Chapter 79 A Trapped Beast

The Huang Family estate is in the west of Zhaoge City, occupying a small area; the front hall and back courtyard combined are not even half the size of the Chen estate.

However, the martial arts arena is built with care. The ground is paved with iron sand and stone transported from the Northern Territory; it is hard underfoot, but does not hurt when you fall.

Old General Huang Gun manages his household like he manages an army; there is not even a carved screen wall in front of the gate.

When Chen Yuan arrived, the sound of a spear rang out in the martial arts arena.

Huang Yuerong held a white wax wood spear, shaking it like a Dragon. The spear blossoms bloomed in a dense, overwhelming display.

The white light, wrapped in the sound of wind, whipped against the three wooden stakes in front of her, making them vibrate and hum.

There was a freshly formed scar on her right arm, reddened by sweat, but she was completely oblivious to it.

Chen Yuan leaned against a wooden pillar at the edge of the martial arts arena, remaining silent.

Bixiao stood half a zhang behind him, arms crossed over her chest, her face expressing four words: "I am not happy."

Huang Yuerong retracted her spear. She struck the butt of the spear against the ground, creating a shallow pit in the iron sand and stone surface.

She took a coarse cloth from the rack to wipe her sweat, then raised her eyes to look over.

"Are you here to have a showdown with me about the marriage decree?"

Her voice was hoarse but full of vitality; speaking was like throwing stones.

Chen Yuan walked to the stone bench at the edge of the arena and sat down, patting the spot beside him.

Huang Yuerong did not sit.

She thrust the spear into the ground, the shaft standing straight, and leaned against it, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Speak while standing; it saves you from dawdling."

Chen Yuan did not force it and got straight to the point.

"You know this is Emperor Yi's scheme."

Huang Yuerong snorted: "I am not stupid. He wants to use me to tether you, and tether me in the process."

She tilted her head and clenched her back teeth.

"Three generations of the Huang Family died in the Northern Territory, my father lost a leg in Eastern Yi, and a Family of loyal martyrs has finally become a rope in the emperor's hands."

Her tone was hard enough to crack walnuts.

But when she said "loyal martyrs," her tone dropped a notch.

Chen Yuan did not take the bait.

He took a folded piece of thin silk from his sleeve and spread it out on the stone bench.

On it were drawn three lines, with a character marked at the end of each.

Impeach. Marriage. Father.

"Emperor Yi has struck three times. The impeachment is testing the blade, the marriage decree is binding my hands, and transferring my father to Yanmen Pass is cutting off my roots. After these three strikes, I will be a toothless tiger in Zhaoge."

Huang Yuerong glanced at the thin silk and looked up at him.

"So you came to find me—do you want me to help you, or do you want me to play along in a performance?"

"Performance."

Chen Yuan did not hesitate.

"Do not refuse the marriage, and do not rush it. You were wounded in the battle of Eastern Yi; use the excuse of 'injuries not fully healed, requiring one hundred days of rest,' request a document from the Imperial Medical Bureau, and submit it to the Ministry of Rites to request a postponement."

Huang Yuerong raised an eyebrow: "And then?"

"Within one hundred days, Emperor Yi will rescind this decree himself."

"On what grounds do you conclude that?"

"Because he will soon discover that the cost of the marriage decree is far greater than the benefits." Chen Yuan did not say the second half of his thought, just flipped the thin silk over.

Two lines of small characters were written on the back.

Huang Yuerong lowered her head to look for a moment, her expression changing slightly.

"You want me to investigate this person?"

"Yin Pobai. Entered Zhaoge three days ago, status of a noble Family Disciple, documents are clean."

"But my people have checked, and there is no such name among the seven branches of the Yin Family in Zhaoge."

Huang Yuerong's pupils contracted. She came from a military Family and knew the Family trees of all the noble families in the court like the back of her hand.

The seven branches of the Yin Family—her father had two lieutenants from the collateral branches of the Yin Family under his command.

"I will investigate." She did not waste words.

Chen Yuan nodded and brought up the second matter.

"Help me spread a rumor in the army. Just say that Lord Wende is physically weak and sickly, and fears he cannot withstand the exhaustion of the wedding preparations."

"The more people who say it, the better; the more natural it sounds, the better."

Huang Yuerong stared at him, the corner of her mouth twitching.

"You want all of Zhaoge to think you are a weakling?"

"I already am." Chen Yuan spread his hands.

Huang Yuerong looked at him for three breaths.

Then she bent down to pull the spear out of the ground, thrusting the tip forward, stopping just an inch from the tip of Chen Yuan's nose.

"Fine, I'll play along with you."

The spear tip shifted to the side, pointing at Bixiao behind him.

"But you will owe me, and you will pay it back double in the future. I'm saying this in front of your maid."

Bixiao's face turned green.

Chen Yuan stood up to take his leave, pausing when he reached the entrance of the martial arts arena.

"Chen Yuan."

Huang Yuerong's voice came from behind, much lower.

He turned back.

The sunlight was intense; Huang Yuerong stood in the light, her spear leaning on her shoulder, the backlight outlining the contour of her jaw.

"Those three maids in your estate—who exactly are they?"

Chen Yuan was silent for a breath.

"People who protect me."

Huang Yuerong's gaze lingered on his face for a long time.

Finally, she turned around, walked back to the wooden stakes, and struck with her spear.

The spear tip pierced into the wooden stake, splitting the entire stake down the middle, with splinters flying everywhere.

—Three times heavier than before.

Bixiao followed Chen Yuan out of the Huang Family estate, her face dark the whole way.

After walking two streets, she finally could not hold it in.

"The way she looks at you is wrong."

"Hmm."

"You still say 'hmm'!"

Chen Yuan ignored her. His attention was no longer on this matter.

Divine Sense silently spread out, concealed by the Wuwei Sutra, quietly scanning several key locations in Zhaoge City.

It was not a deliberate search, but rather, as the Chess Ancestor had taught him—perceive, conform, like water flooding the ground.

The Shanhai Chessboard operated synchronously in his mind, turning the information captured by his Divine Sense into individual chess moves.

Emperor Yi's secret guards changed shifts in the east of the city.

Grand Preceptor Wen Zhong's Ink Kirin flew out of the city to the north for half an hour this morning, then returned.

Yin Pobai—

Chen Yuan's footsteps paused slightly.

The chess piece corresponding to this name had entered and exited the royal palace twice within three days.

Each time after leaving the palace, it did not take the main road, but detoured around the east of the city, passing by an abandoned Taoist temple.

When the deduction reached the thirty-seventh step, this pattern was as clear as if it were written on paper.

Returning to the Chen estate, Chen Yuan did not enter the study.

He stood in the courtyard of the back garden, looked up at the sun, and called out a name.

"Qiong Xiao."

A person flipped down from the roof ridge silently. When Qiong Xiao landed, her skirt did not even flutter.

Her face still carried the guilt of eavesdropping while lying on the roof tiles.

"Senior Brother, did you call me?"

Chen Yuan lowered his voice and gave an address.

At the end of Huai'an Lane in the east of the city, the Qingxu Temple that has been abandoned for three years.

"Go and watch. Just watch, do not act. See who goes in and who comes out, remember the time. Especially—"

He paused.

"Underground."

Qiong Xiao put away all her playfulness. She nodded, her figure merging into the shadows of the roof ridge, and disappeared.

Bixiao came in through the side door and asked coldly: "An undercover agent of the Chan Sect?"

Chen Yuan nodded.

Bixiao clenched her fists: "When you find him, I will go beat him up."

"Find him but do not move, just watch." Chen Yuan walked toward the study without looking back.

"He is the thread; by following him, we can find the bigger fish behind him."

Bixiao opened her mouth, but in the end, she did not say, "Why should I listen to you?"

—This brat's tone when commanding people is becoming more and more like his previous life.

Night fell.

Qiong Xiao returned faster than expected.

When she flipped through the window into the room, her fingertips were still stained with soil, and her face carried an irrepressible gravity.

"There is a secret chamber under the Qingxu Temple with a communication formation carved into it. I did not dare to get too close, but the residual spiritual power fluctuations—"

She used her finger to trace a direction on the tabletop.

Northwest.

Yunxiao sat in the corner, having said nothing the whole time.

At this moment, she raised her eyes and locked gazes with Chen Yuan for a moment.

"The Chan Sect did not just place one undercover agent." Yunxiao's voice was very soft.

"They have laid a net in Zhaoge."

Chen Yuan did not answer.

He walked to the chessboard, sat cross-legged, and laid out all of today's clues one by one with black and white stones.

White side.

Emperor Yi is in the center; Yin Pobai is the advanced hidden chariot; the marriage decree and the order to transfer his father are the interlocking knights, attacking from both sides.

Black side.

The pieces are pitifully few—the Three Xiao Sisters, Huang Yuerong, and that moment of tacit understanding when he bumped shoulders with Grand Preceptor Wen Zhong.

He looked for a long time.

Then he picked up a black stone and placed it in the center of the board.

"Not enough."

His voice was extremely low.

"Taiyi Peak is not enough."

Inside his body, the Great Dao Golden Wheel vibrated silently.

The barrier stretching between Taiyi Peak and Daluo was still there.

But on the barrier, cracks had already spread—fine, like spring ice about to melt.

Missing one opportunity.

Just missing one.

He closed his eyes, the Shangqing Immortal Arts circulating on its own, the magical power cycling back and forth in his Meridians, each circle heavier than the last.

—At the same moment.

Zhaoge Royal Palace, Imperial Study.

Emperor Yi sat under the lamp, with a scroll of bamboo slips spread out before him.

The handwriting on the bamboo slips was neat and seasoned, the ink slightly yellowed, like an old letter from three years ago.

The letter stated: Before the battle of Eastern Yi, Chen Yuan had privately exchanged secret letters with the chieftains of the three Eastern Yi tribes.

Exchanging Zhaoge's military intelligence for Eastern Yi's retreat; this merit was not a battle merit, but a merit of colluding with the enemy.

Yin Pobai knelt at the foot of the steps, his forehead touching the ground, his voice earnest.

"This letter was intercepted by my father during his tenure in the Eastern Territory years ago, and I have never dared to speak of it. Now that I hear Lord Wende's power is growing daily, I truly dare not hide it any longer—"

Emperor Yi did not speak. He flipped the bamboo slips back and forth, read them twice, and put them down.

"Leave it here for now."

When Yin Pobai retreated, his waist was bent extremely low, and there was a hint of a curve at the corner of his mouth.

Emperor Yi sat alone under the lamp, his fingers slowly stroking the bamboo slips.

Whether the letter was true or false, he did not care.

What he cared about was—whether this blade was sharp enough.

—Thirty miles outside Zhaoge City, Fuhu Peak.

Guangchengzi sat cross-legged on a giant rock at the mountain peak, with two Disciples standing to his left and right.

The three of them restrained their magical power, merging with the mountain rocks and vegetation, their presence completely gone.

He opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through the night, looking far away toward the direction of Zhaoge.

"Wait a little longer."

He said softly.

"Wait for that Mortal's blade to fall."