Chapter 53: The Supreme Emperor Through the Ages

I was momentarily stunned, raising my head with a dazed gaze that fell upon the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual in Wei Yong's hand. I repeated his words in sheer disbelief.

I even thought I had misheard him, but Wei Yong nodded affirmatively in response.

"Didn't you already obtain the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual?" I asked, completely perplexed.

Wei Yong glanced at the book in his hand, tossed it casually to Qiunuo beside him, and pulled out a cigarette to light it.

"There are actually two volumes of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual!"

"Two volumes?!"

My confusion and shock deepened. Among all the historical records regarding the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual that I knew of, there was never any mention of it consisting of two volumes; even Wu Zetian, who had once possessed the manual, had never brought this up.

"I know you must be wondering right now why there are two volumes of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual," Wei Yong said unhurriedly. "The earliest records concerning this book date back to Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng. Later, after they presented the book to Wu Zetian, accounts of it began to appear sporadically. But in truth, they were not the first people to acquire this book!"

I suddenly realized how little I truly understood of Wei Yong. I had always assumed he was merely an ambitious man consumed by the desire to pry into the profound mysteries of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual to satisfy his own greed. Yet listening to these few remarks, it seemed his understanding of the manual far surpassed my own.

"Those two peerless masters, Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng, were unable to fathom the esoteric principles within the book not because of shallow learning, but because they only found the upper volume. The upper volume contains only the exquisite Five Taoist Arts and the method of attaining immortality. The lower volume, however, is the true core of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual; it records the supreme Taoist divine powers capable of reaching the heavens and penetrating the earth. When the upper and lower volumes are combined into one, they grant the ability to foresee and penetrate the future," Wei Yong said with serene composure.

A sudden flash of understanding struck me, and I thought to myself: No wonder Wu Zetian and Shangguan Wan'er were only able to comprehend the method of immortality, and even masters like Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng could not grasp its true essence—the real secret lay within the lower volume, of which I had never even heard.

"How do you know all this?" I asked coldly.

"How I know is not important." Wei Yong smiled lightly, took something out from his garments, and placed it slowly before me.

The Eight-Dragon Pearl-Embracing Necklace.

"One book and one jade, neither can do without the other to unlock the profound mystery of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual. Yet this Eight-Dragon Pearl-Embracing Necklace is actually called the Nine-Dragon Coiling Pearl. The jade seeks its master; to find the ninth dragon, an emperor's blood must drip upon it, unlocking the essence of the Five Taoist Arts within. Your attainments in metaphysics today are surely entirely due to this necklace. However, once this necklace finds its master, it will follow them forever—meaning your life is destined to be intertwined with the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual."

Wu Zetian had once told me much the same about the secrets of the Eight-Dragon Pearl-Embracing Necklace and its connection to the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual, but I had not expected Wei Yong to be equally well-informed.

Now I was beginning to understand why I was still alive. This necklace had granted me peerless Taoist cultivation and innate talent, while invisibly binding me to the wondrous text of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual. If what Wei Yong said was true and another volume of the manual existed, finding it required relying upon the person who possessed this necklace.

Furthermore, the Eight-Dragon Pearl was a case of the jade seeking the person, not the person seeking the jade. Once blood was dripped upon it and the eight dragons found the ninth, the artifact would be activated. Possessing the destiny of an emperor was a rarity in this world. While killing me would undoubtedly be the outcome Wei Yong desired most, finding another person with a matching destiny would take who knew how many years. Therefore, regardless of his frustrations, he had no choice but to spare my life.

"Does that mean you know where the other volume of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual is?" I asked with a trace of curiosity.

"Of course I don't!" Wei Yong took a drag from his cigarette and replied.

"Then how do you expect me to help you find it?"

"That is not difficult, but first you must know who the original owner of this book was."

"Who?"

***

"King Yingzheng of Qin."

"The First Emperor of Qin?!"

"Surprised, aren't you? Heh, the First Emperor of Qin. Do you know why he gave himself this title?" Wei Yong said nonchalantly. "Everyone thinks he was the monarch of a millennium, self-proclaimed as the First Emperor, boasting of his own achievements and branding himself as the very first emperor in history. In reality..."

"In reality, he wanted to remain the emperor from beginning to end!" I interrupted, catching his drift.

Wei Yong nodded cheerfully and said with profound meaning, "You only guessed half of it."

"Half?"

"He didn't just want to be the emperor from beginning to end." Wei Yong exhaled a plume of smoke and looked at me calmly. "He actually succeeded in doing so!"

"..." I froze, slightly startled, and stammered, "Could it be... Could it be that the First Emperor of Qin penetrated the mysteries of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual?!"

"You guessed half of it again!"

Clutching my still-bleeding wound, my mind spun in confusion as I asked eagerly, "What is the other half?"

"King Yingzheng of Qin didn't just penetrate the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual—he wrote it!"

My mouth slowly fell open. I had always known the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual as a miraculous book that seized the fortune of heaven and earth, but I had never considered who actually wrote it. Hearing Wei Yong's words left me speechless for a long time. It suddenly dawned on me why the manual was also called the Book of Kings: it had been authored by Yingzheng, the First Emperor of Qin.

"That's impossible!" I recovered my composure and said flatly. "If it was written by King Yingzheng, and the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon manual is as all-powerful and prophetic as they say, with such abilities, how could he have died suddenly at Shaqiu?"

"Seeing is believing, hearing is deceptive." Wei Yong lowered his head slowly and asked meaningfully right beside my ear, "Which of your eyes saw Yingzheng die suddenly at Shaqiu?"

***

I was taken aback. Had it been any other time, I would have dismissed this notion as utterly absurd. Yet I suddenly thought of Wu Zetian and Shangguan Wan'er; they had lived for thousands of years merely by comprehending the superficial layer of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual. If the book was indeed written by the First Emperor, he could easily have deceived the heavens and crossed the sea as well.

It was just as Wu Zetian had once told me: history is not written by the victors; it is written by emperors.

"Since Yingzheng possessed the power to reach the heavens and move the earth, why did his Great Qin Empire perish?" I asked, still harboring doubt.

"That is a question I have always wanted to find out. If you can find this book, or if you ever get the chance to meet this First Emperor of a millennium, you must ask him for me."

I suddenly recalled the batch of terracotta warriors and large reliefs discovered by Huo Qian. At the time, those figures did not feel like ordinary burial objects, but rather sacrificial offerings. Judging by the patterns on the reliefs, the central figure of the final sacrifice vanished into thin air. In those days, the only person capable of organizing a sacrificial ritual of such scale would have been Yingzheng, who unified the realm.

From another perspective, Yingzheng could easily have abdicated the throne just like Wu Zetian. In truth, once one possessed the abilities contained within the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual, what difference did it make whether one was an emperor or not?

***

"Then why was the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual lost among the common people?"

"Historical records concerning the First Emperor of Qin end with his sudden death at Shaqiu. Following that, the once-unrivaled Great Qin Empire began to decline, perishing by the reign of the Third Emperor, while Xiang Yu rose to peerless hegemony." Wei Yong glanced at me and said indomitably, "This hero, whose might could uproot mountains and whose spirit overshadowed the world, reigned as hegemon for less than five years, fulfilling Fan Zeng's prophecy that a great hegemon cannot last five years. He was replaced by an obscure district officer named Liu Bang. Why do you suppose that was?"

The parting of the Hegemon and his concubine, followed by his suicide at the Wu River, has long been a tale praised through the ages—a lament for a hero's truncated breath and soft-hearted romance. Yet looking at it from another angle, given the military strength of Western Chu and Xiang Yu's prowess, how could Liu Bang ever have been his match? Xiang Yu hadn't even bothered to kill him, merely banishing him to Shu, which showed that in Xiang Yu's eyes, Liu Bang was entirely beneath notice.

Yet it was precisely this insignificant person who destroyed Western Chu and drove the Hegemon to his death. Many historians attribute this to Liu Bang's ability to recognize talent and his grand strategic vision, but I no longer thought that way.

"Liu Bang obtained the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual!"

"Heh, clever!" Wei Yong smiled pleasantly. "After Liu Bang won the empire, he knew full well that this book was extraordinary and that its acquisition by outsiders would threaten his rule. Yet he couldn't bear to destroy it either. Later, during the regency of Empress Lü, fearing the book would fall into her hands, Liu Bang split the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual into two. After his death, both volumes vanished without a trace, until the upper volume reappeared during the Eastern Han dynasty, while the lower volume vanished forever."

"Something lost for a thousand years—what makes you so certain it can still be found?"

"Because the whereabouts of the lower volume have always been recorded in a book."

"What book?"

"The upper volume of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual that you burned!"

I smiled dismissively.

"That's a good thing, then. It keeps you from finding it and plaguing the common people."

As I spoke, I realized something was amiss. If the clues to the lower volume were truly broken, I would hold no value to Wei Yong whatsoever. I asked coldly,

"Are there other ways to find the lower volume?"

Wei Yong's gaze fell upon the Eight-Dragon Pearl-Embracing Necklace before me. I slowly picked the necklace up from the ground and asked with profound meaning,

"This necklace is related to the lower volume of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual?"

Wei Yong nodded unhurriedly.

"This necklace was actually commissioned by Liu Bang from a reclusive master. Only someone with the destiny of an emperor is qualified to possess it and unlock the secrets within. Upon mastering the essence of the Five Taoist Arts inside, one also discovers the whereabouts of the lower volume of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual."

"So that's why you kept me alive instead of killing me. It seems I am the only one who can find the lower volume of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual," I stared at Wei Yong with contempt. "However, I have never received any hint regarding the manual from this necklace."

"That is because you have yet to study the upper volume of the book. Now, the upper volume of the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual is inside your mind. I believe that with your talent, sooner or later you will thoroughly master the contents of the upper volume, and by then, you will naturally know the whereabouts of the lower volume."