“What if that warrior is just a human who knows how to use spiritual techniques? We can’t rule it out,” Lu Xu put in.
“I’m more inclined to believe he’s a yaoguai,” Qiu Yongsi said. “There are many schools of spiritual cultivation in the human realm, but those who engage in those practices carry an air of righteousness. That bastard gave off an unmistakably malevolent aura when he glanced at me.”
Hongjun and Li Jinglong had been standing closest to the four warriors at the time. Thinking back, Hongjun recalled that all four men were heavily built, with long arms and legs. Even after discussing at length, there was nothing that truly linked the warriors to the black yaoguai they’d spotted in the imperial mausoleums. Nevertheless, Hongjun found them somehow strangely similar.
“I think… Chief?” Seeing Li Jinglong with his head lowered, Hongjun at first assumed he was deep in thought—only to realize he had nodded off.
Everyone was exhausted following the previous day’s adventures. After a brief silence, the meeting dispersed.
Hongjun came around the desk to where Li Jinglong was sitting. Having grown up scaling mountains, he possessed considerable physical strength; a burden of one to two hundred pounds was nothing to him. He scooped Li Jinglong up in his arms and carried him to his room.
The members of the Department of Exorcism returned once again to their inverted schedule of sleeping by day and working by night. It was a peaceful spring day, with only the intermittent trills of birdsong breaking the silence. Hongjun stretched out beside the slumbering Li Jinglong, who instinctively reached out and pulled him close.
As the sun slanted toward the west, Li Longji was taking his usual midday nap in Xingqing Palace. His audience with An Lushan earlier had drained him. The hoary Son of Heaven had woken early to cover the age spots on his face with powder and drunk a bowl of ginseng soup to invigorate himself for the meeting. That afternoon, after addressing the false allegations of plotting a rebellion, Li Longji had asked Yang Yuhuan to step in to pacify her godson An Lushan, then returned to his sleeping quarters for some well-earned rest.
Within the next two months, a number of frontier generals would be returning to Chang’an for the noble consort’s birthday. In ten days, Guo Ziyi would be arriving, and in another month, they could expect Geshu Han and Gao Xianzhi, among others. No doubt each military official he met with would be running their own calculations upon seeing how gray their sovereign’s hair had become.
All men grew old. Li Longji closed his eyes and sighed; it wasn’t the passage of time he feared, but rather the many changes that accompanied it. Perhaps it was because he had just met with An Lushan—the military governor’s antipathy toward Yang Guozhong had made him realize once again that the day he died, the Yang family would face enemies on all sides. When the time came for him to depart this world, he would no longer be able to protect Yang Yuhuan. A wave of sorrow rose in his heart.
A gust of chill wind drifted past. Li Longji’s tangled thoughts scattered as a voice spoke directly in his ear: “It’s time to wake up.”
“Who’s there?!” Badly startled, Li Longji lurched upright. Yet when he saw the speaker, his terror compounded.
A woman, sumptuously dressed in the robes of an emperor, strode gracefully down the corridor toward him, the long fall of her unbound hair fluttering in the wind. “Li Longji!” she said, her voice stern.
Li Longji cried out, his soul nearly fleeing his body from fright. Fighting for calm, he took a closer look and was shocked to see that it was Wu Zhao, his paternal grandmother—and the person he’d feared most in his life. He still remembered meeting her as a youth. The sight of her enfeebled body and the aura of senescence that surrounded her in her final days had left him permanently in terror of death.
Wu Zhao narrowed her eyes and slowly spread her arms. “Our nation of Great Tang is blessed with the favor of the heavens. It is only right that we strengthen our armies toward the purpose of establishing an empire that will stand for millennia.”
“Yes…yes.” Li Longji had gone deathly pale. As the emperor, he couldn’t very well kneel, but he had no idea what else to do.
“Yet Your Majesty believes slanderous lies and allows that wicked enchantress to blight our nation… How does such an unfilial descendant dare show his face before the ancestors of Great Tang?! Li Longji! On your knees!”
Wu Zhao had been dead for decades, yet her authority remained as absolute as in life. A single barked order, and Li Longji fell to his knees, his entire body shaking like a leaf.
“Repent!” With that final castigation, Wu Zhao splintered into countless fluttering lights, which streamed out of the courtyard and disappeared.
Stricken, Li Longji rose shakily to his feet, as if in a dream.
That evening, Li Longji, his eyes still shaded with fear, sat in silence with Yang Guozhong, Gao Lishi, and Li Heng in the imperial study.
A eunuch appeared in the entryway. “Li Jinglong, the chief of the Department of Exorcism and Marquis of Yardang, is here to speak with Your Majesty.”
“Send him in,” Li Longji said coolly.
Li Jinglong had only just woken from his slumber when he was summoned to Xingqing Palace, and was still a bit befuddled from sleep.
Unable to bear another moment of suspense, Li Longji barked, “Li Jinglong! Explain yourself! What happened in the imperial mausoleums?!”
Li Jinglong cursed softly to himself—but it wouldn’t do to ask questions now. “The bodies of our nation’s former emperors remain perfectly intact—”
“We are asking,” Li Longji began, his voice terribly cold, “why there have been hauntings in the imperial mausoleums!”
Evidently, he had been fully informed by Yang Guozhong. Sensing something was amiss, Li Jinglong studied Li Longji. Realization flickered across his face. “Your Majesty, did something strange happen?”
Perhaps it would have been better if he hadn’t asked. Li Longji promptly exploded.
“Li Jinglong!” he roared. “You dare defy us?!”
Naturally, Li Jinglong dared not. He promptly dropped to one knee and cupped his hands. “Forgive me, Your Majesty. This subject only wishes to know whether some new event has occurred within the palace.”
“We saw the ghost of a late emperor,” Li Longji said in a trembling voice. “We saw it with our own eyes; it was not a dream.”
Li Jinglong’s head shot up in shock. So that’s what it is, he thought to himself. This is what he was after!
“On the night of the thirteenth,” Li Jinglong began, “the Imperial Court of Judicial Review received a case.”
He quickly summarized the facts of the case and their ensuing investigation as objectively as possible. Li Longji was no stranger to scoldings; his ministers often risked his anger to make their remonstrations. But he had a guilty conscience in this matter, and his terror had peaked with Wu Zhao’s ghostly appearance. He had been nearly out of his mind with fright since waking from his nap. After listening to Li Jinglong’s detailed explanation, he asked, “Our primary concern is the creature we saw today—tell us, was it a ghost or a yaoguai?”
Before Li Jinglong could speak, Yang Guozhong cut in in a chilly voice. “Marquis, I’d advise you to think carefully before you answer.”
Li Jinglong glanced at Yang Guozhong. If he said a yao had appeared before Li Longji and scared him witless, he would be setting himself up for accusations of dereliction of duty. Yet if he said it was a ghost, he would be shifting the blame. The second scenario was precisely what Li Heng wanted—but it would mean lying about the facts and deceiving his sovereign, a capital crime.
“It was a yao,” Li Jinglong said firmly. “The Department of Exorcism is currently investigating this case. My oversight has led to Your Majesty being disturbed, for which I deserve a thousand deaths.”
“Could it be that someone has induced you to put on a show for us?” Li Longji asked, his voice dangerously low.
Li Jinglong turned pale. “Your Majesty! What makes you think this?! That is impossible!”
Li Heng blanched as well. Gao Lishi, who had been listening from the side, stepped forward at this point and whispered into Li Longji’s ear. Only then did the emperor recover his usual dignified mien.
“The case of the imperial mausoleums shall be transferred back to the Imperial Court of Judicial Review. We shall find out the truth of this matter soon enough! For his negligence, Li Jinglong is to be detained in Xingqing Palace to await trial. Summon the members of the Department of Exorcism for questioning and take down written statements!”
“Your Majesty,” Li Jinglong interjected, “this subject has one more matter to report!”
Li Longji merely waved an exhausted hand for the guards to march Li Jinglong away. Mind racing, Li Jinglong looked back into the imperial study just in time to see Yang Guozhong shoot him an inscrutable smile before the doors slammed shut.