ATEG Chapter 117.2

The serving men stepped aside and said, “All right — since your footsteps are heavy, you’d best not serve in front of Her Majesty anymore.”

“I — then what am I to do?” the attendant quavered.

“Go find the head matron and have her arrange something further away for you,” said a serving man. “We need to get back. Go find the matron yourself.”

The attendant stared in dumb surprise. All those people who had caused a disturbance in front of Her Majesty had disappeared, and she had thought… so they had only been reassigned to out-of-the-way duties after all.

By the time the two serving men returned to the hall, Bie Chunian had already left. Ying Bufu lay on the couch with her eyes shut, weathering wave after wave of pain.

It was not only in dreams. Every time she closed her eyes she would see Yannian — and in dreams she would also see Father and Elder Brother, weeping and cursing her in the same worn phrases she had heard so many times, like the manifestos that had not stopped from the time she first governed as regent until after she took the Sui throne. She had never taken those manifestos seriously even at her most difficult moments, so why would she care to hear them all again in a dream?

The only difference was that in the dreams, they wept and cursed her for killing Yannian.

“If he had remained the way he used to be, I could not have brought myself to kill him,” Ying Bufu murmured. There was grief in her voice — but no regret.

She had placed her younger brother on the Sui throne — a moment of naivety on her part.

She had thought that after he grew up he could take the burden of Sui Kingdom from her shoulders. But what Yannian wanted when he grew up was to be Sui King in name and deed alike — yet he wanted only the power of the Sui King, not knowing that a Sui King could also be toppled.

He first demanded it from her. When she refused, he began to hate her.

But she could not yield. Sui Kingdom was not at peace. While she held Sui in her hands she could shelter him as he grew — but if Yannian held Sui in his hands, he had no ability to protect her life.

Bufu, Bufu — who had failed whom?

……

“Bie Chunian,” said Yu Jian.

Changpu paused. It was not a common name. She asked for the particulars in detail, thanked Yu Jian, and then lit the heart-flame in her room.

“Master…”

Yang Cang listened quietly to Changpu’s account.

Bie Chunian — perhaps confident that his situation would never come to light, he had not even bothered to conceal his own name and face. Understandably so: in his understanding, Yang Cang was already dead, and even if he had escaped, he would have had no way of knowing that it was Bie Chunian who had orchestrated the attack against him. In the eyes of others, Bie Chunian was still that gentle, benevolent cultivator of the lamp-lighting method — and this image served him very conveniently in his schemes.

His lamp-lighting method had been cultivated to such a profound degree. Who would ever imagine his heart-flame had gone out? Even Yang Cang had never imagined that one day he would want to kill him. There had been a time when Bie Chunian had genuinely and wholeheartedly guided and watched over him, and he had genuinely and wholeheartedly revered his master…

Yang Cang drew his thoughts back. Based on his understanding of Bie Chunian, what the man intended to do was always to prepare first, to leave the other party no choice — so that even if they harbored suspicion, they could only walk the path he had already laid out for them. In the past, he had used this method to compel people toward good. Now…

If it was truly Bie Chunian who had entered the Sui royal palace, then Ying Bufu likely already had no other options available to her. Changpu was no match for Bie Chunian, and their advantage for now lay in the fact that Bie Chunian did not yet know of their existence — while they, for their part, were already prepared for him.

“If you are forced into a direct confrontation with him, you can say to him…” Yang Cang gave Changpu his guidance. “Please also speak with Mister Yu.”

Just as Bie Chunian understood him, he understood Bie Chunian.

When necessary, he would not mind allowing his presence to be exposed before Bie Chunian — and when Bie Chunian believed he had seen through all, that Yang Cang was watching from behind Changpu, his gaze would be entirely drawn to Yang Cang. At that moment, Yu Jian, who had no connection to the Mingdeng Sect, would find himself free to act with ease.

Yu Jian accepted Yang Cang’s invitation. He could sense that becoming actively involved in this affair might carry some risk of Dao-erosion — the Bie Chunian Zhenren in the palace was no easy opponent. But it was for Sui Kingdom that he had returned in the first place, so how could he now step aside?

He found himself involuntarily thinking of Meng Huai, wondering how he was doing now. But there was no need to worry — he was currently down in the Shuigu Well, trapped though he was, at peace in his own way amid this great calamity. Under the circumstances, that was just as well.

……

The Huai River Divine Lord was in the midst of fretting on Mount Tu.

“How did that pestering old Daoist end up here?” The avatar of Meng Huai, going by the name Yu Gu, fretted from within a cave dwelling on the mountain.

“The avatar technique of the Divine Lord is marvelous beyond compare — the qi signature is wholly different from that of the original body. Though Chi Zhenzi’s cultivation is deep, he may not necessarily see through it. Why should the Divine Lord be anxious?” Tushan Yin rested her chin in one hand, smiling lazily.

“You don’t understand — I obtained this True-Preserving Avatar Technique from that old Daoist himself. Others may not see through it, but he may not fail to realize it is me,” said Yu Gu with a sigh.

The old tortoise sat nearby and said nothing.

Yu Gu had extracted the old tortoise from the Li Manor on the pretext of making those cultivators who had once coveted the Huai River Mansion answer for their transgressions. The tortoise had never admitted that the one in front of him was the Huai River Divine Lord — but after spending so much time together, could he still fail to recognize the truth?

After taking him away, the Divine Lord had set about settling scores with those who had once coveted the Huai River Mansion. The old tortoise had initially truly believed the Divine Lord was merely being protective and vengeful, and had been fretting over how to advise him — there was no need to get involved in trouble at such a critical juncture of the great calamity; those people could be dealt with sooner or later, and drawing oneself into the tribulation over them would not be worth it.

But before long the old tortoise stopped wanting to offer advice. The Divine Lord was looking to settle scores, and naturally he first needed to find the people in question — and those people were scattered across the four corners of the world. As the Divine Lord tracked them one by one, the search drifted westward, and further and further west, until there were no more score-settling cultivators to find in the west, at which point he simply picked up the old tortoise and continued westward, arriving at Mount Tu. The old tortoise, even as slow-witted as he was, could see that the Divine Lord had ulterior purposes.

Mount Tu was one of the two great ancestral grounds of fox demons throughout the world. While Qingqiu lay upon the land, Mount Tu was a mountain in the sea. This hidden realm of the mortal world sat upon the Western Sea, encircled by sea mist and waves that turned back all who approached — ordinary people were absolutely impossible to accidentally wander in. Mount Tu was famed as the ancestral ground of the fox clan, yet within the mountain it was not fox clan alone who dwelt; all manner of rare flowers, peculiar plants, spirits, and strange beasts lived there, though all was ruled by the Tushan Fox clan. Tushan Yin was the chieftain of the Tushan Fox clan.

The Divine Lord’s coming was a secret. He had brought the old tortoise and gone directly to Tushan Yin, and after that… after that he had wandered about under a false identity.

Yu Gu’s avatar was quite sound — everyone believed him to be an old friend of Tushan Yin’s. Mount Tu had sealed itself when the great calamity began, but it was perfectly normal for the chieftain’s old friend to come for a visit and have the gates opened a crack! Not many within Mount Tu had ever seen the Huai River Divine Lord, and naturally they could not be like the old tortoise — piecing together the truth from small details accumulated over time — so the Divine Lord wandered about quite freely. A few rather innocent young demons even assumed he had come to Mount Tu to take shelter from the tribulation and enjoy the scenery, and enthusiastically recommended good food and fun things to him. After the Divine Lord sampled them… he shoved both the food and the enthusiastic young demons onto the old tortoise.

The old tortoise received the Divine Lord’s new little friends with considerable composure and continued bringing up the children, keeping them from disturbing the Divine Lord. He did not know what the Divine Lord intended to accomplish, but he could see clearly enough that the Divine Lord had come to Mount Tu for a very important reason, and that Tushan Yin daren evidently knew what that reason was.

Which raised something curious: the Divine Lord had been sentenced by the Divine Court to three thousand years’ imprisonment in the well, of which only some two thousand four hundred or so years had passed. Without the True-Preserving Avatar Technique obtained from Chi Zhenzi, he would have had no way of leaving under any circumstances — and yet, how had the Divine Lord arranged for this “very important matter”? Could it be that aside from Chi Zhenzi’s True-Preserving Avatar Technique, the Divine Lord had already possessed some other means of departing his sealed confinement within the well? In that case, why had he remained in the well for so very long?

A Huai River Divine Lord of such profound cultivation and ancient years — could he truly have made a careless mistake that resulted in being sentenced by the Divine Court to three thousand years of imprisonment?

The old tortoise had never thought about this before — after all, the Huai River Divine Lord had quite the reputation for his temperament — but now… now he would not look, would not think, and would not know. He was only a young tortoise of a little over three thousand years old.

Tushan Yin raised her sleeve to cover her mouth, her eyes narrowing to crescents, the corners lifting high — smiling with a devastating, gleeful schadenfreude. “Then you can just stay hidden in this lady’s cave dwelling. Rest easy, Divine Lord — Chi Zhenzi would not go so far as to barge into this lady’s cave uninvited.”

Yu Gu shot her a flat glare.

“Why should the Divine Lord be in such a rush?” Tushan Yin continued smiling slyly, needling his temper. “After all, you’ve already seen enough of what you came to see. All that remains is waiting. And since you’ve already waited so long, does it matter where you wait?”

Yu Gu asked mildly. “Diancang Mountain is hardly at leisure right now. Why has Chi Zhenzi suddenly come to Mount Tu?”

Tushan Yin’s expression abruptly darkened. She let out a cold snort. “My Tushan clan has guarded this place for a hundred and twenty thousand years — a few wayward descendants will not cause any real trouble!”

She flipped from friendliness to frost in an instant, rose, and walked out.

Yu Gu breathed a quiet sigh of relief and began leisurely drinking his tea.

“Divine Lord…” the old tortoise began.

“How many times must I say it — I am not Meng Huai, I am Yu Gu!”

The old tortoise: …

Do you not recall how many times Tushan Yin daren called you “Divine Lord” just now, and you answered every single time?

Yu Gu held his teacup and said nothing, just looked at him.

The old tortoise: …

“Yes — I must have been mistaken. You are called Yu Gu, and the Divine Lord is still down in the well,” said the old tortoise.

“Mm.”

“Yu Gu Zhenren — those little friends of yours know you are in Mount Tu,” the old tortoise pointed out. They did not know the Divine Lord’s identity, but Chi Zhenzi was not easily fooled — what if he grew suspicious…”

“Don’t worry — Chi Zhenzi will not stay here long,” said Yu Gu.

The Tushan clan was a great clan, and though its rules were strict, over so many years it was inevitable that a few wayward descendants had emerged; even Tushan Yin with all her ability could not avoid such things. It was precisely because of wayward descendants that Chi Zhenzi had come.

When the great calamity began Mount Tu had recalled its children from all directions and sealed itself, and with Tushan Yin presiding there would be no trouble within — the Tushan descendants who had caused problems were all out beyond the mountain. Ordinarily this matter should have been handled by Mount Tu internally, but Mount Tu having sealed itself meant it could no longer send disciples out to track down those wayward ones. Diancang Mountain was clearly taking this matter in hand by sending Chi Zhenzi here — and Chi Zhenzi would still need to leave in order to handle it. This visit was only to coordinate in advance and obtain assistance. A few little foxes — Tushan Yin could settle them with a flick of her wrist, but the family’s dirty laundry still had to be washed by outsiders, and she was inevitably displeased.

Tushan Yin’s cultivation had reached supreme heights, yet her name was little known in the world outside, because she had guarded Mount Tu alone for a hundred and twenty thousand years without ever taking a single step beyond its bounds. The Tushan Foxes — seemingly mercurial and cunning on the surface — were unyielding and steadfast within.

The world only knew that Tushan kept strict hierarchy and rigid discipline, but not why it was so.

Because beneath Mount Tu, there was something sealed.

Mount Tu stood above Luoyue Sea. Luoyue Sea was bottomless — the homeland of the fallen moon, the place where all waters returned, and also —

The earthly sanctuary of Taiyin.