Chapter 133: The Hardest Barrier is the Beauty Pass
When Yun Niang arrived to report the matter, the lamps in the room had just been extinguished.
Knowing they hadnât gone to sleep yet, Yun Niang knocked. She kept her voice very low while making her report, clearly stating her purpose but avoiding any loud proclamation about the sudden disturbance in the Su Ancestral Hall that might cause widespread panic.
ââŚThis is a grave matter. I ask the Prince to please go and take a look immediately,â Yun Niangâs voice betrayed her anxiety.
The Regent, of course, held his ancestors in high reverence.
However, he did not believe there could be any connection between the unrest in the ancestral hall and “Little Wan coming to sleep in his bedroom.”
If there really were vengeful spirits at work, those ghosts should have long ago torn the former Emperor to shreds on his behalf. At the very least, they should have appeared in their descendants’ dreams to warn them against any wine bestowed by the palace.
They shouldn’t care so little for their lives.
And to be worrying about such a matter, which depended entirely on personal willingness, seemed unlikely for ancestral spirits.
Su Jingzhi walked out with his hands clasped behind his back, heading toward the ancestral hall. He wore his saber and ordered several family soldiers to guard the bedroom door strictly, forbidding anyone from entering without his command.
Inside the bedroom, Wei Wanlan was unaware of what was happening.
He was a little bored, but sleeping in the Regent’s residence felt naturally safe.
He didn’t know what Su Jingzhi had gone out to do, so he lay on the bed, bored to death.
He rolled around, finding that every spot Su Jingzhi had lain on carried that woodsy scent Wei Wanlan liked so much. Wei Wanlan closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.
The bed curtains were drawn open.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw that on the plush carpet of the Princeâs bedroom floor, a sheet of snow-white paper had suddenly appeared.
There were characters written on the paper in cinnabar.
Every character was so red it was piercing to the eye. Wei Wanlan was instantly startled. He scrambled up from the bed, his feet clad in brocade boots hitting the floor.
For a long while, he didn’t dare to move.
He knew that “Splitting Air Sword” had returned.
This person, who resembled Splitting Air Sword, possessed extremely high martial arts skills. His qinggongâlightness skillâseemed particularly unparalleled. Wei Wanlan didnât know what method the intruder had used just now to lure the tiger from the mountainâdrawing Su Jingzhi awayâonly to approach him once again.
Wei Wanlan felt as though he were being entangled by a ghost. A chill ran down his spine, and goosebumps slowly crept up his back again.
Wei Wanlan sat on the edge of the bed, dazed for a moment.
He called out, his voice not very loud: “Is anyone outside?”
The Prince’s family generals responded immediately: “What is the matter, Your Majesty?”
Wei Wanlan wanted to ask them to check the roof, but he suddenly realized that with the intruder’s skillâresembling that of Splitting Air Swordâhe would have vanished without a trace by now. Chasing him would be futile.
So Wei Wanlan collected his thoughts and changed his question to a distracted deflection: “Where did the Regent go? When will he be back?”
The family general answered earnestly: “The Prince did not say. We do not know.”
“Oh. Understood.”
The conversation ended hastily.
Wei Wanlan crouched down and picked up the note. Since he couldn’t escape, he had to face it. The characters were bright red; not classical prose, but the blunt, vernacular language of a jianghu swordsman, filled with intense hostility.
“Little Tyrant.”
“That day, guided by Cui Minghai, you came to the Worry-Free View. You personally claimed you hated Su Jingzhi to the bone. You said you wished to eat his flesh, sleep on his skin, and gouge out his heart, asking my junior brother to kill him for you.”
“Now, you use your beauty to seduce Su Jingzhi, becoming the most important person to him. Yet you caused my junior brother’s death. Should this life be repaid or not?!”
“Should it be repaid! Should it be repaid!!!”
Wei Wanlan rubbed the paper between his fingers.
Suddenly, the paper felt incredibly heavy.
On the day he first transmigrated, many things had happened.
The first was that System 404 required him to cooperate with Splitting Air Sword to kill the Regent. The result was that he inadvertently exposed Splitting Air Sword’s identity as an assassin, which ultimately led to the Regent killing the man in counter-attack.
Theoretically speaking, he hadn’t hired the assassin. He had been forced into a corner; staying alive in that situation was hard enough.
But practically speaking, he could not absolve himself of blame for Splitting Air Sword’s death. He could not escape all responsibility.
Wei Wanlan’s nature was very soft and kind.
This “peace dove” attribute meant he certainly couldn’t just turn his back, deny everything, and let the matter slide.
So, in the empty room, Wei Wanlan asked with a trembling, quiet voice:
“Zhen… How should I compensate you?”
He wasn’t sure if the person was still on the roof.
He didn’t know if his question could be heard by Splitting Air Sword’s senior brother. He asked in a very low voice.
As it turned out, another note drifted down from above.
The note read:
“Leave everyone behind. Meet at the martial arts training grounds.”
Although the Regent’s family soldiers had strict orders not to let anyone break into the bedroom, the Regent had given no instructions to the contrary regarding the Emperor leaving.
Moreover, if the Emperor issued an imperial decree that he wanted to go out and forbade anyone from following, the Princeâs generals would not dare to stop him.
Thus, before Su Jingzhi returned to the room, Wei Wanlan managed to slip out quite smoothly.
There were few servants moving about the Prince’s residence. The entire estate was vast and empty.
However, even so, for Splitting Air Sword’s senior brother to carry a living person over the high walls of the Regent’s estate and escape was unlikely. Leaving aside the height of the walls, the estate was filled with retired experts; no matter how good his qinggong was, it would be difficult to leave undetected.
So, he chose the martial arts training grounds.
It was the most open space in the Prince’s residence, a place no one would visit in the middle of the night.
When Wei Wanlan stood alone in the center of the training grounds, looking up at the moonlight, a figure flashed across the sky with incredible speed.
The man held a sword. Engraved on the blade were two charactersâSanghun (Soul-Mourning).
“Little Tyrant.”
“What do you want? Zhen will try my best to agree to it.” Wei Wanlan did not wish to tangle with this person for long. To put it plainly, this was a messy debt left by the original owner that he had inherited upon transmigration. He was doing his best, but he had his limits. “Zhen cannot do anything that harms others.”
The Soul-Mourning Sword laughed loudly: “My junior brother was summoned into the palace by you, and because of you, he died pierced by ten thousand arrows! You say you won’t do anything harmful, yet you clearly harmed my junior brother the deepest!”
Wei Wanlan had no defense for this.
To explain deeply would require revealing his identity as a book transmigrator.
That secret was too sensitive for ancient people. Occupying the identity of the current Emperor was truly changing the sky and sunâfar more miraculous than the usurpation the Regent had originally planned.
“What can Zhen do?”
Wei Wanlan repeated the question.
At this moment, the Soul-Mourning Sword revealed his weapon. The blade’s cold edge was thin and chilling; under the moonlight, the sharp point gleamed snowy white.
Wei Wanlan was dazzled by the cold light of the blade. He squeezed his deer-like eyes shut. A streak of snow-white light swept before his faceâthe tip of the Soul-Mourning Sword was already at his neck.
Soul-Mourning Sword said: “Years ago, my junior brother’s body was abandoned in the moat outside the palace. I fished him out and buried him. He had a hundred wounds on his body. A blood debt must be paid in blood. Today, I will stab you one hundred times!”
Wei Wanlanâs eyes went wide. “One hundred… swords.”
By then, Splitting Air Sword in the underworld would be a hedgehog, and the newly dead him would be a stegosaurus. A stegosaurus is still a dragon, he supposed. He hadn’t expected that after choking to death, being roasted, and being imprisoned, he would unlock a new method of death.
Stabbed to death by a sword. QAQ.
Wei Wanlan certainly could not allow himself to die like this.
Actually, during the time the Soul-Mourning Sword was forcing him out, Wei Wanlan had already opened the Wise Monarch Cultivation System.
That was why he had deliberately zig-zagged and walked very slowly along the way.
He appeared to be avoiding the gazes of the family generals, but in reality, he was stalling for time, searching for an item that could help him survive this crisis.
The semi-transparent golden screen of the System displayed a rich but disorganized array of items.
Wei Wanlan set his sights on two items: one was the “Amnesia Pill,” and the other was the “Dream Barrier.” He wanted to drag them over to use.
Let’s use the “Dream Barrier” first.
He felt this thing was a bit like his “Nine-Dragon Mirror of Universal Peace.”
If it could create a hallucination for the Soul-Mourning Sword where he had already pierced Wei Wanlan with a hundred swordsâallowing him to see that bloody sceneâwould that untie the knot in his heart?
Then, he could use the pill to make him forget the event. This seemed like a viable way to handle the problem.
So Wei Wanlan responded: “Then kill me. But be quick. Zhen is very afraid of pain.”
As he spoke, he prepared to activate the “Dream Barrier.”
The Soul-Mourning Sword struck!
The blade, accompanied by a piercing whistle, aimed to run Wei Wanlan through.
But at that exact moment, it was met with the thunderous sound of a bowstring releasing. The hand holding the Soul-Mourning Sword was struck by a white-feathered arrow, forcibly knocking it off course. Blood splattered, and the Soul-Mourning Sword let out a wail of pain.
“Ahâ”
Bonfires roared to life all around the training grounds.
The firelight surged, instantly overpowering the clear moonlight. The warm orange glow illuminated the spacious training grounds completely, also bathing the Regent, Su Jingzhi, in light.
He lowered his heavy bow and immediately went to Wei Wanlan’s side, shielding him, blocking him completely behind his back.
Su Jingzhi said:
“The Worry-Free View appears to be an ordinary Taoist temple, but inside, it conducts the business of killing for money. The two temple masters and various disciples carry countless blood debts.”
“Let alone piercing him with random arrows, even grinding his bones and scattering the ashes would not be excessive!”
“Today, because your junior brother was killed, you intend to assassinate His Majesty. This Prince will fulfill your brotherhood and let you reunite in the underworld.”
The archers were already in position!
Surrounding the Prince’s training grounds, dozens of heroic soldiers simultaneously drew their bows, filling the air with the creaking sound of tightening strings.
Wei Wanlan’s emotions had been up and down all day.
It wasn’t until he stood behind the Regent, slowly retracting the interface of the Wise Monarch Cultivation System and smelling that woodsy scent on Su Jingzhi that always reassured him, that he felt the security of having turned danger into safety once again.
He is so tall…
I really want to hug him…
He treats Zhen the best.
Wei Wanlan swallowed hard several times.
He wanted to lean in and perform an ostrich-head-bury into the Regent’s back.
At this moment, the Regent took a step forward, having no intention of letting the master of the Worry-Free Viewâthe Soul-Mourning Sword who dared to kill even the Emperorâescape. After all, letting him go meant leaving a hidden danger beside the Emperor.
The Regent was a gentleman at heart.
But he was never soft on enemies: “Release arrows.”
Arrows rained down on the Soul-Mourning Sword from all directions.
Although the Soul-Mourning Sword carried countless lives on his conscience, his feelings for his junior brother were genuine.
Knowing death was inescapable, he looked up to the sky and let out a long howl. Then, he suddenly pulled an object from his bosom, gave a cold sneer, and threw it out.
The object was a jade pendant.
It was of the same quality as the Nine-Dragon Pendant Wei Wanlan had accepted from Su Jingzhi at the grand banquet for foreign guests in the Linde Hall. It was full of translucency and lustrous shine; a rare treasure that could only come from the imperial palace.
Soul-Mourning Sword shouted: “Laughable, Regent King. The person beside you used the Imperial Clan’s jade to buy your life from my Worry-Free View! He only changed his strategy toward you. He submitted to you, tried his best to please you, and actually made you willing to return the power of the world to him…”
“Heroes have always had a hard time passing the beauty barrier. Su Jingzhi, you are no exception.”
“He, Wei Wanlan, personally said he hated you to the bone! He wanted you dead, wanted to pull your tendons and skin you, and trample your ancestral graves!”
“Do you still wish to treat him as a treasure?”
With those words, it ended.
Ten thousand arrows fired at once.
The Soul-Mourning Sword, covered in blood, soon fell silent, his soul returning to the heavens.
The jade pendant he had thrown rolled to Su Jingzhi’s feet, stained with blood.
Su Jingzhi recognized it. It was the late Emperor’s belonging.
The late Emperor loved treasures. This jade was a beloved item he had handled many times.
Knowing his life was nearing its end, the late Emperor had summoned the Prince of Lin’an into the palace and gifted it to himâto Wei Wanlanâas a meeting gift.
“It’s over.”
QAQ…
Wei Wanlan’s soul felt as if it were being drained by this sudden turn of events. All this time, he had been intentionally or unintentionally patching up or correcting the absurd things the original little Emperor had done during his reign.
He had done so much.
He finally had the embryonic form of a wise monarch.
But he never expected that he would fail to clean up the clues regarding this specific matter, leaving a hidden danger buried from the very beginning.
The person who hated Su Jingzhi back then was the original Little Emperor.
Wei Wanlan was him, yet not him. He had taken over the name, the identity, everything. There was no way to completely sever the connection between him and the original owner.
âThe Regent knows that this identity once spoke such cruel words. Will he be sad…?
And now, Wei Wanlan had a mouth but could not speak.
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