The blood-stained white chess piece sat heavily upon the pitch-black rosewood tea table, resembling the bloodshot white of an eye crawling with red veins, staring blankly yet eerily in every direction.
Gu Mang suppressed the surge of emotion in his heart and slowly picked up the chess piece from the table.
At first, he noticed nothing unusual about it. But after examining it for a moment, his pupils suddenly contracted, and he looked up in utter astonishment.
“Zhenlong Chess Formation?!”
“Marshal Gu has indeed dealt with the Liao Kingdom extensively and is exceptionally knowledgeable,” His Majesty said. “The Bureau of Arcane Arts spent three days and two nights confirming that this was the Zhenlong Chess Formation, yet you recognized it after only a few glances.”
“That’s right. This is one of the three great forbidden arts of ancient times… the Zhenlong Chess Formation.”
The Zhenlong Chess Formation.
It was a blood-soaked art passed down from the primordial era. By refining black and white chess pieces with their own spiritual power, its practitioner could control all things in the world. Whether birds and beasts, humans, ghosts, immortals, or demons, anyone who had a chess piece planted within them would become a puppet, willingly serving the one who controlled them.
However, this forbidden art had one major limitation: it placed extraordinarily high demands on the practitioner’s cultivation. Every chess piece required an enormous amount of spiritual power to refine, so anyone below the level of a great sorcerer was incapable of wielding it.
Even so, among the three great forbidden arts of ancient times, the Zhenlong Chess Formation was still the one whose traces had been passed down most clearly. Compared with the controversial art of reincarnation and the almost mythical Gate of Life and Death Across Time and Space, the bloodshed and upheaval caused by the Zhenlong Chess Formation had practically splattered across the entire history of the cultivation world.
Countless ambitious people who dreamed of becoming kings and rulers had eagerly scoured the world for fragments of the Zhenlong Chess Formation.
Even though, to this day, no one had been able to achieve what was recorded in the forbidden-art scrolls—to scatter beans and turn them into soldiers, to make millions of moves on the board, and to refine tens of thousands of black and white pieces with a single person’s power. No one had ever been able to completely master and wield the Zhenlong Chess Formation to the point of changing heaven and earth and staining mountains and rivers with blood.
But cultivators capable of barely refining dozens or even hundreds of chess pieces still existed.
And sometimes, to trigger a rebellion or overthrow a government, all it took was temporarily controlling a few key people.
That alone was enough.
A halo of light trembled in Gu Mang’s eyes.
“Zhenlong white piece…” he murmured, repeating the words several times. His lips trembled slightly. “So… so Lu Zhanxing was controlled by the Zhenlong Chess Formation?!”
His Majesty said, “Yes.”
It was only a casual word, yet it was as though it instantly reignited every last spark of light that had gone out within Gu Mang.
Gu Mang said excitedly, “Your Majesty told me all this because you want me to do something to clear Zhanxing’s name? I’ll do anything—”
“Marshal Gu.” His Majesty interrupted him and poured another cup of tea. “Calm yourself first. Sit down.”
“But—”
“Believe me. Since I am willing to personally tell you the truth, I will absolutely not let Lu Qing suffer an unjust accusation for nothing.”
The wording was exquisitely chosen.
What did “I will not let Lu Qing suffer an unjust accusation for nothing” actually mean?
At first hearing, it sounded as though His Majesty intended to clear Lu Zhanxing’s name. But upon closer thought, there was another possibility: he would ensure that Lu Zhanxing’s wrongful conviction served a purpose, so that the loss of this deputy marshal would not have been entirely in vain.
If a sacrifice had been worthwhile, that too could be called “not for nothing.”
But how could Gu Mang, at this moment, possibly hear such a hidden meaning in His Majesty’s words?
He blinked his moist eyes and gazed at His Majesty’s sincere expression. In the end, he lowered his head and sat down.
Gu Mang was like a bundle of dry firewood, so terribly easy to ignite. Only moments ago, he had been ice-cold, seemingly determined never to trust anyone again or serve anyone ever again.
Yet it turned out that all it took was this tiny spark, and he would once again offer everything he had before His Majesty, even if it meant laying down his life and spilling his blood.
Mo Xi closed his eyes, his lashes trembling violently.
The more fervently Gu Mang’s hope had been rekindled at that moment, the more profound the pain in Mo Xi’s heart became…
Because he knew that things would ultimately not unfold in the way Gu Mang hoped they would now.
This fleeting flame of light was merely the final reflection Gu Mang would leave behind in Chonghua.
“Does Marshal Gu know how I discovered this chess piece?”
Gu Mang shook his head.
His Majesty said, “After Lu Zhanxing was imprisoned in the Yin Prison, the jailers interrogated him in detail as usual. But they discovered that his condition at the time was very strange. Some of his answers were vague, and his reactions were exceptionally sluggish. I became suspicious, so I had Zhou He conduct a magical examination of him.”
As he spoke, he pointed at the white chess piece on the table.
“And afterward, they found this inside him.”
“The Zhenlong Chess Formation is not an easy art to wield. Throughout history, no one has ever truly mastered it. So this white piece was not refined to perfection as described in the ancient texts. It could only be considered a failed product. Nevertheless, it could still control a living being for a very short period of time, making them do whatever the practitioner wished to see.”
His Majesty paused, then raised his eyes.
“Marshal Gu, you have always been clever. Surely I don’t need to tell you that, under the circumstances at the time, Lu Zhanxing killing the envoy would have benefited which side the most.”
Gu Mang was silent for a moment before quietly saying, “…Liao.”
“Exactly. The Liao Kingdom.”
His Majesty picked up the white piece and held it upright between his fingers. With a slight application of force, the piece suddenly began spinning rapidly.
He stared at it and continued, “That practitioner had not cultivated the art deeply enough. He could not use the Zhenlong Chess Formation to control another person for any length of time with stability, nor could he manipulate cultivators whose spiritual power had reached the pinnacle, such as you or Lord Xihe. At that time, your deputy marshal Lu Zhanxing was stationed alone with the army. Naturally, he became the best target for the enemy to strike.”
It was as though layers upon layers of gauze were being peeled away, revealing the blood-soaked truth beneath, along with its hideous, ugly scars.
Gu Mang’s fingertips trembled faintly as he stared at that unremarkable white piece.
“Think about it, Marshal Gu. Regardless of Lu Zhanxing’s temperament, background, or position… his furious killing of the envoy would have seemed completely reasonable. If Zhou He had not investigated so carefully, the case would have ended there, and no one would ever have suspected anything.”
The white piece continued spinning like a top upon the tea table.
Through that wildly spinning Zhenlong chess piece, across the narrow wooden table, ruler and subject looked at one another.
“One chess piece could bury Chonghua’s bravest army, destroy the reforms that Chonghua had barely begun, turn me completely into a puppet of the old aristocratic clans, while you—you and all those people—would never have another chance to rise again.
“Can you imagine what that scene would have looked like?”
“…Imagine?”
After a long while, Gu Mang’s expression was dazed. His voice was hoarse, weary, and faint.
“…Your Majesty, these past few days, I have been living in that very scene.”
He clasped his hands together against his brow and buried his face deeply in them.
“Ever since I knelt before the court and begged you to build those seventy thousand grave markers for my brothers… I had already… already…”
He was like a traveler who had wandered across a desert for far too long and was on the verge of death. The sudden appearance of hope instead made him choke up.
From where Mo Xi stood, he could see Gu Mang’s profile. Clear traces of tears slid silently from the slender, butterfly-like corners of his eyes.
His Majesty remained silent for a moment before quietly saying, “Gu Qing, I am very sorry.”
How many subjects could truly let go without resentment when faced with a ruler who had once humiliated and belittled them before the entire court?
Setting aside those spineless sycophants, even if it were Murong Lian or Mo Xi, neither of them could easily accept such an apology from the bottom of their hearts.
But Gu Mang was a marshal whose fate had always been barren.
Other generals could stand high above others, full of youthful pride and ambition.
But what about him?
He was often shamelessly ingratiating, grinning as he haggled with noble lords over military provisions, swallowing his pride to cultivate relationships with other commanders.
It wasn’t because he was base.
It wasn’t because he was so cheap that when someone slapped his left cheek, he would offer them his right as well.
He simply had no choice.
That was all he had.
He was responsible for the lives and dignity of a hundred thousand brothers-in-arms. His pockets were empty, and he had no powerful background. The only thing he could pitifully take out and offer was his smile. All he could do was bow and scrape.
What else could he do?
Without saying a word, Gu Mang wiped the corner of his eyes with his thumb and raised his head.
The wind stirred the dying candle flame.
Mo Xi saw that the tear stains on Gu Mang’s face had not yet dried, yet he still forced himself to smile.
That smile was devastatingly broken, yet astonishingly strong.
Gu Mang said, “It’s all right. At that time, Elder Zhou had not yet detected the traces of the Zhenlong chess piece’s spell, and Your Majesty did not know the truth. It was only natural for you to reprimand me as you did.”
After a pause, he cautiously peered at His Majesty’s face with his moist, dark eyes.
“Then may I ask… what does Your Majesty intend to do to clear Lu Zhanxing’s name?”
His Majesty did not answer.
Amid that silence, the white piece’s spinning gradually slowed. It spun more and more wearily, more and more dejectedly…
Outside, lightning flashed again, illuminating the distant mountains so that they looked like vengeful ghosts crawling out from the depths of the earth.
With a thunderous crack, lightning split the sky, and the torrential rain poured down upon the world like a waterfall.
His Majesty said, “Marshal Gu, I’m afraid I cannot.”
Gu Mang’s pupils contracted in the purple lightning.
At the same moment, the white piece on the table finally ran out of strength. Struggling with the last of its remaining momentum, it made several awkward, disordered circles before collapsing onto the tabletop, no longer moving.
Everything fell silent again.
It was like a lake whose hidden currents had suddenly begun surging beneath the surface, waves leaping and churning, as though Fengyi were about to burst forth, his radiant scales illuminating the abyss and finally restoring justice to the world.
But then, all at once, the wind stopped.
The water stilled.
The River Earl sank back into the depths of the cold pool, leaving the people on the shore waiting in vain for a long time, their joy ultimately amounting to nothing.
“…”
Gu Mang’s throat felt dry and tight.
“What do you mean?”
His Majesty did not immediately answer.
Instead, he asked, “Marshal Gu, do you know what Lu Qing is feeling now, imprisoned in the dungeons?”
“…”
“To this day, he still believes that killing the envoy at Fengming Mountain was something he did in a moment of impulse. He is consumed by guilt. Zhou He said that whenever he was brought out for interrogation, he kept saying that he wanted to see you. He wants to personally apologize to you for his impulsiveness.”
Gu Mang abruptly closed his eyes.
The fingers hanging beside his legs clenched tightly into fists, veins rising at his temples as his expression became one of unbearable pain.
His Majesty’s fingertips once again touched the pale chess piece, gently rubbing it.
“Lu Qing does not know that a person whose mind has been controlled by a white piece can do anything—murder, rebellion, adultery, every manner of evil—and they will all believe that they did it willingly.
“He is merely an innocent victim, a blade used to kill.
“Yet he believes that he himself is the murderer.”
Gu Mang suddenly straightened, unable to stop his trembling voice.
“Then why won’t Your Majesty tell him the truth?!”
“Why won’t I tell him the truth?”
His Majesty’s words sounded almost like a question in return, yet also like he was questioning his own conscience.
He gave a faint, sorrowful laugh.
After a long while, he said, “…Because I am ashamed before my own conscience.”
He turned his head toward the vast curtain of rain, which had rendered heaven and earth bleak and desolate. Yet his voice was even colder and lonelier than the mountain landscape.
His Majesty said softly, “I don’t know how I should face him. He is not a traitorous minister. He is a marshal who has suffered terribly for Chonghua.
“My heart is made of flesh too…
“I have no face to see him.”
After a pause, he continued, “Do you think I am unwilling to clear his name? Unwilling to immediately return to all of you your good name and the justice you deserve?”
“You are mistaken. What ruler in this world would willingly chill the heart of a loyal and important minister like this?”
His Majesty rose and walked to the edge of the Golden Terrace, buffeted by wind and rain. With his hands clasped behind his back, he gazed into the endless darkness before him.
He remained silent for a moment before suddenly letting out a sigh.
“Marshal Gu… there is something I am afraid you would never believe, even if I were to kneel before you today and say it.”
He paused briefly.
“—In my eyes, that army of yours is the most precious treasure I inherited from my royal father. Even if you offered me more land than I could ever possess, or the most beautiful women in the world in exchange, I would never agree.”
“…”
“I don’t want to lose any of you.
I don’t want to lose you all.”