Chapter 122: Return to the Capital, diamond draw (double chapter) [Finale]
Jiangnan.
From inside a bustling inn came an old man's impassioned voice:
"As the saying goes: the storms of the world rise from our generation; once we enter Jianghu, the years hurry us on. Grand ambitions and dominion pass amid talk and laughter, yet cannot match one drunken spell in life!"
"Next, I shall tell you all the story of Yu Huatian, the West Depot eunuch who now shakes Ming with his might and has subdued countless forces in Wulin!"
On the inn's second floor, an old man in a blue cloth robe, holding a tobacco pipe, sat at the storyteller's table and spoke with easy eloquence:
"This director of Ming's West Depot is truly an extraordinary figure!"
"After Wei Zhongxian's rebellion that year, Ming's Tianqi Emperor recognized the danger of the eunuch faction. To counterbalance the East Depot, he specifically established the West Depot, intending to check the East Depot and suppress the eunuch faction's influence."
"Who could have imagined that after this West Depot eunuch succeeded the East Depot's first director, he would expand the West Depot's influence within a mere six months until it rivaled the East Depot, even showing signs of surpassing the West Depot!"
"Afterward, East Depot eunuch Wan Yulou was killed by a group of Jianghu assassins. This West Depot eunuch seized the opportunity to rise. First, he took control of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and brought back the Great White Upper Kingdom's treasure from the northwestern Great Desert. Then he eliminated numerous leading powers, including Black Stone, the Money Gang, the Tang Clan, Phantom Manor, and the Bright Moon Cult. Even Great Grandmasters such as Shangguan Jinhong, Phantom Manor's Old Knife Handle, and the Wudang Sect's Wooden Daoist fell at his hands."