Zhao Bing paced back and forth in the imperial study, hands clasped behind his back, brimming with anticipation and nerves.
He was going to have a child!
"Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Empress requests an audience."
A eunuch's voice came suddenly from beyond the door.
Zhao Bing paused, then waved a hand. "Let her in."
The door creaked open. Su Wen entered in a lake-green robe, her black hair coiled up neat and proper, still wearing that same composed, self-possessed air as ever.
"For the Empress to come seek me out of her own accord—now that's a rare thing."
Zhao Bing sat down at his desk with a genial chuckle and gestured to the chair across from him. "Sit, and speak."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Su Wen came forward and took her seat. The tassels hanging from her headdress swayed gently, yet made not the faintest sound—her bearing dignified and correct.
"Empress, I know you never call without good reason."
Zhao Bing said warmly, "Whatever it is, just say it."
"Please look these over, Your Majesty."
Su Wen took out a stack of blood letters and set them on the desk.
Zhao Bing took them idly, gave them a cursory glance, and his face fell at once.
As he turned page after page, his expression grew ever darker.
At last he set the blood letters down on the desk, his gaze flickering between light and shadow, and only after a moment did he speak, slowly:
"Zhao Jingren has indeed gone somewhat too far in this… I shall reprimand him properly."
With that, he summoned a eunuch right there before her and said coldly:
"Go and inform Zhao Jingren that I am docking him a year's salary, and he is to copy out the laws of our Great Song ten times over."
Zhao Bing's response was so far beyond what Su Wen had expected that she found herself moved to object:
"Your Majesty, these alone are hardly enough to establish Lord Zhao's guilt. Might you not send someone to investigate? Once the truth comes to light, it would not be too late to mete out punishment… Besides, this matter is far too heinous. To dock but a single year's salary would be far too—"
"Are you instructing me in how to govern?"
But Zhao Bing, who had always carried himself with the air of a modest gentleman, now turned unexpectedly cold and hard. "This matter ends here."
And with that, he lit the stack of blood letters over the candle flame and handed them to the eunuch.
The eunuch took them in a fluster and hurried out the door—plainly off to destroy the evidence.
Su Wen stared at Zhao Bing in disbelief, as though seeing this emperor clearly for the first time.
In her memory, Zhao Bing might be incompetent, but at least he had a conscience… Yet this time he meant to bury the affair without the slightest pretense, shielding Lu Qianfan's adopted son.
Su Wen lowered her head and sighed without a sound, the last shred of regard she held for Zhao Bing vanishing like smoke.
She meant simply to rise and leave, but Qiao'er's small face—gentle and frail yet written all over with stubbornness—surfaced again in her mind, and behind it, that noble personage. The proud, aloof Empress clenched her fist, forced down her deep disappointment, and for the first time spoke in a pleading tone:
"Your Majesty, the blood staining those letters is the blood of your own subjects. I beg you to investigate thoroughly…"
A struggle flickered through Zhao Bing's eyes, but it soon dissolved into indifference.
The fortunes of the dynasty came first—how could he, at so critical a juncture, harshly punish Lu Qianfan's adopted son over a mere handful of commoner women? If it left Lu Qianfan brooding and heartsick, and that later harmed the child in the womb, what then?
So he cut Su Wen off:
"Empress, in those years Lord Lu personally saw to the seizure of the traitor Zhang Zhicheng's household. I know you hold a grievance over it… but so many years have passed now. The Empress ought to let old grudges rest."
With that single sentence, Zhao Bing recast the whole affair as Su Wen using the occasion to take revenge on Lu Qianfan.
Su Wen said no more, watching this emperor with an expressionless face.
A touch guilty, Zhao Bing turned his face aside. "Draw some silver from the inner treasury and see those women properly settled—let them find honest families to marry into. And afterward… let this be raised no more."
Su Wen rose, and unmistakable mockery flashed in her eyes:
"Thank you, Your Majesty…"
"…for your boundless grace!"
Within the Prime Minister's Residence, Li Fei called out loudly and received the imperial edict with both hands.
"Lord Li, here are your official robes."
The eunuch who had just finished reading out the imperial edict was all smiles, while beside him palace guards held aloft a dark-red python robe, tall boots, a Demon-Slaying Saber, a rolled booklet, and a token, presenting them forward with the utmost respect.
"My thanks to you, Eunuch."
Li Fei deftly slipped him a piece of gold.
The eunuch tucked it into his sleeve, and feeling its heavy weight, his smile grew all the more radiant. He pointed at the token:
"Lord Li, His Majesty has decreed that with this token you may come and go freely from the Demon-Locking Tower, and that you hold the authority to peruse the Demon Suppression Bureau's archives and to mobilize the personnel of its various offices…"
Li Fei nodded and lightly stroked the dark-red python robe.
By the rules, the Demon Suppression Bureau answered to the emperor alone, beyond the reach of the judicial organs; so long as Zhao Bing and Lu Qianfan agreed, its appointments were no business of the assembled ministers.
On the strength of the elixir of immortality, her gift of the grain seed, and her merit in securing the dynasty's continuance, Li Fei had leapt straight past the three tiers of black, brown, and blue-black to be rewarded with a full dark-red python robe—yet she could take no joy in it, for this maneuver was all too familiar.
Just yesterday they'd been prodding her with the death of Lü Zhengchun; today, not only had they made good on the promise to let her administer the Demon-Locking Tower, they'd handed her a lofty post and fat salary outright… So the whole point is to take me on as their dog?
Li Fei's gaze was dim as it swept over the several imperially bestowed items.
The python robe and official boots were both Crescent-grade equipment—little significance there. The booklet laid out the rules of the Demon Suppression Bureau—too stiff even to use as toilet paper. The token was a symbol of status. Only the Demon-Slaying Saber was worth anything—a Full Moon grade weapon—though it was a pity its main bonus was "+100% damage to demons, monsters, and ghosts"; the moment she left the Demon-Sealing Continent, it would be far less useful than the Blade of Joy.
The eunuch beside her was still reciting the duties and powers of the Demon Suppression Bureau's [Prison-Warden Chiliarch] as though counting over his own family's treasures. Li Fei feigned attentiveness while paying it no mind at all.
However high the salary, when it came down to it it was just dead wages—Li Fei had no interest. However great the power, it was still Lu Qianfan's dog.
This "mobilize the personnel of the various offices" sounded mighty and imposing, yet these underlings would at most run some trivial, inconsequential errand for her—bullying men and abusing women, say—and afterward would surely tattle on her. Order them to go cut down Lu Qianfan, or cut down the dog emperor, and they'd turn on her in a heartbeat.
After an incense stick's time, Li Fei sent the eunuch off, exchanged a few polite pleasantries with the old chancellor who was cheerfully offering congratulations, then walked straight into the inner room.
She gave the female ghosts' new home, the [Myriad Ghost Gourd], a shake, and a wisp of white smoke drifted out, taking the shape of two female ghosts—one a beautiful, delicate young woman, the other a mature female ghost of considerable allure.
"Sister Zhenzhen, I didn't lie to you, did I?"
Li Fei pointed at the brand-new official robes, a smile in her eyes. "This is but one small step for me, Li Fei—yet a giant leap for the women of the world."
Xiao Lian and Huang Zhenzhen glanced at the Demon-Slaying Saber, then stared at Li Fei, dazed for a moment, scarcely able to believe it.
They understood full well what a dark-red python robe meant—to don that skin was to count as a person of consequence even within the Demon Suppression Bureau.
A woman who kept company with female ghosts all day long had, in the span of but a few days, opened up a path unprecedented in all of history…
How had she managed it?!
"Dress me in it."
Li Fei spread her arms and said pleasantly.
"Yes."
The female ghosts accepted the command, yet faced with that motionless python robe, they seemed strangely hesitant.
Only when they took it up did they realize that this python robe—which had made them tremble by instinct both in life and in death—was truly now clutched in the hands of one of their own.
If there were more women like this, what would ghosts like them have to fear from the Demon Suppression Bureau? And how would the world still hold so many ill-fated women?
The two female ghosts fell silent, though thoughts plainly surged and stirred in their minds.
"Sister Zhenzhen, how is your mastery of the Soul-Gazing Art coming along?"
Li Fei asked Huang Zhenzhen kindly while they dressed her.
"It will surely not delay your affairs, my Lord."
Huang Zhenzhen said with a nod.
"With those words from you, my mind is at ease."
Li Fei smiled with delight and pressed her snow-tender little claws onto each of their shoulders, saying gravely, "Over these next few days, we're going to take in more sisters… so the two of you will have to toil a good deal more."
That Xiao Lian and Huang Zhenzhen stood out among several hundred female ghosts was not without reason.
The former was leader of the [Kun] Division. Her natural gifts were outstanding to begin with, and after years of cultivation under the Tree Demon her combat power was likewise a cut above. What's more, that she had won the demon king's favor meant her competence was naturally solid, and in the several rounds of push-and-pull and probing when she first met Li Fei, she'd shown no mean acting skill. After the Tree Demon perished, Xiao Lian became the first lucky soul to experience the Sundome Interrogation Method, and had been broken in the most times of all—reliable in both ability and loyalty.
The latter was the head of the [Qian] Division. She had taken her own life after Lü Zhengchun ruined her, driving her family to ruin; Li Fei had avenged her, so her loyalty was assured. Moreover, at the very moment she wrapped herself in boundless hatred and rancor to become a vengeful ghost, her cultivation base had already reached the peak of the Earth Realm, a mere hair's breadth from the Heaven Realm—a high starting point with great potential. On top of that, the rich experience of an older woman, and the bitterness of a life of great rises and falls, made Huang Zhenzhen more mature and level-headed than the other female ghosts, and steady in her work.
Li Fei studied her two capable helpers and instructed them in a soft, gentle voice: "In a little while we're heading to the Demon-Locking Tower to rescue more of our oppressed sisters… If you can't manage them all, pick some trustworthy hands from among the old lot to assist… And the ideological work must never slacken—we need the newcomer sisters to understand as soon as possible why women should help women…"
The two female ghosts listened quietly, committing Li Fei's words to heart.
"All right, let's set off."
Li Fei snatched up the Demon-Slaying Saber and strode toward the door.
Before the gate of the Prime Minister's Residence, a carriage had been waiting for some time, and the driver—strikingly—wore a brown python robe.
Li Fei boarded in silence and reclined against the soft couch, feigning sleep.
After a long while, the hoofbeats—now hurried, now slow—finally stopped, and the driver lifted the door curtain. "My Lord, we've arrived."
"Thank you for your trouble."
Li Fei sprang lightly down from the carriage and looked ahead, and a great white tower filled her vision.
The tower had nine tiers and seemed carved from white jade, its solemn majesty carrying a touch of peaceful serenity, casting back a seven-colored halo in the sunlight.
Only the iron chains laid out on every side, and the Demon Suppression Bureau guards standing in dense ranks, lent the place an added air of killing menace.
Li Fei soon noticed that the iron chains strewn across the ground like scattered stars were of no ordinary make—identical to the metal chains once used to power the Demon-Sealing Grand Array that had trapped and slain the Tree Demon, only far heavier and thicker, spread over a wider range and more densely arrayed.
Clearly, though these chains slumbered now and looked utterly unremarkable, the moment anything went awry at the Demon-Locking Tower, the power contained within them would awaken, activating a Demon-Sealing Grand Array of the Sequence 5, or even Sequence 4, tier.
At that point, chains crisscrossing for miles would weave into an inescapable net across heaven and earth, enough to crush and strangle any uprising, leaving the demons unable to stir up so much as a ripple.
Li Fei's expression didn't change as she stepped over chain after chain to stand beneath the Demon-Locking Tower, gazing up at this wonder the Great Song had forged with the strength of the whole nation.
This, perhaps, was the final stop of her journey.
The money was made, the treasures were in hand, and she'd climbed several levels.
If nothing turned around after this, Li Fei planned to drain the pond to catch every fish: sweep the Demon-Locking Tower from top to bottom, stuff every female ghost of suitable aptitude into her ghost gourd, and write the rest into the "Ledger of Merit"; then give the noble ladies of the inner palace a thorough seeing-to, clean out their private savings, and finally return to Loxibrook with whatever people and ghosts were willing to follow her.
Next time she came, she'd let the blade do the talking—putting on a show of "purging the villains at the throne's side" plus "holding the Son of Heaven hostage to command the lords."
A sudden gale swept past, stirring Li Fei's long hair, her dark-red robe snapping and flapping.
Clang—
Li Fei gave a soft laugh, drew the Demon-Slaying Saber with a casual flick, and flashed the token:
"From today, this tower passes into my charge! Come, follow me inside and take a look."
With that, she took the lead toward the Demon-Locking Tower, and the saber-bearing guards, like a pack of wolves, silently followed that red-robed figure.
The great doors of the Demon-Locking Tower were daubed with cinnabar talismans, with a recess at the center. Li Fei fitted the token into the recess, and at once came the sound of mechanisms turning; the doors parted slowly, breathing out a bone-deep chill.
Li Fei, unmoved, strode inside and swept her gaze around, finding that while the Demon-Locking Tower looked sacred and solemn without, majestic and holy, within it was another scene entirely.
Candle stands burned eternal along the walls, their leaping light and shadow revealing bloodstains on floor, walls, and ceiling—some already blackened, some still fresh and crimson, pool upon pool overlapping one another, a thick reek of blood lingering that would not disperse. And from the darkness in the distance came shrill wailing and the clang of striking metal, unbearably chilling.
The Demon-Locking Tower was a prison, a purgatory, for demons—so Li Fei's office of [Prison-Warden Chiliarch] could be called well-deserved indeed.
Before Li Fei could say anything, a withered, hunchbacked old crone with chicken-skin and crane-white hair shuffled forward. Leaning on a cane in one hand and holding a torch aloft in the other, she smiled at Li Fei, baring broken yellow teeth:
"This old one greets my Lord."
"You're the steward here?"
Li Fei lifted her chin. "Lead the way—and give me an account of the place while you're at it."
"Follow me, my Lord."
The crone turned tremulously, her torch lighting up the pitch-black iron cages all around.
The cages were full of grotesque, misshapen things—a Demon Ape cackling wildly, a sheep-headed, human-bodied sprite, a giant python coiled into a ball… Li Fei heard a wet "squelch, squelch," turned her head to look, and found the disemboweled corpse of a wolf demon lying on the ground, a very small, pale-white figure hunched over it.
As if sensing Li Fei's gaze, the tiny figure suddenly shot up and slammed hard against the cage door, revealing a deformed infant's face, scarlet blood dripping down its chubby chin—a hideous, horrifying sight.
The monstrous infant giggled at Li Fei, its huge eyes—taking up half its face—goggling wide, pupils rolling in their sockets, and it even stretched out a little hand, waving it frantically toward her.
Squelch!
A cold blade pierced through the brow and burst out the back of the skull, dragging up a spray of foul blood.
The monstrous infant's laughter cut off short; it toppled to the ground, twitched twice, and moved no more.
"So ugly."
Li Fei withdrew her blade and moved on, adding another entry to the Ledger of Merit.
"My Lord, this first floor is all demons just brought in—there's been no time yet to send them where they ought to go."
The crone turned her head. "Some of them don't know any better, and have disturbed my Lord."
"How often is a new batch of demons brought in?"
Li Fei asked, a thoughtful look coming over her.
"Usually once a month."
the crone answered. "Though if we come across some rare stock—a 'fox demon,' say, the sort you don't see for years, or a demon above the Heaven Realm—those are handled separately."
—What? Restocked only once a month? Even the workers down in this immortal maiden's mines wouldn't dare slack off like that!
If I let you lot go on this loose and lazy, where am I supposed to get the merit to prove the Dao and ascend to immortality?
The line of Li Fei's lips curved upward, like a bright-red KPI curve.
It seemed that, as an official now, she'd have to give the Demon Suppression Bureau's slothful culture a good overhaul, and aim to hit a whole year's quota within a few days.
By then, even if she eloped with Her Majesty the Empress, she'd still leave the Great Song a precious spiritual legacy—a merit for the ages—and not quite betray His Majesty's trust after all.
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