Chapter 6: Each with Their Own Flawless Plan
The pocket dimension can contain a puppet and the puppet can return to the mortal world.
But to do so...
The price one must pay is devastatingly steep.
...
In that moment, Li Shun felt as though his very soul had been cleaved in two by a rusted, blunt blade, one half remaining anchored in his true body, the other forced violently into that spectral, phantom form.
The agony was like ten thousand poison-dipped needles plunging simultaneously into the marrow of his brain, sending uncontrollable tremors through his entire body. The immense, tearing sensation of willing his mind to serve two masters at once made his thoughts sink like a man trudging through deep mud, sluggish, heavy, barely moving.
"A puppet manifested and descended into the mortal world retains only roughly half the power it possesses within the space. Even so, the puppet knows neither life nor death. Even if it is reduced to dust and ash out here, the origin source within the Fangcun Realm will not be truly harmed.
"Given a little time, it will mend itself whole. More importantly, the moment my will stirs, I can recall it back into the Fangcun at any time..."
Li Shun endured the churning, nauseating vertigo crashing through his mind and forced his sluggish thoughts to turn. Shaking, he fished out a stalk of Lengshan Grass and swallowed it raw, chewing roughly. He used that faint, icy current of energy to forcibly stabilize his spirit, which had been teetering on the verge of collapse.
At the same time, he split off a thread of his divine consciousness to control the newly descended puppet, guiding it silently down into the underground shelter pit below.
At first, the puppet's movements carried an unmistakable stiffness and awkwardness. But as Li Shun's true body continued to absorb and refine the medicinal properties of the Lengshan Grass, the puppet's motions smoothed out at a visible pace, until it was indistinguishable from any ordinary person.
Li Shun's true body slumped where it sat, eyes closed, breathing regulated in quiet meditation.
Sustained by the Lengshan Grass, he managed to scrape back a measure of his strength.
Roughly half an hour later, the sound of footsteps suddenly rose from outside the door.
Li Shun's eyes snapped open. A sharp, keen light flickered through the depths of his dark pupils and vanished.
The man who pushed open the door and stepped inside was none other than Sun Wu, the overseer who managed all the corvée laborers in the county.
"Overseer Sun, why have you come yourself? Just now, I—" Li Shun immediately schooled his expression into the appropriate mixture of alarm and bewilderment befitting a lowly laborer.
Sun Wu cast a quick, unobtrusive glance around the room, then waved a hand and cut off Li Shun's probing words. "His Lordship is already aware of the informant matter. The situation is urgent beyond measure. To prevent any leak of information, to avoid tipping off the enemy, you are to come with me to the Magistrate’s office at once."
Li Shun's face drained of color. "This... this is..."
Sun Wu curved his mouth into a smile that he tried to make appear as warm as possible. "Relax. You came forward to report treasonous conspirators, that is a great service in defense of the territory. When the rebellion is quelled and the bandits put down, the rewards for merit will not leave you out. Taking you in right now is simply His Lordship acting out of prudence, keeping you safe."
Li Shun seemed to be mollified by these righteous, reassuring words. He nodded with a trembling, tentative bob of his head and, dragging his lame leg, followed Sun Wu out without another word.
After the two departed, the puppet [Li Shun], concealed within the underground cavern, stepped slowly out from the shadows.
Those eyes, utterly still and devoid of any emotional ripple, gazed silently in the direction where [the Lengshan Vessel] was truly hiding.
...
Li Shun kept close behind Sun Wu as the man led him through street after alley after street, until at last he was brought into a secluded side room in the rear hall of Lengshan County's Magistrate office.
He pushed open the door to find Old Feng already inside, having clearly waited a long while, anxious as a cat on a hot griddle.
"You two stay right here. Do not step so much as half a foot out of this door unless you are summoned." Sun Wu dropped the order coldly and pulled the heavy wooden door shut behind him with a firm click.
"Limp! You're finally here. Look, I didn't forget you, did I? What a windfall of a merit this is!" The moment the door closed, Feng Guan pressed close and spoke in a hushed, eager voice, his face alight with the pride of a man expecting praise.
But what he found on Li Shun's face was not the wild, anticipated joy, and that made him falter. "Cripple, what's with that look?"
Li Shun did not take the bait. Instead, his gaze drifted toward the window, distant and unreadable, and he asked abruptly: "Old Feng. What hour is it right now?"
"About... around eleven in the morning? Why?" Feng Guan scratched his head, completely baffled.
Li Shun still did not answer. He only lowered his head, turning something over quietly in his mind.
...
On the other side of the Magistrate’s office, having secured Li Shun without delay, Sun Wu wasted not a single moment. He moved briskly and directly toward the underground prison hidden in the northwestern corner of the compound.
Liang Zhou and Sun Bo, their bodies long since reduced to a mangled, blood-soaked ruin, hung suspended in midair at the center of a grotesque net woven in intertwining black and crimson. Ten thousand threads, each fine as a strand of gossamer, had been driven into the vital acupoints that covered every inch of their bodies. In the pale, ghastly light filtering down from above, one could clearly make out those threads moving like living things beneath their skin — crawling, burrowing, gnawing.
With every convulsion that wracked their bodies, like torn burlap sacks seized by an electric current, a stream of flat, toneless, mechanical confessions was being wrung from their throats by the net's force:
"By order of the Sect Master... launch the assault at the third hour of the afternoon. We lie concealed within the city... rise in chaos, serve as the inner response..."
"Who is your Sect Master?! State their name!"
"The Great Xiang Legitimate Succession... Xiong Jìn..."
Some last fragment of clarity seemed to remain in the two men. Their faces were contorted beyond recognition, twisted into grotesque masks of anguish and desperate resistance. Yet the gossamer threads buried deep within their viscera held absolute dominion over their flesh, stripping every secret from the innermost recesses of their minds, item by merciless item.
Standing roughly one zhang before the punishment frame, hands clasped behind their backs, were two figures — the absolute sovereigns of Lengshan County: County Magistrate Fang Xun, and County Commandant Cheng Yishu, who commanded all military forces within the county.
Sun Wu had not presumed to disturb the two lords presiding over their interrogation. Like a shadow without breath, he stood to one side in silence, head bowed.
It was only after Liang Zhou and Sun Bo had been wrung dry of their last remaining strength and lapsed into unconsciousness that Magistrate Fang Xun finally drifted forward from the shadows. He fixed his gaze on the punishment frame, his tone carrying an emotion that was difficult to name:
"I truly believed that being exiled to this Lengshan County meant I would never return to the Holy Capital in my lifetime. Who could have imagined that heaven would choose this very moment to drop such a staggering, heaven-sent merit squarely into this magistrate's lap?"
"The remnant bloodline of the Great Xiang..." Fang Xun murmured the words slowly, savoring them. His quiet laughter carried a greed that sent a chill down the spine.
County Commandant Cheng Yishu stepped forward at once, cupping his hands in a respectful bow. "My lord has always been a dragon coiled in waiting, how could a desolate backwater such as this ever truly contain you? Now that the traitors are on the verge of their reckoning, your lordship's rise to the heights of court is only a matter of time!"
Fang Xun, however, did not allow the flattery to go to his head. He turned and regarded Cheng with a smile that was not quite a smile. "Yishu, do you know, by the laws of our Great Qian, what reward is granted for the alive capture of a legitimate heir of a fallen kingdom?"
Cheng Yishu's breathing quickened slightly. Forcing down the fire surging in his chest, he answered: "In reply to my lord, per the Laws of the Great Qian, the capture of foreign royal bloodline, alive, is rewarded with one thousand gold taels and the conferral of... the Eleventh-Rank Peerage. Yaqing — Junior Minister."
Even Cheng Yishu, a man who prided himself on composure, could not keep a flush of color from rising to his cheeks as those two words, Junior Minister, left his lips.
"The Junior Minister rank enjoys three hundred taxable households in fief. In Great Qian, it marks the true beginning of the nobility. Even without an official post, one need not bow before a Commandery Governor when they meet." Fang Xun's tone was cold, yet beneath the ice lay a longing he could not quite conceal. "Among the twenty ranks of peerage in Great Qian, countless men fight their entire lives and never breach the tenth. A merit of this magnitude..."
Fang Xun's voice abruptly shifted, his gaze snapping onto Cheng Yishu's face like the edge of a blade.
"Is hardly something the two of us could swallow alone."
Cheng Yishu went rigid, as though struck by lightning. He looked up in shock. "My lord's meaning is...?"
"Failure to report an enemy sighting is, by law, punishable by death. And yet, if we do report it..." Fang Xun let out a cold laugh. "That Xiong Jìn is already a cultivator of the Grotto-Mystery Realm. What do we have, a few hundred Black Armor soldiers from Lengshan County? What do we use to capture him? Are you going? Or am I?"
"If he escapes, the charge of 'dereliction of duty — failure to contain a fugitive, resulting in harm to the people' carries a capital sentence. Which of us would bear that?"
The feverish excitement in Cheng Yishu's chest was doused in an instant, as thoroughly as if a bucket of ice water had been upended over him. Cold sweat beaded across his forehead, and his voice began to waver. "Then... then by my lord's judgment, should we report it immediately and request the Commandery Governor to dispatch reinforcements in haste?"
"Report it we must. But to whom we report, and how — therein lies the entire art." Fang Xun took his time straightening the fold of his sleeve. "The Lengshan Commandery Governor, Yin Fengshuo, has never been on friendly terms with this county. If the memorial is submitted through proper channels and lands on his desk, I fear that when all is said and done, very little of this unparalleled merit will find its way to us."
"Then... then what are we to do?" Cheng Yishu was completely at a loss, floundering.
Fang Xun offered a slight, unhurried smile and did not answer directly. "Relax. I have a plan that accounts for every contingency."
He paused, then added with meaningful weight: "Yishu, your abilities are real, I won't deny that. But ability alone is far from enough in the officialdom of Great Qian. Sometimes, the way forward is to watch more, think more and move less."
Cheng Yishu fell into quiet thought, then bowed his head deeply in a gesture of humble deference. "This subordinate is slow-witted. I am grateful for my lord's guidance."
The two fell silent. Fang Xun finally turned his gaze toward Sun Wu, who had been standing motionless as a clay idol throughout.
"My lord, the two laborers who came forward as informants have been secured in a side room within the Magistrate’s office by this subordinate. As for the next steps, I await your lordship's instructions." Sun Wu stepped forward at once, bowing low and speaking in a quiet voice.
"Sun Wu, what is your read on these two?" Fang Xun's expression revealed nothing.
"In reply to my lord: the two men, Feng Guan and Li Shun, have clean origins and thoroughly verified backgrounds. Both have served corvée labor in Lengshan County for over thirty years. Their annual assessments have shown no irregularities throughout. This subordinate's assessment is that it is precisely because they have remained here so long, having sunk so deeply into the life of hard labor, that they have grown more perceptive than most, and were able to notice the suspicious behavior of Liang Zhou and the others." Sun Wu weighed each word carefully before offering his judgment.
Fang Xun gave a slight nod. When he spoke, his tone remained utterly offhand. "What you say may be true, even so, caution is warranted. Go back down and conduct a more thorough interrogation. If they truly have no hidden motives, and manage to survive... they will not be overlooked when merits are rewarded in due time." Fang Xun said it lightly.
Sun Wu felt a sudden chill run down the length of his spine. He hesitated. "My lord... these corvée laborers are already depleted in constitution and vital energy. I fear that the hidden punishments used in this prison will..."
Fang Xun did not so much as glance back at him. He walked straight toward the exit of the prison, leaving behind a single sentence, cold as frost:
"If they cannot survive it, then it was simply their own ill fortune."
"As you command." A shiver passed through Sun Wu's heart. He dared not speak another word, and went to carry out his orders.
Two lowly ants at the very bottom of the world, Fang Xun had not given them a second thought.
He departed the prison and went directly back to the study in the rear residential quarters of the Magistrate’s office. He washed his face, cleaned his hands, and straightened his official robes, each step performed with meticulous, unhurried precision.
Then, from a hidden compartment, he retrieved a single stick of incense, jet black from end to end and lit it with a grave, ceremonious expression.
The slender coil of fragrant smoke rose and curled upward and then, impossibly, it gathered in midair without dispersing, forming something like a rippling mirror of water suspended in the room.
A deep silence held the chamber for a long while.
At last, a voice drifted through — aged, but carrying the unmistakable weight of absolute authority:
"Ah... is that Shensi..."
The moment Fang Xun heard that voice, he swept his official robe aside and dropped to both knees, performing the deepest and most formal of prostrations.
"Your student, Fang Xun, pays his respects to his honored Teacher."
"It has been quite a few years since you were sent down to that bitter and frozen Lengshan. I had thought you'd stopped reaching out to this old man altogether. Burning incense for me today, have you suffered some grievance?" The voice from beyond carried the mild, unhurried warmth of a man long accustomed to commanding from the heights.
Fang Xun pressed his forehead to the floor. His voice was raw with urgency beneath a veneer of grief: "Your student's foolishness has only ever brought shame upon Teacher's reputation. In truth, I have had no face with which to seek Teacher out again. And yet, a catastrophe of the highest order has descended upon Lengshan County today. I dare not conceal it from Teacher at the cost of my life!"
"Teacher, your student has just obtained reliable intelligence. This very afternoon, at the third hour, Xiong Jìn — a surviving heir of the royal bloodline of the fallen Great Xiang — will lead his followers in a direct assault upon Lengshan County's Magistrate’s office!"
"Oh?"
The voice on the other side of the water-mirror finally stirred — carrying, for the first time, the faintest ripple of surprise.
...
"Cripple, your color keeps getting worse. Are you feeling ill somewhere?"
Inside the side room, Feng Guan watched Li Shun who had been unable to settle since the moment they arrived, pacing the room over and over like a caged animal and finally could not stop himself from asking.
Li Shun's face remained dark as still water. He did not answer.
Suddenly, his ears gave the faintest twitch.
From beyond the door, he caught the dim but unmistakable sound of steady, heavy, synchronized footsteps approaching.
His expression shifted in an instant. His mind raced.
He moved quickly, pulling out a stalk of Lengshan Grass and swallowing it in one rough gulp.
Then Li Shun spun around and seized Feng Guan by the collar. He forced another stalk of Lengshan Grass into the man's mouth without ceremony, leaned in close to his ear, and hissed in a fierce, barely audible whisper:
"Old Feng. Endure it and what waits on the other side is wealth beyond measure. Fail to endure it… Then we meet again in the next life."
"Remember, tell them everything truthfully. Every word."
Before the last syllable had faded—
BOOM.
With a thunderous crash, the heavy wooden door of the side room was blown off its hinges by a single overwhelming force.
Sun Wu stood in the doorway, his face a blank, expressionless mask. Behind him crowded five or six jailers, brutal, savage men, every inch of them reeking of blood and menace.
He looked down at the two men inside with a gaze that held nothing at all, raised one hand in a cold, languid gesture, and spat out three words that carried not a trace of warmth:
"Take them away!"