Chapter 5

The clapperboard sounds of the Yin hour pierced the thick, inextricable night of Shengjing, hammering against the cold, vermilion walls of the towering palace, shattering silently. The sky was as black as ink, with no stars or moon in sight. Only the massive lanterns at the palace gates struggled to sway in the damp, cold morning breeze, casting a dim, flickering halo of light that drew the figures of the officials filing in like ghostly figures, silently swimming towards the behemoth lurking in the darkness: the Fengtian Hall.

The golden brick floor, smooth as a mirror, reflected the blurred, intricate caisson ceiling murals, as well as the faces of the two groups of courtiers below, some solemn, some confused, some calculating. The air was thick with iron, and every breath felt heavy and stagnant. The faint sound of discussion, like the buzzing of mosquitoes on a summer night, buzzed in the corners of the vast space, but at some point, silence suddenly fell, leaving a heart-wrenching void.

The young emperor sat upright on a golden throne decorated with coiled dragons. The twelve white jade beads dangling from his crown swayed slightly, unable to conceal the exhaustion and panic threatening to overflow from his eyes. His knuckles whitened from the strain he exerted on the gilded armrests, his body tense as a bowstring. His gaze, like a frightened fawn, darted around below, always fixed firmly, with a touch of morbid dependence, on the dark figure standing at the forefront of the officials.

Gu Linzhi. His black python robe, adorned with dark golden cloud patterns, swirled beneath the dim glow of the palace lanterns, as calm and composed as the waters of the abyss, yet revealing a silent sharpness. His figure stood tall and straight, like a pine tree on a solitary peak. No matter how turbulent the undercurrents within the palace, he remained unmoved. His face was calm, like a still, unruffled well. His deep eyes, like two eternally cold pools, reflected the splendor of the palace as well as the darkest corners of people's hearts, as if they could see through all hypocrisy and calculation. He was the only calm presence in the eye of the storm, the sober player on this vast chessboard.

"Ahem..." The emperor cleared his throat, his voice trembling slightly, sounding particularly weak and feeble in the empty and silent hall. "My dear ministers... do you have anything else to say?"

Deathly silence. Even worse than before. The air seemed to solidify, weighing heavily on everyone's chest, suffocating them. Several officials in the back row shuddered, their eyes wandering, but no one dared to disrupt this frightening equilibrium.

Just as this suffocating stalemate was about to drive people crazy, a figure suddenly stepped out of the ranks of civil servants! The movement was filled with a kind of determination to fight to the death, and even a little stumbling.

It was Chen Bingzhi! Left Vice-Minister of the Censorate! His face, flushed with anger yesterday in court, now had an unnatural paleness to it, his eye sockets sunken and bloodshot, as if he had aged ten years overnight. His loose crimson official robes seemed surprisingly empty. He clutched a memorial tightly in his hand, his knuckles white from the strain, and the veins on the back of his hand were knotted.

"Your Majesty! Chen Bingzhi! I have a memorial to submit!!" His voice was hoarse and sharp, as if it had been sharpened by sandpaper. With a desperate madness, it instantly tore through the stagnant air!

Everyone's eyes, including the young emperor on the throne's confused gaze, were all focused on him!

Gu Linzhi stood with his eyes lowered, his posture unchanged, as if the clamor before him had nothing to do with him. Only in the depths of the cold pool in his eyes, a subtle, all-seeing cold light flashed by like an undercurrent beneath the ice.

Chen Bingzhi took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently as if he were sucking up all the oxygen in the hall. He suddenly unfolded the memorial in his hand, which seemed to weigh over a thousand pounds. His voice trembled violently with excitement and fear, yet it was filled with hysterical excitement:

"Your Majesty! I impeach the Jiangnan Governor, Shen Ziqing! He embezzled disaster relief funds and grain! He disregarded human life! He caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of victims in the three prefectures of Jiangnan! Countless deaths and injuries! His crimes... are too numerous to list!"

This opening statement didn't cause much surprise. Shen Ziqing had become a target of public criticism, and impeachment was to be expected. However, Chen Bing's direct words were like pouring a bucket of ice water into boiling oil, instantly causing a stir!

"Of course! I must impeach them!" Chen Bingzhi's voice suddenly rose to a piercing pitch, his finger pointed, his target vaguely pointed at several important officials in the front row of the civil service! "Impeach certain important officials in the court! They hold high positions! Yet they are in cahoots with the thief Shen! They facilitated his corruption! They even... even helped him cover up the heinous evidence of the old Jingbei military grain case in the northern border fourteen years ago!!"

“Buzz——!!!”

The entire Fengtian Hall erupted like a deep pool into which a huge rock had been dropped, instantly erupting in a torrent of surging waves! The long-suppressed shock, fear, and disbelief erupted like a flood. The ministers were in an uproar! Countless gazes instantly grew filled with uncertainty, fixed fixedly on the direction Chen Bingzhi pointed. The faces of the several important officials whose names were vaguely mentioned paled instantly, their bodies swaying imperceptibly, their eyes filled with shock and... a hint of fear at having their secrets exposed!

Jingbei military rations! Fourteen years ago! That was a deeply hidden taboo in the entire Dayong court! A bloody scar buried beneath the bones of thirty thousand loyal men! A shocking secret that jeopardized the futures, even the lives, of countless people! How could Chen Bingzhi, a notorious "greenhorn" and "clean-minded firecracker," dare?! How could he dare to tear open this taboo scar in the court, in the Golden Palace, in front of the emperor and all the civil and military officials?!

The emperor on the throne froze completely, his body suddenly leaning forward, the jade beads on his crown tassels colliding violently, making a rapid, chaotic clanking sound! His face was pale, and his lips trembled as he looked at the maddened Chen Bingzhi below, shocked and angry, but even more so, with uncontrollable fear! He subconsciously looked at Gu Linzhi again, as if seeking answers, seeking shelter.

Gu Linzhi still lowered his eyes, as if he was not involved in the matter. However, his fingers under the wide cuffs of his black python robe twitched very slightly.

"Censor Chen!" An old official with white hair and beard finally lost control and took a trembling half step forward. His voice was filled with shock and anger. "You... stop slandering me! How can you, in this court, baselessly slander important officials based on hearsay? What about 'Jingbei military rations'? You have no evidence, nothing but lies! Are you trying to disrupt the order of our court?!"

"No evidence?!" Chen Bingzhi turned his head abruptly, staring at the old minister with bloodshot eyes. A nearly hideous smile spread across his face. He held the memorial high in his hand, as if holding a red-hot iron. "Evidence?! This is the evidence!!"

He flipped through the pages of the memorial, his voice distorted by extreme excitement and fear, as he screamed out every word like tears streaming down his face:

"This is a copy of the signed record of the last three batches of military rations delivered to the Jingbei Camp in the northern border during the winter of the eleventh year of Tianyou's reign in the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Warehouses! It's crystal clear! It has Shen Ziqing's signature! And... it also has the signatures and seals of Lord Zhang, then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and now Minister of Works! And Lord Li, then Director of the Ministry of Warehouses and now Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel!"

His fingers, like iron pliers, pointed intently at the faint yet deadly ink marks and stamps on the memorial! Those pages, with their yellowed and curled edges and the musty odor of aged archives, felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds in Chen Bingzhi's trembling hands!

"These three batches of military rations were recorded as 'high-quality new rice' when they were received! Yet!" Chen Bingzhi's voice suddenly rose, like a weeping night owl. "According to my investigation of the surviving veterans of the Jingbei Army, the rations they were given were mostly moldy, stale rice mixed with sand, gravel, and dirt! They were even... suspected to contain a slow-acting poison! This was the direct culprit that led to the severe loss of the Jingbei Army's combat effectiveness and the ultimate death of 30,000 soldiers in the snowstorm!"

"boom--!!!"

If the uproar just now was a huge wave, this one was a tsunami! The entire Fengtian Hall was in a state of turmoil! Countless pairs of eyes instantly widened, staring in disbelief at the pages in Chen Bingzhi's hands, which seemed to be burning with the fires of hell! The faces of the several important officials who were directly named instantly turned from pale to ashen, their bodies trembling, their lips trembling, but they couldn't utter a single word! Fear, like a cold, venomous snake, instantly gripped their hearts!

Minister Zhang? Minister Li? And... Shen Ziqing?! The root cause of that devastating defeat fourteen years ago, that bloody mystery that was deliberately covered up, was actually... actually connected to a high-ranking official in the court?! And the evidence was just thrown out in court by that madman, Chen Bingzhi?!

The emperor was completely stunned. He slumped over on the dragon throne, his body shaking like a leaf in the wind. The jade beads on his crown tassels swayed wildly, making a chaotic and piercing sound. He looked at the maddened Chen Bingzhi, then at the pale-faced ministers. Finally, his helpless, panicked gaze, as if grasping at a last straw, turned to Gu Linzhi.

Gu Linzhi finally slowly raised his eyelids. His gaze, as calm and unwavering as a polar glacier, swept across the chaotic and indignant court, across the several important officials whose faces looked ashen as if struck by lightning, and finally landed on Chen Bingzhi's face, distorted by excitement and fear.

Deep within his eyes, there was no surprise, no anger, only a clarity bordering on cruelty, all-seeing. Chen Bingzhi's "knife," as he had anticipated, was ignited by those few pages of old documents that had "just happened" to land on his desk, igniting his fury. He recklessly stabbed at the most fatal point. But... the stab was so fierce, so thorough, so... unwavering. This was no mere impeachment; it was a blaze that would completely inflame the entire court, along with the bloody incident of fourteen years ago!

"Chen Bingzhi!" A minister who had been named finally recovered from his shock. His face turned from ashen to the color of liver in anger. He suddenly stepped out of the train and pointed a trembling finger at Chen Bingzhi. His voice was shrill and out of tune with extreme fear and anger. "You... you lunatic! How dare you forge old records! Slander important officials! Frame loyal officials! You... you deserve to die! Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Chen Bingzhi is spreading lies and misleading the people! He is disrupting the order of the court! I implore Your Majesty to arrest this bastard immediately! Punish him severely!"

"Catch him!"

"What nonsense! Slander!"

"Your Majesty! This is a frame-up! Please investigate!"

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, the implicated officials instantly erupted, leaping out to vehemently criticize Chen Bingzhi, attempting to overwhelm him with their outcry. For a moment, the courtroom was a turmoil of spitting, accusations, and arguments, a cacophony of clamor. The solemnity of the Golden Palace vanished, leaving only naked criticism and roars of fear.

“Silence——!!!” Beside the throne, the eunuch in charge of the imperial seal used his sharp voice to suppress the chaos with his inner strength, but it seemed pale and powerless.

Facing the surging accusations and murderous gazes, Chen Bingzhi didn't flinch. Instead, it was as if the last shred of his rationality had been completely ignited. He suddenly straightened his back beneath the empty crimson official robe, his face filled with the madness and despair of a martyr, and roared at the top of his lungs:

"Your Majesty! Every word I say is true! If I tell even a single lie, I will be willing to be tortured to death by slicing! May God strike me with lightning!" He suddenly raised the heavy memorial in his hand high up, as if he was going to use the last of his strength to smash it into the filthy court. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please understand! This is a traitor to the country! This is..."

His voice came to an abrupt halt as if strangled by an invisible giant hand!

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on Chen Bingzhi's suddenly stiff face.

His arm, holding the memorial high, remained frozen in mid-air, but his bloodshot eyes suddenly widened to their limit, their pupils instantly dilating! The madness, anger, and despair on his face quickly faded like a tide, leaving only a pure, incomprehensible confusion and... extreme pain!

"Uh..." A very slight groan, as if squeezed from the depths of the throat.

Then, under the gaze of countless horrified eyes, Chen Bingzhi's body trembled violently! An extremely fine, almost imperceptible line of dark red blood, like a strange red nematode, slowly and windingly seeped out from the corner of his slightly open mouth, dripping along his pale, cracked lower lip.

“Pah.”

A drop of sticky, dark red blood hit the mirror-like golden brick floor and shattered. The sound, in the suddenly dead silence of the hall, was as clear as thunder!

Chen Bingzhi's body swayed, like a puppet with its strings cut in a gust of wind. The memorial he held high slipped limply from his grasp, the pages scattering like a hail of white paper money. He stumbled forward one step, then another... and then, as everyone stared in stunned horror and disbelief, his crimson-robed body, as if every bone had been pulled out, fell forward heavily and straight!

"Bang--!!!"

The dull thud was like a heavy hammer hitting everyone's heart!

Chen Bingzhi, the Left Vice-Chief Censor of the Metropolitan Censorate, who had just thundered down the Golden Palace like a madman, now lay facedown, lifeless, on the cold, hard gold bricks like a puddle of mud! The crimson official robe that symbolized the Censor's noble status was now as dazzling as flowing blood! Beneath him, the dark red bloodstains spread slowly and silently at a speed visible to the naked eye...

Dead silence.

Absolute, suffocating silence.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, you could hear a pin drop. Hundreds of courtiers, along with the emperor on the throne and the eunuchs standing by, froze in place as if under a spell. Their eyes were fixed on the rapidly expanding dark red pool of blood in the center of the hall, and the lifeless crimson body. The air was thick with the nauseating smell of blood, mixed with the immense fear brought by the dead silence.

The emperor's body trembled violently. He opened his mouth, a gasping sound emanating from his throat, like a fish out of water. His eyes were filled with extreme horror and incomprehensible fear. He suddenly raised his hands and clutched the dragon robe across his chest, as if his heart was being gripped by an icy hand! He wanted to scream, but no sound came out!

"Protect... Protect the emperor!" The eunuch in charge of the seal finally reacted. His voice was tearful and pierced the silence sharply, with a panic as if the end of the world was coming!

The hall erupted in chaos! Several imperial guards, waking from their dreams, hastily drew their swords and vigilantly scanned their surroundings, unable to locate the enemy! Like frightened sheep, the ministers instinctively retreated, staring in horror at the corpse in the center and glancing at each other with uncertainty, as if the murderer were hiding nearby! Fear, like a plague, spread madly through the silent Golden Hall!

In this extreme chaos and panic, only that mysterious figure still stood before all the officials, unmoved.

Gu Linzhi slowly lowered his eyes, his gaze calmly resting on Chen Bingzhi's stiffened corpse. The depths of his eyes, as deep as a cold pond, finally lost their utter coldness. A subtle ripple, like the shattering of ice, quietly rippled through the depths of the cold pond.

Not surprise, not anger, not even pity.

It was a kind of... understanding.

A kind of clarity that sees through the fog and sees the chess game suddenly turn to another more treacherous and bloody fork in the road.

Chen Bingzhi's death was by no means an accident, nor was it Gu Linzhi's doing.

This was a silencing move! A warning! It was the first fangs bared by Xie Yong, the poisonous dragon lurking beneath the water, completely enraged! In the most bloody, direct, and intimidating way, in the Golden Throne Room, before the Emperor and the entire court, he brazenly snuffed out the newly ignited spark!

Fast! Cruel! Vicious! Leave no room for maneuver!

Gu Linzhi's fingertips twirled ever so slightly within the wide black sleeves of his robe, as if sensing the thick, inextricable smell of blood in the air and... the sudden escalation of murderous intent.

He slowly raised his eyelids, his gaze calmly sweeping across the messy and panic-stricken court, across the young emperor who was almost fainting on the throne, and finally, to the sky outside the Fengtian Palace, which was still shrouded in thick darkness.

The thunder finally fell.

In the most tragic and unexpected way.

This game of chess is no longer an undercurrent.

The blood has dyed the chessboard red.

The sky in Shengjing is really going to change.