Chapter 724 – Sailing the Boat with the Current (1/2)
Chapter 724 – Sailing the Boat with the Current
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
(TN: Way of Choices will be on break from December 25th, 2017 – January 7, 2018)
As the reading of the decree came to an end, a deathly stillness hung in the air.
The crowd stared at the snow and at the beheaded Zhou Tong, their emotions stunned and in complete chaos.
To describe this man as strung through and through with evil would not be excessive. This person was guilty without a doubt, but no one had ever expected for the Imperial Court to announce that he was guilty.
The crowd turned their gazes to the young man and woman sitting next to each other.
The black-armored cavalry somewhat stiffly pulled on the reins of their horses, not knowing what they should do. Should they charge or put down their leveled spears? The redcoated cavalry and officials of the Department for Purging Officials all had pale faces and looked like grieving parents. The assassins of the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets, the experts from the military, and even Xiao De were just trying to figure out what was going on.
The situation had changed suddenly, so suddenly that even those involved found themselves unprepared.
Even Chen Changsheng and Mo Yu did not react for a few moments. Only when the young eunuch departed did they faintly begin to understand something.
Since this was all known, why act this way? Many people might have thought this way, but not the two of them.
”Only those idiots would think like that.” Mo Yu pushed her disorderly hair behind her temples and gazed at the crowd that still surrounded them, a mocking smile on her lips. ”If Zhou Tong were still alive, he would still be a valued minister of the state. It's only because we've killed him that they've decided to flay his flesh and stew his bones.”
”This has always been Master's way of doing things.”
Chen Changsheng felt today's snow and wind to be rather piercing. He gazed silently in the direction of the Imperial Palace and then elaborated, ”When we were small, I and Senior believed that he was a poor Daoist. Because he was too poor, he had very extreme views of the world, and his way of doing things was excessively stingy. Now I understand that this isn't called being stingy, but completely using up one's resources.”
……
……
A snowstorm enveloped the Imperial Palace, but the dilongs running underneath this side palace were blazing along, making the room as warm as spring. On the table were several imperial edicts from years past.
”I did not expect that your junior brother would truly be able to kill Zhou Tong. His performance exceeded my imagination, and so I am very satisfied. I am even more satisfied by the method he and Mo Yu used to kill Zhou Tong. The crueler and more unyielding their methods, the more shocking the story, the more it will be remembered. Naturally, Zhou Tong's evils will be included in this story.”
Shang Xingzhou gazed at the young emperor seated behind the table. ”Although Zhou Tong betrayed your mother and was used by me, nobody can deny that he served as your mother's representative for many years. Thus, his evil is your mother's evil, and the more of his evil Chen Changsheng reveals, the more the image of your mother will suffer, and the smaller the blame will be placed on me for leading the rebellion against her. At the same time, the more your junior brother's prestige rises, the more my prestige will rise as well. No matter how one looks at it, I gain nothing but advantages from tonight's affair, so long as I promptly promulgated that decree.”
Yu Ren was thinking about the books in Xining Village's old temples, the fish in the stream, the beasts in the mountains…
Shang Xingzhou continued, ”This way of doing things seems rather petty, but it is not stinginess. It is using things to their full extent.”
Yu Ren raised his head and gestured a question: ”Could it be that everyone in the capital has been used by you from the beginning?”
”At the very beginning it was not the case. Of course I wanted to protect Zhou Tong, and I was also intending to do a few other things tonight.”
Shang Xingzhou very patiently explained, ”But in the course of events, things began to change, so I changed in response.”
To cultivators, change was a constant law under the starry sky. Everything in the world changed at every moment, and the same applied to this situation. Even in the span of a few hours, many changes would take place, like the spring weather thawing the thick ice on the river. If the response was not appropriate, even the sturdiest metal bridge would be washed away.
Shang Xingzhou did not explain what the changes were.
Perhaps it was that Chen Changsheng's strength had surpassed everyone's expectations and he had been able to last an entire day, that his sword had cut through the hard and frozen ground and revealed Zhou Prison under the starlight. Or perhaps it was that the Li Palace had remained quiet all this time, the snow and clouds drifting over the sky there like meek flocks of sheep that never once had any intention of crossing the fence. Of course, the most likely possibility was when Wang Po had cut off his arm, broken through into the next realm, and killed Tie Shu.
And there were also the lanterns of the princely estates on the Road of Peace extinguishing one by one.
”Do you know why your teacher is called Shang Xingzhou1?”
Shang Xingzhou suddenly asked.
Yu Ren knew that Shang Xingzhou was not his master's real name. At the very least, six hundred years ago, he had been called Daoist Ji.
The appearance, or obtaining, of this name inevitably had some meaning.