Chapter 394 – Strange Coffins, Envoys from Ocean Province, The Emperor is an Enemy, Birds to Dogs and Cats - Part 3

An hour later.

Zhu Ban and Peng Guang halted before a temporary imperial lodge.

Peng Guang escorted Zhu Ban through winding corridors, heavy doors, up to a small pavilion.

“Master Zhu, His Majesty waits inside,” he said, pinning down the bird on his shoulder with one hand lest it followed.

Zhu Ban knocked on the door lightly.

“Enter.” A light voice drifted out.

Zhu Ban stepped in.

The Emperor sat in shadow on a large chair, not a dragon throne, hence the frown on his brow.

“Your Majesty,” Zhu Ban bowed.

The Emperor rubbed his temples. “Master Zhu, you’ve not heard that a villain abducted Huayin, have you?”

Zhu Ban jerked upright. “Huayin kidnapped? Impossible! The Lotus Cult swore never to touch her—”

“Easy,” the Emperor cut him off. “It wasn’t the Lotus Cult. Someone else. It happened near last year’s end. I kept silent so as not to disturb your forging, and because the facts were still murky.”

He recounted how Cui Huayin vanished early last spring; how Gu Xuejian, furious, swept through the southern lands, killed two fifth ranks, and sealed their hearts in a coffer for ransom.

“When that broke,” the Emperor said, “I was baffled. If I’d done it, fine, throw the chamber‑pot on my head. But I didn’t. Which meant Gu Xuejian knew I didn’t. Yet she spun a shabby lie anyway. Why?”

“I brooded over it and finally realized it. She was covering tracks, drawing every eye so certain people could escape. Add up the missing names, and one truth dawned on me.”

In the gloom, the Emperor’s lips curved, eyes glinting like a predator’s. He leaned forward.

“Perhaps the man who stole the woman I love is still alive. He showed himself, willing to sabotage her future as an elder, just to drag her away for his own selfish ends. Master Zhu, what do you propose we do with so vile a thief?”

Zhu Ban stared, stunned into silence for a long while before he spoke. “Li Yuan can’t still be alive. He was only a wandering cultivator, and that demonic blade , Sun and Moon Aloft,  would have burned up what little life he had left.”

Clap, clap, clap...!

The Emperor smiled and applauded. “I thought the same, Master Zhu. Since Master Li is dead, someone must be using his name to stir up trouble.”

A chill gleam flashed in the royal eye. He rose, pacing to stand directly before the weaponsmith.

“I intend to restore the Yin Consort’s rank, raising her to Noble Consort, second only to the Empress. Even if she never returns, the seat stays hers. She will always be my woman. And you, Master Zhu...will be my honoured father‑in‑law.”

“...” Zhu Ban remained silent.

A long silence followed.

Zhu Ban gritted his teeth and slowly said, “Your Majesty, forgive my bluntness. If my son‑in‑law lives, I will not acknowledge you. My daughter will remain his wife. If you want my help, you had better leave them unharmed.”

“Of course.” The Emperor chuckled. “But first we must discover where Huayin is, and whether she still lives. We’re all worried about her. I rule this realm; I can find her.”

Zhu Ban stood quiet for a moment, sighed, and bowed.

“I leave it to Your Majesty,” he said, then withdrew.

Alone in the gloom, the Emperor propped his chin on one hand, then burst into laughter, as though he’d just heard an excellent joke.

Zhu Ban was well out of earshot, but the bird perched on the eaves caught every note.

Li Yuan grasped the punchline at once. The Emperor was laughing at Zhu Ban’s innocence.

The straight‑spoken weaponsmith had told the Emperor he wouldn’t acknowledge him if his son-in-law still lived, meaning exactly that.

However, like any sovereign steeped in politics, double speak came naturally as breathing. What the Emperor actually intended to convey was that if Li Yuan’s existence became a problem, he would simply erase that man.

As for Zhu Ban’s threat? Once the deed was done, what could the man possibly do? The story was written by the winner.

The bird huddled on the tiles. Presently the pavilion doors opened, and the Emperor stepped out. The bird was about to flee, then froze, staring.

The numbers 1,350~3,250 hovered above the Emperor’s head.

Li Yuan remembered all too clearly that last month the Emperor’s combat power was 2,290~10,800 (???~122,169).

People could lie, but their combat power did not. No one could lose that much power in five weeks, unless they weren’t the same man.

A double

, Li Yuan thought.

The Emperor keeps a stand‑in. The one in this lodge is false, the one at the mass grave was likely real... or was even that another mask? I can’t prove it.

He laced his fingers, eyes narrowing, thoughts edged with a mounting intent to kill. It was clear that he’d left some clues behind when he’d whisked away Huayin, Ping’an, Shuixiang and Yao Jue.

Of course, that was inevitable. He wasn’t a god.

Now the Emperor had found those clues. Alone it meant nothing. Li Yuan was a nobody. But his father‑in‑law had suddenly grown valuable, and tying the smith tight required dangling Huayin’s restored rank.

The Emperor was sliding onto the enemy list.

Li Yuan’s mind whirred. If the Emperor clawed his way back to Jade Capital and regained his influence, the elites at his beck and call would swell beyond reckoning. When the Yin and Yang converged, legions of sentient ghosts would appear.

If those ghosts side with the Emperor...

He forced the thought away.

Worst case scenario, the Emperor would reunify the Central Plains and discover him and Yan Yu in Cloudpeak Province. The hostile ghosts would aim to devour Yan Yu, while the Emperor sought to erase him.

Li Yuan’s only refuge would be the frozen tundra of the Western Extremes, using its chill that frozen even shadow blood and the natural hardiness of the Ice Folk to hold off the imperial forces. Yet by then every card he had would be face up, ready to be seized.

No. I have to kill the Emperor quietly, while he’s still bogged down with the Five Elements Alliance, Buddhists and Daoists. But his guards alone are a nightmare, and with doubles in play, how do I know I’m striking the real target?

While he pondered, far away the bird he’d been using was suddenly snatched up by a pair of big hands. The bird’s pupils dilated, staring at a handsome, cold, arrogant face.

“What exactly are you after, my friend?” Lu Xuanxian asked.

“Chirp~” the bird replied back.

Lu Xuanxian threw back his head and laughed. “So mighty, yet you won’t even show your face. What are we to make of that? Very well, if you insist on spying from the sidelines, let’s strike a gentleman’s bargain.”

“Chirp?”

“Simple,” Lu Xuanxian said, chin high. “Any bird I catch you possessing, I kill. But if you slip one past my net, then even if some other fellow spots it, they mustn’t touch it. Just you and me. No innocent by‑standers, deal?”

Li Yuan, considering, made the bird nod and answer, “Chirp.”

“Haha!” Lu Xuanxian cupped the bird, set it loose, and said grandly, “That one’s a freebie. The count starts with the next.”

Sunlight bathed the grand general, plain‑clothed today, perched on the glazed roof tiles above the lodge, gleaming like a statue of bronze.

Suddenly a flicker crossed his face; he blurred, both present and absent at once.

A soft pop echoed far off. When his outline steadied again, half a minute ticked by before a ragged clump of feathers and flesh thudded to earth.

Lu Xuanxian shut his eyes, basking. Then, sensing something, he snapped them open, staring a good 10 kilometers away at a flight of birds.

Whoosh!

His figure went hazy, there yet not. The flock detonated in mid‑air. An instant later he was calmly back on the tiles.

Of that flock, only one bird had been Li Yuan’s. The rest were innocent.

From his mountain hideout, Li Yuan grasped the man’s method.

Lu Xuanxian didn’t bother picking out which bird was controlled. He simply butchered every bird that crossed his perceptive field. Whatever cultivation he’d mastered, his senses and speed were absurd, true

step‑and‑the‑world‑shrinks

sorcery.

Realising this, Li Yuan travelled to a wasteland filled with shallow graves and half-buried corpses. The ground stank of corruption but lacked the Yin energy that clung to worldly obsessions, so the place hadn’t turned into a true ghost domain.

Snarling mongrels nosed through the dirt. One dog hit a scent, scraped wildly, and soon a filthy reed‑mat corner showed, covering a shallow corpse.

Li Yuan scanned the surroundings. Apart from wild dogs, cats prowled here too.

He approached; the dog, ready to gnaw the corpse, whimpered in submission. He scratched its head and tossed it a strip of dried meat, eyes sweeping the strays with a smile.

He’d just recruited some new eyes and ears..

Crack!

Bang!

Boom!

Birds continued to die in extravagant style. With Lu Xuanxian at the centre, everything within a 10 kilometer radius had become a no‑fly zone. He even yawned, summoned singing girls to dance in the courtyard, flickering in and out—one moment slaughtering a bird scores of kilometers away, the next sipping wine at his banquet.

The Lotus Cult elites gaped, and the Flying Bear Army gazed in worship.

Elsewhere, alley dogs and rooftop cats slipped in unnoticed, already linked to Li Yuan.

Lu Xuanxian, blissfully ignorant, carried on as the bird butcher” Li Yuan, watching, puzzled over the show. Why bother turning the skies into a killing ground? He could simply scout a different day, a different place.

The answer came soon enough. Through one cat’s ears, a shrill voice reached him, “This way, esteemed guests. The imperial tutor and vice cult leader will escort you farther in.”

“We are obliged,” two voices replied,

Li Yuan’s eyes narrowed.

So Lu Xuanxian’s spectacle is cover. These two must be ferrying something precious.

He sent several cats slinking closer, silent as shadows.