Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Fluffy snow was descended down from the skies and could be seen through the windows. The room was warm and comfortable as several fires burned brightly within.
The Canton Princess played a tune by herself.
Although she alone, the tune she played was rather upbeat and with a tinge of anticipation, as if rays of sunlight were about to shine through dark clouds.
Snow fell as the sounds of the Qin could be heard within the yard outside.
The Grand Princess walked with Chen Xiang, the female minister. Snow fell upon the umbrella and made a splattering sound as their footsteps sank into the deep snow. When they arrived at the Canton Princess’s yard, they saw a pair of serving maids wrapped up in thick coats obeying the orders from the Canton Princess.
"Grand Princess." The pair paid their respects.
At this point, the last note of the Qin still vibrated in the air. Just listening to her daughter play it filled the Grand Princess with immense pride.
"Mother dear." The little Canon Princess turned around and saw her mother as she sprinted into her mother’s embrace.
"Why are you still practicing so late at night? Don’t you feel tired?" The Grand Princess asked in adoration.
"I’m not tired. I’ve made some great improvements since the last time. Now whenever I practice, I feel like I’ve washed dirt off my body and feel extremely clean." The Canton Princess stretched her body, "Mother, why did you come back so late? Were you talking with Pei Zi Yun?"
The Grand Princess laughed, "You’re such an oddball."
"Mother, what did you discuss today?" The Canton Princess asked.
"As for that, you’re not supposed to even ask." The Grand Princess ran her fingers through her hair. As for matters such as these, the less people know, the better. This was especially true since she wanted to ensure the safety of the Canton Princess.
"Mother, I heard Young Master Pei playing the flute that day. It was filled with emotions. I wish to pay him a visit." The Canton Princess said shyly.
"No…" The Grand Princess was about to reject her. However, she looked down and saw that her daughter had behaved much better as of late. She then thought about the plan she had discussed earlier and replied, "Alright. But you have to wait for the last day of the Lantern Festival. I shall arrange it for you."
"Thank you mother." The Canton Princess actually hoped for the best. Seeing her mother agree filled her with joy. She flung herself into her mother’s arms once again and gave her a kiss.
"You little kid." The Grand Princess stretched her hands out to pull on her daughter's chubby cheeks.
"Mother, don’t tease me. Hahaha." Laughter rang out from the room as the pair of serving maids looked in. They hadn’t seen the Canton Princess this happy in a long time, and they were pleased as well.
After sometime, the Grand Princess came out as she heard the sound of the qin playing once again. When she pricked her ears to listen, she was filled with a certain sense of nostalgia as she recalled her younger days. After listening for some time, she then asked, "Has the Canton Princess been practicing every day?"
"Yes, we’ve hired several highly sought-after musicians. According to them, she’s been progressing extremely quickly. In these one or two years, she’s already playing extremely well. Congratulations Grand Princess." The female minister Chen Xiang hurriedly added.
The Grand Princess didn’t laugh and sighed, "If this was in the past, I would be extremely glad. She has always been moderately passionate about the qin. Why is she practicing so hard now?"
"It has to be because she was playing the qin together with Pei Zi Yun, who played his flute. She missed playing in harmony with him, and wants to play a duet once more. Hence, she’s learning as hard she can. Look at how skinny she is now, even her fingernails are about to turn black."
"Ever since the old days, intelligence would always meet with hurt and love never lasts. In stories, this sort of blind affection would move everyone. But now that it’s happened to my daughter. I’d rather she never loved, or never met anyone to love." The Grand Princess felt heartache as tears rolled down her cheeks.
King Lu’s Palace
King Lu’s Palace was second in size and grandeur to the Crown Prince’s Palace. This palace used to be the official government office in the previous dynasty. The Emperor contributed 200,000 taels in the renovations and gave it to King Lu. A long stream surrounded the exterior with a lake within the palace. Stone paths led the way to pavilions, with lush trees and greenery all around.
Eunuch Liao just walked through the corridors as he passed a man-made mountain and passed by a pond. When he entered the palace, he heard someone speaking from a distance away.
When he approached, he noticed that King Lu’s mood was rather good. He had a pair of thick eyebrows and clear eyes with a relaxed demeanor today. He spoke with a young man.
Eunuch Liao was a fifth ranked eunuch within the palace. Seeing that he had entered, everyone except for King Lu stood up. The eunuch then walked up to King Lu, and bowed deeply to pay his respects. King Lu waved his hand, "You don’t have to be too ceremonious with me. Apart from today, where you were sent out on a job, we see each other every day. It wouldn't be good if you had to be so respectful and ceremonious every day."
"My respects to Eunuch Liao." The young man before him wore a black fur cap and a slightly oversized set of robes. His brows were raised and he looked extremely refined. At this point he bowed to the eunuch.
"Dark Altar Sect’s Xie Cheng Dong!" Eunuch Liao knew who he was, having heard the reports. He returned the compliments, but didn’t dare to speak his name. A flicker of suspicion and wariness could be seen within his eyes. This was a result of the young man’s supreme fighting skills. When Eunuch Liao first took a glance at him, he saw that everything was clear and normal. The next glance, it was extremely blurry, as if he had a veil shrouding over himself.
Such strength was extremely horrifying. However, King Lu wasn’t able to tell. Eunuch Liao was overthinking in his head, and took a long time for him to calm down. King Lu then spoke, "It’s good that you’re back now. We were just discussing the rumors that we have spread."
"Yes!" Xie Cheng Dong gave a faint smile, which bore with it a certain sincerity and youthfulness, "When it comes to love affairs, it extremely difficult to ascertain the truth. For other matters, the truth is easily discovered, and yet how should one find out the truth when it comes to matters of the heart?"
"Striking a person’s emotions is critical and causes the most damage. The Emperor managed to claim everything under the heavens. He’s had fought in thousands of wars, been struck by many arrows, had been injured, and had felt immensely exhausted. When he was young, he probably didn’t feel any of this pain. Now that’s he’s old, it’s more apparent."
"These past few years, the Emperor hasn’t been visiting his own Concubines, and neglected them. To a man, isn’t losing his libido a very painful thing?"
"Our methods of spreading rumors that the Crown Prince had an affair with someone from the Emperor's harem has actually targeted the Emperor where it hurts the most."
"Even if he doesn’t believe it, we’ve already inflicted the pain, and buried the needle. Just thinking about it would cause him to feel the uncomfortable."
"We’ve actually managed to buy over some people from within the Crown Prince’s Palace. One of them was supposed to tell the secret in White Wind Monastery, and the other was supposed to plant an aphrodisiac on the Crown Prince. How can the Emperor not be upset when he finds the aphrodisiac?"
"We didn’t expect the Crown Prince to have such good fortunes, for he managed to discover it half way through. Since he had discovered it, forget about it. As long as we have more men in Crown Prince’s Palace we can start all over. However, the Crown Prince completed a major cleanse of his palace a few days ago, most of our spies had been weeded out by him and were killed."
"Since that happened, we intentionally placed some people within the Crown Prince’s Empress company. We wanted the Crown Prince to investigate his own Empress and cause such a huge conflict between Crown Prince and his Empress which would cause severe issues. This would make the Emperor angry. We didn’t expect that all of this to die down within several days."
"Hence, the three spies that have managed to remain hidden." At this point, Xie Cheng Dong sighed, "According to my investigations, this has something to do with Free Cloud Sect’s new Sect Leader, Pei Zi Yun. Apparently, he’s been lending a huge hand to the Crown Prince. He is indeed our main enemy."
"Hm!" At this point, King Lu cleared his throat, but didn’t interrupt.
"However, we’ve managed to spread rumors about the Crown Prince to the civilian population such that it’s the hot topic everywhere. According to what I know, the civilians have always been interested in the lives of the Imperial Family. The rumors are spreading like wildfire now, with some people even publishing books about them. Some of the more daring ones even spread the rumors to the rest of the concubines."
Eunuch Liao listened carefully but didn’t speak for a long time. When he heard this, he then broke his silence, "Nobles are immune to Dao Arts. I wonder how you managed to convince someone from Crown Prince Palace to tell the Emperor such tales?"
"Indeed, nobles are protected from the rigors of the Dao Arts." Xie Cheng Dong laughed, "But firstly, the venue matters. Secondly, the person has to be a noble."
"The more important and sacred the ground is, the harder it would be for Dao Arts to be executed."
"The capital city is a place like this. A normal Daoist wouldn’t be able to perform even the most basic of spells. However, a normal civilian is much weaker than a noble. Thus, an extremely powerful Daoist would be able to cast a spell on him under certain circumstances."
"Of course, should the venue be somewhere prominent to the nation, like it’s administrative regions, no matter how powerful the Daoist is, it would still be impossible."
King Lu and Eunuch Liao listened attentively, as Xie Cheng Dong continued speaking, "Next would be the person’s noble status. The Crown Prince is definitely a noble, and King Lu is a noble as well. Even you, Eunuch Liao are a fifth ranked official, and thus are a noble."
"And yet there are many people within the Palace who aren’t nobles. Those servants who have no ranks and no titles. For those who interact with the nobles on a daily basis might still have some protection and immunity. What about those who are further away?"
"Even if that’s the case, as long as they remained within the Crown Prince’s Palace, they would still be protected from Dao Arts. The problem is every palace would find it hard to guard against a willing traitor. What if there was already a servant or a maid who was extremely unhappy with their master, and wanted to betray them for a profit?"
"For such a group of people, they can be easily subjected to Dao Arts. Just a clap of my hands and I can get them under my command. When the situation arises, I can even get them to do something they wouldn’t even dream of doing, or wouldn’t ever dare to do!"
King Lu and Eunuch Liao understood at this point and had ideas. They looked at each other as Xie Cheng Dong laughed and took a sip of tea. They had heard of such incidents happen in the previous dynasties, where a person who betrayed his master died immediately from the backlash.
This was the truth of the matter. If not, it would be too easy for Daoists to control everything under the heavens.
However, the dynasty had been restored to peace for a decade, thus the frequency of such an event were reduced. Additionally, the dynasty was also able to learn from this situation and thus place their trust in the right people.
Eunuch Liao then asked, "These rumors are filling up the entire country. And yet if the dynasty refuses to believe it, what use would there be?"
"Although the officials and the civilians are two different groups of people, it takes three groups, including the nobles to complete the nation. Public opinion is extremely important." Xie Cheng Dong looked at the eunuch before he continued, "If King Lu wishes to replace the Crown Prince as the heir apparent, he would need to win over the commoners."
"The officials are a group of smart people. As long as King Lu manages to win the support of the majority, the officials would take his side as well."
"But what do the civilians speak of King Lu? Do they say nice things about him?"
"We’re using this as a foundation. Once the civilians hear our initial rumors about the Crown Prince, they wouldn’t believe it. Over time, they would start singing about how immoral he is. Several years later, rumors become truth."
"After sometime, I will start spreading rumors about how the Crown Prince enjoys killing pregnant women and loves eating embryos. He shall be perceived more as a beast than a man."
"And should King Lu ascend to the throne, it would be the will of the heavens for an upright man to do so."
When Eunuch Liao heard this, he felt that such methods were incorrigible. He then thought about all the evil rumors he had heard about people, and wondered if they were started this way. He then understood. At this point, he stood up and bowed, "Young master Xie’s far sighted and intelligent. As for sparing a thought for King Lu and assisting him, this servant is extremely grateful."
Xie Cheng Dong hurriedly stood up, "I don’t dare, I don’t dare. Both of us are servants to the same master, why shouldn't we do our best?"
When King Lu heard this, he spoke, "Apart from the rumors, there must be other steps right? Previously, only one of you was at work at every instance. Now that the both of you are together, you can coordinate your attacks. This would be a perfect alliance, and we should progress rapidly."
"Yes, the next step would be true rumors."
"Everyone within the upper echelons have been clear about disarming and adapting our soldiers to education and literature. This was something that every single new Emperor has to do, in order to prevent an uprising against him."
"However, many people down below don’t understand. Or even if they did, they wouldn’t dare to think too much about it."
"We can spread a rumor saying that the Crown Price had already written a note saying he wishes to further reduce the might of the military. We can use several of his notable phrases in the notes."
"King Lu will then express his support. How do you think everyone will react then?"