Chapter 264 — We Shall Take Your Head

You cannot trick me. " Shen Mu shook his head, stepped forward, walked into the gateway, and with sword qi scraped the writing from the door. To Emperor Yanfeng he said, "Your Majesty, I went to several nearby cities to buy medicine.

With natural disasters and man-made calamities, the apothecaries have few ingredients; I bought only a few kinds, and I do not know how they will serve. " "Use whatever means you have, dear minister Shen. " Emperor Yanfeng said, "Did you learn any news on this journey, dear minister Shen? " "Your Majesty has died.

" Shen Mu glanced at him and said unhurriedly, "Word has come from the capital: His Majesty, worn out by affairs of state, passed away on the road.

The Crown Prince is in mourning, and the whole realm grieves.

" Emperor Yanfeng's heart gave a slight shudder, and he said with a half-smile, "I have already died?

Truly Our good son, Our good son. .

. What of the Grand General of Heavenly Strategy and the rest? Are they still alive?

" Shen Mu prepared the ingredients and refined the elixir, saying, "In that battle outside Bazhou, my Heaven-Sage Cult people came only to save the emperor; after you left they furled their banners and transported themselves away. The Grand General of Heavenly Strategy, the Chief Minister, the Minister of the Masses, and the Minister of Works were taken. The Dao Lord and the Tathagata did not strike to kill, but seized them and handed them over to the Crown Prince. They are heads of great houses with vast power in the capital, and the Crown Prince will need the support of those great houses to take the throne. Rest easy, Your Majesty—they will not die. " "Our good son. .

.

" Emperor Yanfeng sighed. The Grand General of Heavenly Strategy and the others wielded too much power; they held the greater part of the capital's influence, commanded the armies, and controlled other forces in court and country. For the Crown Prince to ascend, he would need their support.

"A realm cannot go a day without a sovereign. The Crown Prince's enthronement should come early in the third month—the sixth day of the third month, an auspicious day; he will likely take the throne then. With the backing of the Daoist sect and the Great Thunderpeal Temple, his becoming emperor is a settled thing. Whoever dares oppose him will have his house seized and his line extinguished.

" "Where is the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping?

Had he been here, We would not have fallen to such a pass. " "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping went traveling on his wedding and has sent no word to this day. On this journey of mine I also saw many spies searching for Your Majesty's traces.

It is said the Crown Prince has ordered that you be taken alive or your corpse found. " Shen Mu roused the Shadow-Transforming Demon Art and the Dharma-Heaven Mustard-Seed Art and burrowed into his divine treasury, urging the power of the elixir within the Primal Embryo divine treasury; but the medicinal power dissolved within the Primal Embryo treasury without repairing it, and the effect was slight. Shen Mu frowned, and tried several other elixirs, with equally slight effect.

Shen Mu turned into a black shadow and flew out from between Emperor Yanfeng's brows, landed, resumed his true form, and paced to and fro.

Suddenly he said, "Your Majesty, your wound is very hard to cure. The wounds on your body, even the wounds to your soul, I can heal; only the wound to your divine treasury I cannot. My alchemist grandfather should be able to cure it. Would Your Majesty be willing to go with me to the Desolate Ruins? " Hope kindled in Emperor Yanfeng's heart. "And who is this alchemist?

" Shen Mu hesitated, then answered honestly, "The Jade-Faced Poison King.

" Emperor Yanfeng's face turned ashen, and he said sourly, "The Jade-Faced Poison King?

" He was emperor; the Empress Dowager was his own mother; yet the Jade-Faced Poison King had murky, unseemly entanglements with the Empress Dowager.

Before the alchemist's true face was exposed he had been called the Jade-Faced Young Lord, with lovers the world over—even certain Daoist nuns and abbesses famed throughout the jianghu had dealings with him that could not be plainly told. Emperor Yanfeng knew of this, of course, but could not well speak of it. He had, in fact, once ordered the Jade-Faced Poison King assassinated, to be rid of the Empress Dowager's paramour. That the alchemist was driven to hide in the Desolate Ruins was in part his doing. To go and see the Jade-Faced Poison King—a thousand times he was unwilling.

"Dear minister Shen, I will not go to the Desolate Ruins. The rebellious son is about to take the throne and ruin my two hundred years of reform; I cannot let that foundation be destroyed in a single day. " Emperor Yanfeng said in a low voice, "We go to the capital!

" Shen Mu's heart gave a slight shudder; he shot him a glance.

"Your Majesty is certain you wish to go to the capital? " Emperor Yanfeng nodded.

"The capital is where the dragon veins gather.

My Ling family's Nine Dragons Emperor Art advances twice as fast when cultivated there; perhaps I can use the qi of the nine dragons to recast my divine treasury.

The lifeblood that the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and I poured out must not be wasted! Once I return to the capital, I can depose the rebellious son! " Shen Mu pondered a moment, then smiled. "Forgive me.

" With that he produced a butcher's knife, took the emperor's crown from his head, and stripped off his yellow robe. Emperor Yanfeng's face changed greatly.

"Dear minister Shen, what are you doing?

" Shen Mu pressed down his head; the butcher's knife hissed, and in a moment Emperor Yanfeng's crown was bare, not a single hair left. Shen Mu then took several sticks of incense, lit them, and pressed them to Emperor Yanfeng's scalp.

Emperor Yanfeng cried out in pain; his scalp sizzled and crackled, and several ordination scars were left upon it. Shen Mu looked him over and smiled. "Sadhu.

We still need a set of black robes and straw sandals, and a string of prayer beads. And the beard must be shaved as well. " With that he laid the emperor down and shaved his beard clean away.

Emperor Yanfeng was furious, but could not resist. In a moment he was clean and fresh, dressed by Shen Mu as a great monk in a yellow robe; the emperor of old, awe-inspiring without anger, had vanished. Shen Mu then took up a painter's brush, mixed ink, and painted and daubed upon Emperor Yanfeng's face.

Emperor Yanfeng would have resisted, but Shen Mu sealed him outright, so that he could only stand there stiff as a board and let himself be handled. When Shen Mu had finished painting, he fetched a mirror and set it before him, smiling. "Does Your Majesty still know himself?

" Emperor Yanfeng looked at the man in the mirror and saw a middle-aged monk, a knife scar running from his left eye down across the bridge of his nose and over his right cheek to below his right ear—a fierce, malignant-looking sick monk, giving one the sense that in idle hours he chanted sutras and told his beads, and in wicked hours he killed men and burned houses. Shen Mu took down the knife sheath and slung it on Emperor Yanfeng's back.

Emperor Yanfeng gave a stifled groan and was pressed flat to the ground, unable to move, crying, "My bones—my bones will be crushed! Take it off, I cannot breathe. . .

" "I forgot—Your Majesty's cultivation has been destroyed, and your frame is not what it was. " Shen Mu hastily removed the two butcher's knives, went outside for a plank of wood, carved two wooden knives, painted them with iron lacquer so that black and white stood out clearly, made a sheath, and slung the two wooden butcher's knives on Emperor Yanfeng's back. Shen Mu looked him over and smiled.

"Your Majesty may now come out with me.