"Boyong seeks Shakya."
"Qiongzhi seeks Shakya."
"Qingyan seeks Shakya."
The Coiled Dragon Jade Pillar seemed to hold up the Celestial Vault, with the Sun Moon and Stars laid across it as a roof. The gentle-tempered man upon the imperial throne lightly tapped its armrest with his index finger and intoned, "Shakya cannot be obtained. Know that what one seeks is itself a shackle!"
Wind and clouds shifted within His palm, abruptly taking the form of Dragon-Tiger. He smiled lazily.
"Heavenly Pure Kingdom and Three Punishments Palace... are not the same thing."
"If you see one Xu Wuming and make enemies of the entire Legalist School, then you will have played right into Boyong's hands..."
At this, He raised His slightly plump chin. "My elder brother has made things difficult for you, hasn't he?"
A painted screen stood in the center of the great hall, placed between the palace doors and the imperial throne like a wall screen.
The Central Son of Heaven, waging war on many fronts, was confronting the Qin Emperor at the Dingwu Heavenly Pit. This painted screen had merely preserved an image of that place—
The emperor standing at the abyss with his hands behind his back left only his silhouette upon the painting, with no sound for the moment.
Ji Furen sat high above and spoke to himself. "He has always been so full of himself. Favored by Heaven, getting whatever he wished for, he actually believed Heaven's Mandate would never change. A narrow-minded man of slanting edges, fit only for a single stroke of the blade, yet he sees himself as the Son of Heaven's sword!"
"First he became Chai Yin's blade, killed Dragon Fox, and destroyed Demon Pacification's grand design. Later he became the Daoist Sect's blade and hindered the Grand Ancestor. Then, in