Huguo Temple stood on East Mountain outside the imperial city. According to legend, its abbot had once saved Emperor Gaozu, who bestowed upon it the name “Protector of the Nation” and honored it as Great Yao’s officially sanctioned temple. For centuries, it had been a place where high officials and nobles came to pray for blessings. Every emperor since Gaozu had treated it with reverence. Even the reigning Prince Regent, it was said, dared not kill anyone before its gates.
That last claim was something Song Liang had heard from an attendant. Now, standing before the temple’s mountain gate and gazing up the long flight of white jade steps, he asked Xie Yun whether it was true.
Xie Yun replied that he currently had no interest in killing monks.
Song Liang burst out laughing and approached the abbot coming to welcome him. His gaze fell on the man’s cloud-brocade cassock, gleaming with gold, and he murmured, “This abbot looks wealthier than I am.”
“Princes use power for private gain. Temples use gods and Buddhas to accumulate wealth. Both serve worldly desires.”
“You make it sound as though the Prince Regent has no worldly desires.”
“…”
Xie Yun looked at him.
Song Liang, however, was already smiling and chatting with the abbot. One excelled at flattery, while the other delighted in hearing it. They took to each other immediately and soon left everyone else far behind.
Cen Huan watched the like-minded pair, speechless.
“What exactly did he come here for? Does he really want to hear you swear an oath to him? You don’t even believe in gods or Buddhas. Does he honestly think this will work?”
Beside him, Ruan Chong suddenly said, “His Majesty never does anything without a purpose.”
Cen Huan paused and instinctively looked at Xie Yun.
Xie Yun said nothing. Leaving them with an order to “Keep an eye on them,” he followed.
“Them” meant the court dignitaries accompanying the imperial carriage, along with everyone the young emperor had released from the imperial prison. The officials were well enough, but the scholars were another matter. Already overwhelmed with fear after their imprisonment, they were now exhausted by the journey. Their complexions were so dreadful that they looked liable to collapse and die at any moment.
Cen Huan reasoned that the young emperor could hardly have brought them all this way merely to kill them. He ordered them settled in the temple lodgings under strict guard. For the next three days, keeping them from starving would suffice. Above all, no one was to escape.
The scholars naturally raised no objections. Then someone suddenly called out, “I wish to see His Majesty.”
Cen Huan was about to demand which scholar had grown so bold. Taking a closer look, he laughed.
“Well, if it isn’t Lord Helan. What do you want with His Majesty?”
He could hardly be blamed for not recognizing him. After more than a month of suffering in the imperial prison, Helan Ze looked haggard and considerably thinner. His handsome, scholarly elegance had faded. Standing among the scholars, he was not immediately distinguishable.
“I am the Prince of Duan’s heir and an official of the court. Having been falsely imprisoned without cause, I naturally wish to present my grievance to His Majesty!”
“You seem to have forgotten that your case remains unresolved. His Majesty merely took pity on you and released you early so you could pray for the Grand Empress Dowager. I advise you to behave yourself. Don’t make me send you straight back to the imperial prison.”
Helan Ze’s face darkened.
“Are you threatening me?”
“So what if I am?”
Cen Huan abruptly drew his saber and pointed it at him.
“Do you think I wouldn’t cut you down?”
Ruan Chong cleared his throat and ordered the Black Armor Guard to take them away.
Only then did Cen Huan sheathe his weapon, spitting in contempt. Who did this man think he was, daring to compete with their prince for someone’s affections?
Naturally, the scholars and officials were assigned different accommodations. Along with the scholars, Helan Ze was escorted to a room with a long communal sleeping platform. The smell was far from pleasant. Worn out by the journey, the scholars had already chosen places to lie down, but Helan Ze wanted nothing more than to leave immediately.
He was the Prince of Duan’s heir. Even at his lowest, he had never stayed anywhere like this. He turned to leave just as a young novice entered with tea and collided with him.
“Amitabha! My deepest apologies, benefactor!”
Already in a foul mood, Helan Ze was about to snap at him when he felt a slip of paper being pressed into his palm. Keeping his impatient expression, he said, “It’s nothing. Be more careful next time.”
Once the novice had gone, Helan Ze found a clean corner, sat down, and unfolded the note. After reading it, he crushed it into a ball and glared irritably at the crumbling corner of the wall.
What an idiot! Helan Ze had thought becoming emperor might have made him a little cleverer, but apparently he was as foolish as ever. Making Xie Yun swear before the Buddha that he would never rebel—what was he thinking?
“Achoo!”
Elsewhere, Song Liang sneezed while admiring the ancient tree Emperor Gaozu had planted in the courtyard more than three hundred years earlier. Without hesitation, he told Abbot Faming, “This one. Tomorrow, have them swear their oaths before this tree. I’ll stand at the top and receive their obeisance alongside Gaozu! Ha! I’m a genius! A peerless enlightened ruler!”
The abbot could no longer maintain his smile.
“…Your Majesty, Emperor Gaozu planted this tree himself. Wouldn’t climbing it be somewhat inappropriate?”
“I’m his descendant. He certainly won’t begrudge me that.”
Song Liang turned toward Xie Yun beside him.
“What about you?”
“If you want to climb it, climb it,” Xie Yun replied evenly.
He could climb all the way to heaven if he pleased.
“I’m asking whether you’re coming up too.”
Xie Yun: “…”
Song Liang was already imagining it.
“We’ll climb up together and watch them kneel before us. How satisfying!”
Xie Yun said nothing. He merely removed his black fox-fur cloak and draped it over Song Liang’s shoulders.
3085: 【He definitely won’t agree.】
Song Liang: 【Want to bet?】
3085 immediately grew wary. 【On what?】
Apart from its code, it had nothing to wager. But its host was so devious that it was afraid.
Song Liang: 【If I win, tell me some gossip from among the systems. If I lose, I’ll do whatever you say in the next instance.】
A capable, obedient host—the temptation was enormous. To its shame, 3085 was tempted. Besides, gossip between systems was hardly confidential.
3085: 【All right. I accept.】
It refused to believe the main villain would indulge its host to that extent. Standing on top of a tree before everyone—did he have no dignity to preserve?
Then, early the next morning, it watched the main villain put an arm around its host’s waist and leap to the ancient tree’s crown, right before the astonished crowd. Below them, everyone knelt and swore their oaths.
3085: 【…】
3085: 【…】
It, 3085, had nothing to say.
Song Liang, however, had no time to mock it. He stood with Xie Yun atop the tree, surveying East Mountain and the imperial city and palaces below.
“Is this what you wanted to see?” Xie Yun asked.
“Of course not.”
Song Liang looked down into the courtyard with an ambiguous smile.
“There’s something more interesting below.”
Xie Yun lowered his gaze. Officials and scholars knelt throughout the spacious courtyard, with Helan Ze conspicuously standing among them.
Everyone else was kneeling. Only he remained upright, his expression exceptionally ugly, evidently unwilling to bow. Soon enough, however, someone forced him down.
Xie Yun’s gaze shifted slightly.
“You went to all this trouble for that? Does he have a grudge against you?”
“No grudge. In fact, I owe him a debt.”
Song Liang’s lips curved as he glanced at the man beneath them.
“But he wants to take everything from me.”
Everything was simple: Xie Yun and the realm. Helan Ze would first seize his throne, then join forces with Qin Zhiwei to engineer Xie Yun’s death in the southwest.
“Someone says he will bring peace and prosperity to the realm. That he will become a great and enlightened emperor.”
“…”
“But today, before the Buddha, the monks, the officials, and the scholars, I’m making him kneel and swear loyalty to me. He will vow never to betray the Chen imperial family. If he breaks that oath, everyone in the realm may condemn him.”
“Power will drown out an oath,” Xie Yun said.
“That’s all right. I only need a pretext.”
“…”
Xie Yun sensed his urgency. Watching him quietly, he asked, “Are you planning to leave?”
Song Liang paused and turned to meet his gaze. In those calm eyes, he discerned something, and a smile involuntarily touched his lips.
Perhaps Xiao Yi, in the previous life, had already understood everything before falling into the sea. He simply had not known where Song Liang came from or when he would leave. So he had chosen to plunge into the ocean and set him free.
“Unrest is coming to the southwest, and the Hu will advance south as well. That is why I must eliminate the threats within first.”
Only then could he do everything possible to alter the plot point in which Xie Yun died suppressing the southwestern rebellion.
This was the second time Xie Yun had heard that prophecy. This time, however, he neither dismissed it nor asked how Song Liang knew. He merely looked down at the man below, his gaze cold.
“Mm.”
…
The histories recorded: In the sixth year of Huangxing, the emperor visited Huguo Temple to pray for blessings, accompanied by the Prince Regent, the chancellor, other officials, and scholars. All knelt and swore their loyalty, greatly pleasing the emperor. On the return journey, an assassination attempt was made against him. The assassins were members of the Qin clan. Enraged, the emperor ordered the Xiaoyi and Black Armor Guards to surround and slaughter a group of Qin clansmen.
In the twelfth month of that same year, rebellion broke out in the southwest.
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