Chapter 350: What Should I Do, My Lord?

Bateer nodded, lowered his head to straighten his robe: "Sir, please wait a moment, I'll be right back."

Jiang Heng bowed and saluted: "Your Highness, please go ahead."

The White River Tribe's felt tent is second only in size to the Golden Tent.

The silver bells hanging from the tent top tinkle in the wind, a sign reserved for the felt tent of a woman who has borne a heir.

Bateer took a deep breath outside the tent, lifted the flap, and entered.

His mother, Urenna, sat upright on a low couch covered with snow leopard fur.

She wore the White River Tribe's traditional silver-gray brocade robe, her features beautiful, her gaze haughty.

Bateer placed a hand on his chest and bowed: "Mother, your son has come."

Urenna didn't even lift her eyes: "The Great Khan ordered you confined to quarters for three days—have you figured it out?"

Bateer replied: "The son knows his mistake."

"You shouldn't have let the Red Mountain Tribe act so rashly, leaving an opening."

"Red Mountain Tribe?" Urenna lifted her gaze; in those deep brown eyes that once made countless prairie warriors swoon, there was only mockery: "You think you're wrong about that?"

Bateer startled.

Urenna sprang to her feet, walked over to her son: "You're wrong for letting the White Deer Tribe's vengeful spirit crawl back."

The tent fell silent.

Bateer's Adam's apple rolled: "Mother, are you referring to that little princess of Lie Kingdom?"

"Or what?" Urenna sneered, "The White Deer kneels, the Holy Maiden reincarnates—she's practically a goddess, don't you get it?"

She turned and walked to an old wooden chest at the tent's edge, opened it, pulled out a yellowed sheepskin scroll, and handed it to her son: "Look for yourself!"

Bateer took it and unfolded it.

On the sheepskin was painted a scene: a white-clad woman standing among a herd of deer, the deer kneeling, the surrounding herdsmen prostrating in worship.

Beside it was a small line of text: "Holy Maiden of the White Deer Tribe, blessed by Eternal Heaven, the hearts of all peoples turn to her."

Bateer's pupils narrowed slightly: "This is……"

"This is the scene from decades ago, when the previous Holy Maiden of the White Deer Tribe presided over the White Deer Rite!"

"Everyone who could go on the prairie went, and they bowed not to the Great Khan but to that woman standing among the deer!"

She walked back to the couch and sat down: "Everyone believes the White Deer Tribe is favored by Eternal Heaven."

Bateer clenched the sheepskin: "So Father Khan wanted to marry……"

"Marry?" Urenna scoffed, "You think that was a 'marriage'?"

She fixed her gaze on her son: "Back then your father Khan seized the throne with iron and blood; the tribes outwardly submitted, but in secret they said he slaughtered his kin and was unworthy to be khan."

"He needed something to prove he was the heaven‑mandated ruler."

She paused, her eyes filling with fierce ridicule and pain: "So I told him, don't the prairie people all think the White Deer Tribe is blessed by Eternal Heaven?"

"The Great Khan would rather kill one to warn a hundred, letting the tribes see that nothing can match the Royal Court's iron cavalry!"

"At that time he looked at me and laughed."

"He said, 'Urenna, you truly understand me best.'"

Urenna's voice began to tremble:

"Later he found a pretext of colluding with foreign enemies and sowing chaos on the prairie, and together with the White River Tribe marched out to besiege the Holy Mountain."

"For three days and nights they slaughtered every member of the White Deer Tribe."

"I watched the flames shoot to the sky, thinking now it's fine—no one can use a god to suppress him anymore, and no one can rival me."

"But can you guess what happened next?"

She leaned close to Bateer, the madness in her eyes making his heart pound: "He stormed the White Deer Tribe's holy ground and personally lifted that Holy Maiden high above his head!"

"Before all the tribes he announced that the White Deer Tribe's Holy Maiden, grateful for the Royal Court's benevolence, voluntarily entered the Golden Tent to serve the Khan, to atone for her tribe's rebellion."

"That Holy Maiden! That woman who, from childhood, was called alongside me the 'Twin Beauties of the Prairie'!"

Bateer went cold all over.

"'Voluntary'?" Urenna laughed out loud, "That woman was tied with rope, her mouth stuffed with cloth—is that voluntary?"

She suddenly snatched the gold cup from the table and smashed it hard onto the ground!

"Clang——"

The gold cup rolled, spilling wine across the floor.

"The White River Tribe and the White Deer Tribe have been enemies for generations; I wanted to use him to avenge my tribe, to borrow his blade to kill the Holy Maiden—but he brought that woman back instead!"

"I'm even more foolish than that," Urenna panted, her chest heaving, "I was foolish enough at the start to lie to myself, thinking he only wanted to humiliate that woman."

"But he ended up having a son with that wretch!"

"Afterward, he actually stayed night after night in her tent!"

She closed her eyes, her voice low as if talking to herself: "And I became the laughingstock of the whole prairie."

Bateer couldn't help but speak: "Mother!"

Urenna opened her eyes: "Now do you understand?"

"I will kill the living members of the White Deer Tribe, and even the dead souls I will kill again!"

"I have endured all these years, watching that wretch's son grow up, watching your father Khan act foolish over that broken deer‑antler pendant!"

"Now even her spirit dares to borrow the shell of a Zhongyuan child to crawl back and flaunt its power!"

Her eyes blood‑red, her voice hoarse: "Son! Tell me, how much longer must I endure?"

"Wait for your father Khan to pass the throne to that half‑breed? Or wait for the whole prairie to cry 'Holy Maiden' at that little brat?"

She fixed her gaze on Bateer: "That little brat must die!"

"Not only must she die, but she must die so that whenever anyone mentions the Holy Maiden's reincarnation, they spit in contempt!"

Bateer's throat went dry: "But Father Khan has already given orders..."

"Your Father Khan?" Wurenna snorted coldly, "He's old, gone soft, started dreaming."

"In his dreams he wishes the souls of the White Deer Tribe could forgive him, foolishly fantasizing that Jifeng could still call him Father Khan."

She stood up, walked to Bateer's front, and reached out to straighten his collar:

"You are my son, the future Great Khan of the steppe; you cannot dream."

"What you must do is strangle all of Father Khan's dreams to death in the night; do you understand?"

"Yes, Mother."

Bateer left his mother's tent, his steps unsteady as he returned to his own Wolf-head Tent.

Jiang Heng hurried forward, helped him onto the bed: "Your Highness?"

Bateer steadied himself and told him what his mother had just said.

He rubbed his sore forehead: "Sir, Mother told me to kill that Zhongyuan Little Princess, but Father Khan forbids me from touching her; what exactly should I do?"