By the time Xuanjizi followed the young eunuch to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Yang Zhao was sitting upright on the dragon throne, his face calm and betraying neither joy nor anger.
Xuanjizi dared not be presumptuous. He stepped forward and respectfully performed a Taoist kowtow. "This humble Taoist greets Your Majesty. May I ask why Your Majesty summoned me here so late at night?"
Yang Zhao smiled and waved a hand, dismissing all the attendants. He then stepped down from the dragon throne and spoke excitedly.
"There is no need for such formalities, Immortal Master. I summoned you here because I have a matter of the utmost importance to discuss with you."
"There are too many ears here, Immortal Master. Please follow me."
With that, he turned and headed for the inner bedchamber.
Though somewhat surprised, Xuanjizi suspected nothing and hurried after him.
One behind the other, the two passed through a beaded curtain and entered the inner chamber.
The moment Xuanjizi stepped inside, he caught a faint whiff of blood. Before he could give it much thought, a sight on the floor caught the corner of his eye.
A man stripped of his outer robe lay curled up on the thick carpet, a pool of darkened blood beneath him.
When Xuanjizi got a clear look at the man's face, he felt as though he had been struck by lightning. He staggered back several steps, his legs giving way, and nearly collapsed.
"You... you... who are you?!" He pointed at the "emperor" before him, who looked exactly like Yang Zhao, his voice shaking uncontrollably.
He even wondered if he had run into one of the legendary painted-skin demons.
Chen Ye could not be bothered to waste words on him.
Under Xuanjizi's terrified gaze, he flickered forward, closing in like a ghost.
Xuanjizi had a few amateur tricks of his own. With a strange cry, he raised a hand to fight back.
But to Chen Ye, his movements were as slow as a snail.
With a crisp crack, Chen Ye snapped Xuanjizi's wrist at a grotesque angle.
Pain surged through Xuanjizi, and he opened his mouth to scream, but a hand clamped tightly around his throat, choking back every sound.
"I ask, you answer. If you tell so much as half a lie, or hesitate even a little..."
Chen Ye's voice was icy. With a flick of his free wrist, he used his small knife to slice off part of Xuanjizi's little finger.
"Ah... mmmph!"
Xuanjizi convulsed with pain, tears and snot streaming down his face as he stared at Chen Ye in terror.
"Who recommended you for a place in the palace?"
In such agony, Xuanjizi dared not conceal a thing. Whimpering, he squeezed out two surnames through his teeth.
"The Cui Clan... the Wang Clan..."
"Why did they have you bewitch Yang Zhao and gather a thousand young girls to refine pills?"
Xuanjizi trembled like a sieve, pouring everything out like beans from a bamboo tube.
As it turned out, he was no enlightened master at all, merely a charlatan who swindled people in the jianghu and knew a few tricks of illusion.
Some days earlier, people from the capital's two most powerful aristocratic clans, the Cui Clan and the Wang Clan, had sought him out and promised him a handsome reward to enter the palace and bewitch the emperor.
Their aim was to make Yang Zhao act against all reason, rousing the anger of heaven and the resentment of the people, until he completely lost their support and his authority.
After hearing this, Chen Ye understood at once.
The Cui and Wang Clans were powerful aristocratic families that had endured through several dynasties, with exceptionally deep roots.
Now that Great Zhao was on the verge of collapse, they were paving a way out for themselves.
First they would have the emperor destroy his own Great Wall, then use the people's resentment as a pretext to drag him from the throne and replace him with an obedient puppet.
When the northern steppe barbarians attacked, whether to fight or make peace, kneel or surrender, would it not all be decided by a word from these great clans?
What a move, pulling the firewood from beneath the cauldron!
For the sake of their own glory and wealth, these lofty aristocratic clans would stop at nothing.
"Spare me, hero! I was only following orders. None of this has anything to do with me. Please, in your great mercy, let me go this once. I promise I'll leave the capital and Great Zhao at once and never come back." Xuanjizi knelt on the ground, kowtowing as though pounding garlic, tears and snot streaming down his face as he begged for mercy.
His tone was so sincere and his manner so earnest that it was truly moving.
But Chen Ye did not hesitate in the slightest. He swung his knife.
Pfft!
The knife plunged straight into Xuanjizi's throat, choking back everything else he had to say.
Chen Ye did not believe that nonsense about it having nothing to do with him. The chief culprits had to be eliminated, but their accomplices could not be spared either.
Xuanjizi twitched a few times, then breathed his last.
Chen Ye stripped off his outer robe as well, then slashed both his face and Yang Zhao's into a bloody mess, leaving them utterly unrecognizable.
When he was done, he dragged the two bodies into a garden behind the bedchamber. It was the emperor's private garden, where ordinary people were forbidden to approach, making it the perfect place to dispose of the bodies and erase the traces.
Chen Ye found a flower bed, used his knife to dig through the soft soil, and threw both bodies in. After burying them, he pressed a heavy ornamental rock down on top.
By the time everything had been taken care of, the horizon had turned fish-belly white.
Chen Ye returned to the Hall of Mental Cultivation and spoke gravely to the young eunuch waiting outside. "I am feeling somewhat unwell today and need to rest. No one is to disturb me without my order. Also, Immortal Master Xuanjizi has left the palace under my secret command to attend to an important matter for me. He will not return for some time, so none of you are to speak of it."
The eunuchs dared not ask questions and readily agreed.
After sending the eunuchs away, Chen Ye returned to the inner chamber and cleaned up the scene. He then took off the dragon robe and put on the dark-purple eunuch's robe.
As his facial muscles shifted, he turned back into the old eunuch with the sinister face.
He slipped out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation without a sound and went to the ornamental rock formation where he had hidden the old eunuch's body. He disposed of that body as well, making sure nothing could go wrong.
As for the young eunuch he had knocked unconscious, he woke to find that he had only lost his outer robe and that nothing else had happened. Afraid of being punished, he dared not tell anyone.
And so the matter passed.
Under the old eunuch's identity, Chen Ye swaggered out of the heavily guarded palace without anyone stopping him.
Once he reached a deserted corner outside, Chen Ye resumed his original appearance, put away the eunuch's robe, and quietly returned to the shared courtyard.
By then, daylight had fully broken. Fang Tao and the others were already up and busy in the courtyard.
That was no obstacle for Chen Ye. He went around the back and slipped into his room through the rear window without a sound, then came out yawning, pretending he had just woken up.
Fang Tao and the others noticed nothing amiss. After breakfast, Chen Ye went to find Chen Tao.
"Shaojun, with soldiers and chaos everywhere outside, we can't carry on with our Brushing Walls trade for now. I want to leave the city and hide out in the countryside for a couple of days."
Fang Tao was taken aback. Seeing Chen Ye's somewhat haggard face, he assumed Chen Ye was still grieving over Miss Xiaorui of the Cai Character Gate and could not help sighing.
"All right. Things are chaotic out there, and business is hard to come by. Going out to clear your head and lie low is a good idea. Try to look on the bright side. People have to keep looking forward."
With that, he pulled a handful of ten-value copper coins from his robes and pressed them into Chen Ye's hand. "Take them. Live frugally at home, but travel well provisioned. Don't shortchange yourself."
Chen Ye did not refuse. He silently accepted the coins and nodded.
At that very moment, a luxurious carriage came to a stop outside the imperial city.
Wang Yuanzhi, the current Minister of Education and head of the Wang Clan, came to the Hall of Mental Cultivation and requested an audience.