Chapter 406 — Unrivaled

"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.

Still, domestic shame should not be aired abroad, and an emperor must keep his dignity. Emperor Yanfeng looked again at Granny Zhu, and his mind went utterly blank; his lips felt dry and his tongue parched, and the three thousand beauties of his inner palace lost all their color in an instant. When Shen Mu had rescued him from the hands of the old Dao Lord and the old Tathagata, he had arranged for him to stay here. Emperor Yanfeng remembered the place, but had never seen its true face; it was always Granny Zhu who passed him his meals on the end of a bamboo pole. Now that he could behold Granny Zhu's true face, he was struck dumb as though at a heavenly being, and his soul quite left him.

Shen Mu said loudly, "Your Majesty, do you still want your empire? That one is Cult Master Li! " Emperor Yanfeng suppressed the shock in his heart, hastily drew back his gaze, and did not dare look again.

Granny Zhu cackled, "You little wretch, spoiling my sport — otherwise this empire would have been our Heavenly Sacred Cult's! Emperor, are your wounds healed?

Has your cultivation returned to its peak? If not, I fear you are finished! " Emperor Yanfeng's gaze shifted and settled on Yu Zhaoqing.

He saw that this woman was somewhat different from humans, like one from an alien realm, and thought: "Is she the Tianyu clan chief mentioned in my dear minister Shen's memorial?

Her cultivation is formidable as well.

. . Against whom are they guarding? " He had barely thought this when he also saw the lame elder seated in his wheeled chair, and the deaf elder in the hall wielding his brush like flying.

Then his gaze turned of its own accord to the youth coming down from the mountain. Emperor Yanfeng's heart was greatly shaken. Looking at the youth with the box on his back — he seemed young in years, yet the feeling he gave was one of immeasurable strength, overbearing even beyond the gods who come from Heaven above!

"I should have brought the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon! " Emperor Yanfeng ground his teeth. His divine treasury was too grievously damaged; his cultivation had still not fully recovered.

But Shen Mu had gathered the realm's masters of numerology and built the Divine Bridge spatial numerology model, from which he had puzzled out many secrets for repairing the divine treasury; now his cultivation had recovered to ninety percent, which made him a peak expert of the age. Yet facing this youth, he had the feeling of a dragon gripped at its vital inch, about to be stripped of hide and drawn of sinew — exceedingly perilous, more perilous than the old Dao Lord or the old Tathagata! "The emperor's cultivation is not bad either.

" Xing Han looked toward him and saluted.

"Xing Han, a rustic wanderer of the wilds, pays his respects to Your Majesty. Your Majesty's power has already reached a level near that of the gods. Your divine treasury was destroyed once and then remade; it is stronger than the divine treasuries of others, and worth collecting! " His eyes were the blind elder's Sacred Pupils, and in them seemed to dwell a strange sorcery that could see through everything in a person.

At a glance he saw that Emperor Yanfeng had been broken and then re-established, his divine treasury almost unmatched in the world for stability, and could not help feeling the hunter's delight at the sight of game. Emperor Yanfeng felt as though he had become the quarry, marked by the hunter, and his heart clenched.

Xing Han then looked at the blind elder, and his face showed amazement.

He praised him: "Fellow Daoist, your mind is so powerful. Though I dug out both your eyes, you have opened a new path and reached another summit of the Sacred Pupil. Is this the Heart Sacred Pupil?

To use your primordial spirit in place of the Sacred Pupil — a Heart Sacred Pupil unmatched in the world. I very much like your primordial spirit. " The blind elder gave a cold snort.

Xing Han looked at Yu Zhaoqing, and his eyes lit up.