LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

"Mazu", he smiled at her as an extension of the happiness he felt as he realised that his little one was willing to talk to him and clear up some misunderstandings rather than going alone making a.s.sumptions.

"Have some tea!", his smile reached his eyes which annoyed Mazu whose mood was spoiled as she noticed that mortal girl leaving the Palace riding on Fei Lian"s favourite ride as if she is the mistress of the Palace.

"Ah! So you still care for me! ", she pursed her lips and the happy Fei Lian missed the deep jealousy in her tone as any man would.

"Whaaat? When have I ever let you down?", he asked back with a sly smile he only shows her when he is happy but for the G.o.ddess green with jealousy, it seemed like he was mocking her.

"She was here?", she asked bitterly.

"I brought her here to..."

"Old Rong was in that shack. I saw that one leaving with a weapon. So why didn"t she kill him today? Is she trying to get out of her duty? Not obeying the will of Heavens... ", Fei Lian was interrupted by Mazu who was just playing with the sweets on the table.

That did it for Fei Lian... So she is here to pick a fight! He sighed.

" Did you follow him? Where are they taking him? ", he asked back that shocked Mazu.

Fei Lian scoffed. Surely if her intentions are to help the heavens she"d have found out the location of Old Rong. Not run here to complain about that child.

"Why do you always take her side?", she pouted. Fei Lian looked at her seductive lips puckered, that made her look more alluring and all his anger from moments before flew away.

"Why don"t you join me too?", he supported his cheek on his hand and raised his eyebrows at her playfully and smirked .

"Hmpf! What do you take me for? How can I let a human to be on the same level as me? I"m never getting on the same level as a pet!", she rolled her eyes and pursed her lips that made her beautiful face all distorted.

Fei Lian"s good mood got entirely spoiled by Mazu"s reply and he shook his head and just silently started sipping tea.

If only you knew who she is!

" Fei Lian", she called him coquettishly, "Why don"t you use one of your wishes to let you mate with me? Huh?", she grabbed his hand.

Seeing him still sipping tea nonchalantly, she wasn"t disheartened and continued, "If you"ve lost your love towards me, why don"t you take my Sister. Doesn"t the Heavenly Emperor wants that too..?", she spoke with her silky and husky voice that could melt anyone, "Why are you so hung up on that human girl? Has she seduced... "

Fei Lian"s face got red with anger the moment she mentioned Xing and he flung her hands off, "Mind your words Mazu...", he gritted his teeth.

But seeing her eyes clouding with tears, he softened, "Mazu, what is wrong with you? You... You didn"t discriminate between humans and immortals before... What changed?", he held her hand.

"What changed? You are seriously asking me that?", she snorted, " You promised me you will ask the Heavenly Emperor for my hand and then after I went away for a short while for a trial.

When I returned, you were so obsessed with a human girl... Even though she had a son with another human, you still cared for her as if she is your everything and you let her son in your palace and acted like he was your son..! You enacted vengence on her behalf allowing a human to carry a divine weapon. And even when he stabbed you in the back, you still tried to help him!

And now this girl... His descendant... Even though she is such an arrogant rascal, who doesn"t care about anything, you pamper her. It is because she looks exactly like her, right? Is that why you could not help your heart fall for her...? Can"t you understand that she has another man? ", tears streamed down her face that made Fei Lian helpless.

" Come on! It is not like that! ", he tried to wipe her face with his sleeves but she pushed his hands away.

Her entire face was red crying and her deep blue eyes emitted hatred when she screamed, "At least you let the other one to mate with another man. But you like this mortal that much that you won"t even let her consummate with another man! Is it because you want to be the first and only man to..."

"Enough!", Fei Lian stood up banging the table and his entire face was filled with rage twitching and his entire body was trembling.

Mazu got alerted as she saw the one in the Battlefield in front of her now and tried not to utter one more word. He is so far gone!

"I don"t even recognise who you are anymore!", he said gritting his teeth and left the room. He felt like he had been talking to a wall all this time and he was extremely hurt by her accusations.

How could she talk like that about that child and me!

Mazu saw the retreating view of Fei Lian and clenched her fists.

"I cannot kill her because then I would be working against the heavens but I can do other things that would push her act against the heavens. Then you won"t have any choice but to kill her!"

Meanwhile...

Xing who was left near her carriage was welcomed by the deeply worried Emperor and soldiers who caught up with them. She was surprised to learn that the Zhong soldiers were not the ones who had rescued the kids.

If it is not them, then who did? Are the kids actually safe?

Xing explained to them how she had accidentally caught wind of some traffickers on the other side of the river and convinced them to conduct a search.

At first, they refused saying that they cannot cross the borders without proper permission from the other Kingdom especially since they are soldiers and this may cause a huge misunderstanding between the nations.

But the Emperor ordered them to save those children and they boarded a boat and crossed the river. Bai Li was waiting for her on the other side and he led them to where the already rescued children were.

Xing was surprised to see Brother Lee already there and apparently it was their elite soldiers who rescued those children. He nodded at Xing and the Emperor but the soldiers on both side got alerted by the sudden appearance of other Kingdom"s soldiers.

The situation was soon resolved as both sides introduced themselves and the soldiers calmed down.

Brother Lee told them how this gang was escaping by crossing the borders each time they almost caught them and today they got lucky.

Xing went to have a look at the children and most of them were girls with some boys too and they all were petrified and s.h.i.+vering out of fear.

The captain of the elite team from the earth kingdom, explained how these kids are from both the kingdoms who were abducted or sold by their parents and wondered what could they do for these kids.

When asked if they can"t be returned back to their parents, he replied that most of them won"t even acknowledge them as their children as they are broken and they will consider them bad omens ruining their good life.

Xing knew of the superst.i.tious belief that bad things like these only happen to children with bad omen. And the village people who believe this will chase out the children from their homes. Even if the parents try to stand up for their children, they"d be shunned from the village and so most parents will prefer to drive their children off than being shunned.

The children who had suffered a lot by the greediness of sick men, will only have more sufferings in their future with no one accepting them.

Xing told them to try to get as many children as possible back to their parents and if they refuse, she told them to send her to the Wind Kingdom under the care of Lord Táng. She does have all the money in the world and she won"t go broke by raising some hundred plus children.

Seeing the Empress deciding to help the children, some of the soldiers from both kingdoms decided to chime in and they adopted thirty eight children.

Xing was surprised to see the low level soldiers gladly accepting children to adopt while the rich and those with good family names, not so keen on doing so.

It is always the poor who are more charitable! They don"t have to worry about their wealth to be shared more as they don"t have much wealth. If they had ten bites to eat they will share two bites with those kids and the kids will definitely feel loved.

But the rich have to worry about many things. Their name given to an orphan, their bloodline losing part of their inheritance to someone with other blood... Stuff like that..!

Xing advised those who decided to adopt that these children won"t be like other normal children and special attention and care must be given to raise them as they had gone through a terrible ordeal in such a young age. She had seen a lot in the Heavenly Flowers Palace.

The soldiers agreed and one of the older soldier said with tears in his eyes how terrible it was to see a little girl who just started to undress out of fear when she saw these men approaching.

That is awful! So awful! Those men responsible for all the sufferings of these little children should not be let go easily! They should be made examples out of so that no one would dare to do such disgusting thing in the future!

After the necessary arrangements have been made, Xing and the Emperor were back in their way to their Imperial Capital.

Throughout the way people were happy that they had won the war and they were welcomed with celebrations.

But when they were in the borders of the Eastern Province, their carriage was blocked. Xing who was planning for her lands which is now to be filled with the Sima Tribe people wondered why the carriage stopped suddenly and she pushed the curtains aside to see...