Li Wei stood beneath the plaque at the center of the main entrance, his sleeves covering his hands and his eyes lowered. Behind him were the tightly closed gates of Xihe Residence. Before him stood the stone pillars bestowed upon the residence by the late ruler, their surfaces densely engraved in Small Seal script with the glorious achievements and honors of four generations of the Mo family’s heroes.
“Steward Li, you’ve gone too far! Is the entire Xihe Residence planning to defy the royal decree?!!”
“Duke Zhao, how could you say that? Didn’t I already explain it to you? Lord Xihe is unwell at the moment and has no way to come out and receive the royal decree. Once his condition improves a little, I’ll immediately report the royal intentions to him. Please, don’t get angry. It wouldn’t be good to ruin your health.”
Duke Zhao was so furious that his hair practically stood on end. Pointing at Steward Li’s nose, he cursed, “Li Wei! There’s a limit to how much lying you can do! What happened tonight—Lord Xihe trespassing into the Bureau of Arcane Arts—has already reached the highest authorities! He snatched that traitor surnamed Gu right from under Elder Zhou’s nose, and now you’re telling me he’s physically unwell? Who exactly do you take for a fool?!”
Li Wei rubbed his nose. “Ahem. There’s a long story behind this matter. There may have been some misunderstanding…”
“What misunderstanding could there possibly be! In a single night, the Shennong Platform entered the residence, Princess Mengze entered the residence, Jiang Fuli entered the residence—and what, Lord Xihe can see all of these people, yet he alone refuses to let the people sent by His Majesty through the door? What kind of logic is that?!”
Li Wei clapped his hands. “Oh, you’re absolutely right! You noticed it too, didn’t you? Everyone who went inside was a cultivator from the Medicine Sect. They all came to diagnose our lord during the night. Our lord is seriously ill!”
“You—!”
While the two were arguing fiercely, there was suddenly a creak.
The residence gates opened.
Mo Xi stood behind the gates, beneath the moonlight. He raised a pair of weary yet still razor-sharp phoenix eyes and looked out coldly.
Li Wei had already stalled for as long as he possibly could. When he saw Mo Xi emerge, he couldn’t help but let out a quiet sigh of relief. He hurriedly stepped aside, lowered his head, and said, “My lord.”
Mo Xi stepped over the threshold, his voice low, slow, and resonant.
“You’ve worked hard. Go.”
“Yes.”
Li Wei withdrew.
Mo Xi walked out, his gaze following the steps of the residence as he looked down at Duke Zhao from above. Although Duke Zhao was the ruler’s most trusted servant and enjoyed His Majesty’s complete confidence, the distinction between their ranks remained. Moreover, Mo Xi naturally possessed an intensely cold and severe air. When he neither spoke nor smiled, that aura alone was almost enough to make anyone feel as though an enormous weight were pressing down upon them.
The sharp edge in Duke Zhao’s manner immediately receded.
He lowered his head and bowed.
“Lord Xihe.”
Mo Xi said nothing. He raised his head slightly and gazed at the star-filled night before him, complicated emotions flickering in his eyes.
Duke Zhao continued, “His Majesty has summoned you—”
“How is His Majesty’s health?”
Duke Zhao froze.
He had imagined all sorts of reactions from Mo Xi—calm acceptance, furious anger, refusal to comply… Yet he still found himself momentarily speechless at Mo Xi’s seemingly unrelated question.
“Princess Mengze said his old illness flared up a few days ago. How is he now?”
“…Thank you for your concern, Lord Xihe. His Majesty is blessed by Heaven and has already recovered for the most part.”
“Good. That’s good.”
Mo Xi’s iron-plated military boots struck the ground as he descended the steps. He said indifferently, “I’ll go to the palace with you.”
Deep within the royal city.
The Vermilion Bird Palace.
This sleeping palace was the warmest place in the entire imperial city. The palace itself was not large, but it had been built entirely from stone quarried from the Blazing Fire Mountains in the far south. Fragrant herbs meant to ward off the cold were burned there year-round, and thick woven carpets covered the floors everywhere.
Whenever His Majesty’s cold illness flared up, he would choose to rest here and nourish his body.
Mo Xi followed Duke Zhao to the outside of the Vermilion Bird Palace. Duke Zhao entered to announce his arrival. A moment later, he came back out, holding his horsetail whisk before him, and bowed to Mo Xi.
“Lord Xihe, His Majesty will see you now.”
Mo Xi stepped through the palace doors.
He had never liked coming to this hall. The carpets in the Vermilion Bird Palace were simply too thick. The moment he entered, his feet sank deep into the soft padding beneath him, as though a beast had fallen into a muddy bog, or a moth had become trapped in a spider’s web. A helpless, involuntary sensation would creep coldly up his spine.
Even the finest incense could not dispel it.
Duke Zhao closed the palace doors behind them.
Within the Vermilion Bird Palace, surrounded by strings of pearls and layers of jade ornaments, the heavy fragrance hung in the air. It was as though even the air itself had become thick and viscous, impossible to stir.
The weather was already somewhat warm at this time of year, yet a brazier still burned in the center of the Vermilion Bird Palace, its flames roaring fiercely.
His Majesty was seated sideways on a small sandalwood couch, wrapped in a heavy fox fur. His eyes were lowered as he slowly turned a string of bodhi prayer beads in his palm.
His complexion was terrible—pale to the point of seeming bloodless. Even the firelight cast across his face could not give him the slightest trace of vitality.
Hearing the movement, His Majesty’s fingers paused on the beads.
Then came a sigh, thin as paper.
“Lord Xihe, you’ve come.”
Mo Xi said nothing.
In truth, from the moment he had learned the truth, he had been consumed by overwhelming fury. He had wanted to enter the palace immediately and confront His Majesty about everything.
But Gu Mang had still been in danger, and he could not leave him.
Only after Jiang Fuli had hurried back and begun stabilizing Gu Mang’s condition had Mo Xi finally been able to come to the palace and face this man who had actually known everything from the very beginning.
And now that he truly stood before His Majesty, his anger had only deepened.
Yet it was no longer as violently confrontational as it had been at first.
He could barely suppress the eruption of his rage as he stared at the ruler wrapped in fox fur.
His Majesty said, “I summoned you tonight for nothing particularly important. It’s simply that Zhou He just reported a rather remarkable matter to me, and I thought Lord Xihe might appreciate hearing it as well. Would you be interested?”
“…”
After waiting a while without receiving an answer from Mo Xi, His Majesty continued on his own.
“Zhou He told me that today he was carrying out the Black Demon Trial I had entrusted to him. Everything was proceeding smoothly when someone suddenly broke in from outside.
“That person ignored his attempts to stop him and completely disregarded my orders, insisting on taking the trial subject away. He even violated the regulations and summoned a divine weapon. He nearly caused the cultivators of the Bureau of Arcane Arts to shed blood right there on the spot.”
“Does Lord Xihe think that this person who interfered was a great villain who had committed every imaginable evil?”
His Majesty turned another bodhi bead and gave a cold laugh.
“That was what I thought at first as well. Until Zhou He told me that the hero who had come to save the person—”
He slowly raised his eyes.
His face was weak and pale, but his gaze was chillingly sharp.
“Was you.”
Those two words seemed to be forced out between his clenched teeth.
His Majesty straightened his body. His deep brows cast heavy shadows over his eye sockets.
The ruler and his subject stared at each other across the burning brazier. Heat and smoke rose between them, blurring and distorting each other’s faces in their eyes.
His Majesty said darkly, “Lord Xihe, you have disappointed me greatly.”
“Let me ask you. When I handed Gu Mang over to you, what did I tell you?”
“…”
“I warned you then that given the severity of Gu Mang’s crimes, he should have been sentenced to death long ago. The only reason he was still alive was because the spell of the Liao Kingdom on his body was worth studying.
“One day, he was destined to be used as a trial subject. I hoped that when that day came, you would not forget who you were, and that you would not let a moment of hotheadedness cause you to stand on the wrong side.”
Those words were indeed what His Majesty had once instructed him.
At the time, Mo Xi had found them oppressive to hear.
But hearing them again now, they seemed unbearably ironic, absurd, and terrifying.
Mo Xi looked down at His Majesty’s face, trying to find even the slightest trace of guilt, grief, or hesitation.
But there was none.
It was an exquisitely crafted mask. Every emotion seemed to have been measured a hundred times before being carefully drawn onto that face. Even his eyes showed not the slightest wavering.
The hardest thing to see through was the heart of a ruler…
How could that saying possibly be wrong?
Mo Xi slowly closed his eyes.
Coldness and fury, disappointment and grief flowed through his veins and spread throughout his entire body.
Yet His Majesty’s words continued to stab into his ears like the venomous pincers of a scorpion.
“Lord Xihe, it seems that you have lost your mind. You have completely forgotten my warnings.
“You no longer remember that you are Chonghua’s supreme commander. You no longer remember who it was that once drove a blade straight into your chest. You no longer remember who saved you and gave you a second life.
“You no longer remember who killed tens of thousands of the people of our nation.
“You no longer remember who the traitor is.
“Am I right?”
A piece of pepperwood in the brazier suddenly cracked and burst apart.
A cluster of bright sparks shot upward and danced through the air.
Mo Xi opened his eyes.
He endured the fury that had nearly driven him out of his senses.
He endured the trembling of his hands from that fury.
He forcibly suppressed the rage boiling inside him like molten lava and spoke in a low, restrained voice.
“Are you finished, Your Majesty?”
His Majesty suddenly froze.
His dark eyes remained fixed on Mo Xi’s face.
Only now did he notice how terrible Mo Xi’s condition was.
And upon sensing more carefully, he realized that even the spiritual energy within Mo Xi’s body was extremely unstable.
Could it be—?!
An intense sense of unease suddenly surged through His Majesty.
His fingers unconsciously tightened around the string of bodhi beads, and the last trace of color drained from his face.
In the silent clash of their gazes, it seemed that both ruler and subject had already understood everything with perfect clarity.
“If Your Majesty is finished, then I have a remarkable matter of my own.”
Mo Xi’s voice was cold.
“I wonder if Your Majesty dares to hear it.”
“…”
After a long silence, His Majesty leaned back into the depths of the couch.
He had almost guessed what Mo Xi was about to say.
There was only one thing that could have caused such a sudden and absolute change in Mo Xi’s attitude.
The final layer of paper between them was already trembling.
It was about to be pierced through.
Mo Xi stared directly into His Majesty’s eyes and, word by word, tore that final layer apart.
“…Many years ago, I knew a man.
“That man once rendered magnificent military service to his nation. He fought for many years and suffered only one defeat.
“Later, for the sake of seventy thousand gravestones, and for the just world his ruler had once promised him, he infiltrated enemy territory. He endured humiliation and torment for five whole years.
“During those five years, there was not a single day when he did not hate the blood he had been forced to stain his hands with. There was not a single day when he did not hope that his ruler would allow him to see the promises of the past fulfilled…”
With every word Mo Xi spoke, His Majesty’s expression grew uglier.
Those words were like sharp knives stabbing into his flawless mask, tearing apart every last piece of his carefully constructed falsehood until nothing remained.
Every word Mo Xi spoke was wrapped in heavy, blood-soaked grief and thrust directly before His Majesty’s eyes.
“That man eventually returned to his homeland, but he had lost his memories.
“Yet apart from the ruler to whom he had once entrusted his very life, no one knew that he had been wronged.
“So he was cursed and condemned by countless people, imprisoned by the authorities, hated, resented, blamed, and humiliated by everyone. They all wished for him to die—
“And his ruler…
“That ruler who had once personally promised him that one day he would clear his name and personally place the Blue-Gold insignia upon his chest—
“said that the only reason he was allowed to remain alive was so that he could be used in the Black Demon Trial!”
The fury that erupted from Mo Xi burned fiercely in his eyes.
No matter how much he tried to restrain himself, by the time he reached this point, his voice was trembling.
The firelight seemed to have been tempered into the depths of his black eyes.
“…Your Majesty.”
His voice shook.
“Does this story sound familiar to you?”
His Majesty’s face had already gone whiter than paper.
Amid the frozen atmosphere, he slipped the string of beads back onto his wrist.
His hand trembled.
He tried once, but failed to put the beads on.
Only on the second attempt did he manage to loop them properly around his wrist.
“Mo Xi.”
His Majesty raised his eyes.
“You have some nerve… You actually dared to trespass into the Imperial Historical Office and steal the jade slips containing the historical records…”
“So that means…”
Mo Xi’s eyes closed briefly. His voice trembled violently with rage.
“Those jade slips really were destroyed by you!”
He abruptly opened his eyes.
The pain and cold light in his gaze were something His Majesty had never seen before.
It was enough to make one’s heart tremble.
His Majesty and Mo Xi were roughly the same age. One could say that they had grown up alongside each other.
He knew very well what kind of person this young imperial commander was.
His father had once told him:
“The Mo bloodline is loyal, powerful, courageous, stubborn, and resilient… Once they recognize a principle, they will cling to it to the death.
“People like this will never covet your throne, nor will they lightly commit any act of treason.
“But if one day they believe that what you have done violates the ‘Way’ they believe in, they will disregard life and death, honor and disgrace, and stand against you.
“They will become the sharpest nail in your eyes, the most painful thorn in your flesh.”
He had never forgotten those words from his father.
Whenever anything concerning Mo Xi arose, he had always proceeded with the utmost caution.
But Mo Xi had still ended up standing on the opposite side from him.
Mo Xi said coldly, “Your Majesty, he did so much for you. Must you really hide the truth about all of it?!”
The Vermilion Bird Palace fell terrifyingly silent for a moment.
The coiling dragons carved across the flying beams of the roof seemed almost to have come alive, their fierce whiskers and savage faces looking down upon the confrontation between ruler and subject.
After a long while, His Majesty finally spoke.
There was nothing left to evade.
There was nothing left to conceal.
His Majesty raised his eyes and said quietly,
“…What else could I do?”