Chapter 5
Edward Quan ·
“Yes! Definitely sorcery!”
“Seize her! Burn her!”
“Silence!” Lord Pei roared. “The waiver was signed. The contest is over. Victory and defeat are clear. Anyone who speaks more nonsense will answer to me!”
Jiang Xueci wasn’t remotely intimidated.
“Stop pretending, Lord Pei! Protecting that witch makes you equally guilty!”
She snapped at her attendant.
“Fetch my father! I’m having this bitch killed today!”
He stumbled away in a panic.
Before long, measured footsteps approached.
“The Grand Preceptor!”
The crowd was roughly pushed aside. Armored imperial guards rushed in and surrounded us.
An old man in first-rank official robes, bearing a crane badge, approached. His hair was white, his eyes sinister.
Jiang Quan, the Grand Preceptor. Jiang Xueci’s father.
She rushed to her rescuer.
“Father! At last! A moment later and that village girl would have beaten your daughter to death!”
He frowned at Zhao Wuji on the ground.
“What happened?”
She pointed at me and embellished freely.
“That country woman used some sorcery to injure Master Zhao! She forged the military results and pretended to be champion! Lord Pei is working with her. They’re bullying me together!”
The Grand Preceptor snorted and turned a disdainful gaze on Lord Pei.
“Such impressive authority, my lord. You dare bully even my daughter?”
Lord Pei saluted.
“Grand Preceptor, I am simply acting impartially. His Majesty personally selected Su Yuqiao as martial champion. The official list is here. There is no forgery.”
The old man laughed.
“The greatest joke under heaven! In Great Zhou’s hundred years, when has there ever been a female martial champion? You’ve plainly taken her bribes and are calling a deer a horse!”
Lord Pei’s face darkened.
“Are you questioning His Majesty?”
The Grand Preceptor looked supremely confident.
“His Majesty has countless affairs to attend to. He may occasionally be misled. Having served three reigns, I naturally have a duty to cleanse the court on his behalf!”
He pointed at me and shouted.
“This wretch impersonated an official and injured innocent subjects. Under Great Zhou’s law, she is to be publicly beheaded at once! Seize her!”
The guards drew their blades and closed in.
I couldn’t help laughing.
“You’re going to kill me without investigating, Grand Preceptor? Your office certainly gives you plenty of authority.”
He regarded me coldly.
“Does a country girl deserve my investigation? My former pupils and officials fill the court. Crushing you is easier than crushing an ant!”
Jiang Xueci gloated.
“Hear that? Kneel and kowtow. Lick my soles clean. Perhaps I’ll ask Father to leave your corpse intact.”
I sighed.
“Does nobody in this city have a brain?”
I reached inside my robe and took out a gold token.
Solid gold. Very heavy.
Holding it up, I asked, “Grand Preceptor, what is this?”
Sunlight flashed from the surface.
The inscription read:
*As Though the Emperor Were Here.*
Silence fell again.
Lord Pei immediately knelt.
“Long live the emperor!”
The scholars and commoners dropped to their knees around him.
The Grand Preceptor froze. Panic flickered in his eyes as he stared at the token.
He quickly steadied himself.
Jiang Xueci laughed loudly.
“Father, look! Not only is she pretending to be champion, she’s forged an imperial token too! That’s a crime punishable by the destruction of nine clans!”
He seized the opening.
“Insolent commoner! How dare you forge a token bestowed by His Majesty! Guards, kill her here! Anyone who interferes shares her guilt!”
The guards raised their blades.
My gaze went cold.
I was about to disable every last one of them when a eunuch’s piercing voice rang out.
“His Majesty arrives! The Minister of War arrives!”
A stir passed through the crowd.
The imperial procession in brilliant yellow slowly approached. Everyone prostrated themselves.
A middle-aged man in a yellow dragon robe stepped forward. Beside him walked a dark-faced, burly man in the uniform of a second-rank military official.
The emperor and the Minister of War.