Chapter 1238: Schemes and Shifts in the Forbidden Palace, Heroic Women Safeguard Peace (Part 2)

Chapter 1238: Chapter 320: Schemes and Shifts in the Forbidden Palace, Heroic Women Safeguard Peace (Part 2)

Yili leaned against his shoulder, looking at the crowd below the city tower embracing each other and weeping, and finally showed a smile.

In the Forbidden City, when the Emperor Zhu Yijun heard that Wu Zhong, Xiao Lingling, Miao Menlong, and Shan Zhi were actually spies sent by the Heroic Sakura Association, whose purpose was to lull the Imperial Court into complacency so that the Association’s hundreds of thousands of disciples could withdraw smoothly, he was so enraged that he vomited blood on the spot and nearly fainted.

The eunuchs, palace maids, and imperial physicians instantly fell into a fluster. In Qianqing Palace, the scent of Dragon’s Saliva Fragrance mingled with the smell of blood; Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun slumped on the dragon throne, the front of his dragon robe soaking with a great dark-red stain, like a splash-ink setting sun.

He clutched the memorial with a hand that would not stop trembling, his knuckles so white they were almost transparent, his eyes shot through with blood as though he might at any moment swallow the characters on the page whole. “What a Heroic Sakura Association! What fine double agents!” He suddenly hurled the memorial hard onto the golden-brick floor, his jade crown askew, dragon beard quivering wildly. “I feed you pack of useless trash, only for you to let hundreds of thousands of rebels escape alive right under my very nose!”

The hall fell utterly silent; the assembled civil and military officials did not even dare to breathe, only the candle flames flickering, casting everyone’s shadows long and twisted, hideous and grotesque.

The Chief Eunuch of the Ritual Department, Feng Bao, dropped to his knees with a thud, the hem of his python-embroidered robe scraping over the cold floor tiles. His voice carried a tremor: “Your Majesty, quell your anger! That traitor Wu Zhong lay dormant in the Imperial Court for over a year; even the ‘Hawk-Eye Nine Examinations’ of the Jinyi Guard failed to expose him. It truly was impossible to guard against!”

Before his words had fallen, the celadon brush washer on the imperial desk had already smashed at his feet, shards of porcelain spraying out and scoring a sharp scar across the floor.

“Impossible to guard against? What impossible to guard against? It is your incompetence! Incompetence!” Zhu Yijun suddenly began to cough violently, beads of blood seeping between his fingers and dripping onto the bright yellow dragon patterns, like scattered red plum blossoms.

His bloodshot eyes swept across the ministers and finally fixed on Xiang Yushan, who had once more been appointed Commander of the Imperial Guard; his gaze was as sharp as a hunting hawk. “Xiang Yushan, speak. How should that Demoness Yili be cut into a thousand pieces?”

The Xiezhi Embroidery on Xiang Yushan’s purple robe glinted coldly in the candlelight. This always-sullen Commander stepped slowly out of the ranks, cupped his fists, and said in a low, steady voice, “Your Majesty, the Central Plains Martial Arts have already been thrown into panic by the Heroic Sakura Association; internal troubles are hard to quell. Only by borrowing outside force can we achieve balance.”

He gave his hand a slight shake; a roll of yellowing maps unfurled like a Spiritual Snake. “The Kunlun Sect hides its troops atop the snow peaks; the ‘Ice Soul Profound Technique’ they practice, combined with silver needles, kills upon entering the blood. The Western Holy Sect lies coiled deep in the desert, adept at the Corpse Forest Secret Technique, by which they can control puppets. The Fusang Wanderers are versed in sinister and poisonous Ninjutsu; their Iaido Slash steals life in a single instant. These three forces all bear grudges against the Naiman. If we promise them rich rewards, they can certainly be used by us.”

“Absurd!” The Minister of the Ministry of War, Wang Shiqi, suddenly stepped forward, the crane pattern on his official robe rising and falling with his trembling body. He flung his sleeves with a sharp motion and said in a ringing voice, “Hiring foreign Martial Arts is no different from leading wolves into the house! In years past, when the Japanese pirates invaded, they burned, killed, and plundered, leaving the coastal commoners in utter misery. Has Your Majesty forgotten such calamities? If we now invite these outlandish men of arms again, should they one day harbor treacherous thoughts, our Great Ming Empire…”

“Silence!” Xiang Yushan spun around, the Brocade Spring Saber at his waist clanging, a flash of cold light there and gone. “Lord Wang, you may be well-versed in the Classics, but you do not understand the times! Yili now commands two hundred thousand troops, with fierce generals clustered beneath her banner. Her iron cavalry have trampled the grasslands flat; the next will be the Central Plains!”

He stepped forward half a pace, a brutal glint flickering in his eyes. “Kunlun’s Ice Soul Silver Needles, the Western Regions’ Corpse Forest Secret Technique, Fusang’s Iaido Slash—these methods are ghostly and elusive. How could that band of Naiman grass bandits possibly withstand them?”

Outside the hall, thunder crashed without warning; lightning lit up Zhu Yijun’s contorted face, his features grotesque under the play of light and shadow.

He slammed his fist down on the armrest of the dragon throne, setting gold and jade ringing together. “We shall do as Xiang Qing says! Pass down Our decree: promise ten thousand taels of gold and hereditary titles. At all costs, these experts from the three factions must be invited in their entirety! I wish to see just how many lives that Demoness Yili has!”

“Your Majesty, reconsider!” The Assistant Minister of Rites was so anxious that sweat sprang to his brow. He stepped forward, clasped his hands, and said, “The Western Holy Sect has long been in collusion with the Hake Tribe, and that Yili is a predatory hero who has successively defeated three great tribes, her methods incomparably ruthless. These foreign Martial Artists have ever been arrogant and untamed. If we cannot rein them in, I fear it will be driving out a tiger at the front door only to let a wolf in by the back…” His voice cut off abruptly—no one knew when Xiang Yushan had already ghosted up beside him; a Bone-Piercing Nail laced with poison pressed against his back, the icy touch making his whole body go rigid.

Xiang Yushan’s lips curved in a sinister smile, his voice low and icy. “Is the Assistant Minister trying to boost others’ morale while crushing our own? I hear your beloved daughter has yet to be betrothed. If she could form a fine Qin-Jin alliance with a Western Regions envoy, would that not be delightful?”

As he spoke, the dark patterns at his sleeve cuffs faintly resembled the totems of the Western Holy Sect, exuding a strange aura.

“Enough!” Zhu Yijun slapped the desk and rose to his feet; his dragon robe snapped in the air as he bellowed, “Xiang Yushan, We command you to depart at once. If you fail in this matter, bring back your head to see Us! As for Yili and Shi Feiyang, We want their heads hung high upon the Forbidden City, so that all the rebels under Heaven know that those who oppose the imperial house have but one road—death!”

He staggered as he braced himself on the dragon throne, a mad flame burning in his eyes, as if he wished to pour out all his fury.

Outside, rain poured in torrents, the water running from the mouths of the chi-beast eaves into streams like blood.

As Xiang Yushan stepped out of the hall, he deliberately trod on the Assistant Minister’s trembling hand; the cloud patterns on the scabbard of his Brocade Spring Saber were smeared with fresh blood, gleaming with a sinister light in the curtain of rain. Once Xiang Yushan left the Imperial Palace, he immediately ordered that the still-unrestored Kang Fusheng, Lv Yuan, Cai Kun, Xiang Laixiang and the others be summoned in secret to discuss how to assassinate Yili and break apart the alliance of the Naiman, Kerchin, Hake, and Ordos tribes.