Chapter 501: Eastern Depot Wins Merit
Chen Tang turned his head. The newcomer was Eastern Depot Director Eunuch Feng, Feng Tianhuan. Eunuch Feng used to sit in a wheelchair, but this time he wasn’t in one; both legs were perfectly fine, and he strode in with fierce momentum.
Chen Tang said, “So it’s Lord Feng. What nonsense are you saying? My Chen family has served loyally for three generations; how could we conspire in rebellion?”
His Realm of Emptiness was slowly shifting, ready at any moment to become the Mysterious Micro Divine Sword and fight Eunuch Feng to the death.
“Feng Tianhuan is also a top expert. Whether I could kill him quickly is still uncertain.”
Chen Tang’s gaze flickered as he calculated the moment to strike. “But not yet time to use the Talisman God Tianji.”
Eunuch Feng seemed to sense his intent and hastily smiled, “Lord Chen, the Eastern Depot means no harm. We only came to ask so we could find a place to stand. The court has been in disarray for a long time, the Western Capital still hasn’t been established, and I don’t think it will be soon. Ever since the calamity ended, the fifty provinces are in chaos and the people want change. This is precisely the time for King Chen to rise.”
Chen Tang interrupted, shaking his head, “The new capital Xinxiang does not need the Eastern Depot.”
Eunuch Feng didn’t understand and chuckled, “The Eastern Depot can monitor the realm for the True King, keep an eye on civil and military officials, gather intelligence for the True King, and prevent problems before they arise! Also, the True King’s harem needs eunuchs to manage it! Lord Chen, give the unfortunate people a chance.”
He pursed his lips and, without realizing how loudly he spoke, continued, “Lord Chen, your father Chen Yindu started from nothing, and you were born the son of a Vice Minister of Rites. But I am different. I was sold to the palace. At seven years old I was sold to the palace, and my master personally performed my castration. He said…”
His voice took on a thin sharp edge, “Tianhuan, opportunities for the poor to rise are too few. Being a eunuch is one of the rare chances. If you’re no longer a man, you can have a future, you can survive, you can cultivate and become an expert, you can stand out, become an official, hold power, and support your parents and siblings. These things were gained by losing that thing, it’s not a loss!”
His voice trembled a little, “Lord Chen, we eunuchs have few desires. We are sincerely loyal to the True King, we are truly willing to die for him! Please, Lord Chen, give us miserable people a way out! We eunuchs can do anything for the True King!”
Chen Tang shook his head, “The imperial capital does not need eunuchs.”
Eunuch Feng looked somewhat crestfallen.
Chen Tang said, “What the capital needs is integrity, people who can supervise officials and audit their merits and crimes, people who can feel the people’s grievances and know how to employ talent, people who understand the movements of evil spirits and monitor demonic transformations and disasters. These people can be men or women; there is no need to castrate themselves, nor to attach themselves to powerful courtiers. They can have academies, cultivate from childhood, become experts, and hold power, and their families and friends will be well taken care of. Lord Feng, can your Eastern Depot do those things?”
Eunuch Feng grew excited, “The Eastern Depot can do it!”
Chen Tang shook his head, “But the Eastern Depot does not need to be run by eunuchs.”
Eunuch Feng laughed, “If there wasn’t no other option, which parent would willingly send their child to the palace and have that taken away? But can the True King truly ensure that poor children won’t have to become eunuchs to have a future? Lord Chen, will the new court truly not become the old court?”
Chen Tang’s face turned solemn, “Our generation will not. Our descendants might. But we will try everything possible to prevent that from happening.”
Eunuch Feng nodded silently, still unwilling to accept it. “The harem will still need some eunuchs, right? The harem is full of palace maids, concubines, and ladies; messages must be passed in and out. If you use palace maids, mouths are loose. The True King will still need close eunuchs.”
Chen Tang hesitated, “Lord Feng, why are you so intent on filling the palace with eunuchs?”
Eunuch Feng blushed, “To be frank, after the calamity I returned to the countryside and saw people still starving. Some families truly can’t afford children. They heard I served in the palace, so they had their children castrated and sent them to me, hoping that when peace returns and I go back to the palace, I could give those children a future.”
Chen Tang opened his mouth; his voice was hoarse, “Is it that difficult?”
Eunuch Feng’s face folded into a smile, creasing like an orange dried in the sun, “Lord Chen, it’s terribly difficult!”
Chen Tang stood motionless for a long time, then finally said, “Fine. Send them here.”
Eunuch Feng was overjoyed and bowed deeply, “I will thank you on their behalf, Lord Chen!”
Chen Tang helped him up and said, “Then please gather intelligence around the provinces for me, Lord Feng.”
Eunuch Feng replied, “I dare not. What are Lord Chen’s plans?”
Chen Tang said, “This war’s main point is not conquering the realm, but governing it. Destroying the Twelve Great Clans isn’t hard. With our current strength we can sweep both Yin and Yang realms, but governance is the difficult part—how to rule without repeating the old mistakes. If there is no difference from before, then we ourselves have become evil spirits; we have failed.”
He paused, “King Chen says that to avoid becoming evil spirits, we must widely promote academies, and spread cultivation methods that once only the great clans could practice. We must bring them to the countryside, to the poor, so cultivation is no longer the privilege of the powerful.”
“There must also be rules for selecting talent that do not focus only on birth. The rules must be meritocratic and virtue-based, so people can fully use their intelligence and talents. If cultivators increase, will there still be so many evil spirits? If there are more true immortals, will the sun and moon still be covered by flesh?”
He smiled, “I believe that if the new court follows this path, the sun and moon will be bright and the stars will appear. Then we will no longer need the Celestial True God, because there will be real sun and moon in the sky. Lord Feng, I must contact other capable ministers. Farewell!”
Eunuch Feng watched him go, feeling an inexplicable surge of emotion, like a warm current circling his chest.
“Lord Chen, will the era you imagine really come?”
After a moment he turned and left, thinking to himself, “We eunuchs may not have that thing, but we will fight for others to have it!”
He returned to Bluestone Alley and pushed open a black door. Behind it stood the Feng family mansion. That alley had originally been for poor residents; after Eunuch Feng became a Seal-Holding Eunuch in the Western Capital, he funded renovations and rebuilt the poor houses in the lane.
Inside the old Feng mansion, several young eunuchs greeted him. In the main hall Eunuch Feng sat and instructed, “Immediately summon the Eastern Depot’s experts and contact our forces in each region. On the Western Ox New Continent, there will be a True King.”
The young eunuchs acknowledged and hurried off.
The Eastern Depot had always been the court’s most important intelligence agency, with its own methods. It could rapidly contact its operatives everywhere.
Eunuch Feng closed his eyes to rest and waited quietly.
By evening the Bluestone Alley suddenly fell silent. The bustling sounds that had once filled the lane—the children kicking shuttlecocks, women gossiping at doors, drunken men shouting, elders coughing—vanished into an eerie stillness.
The creak of a door came. Two tall figures entered, and upon reaching the main hall they knelt with two heavy thuds.
Eunuch Feng opened his eyes and smiled, “Bai Sihai, Yan Shuangtian, you both came.”
The two kneeling men were his adopted sons, Bai Sihai and Yan Shuangtian. They were also eunuchs, but when in the Western Capital they had supported the Young Master against Chen Shi and Chen Tang, and had been dismissed.
Bai Sihai kowtowed, “Foster father, you have been more gracious than words can say. Your son failed to care for you in your old age and is ashamed! I come to beg forgiveness!”
He prostrated heavily until the hall reverberated with the sound.
Yan Shuangtian also kowtowed and choked back tears, “Foster father taught us reading, letters, and cultivation when we were sent to the palace as child eunuchs with no power. Without you, we would not be who we are! Yet we were fools, repeatedly opposing you with consciences eaten by dogs!”
He hit the floor even louder than Bai Sihai.
Eunuch Feng watched them with smiling eyes, “You see your wrongs and repent. How could I blame you further? After all, you are my good sons. Rise.”
Bai Sihai’s tears streamed but he refused to get up, choked, “I will not rise! To think I would once have handed my foster father over—my regret is unbearable!”
Yan Shuangtian cried out, “Foster father, you have been wise all your life. Why would you rebel? Today we must slay blood for justice!”
Eunuch Feng’s smile bloomed like a flower, “Good sons, true sons of our household.”
Bai Sihai wiped his eyes and smiled up, “That is because our foster father taught us well.”
Eunuch Feng sighed, “I taught you reading and letters but forgot to teach you how to be men. That is my fault. If you can turn from the wrong path and come with me to the new capital Xinxiang to assist the True King, I can still secure you riches and honor.”
“How could an old man as senile as I be so confused?” Yan Shuangtian said, “The court’s surname is Zhu, not Chen!”
“Six thousand years, where is the Zhu surname?” Eunuch Feng slammed the table and roared, “Those who hold state power are the Thirteen Great Clans, not the Zhu surname! When the Thirteen Great Clans claim the True King’s name yet act as the True King, that is usurpation and rebellion!”
He lamented, “I taught you to read and cultivate to limit the Thirteen Great Clans’ power, not to let you collude with them! Did I castrate you? No! It was the Thirteen Great Clans! We only cut off those parts to curb their power!”
His body trembled with anger as he stood, “Bai Sihai, Yan Shuangtian, I know you both still have influence in the Eastern Depot. My actions can’t be hidden from you. So I deliberately leaked the rumor to use this chance to purge the disobedient within the Eastern Depot.”
Yan Shuangtian and Bai Sihai exchanged a glance and slowly rose. Bai Sihai, sorrowful, choked, “Foster father, if we come to kill you, it is for the Eastern Depot’s sake. Please do not hate us!”
Before his words were finished, he struck without hesitation!
He cultivated the Taoyin Spirit-Treasure Scripture, a technique taught by the Young Master. Its practice hones the internal organs and imprints various talismans on the body, treating oneself as a treasure to be refined. Practitioners even ingest black dog blood and perform votive rites. At high levels the body can transform into ritual implements—bells, tripods, towers, brushes, inkstones, knives, spears, swords, halberds—with terrifying power.
Yan Shuangtian cultivated the same Taoyin Spirit-Treasure Scripture. Both had once practiced other methods, but after the Young Master taught them this scripture they made it their main cultivation.
Bai Sihai leaped and became a great cauldron in midair. The cauldron’s inner space became a Realm of Emptiness; the sun and moon drifted within, starlight shimmering. Mysterious talisman patterns rose on the cauldron wall like gods standing on its surface.
The great cauldron dozens of zhang high whirled with roaring power and slammed toward Eunuch Feng. Its force radiated, shattering nearby houses and cracking the earth, everything about to be pulverized.
Eunuch Feng grounded himself and released his own Realm of Emptiness, instantly enveloping the cauldron and Yan Shuangtian together.
As the cauldron struck, Eunuch Feng slashed out a cyan arc to block it. The arc shattered under the impact, sending him flying backward. His palm lightly landed on the cauldron, which trembled and suddenly transformed into a sharp sword. Brilliant sword lights shot out, each blade striking at his joints with exquisite precision, the technique like a master cutting an ox with absolute skill.
Eunuch Feng retreated in the air, dodging and employing a refined finger technique. The fingerwork was delicate as a woman threading a needle, carrying subtle yin softness, yet at the critical moment his fingertip struck the sword’s surface.
He rose ever higher, away from the city.
“I’ll come!” Yan Shuangtian laughed and leaped up, transforming into a goose-feather blade. The long blade chopped down from the sky, and with it fell thousands of blade lights, like the Guan Yin pouring out her pure vase—the blade light cascading down.
Eunuch Feng evaded the sudden silver flash, only to see the blade morph into a wind-and-fire wheel that smashed into him, rolling and ramming him and blasting him dozens of miles away.
Eunuch Feng had barely regained his feet and extinguished the flames on his body when the talisman artifacts formed by Bai Sihai and Yan Shuangtian struck again.
Eunuch Feng fought carefully, unleashing all he had learned to resist their assault, but the Taoyin Spirit-Treasure Scripture’s transformations were truly subtle. Though Feng knew many Dao methods, they could not match the changing treasure-forms of the two.
He suffered repeated injuries; his stamina was no longer what it had been.
“You’re old, foster father!” Bai Sihai’s golden bowl form descended and tried to clamp down on Eunuch Feng. Golden rays shot from the bowl and bound his body. Over the bowl came Bai Sihai’s voice laughing, “The Thirteen Great Clans are unassailable. Only by joining them can our Eastern Depot thrive and guarantee our eunuchs’ honor and wealth!”
Eunuch Feng used everything he had to resist the golden bowl, when suddenly Yan Shuangtian transformed into a long spear and stabbed. The spear shook like a dragon and enveloped Feng’s whole body.
Eunuch Feng could not hold his form and was sucked into the golden bowl with a whoosh.
The golden bowl immediately became a vermilion gourd over a zhang high, trapping Eunuch Feng inside.
The spear also transformed into a red furnace, swallowing the vermilion gourd.
The furnace fire roared as they jointly refined Eunuch Feng.
Suddenly the gourd cried out, “How comfortable, how comfortable! I feel my power growing!”
Yan Shuangtian shouted, “You refined foster father; of course you’re stronger! Don’t refine him completely; leave some for me!”
The gourd Bai Sihai had become replied, “It seems it wasn’t me refining him. He used me as an offering! So comfortable—being used by foster father feels wonderful!”
Hearing that, Yan Shuangtian knew something was wrong. “The Taoyin Spirit-Treasure Scripture has been found out by foster father!”
He immediately returned from the furnace to his true form and tried to abandon Bai Sihai and escape through the void. Just as he transformed, the gourd mouth opened. Eunuch Feng, in tattered clothes, shot out, grabbed the gourd and performed a rite. The gourd turned into a Mount Tai that pressed down.
Yan Shuangtian pushed with all his power to lift the mountain, when suddenly his nape went tight—Eunuch Feng had grabbed the skin of the back of his neck.
“You two idiots, the Young Master gave you this method with ill intent.”
Blood rimmed Eunuch Feng’s mouth as he quickly controlled the talisman sigils around him and sneered, “This practice refines people into treasures. If you practice it, will you not be controlled and become someone else’s treasure?”
Yan Shuangtian was refined; his body contorted and involuntarily transformed into a dust whisk now held in Feng’s hand.
Eunuch Feng gave the whisk a shake, and the Mount Tai in the air turned into a jade pendant that fell and Feng tied it to his waist.
“I’ve put down two rebels. Against the Twelve Great Clans, my Eastern Depot can also win merit!”