The Dragon Vein

The eunuch stood between them as the Emperor of Great Liang preened, turning to Li Huowang with obvious delight. “Well, fellow daoist? Shocked, aren’t you? Bet you never guessed I’d be the Emperor!”

“Greetings, Your Majesty.” Li Huowang offered a Daoist salute. He had wanted nothing more than to slip back quietly, but this young emperor clearly had other plans.

“Hey! Thanks for the heads-up last time. If you hadn’t warned me, that man would have tricked me clean! You’ve got a good heart—you’re a good man. From now on, stay by my side and be an official! Tell me whatever post you want, and I’ll give it to you.”

“Preposterous! The very words of a dissolute sovereign!” The Imperial Preceptor’s voice cut through the air, and the Emperor of Great Liang’s face changed instantly. He did not dare act so boldly anymore.

It seemed that despite being the Emperor of Great Liang, there were still things he could not decide for himself.

“Your Majesty, have you forgotten what must be done today?”

The Emperor of Great Liang stood up straight and answered properly, “The offerings are prepared. Therefore, I… I am to go to the Imperial Temple and pay homage to the late Emperor.”

“Indeed.” The Imperial Preceptor of Great Liang’s heavy eyelids drooped, and he said nothing more.

Cowed by the Preceptor, the Emperor of Great Liang did not dare delay the official business, yet his excitement at Li Huowang’s appearance was plain to see. “You follow behind. Come with me; after we’ve finished the business, we’ll talk properly!”

The Imperial Preceptor’s lips trembled, but in the end, he did not voice a rebuke. He had already decided to speak with the Empress Dowager later.

Li Huowang wanted to refuse, but a cluster of old eunuchs surrounded him, leaving him no way to leave. He glanced at the Imperial Preceptor’s retreating back and made up his mind to do nothing out of line.

Though this had exceeded his expectations, making a friend of an emperor was not, strictly speaking, a bad thing. It was just happening at an inconvenient time.

Falling in with the Emperor of Great Liang’s grand procession, Li Huowang was paraded through the imperial palace.

Throughout the journey, the Emperor kept glancing back. It was plain that Li Huowang fascinated him—especially after the help he had given during the Shangsi Festival.

But Li Huowang did not share the feeling. He just wanted this to be over quickly, to avoid any more complications. Miaomiao was still waiting outside.

Li Huowang had initially assumed they would go straight to the so-called Imperial Temple and that would be the end of it. But to his surprise, they retraced their steps and entered the arched gate again.

The eunuch they had called the Grand Steward earlier was already there, leading a row of lesser eunuchs, all kneeling in a neat line to welcome the Emperor of Great Liang.

On the Eight Immortals table before them, seven jade dishes, each the size of a basin, were arranged in a row. On each dish lay different objects.

There was a translucent, crystalline bud waiting to bloom. There was a white egg whose smooth surface writhed and squirmed. There was a ruyi scepter carved from meat.

Each dish held something different, but the last one was an exception. It was empty—empty save for ribbons of black smoke that occasionally drifted out.

Li Huowang understood at once. The thing that should have been on that final jade dish was precisely the Spirit-Blight he had captured with such painstaking effort. His hard-won prize, the thing he had risked everything for, was just a sacrificial offering to honor some dead emperor—something to be set out for display.

For a moment, he felt a wave of bitterness toward his own efforts. No wonder the Emperor of Great Liang had arrived the moment he turned in the Spirit-Blight. The Emperor had been waiting for this all along.

“Take them up.” The row of eunuchs beside Li Huowang shuffled forward, heads bowed. They lifted the jade dishes with both hands, raising them high above their heads, and followed the Emperor of Great Liang toward the Imperial Temple.

Another two quarters of an hour passed. When Li Huowang’s sharp nose caught the scent of sandalwood, he knew the Imperial Temple was near.

From the outside, the so-called Imperial Temple of Great Liang looked no different from any ordinary temple—just larger and more solemn.

But once here, the frivolous Emperor of Great Liang visibly restrained himself. He offered a formal bow to the temple, then led the eunuchs and palace maids inside.

The temple was vast. Rows of neatly placed candles lined the walls, making the interior stifling and hot. Old eunuchs, blind and deaf, knelt in the corners, tapping wooden fish and reciting sutras without pause, day and night.

The Emperor of Great Liang knelt on a cushion and began to pay homage to the rows and rows of spirit tablets arranged inside the temple. But an old eunuch pulled him up.

“Eh? What’s this? It’s not here today?” Li Huowang caught the surprise in the Emperor’s voice. Clearly, even he had not expected this.

The old eunuch whispered something in his ear. The Emperor sighed, a little helplessly, then stood and led the procession toward the back of the spirit tablets.

The bright yellow silk hanging on the wall was drawn aside, revealing an imposing black stone door. Carved onto its surface were nine writhing dragons, baring their fangs—so lifelike they seemed ready to leap out.

When the eunuchs slowly pulled the massive stone door open, a wave of cold air rushed out, chilling the back of the neck.

The palace maids stopped in their tracks. Only the men stepped inside. Even Zhibei was turned away.

Seeing this rule, Li Huowang could not help but wonder silently, Is this the ancestral hall of the Great Liang imperial clan?

In the midst of his questions, they entered. The space inside was enormous and empty—so vast that even footsteps echoed.

The entire place was roughly funnel-shaped, with the outer edges high and the center low. Every inch of the decoration screamed royal extravagance. Gold gleamed everywhere.

At the very bottom, in the center, sat a coffin as large as a house, made of solid gold. Nine golden dragons of different forms, bound by chains, strained in every direction, pulling at the golden casket.

The moment he stepped in, Li Huowang was stunned by the strange sight.

“Nine dragons pulling a coffin?” He studied it more closely and felt that wasn’t quite right either. These nine dragons were not pulling the coffin; it was more as if they were trying to tear it apart.

“Whoa~! This place is huge!” The Emperor of Great Liang looked around with childlike wonder.

But after gawking for a moment, under the guidance of an old eunuch, he placed the seven offerings on the ground and performed the three kneels and nine prostrations before the central coffin.

Li Huowang assumed he would have to kowtow as well, but he noticed the surrounding eunuchs remained standing. It seemed they were not worthy of bowing here.

“So the dead Emperor of Great Liang is buried inside? I thought it would be in a mausoleum.” The Zuowandao hallucination beside him spoke.

Just as Li Huowang was studying the gorgeously intricate patterns on the massive coffin, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

As the Emperor of Great Liang continued his prostrations, the enormous golden coffin began to open, inch by inch.

“Father?” The Emperor froze for a moment. Since the coffin was at the lowest point of the chamber, he, standing on the outer rim, could see inside immediately. “Father!!”

The Emperor rushed forward in agitation, but several old eunuchs held him firmly. “What are you doing?! My father is still moving! He’s still alive! Why are you locking him up?!”

“Your Majesty, this is the Dragon Vein! The very foundation of our Great Liang! It must not be defiled!”

What the Emperor of Great Liang saw, Li Huowang saw too. The Emperor of Great Liang—the same man who had fought to the death against the Zuowandao—was bound tight by chains carved with dragon patterns.

Though he wore a wide imperial robe embroidered with dragon patterns, it could not hide the bizarre transformation of his body. The dark-golden dragon scales. The dragon whiskers writhing like tentacles.

What chilled Li Huowang even more was that he was not alone. This Emperor of Great Liang was stacked on top of another person, and the one beneath him was stacked on top of someone else—one after another, layer upon layer, as if the column was endless.

The interior of the coffin seemed impossibly deep and dark. Emperors of Great Liang from every generation were nailed mid-air by chains, stacked into a single orderly pillar of corpses.

Li Huowang also noticed that this pillar was not still. It writhed in time with some howl from deep within the coffin, as if trying to break free from the chains’ grip. Their movements… were like a dragon being restrained?