Chapter 563 Yang Lianghan, the Corrupt Official of the Imperial Court, and the Righteous Sword Immortal Butterfly Loves Flowers [Bonus Chapter 55, Requesting Monthly Tickets!]
The ship's cabin and lobby.
The hall had two rows of seats, mostly filled with people dressed in strange and unusual clothes.
A few seats were empty.
At the head of the table, a tall, elegant woman dressed in Wu clothing with fiery blonde hair sat with her eyes closed, seemingly resting.
Behind her stood a cold and alluring Yue woman of about twenty-five or twenty-six, holding a snow-white longsword.
Xue Zhongzhu's face seemed shrouded in a light gloom, her brows furrowed with a barely perceptible hint of sorrow, and her lips drooped slightly. Even the spring flowers beside her appeared somewhat withered and faded.
She kept her eyes closed and remained silent, and the entire room fell silent, with the faint sound of a zither and the song "Butterfly Loves Flowers" drifting from outside.
The cold-blooded sword attendant seemed to sense something was amiss with the eldest female ruler. She glanced at the outside from which the music and singing were coming, then turned to give a look to the Yue woman outside the gate.
But then, the music and the song "Butterfly Loves Flowers" disappeared.
Xue Zhongzhu's chest heaved for a moment. He opened his eyes and surveyed the entire scene. Finally, he spoke, addressing the assembled martial arts practitioners with a blank expression:
"Please go back, everyone. There aren't enough people for today's meeting. Some people were late on their way, and others made excuses not to come... Let's meet again next time in a safer place."
"Furthermore, when you all return, please convey my message: have your sect leaders come here in person. You don't mean you want me to go and invite them, do you?"
Inside the hall, a bearded man asked curiously:
"Your Majesty, isn't today's meeting a celebration and a way to wrap things up?"
"Why must the Master himself come? I am here on his behalf. The checks are very strict in Hongzhou and Jiangzhou right now, so it's really inconvenient for me to come unless absolutely necessary..."
He looked puzzled and continued laughing:
"The Lord of the Manor specially ordered me to convey his congratulations to Your Majesty. This operation was truly exhilarating. Our Fengyun Manor will forever respect Yunmeng Jianze and honor him as the leader of the Jianghu in the South."
"What kind of celebration or conclusion?"
Xuezhongzhu suddenly let out a cold rebuke.
The bearded man immediately fell silent, and the entire room went quiet for a moment.
Xuezhongzhu said expressionlessly:
"Have you misunderstood me? We are here to discuss the follow-up handling of the Donglin Buddha in Jiangzhou."
"Last time, the Buddha's head arrived early, catching our people off guard. We need to learn from that lesson this time. The Buddha's head is still in Xunyang City. We need to find a way to send people to investigate first. Last time, to prevent the Qi cultivators from the Imperial Observatory from retaliating with a search, we had to withdraw almost all of our people. We need to rearrange our forces..."
"Uh, what do you mean by being caught off guard? Wasn't it all within the Empress's expectations? It was a contingency plan at the Xingzifang construction site. Otherwise, how could we have succeeded this time? The Buddha statue has collapsed, the court is furious, and we're losing face."
A Taoist priest in a blue turban, sitting near the front, shook his head curiously and asked.
Xue Zhongzhu's lips twitched slightly, but she held back, not explaining that the real reason for the Xingzifang construction site was something else... She solemnly replied:
"On behalf of the Lady of Yunmeng Sword Marsh, I hereby declare once again that the master of the Butterfly Love Flower is not a member of our Sword Marsh. He may be a martial artist who is just joining in the fun, or an enemy of the Wei Clan, but he is definitely not a member of our Yunmeng Sword Marsh."
"We suffered considerable losses in Xunyang City this time, and we can't just let it go like this. We need to settle this score with them properly. Besides, the latest news is that the Buddha's head doesn't seem to be damaged yet..."
The bearded man waved his hand dismissively and said:
"Your Majesty, what are you doing calling everyone here? We were the ones who had the upper hand this time. The court suffered a great loss. Why are we pretending to be wronged?"
"However, there were indeed many casualties this time, but that's just how things are in the martial world, how can people not die? Besides, the Buddha statue was destroyed after all, the goal was achieved, and they even beheaded three court officials, including the young master of the Prince of Wei's mansion. Tsk tsk... really ruthless."
The bearded man chuckled and clapped his hands, laughing to those around him:
"They must be furious now, picking fights with us everywhere. They're obviously losing face and getting desperate, hahaha."
"that is."
A effeminate scholar spoke softly:
"The First and Second Empresses are indeed worthy of their reputations. So what if it's the Great Zhou Astronomical Bureau? It still couldn't withstand the Xingzifang Buddha, especially the last move at the Xingzi Lake construction site. I've heard from others that it was simply a stroke of genius."
"I never expected that Yunmeng Sword Swamp would quietly cultivate a sword wielder! I heard there were even unusual phenomena at the time... What a grand gesture!"
His tone was both respectful and wary, quite complex.
This was also the reaction of many people on the field. Their gazes toward Xue Zhongzhu were complex and hard to describe, but they were all convinced.
After all, the Imperial Observatory had a deputy director and many experts present this time. Under such circumstances, especially on the enemy's home turf, they were able to almost wipe out the enemy's vitals and collapse the Buddha statue...
Xuezhongzhu frowned, his voice cold:
"Are you deaf? Didn't you hear what I said? That Butterfly Love Flower Master who appeared out of nowhere is not from our Yunmeng Sword Swamp. We Yunmeng Sword Swamp do not accept any men except for the lowest-ranking servants and laborers. We only accept Yue women."
The chief female ruler's chilling sword aura filled the entire area as she bluntly rebuked:
"Are you all out of your minds?"
But she soon discovered that, despite her harsh criticism, the entire audience remained unperturbed, acting like masochists.
The bearded man and the effeminate scholar exchanged a glance, revealing a strange smile, before both tried to suppress it and simultaneously agreed.
"Mmm...yes, yes, yes."
What are you laughing at?
These strange smiles made Xue Zhongzhu's fists harden.
"Cough cough, it's nothing, it's nothing, everyone understands."
"Understand what? Is there anything you can't say? Do you think I'm lying to you?"
"No, no, it's mainly... we all understand, that position is indeed important, and for Your Excellency Jianze, it cannot be easily exposed..."
"The fact that the Empress and Jianze were able to quietly use this trump card this time is already quite an achievement."
The crowd laughed and looked at Xue Zhongzhu with increasing awe.
But Xuezhongzhu's eyes twitched.
A strange sense of irritation welled up inside him. He stood up, coldly surveyed the room, and pointed to one person:
"Stop hiding anything, tell me, what have you understood?"
"Ahem, Your Majesty, we will keep the matter of the Hidden Lord a secret... And it's truly unexpected that the current Hidden Lord of the Queen's Palace is a man. It's quite rare. No wonder Your Majesty is so embarrassed and wants to keep it a secret..."
Candle in the Snow: ? ? ?
In the next instant, an unstoppable white sword aura swept across the entire area, shattering tables and chairs one after another. Everyone was shocked and stood up.
Beating up one's own people? This Yunmeng Grand Queen is simply outrageous.
Xue Zhongzhu's emerald eyes swept over the crowd, each word distinct and clear:
"This fellow is not our Sword Lord Hidden in the Vast Land. If you dare to make wild guesses and spread rumors again, I will tear your mouths apart first."
"However, I admit that this person does have some connection with Yunmeng Jianze, but not much, and it's just some personal grudges. But let's keep things separate. He did help us this time by delivering the final blow and destroying the Xingzifang Buddha. Although I don't really need his help, I can forgive him for now. I'll deal with him later. Right now, the important matter is more important."
"Let me reiterate, I bear responsibility for this operation. I shouldn't have gone to the scholarly Kuanglu to seek out this young man, Wenqi, and thus missed the opportunity. The main reason was that I didn't anticipate the Buddha's arrival time in Xun, and Empress Wei would actually invite that legendary swordsman. His zither playing is extremely annoying. If we don't eliminate him, we won't be able to get close to the Buddha in the future..."
The candle in the snow was revealed one by one.
The entire room fell silent.
After a short while, everyone looked around, and then someone took the lead, and everyone nodded in agreement.
Although they all agreed verbally, Xue Zhongzhu could sense their insincerity. Indeed, the owner of the Butterfly Loves Flowers poem had left behind a verse praising the Yue maiden, making it impossible for him to clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River.
Her large, rounded breasts, hidden beneath her flowing blonde hair, heaved as if trying to suppress something. One hand rested behind her forehead, while the other waved.
"Let's get down to business. It's very likely that the Buddha statue has been reactivated in Jiangzhou. What are your thoughts on that?"
A Taoist priest in a blue turban spoke up:
"Your Majesty, we should actually talk to the imperial court next. This time we have won back a point, and they will not dare to underestimate the Jianghu of Tiannan."
"What do you mean by 'turning the tide'?"
"No...nothing. I just wanted to say that this move has shown them how powerful we are. Thinking about the Buddha statue, the imperial court might not be targeting us directly, but rather the Kuangfu Army on the southwestern front."
"We have the upper hand now, um, we can talk. We can discuss the Buddha statue... as long as it doesn't affect us?"
"You can even spout nonsense about the Wei Zhou court? If it were still the Li Gan royal family, I might be able to have some discussion, but Wei Zhou... ha."
"The main problem is that we went too far this time. The original agreement was just to overthrow the Buddha statue, not to completely enrage the court. In the end, we killed a prefect, a director of the Imperial Observatory, and a son of the Wei family. Now it's definitely difficult to negotiate. The Wei family will definitely fight to the death. We can try to win over the pro-Wei faction..."
As he was speaking, he noticed the cold gaze directed at him by Xue Zhongzhu and immediately shut his mouth.
Xuezhongzhu was not surprised by such remarks. The various forces in Tiannan Jianghu were all looking out for themselves, a disorganized mess with their own interests and plans.
If Yunmeng Jianze hadn't obtained conclusive evidence about the mysteries of the Four Directions Buddha statues, learned of the Donglin Buddha's intentions, and was also the nominal leader of the Tiannan Jianghu, it would have been difficult to temporarily unite them and complete the previous operation.
As for how she obtained the conclusive evidence of the mystery of the Four Directions Buddha statues... her azure eyes flickered with uncertainty.
At this moment, someone asked curiously:
"A number of people died. I heard that the imperial court reinstated a Jiangzhou official named Ouyang Lianghan to handle the aftermath. They also bestowed upon him a host of official titles and promised him a generous salary."
"Does the Great Queen mean that since the Buddha's head is still intact, they still intend to continue making statues?"
"The Buddha statue has already been destroyed once, and you still want to rebuild it? Can it be done in a short time..."
Everyone started talking at once.
“Ouyang Lianghan? I know this person. This time, the martial law in Hongzhou and Jiangzhou is so strict, and the investigation is so thorough that people can't get together. There's also the matter of the wanted notices. I heard that it was all this corrupt official named Ouyang Lianghan who was advising the Censorate.”
"What a corrupt official! I had heard him say that he was a righteous gentleman who stood up for the people, but now I see that he is an accomplice to evil."
"That's right, far inferior to that righteous and awe-inspiring hermit... cough cough, the master of Butterfly Love Flower."
"The Butterfly Love Flower Sword Master is the true righteous young hero, a living sword immortal."
The crowd agreed, cursing the corrupt official, trembling with anger and cold. Yet another dragon-slaying youth had become a dragon himself.
Xuezhongzhu felt that the name Ouyang Lianghan sounded familiar. Lianghan was not familiar, but the surname Ouyang sounded vaguely familiar.
However, she couldn't remember for the moment. Looking at the messy lobby, she felt annoyed and didn't want to listen anymore.
At this moment, Yu Nianyuan led Li Shu through the door.
Xuezhongzhu immediately dismissed everyone, instructing them to go back and relay the message, and to arrange the location for the next gathering.
After everyone left, Xue Zhongzhu and Yu Nianyuan exchanged a glance, leaving Li Shu to eat pastries in the lobby.
The two walked together onto the deck. In the black night wind, Xuezhongzhu suddenly asked:
"Second Junior Sister, is there any news about Junior Sister?"
Yu Nianyuan frowned and shook his head:
"Not yet."
————
(PS: Two chapters, 7,000 words total. Please vote with monthly tickets!)
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
