“……”
Gu Mang said nothing. He only felt that it was utterly absurd.
Yet Gu Mang was not the only one who found it absurd. Mo Xi, too, felt that His Majesty’s words were simply laughable.
Precious?
Unwilling to lose them?
They had been cast aside like worn-out shoes, and His Majesty had been desperate to disband them… To call them a thorn in his side and a splinter in his flesh would have been far more believable. Treasures? Who would believe that?
Seeing Gu Mang’s silence, His Majesty turned his head and suddenly asked, “Marshal Gu, what kind of person do you think I am?”
Gu Mang’s lips moved, but then he pressed them tightly together again.
“Actually, even if you don’t say it, I know what you think. All of you believe my late father was a wise ruler, willing to give cultivators born into slave registries an opportunity to distinguish themselves and build careers. In your eyes, my father was farsighted and capable. And what about me?” His Majesty gave a small laugh. “I am merely stubbornly clinging to old ways, incapable of seeing reason.”
He looked at the stream of water cascading from the corner of the eaves. After a while, he said, “But has any of you ever stood in my position and thought about what my circumstances are like?”
“I had no other choice.” His Majesty sighed softly. “Marshal Gu, you were born into a slave registry and climbed all the way to where you are today, enduring countless criticisms and setbacks along the way. I saw all of it. What I felt most was not admiration, nor pity, but empathy. Because your road and mine are both equally difficult to walk. We were destined to bear countless infamies and accusations.”
“……”
“No. In fact, I have it worse than you. At least you have Lord Xihe, someone you can truly open your heart to, and a group of fearless warriors willing to follow you to their deaths. What do I have? Mengze? Yanping… or Murong Lian?” As he spoke, His Majesty gave a faint, self-mocking laugh. “In this enormous royal city, with so many relatives from both the main and collateral branches of the royal family, there isn’t a single one who stands beside me without reservations. Do you know why?”
Gu Mang shook his head.
His Majesty said, “Because the road I took to the throne was already splattered with the blood of my own brothers.”
As he spoke, he raised his head and gazed at the ink-dark sky.
“…Let me tell you a rumor. No… It should be called a forbidden rumor. But words are the hardest thing in this world to suppress. I think you may have heard this legend before, Marshal Gu.”
Gu Mang said nothing.
His Majesty paused, then began, “It happened a very long time ago, when I had only just been born…”
“As everyone knows, I am the eldest legitimate son of the royal family. By all rights, I should have been named Crown Prince. But there is precedent for struggles over succession in Chonghua. As long as one has not formally ascended the throne, anything can happen.
“So, on the day I turned one month old, my mother secretly sought out a diviner and had him cast an oracle. The omen was ominous. The diviner said that I was destined to suffer a calamity in my life. Under the Ziwei constellation, I was fated to turn against my own brothers and never live in harmony with them.”
“That divination left my mother unable to eat or sleep and bedridden with illness for several months. And after she recovered…”
His Majesty paused. He closed his eyes briefly.
“For some reason, from that point onward, not a single male child born to any of the palace consorts was able to survive past his first year.”
Mo Xi knew His Majesty was telling the truth.
When he was young, he had often accompanied his father into the palace. The only young prince he had ever seen, from beginning to end, was the current His Majesty.
And he still clearly remembered that there had once been a consort in the palace who was gentle as water and exceptionally skilled at making pastries. Every time Mo Xi visited, she would specially prepare two boxes for him to take home.
That consort’s health had always been frail.
Later, she became pregnant and poured every last bit of strength she had into giving birth to a child.
It was a boy.
Mo Xi still remembered how his father had once discussed with his mother what sort of congratulatory gift would be appropriate.
But before they had even settled on the gift, the funeral bells from the palace rang throughout the entire imperial capital.
The little prince had died.
Because Mo Xi had been so young at the time, and so many years had passed since then, he could no longer remember the exact cause of death. Vaguely, he recalled that it had been some sort of sudden childhood illness.
What he could never forget, however, was how utterly devastated the consort had been by the death of her young son.
Several days later, taking advantage of a moment when her maids and guards were not paying attention, she hanged herself and died.
This strange and sinister affair spread throughout all of Chonghua.
And after that, aside from this consort, all the other palace women lived in fear.
For women whose status depended upon their children, giving birth to a boy was no longer a blessing. It had become a curse.
Among all those deaths in those years, no one knew how many mothers’ tears had been shed or how many innocent souls had died unjustly.
Yet when everything was traced back to its source, the explanation could truly be summed up in nothing more than that one simple sentence.
His Majesty gazed into the vast, rain-filled night, his eyes distant and hazy, as though he could see within the rain the flesh-and-blood brothers who had never lived to adulthood.
He said quietly, “Whether these things were merely coincidences or whether my mother truly did them, I have no right to speculate. However… everyone believes that I climbed to this position by walking a road stained with blood. So tell me, among my late father’s consorts… which of them would wish me well? And among their maternal relatives and extended families, which household would truly be willing to stand wholeheartedly with me?”
“They never accepted me to begin with. They never truly submitted to me. And when my father was dying, he even considered abolishing me and having Murong Lian inherit the throne instead. How secure do you think my position really is?”
Gu Mang: “……”
After saying this, His Majesty bit his lip, the light in his eyes shifting between brightness and darkness.
“So it is not that I am unwilling to continue along the path my father opened, nor is it that I truly regard all of you as floating duckweed or blades of grass. It is because…”
He closed his eyes.
“I have no other choice.”
“When I first took control of the government, there were troubles both within and without, and nothing was stable. You all seem to think that in Chonghua, as long as I stamp something with my vermilion seal, I can decide anything I want.
“But in reality, I cannot even shut down the Luomei Pleasure House opened by Lord Wangshu.
“That is the predicament of Chonghua’s new ruler. Tell me, how laughable is that?”
Gu Mang said, “Luomei Pleasure House is nothing more than a brothel. Why would you be unable to close it down?”
“A brothel…”
His Majesty gave a cold scoff and looked up at Gu Mang.
“Does Marshal Gu know how deep the waters run beneath that brothel? When you leave it alone, all you know is that it is one of Lord Wangshu’s establishments. But once you truly try to uproot it, you will discover that its roots extend throughout more than half the royal city.
“The moment you touch it, all those interests buried deep beneath the soil will rise to threaten you. They will cry out in pain and push back against you.
“A single Luomei Pleasure House already involves countless ugly affairs: officials protecting one another, laundering stolen goods, bribery, and all manner of corruption… And that is only one brothel.
“Chonghua today is such that whenever I try to accomplish one thing, ten thousand pairs of eyes stare at me, a thousand mouths cry out in opposition, and a hundred arms rush to force me back onto my throne.
“Then what will happen if one day I want to reform the Bureau of Ceremonies, reform the Military Affairs Office, or even completely change Chonghua’s system of government?”
Wind drove the rain sideways, and torrents splashed beneath the eaves of the Golden Terrace.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Whether it was the observing Mo Xi or the two ruler and subject standing there at the time, all of them fell into silence.
After a while, His Majesty spoke again.
“To retreat and cling to the old ways is not what I want. It is merely a strategy I have no choice but to adopt, and a responsibility I have no choice but to bear.”
A strategy I have no choice but to adopt… a responsibility I have no choice but to bear…
Those two sentences drove into Gu Mang’s heart like nails, making his chest tremble.
“Marshal Gu.”
Gu Mang abruptly raised his head.
His Majesty rested his long fingers against the dark-red carved railing and said quietly, “Do you know what I want most in this life?”
“……”
“I want those old nobles who squabble over petty gains to learn to shut their mouths. I want those useless cowards to spit out the meat they have been clutching in their mouths.
“Shen Tang trusted Hua Po’an and was betrayed, and because of the existence of the Liao Kingdom, some people decided that cultivators born into slave registries must never be accepted again.
“But my father trusted you, Gu Qing, and because of that, Chonghua gained a battle-hardened general capable of standing against the Liao Kingdom.
“If there could be a Hua Po’an in this world, then there could be a Gu Mang, and there could be a Lu Zhanxing.”
“My father chose the right path. But I want to walk farther than he did.”
He paused.
His gaze sharpened, and his fingers slowly clenched, almost unconsciously, as though he were about to face something utterly disgusting.
“Those ministers connected by family ties, those old aristocrats… In their eyes, there is no Chonghua, no nation. All they care about is what honors their families receive today and what official titles they gain tomorrow.
“When they actually step onto the battlefield, they are nothing but useless armchair strategists!
“For so many years… using Hua Po’an’s treason as an excuse, they would rather die than allow capable people and men of knowledge to rise.
“The moment a cultivator from a slave registry showed even the slightest promise, they would swarm together to attack him, piling on fabricated charges until their opponent died amid the storm of accusations—”
This outburst stunned not only Gu Mang, but even Mo Xi.
When had His Majesty ever spoken so much in a single breath, with such unrestrained emotion?
What was even more astonishing was that as he spoke, increasingly impassioned light ignited in his eyes.
That light seemed to crack the invisible shell that had always encased him.
Only now did he truly resemble a spirited young man with great ambitions, one who wished to shape the world with his own hands.
“They fear Chonghua changing its system. They fear understanding black magic and curses. They fear every unknown change.
“All they want is to live comfortably until the day they die.
“They do not care that a hundred years from now, the country might fall and their families might be destroyed. They fight only for the pleasure and gratification of the present moment.
“This is Chonghua’s aristocracy, my brothers.”
His Majesty finally fell silent.
“……”
“But you are different.
“My brothers, my comrades—those people who have the same blood running through their veins as I do—spend every day thinking about how to drink another mouthful of blood from Chonghua, how to remain untouchable overlords for one more day.
“Marshal Gu, you are different.”
“Your brothers, your army—that is a sharp sword Chonghua has failed to forge in all these centuries.
“I told you, whether you believe me or not, they are my treasure.”
A moth trapped within the stormy night danced frantically around the candle flame, unable to escape.
At last, it plunged into the fire.
With a sudden whoosh, the flame leapt upward, releasing the acrid smell of something burning.
The moth had finally sacrificed itself to the light, falling into the pool of wax at the center of the candle.
“In this life, I do not merely want to continue my father’s path. I want to strip power from the nobles, demote those who rise through family connections, and dare to venture into dangers no one before me has dared to face.
“Chonghua does not practice the forbidden arts of black magic. But we must master them. We must understand them!
“If knowing something does not mean using it for evil, then what shame is there in knowing it?
“Ask yourself—if Chonghua had already thoroughly studied the Three Great Forbidden Arts, how could Lu Zhanxing ever have ended up like this?”
Gu Mang’s entire body suddenly trembled.
“Marshal Gu, one Lu Qing is enough…”
His Majesty looked up at the vast sky.
“I do not want to see a second Lu Qing, or a third, fall victim to black magic while no one realizes what has happened.”
At that moment, a flash of lightning streaked across the heavens.
Before long, a deep rumble of thunder rolled through the sky.
His Majesty’s eyes were illuminated brilliantly by the lightning.
He murmured, “The sky of Chonghua… must change.”
The wind and clouds roiled.
In the deep night, most of the candles within the inner palace had already been extinguished. Only the Golden Terrace standing at the summit of the royal city still glimmered faintly beneath the howling wind.
It was like a sword radiating a ghostly chill, pointing straight toward the highest heavens and cleaving apart the dense, heavy clouds.
“Gu Qing, I need someone.
“He must be loyal enough, brave enough, and clever enough.
“I need someone like that to infiltrate the Liao Kingdom, relay intelligence to me, and become the poison I pour into the belly of the Liao Kingdom and the old aristocratic clans.”
Gu Mang was not a fool.
By now, he had vaguely understood why the king had summoned him to the Golden Terrace tonight.
Sure enough, His Majesty continued, “Gu Qing. Are you willing to become Chonghua’s pillar of support and endure hardship in silence for the sake of the greater cause?”
Gu Mang was silent for a moment before asking, “Your Majesty wants me to fake my defection?”
Absolute silence.
The sound of wind and rain pouring over the tiled roof and eaves was almost deafening.
Gu Mang was waiting for the answer.
Mo Xi was waiting too.
It was as though the string of a jade bow had been drawn to its absolute limit, awaiting only that final ounce of force.
His Majesty lowered his eyelids.
Then he said, “…Yes.”
It was like the sharp twang of a bowstring snapping.
The broken string continued to tremble, quivering endlessly…
Even though he was merely an observer within the jade slip, Mo Xi still felt as though the bitter wind and miserable rain of that night had instantly pierced into his bones and blood.
All the blood in his body surged toward his head, only to freeze into dark ice an instant later.
It was as though that single affirmative answer had frozen him solid.
Every limb and bone in his body had lost all sensation.
Cold.
It was truly cold.
But perhaps he had been waiting for this very moment all along.
Waiting for this vindication.
Waiting for the truth behind the charge of treason.
He had waited eight years.
Grieved for eight years.
Suffered for eight years.
Despaired for eight years.
And when he finally heard those words, when he learned that Gu Mang truly had had his reasons, that he had even been a chess piece Chonghua had planted inside the Liao Kingdom, every emotion he had carried all these years transformed in an instant into bitterness and heartache…
For the gratitude of the Golden Terrace, I raise the Jade Dragon and die for Your Majesty…
How ironic.
Only someone who had truly ascended this towering platform that countless people envied could know what it meant to be a “high minister.”
A so-called “high minister” stood beneath neither heaven nor earth.
Every conspiracy, every scheme, every sinister sacrifice came from the ruler’s mouth and entered the minister’s ears.
From that moment onward, his radiant, sincere smile would be torn from his face in a bloody strip, and a mask he had never been allowed to choose would be nailed permanently over his features.
Once the blood dried and the scars faded, he would raise his head—
only to discover that he could never again recognize his own face in the bronze mirror.
A so-called “hero” might nod on a night of torrential rain for the sake of a dream, a goal, a person, a promise, or a single conviction.
And from that moment onward, he would pay for it with his entire life.
There would be no way back.
The wind whipped his broad sleeves with a loud rustle.
Gu Mang brushed the loose strands of hair from his temples and said, “Your Majesty wants to prove that you are right. You want to accomplish something great enough to shake heaven and earth, so that those old aristocrats who refuse to submit to you will see clearly whether you are merely a useless ruler who climbed to the throne over a mountain of blood and flesh, or a true sovereign who stands beneath heaven and above the earth.
“Is that it?”
“……”
His words were so calm that it seemed as though he were desperately suppressing some emotion.
Because of that, His Majesty did not answer immediately.
“Your Majesty wants to become a wise ruler. You want to change Chonghua at its very foundations. Naturally, that is a good thing, and I admire you for it.”
Hearing this, His Majesty relaxed slightly and was just about to respond when Gu Mang continued:
“But Your Majesty, I have already died seventy thousand times.
“The scars in my heart have not yet healed.
“The seventy thousand souls of my brothers have not yet been laid to rest.
“Yes, I am willing to become your blade. I am willing to become the poison you pour into the belly of the Liao Kingdom. I am willing to become the spy who gathers intelligence on black magic for you. I am willing to become the sacrifice you offer to appease the old aristocratic clans.
“I can agree to all of these things.
“I am willing to do every one of them.
“I only beg you, for the sake of those seventy thousand dead, to leave my brothers a way to live.”
“……”
“I am not some God of War.
“I am merely one among those hundred thousand cultivators born into slave registries.
“I am willing to become the traitor you personally designate and bear that infamy for the rest of my life.
“But I beg you—give them the justice they deserve.”
His Majesty slowly closed his eyes, seemingly tormented and deeply unsettled by Gu Mang’s words.
He said quietly, “I will not let you suffer for nothing.
“Someday…
“Gu Qing, someday, I will clear your name.
“When that day comes, I will personally place the blue-and-gold insignia upon you.
“I will announce it throughout all of Chonghua, to every citizen living in peace and prosperity.
“I will tell them that it was because you made such a sacrifice that they were able to have such a world…”
A glimmer flickered in Gu Mang’s eyes.
But in the end, he was not moved by the future His Majesty described.
He remained clear-headed.
Clear-headed, and stubbornly clinging to the one thing he had decided mattered.
He stared directly at His Majesty’s face and asked, each word distinct:
“Then what about Lu Zhanxing?”
His Majesty looked at him.
Their gazes locked, like an invisible contest between them.
In the end, within that suffocating silence, His Majesty was the one who yielded.
He lowered his eyelids and said quietly,
“Gu Qing, Lu Qing has no path to survival anymore.”