Chapter 420 - 222: The New Night Lord

Chapter 420: Chapter 222: The New Night Lord

Venerable Wei Yang saw Zheng Xiu shift his posture slightly and immediately guessed what the young man was thinking. He chuckled and chided, "You clever little rascal."

The Emperor seemed to be in a good mood.

But the better the Emperor’s mood, the more Zheng Xiu felt that something was wrong.

Next, Venerable Wei Yang acted just like an elder visiting family, asking about Zheng Xiu’s businesses and even bringing up the recent floods in the south caused by heavy rains. Zheng Xiu immediately offered to donate to the disaster relief effort; when it came to spending money, he never so much as batted an eye.

"Excellent."

The Emperor smiled faintly and nodded, not refusing the Richest Person’s kind offer.

"Though you are the wealthiest man in the land, you still have the people in your heart. That is a rare and precious quality. Your reputation is already known throughout the world."

Zheng Xiu quickly added, "Not at all. Marquis Zhonglie intends for the disaster relief funds to be donated in the Holy Emperor’s name."

"Very well."

The Emperor nodded calmly again, his expression unreadable.

The two men sparred verbally in the carriage, their conversation superficial and evasive. The Emperor knew this amount of money was nothing to Zheng Xiu, and Zheng Xiu knew full well that what they had discussed so far was not the real issue.

After they finished discussing the disaster relief, a silence fell over the carriage.

Neither the Emperor nor Marquis Zhonglie spoke.

Zheng Xiu, for his part, simply waited.

After a moment of silence, Venerable Wei Yang smiled. "What are your thoughts on this person, the Night Lord of Ye Weiyang?"

’Here it comes!’

Zheng Xiu’s eyes narrowed. ’The Emperor is here because of Ye Weiyang?’

’Could he possibly know that I’ve been fighting with Ye Weiyang?’

’It’s possible. Feng Bei and the Monk snuck into the city. They might have fooled the city guard, but they couldn’t necessarily fool Old Wei.’

’And the massive commotion caused by Ye Weiyang’s pursuit of Feng Bei outside the city—there’s no way that could have been completely covered up.’

’The only question is, how much does Old Wei know?’

For a split second, a thousand thoughts raced through Zheng Xiu’s mind, but his face only showed a look of confusion. "The Night Lord? I’ve heard the name, but we’ve never met."

"Oh?"

The Emperor’s gaze hardened, and he sat up straight. In that instant, Venerable Wei Yang, who had just been acting like Zheng Xiu’s elder, once again became the Emperor who held the power of life and death over countless souls. A sliver of his imperial majesty leaked out, causing the air in the carriage to freeze, as if an invisible hand were closing around Zheng Xiu’s neck.

"Mysterious."

When the Emperor asks, an answer must be given. Zheng Xiu’s previous sentence hadn’t been a true answer, which was why the Emperor had simply said, "Oh?". It was only after Zheng Xiu offered the single word "Mysterious" that Venerable Wei Yang’s straightened back relaxed, and he settled back into the soft cushions.

He closed his eyes and said in a calm tone, "Yes, mysterious. The man is elusive, always appearing before me as a puppet. For a full twenty years now, I have not seen his true face."

"I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead, or where he is now."

Zheng Xiu remained silent.

At this moment, silence was golden.

"And yet... it is precisely because of him that Daqian has enjoyed twenty years of peace."

The Great Emperor sighed, opened his eyes again, and looked at Zheng Xiu. "Raven’s death... did it have anything to do with you?"

Zheng Xiu’s brow twitched.

’What’s coming has finally come.’

It wasn’t so much a question as it was a confirmation posed as one.

The hairs on Zheng Xiu’s arms stood on end. Just as he was trying to figure out how to respond, Old Wei smiled and waved his hand. "I’ve said it before, you are not a court official, and I am not wearing my Dragon Robe. There’s no need to be so formal. As for this question, whether you answer it or not makes no difference to me. It was an unnecessary question to begin with. If you don’t answer, so be it!"

Zheng Xiu’s silence was, in itself, a kind of answer. Faced with this silence, Venerable Wei Yang showed no sign of displeasure. Instead, he became more talkative, rambling on.

"All these years, I’ve watched you build your fortune, bit by bit."

"You used many novel methods to amass your wealth, but you always knew where the line was, and your means were legitimate."

"Once, one of my confidants came to me late at night to offer his counsel. He said the Zheng Clan’s wealth had grown beyond imagination. He was afraid I was unaware of your little schemes, and that I was gradually fattening you up, a Fierce Tiger."

"I told him that I have never feared a man who loves money. Later, I had him exiled to the borderlands."

"Later, I watched as you recruited one fallen master after another, bringing them into your service. Your Zheng Clan is full of hidden talents, and it grew larger and larger. At that time, another person advised me, saying, ’The Zheng Clan is raising a tiger that will one day cause calamity; they must not be allowed to continue.’ Heh, in the end, I granted him a cup of Poisoned Wine and promised his family ten generations of wealth and comfort."

In the calmest of tones, Venerable Wei Yang recounted these instances of his "favoritism" toward Zheng Xiu over the years, both overt and covert. But this was the favor of an Emperor, a blessing not everyone could bear. Those two stories alone had cost an unknown number of lives.

Zheng Xiu stared at Venerable Wei Yang in astonishment. He had never known any of this. For a fleeting moment, he suspected Venerable Wei Yang might have fabricated these two stories to play on his emotions. But he quickly abandoned such a foolish thought. The Venerable Wei Yang he knew was an Emperor who would never stoop to such despicable little tricks to win someone over.

"I admire your ’benevolence,’ your ’wisdom,’ and your ’discretion.’ Back then, when your father died on the battlefield and left you all alone, my heart was not at ease. So, twenty years ago, I swore to myself that even if you grew up to be a profligate son, I would find a way to make you the most arrogant and domineering profligate son of them all. But who would have thought that in the end, you would become the man your father hoped you would be."

For a moment, Zheng Xiu didn’t know what to say.

’Because he had a vague sense, connecting the cause and effect of everything Venerable Wei Yang had just said, of what the Emperor wanted him to do.’

Venerable Wei Yang was always especially talkative whenever he met with Zheng Xiu. Zheng Xiu’s most profound impression of Venerable Wei Yang was still from before the timeline had drastically changed: the dying Emperor, delivering his "Three Questions of the Emperor" in a voice full of unwilling resentment in front of the Prison Camp. Even after a hundred years, the memory was still vivid and unforgettable for Zheng Xiu.