Legend of Fu Yao Volume 1 Chapter 32

Book 1: Winds Begin to Blow in Tai Yuan

Chapter 32 – Eve of Palace Coup (Part 2)

Meng Fuyao’s eyebrows jumped up in surprise. “He is another state’s crown prince, what is he doing meddling in Tai Yuan’s affairs?”

“For the last two years Xuanyuan has been readying their troops and feeding their horses, having plans to expand their territory.” Yun Hen indifferently said. “But the neighboring Nemesis state has Zhan Bei Ye there, and Xuanyuan who were defeated in the past don’t dare to touch Nemesis. Their most likely goal is Infinite Empire, and to sneak attack Infinite, they must borrow a path through Tai Yuan in order to directly strike the borders of Infinite. The current imperial concubine of Tai Yuan’s crown prince is Xuanyuan’s princess, thus, Zhangsun Wuji is definitely willing to see someone else become the Imperial Crown Prince.”

“Would the ambitions towards Infinite Empire disappear just from swapping the Crown Prince?” Fuyao curled her lips. “They all say that Zhangsun Wuji is a wise outstanding figure, now it looks like he isn’t that great huh.”

“Zhangsun Wuji is not as simple as you imagine.” Yun Hen shook his head. “If it were him, he definitely has other plans.”

“You make him sound so awesome.” Meng Fuyao’s eyes flashed, and she suddenly asked, “What does he look like? What features does he have?”

Yun Hen kept shaking his head. “I heard that he is very ugly, and hardly ever shows himself to other with his real face.”

With an “oh” sound, Fuyao shook her head and stood up, saying, “Let’s go.”

From outside the room sunlight penetrated in. A cl.u.s.ter of eye-piercing light was condensed by the slightly raised mirror surface, transforming into a white-colored light beam that landed on that stretch of hollow wall surface. On the wall gradually appeared etched flower inscriptions. Meng Fuyao went over, and her fingertip traced the inscription trail in a clockwise circle.

From the wall surface sounded the rumbling of metal, and a hidden door slowly opened.

The door was open, and no flying arrows came shooting out. Fuyao had just let out her breath, when suddenly black light flashed in succession. Multiple long spears were like venomous snakes, stabbing in from outside the door, directly attacking her front!

Meng Fuyao instinctively fell back, when suddenly she remembered that behind her there was still Yun Hen. If she dodged, he would have to face the full brunt of the charge!

In this moment of hesitation, her opportunity was lost, and the long spears had already reached in front of her face.

A whistling of wind, causing sore pain in one’s eyes.

“Ka cha!”

Behind her a person suddenly darted like a swimming fish, with one step moving in front of her. His two arms stretched out then closed like a vice, pressing all of the spears underneath his armpits. With a turn of his body the spears horizontally swept out in a flash, impacting people’s bodies with cracking noises, and instantly several cries of alarm traveled over.

The person who moved was naturally Yun Hen. In one action he had knocked over the a.s.sailants without hesitation, and with a sliding step forward, his figure like a ghost, he clamped a person’s neck and twisted. The kacha sound had not yet fallen when he had already slid over to the next person’s side, and with yet another clamp and twist, the horrifying sound unceasingly rang out, making the listener’s heart go cold. The remaining person had never seen this type of merciless killing method before, and had long been scared witless. Only after seeing almost everyone had already died did he react, shouting and wanting to run.

Sneering, Yun Hen drew his sword out horizontally, slicing the resplendent golden sunlight flying. In a single-handed thrust, the sword pierced the throat!

Fresh blood spurted out from the person’s throat. He sprinted forward a few steps from left-over inertia, only then gradually falling to the ground while convulsing.

Yun Hen retracted his sword qi and leaned on his sword to recover his breath. Fuyao looked at him in shock. This youth’s martial arts might not be at the peak, but the agile precision of his kills might as well make him so. His s.h.i.+fting steps and position swapping were like moving clouds or flowing water, and his way of taking lives was in only an instant – this was basically turning murder into an art form.

After consecutively killing several people, Yun Hen’s strength was also exhausted, and he used his sword for support while gasping non-stop. There were faint dripping sounds, and on the back of his hand splattered out vivid red marks. The white and red contrasted sharply, shockingly piercing one’s eyes.

Meng Fuyao walked over quickly, and frowned while inspecting it. “Your wounds have reopened.”

Yun Hen straightened up. On his pale white face suddenly rose up a bit of red, and his voice was slightly hoa.r.s.e. “It doesn’t matter. Go quickly!”

Fuyao naturally understood the reason for his haste. Since there were people waiting in ambush here, it meant that his run-in with the firearm unit was already known by Qi Xunyi. The level of security in the palace was already strengthened, and wouldn’t allow them to safely reach Heavenly Peace Hall.

“We won’t be able to get there like this.” Meng Fuyao shook her head. “Yun Hen, you should be able to see that my true qi has been sealed, and you are heavily wounded. With our conditions right now, we basically won’t be able to go very far. Because of this, rather than risking life or death and charging through the heavily guarded Heavenly Peace Hall, what about thinking of ways to get the Crown Prince to exit the Heavenly Peace Hall himself?”

Yun Hen’s eyes lit up, but then he furrowed his forehead. “It’s his Highness’ grand birthday, and the Crown Prince has to be by his side respectfully honoring him. At this time he can’t leave the hall.”

“What if, someone rebelled?” Meng Fuyao’s smile was carefree. “According to convention, who should deal with it?”

Yun Hen instantly turned his head, and even his voice changed. “What do you mean?”

“I said, rebel.” Meng Fuyao said, emphasizing each syllable. “Move first to rebel before Qi Xunyi, alarm the Crown Prince, and force him to come out!” ——————

Tai Yuan Empire Shengde 18th year, 9th month, 23rd day[1], Tai Yuan Emperor’s Imperial Birthday. The Tai Yuan capital city was engulfed in a peculiar internal struggle, that history termed “Upheaval of Yanjing”.

However, the historians of the Five Regions Continent privately called it the “Two Rebellion Upheaval”.

This was a completely strange turn of events. In one short night, the two strongest opposing factions suddenly revolted one after the other, and inside the Yanjing imperial city, two sackings occurred within one day.

One minute before the royal streets were flowing with fresh blood, then a minute later yet another group of people’s fresh blood washed the streets again.

There was no precedent for this in history – within one day, an imperial family was revolted against two times.

On the surface, this abnormal change of status quo seemed wholly because of the power struggle between Tai Yuan’s Crown Prince and Prince Qi. No one knew that behind this “Two Rebellion” chaos was hidden a girl’s shadow. Her idea spoken with a smile and parted lips, to bring forward the cause of the conflict for the throne, shook the very foundations of the whole Tai Yuan dynasty. The effect of this went even further, and involved the vast and slowly changing Five Regions Continent’s final political structure.

At that time, she was still a minor character, and she had almost no chance of entering into the spectrum of influential personages from the seven states.

However, once the Luan and Phoenix soared past the area of Tai Yuan and swept great winds across the seven states, the future legendary epic that chronicled a remarkable woman’s magnificent rise would eventually begin from here.

Footnotes Most emperors of ancient China would name their reign a special “era name”, and the years would be kept track starting from the first year that the emperor ascended to the throne. Here “Shengde” is the era name that means “Sacred Virtue”, and the year means that it is the 18th year since the Tai Yuan Emperor became emperor.