Chapter 519: The Incident at Jade Dragon Pond

Chapter 519: The Incident at Jade Dragon Pond

As Feng Chaoyang stared at the grand and imposing palace in the distance, he voiced his genuine confusion. "I don't understand."

The Celestial King Sect had arrived early. After thoroughly inspecting the area, they chose this residence with the pavilion, believing it to be the best lodging available.

And it had indeed been the best available.

But why are there people who can stay in the imperial palace?!

Are you part of the imperial family??

Even members of the imperial family don't just get this kind of treatment whenever they want, right?

Compared to that palace halfway up the hill and above the other lodgings, the residence with the pavilion now seemed like the small buildings by the city gates that the old fellows on night watch stayed in. The joy that the Celestial King Sect's team had felt a moment before was gone now. Normally, cultivators wouldn't care about such things, but nothing was worse than having something better to compare to.

It wasn't just the Celestial King Sect disciples who didn't understand; even the Mount Shu Sect disciples were puzzled. They looked at Lao Fangrong in confusion.

"This isn't in compliance with the rules, is it?" Wang Xuanling frowned. "I've attended the Assembly of Immortal Sects several times and never heard of anyone staying in the imperial palace..."

"It wasn't allowed before, but this time, His Majesty gave an imperial decree," Lao Fangrong explained. He turned to Chu Liang and bowed. "The Imperial Younger Brother is to be accommodated in the temporary imperial residence."

Well, then.

I almost forgot about that.

Chu Liang suddenly remembered that he did have such a title.

It was unsurprising he had forgotten. After all, he always spent his time among immortal sects, where no one cared about the things that the imperial family or court bestowed. The last time the emperor bestowed Chu Liang with something, it had just been a few shops. Chu Liang hadn't even thought much about them.

But now, after arriving in the capital of Yu, he realized that his title as Imperial Younger Brother had its uses.

"This is rather embarrassing," Chu Liang said with an embarrassed smile. He paused before adding, "My elder brother is quite thoughtful."

The group from the Mount Shu Sect made their way to the highest point of the lodgings area and entered the imperial palace.

The Celestial King Sect disciples had watched them enviously. Nevertheless, the teams from the other Divine Nine and Terrestrial Ten sects would arrive and soon enough. The Celestial King Sect would regain some sense of superiority then.

The imperial palace on the Emperor's Mound was relatively plain and modest—well, that was compared to the grand palace halls of the imperial city. In comparison to the surrounding residences, the palace was richly ornamented, but it was not flamboyantly luxurious. The courtyard of the temporary imperial residence featured rockery and flowing streams in a very serene and elegant garden.

After escorting the group from the Mount Shu Sect to the palace, Lao Fangrong and the several palace attendants accompanying him left. The palace attendants usually served the emperor in the temporary imperial residence, but they left to avoid disturbing the Mount Shu Sect disciples' cultivation.

The group from the Mount Shu Sect didn't object to that. In fact, they would have felt uncomfortable if the eunuchs and palace maids were constantly attending to them.

Soon after they settled in, a visitor dropped by the palace.

"My goodness, this... You're actually staying in this imperial palace? What a great honor for you!" the visitor exclaimed in surprise as he entered the palace.

Wang Xuanling and the four Mount Shu Sect disciples received the visitor in the main hall.

"Oh, I don't always criticize them. My disciples are reasonably talented. They're just not very disciplined and instead quite playful," Chen Xuanlu replied with a laugh. "You see, I told them early on that we would be visiting you today, but when I went to gather them earlier, one of them was missing. Who knows where that one has gone off to play this time."

The female disciple from the Profound Mind Sect quietly defended the disciple in question. "Maybe Little Liu left because something happened at home..."

Chen Xuanlu shot her a glare, and she quickly lowered her head.

Wang Xuanling nodded in understanding. "This year's Assembly of Immortal Sects is different from the previous ones. It may get chaotic in the capital of Yu, so it's important to warn your disciples to be cautious."

The Mount Shu Sect had already informed the Imperial Supervisory Bureau about the information Chu Liang had acquired—the diabolical sects of the West Sea might take this opportunity to stir up trouble. However, it was decided that they would keep this information a secret for now to avoid alerting the enemy that they were aware. It was unclear what exactly the Diabolical Forces intended to do, so Wang Xuanling could only give a warning to Chen Xuanlu.

"That's true." Chen Xuanlu nodded in agreement. "The Assembly of Immortal Sects hasn't even begun, but strange occurrences have been happening frequently in the capital of Yu these past few days."

"Oh? What sort of strange occurrences?"

Chen Xuanlu glanced around and then lowered his voice. "Let me tell you about something I personally encountered—something quite bizarre."

...

Chen Xuanlu slowly began telling them what had happened.

"At the foot of the mountain where my sect is located, there's a small lake called Jade Dragon Pond."

Jade Dragon Pond had gotten its name because of its crystal-clear, blue-green[2] waters and its winding banks that made the pond resemble a coiled dragon. The name sounded grand, but the pond was actually quite small, much like how the Emperor's Mound was not even close to being the biggest of hills. Compared to truly great lakes, Jade Dragon Pond was just a small puddle.

"One day, the nearby villagers came to me and said that blood had been gushing to the surface of the Jade Dragon Pond for several days. They asked for my help to investigate."

Since Chen Xuanlu had founded a sect in the populous area outside the capital of Yu, he often had to interact with the local villagers.

The Jade Dragon Pond was a common resource for the neighboring villagers, so when blood kept surfacing in the pond, it had frightened many of the villagers. Seeing as there were cultivators living nearby, they didn't bother going into the city to ask for help from the Imperial Supervisory Bureau. Instead, they went straight to the Profound Mind Sect.

Chen Xuanlu didn't refuse their request for help and promptly agreed to investigate the pond.

"I activated a seal and entered the water, quickly descending to the depths. I found that there was indeed a lot of blood in the water. I followed the trail of blood and discovered it was pouring out from an underwater cave. And when I went inside the cave, I found a coffin! Unending streams of blood were gushing out from the cracks in the coffin. It was so strange.

"I thought it was the work of some ghosts, so I brought the coffin to the surface. Once it was exposed to sunlight, the blood stopped flowing out.

"With the gathered villagers serving as witnesses, I opened the coffin. Inside it was the corpse of a woman, lifelike and intact as if she were still alive. I couldn't tell when or how she had come to rest there, but she had a very serene expression as though she was merely asleep."

At this point, his expression grew tense. He seemed to be recalling something that still troubled him.

"That alone was strange enough. But one of my disciples had once attended a banquet in the imperial palace with his family, and as soon as he saw the corpse, he recognized her...

"She looked exactly like Empress Wu!"

1. The tables in palace halls are usually low tables, so that's why they're sitting on the floor. And the tables are usually individual tables, so that's probably why they have to arrange the tables. ☜

2. Jade is often blue-green. ☜