In the royal city... the imperial study:
The emperor had just finished holding court and, with a rare moment of leisure, had started a game of chess against Liu Yu, the Duke of Song, the meritorious official he relied on most.
"Liu, my dear minister, a letter from your beloved disciple has arrived. He told me to select a consort for the crown prince as usual and not to worry. He has quite the bearing you had back then, haha..."
Liu Yu shook his head. "My disciple is arrogant. To think he would presume so much in a matter of such importance. I will give him a stern scolding when he returns!"
"Oh, don't be too hard on him. Young people have to go through things before they can make something of themselves!" The old emperor was more easygoing. After making two moves, he added, "I intend to follow Vice Minister Wang's advice and select a consort for the crown prince as usual."
"Well..." Liu Yu's hand paused slightly as he placed a piece.
"It seems our strategist has grown old. You don't have even as much resolve as your disciple!" the emperor teased with amusement.
"I'm being cautious!" Liu Yu replied without reserve, his expression serious. "My disciple discovered that this matter may be connected to Master Huang. If that man is involved, his methods will likely be anything but simple. Selecting a consort for the crown prince is a matter of great importance. Nothing can be allowed to go wrong."
"I know that too..." The emperor sighed. "But with so much to rebuild, this is when we most need to keep the people at ease. If the crown prince keeps delaying the selection of a consort, it may invite criticism. As for the Heavenly Capital... you know as well as I do that some of those fellows have long been unable to restrain themselves."
"Shall I make the trip myself?"
"You fellow, how did you become even more impatient than me?" The emperor rolled his eyes at him irritably. "I already said we should let the young people gain more experience. Both Wang Ye and Yuchi Peng are future pillars of the state whom I hold in high regard. If we old men step in whenever they run into trouble, how will they shoulder such burdens in the future?"
At the mention of Yuchi Peng, Liu Yu's furrowed brow relaxed slightly. The Yuchi Household's boy wasn't particularly bright, but in terms of strength, none of the household heads in the past five generations was likely a better fighter than the current one. With his disciple traveling alongside him, his safety was at least assured.
"Then we shall do as Your Majesty says and see how things go..." Liu Yu showed a rare smile. "Let's see how much responsibility this disappointing disciple of mine can shoulder..."
"Alive?"
In the small courtyard, Master Huang carved a wooden body without looking up. His craftsmanship was superb, and the face he carved was lifelike. Though it was made of wood, it looked more like a human skeleton.
The two who had arrived at the courtyard were the same pair who had clashed with Wang Ye: the towering Ghost Child and Mister Miao, whose body was completely concealed beneath a black robe.
"Alive..." Mister Miao's raspy voice rang out. "At such a young age, he has already mastered the power of Evening Elephant to that extent. His aptitude is no inferior to Liu Yu's. What a pity..."
"There are plenty of people in this world to pity." Master Huang blew the wood shavings off the puppet's face and walked over with his knife. He first glanced at Mister Miao and asked quietly, "Are you all right?"
He wasn't worried that the vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review could hurt him. After all, no matter how gifted he was, he had only entered the path of the arts a few years ago. How could he compare to the old monster before him?
But going against heaven was the greatest taboo for a practitioner of the arts. Forcibly altering the fate of someone with powerful fortune would bring a severe backlash, and Wang Ye happened to be a man of exceptionally great fortune.
"Whether I'm all right or not, I only have a few years left to live. You don't need to concern yourself with me..."
Master Huang nodded and gestured for Ghost Child beside him to put Wang Ye down.
Ghost Child gently laid Wang Ye beside the puppet. Master Huang stepped forward and cut at Wang Ye's face with an extremely light hand. Wang Ye's entire body twitched, and the skin of his face came off in one complete piece!
The skin had been cut off so completely that it even seemed to wriggle, still alive, in Master Huang's hands. He laid it over the face of the puppet he had carved. The next moment, the blood vessels in the skin rapidly connected to the puppet, as if they had found their home. Within moments, the puppet's original face had merged perfectly with the human skin, leaving not a trace of the puppet behind. It looked... exactly like a real person's face!
"Fine craftsmanship!" Mister Miao coughed lightly. "Even if the court's master craftsmen in the Ministry of Works spent another hundred years studying, they would never match your skill, Master."
"Just a talent..." Master Huang shook his head gently and carefully made adjustments to the newly covered face.
"How long will it take to finish the whole thing?" Ghost Child asked with a frown.
"At least three days..." Master Huang narrowed his eyes. "I have to examine his bone structure. Every bone in the body must match, down to the slightest measurement. Then I have to arrange the internal organs and fill it with flesh and blood. Only then can it be perfect. The slightest mistake, and there's no chance of fooling Liu Yu!"
"If you make it too real, could it actually turn into Wang Ye?" Mister Miao asked a question he was very curious about.
"Well..." Master Huang smiled. "I've never made one that did."
Mister Miao nodded, then said, "One got away."
"One managed to escape from you?" Master Huang was stunned.
"Yes. Wang Ye sent him away with Flying Star. I couldn't stop it. He'll probably go looking for Yuchi Peng."
"That doesn't matter..." Master Huang continued to focus on his work and said without looking up, "That student of mine is just an ordinary person. He won't make it to Yuchi Peng."
"An ordinary person?" Mister Miao's voice carried a hint of doubt.
According to their intelligence, the man named Chen Qing was indeed an ordinary person. He couldn't be from a bloodline family, and it was even less likely that he had inherited a practitioner's arts. The inheritances of such arts that had survived to this day were few and far between, and could no longer have fallen into the wild.
They had planted quite a few of their people around Yuchi Peng. In theory, a frail scholar truly couldn't get close to him, but...
Liu Yu's disciple was no fool. When he clearly had a chance to escape himself, he had given that chance to someone else. That meant Chen Qing was definitely not so simple.
"But there is indeed something strange about him..." Master Huang seemed to sense that something was wrong too. After all, an ordinary person... couldn't possibly see through A Li's illusion.
"Then I'd better make the trip myself... cough, cough..." Mister Miao's coughing grew more labored, making Master Huang frown as he worked.
"Your body... Let Ghost Child make the trip this time."
"I'm not at ease leaving it to him..." Mister Miao shook his head. "That vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review has considerable fortune. There's still a chance something could go wrong over these three days. We need to keep a close eye on Yuchi Peng!"
Hearing this, Master Huang ultimately said no more to dissuade him. If there was anything left in Liuzhou that could turn the tables, it was that boy from the Yuchi Household. He wouldn't be very comfortable leaving Ghost Child to watch him.
"Take care..." Master Huang sighed. "There are only a few old fellows like us left from those who followed the King of Qin back then."
Mister Miao, who had already reached the doorway, paused at his words. But the next moment, he walked straight out without saying anything... ...
"Elder, is this the place?"
Outside Liuzhou City, Chen Qing was drenched in sweat. Following the direction indicated by a man in his sixties, he looked toward a remote hillside as he asked.
"That's Coiling Dragon Slope!" The old man grinned. "Not many people know about this place these days. You'd best be careful, young scholar. They say there's a real dragon pinned beneath this mountain!"
"Have you seen it, Elder?" Chen Qing asked curiously.
"No, but that's what the stories say..." The old man shook his head. "There isn't even a wild rabbit in this vast mountain forest. It's strange as can be-there's no point even thinking about hunting here. A mountain this big, and if there weren't something being suppressed beneath it, how could it be so eerie?"
"That's true!" Chen Qing laughed and nodded along, but in his heart he was increasingly certain he had found the right place.
Liuzhou was surrounded by mountains and water and had excellent feng shui. The towns and villages around it, nestled against the mountains and rivers, were all doing quite well. Only the area around Great Azure Mountain was frighteningly barren. Birds and beasts stayed away, crops wouldn't grow, and the vast mountain range was almost completely uninhabited.
Honestly, without someone to guide him, Chen Qing might not have found the place he wanted even if he had wandered around here for half a month. He had to admit he had been a little lucky: not only had Flying Star transported him nearby, he had also happened to run into a group of carpenters who had come to the vicinity of Great Azure Mountain to cut timber.
Great Azure Mountain had nothing else, but it did have plenty of fine trees over a hundred years old. Still, because it was so far away, carpenters from the surrounding towns generally came only once every few months. Chen Qing had been lucky enough to run into a group just then.
Chen Qing didn't think it was a coincidence. After arriving at Coiling Dragon Slope without trouble, he felt it must have been due to fortune!
Wang Ye had become a vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review at a young age and had inherited the practitioner arts of Evening Elephant. His fortune was sure to be extraordinary. If someone like him faced a life-or-death crisis, heaven would intentionally or otherwise create many chances of survival.
Whether he could seize those chances naturally depended on his own efforts. This was one of the worldbuilding templates Chen Qing's partner had designed, and it also gave Chen Qing a conscious sense that things were going so smoothly for him now perhaps because that righteous vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review... wasn't quite dead yet!
Of course... that was only a guess. Chen Qing himself wasn't sure whether the choice he had made really offered a way to survive.
At that thought, Chen Qing gazed at the vast mountain range with emotion.
After more than twenty years, seeing the prison he had once personally designed on a computer appear before his eyes felt extraordinary.
Alongside that wonder, he was also a little afraid, because the thing locked inside was no pushover.
According to the original script, the thing would be released by a passing traveling merchant from the previous dynasty and would ultimately massacre Liuzhou City!!
Sorry, something came up and delayed me from finishing the posts. Tomorrow I'll still post on time at seven and eight, hehe.