Probably because the title “National Preceptor” originated from the Kingdom of Xiliang, and now the King Wu of Qiantang Prefecture had again appointed the Taoist priests of the Bagua Temple as National Preceptors, gathering a group of alchemists who rambled on about fate and refining elixirs, the common people and scholars of Jiangnan detested them greatly. As a result, in popular folk tales, the “National Preceptor” always played the role of a treacherous villain.
There were even some who borrowed ancient tales to criticize the present, falsely attributing stories to foreign kingdoms.
A National Preceptor holding a high position and power turned out to be a transformed monster, controlling the court and harming the loyal and good.
This type of storybook was very interesting. It was rare that it did not follow the old cliché of talented scholars and beautiful ladies under blooming flowers and the bright moon. After being adapted into storytelling performances, it became popular throughout Jiangnan. Every commoner in the city knew it by heart.
Although the story of the foreign National Preceptor was only a small segment, Cheng Jingchuan, who had lost both parents at a young age and grew up among common folk, only needed to hear the first phrase to continue the next part.
Right now, one word led to another, and by a curious coincidence…
Cheng Jingchuan could not help but recall this section.
In the storybook, the monster National Preceptor’s true form was a red fox.
His gaze involuntarily drifted toward the bushes, and Cheng Jingchuan thought that it was not right. The fox’s size was too large, and what he saw was a smaller, more agile creature.
His absent-minded appearance fell into Qiu Si’s eyes. The latter’s gaze darkened slightly, and then he raised his cup and drank it all.
“Qingde, I entrust you with the matter of Master Meng.”
“Ah?”
Cheng Jingchuan snapped back to his senses and met Mr. Qiu’s probing gaze. He solemnly lowered his head and said, “Today, Master Meng and Doctor Mo departed. I fear they intended to act against the people of Fengxing Pavilion to scatter our accumulated forces. It would be better to lie in wait among the people close to Miss Jing in Ning Tai City. Perhaps we could encounter them.”
When he mentioned a certain word, Cheng Jingchuan could not help wondering if it was indeed a rabbit spirit?
Its fur was a bit similar, and it ran fast too.
Cheng Jingchuan steadied himself and continued, “This matter concerns Miss Jing, and I dare not make a decision on my own.”
Qiu Si laughed aloud, pointing his finger in the air toward Cheng Jingchuan, and said with great interest, “Those things obtained from the Xiliang people, Qingde, did you plan to keep hiding them? With them as bait, why fear that we would not be able to lure Meng Qi?”
Qingde was Cheng Jingchuan’s courtesy name. When Mr. Qiu uttered it, he usually spoke in the tone of addressing a junior, but today, there was an additional chilling implication that made Cheng Jingchuan break out in a cold sweat.
Cheng Jingchuan began to sweat on his back. He thought he had been careful enough.
The things the Xiliang people smuggled into King Ning’s palace grounds were certainly nothing good.
Initially, Cheng Jingchuan thought it was some kind of medicine that drained one’s vitality. King Ning indulged excessively in women. If he used these medicines, he might die abruptly on the spot. That would not do. King Ning’s life and death were not up to him; it depended on Mr. Qiu’s wishes. Therefore, though King Ning reveled nightly, all the aphrodisiacal substances in the palace were harmless. No matter how King Ning ordered the Imperial Physicians and eunuchs, the medicines he obtained never met his desires.
The palace’s supply lines were monitored so tightly that the Xiliang people’s attempts to smuggle things secretly were laughable.
Cheng Jingchuan had just intercepted that batch of suspicious pills when urgent news came from Fengxing Pavilion.
Staring at those dark pills, he suddenly felt terrified, suspecting they were opium.
Thinking about the dreadful descriptions in the intelligence about this so-called “sacred medicine of the southern regions,” Cheng Jingchuan quietly kept the substances to himself and tried every means to hide the news, not letting Mr. Qiu find out.
——What kind of person was Qiu Si, how could Cheng Jingchuan not know?
If such an evil thing as opium fell into Mr. Qiu’s hands, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Cold sweat seeped out, and his limbs felt icy. Cheng Jingchuan hung his head and remained silent.
Qiu Si leaned against the railing of the pavilion, looking relaxed. When he was not acting mad, he appeared like a lean and scholarly old man who had read extensively.
He had integrity and insight, his speech was refined, and he remained modest and open-minded.
No one knew how many people had been impressed by this façade, believing they had encountered a virtuous and elegant scholar.
Mr. Qiu looked at Cheng Jingchuan and said regretfully, “This small piece of land in Ning Tai will need you to rule it in the future. Just a bit of opium, why fear it? If it had been ten years ago, I might have been interested in this ‘sacred medicine of the southern regions,’ pondering its potency. Unfortunately, I have grown old.”
Cheng Jingchuan remained silent. He did not argue nor deny anything, only lowering his head in a posture of admitting guilt.
He heard Qiu Si stand up and walk out of the pavilion.
Without looking back, most of the guards followed him.
Not until even their shadows could no longer be seen did Cheng Jingchuan finally let out a long sigh: “Someone, go to the Imperial Medical Office.”
***
The chaos in the palace intensified.
King Ning’s offspring were rudely pushed out by the Imperial Guards and escorted to the lakeside.
The lake had been dug by human labor, not very wide. Its waterways connected several palace gardens, among which was the pavilion on the lake’s central island, which was the most exquisite and elegant.
With no bridges on all sides, people could only come and go by boat. Thus, no consorts resided there, and it was merely a place where King Ning drank and made merry.
The Imperial Guards, having no time to deal with King Ning’s large boats, simply used the small boats of eunuchs and palace maids. Anyone who was bound was tossed inside. Once ashore, they carried the captives into the pavilion like sacks of grain, ignoring whether these noble princes were cold or hungry. Then they turned and left.
Young children kicked and struggled, shouting for their wet nurses, wanting the eunuchs to appear, only to be beaten until their noses were bruised and faces swollen.
As for the babies still nursing, even their wet nurses were captured and thrown into a corner together.
After gathering everyone, the Imperial Guards carried bucket-like containers and splashed their contents around the pavilion.
Now even those who had been calm panicked completely, thinking it was oil. The shouts, curses, and cries were endless.
Because King Ning had too many sons, it took them a good while to confirm that all the elder brothers who had once been the most likely to inherit were missing. Panic spread immediately.
When tomorrow came and someone ascended the throne, they would probably all have turned to ash.
“Help——”
The cries and curses of this group, howling at the top of their lungs, carried across the surface of the lake, echoing in the palace gardens.
Due to King Ning’s fickle affections, few of King Ning’s sons shared the same mother, and few of their birth mothers still lived. However, some young consorts within the palace walls heard these sounds and were terrified. Some fainted outright, and those with chronic illnesses died on the spot.
Although the Imperial Guards had not killed anyone, the momentum was more frightening than murder. Many trapped inside believed that rivers of blood were already flowing in the palace.
“Doctor.” Meng Qi followed nervously behind Mo Li.
Mo Li listened, and from within a pavilion came the faint crying of an infant, so he looked down into the hall.
He saw a palace maid dressed with a married woman’s hairstyle nervously patting the baby in her arms. The baby’s wrap was made of expensive cool silk. Even if the child was not one of King Ning’s sons, it was at least his grandchild. They were now close to the palace’s eastern side. It was said that the palace was divided by the lake: one side housed King Ning’s consorts, and the other side housed what were called the imperial heirs.
Somehow this wet nurse had escaped capture and hidden in this small building. Her hair was disheveled, her clothes stained with mud and dust, and she was weeping softly as she tried to soothe the baby.
Mo Li lightly leapt onto a beam, wanting to take a look at the baby in the wrap.
The survival of infants was not easy. Leaving aside being startled or jolted, even if lying quietly in a cradle, they could suddenly develop a convulsive illness.
Mainly, this crying sounded somewhat abnormal, growing weaker and weaker, while the wrap kept twitching.
Mo Li silently arrived above the wet nurse’s head and looked down. The child had round, open eyes and slightly puffed cheeks, about three months old, so being wrapped tightly in a swaddle felt uncomfortable. But the imperial family’s rules were strict, and they were in flight, so the wet nurse wished she could wrap the child as tightly as possible. How dared she loosen her grip?
It was still a bit stuffy inside the room at night. Being held and wrapped this way made the child very impatient.
The baby, who had grown tired of crying and was about to rest, suddenly saw a shadow on the beam.
——Infants and wild beasts were most sensitive to spiritual energy.
The crying stopped. The child looked at the beam and giggled.
Meng Qi followed and came to Mo Li’s side. The beam, he knew this place well.
This child was very pretty and seemed strong, kicking and swinging its arms until the swaddle became loose.
An infant’s eyesight was not like an adult’s; seeing distant things was blurry. At this moment, the child tilted its head and curiously gnawed on its own fingers. Why did the shadow on the beam become two? The wet nurse seized the opportunity to wrap the child up again.
“Let’s go.” Meng Qi poked Mo Li’s shoulder and spoke through secret voice transmission.
Mo Li returned to his senses and found himself crouching side by side with Meng Qi on the beam.
Fortunately, this was the palace beam, relatively thick.
Mo Li took a deep breath and departed silently the same way he came.
“Ee ya ya.”
The infant waved its arms at their departing figures. When the wet nurse looked up, she only saw a stretch of firelight outside the window and hurried into the inner room in fright.
Leaving this pavilion behind, Mo Li followed the commotion outside and headed toward the island in the center of the lake.
The princes and nobles, tied up like zongzi dumplings, cursed and shouted, thinking they were about to be burned alive. They had no idea that the buckets the Imperial Guards carried were all filled with water drawn from the lake. The young children who did not know better were so frightened that they could not even cry. At this moment, darkness fell before their eyes, and they lost consciousness.
Soon someone noticed that there was no longer the sound of infants crying, nor the panicked crying of their younger brothers.
Because they were bound and could not move, they could only stretch their necks to look toward the commotion, their faces suddenly changing as they imagined that the Imperial Guards had finally acted.
——Not burning them alive, but first killing them, then setting fire to burn the corpses.
“Dogs of the Wu family! Beasts of the Li family!”
Pity that the noble clans of Ning Tai City were mistaken as the masterminds behind all this, and their ancestors of eighteen generations were cursed thoroughly.
The Imperial Guards sensed something amiss and went to investigate, only to find that the younger royal offspring had somehow fainted for no apparent reason. They immediately became vigilant.
After a chaotic scramble, a heroic man wearing light armor, who seemed to be a general, strode over. He directly examined the wet nurses who had fainted along with the children and frowned, “They were struck at their acupoints.”
What kind of expert could come and go without a trace, striking acupoints right under their noses?
The armored general felt something suspicious and immediately ordered a thorough investigation. Moments later, a guard ran over and whispered two sentences in his ear.
“What, Master Meng was inside the royal palace?”
Over on Meng Qi’s side, he also heard the armored general’s name and furrowed his brow tightly.
The leader of the Left Guard’s Flying Tiger Army, a fifth-rank military officer, had a nickname: the Mountain Splitting Tiger.
“Come on, this name immediately sounds like Bao Guanyong’s disciple…”
Master Meng snorted coldly, recalling a medical book he had flipped through at Cihui Hall the day before yesterday, and couldn’t help but sarcastically remark, “Their master and disciple have no deep grudge against ‘mountain.’ Since Bao Guanyong is so good at naming, why didn’t he name his disciple ‘Mountain Climbing Tiger’?”
“Pfft.” Dr. Mo laughed.
Mountain Climbing Tiger’s root is a type of medicinal herb that can dispel wind, unblock the meridians, activate the blood, and detoxify. If Meng Qi hadn’t mentioned it, he would not have thought of it.
After boarding the lake island, Mo Li saw the crowd packed in here and was momentarily speechless.
King Ning could produce so many children.
His sons ranged from their thirties to babies still nursing, all lined up outside, of various ages.
And these were just the surviving sons.
If King Ning hadn’t been in such poor health and damaged his foundation after all these years, the number of children would have doubled.
Now, seeing so many children, many of them could be King Ning’s grandchildren.
In total, about sixty or seventy people, no wonder their cries were so thunderous.
Don’t know where the one “favored” by Qiu Si is.
Mo Li rubbed his temples. Seeing that Meng Qi didn’t want to bother with Bao Guanyong’s disciple, he decided to first go to the palace garden where Consort Chen’s corpse was to rescue the discerning Master.
“Whatever tiger, can it really collapse a mountain?”
The doctor already knew why the Sand Rat was unhappy, naturally needing someone to go comfort him.
Meng Qi, worried that Mo Li might not be fine and wary of other palace situations, took the lead.
“Opium hasn’t been used yet, these people dragging mountains and daring to call themselves tigers, nothing will come of them…”
Meng Qi paused, then suddenly turned to look at a group of guards at the foot of the stone steps.
The palace was full of people. As long as you hide your figure and pay attention to the Imperial Guards’ movements, you didn’t need to deliberately avoid them.
But now, Meng Qi felt someone was watching here.
“It’s Cheng Jingchuan!” Meng Qi whispered.
Cheng Jingchuan, born with sharp five senses, including hearing: “……”
Master Meng had been found, but what had he just vaguely heard?
Mountain? Tiger?
So concerned about tigers?
Could it really be… rabbit spirit?
Author’s Note:
The complaints about Mountain Climbing Tiger actually came from the comments section of Chapter 283. Several fans commented that day, but the comments weren’t open then, so some fans might have missed them.
——
National Preceptor… rabbit spirits are better than fox spirits.
