Liberi Reader

What of Rhodes Island's plans after this?

Uh... er... huh? Did I ever introduce myself?

What of your plans, even?

I've been planning to get this all behind me, go back and ask that aloof Mr. Liang... to pay my bills well.

Mm.

Perhaps he was right. You and we are not solely together brought for this.

Only...

Leizi, how'd you...

I happened to learn from fellow disciples about the Mount Hui-ch'i business, and immediately rushed for Shangshu.

I might've been a little late, but not too late after all.

That's good, then.

Miss Ling.

Hm?

I have a question.

How do beings like you determine... er, who's older and younger?

Ah, establishing the pecking order.

Within a sea of chaos, whoever first finds that answer, first exists upon the human realm.

What answer's that?

One to a question incredibly simple...

...'Who am I.'

Mr. Taihe, Mr. Zuo Le. It's good to meet you.

Miss Ning. Good to meet you.

Assistant Minister Ning, my pleasure.

......

'Tis unbecoming of my etiquette that I could not offer you hospitality for your time in Shangshu.

We came uninvited and troubled you greatly. We should be first to apologize.

You came on your father's orders, handling the goblet and Mount Hui-ch'i incidents in the Sui Regulator's name. 'Twas swift, fierce action.

Your insight is as a beacon, Miss Ning.

But Mr. Liang's actions, breaking past settled positions, were all the more admirable.

Were it not for the Sui Regulator's radicality, he may not have needed such drastic action.

My conscience is clear. I imagine the Department of Discipline and Supervision will pursue their own amends once they learn of this.

I've drawn up my report to the Emperor. It's open and fair. No bias allowed for.

As you say, Mr. Taihe, 'garner loyalty and forsake righteousness.'

Indeed.

But the Sui Regulator has overstepped its ambit. No matter the Grand Tutor's determining, I will report the reality to the High Minister.

As one should.

No need.

The game until now was of equal occupation.

The Lungmenite you chose was an unusual, irrational move, yet he seized some hint from it. A suboptimal piece.

Given so, how much more is within his reckoning? And how much that he hasn't accounted for will return to benefit him?

You perceive this matter finely, Grand Tutor.

Liang Xun. The one to take your place as magistrate will arrive at Shangshu within a month. Prepare the transition, and leave with me.

......!

I... do not know what you mean, Grand Tutor.

Follow me to the capital.

......

My thanks, Grand Tutor.

But I still...

—I, Ning Ciqiu, congratulate Mr. Liang on his promotion.

I...

Assistant Minister Ning.

Yumen's route back to Yan is set. It docked with Lungmen yesterday, to ready and resupply.

—!

Was... Yumen City avoiding Catastrophe? Or...

It had other purpose.

Leave for Yumen ahead of time. When I and Liang Xun finish business in the capital, we will naturally proceed for it too.

Right...! Understood.

Taihe.

All is proceeding smoothly.

Good.

Uncle Taihe? So you long since...

'Garner loyalty and forsake righteousness.' Blame me not, young man.

We will withhold investigation into the Sui Regulator's lapse here for now. At present, only determining whither the one hundred and eighty-one black stones are is key.

Understood.

Grand Tutor, when will you leave Shangshu?

Tomorrow eve.

So very pressing. Need we not await the Messenger ranks' escort...

Unnecessary.

Tianshi Bai will want to send you off.

Unnecessary still.

Shangshu's mountain ways are rugged. I fear it may be dangerous if you are alone...

What, as if wily criminals dare run amok within Shangshu's borders?

No. I simply mind your advanced years. Be careful on lone outings, please...

Within Great Yan's domain under heaven, I only fear if the common people go without peace and national trade is not sufficiently prosperous.

What else should I fear?

Is anything else worth my fear at all?

That's over with.

Past the fire of danger.

You certainly didn't feel the heat.

But the danger weighed on us all.

So it was all your secret orders from the Sui Regulator, having me bring the cup from Lungmen back to Shangshu.

But your status stood in the way, and so did a certain someone by your side, so you had to put a thief's cap on me and get the escorts to act their show.

—But you never coordinated that act with me, which I think shows you never wanted to put it on in the first place.

You know I never liked acting.

So was this your own idea?

Yes.

But the Candleholders were in Shangshu, and they wouldn't give up at the drop of a hat.

You never even wanted this to go down in Shangshu, let alone the Sui Regulator usurping you for a while, them and the Ministry of Rites tearing into each other.

True.

But if you had your way there, you'd be cast on injustice's side.

And so there was someone who probably loved nosing, and probably felt very sorry for you, and he sent a bounty hunter to come steal the cup.

Since then it's a weight off your hands.

You know who that someone is.

Maybe I do.

But nobody foresaw Shang Zhong would come soaring through the sky, out for a life.

Things turned for the worse, and off everyone tumbled to Qujiang Peak and the Field of Forgotten Water. Not very smart work from you, no, not smart at all...

But for you, for Liang Xun, maybe it was a little too smart at the same time.

Which is why I entrusted you with it.

Someone who could both tell what I was thinking, and would never betray his friends.

Should I thank you for still considering me a friend?

When all's said and done, though, I wasn't out to find who that goblet's owner was.

What were you looking for?

You.

You're still that same old you, filled with ambition as ever, aren't you.

Me?

You've gotten smarter, Liang Xun.

But that's just fine. Carry on, you.

......

......

I have a rough idea as to Huai Tianpei's whereabouts.

You've had a rough idea for ages. You just didn't want me distracted.

Are you upset at me for not telling you?

I was more worried I'd need to keep assisting you.

There's been a rumor going about the world of Yanese kung fu lately.

Ah, the martial world's rumors.

When there's kung fu involved, he could hardly be left out of things.

......

Hmm. Shangshu's a fine place.

The plum blossoms bloomed late this year, and I wondered why; so your private visit to this city it was. A rare, rare guest.

When did you master this place?

If wished you did to look into it deeply, I could be considered half of these mountains' master true.

The point in question isn't in the persons. It's in you, and your collective.

When the day comes, what sides you stand on, what ways you see things, which ways your hearts feel, will all determine what is lost in the battle there and then.

Yan is a hard foe to defeat.

You do have the right to speak on behalf of Yan's army.

You and that learned master held the north for a hundred years apiece, it must be recognized. If not for that, the court would hardly remember you so fondly.

The Sui Regulator's deeds may be sensed to encroach, but no matter what, you are fondly cherished.

The years and months tower tall, joys parted with so reluctantly.

To this day, in my deepest drunken depths, still my ears prick at horns sounding battalions forth.

...Nian.

Uh-huh.

The court wants to make a deal with you.

Well how about that. I thought I'd be getting my execution date.

The Chamber of Heaven's Designs hasn't ceased once in a whole millennium. Countless troops and tianshi lie buried in action in the north, yet evil rises as virtue does. The slaughter of wicked spirits is endless, and we've not been able to close the book on it.

The finest of soldiers, the grandest of marshals, the wisest of tianshi, all rush to man the frigid north, year upon year upon year.

The court wants you to erect twelve pagodas and five cities outside the Chamber of Heaven's Designs. Three thousand mechanisms, millions of terracottas.

You needn't do it immediately. Nor will you be on your own. Yan has begun sorting it out, drafting blueprints, and assigning every great tianshi to the case.

I hope you will lend a hand. It'll allow someone to make a return from that tower, at least.

Who?

One who would never fall, but absolutely must never fall.

You're kidding. I heard some of the rumors from Leizi. Her founder was a super-annoying guy... even if she never met him.

Hmph... a special case of a long life warped by dependence on Originium. Such humankind really doesn't agree with me...

Isn't this just because she gave you all that hassle?

Tch.

Ah... I remember her.

Is she still well?

She is.

She's been stationed at the north for over three hundred and seventy years now. If she can return home, the court would be willing to let her rest at ease, allow her a peaceful retirement...

But the man always says he'd hate to be idle.

Sounds like some major engineering work. What do I get out of it, then?

The court will help you with what you want to do.

The wild bestial of bloodshot eyes can't be caged forever.

Hah. It all sounds like a win-win for you. We Yan people sure love to haggle...

That's all on that. Think about it.

I have a matter I'd like to ask of you in turn.

Please, go on.

As of now, is he...

His actions surpassed all feranmutologists' predictions. Turning his own flesh into one hundred and eighty-one black stones... scattering them in the human realm... hmm.

He wants to set up a game across the entire land.

Why?

In his endgame days, he'll surely appear again. You'd best ask him yourself then.

It's a game we must win.

We cannot lose.

Did you hear that, you two?

Would he lose to this Grand Tutor, playing on nineteen by nineteen?

Of course he wouldn't.

Then how did the Grand Tutor beat him?

The Grand Tutor did not play go with him.

Why?

Black and white in their millions upon nineteen by nineteen—it has its intrigue, true, but the Grand Tutor speaks that absorbed within a board of pieces, he cannot see man.

Man?

Thus the Grand Tutor played a different game with him. With Yan's domain as the board, with the land's every commoner as the pieces.

Who won?

The Grand Tutor, at that time. Thus he was willingly bound in captivity by Yan, and with every loss, he would stay prisoner sixty years.

Heh. If Yan always had a genius to beat him, he'd never get a foot out of the capital his whole life, huh?

Who can profess to know? He's very poor at the chesses, truth be told.

Very slow to learn them, too. Centuries ago, in one cycle of sixty years, he lost hundreds upon thousands of games. The following cycle, he lost some less, and after one more, no more than a hundred games, give or take.

And so forth, until a point when no one was left who could beat him.

Thus on that cycle, he left the capital... and so that incident transpired.

That's when our third sis...

Mm.

We could all sense that this was no pleasant matter.

So the Grand Tutor had to kick his ass before he dragged his own tail back to the capital, ready to be punished?

Perhaps it was a good, long while since last he lost in one fell swoop.

Or it may be... that his sights were not set on Yan alone anymore.

So you're Ning Ciqiu.

And you, the bounty hunter of enough bravery to plunder a Tianshi Bureau procession.

I-I didn't know they were good guys yet...

Where's that old man anyway? The Bai guy?

I will take you to meet him.

I think, in this turn of events, thanks are due for you.

It's alright.

But I still don't get the full picture. Wasn't it just a goblet? If you knew where it was, couldn't you go sneak it off yourself and be done with it?

He would not want to hand it to me, so I could hardly take it.

So you got me to help? Why?

Why, I wonder.

I simply did not want him drawn into so many vexing matters, without the slightest self-awareness.

So this bounty hunter really was yours, Assistant Minister Ning.

Hey!

You need not raise your hackles. They are not enemies.

Only...

It was the Sui Regulator who hastened in its conduct; we won't question her deeply. Er... as long as she entered Yan's borders through legitimate means, of course...

Of course.

Go and meet with Tianshi Bai, Blacknight. He awaits you at the agreed location.

Alright. You take care.

......

You'd seen through both the Sui Regulator and Mr. Liang's schemes.

Not too long ago.

But you seem to not have seen through Mr. Liang's plans to mediate from within.

He may simply have been apprehensive about betraying you, Miss Ning.

......

Regardless, the Sui Regulator overstepped their bounds in this. We will later address the matter ourselves with the Ministry of Rites.

It is no matter. 'Tis all to plan further for Yan.

'Tis cold outside; may you all rest soon. I will go see young Blacknight; 'tis her first time in Yan, and I cannot rest easy.

Farewell, Miss Ning.

Be safe.

......

Lord Zuo.

I can only hope this pair in love... aren't shaken by big things to come.

......

You're young, Lord Zuo. To say such things invites ideas of feigned maturity.

As a Candleholder, I've none of my own ties of the sort.

If I may boldly mention, when you previously passed through that village and dealt with bandits, you did have—

*cough*, *cough*—I trust that girl was only repaying the favor! How can you muddle this with affairs between the sexes?

......

It was a life saved. If the intent was impure, that would only further serve doubts of advantage being taken.

You presume wrong, Uncle Taihe.

Hmm.

It is as you say, young man.

Not heading back to Lungmen, Mr. Lee?

No. There's still someone I need to find.

Come with?

I'm stopping by the branch office with the funnyman anyhow, and then I've got to get back to the Rhodes Island landship...

It seems we'll be tagging along. But I'd rather not be a nuisance to Rhodes Island again.

No need to stand on honor.

Trust me, it's personal matters.

That codename Nothing operator got drawn into all this mess, had his leg hurt for nothing, and he's still in the hospital now. Don't want to give you all any more grief than that.

That's good, then.

K-Kroos!

Oh, fancy that! Mulberry!

If you're in Shangshu already, I'm guessing Lava got to the branch office a while ago, then?

Y-Yeah... and Lava wanted me to tell you too, it's best you head there quickly. It seems like something else happened...

Ahaha... this trip to Yan sure never takes a breather.

It happens.

It used to just be around Lungmen and stuff... oh, right.

I've been wanting to ask. You said Mr. Liang and Wei Yenwu are real alike, but alike how?

Did I say that?

You did. After we met him, I was even thinking, wait, they're completely different...

Mmm...

Well, after all... both their sweethearts have them by the ears.

......

You're back.

A hundred and eighty-one black stones. You'll beat Sui to losing your sanity.

While you've already spent all these years in here, in your drunken stupor? No... the years and months mean nothing to you.

That farce of the Xingyu Escort Association was a move planned out by you.

Not totally.

They should be clean of responsibility for me... Why swallow them all into this?

Just as a reminder.

A reminder to me?

Here you dream of all under heaven. Though you know how the universe dwarfs all, the grass in spring still tugs at your heart.

From Jiangnan, up to Saibei, then back to this summit atop the clouds, you've changed a lot. It disturbs me, little sister, so I warn you.

Warn you that the feelings of man are not so pure as those moralists would have you believe.

......

Are you angered?

The cup should only hold wine; wine should not be so wordy.

—!

—Shangshu—once had a Catastrophe!

Someone—offered wine to the heavens, and the black clouds parted, and the people were safe! And yet now, you're going to fling this goblet to the black clouds!

Are you feeling wrathful? Compassionate? Envious?

Carve these emotions into you—things are soon to come—

......

Things, soon to come... Certainly, I cannot stay uninvolved... isn't that right.

Phew... haah.

For now, I shall go purchase wine.

I'll be leaving Shangshu.

I won't stop you.

If two people want to kill each other, the feelings aren't too hard to understand.

But if two people want to be killed by the other...

Then we should save the effort. We'd just be wallowing.

I'm planning to retire now.

Du Yaoye still isn't ready for it. And doesn't the girl seem just a little like she wants her own business?

If so, I'll shutter things.

Don't you agree?

I'm not one of the escorts.

Good.

Zheng Qingyue. Our business is only postponed for a while. We're not shaking hands and making up here.

Association custom says you don't talk grudges when you're at the bar. I'll be in Shangshu anyhow, waiting for you.

......

......

One last thing.

I hear...

Dad! Master Shang!

What are you charging in here about...?

I've decided! Me and the guys all talked it through!

We're going to Yumen!