Wu Yu rushed over to the front courtyard in a hurry, greatly alarmed. Hao Tian Shangxian soared into the sky on his Crane Horse, expressionless as he advanced towards the Royal City.
Wu Yu stared fixedly at the courtyard that was effectively a bloodbath; the spotlessly white Heaven Cloud Roc lay limply on the ground, on its last breath. There was a huge gaping hole in its chest and all of its blood had already been let out. In the next blink of an eye, it died.
“Hao Tian Shangxian……”
The other party destroyed his mount. Whether Wu Yu chose to flee, to go back to the Sword to the Heavens sect, or to even go sightseeing around, it would be inconvenient regardless.
His only option left was to trek back on foot to the sect and get another Heaven Cloud Roc.
This would be yet another show of strength.
The conflict this time really made Hao Tian Shangxian go mad with anger, to do even this kind of lowly action.
But then, he was always this kind of person to begin with.
“Heaven Cloud Roc……”
Wu Yu felt some attachment to the roc after being together for some time, and witnessing it die with grievances now……
“This hatred now…..has yet another layer.”
Wu Yu gazed in the direction of the Royal City. He took a deep breath and after updating Wu You, he went back to the cultivation room. He needed to continue condensing qi until he succeeded. Perhaps then, that would be the day he took revenge.
……
In the Grand Lunar Palace, because Emperor Yuan Hao was injured, the entire imperial palace was shaking with fear. Over ten imperial physicians were waiting upon him, having already treated his wounds.
But because all of his teeth had fallen out at Wu You Palace, there was no way to put them back in place. Without teeth, even eating would become a problem. Fortunately, there was still Hao Tian Shangxian who could probably fix that.
Yuan Hao was lying down on his bed, his face full of indignation, swollen like a pig’s head. There were already a few physicians who had accidentally hurt him and were thereafter dragged out by his command. They were beheaded on the spot.
And now, the faces of each and every one of the imperial physicians paled with fear. Even a good portion of the concubines and maids were trembling.
The Empress Dowager Yuan Xi was sitting at the bedside, her face also deathly white. She held Yuan Hao’s hand, her bloodshot eyes faintly betraying an ominous glint. At this moment, a Crane Horse’s cry drifted over from outside.
“Everyone get out.”
It wasn’t as if Yuan Hao had sustained a life-threatening injury; now that Hao Tian Shangxian had returned, he naturally had the mortals withdraw.
Everybody acted as if they were relieved of a heavy burden and hastily departed. They didn’t want to remain there for a second longer.
Within the next moment, Hao Tian Shangxian had arrived at the bedside. Yuan Hao sat up at once and despite his mouth being bandaged, he mumbled: “Father, did you slaughter that Sun Wudao and Wu You yet! I want to hang their corpses above the city gate, to feed the crows!”
Hao Tian Shangxian, without saying anything, slapped Yuan Hao across his face. This hand was even heavier than the one Wu Yu had given him. Yuan Hao immediately fell back onto the bed with a wretched howl.
“You good-for-nothing! If it weren’t for you making trouble, would I be angered to this point? You made me completely lose face, you even told Sun Wudao that I am your father – I definitely don’t have a useless son like you! Cultivation didn’t work out, and your brain doesn’t work either! You and Yuan Chen are worlds apart, and you’re not even comparable to Sun Wudao!”
Hao Tian Shangxian was seriously pissed.
He had two sons – one was extremely motivated and hardworking, even getting on good terms with the sect leader’s son, and the other was just pure trash, still useless even after he became the mortal emperor.
“I-!”
When Yuan Hao heard that, he received an enormous shock, holding in tears of blood as he cried.
“Master, master, Yuan Hao is still young, forgive him!”
Yuan Xi quickly started crying too, rushing to hold back Hao Tian Shangxian, or else Yuan Hao would actually be beaten to death.
“It pisses me off just to see him!” Hao Tian Shangxian glared at Yuan Hao, furiously saying: “You better self-reflect for me these next few days. Don’t look after him, just let him fend for himself.”
“Yes, yes.” Yuan Xi hastily left with Hao Tian Shangxian. She had also been scared to death just now, after all she had never seen him this angry before.
The two returned to the Xi He Palace, Yuan Xi trying to calm him down along the way. By the time they arrived, she gained a basic understanding of what had happened.
“Yuan Hao was indeed too reckless this time; it’s all my fault for not teaching him properly.”
Yuan Xi snuggled up against Hao Tian Shangxian, weeping now and then and acting all “I’m a helpless little woman”.
“What he did wasn’t wrong in and of itself, the problem was that he tried to show off his strength, even after being beaten he still spouted nonsense. Yuan Hao was too impatient after becoming the emperor.” Hao Tian Shangxian said with disdain.
“From what I see, he just simply worships you too much, so he doesn’t know the magnitude of the situation. On the contrary, Sun Wudao is the one with the problem. Master, how do you plan on taking care of him?” Yuan Xi shifted the conversation over to Wu Yu, or else he would only continue being mad.
Hearing this name, Hao Tian Shangxian immediately cooled down. He mulled it over and said: “I could have actually wiped him out today, it’s just that he has the backing of the Sword to the Heavens sect. Even though we’re safe for now with Jiang Junlin here, this will still be troublesome in the long run, so I endured at the time.”
“But what makes me a little fearful is that although Sun Wudao doesn’t seem very old, he has such a frightening physical body at the Mortal Body Forging stage. His cultivation progression speed is also truly terrifying. This time he was actually able to forcibly block off my attack, moreover he is still in the midst of condensing his qi.”
“So it’s like this…..”
Yuan Xi finally understood why Hao Tian was this angry.
After all Wu Yu was someone he wanted to kill, yet could not.
She thought it over and suddenly said: “Master, I have some thoughts on this, after all some things need to be finished quickly and cleanly.”
“You always had good ideas, say it.” Having this beauty nestled in his embrace, Hao Tian Shangxian’s temper settled down a bit.
Yuan Xi said: “You personally taking action to kill Sun Wudao definitely won’t work. Nowadays Yuan Chen and Jiang Junlin have such a good relationship that Jiang Junlin is willing to do things for Yuan Chen. Since it’s like this, let’s let Yuan Chen step up and say a few words in front of Jiang Junlin. With the type of status Jiang Junlin has, even if he kills Sun Wudao right here in the capital, he would just need to claim that Sun Wudao offended him. The Sword to the Heavens sect wouldn’t retaliate against Jiang Junlin just for the sake of one insignificant disciple.”
“Moreover, from the outside world’s point of view, Yuan Chen is a celestial of royal blood from Eastern Wu. That’s enough reason for Jiang Junlin to help him dominate this Eastern Wu. The land here is barren to begin with. One or two Mortal Kingdoms aren’t worth much to the big sects so who knows, maybe they’ll give some face and just directly hand over Eastern Wu to Yuan Chen and Jiang Junlin.”
“Then this vast stretch of land will continue to stay under your rule in the future. The things that come from it will still be yours.”
“That Sword to Heavens sect hasn’t cared about this place for several decades now. It’s just recently that they decided they wanted to be in charge of it again. This just goes to show they don’t really care about this place to being with.”
“Furthermore, there are so many surrounding Celestial Kingdoms. To the mortal world, Eastern Wu is a powerful and prosperous country. But to immortals, the spiritual qi here is poor. Sun Wudao getting picked out of all the Celestial Kingdom Supervisors to be sent here – to this place with the slimmest pickings – just goes to show that his status in the Sword to the Heavens sect isn’t high, and that someone holds a grudge against him.”
Yuan Xi said this whole bunch and finally, finally finished saying everything.
“In a nutshell, let Jiang Junlin kill Sun Wudao off, seize Eastern Wu, and then gift it to Yuan Chen, essentially gifting it to yourself.”
“This Eastern Wu seems poor but produced no small number of treasures these past few years, all of which have gone into Master’s pockets. This really is a treasure land.”
Yuan Xi held onto Hao Tian Shangxian’s arm, seductively laughing; the sound alone was enough to make someone quiver.
“Very good, let’s do it like that. Right now Jiang Junlin and Yuan Chen are waiting for the Rebirth Fruit to ripen. After they come back, I’ll let Yuan Chen take action. This child Yuan Chen really is so much better than Yuan Hao.” Hao Tian Shangxian stroked his beard and lamented.
“Isn’t Xi-er clever?” (TN: Yuan Xi is referring to herself in a cute, spoiled-child kind of way.)
“Clever.”
“Then…..Master, you haven’t doted on little ol’ me in a long time…..”
“Heh.”
…..
After a few days, within the Grand Lunar Palace.
In the middle of the night, Yuan Hao had a sinister gaze, sitting at the corner of his bed.
Just like an injured beast!
“I, Yuan Hao, am the sovereign of an entire country, ruling over hundreds of millions of Wu citizens! This world – is my world!”
“Father suppresses me, fine. Mother, as the Empress Dowager, won’t even give me the slightest authority to manage state affairs; everything is hers to decide – I’m just a puppet! Those two only know how to see me as trash!”
“That Yuan Chen, looking down on everyone, didn’t even look at me once after returning! We are twins of the same womb so why is fate this unfair! Why is he up in the heavens while I’m down on the earth? An emperor, yet still, I need to endure humiliation!”
“All of this is acceptable! They’re my brother and parents, my position is the lowest!”
“But, right now even that sl*t Wu You is stomping on my head! Relying on her woman’s charm to seduce that stupid cultivator, throwing her weight around me!”
“This lowly woman actually dared to go as far as to slap me across the face! To look down on me! I’m the emperor, yet she actually dares to look down on me? She thinks that just by seducing that Sun Wudao, she can do whatever she wants!”
“Wu You, this b*tch, you dared slap me! I, Yuan Hao, will make you experience all the suffering this world has to offer! I will let you be *** by thousands of people, have your corpse thrown out onto the street and then be dismembered by five horses!” (TN: The asterisks were in the raws.)
Yuan Hao pounded his bed as he growled lowly.
Because he possessed the precious medicine of immortals, he had recovered a good amount over the past few days; his mouth was not as swollen anymore.
“Someone come! Summon Commander Wu into the palace to see me!”
“Yes!”
In the wee hours of the night, Commander Wu rushed to get dressed, and then entered the Grand Lunar Palace.
“Paying respects to Your Majesty.”
Yuan Hao looked savage as he crawled to the bedside and placed a military tally into Commander Wu’s hands. Pausing after each word, he said: “Commander Wu, I command you to set out through the night and lead the Zhendong army towards the Gao Lin prefecture and exterminate Wu You’s entire maternal clan! If you leave even one behind, you can bring just your head to see me!”
“Your Majesty!” Commander Wu was frightened into trembling. This was a major issue.
“Go! In addition, if you go find my mother and discuss this with her, I’ll chop your head off right now!”
“Yes!”
The Yuan Hao of this moment was truly too scary. Commander Wu received the command and really did set out that very night. In any case, he was following the emperor’s command; if anything happened, it would be the emperor’s problem.
Besides, Yuan Hao had already mentioned moving the Zhendong army to exterminate Wu You’s maternal clan in the past. It’s just that Wu You got involved with Sun Wudao then, so the plan wasn’t put into action before.
That night, the flames of war advanced towards the east, swiftly and violently.
Meanwhile, Wu Yu was in the cultivation room, ingesting the fifth and sixth Qi Condensing pills.