Chapter 23 - 20: Changing the World by Night
Lu Changyuan raised an eyebrow. "You’re just going to obey your ancestor’s arrangements like that?"
Su Youwan’s expression remained unchanged, as if she were a Bodhisattva who had attained perfect serenity. "I see nothing wrong with it."
’This saintly Female Bodhisattva is right in front of me,’ Lu Changyuan thought. ’With a single touch, I could make her weep and wail, her cries as melodic as a warbler’s song.’
’Are they trying to make me her elder?!’
So Lu Changyuan said, "I refuse. What’s the other matter?"
Su Youwan nodded, her expression impassive. "Then we shall set aside the matter of marriage for now. As for the second matter, the Blood Demon Palace has come for the sword in our imperial treasury. Noodle Granny asked me to tell you."
"Yeah, I know." Lu Changyuan yawned, utterly unsurprised. "That Second Prince must have started his coup by now. I can already smell the blood in the air."
"It must be. My second brother has never been content with his position and has always wanted the throne. I learned yesterday when I entered the palace that he had already bribed several units of the Forbidden Army, but I did not intervene."
More than half the month had passed.
A new day had begun.
[Three days remaining until the emergence of the Heavenly Repair Pill]
"You don’t intervene when your guests start a fight, and you won’t intervene when your own family is in turmoil?"
In the candlelight, a flicker of movement crossed Su Youwan’s breathtakingly beautiful face. Her long eyelashes fluttered, and she let out a soft laugh, her emotions impossible to discern.
"A woman’s duty is to her husband once married. It has never been a woman’s place to speak on the conflicts within her own family."
’An excuse like that might only work on Xia Lianxue.’
Never mind the fact that Su Youwan was still unmarried; with her status, she could easily interfere with the succession of the Glazed Immortal Dynasty’s throne. If she wished it, even if the Second Prince managed to ascend the throne tonight, he would be forced to abdicate by morning.
But this saintly Third Princess seemed unwilling to get involved, so she made a flimsy excuse to watch from the sidelines.
It was as if she were devoid of emotion, a mere witness.
"If that is all, then I shall take my leave."
The young woman watched Lu Changyuan, as if waiting for his reply, or perhaps for him to change his mind.
Lu Changyuan said abruptly, "I’ve answered several of your questions. It’s only fair that you answer one of mine."
Su Youwan considered this for a moment. "That is fair. Please ask, sir."
"What’s in that cage of yours?"
From the moment Lu Changyuan first saw this Third Princess, she had been blindfolded and carrying a birdcage shrouded in black cloth.
No one knew why this Bodhisattva-like cultivator carried a cage. Naturally, Lu Changyuan was curious too.
"It contains Youwan."
A sudden knock came at the door, followed by a gentle voice from outside. "Sir?"
When Lu Changyuan turned back, Su Youwan was gone.
Xia Lianxue opened the door, looking sheepish. "Um... I accidentally fell asleep."
"Eat when you’re hungry and sleep when you’re tired. That’s what it means to be truly free. And the goal of Cultivation is freedom itself."
Lu Changyuan looked perfectly serious, giving no hint that he had just been discussing marriage with a Female Bodhisattva—in a room that had nearly become the site of a maiden’s first tears.
"Um... Sir."
"What is it?"
"Could you come outside for a moment?"
Puzzled, Lu Changyuan stepped outside, only to see the Fairy suddenly draw her sword. The blade, slender and seemingly light yet possessing a weighty presence, kicked up a gust of wind, followed by a muffled boom.
Vermilion!
’She actually mastered it!?’
"I just took a short nap, and it seems I... learned it. Did you do something to me, Sir?"
Of course, Lu Changyuan hadn’t done a thing.
’This True Inheritor from Miao Yu Palace truly has remarkable talent.’
But Lu Changyuan said anyway, "I just transferred a sliver of Sword Intent to you while you were sleeping. You must have attained Sword Enlightenment in your dream."
Xia Lianxue blinked her beautiful eyes, her delicate nose perking up slightly. ’Just as I thought,’ she mused, then said, "Thank you, Sir."
Lu Changyuan waved his hand. "Go on back to bed. Tomorrow’s going to be busy."
Once Xia Lianxue had returned to her room, Lu Changyuan went back to gazing at the stars.
The white scar across the sky was still brilliant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Su Youwan left Lu Changyuan’s temporary residence, birdcage in hand, and slowly walked toward the heart of the conflict.
She advanced step by step, and the soldiers locked in mortal combat seemed completely unable to see her, perceiving only a gentle breeze brushing past.
Men were killed, fell, and bled, but none of it could stain the Princess’s dress.
Finally, she arrived at the edge of the Imperial Palace.
Just then, a man holding a Brass Treasure Mirror came rushing toward her.
Su Youwan thought, ’Perfect timing. A little early, even. I should have stayed for another cup of tea at that gentleman’s home. I can see through the motives and actions of everyone here, yet I cannot see through him. He doesn’t even exist in the threads of fate I divine with my Daoist Techniques.’
’That’s why I went to probe him tonight. But he’s completely unyielding. He didn’t even show a hint of lust, as if he’d severed all worldly desires.’
’So be it.’
’The ways of fate are fifty, yet only forty-nine can be divined. There is always one variable that remains.’
"Third Princess!?"
The man stopped in front of Su Youwan. He was an old man with a head of white hair.
He was the National Preceptor of the Glazed Dynasty, a cultivator at the Fifth Realm Jade Balance. He had been a childhood playmate of the Late Emperor and an elder to the Emperor who had just recently passed.
His entire life had been dedicated to ensuring the continuation of the Glazed Dynasty, and today was no exception.
The National Preceptor stared at Su Youwan in disbelief. "Your Highness, you intend to stop me?"
Su Youwan inclined her head. Her silvery-white hair drifted in the wind, revealing her elegant neck and giving her a fragile, broken look, like a spring flower that blooms for only three days.
"I do. Might I ask you, Lord National Preceptor, not to interfere in tonight’s affairs?"
"You support the Second Prince!?"
"That is not the case."
The National Preceptor raised the Treasure Mirror. "Then why do you obstruct me here, Your Highness?"
Su Youwan spoke softly, "My master has given an order."
"Then forgive this old official’s impudence!"
The full power of his Fifth-Realm Magic poured into the Mirror. The National Preceptor intended to temporarily incapacitate the Third Princess, then enter the Imperial Palace and execute the traitors.
He was already late. Someone had obscured the threads of fate, causing him to misread the signs.
With a soft POP, a ripple bloomed in the air.
Su Youwan reached out with a beautifully slender hand and tossed the birdcage into the sky. The black cloth fell away like a curtain rising on a grand play.
The National Preceptor looked down at his body in disbelief—he was completely immobilized.
"Third Princess!" the National Preceptor cried out, his voice trembling from within the confines of the birdcage. "Your Highness... you’ve broken through to the Fifth Realm?"
"Not yet, but I am close. My master told me to suppress my Realm."
The National Preceptor thrashed wildly inside the birdcage, trying to break free, but it was no use. "Your family affairs are not my place to interfere, but Your Highness! The Second Prince has colluded with those fiends from the Blood Demon Palace! They’ve already drawn upon Immortal Blood, and now mortal blood! The Dragon Vein is unstable, and they mean to use this chance to pull out the Demon-Suppressing Sword!"
The Second Prince might not know what the Blood Demon Palace was plotting, but the National Preceptor did. He had initially believed it was merely a common coup and had not wished to get involved. But just moments ago, his divinations of the heavens revealed that he had been deceived, and a great calamity was about to befall Upper Jade Capital.
That was why he had rushed here, never expecting to be stopped by Su Youwan.
"If that sword is truly pulled out, Upper Jade Capital will be destroyed! This is the ancestors’ decree, Your Highness!"
The Bodhisattva remained blindfolded, her face devoid of joy or sorrow.
As if observing from high above the nine heavens.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hand-Eating Monk was about to explode with rage.
He was undoubtedly far stronger than this rabble from the Minor Sects, but there was a damned sword that thwarted him at every turn.
Several times, the Elixir had been within his grasp, only for that accursed flash of sword light to force him to miss his chance.
"Who is it? Get the hell out here and show yourself!"
The Hand-Eating Monk seethed. Ever since the Eating Buddha Sect had been besieged, nothing had gone right for them.
He and the Heart-Eating Monk had come to seize the Heavenly Repair Pill, but there was still no sign of his companion. The Hand-Eating Monk couldn’t handle this alone. He had planned to end things quickly, but he was being thwarted again and again.
He formed his hand into a palm, chanted the Five-Word Mantra, and sent a cultivator who was trying to snatch the Elixir flying with a single strike, coughing up blood.
A colossal Evil Buddha Statue materialized behind him. The three-headed apparition on its shoulders reached out, grabbed another Cultivator by the leg, and then viciously tore the man’s arm from his shoulder.
Amidst a pained shriek, the Hand-Eating Monk snatched the man’s severed hand from the ground. But before he could act, the flash of sword light struck again.
"The Eating Buddha Sect is as disgusting as ever. Can you even be called human anymore?"
The voice drifted over, calm and unhurried.
There, on the roof of an attic under the full moon, stood a man with a sword at his side and a wine gourd tucked into his sash. He lifted the gourd, uncorked it, and took a long swig.
The Hand-Eating Monk shrieked, "Li Qingcao! Don’t tell me you think the Eating Buddha Sect is afraid of your Qingcao Sword Sect! Must you hunt us to extinction?"
The man didn’t turn around, simply addressing the moon. "What a question. Do you ask the moon, ’Are you the moon’?"
"Then let’s see whose Magic is superior!" the Hand-Eating Monk shrieked. A malevolent wind shot toward the man. "I’ll rip open your chest and tear out your organs to bring back for my sect to feast upon!"
But halfway through his charge, the Hand-Eating Monk’s appearance transformed. His body sprouted thick, dark fur, which then grew wildly in the wind, morphing into innumerable black hands.
The man, Li Qingcao, sighed. "You’ve completely ruined the mood for drinking. Are you trying to imitate the Thousand-Handed Guanyin of the Compassionate Palace? Her hands are slender and pale as jade. And yours? They look like unshaven dog paws."
He staggered to his feet, tilted his head back for another swig of wine from his gourd, then casually kicked a roof tile at the Hand-Eating Monk.
"My master always said, ’The method of methods is no method, the emptiness of emptiness is also...’"
The Hand-Eating Monk shattered the tile with a punch, only to see a cold glint of light behind the fragments.
Li Qingcao had already drawn his sword.
"Ah, forget it. Seeing as you have so many hands, you must be quite unhealthy. Let me help you prune those branches! A person is only supposed to have two hands and two legs, after all."
With a single slash, more than half of the thousand hands behind the Hand-Eating Monk were severed. They crashed to the ground, corroding the stone path with a dense pattern of holes.
SKREEE!
The Hand-Eating Monk violently vomited a yellowish substance. The unknown bile emitted a foul stench, then congealed into squirming, hand-shaped worms. Their target, however, was not Li Qingcao, but the homes of the common people lining the street.
Li Qingcao frowned. His longsword instantly multiplied, the copies raining down from the sky to pin the disgusting creatures to the ground.
By the time Li Qingcao turned around again, the Hand-Eating Monk had vanished without a trace.
’Looks like that last strike scared him witless.’
Li Qingcao gave a helpless smile and shook his wine gourd.
It was empty.
He suddenly whipped his head around to look toward the Imperial Palace, a prickling sensation spreading through him like a thousand needles.