The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “Venerable Sir, this one did not come purely to satisfy his curiosity or out of some personal desire. This one has come because several problems have appeared in the Imperial Court, not merely involving one person, but all the countless inhabitants of the Central Plains!”

  Wang Chong paused, took in a deep breath, and gave a rough summary of the events in the palace to the blind elder.

  “I’ve carefully investigated this matter and found that everything goes back to those disappeared records from thirty-some years ago!

  “At present, all that is happening in the palace is the construction of the Peace Pavilion, and the selection of new palace ladies has been placed to the side for now. But if this matter is allowed to continue, I worry that there will be even greater chaos in the future. At that time, it won’t just be selecting talented women. I fear that all the inhabitants of the Central Plains will be dragged in.”

  Buzz!

  The blind elder trembled, clearly shocked by these words.

  He was blind, and he had lived most of his life in this shabby estate, not taking a step beyond its door, so he did not understand too much about the outside world. He had known nothing about what Wang Chong had told him.

  “This matter is of grave importance. I hope that if Venerable Sir knows some of the truth, you tell me as soon as you can!” Wang Chong sternly said.

  This was his final effort. If the man refused to speak, there was nothing else he could do.

  Time slowly passed, and the blind elder remained silent. Just when Wang Chong was prepared to leave in disappointment, the elder suddenly spoke.

  “While this old man has rarely left this humble abode, he has heard a little of the news from that child Zhao-er.” The blind elder sighed and abruptly brought up an irrelevant topic. “The war of the southwest, the Battle of Talas, the war of the northwest, the rebellion in the Imperial Palace not too long ago… The child is young and cannot describe things very clearly, but this old man is able to get a general picture of what he is saying. In my Great Tang, it has been a long time since there has been a subject as loyal and devoted as Your Highness!”

  Wang Chong was taken aback. The mention of ‘Zhao-er’ immediately made him recall the child who had come out from the gate with the pinwheel.

  The blind elder ‘looked’ in Wang Chong’s direction and said, “This old man thinks that if even the King of Foreign Lands, a man who has been enshrined in Lingyan Pavilion, cannot be trusted, then no one in the Central Plains is worthy of trust.”

  Wang Chong was startled to receive such a high evaluation from the blind elder.

  “Your Highness, this old man should be able to trust you, yes?” the blind elder suddenly asked.

  “Venerable Sir!”

  Wang Chong was elated.

  “Haaah…”

  The blind elder sighed and raised his head, a complicated expression on his face.

  “Thirty-seven years ago, on the day this old man left, I knew that someone would come for those things eventually. Time went by, and in the blink of an eye, decades had passed. This old man is getting older, with one foot in the grave. I originally thought that I would not be able to wait until that time, but then Your Highness came.”

  Wang Chong was stunned. Although he had found the entire matter suspicious, he had never been absolutely sure. With this thin sliver of hope, he had come to the blind elder, not expecting that there really would be something.

  “…Many people think that because the blind cannot see, there is no need to hide anything in front of them, but they have no idea that while the blind cannot see, their minds are bright and sharp.”

  The blind elder raised his head, a look of recollection on his face. Slowly, a story from thirty-some years ago began to unfurl in the old room.

  “Thirty-seven years ago, just as usual, I was attending at the Compassionate Virtue Hall. Usually, Eunuch Zhang and several guards would deliver the memorials, but that day, by the Zi Period, Eunuch Zhang had still yet to appear.

  “Someone else might have found this very normal, thinking that perhaps Eunuch Zhang was delayed, but I immediately sensed that something was wrong. This job is very strict when it comes to time, and even the smallest mistake will result in punishment.

  “But for people like us who are born disabled, even if we sense that something is wrong, there is nothing we can do.

  “I believed that I would not be burning any memorials that night, but to my surprise, I suddenly heard footsteps.”

  The blind elder paused as he thought back to the moment, as if he could still hear those footsteps ringing out in the cold and quiet night.

  “The footsteps of that man making his way up the stairs were like yours, Your Highness. His footsteps were very, very light, like the cats in the palace– no, perhaps even lighter.

  “This old man worked in the palace for many years, and while my eyes might be blind, my ears are not deaf. In fact, my blindness made my ears even sharper.

  “The steps of guards, the steps of palace maids, the steps of the old grannies of the Compassionate Virtue Hall, the Imperial Army patrols, the voices of eunuchs, the scraping of memorials against each other, the sound of falling leaves—this old man can recognize all of them from a great distance.

  “That man from that day had yet to get close, but this old man could already tell that he had a high status, that he was no ordinary eunuch or guard. This was one of the eunuch directors, or someone even higher.

  “Not only that, when that man spoke, I could hear the sound of a wooden crate scraping against the ground. While the memorials Eunuch Zhang brought were heavy, they were never this heavy,” the blind elder slowly said.

  Wang Chong said nothing, only carefully listened. He knew that a secret part of history was being unveiled.

  Eunuch Gao had probably not imagined that while the blind elder who knew no martial arts working at the Compassionate Virtue Hall might not have been able to see them, he had a bright mind and knew a great deal about the events of that night.

  “What did that man say?” Wang Chong finally said.

  “When that man appeared, he said that Eunuch Zhang could not come today, and that he was bringing the memorials in his place. All of them were to be burned at the Compassionate Virtue Hall!”

  Chapter 1958 - The Truth! (II)

  Chapter 1958: The Truth! (II)

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Everything felt very strange to me, but we slaves of the palace have no right to refuse the requests of our superiors. I quickly started the fire, and that man passed the thing over to me. He said that these were discarded books from the palace that needed to be burned.

  “We of the Compassionate Virtue Hall do not look before burning, simply setting ablaze everything our superiors send us. This doesn’t include just memorials, but also other things, like discarded books.

  “Eunuch Zhang had also sent over books, but the books on that day were of different quality than the ones from the past. They felt soft, meticulous, and compact to the touch. This old man still remembers how they felt even now.

  “More importantly, when this old man took those old books, he felt golden threads on the covers. Only the best books of the palace used this, and those books were extremely precious. In normal circumstances, someone could go their entire life in the palace without touching one. At the time, I determined that the books sent over contained extremely important information and were not discarded books at all. Thus, this old man began to pay attention, knowing that tonight was not normal!”

  “And after that?” Wang Chong nervously said.

  If the books were all burned, he probably wouldn’t be able to get his hands on them.

  “Although I sensed something was not right, I could not stop it. That lordship was watching from the sides as those precious books were thrown into the charcoal basin and burned. I slowed down and intentionally stacked them atop each other so that they would burn a litt
le slower, but some things can’t be stopped.

  “The fire burned for an hour, and all the books had been thrown in. Seeing that all the books were on the verge of being burned, that lordship nodded in satisfaction. I thought that he would wait until the end, but at this moment, a guard walked out from the distance, apparently calling him over for some other matter. That lordship hesitated a moment, saw that the flames were just about done burning, and ordered me to make sure that all books were burned to nothing before turning to leave.

  “Only after hearing those footsteps fade into the distance did I manage to swiftly snatch a book out of the basin.”

  Only now did the blind elder stand up, upon which Wang Chong saw that there was a prayer mat under his body.

  The blind elder moved aside the prayer mat, revealing a secret compartment, and in the compartment was a half-burned book.

  This book had originally been wrapped in golden silk, and one could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary book. And just as the blind elder had said, the paper inside was the highest quality of paper, the kind used for imperial decrees. Unfortunately, more than half of the book had been scorched black.

  ‘Imperial’!

  Wang Chong immediately recognized one of the damaged words on the cover.

  Wang Chong was stunned at this. Only records and books related to the imperial household were allowed to use this word. There was no doubt that this was one of the historical records that had gone missing from the library thirty-seven years ago.

  But Wang Chong was even more shocked over the fact that this old man had been sitting here for thirty-some years to guard this book.

  “This old man cannot see and does not know what it is or what is inside it, but this old man does know that someone would inevitably come to find it. But this old man did not expect the man to be the renowned King of Foreign Lands.”

  The elder raised his hand and offered the half-scorched book.

  “This old man’s mission is over. I leave the rest to the King of Foreign Lands!”

  The hall was quiet as Wang Chong took the book from the elder, his mind in turmoil.

  He finally had the book. After going through such great lengths, he had finally discovered the missing palace records. For a moment, Wang Chong felt as if it wasn’t real.

  The blind elder sat back down and became motionless.

  He had left everything to Wang Chong. What Wang Chong did no longer had anything to do with him.

  All was quiet as Wang Chong gazed at the scorched silk cover and felt the texture of the special paper under his fingers. He was a little nervous. The secret Eunuch Gao had worked so hard to hide, the truth that Minister Yao had hinted at, was at his fingertips.

  What could be recorded in here? Wang Chong quietly said to himself.

  A moment later, Wang Chong sent Stellar Energy surging out of his body, dividing it into countless tendrils that seeped into every page of the book.

  So much time had passed, and the paper had begun to yellow. Many of the burned areas were even more fragile and could crumble at the slightest touch. Wang Chong was forced to use this method to maintain the structure so that he could keep the book intact while he read it.

  Whoosh!

  Wang Chong finally opened the book, and a period of history sealed for thirty-some years opened before Wang Chong.

  ‘The seventeenth year, spring. At Sweet Dew Palace, His Majesty was enraged and slapped Third Son Xuan, penalizing him five hundred taels of gold…’

  The first words Wang Chong saw upon opening the book immediately made him pale.

  The Sage Emperor had been third in succession, and ‘Xuan’ had been his honorific name before his enthronement.

  “How could this be?”

  Wang Chong was alarmed and in disbelief of what he had read. Everyone in the world knew that the Sage Emperor was wise and intelligent. Amongst the people, it was said that the Sage Emperor had been born under auspicious omens and had been favored by the previous Emperor from birth. But the first line Wang Chong read recorded the future Sage Emperor being punished.

  There were no tales about this amongst the people.

  Not only that, the book also noted that ‘His Majesty was enraged’. A sovereign was not easily moved to anger. Just what had provoked the ire of the previous Emperor so much that he would slap the Sage Emperor?

  In disbelief, Wang Chong continued to read.

  But he quickly ran into a large scorched section, only three or four words visible in each line. In addition, the contents seemed to have nothing to do with Third Son Xuan.

  Wang Chong calmed himself down and continued, until he finally spotted another line related to ‘Third Son Xuan’.

  ‘West Moon Palace. The One Above, meeting with Virtuous Empress Dou, referring to Third Son Xuan, declared that Xuan is unworthy and cannot inherit the throne…’

  Another blackened section followed.

  Bang!

  Wang Chong felt like his brain had exploded.

  Virtuous Empress Dou?

  That was the Sage Emperor’s mother!

  But most shocking of all was that declaration: ‘Xuan is unworthy and cannot inherit the throne’!

  Wang Chong had been born from a clan of ministers and generals, and he was keenly aware of what those words meant. When a sovereign declared, ‘XX is unworthy and cannot inherit the throne’, it meant that the Prince in question had been completely stripped of their succession right.

  What’s going on? What in the world is going on?

  Wang Chong’s mind was engulfed in a storm, and his entire body was frozen.

  In his memories of his last life, he was sure that this narrative, this period of history, had never been mentioned before, not in the court or amongst the people.

  ‘The Sage Emperor was wise as a youth, powerful and intelligent. As a child, he displayed remarkable talents and was favored by the previous Emperor.’ All the Tang knew this. It was a fact, like the sun rising from the east and setting in the west, simply common sense.

  It was exactly because he had displayed astonishing talents as a youth that he had later rendered such astounding achievements, been loved by the people as he began an unprecedented golden age for the Great Tang, and become the revered sovereign of the ages.

  But the history in this book was completely different from what the public knew.

  If the previous Emperor stripped the Sage Emperor of his right to succession, why was this never mentioned again? Moreover, the Great Tang has had no incapable rulers. While the previous Emperor’s achievements were not on par with the Sage Emperor’s, he was regarded as a wise sovereign by all the realm. Just what did the Sage Emperor do before he was enthroned that made the previous Emperor rebuke him as unworthy and strip him of his succession right?

  A sovereign does not speak lightly, particularly when the War of the Princes is not yet decided. A sovereign does not express his stance while the heir apparent is still undecided. This is an iron law. What did the Sage Emperor do in his youth?

  Gripping the half-burned book, Wang Chong deeply pondered this revelation.

  This book recorded history, but it was like the history of another world!

  What’s going on here? Wang Chong quietly said to himself.

  He thought that he would know the truth once he got his hands on the missing books, but the records only filled his mind with more questions.

  Wang Chong flipped the page and continued reading.

  Many areas of the books were burned, with too few words to determine anything. In addition, Wang Chong discovered that while this book was related to the Sage Emperor, it did not have the Sage Emperor as the main topic. The majority of the records concerned the previous Emperor, other Princes, consorts of the harem, and also important rites and rituals held in the palace.

  But as he continued to read, more records concerning ‘Third Son Xuan’ began to pop up, and the majority of them differed starkly from what the people knew.

  ‘The
eighteenth year. The One Above summoned the Princes to question them on memorials. Out of all the Princes, Third Son Xuan alone was reprimanded! In addition…’

  ‘Summer. The One Above flogged Third Son Xuan at Sweet Dew Palace, saying that he was foolish and of little use!’

  ‘The nineteenth year. The One Above heard of Xuan’s misdeeds and summoned Virtuous Empress Dou to criticize…’

  ‘Third Son Xuan’s conduct was improper. The One Above fined him half his yearly salary and placed him under house arrest in Shangyang Palace, saying that bulls and horses…’

  ‘…The One Above ordered the Imperial Clan Court to thoroughly investigate the matter! Xuan was terrified and personally went to Taiji Palace to profess his crimes. The One Above refused to see him!’

  ‘The twentieth year. Virtuous Empress Dou was demoted to consort. All the eunuchs said that she was being burdened by Third Son Xuan…’

  One line after another leaped into Wang Chong’s eyes, each one alarming him more and more. If this had not been a book covered in golden silk, the words written in silver, the cover declaring that this was an official ‘Imperial’ history that had already been categorized and verified as authentic, Wang Chong would have believed that the man recorded here could not possibly be the reigning Sage Emperor!

  Chapter 1959 - Unknown Past!

  Chapter 1959: Unknown Past!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  ‘Reprimanded’… ‘flogged’… ‘criticize’… ‘house arrest’… ‘profess his crimes’…

  The records of the imperial household described a Prince completely disregarded by the sovereign and punished in every way, completely different from the wise and powerful sovereign who had opened a new golden age for the Great Tang. And what exactly did ‘improper conduct’ mean?

  What sort of improper things had the Sage Emperor done before his enthronement? What improper things could he have done?

  Was such a thing possible for a man of the Sage Emperor’s temperament?

  One thought after another ran through Wang Chong’s mind, and for a moment, Wang Chong simply stood there in a daze.