“The Great Zhou Treasury, can you give it to me?”0 “Even if I did, you couldn’t use it.”0 “Hey, how would you know if you won’t hand it over?” Li Yuan’s curiosity about the vault that had set the whole world on edge was very real.0 “Because,” Lu Xuanxian said, “the Great Zhou Treasury is actually an entrance to the Dragon Vein. It leads to a very particular place.”0 As he spoke, he fished something from his robe and tossed it over.0 Li Yuan caught it. It was a red brocade case. He pinched it between two fingers. With a click, the case popped open. Inside lay a pearl shot through with drifting veins of golden mist.0 “This is a Dragon Eye. Only those of that bloodline can open it,” Lu Xuanxian said. “You can open it anytime, anywhere. Emperors love putting on mystic airs, so they claim it takes some grand, complicated calculation to find the activation point of the Great Zhou Treasury. In truth, it’s just this.”0 “...” Li Yuan went silent.0 Lu Xuanxian went on, “Anyone who’s died within the Dragon Vein has their body, soul, and power fall under its commands. So the so-called Great Zhou Treasury is, to put it bluntly, an empowerment, an infusion straight into a person’s mind. But this kind of empowerment alters the soul. The closer you match the donor soul, and the stronger your own soul, the better your chances. Otherwise, best case you’re left a dullard; worst case, you die.1 “Your father-in-law is a man who nurses hatred. He looks like a taciturn blacksmith, but his will is iron. That’s why he could inherit the spirit forging arts of the grandmaster weaponsmith Feng Huzi from a thousand years ago, and use it to mass-produce spirit artifacts. The Emperor doesn’t know it in this kind of detail.”0 Li Yuan gave him a long, quiet look. It struck him that the man was spilling far too many secrets. Does he assume I’ll be delivered to the Dragon Vein after death, no matter what?0 His eternal youth was a closely guarded secret. To the Dragon Vein, though, he’d still die. When that day came, they’d pull every string to bury him in their necropolis and turn him into something like Lu Xuanxian.0 Add to that the fact he needed to impersonate the Emperor and understand the bigger picture…no wonder Lu Xuanxian felt free to say anything.0 Turning this over, Li Yuan said, “Since I can’t use the Dragon Eye, then swap me something else.”0 He slipped the pearl away as he spoke. When Lu Xuanxian didn’t object, he tossed the item back and said, “Earlier, when I returned to Cloudpeak Province, how did you follow me? Whatever it is, I want one. Not asking too much, is it?”0 Lu Xuanxian blinked and scratched his head.“It’s called the Dragon Vein’s Nine Provinces Patrol Token. With it you, a single thought can take you anywhere, so long as there’s a medium. The medium can be a place you’ve been, or somewhere your chosen target goes.”0 Li Yuan’s eyes lit up, just a little. It deserves to an item of the Dragon Vein. It’s way better than the thousand-mile thread.0 He also understood now how Lu Xuanxian had blinked six kilometers away to swat birds. It wasn’t just some six kilometers; the man could probably zip hundreds, thousands of kilometers at a time.0 “But you still can’t use it,” Lu Xuanxian said. “The Dragon Vein blankets this land. In a sense, the whole continent is its ghost domain. I’m a ghost servant of the Dragon Vein, and I carry its ghost item. That’s why I can jump anywhere in an instant. You’re not a ghost servant. You can’t.”0 “Then you lot…figure something out,”Li Yuan said.0 No sooner had the words left his mouth than both of them caught the faint stir of commotion outside.0 “Husband! Husband!” Xie Yu’s voice kept calling.0 Clearly Li Yuan had been inside too long, and she was worried. Which, in its way, was a reminder.0 Lu Xuanxian said, “If we weaken the effect a bit, it should work. I accept that condition.”0 “I’ll tell you my second condition when I’ve thought it through,” Li Yuan said.0 “I’ll agree where I can,” Lu Xuanxian replied.0 Li Yuan nodded. “The Emperor will vanish for five days, then reappear near the General’s Temple. Come find me then.”0 With their conversation over, Lu Xuanxian flicked his hand, and the door swung open.0 Xie Yu stood on the threshold, fear in her face melting into calm the instant she saw Li Yuan. She hurried out, “Grand General Lu, my husband hadn’t come out for so long. I was afraid his clumsy tongue might have offended you, so I…”0 “Young Master Ximen claimed to have witnessed the attack with his own eyes,” Lu Xuanxian said. “So I asked a few extra questions. You may go.”0 Li Yuan stepped out of the room and into the hall.0 Xie Yu glanced at him and asked softly, “Husband, are you all right?”0 His expression was still in a daze, as if he were still chewing on some thought. “I’m fine… We got to talking, and I realized the grand general is a grandmaster of the martial path, so I took the chance to ask his advice. He gave me a couple of pointers, and they really struck me.”0 “As long as you’re fine.” Xie Yu let out a breath. The fact that her husband managed to ask for martial tips during Lu Xuanxian left her both exasperated and amused.1 What a blockhead, she thought.0 Outside, Xie Wei was waiting too. Full-figured and stately, like a regal peony, she looked more thoughtful than frightened even with the Emperor missing.0 “Yu’er,” she called gently. “Let’s go together.”0 A moment later, once they’d found a quiet corner, she lowered her voice. “Gucheng, is there any news?”0 Li Yuan recited the story he’d already composed in his head. He’d seen fire sweep past the residence, seen monsters in the sky, and so on. The questioning had taken so long, he said, because he’d used the chance to consult Lu Xuanxian about martial arts. The grand general, for his part, seemed intent on deducing the attacker’s identity from the way he fought, hoping for a breakthrough, so he’d let the conversation run.0 “Big Sis, don’t be sad,” Xie Yu said, taking Xie Wei’s hand.0 Xie Wei smiled faintly. “I’m not sad. I’m worried. If the Emperor is gone, can the child in my belly still become crown prince? Father is ambitious and patient. I’ve never cared for romance. The patriarch used me for a political marriage; why shouldn’t I use this child to win honor for the Xie Clan?1 “The Emperor wiped out the royal bloodline. The child I carry is the only one left. I’d already steeled myself for the deep palace and all its dangers. But now…I don’t know what future lies ahead.” She tipped her chin up a fraction, a composed face easing into an odd lightness. “Yu’er, in our family, Father runs the whole board, Big Brother provides the muscle, and I handle the scheming. You, you just live well with Gucheng. Seeing you two happy makes me feel happy, too.”0 “...” Li Yuan simply listened to the conversation in silence.0 Xie Yu and Xie Wei talked a while longer, then went their separate ways.0 The Xie residence was a racket, and before long more riders came thundering in from afar. A thousand-man captain sent by Xie Feng to check on things.0 He waved the stag banner of the Ocean Province Armored Cavalry, and that alone meant he spoke for them; anyone who attacked him would be picking a fight with Ocean Province itself. He hadn’t brought many men, only a few dozen riders.0 Xie Feng might be a blockhead in other areas, but he had a clear grip on the situation. An ordinary person, who was clever on ordinary days but panicked when it counted, might have abandoned the troops like a fool and rushed home alone.0 Follow current novels on NoveI(F)ire.net Xie Feng did not. He knew that as long as he stayed with the armored cavalry, no one on earth would dare harm his family. So he sent the thousand-man captain back to scout and to serve as a warning.0 From this moment on, there was no Xie Feng anymore, only the Ocean Province Armored Cavalry.0 After returning to a newly assigned courtyard, Xie Wei finally let the smile she wore outside fade. Which woman didn’t hope for happiness? She’d only been fooling her little sister. After all, some things had to be done.0 In the family, Xie Yu was  the innocent one, and her husband seemed as rigid as a wooden post. The two of them were a perfect match. 0 Naturally, as the older sister, that only made her worry more.0 Xie Weo’s bright eyes roamed now, searching, as if looking for someone. She trusted her gut. The terrifying presence that struck at the Son of Heaven had intentionally avoided her.1 That meant there had to be a tie between them. Though she hadn’t worked it out yet, that wouldn’t stop her from digging. What she never imagined was that the very terror she sought was drinking tea with her little sister at that moment.0 “I’m going into seclusion,” Li Yuan said.0 “Right now?” Xie Yu answered softly.0 “An insight’s come,” Li Yuan said. “If I don’t seize it, it’ll slip away…and this time, I have a feeling it’ll take a long while.”0 A faint tea fragrance lingered between them.0 Suddenly Xie Yu asked, “Are you trying to stay out of my family’s mess? Do you think my sister carrying the Emperor’s child while the Son of Heaven has gone missing is going to bring down a disaster on all our heads?”0 “...” Li Yuan was a little speechless.0 He was about to become the Emperor, and Xie Wei was about to become the Emperor’s woman, which was to say, his woman in that guise. What disaster was there left for him to fear?0 Of course, that didn’t mean he intended to fully follow Lu Xuanxian’s script. Quietly, in his heart, he was weaving a  little plan of his own, one no one would ever see coming.0 “Is that it?” Xie Yu suddenly bristled, then dropped her gaze. “If you really think that…then go.”0 “I don’t,” Li Yuan said, sober and clear.0 She searched his eyes, sighed softly, and swerved the topic. “We don’t even know if the Emperor is dead. If he is, doesn’t that make my sister a widow?”0 “I’m not sure.” Li Yuan shook his head.0 “Husband, who do you think that terrifying figure was? How could he be that strong? He went straight into the core of the residence, past the Flying Bear Army and ghost cavalry, to assassinate the Son of Heaven. Someone like that…if he wants you dead, how do you even dodge?” Xie Yu propped her chin and pondered.0 Li Yuan described again what he’d witnessed.0 Xie Yu listened like a child to a ghost story. After a long while she thumped her chest, thinking very earnestly, “The Patriarch got his head torn clean off just from that burning monster-woman’s hug, and even his blood burned away… Does she kill people by hugging them? Husband, do you think there’s a martial art that kills by hugging?”0 “Probably some kind of mysterious skill,” Li Yuan said.0 That night, Xie Yu spent the whole night sleeping in the perilous embrace of the terrifying monster she’d just described.2