Chapter 76 A Morbid Madness
"Your Majesty!" Fu Shun's heart nearly stopped in fright. He lifted his robes and chased after the emperor. "Your Majesty, it's going to rain soon! Your Majesty, where are you going?"
Xiao Shenjing seemed not to hear him at all, as the strong wind whipped his inner garments into a frenzy.
His black hair flew wildly; he was like a sharp sword that refused to turn back, slashing into the darkness.
Yunxi, Yunxi
He needed to see her; he still had so much to say to her.
He absolutely had to see her.
"Commander, hurry and bring His Majesty back!" Seeing that he couldn't catch up at all, Fu Shun grabbed Dao Yi and said, "His Majesty is going to find Consort Yun's tomb. I'll go and get people to prepare a bridge to catch him."
Dao Yi then realized what was happening and quickly used his lightness skill to catch up.
Seeing this, Fu Shun quickly gave a few instructions to the eunuch beside him, and then rushed into the bedchamber, grabbed an outer robe, and immediately chased after Xiao Shenjing.
As the white lightning tore through the dark clouds, it illuminated Xiao Shenjing's face for a fleeting moment.
When Dao saw his dark eyes clearly, his heart pounded wildly.
It was a bottomless abyss, pulling people down endlessly.
"Your Majesty," Dao Yi swallowed hard, cautiously blocking Xiao Shenjing's path, and said, "Eunuch Fu has already ordered the horses to be prepared."
Lightning cleaved the night sky, and thunder shook the palace walls.
At this moment, Fu Shun rushed over carrying an outer robe and boots, saying, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"
Xiao Shenjing had calmed down by now. He stood up silently and spread his hands for Fu Shun to tidy his appearance.
The sedan chair was ready, but he snatched a horse from the imperial guards and mounted it.
Lightning flashed like a dragon splitting its scales, cleaving through the pine and cypress trees of the imperial mausoleum one after another, illuminating the forest of steles with a stark white light.
The young emperor, not wearing his ceremonial robes but only a black robe, rode alone into the mausoleum road, his gold-embroidered dragon-patterned robe fluttering like waves in the night wind.
The pine trees on the southern slope of Zijin Mountain roared like a wail during the thunderstorm.
As Eunuch Fu was being led by the knife, he saw the Emperor rein in his horse and stop at the entrance of the mausoleum road, staring at him. Behind him, the stone statues on both sides of the mausoleum road were flashing blue and white from lightning, their eyes deep and black, as if they had been stained with all the blackness in the world.
“The coffin will be placed over there,” he quickly pointed north.
The grave stood alone at the mouth of the north slope, half of the newly added soil washed away by the night rain.
There are no birth and death dates, and there isn't even a tombstone. There's just a piece of wood stuck at an angle with five characters hastily carved on it: "Tomb of Consort Yun Zhao".
It was simple and rudimentary; if this heavy rain fell, even the coffin would be exposed to the sun.
This is where Yunxi is buried.
At that moment, the veins on the back of Xiao Shenjing's hand, which was gripping the reins, bulged out.
"Dig." Xiao Shenjing only said one word.
Immediately, four imperial guards dismounted, picked up shovels, and began to work.
Dao Yi and Fu Shun exchanged a glance, both seeing confusion in each other's eyes.
Is Your Majesty going to dig up Miss Yunxi's coffin?
But this is a great disrespect to the deceased.
Having known Yunxi for a while, Dao Yi couldn't hold back any longer. He dismounted, bowed his head, and said to Xiao Shenjing, "Your Majesty, please respect the dead and allow Miss Yunxi to rest in peace."
The strong wind made the leaves rustle.
Xiao Shenjing didn't even look at him, his eyes fixed on the grave, as if he hadn't heard a thing.
Dao Yi dared not say anything more and could only retreat.
No one knew what Xiao Shenjing was going to do until the shovel struck the coffin, at which point the emperor suddenly shouted, "Stop!"
The imperial guards immediately stopped, only to see him dismount, his black sash fluttering in the wind like a summoning banner.
Then, he jumped into the grave pit, pushed aside the imperial guards, and began digging at the coffin with his bare hands.
"Your Majesty," Fu Shun was startled, not expecting Xiao Shenjing to do such a thing. He took a few steps forward, wanting to say something, but immediately shut his mouth when he saw Xiao Shenjing's tense jawline, and jumped into the grave pit to start digging with his bare hands.
The lightning continued relentlessly, and half of the faded prayer flag, wrapped around the lightning-struck wood in the northwest corner, was now being whipped by the gale against the cracked stele pavilion, the crackling sounds like death knells hammering into people's temples.
The world is so noisy, yet deathly silent.
None of the dozens of people present dared to speak; even their breathing seemed to be suppressed by the heavy solemnity.
As the coffin lid was violently flung open, lightning struck at that very moment, illuminating the charred, black human figure curled up inside.
Xiao Shenjing's breathing suddenly stopped, his knuckles turned bluish-white from the excessive force, and his eyes were bloodshot, as if he could not bear the sight he was seeing.
It could hardly be called a corpse; it was a pile of charcoal that barely maintained a human shape. Her once flowing black hair had been burned to ashes, and her exquisite body now resembled a withered tree stump.
He fell forward, his forehead slamming heavily against the damp coffin, yet he felt no pain. His hands hovered in mid-air, several times reaching out to touch her cheek, only to curl back just before making contact.
When his trembling hand finally touched the charred wrist bone, the brittle joint snapped with a crack.
"Yunxi" Xiao Shenjing withdrew his hands, gripping the edge of the coffin tightly, the veins on his wrists bulging like coiled dragons.
After a long pause, he suddenly chuckled softly, the sound hoarse and strained from the wind. "Didn't you love to curse me the most? Calling me a dog emperor, a madman? Now I've dug up your grave, ensuring you won't even rest in peace in death, yet you can no longer curse me."
The world was silent.
The howling wind pierced through Xiao Shenjing's body like a sharp sword, leaving a huge hole in his chest.
"Yunxi, weren't you the one who wanted to kill me the most?" His eyelids burned as he stared at the pile of charred bones in the coffin. His Adam's apple bobbed repeatedly, and after several breaths, he finally managed to squeeze out, "You can no longer kill me."
"You are dead, but I am still alive."
"You are dead"
"So," Xiao Shenjing suddenly looked up at the night sky, "in this life, the next life, and the life after that, I will never see you again."
A bolt of lightning struck, and a few large raindrops hit Xiao Shenjing's face. The rainwater flowed down his brow bone, rolled down his thick eyelashes, and onto his eyelids, as if he were crying.
Xiao Shenjing slowly lowered his head, raindrops dripping down his chin.
He suddenly turned his head, looked at her charred corpse, and asked, "Are you happy, Yunxi?"
He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse and barely audible.
"What can I do? I have so much to say to you, I must see you, Yunxi."
He became more and more certain as he spoke, and a frenzied obsession suddenly erupted in his dark eyes.
"I must see you no matter what, even if you are in the underworld, I will bring you back!"
The rain began to pelt down.
"I am the Emperor, is there anything the Emperor cannot do? If I want to see you, I must see you."
Rain pounded heavily on his eyelids, yet he stubbornly stared at the coffin: "I am the Son of Heaven. Is there anything the Son of Heaven cannot do? I want to see you, and I must see you." After he finished speaking, he suddenly turned around, his eyes filled with both madness and despair, and stared at Fu Shun, saying: "Go, summon all the sorcerers in the world for me. Whether she is a ghost or a wisp of soul, I want to see her."
Fu Shun looked at Xiao Shenjing in utter shock, "Your Majesty?"
Through the rain, Xiao Shenjing's dark eyes stared at him.
Paranoid and insane.
Like molten lava on a calm surface, it finally erupted out of control at this moment.
Fu Shun's pupils twitched, and he abruptly lowered his head, not daring to speak, and immediately accepted the order and left.
Rain pelted the coffin and the pile of charred bones.
Her eyelashes trembled heavily.
His rain-soaked black hair clung to his cheeks like black tear stains.
Xiao Shenjing quickly took off his outer robe, knelt on one knee, and reached out with both hands to hold the pile of bones.
The bright and vibrant life of the past has all turned into scorched earth.
The damp, cold touch turned into the most excruciating, piercing pain, burning him inch by inch.
"I will take you back," Xiao Shenjing said gently, as if handling a fragile treasure.
"Yunxi, I'm taking you back!"
He repeated it again, his voice so gentle it was chilling, but the fingers that touched her ashes convulsed uncontrollably, slipping through his fingers.
They couldn't keep them.
Dao Yi quickly opened the umbrella and held it above Xiao Shenjing's head.
He only cared about Xiao Shenjing, and all the rainwater sliding down from the top of the umbrella was thrown at the black-clad figure who hadn't had time to cover up the charred bones.
Xiao Shenjing suddenly bent over, turned his head, and looked at Dao Yi: "She doesn't like rain."
Dao paused for a moment, then immediately tilted the umbrella mostly towards the charred remains.
The pattering rain, carried by the tilted oil-paper umbrella, pelted Xiao Shenjing's hunched back, instantly soaking most of his white undergarment.
The rain fell like a waterfall, and the night was like a curtain.
Forty-eight Imperial Guards stood in two rows, silently enduring the rain.
The gilded fire pots they held aloft floated in the rain, turning the raindrops into eerie blue shooting stars.
It is solely for the emperor's illumination.
The emperor knelt beside a pitch-black coffin, his back hunched over in the mud, scooping up the charred bones inside with each hand.
"Where is His Majesty?" Fu Shun summoned a group of sorcerers overnight, but when he returned to the Qianqing Palace, he found that Xiao Shenjing was not there.
"His Majesty is in Yongle Palace," the young eunuch replied immediately.
When Fu Shun arrived at Yongle Palace, it was already past 5:45 AM. Looking at the tightly closed doors of the sleeping quarters, he frowned and asked, "How is His Majesty?"
"His Majesty has changed his robes and has already invaded," the palace maid by the door hurriedly replied.
Fu Shun glanced at the main gate of the sleeping quarters again and asked, "What happened to that person's ashes?"
"His Majesty held it in his hands the whole time. Before going to sleep, he had someone bring a jade box and personally put the ashes inside."
Fu Shun assumed that the jade box containing the ashes should have been placed in the bedroom, but when he went in to attend to Xiao Shenjing after daybreak, he discovered that Xiao Shenjing had been sleeping with the jade box in his arms all night.
Before Fu Shun could speak, the emperor on the bed said, "Issue the order to dismiss court today."
This is the first time since Xiao Shenjing ascended the throne.
On this day, he held Yunxi's ashes and slept in the bed where Yunxi had slept, without eating a single grain of rice.
Just before midnight, Fu Shun came in and said, "Your Majesty, everything is ready."
Xiao Shenjing finally handed over the jade box, which he had been holding for a day and a night, to Fushun.
He asked Fu Shun, "Can these sorcerers really bring Yunxi's soul back to me?"
"It is said that those who can communicate with the Yin and Yang must have a certain degree of confidence."
"I'll see her again soon." Xiao Shenjing glanced down at himself and said, "Hurry up and wash and change my clothes. I can't let her see me like this, or she'll laugh at me again!"
While washing up, Xiao Shenjing chose a moon-white Taoist robe and said, "Give me that purple jade hairpin."
He remembered that this was his favorite hairpin when he was the Prince of Huailing.
The air was filled with the smell of incense, and the white banners trembled slightly in the night breeze.
The Soul-Summoning Platform now stands quietly in the inner courtyard of Yongle Palace.
Xiao Shenjing walked out of the sleeping quarters, and everyone in the courtyard knelt down in unison.
He didn't have time to pay attention; looking at the white banners fluttering in the dojo, a slow, pleasant smile appeared on his lips.
Yunxi!
I want to see you again.
I wonder what you'll say to me next.
No matter how much you scold me this time, I won't be angry.
The young emperor clenched his fingers, his heart trembling uncontrollably.
That was an unprecedented level of intense anticipation.
He was no longer a high and mighty emperor, but a young man looking forward to meeting his beloved.
They would also be just like ordinary people, afraid and worried that she wouldn't show herself.
She refused to see him one last time.
At midnight, forty-nine bronze braziers were set up beneath the red steps of Chang Le Palace. A Taoist priest in a green robe wrote Yunxi's name on yellow hemp paper with cinnabar.
As he drove seven long nails into the doll covered in talismans, he chanted a summoning mantra loudly with each nail driven in.
"Soul, return!" The sorcerer's incantation shook the dust from the eaves and scattered talismans into the air.
The doll did not react.
"Soul, return!" The Taoist in the green robe pierced the puppet's left eye with the last three-inch silver needle, but it still had no effect.
Xiao Shenjing pressed his palm against the edge of the bronze cauldron, his knuckles turning bluish-white from the force.
"Summon again!" He stared at the motionless puppet, his voice almost squeezed out from his back teeth.
On the fifth failure, it felt as if the sky was about to fall, a terrifying experience that suffocated everyone.
After the ninth time, Xiao Shenjing suddenly grabbed a bronze wine vessel from the table and smashed it on the ground, shouting, "Drag this fraudulent charlatan away!"
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, spare us! Your Majesty!" The sorcerers, their faces pale, were dragged away one by one.
Xiao Shenjing pointed at Fu Shun, his pupils bloodshot.
"Go, find them for me! Bring all the most skilled sorcerers in the world to the Forbidden City!"
But no matter how many sorcerers Xiao Shenjing summoned or how many times he used them, he was never able to summon Yunxi's soul back.
She was so resolute that she didn't even want to see him again after she died.
The banners for summoning the soul fluttered, and incense and paper money filled the courtyard.
As the pleading sorcerer was forcibly dragged away by the Imperial Guards, Xiao Shenjing slowly walked to the jade box, dragging his arm along.
"Yunxi, why won't you see me? Why?" His veined hand suddenly gripped the edge of the jade box, and he asked angrily, almost obstinately, "I dug up your grave, so that you can't even rest in peace after death, why won't you come to me?" "Don't you hate me so much? Why won't you come and haunt me?" His face was half reddened by the red light, half eroded by the shadows, and his eyes staring at the jade box looked too cold and terrifying. "Take whatever form you want, whether you're a ghost or a demon, you can take revenge on me however you want."
"Don't let me lose track of you."
But the sky was completely silent, with only the wind scattering pale paper money.
He suddenly lowered his head, his upturned eyes reddening. "Is there only a next life?"
"Why should I ask for a next life?" Xiao Shenjing leaned on the jade box, his eyes momentarily losing control. "I said that if you dare to die, I will arrest everyone you care about."
"Yes, arrest him." He suddenly started pacing back and forth, and a burst of bloodlust rose in his eyes, which were reflecting the firelight.
It was like excitement, it was like madness.
"I told you, I'll make all the people you care about kneel before your corpse and watch how I chop off their heads one by one."
The more he spoke, the more bloodshot and eerie his eyes became.
Even if you die, I will not let you go.
Fu Shun, suppressing the worry that chilled him to the bone, whispered, "Your Majesty, you must promise this no matter what."
"Go!" Xiao Shenjing suddenly turned his head, his dark eyes fixed on Fu Shun.
Fu Shun's heart pounded wildly.
"Go and arrest everyone connected to Yunxi, everyone at Hongxiuzhao, and that Onion Head too! Hahahaha!"
As he said this, he pressed his hand firmly to his chest and burst into loud laughter.
She cares about so many people.
Even if it were just a cook at Hongxiuzhao, she might protect the other person without regard for her own life.
She gave all her tenderness to others.
She could trample herself into the mud for them, and she could also stab him with the sharpest dagger for them.
The chilling laughter caused everyone in the courtyard to kneel down in fear.
They bowed their heads deeply to the ground, as if they wanted to bury themselves in the earth.
In the dead of night, white banners fluttered in the air, along with pale paper money.
Xiao Shenjing laughed for a while, then suddenly looked up and said, "And Fan Zishi, bring them all to me!"
The emperor's hoarse voice carried a morbid madness.
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