From the Qin Dynasty onwards, he eked out a living among the heavens.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Inferences

After news of Honglian's capture reached Zilanxuan, the lights in the main hall stayed on until late at night.

Han Fei sat at his desk, a map of the outskirts of Xinzheng spread out before him. He traced a line with his finger from the Cold Palace to the east of the city, and then from the east to the Royal Palace. His brow had been furrowed ever since he returned, but his tone remained as calm as ever. It wasn't that he wasn't anxious; he was simply suppressing all his unease.

"Tianze's strategy of capturing Honglian is the same as his strategy of capturing the Crown Prince: to increase his leverage. The Crown Prince is still in his hands, and now there's Honglian. Both leverages are pointing towards me."

"The Crown Prince is the heir apparent, and Honglian is my most cherished younger sister. Tianze holds these two cards in his hand. He doesn't want their lives, but he wants to force me onto his chessboard."

"What does he want?" Zi Nu leaned against the table, her shoulder wounds having just been dressed. Her voice was a few decibels lower than usual, but her thoughts were still clear. "The Crown Prince and Hong Lian are both in his hands; the initiative is his. But the fact that he hasn't made a price yet means he doesn't want an ordinary exchange. He's waiting for you to take the initiative to approach him."

"Yes, he's waiting for me! Honglian was just captured, and the news hasn't reached the palace yet, so Ji Wuye doesn't know either."

"If I can contact Tianze before he makes even harsher demands, I might be able to get Honglian and the Crown Prince back with minimal cost."

Han Fei raised his head, the candlelight reflecting two flickering lights in his eyes. "But the problem is we don't have enough bargaining chips. Tianze wants Ji Wuye's head, or something that can shake the foundations of Han. We can't give either of those right now."

A moment of silence fell over the main hall. Zi Nu tapped her fingertips lightly on the table, Wei Zhuang leaned against the window without saying a word, and Nong Yu's fingertips rested on the strings of her zither. Everyone was thinking the same question: what could they offer in exchange for the Crown Prince and Hong Lian?

"I'm going to see Tianze." Han Fei stood up. "Regardless of whether there are any bargaining chips, the longer Honglian is in his hands, the more dangerous it becomes. Let's sound him out first and see what he really wants."

Zi Nu nodded. "Let Wei Zhuang go with you."

Just as Han Fei was about to speak, Xu Huang's voice came from under the corridor.

"No need to go. I have the bargaining chips Tianze wants."

All eyes turned to him simultaneously. Xu Huang walked from the corridor into the main hall and sat down at the table. Nongyu got up and poured him a cup of wine, which he picked up and took a sip, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"At the west gate of the Crown Prince's residence, the King of a Hundred Poisons neither escaped nor died. I captured him alive. He's currently in my custody. Tianze doesn't know, nor does the Corpse-Driving Demon. He's still alive."

The main hall fell silent. Han Fei's pupils contracted slightly, Zi Nu's hand holding the teacup froze in mid-air, and Wei Zhuang turned around from the window, a rare hint of surprise flashing in his cold eyes.

"The King of Poisons is in your hands." Han Fei's voice carried a barely perceptible tremor. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"The timing isn't right. When Tianze first captured Honglian, he had two cards in his hand: the Crown Prince and Honglian. Even if he knew that the Hundred Poison King was in my hands, he wouldn't be in a hurry to make a deal."

"He needs time to weigh things up—to weigh the weight of Honglian, the weight of the Crown Prince, and the bottom line of the Quicksand. By releasing information about Honglian now, he is testing us."

"The time has come; we can reveal this trump card now." Xu Huang held his wine cup, his tone calm. "And there's something I need to make clear first. I originally didn't intend to get involved in this case."

Zi Nu raised her eyebrows slightly, her gaze lingering on his face for a moment.

"My intervention in the Crown Prince's residence was not to save the Crown Prince, but to target the King of Poisons."

"The King of Poisons has a secret method that allows him to feed the King Serpent with rare herbs and then use Baiyue witchcraft to catalyze the process, enabling the King Serpent to condense an inner core within its body."

"My method of treating snakes can nourish the snake's body and harmonize the medicinal properties, maximizing the concentration of medicinal power in the snake's blood. However, it still carries a degree of toxicity, and it is always one step short. If I could allow the snake to absorb the medicinal power while simultaneously refining the excess toxicity into an inner core, then my method of treating snakes would be considered complete."

"And the secret techniques of the Hundred Poison King lineage can just fill in this piece of the puzzle. So I went to Ximen not to save people, but to obtain his inheritance."

"Now that I have the inheritance, I have the Poison Scripture, the secret method of controlling snakes, and the complete means of making the King Snake grow an inner core. The Hundred Poison King is no longer useful to me, but if I can use him to exchange for Red Lotus or the Crown Prince, it is more worthwhile than killing him."

The main hall was quiet for a while. Han Fei looked at Xu Huang with a deep meaning in his eyes.

"Your Hundred Poison King is in your hands, but Tianze doesn't know that. This is our biggest trump card." Zi Nu put down her teacup and turned to Han Fei. "Tianze has the Crown Prince and Honglian, while we have the Hundred Poison King. We can trade one for two, exchanging the Hundred Poison King for two people. The Hundred Poison King is Tianze's most capable former subordinate; Tianze can't be unaware of its importance."

"He has no choice. Bai Du Wang is his man, he can't just abandon him." Han Fei nodded, stood up, and said, "Meet Tian Ze tomorrow. One for two, Bai Du Wang for the Crown Prince and Hong Lian."

The next day, on the banks of the Wei River in the south of the city.

Tianze arrived as promised, six chains slowly unfurling behind him, the snake-head spikes gleaming coldly in the sunlight. The Corpse-Driving Demon followed behind him, a greyish-white aura of death swirling around his fingertips. Han Fei stood on the riverbank, with Wei Zhuang and Xu Huang behind him.

"You have the Hundred Poison King in your possession." Tianze got straight to the point, his voice as low and husky as ever.

"He's alive. After the poison array at the west gate of the Crown Prince's residence was broken, he was unconscious in a side hall and we took him away." Han Fei didn't beat around the bush. "I want to make a change. The Hundred Poison King in exchange for the Crown Prince and Red Lotus, one for two."

Tianze was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "The stakes are not equal."

"The Hundred Poison King is your most capable former subordinate, the Crown Prince is the heir apparent of Han, and Red Lotus is a princess of Han. One for two—where is the imbalance in the bargaining chips?"

"You know better than I how much weight the Crown Prince and Red Lotus carry. The Hundred Poison King is my subordinate, but his life can't be exchanged for two. This is a transaction, not charity. I don't do transactions where the stakes are unequal." Tianze's voice was calm.

Before Han Fei could say anything more, Tianze had already raised his hand. "The Crown Prince and Honglian are both in my hands. I can decide who gets replaced. You can choose between the Hundred Poison King and someone else."

A river breeze blew from upstream, rustling the reeds. Han Fei stood at the ferry crossing, silent for a long time.

"Your Highness." His voice wasn't loud, but it was steady and resolute.

Tianze raised an eyebrow slightly. "I thought you would choose Honglian; she's your most cherished younger sister."

"Precisely because I care, I cannot exchange your subordinates for her. If I choose Honglian and leave the crown prince in your hands, the state of Han will lose a crown prince, the court will be in an uproar, and Ji Wuye will take the opportunity to make Han Yu the crown prince."

You used a single hostage to force me to destroy the very foundation of Korea. This debt is more grievous than death. That's why I choose the Crown Prince. I will find another way to save Honglian, but the Crown Prince's life is crucial to the stability of the entire Korea; I cannot gamble with it.

Tianze stared at him for a long time, then suddenly chuckled. The chuckle was soft and short, like a rusty lock being half-turned open by an old key.

"Everyone says the Ninth Prince of Korea is unparalleled in wisdom, and he truly lives up to his reputation. Alright, the Crown Prince will be replaced by the Hundred Poison King. I'll decide the time and place, but don't bring the Imperial Guards. Princess Honglian is still in my hands; there's still a chance to save her, but the price will be higher than this time."

"I will come." Han Fei didn't say anything more, turned around and walked back along the riverbank.

It was already evening when they returned to Zilan Pavilion. Wei Zhuang and Han Fei had completed their transaction with Tianze; the Crown Prince had been brought back, and the Hundred Poison King had been returned to Tianze. The Crown Prince was unharmed, only somewhat frightened, and had been sent back to the palace. However, Honglian was still in Tianze's hands, and the atmosphere in the main hall remained heavy.

"The Crown Prince is back, and Honglian is still in Tianze's hands." Han Fei sat at his desk and briefly recounted the outcome of the meeting by the river. "Tianze said there's still a chance to save Honglian, but the price will be higher than this time. He didn't say what price he meant."

"He's waiting for us to come up with new bargaining chips." Zi Nu put down her teacup. "The Hundred Poison King replaced the Crown Prince, one for one. Now he still has Red Lotus, what do we have left?"

Han Fei took out a dark brown pottery bottle from his sleeve and placed it on the table. "Tianze threw this to Wei Zhuang before he left."

Zi Nu picked up the pottery bottle and examined it, her brows furrowing slightly: "The patterns on the bottom of the bottle are ancient Baiyue script, 'Fire Rain Manor'."

Huoyu Manor was a gathering place for artisans from the former Baiyue territory, who specialized in crafting imperial artifacts. After the fall of Baiyue, this craft should have been lost. Its reappearance suggests that some artisans survived and were being controlled.

"Those who can use this kind of craftsmanship are not ordinary members of Nightfall. They must be people who have access to the royal family and can have artisans work for them. Among the four fierce generals of Nightfall, only one person meets this requirement: the Azure Tide Siren."

Han Fei took the pottery bottle and examined it closely. "Chao Nu Yao was one of Father's favored concubines. Father had two most favored concubines, Consort Hu and Lady Mingzhu. Consort Hu was Nongyu's aunt and was also a Baiyue person. But precisely because she was a Baiyue person, if she wanted to use Baiyue artifacts, she wouldn't need to control the craftsmen. So it's unlikely that it was Consort Hu."

"That's Lady Mingzhu." Xu Huang leaned back in his chair, holding a glass of wine. "Lady Mingzhu also has another identity: Bai Yifei's cousin. Bai Yifei sent her to the palace to plant a spy within it. With military power outside and an inside agent inside, Ji Wuye knows everything the King of Han does. That's why Nightfall's intelligence network can infiltrate the very fabric of the court."

"Ladies and gentlemen, savor it, savor it carefully."

The main hall remained quiet for a while.

"It's not just about using someone else to do your dirty work." Xu Huang put down his wine cup and glanced at everyone in the hall. "What Tianze wants most is to break free from Nightfall's control. We previously speculated that Nightfall released Tianze because they had a way to counter him."

"The pottery bottle is the clue. The artisans of Huoyu Manor are controlled by the night. These artisans can make royal artifacts for the Baiyue royal family, and they can also make things that control Tianze."

"Tianze threw this pottery bottle to tell us that the means of controlling him are related to the Tide Demon. He is gambling that we can find the Tide Demon from this pottery bottle, that we have the ability to deal with her, and that after we deal with her, the shackles on his hands will be removed."

"Killing two birds with one stone: we can both use our hands to get rid of the Tide Demon and free ourselves from our own constraints."

"If we can truly find a way to break free of these shackles, it will be tantamount to holding Tianze's lifeline in our hands," Zi Nu continued. "Once these shackles are removed, Tianze will have nothing left to fear. This bargaining chip is even more significant than that of the Hundred Poison King."

"That's right. The Hundred Poison King replaced the crown prince, and Tianze only agreed to a one-for-one exchange. Now he still has the Red Lotus, what do we have left?"

Han Fei tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "If we can get the method to untie Tianze from the Tide Demoness, Tianze will have no choice but to make a second deal with us. If we use this method to exchange for Honglian, he will definitely agree."

"Tianze was imprisoned for ten years, enduring what most people couldn't. But if the shackles on him are truly in the hands of the Nightfall, then he wants to break free more than anyone else."

"Then let's split up." Xu Huang put down his wine cup, stood up, and said, "Wei Zhuang has already exchanged the Crown Prince for the Hundred Poison King. Next, Hong Lian needs a new bargaining chip. I'll go into the palace to investigate Lady Mingzhu's background and find a way to break Tian Ze's restraints."

After obtaining it, hand it over to Wei Zhuang. He will then use this bargaining chip to make a second deal with Tian Ze, exchanging it for Hong Lian.

Wei Zhuang's cold gaze fell on his face.

Xu Huang turned to the cold, aloof figure by the window, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "Tianze is the deposed crown prince, you are Guigu Hengjian. If you go to make the deal, he won't dare to play any tricks."

Wei Zhuang's brow twitched almost imperceptibly, he let out a very soft hum through his nose, and turned his head away. Han Fei coughed lightly and lowered his head to drink his tea. Zi Nu's hand holding the teacup paused slightly, and a very faint smile appeared on her lips.

"Alright." Han Fei put down his teacup, making the final decision, "Two paths, one overt and one covert. Brother Xu, go into the palace to investigate Madam Mingzhu's background and find a way to untie Tianze."

After Wei Zhuang received it, he was responsible for trading it with Tian Ze in exchange for Hong Lian. Meanwhile, at Zi Lan Xuan, Zi Nu directed all her spies to keep a close watch on Ye Mu's movements.

The night was deep outside the window, and the dark brown ceramic bottle sat quietly on the table. The Crown Prince had been replaced, and Honglian was still in Tianze's hands. The ceramic bottle that Tianze had thrown out was both a cry for help and an offer of a knife. The hilt of the knife had already been handed to Liusha; whether to take it, and how to take it, was up to Han Fei.