Chapter 211 - 208: A Millennium of Wind and Cloud, This Life and the Next

Mr. Gao told Song Ciwan a story.

In the final years of the Yun Country, natural disasters were incessant. Across its vast territory, drought, floods, plagues of insects, and pestilence... all manner of suffering afflicted the majority of the land.

Mr. Gao said, "I was in the Capital City. My father took me out, and on the streets of the capital, only the Imperial Street was clean. Beyond it, there were people in rags everywhere. Some lay on the ground with broken hands and feet, some had a straw marker stuck in their hair to sell themselves, and some dragged their wives and children, weeping, toward those ’lamb shops’..."

"Do you know what a ’lamb shop’ is?"

"Hehehe, you wouldn’t want to know." Mr. Gao sat on the ground, and with a flick of his finger, the red clouds in the sky began to shift and play out a scene.

Amidst the deep and light shades of red, human-shaped shadows ran, only to be cut down from behind by a butcher’s cleaver. A moment later, those shadows transformed into sheep, into pigs, into all sorts of strange and indescribable foods.

Meat and wine hung high, while rakshasas smiled.

"And this was still the Capital City. What it was like outside the capital... my father said he didn’t even dare to imagine it!"

"But it wasn’t all bad in the capital."

"Some people, you see, had to wear Kesi silk and drink Jade Dew. Wherever they went, even the cloth laid on the ground had to be cloud-patterned brocade. They held small banquets every three days and grand feasts every five, seeking out new and exotic pleasures daily amidst song, dance, and an air of peace."

"At home, with the chime of a bronze bell, maids and servants would hitch a cart and fetch food boxes from the kitchens."

"If they wanted to eat in their rooms, they ate in their rooms. If they wanted to go to the waterside pavilion, the family had a waterside pavilion. If they wanted to visit the rockery, the family had a rockery. They could gather with their clansmen, meeting in the flower hall..."

As he spoke of this, a strange, wistful look appeared on Mr. Gao’s small face.

He didn’t say it outright, but his expression revealed it: back when the Yun Country still stood and the Gao Family was prosperous, Mr. Gao himself had lived a life of wealth and luxury.

The common people were suffering, and the Mr. Gao of that time saw it with his own eyes. But while the young boy felt sympathy, if he were asked to give up his own life of wealth for the sake of the suffering masses, would he truly have been willing?

It was hard to say. Song Ciwan saw a deep complexity on Mr. Gao’s face.

Everything changed because of a dispute in the imperial Court.

In the 14th Year of Hongsheng, just after the floods in the south of Yun Country had subsided, a sect known as the Rebirth Sect suddenly began to spread among the displaced populace.

The teachings of the Rebirth Sect were simple and crude. As its name suggested, they did not cultivate the present, only the future.

The more one suffered now, the better their future would be.

Endure Purgatory in the Mortal World in this life, and you can enjoy the riches of paradise in the next.

At first glance, the existence of the Rebirth Sect actually seemed beneficial to the Court.

Because the people who had been indoctrinated by the Rebirth Sect’s teachings could forget the pain of their current lives, willing to toil like cattle and horses in the harshest conditions.

They would even give up their physical bodies, offering themselves up as food like cattle, sheep, pigs, or dogs. They would often cry out, "A hundred sufferings in this life for paradise in the next!" and then go willingly to their deaths.

For the upper echelons of the Yun Country, who only wanted to enjoy their present wealth and couldn’t be bothered to deal with the true suffering of the people, such a doctrine was practically a magical tool for stabilizing public sentiment.

When the Rebirth Sect first appeared, the Emperor was even overjoyed. He praised its self-proclaimed Sect Leader, the Lady of Daylight, calling her a pillar of the state. The implication was that he wanted to summon the Rebirth Sect Leader to the capital, make her an Imperial Consort or the National Preceptor, and then promote the Rebirth Sect throughout the entire Yun Country!

The old master of the Gao Family, who was then the Left Minister of the Yun Country and leader of all officials, took the lead in opposing the Emperor’s absurd idea.

Chancellor Gao spoke bluntly of how the Rebirth Sect was a scourge upon the nation, claiming the Lady of Daylight was severing the country’s very foundations. He requested that the Emperor, on one hand, dispatch troops to suppress the Rebirth Sect, and on the other, immediately open the granaries for disaster relief, stabilize the populace, and resettle the refugees.

Unfortunately, though Chancellor Gao was loyal to the nation, both of his proposals were met with a forceful rebuke from the Emperor.

Suppressing rebels was treason, and providing disaster relief was also treason! Since ancient times, has there ever been such an absurd Court?

Mr. Gao said, "That day, my great-grandfather came home in a cangue. It’s said that he angered the Emperor in the Court, took off his own official’s hat, and the Emperor ’gifted’ him a cangue in return. Heh..."

"After my great-grandfather returned home, he said only one thing."

Mr. Gao looked up at the fiery sunset clouds and said in a nearly flat tone, "’When a nation is about to perish, monsters will arise. This is the will of Heaven, not my fault.’"

Then his expression changed in an instant, and he began to laugh maniacally. "Hahaha! The will of Heaven! Is it Heaven’s will that all eighteen hundred members of my Gao Family must be buried along with this fatuous Emperor?"

In the sky, the Wind howled and the clouds raced.

"Wuling Pass was in peril. The rations for the three hundred thousand border soldiers were cut off. General Chen sent urgent report after urgent report to Shangjing, and my great-grandfather did everything in his power to gather supplies. But the Emperor wanted to divert funds from the Ministry of Revenue to build a Traveling Palace for his favorite consort, and the Crown Prince wanted to collect rare treasures from all over the world to win his Mother Consort’s favor..."

"The Ministry of Rites needed to prepare for a grand ceremony, to offer sacrifices to the heavens and report to the gods, which would consume countless man-hours and resources. The Ministry of Industry was crying endlessly about the dikes collapsing on various rivers; cart after cart of materials were allocated, but it was like filling a bottomless pit. The Ministry of Revenue simply couldn’t allocate any more silver coin, and that night, the Minister of Revenue hanged himself with a rope."

"That night, while still in his cangue, my great-grandfather received a letter from General Chen, written in blood."

"My great-grandfather sat stiffly in his study all night. I was beside him, grinding his ink and trimming his lamp, and I asked him if this meant he wouldn’t be an official anymore."

"He took the ink stick from my hand and pressed a mark onto the Xuan paper."

"It seemed as if nothing had happened. But half a month later, news came from Wuling Pass, claiming that my Gao Family had secretly raised a private army of one hundred thousand men with the intent to seize Wuling Pass and split the Yun Country."

"Wuling Pass was breached by the neighboring Yan Country. The three hundred thousand-strong defending army, including General Chen, were all killed in action. Our Gao Family’s ’private army’ of one hundred thousand also died in that battle."

"Everyone in the Yun Country, from top to bottom, placed the blame for the fall of Wuling Pass on our Gao Family."

"My great-grandfather served as an official for forty-five years, only to be branded a traitor in the end!"

The clouds in the sky churned and shifted, echoing the mournful cries and whinnies of a million troops. How could the Gao Family’s hundred thousand ’private soldiers’ ever have betrayed their country?

In truth, they weren’t a private army at all. They were the Gao Family’s retainers and old acquaintances, scattered across the land. They were men and women, old and young. Some were old farmers from the Gao Family’s agricultural estates, some were porters from the family’s shops, and there were even embroiderers from the silk workshops and children from the charity halls...

They gathered from all corners of the realm, having heard a piece of news and sharing a common goal.

For no other reason than this: they did not want to become the slaves of a vanquished nation!

The core Gao clan contributed thirteen hundred people, and with them as leaders, this motley army of one hundred thousand rushed to the border.

They brought their own rations, provided their own weapons, and were single-mindedly focused on reinforcing Wuling Pass.

But it was useless. The outcome was this: there was a traitor in Wuling Pass!

In this decrepit Yun Country, some tried their utmost to save it, some felt it had nothing to do with them, and still others couldn’t wait for it to perish immediately.

The army of the Yan Country marched straight in. The day after the news arrived, the Emperor issued an edict to execute the entire Gao clan to the ninth degree!

"We escaped. It was arranged by my great-grandfather in advance. But my uncles, my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather... they did not flee. Only us. Only the ten of us siblings and cousins of my generation, led by my elder cousin, managed to escape..."

Mr. Gao’s voice trembled slightly, but then he laughed again. "Do you know how we escaped? Of course you don’t. You could never guess. And I’m not going to tell you. Hehehe..."

"Later, we came to Huai Xi Village and settled down here. At first, everything was wonderful. It was peaceful, serene, far from the flames of war—almost like the last pure land on earth."

"Until later..."

Mr. Gao, who had been watching the clouds, suddenly shifted his gaze. He turned his head to look at Song Ciwan, his eyes filled with an indescribable, bone-chilling coldness.