My brother has a deep friendship with me
Imperial city, post station.
As soon as Qin Xuanfu stepped in, the sound of orderly kneeling overwhelmed the original tranquility of the place. The guards and eunuchs on both sides knelt to greet him all the way to the stone steps in front of the courtyard.
Qin Xuan waved his hand to dismiss the officials from the post station and stepped forward alone.
He smiled affectionately, his eyes showing his usual gentleness. "My dear brother, why don't you come to the palace now that you're here, but hide in this side hall instead? Are you afraid that I might harm you?"
Qin Shu's gaze paused slightly. He looked calm, but seemed to be thinking about something.
After a long moment, Qin Shu looked back at the man: "Brother Huang, have you ever done anything to offend me?"
The tone was neither hurried nor slow, but it was like a basin of cold water poured over one's head.
Qin Xuan raised his eyebrows, but was not annoyed. He was dressed in Su brocade with golden dragon patterns embroidered on it, and he looked noble, but he stood casually and spoke even more casually.
"Tsk, Third Brother, you have this problem. You can't stand others treating you well, right?"
Qin Shu: “…”
Since ascending the throne, Qin Xuan's words and letters have become more and more corny every year.
What is "My dear brother, you have done your best to be respectful to your elder brother, and I, your brother, have a deep friendship with you"?
What is "blood relatives are inseparable"?
And the sentence "I wish to return home on horseback with my dear brother" gave Qin Shu goosebumps.
He was really convinced.
Qin Shu seriously suspected that Qin Xuan had practiced his eloquence by flipping through his father's pile of storybooks and picking out golden sentences.
Qin Shu didn't want to pay attention and just said seriously: "I came to the Imperial City to ask you about something important, and I also need to see the files of the National History Supervisor Zhongnan Mansion."
Qin Xuan raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Don't be polite. I'll find someone to arrange it for you. I'll set up a dinner at Haisheng Pavilion tonight to welcome you."
Qin Shu refused calmly, "No need. I came to the Imperial City privately. Making a big fuss will only attract attention."
Qin Xuan sighed helplessly, "Okay, what's the matter? Tell me."
Qin Shu paused, his eyes darkening slightly. "Royal brother, the art of possessing another's body can penetrate deep into the sea of consciousness, yet it cannot be eliminated by external forces. Is there any precedent?"
Qin Xuan paused, then frowned, "How could that be? Possession is a forced technique, so it can naturally be dispelled by external force."
Qin Shu shook his head: "Ren Xuan tried it and it almost caused his sea of consciousness to collapse."
The atmosphere was slightly stagnant, and Qin Xuan knocked his knuckles on the table: "Who?"
Qin Shu: "Nanfu, Xiao Jingyuan."
Qin Xuan's eyes deepened a little, and he slowly stood up: "Did you bring the person?"
Qin Shu nodded: "In the side hall."
Qin Xuan stepped forward, his fingertips tucked away, and a ray of warm golden light emerged from his palm and steadily sank into Xiao Jingyuan's brow.
As soon as the light entered the body, the temperature around it seemed to drop by half a degree in a moment.
After a long moment, Qin Xuan withdrew his hand, his eyes fixed, "There is a seal in his sea of consciousness."
Qin Xuan pondered for a long time before saying, "This is no ordinary possession."
Qin Xuan lifted the teacup from the table, his fingertips brushing against the still-damp porcelain glaze. "Ordinary possession involves forcefully invading the sea of consciousness and occupying the main soul, usually leaving behind extremely brutal marks of tearing the consciousness. But his sea of consciousness is calm and still, as if... he's willingly giving up a place."
He spoke each word with great emphasis: "This isn't an ordinary possession, but a contract. This kind of soul-controlling contract cannot be resolved by the Bodhi Enlightenment Sutra."
Qin Xuan said, his tone hinting at helplessness: "After all, Bodhi Enlightenment is a method to neutralize external poisons and purify the inner source, but this contract is not about poison, nor is it about the heart. It is a vow he made with others in his sea of consciousness."
He spread his hands. "If someone doesn't sever their responsibilities and abandon their own actions, then intervening would be a violation of their oath and could very well backfire. If I were to force the severance, it's very likely that this person would be completely annihilated."
Qin Shu frowned: "That means even you can't intervene. If you can't solve it, how can you save your life?"
"That's not a problem." Qin Xuan nodded, his tone returning to a gentle tone: "I can protect his sea of consciousness and keep it stable for half a year."
Qin Shu lowered his brows for a long time before speaking again, "Royal brother, can you trace the origin of that seal?"
Qin Xuan spread out his palm and pointed with his fingertips. A ray of golden light swirled into a seal in the palm of his hand, and an extremely faint breath slowly rose along the palm veins.
Qin Xuan: "I just tried to seal the edge of the seal and detected a faint line of consciousness. This seal is incomplete, which means that there is a main and auxiliary consciousness. The true main consciousness is not in his body. He may not be the only target, or even the most important target. If we are more extreme, this seal may not necessarily work, and may even be triggered but not released."
As soon as the words were spoken, the side hall became as quiet as ice.
Qin Shu understood the other party's implication: "But now there is no way to identify who is affected and how many people are affected. It is impossible to find out."
Qin Xuan raised his eyes and looked at him: "Who do you suspect?"
Qin Shu didn't answer immediately. He lowered his eyes, as if thinking, but also as if he had no intention of answering at all.
After a while, Qin Shu simply said, "Let's focus on the present first."
Qin Xuan looked at him, smiled, and didn't ask any more questions.
He called the eunuch in and whispered a few instructions to him.
Qin Xuan said calmly, "Leave the person to me. As for the dossier you want, you don't have to go far. Just go to the martial arts gym and wait. Yuan Feng said that those kids really missed you."
He turned around and looked at Qin Shu, his tone was a bit casual and intimate: "I'll stop by later and deliver it to you personally, how about it?"
Qin Shu glanced at him sideways, and finally said, "...It's up to you."
···
The Hanyun Martial Arts School in Dongliu Town is no longer the small place with mottled walls and rustling bamboo branches.
Because his disciple Chu Ming had made great contributions in protecting the emperor, Qin Xuan issued an imperial decree to move the entire martial arts school to the imperial capital.
New land was granted and the old system was expanded. The ordinary little martial arts hall was transformed into a reserve force for the Imperial Garden Guard and the Yulin Guard.
The sun was setting in the west. Fang Ci followed Qin Shu and as soon as he stepped into the martial arts hall, he felt the atmosphere was a little subtle.
Originally, Qin Shu was not welcomed anywhere, but when he stepped into the room, he saw a group of young men in training clothes rushing towards him.
The boy's eyes sparkled, and his tone was flattering yet measured.
"Your Highness!"
"Senior Brother Chu said that Senior Brother Yuan Feng saw you in Southern Xinjiang some time ago!"
"The museum has just received a batch of Xuan-level short blades. Would you like to try them out, Your Highness?"
Their tone was enthusiastic and had a touch of boyish intimacy. Some of them even squeezed towards Qin Shu with sword cases in hand.
Fang Ci looked a little dumbfounded for a moment: "...When did you become so popular?"
Qin Shu seemed accustomed to this. He took the box, opened it, and glanced at it. He casually flipped through the weapons inside and said calmly, "The blade pattern is good. You can remove the jade. The silver is too light. I'll use red steel next time."
Several disciples nodded repeatedly.
During this back and forth, Fang Ci stood aside, his eyes twitching, and his whole body fell into an indescribable delicate state.
She tried to hold it back, but finally couldn't hold it back anymore. She moved forward and asked in a low voice, "No, you...what's wrong with you?"
Qin Shu took a sip of tea, his expression unchanged, his tone boasting a bit, "This martial arts hall was built by Xiyun."
Fang Ci: “…”
Oh, I didn't misunderstand you.
She originally thought that some reversal of feng shui had caused Qin Shu's temperament to change drastically, but when she heard the three words "Lu Xiyun", everything made sense.
Qin Shu turned and walked towards the martial arts training ground, saying casually, "There are many martial arts schools and academies like this in Yunzhong."
Fang Ci almost choked on this sentence: "......?"
Seeing that these young disciples were not only not afraid of Qin Shu, but also called him "Your Highness" very naturally, she suddenly felt speechless.
I haven't seen him for a lifetime. Has this guy been possessed?!
···
Qin Xuan moved extremely quickly.
In just the time it took to stick up an incense stick, a eunuch came on horseback and delivered the sealed scroll all the way to the front hall of the martial arts hall.
There were about a hundred disciples, assistants, and instructors in the martial arts school. They were divided into three groups and surrounded the three desks in the hall. From noon to dusk, they looked through hundreds of old bamboo slips.
By the evening, he had just managed to sort out forty or fifty volumes of slightly related old records.
Qin Shu sat in a corner, flipping through books like the wind. Suddenly, Fang Ci paused, picked up a scroll of ink-sealed bamboo slips, and walked over quickly.
"Qin Shu, look at this."
She spread the scroll on the table, and the powerful handwriting came into view.
The three words "Fang Weian" were densely printed on the scroll.
Fang Ci frowned. "This is the borrowing record. I looked at the catalog. He has borrowed all the books in the Imperial Observatory, especially those in the categories of Heavenly Secrets, Spiritual Contracts, and Secret Scrolls."
Qin Shu tapped the bamboo slips with his fingers to seal them, and said calmly, "These are all spells. Fang Weian is a warrior, what does he want to borrow these for?"
Fang Ci was silent for a moment, as if he found it difficult to speak, but he finally said, "Fang Weian wasn't just a warrior; his soul technique was also a form of magic. Historical records show... Fang Weian did indeed travel around to seek out Taoist priests and wandering practitioners of magic in his final years."
She paused. "Everyone says he's...looking for the secret of immortality."
Qin Shu's eyebrows did not move when he heard this, but his hands paused.
Then, he sneered, his tone sarcastic: "Nonsense. Where in this world is there such a thing as immortality?"
Fang Ci could only cough dryly. She had grown up beneath the Fang family ancestral hall, and had avoided the "Southern King" of her ancestor like nothing else, fearing and terrified. His reputation was a mess: a traitor who murdered his lord, lustful and power-hungry, yet also handsome, a fierce fighter, and a master of both civil and military affairs. Even if his "craving for immortality" was confirmed, it would only be "icing on the cake."
Fang Ci held the scroll of bamboo slips with a complicated expression... The character of her ancestor was too 'touching'.
She hesitated for a moment, "...the art of immortality often requires sacrifice, and rarely the proper path."
She paused and said, "This can't be... really a debt from the Fang family's ancestors, right?"
Qin Shu spoke slowly, "Even if it's a debt, it's unreasonable to come back hundreds of years later and not look for the original perpetrator, but instead look for a stranger to repay it."
Fang Ci looked up at Qin Shu, feeling puzzled.
It was a family scandal, and she couldn't hide it anymore. To save Jing Yuan, she really risked everything: "I'll ask Cheng Lie to come over. I'll go back to Southern Xinjiang immediately and retrieve all of Fang Weian's secret records and old files."
Qin Shu nodded, then changed the subject and instructed, "Have someone copy these documents for Ren Xuan and Wen Congren as well. Don't just leave them all here. Those two might be able to piece together other clues."
As the sky gradually darkened, the lights in the martial arts hall were gradually lit up. The few remaining disciples were cleaning the courtyard and chatting in low voices.
Qin Xuan really did as he said and came to the martial arts hall in person later.
Qin Xuan held a simple family dinner, but not many people were present. In fact, there were only the two of them.
Qin Shu dismissed the attendants and asked calmly, "Why are you the only one here?"
Qin Xuan raised his glass and swirled it, the wine shimmering in the light. His tone was distant and indifferent, "He fell ill at the beginning of the year and didn't make it."
Qin Shu paused and looked up at him: "You didn't say that."
Qin Xuan said with a smile: "You have no relationship with him, so why should I inform you?"
Qin Shu stared at him, his eyes suddenly becoming complicated.
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