Yi Wenjun 8
Yi Wenjun thought herself lucky. Jinwei was the second weakest of the current five chief eunuchs, stronger only than Jin Yan, and much of his strength depended on the treasured sword in his hand.
For someone whose realm fell short, a handful of poison was enough to finish him off.
Yi Wenjun put on an Ignore Talisman and had a trusted subordinate disguise themself as her and stay in the room.
Yes, besides alchemy, during those long days of confinement, she had studied every Technique Method and Cultivation Method many times with great care. Thus, aside from alchemy, which she was best at, Yi Wenjun could also be considered skilled in formations, talismans, disguises, and other such skills.
With her top-tier movement technique and the talismans on her person, Yi Wenjun easily followed Jinwei without anyone noticing.
When she followed Jinwei to his destination, she discovered that apart from Zhuoqing and Jinwei, there was no one else there.
Wonderful, Yi Wenjun thought. This really was the perfect opportunity for her to kill them and silence them.
Yi Wenjun did not listen closely to their conversation, nor did she stare at the two men. She merely moved a little farther away in silence and lit a stick of incense in her hand.
She happened to be standing upwind, and the smoke from the burning incense drifted on the wind toward the two men holding their secret discussion.
Jinwei soon lost his inner power and collapsed to the ground. Zhuoqing was more alert: he immediately switched to internal breathing, and without a word, he moved to fly away from the place.
Yi Wenjun had finally found an opportunity like this, so how could she let Zhuoqing leave? Two blades slipped from her sleeves as she met him head-on.
Zhuoqing was startled. "Yi Wenjun!"
The woman he had once looked down on had actually ensnared him in her scheme.
Yi Wenjun said nothing. Each strike of her twin blades was fiercer than the last, and every move was lethal.
After only a few exchanges, Yi Wenjun discovered that, aside from being somewhat affected by the drug, Zhuoqing himself was only at the great unfettered realm.
She could not hold back her laughter. Truly, heaven's timing, the lay of the land, and human harmony were all on her side.
Her attacks grew even fiercer.
Even if Zhuoqing's Empty Heart Art was extraordinarily powerful, how could it compare to Yi Wenjun's Heavenly Devil Instruction? The difference was like that between clouds and mud. And although Yi Wenjun was best with the sword, the twin-blade technique inherited from the Heavenly Devil Instruction was even more extraordinary.
Thus, after only half an hour, Zhuoqing had suffered several cuts and could no longer muster his inner power. He fell to the ground.
Lying on the ground, Zhuoqing laughed in disbelief. "I, Zhuoqing, possess a talent rarely seen in this world. I never imagined I would end up dying at your hands."
Yi Wenjun could not be bothered to listen to a loser wallowing in self-pity. She first acted to absorb all of Zhuoqing's power into herself. The Heavenly Devil Instruction could absorb any kind of energy for cultivation, and wasn't another person's inner power a kind of energy too?
After draining Zhuoqing's inner power, Yi Wenjun used the Great Soul-Searching Method to search his memories. Though the Law Technique was cruel, it was truly useful.
Soon, Yi Wenjun happily discovered that the Dragon Seal Scroll was on Zhuoqing's person. As it turned out, he regarded the scroll as the Law Treasure that would one day turn his fortunes around. He did not trust even the other chief eunuchs and carried it with him whenever he went out.
Yi Wenjun quickly found the Dragon Seal Scroll on Zhuoqing and opened it for a casual look. Sure enough, the name of the next ruler was Xiao Ruofeng.
Yi Wenjun smiled smugly. Her arrangements in Heavenly Revelations were nearly complete. From here on, she only had to sit back and watch the brothers turn against each other, then use the scroll as leverage to secure herself a position where she would remain unaffected. No matter how much turmoil arose in Heavenly Revelations, it would have nothing to do with her.
As for Ye Dingzhi, Yi Wenjun had written to comfort and reassure him several times, doing right by that rare, genuine affection. If he made any further moves, they too would have nothing to do with her, Yi Wenjun.
Yi Wenjun took out a jade bottle containing corpse-dissolving liquid she had refined, which could only be held in a jade vessel. She dripped a drop onto each of Jinwei and Zhuoqing, scattered some grass seeds, and promptly left the place.
After Yi Wenjun returned to the prince's residence and a night passed, she saw Su Changhe and his companion return empty-handed. Yi Wenjun said little. She simply stopped keeping the two of them by her side as guards and sent them to the Shadow Sect to manage its people instead.
The Shadow Sect had now lost its influence at court and was merely a faction with some martial strength. Using the collections accumulated over generations, Yi Wenjun began doing business involving women and children. She also gathered the highly skilled martial artists and opened an escort agency dedicated to protecting the Shadow Sect's businesses and caravans.
Thanks to her friendships with Baili Dongjun and Ye Dingzhi, the Shadow Sect's caravans now traded with Qiandong City, Snow Moon City, and Beyond the Heavens. The Shadow Sect even had caravans in Nanjue and among the Northern Barbarians. With Luo Qingyang and Yi Wenjun as its backing, the Shadow Sect's business grew ever larger.
Su Changhe and Su Muyu gradually grew accustomed to their present lives and even recruited many assassins dissatisfied with life in the Dark River to join the Shadow Sect.
Life settled into a quiet routine once more. No trace of Li Changsheng could be found in the martial world anymore. Yi Wenjun, meanwhile, was only a breakthrough born of sudden enlightenment away from the mystic spirit wandering realm.
After Xiao Ruofeng cleared the name of Ye Yu's family, more military officers rallied to his side, and relations between Xiao Ruofeng and his brother Xiao Ruojin grew increasingly strained.
Yet these unspoken troubles did not affect Xiao Lingchen, the son of Xiao Ruofeng and Yi Wenjun. Under Xiao Ruofeng's teaching and example, Xiao Lingchen too became a wanderer who cared nothing for power and longed for the martial world.
When he was just old enough to understand things, he still yearned for a mother's love and went to the rear courtyard every day to pay his respects to Yi Wenjun. But Yi Wenjun truly had no affection to spare for Xiao Lingchen and treated him very coldly. Coupled with the various rumors from the past, the bond between Xiao Lingchen and Yi Wenjun grew colder still.
The emperor's sixth son, Xiao Chuhe, the Prince of Yong'an, became the most dazzling young prodigy in Heavenly Revelations. In the sixteenth year of Emperor Mingde's reign, two factions began to stir. One consisted of martial world figures and military officers who wanted to support Prince Langya, Xiao Ruofeng, whose military achievements were illustrious, in ascending the throne.
The other consisted of royalists and aristocratic clans harboring their own private ambitions, who submitted memorials one after another accusing Prince Langya of plotting rebellion.
After gathering the various reports from her subordinates, Yi Wenjun knew that Xiao Ruofeng's end was near.
It was not that Xiao Ruofeng could not prevail against Xiao Ruojin. Rather, from what Yi Wenjun had observed over the years, Xiao Ruofeng had never abandoned his original purpose. He had always loved and respected his elder brother and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the nation.
Unfortunately, his elder brother did not understand him, and neither did his subordinates.
That night, Emperor Mingde, Xiao Ruojin, was just about to go to sleep when he heard a soft laugh beside his ear. "Your Majesty, it has been a long time."
He sat up in alarm, only to see Yi Wenjun sitting elegantly beside him, her appearance still as peerless as it had been more than ten years ago.
Cold sweat nearly broke out all over Xiao Ruojin. Jinxuan, the royal family's publicly acknowledged second-strongest expert after the Imperial Preceptor, was standing right outside the door, yet he had failed to notice that Yi Wenjun was now sitting beside the emperor.
Yi Wenjun elegantly lit a stick of incense in the burner, then reached out and tapped him once. Only then did she say with a soft laugh, "There. Now no one will discover Your Majesty's secret."