Chapter 33 He was cursing in his mind.
The old ancestor was determined to die.
—Duan Jiuyou has left the Ten Realms.
The news reached the abandoned house in less than half an hour.
The vassal, clutching Xiao Cui's letter, stared blankly at his lord as he ate breakfast.
The Lord went out last night and didn't sleep after he came back. He stayed in the study reading. Just now, after drinking a cup of tea, he actually asked me for breakfast!
After Duan Jiu left, the Venerable One's appetite decreased. He usually didn't wait for breakfast and would spend most of his time washing up, going to bed, but today was especially unusual.
The vassal guessed that something must have happened between his lord and Duan Jiuyou.
Why aren't you sleeping tonight?
He didn't report the news of Duan Jiuyou leaving the country, and he really wanted to find out some secrets himself.
Di Jiang originally didn't want to pay attention to the vassal, but he leaned forward, his body covering most of the table, as if he was determined to see something on his face.
"I'm eating, can't you see?"
Di Jiang chewed the crisp bamboo shoot in his mouth without expression.
How do you eat and sleep?
Chewing with your eyes closed?
The vassal's face showed even greater doubt.
"Yes, why did you eat today? You usually don't like to eat, and the kitchen didn't prepare any food for you today. But you said you were hungry, so we've only just had time to eat now."
Emperor Jiang scooped up a mouthful of scallop porridge, hesitated for a moment, and didn't eat it. He then looked back at the vassal who was staring intently at him.
—Is it illegal for me to eat?
He was cursing under his breath.
He didn't eat dinner before going out hunting last night, shouldn't he at least have a bite of breakfast when he gets back? Does he have to go hungry for two meals before eating? Is there no rice left in the abandoned house? He earns so much money every day!
“I’m exhausted,” the minister continued his analysis.
In the Ten Realms, there is no clean spiritual energy to replenish physical strength, and the greater the consumption, the more food is needed to replenish it. He asked Di Jiang, "Did you do something that consumed your physical strength?"
Yesterday, Dijiang hiked up Shifeng Ridge. It wasn't too tiring, but it did require some physical exertion.
But he ignored him, picked a few pieces of cold, crisp vegetables and put them into his porridge bowl, then continued eating.
"Did you go looking for Duan Jiuyou?"
That's nonsense.
Dijiang picked out a few shredded ginger pieces from the cold dish that he didn't like.
The fact that it was both physically demanding and involved searching for Duan Jiuyou led the vassal to arrive at a shocking conclusion.
"—You went up the mountain to sleep with Duan Jiuyou?!?!"
The already silent study fell even more silent after his exclamation.
The vassal's voice was so loud that even the birds and beasts near the window were startled and lost a few feathers.
Di Jiang put down his chopsticks. Judging from the exaggerated tone of his voice, the sleeping that the vassal mentioned was definitely not as simple as the sleeping he and Jiu You usually talked about.
The dishes on the table were not to his liking to begin with, and now they made him even less hungry. He wiped his hands with a handkerchief and leaned back in his chair.
The vassal vaguely sensed a change in the lord's mood. Before, it was just normal, without any particular emotion, but now it seemed to be a hint of anger.
He saw the Lord extend a finger at him.
Before the vassal could react, he was struck in the chest by an external force and thrown against the wall.
Although Di Jiang did not care about the strict separation between men and women, some of his words were only used in private jokes between him and Jiu You.
When it comes to a woman's reputation, sleeping together should be done cleanly and without any ulterior motives. What others might think is their business, but these words cannot come from one's own people, especially those on his side.
Duan Jiuyou is not such a casual person, nor is he.
"Don't say such nonsense again," Di Jiang warned expressionlessly.
The vassal was mentally immature and, in some ways, was like a child who spoke without restraint. Only after being beaten and scolded would he learn what was wrong.
The vassal stood up, clutching his chest, and nervously lowered his head.
"Your subordinate knows he was wrong."
The Lord hadn't hit him for several months, but he did today, which meant those words were unpleasant to hear and shouldn't be spoken carelessly. He secretly made a mental note of this, and then listened to Emperor Jiang's words.
"Has news returned from Windswept Ridge?"
The minister, seemingly acknowledging the order, replied a beat later, "Xiao Cui said Duan Jiuyou packed his bags and returned to the Heavenly Realm, without taking any of the Ao Sect disciples with him. We don't know what he's doing there. Last night she sat in silence all night, seemingly grappling with some unsolvable mystery. Considering you returned very late last night, having come from her quarters, I wondered if something had happened between you two, and she was troubled by your relationship, wanting to find a quiet place to calm down..."
"What's so special about this that it's worth pondering?"
Di Jiang got up and walked to a Northern Cold Flower by the window.
This thing is a plant unique to the Ten Realms. It is said that the petals are black and the stamens are emerald green. He was curious about what the flower would look like after it bloomed, but unfortunately, it has not shown any signs of life to this day.
He loosened the soil around it with a hoe, and after a long while, he said to the minister, "She returned to the Heavenly Realm because of her merits and spiritual power."
"Merit and spiritual power?" The minister was increasingly confused. "Didn't you absorb it all into your primordial spirit last time? Could it be that this spiritual power is more than forty percent?"
Of course there are more, but we don't know where they went.
He went to see her yesterday, and she was haughty and composed, acting as if she had something good for him. She must have gotten something from him, but it's not easy to get; one has to go to the Heavenly Realm to retrieve a sample. He asked her yesterday if she wanted to go back to the abandoned house because he didn't want her to make that trip.
The vassal's intellect was limited; unlike the emperor, he couldn't think of many things. He focused solely on one problem—
"Isn't it worth thinking about matters of the heart?"
Why does it have to be about spiritual power? Can't it be about emotional distress? There's a sentence in Xiao Cui's letter that's worth pondering: Duan Jiuyou has already begun to cleanse his soul.
When the vassal asked this question, he didn't really expect his lord to answer it. After all, his lord rarely spoke long sentences to him throughout the year, often picking and choosing questions and only giving a word or two when he wanted to.
Perhaps today I'll be willing to answer, my gaze drifting to the window, looking at a tree covered in cool snow.
"Many things in the world happen naturally, especially feelings. They will come when they are meant to, and they will not come out of thin air if they are not meant to."
The vassal still didn't understand: "So what are your feelings for Duan Jiuyou now?"
—There's not much emotion involved.
Di Jiang thought about it for a moment.
—But sometimes I want something to happen.
Especially on such a late night, and especially after not seeing each other for so long, I really wanted to pull her close and cuddle her. Perhaps when men and women spend a lot of time together, they both develop a bit of an urge to be intimate.
He had little experience in this area, unlike Duan Jiuyou who was a seasoned veteran. He wasn't sure what this impulse meant, so he simply let it run its course without trying to control it.
If feelings are there, then so be it; it's better than talking to yourself. If not, it doesn't matter either. With the nation and the world unified, there will always be things that interest him more.
The vassal's eyes lit up, as if he had figured something out: "I think you want to pursue Duan Jiuyou!"
Di Jiang looked at him for a while and said, "Go out and close the door. You don't need to come back in."
He was already annoyed with him, and now they're still talking about it?
When Duan Jiuyou returned to Dixi Mountain, it was already night.
The disciples were forging swords in the weapon-refining workshop when they saw her return, and they almost burst into tears. They had been living in fear for many days, worried that their ancestor's rebellion might fail, or that she might actually succeed.
In their minds, the Desolate Lord Emperor was a ferocious beast. They didn't say it, but they all felt that he was difficult to discipline. No one dared to imagine that a "wolf" who ate meat and drank blood could treat the Three Realms kindly.
Duan Jiuyou sat on the sword-forging furnace, which was as tall as a room, swinging his little feet back and forth while taking a bite of the crisp fairy fruit.
She doesn't have as many worries as they do. The cost of their rebellion is very low; even if their entire family is implicated, they would just be confined to one place to live out their old age.
No one can extinguish the lineage of the Ao clan; death is simply impossible.
However, the Imperial Territory was indeed a source of considerable worry for Duan Jiuyou. During their last argument, he made a very valid point.
She was not afraid of death, but she did not want to be a sinner.
The destiny ordained by Heaven has already fallen upon her and Di Jiang. No matter how great the obstacles, she must help him ascend to the throne. Otherwise, if the Heavenly Realm changes a hundred years later, affecting the Three Realms, she will become the first sinner who dies but cannot be found, and is cursed by all while alive.
Just thinking about this scenario makes one unhappy.
Duan Jiuyou chewed on a crisp fairy fruit, then took another bite.
She had to give the merit and spiritual power stored within her body to Di Jiang. Although it couldn't help him repair his primordial spirit in one fell swoop, it could at least alleviate his pain from the cold. Moreover, this merit and spiritual power was the fastest way to repair the primordial spirit. Once he received the benefit and tasted the sweetness, he would naturally be willing to follow her.
Based on this long period of contact, Duan Jiuyou had gotten a general idea of Di Jiang's personality. He was actually quite easy to please; as long as your kindness to him was genuine, he was willing to consider you one of his own.
And this person...
As soon as her wobbling little feet stopped, a thin, aloof face involuntarily popped into her mind.
Duan Jiuyou's heart skipped a beat, and for some reason he thought of the hand that had pinched his face that day, and the playful eyes in the dark of night.
Duan Jiuyou, his thoughts still unsettled, asked his disciple, "Who is the current Medicine Master of Huangchen Palace?"
The merit and spiritual power within her body were not easy to obtain. Because she practiced illegal cultivation, she could not condense it into a spiritual pill. She had to use the Fuling Pill from Huangchen Palace as a guide to transfer the spiritual power to the Emperor's realm.
However, this Fuling Pill is extremely precious, and there are only four left in the entire Huangchen Palace. Duan Jiuyou didn't know if the Medicine Master was easy to talk to. He was just about to suggest sending some generous gifts when his disciple reported, "It's Yan Kuo, a disciple of Ancestor Hongyan. Do you want to get the pill from him?"
Ah, that might be difficult.
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