Year 476 CE

Tuoba Hong dismounted swiftly at the palace gates, handed the reins to a guard, then removed his helmet and strode toward the palace interior. As retired emperor, he didn’t need to remove his sword in the palace, nor wait for summons to enter.

Looking at the long-missed palace grounds, Tuoba Hong couldn’t help feeling the attachment of returning home. Though before age eighteen, he had always viewed this place as a prison, these five years of leading troops in campaigns everywhere had filled him with nostalgia for here. Watching eunuchs and palace maids prostrate themselves one by one as he passed, their faces showing heartfelt reverence and awe, Tuoba Hong smiled with satisfaction.

Five years ago, after discovering that retreat couldn’t bring him true freedom, Tuoba Hong had decided to create a realm of protection for his son. Since he couldn’t compete with Feng Qi in the court, he turned his attention to the military.

As emperor of the Xianbei people, though Tuoba Hong had grown up in the deep palace under women’s care, he had never neglected archery and military strategy. Only then did he fully understand that if he didn’t want to be looked down upon, he must possess great strength. Fortunately he had already abdicated to Tuoba Hong – if he were still emperor, he definitely couldn’t personally lead troops in campaigns. During these five years, externally he had campaigned north and south expanding territory, while internally, as his own power grew, he could take opportunities to inspect the country, rectify administration, and promote talent. Continuing this diligent governance with both internal and external efforts would surely create a clear and stable realm for Tuoba Hong. He was only twenty-three this year – the future was still long.

The more Tuoba Hong thought, the more ambitious he felt. He wasn’t a very ambitious person, just wanting to protect the only person he cared about. When Tuoba Hong grew up, he could gradually hand state affairs over to him.

Tuoba Hong thought his son was already nine years old this year. This campaign had lasted over a year without seeing him – he wondered if he had been eating well and whether he’d grown taller. Tuoba Hong’s steps quickened, but just as he was about to step out of the corridor, a eunuch rushed out from the side, prostrating before him and saying respectfully: “Retired Emperor, the Grand Empress Dowager requests your presence.”

Tuoba Hong narrowed his eyes slightly, hesitated only briefly, then nodded: “Lead the way.”

Following the eunuch through winding corridors, Tuoba Hong didn’t know where he was being taken. He had rarely returned during these five years, and the palace had been renovated. It was midsummer now with flowers blooming in splendor. Tuoba Hong relaxed seeing the beautiful scenery. The eunuch didn’t stop until reaching a pavilion in a hibiscus flower garden.

Tuoba Hong looked at the graceful silhouette warming wine and admiring flowers in the pavilion, his heart pounding violently.

This woman – even though he now stood opposite her, even though he had long cut off his fantasies about her, at the moment of seeing her, he still couldn’t deceive his heart.

His campaigns abroad were actually also to avoid her, weren’t they?

Tuoba Hong sighed silently and stepped onto the stairs leading to the pavilion, walking up step by step.

Hearing the crisp friction of armor, Feng Qi turned her head and saw a young, handsome man holding a helmet, wearing silver armor, incomparably valiant, his features filled with the dignified and commanding presence forged on battlefields, stepping forward in the sunlight. The armor on his body reflected sunlight so blindingly one couldn’t look directly, so magnificent he seemed almost like a heavenly general descended to earth.

Feng Qi couldn’t help narrowing her phoenix eyes. Her originally firm resolve wavered violently before being forcefully suppressed again.

Tuoba Hong also raised his head, looking at Feng Qi in lake-blue dress among the hibiscus flowers, more beautiful than the blooms. Time had left few traces on her face – she remained stunningly beautiful. Tuoba Hong couldn’t help being dazed, almost thinking he’d returned to their first meeting years ago. Then she had also worn lake-blue palace maid dress, hiding among hibiscus flowers crying softly…

It was actually the same now.

Her lips were clearly upturned, but her expression looked like she was about to cry.

Tuoba Hong could clearly see that her face was covered by a mask, hiding her gentleness and replacing it with calculation and coldness.

He knew that if he wanted, if he reached out his hand, he could remove that mask from her face and see her former self again. He also knew that if she wanted, if she lifted her hand, she could remove that sanctimonious mask.

But neither of them moved.

Only after their gazes met for an instant did they simultaneously avoid each other’s eyes.

She still wore that mask, while he still clenched his fists.

Feng Qi knew the mask she wore could easily be removed, but she also knew that if a mask was worn too long, even she didn’t know how to take it off anymore. Even she beneath the mask had gradually become like the mask – the former her could no longer be found.

She heard herself smile and say: “Hong’er, you’ve returned. Would you like to drink with me?”

Feng Qi knew the young, handsome man before her wouldn’t refuse. He was madly infatuated with her, even now.

The Xianbei people weren’t like the Han – fathers and sons, brothers sharing wives wasn’t unusual. Back then, if she had loosened up slightly, she could have easily controlled this young emperor through love.

But she hadn’t wanted to use such methods against him. She wanted a perfect emperor who could replace Tuoba Jun. She arranged concubines for him, watched his son be born, hoping to see a powerful emperor born who would lead Tuoba Jun’s empire to prosperity.

But she had been disappointed. He actually turned to Buddhism? Abdicated? Even led troops to war?

Such an emperor was better not needed.

She would take over the empire Jun had left. Because this empire should have belonged to her grandfather originally, now belonged to her – she wouldn’t give it to anyone.

Feng Qi watched Tuoba Hong set down his helmet and sit before her. She rolled up her cloud-like sleeves and personally poured wine for him, watching him slowly drink all the poisoned wine she had specially prepared for him, not leaving a drop.

Watching him suddenly widen his handsome eyes, looking at her in disbelief, blood constantly overflowing from his lips, Feng Qi suddenly felt her heart pierced like needles, as if she were the one who had drunk poison.

So she really had changed.

It was she who was unwilling to give up power and government, she who had truly fallen into the whirlpool of authority.

Only because power was all that remained in her life, she wouldn’t let go.

Just like after a Buddha statue cracked, its true form was broken and could never be a Buddha statue again.

Just like she was no longer the kind-eyed, benevolent Bodhisattva of years past – in time’s ferocity, she had long fallen and transformed into an Asura.

Feng Qi lightly tucked the loose hair by her ears and sighed ethereally: “Buddha says life has seven sufferings: birth, aging, sickness, death, meeting with hatred, separation from love, and not obtaining what one seeks…”

In 476 CE, Northern Wei Emperor Xianwen Tuoba Hong was poisoned by Grand Empress Dowager Feng Qi at only twenty-three years old.

The next day, Tuoba Hong suppressed the rage in his chest and waited for Feng Qi’s summons before the Buddhist hall. Like his father eleven years ago, he pushed open the doors of that Buddhist hall and saw that head-separated, broken Solitary Jade Buddha.

In 493 CE, Tuoba Hong moved the capital to Luoyang and began construction of the famous Longmen Grottoes.

In 499 CE, Northern Wei Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong contracted illness and died suddenly at only thirty-three years old.

The Buddha statue’s curse continued…

Year 2012 CE, Luoyang Longmen Grottoes

“Wow… it’s really magnificent…” In the dark night, beneath the towering Buddha statue of Binyang Central Cave, stood a young man wearing a black shirt embroidered with red dragon patterns. But these words weren’t spoken by him.

On the owner’s shoulder perched a rabbit plushie – it was the doctor. He felt the paulownia puppet was too inconvenient. Thinking of the artificial body setting from some anime he’d seen before, he felt that in his situation, a soft plushie would be easier to control, so he had the owner find a plushie to try. Though this soft, cute appearance left him somewhat speechless, at least this way he could control the plushie’s hand and foot movements. Compared to the immobile paulownia puppet, the doctor was quite satisfied.

Though it would be better if it were a more imposing lion or tiger design, the doctor moved his overly long rabbit ears with some exasperation. But he was quickly distracted by the story the owner had just told. “Owner, the jade Buddha in your hand is that Solitary Jade Buddha, right? Is the curse really so strange?”

In the brocade box in the owner’s hands, a jade Buddha lay quietly within. Gold rings were embedded at the head and neck, perfectly concealing the original hideous crack, making it look like the Buddha statue wore golden ring decorations. The owner looked down indifferently: “That’s right. Since Emperor Taiwu, basically every Northern Wei emperor failed to live past prime age. Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong lived the longest, only because he was diligent in government and loved the people, and also built the Longmen Grottoes. Actually, he built the Longmen Grottoes not for himself, but to pray for his father’s blessings. So after Tuoba Hong died, his posthumous title was ‘Xiao’ (Filial).”

“This Solitary Jade Buddha is stained with an imperial curse, so it should be able to suppress the Heaven and Earth emperor’s energy of this place.” The owner sighed gently. When he had presented this Solitary Jade Buddha to Northern Wei Emperor Taiwu years ago, it hadn’t been for such a purpose. Jade was an auspicious object, but broken jade was evil, and a shattered jade Buddha was utterly fallen – all the surface benevolence couldn’t hide the inner darkness.

The doctor watched the owner bury the Solitary Jade Buddha in Binyang Central Cave just as he had with the Heavenly Yue Axe, and couldn’t help murmuring: “The Heavenly Yue Axe represented imperial suspicion – what does this Solitary Jade Buddha represent?”

The owner was silent for a long time before sighing lightly: “Life has seven sufferings: birth, aging, sickness, death, meeting with hatred, separation from love, and not obtaining what one seeks… Even emperors are mortals who cannot escape these seven sufferings of the human world…”