Death

In the evening, Xiao Wan'er walked into Shangguan Wan'er's house carrying a jar of wine.

After the situation stabilized, some female officials who were supposed to live in the palace were allowed to live outside the palace. Shangguan Wan'er was one of them. She bought a house in a neighborhood near Taichu Palace, quickly hired someone to decorate it, and moved in.

At that time, Xiao Wan'er's master had passed away and was unable to go to congratulate her on her new house. This was the first time Xiao Wan'er came to Shangguan Wan'er's house.

"Sister, are you here?" Shangguan Wan'er had known that Xiao Wan'er was coming, but she hadn't expected her to bring wine. "Just come over, and you've brought wine with you."

As she spoke, she took the wine, brought it to the dining table, and asked Xiao Wan'er to wait in the main meeting room.

"I'm going to the South Market to buy some snacks to go with the wine. Please wait a moment, sister."

She walked out of the house with brisk steps, and her happiness could be clearly seen just by looking at her back. Not long after, she returned home with some food and wine.

Unfortunately, Xiao Wan'er was in a bad mood. If Shangguan Wan'er was mainly eating during dinner, Xiao Wan'er was drinking almost the entire time. Shangguan Wan'er couldn't stand it any longer and pushed the mutton steamed bun in front of Xiao Wan'er towards her.

"Sister, don't just drink, eat something."

Xiao Wan'er silently finished the bowl of steamed buns and then put the bowl down silently.

"I have an old friend who injured her leg years ago and could no longer walk. I saw her and treated her. After she was healed, she needed to walk two steps on the ground to be fully recovered, but she only took one step and then stopped, without saying why. In the end, she was unable to stand up again."

"From what I hear from my sister, it doesn't seem like there really was such a disabled old friend." Shangguan Wan'er made a tentative comment after hearing this strange story.

Xiao Wan'er naturally had no such old friends.

The day before, she had asked the Queen Mother a question, but was asked to leave without receiving any response. She had been taken into Shangyang Palace by a carriage, but had to walk out step by step. As soon as she left the palace, she saw Pei Yingguan, who was guarding outside.

Xiao Wan'er went home with him and swallowed all her thoughts.

"Then who do you think I'm talking about, sister?" she asked Shangguan Wan'er.

"It must be the person my sister met yesterday." Shangguan Wan'er guessed correctly, but Xiao Wan'er didn't have time to answer before she collapsed onto the table. Her cheeks flushed, revealing she was drunk.

Monks generally do not get drunk after drinking, unless the spiritual energy in their bodies gives up resisting the alcohol.

Shangguan Wan'er sighed, called the waiter, and sent her to deliver the letter to Xiao Wan'er's home. She helped Xiao Wan'er up and helped her to rest on the couch.

When the waiter came back, he also brought Liu Mingyin. The handsome young man smiled and bowed to Shangguan Wan'er.

"Thank you, Empress Zhaorong, for taking care of my senior sister. Now I want to take her home."

Shangguan Wan'er turned aside to let Liu Mingyin in. Liu Mingyin went straight to the small couch where Xiao Wan'er was resting, carried her on his back, and said goodbye.

After arriving home, Liu Mingyin put Xiao Wan'er on her bed and signaled Pei Yingguan, who had just finished his shift, to keep quiet.

Xiao Wan'er slept until noon the next day. When she woke up, no one was home. Slowly, with a hangover headache, she walked out of the house and headed straight to the kitchen, where she found a pot of warm glutinous rice porridge already in the pot.

There was also a note next to the pot, which said that Pei Yingguan had asked for leave for her and she could rest at home for a day.

Xiao Wan'er actually stayed at home all afternoon, only getting up to prepare dinner when her shift was almost over. This time, Pei Yingguan and Liu Mingyin both finished their shifts on time, and they arrived home shortly after dinner was ready.

"Junior sister, have you rested well?" Pei Yingguan asked Xiao Wan'er, who had been drunk the day before, upon arriving home. Seeing that she was fine, he added, "If the Empress Dowager wants to see you again in the future, please postpone it if possible. The same goes for me and my junior brother."

He was really afraid that the Queen Mother would take them all to death if they had a disagreement. He could run and hide outside the palace, but Shangyang Palace was currently the Queen Mother's territory.

Xiao Wan'er nodded obediently. She had a feeling the Queen Mother wouldn't look for disciples from Biyun Monastery again.

The Queen Mother certainly hadn't contacted them again. Having lost her power, she aged rapidly, becoming, within a few months, no different from an octogenarian.

When the emperor went to see her again, he was shocked by her rapid aging.

"Mother, how did you become so old?"

"I am all alone in Shangyang Palace, without any relatives or friends around me. I feel sad."

A quick thought would have shown the emperor the flaw in the empress dowager's words—she had similarly withdrawn from her friends and family during her final two years in power, yet she appeared neither sad nor old. Unfortunately, the emperor lacked discernment.

He remembered the advice of some ministers and agreed with them. He said to the Queen Mother, "Mother, I will take you back to the palace."

The Queen Mother naturally disagreed.

She turned the emperor down with a worried look on her face. "If I return to the palace, the officials will probably worry about me meddling in government affairs. For your sake, I'd better stay in Shangyang Palace."

After hearing this, the emperor knelt before the empress dowager, hugged her legs and cried.

The Queen Mother wept bitterly, "I brought you back from Fangling to the Divine Capital to entrust the empire to you, but those five thieves, greedy for merit, alarmed me and brought me here."

The emperor felt regretful and ashamed, and cried even harder.

The court officials soon discovered that the children of the Wu family were promoted and took power again, while the major organizers of the coup were excluded from the center of power.

Pei Yingguan was also left out in the cold. Within the Shenlong Guards, the Emperor assigned all important matters to the commander, while other, less important matters were distributed to the various teams. This left him, the deputy commander, completely idle, and even Xiao Wan'er's Team A-1 with a lot less work to do.

In response, Xiao Wan'er said that she would bear the consequences of her own choices, and she could tolerate anything else as long as the emperor did not want to kill anyone.

But not everyone could tolerate it, so the five princes found a day off to visit.

"Please go back, my princes," Xiao Wan'er said, sending them away after hearing their requests. "I can't help you."

"Captain Xiao is powerful and good at divination. How could he not help us?" The five kings naturally didn't believe it and refused to leave.

"I'm just a cultivator, not a deity. How can I help someone who is destined to die?"

Xiao Wan'er's honest words shocked the five people.

After a while, one of them stood up tremblingly, stroked his beard, and regretted it deeply: "If I had known this would happen, I should have killed all the sons of the Wu family that day!"

"Eliminating the Wu family is useless; it will only lead to a faster and more miserable death for you," Xiao Wan'er immediately poured cold water on him. "Your Majesty is a man of deep affection. You instigated him to fight against his own mother, and he was forced to do so out of necessity, fulfilling your wishes. But now he holds great power and is no longer threatened. His mother is old and frail, forced to live alone in Shangyang Palace. He can't blame himself, so naturally he'll put the blame on you."

"Absurd!" someone retorted indignantly, "We are all here to eradicate the treacherous officials and restore order. Your Majesty, what right do you have to resent us?"

"No one denies that you eradicated the treacherous, but are you truly selfless?"

The pressure from the cultivators at the Entry Stage enveloped the group, making it impossible for them to continue speaking. Xiao Wan'er again asked the five to leave.

"Everyone, please go back."

Pei Yingguan and Liu Mingyin also knew about this, and had no objection to Xiao Wan'er's actions - she was already in trouble, and if she continued to hang out with these five people, she would probably be in even worse trouble.

On November 26th of the first year of the Shenlong reign, the Empress Dowager passed away in the Xianju Hall of Shangyang Palace. Her will omitted the imperial title, referring to her as "The Great Saint Empress Zetian." It also pardoned the families of Empress Wang and Consort Xiao Shufei, as well as the relatives of Chu Suiliang, Han Yuan, and Liu Shi. She also ordered a blank stele to be erected, and was buried alongside Emperor Gaozong in Qianling Mausoleum.

The emperor was deeply saddened, and the whole country mourned and the officials and the people expressed their filial piety.

During the national mourning period, Xiao Wan'er broke through to the Transcendent Realm.