As Huai Qing gestured to retrieve the pearl, she glanced at the fox-tailed enchantress with her bewitching smile, then at Xu Qi An’s earnest expression.
Then, she reached out and accepted the Merfolk pearl.
The moment the pearl touched her hand, it burst forth with pure, bright light, like an electric bulb from Xu Qi An’s previous life. Even in the approaching noon sunlight, its radiance was dazzling and brilliant.
“It glows.”
Huai Qing let out a soft exclamation, her expression, and tone carrying a pleasant surprise.
With this pearl, she wouldn’t need candles in her palace chambers, and its pure, bright radiance was far more brilliant than candlelight.
What a rare treasure indeed.
After speaking, she noticed Xu Qi An and the Nine-Tailed Fox looking at her with strange expressions.
But their expressions weren’t the same.
Xu Qi An’s gaze and expression were complex, mixing joy, playfulness, relief, tenderness, pride, and helplessness—Huai Qing hadn’t seen such complicated emotions on his face in a long time.
The Nine-Tailed Fox, however, wore an expression of mockery and suppressed laughter, along with a hint of hostility.
Being quick-witted, Huai Qing immediately sensed something was amiss.
At this moment, she saw the Nine-Tailed Fox burst into laughter, her face full of teasing as she said with a smile:
“Legend has it that when someone holding a merfolk pearl sees their beloved, it will glow.
“And here I thought an empire’s ruler, the mighty Female Emperor would be different, but it turns out you’re just like any ordinary woman, deeply in love with a philandering man.
“Tsk tsk, you’ve hidden it well. I’ve seen countless women, but I truly hadn’t noticed how much you fancy Constable Xu.”
Huai Qing looked at the pearl in her hand, her face turning pale before being suffused with an intoxicating blush.
She suddenly turned to look at Xu Qi An, her beautiful eyes flashing with shame, anger, and embarrassment, just like when Xu Ning Yan married Lin An and Guardian Yuan had brutally exposed her feelings.
She hadn’t expected Xu Qi An to “ambush” her in such a way.
“Well, Your Majesty…”
Xu Qi An coughed, about to ease the Emperor’s embarrassment, when he saw her blushing face suddenly turned deathly pale.
Then, she looked at him with an expression of profound disappointment and hidden sorrow.
Huai Qing said coldly:
“Are you very pleased with yourself?”
Hm? What’s with this attitude, is she angry from embarrassment?… Xu Qi An was momentarily stunned.
Huai Qing coldly waved her sleeve, throwing the pearl back at him.
Xu Qi An caught it, holding it in his palm, habitually maintaining a barrier of spiritual energy to prevent direct contact with his hand.
He suddenly understood the reason for Huai Qing’s anger.
If the merfolk pearl was supposed to glow when its holder faced their beloved, then when he had held it, it showed no reaction.
What did this mean?
It meant Xu Qi An loved no one.
No wonder Huai Qing was disappointed and angry.
This woman’s mind works too quickly… When Xu Qi An had held the pearl earlier, he had maintained a layer of spiritual energy between his palm and the pearl.
This way there would be no unusual reaction for Huai Qing to notice, and he had worried that once Huai Qing learned of the pearl’s properties, she might turn and ask him:
“Who makes the pearl glow?”
The Nine-Tailed Fox would stir up trouble by echoing: “Yes, who?”
That would be very awkward.
Sighing, he withdrew his spiritual energy and gripped the pearl.
Thus, in the eyes of the Nine-Tailed Fox and Huai Qing, the pearl burst forth with pure, bright radiance.
Huai Qing’s cold expression quickly melted, the disappointment and hurt in her eyes receding as she gazed at the pearl in a daze.
“My my, so Constable Xu has been secretly in love all along.”
The Nine-Tailed Fox let out a surprised cry, batting her eyelashes and saying shyly:
“This, this won’t do—we’re different species, we can’t be in love.”
Go away, just go away… Xu Qi An wanted to spit in her face.
To avoid a repeat of the earlier scene, he withdrew the pearl and cupped his hands, saying:
“Your subject has been at sea for months and needs to return home first.”
Huai Qing didn’t stop him, merely nodding slightly.
“I want to visit the Xu residence too!” the Nine-Tailed Fox said coquettishly.
Xu Qi An ignored her, activating the large eye on his wrist to teleport away.
The Nine-Tailed Fox swayed her waist and hips as she pranced out of the Imperial Study, transforming into a white rainbow as she departed.
With everyone gone, the vast Imperial Study fell silent. The eunuchs and palace maids had long been dismissed, and Huai Qing sat alone in the empty study, hearing her heart pounding in her chest.
She cupped her face in her hands and let out a soft breath.
Well, it was good to have conveyed her feelings indirectly—now the hot potato was in Xu Ning Yan’s hands, and she would leave it at that.
…
In the Northern Frontier.
According to the Geographic Chronicles of the Nine Provinces:
Snake Mountain, barren of vegetation, and rich in metal and stone, is home to a great serpent named Zhu Jiu.
The Jing Kingdom’s cavalry had built a sacrificial altar several zhang high atop Snake Mountain. In the four cardinal directions around the altar stood victory mounds built from the corpses of demons and barbarians.
“Rain Master Nalan, everything is prepared.”
The Jing Kingdom’s ruler, Xia Hou Yu Shu, climbed the altar and bowed respectfully.
Atop the altar, Nalan Tian Lu stood with his hands behind his back, nodding slightly:
“Begin!”
Xia Hou Yu Shu grabbed a torch and threw it into the brazier. The oil instantly ignited, sending up flames and black smoke.
The billowing black smoke spread across the azure sky, clearly visible.
The Jing Kingdom cavalry at the mountain top and foot laid down their weapons knelt on the ground, interlocked their thumbs with left palm covering their right palm, closed their eyes, and prayed to the Shaman God.
The faith of tens of thousands converged together—though silent, it reached Nalan Tian Lu’s ears as a massive chorus of summoning.
In the distant Jing Mountain City, the statue of the Shaman God trembled with a “boom,” black qi spreading forth and drifting northward.
The black qi crossed thousands of mountains and rivers, taking only a dozen breaths to reach Snake Mountain thousands of li away. It dispersed at the mountain peak, transforming into a hazy face.
Everyone on Snake Mountain felt the world darken as if night had fallen.
Xia Hou Yu Shu dared not open his eyes but sensed an overwhelming force enveloping the entire Snake Mountain.
The Shaman God has come, the altar has summoned the Shaman God… His heart trembled, and he quickly dispelled distracting thoughts, becoming even more devout and respectful.
Nalan Tian Lu bowed to the giant face in the sky, then took out a celadon bowl from his sleeve. The bowl contained clear water with a chopstick-thick red snake swimming in it.
Zhu Jiu!
It had been sealed in the bowl by Nalan Tian Lu.
Nalan Tian Lu placed the bowl on a table draped with yellow silk and stepped back several paces.
The hazy face in the sky opened its mouth, seemingly able to swallow mountains, rivers, sun, and moon, and inhaled forcefully.
The dragon in the bowl inevitably flew up, leaving the celadon bowl to be sucked into the Shaman God’s mouth.
And those corpses scattered in the four directions around the altar released wisps of blood qi, which were similarly sucked into the Shaman God’s mouth.
Although the Yan Kingdom’s national fortune was handed over to Buddha, the Northern Frontier’s fortune has made up for the Shaman God’s loss… Nalan Tian Lu thought.
Though they had probed the Inspector’s trump card and understood that aside from supporting Xu Qi An’s ascension to Martial God, he had no other means.
But Buddha didn’t cause Great Tang’s extraordinary experts to die or be injured, and the action to devour Lei Province had more thunder than rain, so overall this move by the Shaman Religion resulted in extreme losses.
Nalan Tian Lu even felt that Buddha’s swift retreat was largely based on the mentality of “already having taken full advantage,” not giving the Shaman Religion a chance to profit as a third party.
Before long, the Shaman God’s mouth slowly closed, and a voice entered Nalan Tian Lu’s ears:
“Well done.”
The voice was neither male nor female, but grand and majestic.
Nalan Tian Lu maintained his bowing posture, not moving.
“Return quickly to Jing Mountain City.”
The majestic voice came again, then dispersed along with the black clouds.
…
Xu Residence.
In the study, Xu Qi An looked at Xu Xin Nian sitting across the table and said:
“That’s how things stand.”
The extraordinarily handsome Second Young Master Xu pinched his brow and sighed:
“This completely exceeds what someone of my rank should have to bear. Besides despair, what can a common mortal like me do?”
Xu Qi An patted his little brother’s shoulder:
“You can help with strategy and planning. An advisor doesn’t need to fight on the battlefield.”
Then, rubbing the little bean’s head, he asked:
“Have you been having dreams about big bugs lately?”
Xu Ling Yin held a stack of osmanthus cakes—it was osmanthus season, and the residents made osmanthus cakes daily.
“Yes!” the little bean answered indistinctly:
“Every day they say I’ll turn into bones, but if I become bones what if Master and Bai Ji eat me?”
Her understanding of “gu” was the homophonous word for “bone,” after all, in daily life, her mother was always scolding her saying:
“Have your bones hardened?”
Or saying:
“Ling Yin, I’ve made you bone soup today.”
Xu Xin Nian sighed:
“So that’s what ‘without becoming gu, cannot escape great calamity’ means.”
If the supreme experts of various systems replaced the Heavenly Dao, all practitioners of their respective systems would ascend along with them.
The Gu God wanted Xu Ling Yin to quickly cultivate and become Gu, intending to nurture her as a confidant.
Xu Qi An said gravely:
“If she becomes gu, Ling Yin will turn into a mentally deficient gu beast, acting only on instinct, unable to retain human nature.
“Of course, in the Gu God’s view, human nature is completely meaningless.”
If becoming gu didn’t have such severe after-effects, the Gu Clan would have defected to the Gu God long ago, and wouldn’t have passed down the concept of sealing the Gu God generation after generation.
Hearing this, Xu Ling Yin’s delicate brows furrowed:
“As stupid as Bai Ji?”
She looked terrified.
You and Bai Ji are equally matched, where do you get the confidence to look down on her… the brothers thought simultaneously.
However, while intelligence might be lacking, emotions couldn’t be missing.
If Xu Ling Yin lost her emotions, she would become a gu beast that only knew how to eat.
At that time, wherever Gu Beast Ling Yin appeared, all life would perish for ten thousand li, and not even grass would grow.
Four Supreme Experts ah, just thinking about it is despair… Xu Xin Nian made a sound of acknowledgment and said irritably:
“An advisor is an advisor, where does the ‘dog-headed’ come from?
“The great calamity is a future matter, despair is also a future matter, but before the great calamity arrives, Big Brother still has much to do.
“Among the four Supreme Experts, Buddha has already established his position. Even if Big Brother becomes a half-step Martial God, he can’t rashly enter the Western Regions. The Buddhist sect can be left alone for now.
“The Gu God has no affiliated forces. Big Brother should move the Gu Clan to the Central Plains beforehand, then wait for Him to break free from the seal—there’s no better option.
“But the Ancient One and the Shaman Religion need special attention.
“The former, after returning to peak strength, might gather the overseas descendants of gods and demons under his command—this would be an extremely massive force. Big Brother needs to send people early to gather these descendants of gods and demons and make them our own.
“As for the latter, the Shaman God hasn’t broken free from the seal yet, and you’re now a half-step Martial God—you could destroy the Shaman Religion. But I feel that since the Shaman system excels at divination, they wouldn’t leave such a big vulnerability.”
Not bad, my brother Xin Nian has the makings of a Prime Minister… Xu Qi An nodded with satisfaction:
“No matter what means the Shaman Religion has in reserve, they can run but their temple can’t—I will make them pay the price. As for gathering the descendants of gods and demons, who should we send?”
Xu Xin Nian looked toward the door, revealing a strange smile:
“Let my new sister-in-law go, the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, right?”
Hearing this, Xu Qi An also pinched his brow like Xu Xin Nian had.
“If it weren’t for her accompanying me at sea, I’d have her strung up and beaten by now.”
The eldest young master had returned after months away, and everyone had been quite happy, but then suddenly a seductive fox spirit popped up behind him, smiling and saying:
“Hello little sisters, I am Xu Ning Yan’s demon lover, from now on I’ll be your elder sister.”
Xu Qi An said no no no, she’s joking, we’re completely innocent, heaven and earth bear witness.
But no one believed him.
Who would believe someone who frequented brothels to listen to music every day?
Fox spirits are just like that, they fear the world isn’t chaotic enough and cause trouble everywhere… Xu Qi An snatched away Xu Ling Yin’s cakes, then pressed down on her head to restrain her.
Seeing his sister crying out in frustration, he felt much better.
Xu Xin Nian showed no intention of upholding justice for his young sister, instead taking two cakes and stuffing them in his mouth:
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll head out first.”
“Where are you going?”
“To watch a show.”
…
Inner Hall.
The Nine-Tailed Fox sipped her tea and delicately picked up a cake, looking over Lin An with her stern face, Mu Nan Chi with her cold smile, Xu Ling Yue with her expressionless face, Ye Ji with her resentful look, and the aunt who feared demons and didn’t know where to put her hands.
“You sisters really can’t take a joke,” the Nine-Tailed Fox said with a smile:
“Constable Xu and I are completely innocent.”
While claiming innocence, she kept calling them sisters.
Mu Nan Chi made a sound of acknowledgment:
“If you’re so innocent, why did you follow him to sea and share life and death?”
Life and death experiences were what the Nine-Tailed Fox herself had mentioned earlier.
“It was just mutual benefit,” the Nine-Tailed Fox said pitifully:
“If I had something with him, how could I watch him flirt with the Merfolk Queen and accept her token of love?”
The gunpowder atmosphere in the inner hall suddenly intensified.
Even the aunt now felt the eldest young master had gone too far.
Xu Xin Nian, who had reached the door, turned back in surprise to look at his big brother—another lover overseas.
With just this turn of the head, Xu Xin Nian was stunned.
Before him, his big brother’s hair had turned frost-white, his countenance was weary, and his eyes held the vicissitudes of time.
In an instant, he seemed to have aged several decades.
A painful ruse… Xu Xin Nian understood immediately.