Edict of Peace 104
Chapter 104: Matters of the Past, Seizing Mandate of Heaven
The Qilin (Chinese Unicorn) immediately reacted. Looking at Li Guanyi, its first reaction was anxiety and worry. It let out a low roar, and the flickering light on its scales intensified. The Qilin said, “What are you doing here?! This is dangerous. Those sorcerers could return at any moment!”
“Leave quickly!”
Li Guanyi didn’t answer, only controlling the changes in the array.
The array’s inherent power had an enormous range, not inferior to that of a top-tier expert. However, controlling the array was like cocking a powerful crossbow—the energy required wasn’t immense. With Li Guanyi’s current cultivation level, while he couldn’t control the entire array to unleash its full power as a killing array,
he couldn’t.
But manipulating the array with his own energy to weaken its power was not difficult. Setting up an array was extremely intricate, but destroying it was much simpler.
Under his manipulation, the malevolent energy of the Four Images Sealing Spirit Array weakened, and its confinement of the Qilin gradually lessened. Initially, the Qilin was completely suppressed by the chains and the Bagua copper pillars, but as Li Guanyi worked, the array’s power over it diminished.
Li Guanyi breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the core area of the array was far more complex, it was still a variation of the Four Images Sealing Spirit Array, and it did not deviate from the scope of the Huangji Scripture’s sixtieth volume.
As Li Guanyi delved deeper, he sensed four forces circulating and changing within the array, constantly interacting and counteracting each other, like chains forming the core seal of the grand array.
Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix, Tortoise.
The Four Celestial Spirits.
Their changes were subtle and mysterious, conforming to the movements of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements.
Li Guanyi responded accordingly.
Just like the daily teachings from Zu Wenyuan, and just like the daily practice and dismantling of arrays with the silver-haired girl after returning home.
He had mastered it, and it flowed naturally; he hardly needed to think.
He could break the array effortlessly.
The Qilin was stunned, watching the son of its old friend sitting there, his right hand raised, fingers like a sword, manipulating the energy flow with ease. The mysterious array it had struggled to break for ten years was being dismantled before his eyes.
With a crisp sound,
one chain finally loosened!
The Qilin, previously forced to lie prostrate, could finally stand upright.
No longer needing to endure the agonizing torture of being unable to lie down or stand straight.
Moments later, a second chain came loose, the flames on the Qilin’s body swirling and blazing.
Noticing Li Guanyi’s intense concentration, the Qilin understood this was a crucial moment. Even with various curiosities and doubts, it suppressed them, not daring to disturb him.
Li Guanyi’s eyes were half-closed. As he deduced and dismantled the array, his Four Symbols cultivation technique also changed. For a moment, the inside of the array seemed to transform into Li Guanyi’s dantian (energy center), and he adjusted the changes in his cultivation technique based on the changes in the external array.
Using water to counter fire.
Using fire to overcome wood.
Thus, the external Four Spirits’ sealing array gradually came apart.
The internal Four Spirits’ cultivation technique changes, however, became increasingly harmonious.
The final hurdle in his first realm—the final step to complete unification—was now being pried open, with the possibility of a breakthrough. Once the Four Spirits unified and his cultivation technique reached complete unification, Li Guanyi would enter the second realm.
But his learning time was still too short.
And the array was ultimately too complex.
After unraveling as much of the array as he could, Li Guanyi withdrew his hand and softly said, “This array is very complex. Although I’ve learned its structure,
I can’t unravel it all at once. But this should at least make you more comfortable.
I’ve dismantled some parts, leaving the superficial ones intact. While you are dormant, it will be difficult to detect that the internal seals have been broken. I will record the changes. After I go out, once I understand this part of the array, I’ll come back to further dismantle it.”
The Qilin nodded.
Just as Li Guanyi was about to speak again, his expression suddenly changed.
Sitting at the array’s main position, he could feel its subtle changes. In the southeast, ripples were appearing and rapidly approaching. It was that sorcerer; this time, he had returned in only a quarter of an hour.
Li Guanyi frowned and said, “He’s back.”
Those guarding the main area were all sorcerers of the third realm and above.
Sorcerer cultivation was many times more difficult than martial artist cultivation.
Fewer people practiced it.
Therefore, few achieved great accomplishment, each one a renowned figure in their area.
Their methods were strange and mysterious.
Li Guanyi was only a first-realm martial artist. Without his exceptionally strong physique, ordinary first-realm martial artists couldn’t withstand third-realm sorcerers.
He immediately planned to retreat, but the other party had arrived too quickly. Li Guanyi erased his traces in the array, allowing the Qilin to return to its usual dormant state. He glanced around, took a step, entered the array, and concealed himself behind a cluster of trees within the array.
His right hand rested on his sword hilt, his brow furrowed.
Why had this sorcerer returned so early today?
Was it true that whatever one feared most would always happen?
Li Guanyi slowed his breath and calmed his mind. He had the courage to come here because he was well-prepared; he also understood the array and could use it to slowly retreat.
But it wasn’t just the sorcerer who had arrived—there were two people.
Besides the gray-robed sorcerer with a goatee, around forty years old,
there was a hooded woman, who spoke with sarcastic disdain. “The renowned imperial sorcerer, Hou Zhongyu, actually has to come inside his own array to dare speak to a weak woman like me; you’re not even as good as a martial artist.
Meeting a court lady in secret in the palace.
Aren’t you afraid that the imperial guards will be alerted and arrest us both?”
The forty-year-old sorcerer chuckled. “It’s just caution.
Moreover, the Four Images Sealing Spirit Array is currently the best array in the empire, and it’s located within the palace. It’s safe to chat here. You can rest assured, the Imperial Guards are currently changing shifts.
The new guard is a rebellious young man.
I’ve spent several days observing his movements.
Right now, he’s practicing breath cultivation in the pavilions and gardens of Qilin Palace, and he won’t allow anyone to disturb him or patrol the area. Even though he’s the emperor’s personal guard, he comes from a prominent family background.
Even if he’s not lazy, he won’t be diligently performing his duties at every moment.
So our conversation now won’t be noticed by the guard.”
Hearing this, Li Guanyi inwardly cursed.
A thousand-year-old fox encountering a ghost.
They were both sharing a ghost story.
He had miscalculated; he had encountered someone just as cunning as himself. While he was observing the other party, the other party was also observing him, leading to their accidental encounter. Li Guanyi suddenly remembered what Elder Zu had said: fewer variations than usual indicated that the sorcerer who set up the array had ulterior motives. It was indeed true.
But why was he meeting a court lady in secret in the palace?
Li Guanyi pressed down on his sword hilt, his expression calm.
Hou Zhongyu paused and said, “After all, the empress’s confidante coming to see a man like me, to discuss a man, if this is discovered, even if I can kill that guard, both of us will die.”
The court lady remained silent for a moment, only saying faintly, “…You know.”
Hou Zhongyu said, “After all, it involves that man.”
The court lady seemed displeased. “You can shut up.”
Hou Zhongyu smiled:
“It’s just you and me here. Do we really need to be so cautious discussing this? If we’re not going to be frank, it would be better to wait until the emperor personally deposes the empress and she’s confined to the cold palace. Then a confidante like you won’t have such a comfortable life.
After all…
the fact that the crown prince is the Regent King’s bloodline is known to the emperor.”
Li Guanyi covered his mouth.
Subconsciously suppressing his breath even further.
Even with his composure, his heart almost leaped out of his chest.
The crown prince is the Regent King’s bloodline?!
And the emperor knows?
He suddenly understood why Consort Xue was so favored.
The court lady seemed to be enraged; her teeth clicked together. “Shut up!”
Hou Zhongyu calmly said, “Shut up? Since the empress is unwilling to provide this humble one with what he needs, I needn’t hide anything anymore. Let’s be open and honest.”
The court lady scolded, “Your demands are getting more and more excessive!”
Hou Zhongyu retorted, “Obtaining the Qilin’s blood to seek immortality requires such a national effort!”
The court lady said, “You!”
She calmed down. “The emperor won’t harm the crown prince.”
Hou Zhongyu laughed again, “Yes, he won’t. After all, the Regent King is still alive.”
Li Guanyi, hidden, gripped his sword hilt tightly, feeling that he had stumbled upon something incredibly significant. The Regent King, that tyrannical ruler, hadn’t been killed? And the current crown prince was his bloodline?
Hou Zhongyu sneered, “The emperor ordered the destruction of the records of the Grand Protector and the Regent King. Was it merely to cover up the Regent King’s past actions and save the royal family’s face? The Grand Protector returned to quell the Regent King to maintain Chen’s safety and stability for the people.
Therefore, he could never kill the Regent King like he did the previous emperors.
Just killing the Regent King!
That would just give Chen a second Regent King.
One cannot succeed without right and legitimacy. He aimed to expose the Regent King’s crimes to the world, to punish him according to the law to appease the people.
On that day, he defeated and wounded the Regent King.
At that time, the Regent King hadn’t yet killed the last two emperors he had deposed.
It was the current emperor who killed them, making himself the first in line to succeed.
Everyone thought the emperor was only concerned with power, but only a few of us know that it was the emperor who guided others to choose him, kill his other brothers, and tacitly allowed his usurped wife to give birth to the Regent King’s child, establishing him as the crown prince.
For the officials represented by Dantài Xiànmíng, the aristocratic families, and those remaining loyal to Regent King, including the forces represented by the Xue family,
all factions eventually found they had only one choice left.
But—”
The seemingly only forty-year-old sorcerer lowered his eyes.
He still remembered those events from over a decade ago. The Regent King, his meridians sealed, having lost the momentum, yet sat calmly. The current emperor, adorned in luxurious attire and the twelve-crown headdress, stood before the crippled king like a beggar receiving alms.
The Regent King lowered his eyes, his hand still gripping the imperial seal, before tossing it out. He said:
“If you want it so much.”
“Take it!”
What a domineering aura, such a powerful ruler.
The emperor was ultimately inferior.
I am not a king nor a prince.
I am a subject.
The sorcerer softly said, “As you said, why does the emperor favor Consort Xue so much? Because Consort Xue’s son is his bloodline. Once he’s born, the emperor will definitely make him the crown prince.”
“Empress Dantài is very uneasy, isn’t she?
Even though her father is Minister Dantài, and her mother is the daughter of the Lu family; even though the Regent King left behind his strongest divine general, Xiao Wuliang, in court, the emperor’s heart isn’t with her. But her opponent is the Xue family, one of the three great merchant families in the land.
And the Xue family is still the State Duke of Xue, recognized by the Emperor of Central Zhou.
Consort Xue is pregnant.
With a prince, a rare noble life.
She must still be fearful, right?”
The court lady said nothing; this was the current struggle within the Chen court.
Hou Zhongyu said, “But what if I told you that even the Xue family’s tiger and Empress Dantài’s father were deceived by the emperor? What would you think?”
The court lady’s expression froze, then she became agitated. “You, you mean!”
Hou Zhongyu said, “The emperor won’t harm the crown prince, but he also won’t allow Consort Xue’s son to become crown prince. That year, he had an illegitimate son born, and he kept this son well-hidden.
Balance is impossible to maintain for long; the contradictions between them will eventually erupt.
When the Xue family, with their wealth and influence, and the empress’s faction, led by the aristocratic families, are both exhausted, his real son will appear, resolving everything and reaping the benefits.
At that time, the emperor will ‘cede’ the throne to this ‘non-biological son.’
That will be a cession, a holy emperor’s act that officials and noblemen will praise and record in their chronicles. His real son will inherit a nation full of achievements after the conflict subsides.
The Xue family and the empress were merely pawns in his eyes—”
“Therefore, the Grand Protector and Yue Pengwu, the two witnesses of those past events, and the upright men he couldn’t control, must die.
They sought the betterment of the people and the nation, expanding its borders.
But, how could they forget? How could they forget?
Their lives would threaten the emperor’s throne!!!
It would stain his legacy!
That young man who once shared drinks and got drunk under the moonlight, had already died the moment he ascended the Dragon Throne.”
“Whether the country’s territory expands or the people live peacefully are good things, but the most important thing is if the throne remains the Chen clan’s, and whether he can leave a good name in history after death!”
“My hair is still dark, but I am already sixty-seven years old.
I witnessed the departure of the Regent King; the price he paid for survival was that Xiao Wuliang was willing to guard Chen, and when the Regent King left, he told the Grand Protector that he had broken legs and lost most of his martial arts; the people thought he was dead and rejoiced.
But he had to live.
The Regent King said, as long as he lived, the Grand Protector could live.
Unfortunately, even the ruthless Regent King did not expect
the current emperor’s ruthlessness. He could even abandon such a national-level general. Then, after everything settles, the three-zhang-long white silk prepared for the empress must already be in the box.”
“The Xue family’s wealth is also the cornerstone for the next emperor to rule the world.”
The court lady’s face paled.
Her slender fingers trembled slightly.
Hou Zhongyu smiled slightly. “So, will you cooperate with me?”
“I can tell you who the emperor’s illegitimate son is. All you need to do is provide me with sufficient resources so I can refine the elixir of immortality.”
The court lady gritted her teeth, “You’re using this to blackmail me. Aren’t you afraid of retribution?”
The sorcerer calmly said, “If one cannot live forever, living seventy years or a hundred years is still just like an ant. It’s better to live freely and recklessly. Death is nothing. We all eventually return to dust.”
This demeanor instead caused the court lady to slump.
The great thieves and heroes of the world, regardless of righteousness or evil, possessed a demeanor that she couldn’t match.
The sorcerer calmly said, “Moreover, stealing the Mandate of Heaven isn’t something I haven’t done before.
I personally took the life of the Grand Protector’s son.
(End of Chapter)
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