Chapter 1265: The Black Symbol, Bird Seal Script!

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Wen Changqing, Tang Chengyu, and Li Fanming were the three nails that the Confucian school had managed with great difficulty to place in the army. Given Wang Chong’s status, now that he had reported this matter to the court, there was a sixty to seventy percent chance that he could actually topple those three. More importantly, Wang Chong could use them to attack the Confucian school.

This was because the information on Wen Changqing, Tang Chengyu, and Li Fanming was all available to be investigated.

“There’s no need!” Li Junxian lightly said, putting down the ancient scroll and slowly standing up. “This battle has only just begun. Have Tang Chengyu and the others delay while we try to respond to the Bureau of Military Personnel. Keep his subordinates imprisoned for now. As for the King of Foreign Lands, I will deal with him, making him incapable of doing anything to those three for a while.”

In the northwest, they had not issued their ‘challenge’ first. Rather, it had been Wang Chong’s subordinates who had first defied military orders. Even if Wang Chong informed the Imperial Court, he could only save his subordinates and not actually do anything to the three Confucian commanders. Li Junxian had already carefully considered every detail of this plan. Moreover, his goal had never been to deal with Wang Chong’s subordinates.

“Elder Song, have the preparations for that other matter been completed?” Li Junxian suddenly said.

“Young Master, be at ease. Everything is ready. All we need is Young Master’s order,” Elder Song said.

“Then begin!”

……

Wang Chong, King Song, Zhangchou Jianqiong, Wang Gen, Lu Ting, Elder Ye, and Elder Zhao had all gathered in the King Song Residence. Even Wang Chong’s little uncle Wang Mi was present, called back from Heaven Pillar Mountain on the outskirts of the capital. Wang Chong, King Song, and Zhangchou Jianqiong sat side by side while the others were seated in a circle down below.

Gathered here was one of the most powerful factions of the court. The Wang Family Residence was not secretive enough, and the King of Foreign Lands Residence was still being constructed and would not be ready for two or three months. Thus, Wang Chong had borrowed King Song’s residence to gather everyone.

King Song scanned the room and suddenly said, “Wang Chong! Everyone is here! Give everyone a summary of the information that you’ve recently gathered!”

“Mm!”

Wang Chong proceeded to relay everything he had turned up in his investigations ever since his return to the capital, including how he had used Zhang Shougui’s incident to find Li Junxian. The only thing he concealed was the matter of the Sage Emperor.

The Sage Emperor was the backbone of the empire, the primary strength stabilizing the hearts of the people. If the Sage Emperor’s condition were made known, it would probably cause panic and turmoil throughout society.

The room was quiet as everyone seriously listened to Wang Chong’s words. Everyone had seen what Wang Chong had done in the Imperial Court. But no one had imagined that while everyone was still immersed in the chaos, Wang Chong had already begun to investigate the main schemer behind the curtains.

“Truly incredible! So you mean to say that the events taking place inside and outside the court have all been the work of one young man?” Elder Ye incredulously muttered.

Old fellows like them had already withdrawn from the core of the empire, and so they only roughly understood what was going on in the Imperial Court, not that it had been so complicated. And at this moment, everyone understood exactly what Elder Ye was feeling.

Who could have imagined that the Grand Preceptor, King Qi, and Prime Minister, all extremely important officials, were all obeying a young man of twenty-six or twenty-seven? It sounded like a fairytale!

If it hadn’t been Wang Chong making this claim, none of them would have believed it.

But Wang Chong would never make such outlandish claims without reason. As long as he was speaking seriously, even if he said that the sun was going to rise from the west, they would probably believe him.

“This is also something I must speak to all of you about. A single young man of twenty-six or twenty-seven could never possess such abilities that he could order around the Grand Preceptor and King Qi. This is particularly the case for King Qi, who has always been conceited and unwilling to serve others. This can only be possible with the support of some enormously powerful faction. I hope that everyone can assist me with this. All of you are my seniors and have a wide array of experiences. Perhaps you might know something about the Confucian Sect’s backing and origin,” Wang Chong slowly said to the crowd.

His adversary was not a single person, and Wang Chong could not fight against an immense faction with only his own strength. This was also one of the reasons he had gathered these people here.

King Song did not reply, instead taking up the strange symbol Wang Chong had drawn out and asking, “Wang Chong, you’re sure that it’s this symbol?”

Everyone instantly focused on the ink symbol on the paper.

“Mm!”

Wang Chong nodded.

The room instantly fell silent as everyone inspected the thin sheet of paper. The black symbol was extremely strange. At a glance, it seemed like a soaring bird, but if one looked carefully, it didn’t seem like one at all. It was semi-drawing, semi-word.

“This old man has spent forty-some years out and about in the world, but I’ve never seen this symbol before. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have never even known that there was such a powerful faction in the Great Tang!”

Zhangchou Jianqiong emotionally sighed as he gazed at the symbol. After a slight pause, he added, “But the more hidden this faction is, the greater its ambitions.”

“I am also unable to help in this aspect,” Wang Chong’s little uncle Wang Mi said.

He had the least status of all the people gathered here and was also one of the youngest. He truly knew little about things of this nature.

“But I’m confident that such a large faction, no matter what it does, will have left behind some clues,” Wang Mi added.

Wang Chong said nothing, only turned to the others. The room was silent as everyone pondered the symbol.

“I actually do have a little impression of this symbol of yours,” a voice suddenly said, immediately grabbing everyone’s attention.

“Elder Zhao!”

Wang Chong raised his head and gazed in surprise at Elder Ye and Elder Zhao.

These two were both old subordinates of Duke Jiu. They were the oldest people here and probably the ones with the most experience.

“Elder Ye, do you remember forty-some years ago, when the Sage Emperor had just ascended to the throne? Didn’t he get a congratulatory gift from someone from the Confucian school?”

As Elder Zhao spoke, he turned to Elder Ye next to him.

“This…”

Elder Ye was taken aback, not having expected Elder Zhao to bring up this matter from decades ago. Both of them had lived for many years, and there were many things that he could no longer remember very clearly.

“Did you forget? That person even ran into you. He left before the Sage Emperor’s crowning ceremony was even finished,” Elder Zhao reminded.

Upon hearing this, Elder Ye raised an eyebrow, and his eyes flashed as if he had remembered something.

“I remember now. There really was someone from the Confucian school who went to have an audience with the Sage Emperor, and the Sage Emperor even met him alone in Taihe Palace. The ceremony even started fifteen minutes later than the Bureau of Rites had expected,” Elder Ye said.

He truly didn’t remember much about matters from so many decades ago, but it was hard to forget someone who had delayed something as important as the Sage Emperor’s coronation and even left before it started.

“I remember that the gift offered by that Confucian to the Sage Emperor had this symbol,” Elder Zhao said.

Buzz!

Wang Chong shivered upon hearing Elder Zhao’s words. As far as he was aware, the Confucian Sect had appeared after he had defeated Arabia. He had had no idea that they had appeared forty-some years ago and were even connected to the Sage Emperor.

“Elder Ye, are you sure? Were they really the same?” King Song suddenly asked. Elder Zhao’s words had also come as a great surprise to the other people in the room.

“I can’t be wrong. After all, not many things could delay something as important as the Sage Emperor’s coronation,” Elder Zhao solemnly said. “But I only saw it that one time. There was nothing else regarding those people after that. If Wang Chong hadn’t mentioned it, I would have never even thought about that matter.”

The clue came to an end there, and the room fell silent once more. But this information from Elder Zhao was already an unexpected harvest.

At this point, the hitherto-silent Academic Lu Ting spoke up. “Actually, I think that the thing at the center of that ink symbol is a word!”

These words left even Wang Chong surprised. He had been the first to discover this symbol, but not even he had realized that there was a word at its center. In a flash, everyone examined the symbol once more. After focusing only on the center and disregarding the lines and patterns on the edges, now that Lu Ting had mentioned it, they really did feel that it was similar to a word. But if it was a word, it was a very bizarre one.

However, Lu Ting was an erudite Academic with a vast array of knowledge. He undoubtedly had his reasons for this conclusion.

“The form is rather similar to Bird Seal Script, which is different from the characters we use today. It’s an extremely old style of writing, one of the earliest in use. Very few people know about it now, much less understand it. I also only happened to see a few characters of Bird Seal Script in an ancient text I was reading.”

As Lu Ting spoke, he rose, took a brush, walked up to the table, and began to write. But after only a few strokes of his brush, he stopped and raised the paper for everyone to see.

At that moment, everyone could see strange images on the paper, half word and half drawing. Although they were all different from the ink symbol of the Confucian Sect, they were seventy to eighty percent similar.

“I saw these characters in that ancient text, but I only know what they look like, not what they mean,” Lu Ting said.

“It’s much better now that we know that this is Bird Seal Script. If we can find out the meaning of this word, perhaps we can learn something about the Confucian Sect’s background,” Elder Ye commented. “Academic Lu, you have extensive experience in this subject. You must know of someone who understands this script.”

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