Yun Qing took the hint and delayed no longer. He raised a hand and sent out a gleaming white jade slip; at a faint stir of spiritual power from his fingertip, the phantom of the Soul-Suppressing Stele surfaced upon it, a very fine crack on the stele's body clearly visible.
"When Qing hurried to the shrine with the Young Lord today, I found a three-inch hidden crack on the stele's northwest side, concealed in advance by someone using a sinister secret method. Otherwise, with the spiritual power of Yun Hao and the rest, they could never have shaken the Soul-Suppressing Stele. Had Qing not examined it closely with his Double Pupils, he would have nearly been deceived."
A tap of his fingertip, and a wisp of grey-black spiritual imprint surfaced beside the phantom. "This is the residual spiritual trace left at the scene, mingled with a peculiar yin-cold aura, bearing some resemblance to the spiritual power of the Twelfth Elder's line."
"Qing suspects that behind this matter lies no simple squabble of trueborn-and-baseborn temper. The aim may be to stir up the Young Lord's dislike of Qing; the deeper purpose... awaits proof. Yet the Soul-Suppressing Stele was damaged and the shrine disturbed — such an act merits death. Qing begs the Young Lord's leave to investigate this matter to the bottom, to drag out the hand behind it and set the clan's ways right!" He accused no elder outright, only laid out the evidence and stated the facts.
If someone had schemed with all their heart to remove him by Yun Huang's hand... then who would most delight to see it done?
Not waiting for Yun Huang to answer, Yun Qing raised his head, his eyes gazing earnestly into the void, carrying a just-right bewilderment and a dependent air of seeking counsel: "Only, Qing is young and shallow of understanding, his voice too light to carry weight, and there remain many turns of it he cannot think through. Might the Young Lord spare a moment to point Qing through his confusion, to part the clouds and show the sun?"
Yun Huang's spiritual sense watched Yun Qing's obedient, dependent look, as though he truly sought instruction, and four words flashed through his mind at once:
"Soft and fawning, flattering those above"!
Putting on that manner again! Yun Huang was vexed, and had meant to pay him no mind — but looking at Yun Qing's slender figure still bowed in respect, he opened his noble mouth after all and coldly cast down three words: "The Ascension-Mystery Rite."
Yun Qing's thoughts turned like lightning, and in an instant he understood: "The Young Lord means... this matter is tied to the 'Ascension-Mystery Rite' — to the Twelfth Elder line's pressing need to keep its seat in the 'Cloud-Summit Martial Trial'?"
He turned to the Second Elder to confirm: "The Twelfth Elder's line has indeed shown little talent these last few generations; its younger members have failed at the Cloud-Summit Martial Trial for several turnings running. If this turn, too, none can rise into the ranks of the Twelve Young Masters... Second Elder, by clan law, would the Ascension-Mystery Rite then be opened?"
The Second Elder stroked his goatee and took up the thread unhurriedly: "Just so. The 'Ascension-Mystery Rite' — that is, the main-line position-swap battle — once opened, is a ring of wolves besides. Many strong collateral branches long since prepared will launch their challenges. Fail to hold the Rite, and main and secondary change places: resources cut by seventy percent. The Twelfth line... may well face the peril of sinking away."
So the root lay in this imminent Cloud-Summit Martial Trial! The Twelfth Elder's line had to make certain that Yun Chi rose successfully to a seat among the Twelve Young Masters this turn.
And the "Spirit-Devouring Body" Yun Chi possessed, though also a rare Heaven-grade constitution, had of all things run headlong into Yun Qing's "Chaos Dao Embryo."
The Spirit-Devouring Body had overbearing force to spare but purity in want, and lacked besides the abstruse power of chaos to evolve all things — it was but a subordinate spirit-body to the Chaos Dao Embryo.
Thus the topmost resources their cultivation required — such as "Chaos Origin-Qi" and "Primordial Stone-Marrow" — were naturally all given first to the Chaos Dao Embryo, and what Yun Chi could be allotted was mostly of the tier below.
"Therefore, if I lose my footing..." Yun Qing stood with his hands clasped behind him, his tone carrying a trace of cold mockery, "the contest for resources between Yun Chi and me is plain to see. Only — even if the clan broke precedent and heaped every best resource upon Yun Chi, with his foundation, the odds of his breaking through his bottleneck before the turnover and defeating the other prodigies at the Cloud-Summit Martial Trial would still be slim."
"Scraping onto even the last seat would be his ancestors' graves smoking with good fortune." The Second Elder drove in the knife without mercy, being nothing like so smooth and roundabout as Yun Qing. "That sinister old thing of the Twelfth line — what on earth is he playing at..."
Suddenly the Second Elder thought of something, his voice stalling, and said with an air of dark secrecy: "Wait — this old man recalls it now. That old fellow has spent years poring over lost ancient texts, and he's mighty keen on certain vicious secret arts from remote antiquity, the sort dealing in 'seizing the foundation' and 'swapping the cauldron'..."
Yun Qing's gaze turned abruptly keen! In that instant every thread ran through and joined.
No wonder the first step was to strike at his bond with Yun Huang! If he were "accidentally" cast off by the Young Clan Head, or even "disciplined" until his Dao Embryo was damaged...
Then the Twelfth Elder could, under the banner of "preserving the Chaos prodigy for the clan and making up its loss," act first and report after — employing forbidden dark arts to try to strip and transfer the origin of his Dao Embryo and force-feed it into Yun Chi! Even if it produced only an unstable, limited "false Chaos Dao Embryo," it would be enough to send Yun Chi's strength soaring, letting him break clear at the Cloud-Summit Martial Trial and keep his line's standing!
By then the deed would be done; with Yun Huang's "casting-off" of him first, and a newly forged "false constitution" after, the clan, for the sake of the greater picture, would most likely acquiesce and turn to cultivating Yun Chi instead.
A fine stroke — killing with a borrowed knife, the plum withering in the peach tree's place! Both to remove him, the greatest obstacle, and to seize his Dao-foundation, paving a road to the clouds for their own grandson!
Yun Qing stood with hands clasped behind him, his aura no longer reined in, turning abruptly matchless and keen. His black battle-garb set off his figure like a lone peak thrusting up, as though a long-sealed spear had suddenly left its sheath, its cold light biting — enough to make even Yun Huang, hidden in the dark, glance aside for an instant.
"The Spirit-Devouring Body... the Chaos Dao Embryo..." Yun Huang's clear, cold voice sounded again from the depths, carrying a trace of relish, as though savoring the two phrases. "Both are excellent nourishment and vessels, come to think of it."
The words crashed into Yun Qing's sea of consciousness like a thunderbolt from the Ninth Heaven.
Alarmed as he had been by the Twelfth Elder's scheming, he had been confident of meeting it with composure; but these words from Yun Huang, a reincarnated Immortal Emperor, he dared not take for a jest, and in an instant his hair all but stood on end. 'If the Chaos Dao Embryo is of use to a reincarnated Immortal Emperor too, was the Twelfth Elder's first plan to split me with Yun Huang?'
The Second Elder's face changed slightly as well, his eyes taking on a heavier gravity. The meaning behind the word "vessel" was enough to chill any who knew.
Yun Qing forced down the flutter in his heart, lowered his eyes, and said, his voice carrying a scarcely detectable hoarseness: "Qing... is filled with dread. Qing knows only to serve the Young Lord faithfully and guard the Yun Clan; this body, this life, are all for the Young Lord and the clan to use, and dare not fail them." These words were both a pledge of loyalty and a veiled plea — I am worth far more to you alive than as a "vessel," so please do not set your mind on it!
"Hmph. Remember what you said today." Yun Huang's voice betrayed no feeling, but the mighty pressure locked upon Quiet-Heart Court dispersed as soundlessly as it had come.
Plainly, he accepted the claim for now.
Only after confirming that Yun Huang's spiritual sense had wholly withdrawn did the Second Elder, still shaken, pat his chest, and stick a thumb up at Yun Qing — for now he dared use secret transmission no longer.
Yun Qing smiled wryly, a layer of cold sweat on his back too, the muscles beneath his black robe faintly taut. Dealing with Yun Huang was no different from walking a wire over a bottomless abyss; every exchange hid an edge, and one careless slip meant ruin ten thousand times over.
Within Quiet-Heart Court, Yun Qing discussed a few more details with the Second Elder, who gave him a list of the Twelfth Elder's confidants, then yawned and took his leave, weaving off unsteadily.
Having seen the Second Elder off, Yun Qing sat alone on the couch to cultivate. As he stilled his mind and sensed within his body, he suddenly caught a wisp of spiritual power bearing a distinctive blazing-sun imprint, coiling like a spider's thread, faint and half-there, about his sea of qi.
This was no result of his injury. It was more like... a mark. A wordless declaration.
—"I am watching you."