Chapter 57 Better Than Imaginable

"He wants to investigate the Grand Chancellor's Case? Whose guts are big enough to give him such audacity?!"

Inside the Prince Jing Manor, Prince Jing's expression was as dark as stagnant water.

Grand Academician Huang kept his eyes fixed on the bridge of his nose, acting completely unperturbed.

Seeing Prince Jing restless and uneasy, Grand Academician Xu kept trying to persuade him:

"Your Highness, if he dares to investigate, there must be someone powerful backing him."

Prince Jing retorted:

"Grand Academician Xu, then tell me, who is backing him? It couldn't be the Lin faction; Grand Academician Lin wasn't entirely clean back then either—he climbed to the position of Senior Grand Academician precisely by betraying Chancellor Zhang... Then who else could it be? Could it possibly be..."

Grand Academician Xu spat out five words:

"Her Majesty the Empress Dowager."

Prince Jing's face lost all color, and he blurted out in agitation:

"She has lost her mind, that woman from the An family has lost her mind! Where has she placed the dignity of the Imperial House?! No, she doesn't even have a son who is an imperial prince; she isn't even truly a member of the Imperial House!"

The late empress had passed away in the nineteenth year of Qingying. The following year, the Lady An was wed into the Imperial House as empress. At that time, the late emperor was devoted to Daoist practices in pursuit of longevity, so rumors circulated among the common folk that although the Lady An had a grand wedding, the marriage was never consummated, and she had remained childless.

Under normal circumstances, even within the safety of his own manor, Prince Jing would never utter such reckless words—after all, it concerned the dignity of the Imperial House. But the Grand Chancellor's Case involved stakes far too high, and he had completely lost his composure.

Grand Academician Xu continued to advise earnestly:

"Your Highness, when the late emperor was on the throne, he explicitly promised to ensure your safety for a lifetime. Surely Her Majesty the Empress Dowager will also have regard for the dignity of the Imperial House. The monarch's words are never spoken in jest."

Prince Jing paused, then suddenly erupted:

"Grand Academician Xu, a monarch's words are the greatest jest of all!"

Such a rash and treasonous statement from the lips of Prince Jing seemed to send a tremor through the entire hall. Even Grand Academician Xu was somewhat stunned, not expecting that Prince Jing, usually known for his elegance and refinement, would lose control to such an extent.

At this moment, Grand Academician Huang finally spoke:

"It would seem... Grand Academician Xu is unaware of the inner story."

Grand Academician Xu frowned and retorted, "What inner story?"

Grand Academician Huang glanced at Prince Jing, who took two breaths to barely regain some composure before saying:

"Grand Academician Xu is one of our own, so there is no harm in speaking plainly."

Hearing this, Grand Academician Huang began:

"In the twenty-sixth year of Qingying, the late empress dowager prayed for the blessings and well-being of the common people of Great Yu at Chunbo Temple, but she passed away there due to sudden illness. Out of profound filial piety, the late emperor wept bitterly for three days and observed three years of mourning."

Grand Academician Xu nodded and said, "I know all of this."

"Yet the academician does not know why the late empress dowager chose to worship at Chunbo Temple. Originally, she had other options, but it was... at Your Highness's suggestion that she went to Chunbo Temple instead."

As Grand Academician Huang spoke, he closely observed Prince Jing's expression.

Hearing this, Grand Academician Xu was struck with shock, instantly understanding why Prince Jing had lost his composure.

The late empress dowager's death at Chunbo Temple was inextricably linked to Prince Jing. Pondering a step further, wouldn't that make Prince Jing the true culprit behind the murder of the late empress dowager?!

"Once the Grand Chancellor's Case is reopened, Her Majesty the Empress Dowager will certainly strip Your Highness of your imperial registry and reduce you to a commoner. While the Grand Chancellor's Case currently does not implicate the late emperor or the Imperial House, it will most certainly bring ruin to a prince stripped of his rank and reduced to a commoner!"

Hearing this, the usually composed Grand Academician Xu also panicked slightly and asked:

"Then right now... does Your Highness have a decisive plan?"

Prince Jing swallowed hard, his eyes sharp as a hawk's as he said:

"We must strike as early as possible. Doesn't that Qianhu Chen want to hang his sword and slay the flood dragon? Let him do it. We will strike precisely at that moment. If we don't act now, there will be no chance left afterwards."

***

Rumble.

Thunder rolled across the heavens.

The flood dragon kind of this world must always be accompanied by water. Traveling up rivers to transform into dragons, or heading to the sea to transform, none of it could be separated from water. Across the broad waterway north of the capital stood a grand bridge, and the Dragon-Slaying Sword suspended beneath it was already covered in countless cracks, teetering on the verge of shattering.

A modest wooden boat appeared upon the waterway. A lamp was lit within it, and Chen Yi stood alone at the bow. He wore a saber at his waist and carried a peach-wood sword on his back, gazing far into the rain-swept waterway. Over the past few days, the water had risen several feet, even flooding the banks.

Chen Yi took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. The rain following the beginning of winter was exceptionally biting, chilling one to the bone. Amidst the peals of thunder, the river water surged turbulently. Looking down, no trace of swimming fish could be seen in the murky depths.

The torrent grew momentarily calm, but it was merely the calm before the storm.

Taking advantage of this quiet interval, a few small skiffs drifted in from somewhere far away on the previously vast and empty river.

Chen Yi lightly pressed the hilt of his saber, counting the boats on the river. There were neither more nor fewer than three. Judging by their presence, they were all fifth-rank martial artists, with no fourth-rank experts among them. Could it be that Prince Jing's manor could not afford a fourth-rank expert? Or perhaps... they were lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportune moment to strike?

Chen Yi merely smiled.

The skiffs drew closer to the wooden boat, and the river water grew increasingly turbulent. Beneath the bridge, the Dragon-Slaying Sword danced in the wind, appearing precarious as the evil flood dragon prepared to make its water passage.

As a descendant of the Candra-raja Dragon King, the protector of the Thousand-Handed Guanyin, faint sounds of Buddhist chanting seemed to echo within the water. No wonder Daoist Master Feiyuan had been helpless against it; the evil flood dragon was protected by Buddhist dharma, which counteracted the suppression of Daoist arts.

Amidst the drumbeat of the thunder god, the first of the three skiffs reached the wooden boat, and Huang Liuqing leaped onto the deck with his saber.

"Long time no see," Chen Yi said.

"That last move from before truly opened my eyes," Huang Liuqing remarked with a smile, recalling their previous street fight.

"Only this time, you won't be able to use that ultimate trump card of yours. Right now, you are alone on a solitary boat. If you discard your scabbard and flee, are you going to emulate Bodhidharma crossing the river on a single reed?"

"Once a move is used, it ceases to be a trump card," Chen Yi replied, shaking his head. "I've learned something better."

Huang Liuqing turned more solemn upon hearing this, then pointed toward the two boats slowly drawing near in the distance, and said:

"Men of the martial world must observe martial virtue.

Now that your back is to the water and you fight for your life, until either I kill you or you kill me, they will not step forward."

"Is that true?" A hint of admiration crept into Chen Yi's tone.

"If they step forward, I will immediately draw my blade against them," Huang Liuqing said, drawing his long and heavy ring-pommel saber.

Chen Yi said no more. He drew his saber in one swift motion and flexed his arm, shaking out his muscles.

Once he had loosened up, Huang Liuqing suddenly lunged forward in an assault.

With a heavy, powerful chop, the pitch-black blade swept down beneath the gloomy sky like a turbid black tidal wave of the Yellow River.

Chen Yi met the black wave with a horizontal slash, instantly breaking the surging blade-qi. With a slight numbness in his arm, he used the recoil to twist his body to the side, smoothly sending a slash toward Huang Liuqing's head.

Seeing this fierce incoming blow, Huang Liuqing instantly took a step back, yet his forehead was still grazed by the blade, and fresh blood spurted out in the rain.

He raised a hand to touch the wound on his forehead and muttered, "Fine swordsmanship. It has only been a dozen days, yet it has reached an even higher realm."

Chen Yi calmly replied, "You didn't use your full strength just now; you wanted to probe me first, which is why you were countered by your own force."

The moment Huang Liuqing had swung down just now, Chen Yi had silently recited the Shangqing Heart Sutra, making the judgment to leverage and rebound his opponent's force within half a second of reaction time.

Hearing this, Huang Liuqing's pupils contracted slightly. "Indeed so."

"Again."

As Chen Yi's voice fell, Huang Liuqing lunged forward once more. The pitch-black ring-pommel saber looked fiercely sharp against the night sky as he delivered a vertical chop with a ringing clang.

Perhaps due to his youthful vigor, his power erupted instantaneously, completely unlike his master You Xu's style of starting slow and finishing fast. The moment Chen Yi saw his wrist twist, the blade was already pressing right before his face.

Chen Yi met his blade with a vertical slash of his own, refusing to clash directly with the edge. Instead, staying almost flush against the ring-pommel saber, he chopped toward the cross-guard. The Xiuchun saber was slightly shorter than the ring-pommel saber, which allowed it to reach Huang Liuqing's wrist before the latter's blade could strike him!

Realizing something was amiss, Huang Liuqing abruptly reined in his force and leaned backward. Chen Yi's slash missed the cross-guard, but with a backhanded slap, he deflected the blade edge, then lunged forward to deliver a horizontal slash.

Huang Liuqing violently pulled in his abdomen, tearing his clothes to shreds, and a gruesome bloody gash opened across his belly. One inch deeper, and his entrails would have spilled out. He grinned grimly, forcefully knocked away Chen Yi's Xiuchun saber, and followed with a counter-strike.

Yet this strike was a fraction too slow. Chen Yi stepped back, and the blade only sliced through the curtain of rain, splitting countless water droplets in mid-air into halves.

Huang Liuqing looked at Chen Yi, a multitude of thoughts flashing through his eyes. You Xu had once scolded him for not studying footwork, but he had always maintained that having a blade was enough. Relying on blade stroke after blade stroke, and on a talent far surpassing You Xu's, he had roamed the capital unhindered like Hua Guanuo.

Unawares, the river water had grown even more turbulent than before.

With the river raging below and the flood dragon's water journey imminent, he suddenly felt an intangible, oppressive weight.

Those skilled in swimming... drown in water.

And the man standing with his back to the river held a raised saber in his hand.

"Again! Use your full strength!" Huang Liuqing shouted.

With that, he raised his ring-pommel saber high. His internal energy fluctuated violently, and his clothes rippled as if billowing in the wind.

Planting both feet deep into the deck, Huang Liuqing's aura surged abruptly, his strength climbing step by step. With a solemn expression, he entered a state of selflessness. His body relaxed, raindrops beat against his face, and nearly all his true qi surged in reverse, violently striking his acupoints one after another.

All that strength seemed to gather into this single blade.

Yes, this very blade.

On the day he completed his apprenticeship, he had defeated nearly thirty martial artists of the jianghu in succession, and he had relied entirely on this blade.

In a hazy flash of intuition, Huang Liuqing realized that as long as this blade descended—as long as this blade split both Chen Yi and the raging river behind him in two—he would... comprehend something even better!

That thing was magnificent, beyond all imagination! It felt as though he had lived for the past thirty years purely for this one strike. He groped for it, rehearsing it in his mind, swinging the blade over and over, chopping down over and over, determined to cleave both the river water and the man before him in twain.

Suddenly, Huang Liuqing captured a thread of enlightenment. He took a step forward and moved to hack down. In the dim night, a flash of blade light swept past, and he saw pale, fine lines suddenly manifest across the world before him. The heavy curtain of rain paused, and crosswinds split their paths to howl.

The blade-qi was as majestic as the drumbeat of the thunder god. For a fleeting moment, he mistakenly thought this strike had been unleashed by his own hand, until he heard the mournful shattering sound of his own blade and felt the separation of his physical body. He saw that this strike had cut an opening through himself and the pitch-black night behind him!

This strike...

It was this strike...

Blood spurted forth, and as Huang Liuqing's thoughts flashed through his mind, his eyes widened in his final moments as sudden understanding dawned.

So the realm I was meant to comprehend... was this strike!

Magnificent...

Truly... beyond all imagination!

***

After Huang Liuqing's death, Chen Yi shook the blood from his saber and turned to face the two small skiffs slowly closing in.

The river water remained turbulent.

And the man who fought with his back to the water was no longer what he used to be.