Chapter 198: The Old Man's Worries (3/3)

...

"The matters here in Jiangnan..."

"Everything is ready, save for the timely wind!" A black stone in Ji Wuyou’s hand struck the chessboard, its sharp, resonant click echoing through the room.

"For this, we must thank that little shop called Origins," Ji Wuyou remarked placidly. "Drawing the gaze of so many great factions across the entire southern region, to the point that their vigilance has slackened... that is something truly no one else could have achieved."

"Indeed," a raspy voice drifted from the shadows. "Because of this little shop, our arrangements in Jiangnan have unexpectedly accelerated by thirty percent."

"To be at such an advanced age yet still covet authority, refusing to relinquish the mantle of the Nalan family head..." Ji Wuyou sneered. "Then there is no need to hand it over. Carry it with you into the earth and rest in peace."

"Your Highness, the matter you wished to know has been clarified..." Just then, a figure entirely enveloped in black attire materialized in the courtyard.

"Speak!"

"Two hundred years ago, Nalan Hongwu once led fifty thousand Jin troops to clash with Fu Beihai at Heavenly Prison Mountain."

"Fu..." Ji Wuyou mused. "One rarely hears that surname these days..."

"Before the founding of the Jin Kingdom, this land was a tapestry of entrenched clans... great and small factions intricately intertwined..." Ji Wuyou said. "And the greatest resistance, the one that fought stubbornly to the bitter end... should be...?"

"It was the grand clans led by the Fu family beneath Kirin Cliff," the black-clothed man replied. "We have discovered..."

The black-clothed man drew a finely crafted dossier from his robes.

"Guarding Beihai beneath Kirin Cliff, harboring grand strategies and martial prowess in the south...? To deserve such praise in an era where heroes rose like forests... fascinating!"

"These two were once bosom friends!?" Ji Wuyou was slightly startled. One had to remember that those resisting clans and the Jin Kingdom had been mortal enemies back then!

"After the battle of Heavenly Prison Mountain, Nalan Hongwu’s temperament altered drastically, to the point that even the members of the Nalan Clan paled at the mention of it?"

Reading down line by line, Ji Wuyou’s expression shifted between light and shadow. "It was rumored that Nalan Hongwu’s martial talent was by no means inferior to Ji Xuantong's, yet for some unknown reason, his cultivation progress suddenly slowed, and now it has stagnated for over a century... Otherwise... if we wanted to move against Jiangnan, we would have to weigh our options very carefully!"

"Could it be..." Ji Wuyou burst into a hearty laugh on the spot. "Just as I mentioned the missing wind, who would have thought the wind has already arrived!"

"A discrepancy in the state of mind, though a fraction of an inch at the start, leads a thousand miles astray. Now that old man Nalan is withered and decrepit, as long as I use this to design a scheme and manipulate it well, he is not impossible to deal with!"

"Originally, the imperial throne should have been passed to our Eastern Sea Ji lineage. What virtue or capability does that Ji Wu possess to style himself Emperor? While we are dismissed with a mere King of the Eastern Sea? What a farce!"

"The other three kings have already covertly signaled their support. Once the Nalan family is taken down and the various great clans of Jiangnan submit... Ji Wu can be said to have lost another arm. Ji Xuantong, oh Ji Xuantong, since you did not pass the throne to my lineage, we shall take it ourselves!"

"This position... belongs inherently to the capable!"

...

The following day was when Nalan Hongwu was about to reach the ending of Silent Hill 2.

"Old Fu... did I, in my youth, truly do some things wrong..."

"Master, each served their own lord..." Elder Fu spoke up. "Master need not take it too deeply to heart."

"What if I said... it was I who lost that battle back then...?"

"..." Elder Fu fell silent.

Only after a long while did he say, "Loyalty to the state, deception in warfare—there are many words that can explain it, Master."

Nalan Hongwu: "..."

Those who achieve great things do not obsess over minor details; everyone understood the logic, but crossing that hurdle in one’s own heart was not something everyone could manage.

A sudden flash of lightning rent the night sky, casting a stark pallor over both their faces.

Immediately following, the rain began to patter down.

Watching the cold droplets fall from the heavens, it had to be said that the game in that shop was truly miraculous.

To think it could compel a person, step by step, to interrogate their own soul!

Stepping into the shop, the atmosphere remained cheerful and unconstrained, but over these past few days, he felt as though he was somewhat out of place.

Booting up the game, it was already that pitch-black scenery that seemed ready to swallow a man whole.

Staring at his own tombstone, Nalan Hongwu controlled the protagonist and, with a fluttering heart, leaped down.

All the way until he obtained the videotape.

Beholding the protagonist's sins on the screen was like gazing into his own past.

He remembered it all, with absolute clarity.

The events of yesteryear loomed vividly before his eyes.

"Before the two armies, you and I shall drink one more cup. Henceforth, life or death matters not!"

The man before him held up his wine cup. "You once asked me who my most revered martial artist was. I shall tell you now: the ancient Grandmaster, Bo Yue."

While Nalan Hongwu was still astonished by the other man's sudden mention of this matter, the man abruptly drained the wine in his cup to the dregs.

The final martial technique—watching the other man's face turn slightly bewildered as his martial qi stagnated—he brought his blade down across him.

According to the legends of martial artists, Bo Yue and Tian Heng were two famous warriors of antiquity.

In their final battle, Bo Yue should have possessed the upper hand, yet in the end, he suffered defeat and perished. Before his death, he had said: "I am already old; it is only right that I preserve this useful body for posterity."

A century after this, the very first Emperor of Martial Arts to tread upon the void emerged.

Separated by so many years, recalling once more the past he had been unable to face squarely, Nalan Hongwu suddenly trembled all over!

When he finally stood before his own inner self, confronting the past he had been unwilling to remember, those bygone events seemed to present a new variable.

This cup of poisoned wine was a pursuit of righteousness that attained its end.

Though it could not be said that the emotions due in his heart were entirely dissolved, the matter that had entangled Nalan Hongwu’s mind for many years—the darkness suppressed within his soul for ages—at this moment, dissipated considerably!

Ultimately, he resolved to seek an answer for himself!

Nalan Hongwu walked out of the internet cafe. "Old Fu, accompany me on a trip to Heavenly Prison Mountain!"

...

Nalan Mingxue walked out of the internet cafe.

"Oh? It's raining?" She glanced up at the sky with a hint of surprise.

She knitted her brows; lately, she had felt a persistent restlessness in her spirit.

"What is it, Miss Nalan?" Lanyuan inquired.

"Lanyuan... don't you think..." Nalan Mingxue began, "that last incident where the entire Jiuhua City united to suppress Boss Fang's shop..."

"Hasn't that matter already passed?" Lanyuan found it somewhat strange.

"No..." Nalan Mingxue said. "I always feel that this matter wasn't that simple. It's almost as if... there was a hand pushing things from behind."

...

Heavenly Prison Mountain.

"Your Highness! It has been found!" A black-clothed man stepped forward, holding aloft a heavy, cold, and pitch-black precious sword.

And in the mountain hollow not far from him lay a grave, nearly buried by wild weeds.

"A fine sword!" Even after being concealed in the sunless depths of the earth for over two hundred years, the blade still bore absolutely no trace of erosion by time. Wiped clean with a silk handkerchief, it remained as if newly forged.

"Since the matter has been thoroughly investigated, that bygone event caused such a massive impact on Nalan Hongwu’s state of mind." Ji Wuyou stated, "With this sword that Fu Beihai used in the past, Nalan Hongwu’s state of mind will certainly be unstable! It can shave off at least ten to twenty percent of his strength. Go, give this sword to Shangguan Yuan. As the head of the second greatest clan in Jiangnan, he has likewise plotted for so long; he must be even more anxious than I am!"

"Coupled with the arrangements I have made in Jiangnan over such a long period..." Ji Wuyou sneered. "Jiangnan will soon fall into my grasp. Deprived of Nalan, I would like to see how Ji Wu contends with our Eastern Sea lineage!"

...

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