act15side

Here.

If I sentenced you to death today, to protect the Ministry of Rites and Sui Regulator, what would you do?

Submit to the law, as I ought.

Then if by unexpected turns, your actions today led Shangshu City to be damaged and the common people harmed, what would you do?

Should I have sought a way for survival, then better late than never.

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.