Chapter 190: The Lying Woman
Su Wen and company finally re-entered the capital.
They were welcomed and escorted by the citizens in the capital.
Emperor Zhou placed a lot of importance on publicity.
He had wantonly spread the merits of the battles in the Southern Wilderness.
The story of how Xu Qiao was beaten from his advantageous point had turned into a cla.s.sic.
Furthermore, Emperor Zhou had deliberately diluted Wu Kunhu"s role in this war.
He instead emphasized the achievements of Su Wen, Yan Luoying, Wu Lie, as well as the rest of the younger generation.
This was especially so for Su Wen, who had performed well in this battle. He was greatly promoted!
Hence, the moment he entered the city, Su Wen saw that the surroundings were filled with people shouting his name.
His Emotional Value… also increased a little. In total, he obtained tens of thousands of Emotional Value. However, this amount, to the current Su Wen, was not much!
"Young Master Su is invincible!"
"I heard that Su Wen killed thousands of people in one battle, and his battle achievements are ill.u.s.trious!"
"Young Master Su, I"ve wronged you. You"re not a useless prodigal!"
There were all sorts of things being shouted out…
Su Wen smiled. "Do the people in the capital love and respect me so much now?"
Wu Lie also waved his hand at the surroundings in a rather enjoyable manner, grinning as he replied, "After winning a war, we naturally obtained the love and respect of the commoners. My Great Zhou has always been martial, and the commoners love to hear the legends of those fierce generals. I wonder how many legends my father has in the capital."
Su Wen sighed. "If only these people came to scold me and hate me, throwing rotten eggs at me!"
With the Emotional Value system, Su Wen could clearly sense that most of the people who were cheering did not have much real emotions mixed in. Perhaps they were just joining in the fun, or perhaps they were just feeling joy on the surface.
Otherwise, his Emotional Value would not have increased by so little.
Wu Lie gave Su Wen a strange look at his response.
If this wasn"t a pervert, then what was?
Finally, the main members of the team entered the palace.
In the main hall, everyone greeted the Emperor.
Emperor Zhou"s face was full of smiles. After winning the war, he could write another essay in his merit book.
He looked at everyone before turning to Wu Kunhu first.
As the commander of this war, he could dilute Wu Kunhu"s contributions to the public. However, in terms of merits, Wu Kunhu was the one who contributed the most.
"Minister Wu! You"ve fought for many years and have acc.u.mulated countless battle merits. This time, you"ve organized people to stop the barbarian army and led the army to recover the lost territory. Today, I"ll confer upon you the t.i.tle of Annan Duke!"
Under Emperor Zhou"s command, Wu Kunhu was promoted to Duke!
Among the current generation of officials of the Zhou Dynasty, he was definitely the only one.
This was an honor that no general had ever received.
Although he could not compare to the hereditary dukes, Wu Kunhu was after all still in his prime!
There would be many opportunities to make contributions in the future.
Wu Kunhu bowed slightly and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Immediately after, Wu Kunhu looked at Yan Luoying. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Since Luoying has entered the army, let"s continue like this. She will be promoted to a 4th Ranked general of the Royal Guard Army and will lead a thousand men from the headquarters."
Yan Luoying bowed as well. "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
As for Wu Lie, Emperor Zhou"s reward was even simpler. "Raise of a rank."
When it was Su Wen"s turn, Emperor Zhou"s eyes were full of smiles as he said, "I"ve seen Wu Kunhu"s memorial. You"ve done well in this battle! You"ve killed quite a number of enemies and charged into the formation with the most credit! However, since you"re in the Secret Shadow Guard, it"s not easy to promote your rank. I"ll reward you with a t.i.tle! Pa.s.s down my order, confer Su Wen the t.i.tle of Wuwei Viscount!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire hall went into an uproar.
One had to know that although a Great Zhou n.o.ble t.i.tle could only be obtained when one had obtained military merits, typically, most generals were promoted internally first before being handed n.o.ble t.i.tles.
It was difficult to obtain n.o.bility.
Even Xu Longzun, who was crippled by Su Wen, was only a Baron despite his many military achievements in the northern border.
On the other hand, Su Wen was directly conferred the t.i.tle of Viscount in this battle. It could be seen how partial the Emperor was towards him.
Emperor Zhou glanced at Su Changqing. Apart from Su Wen"s outstanding military achievements, a small portion of his t.i.tle was also given because of Old Su.
Su Changqing had accompanied him from the very beginning. Although he was now an extremely high-ranked official, he did not have a t.i.tle.
Hence, a portion of the Zhou Emperor also placed some of the rewards that were inconvenient to award Su Changqing to him.
However, as soon as these words were spoken, some people"s eyes turned red.
For example… Wu Qiuhan!
He stood out and said, "Your Majesty, although Su Wen has contributed, his rank is not high after all. His rank can still be raised, or even awarded with gold and silver. It"s just bestowing him with a t.i.tle in one battle, and even a Viscount… This subject would like to ask Your Majesty to reconsider."
Actually, Wu Qiuhan hoped that the Minister of Rites would step forward and speak up.
After all, even the Emperor could not go against etiquette. Unfortunately, the newly appointed Minister of Rites, Fei Chi, was currently looking down!
Hehe, he didn"t want to side with Su Changqing, but at the same time, he didn"t want to become enemies with Su Changqing.
Thinking about Su Changqing"s promise, the latter had fulfilled his end of the bargain, bringing himself up to his current position.
Did that not mean he was able to replace him when he wanted to?
Fei Chi was not afraid, but he knew very well that the person he was loyal to was Emperor Zhou!
Emperor Zhou spoke to reward Su Wen and did not let the officials discuss. This meant that Emperor Zhou had already made up his mind.
If he spoke, wouldn"t he offend Su Changqing and the Zhou Emperor?
Hence, he decided to feign ignorance.
Emperor Zhou narrowed his eyes and glanced at Wu Qiuhan. He said indifferently, "Minister Wu, you might not have seen the Barbarians before. Those people are tall and savage, and their combat strength is formidable. Su Wen killed thousands of people in a single night! He can be said to have outstanding contributions! I"m bestowing him the t.i.tle of a Viscount to motivate the children of the influential officials in the capital.
If you feel dissatisfied, I can send your children to the Southern Wilderness as well! As long as they can kill 500 Barbarians, I will also bestow him a Viscount t.i.tle. How about it? I"ll be impartial in handling all matters!"
Su Changqing took a step forward and bowed. "His Majesty is wise! Minister Wu, why aren"t you thanking him?"
How would Wu Qiuhan dare to thank him?
Throw his son to the Southern Wilderness?
What if he didn"t come back?
He hurriedly said, "I just feel that Your Majesty should reconsider this matter. I don"t have any objections!"
As he spoke, he retreated.
Su Changqing had an expression as though he had lost a good chance.
After this single sentence of rebuking Wu Qiuhan, no one objected anymore. Emperor Zhou was in a good mood.
"Court dismissed!"
"Your Majesty! I have a memorial to submit!"
Su Wen suddenly spoke.
Emperor Zhou was stunned. He sat back down and asked, "What"s the matter?"
"This subject wants to impeach the Martial Inspectorate"s Head, Feng Baichuan!"
Old Feng, who was staring blankly at the pillar, snapped back to his senses.
He said angrily, "Kid, why are you impeaching me?"
Su Wen ignored him and only said to Emperor Zhou, "Your Majesty, when I was fighting with Xu Longzun previously, I was careless and allowed a disciple of the Bright G.o.d Sect, Xue Qianxun, to steal a Blue Cloud Tiger cub from me. Later on, I asked my guards to seek help from the Martial Inspectorate. However, the Martial Inspectorate did not do anything.
So much time has pa.s.sed, but they have yet to take action! I request Your Majesty to punish Feng Baichuan! He has been in a position for a long time and even hooked up with Liu Ruyu. He"s really not worthy of being the Martial Inspectorate"s head!"
Emperor Zhou narrowed his eyes and asked, "Was there such a matter?"
Feng Baichuan recalled carefully. It seemed like there was a time when Zhao Jin had swaggered into the Martial Inspectorate and arrogantly said, "My family"s young master has lost his tiger. Hurry up and go to the Bright G.o.d Sect to get it back for my young master!"
At that time… Feng Baichuan was so angry that he wanted to teach him a lesson… Naturally, he did not agree and sent him packing instead.
He hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty, that Zhao Jin did come to say something, but at that time, he was very rude and arrogant…"
Halfway through his words, Su Changqing was unhappy. "Old Feng… it"s not that I want to criticize you, but my Su family is rigorous and everyone in the capital knows it. All the guards and servants are respectful in their actions, so how could such a person appear? Don"t slander us. You"re now the head of a division, so you can"t be like before, not speaking a few words of truth. The tricks of the martial world needs to be reined in within the court!"
"Who lied!" Feng Baichuan"s face turned red. "Your son…"
Just as he was about to bring up Su Wen, Emperor Zhou immediately coughed twice!
"Cough, cough!"
Feng Baichuan immediately sobered up a little. This was a celebration party, and the other party had just been conferred the t.i.tle of Viscount. If he exposed his weakness, wouldn"t he be slapping Emperor Zhou"s face?
He had followed Emperor Zhou for a long time… so he naturally had some understanding.
He immediately fell silent.
Emperor Zhou waved his hand and berated Su Wen, "You brat, you always jump to conclusions from insignificant evidence. How can Old Feng be like what you said? It"s just that the Martial Inspectorate is monitoring all the martial artists in the world. They are busy with work, so it"s inevitable that they will miss out on something."
Obviously, Emperor Zhou did not want to punish Feng Baichuan.
He pondered for a moment before saying, "The Bright G.o.d Sect… is also one of the larger sects in the world, so it"s inevitable that there will be sc.u.m from the sects! Stealing from the court officials is truly outrageous! Feng Baichuan, I"ll let you follow up on this matter and quickly come up with a solution! Su Wen, since you lost your things and you know who it is, you should help and supervise as well."
With a few words, Emperor Zhou settled the matter.
Furthermore, the way he handled it had already given them a hint.
He wanted them to try their best not to involve the entire Bright G.o.d Sect!
After the court session ended, Su Wen stood up and walked out with Su Changqing!
Feng Baichuan walked past them with a black face!
"Old Feng, walk slowly. I"m free these two days. I"ll go to your office to look for you!" Su Wen said with a smile!
Feng Baichuan almost jumped in anger then!
He turned around and looked at Su Wen. What a good lad, at the start, he was addressed as Uncle Feng, but later on, Lord Feng. Now, he even started calling him Old Feng!
He gritted his teeth and said, "Su Changqing, you taught a good son! Doesn"t he have any manners?!"
Su Changqing smiled and said, "Children of the martial world don"t bother about trifles!"
"You f*cking told me just now not to bring the martial world"s tricks to the royal court just now!"
"Isn"t the Court session already over?"
"I —"
Feng Baichuan angrily flicked his sleeve… then turned around and left.
Father and son slowly strolled out of the palace…
Su Changqing said softly, "You"ve already shown enough talent. If you show any signs of breaking through to the Heaven Rank, tell me in advance, and I"ll concede my authority…"
"Okay, got it."
"Give birth as soon as possible… His Majesty will be more at ease. It will be good for you and Yan Luoying."
Su Wen frowned. This matter was very annoying.
Logically speaking, he had not taken any measures, but of the women in the family were pregnant!
He even suspected that there was something wrong with him. After all, Cui Yumian had been in his harem for the longest time but did not manage to conceive at all!
"I"ll try…"
Meanwhile in the Bright G.o.d Sect…
As one of the two Divine Sects of the Great Zhou Dynasty, compared to the Jade G.o.d Sect, the Bright G.o.d Sect had more male disciples.
Although the Taihao Palace"s Ox-nosed Old Daoists kept calling themselves as the "Leader of the Righteous Path", they were still far inferior to the two Divine Sects.
Within the sect, there were tens of thousands of disciples and servants.
Experts were everywhere.
Amongst them, Xue Qianxun was quite talented in martial arts and her appearance was top-notch.
She was also good at fooling men. It was also because of this that she could easily borrow a large sum of money. However, at present, she had already returned all those that she borrowed from.
She sat in the room with Blue Cloud Tiger in her arms.
At this moment, her spiritual sense and Blue Cloud Tiger"s spiritual sense had already begun to resonate to a certain extent. Heaven and Earth Origin Qi constantly surged into their bodies.
As she breathed, the two of them became lighter and lighter, gradually floating up.
Flying was something only Heaven Rank martialists could do. Although she could only float, it undoubtedly meant that her control over wind elemental energy far exceeded that of ordinary people!
"Huuu!"
Xue Qianxun opened her eyes and fell back to the ground.
She hugged the Blue Cloud Tiger and kissed it fiercely.
With a smile of happiness, she exclaimed, "Little Bai, we"re becoming more and more compatible!"
It was only a short period of time, but her cultivation base had already broken through to 4th Grade Earth Rank.
Among the factors needed for her to promote, there was no lack of Jade Cloud Tiger"s help!
Although she was initially worried that Su Wen would come looking for her, as time pa.s.sed, she realized that Su Wen never came. She could not help but let her imagination run wild.
Firstly, she did not know Su Wen"s ident.i.ty.
Of course, she knew that Su Wen was definitely a son of a powerful family in the Great Zhou Dynasty. After all, someone who could spend so much money must have an extraordinary status.
However, Su Wen had fought against Xu Longzun that day.
Su Wen was also sent flying with severe injuries. At that time, the scene was extremely chaotic.
Hence, she had her own deductions.
"Perhaps that person is already dead!"
"Or maybe they didn"t even notice that I took away the Blue Cloud Tiger!"
This was what Xue Qianxun was thinking.
Since she had already taken it, she did not feel guilty at all.
At this point, she was completely at ease.
In her opinion, since he had not come for such a long time, he definitely would not come any more.
She did not know that Su Wen in the capital had already targeted her.
In the Martial Inspectorate, Su Wen was sitting on a chair with Feng Baichuan beside him.
Liu Ruyu smiled as she brought over the tea and placed it in front of them.
Feng Baichuan was really unwilling to bother with Su Wen now. Or rather, he did not want to get involved in the fights in the royal court.
He only wanted to send this jinx away as soon as possible!
That"s right. In Feng Baichuan"s opinion, Su Wen was the jinx of the Martial Inspectorate!
For the first time, Su Wen took away the Sorcerer G.o.d"s Golden Gu.
The second time, Su Wen cheated the ordinary deacons of the Martial Inspectorate.
The third time, Su Wen captured Xue Wanjun.
Now, for the fourth time, Su Wen asked him to find his missing tiger.
Basically, of them benefited him.
"Young Master Su… come, tell me, what should we do now!" Feng Baichuan said weakly, "Let me make this clear to you. The Bright G.o.d Sect is not like ordinary sects. It"s one of the biggest sects in Great Zhou. There might be more than one Heaven Rank expert in the sect. It"s not that easy to talk to them."
Su Wen frowned. That was a problem as well.
But soon he smiled and said, "But no matter how big a sect is, shouldn"t they still follow the rules? Send them an official doc.u.ment first and see what they say!"
Show respect first before using force!
Soon, an official doc.u.ment from the royal court arrived at the Bright G.o.d Sect!
The Sect Master opened the doc.u.ment to take a look.
It was written very clearly that the Bright G.o.d Sect"s disciple, Xue Qianxun, had stolen the Wuwei Viscount"s Blue Cloud Tiger.
He hoped that the Bright G.o.d Sect would investigate thoroughly and hand over the criminal.
This was an official doc.u.ment with the seal of the Martial Inspectorate.
After reading it, Sect Master Ding Hesong placed the doc.u.ment aside and lightly stroked his beard as he pondered…
After a moment, he instructed, "Get Xue Qianxun to come see me!"
Not long after, Xue Qianxun brought the Blue Cloud Tiger to the Sect Master"s residence. Right now, the little fellow was extremely clingy.
Furthermore, it had also established a good relations.h.i.+p with Qianxun, so it wanted to be with her at all times.
Ding Hesong"s eyes lit up when he saw Qianxun. He could naturally tell that she had improved.
His expression turned stiff as he asked with a solemn expression, "How did you get this Blue Cloud Tiger?"
When Xue Qianxun heard this, her heart skipped a beat!
He hurriedly said, "Reporting to Master, I found this in the wilderness. The mother tiger is missing, so I brought it back!"
Lies, blatant lies!
Ding Hesong angrily rebuked, "How dare you lie! The official doc.u.ment from the Royal Court has arrived! They said that you stole the Blue Cloud Tiger of Wuwei Viscount, Su Wen! What else do you have to say?"
As he spoke, the official doc.u.ment floated up and landed in front of Qianxun.
Xue Qianxun picked it up and looked at it. Not only was she not fl.u.s.tered, she even started crying!
"Sect Master, I"m really innocent! When I obtained this tiger and returned to the mountain, I was stopped by Su Wen when I was pa.s.sing through the capital. At that time, he coveted this disciple"s beauty and insisted that I be his concubine. I didn"t comply. If it wasn"t for the sect"s ill.u.s.trious reputation, he… he might have used force! He"s now taking revenge on me and deliberately framing me. Sect Master, please understand!"
Su Wen had some reputation in the martial world as well, but most of it was because of the news of Meng Zhiping and Yao Gu. There was also the matter of him spending money lavishly in a brothel and being arrogant and despotic, so his reputation was not too good!
Xue Qianxun knew how to make use of her advantage.
As a woman, didn"t she just have to act weak? She flipped her hand and threw a pile of s.h.i.+t at Su Wen!
As Xue Qianxun wailed, Ding Hesong fell into hesitation instead.
If what Qianxun said was true, wouldn"t handing her over harm her?
In the end, who wouldn"t believe their own child over others?
However, Su Wen still held some weight in Ding Hesong"s eyes.
There was no other reason. The disciples of the Bright G.o.d Sect had also successfully returned from the mystic realm and reported to him about the situation within.
He naturally knew that Su Wen had become the biggest winner in the mystic realm.
In his opinion, although Su Wen"s martial talent was not bad, he was lecherous, domineering, and murderous.
After pondering for a moment, Ding Hesong felt that he should not hand Qianxun over so easily.
Especially now, since this matter had been more than a day or two ago.
Now, to say that Xue Qianxun stole his stuff… on what basis?
Why didn"t he come earlier?
Ding Hesong looked at Qianxun and asked in a deep voice, "Is it really as you said?"
"It"s indeed as I said!"
"Then go back. Leave this matter to me. Just cultivate in peace!"
Ding Hesong decided to handle this matter himself.
Xue Qianxun left the Sect Master"s residence with tears in her eyes.
When she arrived at a deserted area, she gently wiped her tears and smiled smugly!
So what if he was the Sect Master?
Wasn"t he still deceived?
She hugged the Blue Cloud Tiger and said with a smile, "Little Bai! Look, men are all big fools! If you want to find a male tiger in the future, you have to find someone smarter."
This Blue Cloud Tiger was also a female!