345: Chapter 3 Beastskin Book_1 345: Chapter 3 Beastskin Book_1 Rong Country’s Yinguang City.
The situation of the city’s defending general, Jingye, had beco quite awkward recently.
When he “bravely exposed” the plague in Yang Country, Yang Country was still a firm ally of Qi Country.
His actions had the subtlety of striking at the power of Qi Country.
However, unexpectedly, Qi Country took this as a pretext to march its army into Yang Country, turning what was nominally a vassal state into actual Qi territory.
Thus, Jingye’s actions were labeled by so as “lacking a sense of the bigger picture” and “disregard for the overall situation.”
The root cause was that, after Yang realm beca Qi Boundary, Rong Country now bordered Qi Country, becoming like a bed beside a couch.
It seed that the fate of Yang Country today might well be that of Rong Country tomorrow.
Although the hegemon of the Central Region, Jinguo, and even Mugu from the Northern Territory, provided covert and overt support to these small countries in the Eastern Region, just as Qi Country supported so small countries in the Central and Northern Territories.
But when Qi Country truly brought its overwhelming might to bear, with famous generals like Zhongxuan Chuliang leading the campaign, did Mugu or Jinguo truly have the confidence to engage in a national war with Qi Country in the Eastern Region?
The reason Yang Jiande resolutely went all out for a decisive battle was that he understood only a victory could win him more support.
If roles were reversed, could Rong Country truly match Yang Jiande’s extent?
This answer seed bone-chilling.
Leaving aside how the Rong Country Court was quietly strengthening the forces in its border prefectures and towns, with the Qi-Yang war coming to a halt, the border between Yang and Rong Countries appeared calm once more.
The common folk at the bottom of society mostly only cared about their daily als, not particularly concerned with the state of the world.
In a certain inn’s second-floor room, an ordinary-looking young man leaned against the window, staring blankly at the passersby on the street below.
“Their lives remain so tranquil, utterly unaware of the danger approaching, not understanding what the future holds.
Perhaps, ignorance is bliss,”
In the room, Liu Huai, with his beard glued on, sat beside the table and coldly said upon hearing this, “They’re all foolish commoners, lowly people!
The mont the Qi Army attacks, each one of them will bow and scrape, begging like dogs, worse than actual dogs.”
Looking out of the window was naturally Yang Xuance.
Hearing Liu Huai’s words, he rely casually closed the window: “For ordinary people, whether the monarch’s surna is Yang or Jiang, what difference does it make?
If the king’s surna is Jiang, perhaps their lives might be even more stable.”
Liu Huai looked at him in surprise and anger but rembering that he was the last of the Yang bloodline, he could only say, “Your Highness…
how can you speak such words?”
Yang Xuance walked back and sat down at the table, casually pouring himself a cup of tea, “How so?
Yang Country has perished, so now even a eunuch can’t handle the truth?”
“Your Highness, silence!” Liu Huai urgently said, “One must be careful nowadays.
It matters little if an old servant like dies, but you bear a trendous weight!”
“Look at us,” said Yang Xuance with a self-mocking laugh, “Like stray dogs, not even daring to show our true faces, or speak our real nas.
Our past identities are even more tightly concealed.
If we’re already like this, how can we expect those commoners to give their loyalty to the country?”
Liu Huai was speechless.
“In this world, no one owes anyone anything.
Those two hundred thousand soldiers who died under the butcher’s knife, who shall they curse?
Shall they curse my father?”
“His Majesty has already shed his last drop of blood for the country, how can you…”
Yang Xuance interrupted him with a wave of his hand, “He sought benevolence and achieved it, that’s all.”
“Fine, fine,” Liu Huai said, sowhat disheartened, but after a pause, he still took out a golden orb and an ancient parchnt scroll from the Storage Box.
“These are what I brought out of the palace.
Which one do you wish to learn?”
The parchnt was inscribed with words written in blood.
After countless years, the blood-red color remained as bright as ever.
rely glancing at the bloody text sent a shiver down one’s soul, making one acutely aware of its terror and power.
This was, of course, the Love Dying Desire Blood Demon Skill.
However, Yang Xuance rely glanced at it and looked away, focusing his attention instead on the golden orb.
He suddenly laughed, “The Great Sun Golden Fla Skill, when did I ever have a part in that?”
Passed down secretly in the Yang family, the Great Sun Golden Fla Skill was taught only to the Crown Prince.
Initially, Yang Xuanji also beca the undisputed Crown Prince at Yang Court after learning this skill.
To master this skill was to take on the succession of the Yang family’s ancestral temple.
However, the ancestral temple of the Yang family had already been “spontaneously” destroyed by the common people of Zhao Heng City before the army marched in.
Where could one go to continue those rites now?
The reason people with discerning eyes did not believe this “spontaneous” claim was that at that ti, Huang Yixing was running around Hengyang Prefecture trying to persuade people to surrender.
Destroying the Yang family’s ancestral temple was his “achievent”—and there was no need to wait for the Qi Army to take action.
However, with Yang Country annihilated and all the horses silent, Qi Country would certainly say nothing about it, only too happy to see it happen.
Liu Huai quietly awaited his decision.
But Yang Xuance just shook his head, no longer even glancing at the golden orb.
“My father’s ability was a hundred tis greater than mine.
What he could not accomplish, I certainly cannot.”
As a mber of the Yang bloodline, learning the Great Sun Golden Fla Skill ant shouldering the responsibility.
He figured that if he had been in his father Yang Jiande’s shoes, the most he could have done was to be more compassionate to the commoners, perhaps winning their hearts a bit more.
But to think of surviving under the watchful eye of Qi Country and sustaining the state was impossible.
Let alone now that the state had crumbled, to rebuild the ancestral temple would be simpler if the ancestors of the Yang family were to resurrect from the dead.
To his surprise, Liu Huai simply said, “His Majesty said he wouldn’t ask you to do anything.
Just one thing, he asked this old servant to give you this.”
A coiled dragon jade pendant lay on the table.
A single glance was enough to recognize it as a personal accessory of Yang Jiande.
So many tis, he had hidden beside his mother, sneakily looking up at that austere but indifferent man, often only catching a side profile and this coiled dragon pendant!
Had that heartache and watchful gaze ever been noticed?
Yang Xuance avoided looking at everything, rely staring down at his teacup.
Yet, from the surface of the water in the cup, he saw his own eyes, which were red-rimd before he knew it.
He closed his eyes and, when he opened them again, he appeared very calm.
He reached out and picked up the jade pendant, along with the golden stone that represented the Great Sun Fla Decision.
“No need to talk about loyalty and righteousness.
It is my Yang family that owes the people of Yang Country, not the people who owe the Yang family,” he said.
“You are free now,” he told Liu Huai.
To this day, this was the only person still utterly loyal to Yang Jiande.
Though Yang Xuance had never taken much of a liking to this eunuch, the country was gone, and so there was no longer any need to be bound by state affairs.
After that, Yang Xuance got up and walked outside.
Liu Huai just asked, “What are your plans, young master?”
“Though the restoration of our ancestral temples is next to impossible…” Yang Xuance’s steps faltered briefly before he continued to walk away, “but as a son, I must do sothing for a father who died in battle.”
Yang Xuance left.
Closing the door to the guest room, he also shut off Liu Huai’s last hope.
Even though he knew himself how slim that so-called “hope” was.
He stayed just outside the boundary of Yang Country, in a Border City of Rong Country, as per Yang Xuance’s suggestion.
That absurd life in World Building had given him so insight into hiding his tracks.
Liu Huai himself was completely without direction.
Yang Jiande’s last order to him was to locate Yang Xuance and take him away from Yang Country, but there were no instructions on what to do next.
If there had to be a goal, he wished to restore the Yang family’s rule, to preserve the unbroken line of their ancestral temples, to give Yang Jiande peace beneath the nine springs, to ensure perpetual offerings for him.
But he knew very well that what Yang Jiande himself couldn’t achieve in life was even less likely to happen after his death.
Even the only one qualified to continue the Yang family’s ancestral line, Yang Xuance himself, was indifferent to such a “grand vision.”
What then could an old eunuch who lost his monarch and his country do?
“You are free now.”
In the capacity of the only remaining bloodline of Yang Jiande, Yang Xuance declared his freedom.
But what is “freedom”?
Those days of careful treading and cautious waiting—are they not “freedom”?
He could no longer recall how many years it had been since he entered the palace.
He only rembered when the Monarch was still a Prince, his bearing upon entering the palace to et with courtiers was different; he strode like a dragon and paced like a tiger, as if he himself was the owner of the place.
And indeed, he later took his place on the dragon throne almost without contention.
That Prince, with implicit support from Qi Country, could not raise even the slightest ripple of challenge in his presence.
He also rembered when the Monarch first saw him at court, saying he looked familiar and casually appointed him to attend.
Of course, he rembered that during the first grand court ceremony after ascending to the throne, the Monarch told him the country was rotten, but even if it was a rotten fruit, he would make it take root and sprout, growing into a towering tree!
He rembered the tears of the Monarch when the Crown Prince was born.
The Monarch cried out, “After a hundred years, I must not let my child endure all this!”
And yet…
He rembered how spirited the Monarch was and how his spirit declined over ti.
He had witnessed all of this, felt it, and chewed over it.
Now, there was no Monarch, the Crown Prince was dead, and the little Prince had also left.
In the empty guest room, only the beast-skin book on the table continued to shimr with blood-colored light.
Muttering with his lips, Liu Huai couldn’t even let out a sigh in the end.
What truly frightened him was that his gaze seed to be drawn involuntarily to the beast-skin book, which had imperceptibly unfolded.
The Love Dying Desire Blood Demon Skill…
What frightened Liu Huai was not so much the inhuman nature, the terror, or the universal condemnation of this Demon Art.
Instead, he realized he couldn’t suppress the desire to learn it.
With no family or friends, he wasn’t afraid of severing emotions and desires.
But, if he had any ties left, it was the desire to protect Yang Xuance as per Yang Jiande’s last command.
He had seen how Yang Jiande ruthlessly killed other mbers of the royal family and slaughtered his children.
If soone as talented as Yang Jiande ultimately couldn’t avoid such actions, then if he were to practice this Demon Art, he feared that one day, he too, would have to kill Yang Xuance to cut the last tie.
This thought barely skimd his mind before unsettling him.
How could he harm the remaining bloodline of the Monarch?
Liu Huai’s hands turned into claws as he channeled Path Origin, tearing the beast-skin book into nurous shreds imdiately.
Still not reassured, he summoned a hot fla and burned the record of the Demon Art to ashes.
However…
He realized with horror that the blood characters from the beast-skin book flowed so clearly through his mind, the Love Dying Desire Blood Demon Skill, every word etched distinctly in his mory!
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