Chapter 8 – The young and cute girl is exceedingly audacious
The disciples of the Ancestor’s disciples were no less than ten thousands. Every one of them were an outstanding genius in psychokinesis. The pillars of the countries on this continent practically originated from his disciples. Moreover, those were just the temporary outer sect disciples.
As far as the inner sect disciples were concerned, they abided to their master’s commands and ignored worldly matters, not taking part in any country’s government affairs, transcending the Three Realms.
Ning Xuemo’s father, Ning Luofeng, was the descendant of the Ancestor’s eldest disciple. He couldn’t become the formal disciple of the Venerable Emperor because of numerous worries. He only became an outer sect disciple and learnt some outer sect skills. With just that sort of skills, he was already a War God that could fend against ten thousand people and achieved his goal of becoming a one-in-a-generation famous general.
A mountain of Immortals on the sea, only boundless clouds could be seen.[1]
The rumors said the Venerable Emperor lived on a forgotten mountain in the sea. In normal times, he wouldn’t go down the mountain. Every time he went down the mountain to the capital, there would be this kind of procession. Since his whereabout was extremely ever changing. No matter which country, it was not possible to notify in advance the monarch of that country. He often appeared suddenly on a random street in a random country as if he came out from the ground.
This time was also like that. This group of people, carriage and palanquin that appeared on the main street had caused a tremendous commotion.
The Ancestor enjoyed the calm, so, as his palanquin advanced, all around, the passerby on the main streets also completely kept quiet.
All the commoners on Tian Ci continent knew about the Ancestor’s eccentricity. Therefore, when they saw the Ancestor’s palanquin, they all kneeled on both sides in silence without daring to even utter a sound.
Ning Xuemo paid her respect to memories that the former owner’s body granted her, with this, she also knew about the Venerable Emperor. From the inside of the iron cage, she watched the crowd of people kneeling on the ground. As they kowtowed once, there was a flash in her eyes and, suddenly, a constant howling could be heard. “Injustice! Ah! Snow falling in June for the injustice of Dou E! [2]” She used a complicate coloratura [3] voice to shout her grievances, coupled with her hoarse voice, it was filled with the tragedy of a pure and delicate girl.
As there was no sound that could be heard, her voice had a very shocking effect. It was like a hit to everyone as they all trembled!
‘This insane girl! Unexpectedly, she dare to cry grievance in a loud voice near where the Ancestor was passing! Making such a big noise! Does she even want to live?!’
On this continent, who didn’t know that the Ancestor would never interfere or get involved in worldly matters or other people’s business even if he walked on the same continent as them, not to mention, a little girl who was wronged. Even if there was ten thousand people kneeled beside his palanquin and a crying and weeping girl in front of him, this old man was still indifferent. It was unlikely that the palanquin would halt. Perhaps, he would stop to punish the source of such noise…
The Sixth Prince’s back was covered in cold sweat!
The Ancestor had established a rule, when he passed through somewhere, if someone was suddenly making noise at that time, it was considered an official crime. In light case, even a monarch can be demoted and, in serious case, one would need to worry about his own life!
As the highest official here, if the Ancestor were to put the blame, he would be the one to bear the brunt!
Fortunately, he wasn’t far from the iron cage. He lifted his hand and pointed toward Ning Xuemo while he said, “Shut up if you don’t want to die!”
In Chang Kong Country, his martial arts was considered on the level of expert and not even a dozen of normal people could approach him. Even if he were to meet another martial artist that wanted to dispose of him, it would still be extremely difficult to do so as he rarely failed to eliminate the opponent, especially when his opponent was a well-known waste of resources.
The Sixth Prince was extremely confident with his pointing skill originally and completely believed he could hit Xuemo’s acupuncture to mute her in a flash. However, he didn’t think Ning Xuemo threw her body forward which caused her to avoid death and not died from his move. The Sixth Prince couldn’t help, but to blank!
Ning Xuemo already grabbed the iron cage’s thick bars and shouted, “Venerable Emperor! Your disciple’s descendant was accused wrongly by people! If this humble girl died from injustice, then it’s like slapping venerable elder in the face…”
[1] This is not really a poem in itself, but it refers to a legend about Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his obsession with immortality. It is said that after he became the First Emperor, he became obsessed with immortality and it wasn’t a secret.
Once, while standing on a cliff beside Bohai Sea with Xu Fu, a court necromancer, they saw a mountain peak on the sea. Qin Shi Huang asked Xu Fu if he knows which mountain it was. Xu Fu didn’t know about the mountain, but, then, he saw the water plants on the mountain, he remembered those plants were called Peng Lai. (Peng Lai plants supposely sprouted where there’s immortals). Qin Shi Huang ordered his men to go search the mountain, but, when the men arrived at the foot of the mountain, the mountain disappeared. No matter how many times and how many years, Qin Shi Huang sent his men to the mountain, no one was able to reach it.
Thus, “mountain of Immortals on the sea, only boundless clouds could be seen” was referring to the concept of illusory or mirage. I deduced that the author wanted to say that the Emperor was a mystery and only rumors were abundant.
[2] Another story to explain what Xuemo was saying. This time, it’s the tragic story of a motherless girl called Dou E whose father was in debt and had no choice, but to sell her as a child bride. Not long after she wed, her husband died. So, her and her mother-in-law lived together and depend on each other, but they were bullied by a physician called Sai Lu Yi who took advantage of the fact they were widows and almost killed Dou E’s mother-in-law.
They were saved by Zhang Lü’er and his father who turned out to not be much better. Zhang Lü’er lusted after Dou E and tried to force Dou E’s mother-in-law to marry Dou E to him, but he was refused. Then, he decided to plot against the mother-in-law by poisoning her and get his hand on Dou E. He asked Sai Lu Yi to give him poison which he put in a soup to make her drink. Fortunately, she didn’t drink it. Instead, it was Zhang Lü’er’s father who drank the poisoned soup and died.
Zhang Lü’er framed Dou E for his father’s death and bribed the magistrate too. Dou E got sent to prison where she was tortured by Tao Wu for a confession. Not wanting to involve her ageing mother-in-law, Dou E admitted to a crime she didn’t do and got behead.
Before she died, she said that she was innocent. She insisted saying that because she was wrongly accused, her blood would never spilled on the ground; There would be heavy snowstorm in the hottest month which is June; And there would be a three-year drought.
If you want to know the ending, you can read the summary of it here.
[3] I’m a music-technical-term idiot, so you can read it here. I can’t read a music sheet to save my life.