This was a secret of the past. Many wanted to know of the argument between Baili Suxue and that person because of which the latter had been unable to enter Min Mountain Sword Sect.
But no one dared and no one had the chance to ask Baili Suxue. The cultivators of the world had many speculations about the matters between Baili Suxue and that person. Most of them felt the most likely possibility was Baili Suxue had actually fought that person.
Back when that person first became famous in Changling, he sought powerful swordsmen to fight. As a result, challenges became common even now in Changling, and refusing one was thought of as weak.
Most believed that person had challenged Baili Suxue, and the latter had lost and been humiliated. So when that person had wanted to visit Min Mountain Sword Sect, Baili Suxue shut the doors to him and that person had never been able to enter Min Mountain Sword Sect.
In fact, Jing Liuli had thought the same. Because Baili Suxue remained silent when she asked, she could not help but ask, “Master, had he really challenged you before?”
A faint smile appeared on Baili Suxue’s lips. He smiled with pride, but his eyes were full of emotion and scorn. He shook his head and said, “I did not fight him. I closed the door and did not meet him because he was too stupid.”
“Too stupid?” Jing Liuli looked dazedly at him. She could not imagine. That person had always been known as an unparalleled genius in the world. No one could compare to him in cultivation understanding or ability to lead an army in battle. In her view, even her master who she respected greatly did not seem to qualify to say that person was stupid.
“Stupid is stupid, there is nothing to say about past matters.” Baili Suxue turned and stopped talking.
Jing Liuli looked at her master’s back, and thought he was silently looking at the unmelting ice. Little did she know he was just looking at Changling, and the unseen palace.
The sunlight landed on the cold palace deep inside the Changling palace. The blood-like acacia vines slowly returned to the ceiling and tangled there. A bloody figure, or rather a bloody ball of flesh was twisting and giving of miserable moans on the torture bed below. The yellow robed cultivator pulled the slender needles out of Shen Xuan’s flesh with some regret, and put them away in metal boxes without even wiping away the blood.
The two officials who were responsible for the record were unlike this yellow robed cultivator who could never leave this palace. They bowed respectfully to Shen Xuan who was writhing on the torture bed and as they left the palace, the two officials said softly to Shen Xuan, “Congratulations,Official Shen.”
After the two officials left, another pair of officials quickly walked in. One was an old medical official who started to take care of Shen Xuan’s wounds as quickly as possible. The other was a clothing official who came with everything needed to wash clean and a set of new official robes.
The bloody scent of the cold palace was washed away, filled with the unique scent of rare spirit medicines. The moans gradually stopped coming from Shen Xuan’s mouth, turning to heavy breathing.
“Official Shen, just endure a bit more … your riches and glory are ahead … I’ve never seen this kind of medicine in my life … there is no need to say how the empress will treat you in the future.” The old medical official whispered by his ears. In his view, Shen Xuan would only wake up now and have his consciousness.
Shen Xuan’s body was gradually cleaned. The blood and flesh of his body was reborn and even the pain was quickly suppressed by the cool medicine power. Yet what this old medical official did not know was when Shen Xuan heard his words, his lips curled upwards in a scornful smile.
Hurt a person to the limit, then use the best spirit medicine to show your grace. Even if the flesh, blood and cultivation can be made back up, can everything truly be made up? Shen Xuan laughed scornfully in his mind.
His empty eyes were staring at the ceiling. The only living dark red vines were especially bright after getting new nutrients, and one even had a new sprout.
As Shen Xuan was sneering in his mind, Huang Zhenwei, in light yellow robes, was silently watching a section of wall being built from the turrets.
The wall was built starting from the east. The foundations for long walls had been built already, just waiting for the quarried stones to be transported. Then, the wall-less Changling would soon have a vast city wall.
Other than the turrets soaring about Changling like giants, the height of the walls would surpass the height of any structure in Changling.
On another distant turret, multiple generals were looking silently at Huang Zhenwei. Changling had not had city walls before. There were guards on every turret. While there was the highest general, but in reality, the highest general listened to Mo Shoucheng. Mo Shoucheng had been the highest ranking general of the Changling Guard Army.
The Martial Bureau had camps inside of Changling, and all the armies outside of Changling were under the Martial Bureau. But the city army was still a very important and strong fraction. After Mo Shoucheng’s death, under the instruction of the empress, the City Army was given into the hands of Huang Zhenwei.
Huang Zhenwei was Mo Shoucheng’s student, and usually followed his late master. The generals of the City Guard had no objections to him taking off Mo Shoucheng’s position. Yet to their confusion, Huang Zhenwei had originally been a bureau chief already.
When the city walls were built, and the guard army was given to his hands, Huang Zhenwei’s power would far surpass the other bureau chiefs and marquessate establishments. What confused them even more was the new information that came out of the palace.
The cruel Official Shen Xuan who had been in charge of the Great Floating Water Prison would become the Secretariat Director of the Qin Dynasty. For ordinary middle and lower ranking officials, the words “secretariat director” did not mean much. But to the high-ranking officials who had experienced the past reformation and the change of the Ba Mountain Sword Field, the words were frightening.
They were all aware the Qin Dynasty’s meteoric rise to power had been because of the Ba Mountain Sword Field, with the Ba Mountain Sword Field pushing for a reformation of the Qin Dynasty.
But most of the world only knew the one in charge of the reformation was the Shang Family, and did not know of the Li Family. The Li Family changed the criminal laws while the Shang Family the ancestral. Some of the ideas the Li Family suggested about punishment and government even went above imperial power. Even more importantly, the secretariat director had been that person’s idea, a position above the main bureaus.
These generals who guarded the city could not understand why the empress would activate the position of secretariat director. But they were sure that if the information was true, then in the future Changling, there were going to be two giant new powers in Changling.
One was the Huang Zhenwei that they followed now. The other Shen Xuan who walked out of the Great Floating Water Prison.
“Fight south and north in hopes of becoming a Marquis, but in the end, less than a official from the torture rooms,” a general sneered and shook his head as he said. As he spoke, he thought of the dead Tiger-Wolf Army general Liang Lian. He felt slightly slighted right now, and represented the feelings of most of the generals.
“What we think is not important.” A general next to him glanced at him and said aloofly, “I am just curious about how the Holy One feels and what he thinks about her actions.”
