Chapter 339: The Feuding Empires

Within the capital of the Tianshu Empire, in a splendid hall, Nalan Qiankun, Nalan Changkong, and Cui Haitang were gathered to welcome a middle-aged man. The center of the man's forehead had a vertical golden line embedded in it like a sharp sword. The man was none other than the sect master of the Taiqing Immortal Sect, Lu Yan.

"We greet the sect master!" Nalan Qiankun bowed.

Behind him, Cui Haitang and Nalan Changkong likewise bowed to Lu Yan.

"Nalan Qiankun, you look rather unwell. Your yin body's badly injured. Who did you fight to suffer such serious injuries?" Lu Yan asked.

"I fought with Ku Jiang and barely avoided dying within the red moon illusory realm. Fortunately, I won by the skin of my teeth, but sustained grievous injuries in doing so." Nalan Qiankun sighed.

"Oh? Ku Jiang?" Lu Yan raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Cui Haitang immediately jumped in. "Senior Brother Lu, it's my fault. Xiao Nanfeng assassinated two of my sons and my younger brother, then barged into Blackflame Island. I was so upset by his actions that I fought him, only to have both of us end up in the red moon illusory realm. There, Ku Jiang ambushed me. My husband had no choice but to fight Ku Jiang in order to save me, and he was fortunate enough to win. Xiao Nanfeng, on the other hand, ran off without a care for Ku Jiang's survival."

Lu Yan frowned as though analyzing Cui Haitang's words.

"Senior Uncle Lu, my uncle and two brothers perished at Xiao Nanfeng's hands. My father, owing to his friendship with Senior Uncle Xiao Hongye, has refrained from criticizing Xiao Nanfeng openly in the meantime, but Xiao Nanfeng has gone too far. Please, Senior Uncle, judge him for what he did!" Nalan Changkong bowed down.

Nalan Qiankun sat by the side of the table, coughing quietly. He seemed to have been weakened to an incredible extent. Rather than speak, he watched as his consort and son bemoaned Xiao Nanfeng's misdeeds.

"But that's not what I heard..." Lu Yan frowned.

"I have kept my sons and brother's belongings. Senior Brother Lu, you're in possession of a Taiqing relic that can review the past and learn the truth for yourself." Cui Haitang immediately retrieved a few articles.

Lu Yan frowned as he inspected the possessions with a mirror.

Light flashed. The mirror revealed the scenes of Nalan Feng, Nalan Yunhai, and Cui Haisheng's deaths amidst hazy fog. Indeed, Xiao Nanfeng appeared within all three scenes.

Upon witnessing the scenes in the mirror, Cui Haitang and Nalan Changkong's eyes filled with killing intent. They had guessed that Xiao Nanfeng was responsible; seeing irrefutable proof that he was left them blazing with anger.

"Senior Brother Lu, please administer justice on our behalf!" Cui Haitang begged.

"Senior Uncle Lu, please help us get redress for my two brothers' deaths!" Nalan Changkong knelt down too.

Lu Yan frowned. "Why would Xiao Nanfeng do such a thing?"

Nalan Qiankun finally spoke up. "I have a guess. Xiao Nanfeng may have been possessed. He's no longer Xiao Hongye's son. He's destroying the foundations of the Taiqing Immortal Sect!"

"Possessed?" Lu Yan arched an eyebrow, his face chilly.

"Sect Master, you must remember the calamity from two centuries past. Perhaps our enemies haven't given up on driving us to ruin. They're worried that the Taiqing Immortal Sect might rise up again and have been repeatedly destroying our hopes of doing so. The Tianshu Empire is showing signs of advancing into a divine empire, and will surely be able to reach such vaunted heights in the future. I intend to wage war against external parties that seek to contest its expansion and development, but internal parties are a different matter entirely. Ignominious cultivators have emerged from within the sect, fooling all those around them and attempting to wrest all that the Tianshu Empire possesses for themselves. As long as this matter goes unresolved, chaos will rule. Please aid us, Sect Master," Nalan Qiankun said weakly, cupping his palms.

Lu Yan fell deep in thought. He had heard Zhao Yuanjiao's description of the events, which were completely at odds with Nalan Qiankun's. On the other hand, seeing was believing, and the scenes his mirror showed him couldn't be faked.

Just then, an official suddenly rushed into the hall, bowing urgently. "Your Majesty, something has happened in the Xiao lands!"

"What's wrong?" Nalan Qiankun asked coldly, eyebrows raised.

He had ordered his subordinates not to disturb him. The fact that an official had barged in regardless was testament to the urgency of the news.

"Xiao Nanfeng has declared his intent to rebel and establish himself as king of the Zheng kingdom!" the official reported. [ref] Zheng (峥) denotes ideals of loftiness and excellence.

"Insolence!" Nalan Qiankun slammed a palm on his chair, his eyes filled with rage.

"Where is Xiao Nanfeng's declaration?" Lu Yan suddenly asked.

The official glanced anxiously at Nalan Qiankun.

"Bring it over," Nalan Qiankun commanded.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The official retrieved a scroll.

"Read it aloud," Lu Yan said.

The official looked toward Nalan Qiankun, who nodded.

The official began to read.

"I, Xiao Nanfeng, hereby declare to the world that my father, Xiao Hongye, who was granted the title of Marquis of the Tianshu Empire owing to his merit and accumulated achievement, was struck down by the envy of the royal family of the Tianshu Empire. My father obtained a key to the Spirit Emperor's hidden realm and attempted to share the treasures within with the Tianshu Empire and Taiqing Immortal Sect. Nalan Qiankun schemed to claim all the treasures for himself, and the Empress Tianshu, Cui Haitang, assassinated my mother as a result. With my mother barely clinging on to life, my father had no choice but to roam the world in search of a means of reviving his wife. I was but six years of age when he entrusted me to Nalan Qiankun's care.

"Young, innocent, and helpless, I received no whit of support nor consideration from my alleged caretaker. For a decade I was imprisoned in my family's manor by a traitorous servant, none outside knowing my plight as my family's lands and property were seized by the emperor's brother-in-law. My life was left to the whims of the malicious; I am fortunate that my father's name alone permitted me a decade's lease.

"At the end of a decade of imprisonment I managed to broker a single sliver of opportunity, by which I escaped from captivity and was able to apprentice myself to the Taiqing Immortal Sect. After a chance encounter, my cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.

"Even so, the Tianshu Empire had no intention to leave me alive. The third prince Nalan Feng repeatedly provoked and challenged me, even going as far as to attempt to assassinate me in the Eastern Sea Draconic Palace. In self-defense, I killed him instead. Later, as I sought to reclaim my familial estate from rogue forces, the emperor's brother-in-law schemed against me and raided the city of Yongding repeatedly. Fortunately, under the protection of my senior uncle Hong Lie, I was left unharmed. When Hong Lie sought to claim what was rightfully mine from the Tianshu Empire, he fell afoul of the royal family of the Tianshu Empire. Cui Haitang used cursed arts on him and incited Xiang Pojun to kill him. In battle, she activated her arts and assassinated Hong Lie.

"In the Spirit Emperor's hidden realm, the Empress Tianshu then urged her brother to attack and kill me. In self-defense, I struck him down, killed him, and learned the truth.

"The second prince of the Tianshu Empire, Nalan Yunhai, chased me with a group of Immortals and attempted to kill me once more. In self-defense, I killed him.

"The royal family of the Tianshu Empire, realizing that I was a difficult target, then turned to my junior brothers. When I sought to rescue them, I fell prey to Cui Haitang's trap and was sent into an illusory realm, whereupon my master rescued me. To our shock, Nalan Qiankun had lain in ambush in the realm and deeply wounded him there, leaving him comatose, his spirit lost.

"Ever since the founding of the Tianshu Empire, its royal family has cared little for the welfare of its people. In seeking to preserve its authority and might, it has brought ruinous harm to the loyal and the honorable. The common people have suffered greatly under its rule, and its royalty do not deserve that title or responsibility.

"The royal family of the Tianshu Empire is devoid of virtue, propriety, benevolence, and character. It is guilty of innumerable crimes, the least of which I have detailed here.

"Henceforth, I, Xiao Nanfeng, do renounce the Tianshu Empire and establish myself as king. With justice as my guide, I seek to avenge kith and kin, to excise the tumors of the Taiqing sect, to eradicate demons under heaven!

"Once the Xiao lands of the Tianshu Empire, now independent territory of the kingdom of Dazheng.

"The accusations I have leveled here, I have confirmed via painstaking investigation. If I have detailed a word of falsehood, let the heavens smite me down.

"So declares Xiao Nanfeng, of the kingdom of Dazheng!"

The official trembled with fear as he finished reading from the scroll.

There was little artistry or tact in the declaration; it was an emotional denunciation, one that the basest beggar or farmer might understand, let alone those of the imperial court.

Nalan Qiankun and his consort blanched, not having expected that Xiao Nanfeng would detail the deaths of Cui Haisheng, Nalan Feng, and Nalan Yunhai in that declaration. It served as immediate and exhaustive rebuttal of their accusation.

Lu Yan frowned as he considered the three cultivators before him.

Panic flashed across Cui Haitang's eyes, but Nalan Qiankun remained stoic and calm. He smiled calmly. "Sect Master, could Xiao Nanfeng have known about your whereabouts before you came to see me?"

"Do you mean that he's making use of this declaration to free himself of suspicion? That he was worried I would trust your accusation blindly?" Lu Yan frowned.

"Indeed—but he must have forgotten that a traitor's word cannot be trusted." Nalan Qiankun nodded.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Lu Yan fell deep in thought.

"Senior Brother, there's something wrong with Xiao Nanfeng. How could he have gone from mortal to deity in just four years? Who in the history of the Taiqing Immortal Sect has accomplished such a feat? Were he not possessed by our enemies, how could he have ascended so quickly? Physical cultivation requires a wealth of resources, and spiritual cultivation a wealth of time. Who could have obtained such wealth within a matter of years?!" Nalan Qiankun argued firmly.

Lu Yan slowly began to frown once more.