Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 494 - 393: Qianqiu Brush_1

Chapter 494: Chapter 393: Qianqiu Brush_1

At the summit of Kunlun Mountain, inside the Jinque Palace suspended above the clouds, on a high platform shrouded in mist, a middle-aged man in his forties, dressed in Confucian robes, was sitting cross-legged on a cushion in the center. In front of him was a desk, scattered with dozens of fragments of paper.

If one looks closely, they will realize that these pieces of paper are not ordinary paper. They are made of some kind of animal hide and infused with a powerful force.

Standing by the southern side of the platform are two individuals. One is a female whose facial features are beautiful, with bright eyes and white teeth. In her light red palace dress, she exudes an elegant and refined aura. The other is a young man in his twenties, handsome, carrying a long sword. Should Li Xuan be here, he would recognize this person as the Sword-bearer he had met before.

Both of them, however, are fully focused at this moment, watching every move of the middle-aged man in the Confucian robe. In their eyes, there are traces of worry.

"Rise!"

With a sharp command from the man in the Confucian robe, the scattered paper pieces all gathered together like a whirlwind, lifting into the air before settling down on the desk in front of him.

Subsequently, they assembled themselves, fitting together perfectly and turned into a piece of light yellow paper.

As the pieces of paper converged, the middle-aged man suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, speckling the paper with tiny droplets.

Simultaneously, the middle-aged man’s appearance aged by at least ten years in an instant. Not only did his hair turn white, but wrinkles also creased his face.

The woman and the Sword-wielder immediately stepped forward, intently observing the paper.

"This is —"

Meanings of shock flickered in the eyes of the young Sword-wielder.

He realized that the paper was entirely blank, and the supposed script was nowhere to be found.

"This is the reason why we must eliminate Li Xuan,"

The woman in the palace dress had a cryptic look in her eyes as she looked at the paper, "The future written by the Qianqiu Brush has been disrupted by him. Now, only your senior uncle Zhuang, at the cost of his life force, can return to the source and correct the chaos."

At this moment, the Confucian robed man was engulfed in a red flame - the Sword-wielder recognized this as not genuine fire, but a soul fire, also known as the Samadhi True Fire.

As a result of this fire, the Qi of the middle-aged scholar was quickly fading, causing two lines of text to appear on the yellow paper.

"On the seventh day of the first month in the thirteenth year of Jingtai, the second son of Jingtai Emperor, Zhu Jianji, died at the third moment of the Hour of Chen. The cause of death is unknown."

"On the twenty-ninth day of the first month in the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Meng Wu invades north Zhili. Zhang Guanlan assists the attack on Dushi Pass with airships. The city is captured in a day, resulting in tens of thousands of casualties."

After these two lines appeared, the middle-aged man reached for a pen placed next to the desk.

Although the pen seemed ordinary, it carried an unspoken weight.

When the man in the Confucian robe picked it up, his face immediately showed signs of strain. Concurrently, the entire celestial dome of the sky fluttered with starlight, signifying a cosmic shift.

Seeing this, the woman in the palace dress became slightly tense: "Brother Zhuang, have you thought this through? The Qianqiu Brush can indeed alter the future and influence cause and effect, but unless it aligns with destiny, the course of time, and the greater momentum, any human action will cause enormous depletion.

Your remaining life force is already quite limited, and cannot afford such demands. Especially around Li Xuan, there are many heavenly level beings. Any person or matter linked to them carries significant destiny. If you want to use the brush to alter cause and effect, you will suffer enormous backlash, and might lose your life,"

The man surnamed Zhuang smiled at her words: "What can it do? Ever since that battle hundreds of years ago, my life has been hanging by a thread, only sustained by the Book of Jinque. If I could bring back order just by sacrificing this useless body and letting everything return to its normal course, what is there to lose?"

Without hesitation, he picked up the brush and began to write on the paper.

The Sword-bearer watched closely. The first thing Uncle Zhuang wrote was ’On the eighth of the first month during the thirteenth year of Jingtai —’

It seemed like he initially wanted to write ’On the eighth day of the first month’, but no matter what, it could not be written. The words written on the paper vaporized and vanished immediately after.

It wasn’t until the phrase was changed to ’On the twelfth day of the first month’ that the text finally remained on the paper.

Next, the man with the surname Zhuang attempted to write the three characters ’Earl Jingan’, but again he failed. Regardless, every time he reached the third stroke of the character ’Jing’, the ink traces would vaporize, leaving no marks.

The Sword-wielder understood that this was probably due to Li Xuan’s inherent power, authority, karma, destiny, and momentum that impeded the writing.

The aforementioned Earl Jingan held control over the Wenshan Seal and was associated with several Heavenly-level beings. Consequently, even with Uncle Zhuang’s sacrifice of blood and lifespan to manipulate the Qianqiu Brush, he was still incapable suppressing this man’s destiny and karma.

After several attempts, the man surnamed Zhuang’s face grows pale, and traces of blood appear on his features.

Eventually, he changed his mind, replacing ’Earl Jingan’ with ’On the second moment of the Hour of Wu, on the twelfth day of the first month, during the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Earl Chengyi, Li Chengji, died of severe injuries.’

The second line read, ’On the thirteenth day of the first month in the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Immortal Master Shuide, Ao Shuying, was confined within Poyang Lake.’

At the point of writing these lines, the middle-aged scholar had aged to a horrifying degree, the skin of his face sagging with deep folds like the bark of a dead tree.

Yet, he did not give up. He continued to try and write.

’On the fourteenth day of the first month in the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Princess Changle, Yu Hongchang, died—’

But before the character ’died’ could be completed, a mouthful of fresh blood gushed out of the middle-aged man with the surname Zhuang. Subsequently, he transformed into particles and disappeared into thin air within the blink of an eye. The unfinished line of characters also vanished without a trace at this moment.

Seeing this, the palace-dressed woman sighed slightly. She positioned the fallen ’Qianqiu Brush’ back onto the desk, picked up the yellow paper, and then appeared lost in thought as she stared at the paper for a while.

There were four lines of characters on this yellow paper.

"On the seventh day of the first month of the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Zhu Jianji, the second son of Jingtai Emperor, died at the third hour of Chen, cause of death unknown."

"On the twelfth day of the first month of the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Earl Chengyi, Li Chengji, suffered severe injuries and died suddenly at the second hour of Wu!"

"On the thirteenth day of the first month of the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Immortal Master Shuide, Ao Shuying, was sealed inside Poyang Lake."

"On the twenty-ninth day of the first month of the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Meng Wu invaded North Zhili, Zhang Guanlan controlled the airborne battleship to assist in attacking Dushi Pass, the city broke in one day, and tens of thousands died."

The young man with the sword also appeared deeply saddened for a while. However, he could not help but look at the palace-dressed woman, "Master, why didn’t you inform Uncle Zhuang about my junior sister’s situation? In my opinion, we should let my junior sister get away from Li Xuan as soon as possible. The Jade Qilin, my junior sister’s incarnation in his hands, is also a major catastrophe."

But the palace-dressed woman shook her head and put the paper into her sleeve, "We cannot rush this. Isn’t your junior sister safe for now? There is a priority in everything. What benefits can be gained from your junior sister’s release at this moment? What could Li Xuan do with the Jade Qilin?

How high can his status in Confucianism be? Could he replace Master Yu and become a Sub-Sage or a Saint? It would be a good thing if he dares to do so. We have countless methods to ruin him."

She stood with her hands behind her back, her eyes cold as she looked beyond the high stage, "Yet this man has no such intention, so what harm would it do for your junior sister to stay by his side? As for Earl Chengyi, Li Chengji who controls the Caojiang navy is his base. And Ao Shuying represents his greatest external force. If we do not cut off these external forces supporting him, when will we be able to eliminate this man?"

After all, the ’fruit’ of the Qianqiu Brush has already been determined, now all that is left is to quietly await the drama that is about to unfold.

※※ ※※

On the morning of the seventh day of the first month of the thirteenth year of the Jingtai era, Jiang Yunqi hastily entered the palace, following a eunuch who was delivering an imperial edict.

When he arrived at the palace gate, he saw Yu Hongchang waiting for him at the gate.

Jiang Yunqi noticed that Princess Changle’s face was pale, and her eyes held a hint of anxiety.

"Your Highness, what is the matter with the Crown Prince?"

Your Highness Jiang Yunqi noticed a somewhat puzzled look on his face, "Could you tell me more about the symptoms?"

An eunuch delivering the imperial edict rushed into his clinic early in the morning, asking him to enter the palace as soon as possible. The eunuch only mentioned that the Crown Prince was seriously ill and requested him to diagnose the Crown Prince.

But the eunuch knew nothing about what kind of illness or symptoms the Crown Prince had.

"The Imperial Physicians say it’s a brain tumor, but I don’t know if it’s true or not."

Princess Changle had a blank gaze, even a bit dazed, "Actually, there were signs seven days ago. On the day my brother Jianji was declared Crown Prince, he had a nosebleed that lasted for a long time. But at that time he didn’t pay much attention to it, and my father didn’t seem to care. He let two old Imperial Physicians examine him and didn’t inquire further."

"This was because Jianji suffered frequent nosebleeds in his childhood. After Monk Zhenru adjusted his constitution when he was twelve years old, his condition gradually improved. However, he would still experience occasional nosebleeds afterward. So it wasn’t much of a concern to anyone."

"But during these seven days, Jianji had three nosebleeds. This morning, he not only had a severe nosebleed but also couldn’t stop vomiting blood! The Imperial Physicians say that the ’Monk Zhenru,’ who died at the Xiao Mausoleum, suppressed Jianji’s brain tumor symptoms with brutal methods. Now the eruption has become even more violent. But I don’t know if what they said is true."

Jiang Yunqi frowned and then quickened his steps towards the East Palace.

After Zhu Jianshen, the deposed Crown Prince, abdicated earlier that year, he voluntarily moved out of the East Palace. The second prince, Zhu Jianji, moved into the East Palace from Prince Cheng’s Mansion, where Emperor Jingtai had previously resided, on the fifth day of the first month.

However, just two days after taking over the East Palace, such a thing happened.

As Jiang Yunqi walked, he continued to ask, "Has His Highness taken any medication?"

"Yes, all kinds of spiritual and miraculous medicines have been used, but none had any effect."

Princess Changle’s face was pale, "We even prepared a ’Six Refinements Dahuan Elixir’, which is said to revive the dead, but the Imperial Physicians said it was too late. The brain is the dwelling place of the Shenpo, and if the brain dies, the Shenpo gets damaged.

"It turns out that Jianji’s cultivation has not reached the Yin God realm of the Seventh House Level, and his soul can only exist by relying on his flesh. Although the ’Six Refinements Dahuan Elixir’ can bring the dead back to life and restore their bones, it cannot restore his scattered Shenpo."

By the time their conversation ended, they had already arrived at the sleeping quarters of the East Palace. Just when Jiang Yunqi stepped into the door, he heard a cry of sorrow from inside.

Several imperial physicians stood in the hall with pale faces, while the eunuchs were all kneeling and weeping on the ground.

Aside, a court historian was writing on a piece of paper excitedly.

"On the seventh day of the first month of the thirteenth year of Jingtai, Zhu Jianji, the second son of the Jingtai Emperor, suffered a brain tumor and died at the third hour of Chen—"