Chapter 265 — Two Heroes of Jingping
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Those men of divine powers were surely disciples of the Qishan Sect, cultivating the art of thunder. They wielded a chaos of lightning strikes to herd the villagers of a dozen li and eight villages together, and bellowed: "By the emperor's command, the ancestral system is restored—sect lands belong to the sects! From now on you need not pay the imperial grain tax; you need only render tribute to the Qishan Sect!"
The village headman of one hamlet refused to submit, and had barely argued two sentences before a thunderbolt struck him dead.
Shen Mu halted to watch, frowning slightly. Emperor Yanfeng's face was iron-dark. "Perverting the course of things!" he said, cold as ice.
They passed through other provinces and commanderies, and all along the way saw the power of the sects rise again from the ashes, seizing territory on every side, plundering wealth, carving up lands—and in a moment chaos grew more chaotic still.
The snow disaster had already wrought great ruin; now the sects' power returned in force, dividing the land and seizing common folk as their tenant farmers, heaping fuel on the fire.
And where the local authorities had once been distributing relief, now the relief stopped as well, and the number who froze or starved to death was beyond counting.
Emperor Yanfeng said nothing, and cultivated all the more bitterly, striving to repair his divine treasury and restore his cultivation.
When they reached Yongzhou, Shen Mu went straight to the governor's residence. The prefect of Yongzhou hurried out to receive him, stole a glance at Emperor Yanfeng without recognizing him, then fixed his gaze on Shen Mu. "Cult Master..."
"We will speak inside."
Shen Mu said no more, and asked: "How do matters stand in the capital?"
"The capital is not in good shape."
Duanmu Jing said: "Many Daoist priests and Buddhist monks from the Daoist sect and the Great Tingming Temple have gone to the capital. The Daoist Lord and the Tathagata have each issued decrees, investing the crown prince as the Pure Emperor; on the sixth day of the third month he will ascend the throne. Even now the crown prince's spies are at work everywhere—find a man who looks like the emperor, and they cut him down on the spot."
Shen Mu nodded quietly. It was much as he had guessed.
Duanmu Jing went on: "The crown prince holds the regency, and his power is immense. Many great clans have been brought under the control of the Buddhist and Daoist factions. Some of the capital's great houses have already turned coat; in others, monks and priests have taken up residence and refuse to leave. Those clans dare not break with them, and can only let them stay. In the capital now, every walk of life and every faction is mixed together, fish and dragons jumbled—one might say it is no longer the emperor's realm."
"The crown prince has also issued a decree, saying he will restore the ancestral system, and has promulgated the tribute statutes, returning the lands of each sect to each sect, with all other lands belonging to Jingping, and moreover..."
Duanmu Jing hesitated, then said: "Envoys have come from the Wolf Roost Kingdom. Speaking of the border wars, they made peace with the crown prince, and the crown prince ceded the Sixteen Provinces of Yunlu to the Wolf Roost Kingdom. Envoys have come from the barbarian tribes as well, and are now discussing the matter of ceding land and paying indemnities..."
"Ruining a house is easy indeed."
Shen Mu laughed. "The crown prince makes a sorry emperor."
Duanmu Jing was somewhat perplexed; Shen Mu showed no trace of anger, but seemed as unconcerned as if nothing had happened. He did not know that Shen Mu had never counted himself a man of Jingping—from first to last he was one of the God-Forsaken of the Barren Wastes, and so could hardly speak of anger.
"The sixth of the third month is indeed an auspicious day for ascending the throne—and well suited to killing."