Chapter 917: Someone the Same Age as the Country

**Competing for the Throne**

The young eunuch remained fixated on the well windlass, seemingly unaware of the new presence beside him.

An old man in padded cotton clothes stepped down from a carriage parked at the end of the street. He looked into the distance, then his pace quickened, his steps growing larger. As the elderly man, whose eyesight was failing, could vaguely make out the young eunuch's face, he began to sprint. The man, nearing seventy, clearly didn't run often, and his body was frail with age. As he neared the well, he fell flat on his face, stirring up a cloud of dust. With eyebrows and hair as white as frost, the old man did not get up. He remained prostrate on the ground, looked up to confirm the young eunuch's identity, and then tears streamed down his face. He vigorously kowtowed, choking and sobbing as he repeated, "Father." The young eunuch merely glanced down at the pathetic, dog-like old man, frowned, seemingly trying to recall who the old man was. After remembering, his brow slowly relaxed, but he ultimately said nothing.

This was before his brow relaxed, but after he had frowned.

The young eunuch, standing casually by the well, exuded an invisible pressure that made the souls of Mi Fengjie and Fan Xiaochai, who stood at a great distance, tremble involuntarily. Their faces were pale, and they were struggling to stand. As the unremarkable young eunuch's brow relaxed, they felt as if bathed in a spring breeze, as if a thousand-jin burden had instantly been lifted from their shoulders. The two grandmasters from the Fushui Chamber had always regarded the young eunuch as an ordinary palace expert. Only at this moment did they glimpse the truth: the young eunuch, who had served as a stableman for Chen Shaobao of Tai'an City, was absolutely a top-tier martial artist of his time, and quite possibly even among the terrestrial immortals. Otherwise, he would not have achieved such a return to simplicity, his physical body perfectly integrated with heaven and earth.

The old man kneeling on the ground had an extraordinary identity. He was Zhao Siku, the Grand Eunuch of the capital who, years ago, had escorted Gao Shulu to Guangling Road to deal with Cao Changqing. A survivor of Eastern Yue, he had once been a chess piece planted by Zhao Changling in Liyang. After this initially crucial hidden piece became an abandoned one that no one cared about, Zhao Siku focused on climbing the ranks within the twenty-four bureaus of Tai'an City's imperial palace. He earned the favor of the Zhao imperial family through a flawless career, successively heading the Bureau of Seals and Tallies and the Bureau of Imperial Treasures. He was even a close friend of the master of Song Tanglu, the current Head of the Directorate of Ceremonial. After Song Tanglu became the chief eunuch under heaven, he showed no sentimentality even towards his own master, yet he always treated Zhao Siku with the deference due to a junior. Zhao Siku managed the Bureau of Seals and Tallies for eight years, and over decades of service, he never made a single mistake. Thus, he earned the deep trust of three generations of Zhao emperors. Otherwise, Liyang would not have allowed him full control over Gao Shulu, who possessed the physique of a celestial being but had been "sealed" for four hundred years. The classification of martial arts realms over the past four hundred years, especially the four stages of the first rank, all originated from Gao Shulu.

Eunuch Liu, the eunuch in charge of seals responsible for delivering the imperial decree to Liang this time, would have to respectfully retreat to the wall and stand with clasped hands if he encountered the highly senior Zhao Siku in the palace. Yet, at this moment, Zhao Siku was kneeling on the ground, frantically kowtowing to a young eunuch who looked old enough to be his grandson, repeatedly calling him "Father." After eunuchs underwent castration and entered the palace, their first act was often to recognize a senior as a foster father or master, showing far greater respect than for their biological father. This grand eunuch, who would eventually become Eunuch Zhao, was no exception. However, Zhao Siku had recognized two masters in his life. The second one, who worked in the Directorate of Imperial Stables and held a low position, was a familiar face in the capital's imperial palace. He died between the Yonghui and Xiangfu eras, and thanks to having such an accomplished disciple as Zhao Siku, he received immense honor in death. But Zhao Siku's first master had long been forgotten, and Zhao Siku himself never mentioned a word about him to anyone.

The reason Xu Fengnian had rushed to Youzhou this time was that Zhao Siku, who had been leisurely retired in Qinglu Cave Academy, suddenly came down the mountain, claiming he had a monumental secret to reveal to him, the young vassal king.

After Zhao Siku hastily arrived at Qingliang Mountain, he told Xu Fengnian about his "Father"—a strange eunuch whom he had inexplicably kowtowed to and recognized as his father when he first entered the palace. At that time, the eunuch appeared quite young, and Zhao Siku had only assumed it was because he was a native of Liyang and had entered the palace early. Even then, the eunuch Zhao Siku respectfully called "Father" was very peculiar; it seemed there was no place among the palace's twelve directorates, four departments, and eight bureaus—a total of twenty-four offices—where "Father" couldn't wander freely. Zhao Siku once followed this young master in procuring screens and beds for the imperial family, sweeping and adding lamp oil in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, posting yellow papers on the Divine Military Gate to the north for the Double Ninth Festival, and cleaning various general's seals in the Bureau of Imperial Treasures' treasury. Five years later, after Liyang's legitimate rule was solidified following its annexation of the Central Plains, Zhao Siku's master began to fade from view. Even Zhao Siku, who was gradually rising in rank, couldn't find any clues. There was no mention of his master in the palace's Imperial Household Department archives—no surname, no hometown, no entry date, no work history—as if this person had never even appeared in Tai'an City's imperial palace.

Zhao Siku saw his "Father" again the night before he left the palace, returning to his residence from the forbidden area where Gao Shulu's body was sealed. In the moonlight, he glimpsed a blurry silhouette that vanished in a flash. But the old eunuch was absolutely certain that the silhouette belonged to his first master, the true guide of Tai'an City's imperial palace, a eunuch whose surname he didn't even know.

Yet, for this "Father"—this master whom he painstakingly searched for in secret archives within Tai'an City's imperial palace without finding any trace—Zhao Siku felt, at its core, only the most profound gratitude: a drop of kindness repaid with a gushing spring.

Perhaps in the "young eunuch's" eyes, the white-haired Zhao Siku was merely an insignificant passerby in his obscure and profound life, but Zhao Siku's wails while prostrate on the ground at this moment were utterly sincere and genuine.

Xu Fengnian was also unsure of this eunuch's true origins. However, unlike the old eunuch Zhao Siku, whose thinking was more attuned to officialdom, Xu Fengnian's status as a Grandmaster of martial arts assessment made it easier for him to grasp key details. So, his first question was astonishing: "Was it you who persuaded the unrivaled Wang Xianzhi to retreat to a corner of the East Sea and not easily leave Wudi City?"

The eunuch, whose appearance was as young and elegant as a man in his early twenties, paid him no heed. He bent slightly to turn the windlass. Its creaking sounds were particularly noticeable in the silent twilight street, broken only by an occasional chicken crow or dog bark from afar.

Xu Fengnian continued, speaking to himself, "I've always wondered why Yuan Benxi, 'the Half-Inch Tongue,' knowing full well that he'd be discarded like a hunted hound, didn't madly retaliate before his death? If Cao Changqing, the great official of Western Chu who passed through the imperial palace as easily as a corridor three times, couldn't kill the late Emperor Zhao Dun then because Tai'an City had Han Shengxuan, the 'Human Cat,' overtly, Liu Haoshi covertly, Gu Jiantang overseeing the Ministry of War, and the Longhu Mountain immortals enshrined in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, then why, when Cao Changqing, who had transitioned from Confucianism to hegemonism, besieged the city for the last time, facing only the defeated Chai Qingshan and Xuanyuan Qingfeng, did he still not directly enter the city and kill the current Emperor Zhao Zhuan? I could never figure it out. And during my last visit to the capital, I didn't sense your aura at all. However, Huyan Daguan, who had intruded into Tai'an City, said something similar to Hong Xixiang after coming to Beiliang, reminding me that the Zhao family of Liyang might still have a hidden trump card. So when Zhao Siku found me this time and mentioned you, I began to understand some of the reasons. Seeing you in person has further confirmed my suspicions."

Xu Fengnian waved his hand, signaling Mi Fengjie and Fan Xiaochai to retreat, the farther the better.

He looked at this "young" eunuch, an anomaly that aligned with the Daoist classic concept of "attaining true meaning, returning to youth," and smiled: "Do you know how I feel seeing you?"

Xu Fengnian answered his own question: "If one day, in a small place outside Tai'an City, you suddenly see a child happily munching on candied haws by the roadside and realize that fellow is the greatest martial artist of the time, that's probably the feeling. A bit absurd, and a bit frustrating."

The young eunuch straightened up, twitching his lips, seemingly finding the young vassal king's description amusing.

Without any visible movement from the young eunuch, the aged eunuch on the ground rose as if riding clouds and mist, then swiftly retreated backward until he stopped at the end of the small street.

It was a display of consummate skill.

Facing this person, Xu Fengnian felt as he did when he hadn't yet learned martial arts and faced the old Grandmaster Wang Chonglou of Wudang, or when he faced the menacing Han Shengxuan outside Shenwu City, or when he, at his peak, met Wang Xianzhi who had entered Beiliang.

Xu Fengnian knew well that if he hadn't been severely wounded by Tuoba Pusa on Long'er Plain, their chances of victory would be fifty-fifty. But now, if they were to fight to the death, he would undoubtedly lose, and undoubtedly die.

Of course, his opponent would also die.

Because this was Beiliang, not Tai'an City in Liyang.

Xu Fengnian slowly said, "Lone yin cannot thrive. Only dragon qi in this world is supremely rigid and supremely yang. That's why you achieved an unprecedented feat, attaining eternal life in the human world."

The young eunuch did not speak, yet a sound emanated from the bottom of the well, a melodious tinkling, as if someone was playing a heavenly tune that echoed continuously just by tapping the water's surface with their fingers.

"Since you've unveiled the mystery, you should also know that I am truly immortal only within Sui'an City. Outside Sui'an City, I cannot be considered truly immortal. I believe this is also why you didn't immediately retreat after seeing me."

Xu Fengnian nodded, then pondered, "Sui'an City? That's an old almanac from a very long time ago."

The young eunuch turned his head to look towards Tai'an City. This time, his voice came from the turning well windlass.

"At the very beginning of Liyang's founding, I was already serving in the palace in Sui'an City. At that time, the Zhao family's base had not yet been renamed Tai'an City. For over two hundred years, I've seen countless lives and deaths. Those who sat on the dragon throne and those who wanted to sit on it, scholars, those who wielded swords and wore armor—all have died. Even their grandchildren's grandchildren have died, yet I am still alive."

Upon hearing such a shocking legend, even Xu Fengnian found it inconceivable. It was difficult for martial artists to ascend to heaven, and there was a saying that eternal life only existed in heaven, meaning it was impossible to attain it in the human world. Even if one reached the terrestrial immortal realm, unless they dissolved their body and reincarnated like Hong Xixiang, the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth would not allow such "irregular" human existence. The withering of plants, birth, aging, sickness, and death were the natural order. For this, Buddhists abandoned their physical bodies to go to the Western Pure Land, and Daoists cultivated non-action and nature, only seeking to become "mountain folk." Tracing back to the origin, it was always a matter of giving up something to gain something else. It was already rare for long-lived individuals like the old Daoist master Song Zhiming of Wudang Mountain to live to be two cycles of sixty years old. Liu Songtao's ability to surpass Song Zhiming was also due to his self-imposed confinement in Lanta Mountain, living no different from a living dead man. Compared to the person before him, who was as old as the country itself, there was simply no comparison.

Seeing through Xu Fengnian's inner doubts, the young eunuch "spoke without speaking" again: "I am not a Daoist cultivator, nor have I ever harbored thoughts of ascending. My life and death are confined to this world."

Xu Fengnian asked directly, "Then, did the Zhao imperial ancestors make an oath with you? To have you protect the Zhao family's descendants and the Liyang dynasty's fate?"

The young eunuch shook his head, his voice carried on the autumn wind.

"Successive Zhao emperors knew of my existence, but they might not have been able to see me. I need to absorb dragon qi to nourish my vital energy, so as to remain eternally flourishing, but it's also inconvenient to see the true body of the flood dragon up close. Moreover..."

The young eunuch finally revealed a smile for the first time, and there was less of a chilling aura in his words.

"Moreover, it's fine for a thief to stealthily pocket things. But if he were to brazenly appear before the owner of the stolen goods, that would be truly shameless."

Xu Fengnian burst into laughter.

The young eunuch sat on the wellhead, neither sitting upright and formally nor lounging casually, simply naturally at ease.

In the distance, the aged eunuch, who had long since left Tai'an City and retired to the mountains of Beiliang, continuously prayed in his heart.

"Please don't let them fight!"

There's an old saying among common folk, "even immortals can't stop it," used to describe certain difficult situations.

But those two in the old eunuch's eyes were truly "immortals who couldn't be stopped."

No, it was more like *they* could stop immortals!