The plaque of Suixue Garden appeared like drops of fresh blood in the rain. He leaped over the garden gate, and was immediately pulled into someone’s embrace.
Yue Jingming took a palm strike to his chest and was thrown from the palace wall, flying dozens of feet away. Xiao Chunhe braced his back from behind, but coughed up large mouthfuls of blood, which dripped onto the begonia flowers crushed by the downpour.
Wen Heshen stood on the wall, looking down at them. “Mere ants dare to block my way.”
Yue Jingming stood up, supporting himself with his sword. “Going against heaven’s will, the heavenly way will not allow it.”
A contemptuous smile appeared on Wen Heshen’s face. With a sweep of his long sleeve, hundreds of bone darts flew out. Despite Yue and Xiao’s extremely fast defensive moves, they couldn’t avoid being hit by the darts. Blood soaked through their Taoist robes as they fell heavily to their knees.
“Save me the trouble of having you eyesores in my way, filthy Taoists!” Wen Heshen’s long sword pierced through the rain curtain, about to take their lives, when in the next instant the sword was caught by thin silver threads. The tremendous force caused the sword tip to suddenly change direction, and willow-leaf blades thin as cicada wings made crisp collision sounds in the rain.
Under the pavilion, a young man in imperial robes slightly raised his eyebrows. Upon meeting Wen Heshen’s gaze, his face showed disgust. “Where did this ugly creature come from?”
Wen Heshen’s expression suddenly changed when he saw him. “The immortal bone is on you!”
“What immortal bone? Nonsense.” Liang Ye’s face broke into an excited smile. “Come on, let Zhen see how capable you are!”
Wen Heshen’s fingers curved into claws, going straight for Liang Ye’s neck.
****
Chu Geng and Liu Binbai pushed Cui Qi as they ran through the heavy rain. Chu Geng shouted, “Why do I feel like we’re going in circles!?”
“I think so too!” Liu Binbai looked down at Cui Qi. “Cui Daren, do you know the way?!”
Cui Qi, sitting in the wheelchair, slowly raised his eyes. “You’ve passed the back door of Suixue Garden three times already.”
But before Chu Geng and Liu Binbai could express their surprise, they ran into Cui Yun, Yan Ze and others who were also going in circles. In no time, all the officials who had fled from the hall had somehow regrouped, standing in the downpour looking at each other in bewilderment.
“It must be some mysterious technique of that evil Taoist,” Yan Ze, who remained relatively calm among the crowd, said. “Since we keep passing by Suixue Garden, we might as well go in and take a look.”
The officials immediately nodded in agreement.
Xun Yang silently backed away, retreating around the corner out of everyone’s sight, trying to find his own way out. Unexpectedly, he came face to face with a pair of cold eyes on top of the wall. He fell to the ground in shock. “Wh-who are you!?”
The person’s entire face was covered with scars, his appearance terrifying. He jumped down from the wall with a bow and arrows on his back, and said coldly, “What’s happening in the palace? Where is Liang Ye now?”
Xun Yang kept backing away, but fragments of memory flashed through his mind. He exclaimed in horror, “You are Jian Ling from the rebellious Black Armor Guards!?”
At Cui Yuxian’s birthday banquet, Xun Yang, as a newly appointed Jinshi, had been seated far back, but he had still witnessed Jian Ling’s attempt to assassinate Liang Ye and had a strong impression of this man. “You-you’re not dead!?”
“Of course I’m not dead.” Jian Ling grabbed him and pulled him up. “Tell me where Liang Ye is.”
Xun Yang’s mind quickly ran through calculations. He had already allied himself with Bian Cang, and now that Bian Cang had lost power, if Liang Ye won against that evil Taoist, the group of rebel officials would eventually meet their doom…
“The palace is in chaos right now. I-I’ll take you there.” Xun Yang’s eyes flashed with determination.
Only with Liang Ye dead would he have a chance to survive.
****
Wang Dian was feeling along the wall for bricks when he suddenly heard footsteps. He turned sharply and came face to face with Yan Ze’s rain-soaked, wrinkled face. “Yan Daren?”
“Your Majesty!?” Yan Ze exclaimed in surprise.
At his cry of “Your Majesty,” the officials behind him immediately prepared to greet properly.
“Shut up!” Wang Dian quickly stopped them, shocked, “How did you all get here?”
“It’s a long story,” Cui Yun stroked his dripping wet beard.
“Then make it short!” Wang Dian said, “Are you all tired of living, coming here?”
“We couldn’t find our way out,” Cui Qi said coldly. “That evil Taoist must have used some sort of Qimen Dunjia to force us to come here.”
Before Wang Dian could speak, a powerful gust of wind suddenly swept in, grinding the begonia flowers on the ground into floral paste. Then Yue Jingming and Xiao Chunhe retreated to this spot, their bodies covered with knife wounds, a horrifying sight. They struggled to stand up, clearly exhausted.
Some kind-hearted officials wanted to help support them, but Yue Jingming raised his hand to stop them.
The tall trees in the garden were broken into many pieces, crashing to the ground. The rain revealed the figure in the pavilion – it was Liang Ye.
Wen Heshen glanced at the officials and Wang Dian in front of them, then looked at Liang Ye in the pavilion, and sneered, “So that’s it.”
Yan Ze and the others were shocked as they looked at Wang Dian in front of them and Liang Ye in the pavilion – two identical faces stared at each other, even their expressions indistinguishable.
How could there be two Emperors!?
What exactly was happening?!
Who was the real one?
Could it be some illusion created by that evil Taoist!?
While the officials were confused at the sight of two identical emperors, Wen Heshen had already raised his sword and rushed towards Liang Ye.
The flexible thin sword wrapped around the long sword but was violently shaken off. Liang Ye, completely disregarding the wounds on his face, recklessly pressed towards the tip of the opponent’s sword, then suddenly changed direction at the critical moment. The entire pavilion exploded.
“You dare destroy Zhen’s place of romantic attachment.” Liang Ye raised his head with a sinister expression. “You’re asking for death.”
“It’s you who should die.” Wen Heshen gripped his sword tightly. “I’ve heard His Majesty loves to flay people alive. Why not personally experience the feeling of having bones removed from your body?”
“You’re not surnamed Wang, yet you dare to look at Zhen’s body!” Liang Ye, disregarding his numerous wounds, suddenly sprang up. His flexible sword wrapped around Wen Heshen’s neck like an agile snake, but it was like wrapping around a rigid stone – not only did it fail to cut into the flesh, but the blade itself developed fine cracks.
A contemptuous smile appeared on Wen Heshen’s face. With a sudden force, the blade instantly shattered into countless fragments, piercing through the rain curtain and straight into Liang Ye’s limbs.
“Liang Ye!” Wang Dian’s expression immediately changed.
“Your Majesty!” The officials behind him didn’t know whether to hold back the emperor in front of them or worry about the emperor who had fallen to the ground. In the confusion, Wang Dian had already broken free from Chu Geng’s grasp and rushed toward Liang Ye.
Wen Heshen had already reached for Liang Ye’s neck, but in the next moment, a long knife suddenly pierced through his chest. Wen Heshen looked back and met Wang Dian’s cold eyes.
“Interesting.” Wen Heshen’s gaze briefly paused at his neck, then he spoke mockingly, “A thing without bone—”
Before he could finish, Liang Ye, lying on the ground, suddenly gripped his arm. The blood on his face was washed away by the rain, scattering in all directions. “Zhen’s things are not for you to disdain.”
Wang Dian twisted the long knife in his hand forcefully, but the knife instantly shattered into powder, leaving his palm a bloody mess. The sharp fragments flew towards his eyes. In the next moment, a sensation of weightlessness suddenly struck him as Liang Ye grabbed him and they rolled on the ground, blood flowing down from his shoulder.
“Liang Ye!” Wang Dian quickly supported him. Liang Ye’s wounds were so numerous that he couldn’t even tell where they were, so he could only desperately lift him up, watching Wen Heshen gradually approach.
The officials in the downpour felt a wave of despair. Yue Jingming and Xiao Chunhe, half-kneeling on the ground and barely alive, also looked extremely grim. At that moment, someone suddenly rushed out with a sword.
Wen Heshen grabbed his throat, laughing, “Bian Daren, are you so eager to seek death?”
Bian Cang’s face turned blue from the grip. “I will… kill you… avenge…”
“Utterly ridiculous.” Wen Heshen held him by the neck and lifted him up, walking with ease towards Wang Dian and Liang Ye. “But you two are quite interesting. It’s a pity, there’s only one immortal bone.”
Liang Ye leaned in Wang Dian’s arms, opening his mouth to reveal a ferocious smile. “Oh? Then come and take it if you can.”
Wen Heshen, provoked by his contemptuous and challenging attitude, became infuriated and suddenly flew towards him and Wang Dian. “Mere mortals—”
Boom!
The begonia flowers on the ground were scattered in all directions. Thick iron chains crossed from all sides, and a heavy iron cage instantly sealed together without any gaps. Yue Jingming, Xiao Chunhe, and Liang Ye and Wang Dian on the ground, who had seemed powerless to fight anymore, suddenly sprang up and precisely locked the iron chains onto the iron rings at the four corners.
“Heh.” Wen Heshen looked as if he’d seen the biggest joke ever, incredulously saying, “You’re actually stupid enough to think you can trap me with an iron cage? Hahahahaha!”
He laughed arrogantly, swinging his sword violently. Fierce winds arose around him, countless begonia petals were tossed into the rain curtain. After a tremendous explosion, the iron cage remained unmoved.
The smile on Wen Heshen’s face instantly froze. He stubbornly swung his sword again. The moment the long sword struck down, countless dense symbols flashed around the iron cage, then suddenly extinguished in the rain. His sword also shattered into a pile of scrap metal.
“Impossible!” Wen Heshen looked at the ordinary-seeming iron cage in disbelief, staring hard at Liang Ye, Yue Jingming and the others. “What did you do to this cage!?”
Bian Cang, lying on the ground and barely alive, stared at the iron cage in astonishment, his face pale. “This is…the special iron cage that Liang Cong had made for viewing a white tiger during the autumn hunt…I was the one who suggested presenting that white tiger to Liang Cong…”
“That’s right. At that time, he invited many Taoist priests from the four countries to draw symbols on this cage,” Xiao Chunhe coughed up a mouthful of foul blood and stood up from the ground. “Because the State Preceptor at that time spread evil rumors, deceiving him that the white tiger was an inauspicious omen from heaven. Liang Cong was already seriously ill then, so he believed it. Later, he ordered a pair of children from the Bian family to enter the palace to dispel the disaster and pray for blessings. In fact, they were just thrown into a furnace by this man and burned alive.”
Looking at Wen Heshen trapped in the iron cage, Bian Cang suddenly covered his face and began to laugh loudly.
How ridiculous – just because of a white tiger he presented, just because of one word from this man, his wife and children’s lives were taken—
“Why did you do this! Why!?” Bian Cang suddenly rushed towards the iron cage, gripping the bars tightly as he stared at Wen Heshen inside, his entire being completely breaking down.
TN:
Jinshi (進士) was the highest and most prestigious degree in the imperial examination system of imperial China. Those who passed the Jinshi exam were eligible for high-ranking government positions and were considered elite scholars. It was a crucial step for scholars to enter the bureaucracy and serve in the imperial court.
Qimen Dunjia (奇门遁甲) is an ancient Chinese metaphysical system used for divination, military strategy, and tactical decision-making. It is based on the concepts of yin-yang, the five elements, the eight trigrams, and the Chinese calendar. Historically, it was used by military strategists, including Zhuge Liang, to predict battlefield outcomes and manipulate enemy movements. In fiction and folklore, it is often associated with mystical abilities, teleportation, and illusionary tactics.
