The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “I thought I only needed thirty percent of my strength to deal with you, but it seems like I should use fifty.”

  “Is that so?”

  Wang Chong couldn’t help but smile. This man possessed an extraordinary amount of confidence.

  “You think that you’re using thirty percent of your strength, so why do you think I’m using all of mine?”

  Wang Chong had encountered many opponents, and all of them had been brimming with confidence.

  But in the end, they had all lost.

  When it came to intelligence and strategy, Wang Chong feared no one.

  The Ghost King’s eyes narrowed, and he gave Wang Chong a profound glance.

  All fell silent as the four eyes met.

  This was their first exchange of words, and they had already begun to sound each other out.

  Both Wang Chong and the Ghost King exuded a sharp edge indicating that neither would back down.

  The air grew tenser and tenser.

  After some time, Wang Chong finally broke the silence. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but you won’t succeed!”

  With all disguises ripped away, the two were beginning to cut straight to the point. This man before him was a deep schemer, and while the First Prince stood at the forefront of the Rebellion of the Three Princes as its ringleader, the man behind him was the true culprit behind the curtains.

  If he hadn’t risked himself to make this man appear, no outsider would ever be able to find out his true identity.

  It was only through the energetic and wise rule of the first few Tang Emperors that the Central Plains was able to emerge from the chaos of the Sui and obtain the current peace. All of this had not come easily, and there was still the calamity to come. Wang Chong would not permit anyone to ruin what had taken so much effort to obtain.

  This was his true purpose in appearing here.

  “Is that so?”

  The Ghost King couldn’t help but laugh.

  “The lofty aspirations of the young are truly worth admiring. Alas, their youthful vigor prevents them from having a clear idea of their own abilities. At your current level, you’re still a little lacking.”

  Although the Ghost King was smiling, his eyes were cold and sharp.

  Wang Chong was a King that all the countries feared. But there was no fear to be detected from the Ghost King—or perhaps one could say that the mysterious Ghost King simply didn’t care about all of Wang Chong’s feats on the battlefield.

  He naturally exuded a sense of powerful pride, a self-confidence that was rooted in his bones. It was as if no opponent in the world could ever think of matching wits against him.

  “Heh, thank you, Senior, for the reminder. Elders are revered for their rich experience, and the young truly cannot compare on this front, but Senior must have also heard this saying before: On the Yangtze, the waves behind drive on the waves before, and each wave is stronger than the last. Too much self-conceit is not necessarily a good thing,” Wang Chong indifferently said.

  The Ghost King fell silent, surprised at the sharpness on Wang Chong’s body. He began to carefully examine Wang Chong, an inscrutable look in his eyes.

  “Young man, let’s play a game,” the Ghost King suddenly said. “Since ancient times, the old have always been placed above the young, the son of the first wife placed above that of the concubine. You support the Fifth Prince and I support the First Prince. Let’s see which one is sitting upon the Throne of Nine and Five at the end. Is it your Fifth Prince or my First Prince?”

  “Okay!”

  Wang Chong’s eyes gleamed with cold light.

  “But I’d like to change the rules a little. If this were just a game, it would be far too boring. Why don’t we gamble our lives? The loser will have to pay with their life.”

  “Hahaha, that’s what this old man was about to say.”

  The Ghost King laughed and immediately agreed.

  The laughter came to a stop almost as quickly as it had begun.

  The two stared at each other in silence. The mood was tense like never before, invisible killing intent seething in the air.

  As Wang Chong looked at this elder, he understood more than anyone else what would happen to the capital if this elder were allowed to succeed.

  A thousand victories on the border could not compare to a single upheaval in the court.

  When the hearts of the people were disunited, true chaos would ensue!

  No matter what kind of price he had to pay, Wang Chong could not permit them to succeed in their treasonous plan.

  Creeeeak!

  As the two entered a tense stalemate, the door of Tianxin Palace suddenly opened. The gloomy First Prince was the first to walk out.

  The Fifth Prince was right behind, his face ice-cold.

  The pair outside the palace turned in unison to look.

  “Let’s go!” the First Prince darkly ordered, not waiting for the Ghost King to speak. With a wave of his sleeve, he began to walk back to the Eastern Palace. Behind him, the Ghost King slightly smiled.

  “King of Foreign Lands, we will meet again.”

  The Ghost King glanced at the nearby Li Heng before following the First Prince.

  “Your Highness!”

  With no one else around, Wang Chong walked over to the Fifth Prince.

  “How was it? Not nervous, are you?”

  Wang Chong could see that the Fifth Prince was not very focused, apparently having many worries on his mind. He didn’t know what the two Princes had talked about in Tianxin Palace, but given the First Prince’s style, it was probably nothing good.

  Given the Fifth Prince’s personality, it had taken extraordinary courage for him to agree to Wang Chong’s request, walk out from behind the curtain, and go into Tianxin Palace to face his elder brother.

  In truth, even Wang Chong had been astonished to see the Fifth Prince step forward and unflinchingly face down the First Prince.

  Something had clearly changed within the Fifth Prince.

  “I’m fine; don’t worry. What information did you gather on your end?” The Fifth Prince swept aside his own affairs and asked about Wang Chong’s problems.

  The First Prince’s operations were growing in frequency and aggressiveness. In contrast, the Fifth Prince’s situation was getting worse and worse, and he was under more and more pressure.

  Once the First Prince succeeded, the Fifth Prince would lose any foothold in the palace. This was why he was able to overcome his fears and take that crucial step forward.

  The Jade Consort Xiao incident had shorn away his last shred of innocence.

  “Everything is going smoothly, and I’ve gotten what I came here for. Although I still don’t know where Eunuch Gao is, given what happened tonight, I’m sure that he’s still under house arrest and that his life isn’t yet in danger.”

  Wang Chong’s face turned serious.

  A cicada would sense the coming of autumn before the first breeze, and a single falling leaf would portend the fall of others. Even if he couldn’t see the full picture, a smart man would be able to extract a great deal of information from numerous small details.

  He had still not seen Eunuch Gao on this excursion to the Imperial Palace, but he had obtained the information he wanted.

  “That’s good. As long as Eunuch Gao is fine, it means that the situation hasn’t deteriorated that badly.”

  The Fifth Prince sighed in relief, his expression relaxing.

  “Right now, we should investigate that ‘master’ at the First Prince’s side.”

  A vicious light gleamed in Wang Chong’s eyes.

  On the other side, the Fifth Prince’s eyes flickered.

  Chapter 1652 - The Game Begins!

  Chapter 1652: The Game Begins!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  The Fifth Prince was very interested in the elder at the First Prince’s side. Anyone who could push Wang Chong to this state and demand such solemni
ty from him was no ordinary character.

  This man had to have some extraordinary background.

  “Let’s go. We’ll talk once we leave this place.”

  ……

  Meanwhile, very far away from Tianxin Palace, the First Prince suddenly stopped.

  “This prince did everything you asked in this affair. What do you have to say now?”

  The First Prince had his back to the Ghost King, a tinge of anger in his voice. He had lured his foe step by step into the trap, believing that he was about to deliver the lethal blow, but now, there was no doubt that the operation had failed.

  Wang Chong had seen through the Ghost King’s plan from the very beginning.

  “Your Highness is very angry?”

  Surprisingly, the Ghost King smiled, unperturbed by the First Prince’s tone.

  “You!”

  The First Prince was rendered speechless. It was obvious that the Ghost King was completely right.

  “That bastard thing actually dares to oppose me, saying that he wants to fight for the throne with this prince! The audacity!”

  The First Prince’s body seethed with anger.

  “Heh, isn’t that a good thing?”

  The Ghost King chuckled.

  “If the Fifth Prince didn’t fight and continued to shrink back as always, how could Your Highness deal with him? After all, Jade Consort Xiao can only be done once, no?”

  The First Prince’s face froze. His first reaction to this development was fury, but now that he thought about it, the Ghost King’s argument made sense. An enraged Li Heng, a Li Heng who wanted to vie for the throne, would undoubtedly try many plans, and as long as he was doing these things, he would inevitably leave behind flaws that could be exploited.

  From this viewpoint, this truly was a good thing.

  The First Prince fell silent as he began to think.

  “But after being messed around with by Wang Chong, did we not go through such great efforts in vain? Was not our major operation completely fruitless?” the First Prince uneasily said.

  “How could it be fruitless?”

  The Ghost King seemed to have predicted this question. He stroked his beard, a wise light in his eyes.

  “The bait we left behind was meant for the King of Foreign Lands, but if he didn’t have many spies in the palace, how could he have found these subtle hints? Using the clues we’ve gathered tonight, we can sweep the Imperial Army, eunuchs, and maids and clean out the spies of the King of Foreign Lands.

  “If these spies are not cleared out, then even if Your Highness is within the inner palace, your every move will be watched by the King of Foreign Lands, and then how would you be able to do anything? Thus, how could Your Highness say that this operation was fruitless?”

  The First Prince was struck dumb. He turned his head to look at the Ghost King and saw that the man was smirking, his eyes shining brightly.

  “So you were already ready for this!”

  The First Prince sighed in relief as he understood what was going on. He had believed that the Ghost King had completely failed in his operation against the King of Foreign Lands and had been no match for Wang Chong, but it seemed like everything had not been out of control as it seemed.

  “This being the case, I’ll leave the rest to you!”

  The First Prince waved his sleeve and left, clearly relieved.

  Meanwhile, elsewhere, a carrier pigeon flew out of the palace and into the waiting arms of Zhang Que.

  “Zhang Que, what did His Highness say?” Xu Keyi asked from behind Zhang Que.

  “His Highness says to withdraw all our spies within the palace as quickly as possible, including Heaven Deaf and Earth Mute. If all goes as expected, the First Prince will begin to clear the palace of our spies soon.”

  Zhang Que’s brows furrowed. It was clear that this was not an order he had expected, but no one ever questioned Wang Chong’s orders.

  After folding up the letter, Zhang Que quickly transmitted Wang Chong’s orders to the inner palace.

  ……

  Time passed by, and while the clash in the inner palace had caused quite a stir and alarmed many soldiers of the Imperial Army, it produced no ripples outside of the palace.

  Once the palace gates opened back up, Wang Chong returned to the King of Foreign Lands Residence.

  Everything went just as he had expected. Not long after the end of that incident, a large-scale purge was instigated in the palace, but as Wang Chong had already prepared himself, it didn’t cause too much of a disturbance.

  As for Li Jingzhong and Yang Zhao, though the First Prince knew about them, he wasn’t able to do much to them. After all, they were backed by the Fifth Prince and Consort Taizhen.

  But there were a few problems with Bian Lingcheng and Zhao Fengchen.

  However, there had been a reason Bian Lingcheng had been able to stand tall in the palace and bully around someone like Gao Xianzhi.

  Though he didn’t know how Bian Lingcheng had done it, Wang Chong had learned that he had managed to make a clean getaway, leaving behind no clues that the Eastern Palace could use to connect him to Wang Chong.

  Even Wang Chong had to express his admiration for such incredible survival skills.

  As for Zhao Fengchen, he was a marshal of the Imperial Army, even if he wasn’t one of the highest-ranked ones, and he also had his achievements at the Battle of Talas. With no evidence, not even the First Prince could do anything to him.

  Wang Chong was more focused on another matter.

  In his study, Wang Chong was seated behind his desk, his eyes half-closed and his expression calm. But his mind was restless and uneasy.

  Every detail of his encounter with the Ghost King emerged in his mind.

  No one can emerge out of nowhere. This sort of man can’t be completely unknown!

  Countless thoughts traveled through his mind.

  In this life or the last, this expert hidden behind the Rebellion of the Three Princes had always been an extremely mysterious existence. He was a ball of dark and impenetrable fog, remaining unknown both before and after the Rebellion of the Three Princes.

  He had existed and then disappeared with the same air of mystery.

  By knowing oneself and knowing one’s enemy, one could win all battles. Everything about Wang Chong was out in the open, and his foe probably had an extremely detailed report. Meanwhile, Wang Chong was completely in the dark.

  To fight an enemy in the shadows while standing in the light went against the principles of war.

  Suddenly, Wang Chong recalled a jade token the Ghost King had inadvertently revealed as he turned around.

  It was around eight inches long and very simple. The jade was translucent and crystalline, but its edges were a faint yellow, a trait only possessed by jade of extremely old age.

  Of course, what Wang Chong cared more about were the words and decorations on the token.

  Gentlemen often wore jade tokens to indicate that their temperament resembled jade, and almost all the nobility and renowned clansmen wore jade tokens at their waists. This was a sort of custom, and even members of minor clans hung jade tokens from their waists on threads of silk.

  Wang Chong was born in a clan of ministers and generals, and was extremely familiar with such things. But compared to this jade token, the jade tokens worn by even the highest nobility and most powerful clans seemed greatly inferior.

  No ordinary person could possess this kind of ancient jade.

  “Come!”

  Wang Chong suddenly opened his eyes and began to issue orders.

  “Summon for me all the jade artisans in the capital aged seventy or older. Tell them that I would like them to investigate something for me!”

  Wang Chong snatched a brush, spread out a piece of paper, and began to draw the jade token he had seen.

  “Take it.”

  “Yes, Lord Marquis!”

  A Golden Guard took the drawing and left, and it was soon conveyed to all the jade artis
ans of the capital. But despite the large number of jade artisans, not a single one recognized the jade token.

  Wang Chong couldn’t help but crease his brows in surprise upon receiving the report.

  Wang Chong’s investigation had come to a standstill. Several days later, a Golden Guard rushed into the main hall of the King of Foreign Lands Residence.

  “Your Highness, bad news! There’s been a major incident!”

  The Golden Guard got down on one knee and lowered his head.

  “We’ve just received word that the Imperial Court has suddenly passed a proposal calling Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and Feng Changqing back to the capital, with their replacements to be selected and dispatched by the Imperial Court afterward!”

  “What?!”

  Wang Chong had been sipping on tea while reading a letter, but when he heard the report, he raised his head and paled.

  Sudden!

  Too sudden!

  Gao Xianzhi guarded Anxi, the northwest gate of the Great Tang. This had remained unchanged for ten-some years, and the Anxi Protectorate possessed a significant status in the empire.

  Under Gao Xianzhi’s rule, the Western Regions prospered. Moreover, Gao Xianzhi had pushed back many direct and indirect probing attacks from Arabia.

  Gao Xianzhi played a critical role in maintaining the safety of the Western Regions.

  The Sage Emperor had never even thought about transferring away Gao Xianzhi, and he had even tried to reinforce him as much as possible, even establishing a massive armory in Qixi to support him.

  Wang Chong had never imagined that the Imperial Court would remove Gao Xianzhi, remove the Anxi War God from his domain.

  West of the Cong Mountains was the land of the Arabian Empire, an empire that had always greedily eyed the Great Tang. In the battles of Talas and Khorasan, Wang Chong had won consecutive victories and killed one million Arab cavalry, causing all of Arabia to tremble in fear.

  But this was an unruly empire that longed to fight and kill. Two defeats was far from enough to make it yield.

  This empire had a tradition that revered martial prowess, and could quickly recover from even these massive losses. It wouldn’t be long before they trained up another massive and powerful army.

  Without Gao Xianzhi, if Arabia began another war, the entire Western Regions would be in great peril!