Chapter 406 — Unrivaled
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"The father-in-law has come to kill the son-in-law!
" Si Yunxiang's excited little face was flushed crimson. "The emperor meant to take his head, so the Cult Master had no choice but to resist; he gathered the whole strength of our Heavenly Sacred Cult, finished the emperor off, and made himself emperor. But Princess Xiu was married to the Cult Master and became one of his palace beauties. Though her heart clung to her lover, she was bound to avenge her father's murder as well — torn and tangled, and all the while on guard against the jealousies of the harem. And then there was the Holy Maiden Xiang — that is, me — bent on killing the Cult Master and taking the throne herself. So Princess Xiu had to fend off my plots and intrigues in the harem and shield the Cult Master, and yet also to kill him. Truly, what a tormented love it was!
" Ling Yuxiu gave her a double roll of the eyes. "Girl Xiang, you have let your imagination run away with you. My father has come this time on account of Yu Zhaoqing, chief of the Tianyu clan. To settle so many of the Tianyu clan he had to come in person; and besides, the clan chief is the master of the Tianyu World, and in any case must be received by him face to face.
It is not at all that he has come to kill the cowherd.
" Shen Mu's flute melody was sweet and winding; one flood dragon after another swam forth and appeared before them. Almost at the same instant, roar upon roar of dragons came, dragon qi raced crisscrossing through the sky, and Emperor Yanfeng descended from the heavens.
The emperor's purpose in coming this time was not entirely as Ling Yuxiu had said. He had come not only for Yu Zhaoqing and the Tianyu clan, but for Ling Yuxiu as well. The blind elder had carried Ling Yuxiu off and lured him to the Great Thunderclap Temple, where he had been forced to spend several days debating the Dharma with the Tathagata before he could extricate himself. Not long ago Shen Mu had sent men with a memorial; the moment he received it he hurried straight here, leaving palace guards and imperial forest troops far behind him, all to call the rogue to account.
The wretch's audacity was boundless — he had even carried off the emperor's own daughter by force. To be sure, had he but asked, Ling Yuxiu would have gone with him of her own accord; but to take her by force was simply intolerable!
What was more, that night the old blind man had even stuffed a chicken into his hands, saying he wished to invite his co-in-law to eat chicken and drink wedding wine — which had left him with an ominous feeling, as though a pig had got at his family's cabbage, and his heart was sorely wounded. Yet when Emperor Yanfeng landed in the manor, only then did he sense that something was amiss.
The atmosphere of this manor was decidedly wrong. There stood the old blind man who had carried off his daughter — short of stature, yet of a bearing immensely grand, black dragon bones coiling and wheeling about him, killing intent cold and stark. And before hall after hall stood heroine after heroine, wreathed in murderous fury.
Emperor Yanfeng's eye twitched wildly; among these women was none other than his own birth mother, the Empress Dowager!
"The Empress Dowager left the palace half a year ago. I sent men to inquire, and it turned out she had got word of the Jade-Faced Poison King and gone off after him. " Emperor Yanfeng's face went livid, and he thought: "How could I allow such a thing, which brings shame upon the imperial house?
So I had men secretly spread word of the Jade-Faced Poison King, to draw out those paramours of his, that they might all chase him together — meaning to use their hands to force the Empress Dowager back. What, then — has she made peace with these old adversaries, and now means to settle down here with them?
" He was beyond tears. The women of the Ling family had always been bold in their ways, unlike other demure little beauties; they dared to pursue their own happiness.