Side Story Chapter 13: The Western Mausoleum of the Great Tang!

Wang Jiuling did not spend very long in the prison.

Li Taiyi’s efforts succeeded in allowing Wang Jiuling to leave half a month later.

The Tang Emperor had never intended to punish him with a specific crime.

His words had been overly intense, so he had been imprisoned within the jail of the Bureau of Punishments to wear away at his sharpness.

Li Taiyi’s few words of advice simply pushed the boat along the current.

After getting out of prison, Wang Jiuling joined Li Taiyi’s side.

But on the other side, Second Prince Li Chengyi kept an even closer eye on Li Taiyi, discrediting him in court, causing a fire in the imperial library… Yet rather than back down, Li Taiyi counterattacked again and again.

With Wang Jiuling assisting him with strategy, all of these dangers were neutralized.

Their relationship also began to gradually improve.

Li Taiyi would ask Wang Jiuling’s opinion on many things and would always be extremely respectful to him.

Though Wang Jiuling had not paid Li Taiyi much regard in the prison, he slowly began to understand this ‘unfilial Prince’ more and more, and he grew more and more surprised.

There were even many things that they completely agreed on.

At this moment, in Jade Dragon Palace, after the ending of a court session…

“Your Highness, after this counterattack, the Second Prince should be much more obedient,” Wang Jiuling said from his seat next to the sandalwood table.

“Second Brother probably didn’t think that it would be Fourth Brother that would be holding him back.”

Li Taiyi softly chuckled as he raised up his tea cup and took a sniff.

“If not for your reminder, I would not have thought about using my opponent’s own methods to get back at them. Huoyuan wanted to frame me, so he planted a handkerchief with a five-clawed golden dragon on me. It’s a pity for him that not only did I not throw it away, I even found the person who wove it.”

“We owe our success to Your Highness’s foresight. Not only have we succeeded in placing the Fourth Prince under house arrest, even the Second Prince has had his movements restrained,” Wang Jiuling nonchalantly said as he raised his tea cup and took a sip. His eyes gleamed with surprise as he said, “This tea isn’t bad.”

Li Taiyi saw this and ordered Gao Lishi with a smile, “Gao Lishi, give Lord Wang some Yinchen.”

“For this subject to refuse would be impolite!”

The relationship between Wang Jiuling and Li Taiyi was much improved, so rather than refusing, he accepted with a smile.

Li Taiyi put down his porcelain tea cup and said with a frown, “Right, though I have recently been rising higher and higher in the court, Imperial Father is still unwilling to favor me. What is the reason for this?”

Wang Jiuling put away the Yinchen tea leaves with a smile and patted them before slowly beginning to speak to Li Taiyi.

“Your Highness has many achievements in court, but have you thought about your achievements in other fields?”

Li Taiyi was confused and looked over at him.

“Achievements on the battlefield!” Wang Jiuling solemnly said.

“!!!”

Li Taiyi was startled, and then he smiled.

Military achievements!

Truly, great minds thought alike. On this matter, he once more agreed with Wang Jiuling.

Though the First Prince was not in the capital, the Tang Emperor viewed him with unusual favor. Not only was there an empty spot near the front of the court reserved for him, there had even been a seat for him at the Spring Rain Banquet. All of this was because the First Prince was pushing back the barbarians on the frontier and gaining military achievements.

Most importantly, the Great Tang had strong enemies on all sides: the Turks to the north, Ü-Tsang to the west, Mengshe Zhao to the south, and also Goguryeo, the Xi, and the Khitans to the northeast. All of these were a threat to the Great Tang.

The Great Tang expended much of its wealth to deal with the aggression of these countries, and this was a heavy burden on the empire.

Resolving this problem meant defeating these countries, which involved the military.

This was why his father favored his first brother and second brother!

Moreover, Li Taiyi wanted to change the world and avert that dark doomsday, to once more bring glory to the Han people. This was his only way of reaching this aspiration.

This thought made Li Taiyi smile, and he gave Wang Jiuling a glance of praise.

Time slowly passed, and as sunset approached, Wang Jiuling said farewell and left the Imperial Palace.

Li Taiyi began to quietly think.

Whether it was in his role as a Prince or as Li Taiyi, everything was on the right track. He began to recall everything that had happened.

The killing of Huoyuan at the horse track, the embezzlement case at court, the Spring Rain Banquet, the production of ballistae, the Stone of Destiny, Wang Jiuling…

Li Taiyi suddenly recalled the words from the Stone of Destiny.

‘…resides in the prosperous lands of the Central Plains, and the Imperial Palace is full of countless treasures and various martial arts manuals!’

“‘If user finds a treasure location, there will be a corresponding reaction.'” Li Taiyi closed his eyes as he softly muttered.

Over this period of time, he had been across almost the entire Imperial Palace, but there had been no reaction from the Stone of Destiny. However, there was one likely location that Li Taiyi had yet to visit.

This was because this location was rather special!

“It seems like I’ll have to try.”

Li Taiyi seemed to make up his mind.

In the entire Imperial Palace, if there was one place that could be connected to the dragon veins that the Stone of Destiny spoke of, it had to be that one.

……

It was late at night, and the stars above cast their silver splendor over the Imperial Palace, making it appear like the dwelling of gods, hallowed and pure.

Li Taiyi swiftly made his way under the cover of darkness to the rarely-used northwestern part of the Imperial Palace. There were few people around as he exited from the western inner gate. Rather than hiding, he decided to just walk out.

It wasn’t long before Li Taiyi arrived at his destination: the Western Mausoleum!

Upon a set of white jade stairs that was flanked by white jade railings was a massive dragon stele and… an enormous tomb.

Seeing this, Li Taiyi solemnly bowed.

Everyone knew that the Western Mausoleum was where the Emperors of the Great Tang were buried, particularly Taizong, the founding Emperor.

It was even said that the Emperors of the Sui Dynasty and even the Great Han were buried here.

For the Great Tang, this was extremely sacred ground!

Moreover, according to the geomantic and astrological divinations of Emperor Taizu’s number one astrologer, Heavenly Master Yuan, the Western Mausoleum was the dragon den of the realm, where the dragon’s eyes were located and where the true dragon rested.

‘Forbidden Ground of the Imperial Household! Entry Prohibited!’

At the top of the jade steps, several words had been written in cinnabar on a wooden sign with such force that they made one instinctively want to leave.

Li Taiyi had passed this place many times, but he had not gone in to investigate precisely for this reason.

Even the Princes could not enter the Western Mausoleum without permission.

If someone really saw him, the Second Prince would immediately launch his criticisms and cause him trouble.

But now, Li Taiyi had no other choice.

And for some reason, whenever he passed this place, he would get an indescribably bizarre feeling.

It was like there really was something there.

I’m going in, Li Taiyi said to himself after a few moments of thought.

Change this world!

Restore glory to the Great Tang and the Central Plains!

These were ideas that Li Taiyi was determined to realize, and only with formidable power would he be capable of it.

He would never give up.

A heart without fear would naturally be determined!

Buzz!

A moment later, he stepped past the stele and the sign upon which the words forbidding entry had been written.

But at this moment, a cold and emotionless voice rang out in his mind.

“Congratulations to user for arriving at the designated location. The ‘Dragon Vein’ mission now begins!

“User must find the critical individual within an hour. Otherwise, the mission will fail and user will be obliterated!”

“What?!”

Li Taiyi was stunned.

“What’s going on? Why obliteration?!” Li Taiyi immediately asked the Stone of Destiny.

“User is only at the Profound Martial realm, but the Dragon Vein mission can only be unlocked at the Great General level. Since user has unlocked it early, there is a corresponding punishment. After calculation, this was shown to be the most appropriate punishment,” the Stone of Destiny icily said.

Li Taiyi turned ghastly pale.

He had just been planning to inspect the area and then come back once he was more prepared. To his shock, he had unlocked a mission, and to his greater consternation, not completing it meant obliteration?!

Li Taiyi was frozen to the ground for a moment, unable to understand what was going on.

But it didn’t take long for Li Taiyi to calm himself down.

“Since I’m already at this point, I might as well charge in!” Li Taiyi firmly declared.

Li Taiyi focused his gaze ahead.

Stepping past the stele was like walking into a different world, a forgotten world that was empty and tinged with cold.

It was somber and bleak, but it also radiated a faint majesty.

“If it’s the Dragon Vein mission, then I should first find something connected to the dragon veins.”

Li Taiyi recalled the Stone of Destiny’s words, and as he walked in, he began to look around.

Budding shrubs, birds occasionally descending, the white rocks paving the ground… Li Taiyi soon had his attention drawn to a dragon-shaped stele that stood in the center of the Western Mausoleum.

The Western Mausoleum was the tomb of generations of sovereigns, and the symbol of the Son of Heaven was the true dragon. This dragon statue was clearly meant to represent the guardian beast of this tomb.

The dragon was vividly portrayed, its claws and scales all meticulously detailed so that it seemed like it was a real, living dragon. It also appeared to be rather weathered and old.

Dragon statues like this could be found all over the Imperial Palace. This one in the Western Mausoleum wouldn’t stand out at all.

But for some reason, Li Taiyi had a strange sensation as he stared at the dragon stele. It seemed like it was alive and staring back.

Moreover, Li Taiyi felt like the stele was calling out to him, as if he shared some connection with it.

“Could it be this dragon-shaped stele?” Li Taiyi wondered.

He had checked everything else, and though there were other statues, they were not dragon statues. The only other dragons served as decorative motifs. This hundred-foot-tall dragon stele stood alone in this tomb, so it had the greatest chance of being what he wanted.

After a moment of hesitation, Li Taiyi reached out and touched the dragon stele. It was cold and smooth to touch, firm and bright, like touching a block of ice floating in the water.

As Li Taiyi felt the statue and inspected it, he suddenly realized what was unusual about its appearance.

“It doesn’t have eyes?!”

Normally, a dragon had to be portrayed with eyes, let alone one in the imperial tomb that was the Western Mausoleum.

As this thought occurred to Li Taiyi, he suddenly realized that his hand was sinking into the stone stele as if it was sinking into a swamp.

“What’s going on?!”

Li Taiyi pulled out his arm in shock, but then something absurd happened.

As Li Taiyi pulled at his arm, the dragon stele pulled in his arm even more, as if the stele possessed some invisible attractive force.

Besides that, Li Taiyi could clearly see a hazy light viscously traveling down his arm and engulfing his body.