"You want to see me?"
Khan Apa brought no few amount of guards as he entered. This was his lands, so no matter how many people he wanted to bring around, he need not seek the approval of anyone.
The crowd of people looked intimidating, a wave of hot energy washed over the yurt's insides. The original clear and faint fragrance in the yurt was gone.
Cui Buqu nodded his head, "I wanted to see you."
"Speak." Khan Apa carried the air of one who has victory in his grasp, looking upon Cui Buqu from a high pedestal. The hardship of one who was from a nomic tribe has added a few touches to his face compared to one of the Central Plains. The gaze he used to look at Cui Buqu has lost the welcomeness and warmth he previously showed, and what replaced it was coldness and mockery, allowing one to feel that he really could kill Cui Buqu as simple as stepping on an ant.
Cui Buqu suddenly said, "The Second Prince has just passed away. Yet, from the looks of it, why does the Khan seem like he isn't the least upset?"
Khan Apa said coldly, "As a Khan of Göktürk, my heart is to the people of the whole of Göktürk. I cannot allow the death of my son to consume me from my duties."
For such noble words, any citizen of Göktürk would have felt touched upon hearing it, just like now, the expression of those guards that stood next to the Khan changed immediately, for a moment they've forgotten all the misdeeds he did in the past. Had they been in the Central Plains, they would have immediately knelt down in respect.
But Cui Buqu laughed instead, as if he has heard some sort of joke. He laughed until those Göktürk guards showed anger and practically wanted to rush forward to hit him.
"I wish to meet with the Khan in private." He said, putting emphasize on the words 'in private', "Otherwise, if I said things that should not be said, you would regret it."
Both of them stared at each other. It was difficult to tell whether Khan Apa was furious or happy, but he waved his hand and allowed the guards to leave, in the mean time, he allowed some people to lay a thick, comfortable carpet for him, absorbing all the sound that would leak to the outside.
Khan Apa, "What do you want to say?"
Cui Buqu remained silent.
Khan Apa laughed, and said relaxly, "No matter what you want to say, your death is coming."
Cui Buqu coughed twice. His complexion looked even paler than when he first came to the grasslands, but there was no difference between pale and even paler. Other than people close to him, no one would ever notice it.
He reached out his sleeve to veil his coughs with long slender fingers. Through his glass skin, one can even see the curves of his bones, yet this didn't make him look like he was prone to bully, instead, it was like a bamboo shoot, straight and tall and rigid, lifting a wide robe.
Cui Buqu, "But you still came. Because you are curious about what I wanted to say. Or perhaps, you were curious about how much I know."
Khan Apa said no more. He was waiting for Cui Buqu to speak first. He knew that the other would not be able to hold back showing off his intelligence, trying to test himself and delay the time.
He did not care, because he was well-prepared. No matter what Cui Buqu said, or how much he knew, the end result would not change.
Cui Buqu definitely surprised him, "I originally thought you were masqueraded by the HeiYue Shaman."
Khan Apa raised an eyebrow, as if he was interested, "What made you felt later that I was not?"
Cui Buqu said plainly, "Because of the stone hut."
Khan Apa, "Oh?"
Cui Buqu, "That night, when Feng Xiao sneaked into the stone hut, with the fact that his nose was even more sensitive than a dog's, he could smell the scent of medical herbs, in fact he could even smell that there were ligusticum, ganquan, musk, and ginger."
Feng Xiao was not here, so he cannot protest what Cui Buqu said about his nose being more sensitive than a dog's, or protest about the fact that humans and dogs cannot be compared like that, so he could only let Cui Buqu say whatever he wanted about him.
"With a little of musk, half a Liang of ginger, one Liang of ganquan, and one Liang of ligusticum. Do you know what a prescription like this could do?" Cui Buqu did not wait for the other's response, because he did not need it, "To make Bihui pellets. After the pellets are burned, it can neutralize the stench of a dead person."
"Jin Lian said before that Khan Apa once fell ill, but he was healed by the HeiYue Shaman. This incident happened while we were not here, and only after Jin Lian has returned. Khan Apa originally supported her decision to seek the Central Plains for an alliance, but suddenly he changed his decisions, and not only did he refuse to treat the Sui Empire ambassadors that came from afar with politeness, even towards her, he was cold and distant unlike before."
"Those items that were required to manufacture the pellet could not be found locally. Someone needs to purchase them from the Central Plains, so I ordered Jin Lian to investigate who bought those items from the merchants, and in the end, it was you, Khan."
"Originally, I thought that the HeiYue Shaman killed the Khan, then took his form, but the existence of the Bihui pellets changed my thoughts. A Göktürk, even if they are the Shaman, cannot be so familiar with a prescription like this, so let alone using it on corpses. This does not seem like the methods of the Göktürks, and you, after taking the form of the Khan, everything you did does not seem like you are fighting for the benefit of Western Göktürk."
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Khan Apa clapped his hands.
He was not in a hurry, instead he was very patiently listening to Cui Buqu as he finished speaking without a lick of shock or unexpectation, or anger. On the other hand, he even looked like he admired the other man.
"The name of the Zuoyue Bureau's Commander is indeed not a lie. With only those scents and herbs, you can conclude so many things. A long time ago, someone told me that there are a few people in the Sui Empire who I cannot afford to offend. Among them, was Feng Xiao's martial arts, and Cui Buqu's schemes. I have seen Feng Xiao's martial arts with my own two eyes that defeated even the number one fighter of Göktürk."
These words, he spoke even more accurately in Han then any Nothern official from the Central Plains.
However, Cui Buqu long had his suspicions. His face was pale, showing no look of shock, "Should I thank the Khan–No, I should say, should I thank this brother who is masquerading as the Khan for praising me?"
The other laughed, "When did you notice the inconsistencies?"
Cui Buqu, "From the beginning."
The other did not even think before he said, "Impossible!"
Cui Buqu looked at him coldly, "You exposed yourself since the beginning. Khan Apa was a lustful man. On the day you first met Qiao Xian when I brought her into the King's yurt, you did not even looked at her through the whole process. Can this be normal?"
The other thought deeply, then he even agreed.
Cui Buqu, "Moreover, on the night the HeiYue Shaman died. During the beginning of the banquet, every ambassador was present, logically, you, as Khan, should also be present. Yet you did not show up, and the rest of the people even said that ever since the Kucha beauty's arrival, the Khan has been completely seduced by her beauty without care for your kingdom's political matters, that you could procrastinate even for such a situation. However, to me, this is just the fact that proved everything. You must have known that Feng Xiao would definitely seek out the HeiYue Shaman, so you laid the trap earlier, fought with Feng Xiao, making him think that you are the Shaman himself, and after that, you burned the stone hut as well as the Shaman's corpse, then pushed everything onto Feng Xiao!"
"There's more. When you fought with Feng Xiao, although Feng Xiao himself was wounded, you were nowhere near well off. He slipped into the Second Prince's yurt and created the scenario where the Second Prince possesses those queer habits, making use of it to conceal the heavy scent of blood on him. You followed in after with the Kucha beauty, and I managed to smell that the fragrant scent on her was far more intense than usual. I imagine you were the same, using that scent to veil the scent of blood."
His body could not take it after speaking so much in one go, so he lowered his head to cough as he analysed the situation further.
For one to lay such a huge scheme, masquerade as the Göktürk Khan, and played everyone for a fool, including Fo Er himself. Even Cui Buqu himself was previously deceived. This whole thing could be said to be quite astounding to the eye.
However, the other party patiently listened to everything Cui Buqu said, certainly not because Cui Buqu's voice was beautiful, but because, Cui Buqu wanted to delay the time, and so did he, to achieve a certain goal.
Cui Buqu now is equivalent to a sitting duck. The only reason he would wish to delay, was so he could invest all the time onto Feng Xiao.
As he thought, Cui Buqu coughed even more vigorously.
Right now he could only place his hopes onto Feng Xiao, and trust that he would get his intentions, to cooperate with him from the outside, otherwise even if he tried his best here, he would not succeed.
The fake Khan Apa looked concerned all over his face, yet his mouth said something that contradicts it, "Are you alright? Could it be that you are coughing yourself to death? I see how you are ill all the time, why couldn't you just die?"
Cui Buqu coughed twice again, "Thank you for your concern, but I am afraid I would have to disappoint you, Zen Yu Xiu."
The fake Khan squinted his eyes, his desire to kill peaked abruptly.
Cui Buqu behaved as if he did not notice it. He has coughed until he felt a little tired, so he leaned back against the pillar, using it to help him breathe properly. However, his hand was pressing on his chest, refusing to leave. There, a pain had begun to spread, even every inhale and exhale was affected. On normal times, when he behaved like this, Qiao Xian would have immediately pressed her hand onto his wrist and transfer her inner strength to him to help him sooth his pain. However, at this moment, Qian Xian was not present, so Cui Buqu could only force himself to breath lightly so to minimize the burden on his body.
With such a huge killing intent rising at his back, added with physical pain, his back could not help but exude cold sweat.
After a while, he heard the other said, "How did you know it was me?"
Cui Buqu closed his eyes, suppressing all his pain, only did he opened his mouth.
"In Qiemo, you purposely allowed someone who looked like yourself to mislead us. At first, we also thought that that was you, but now when I think about it, during that time, you had probably already arrived in Western Göktürk and begin your plan."
"After all, Khan Apa is the Khan of Western Göktürk. Everyday, countless number of people would surround him. If you want to assassinate him, perhaps you could have succeeded, but to take his identity, that is definitely not easy. However, it was easy had it been the HeiYue Shaman. He lived away from the crowd, and his servants are not many in number, so you killed the Shaman first, took his identity, then used the opportunity of healing the Khan to kill him, then put the Khan's corpse in the stone hut, using the Bihui pellets to neutralize the stench, and pretended that the Shaman was in secluded meditation. After that, you could proudly masquerade as the Khan under broad daylight."
"You got close to the Kucha beauty, because she was only sent here after you stole the Khan's identity. On one hand, she suited your identity's persona of a pervert, and on the other hand, it would minimize your contact with other women belonging to the Khan to avoid exposing your identity. That was actually very brilliant."
"In fact, everything you did after you stole Khan Apa's identity, was aggressively picking on the relationship between Khan Ishbara and the Sui Empire. You even intended to let Western Göktürk fall into chaos, leading them into self-destruction. This manner of act is exactly the same as what you did with us before."
"Actually, until just a moment ago, these were all simply theories. I dare not confirm whether all of these were true."
As he spoke until this point, a light smile appeared on Cui Buqu's face, "However, you yourself have just admitted it."
The fake Khan, who is also Zen Yu Xiu, nodded his head simply. He was even no longer interested in faking the deep, hoarse voice of the Khan, resuming to use his original clear and smooth voice.
"I admitted. So what? Are you waiting for Feng Xiao to come to your rescue? Please have my apologizes for being frank, but I fear he was all the more happier to see you walk towards your death, even if he realized his guilt, it would be too late."
Yu Xiu was originally a young and handsome monk, even when he wears an old and wrinkled disguise, it could not conceal his grace and elegance.
Author's Notes:
P.S. 1: The precription of the Bihui pellet comes from the Song Dynasty's Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified. Nothing is recorded about the earliest time when this prescription was founded.
P.S. 2: The thing that Cui Cui took out was mentioned before in previously. If anyone has forgotten about it, you can reread to take a look ~
Zen: Zen or Zen master is a somewhat vague English term that arose in the first half of the 20th century, sometimes used to refer to an individual who teaches Zen Buddhist meditation and practices, usually implying longtime study and subsequent authorization to teach and transmit the tradition themselves.