating from deep within the soul that could truly make supremely graceful men turn back and linger.
Warm sunlight rose. In the sunlight, Qin Chang Ge looked indifferently at the familiar face from her previous life that belonged to herself, now hanging on a filthy body.
Xiao Jue’s disgust beside her was even more evident between his brows—this woman, using Chang Ge’s face to smile coquettishly and please others, wearing Chang Ge’s face to swagger and deceive up to his level, was nothing short of the greatest insult. It was utterly intolerable. No matter what, she must die!
Yunhua looked at Xiao Jue in despair. He was the emperor… his killing intent was severe… they all looked at her like a dead person… they hated this face… they wouldn’t spare her!
But she couldn’t die… couldn’t die…
They hated this face? But she hated it herself too… Who would want to always be someone else? Especially when you could never truly become them? Everyone was initially mesmerized by this face, then in the next instant despised and scorned her who possessed it… She’d had enough…
Yunhua covered her face with both hands, finally unable to suppress her hopeless weeping. Didn’t they say love extends to all associated things? Didn’t they say beauties were naturally meant to inspire love? When the High Priest personally crafted this face for her, didn’t he say that with this face she would be invincible and might even reach the pinnacle of power?
That night with candlelight flickering… the High Priest smiled continuously at his most satisfying work… He handed over the bright red wine cup floating with Eerie True flowers, saying: Congratulations… you will succeed.
Unexpectedly, she first encountered Xiao Jue.
Yunhua collapsed in the still-wet puddles, seemingly having no strength left to rise.
Her thin shoulders shook constantly. She appeared to be crying, but Qin Chang Ge suddenly cast her gaze over.
“Heh heh heh heh…”
The crying turned to soft laughter.
Chu Feihuan frowned, about to call for Chang Ge to step back, when he saw Yunhua suddenly raise her face. Tears streaked her face, but she broke into a fierce, mad smile.
“I shouldn’t use this face… I shouldn’t have listened to him… I shouldn’t have… I’ll return it, return it, return it to you!!!”
In her weeping, sharp laughter, she reached up. Ten fingernails sharp as daggers viciously clawed down at her own face!
Raking to the bottom in one stroke, the skin immediately split and muscle parted to both sides. In the gushing blood, she completely ignored that continuing to laugh would further tear the wounds.
“I’m returning it to you! I don’t want to be you! Because I was arranged to be like you, how much suffering have I endured? Those face-changing days… that fat old man… all those years being sent here and there… and him… and him…”
Her laughter was shrill and high, desperate and unparalleled in grief and anger, startling birds from distant trees to scatter with a flutter. In the rushing wind, her black hair flew loose and blood flowed freely as she spread her arms wide, seeming to pounce toward those cold, ruthless people who arranged her fate yet repeatedly abandoned her.
They were all human—why could no one take others’ lives, while she, wanting to stay alive, had to struggle desperately again and again, paying greater sacrifices than others?
That terrifying horror, that grief and anger that seemed like laughter but was actually weeping emerging from her chest, that face torn into ten pieces, made even the well-trained Phoenix Alliance subordinates all step back several paces.
Witnessing beautiful things violently destroyed by brutal means—that shock was truly indescribable.
And what kind of indescribable past and fury drove the person who personally destroyed this stunning beauty?
In the mad laughter, Qin Chang Ge’s expression remained unmoved. She glanced at Xiao Jue, who frowned silently—watching Qin Chang Ge’s appearance being destroyed really was a strange feeling…
“You never understood,” Qin Chang Ge said flatly. “What harmed you was never any appearance, but only yourself. Similarly, if anything could save you, it would never be because of whose face, but still yourself.”
Yunhua’s laughter suddenly stopped. She slowly turned back, staring at her with snake-like eyes.
“No need to look at me like that,” Qin Chang Ge slowly bent down, looking into her eyes. “Do you hate? Hate your own fate? Hate the creator of this face? Hate those who pushed you into those disgusting embraces, making you forever unable to love when you want to love, unable to be yourself when you want to be yourself?”
Yunhua stared blankly at her. Though she didn’t answer, her eyes glowing with a ghostly blue light on her tragically disfigured face had already fully revealed her thoughts.
Smiling with satisfaction, Qin Chang Ge lazily gave orders.
“Take her away. First settle her at the secret branch—I have use for her.”
“My heavens!” In the small courtyard, Xiao Baozi, who had been eagerly awaiting his mother’s return, saw Qin Chang Ge entering and was so shocked his voice rose eight octaves, even trembling at the end, sounding like a transvestite.
Qin Chang Ge smiled wearily at him.
Baozi immediately rushed over, touching here and there. “What happened to you? Did you cheat on the exam? Turn in a blank paper? Were you beaten by the examinees behind you who couldn’t copy your answers, or by the chief examiner?”
“Shoo, shoo!” Qin Chang Ge grabbed this Crown Prince whose mouth spouted nonsense and pushed him away. “Men and women shouldn’t touch!”
“A fair lady is a gentleman’s good match!” Baozi didn’t retreat at all. “You’re male, I’m female—what’s wrong with that?”
“Right, I’m male, you’re female. How is your brain constructed?” Qin Chang Ge glared at her son irritably. “Your father is sick and was sent back to the palace. Why don’t you go back and be a filial son?”
“Sick?” Baozi was stunned. “You two don’t come back all night, and when you return, one looks like she’s been skinned three layers, the other is sick. What kind of situation is this?… Ah, it couldn’t be, could it?”
Qin Chang Ge was very afraid of what strange thoughts her son’s differently constructed brain might produce. Just as she was about to give a simple explanation, Baozi had already glanced at Chu Feihuan following behind and mysteriously leaned close to his mother’s ear, whispering, “Could it be he went to a brothel, you went to catch him in adultery, then you two fought? Godfather rushed to mediate? Or you went to a brothel, he went to catch you in adultery, and godfather went to catch you both? I think the latter is more likely.”
He looked seriously at Qin Chang Ge and shook his head. “Mother, as the future emperor of Xiliang, visiting brothels reportedly helps develop national strength and stabilize the people’s hearts, so I needn’t care. But as your son, I have a responsibility to remind you—that, visiting brothels isn’t hygienic.”
…
Smiling as she bent down and whispered in her son’s ear, “Tomorrow I’ll tell your father to add two more tutors to the Eastern Palace—one to teach during meals, one to instruct during toilet breaks, to form a comprehensive, targeted, highly efficient educational system for you. How about that, Crown Prince?”
“Not good at all,” the Crown Prince said solemnly, reaching out to support his mother. “Your son’s trivial studies—how dare I trouble the busy mother to personally worry? Mother, come, go sleep. I’ll bring you bird’s nest soup.”
“Good, so filial,” Qin Chang Ge went to wash up, comfortably allowing her son to serve her as she climbed into bed, slowly drinking the loving bird’s nest soup. She looked up at Chu Feihuan. “You used your ability again? Feihuan, you don’t look well. I told you not to use it lightly.”
“It’s fine,” Chu Feihuan’s pale face was lightly composed in the strip of light by the window lattice. In that ink-wash-like lightness lay several degrees of depth unwilling to be known. Over time it had also become like marks deeply embedded in fossil, crosswise and slanting, unchanged through long years. Or perhaps accustomed to a certain existence—when present it felt light as a clear breeze, but if lost one day, the emptiness and shock would be like suddenly encountering lightning in a wasteland, swift and bewildering across the years.
“Last night I felt unusually restless. When Rong’er said you had left the city, I came looking. Leader Su was a chance encounter—he seemed to have just returned to the capital, wanting to lodge at Shi Family Village but encountered the village massacre.” Chu Feihuan’s expression showed some disapproval. “Given your extraordinary identities, you really shouldn’t venture out alone so rashly.”
Smiling bitterly, Qin Chang Ge said, “I understand. In any case, last night’s events were quite coincidental, but we also gained some information from the misfortune. Some of my long-held suspicions have been somewhat resolved—that’s also a harvest. Feihuan, is something troubling you?”
“Mm…” Chu Feihuan, who had been staring blankly into space, startled and said, “Seeing Leader Su last night, I felt his expression was somewhat strange, so I was thinking…”
“Don’t,” Qin Chang Ge raised an eyebrow. “You can’t exhaust yourself further. Feihuan, don’t underestimate my abilities. If something’s wrong, I’ll know. Besides, Su Xuan has always been one of our allies.”
“Mm,” Chu Feihuan didn’t insist either, suddenly saying, “Chang Ge.”
“Mm?”
“Be prepared,” Chu Feihuan’s tone was indifferent, yet each word carried backbone.
“Flying Shark Guards have infiltrated Xiliang.”
He opened his palm.
In his jade-like palm was a faint impression shaped like a flying shark rising from water, teeth bared menacingly, startling waves and skimming rapids.
“When even forces from nations dwelling far from the sea have arrived, what reason do we have not to suspect,” Chu Feihuan looked toward the east and north, his eyes deeply transforming into blade light, “…that killing intent is approaching step by step?”