After asking about the False Spiritual Root and the Blood Spirit Technique, Li Qing didn't leave the Martial Pavilion right away. He planned to learn a few more techniques to round out both his offense and defense.
He deliberately picked some of the very best lightness skills, along with top-grade sword techniques and a few arts for hidden weapons.
Once he'd made his selections, Li Qing went to Rong Ku and asked, "Grandmaster, does the pavilion have any cultivation methods that can restore a man's vitality after reaching the Xiantian realm?"
Although in his next lifetime he would be a real man again, being able to display his manly prowess in this one would be all the better.
Grandmaster Rong Ku closed his eyes, replying, "On the third floor, left side, in brocade box B4, there's a manual called the Restoration Sutra. It was created by an old eunuch from the previous dynasty specifically to bring it back to those in the Xiantian realm. Once you've reached that stage, you can cultivate it. But once mastered, you may not reside in the harem. You must stay by the Emperor's side at all times, to protect against… palace incidents."
"No need."
Li Qing immediately copied the Restoration Sutra and was secretly delighted.
As for immortal cultivation methods, the Martial Pavilion didn't have any. Most likely Emperor Jianwu was searching for them too.
…
Five months passed in the blink of an eye. Li Qing had learned most of what he'd picked from the Martial Pavilion. From here on, it was just a matter of refining his skills over time.
By the eighth month, bad news arrived at the Cold Palace.
Zhang Yong was dead, aged sixty-five. A death that would have been considered a fortunate passing for someone his age.
But it hadn't been natural. In broad daylight, while selling braised offal, Zhang Yong had been snatched off the street by a bandit. His body was later burned and left in the wild.
Later, the constables found out the killer was a disciple of the White Lotus Sect.
"Damn it, Old Zhang… those dog-blooded White Lotus bastards!" Gong Yue exploded when he heard the news.
Gong Yue had worked with Zhang Yong before. The other eunuch, Zheng Chun, didn't know Zhang Yong personally, but he still sighed and said, "The White Lotus grabbed Old Zhang first, almost like they were after him in particular. His son and his shop boys weren't harmed."
Holding a chess piece, Li Qing was also deep in thought about the White Lotus Sect.
Right now, his identity was that of Li Qing's son, so it wasn't appropriate for him to mourn Zhang Yong's death together with Gong Yue.
Yong's death… maybe it still traces back to Imperial Consort Li. Back then, Yong once delivered food to her.
There was no need to think too hard. Zhang Yong being targeted by the White Lotus had to be because he came from the Cold Palace.
A sudden chill ran through Li Qing. Over the past few years, he had forgotten the names of some old friends from the Cold Palace. Perhaps they'd all been killed by the White Lotus.
The sect clearly hadn't given up on the matter of Imperial Consort Li.
The White Lotus had a false spiritual root inheritance. Li Qing had boldly guessed that, back then, Imperial Consort Li had already refined a false spiritual root.
To retrieve the root and her body, the sect had helped Chancellor Lu storm the palace and slaughter the concubines and eunuchs of the Cold Palace.
But…
Where had her tongue gone?
These past few months, Li Qing hadn't stopped trying to find out what had happened in those days. But most of the people from back then were already dead, and no one knew the truth.
It had been too long.
If I were outside the palace right now, the White Lotus Sect would probably be hunting me too.
Li Qing once again felt sure about his decision to enter the palace. With his peak Eight Vessels cultivation and mastery of top techniques from various sects, he could handle the White Lotus even without stepping into the Xiantian Realm. But there would always be danger.
Could Wei Yang have gotten it…? The thought struck him suddenly.
With Wei Yang's methods, it was possible.
The only issue was that Imperial Consort Li's tongue had already been severed before she entered the Cold Palace.
The only way Wei Yang could have obtained it was if Consort Li had cut it out herself and hidden it away.
Cutting out your own tongue… isn't that too far-fetched? Who in the world could even cultivate such a technique?
Destroying the tongue wasn't hard. Li Qing's own Seven Forms of Flowing Water could do it. But cutting it cleanly at the root, and stopping the massive bleeding afterward, was another matter entirely.
He couldn't even be sure someone could survive it.
Then again… if a restorative art like the Restoration Sutra exists, maybe self-severing the tongue isn't impossible after all.
Li Qing's heart tightened.
Suppose Consort Li's tongue carried the spiritual root.
The Great Qian imperial clan clearly never obtained it, or Emperor Jianwu wouldn't be waging war to find a false spiritual root.
The Inner Court likely didn't have it either, or Grandmaster Rong Ku would have already given the root to Emperor Jianwu to end the conflict.
Li Qing leaned toward the idea that, back then, no one but the White Lotus Sect had known Consort Li carried the spiritual root.
After all, she had been only the Saintess, not the sect leader. And the matter of the false spiritual root was such a tightly kept secret that even the Emperor would be hard-pressed to know it.
Li Qing hurried to the Martial Pavilion and began searching for a tongue-severing technique.
Sure enough.
Half a day later, he found a manual on the art of severing the tongue.
It was a method of using internal energy to slice through the tongue, easing the pain and stopping the bleeding on its own.
In that case, the one most likely to have gotten Consort Li's tongue can only be Wei Yang.
…
Autumn, the tenth year of Jianwu.
King Wei Nu of Northern Garrison led his army to capture the capital of the Moon Kingdom, taking Princess Yue Ling, daughter of the Moon Emperor, as a prisoner.
The Moon Emperor sent envoys to sue for peace, offering to make his realm a vassal state under Great Qian and acknowledge Great Qian as the superior Empire.
Emperor Jianwu agreed.
The following spring, the Northern Garrison King returned to the capital with Princess Yue Ling.
That same month, Emperor Jianwu deposed the empress for showing contempt toward the sovereign, cast her into the Cold Palace, and elevated Princess Yue Ling to the throne as his new empress.
On the seventeenth day of the eighth month that same year, the emperor reviewed troops at the southern training grounds of the capital, appointing the Northern Garrison King to lead a western campaign against the Khala Kingdom.
On the day Wei Nu departed for the west, every household in the capital kept its doors shut. Petty theft and street crimes vanished entirely. A stark contrast to the throngs that had once crowded the streets for such occasions.
Carrying his dragon-patterned token, Li Qing also left the palace that day.
Three years had passed since Zhang Yong's death. Ever since Li Qing began to suspect Wei Yang of having taken Consort Li's tongue, he had been quietly searching the palace for places where Wei Yang might have hidden it.
In the end, Li Qing had found nothing.
Then, he had suddenly remembered Wei Yang's farewell to him years ago, specifically asking that Wei Yang's body be buried alongside his sister on Luobai Mountain.
There might be a deeper meaning behind their joint burial.
Since he was a target of the White Lotus Sect, and since they had a Xiantian Grandmaster, Li Qing usually avoided leaving the palace.
He deliberately chose the day of the Northern Garrison King's western campaign to slip out of the palace.
With the emperor himself reviewing the troops and the city under lockdown, it should be safe.
Li Qing hadn't stepped outside the palace walls in eight years. What he saw on the streets was drastically different from before.
There were more merchants from the northern tribes. The nobles looked even grander than before. But the common people were poorer than ever.
The rich grew richer; the poor grew poorer.
The people's eyes had lost their light. Only traces of unease remained.
It was almost laughable. Under Emperor Taikang's rule, who'd neglected governance for over thirty years, and with two women from the harem fighting for power in court, the realm was peaceful and the people prosperous. The wealthy were as numerous as fish swimming upstream.
Now, under Emperor Jianwu, who ruled with absolute authority and expanded the empire's borders, showcasing the strength of a great power, the people only suffered more.
No doubt, they cursed Jianwu behind his back as the "dog emperor."
All these changes had taken place in just ten years.
Li Qing shook his head and went to the small courtyard in the capital he had once bought. After a thorough disguise, he took on a completely new elderly appearance and left the capital again.
Naturally, Li Qing was a master in the techniques of disguise.
Traveling safely, Li Qing arrived at Luobai Mountain, standing before the nameless grave of Wei Yang and his sister.
He bowed three times, then offered incense and arranged the memorial offerings. Afterward, he spoke: "Little Wei, back then I only gave you a chance to leave the Cold Palace and led you into the martial path. That small kindness has long been repaid after you gave me the dragon-patterned token and the Twelve Golden Needles Meridian Technique.
"Today I come only to confirm one thing from the past. If I offend you, please forgive me.
"If there is reincarnation in this world, you must seek rebirth. If I someday find immortality, and if fate allows, I will guide you and your sister into the immortal path in one lifetime, repaying the wrongs of today."
Li Qing bowed deeply three more times, then removed the offerings.
With a sharp command of "Rise!"
A surge of internal energy poured from Li Qing's hands, parting the earth. Slowly, a cypress coffin rose from the ground.
Wei Yang's sister had only a grave, no coffin. Years ago, Li Qing had taken her remains and buried them together with Wei Yang in one coffin.
"Open."
And the cypress coffin was opened.
Wei Yang's body appeared perfectly preserved before Li Qing's eyes. Eleven years had passed, yet the corpse had not decayed or emitted any stench.
Li Qing's heart lifted with joy.
A spiritual root can automatically draw in spiritual energy. If hidden within the corpse, it can preserve the body for a hundred years without decay.
What the body might become after a century, Li Qing did not yet know.
But Wei Yang's condition proved that a spiritual root was indeed hidden inside his corpse.