Governing the country, enriching the people, an unparalleled imperial tutor

Before the torches on the city wall had burned out, commotion came from the north.

The first to arrive was the messenger sent by Zhou Chongyuan. When the horse rushed into the city gate, it was panting heavily, its hooves weak, and sweat dripping down its neck. When the messenger dismounted, his left leg buckled for a moment as it touched the ground. He held onto the saddle for a couple of breaths before letting go, and then quickly climbed the city wall.

As he knelt on one knee on the stone steps, the armor plates struck the bricks, producing a short, sharp clanging sound that was particularly clear in the night wind: "Grand Preceptor, the northern army has completed the encirclement. The rebels have about 40% of their forces remaining, but their formation has been torn apart by artillery fire. General Zhou has divided his troops into three routes to simultaneously encircle them, advancing from both sides of the mountain pass."

When the end comes, the main force of the rebels will have been divided into three parts. The central section has already disarmed, the remnants on the eastern side are gathering together, and there will still be scattered resistance on the western side, but it will not last more than half an hour.

Lin Yanzhou stood in the shadows inside the city gate tower. After listening, he walked to the edge of the tower, placed his hands on the brick edge of the crenellations, and looked out. Torches were slowly moving across the northern plains, forming an arc of light that stretched along the horizon. They were converging from both sides towards the center, gradually covering the gap in the middle and forming a complete closed curve.

The scene below the city wall was completely different from what it had been half an hour ago. Scattered at the base of the wall were broken swords and shields, and several pieces of grappling hooks. Fragments of armor were embedded in the soil, and the embers of torches piled up at the corner of the wall, still emitting wisps of white smoke. The craters from the grenades had merged together, forming an irregular groove along the foundation of the wall.

Further away, the bodies of the rebels who had been driven back by muskets were scattered at the edge of the torchlight's illumination range, their robes still warm from the night wind.

Soldiers on the city wall were carrying the last few empty wooden crates down the tower. Some were squatting behind the crenellations, untying the musket straps, while others were gathering unused grenades and repacking them. Everyone's movements were a beat slower than before, as if using that half-beat delay to confirm that the battle was truly over.

The officials remained standing on the high platform. The Vice Minister of Revenue had already gripped his court tablet again, his fingertips repeatedly tracing the mark on the edge of the tablet that he had held all night.

A piece of broken porcelain was still stuck to the hem of the official's robe. He finally had time to bend down, pick it up, and place it on the brick surface inside the railing. He pressed his fingertips against the edge of the broken porcelain for a moment before letting go.

The young man in charge had been leaning against the pillar for a long time, but now he finally straightened up and returned to his original position.

The old scholar from the Hanlin Academy lowered his eyes, as if he was organizing the events of the all-night battle into the existing historical coordinates in his mind, waiting to retrieve them when someone asked about them later.

Zhao Yan stood on the high platform for a long time, until the torches to the north merged into a complete band of light before turning around. He walked up to Lin Yanzhou and stopped, pausing for a moment before speaking: "Sir, you have been in Xuanshuo for less than a year. Zhang Lin has fallen, the Northern Di have retreated, and Prince An and the leaders of the three kingdoms have all been captured."

Although the complete provenance of that jade pendant is still unclear, it has at least been confirmed that it once belonged to my father, and that the Guandi Temple is the next location to be investigated. I was just thinking about something on the city wall—without you, sir, how many pieces would Xuan Shuo have been divided into this winter?

Without waiting for a reply, he paused and continued, "Sir, you have done many things, some of which I have seen, and some of which I have not seen. But I know that without you, Xuan Shuo would not have survived until now."

Torches on the city wall burned behind him, their light falling on his shoulders and the side of his neck. He lowered his head, as if considering the wording of his next sentence, then raised it again: "Sir, you will be going to the Guandi Temple to investigate the origin of my father's jade pendant. I will not ask you anything. But if you wish, sir, once you have found out, just let me know when you return."

The wind from the north swept through the city tower. Lin Yanzhou stood still, his robe fluttering in the night breeze before falling back to its original position. As he pondered the origin of the jade pendant and the location of the dry well covered by a bluestone slab in the backyard of the Guandi Temple, he suddenly felt a warm pulse deep between his brows.

The warmth was like a warm pebble being slowly immersed in water. It first caused a brief change in temperature the moment it touched the water, and then slowly spread along his nerves, reaching his eye sockets, bridge of his nose, jaw, behind his ears and back of his neck. It was as if someone was standing somewhere he couldn't see, gently pressing a hand against his forehead, and then putting a sentence directly into his consciousness.

"The Xuan Shuo crisis has been resolved, and the rebellion of Prince An has been quelled. The host has completed the phase of the national protection mission and is rated as advanced. The rewards are as follows: the ability to travel between ancient and modern times has been upgraded, with no limit on the number of times, and one person can accompany the host, who must accompany the host voluntarily."

The spatial ring has been expanded, removing restrictions on the weight and quantity of items, but living beings cannot be carried. The jade pendant clue is now linked to the host's current questline. If the secret within can be deciphered, the host will have the opportunity to contact the late emperor.

The conditions for contacting the late emperor are not yet complete. The missing clue must be found within the Guandi Temple to fulfill all the unlocking requirements.

The space inside the spatial ring sensed his probing and immediately responded with a change—the walls of the warehouse seemed to have been completely knocked down, expanding from an ordinary storeroom into a bottomless, empty area. The upper limit of its capacity had exceeded his perception range, as if someone had dug up the foundation of an entire mansion from underground and widened it again, then knocked down all the partition walls in the middle, connecting the entire area into a boundless blank space.

Zhao Lingxi walked over from the other side of the city wall, stopped beside him, and said softly, "If you want to go to the Guandi Temple to investigate the origin of that jade pendant, Lingxi can go with you."

Lin Yanzhou turned his head and glanced at her. She was still standing beside him, her shoulders level with his, the wind ruffling the stray hairs at her temples. Her tone was calm, as if she were stating something she had already thought about, rather than waiting for an answer. After she finished speaking, she didn't look at him, her gaze still fixed on the direction of the Guandi Temple in the distance, as if she were reconfirming the direction and distance of that road in her own way.

Lin Yanzhou withdrew his gaze and placed the short stick back on the edge of the battlement. Before turning around, he replaced the flashlight's battery, tightened the casing, and tested it. The beam of light flashed briefly on the brick surface inside the city wall before going out, like a page being turned, about to be reused in the subsequent reading. He slowed his pace as he descended the city wall, pausing at the bottom of the stone steps to allow Zhao Lingxi to walk just half a step behind him. The two walked side by side through the passageway at the foot of the city wall, heading towards the still-open palace gate in the depths of the night.

It seems I'll have to investigate this mysterious Guandi Temple tomorrow and find out what the secret of this jade pendant is.