Martial King's Retired Life

Book 14: Chapter 14

Ming Feizhen’s Brain

The Qilin Guards owed me a thank-you letter for virtually clearing out the deep section of their jail. Since no assassin, shady or harmful people would show up here, I took the opportunity to sort through my thoughts.

Ever since Gongsun Chu kidnapped me, I was forced to go with the flow. While events were happening one after another outside the underground palace, I was cut off from all of it. Upon returning to the capital, nothing I saw or heard felt right. Everyone I met gave me a weird feeling; it was incredibly subtle, but I could sense it. No matter if it was His Majesty’s attitude, the White Princes’ movements, the reactions of the three offices, the daily life of Daren Academy or the large capital’s atmosphere, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that everything was shrouded in a veil.

Whenever I interacted with people, it became more apparent to me that I had become someone’s plans. The spectators, however, went about what was seemingly normal daily lives amidst that disconcerting atmosphere as none of them noticed they were inside a trap. People couldn’t clearly perceive what happened when they were walking into small traps one after another. Had I not entered the capital from outside or spent enough time in the underground palace to understand Gongsun Chu, I probably wouldn’t have picked up on the elusive atmosphere.

The start of it all traced back to when Luo Ming surrendered his status as a White Prince. His move foiled the plans of the remaining six White Princes, yet their reaction was clumsy, just unnatural. They were privy to His Majesty’s intentions prior to the fiasco Luo Ming started. Aside from Valley of Yearning, Black Robe Brotherhood in the capital most likely spent every day thinking of a countermeasure to the eventual stripping of their powers.

On the surface, His Majesty appeared to have not taken any action. Howbeit, he accepted Luo Sword Manor, and his forces in Huzhou were on standby. That was the same as riding the wave Luo Ming started to force the remaining six into declaring their stances, effectively creating two factions within the six. Given how clever the strategy was, I doubted His Majesty was its father. If it wasn’t one of the six secretaries’ idea, then I was willing to bet Prime Minister Li manifested the idea.

The six White Princes were supposed to be cornered, yet all they did was send a few of their children to the capital to participate in the special exams, stopped restricting the activities of the unorthodox factions and turned a blind eye to the deterioration of safety. By all means, their strategy qualified as a form of resistance, but it didn’t resolve their problem. Even if someone in court voiced support for them, as long as His Majesty refused to let the six clans’ children win in the exams and then dispatched Qilin Guards to enforce his will with an iron fist, the six White Princes’ tactic would crumble. Based on how sly I knew the old slimeballs were, I wouldn’t believe their best plan was something so sloppy even if you threatened me with death.

Yuan Kou gave me a new perspective.

The six remaining Champion White Princes did deploy a strategy, and it was so clever that it went unnoticed. Mayhap their initial plot was straightforward, but it all transformed once they met Gongsun Chu. Sending their children to the capital and ignoring the madness were part of a smokescreen strategy designed to mislead His Majesty into misjudging them. In other words, they created troubled waters to subsequently catch the fish in troubled waters.

The White Princes knew that, until the time was ripe to turn on His Majesty, the only way for them to keep his support was to create a common enemy. That common enemy was Gongsun Chu. Gongsun Chu’s forces and his constant threat in the dark made him the most reasonable threat, not to mention the mirage strategy that put everyone on high alert. Had Tianhu not unexpectedly entered the fray, Gongsun Chu would be watching the three offices tackle Fiends’ Genesis and bury his pawns so that the imperial court would be occupied with finding him. In the meantime, the White Princes in cahoots with him would have time to catch their breath. Considering His Majesty’s personality, they’d have years to prepare for war. That being said, His Majesty’s strategists were unlikely to just sit back since they never gave up on stripping the White Princes of power.

The capital – and even all of Jiangnan – had become victims of the scheme layered in schemes on top of more schemes. The three offices’ ideas, the officials’ ideas, His Majesty’s ideas, the Six Champion White Princes, Fiends’ Genesis, Daren Academy… everyone’s thoughts, desires, joys and grudges had been interwoven into a web, one that the true nature of had become indiscernible. Gongsun Chu achieved what he set out to achieve.

Gongsun Chu’s sudden departure from the board left a vacuum; it was akin to an archer losing his target and his tensioned string snapping. Once chaos erupted as everyone went to do their own thing, nobody would be able to guess what Gongsun Chu was after and what he would do. That was the moment he’d achieve his true goal.

In order to see the true picture, I needed to leave the forest. Once you were no longer staring down at the board through the dark clouds, it was obvious that the conflict still centred around the White Princes and the imperial court. Neither Gongsun Chu nor Fiends’ Genesis could dismantle the imperial court. The only entity that could do so were the Champion White Princes. You had to keep that point in mind if you didn’t want to let Gongsun Chu fool you.

Neither His Majesty nor the Champion White Princes had any intention of mending their relationship. All the compromises made and truces were for the sake of the current peril. Gongsun Chu had created a situation where nobody could predict when war would break out.

Speaking from a reasonable prediction, His Majesty would hold off on stripping the Champion White Princes for at least two years. Even if he did have some spectacular plan, he’d need to wait for them to drop their guard, which could be months or years into the future. Whichever it was, it wasn’t now.

On the other hand, there was no way of predicting when the Champion White Princes would take their shot. One thing was certain, though, and that was that they were set on protecting their privileges.

It seemed as though the two parties would fight after matters were settled, but “seemingly” and “certainly” weren’t synonyms.

Assuming the six had colluded with Gongsun Chu, it was easy to work out when they’d strike – when the imperial court relaxed. Who would let their guard down more than a hunter watching his prey? When was a better time to strike than after shaking hands and making up? If that was the case, wasn’t that prime opportunity now?