Chapter 3 The Meeting
The Minister of Rites looked at the agreement, signed by both parties, with disbelief after the third meeting concluded.
It was… over?
For two hours, the Minister of Rites had questioned and guarded, fearing the other side would play dirty. But Crown Prince Hongde had kept pushing the progress, even calling the Minister of Rites slow.
“At least it’s a good thing…” The Minister of Rites shook his head and returned to the Forbidden City with the agreement.
Meanwhile, Crown Prince Hongde was cornered in the hallway by people from the Cross Alliance and the Extreme Sun Empire, who wanted to know what was going on. However, they only received impatient and perfunctory answers from Crown Prince Hongde.
“Since Your Excellency does not wish to continue the cooperation, there is no need for us to say anything further.” With that, the red-robed priest turned and left with his entourage, indignant.
A group of Japanese officials followed Crown Prince Hongde back to the guesthouse. They dared not ask any questions, choosing to remain silent. Ozawa Chizaburo and the others, however, wore strange expressions – after all, Crown Prince Hongde’s sudden shift to normal negotiations was hard to believe.
Crown Prince Hongde locked himself in his room. The remaining officials exchanged glances. Finally, Yamamoto Rokushika dismissed everyone, then stepped forward, knocked on the door, and asked, “Your Highness, are you alright?”
Hearing Yamamoto Rokushika’s voice, Crown Prince Hongde’s eyes flickered. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before speaking, “Mr. Yamamoto, please inform the others that I will be holding a meeting tonight…”
…
Night fell. Danhezi’s room. (Although Danhezi and Crown Prince Hongde were in the same large courtyard, they occupied different smaller courtyards. Danhezi’s courtyard was closer to the Japanese officials’ courtyard in terms of straight-line distance. Qinglianzi and the Japanese officials were in the same courtyard.)
“Cough… cough cough cough…” Danhezi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand, trembling as he took out a blood-stained pipe from his embrace. He then put a small amount of ash into it, lit it, and took a puff.
“Hoo—” Leaning against the wall of the barrier, Danhezi watched the blood coffin that had just quieted down, calculating his next steps.
Suddenly, the compass on the ground began to rotate on its own.
Danhezi’s pupils contracted – he knew someone outside the barrier was turning the compass, but who? Who could have bypassed his many barriers and alerts to enter his room? Had the yin and yang of the five elements within the barrier changed?
Without thinking further, Danhezi hastily lunged forward, pressing down on the compass with one hand to stop its rotation.
His pipe rolled away into the distance, spilling ash on the floor.
But Danhezi couldn’t afford to care. He crawled towards the compass with both hands and feet, while rapidly surveying the situation within the barrier. The black and white world showed no changes, only the few black incense sticks burning quietly on the blood coffin.
“The yin and yang within the barrier have not changed… the positions of the five elements have not changed either…”
Danhezi frowned – this situation could only have one explanation: someone from the outside was actively turning this compass.
So, Danhezi formed a hand seal and spoke to the compass, “Esteemed person outside, I have no enmity with you. Why are you turning the compass to try and kill me?”
The response he received was a tinkling laugh.
Cold sweat streamed down Danhezi’s face. He couldn’t help but plead, “Senior, spare my life. This junior has been diligently following your instructions, nurturing the blood coffin for a full forty-nine days. I implore you to show mercy and spare my life.”
“Alright.” Seeing that the compass had stopped rotating, Danhezi felt a wave of relief. He then reversed the compass and returned to the real world from within the barrier.
He saw a woman in a white robe sitting quietly in a grand armchair by the Eight Immortals table in the room, watching Danhezi emerge from the compass.
“Greetings, Senior.” Danhezi bowed to the woman. After decades of observation, this senior was extremely capricious, so he had to perform the most basic etiquette.
“How is the blood coffin’s cultivation coming along?”
“Everything is well,” Danhezi replied. “As you said, the blood coffin becomes agitated once every seven days, and it has been suppressed by the incense you provided.”
The woman nodded with a smile and pointed to the compass, saying, “Bring out the blood coffin for me to see.”
“Senior, this…” Danhezi was clearly reluctant to bring it out. After all, he had a pretty good idea of what was inside the coffin. This was a foreign guest guesthouse, and continuing to nurture the blood coffin here, risking an accident, was Danhezi’s limit. Therefore, he had always kept the blood coffin hidden within the barrier, and all his work was done within it.
The woman said nothing, merely looking at Danhezi with a half-smile. Danhezi’s instincts told him something was amiss.
“Alright… Senior, please wait a moment…” Danhezi bent down, placed his hand on the compass on the ground, and gently turned it, entering the barrier once more.
A moment later, Danhezi emerged from the barrier, carrying the blood coffin.
…
Qinglianzi was meditating in her room when suddenly, a strong aura of death emanated from the adjacent courtyard.
Yes, it was the aura of death, not demonic energy, ghost energy, or fiendish energy, but the most primitive and silent aura of death.
Qinglianzi thought of something and immediately got up to head to Danhezi’s room.
With a few quick steps, Qinglianzi leaped over the courtyard wall and entered Danhezi’s courtyard. However, her expression became increasingly serious and tense – from eighty feet away, she could already smell the scent of blood emanating from the room.
Qinglianzi slowly approached the room’s entrance. What greeted her eyes was a wooden door with a large hole, and a metal security lock that had been flung several meters away.
But what was more evident were the splattered bloodstains and the faint smell of corpse oil lingering in the air.
Qinglianzi secretly formed a hand seal, igniting the green lotus flames in her right hand, while her left hand slowly pushed open the damaged wooden door.
The furnishings in the room were all overturned, and almost everything was damaged to varying degrees. Faintly, one could make out a pile of wooden strips that were once a wooden table; a screen broken into several pieces on the floor; a bed frame crushed in the middle by something heavy, and… blood covering the entire floor.
Stepping through the bloodstains, Qinglianzi slowly entered the room, searching for her senior brother Danhezi.
Suddenly, a leg tripped her. Before Qinglianzi could react, a figure caught her and forcefully covered her mouth and nose with a hand.
As Qinglianzi tried to struggle, she smelled a familiar scent – a faint aroma of mint… medicinal… oily… fermented… smoked… and blood.
Before Qinglianzi could make a sound, heavy footsteps echoed from behind her, like someone jumping forcefully in place.
Qinglianzi immediately held her breath, extinguished the green lotus flames, and remained motionless on the ground, supporting herself with her limbs.
A few moments later, another heavy footstep sounded, followed by a gust of wind from behind, as if something had departed.
The hand covering Qinglianzi’s mouth and nose also fell limply. Qinglianzi let out a soft breath and then looked forward – Danhezi, his clothes tattered, his body covered in blood, the muscles in his neck protruding, lay feebly in a pool of blood.