On the Chiwen Bridge, the wind passed in silence.
No sound could affect Qin Guangwang's hearing now.
No doubts could block his answer anymore.
He had walked out from the lower city of Youguo, snatched food from the tiger's mouth, danced with death, roamed the mountains and rivers, and sought no miraculous art. He wanted an answer, wanted an answer!
The voice in the mist paused briefly, then burst into laughter: "Yin Guan, I truly remember your name this time! Your courage is more than commendable!"
Qin Guangwang said, "There is no need to praise me. Just answer me."
"If you had come to ask me earlier, I truly would have had no answer. But now... telling you wouldn't hurt." The voice in the mist lifted, carrying an inexplicable pleasure: "That giant turtle was raised there to nurture Bixia, the sixth son of the Dragon Emperor, the Bixia who bears the stele! And it is only one part of a grand blueprint. I cannot tell you the finer details. What I can tell you is that it involves the Peaceful Seas plan crafted by Prime Minister Qiu Wenyue of the Jing Kingdom!"
The number one female prime minister of the myriad kingdoms, Qiu Wenyue, whose literary thoughts were said to "shine upon all ages like the moon"!
Could the tragedy of Youguo, his tragedy as Yin Guan, really be traced all the way back to this person? How was that any different from tracing it to the entire Jing Kingdom? Qin Guangwang did not speak.
The voice in the mist continued: "To completely pacify the sea troubles, to secure the sea borders forever, for the great fortune of the human race, for the welfare of all under heaven... the Jing Kingdom's court raised that giant turtle there, dispatched Ji Yanyue to oversee the matter personally, and intervened to adjust the so-called Kingdom of Heaven's Blessing."
"Could this answer be too cruel for you? What caused your life's tragedy was a lofty sentiment. What prevents you from seeking justice is another form of justice, a grander justice. You certainly cannot say Ji Yanyue did it for herself. You certainly cannot say the sacrifices in the process of nurturing Bixia were meaningless."
Was this answer cruel?
It was cruel to some.
To those who harbored naive fantasies about the world, to those who still held expectations for the human heart, to those who could not let go of compassion and harbored an inexplicable sense of responsibility toward the world... people like Jiang Wang! But not me.
Who did you think I was?
Qin Guangwang understood the pleasure in the mist, and he smiled faintly: "An answer is an answer. It is very pure, free of added meaning, and naturally has nothing to do with cruelty." The voice in the mist said, "It seems you do not intend to let this matter go. Even after learning its righteous origins and its great significance."
Qin Guangwang raised the corner of his lips slightly, adding a touch of contempt to his composure: "What does someone else's justice have to do with me? How could I care about justice? How could I, Yin Guan, live so entangled? I only care about my own pain, my own grievances, and what I have lost."
"Nobody's greatness can kidnap me."
You cast a wooden peach at me, and I need not repay with a jade. But give me pain, and I shall return it with cruelty. "How could I live in pain like Jiang Wang? I only bring pain to others. No one gave me a path to walk, and I do not intend to leave one for anyone else. That is why we are called 'Hell Has No Gates.'"
The voice in the mist chuckled: "You truly are a man without virtue."
"Virtue is but a shackle for the mediocre; the Dao is but a rotten doctrine." Qin Guangwang faced the mist and the wind: "What others say does not matter. What I choose to do is what matters." The voice in the mist said, "The reason you think it a rotten doctrine is that you have not seen the true Great Dao... Have you considered taking a master?"
"I wish I could, but this day has come too late." Qin Guangwang smiled calmly: "I have been walking my own path for a long time, and I cannot turn back. Besides, you do not need a Yin Guan, while the pain I have endured very much needs a Qin Guangwang. We had better maintain our purely professional arrangement."
The voice in the mist sounded intrigued: "Maintain?"
"Of course," Qin Guangwang said. "I do not care who you are, what you want to do, or what you have done. As long as the price is right, you can come find us again next time."
"Interesting." The voice in the mist offered a word of praise but did not press further. Given their stature, they truly did not much need a Yin Guan. Though there was a hint of appreciation for his talent, they might not have the energy to save him. It then asked, "Is it my turn to ask questions now?"
Qin Guangwang smiled: "I will answer truthfully."
"Good." The voice in the mist paused briefly, then asked: "Is You Que truly dead?"
Qin Guangwang's handsome brows lifted slightly, as though he weighed his words, before answering: "All I can say is that we definitely killed him. But if you insist on asking whether he is truly dead, I cannot give you an answer. Because my professional judgment has already been questioned, even denied, by your question. You are such a powerful and self-assured existence that I cannot convince you, nor will I attempt to. But if you have conclusive evidence that he is still alive, we can go kill him again, or we can return the full payment for this mission."
"Very proper," the voice in the mist said. "What was his cultivation level when you killed him?"
Qin Guangwang replied, "It should have been the Divine Descent realm, but not at its peak. He intended to strive for the洞真 realm, but I did not let him continue." The voice in the mist continued: "What about the Bianchengwang slaughtering the entire You family?"
"We only learned about that afterward," Qin Guangwang said, spreading his hands. "The fact is we killed only You Que and left. I have no idea whose handiwork the slaughter of the entire You family was. We kill to earn money. We do not kill unnecessary people."
"Is that so?" The voice in the mist grew faint.
Then the voice and the mist dissipated together, vanishing into the roar of the Great River.
Conversing here, there was no need to worry about being overheard by the Dragon Palace of the Great River. Because above the Nine Towns lay the forbidden zone of the water clans!
And Qin Guangwang continued to walk across the wide stone bridge, stepping upon the enormous stone carvings, letting the river wind tousle his long hair. He had already seen the danger ahead. It might be his forbidden zone, but his journey was not yet over.
The long journey of life — everyone walks a different way.
The Wuguanwang walked along the streets of Anyi City, his steps light and airy, looking almost frail, with a gaunt, sickly face on — a face that was definitely not that of a Wei national, he could guarantee. For this was the face of the second Dushiwang.
The second Dushiwang had died on a mission for the organization, and he, the loyal and responsible Wuguanwang, had bravely collected his colleague's remains and preserved the body intact ever since, in lasting remembrance. Of course, this colleague might not have been entirely dead at the time?
It did not matter.
What mattered was that his sense of responsibility was fully demonstrated. What mattered was that Qin Guangwang had noticed nothing.
The current Dushiwang was already the third one, now an old man with very little vitality, not quite to his taste. Of course, if the opportunity arose, this founding member of the organization would not mind adding him to his collection. Right, before joining the organization, which kingdom had the second Dushiwang been from?
The Wuguanwang frowned in thought.
Damn, he could not quite remember.
He quickly lowered his head and slipped into an alley.
There were hurrying passersby, and he felt inclined to change faces on the spot. But thinking of the Bianchengwang coming to meet him soon, and those strange rules of his... he had to give up with a grudge. The Bianchengwang...
How he craved the Bianchengwang's corpse.
That booming vitality, practically bursting out of the body. He could feel it entirely — the great potential harbored within that frame. He was certain what he had seen was not the limit. When would he get to examine it closely and savor it? This trip to Anyi City might be the chance?
He shook his head, and as it came loose, he also shook off that terrifying thought. Qin Guangwang's pair of green eyes were still swaying before him like lanterns!
He could not escape Qin Guangwang's gaze, nor did he know the Bianchengwang's limits. He could only nurse his regret for now.
The Wuguanwang caught the fallen head with one hand and attached another — roughly one he had picked up on the way to the Soul-Severing Gorge gathering point, conveniently sourced in Shen Kingdom. In the future, he might need to number and engrave them, or it would be too disorderly, he thought.
The newly attached head was not particularly distinctive in appearance. But the work was already done. He donned an ordinary mask and walked out of the dead end. Arriving at the restaurant he had booked earlier, he sat in a corner, quietly waiting for that person to arrive.
The secret mark of Hell Has No Gates had been left along the way, so the other party should have no trouble finding the place. One hour passed.
Surely... not? Two hours passed.
He began to suspect whether this body was not coordinated, and he had made the mark wrong. Or perhaps the mark he left had been inadvertently destroyed by someone... that would be a mistake that could earn a beating from the Bianchengwang. But he felt he was not prone to such carelessness or misfortune, so he decided to wait a bit longer.
And so, the Wuguanwang waited until the restaurant closed.
The waiter came over with a face full of smiles: "Sir, we are about to close. If you would..."
The Wuguanwang shot him a glare, did nothing in the end, rose, and left.
The Nine Towns were truly a very suitable place for secret meetings.
Because they spanned the Great River and should have been within the Dragon Palace of the Great River's sphere of influence, but because of the Human Emperor's technique of refining the Dragon Emperor's nine sons into bridges, the water clans were forbidden from stepping onto them. Thus neither humans nor water clans held jurisdiction here. Travelers came and went freely, as they always had.
When Pei Xinghe of the Jing Kingdom and Shi Mingli of the Qi Kingdom had clashed, they too had chosen one of the Nine Towns. The outcome of that battle remained known only to the two of them to this day.
At the very moment that mysterious client was meeting with Hell Has No Gates' Qin Guangwang, beneath the myriad waves, within the supremely luxurious Dragon Palace of the Great River, the Clear River Water Lord Song Qingyue had finally received an audience with the Dragon Lord.
It was widely known that since the Middle Antiquity, the Dragon Clan had vanished from the mortal world. Across all the Eight Wastes and Six Harmonies, there was only one true pure-blooded dragon remaining in the mortal realm — Ao Shuyi, who had received the imperial appointment from the Human Emperor Lieshanshi during the Middle Antiquity and ascended to the seat of Dragon Lord.
Of course, the Sea Clan refused to acknowledge this lord's status, dismissing him as the "River Dog."
But judging solely by the purity of bloodline and the orthodoxy of the dragon form, he was the only true dragon of the present age.
For the dragons that had retreated to the Boundless Sea had all taken the lead in prioritizing the sea clans, adjusting their very life essences to adapt to the ocean environment. If they revealed their true forms, each one was more grotesque and terrifying than the last, laying bare the harshness of the Boundless Sea with none of the dragons' former splendor.
It was only after they had gained a solid foothold in the Boundless Sea that some of the Dragon Clan began to reclaim their so-called "dignity."
But as the deceased Gao Jie once said: the true dignity of the Dragon Clan never lay in golden scales and crimson tails, nor in grandeur and nobility, but only in when they would reclaim their power over the mortal world! There had also long been a jest — hadn't the Dragon Clan always held their power over the mortal world? The Human Emperor personally appointed them lords of the Great River, governing all the waterways under heaven!
The Dragon Lord of the Great River never responded.
Though there had always been this or that voice, this or that disdain. Though by today, after the New Epoch of the Dao Calendar, the Dragon Palace of the Great River had become purely symbolic, holding no real power whatsoever. Even upon the Great River, it was the humans who raced their hundred vessels, the kingdoms whose warships competed, and those with sturdy ships and sharp crossbows who made the loudest roar...
Yet Ao Shuyi had always maintained his seat as the Dragon Lord of the Great River. He had assisted the Middle Antiquity Human Emperor Lieshanshi in suppressing all waterways under heaven, bringing peace to the rivers and mountains, safely passing through the end of the Middle Antiquity, enduring the hundred and thirty thousand years of the Late Antiquity, and continuing on into the present after the New Epoch.
Six emperors of the Hegemon Kingdoms had to address him respectfully as "Lord Ao" to his face.
The water clans of the world, though no longer required to hold court at the Dragon Palace of the Great River, could not neglect proper etiquette whenever the Dragon Palace Banquet was held.
However, since the New Epoch, the Dragon Palace Banquet — once hailed as the greatest banquet under heaven, every occurrence a dazzling gathering of luminaries — was held less and less frequently, gradually fading into silence. When the water clans' grievances were left unaddressed, there was naturally no one willing to attend. Since the Dragon Lord of the Great River was merely a figurehead, the human prodigies could not be bothered to look up.
To many young people, the so-called Dragon Lord of the Great River, no matter how powerful his cultivation or how long he had lived, was merely a tool for managing the river, no different from the Nine Towns refined into stone bridges.
Song Qingyue was well-proportioned and handsome, with a tall, refined bearing. He had swallowed a Dragon Pearl, inherited the title of Water Lord, accepted the tribute of the eight-hundred-li Clear River, and achieved Divine Descent last year. Though far from as powerful as his father Song Hengjiang, he was the third Divine Descent combatant in the entire Zhuang Kingdom, after Du Ruhui and Huangfu Duanming.
But this did not amount to much. The Clear River Water Estate was still being absorbed by the Zhuang court bit by bit. His authority as Water Lord grew less and less with each passing day. In a few years, he feared he would be no different from the Prefect of Qinghe Commandery — just another official sent by the Zhuang court to manage the Clear River.
Just like now — with a single edict from the Zhuang Emperor, he had to rush out of the Clear River without delay and come to this Dragon Palace of the Great River, humbly awaiting an audience that stretched on for days. Back when Song Hengjiang was alive, would the Clear River Water Lord have been so commanded?
Grand Ancestor Zhuang had once brought gifts to the Water Estate, respectfully calling him "brother." The Clear River Water Lord was often invited to enter the Zhuang royal palace to drink, acting without orders. Emperor Ren更是 maintained constant holiday greetings and addressed himself as a junior before the Clear River Water Lord.
By the time Zhuang Gaoxian rose to power, he initially still recalled old affections, always mentioning how "the great Zhuang owes much to the Clear River." But once he verified his Dongzhen cultivation, he moved to reclaim authority, only to be repeatedly rebuffed. After Song Hengjiang's unfortunate death, when the Zhuang Emperor faced the new Clear River Water Lord, only one word remained — "summon."
And so he was summoned and dismissed at will.
When the Zhuang Kingdom was founded, Zhuang Chengqian had held Song Hengjiang's hand and said, "I shall govern the mountains, while my brother governs the waters." Where were those words now?
"Hurry up. The Dragon Lord does not have much time for you." The Dragon Palace attendant leading the way spoke in an impatient tone. Song Qingyue only replied gently: "Of course. I will try my best to keep up."