Chapter 4
Chapter 4
After I celebrated my fifteenth birthday, the time was ripe.
Just then, a major incident occurred in the palace.
The Second Prince had returned from his fief and presented His Majesty with a gift: an auspicious White Fox.
The moment National Teacher Ye saw the fox, he was struck with horror. He declared that a fox demon had appeared in the world, and that only a body of pure yang and utmost righteousness could destroy it with pure blood.
At first, the Emperor was skeptical. But National Teacher Ye was the person he trusted most.
In the end, he had the Second Prince thrown into prison and decided to sacrifice him to eliminate the fox demon.
When I heard the news, I shook my head again and again. “This Imperial Father of mine really is a little too superstitious.”
Ah Fei ignored me. She was busy starting a fire.
Black smoke billowed everywhere, choking her until she coughed. She urged me, “Come help. This was your idea, after all. Whether we can get out depends on just how superstitious this bargain-bin Imperial Father of yours really is.”
Without changing expression, I dug up the white bones buried beneath the only pear tree in the Cold Palace and threw them into the flames.
The Seventh Prince was reduced completely to ash.
No one would ever find proof that I was an impostor.
Firelight illuminated my eyes.
Outside the Cold Palace, the palace servants’ perfunctory shouts to put out the fire drifted in.
Today, everyone in the palace was at Taiji Palace.
The Second Prince was sacrificing himself to the fox demon. No one cared about the Cold Palace.
Ah Fei and I wrapped ourselves in soaked quilts and lay flat in the corner where the smoke was thinnest.
The fire grew larger and larger, alarming Taiji Palace in the middle of the sacrifice.
Ah Fei and I exchanged a glance.
With a flick of her hand, she scattered the powder she had made.
The moment the powder touched the flames, it flashed with seven-colored light and released dazzling, iridescent smoke.
It was like the rosy glow of the nine heavens from legends of gods and Buddhas descending to earth, indescribably holy.
“Back where I came from, we could even make signal flares by hand,” Ah Fei said, raising an eyebrow at me.
What was that? I blinked in confusion.
She patted my shoulder.
“Go on. Time for your performance.”
I had smeared ointment that attracted foxes on my wrists, neck, and back.
The voices outside the door grew louder and more numerous.
It seemed the seven-colored radiance really was alluring.
The Emperor was the most superstitious of all. There was no way he would ignore this glow.
With a thunderous crash, the doors of the Cold Palace, sealed for so many years, were smashed open.
“Who is inside?!”
I recognized that shrill voice at once-
Wu Ping, the chief eunuch at the Empress’s side.
The colored smoke drifted toward Wu Ping’s face.
He called inside in his piercing voice, “Is anyone in there?”
My heart pounded wildly. Steeling myself, I ran out.
“Take me to see Imperial Father and Second Brother! I have calculated that they are suffering a calamity caused by the fox demon’s provocation. I can save them!”
Wu Ping’s eyes were cloudy, and the scrutiny in his gaze was like a sharp blade.
All I could do was gamble.
Gamble that the Empress wanted to save the Second Prince.
Gamble that the Second Prince was still of use to the Fifth Prince.
I met Wu Ping’s gaze without dodging or flinching.
He looked at me deeply, then asked, “You are…”
I replied respectfully, “This sinner’s birth mother was of the Yu clan.”
“Consort Yu?” Wu Ping’s eyes flickered. “So it is the Seventh Prince. Please follow this old servant.”
The situation was urgent, and the Empress wanted to save the Second Prince.
If I said I had a way, they would certainly try it.
What sort of waves could an abandoned prince from the Cold Palace possibly stir up?
At worst, they would use me and throw me away.
I followed Wu Ping at a brisk pace to Taiji Palace.
A pyre had already been piled outside the great hall. The Second Prince was tied at the center, his eyes full of grief and fury.
I charged straight over. The guards moved to stop me, but Wu Ping rebuked them all into retreat. “How dare you lay hands on the Seventh Prince!”
I ran straight to the White Fox, bent down, and gathered it into my arms.
Using my clothes as cover, where no one could see, I forcefully stuffed the medicinal powder in my hand into the fox’s mouth.
Then I clamped its muzzle shut.
Soul-Severing Powder, in a dose enough to poison three strong men.
The White Fox’s struggles gradually weakened.
I raised the dead fox high above my head.
“The fox demon has been destroyed!”
At that moment, just as Ah Fei had calculated, the east wind suddenly rose.
Following what we had rehearsed countless times, I swept my hand through the air. My shabby gray-black sleeve abruptly turned into colored silk, and countless plumes of rainbow smoke flew from within it.
“The evildoer has been purged! Auspicious clouds and blessed vapors come to congratulate my sovereign!”
In an instant, that cloud of colored light and smoke rose from behind Taiji Palace and rolled toward us.
Ah Fei had told me this was stage magic.
In her era, no one would take it seriously.
But in this era, there was no such thing as “science.” Everyone would believe it.
Magic would make me look like an immortal descending to the mortal world.
From within the deep-red palace hall, an old man in a bright yellow dragon robe slowly walked out.
The current Son of Heaven, Li Chi.
Though he had already grown old, an impossible-to-ignore pressure still emanated from him.
I hurried down from the Sacrificial Altar and dropped to my knees before him with a thud.
“Imperial Father, when this son was eight years old, the Divine Lord of Numinous Treasure entered my dreams and taught me how to determine fate and calculate fortune.”
“This son calculated that a monster in human skin is using the chaos of the White Fox to drive a wedge between Imperial Father and Second Brother, turning father and son against each other.”
“This son begs to eliminate that monster for Imperial Father and for all under heaven!”
Bright yellow boots stopped before my eyes.
The Emperor’s question sounded from above me. “Who is this monster?”
I suppressed the trembling in my arm and pointed at the National Preceptor. “National Teacher Ye!”
“He is the demon. For the past month, my master has entered my dreams every night to tell me so!”