by Feng Yue
It was like a light had shone in the darkness.
“Long time no see, cousin.”
In the long silence, time seemed to freeze.
She stared at Ye Qingxuan and then blinked.
“Did you miss me?”
Ye Qingxuan was struck dumb. He lowered his head and scratched his nose. He suddenly felt a bit awkward and wanted to look somewhere else.
He didn’t know what he should say.
Even though, compared to the distance between them, the time they had been separate was short, she had changed so much that he hardly recognized her.
She’d grown much taller.
Her hair was much longer.
Her legs had grown longer.
Her chest had also gotten much bigger.
She was nothing like the annoying little devil of the past.
She finally seemed like a girl.
Ye Qingxuan smiled softly, reached out and squeezed her cheek, feeling her familiar touch.
“You’ve gotten so beautiful, Bai Xi.”
784 Pay Back in Kindness
In retrospect, it seemed like he had just parted with Bai Xi at the Sacred City the day before.
But after parting for what seemed like the short span of only one day, she was no longer the brat she seemed to be in the past, and Ye Qingxuan could no longer regard her as the annoying and naughty child she was in the past.
Gazing at her face, Ye Qingxuan sighed softly. “You’ve really grown up, Bai Xi.”
“How do I look? Has my beauty stunned you at least for a little bit?” Bai Xi winked, then thought of something, and couldn’t help but pout. “Actually, I originally intended to put on makeup, but unfortunately, you came at bad time, so you can’t see me in makeup today.”
“It’s good enough to see you.” Ye Qingxuan said, “It doesn’t matter if I don’t get to see other things.”
Bai Xi smiled. “Am I pretty?”
“Yeah.” Ye Qingxuan nodded.
Bai Xi’s smile turned a bit odd. “Is it that you want to look at me for a little while longer?”
Ye Qingxuan sighed resignedly and said nothing.
“I mean, you can look at me for as long as you want later, but before that,” Bai Xi looked down at the chains on her, “can’t you help me take it off first?”
After an awkward moment of silence, Ye Qingxuan scrambled to cut off the chains and coughed twice somewhat embarrassedly. “My bad, my bad, I didn’t notice…”
What answered him was a hug that he hadn’t experienced for a long time.
However, her embrace felt quite different from the past.
“It’s alright.” Bai Xi hugged him hard as if she wanted to latch on to him. “I forgive you.”
She used so much strength, it as if she wanted to pin him down, no, more like she wanted to keep him away, shackle him and tie him up, and carry him on her.
She wanted to make him her possession.
She hugged him so hard…
“Bai Xi?” Ye Qingxuan turned back and looked at the side of her face, confused.
“Sorry for dragging you here, it’s my fault.” She murmured softly, “I could have avoided all this, but I still wanted to see you come here; I wanted to see you coming to save me.”
She closed her eyes. “I really am too despicable.”
At the moment, he felt Bai Xi’s body stiffen.
Immediately, she cooled down. It was as if she turned from a volcano to a glacier in a moment, and she became quiet and cold, no longer overflowing with impulse.
Then, his neck hurt.
It seemed to have been pricked with a needle.
His vision darkened.
A warm and dull flow of heat spread through his body with pain. It engulfed him, dragging him into a slumber bit by bit. He looked up in shock, falling weakly onto the ground.
“Bai Xi…” He saw Bai Xi’s face, so familiar, yet her gaze was so strange. He saw no anger or hatred in her, nor was there any attachment or joy. She simply watched him quietly.
It was not Bai Xi, for Bai Xi’s gaze was always flowing no matter what, like flames. Be it anger or happiness, her feelings were always so vivid that they almost made her glow.
But at the moment, the pair of eyes became so quiet and calm.
It was as if she had become a different person.
At the moment, he finally understood something.
He gained a sudden realization. “You are… Chaoyue…”
…
In Weiyang Palace, Bai Heng shook his head in disappointment.
“That idiot, I have long hinted to him so many times about how important the survival of the nine families of the Dragon Bloodline is to Aurora.” He threw the empty wine glass onto the table and sighed in a low voice. “Yet he still doesn’t understand it.”
Someone walked in slowly from the outside of the palace and prostrated himself, kowtowing to the supreme empress. “Your Majesty.”
The man who looked genial, cultured, and fairly handsome knelt on the floor and reported with reverence. “Thanks to the foresight of Your Majesty, my daughter, Chaoyue, had overpowered the rebel, Ye Qingxuan.”
It was Yunlou Qingshu, who was once mad, dispirited, and flustered.
But at the moment, the noble that looked slightly aged, appeared valiant and in high spirits; totally a different person from the past.
Bai Heng took a glance at him and understood what had happened. He lamented knowingly, “You’re still so unreliable, Lord Yunlou. First, it was the Sacred City, then me, and finally, Her Majesty. It must have been very difficult to serve three masters.”
“A fine fowl perches only on a fine tree [1].” Yunlou Qingshu just smiled. “That is all.”
Bai Heng was not angry. He simply shrugged and sighed softly. “You’re really giving me a headache. I originally intended to let you control Bai Xi and assassinate Her Majesty.
“Now that you have defected, I don’t have any other means to…”
The Empress did not seem to have heard it.
Yunlou Qingshu just prostrated himself on the ground, constantly sprouting lengthy paragraphs of flattery. “Only Your Majesty has such foresight and the ability to see through treacherous schemes. Only Your Majesty may enjoy the fine delicacies of the world, and only Your Majesty has the right to punish the citizens and the ability to bring prosperity to the nation. I would like to congratulate Your Majesty…”
“Irrelevant words can wait until we are over there.” The Empress got up from the throne and walked to the back of it, where a door had quietly opened. “My two beloved ministers, do come with me.”
Yunlou Qingshu followed her, of course. As for Bai Heng, he looked at the two burly guards beside him, laughed self-mockingly, and got up to follow them.
The path downward was so long.
Compared to Yunlou Qingshu, who had a stunned look in his eyes, the Empress and Bai Heng were incredibly calm, as if they had experienced countless such journeys where the very different surroundings made it seem as if they were traveling in time.
“You are still a country bumpkin, after all, not having seen anything before.” Bai Heng chuckled.
Yunlou Qingshu kept his smile unchanging, but his gaze turned dark. The sentence alone was even more unbearable to Yunlou Qingshu than any other insults. Before this, even though the title of Lord Yunlou had been conferred upon him, he had never had the opportunity to enter the capital.
He wasn’t even involved in the yearly event where the nobles were invited to the capital to pay their respects to the Empress.
How could a half-blood have the privilege to meet the ruler?
They went all the way down from the ground to the steel temple. The Empress didn’t even have to say anything, and attendants dressed very differently from the palace servants naturally pulled Ye Qingxuan up from the ground, putting him on an iron chair.
They were dressed entirely in white, and even their eyes were covered with glass goggles, leaving no open spots. After
putting Ye Qingxuan on the iron chair, they pulled out the shackles in the chair and tied him up tightly.
Ye Qingxuan had yet to fall asleep.
Or rather, he was still resisting the medicine injected into his arteries.
His consciousness was hazy.
The eyes stubbornly remained partially open, his empty pupils throbbing slightly, looking at Bai Xi.
Bai Xi was still standing where she was, motionless, as if she wasn’t breathing and couldn’t feel anything.
“Good job, Chaoyue.” Yunlou Qingshu nodded to Bai Xi. “Now, come back, come over to father.”
In a flash, Bai Xi’s eyes closed, and she fell weakly onto the ground, descending into a coma.
And at the top of the steel temple, a crack slowly opened. An iron chair identical to that of Ye Qingxuan slowly descended from it. The young girl identical to Bai Xi was sitting on it.
As if she could feel no pain, even though cables were connected all over her body, a gap was opened up at the back of her neck. A long nail was wedged into her cervical vertebra, as if it reached the brain directly, and the blood had not even dried up.
She looked at Yunlou Qingshu, and her withered lips, which were the only parts of her that could move, moved slightly, but she couldn’t make a sound.
“Yes, I know.” Yunlou Qingshu reached out and stroked her hair, his gaze gentle like never before. He generously praised his daughter, who had sacrificed herself. “Chaoyue, you did a really good job, father is really proud of you.”
So, the corners of the girl’s mouth curled slightly.
She seemed to be smiling blissfully.
In her eyes, a fierce light of rage flashed past for a moment, but it quickly disappeared again.
It was Bai Xi, who had been locked into the depths of her consciousness.
“See? The resonance and connection between members of the Dragon Bloodline can be traced deeper than you think.” Bai Heng still held in his hand a plate of peanuts he took from the dining table. He leaned against Ye Qingxuan’s iron chair, stuffing salty peanuts into his mouth one by one, and continued sprouting nonsense nonchalantly. “Had you not been the only member of House Ye left alive, you would have felt it as well.
“You don’t know how much your father loved you, Ye Qingxuan. Otherwise, as long as he was willing to, you would become his puppet. It wouldn’t even pose any difficulty for him to use your body to live all over again.
“The difference in strength between Devas and civilians is absolute, and the control the higher-ups in a Deva family have over their children is simply shocking. Plus, the Yunlou line originally consists of man-made Devas anyway, and the control the higher-ups have over the rest is even stronger than the other families. What’s more, Chaoyue and Bai Xi are from the same source anyway. Oh, right, peanuts, do you want some? “
Ye Qingxuan said nothing. He simply breathed, and he breathed angrily.
He was exhausted.
“I have hinted to you so many times along the way, Ye Qingxuan, so many times, that’ll teach you a lesson.” Bai Heng smacked the back of Ye Qingxuan’s head exasperatedly. “Till the end, you didn’t even figure out who your enemy is. Why don’t you think about it, in Aurora, other than Mr. Hu, do you really have any other friends?”
Seemingly irritated by the talkative Bai Heng, the Empress cast him a glance.
Bai Heng spread his hand and finished the last few peanuts, then threw the plate aside.
“So, Zhao House which is the current royal family, Bai House, Ye House, and Yunlou House, plus the specimen of ‘Xiao House,’ that is frozen and sealed by the central control room…” Bai Heng lamented, “Out of the nine families of the Dragon Bloodline, no, I should say, the nine highest-ranking committee members of the ‘crew committee’ of the Asian colony ship back then, more than half of the genetic authority they have passed down are in your hands already.
“Congratulations, Your Majesty, after 15 years of inheriting the throne, you will finally be recognized by the central control room and become a real emperor.”
Bai Heng’s expression was somber, though he showed no pain or sadness, his expression became dark.
As the steel ceiling opened, an iron chair identical to that of Ye Qingxuan descended behind him, waiting for Bai Heng to sit on it.
He put in all his efforts and did everything in his power to prevent it for 15 years.
Yet the day had finally come.
“Please take a seat, my dear minister.” The Empress calmly urged. “Don’t make it difficult for me.”
“Rest assured, I will be a gracious loser.” Bai Heng stroked the back of the chair, but he was in no hurry to sit on it. Instead, he calmly asked, “Allow me, your disgraced minister, to ask one more question. After Your Majesty obtains the recognition of the central control room and awaken the core of the colony ship once more, what do you plan to do? Rid the country of deep-rooted evils and make great efforts to build a strong state? Or do you have any other grand visions?
“For example, reversing the Great Wall?”
Showing little self-awareness, Bai Heng spoke such a rebellious or even heinous speculation out loud.
He looked at the Emperess and gazed at her eyes.
He looked forward to even the slightest response from her.
[1] The full proverb is “A fine fowl perches only on a fine tree, and a virtuous minister serves only a virtuous master.”
785 Secre
From the first day Aurora was built—no, even before Aurora was built—Great Wall had already existed. For centuries, the sacrifices made by the Nine Families of Dragon Bloodline and boosts by countless musicians resulted in the Great Wall turning into a massive object that was almost like a catastrophe.
As long as Great Wall continued to stand tall, Aurora could never be taken, regardless of if the threat was internal or external. With the Great Wall, the Empress would be able to resist any sort of rebellion.
Therefore, the Great Wall should be something that the Empress would want to protect, instead of overthrowing it. Yet, the Empress did not say a word to counter Bai Heng’s accusations.
“I’ll assume that you staying silent means that you agreed with what I said.” Bai Heng nodded and continued to talk to himself, “A few centuries ago, the Nine Families of Dragon Bloodline relied on the central core to build the Great Wall, so it has already accumulated centuries of power. Based on how much it has accumulated, it may be the biggest deposit of aether in the entire world. The moment something like this is ‘reversed,’ it will seal itself up internally and emit radiation externally. As one may expect, there will be an unprecedented amount of aether flowing in Aurora, which will then spread to the entire world. With such a terrifying amount of aether, perhaps even the World of the Dark will be completely covered as well?”
The Empress still did not say a word. Bai Heng could only answer his own question, “If this foundation was combined with the regulation of the central core and Tung Wang Kung’s order, then it may be possible to forcefully awaken the ancient artifacts of the world and the shards of the colony ship, as long as the aether had flowed to those places. In fact…”
Bai Heng paused and narrowed his eyes before slapping the back of the chair, “By using hundreds of ancient artifacts as pivot points to form a network before extending upwards with an unprecedented resonance, one will be able to achieve a position higher than the Holy Caldron in the realm of aether. By then, all environmental factors will be in place and favorable for the accomplishment of something no one has ever done before.”
He continued, “Cleansing of the Originator.”
Just like that, he clearly and decisively articulated something that musicians of all generations never dared to think or dream about. This was no longer in the realm of something like “changing the world.” This was a power that was capable of destroying and recasting this world tens of thousands of times!
Bai Heng looked at the Emperess and asked softly, “Am I right?”
The Empress back was facing Bai Heng. She looked around the iron temple, where the “feudal thrones” were slowly descending. Finally, she looked at Bai Heng. There were no emotions in her eyes. There was neither the joy of being on the verge of achieving something great nor the fury of having been exposed. She merely looked at him.
It was not a look that belonged to a woman or even any human being. There was a peacefulness and indifference that no human would ever be able to achieve.
But Bai Heng smiled. He was pleased, or perhaps… mad with joy. It was as if he had finally taken a peek at what was hidden beneath layers of disguise. He had finally seen his enemy.
“Is that your guess? Control the Originator so that I can remain as Empress forever? How is that meaningful?” The Empress looked down at him. “I am already the Empress, Bai Heng, and the history of Aurora will remember me as the most brilliant ruler that shall never be surpassed. Why don’t you tell me, how can ‘ruling the world’ be meaningful to me?”
“Indeed, that is a goal that only humans will have.” Bai Heng nodded and looked at her. “In that case, who is this person that I am speaking to right now? Are you my Empress? Or are you my enemy?”
“Don’t you already have the answer to such a lame question?” The Empress’s answer amused Bai Heng.
“This is the first time we are meeting each other, Tung Wang Kung,” he continued, “my name is Bai Heng.”
This was a self-introduction. Polite and respectful, as if he was reporting his name before a fight. Unfortunately, his opponent was not interested in such a gimmick.
“I have long heard that the ‘Three Wise Men’ can exist in all shapes and forms.” Bai Heng looked at him carefully from head to toe and asked calmly, “Hermes is the ‘Guide,’ obsessed with arts and creation, and is a lunatic that has control over all techniques; Nibelungenlied is the ‘Witness,’ who is blinded and foolish and used by humans, and is a bacterial strain that does not even possess a self; and as for Tung Wang Kung, also known as the ‘Leader, ‘who possesses the greatest foresight and would point humans in the right direction. Why have you been possessed by evil spirits and demons from Hermes’ destruction and seal?”
