Chapter 176: Just listen to my explanation!

Stealing fate......

Stealing fate.

So this counts as stealing fate.

A thunderbolt pierced through the chest.

After that instant, Du Shanü's mind held only a single thought——

This Fùcòu zi might actually have some talent.

After all......

Who could have imagined that?

Who could remember that?

The son of a prostitute who came to calamity from the Orphanage......

The realm he painstakingly sought to protect was never actually his.

Even Du Shanü had briefly forgotten that, back then, Chinu despised the Young Emperor's incompetence to an extreme degree, which is why he struggled in the bitter sea for a long time.

And all of this now is merely.....

Old events repeat themselves.

The realm is the Young Emperor's realm.

The consort is the Young Emperor's consort.

And Chinu, and Chinu......

It turns out that, from beginning to end, there was nothing at all.

The only little bit there is can only be stolen, only be pilfered.

Zhoufu sinks into night, a lone eave steeped in moonlight.

This place, for a moment, speechless.

Du Shanü dared not turn back, yet could not cover her own ears.

Thus, a faint, seeping sound drifted into her ears from behind:

"Seizing another's consort is certainly disgusting......"

"But if put another way, one's beloved is destined to become another's fated wife, and together they achieve a matchless bond...... how could that not be sad?"

The narrow alley is deep and secluded, yet nothing is more secluded than Chinu's murmuring here.

Du Shanü shut her eyes tightly, then snapped them open in an instant.

She did not rashly doubt the truth of what Fùcòu zi said, nor did she rashly admit to raising an army.

When she spoke again, she only said:

"What is the 'making up the prophecy' you mentioned earlier?"

Fùcòu zi, hearing this, suddenly stopped trembling.

He blinked, his shoulders slowly relaxed, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly—not the earlier fawning smile, but a small smugness of 'I guess you finally believe me.'

Under their gaze, he calmly rose from the ground, brushed off the dust on his knees, and smoothed his rumpled collar.

After finishing his movements, Fùcòu zi then slightly lifted his chin and said composedly:

"Earlier, I, the humble diviner, told your fortunes, and you overturned my stall."

"Now that you have some faith in me, I ought to be given some courtesy, right?"

"I don't want money...... all I need is for you to write a pledge, sign and seal it, stating that once you have made your fortune, you will let me rest my head on your knee......"

Du Shanü had not yet reacted when the light in the alley suddenly dimmed for a moment.

Chinu had somehow already walked up behind Fùcòu zi without anyone noticing.

Chinu, who is usually grim when not smiling, emerged from the shadows expressionless, his thin lips pressed into a line, all the more frightening.

Chinu said not a word, merely slowly raising his palm.

Before Fùcòu zi even saw the person, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

He sensed danger, jerked his head around, and just caught sight of Chinu's expressionless face and his palm raised high.

The baby-faced countenance that had just been shaking its head instantly changed color, as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head, that smug vigor shattering with a 'crack' all over the ground.

His knees gave way, and he knelt again, this motion even faster than before; as he knelt, his knees struck the stone tiles, making him grit his teeth from the pain, but he dared not cry out.

"No no no——"

He waved his hands repeatedly, speaking so fast it was like frying beans:

"Not for love! Not for that! I, I can explain!!!"

Chinu's palm halted, but his eyes still blazed with the thoughts 'I knew you, this little philanderer, wanted to seduce my Wife Master' and 'Speak, speak, say it and I'll strike again.'

Fùcòu zi swallowed, then hurriedly said:

"Although it seems like sleeping on an emperor's knee, in truth it is borrowing the Son of Heaven's qi to absorb cultivation."

"From ancient times to now, there has always been this heterodox method of borrowing heavenly mandate to cultivate oneself, which greatly benefits one's Dao...... but knowing it is one thing, putting it into practice has always been difficult."

After all, the infamous wicked emperor, his heavenly and earthly qi is filthy beyond redemption, useless for Daoist cultivation.

And those emperors whose Son of Heaven's qi shines brightly mostly do not believe these Daoist mystic teachings.

Furthermore, emperors are not beings you can simply approach at will.

One must know that nowadays, not to mention a barefoot Daoist, even a seventh- or eighth-rank imperial official might never see an emperor in a lifetime, let alone hope to converse and gain trust, and finally cultivate in dreams upon the emperor's knee?

With all these layers stacked, the difficulty therein is even less known.

Difficult.

Difficult.

Cultivation is hard; finding a good emperor to borrow the Son of Heaven's qi to glimpse heavenly secrets is even harder.

If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have to go to such trouble.

After all, the world these days isn't just ruled by a single emperor......

But are outsiders of any use?

It's utterly useless!

He had been to Jinling a year ago; the Huanggong of Jinling could be described as dark clouds pressing over the city!

That false emperor wears the dragon robe, yet his body holds only a few faint strands of Son of Heaven's qi—insufficient to dispel his own karma, let alone aid his cultivation.

How much better is this Heaven‑mandated maiden before us!

At first sight, the brilliant golden light on her person was about to blind his eyes!

The future is so bright it keeps him from sleeping at all!

Fuzouzi grew more spirited the more he spoke, but just as he was about to feel happy, recalling he still had to endure a beating, he felt a pang of resentment.

He cautiously lifted his head, first glancing at Chinu.

Chinu's palm still hung in mid‑air, neither falling nor being withdrawn.

Fuzouzi then turned his gaze to Du Shanü, his eyes pleading, "I've explained everything clearly—you take charge of your man."

Du Shanü pondered briefly, then indeed looked at Chinu, who was also looking at her.

Their gazes met for an instant in the dim alley, as if they were silently discussing something.

Then, Chinu's mouth twitched slightly; he finally drew back his palm, stepped away, and melted once more into the shadows.

Fuzouzi finally let out a long breath, as if he had just walked past the gates of hell.

Although Du Shanü found it somewhat bizarre, she still smoothed her brow:

"All right, if it's merely this simple matter…… everything can be discussed."

Fuzouzi stared, then his eyes lit up—not with shrewd calculation, but with the pure, irrepressible joy a youngster feels upon obtaining a long‑coveted toy.

He opened his mouth, as if to utter a few flatteries like "Sister, you're wise," but swallowed the words and merely nodded vigorously.

Du Shanü no longer glanced at his excited demeanor, she only said:

"Can we speak now?"

Fuzouzi restrained his smile and sprang up from the ground in one fluid motion.

This time he had learned a bit of propriety—he didn't dust himself off, didn't straighten his collar, just stood properly, cleared his throat, and spoke solemnly:

"After careful thought, since the one behind you has stolen the fate of your legitimate husband, that fate corresponds, so your true husband can have at most one child."

"Thus, counting from your husband's side, your biological children ought to be two."

"But your Descendant Palace shows seven, which clearly doesn't match the number of children…… this could be a case of a Nominal son."

?? 【Nominal son】 will be explained in the next chapter!

? The story of dozing while leaning on the emperor's knee in this chapter draws on the anecdote of the mid‑Tang dynasty minister Li Bi, who as a youth was called a divine child by Emperor Xuanzong and later aided the emperors Suzong, Daizong, and Dezong. He too was a cultivator; after quelling the An‑Shi Rebellion, when the emperor asked what reward he desired, he said he wished to sleep leaning on the emperor's knee, thereby cultivating his Dao.