Chương 133: Book 2 Chapter 46: Interlude II

Interlude II: The Minister of Hygiene and Sanitation, Imperial Palace"Off to court again today?" Mubai, his aide, asked theatrically, mock awe and reverence dripping from his voice.

"Minister Chang truly is diligent and devoted to his duties." Beside him, a junior clerk from the Ministry of Personnel – only temporarily assigned here – ducked his head to hide a smile. He wasn't the only one; several others looked away, their expressions a mixture of amusement and schadenfreude, while one even chimed in with a cheerful, "Hear, hear!"

Minister Chang, head of the Ministry of Hygiene and Sanitation, pretended not to hear them, though in reality he wanted to cuff every last one of them upside the head. It was bad enough that the current situation had him regretting his decision to become a minister, but now he had to endure this insolence from his own subordinates as well? It was beyond intolerable. Unfortunately, Minister Chang had risen to the top of the Ministry of Hygiene and Sanitation by ensuring no one else could.

He had blocked rivals, hoarded opportunities, and monopolized every chance to distinguish himself. That strategy had served him well for years, and now it had come back to bite him. Once, attending court as the ministry's sole representative had been a point of pride. These days, it felt more like an iron collar around his throat, one he had forged and fastened with his own hands. And if he stopped going?... Given the current state of affairs, that seemed even more dangerous.

Who knew how an absent minister would be viewed amid the escalating conflict between the Crown Prince and the Fallen Princess? The last thing Minister Chang needed was to attract the Crown Prince's displeasure, or worse, to be found mysteriously dead in his own chambers from some conveniently unexplained cause. He shuddered at both possibilities, and wished, not for the first time, that the Imperial Family would refrain from dragging innocent bystanders like himself into their power struggles.

It was a futile wish, of course. When had those in power ever concerned themselves with the burdens borne by those beneath them? The flight from the Hall of Beauteous Fragrance to the Throne Room passed in a blur, as his thoughts remained tangled in the political conflict that had recently engulfed the court, circling the same worries over and over until they threatened to give him a headache.

Only upon entering the cavernous Throne Room did he finally emerge from his spiraling thoughts, making his way toward his customary place in the second row of courtiers assembled before the throne. As he passed through the great gates, several cultivators waiting outside shot him sour looks. They were being held back by guards or denied entry altogether until all the truly important people – people like him – had entered first. The sight improved his mood considerably.

Minister Chang straightened his back and continued inward with a faint spring in his step. The spring vanished the moment his eyes fell upon the throne, or more specifically, upon the broad staircase it rested upon. The truly important ministers – the heads of the Nine Great Ministries and the Eleven Secondary Ministries – were entitled to seats upon those steps. Meanwhile, he remained relegated to standing among the crowd below, another forgettable face in a sea of officials.

The thought carried an equal measure of resentment and irony. He was far removed from the importance he had always coveted, and now that same insignificance also kept him safely distant from the center of the current political struggle. Given recent events, that hardly seemed the worst bargain. His gaze drifted upward, cataloging familiar faces and the signatures of their qi, until it reached the top – or nearly the top – of the assembly. There sat Crown Prince Xiang Chengxuan.

Minister Chang immediately lowered his eyes, lingering only long enough to confirm that the throne above the Crown Prince remained empty. As expected. The Emperor rarely attended court more than once a year, and his appearance during the recent affair involving the Tiger General had already satisfied that quota. At the foot of the great staircase stood Princess Xiang Muxue. As had become customary over the last half-dozen court sessions, she was accompanied by her handmaiden and two soldiers of the Tiger Army.

Her expression was set, her posture unyielding, and a jade slip already hovered before her. Minister Chang suppressed a groan. So it was going to be another fight today. His thoughts proved prophetic. Hardly had the court settled and the great doors of the Throne Room boomed shut behind the last arrivals when Princess Xiang Muxue stepped forward, bypassing the carefully ordered agenda to "bring before the court a heinous case of corruption and greed."

At the foot of the throne, Crown Prince Xiang Chengxuan inclined his head.

"The princess may speak freely." His tone was genial, even magnanimous. Minister Chang watched the performance unfold. The evidence was presented piece by piece: a storage pouch containing two hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones; a jade slip – the very one Princess Muxue had brought with her – recording discrepancies in production reports; testimony from an embroidery painting regarding a suspicious meeting observed on the fourteenth floor. Every thread led back to a single man: Huo Junzi.

Minister Chang glanced around the hall, though he already knew what he would find. The man was absent. It took him a moment to place the name. Huo Junzi was the overseer assigned to the high-grade spirit stone mine on the fourteenth floor, as well as one of the Crown Prince's more useful followers. A considerable portion of the gifts, favors, and outright bribes distributed among junior officials could be traced back to the wealth that passed through Huo Junzi's hands.

That he was corrupt was beyond dispute, though the same could be said of half the court. What mattered was that his corruption had been sanctioned by, and operated in service to, the Crown Prince. This had nothing to do with justice, greed, or missing spirit stones. It was an attack and everyone in the room knew it. Yet Crown Prince Xiang Chengxuan listened with grave attention, nodding occasionally as Princess Muxue delivered her accusations.

"... the possibility of Shi Wanjun fleeing the palace after obtaining such a quantity of spirit stones was too great to ignore. Therefore, with General Tang Huwei's permission, I borrowed two soldiers of the Tiger Army and entered the overseer's residence to ensure his safety should he be in danger. And what did I discover? The very man I sought to protect concealing wealth he had embezzled from the Empire. I immediately ordered his detention and a search of his residence.

There, further evidence was uncovered, including this jade slip comparing the figures reported to the court against the mine's actual output." The jade slip hovering before her spun slowly in the air.

"A discrepancy exceeding three million high-grade spirit stones." Her voice rang through the hall.

"I remind the court that this wealth belongs to the people of the Empire." She finished with her chin held high and her shoulders squared, looking in that moment every inch an imperial princess: beautiful, authoritative, and utterly convinced of the righteousness of her cause. Yet, no one moved or even stirred. No cries of outrage sounded and no minister rushed to condemn Huo Junzi or voice support for her demands.

Instead, the entire court remained perfectly still, every eye drifting upwards toward the foot of the throne itself and the man seated there: toward Crown Prince Xiang Chengxuan. Minister Chang lowered his eyes again as soon as he caught sight of the expression on the crown prince's face. It was one he had seen before, one that the court had seen before, and he knew that what was about to follow was a dismantling.

Prince Chengxuan's calm voice drifted through the hall, measured and patient as he began laying out the facts.

"... paint a compelling picture, cousin, but there are several details missing from your account. Huo Junzi has indeed concealed spirit stones, though not for his own benefit. He did so under my orders as part of an effort to identify corruption within the lower bureaucracy..."

"… not to mention the fact that his information has been instrumental in identifying three underpaying and underreporting minsters who were seized and placed into detention last month, a fact which can be corroborated by the Minister of Justice-" Chang saw the man on the steps nod "-and his department. Also, this bears repeating, but the entry of the soldiers was only possible because Junzi opened his residence of his own volition, and not because…"

"… it should also be noted that the search for the missing Lion General has turned up a wealth of evidence – evidence that has been largely proven to be false by this very court. I worry that some unscrupulous figures are behind this, planting false evidence to get innocent and hard-working servants of the empire into trouble…" Minister Chang stopped listening. This fight was over, and in truth, had been over the moment Crown Prince Chengxuan opened his mouth.

The outcome was the same as it had been in every previous confrontation: another victory for the Crown Prince. Apart from the initial stumble two weeks ago, when evidence of Jin Hansu's negligence as a gatekeeper of the Eternal Archives had briefly landed the prince's close friend in detention before his subsequent release, Chengxuan had weathered every assault Princess Muxue had launched against him. Not merely weathered them, but turned them around.

Each accusation became an opportunity, and each attack became evidence of his own competence. He navigated every challenge with such practiced ease that one would think he had spent a lifetime doing nothing else. Whatever strength the Fallen Princess had possessed at the beginning of this struggle had been spent. In this arena, the victor was already decided. That, more than anything else, explained why not a single minister had defected despite the overtures made in Princess Muxue's name, not even Minister Chang.

The pattern of killings had made one thing abundantly clear: court ministers were safe. It was the Crown Prince's personal followers who found themselves in danger. Most believed – as did Chang – that the princess feared provoking the Emperor's attention and inviting scrutiny from the Censorate. Nor could she move openly against her cousin, as that would attract the attention of- Minister Chang firmly cut off the thought as he was not an idiot. Some matters were best left unconsidered.

Instead, he watched the princess's latest gambit collapse and silently thanked his lucky stars that he had declined the private meeting she had requested with him. As far as he knew, no one among the other ministries had accepted her offer either. Oh, many ministers had agreed to meet with her and listened politely to what she had to say, but at the end of the day, listening was not the same as choosing a side. No one had abandoned the Crown Prince because no one was foolish enough to do so.

Minister Chang remembered all too well what happened to those who opposed Xiang Chengxuan, and judging by the silence in the hall, he was far from the only one. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. At the foot of the great staircase, Princess Muxue inclined her head.

"It seems I was overeager in my desire to serve the Empire and mistakenly took an innocent man for an enemy. Many thanks for the clarification, Cousin." Her tone was perfectly courteous, but had Minister Chang been a betting man – which he most certainly was, particularly where Flame Wheeled Chariot races and major auctions were concerned – he would have wagered a considerable sum that her eyes were spitting fire. Unfortunately, from where he stood, he could only see her back.

Still, the concession sealed the outcome completely. The court watched another exchange in the slow struggle between the prince and princess come to an end. Not that it was a true victory. Certainly, Crown Prince Chengxuan had won this particular battle, but Princess Muxue still commanded the loyalty of the Tiger Army, while her supporters controlled much of the Inner Court. These defeats were little more than shallow cuts. Painful, perhaps, but far from fatal. It would take many more before she bled out.

The Crown Prince held the court in a stranglehold, while the Princess commanded the only army that truly mattered. Their war was far from over. Had he still possessed the naïveté of his younger years, Minister Chang might have prayed for the Emperor to intervene. Now he knew better; the Emperor was almost certainly allowing this. Perhaps he even welcomed it. After all, Crown Prince Chengxuan had spent the better part of a decade tightening his grip over the court.

To an emperor, watching an heir fend off a rival was both useful and reassuring. It kept ambitious subordinates occupied fighting one another instead of looking upward. In fact, Minister Chang sometimes wondered whether the Emperor himself was responsible for Princess Muxue's sudden rise. Who else possessed the authority to permit assassinations within the palace walls? Who else could have allowed her to gather strength so quickly?

If the Emperor had grown wary of his nephew's influence and wished to trim it back... The thought lingered. Of course, the struggle would still end with Chengxuan's victory, Minister Chang had little doubt of that, though victory and emerging unscathed were not the same thing. If the Emperor truly was orchestrating events from behind the curtain, then every wound Princess Muxue inflicted upon the Crown Prince was serving its intended purpose.

And that, Minister Chang suspected, was exactly what His Celestial Majesty wanted.

"There is one more matter to address, cousin," said Chengxuan casually, "before the court may move on to the gathered petitions." The tension that had been about to dissipate from the court ratcheted up once more.

"It involves the Ministry of External Affairs." Confusion swept through the assembled courtiers. Low murmurs rippled across the chamber as officials exchanged puzzled glances. Everyone present understood what the prince was doing; he was not content to let the princess retreat from her defeat with her dignity intact. He intended to press the advantage. Minister Chang frowned at another thing entirely. The Ministry of External Affairs? What did they have to do with any of this?

For that matter, what did they have to do with anything? He would never have described himself as a powerful minister – a fact that remained a constant source of irritation – but compared to the Ministry of External Affairs, he might as well have been the Emperor himself. The ministry existed largely on paper, at least, by his understanding. In fact, Chang struggled to remember a single noteworthy action it had taken in his entire career. Did it even have any active responsibilities?

Were there enough officials assigned to it to fill a dinner table? He sincerely doubted it. At the foot of the staircase, Princess Muxue's head snapped upward, sending her dark hair whipping behind her. Though he couldn't see her face from where he stood, Minister Chang would swear that the expression on her face was alarm. Before she could speak, a man emerged from the edge of the hall, where he had stood so still and unobtrusive that most of the court had failed to notice him.

Several officials startled, while the rest immediately began scrutinizing him. He was old – truly old. His back was bent, his shoulders stooped, and deep wrinkles creased his face, along with a sparse white stubble on his jaw. His cultivation rested in the middle stages of Core Formation, respectable enough, though hardly impressive for a Minister of the Crown. Minister Chang himself had reached the peak of the same realm years ago.

Yet it was neither age nor cultivation that drew the eye, so much as his expression of reluctance, which sat so plainly upon his face that even a child could have recognized it. Without once looking toward the princess, the old minister approached the foot of the great staircase and bowed deeply. The herald's voice rang through the Throne Room: "Shi Pao, Minister of External Affairs." Prince Chengxuan wasted no time.

"A recent conversation has come to my attention regarding the Ministry of External Affairs." His tone remained calm and conversational.

"With the increasing unrest along our northern border and the approaching Great Exchange with the Daqin in two years, matters of foreign policy have occupied much of my attention. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that Minister Shi was already engaged in extensive correspondence with a member of the Imperial Family, specifically, my dear cousin Muxue." The court grew quieter.

"The conduct of war does not fall within the ministry's purview, yet the scope of these discussions encompassed it entirely. Matters such as managing the fractured hordes beyond our borders, supporting certain factions against others, and even attempting to foster the rise of a stable northern power favorable to the Empire in a bid to increase the remit of the ministry..." He trailed off artfully, letting the whispers that followed spread through the hall like ripples through a pond.

Minister Chang felt a knot form in his stomach. This was dangerous territory. None of those policies could be pursued without the Emperor's approval. Even discussing them bordered on impropriety. And more importantly, why was the Ministry of External Affairs involved at all? These were matters for the Ministry of War. At the foot of the staircase, Princess Muxue stood rigid. As the whispers grew louder, she opened her mouth.

"While-""All undertaken," Prince Chengxuan interrupted smoothly, his voice carrying effortlessly to every corner of the Throne Room, "in a bid to replace me as Crown Heir." Silence followed. The whispers vanished so abruptly that the absence of sound felt almost physical. Minister Chang felt every hair on his arms stand on end.

"It seems," Chengxuan continued, looking down at his cousin from the foot of the throne, "that you are dissatisfied with my performance, Cousin." The faint amusement in his expression made the words all the more merciless. Princess Muxue remained silent for a long moment.

"I am," she said at last, making no attempt to hide behind courtesy.

"And seeking support for my bid to become Crown Princess is neither wrong nor treasonous, no matter how much you have convinced yourself otherwise. My conversations with Minister Shi are not improper." Minister Chang swallowed. He had expected this struggle to remain constrained by appearances for some time yet. Bitter, certainly; ruthless, undoubtedly; but still bounded by the forms of courtly conduct. Instead, the masks seemed to be falling away.

And worse, he was beginning to suspect that the princess had misunderstood what her cousin was truly after.

"To seek to replace me is within your rights, Cousin," Prince Chengxuan agreed mildly. The court stirred at that.

"What I question is not your ambition, but the substance of your discussions. Ending the wars among the Great Hordes? Forging a stable northern empire from their endless rivalries, such as has not existed since the days of Kublai? Promising the Ministry of External Affairs influence within that future state and greater authority within our own Empire in exchange for support?" His smile widened.

"That is... bold." Ah, Minister Chang suddenly understood and a strange flicker of pity rose within him despite himself. The Crown Prince was not pursuing another victory; he was preparing an execution. Everything he had said until now had been preparation, laying the groundwork for what came next.

"Boldness is a virtue, Cousin," Princess Muxue shot back.

"Though it is one you seem to lack, preferring to operate from the shadows. And do you truly believe Uncle remains ignorant of any of this? If you know of these conversations, then he surely does as well. Yet he has issued no warning and no proclamation." She lifted her chin.

"You are not Emperor yet. What I discuss and with whom is not yours to forbid unless you possess proof of treachery." Minister Chang braced for anger. Instead, the Crown Prince smiled the smile of a man watching events unfold exactly as he intended.

"Oh, I agree," Chengxuan said. To Chang's astonishment, there was something very close to delight in his voice.

"Since Uncle has not intervened, we must conclude that he approves, or at least does not disapprove, of your intentions." The smile broadened.

"And let no one say that Xiang Chengxuan fears opposition." Chang saw exactly where this was going.

"Since you are so eager to step forward, Cousin, why not put your words to the test?" The entire court seemed to hold its breath.

"I had intended to handle the situation at the Great Wall personally. However, I now believe that responsibility should fall to you. If you can fulfill these promises – if you can pacify the Great Hordes, secure the northern frontier, and achieve all that you claim is possible – then I believe no one in this court could deny your right to challenge me for the position of Crown Heir." The smile never left his face.

"What do you say, Cousin?" The trap snapped shut.

"Are you willing to travel north as the Crown's representative and deal with the Yuan who clamor to invade our Empire?" Minister Chang hissed in a breath, and he was far from the only one. This was diabolical. If she accepted, she was dead. The northern frontier was dangerous enough without adding the Crown Prince's hostility to the equation. Yet refusal was scarcely better. To speak grandly of reform, strategy, and governance before the entire court, only to shrink from the first opportunity to prove herself?

That would destroy her credibility. Even the Ministry of External Affairs – the very ministry she had been courting – would struggle to justify supporting her afterward. In a single stroke, Prince Chengxuan was attempting to remove her from the court, the capital, and the political game entirely. And yet... she would refuse, Minister Chang was certain of it. Only a fool would walk willingly into such a death trap.

The Crown Prince would never overlook an opportunity this perfect, either to remove her outright or render her irrelevant again. He was reminding every person present of a simple truth – of why he was the Crown Prince, and that the succession was decided not by ambition, but by survival, and that Xiang Chengxuan had survived every challenge placed before him for longer than most ministers could remember. For a long moment, Princess Muxue said nothing and the silence stretched.

Minister Chang found himself watching the back of her head, waiting for the inevitable refusal. Slowly, she lifted her chin.

"I accept." The words struck the hall like a thunderclap.

"I will go north and deal with the Yuan." Her tone was difficult to understand, though Minister Chang assumed that she was maintaining her composure in the face of absolute defeat. For an instant, the court simply stared, and then, the Throne Room erupted.

Voices crashed together from every direction, ministers shouting over one another, courtiers turned to their neighbors in disbelief, and even some of the senior officials seated upon the great staircase abandoning decorum and speaking to each other in hurried tones. Above them all, Crown Prince Chengxuan leaned back slightly, his expression the same as ever, though his eyes glittered. Victory, Minister Chang thought. The prince believes he has already won. His own gaze drifted back to the princess.

From where he stood, he could see only her back: the fall of her robes, the dark cascade of her hair, and the white-knuckled grip of the Tiger Army guards on their halberds at her sides. A faint glimmer of jade flashed at one ear as she looked down again. What a waste. The thought came unbidden. What a terrible waste of a fine woman. Perhaps it was not a particularly noble sentiment, but the flicker of embarrassment Minister Chang felt passed quickly. The thought remained.

She was intelligent, capable, and beautiful. And now she was dead. Perhaps not today or tomorrow, but she was dead all the same. Because Princess Xiang Muxue was going north, and Minister Chang would have wagered his entire fortune that only her corpse would ever return.