Chapter 33: The Stroke and the Hook

To obtain the second Substitute Doll.

To double the effect of cultivation.

What does it matter if he acts out a role?

Just as he forced Xiang Ning months ago to call him “Father Xiang,” Xiang Ning once again revealed the demeanor of a powerful minister.

“If Your Majesty wishes for the throne and empire to endure, you must appoint the daughter of Lü Chunqiu as the Imperial Noble Consort. There is absolutely no room for negotiation in this matter.”

The gaze Fan Li cast toward the Empress was nothing but domineering and icy!

Xiang Ning shivered, as though deep memories were being stirred within her mind. This man who had so often defended and solved her problems recently, was after all the greatest schemer of Great Chu!

“I... I understand…”

Convincing the Empress was half the task accomplished; only Lü Chunqiu remained.

Fan Li had no intention of waiting for Lü Chunqiu to make a move—he would provoke him!

“Your Majesty, lend me the Imperial Seal for a moment,” Fan Li said to Xiang Ning.

“What are you planning?” Xiang Ning was startled. The Imperial Seal, passed down for generations in the Chu royal family? To her, it was second only to the Overlord Spear in value.

The Imperial Seal had been nourished by the spiritual energy of successive Chu rulers; it was both an offensive and defensive treasure, with a very low threshold for use. As long as one was the ruler of Chu, even with just Golden Core cultivation, the Imperial Seal could be wielded with ease, and unlike the Overlord Spear, it did not easily drain one’s spiritual energy.

“The Overlord Spear is my open card, but the Imperial Seal is my hidden card. Such a useful imperial treasure, only the Empress Dowager and I know its true secrets. Why does Fan Li want it now?”

Xiang Ning was overthinking. Fan Li’s purpose for borrowing the Imperial Seal was utterly mundane: to stamp a document.

“Hurry up!” Fan Li pressed, seeing her delay.

Frightened, Xiang Ning muttered inwardly, “Why doesn’t heaven strike down this villain? Never mind, he’s not the ruler—no matter if he takes my Imperial Seal, it’s useless to him.”

With this thought, Xiang Ning finally, though reluctantly, pulled the jade seal from her sleeve.

Fan Li snatched it, then casually took up a blank imperial edict from the table.

“So he’s going to write an edict?”

Xiang Ning breathed a sigh of relief, then felt disgruntled. Without her consent, Fan Li dared to compose an imperial edict? Wasn’t this a false decree? And right before her eyes?

Holding back her anger, Xiang Ning stared, eager to see what he would write. If Fan Li went too far, she would tear apart the edict—then use the Imperial Seal to smash his head!

Fan Li picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and placed the tip steadily on the edict.

A single stroke.

That was it?

Fan Li wrote only one stroke, then set down the brush and stamped it.

“Duke Jin, what does this mean?” Xiang Ning couldn’t help but ask.

Fan Li smiled, “This is called ‘one stroke of destiny.’”

Destiny? Xiang Ning was thoroughly confused.

Fan Li summoned a young eunuch and ordered him to deliver the edict to the Marquis Wenxin’s residence.

The eunuch watched Fan Li compose the false edict, but dared not protest. Receiving the edict carefully, he kowtowed, then hurried toward the Marquis Wenxin’s residence.

At the Marquis Wenxin’s residence.

Lü Chunqiu was instructing his daughter in cultivation.

The Confucian path was not about seclusion, meditation, or seeking enlightenment, but the Six Arts: ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics.

Lü Fubao was practicing “calligraphy,” copying her father’s writing—the character “king.”

Three horizontal lines and one vertical stroke, a simple character, yet Lü Chunqiu imbued it with something extraordinary.

A stream of pure energy, visible to the naked eye, rose from the writing, column-like, reaching to the heavens.

Writing that manifests its aura!

Lü Chunqiu’s “king” connected heaven, earth, and humanity in a single stroke!

“With your cultivation of righteous energy, perhaps in twenty years you’ll reach a tenth of your father’s level.”

Lü Fubao deflated instantly.

“Twenty years? I’ll be an old maid by then…”

Lü Chunqiu laughed.

He continued, “Everyone’s destiny is different. For example, you and I both possess a superior fortune of wealth and nobility. But above us, there is an even more exalted destiny—the true dragon’s fate, that of the emperor.”

“If a person with the emperor’s destiny happens to cultivate righteous energy, the aura of his writing is not the mysterious blue of your father’s, but the exclusive bright yellow of the Son of Heaven.”

Lü Fubao asked curiously, “Is the bright yellow stronger than the mysterious blue?”

Lü Chunqiu nodded, “The emperor’s destiny is supreme! As the saying goes, ‘All under heaven belongs to the king, all subjects within the borders serve the king.’ There are three thousand paths, but one with the emperor’s destiny, no matter which path he cultivates, can suppress opponents of the same path and realm.”

“Ah, so the emperor’s destiny means invincibility among peers!”

Lü Fubao’s eyes sparkled, her expression yearning.

“Father, when I marry, I want to marry the emperor!”

Indeed, girls mature early. Ever since Fan Li’s last visit, Lü Fubao had awakened to certain instincts, imagining her future husband more than once.

Lü Chunqiu was momentarily stunned, recalling Fan Li’s proposal before departing: to support Great Chu and let Lü Fubao become Imperial Noble Consort.

Was this fate?

Lü Chunqiu shook his head in frustration.

The Ming Emperor Jiajing was an extremely powerful ruler; with him on the throne, Lü Chunqiu dared not easily pledge himself to another nation.

“Father, someone from the Chu palace has arrived.”

His daughter’s voice interrupted his musings.

Lü Chunqiu looked up and saw a young eunuch approaching, carrying none other than an imperial edict!

“What is this? The ruler of Chu sends an edict to me, yet I haven’t agreed to join them. Is the ruler of Chu so lacking in propriety?”

With a hint of doubt, Lü Chunqiu went forward to meet him, thinking that if this Chu eunuch dared command him to kneel for the edict, he would throw him out, then accept the Ming Emperor’s offer.

The young eunuch approached Lü Chunqiu and his daughter, but did not announce the edict.

Instead, smiling obsequiously, he said, “My lord, please accept this and review it at your leisure.”

Since it was not written by Xiang Ning herself, the eunuch dared not call it an edict.

Lü Chunqiu hesitated, but instinctively took it. The eunuch, as if shedding a hot potato, quickly excused himself and left.

Watching the eunuch flee, Lü Chunqiu suspected the edict might explode at any moment!

“Father, hurry and see what’s written!” Lü Fubao urged with curiosity.

“Oh... oh…” Lü Chunqiu replied, carefully unrolling the edict.

But as the scroll unfurled, it was blank—no words in sight for quite a while.

“Did they mistakenly send me a blank edict?”

As Lü Chunqiu pondered, suddenly he glimpsed some ink.

But before he could decipher the content, a vast, unrivaled bright yellow aura surged from the edict, shooting skyward!

In an instant!

The bright yellow aura connected heaven and earth, like a pillar supporting all three realms.