Chapter 197 - Distraction
"I "m… oh my f.u.c.king G.o.d, why are there still so many!?" Lu Mingshu started to feel annoyed. They had been killing for about half an hour. The corpses of the demonic beast could form a hill, and Lu Mingshu looked like she had been swimming in a pool of blood. However, there was still no sign of an end.
Where the h.e.l.l did all these beasts come from? Why isn"t there an end to it?
"I"m surprised you would say such things." Xie Lianzhen chuckled.
He was still calm and composed, with a gentlemanly manner. At least, as long as you ignored the blood stains on him.
Arrogant, cold, and hard to approach - that was the Lu Mingshu that many people saw. Even though she was bad-tempered, she always maintained the necessary courtesy in front of others. However, her last sentence, which was rather obscene language, was something that she wouldn"t say on a normal basis.
Xie Lianzhen was secretly happy that he heard this. It was as if he managed to enter into her personal s.p.a.ce; the side she never showed to the world.
Sword-light swept across, and starlight flickered. They were both quite coordinated with each other, and the demonic beasts fell one by one in front of them
"Hey, do you think this could be considered as us sharing life and death?" Xie Lianzhen asked as he sent out a ray of starlight.
"I only want life, not death," Lu Mingshu replied in a serious tone.
Xie Lianzhen sighed. "Well, who knows? Maybe we won"t be able to take it any longer and die here. Can"t you say something comforting?"
Lu Mingshu scoffed. "Comforting? I"m afraid I"ll say something wrong and then you"ll never stop talking about it."
"You do know me well."
Hearing her heavy breathing, Xie Lianzhen asked. "Can you still take it?"
"Hmm." Lu Mingshu didn"t even bother answering
Mystic force wasn"t a problem for her. She was used to using the meditation formulae anytime and anywhere. She just needed to combine them and she could fight without stopping. However, in this kind of fight, the key thing was mental strength. It was easy for one to be discouraged when they couldn"t see any end in sight.
"You can take a rest, I can deal with it by myself now."
Lu Mingshu looked at him and nodded. "Okay." She then plopped down at the side to rest.
"Eh…." Xie Lianzhen said weakly. I meant what I said, but this Miss here should be more courteous, shouldn"t she? My heart is shattering into pieces!
Lu Mingshu paid no attention to him. She didn"t know how many more demonic beasts were left, so she needed to prepare to fight again in a moment.
However, she couldn"t deny it; she was surprised at Xie Lianzhen"s ability. Even though she had heard about it from Wei Chunqiu, there were still some doubts. As a martial artist, before one reached the a.s.similation Realm, it was important to have a perfect body. Without legs, there were many skills that he couldn"t pick up, and his ability would surely be affected negatively. But Xie Lianzhen was way different from what she expected. His Star Life technique could confuse the opponent without the need to even move, so to Xie Lianzhen, legs weren"t really an important factor for him.
"Your Highness!" Ding Qingqing blocked a beast"s attack.
Sweat rolled down the queen"s face, and she smiled bitterly. "We"ve both sure devolved!"
Busy with government affairs every day, their skills had been neglected. Even though they still had their cultivation, it had been some time since they last polished their skills.
Ding Qingqing gritted her teeth and took out her sword to kill. "If we can escape this, your servant promises to train hard."
That sent the queen into laughter. "Finding an expert to protect us would be easier than training. To us, hiring an expert is way more worthwhile!"
Ding Qingqing sighed.
Practicing took up a lot of time, and there might not even be a result. To them, time was the biggest investment they had to make.
This brought Ding Qingqing back to the past. To take the shortcut to heaven, she used to practice diligently day and night. But who knew that, when she finally became the queen"s trusted aide, personal power was the most useless thing?
"It seems to be more relaxed now, huh?" the queen suddenly commented.
"Yeah!" Ding Qingqing felt it was odd too. "Did we kill them all?"
"No," The queen shook her head. "They"ve been distracted."
"Distracted?"
"Yes. Somebody else is here too. They have a lower cultivation, thus attracting the demonic beasts under the Spirit Realm."
Demonic beasts had very accurate senses. The queen and Ding Qingqing were both in the Spirit Realm, while the other group was in the Harmonization Realm, so the other group was a much better target.
"I"ll take a look." Ding Qingqing leapt up a tree after defeating a demonic beast.
The topography around them was complicated, and there was mist blocking her view. It was hard to get a clear look. She glanced over and was shocked.
"Your Highness!" she shouted. "Young Master… it"s Young Master!"
There was only one person in all of Zhongzhou that Ding Qingqing addressed as Young Master.
"Huh?" The queen looked over at her. "Xing"er?"
"The Star Life technique - it must be Young Master for sure."
The queen bit her lips. "Which direction?"
"Northwest."
"Let"s go!"
"Your Highness, don"t!" Ding Qingqing immediately stopped her. "It may not be the right time to look for Young Master right now."
The queen was getting impatient. "There are so many demonic beasts here, he may not be able to hold on for long!"
"If we go over now, we will just bring the Spirit Realm demonic beasts with us too," Ding Qingqing said, cool-headed. "Young Master is good, Your Highness need not worry."
"But Xing"er"s legs don"t allow him to fight for long."
"Please be at ease. Young Master isn"t alone," Ding Qingqing said. "Has Your Highness forgotten? He went to the greenhouse, and Lu Mingshu was there too, so they can work together. Secondly, if Zhanghui was there too, there won"t be any problem."
The queen gradually calmed down.
"Your Highness, you must be calm. As long as His Majesty can escape or the Seventh Truth Platform elders can arrive in time, everything will be alright."
The queen took a deep breath. "You"re right."
Even though that was the case, the situation wasn"t going as they wanted.
These demonic beasts seemed to be provoked and were das.h.i.+ng up to them like they were insane. The two of them couldn"t do anything but keep fighting and backing off.
It was the same for Lu Mingshu.
At the start, they could take turns to fight, but not anymore.
"Hey," Xie Lianzhen sounded slightly breathless. "You still have enough mystic force?"
Lu Mingshu furrowed her eyebrows. "Barely enough." Fighting at such a strong intensity, even if her meditation formulae were still working, her mystic force couldn"t recover quickly enough. All she could do was preserve it as much as she could.
"Take this." Xie Lianzhen threw a small pouch over. "It"s a pill that replenishes mystic force."
Lu Mingshu accepted it immediately. The pellets that she exchanged from the Heavenly Wheel had all been used during the time when it was shut down. She only just cleared her debt, so she hadn"t had enough time to gather any more, so this pill came just in time.
Xie Lianzhen suddenly stopped in his tracks. The beast that he was supposed to block nearly pounced on him.
Luckily, Lu Mingshu raised her sword in time, striking the beast. "Can you not daydream right now?"
But Xie Lianzhen didn"t respond to her. He continued to stare in another direction.
"What is it?" Lu Mingshu looked over in the direction that he was staring and let out a yell.
They were gradually getting closer, and the mist was getting thinner. On the hillside that wasn"t far away, the events could be clearly seen.
The queen!
Xie Lianzhen"s actions gradually became faster.
Lu Mingshu opened her mouth to say something. She wanted to convince him, but she decided not to. They were mother and son after all, so he couldn"t be totally unconcerned.
At this time, a hissing sound appeared. A red eagle flew across the sky with someone on it.
Chapter 198 - Mastermind and the Internal Minister
The red eagle swept over, and the person did a flip to get off the eagle. "Sister-in-law!"
It was the king of Yijun.
Ding Qingqing was pleasantly surprised. "Your Majesty Jun, why are you here?"
The king of Yijun helped them defeat a beast before replying, "I was fast asleep when I felt that something was out of place. When I woke up, I was already here."
"His Majesty should be trapped too."
"Yes." The king of Yijun wasn"t surprised. "If elder brother is alright, then what"s all this for?"
Ding Qingqing sighed.
"Who"s the one that did this? The Flying Imperial Palace is being guarded strictly, yet such a loophole could be found! Sister-in-law, what should we do? I didn"t find Jiayan, I"m worried!"
The queen smiled and said gently, "Be at ease. Jiayan will be fine. Looking at this layout, their target is definitely us. To deal with us - the Spirit Realms - and to suppress your elder brother, they wouldn"t waste any energy on the younger ones. At most, they would only trap them."
"It would be great if that"s true…."
"With Your Majesty Jun here, we can hold on for a while longer. As long as the elders arrive in time, there"s no need to worry," Ding Qingqing said.
"Sister-in-law, what do you think?" The king of Yijun asked for her opinion.
The queen nodded. "Qingqing makes sense. The priority is that we make it over together."
Seeing the king of Yijun appear, Lu Mingshu heaved a sigh of relief. "Now, you can-"
Surprisingly, Xie Lianzhen"s face turned dark and he interrupted her. "Let"s go over now!"
Lu Mingshu stared at him blankly. When she finally understood, she sped up.
However, it was too late.
They hurriedly made their way down the slope, but when they arrived, there were already changes.
The king of Yijun, who should have been in the front, suddenly turned back and threw an object.
The object turned into light and weaved into a web, hovering above the queen.
Xie Lianzhen held his armrest tight suddenly, and his face turned as white as a sheet of paper.
Lu Mingshu took in a cold breath and yelled. "It"s him! Why…?"
Previously, they made the guess that the mastermind was an insider from the Seventh Truth Platform. Lu Mingshu felt that, since the King was an a.s.similation Realm elder, he would be able to deal with anything, so it wouldn"t be an internal problem of the royal family, but the Seventh Truth Platform.
However, Xie Lianzhen knew that the chance of the mastermind being from the Seventh Truth Platform was very low. Because of the different clans that were involved, there wasn"t much conflict, and there was no point in plotting against other clan leaders or the queen and king. The Seventh Truth Platform survived together; if there was such a mess, n.o.body would benefit.
With that, the mastermind"s ident.i.ty was clear. Who would be able to benefit directly from this, and who also had a close relation to the Seventh Truth Platform? It was none other than the king of Yijun!
Xie Lianzhen could only blame himself for not being capable enough and letting him seize the chance!
"Calm down." Lu Mingshu held him. "There"s no use if you go over now. Let"s wait and see."
Her cold hand let him calm down slowly. He took a deep breath and rethought about what he could do.
The web shrunk and turned into ropes, binding the queen.
"It"s you," the queen said softly.
"Hahaha!" The king of Yijun laughed out loud. "Unexpected, huh? Sister-in-law."
"Why are you doing this?" the queen asked calmly. "Have I not treated you well?"
"No, sister-in-law treated me nicely, and you even treated Jiayan well."
"Since that"s the case, why would you set up such a big trap to get me?"
The king of Yijun smiled. "Because you"ve done too much! Since you"re the queen, you should focus on taking care of what"s happening in the palace, and not the government affairs!"
"So, what do you want?" the queen asked coldly. "Even if you kill me, you won"t become king of Zhongzhou. You"re still in the Spirit Realm while your brother"s in the a.s.similation Realm."
"Who said I wanted to be the king of Zhongzhou?" the king of Yijun said in disdain. "Do you think I"m you? Trying to s.n.a.t.c.h elder"s brother power…."
"Don"t want to be the king, huh?" The queen sneered, "Making use of the Qilin Festival, ganging up with those on the inside. If you don"t want to be the king of Zhongzhou, then what"s all this for?"
"Because!" the king of Yijun shouted strictly. "As the offspring of the s.h.i.+ family, how could I watch the king"s power fall to a queen? Duan Qing"er, you married into this family so that you could be the queen of Zhongzhou, yet you"re not content with just that! Toying with your power, controlling Zhongzhou, eliminating outsiders, and helping your own cronies. Look at how Zhongzhou has turned out in your hands."
"Oh? How has it turned out? Tell me more, I"m curious."
The king of Yijun felt indignant at the injustice. "You help a lot of poor families and suppress aristocratic families, and even let female emissaries take charge! Just one Xiahou Shan and she already controls almost everything. The person supposedly in charge of just the palace is now in charge of more! She"s just an emissary, but she"s even more arrogant than the foreign minister. Those that have gone through life and death with the dynasty, you"ve made their lives go downhill! They are the tower of strength in Zhongzhou; back during the war with the barbarians, they gave great service! A feminist who bites the hand that feeds you has no rights to take control over Zhongzhou."
The queen smiled and turned to Qingqing. "Qingqing, that"s how you feel too, huh?"
Ding Qingqing had been staring into s.p.a.ce, and she shuddered from head to toe upon being called out by the queen. "Your Highness…."
"Let"s not talk about the king of Yijun… but you?" the queen said softly. "You"re from a poor family, and you"re a female official too. If I didn"t help the poor, do you think you would be able to stand where you are today? Xiahou Shan"s a foreign minister and you"re the internal minister. Have I not treated you well?"
"Your Highness…."
"Working for the interest of an opposing group at the expense of one"s own!" Xie Lianzhen gritted his teeth and growled.
As matters stood, it was obvious. Ding Qingqing was also known as the queen"s trusted aide! Indeed, the queen toyed around with her power and eliminated outsiders, but Ding Qingqing was the one that had no rights to comment on that because she was the beneficiary of that!
"What is she here for?" Lu Mingshu didn"t get it. Hasn"t the queen given her more than enough? If it wasn"t the queen who was in control, then she, as a woman, would never get so much power.
"What else could she be after?" Xie Lianzhen sneered. "Humans are always greedy."
"Even more?" Lu Mingshu ponder. "Could it be that… she wants to be the queen? But the king of Yijun is clearly disgusted by her, why would he…?" Ding Qingqing was a smart person.
"Moron!" Xie Lianzhen said coldly. "Greed has made her muddle-headed."
Seeing that Ding Qingqing couldn"t make up her mind, the king of Yijun yelled. "Now you want to turn around? I won"t go back on what I promised you!"
"Ooh, what did he promise you?" The queen paid no attention to the king of Yijun. She turned to Ding Qingqing and smiled. "Something that he can give you but not me… ah, did he promise to marry you and make you the queen of Yijun?"
Ding Qingqing said nothing, but her expression gave her away.
"Moron!" The queen froze for a minute and yelled. "Would the t.i.tle of queen of Yijun give you a better life compared to today? In front of others, you - my official - stand way above even the king of Yijun! It"s easy to become a queen; with your position, you just need to drop a hint, and he"ll come right to you. Why is there a need for you to lower your status? Ding Qingqing, never say that I taught you. You"re such a shame!"
Chapter 199 - Why Did You Come Out?
"Duan Qing"er!" The king of Yijun stopped her. "Do you think everyone"s like you? That the only thing they do is toy around with their power?"
"Oh?" The queen smiled sarcastically, "Are you trying to say that you both are truly in love?"
Being stared at so intensely by the queen, Ding Qingqing lowered her head.
Her reaction gave the queen the answer.
The queen sighed.
The king of Yijun looked rather similar to the king of Zhongzhou; he was good-looking for sure. He had a n.o.ble background, and he was rich as well. Even though he already had a daughter, the king of Yijun, who was in the Spirit Realm, looked like he only just reached his thirties, the age where a man was full of charm. It wasn"t anything surprising for a woman to fall for him, but the woman this time was Ding Qingqing, which was the surprise factor.
When the king of Yijun was born, the king of Zhongzhou had already grown up. With a gifted and intelligent brother, there was nothing the king of Yijun could compare with. He was soft and had an ordinary ability, so he was a rather idle prince.
What about Ding Qingqing? She was born into a common family. She had good apt.i.tude and was selected by the School of Mingde. Doing well there meant she could join the line of people with the potential to be an official. She was a smart girl and understood worldly affairs. The queen saw potential in her and chose her as a servant girl. Step by step, she worked hard and got to where she was now, the emissary position, and became the "internal minister" due to the queen"s huge power.
Toying around with power and playing mind games. Who knew how many corpses she had stepped over on her way to become an emissary?
A woman like her, falling for the king of Yijun? Blinded by love, helping him plot a rebellion, trapping the king of Zhongzhou and killing the queen?
But the queen couldn"t deny that there was a possibility. Emotions were the most complicated thing in the entire world. No matter how intelligent one was or how clearly they could see things, one might lose to their emotions and do idiotic things that couldn"t be understood.
To this, the queen could only sigh.
"King of Yijun, what will you do after killing me? How are you going to explain it to His Majesty?"
The king of Yijun sneered. "Explain? Do you think he would kill me? There are only two offspring in the whole s.h.i.+ family! No matter what sins I"m guilty of, he will surely let me off because I"m his only brother!"
The queen nodded. "Hmm, makes sense. And then?"
"Elder brother"s enthralled in cultivating, so there"s no way he would want to take care of the worldly affairs. At that point, other than me, who else could he trust?"
The queen smiled. She then turned to Ding Qingqing. "So, that"s the reason that you"re muddle-headed? When he becomes the regent, you"ll be able to have my level of power?"
Ding Qingqing bit her lips before replying. "Yes, Your Highness. Your servant will never forget your kindness toward me. However…"
"However, I can"t compare to your desire for power and love."
"Your Highness was the one that taught me this!" Ding Qingqing increased her volume as if she was justifying herself. "These years, Your Highness has taught me that any obstacle that can"t be moved, I should just step on it!"
"Hahaha…" The queen laughed out loud and looked at her with arrogance. "You"re right. That"s my motto, but are you comparable to me?"
"Why can"t I compare to Your Highness?" Ding Qingqing started to feel rebellious. "How am I incomparable to you? Wisdom or capability… whatever Your Highness can do, I can too!"
"Such a silly girl." The queen looked at her with pity. "Didn"t you hear what he just said a second ago? Saying that I"m toying around with my power, saying that I"m helping the poor and I"m a feminist because I put female officials in charge, saying that, as queen, I should take care of the palace and not meddle with the government. You help him into power now, and when he"s finally regent, he will be coming for you next. Don"t you get it? Men like him, the more powerful they are, the more hatred they have for women. When that day comes, you will have nothing left but to become his exclusive property. What can you do at that point? If you follow his instructions, he"ll feed you, and if you don"t, hehe…"
"Are you done yet!?" the king of Yijun yelled. "Even now, you"re still trying to divide us!"
The queen pretended that he didn"t even exist. Her eyes were only on Ding Qingqing. "How are you incomparable to me? Let me answer that; your vision will never be as good as mine! Ask yourself, how does His Majesty treat me? He trusts me fully, supports and helps me out no matter what I do. But the king of Yijun will never treat you that way."
"Shut up!" The king of Yijun drew his sword in anger.
"Hold on!"
Seeing Xie Lianzhen roll out from behind a rock on the hillside, the calm queen suddenly turned green. "Why did you come out? Roll back!" she yelled.
Xie Lianzhen turned a deaf ear to her yelling and slowly rolled up the hillside.
Lu Mingshu sighed and followed behind slowly.
"It"s you, huh?" The king of Yijun looked at him coldly. "I already pretended to not see you because of Jiayan, yet you can"t wait to die?"
The three of them were in the Spirit Realm, so it was impossible that they didn"t know Xie Lianzhen and Lu Mingshu were there. The queen chose to not say anything, and the king of Yijun didn"t want to be that evil.
"King of Yijun," Xie Lianzhen plastered a huge smile on his face, as if they were in the palace right now instead of an unknown hillside. "If I were you, I wouldn"t do this."
The king of Yijun smiled. "Little brat, you are as cunning as your mother. Do you think that I"ll believe anything you say?"
"If you disagree, just listen to my reasons first!" Xie Lianzhen smiled.
"Very well, speak then. I shall see what tricks you can perform!"
"Easy - you wouldn"t achieve your goal even if you killed the queen." Xie Lianzhen sounded like it had nothing to do with him. "You said that the king won"t kill you, right? That"s true, the king has always been lenient and harmonious. You should remember something though. What"s the king best at? Judging people. Back when the queen was a widow and pregnant with a defected baby, who gave a d.a.m.n about her? n.o.body but the King. He married her not because of her looks. I bet you know that he gave her the power to control everything soon after they married! I would say that, rather than a wife, he was choosing a successor. Think about it, man - if he trusted you in the first place, why would he marry the queen and give her all the power instead of you?"
The king of Yijun gritted his teeth.
Xie Lianzhen continued, "Now, you kill the King"s successor, guess what he will do. He"ll obviously choose a new one, but, sadly, it won"t be you. Things have changed; he was once alone, but now, he has a right and proper successor."
The little prince!
"s.h.i.+ Yu"s eleven this year," Xie Lianzhen tapped his armrest and said lazily. "If he"s smart, after six or seven years, he"ll be able to take over. The government affairs of Zhongzhou have already been put in order perfectly by the queen - not even one drop of water can leak out. He only needs one or two sagacious prime ministers and it could still work perfectly. Six or seven years after you kill the queen, he"ll just pa.s.s it to s.h.i.+ Yu. Is that so hard?"
The king of Yijun trembled.
"Oh yeah, there"s something you should never forget, and it"s important! The king won"t kill you because you"re his brother, but s.h.i.+ Yu? Do you think he won"t? He"s the queen"s flesh and blood, and you killed his mother?" Xie Lianzhen sneered. "He"s not me. The king can forgive you for killing the queen, but s.h.i.+ Yu… hehe."