Sun Chuanting and Zhang Zongheng were completely at a loss.
There was no one behind the shrine.
No one inside the cabinet beneath it.
So where had that voice come from?
Zhang Zongheng's gaze drifted downward, scanning the floor. A strange suspicion crept into his mind.
"Could someone be hiding underground?"
Sun Chuanting slowly shook his head. "There are no tunnels beneath this hall."
Zhang Zongheng pushed the shrine slightly aside and stomped hard on the floor.
Thud.
The sound was dull and solid—the unmistakable sound of firm ground. If there were hollow space beneath, it wouldn't ring like that.
Now even Zhang Zongheng fell silent.
Both men were utterly baffled.
"You heard it too, just now, didn't you?" Zhang Zongheng asked at last.
Sun Chuanting nodded. "I heard it clearly."
Zhang Zongheng frowned. "Could it be… someone hid here, spoke, and then immediately leapt out the window?"
Almost in perfect sync, the two men rushed toward the nearby window.
They flung it open and leaned out.
Several stewards and maids stood quietly in the corridor outside. Earlier, Sun Chuanting had ordered them to wait there while he received his guest. When the window suddenly flew open, they jumped in alarm.
Sun Chuanting's face darkened. "Did anyone just jump out of this window?"
The servants shook their heads in unison. "No, Master."
Sun Chuanting had nothing more to say.
Zhang Zongheng was equally speechless.
Then—
From behind them, from the shrine they had just searched—
That same strange voice sounded again.
"Zhang Zongheng… Sun Chuanting… stop searching. This Venerable One is right here… and has not moved an inch…"
Both men froze.
They turned around at the same time.
This time, there was no doubt.
The voice came from the Guanyin Bodhisattva statue itself.
Their eyes locked onto the statue—yet neither dared to approach. They remained by the window, backs pressed near the open frame.
Their posture said everything.
If anything went wrong, they were ready to flee through the window at once.
Hidden behind the statue, Li Daoxuan found the scene deeply amusing.
I'm only borrowing Guanyin's statue to speak, he thought.
If I showed my own divine form, wouldn't they think I was Wusheng Laomu herself?
He continued, deliberately dragging out each word.
"You were just discussing… Kong Youde…"
Sun Chuanting and Zhang Zongheng exchanged a glance. A chill ran through both their hearts.
The Guanyin Bodhisattva… was speaking?
The thought alone made their scalps tingle.
Li Daoxuan pressed on.
"In just over one month… Kong Youde will be defeated… and after his defeat… he will surrender to the Manchu…"
Sun Chuanting sucked in a sharp breath.
Zhang Zongheng was no less stunned.
"Just over a month from now?" they blurted out almost simultaneously.
"Indeed…" the voice replied. "Just over a month… This is a secret of Heaven… a secret not meant to be revealed. Yet this Venerable One, seeing your concern for the realm and its people… has come especially to inform you."
Sun Chuanting did not dare believe it.
Zhang Zongheng dared even less.
They exchanged another glance—both saw deep suspicion mirrored in the other's eyes.
The voice continued, unhurried, precise.
"In the seventh month… Kong Youde will feign surrender… but the scheme will fail. Thereafter, General Wu Xiang will attack Dengzhou… Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming will flee to Gaizhou… and surrender to the Manchu…"
The details were too specific.
Too concrete.
The more the voice spoke, the heavier the atmosphere became.
Sun Chuanting could no longer hold back. "Bodhisattva… Kong Youde commands countless warships, firearms, and skilled artisans. If he surrenders… would that not be—would that not be a massive gift to the Manchu?"
Zhang Zongheng frowned deeply, unable to answer.
Li Daoxuan lowered his voice, making it slow and resonant.
"Kong Youde will indeed present the Manchu with a great gift… but there are others… who have been offering them gifts for many years already…"
Sun Chuanting's heart jolted. "Who?"
Hidden behind the statue, Li Daoxuan smiled.
Good. You finally asked the right question.
Slowly, solemnly, he recited the names:
"Fan Yongdou… Wang Dengku… Jin Liangyu… Wang Dayu… Liang Jiabin… Tian Shenglan… Zhai Tang… Huang Yunfa…"
He paused briefly.
"Ah… Huang Yunfa is already dead."
Sun Chuanting recognized only a few of these names. But Tian Shenglan struck him like a hammer—he had just heard it not long ago.
Zhang Zongheng, however, knew them all.
Every single one.
He had personally met several.
His expression tightened. "Can this… truly be so?"
Li Daoxuan chuckled silently.
If I start debating truth and falsehood now, I'd ruin the mystique entirely. Since when do gods provide evidence to mortals?
His voice turned distant and cool.
"The heavenly secret has been revealed to you… Act wisely."
Then—silence.
No more words followed.
The great hall fell deathly quiet.
Only the sound of two men breathing could be heard.
After an unknown stretch of time, Sun Chuanting slowly took two steps toward the shrine. He raised a hand, as if intending to touch the Guanyin statue—but halfway there, his courage failed him, and he withdrew his hand.
Zhang Zongheng murmured, "As for what will happen in just over a month… Master Sun, what do you think?"
Sun Chuanting shook his head slowly. "I don't know… I truly don't know."
Zhang Zongheng frowned. "Laizhou has already been fighting for three months. No one can predict how it will end."
Sun Chuanting hesitated. "Kong Youde may be a traitor… but surely he wouldn't go so far as to surrender to the Manchu?"
Zhang Zongheng sighed. "Hard to say. There has never been a shortage of Han Chinese willing to serve the Mongols."
Having spent years on the frontier, Zhang Zongheng had seen such things countless times. Even now, north of Xuanfu and Datong, many White Lotus sect members relied on Mongol protection to stir unrest.
At that moment, a servant entered.
"Master, the merchant Tie Niaofei is outside the hall. Shall I let him in?"
Sun Chuanting replied, "Let him enter."
The two officials swiftly composed themselves. The shock and unease provoked by the Guanyin statue vanished behind practiced expressions of calm authority. They returned to their seats, posture dignified once more.
Soon, Tie Niaofei entered.
The formal greetings, polite refusals, invitations to sit, and other rituals were skipped entirely. They went straight to the matter at hand.
Zhang Zongheng spoke first. "Tie Niaofei, Master Sun says you discovered that the Jin merchant Tian Shenglan has been trading with the northern barbarians?"
"Yes," Tie Niaofei answered firmly.
"Do you have proof?" Zhang Zongheng asked.
Tie Niaofei shook his head. "No."
Ordinarily, Zhang Zongheng would have rebuked him on the spot.
But after what had just occurred—
His expression merely grew thoughtful.
Deeply thoughtful.