TL-checked : Zaki, Edited : Animeart

  Lin Shu was reading with Yingying in Wutong Garden, and stayed with her for an hour before he heard Ling Fengxiao’s footsteps outside.

  After settling Yingying down to sleep, the two of them were left in the room, Lin Shu asked, “How did it go?”

  “There is no change.” Ling Fengxiao said, “Empress Mother is still telling me about the confinement of the Phoenix Mountain Villa by successive emperors. When I said I didn’t want to, she softly told me that it was about the prosperity of Phoenix Mountain Villa for thousands of years to come.”

  Lin Shu: “Is there anything special about it?”

  Ling Fengxiao frowned slightly: “Empress Mother really does not like Father, but also really cares about the prosperity of the Phoenix Mountain Villa.”

  Having said that, he seemed to have thought of something: “In fact, every disciple of Phoenix Mountain Villa is very keen to make the villa prosperous.”

  Lin Shu: “.…… Huh?”

  Ling Fengxiao smiled: “In the Villa, there are only homeless orphaned women. They are as close as sisters and family members. There is no estrangement, they naturally work together for the villa. Whenever the senior sisters, or any married sisters are wronged outside, the entire villa will avenge her.”

  After saying this, he lowered his eyes: “It is impossible to say that only the Queens of the past dynasties have suffered in the palace.”

  Lin Shu thought the Empress may indeed have her own hardships.

  He and Ling Fengxiao could not understand the Empress because neither had experienced the Empress’ life – being under the control of others, spending thirty years in the deep palace, and being married to the Emperor trying to portray a happy family, but in reality they were actually wary of each other.

  Ling Fengxiao continued: “When I was a child, I listened to stories from older uncles. It was said that the Phoenix was born in a Phoenix nest in a fertile field thousands of years ago. The Fertile field was thousands of miles away and it was the territory of the Phoenix people…… The Phoenix people were like a family, eating bamboo, living in Wutong forest and drinking fruit dews. At the end of their life, they were reborn by Nirvana and the endless cycle continued. Every year in the sixth month, all families would come to worship.”

  Lin Shu thought that after the Mortal Emperor cut off the Dragon Vein, the Heavenly Dao collapsed and the Divine beasts perished. Perhaps the things Ling Fengxiao described may indeed have existed.

  Ling Fengxiao cut the lantern flowers and continued: “I didn’t believe it before, thinking it was nonsense. I didn’t believe it until my Empress Mother played the Phoenix Flute and attracted the Phoenix’s residual soul in a hidden place to show to me. My Empress Mother’s blood is very special in the lineage of Phoenix Mountain Villa. Others playing the Phoenix flute did not attract the Phoenix and had no effect. Only when she played the Phoenix flute could it attract the Phoenix.

  Lin Shu said, “Therefore, you, who were borne by Her Majesty the Empress, have purer Phoenix blood.”

  Ling Fengxiao: “You could say that. Empress Mother once had said that she had been predetermined to become the Empress of the dynasty since she was a child, and all the teachings she received were thus formulated …… and therefore she had no friends, and when she was depressed and lonely, the residual soul of the Phoenix would keep her company.”

  Having said this, he smiled: “When I was a child, my Mother was extraordinarily strict, she would make sure I practiced martial arts, and reading, and I would only get one or two hours of rest daily. I used to find it very difficult, and when I felt uncomfortable, I would think to myself that when my Mother was young, she also lived this way by herself, so it was not very sad or difficult for me as well. Sometimes I would think that maybe my fiancee was also studying and practicing sword every day somewhere in the world…… After thinking about it like this, the days would be much faster.”

  Lin Shu just blinked innocently.

  Ling Fengxiao kissed his eyes.

  He asked, “So, are you going to be the Mortal Emperor or not?”

  “I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint Empress Mother.” Ling Fengxiao lightly said, “But I have already fulfilled everything in my power …… as a son of man and minister of man. Even if I do not ascend to the throne, I have promised her the prosperity of Phoenix Mountain Villa for a hundred generations, and the disciples of the Phoenix Mountain Villa will never be bound by the bloodline physique. I myself, also already have endless cultivation, eternal life and an immortal body. I don’t know what else she wants.”

  “Northern and Southern Xia have completely negotiated peace, and the Empress Mother has set the venue at Phoenix Mountain Villa, which I am afraid is the last chance for me. After the surrender of Northern Xia, the country can’t be without a monarch even for a day. If I don’t let Xiao Shao appear in those few days and inherit the throne, I must be prepared to give up my relationship with my Mother as her son and never communicate with her even when I die”

  Lin Shu touched him.

  Ling Fengxiao grabbed his hand: “But…… My mind is made up.”

  My mind is made up.

  In that case &#k2014;&#k2014;

  Lin Shu: “All right.”

  Ling Fengxiao looked at the dancing candlelight, his eyes slightly perplexed.

  Lin Shu was held quietly by him.

  He knew that it was difficult to have it both ways, and sometimes you had to give up something, even though it might be difficult to give it up.

  This matter could not be avoided, because everyone in the mortal world was suffering from these kinds of issues everyday.

  \r \r \r

  He was thinking that he should fulfill his duties as a husband, so that the Big Miss would not suffer so much.

  He said, “If you become the Mortal Emperor, I will have to stay in the deep palace all my life. Umm…… You can pretend that you don’t want to become the Emperor because of me.”

  In this way, if Ling Fengxiao ever regretted his decision to “not become the Mortal Emperor”, he would blame Lin Shu and not himself.

  Ling Fengxiao: “I definitely won’t keep you in the deep palace for a long time. But you used to say, ‘it’s okay with me’.”

  Lin Shu said, “It doesn’t matter.”

  Then mobilizing all of his vocabulary reserves, he added fuel to the fire and jealousy: “Even if I don’t care where I am, I definitely don’t want to see you …… going to and coming from the Imperial court day after day, entangled in the government affairs, um …… the memorials piling up like a mountain, making you exhausted …… burning the midnight oil, night and day …… buried in the …… laborious form of the paperwork, the locust plague in the Central Plains, the rebellion of the foreigners, the earthquakes in the West, the floods in the South, the drought in the North, the disaster in the East ……”

  Stuck.

  Ling Fengxiao raised his eyebrows: “The East?”

  Lin Shu: “East’s…… Hurricane?”

  Ling Fengxiao kissed him affectionately and said, “My baby is so good.”

  Lin Shu wanted to say something, but his lips were blocked by a kiss from Xiao Shao who had suddenly changed into the current form. And then he wasn’t able to say anything all night.

  Shao Gege had recently found his conscience and didn’t go too far. He was very gentle and lingering, like lost in the depths of peach blossoms in March.

  He felt as if he was a small boat that had strayed into the depths of the Peach Blossom River, losing the boat’s paddle and only swaying with the undulating current.

  Lin Shu trembled slightly, let out a soft breath, looked at Xiao Shao’s face, and felt himself somewhat confused.

  His fingers were also trembling and he didn’t have much strength. He wanted to grab Xiao Shao’s shoulders, but he couldn’t reach them and slid down a bit.

  Xiao Shao’s chest, waist and abdomen, the muscles were well-defined, warm and firm.

  The moment he touched it, he heard his heartbeat again.

  Lin Shu closed his eyes, feeling ashamed of the ancestors of the Sword Pavilion.

  But …… again, there was no way he could refuse.

  He thought that perhaps he could only wait until they met in the yellow springs a hundred years later, and then apologize to his master, and the ancestors of the Sword Pavilion.

  The elders of the Sword Pavilion might reprimand him for his frivolity and indulgence, or perhaps might hate him for his immorality.

  At that time, what would he say?

  He thought that he would say that it was not out of frivolity nor out of indulgence. He had questioned the Taoist heart, and it was not that he had not tried to be heartless.

  Apart from these four sentences, he had nothing to say.

  It was not because Xiao Shao was very good to him.

  It was because Xiao Shao was a very good person.

  He was completely willing.

  After it was over, he slept drowsily.

  In the morning, the sleep gradually lightened, confusing dreams came and went, and at the end, he dreamed of a Phoenix.

  It was the remnant soul of the Phoenix that had once appeared in the Palace, and it was bowing its head with docility to a person.

  The person was dressed in a broad-sleeved gown like a flowing cloud of mist, and was well-groomed, with a face that captivated all beings; it was the Empress.

  The Empress seemed to look like a very young girl, a delicate maiden. She hugged the long beak of the phoenix and closed her eyes, endlessly despondent.

  Lin Shu jerked awake and opened his eyes to see Xiao Shao, before he felt a little more relieved.

  The quilt was not properly covering his body, and Xiao Shao was not properly dressed, the collar exposed a large part of the chest.

  The man’s face was good-looking, and the rest of his body was also good-looking. Lin Shu felt that the scene in front of him was a little too provocative. If this was the modern times and the girls saw such a scene, it would for sure make them all infatuated.

  There were a few red marks on the left side of his chest, probably scratched out by him unintentionally.

  Lin Shu just pondered whether such marks would hurt, and then reflected, this crow had a phantom body, not only would it not hurt, but also he could eliminate the marks at will. Now that he kept the ambiguous marks, Lin Shu was not sure what other intentions he had.

  He sat up, pulled the corner of the quilt, and deliberately wrapped Xiao Shao into a tight bundle, before intending to continue to lie down.

  When he was about to lie down, from the corner of his eyes he suddenly saw something. He turned his head and suddenly felt cold behind his back.

  The mirror.

  The strange mirror was floating by the window, facing them.

  Lin Shu was sure that this thing had always stayed well within his brocade pouch he had with him, and had never been taken out.

  He gathered his true Qi and received the mirror into his hand.

  The scene in the mirror did not change much, only the pixels were clearer again, and he saw that the object stuck in his chest was not very large, not like a regular sword, but something very thin and pointed.

  After looking at the front, when he turned to the back, he was stunned again.

  There was a crack on the back, right in the middle of the words “Everything in this world is born from cause and effect”, and it was a bit ugly.

  Lin Shu was a little uneasy and threw the ominous thing back to the Qingming cave.

  This time, going back to sleep was quite impossible.

  Fortunately, it was almost time for Xiao Shao to wake up.

  Then, as in the past, he got up and was tossed around by Xiao Shao, dressed in clean clothes, and served by the maids in the Wutong court. Although he had no need for Dust-free pill and Fasting Pill, since he had taken it regularly for years, it had now become a habit.

  The next few days were spent dealing with the surrender of Northern Xia.

  There was no way that they would not surrender. The only heir of the Royal family was held in the hands of Ling Fengxiao – even if that didn’t faze them, with Ling Fengxiao’s current strength, everyone knew it was just a matter of time to conquer Northern Xia.

  On the day of the official visit to Phoenix Mountain Villa, when the carriage was ready and was about to depart, Ling Fengxiao took Xiao Xuan and Xiao Lingyang out of the underground palace, where they had not seen the light of day.

  These two had a physical conflict in the dungeon first.

  After a few rounds of fights, they found out that they were both vegetable chickens with no cultivation base and no power, and their immortal treasures were taken away by Ling Fengxiao, so it was hard to tell the difference between them.

  ——Then it turned into verbal attacks.

  Until Ling Fengxiao carried them out, the two brothers were still tirelessly kicking the ball around.

  Xiao Lingyang said, “If you are unsuitable, you can at least let your father be!”

  “My father is eighty years old!” said Xiao. “He didn’t want to be a pawn for a long time. Eighty! Do you have a conscience?”

  Xiao Lingyang said, “Old age but his vigorousness is good!”

  Xiao Xuan said, “Then why don’t you let your sister be the one?”

  “My sister is not a man!” Xiao Lingyang said, and secretly glanced at Ling Fengxiao, seemingly worried.

  “Since you have the face to say that old age is good, I have the face to say that being a woman does not matter.”

  Ling Fengxiao was so impatient that he threw a silencing spell and stopped the noise.

  Lin Shu: “Is His Majesty of Northern Xia so old?”

  Ling Fengxiao withdrew his hand that knocked Xiao Xuan’s dog’s head and returned, “It’s not that he’s old enough, but he wouldn’t be so foolish.”

  Xiao Xuan was banned from speaking, unable to speak, he whimpered a few times.

  Ling Fengxiao seemed curious about what he wanted to say and lifted the silencing spell.

  Xiao Xuan: “Isn’t Younger brother not stupid then?!”

  Ling Fengxiao’s face was expressionless as he dropped the silencing spell to stop him from talking again.