Chapter 7: Jade Leaf Game

The following day, at noon, Dylan Weedy's tortured screams echoed through the entire Duke of Weedy's Manor. Benedict Weedy was playing chess with Everett Murch. His face darkened as he barked at the butler, "I'm not dead yet! What is that Little Bastard wailing about?" "My lord, the servants said that after the Young Master called Jade Jauncy into his room, they heard his agonized screams from inside." "No wonder the Grand Master didn't care about money. She was after a man!" Furious, Benedict swept his hand across the chessboard and sent the pieces flying. The thought of Dylan pinned beneath Jade Jauncy, screaming for his father and mother, made his heart ache. Everett frowned deeply. "Brother Benedict, I've heard that woman's cultivation is formidable. However, the two of us should be able to take her together. Why don't we go negotiate and ask her to spare Dylan?" Benedict nodded. "Then I'll trouble you to accompany me, Everett. We'll offer courtesy before force. If that woman refuses to listen, she can hardly blame us for ganging up on her!" Inside the bedroom, Dylan sat in a bathtub filled with scalding water. Jade Jauncy had rolled up her sleeves and was working hard to press his acupoints. Crash! The door suddenly flew open. Everett Murch stormed in with a medicine cleaver in hand, while Benedict Weedy charged after him with a dragon-headed staff. "Release my Little Bastard…" Before Benedict could finish, Everett stopped him and cupped his fists toward Jade. "Heroine, we came to ask what you'd like for lunch." Jade gave him a simple, honest smile. "Anything is fine, as long as it fills me up. I'm not picky!" "Then we'll be off!" After the two old men retreated, Benedict's face turned livid. He clutched his chest and glared at Everett. "Everett, did that woman's sheer bulk scare you senseless? My poor Dylan is covered in filth! She blasted him from head to toe with a load of shit…" "That filth is made up of the impurities leaving your grandson's body. Do you even understand what they're doing?" "I heard there's a group of women in the Martial World who enjoy perverse games. Wasn't it called the Queen's Game?" "Brother Benedict, you've got it all wrong." Everett rubbed his brow. "They're stimulating his acupoints and using a medicated bath for Marrow Cleansing." Benedict's eyes widened. "Marrow Cleansing? Then that Little Bastard… he… he…" Everett nodded. "It seems your grandson wants to return to the Martial Way. Unfortunately, he neglected it for many years, leaving his Sinews and Meridians clogged. That's why he needs Marrow Cleansing. The pain is like having flesh scraped from the bones and the sinews carved out. Ordinary people could never endure it, but Dylan possesses tremendous willpower." "Hahaha! I knew my grandson couldn't be an ordinary man!" Benedict burst into laughter and slapped Everett several times on the back. Everett immediately broke into a fit of coughing. "Come, come! Everett, let's have another chess match. We'll fight three hundred rounds!" After his bath, Dylan lay facedown on the bed, feeling refreshed and light as a feather. Every pore across his body had opened slightly, breathing freely. The comfort was indescribable. Shaun Sinjen peeked into the room before sneaking inside. With the pride of someone presenting a priceless treasure, he pulled a brocade box from his robes. "Young Master, look what I managed to steal." He opened the lid, revealing a neat stack of cards. The cards were made entirely of jade, each about as long as a cigarette and roughly as thick as a grain of rice. Mutton-Fat White Jade was set into their faces, which were carved and painted with various immortals. Because the cards were about the same size as leaves, they were called Leaf Game. The Leaf Game was an early ancestor of Mahjong and Poker. Its cards featured countless designs, including flying birds, beasts, flowers, insects, and fish. The rules were similar to Animal Chess. Later improvements introduced numbers and human figures. At first, the figures represented generals, marshals, crown princes, and emperors. However, the Emperor of Southern Radiance found that deeply offensive to the imperial family. The human figures were eventually replaced with fictional characters from mythology. In a society where common people struggled even to put food on the table, the Leaf Game was an exclusive pastime of high officials and nobles. Ordinary sets were usually made from bamboo or bone. Dylan still remembered this particular set. Years ago, he had diverted the compensation money awarded for the deaths of his father and elder brothers, then paid skilled craftsmen eight thousand taels of silver to make it. A five-person household of ordinary people in the Sublime Dynasty could live comfortably for an entire year on twenty taels of silver. Dylan had spent eight thousand taels on a single set of Leaf Game. It was easy to see what a wastrel he had been. His father and brothers' bones had not even grown cold when he took the Leaf Game to a Gambling House. He proudly claimed that he was offering his father and brothers to heaven, that their power was boundless, and that he would sweep the entire gambling hall. Instead, he lost ten thousand taels of silver that day. Benedict was so furious that he nearly vomited blood. He gave Dylan a brutal beating, confined him to the estate for seven days, and confiscated the priceless Jade Leaf Game. Shaun leaned close to Dylan's ear and whispered, "Young Master, I happened to find out that Weedy ordered my father to hide this Jade Leaf Game. So last night, I sneaked into his room and stole it back." "Who would've thought my father was sleeping peacefully when he suddenly felt inspired to make a baby with my mother…" Dylan rapped him sharply on the head. "You're seriously twisted. You actually watched your parents fool around?" Shaun covered his head and pouted. "I had no choice! I could only hide in the wardrobe. But while I was there, I heard a secret." "What secret?" "My father said that the Emperor of Southern Radiance personally visited Weedy yesterday. They talked in the study for a long time, but I don't know what they discussed." Dylan nodded. Before his memories awakened, he had been unable to understand the situation. But after recovering them, how could he fail to see what was happening? The Weedy family had gone from thriving to having only one old man and one useless wreck left. Dylan refused to believe that the Emperor of Southern Radiance had nothing to do with it. Even if he had not ordered the deaths himself, he might still have helped push things along. That was why Dylan's grandfather had not brought the 300,000 border troops home. Under the pretext of guarding the frontier and preventing a counterattack from the Hun Empire, he had kept them stationed at the border so that, after his death, Dylan would still possess a lifesaving trump card. Dylan remembered how decisive and ruthless he had been on earth. He had been hailed as the First War God of Cathay throughout the five-thousand-year history of the Shenthyr Empire. Born an orphan, he was adopted by The Ten Villains, who taught him everything they knew. At eighteen, he descended from the mountains. He walked both the righteous and demonic paths, and his mastery of the Martial Way was unrivaled. At nineteen, he destroyed the Tsurai Shogunate, broke the Sohwa Kingdom, and entered the Saharun Kingdom alone. He used each victory to fuel the next, becoming one man against an entire nation. At twenty, he led an army straight into Calenoria, pointing his sword at the Oryth Union. After toppling the Statue of Liberty and replacing it with the Statue of the Mother Goddess, he replaced the faces on Mount Rushmore with portraits of several great figures from the Shenthyr Empire. Then lightning struck him, sending him through Soul Transmigration into the Sublime Dynasty. He believed that a man should live as a hero and die as a hero among ghosts. No matter where he was, Dylan intended to keep his fate in his own hands. He would never rely on another's pity, live under someone else's roof, or merely cling to life. After living two lives, Dylan worshiped true freedom. True freedom did not mean doing whatever one pleased. It meant possessing enough strength and confidence to have the right to refuse anything one did not want to do. Where did that confidence come from? Military power, naturally. He needed an army powerful enough to make Emperor Blockhead wary. Dylan had already made his plans. In another six months, he would undergo his Capping Ceremony at Twenty. According to the rules of the Sublime Dynasty, the legitimate sons of noble families were formally recognized as adults at twenty. They gained the right to leave their family homes and establish households of their own. Dylan's target was the Northern Sea Pass, also known as the Northern Nether Pass, where the 300,000-strong Weedy Family Army was stationed. It was known as the greatest pass under heaven. He would build high walls, stockpile grain, and bide his time before claiming the throne. What could the Old Emperor do to him? Dylan was still thinking about the future when a richly dressed, round little man about five feet three inches tall came running into the room, gasping for breath. "Dylan! I'm in desperate trouble. I gambled away my fiancée. Lend me ten thousand taels so I can pay my debt!" "Quentin Luet?" Quentin Luet was the legitimate grandson of the Duke of Luet, one of the Eight Marquises and Four Dukes. The Luet family and the Weedy family had both served as founding heroes. They held the title of Prince of Another Surname with Hereditary Succession in Perpetuity. Unfortunately, the Duke of Luet had died young, and his son, Bernard Luet, was no better. In his youth, Bernard spent his days carrying birdcages, pitting crickets against one another, training hawks, releasing hounds, and going on autumn hunts. In old age, he still clung to the title of Prince of Another Surname while holding a meaningless post at court. He spent his days idle and had no respectable occupation. His only son, Quentin, was even more useless. He had no talent in either civil or military pursuits. He grew up running wild with Dylan and earned the title of the second wastrel of the Capital. Unlike the Weedy family, the Luet family had produced a true phoenix. Quentin's older sister, Rosalind Luet, was a woman who stood shoulder to shoulder with any man. She guarded the borders of Western Chill. The Luet and Weedy families had once been joined by marriage. Dylan's mother had been the Duke of Luet's goddaughter, which made her Bernard Luet's sworn younger sister. That meant this ball-shaped lump was, technically, Dylan's cousin. Quentin rushed over, dropped to his knees, and hugged Dylan's leg. Tears and snot streamed down his face. "Cousin, save me! I don't know what came over me. I gambled with Troy Warburton all night and lost everything, even my underwear. Then I… I even put up my fiancée! You have to lend me the money, or my father will beat me to death when I get home!" Dylan knew exactly how that crowd of young noblemen had viewed his former self and Quentin. To them, the two of them were nothing more than brain-dead suckers and easy marks. It took no effort to see through the trap. They had targeted Quentin for two reasons: to swindle him out of his money and to drag Dylan into the mess. But Dylan was no longer the same easy mark. His sixth Master was one of The Ten Villains and came from the Chicanery Sect. He had taught Dylan how to set traps, master Chicanery, and commit fraud. With a silver tongue and a talent for talking his way around anyone, that man could thrive anywhere. In the Vornhold Kingdom, he had seduced a Princess, secured a noble title, and walked away from her bed with both. In Hollywood, he had affairs with more than half the actresses. On Wall Street, he held stakes in over a hundred listed companies and had even been the world's richest man for a time. During his previous life, Dylan's early rise had depended on the vast sums of cash provided by his sixth Master, along with his connections among high-ranking figures across the world. What brought money fastest? The answer was always crime, the sort of business forbidden by the Laws of the Sublime Dynasty. Since his enemies wanted to set a trap for him, he might as well turn the tables and use their own scheme against them.