Chương 46: Chapter 44 Interlude 9

Jin Duwei Liang Zhen, head of the escort of the Fifteenth Imperial Prince Sun Chao, stands upright like a statue, motionless in the clearing where the entrance to the Celestial Fragment of the Sands is located. His eyes, dark and hard as forged steel, scan the perimeter he has claimed with martial precision. Around him, his men, dressed in the colors of the imperial family, stand in a disciplined semicircle, while further away, at the edges of the clearing, other forces gather.

He immediately recognizes the uniforms of the provincial governor's soldiers, the men of the city's most prominent families, and, of course, a small force from Nei Wei, which he assumes is here for the maid of the Zhāohuán. Noticing them, Liang Zhen gives them a slight nod, just enough to show respect without yielding hierarchy. The Nei Shiwei in command of the Nei Wei, a tall woman with a marble expression, returns the gesture with equal sobriety.

"Courtesy between sheathed blades", thinks Liang Zhen. Especially after what happened between the Zhāohuán and Prince Sun Chao. Nothing more. Once the protocol is fulfilled, he returns his gaze to the entrance to the Celestial Fragment, where there are no signs of the prince, no signs of anyone, only the endless dunes that rise and fall like the waves of a golden sea. With a barely audible sigh, he gives the order he had delayed for too long.

"Let's rest, but stay alert, as we don't need combat formation. At least for now", Liang Zhen tells them. His men obey silently. They are veterans, loyal, and have learned not to question the decisions of the man who has brought them out alive from more than one ambush on the imperial roads. The morning progresses, slow as the movement of the stars. Mid-morning, Liang Zhen narrows his eyes and frowns.

Among the dunes, a lone figure runs quickly, pursued by a handful of shadows that dissolve as they approach the entrance to the Celestial Fragment.

"Looters", Liang Zhen mutters, as if the word tastes like ash.

"That scum always behaves the same way, wherever they are." His eyes slide back to the governor's men. Some of them stare back without moving, too calm for his liking.

"A deal with them, perhaps?" Liang Zhen wonders.

"If they've bought their inaction to protect their own men, they'd better have warned the looters not to touch the prince. Otherwise, the Court will pay them a visit." But his thoughts are interrupted when the pursued figure finally emerges from the Celestial Fragment, and Liang Zhen frowns when he sees her. She is a young woman, her face dusty and her clothes torn, but she walks with a steady gait. Before the governor's men can approach, the Nei Wei step in with lethal precision.

"It's her", he murmurs as he recognizes her.

"The maid of Zhāohuán." The tension materializes in the form of an argument. Sour voices rise between the two forces. Liang Zhen presses his lips together. He does not want to intervene, especially today. But if the situation gets out of hand and the safety of the clearing is compromised, he may have to.

"But which side should I take if they clash?" Liang Zhen wonders.

"Especially after the verbal confrontation between the prince and the Zhāohuán." Fortunately, he does not have to make that decision. More figures begin to appear on the horizon, emerging from the dunes like the first stones of an avalanche. With that change, the discussion between Nei Wei and the governor's men fades away, and the former leave, escorting the young woman with an efficiency that only those trained to move in the shadow of the throne possess. And so the trickle begins.

Small groups, splattered with dust, begin to emerge from the Celestial Fragment. They carry sacks, baskets, and amorphous bundles that exude the stench of meat and skins of dead spirit beasts and hastily uprooted plants. Some groups even drag makeshift carts made of bones, branches, and straps. Liang Zhen watches everything with the patience of someone accustomed to it. But as the sun moves forward and the sky begins to turn orange with the colors of sunset, his impassivity begins to be tested.

The prince and his group, so recognizable for their ostentation and lack of discipline, are conspicuous by their absence. His eyes scan the clearing again and he notices how the faces of the family representatives are beginning to tense up. Even the governor's soldiers, who at first seemed relaxed, are now watching the entrance intently, as if waiting for someone who is not coming. Night falls and with it, the first fires are lit in structures that were already set up for this purpose.

Liang Zhen recognizes their design, tall bonfires used by those who frequently camp in dangerous areas. It is clear that the governor is accustomed to preparing for the departure from the Celestial Fragment. Darkness closes in, but people continue to leave the Celestial Fragment by the light of the fires, so no one has time to rest. And then, as the sky begins to lighten with the first signs of dawn, Liang Zhen sees what he has been waiting for. A group approaches the entrance hurriedly and hastily.

He doesn't need to see their faces. Even with the haste with which they move, their disorderly, arrogant, and unformed manner is proof enough for him.

"Alert!" Liang Zhen orders his men, leaving nothing to chance considering the state of the clearing.

"In formation. Weapons at the ready." Liang Zhen's men rise as one, armed and ready. They advance at full speed toward the entrance of the Celestial Fragment, surrounding the newly emerged group, and he quickly raises his hand, pointing to one side of the clearing. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"There! Get them away!" he quickly orders his men. The group, completely cornered and disorganized by their rush to leave the Celestial Fragment, simply follows Liang Zhen's orders without protest and follows them to the edge of the clearing. But upon arriving, Liang Zhen notices something strange and soon realizes that no one has protested his treatment, and he nervously stares at the group. And then, seeing their faces, something inside him freezes. He's not there. The prince is not there.

His eyes scan every face in the group, and none of them are Sun Chao. Sweat runs down Liang Zhen's back as he steps forward and fixes his gaze on one of those present and asks in a voice as sharp as an imperial blade "Where is the prince?" The young man, pale, covered in dust, and with a look of exhaustion in his eyes, swallows hard before answering.

"We were about to begin the return out of the Celestial Fragment", he tells Liang Zhen.

"When Wei Jian, with some of his men, appeared and told him that they had seen the maid of Zhāohuán going to a strange building in the desert, so he ordered us to wait for him there and left with them."

"And he didn't come back?" Liang Zhen asks, with deadly calm.

"We... we waited for him. But he didn't come back, so we went looking for them, but we knew where they had gone", he replies to Liang Zhen.

"But in the end, we had to leave. The Fragment was closing, and we didn't want to get trapped." And then, as if his words had been the final nail in the coffin, a loud noise echoes behind Liang Zhen. The entrance to the Celestial Fragment closes with a final, thunderous roar. And the clearing erupts into chaos amid the shouts of the governor's men and the men of the families as the metallic sound of unsheathed weapons and voices demanding answers as to why none of their men have come out of the Celestial Fragment.

But none of that matters to Liang Zhen as he stands motionless, his heart pounding. The Fifteenth Imperial Prince Sun Chao had not come out. And many people were going to want answers for that. Tàishǒu Wu Zhānglóng has never been an early riser, but today he got up long before the first rooster crowed. Not out of devotion to duty, of course, but because today is the day his men return from the Celestial Fragment of the Sands, and with it, the possibility of increasing his wealth without lifting a finger.

But knowing that the first report will not arrive until around mid-morning, he first decides to relax by paying a visit to his favorite concubine. After spending a pleasant time and sitting behind his desk made of exotic woods, carved with dragons and lotuses, Governor Wu examines the first report of the day with a cup of tea in his hand that his assistant has just brought him, and his eyes light up when he reads that the maid of Zhāohuán has already left the Fragment.

"A good sign", he says, with a smile that moves his cheeks.

"If that woman has come out unscathed, my men must surely be coming out one after another laden with treasures." Governor Wu leans back in his chair and rubs his bulging chin. His talent for cultivation is not particularly brilliant, but he has cultivated an impressive ability to enrich himself through the labor of others. And today he hopes to do so in obscene amounts, as he always does when the Celestial Fragment opens. But his tranquility lasts only a moment.

One of the governor's assistants, a young man as thin as a stick of incense, bursts into the room and hands him a bamboo tablet with the expression of someone who has just stepped on a scorpion.

"What is this?" snorts Governor Wu as he picks it up with a frown.

"First midday report, Your Excellency. None of our men have left yet. Nor have those from the families", replies the assistant. Governor Wu raises an eyebrow upon hearing this.

"What do you mean, none?" he asks incredulously.

"Not even the families?"

"The same, Your Excellency. The messengers say the exit clearing is full, but only with wandering cultivators. Many are carrying cargo, but none of ours have been seen yet."

"What about the prince?" asks Governor Wu, suddenly becoming nervous for some reason.

"No news. He hasn't been seen either, and his escort is still waiting for him in the clearing", replies the assistant. After hearing this, Governor Wu drops the report on the table with a thud and begins to sweat as he starts giving orders.

"Send the city guard to the lower area!" he growls.

"Question everyone who has left the Celestial Fragment, cultivator by cultivator if necessary. Ask if they have seen our men."

"Of course, Your Excellency", the assistant nods and turns to leave, but Wu stops him with a nervous cough.

"And while you're at it, ask about the prince too, just in case", Governor Wu says as a last-minute order. The assistant simply nods at this last-minute order and leaves the office. The day passes like an eternity for Governor Wu. Outside, the sky changes from gold to purple, and inside the governor's office, the air thickens like stale broth. Wu Zhānglóng paces back and forth as his shoes creak on the jade tiles and his ceremonial kimono becomes damp with sweat from his nerves.

On Governor Wu's desk, there are already more than a dozen reports piled up, each one worse than the last. The last one has just one line that says "No trace. We continue to ask." Night falls like a thick blanket, filled with whispers and lanterns lit throughout the city. Across the city, Governor Wu's soldiers are overwhelmed. Several wandering cultivators have refused to talk, others have gone down hidden paths, and some have even responded with violence.

The few answers obtained are vague, confusing, and full of "I didn't see it clearly" or "I saw a similar robe, but I'm not sure." But the worst thing for Governor Wu is that with nightfall, messages have begun to arrive from the Patriarchs of the four families demanding answers to what is happening, answers he cannot give because he does not have them. On top of that, the Prince is still missing, and the foolish Patriarchs still don't realize that this is what they should really be afraid of.

"No one pays me or bribes me enough for this", Governor Wu mutters as he wipes the sweat from his brow with an embroidered sleeve and begins to smell disaster like a fox smells fire. Finally, with the first glimmers of dawn peeking through the windows of the government palace, his last assistant enters with the expression of someone who has just seen a corpse and has not yet finished digesting it. Governor Wu sees him enter and his mouth goes dry as he asks in a whisper "Do you have it?"

The young man nods and hands him the final report. Governor Wu takes it with trembling fingers as he listens to his assistant "The final report from the members of the clearing guard is that none of the governor's men or the four families have left the Celestial Fragment."

"Although part of his entourage has left, the Fifteenth Imperial Prince Sun Chao has not left either", the assistant continues.

"And after the Celestial Fragment closed, the men of the four families almost started a battle as they demanded an answer about what had happened to their members." Governor Wu closes his eyes and dismisses the assistant, after which he sits heavily behind his desk, while in his mind he has already erased everything that happened with his men and the men of the four families. For him, the only thing that truly mattered was that the Fifteenth Imperial Prince Sun Chao had not emerged.

And that meant that the imperial palace would send a committee to investigate what had happened. And in his mind, there was only one real fear, whether they would come only to investigate the prince's disappearance or take advantage of the situation and audit him.

Tàishǒu Wu Zhānglóng looks around and contemplates the expensive vases, the carpets brought from the other end of the empire, and the chests with ingots and spiritual stones discreetly hidden behind golden screens in his office, that small sample of his small empire built on servile smiles, discreet commissions, and invisible embezzlement. And sitting in his office, he begins to wonder if it might be time to start discreetly sending part of his wealth out of the empire in case he has to flee.