Chapter 463 — When Will the Locust Blossoms Bloom
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Dragon Qilin cautiously picked his way across the streets strewn with poisonous flowers and leaves, looked up at the young man and woman still standing at the window, and muttered softly: "This is how the Patriarch fell in the Western Lands back then. That old reprobate abandons me every year to make a trip to the Western Lands..."
Shen Mu finally roused himself from the land of tender passion and said: "Sister Mu, we still have proper business to attend to."
Mu Yingxue's face flushed slightly. She pinched the hem of her garment and said: "Nighttime is when the walking marriage happens—why are you in such a hurry? Can't you hold it in? Though if you really are in a hurry... even if you're in a hurry, it won't do! I can't accommodate you. Here, women are exalted and men are lowly—men must accommodate women!"
Shen Mu blinked and patiently waited for her to finish, then said: "Sister, the reason I came to the Western Lands this time is to help Xiong Xiyu and Xiong Qi'er, mother and daughter, reclaim the position of Lord of the True Heaven Palace. That is why I stirred up such a commotion. This should have been your Western Lands' internal affair—I shouldn't have interfered. But back when Xiong Xiyu was overthrown by the Yu family, so many of the Xiong family died, and you were deeply entangled in it as well."
Mu Yingxue nodded. She ordered someone to invite Dragon Qilin and Xiong Qi'er up, and continued to cling to his side, saying: "When the Yu family moved against the Xiong family, I did indeed play a significant role. The Yu family had a Bagou whose origins were terrifying beyond words. I too was forced beyond choice before I agreed to poison the Xiong family for the Yu family. But the poison I used was not one that takes lives—you know this."
Shen Mu nodded. The poison Mu Yingxue had used was the Entangling Silk Toxin—a poison that cripples cultivation but does not harm life. When Shen Mu first encountered Xiong Xiyu, she had been afflicted by the Entangling Silk Toxin, her cultivation severely damaged, pursued by Yu Bochuan and his followers, utterly bedraggled.
Mu Yingxue's expression darkened: "I never imagined the Yu family would be so ruthless—to pull the Xiong family up by the roots, to cut the grass and tear out its roots... But even if I had known the Yu family would strike to kill, I still could only have poisoned the Xiong family."
Shen Mu looked perplexed.
Mu Yingxue sighed: "The lives of my Mu family and Thunder Mountain City rested on my shoulders alone. If I had refused, the Yu family would have moved against my Mu family and Thunder Mountain City. As a Poison Master, I had to consider my Mu family. Nai Kui hates me bitterly, doesn't she?"
Guilt flashed across her face, but she quickly masked it and restored her usual cold expression: "It doesn't matter if she hates me. I could not gamble my family's lives for her sake."
Shen Mu said: "Sister, you should know what my purpose is in coming here?"
Mu Yingxue was, after all, the matriarch of the Mu family, well-connected and well-informed. She nodded: "I know. From the moment you set foot in the Western Lands and the True Heaven Palace issued a warrant for your arrest, I knew your purpose. The Dark Demon Cult Leader, ambitious and far-sighted, would not risk mortal danger to travel all the way to the Western Lands for the sake of romantic entanglements. You did not come for me, nor for a walking marriage—you came to accomplish a great undertaking."