Chapter 41: Chapter 41

The Directorate of Ceremonial Duty Room stood on the eastern side of the Western Garden. After leaving Qingxuan Palace, Eunuch Feng and Lu Wenyu trudged through the snow to the duty room.

“Godfather!”

The three Pen-Holding Eunuchs Li, He, and Chen, who were still inside, hurriedly rose and saluted Eunuch Feng.

“No need for formalities,” Eunuch Feng said with a smile. “This is Lu Wenyu, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Third, bring a cup of tea from the side room. Lord Lu, have a seat.”

With worry written all over his face, Lu Wenyu greeted the four eunuchs, dropped heavily into the Grand Tutor’s Chair beside him, and began letting out long sighs and drawing short breaths.

The Emperor had merely given a few simple instructions about bringing the jianghu under control, but only Lu Wenyu himself knew how difficult that would be.

Great Qi had been established for over a century. These were no longer the days of the Founding Emperor. Moreover, the frontiers were unstable. The Ningzhou Iron Cavalry could not be brought within the passes, Hexi had already become a state within the state, and Annan was restless as well.

At a time like this, forget trampling the jianghu beneath cavalry hooves—even getting its people to restrain themselves a little would be harder than ascending to heaven. After all, even scholars cared enough about appearances to hesitate before devouring the property of a family without heirs and splitting the silver among themselves. But would people of the jianghu possess such a nonexistent thing as shame?

At that thought, Lu Wenyu’s expression darkened another shade.

“Eunuch Feng, you can’t stay out of this!” he said miserably.

Eunuch Feng’s expression remained unchanged as he took a small sip of tea and savored the flavor.

“Lord Lu, it isn’t that I’m unwilling to help you. You know as well as I do that the Eastern and Western Depots have hardly had any men these past few years. I still have to attend to matters within the palace. We can’t abandon the entire palace for the sake of a few martial brutes.”

His argument was reasonable, leaving Lu Wenyu unable to refute it. He could only sigh helplessly and give up on himself.

“Then I suppose I can only go to His Majesty and plead guilty. I might as well take off this python robe and retire as a wealthy country gentleman.”

“You must at least come up with a plan, Lord Lu,” Eunuch Li said helplessly as he set down his teacup. “There are only a handful of us in the Directorate of Ceremonial, while the jianghu has dozens of sects at the very least. I could destroy the Three Sects of Jiangnan because I had a legitimate cause. I can hardly find a legitimate cause to destroy every last one of them!”

Eunuch Li’s voice was not unpleasant, but his appearance was rather sinister. No matter what he said, it always sounded vaguely like a threat.

“That isn’t what I meant, Eunuch Li. We’re short on manpower, but I can’t think of any way to bring them under control at the moment…”

“Lord Lu, why not use the old method?” Eunuch He interjected, helping Lu Wenyu out of his predicament. “Win over a pack of dogs, then unleash them to bite others.”

Lu Wenyu’s eyes lit up, only to dim again almost immediately. Eunuch He’s suggestion was reasonable, but it was utterly useless.

Invite them to dinner, execute those who resist, and take the rest in as dogs.

Everyone knew those three steps, but the beheading part simply would not work. To put it nicely, everyone seated here was at the First Rank or even higher. To put it less nicely, these were all the First-Rank experts they had!

They did not have enough manpower!

The atmosphere fell into a stalemate. The eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial leisurely drank their tea. They were the Emperor’s household slaves; they could wash their hands of jianghu affairs completely.

If Lu Wenyu wanted men, they could hand over everyone in the Eastern and Western Depots. That already counted as doing everything within their power.

If he wanted money, however, they did not have a single coin for him. They had already entered the Directorate of Ceremonial, yet he expected them to spend their own money? They were servants supported by the Emperor. If Lu Wenyu had the ability, he could ask the Emperor for money!

Meanwhile, Lu Wenyu sat there with a long face and his hands clasped together.

Finding a solution that satisfied both sides was harder than ascending to heaven. If he tried to intervene, he lacked the manpower. If he did nothing, his official career would be over.

This was difficult. Far too difficult!

“Have some tea, Lord Lu.”

Eunuch Chen placed a cup of tea beside Lu Wenyu, then returned to his seat and resumed drinking.

“All right… All right.”

His thoughts interrupted, Lu Wenyu listlessly picked up the cup. It was Jade Bud Tea from the first spring harvest and the very first picking, yet he could not taste the slightest flavor. After taking two sips, he put it back on the side table.

After thinking it over, Lu Wenyu decided to make one final attempt.

“Eunuch Feng, do you have any good ideas? Surely we can’t just—”

“Lord Lu, let’s interrogate the prisoners first. As for the jianghu, I’m no immortal. I can’t conjure manpower out of thin air for you,” Eunuch Feng said helplessly as he drank his tea.

At that, Lu Wenyu rose to his feet and let out a forlorn sigh.

“Then let’s interrogate them first. We’ll delay dealing with the jianghu for a while. If there truly is no other way, I’ll enter the palace, plead guilty, resign my post, and return home. Alas.”

“Wait, Lord Lu,” Eunuch Chen called out solemnly. “I have a plan, though I do not know whether it will work.”

Lu Wenyu stopped and looked back at Eunuch Chen, then glanced at Eunuch Feng, who had set down his vermilion brush in the principal seat.

In the end, he turned around and sat down again. Desperate circumstances called for desperate remedies. Who knew? It might actually work.

Eunuch Li and Eunuch He set down their teacups almost simultaneously, also curious to hear Eunuch Chen’s so-called plan.

“Lord Lu, the ancients said that channeling is better than blocking. Since blocking them has proved ineffective, why not channel them instead?” Eunuch Chen said gravely.

“Oh? I would like to hear the details!”

Since he had already decided to try any remedy he could find, Lu Wenyu no longer hesitated. Who cared whether the cat was black or white? If it could catch mice, it was a good cat—a divine cat!

Eunuch Chen took a sip of tea and looked at Eunuch Feng. After receiving a nod of approval, he swept his gaze across the room.

“What is our greatest difficulty right now? We don’t have enough men! But the jianghu does!”

Lu Wenyu’s interest deepened.

“Oh? What are you suggesting, Eunuch Chen?”

“Throw the jianghu into chaos! We can do nothing with a stagnant pool, but as long as we muddy the water, we’ll eventually find an opportunity to snatch a prize from the flames!”

Lu Wenyu lowered his head in contemplation, silently weighing the advantages and disadvantages.

Throwing the jianghu into chaos would not be easy, but Eunuch Chen’s confidence did not seem feigned. When Lu Wenyu looked up at the other three eunuchs, he found them pondering the idea as well.

Eunuch Feng was the first to speak.

“Third, the people of the jianghu aren’t fools. They won’t fall into chaos simply because we want them to. Provocation and bribery won’t accomplish much. Surely you don’t expect us to take turns killing people ourselves? They may have no shame, but I still do!”

“We don’t have to take action ourselves, Godfather,” Eunuch Chen said easily. “I have someone!”

“It will cost money, though,” Eunuch Chen added, the corner of his eye twitching slightly.

Then again, after giving it some thought, that brat truly did value money over his own life!

“Money is no problem.” Lu Wenyu breathed a sigh of relief, and even his voice regained some strength. After a moment’s thought, he added, “As long as he doesn’t demand an exorbitant sum.”

Eunuch Feng nodded and leisurely picked up his teacup.

“What rank is this person you mentioned, Third? And where is he?”

“Third Rank. He’s in Liangzhou,” Eunuch Chen replied.

Third Rank?

The others were stunned. Even a First-Rank expert might not be useful, so what good could someone at the Third Rank possibly do? Had desperation driven Eunuch Chen to clutch at any remedy he could find?

Eunuch He could not hold it in.

“Pfft!”

When Eunuch Li and Lu Wenyu heard him laugh, they also failed to restrain themselves. Even Eunuch Feng, who was usually steady and never allowed joy or anger to show on his face, struggled to suppress his laughter. His cheeks kept trembling, making him look extraordinarily comical.

They had thought Eunuch Chen would come up with something good, only for him to drop a giant turd in front of them.

For a time, the duty room was filled with a joyous atmosphere.

Eunuch Feng was the first to recover. He rebuked Eunuch Chen sternly.

“Third! What are you doing? Lord Lu is discussing serious business with us, yet you’re telling jokes. We had better discuss this further. Lord Lu, my failure to discipline him has made a spectacle of us.”

Seated below, Lu Wenyu took a sip of tea and caught his breath before speaking.

“Eunuch Chen, really… I merely vented a few angry words. You weren’t seriously trying to make this old man laugh, were you? Serious business comes first, Eunuch Chen!”

“He truly is at the Third Rank,” Eunuch Chen said helplessly, the corner of his mouth twitching. “But it only took him three years to reach it.”

The laughter stopped abruptly.

The four men looked at one another.

What kind of monster was that?

He had climbed six ranks in only three years. Could he be the illegitimate son of some major sect leader, abandoned out in the world? They still remembered that it had taken each of them almost eight years just to advance from the Ninth Rank to the Fifth Rank!

At that moment, the four First-Rank experts began to harbor grave doubts about their own talent.

“Are you certain he followed the Martial Dao one step at a time?” Lu Wenyu asked doubtfully. “This wasn’t some Buddhist or Daoist method of bestowing power and granting sudden enlightenment?”

“Lord Lu, who in the world can receive enough bestowed power and sudden enlightenment to reach the Third Rank?” Eunuch Chen retorted indignantly.

You could say the lower half of my body didn’t work, but you couldn’t question whether the upper half worked!

“That isn’t what I meant,” Lu Wenyu hurriedly explained. “It’s simply too unbelievable.”

He could not make sense of it either. Reaching the Third Rank in three years was outrageously fast.

Of the Martial Dao’s nine ranks, everything below the Fourth Rank was essentially a process of tempering the body. That was not something that could be accomplished overnight. Almost everyone had to grind away at it little by little through years of painstaking effort.

Even with excellent talent and a good teacher, taking five or six years was perfectly ordinary. Ten or twenty years was not unusual either. Reaching the Third Rank already meant crossing the threshold into true mastery!

Eunuch Chen could not be bothered to explain. He merely said indifferently, “I exchanged blows with that brat. He took three of my palm strikes and survived!”

The words “three palm strikes and survived” were like a bomb dropped into the room, blasting all four men into silence.

Reaching the Third Rank in three years had merely surprised them. Surviving three palm strikes was utterly inconceivable.

The four men stared at one another, mouths slightly agape and eyes wide.

Seeing their reaction, Eunuch Chen recounted everything that had happened in the forest near Chang’an. Only then did the four men regain their composure.

Now they had no choice but to believe him. The facts were laid bare before them. As a First-Rank expert, Eunuch Chen had no reason to invent a Third-Rank martial artist merely to preserve his own dignity.

“Oh, right. I had someone investigate him,” Eunuch Chen said leisurely, looking rather pleased with himself as he drank his tea. “He’s a Ghost Market assassin called Pockmarked Something, and his code name is Nine of Circles. He’s from Bianzhou and is currently staying at The Little Tavern in Liangzhou. If you don’t believe me, Lord Lu, a trip to Liangzhou will make everything clear, won’t it? That man values money over his own life. As long as you pay him enough, I guarantee he’ll satisfy you!”

“Good,” Lu Wenyu said decisively. “After the New Year, I’ll personally make a trip to Liangzhou and test that brat’s mettle. Eunuchs, I’ll have to trouble you with the Jiangnan case. This old man will simply await the second hearing. If that brat truly is as Eunuch Chen described, how about I cover sixty percent?”

Now that the matter had been settled, they naturally had to decide how much each side would pay. Otherwise, they would end up haggling over money later, and that was hardly worthwhile.

Lu Wenyu was well versed in such matters. By making the first offer, he secured himself an advantageous position.

“Seventy percent,” Eunuch Feng said without yielding an inch.

Everyone knew the Embroidered Uniform Guard was rich. They might as well fleece them while they had the chance.

Lu Wenyu smiled without any hurry and took two sips of tea first.

Well, would you look at that? The tea that had been utterly tasteless moments ago was now incomparably sweet. Good tea truly was good tea.

He must have been tasting it incorrectly before!

Only after finishing the entire cup did Lu Wenyu set it down and say decisively, “Eunuch Feng, sixty-five percent. If you demand any more, there truly is nothing I can do.”

After much haggling, they finally settled on sixty-eight percent, leaving both sides thoroughly satisfied.

Far away in Liangzhou, Zhao Jiu sneezed and found himself deeply puzzled.

He had never heard of a Third-Rank martial artist catching a cold!