Phoenix Terrace was merely an earthen platform inside Cangmu County's town. According to legend, a seven-story pagoda had once stood atop it, only to be destroyed in an instant by fire from the heavens. It had never been rebuilt. After hundreds of years, not the slightest trace of a building remained on the platform, only stone tablets covered in prose and verse left by scholars and poets through the ages. Most had been moved by the scenery to give voice to their feelings.
Long Xiyue had come here to admire a piece of calligraphy left by Emperor Taizong. When he climbed Phoenix Terrace and gazed north toward the Yong River, he had written four characters: "Mighty River." Those characters had since been carved onto a stone tablet.
Although Hu Xiaotian had considerable literary attainments and had memorized countless poems, even picking up something of a literary youth's sensibility in his previous life, he had grown increasingly worldly and slippery in this one. He had little interest in playing with brush and ink anymore. In troubled times, reciting poetry and composing verse might lend him considerable airs, but those things could neither fill his belly nor save his life. He now faced an unprecedented test: first, kill Wen Boyuan; second, rescue the princess without anyone being the wiser. Either undertaking would shake heaven and earth, and to anyone else, both would seem virtually impossible. Yet Hu Xiaotian intended not merely to attempt them, but to accomplish both. It would have been impossible not to feel some pressure.
Although Zhou Mo and Zhan Peng were trustworthy, Hu Xiaotian knew that the fewer people who knew about these two undertakings, the better. If possible, he would conceal them even from these two closest companions. With so many secrets buried in his heart and