Chapter 44: True Monarch, Profound Monarch

Inside the Beast-Fighting Palace, Lin Longyue sat upright in her chair, her face betraying no emotion. Her gaze swept over the people in the hall.

Chu Linzi wore a faint smile, completely ignoring the oppressive atmosphere in the hall.

County Princess Yunhe held her teacup, maintaining her usual languid demeanor.

Yang Zhuri conversed in low tones with a brocade-robed youth beside him...

It was as if they were all accustomed to these bizarre beast fights.

Lin Longyue furrowed her brows slightly, simply because she had seen Qiu Chihu walk into the Beast-Fighting Palace.

'That Qiu Chihu is a figure of Silver Bone Great Completion, with a profound family heritage. If he goes up against those beast fighters, won't he slaughter them all?'

'Are none of them surprised by this? Why didn't County Princess Yunhe tell me earlier?'

Lin Longyue murmured in her heart, her frown deepening.

She recalled the rumors from the past year.

The Crown Prince was quite fond of beast fighting. Over the past year, he had been inviting the scions of various noble houses across the Jingji Circuit to bring their beast fighters to battle.

She had long heard of this but had never witnessed it herself.

And this was the Crown Prince's first time hosting a beast-fighting banquet in Yuanjiang Prefecture.

She looked again at the noble scions in the hall.

At the last seat on the right, a young man in a sapphire-blue straight gown was murmuring to his companion, a trace of hidden anxiety lingering between his brows.

The person opposite him was staring blankly at the vermilion doors on the side of the hall, unable to mask the sheer heartache in his eyes.

Taking this all in, Lin Longyue began to understand.

The beast fighters these people raised were likely prime specimens acquired at great cost and effort, meticulously trained for a long time. They had probably hoped to show them off in front of the Crown Prince to earn a reward.

Now they had been sent in, their fates unknown, without a single sound escaping.

'It seems Chen Lingxi and the other two... are undoubtedly dead.' She couldn't help but sigh inwardly. 'The Crown Prince's beast-fighting banquet is far too strange.'

Right at that moment, the vermilion doors on the side of the hall opened silently.

Everyone in the hall looked up in unison.

Lin Longyue's gaze drifted over the crowd and landed on the doorway.

A person walked out from the deep, dark passage.

It was a young man. He looked pale, an unconcealable exhaustion clinging to his features.

Chen Lingxi?

Lin Longyue's expression shifted drastically.

The hall plunged into silence.

A moment later, an uproar rippled through the crowd like a tidal wave.

County Princess Yunhe, Yang Zhuri, and Chu Linzi all bore different expressions—some doubtful, some surprised, others thoroughly bewildered.

Behind the beaded curtain of the jade dais, the seated figure slowly raised his head.

His face was obscured; only a blurred silhouette could be seen shifting slightly behind the silver-red cicada-wing gauze.

Lin Longyue stared at Chen Lingxi. Amidst her surprise, doubts began to bloom.

'Did Qiu Chihu not enter the Beast-Fighting Palace?'

'Or perhaps... Chen Lingxi killed Qiu Chihu?'

The moment the thought surfaced, Lin Longyue shook her head.

Absurd.

'Absolutely impossible.'

Just then, Yang Zhuri's peach-blossom eyes fell upon Chen Lingxi.

"Where is Young Master Chihu?"

He asked calmly.

Everyone turned their attention to Chen Lingxi.

An official bondservant had walked out of the Beast-Fighting Palace alive, yet Qiu Chihu was nowhere to be seen.

This was indeed a strange occurrence.

Chen Lingxi looked up at Yang Zhuri.

His face displayed just the right amount of panic, his gaze darting around evasively.

The fear wasn't exaggerated; in fact, the balance was struck perfectly.

He looked exactly like a lowly bondservant who had narrowly escaped death, suddenly questioned in public by such a prominent figure—flustered, terrified, and completely at a loss.

He stole a glance outside the hall doors.

The doors were wide open, revealing a hazy gray sky, and above that sky hung two precious mirrors.

One burned a brilliant gold like the sun, and the other shone a silvery white like the bright moon, both suspended high in the heavens.

'The precious mirrors hang high... this is indeed the Thorough Awakening world.'

Chen Lingxi murmured in his heart, though his face remained stricken with terror.

He lowered his head and answered, "To answer the Young Master, this official bondservant saw a Treasure Bottle in the sky within the palace. Purple qi erupted from it, covering the heavens and the earth, and... and swallowed Young Master Chihu and the other beast fighters."

"That purple qi was incredibly thick, so thick it looked like a purple waterfall cascading from the firmament. This bondservant was far enough away and only just managed to hide in a rock crevice. When the purple qi finally dispersed and I came out, Young Master Chihu and the rest of the beast fighters... were all gone."

After speaking, he buried his head deeply.

The hall instantly fell silent.

Every pair of eyes turned toward the beaded curtain.

Behind the silver-red cicada-wing gauze, the seated figure remained utterly still, resembling a mud idol and wooden statue of a Buddha.

The son of the Capital Guard Commander was dead... This was no trivial matter.

Silence.

A long, drawn-out silence.

It lasted until a light cough echoed from behind the curtain.

The cough wasn't loud, but it caused everyone in the hall to catch their breath.

The Crown Prince's silhouette behind the curtain slowly shook its head. "Throw him in the dungeon. Interrogate him."

Just a handful of words.

His voice was quiet, and his tone couldn't even be called severe.

Yet when those words dropped, the air in the hall tightened abruptly.

Two silver-armored guards stepped out from the side of the hall, marching in perfect unison. Their armor gleamed with a frigid light in the candlelight.

They walked up to Chen Lingxi, flanking him left and right, and reached out to seize him.

Chen Lingxi kept his head bowed, remaining perfectly still.

'As expected, that excuse wasn't enough to bluff my way through. However... if the Crown Prince could actually see what happened inside the Beast-Fighting Palace, he wouldn't need to throw me in the dungeon for an interrogation.'

A hundred thoughts raced through his mind. 'Then I'll test him a bit more!'

Tss!

The fingers of his lowered right hand twitched slightly.

A faint, incredibly thin wisp of spiritual qi bloomed from his fingertip, sending out a microscopic ripple through the air.

The ripple was so faint that even the silver-armored guards right next to him failed to notice it.

But behind the curtain, the seated figure suddenly paused.

Then, the Crown Prince's voice rang out once more.

"Hold on."

Two words.

His voice was just as quiet and impassive as before.

"Bring him to the East Hall of my palace."

Enter the East Hall?

The nobles in the hall were baffled. Was the Crown Prince going to interrogate him personally?

The old eunuch walked out from the side of the curtain and gestured toward the East Hall.

Keeping his head lowered, Chen Lingxi followed the old eunuch, crossing the Main Hall, rounding a screen, and stepping into a dark, winding corridor.

Bronze lamps were embedded into the walls on both sides of the corridor. The candlelight flickered in the draft, stretching and shrinking his shadow.

At the old eunuch's signal, he stepped into the East Hall.

The East Hall was much smaller than the Main Hall, but far more exquisite.

The floor was paved with whole slabs of mutton-fat white jade, warm and lustrous, polished enough to reflect a person's image.

Ambergris burned in the hall. The curling smoke hung in the air without dissipating, shrouding the entire room in a faint, rich fragrance.

Only a single lamp was lit inside.

It was an ancient bronze lamp burning with a bean-sized green flame, casting a hazy glow over everything in the hall.

The Crown Prince stood in the center of the hall with his hands behind his back, facing away from the door and looking at a massive landscape painting on the wall.

He was exceptionally tall, his back as straight as a pine. His bright yellow brocade robe shimmered with a deep luster in the candlelight. He wore a white jade belt around his waist and a purple-gold crown upon his head.

The candlelight cast his shadow onto the mutton-fat white jade floor, stretching it incredibly long and faint.

Chen Lingxi walked into the hall and stood with his arms at his sides, saying nothing.

The old eunuch retreated silently, the doors slowly closing behind him with a very soft thud.

Only two people remained in the hall.

The candle sputtered.

The fragrant smoke of ambergris drifted sluggishly through the air.

A few breaths later, the Crown Prince turned around.

The moment he saw the Crown Prince's face, Chen Lingxi thought, 'It really is him.'

The candlelight illuminated the Crown Prince's incredibly handsome face. His eyebrows were like distant mountains, his eyes like bright stars. He had a high, prominent nose and lips so sharp they seemed carved by a knife.

Yet, there wasn't a trace of the high-spirited vigor a young man ought to possess in those eyes. Instead, they held a bottomless tranquility completely mismatched with his age.

They were like two ancient, deep wells—impossible to fathom and impossible to see the bottom of.

He stared at Chen Lingxi.

That gaze wasn't sharp, nor could it even be considered piercing. It simply fell upon him calmly, yet it caused the spiritual qi in Chen Lingxi's body to stagnate slightly, and the streak of azure qi in his dantian shrank involuntarily.

The Concealed Edge Method circulated within his body, drawing his spiritual qi barrier even tighter.

The Crown Prince's gaze lingered on Chen Lingxi for a few moments. Seeing that the panic on this beast fighter's face had already faded into a calm indifference, he finally spoke. "What is your background, Fellow Daoist?"

His voice was quiet and his tone flat, but the moment the words "Fellow Daoist" left his lips, the heavy stone hanging in Chen Lingxi's heart finally sank a little.

Chen Lingxi maintained his impassive expression, merely lifting his head slightly to meet the Crown Prince's gaze. "I come from the Daoxia Academy."

The Crown Prince narrowed his eyes slightly. After a brief silence, he spoke again. "My memories have not completely reawakened yet, but I vaguely recall the Daoxia Academy."

He paused. "The Academy's Dao Master is a Golden Elixir grand cultivator who has proven his path to the position of True Monarch. He wields the Golden Elixir Cauldron Artifact, the [Heaven-Stabilizing Brush], which can determine a person's destiny. Countless cultivators yearn for the Dao Master to write a single stroke for them."

"Rumor has it that on the day he breaks out of seclusion, he is highly likely to ascend to the Nascent Infant realm, claim the Profound Seat, and become a Profound Monarch."

Golden Elixir!

Nascent Infant!

These terms fell upon Chen Lingxi's ears like massive boulders plunging into the center of a lake, stirring up layers of rippling waves.

Yet his face remained impassive. He merely nodded slightly, as if listening to something he already knew perfectly well.

Having finished speaking, the Crown Prince's gaze fell on Chen Lingxi once more.

Meeting his gaze, Chen Lingxi calmly asked, "And where do you hail from, Fellow Daoist?"

He asked the question openly, his tone perfectly steady.

The Crown Prince did not hesitate. "My master is of Ehai."

Chen Lingxi raised a brow.

Ehai?

His expression remained unchanged, though he frowned slightly before shaking his head with a sigh. "My memories are also not fully awakened. For a moment there, I couldn't recall the Lord of Ehai."

"The sovereign of my Ehai is True Monarch Heaven-Graft." The Crown Prince's tone was filled with reverence. "He wields the Golden Elixir Cauldron Artifact, the [Heaven-Grafting Ladder], and can graft hardship, karma, tribulation, and karmic debt onto others."

"By ascending that ladder, one can also glimpse the Profound Seat."