Chapter 12
The Master's Sword
A flashback from the inner door reflected in her dark brown eyes, bedazzled and mesmerized as she gazed at the double-edged sword before her. The tip of the sword had a perfect silver finish, and at the end of its gold-like grip handle were tiny silver bells.
One thing she knew for sure: she had seen this sword somewhere before.
She touched the tiny silver bells, and their crisp sound sent a tingling sensation to her ears.
Suddenly, her memories of the past became vivid.
The tiny silver bells' sound continued to echo in her ears, and Chu Qiao remembered Xinger, though she wasn't certain if Xinger and she were the same person. She could recognize Xinger in her memories. Chu Qiao recalled Yuwen Yue holding a contest to select her bedchamber maid.
Xinger won the tea-making ceremony and the writing contest, among others.
Chu Qiao saw Xinger's first night as her master's bedchamber maid.
When Xinger was awarded the silver bell...
When Yuwen Yue trained Chu Qiao to commission her as an official spy for the Eyes of God.
When Yuwen Yue gave her the Canhong Jian sword...
When Yuwen Yue and Xinger fought, and he wouldn't let go of her hand from the castle peak. Xinger was about to fall and chose to let go of his hand...
When Yuwen Yue went to Yuwen Huai's dungeon and saved her by temporarily killing her with a needle.
Yuwen Yue said, "A woman who cannot be controlled is worse than dead."
Chu Qiao also saw the graves of her siblings, Ling Xi and Zhi Xiang, and the tomb of Xinger, where Yuwen Yue had thought she was burned to death. From the ashes, Yuwen Yue found the ring her master had given her, leaving the young master of the Green Hills Courtyard devastated for days.
She also remembered Yuwen Yue giving Xinger her first mission, but then the master rescued Xinger.
Next, they were locked up in a cave with the shop owner, Zao Baocun. The old man revealed that the sword Yuwen Yue gave her, the Canhong Sword, was actually a lover's sword, paired with Yuwen Yue's Po Yue Jian sword.
Yuwen Yue, unaware of the sword's history, blushed and made no comment. Zao Baocun teased them, but Yuwen Yue was too tired and looked sick.
"That's it! I knew it! This is the Po Yue Jian sword!"
She looked at the sword again, touched its blade, and suddenly closed her eyes as the memories continued to flood her mind. She didn't realize she had this power until now.
After several minutes, she opened her eyes, tears falling as she saw a part of Xinger's memories and Yuwen Yue in connection to the sword, but she chose not to continue.
"Who are you, Yuwen Yue? Did you really love Xinger all this time? Why is this sword locked up in here?" Chu Qiao paused before she let go of the sword.
Suddenly, she felt a rush. She needed to get out of the obstacle course, or she would fail the challenge with the tall incense stick waiting outside as her timekeeper. She couldn't stay longer. She marked the four sides of the spot so she could return without getting lost in the maze-like obstacle course.
"Mimi Gongzhu, did something happen inside?" Viper asked, intrigued, as Chu Qiao had been unusually quiet for hours. She sensed something was bothering her.
Chu Qiao was browsing through an ancient text in a hidden mini-library located underground in her diamond hall.
Along the path to the secret library, big lion heads were attached to the old palace walls. They would automatically light fires when a switch was pressed, illuminating the path until one reached a door made of iron and cold stones resembling ice.
The library was constructed of pure limestone, with no exit door, only the Canhong (dark red) entrance door. It had been locked down after detecting a fire in the outer palace, which preserved the hidden library from destruction.
Chu Qiao usually spent her time here, reading about the kingdom's history. It was her personal hideout, a place she could navigate while evading the obstacles inside.
Viper was busily preparing their afternoon tea, still waiting for Chu Qiao to respond to her inquiry.
Chu Qiao looked at her, then returned to her book. Viper sensed that the long silence had something to do with an object hidden somewhere in the Chu palace training ground.
Impatient, Viper asked, "Is it about the lost Po Yue Jian sword?"
Still, no answer came, as if Chu Qiao hadn't heard her.
Viper asked again, for the third time, "Did you find it?"
Feeling responsible to answer, Chu Qiao responded with a question: "Why? Did you hide the sword?"
Viper, now caught off guard, was like an open book, unable to conceal more secrets.
"Does the sword belong to you or someone else?" Viper replied.
"I believe it isn't mine, but I saw it earlier." Chu Qiao's voice was cold and sarcastic, as there were only questions, no answers.
Viper, sensing Chu Qiao's irritation, apologized: "I'm sorry, Princess. I asked because the Po Yue Jian sword belonged to the son of the Qinghai King. The sword had been protected by our ancestors for generations, and it was only taken out when the King presented it as a gift to his son, whose name, Yue, was engraved on the sword. The King saw his son as the moon, while he was the sun. The son ruled the night while the father ruled the day."
Chu Qiao stood and approached Viper. Sensing the tension, Viper tried to step aside, but Chu Qiao grabbed her arm. Viper could no longer keep her secrets.
"Where can I find the Qinghai King? Is he still alive?" Chu Qiao's face was close to Viper's, her eyes sleepy yet filled with sadness and coldness.
Caught off guard, Viper didn't immediately answer. She hadn't expected Chu Qiao to ask about the Qinghai King. She thought Chu Qiao would inquire about the King's son instead.
"The Qinghai King is still alive, but he's cursed, which led to the empire's decline," Viper said, summarizing the history in one sentence before continuing, "As for his whereabouts, we don't know. He's been taken somewhere, and until the curse is broken or his son returns, the Qinghai King remains locked away."
Chu Qiao, now fully focused and intensely curious, asked again, "Who cursed the Qinghai King?"
"It was the Queen."
Chu Qiao thought, "She's a witch."
"Sort of," Viper replied, as if she knew what Chu Qiao was thinking.
"The prodigal son has much to do to save his enchanted father. How is he doing?" Chu Qiao asked, now calmer.
The Qinghai baby prince was believed to have been abducted by his own maidservant mother. According to the underworld spies, the maid was from the Xie household. She took the prince and the sword and fled the palace. The Qinghai King was furious when his spies returned empty-handed. He ordered the Xie household to be burned down.
Viper hesitated to continue, but Chu Qiao, like a hungry tiger, was ready to devour every detail of the past.
"It was later discovered that the mother escaped to the Wei Empire. The Qinghai King couldn't send his guards because he didn't want word to spread that both the Po Yue Jian sword and his crown prince were missing. To avoid being seen as weak or incompetent, he discreetly sent underworld spies to find them. Even the smartest spies failed to track down the prince and the sword."
"What does this have to do with the Chu Jing Kingdom?" Chu Qiao asked, her curiosity sparked.
Viper responded, "Your mother, Luo He, advised the King that it would take a long-term plan to resolve the issue. If the King didn't want to announce that his son and sword were missing, he had to trust the subtle plan. Mr. Wu, one of the King's advisors, argued that the prince wasn't dead since no body had been found.
Your father, Chu Teng Gao, was equally concerned about the lost Po Yue Jian sword. The bloodline of the Ximeng continent was tied to it. If the sword were lost, chaos would follow and it did. Other empires set out to find the sword and claim it. Whoever possessed the sword would wield great power because it was forged in cold fire, fortified by the bloodline of King Yue of ancient times. It was said that any ruler who held the sword could command the world. The sword was called 'The Gentleman of All Weapons.'"
Viper continued, "At the time, the blackout strategy worked as a temporary fix, but eventually, the news leaked. The Qinghai Empire was attacked by the Wei Empire and started to fall. Before the empire collapsed, the Chu Jing Kingdom, Qinghai's moon, defended the Sun and prevented its total destruction.
Chu Jing, like the moon, always watches over the underworld at night, casting its light over Chisui Lake and Chaosu Lake. But eventually, even the moon faded, waiting to rise again and light the dark night."
After hearing the story, Chu Qiao, like a drunken master, wanted more.
"Viper, is that it? Is that where Qinghai fell and Chu Jing ended? Will the sun and the moon never shine again? What about the stars, are they scattered?"
There were questions, but no answers, as Viper nodded and ended with the prophecy.
"Secret Princess, there's one more thing. I heard as a child that it was prophesied that the moon from Chu Jing would wax again, but only after forming an alliance with the ruler of Southern Liang. The ruler would abdicate, and Chu Jing would rise. The fierce dragon from the north would tear apart Chu Jing, but the child of the west Lion King would snatch victory from the dragon's mouth. Qinghai, the sun, would shine again, and the moon would return to its rightful place."
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