Chapter 880

Night.

The biting wind pierced to the bone, and the grass blades were coated with frost.

Outside the rebuilt Sui Du, Wa Qingluan raved like a proper shrew, hysterically hurling insults at Wu Tie.

She even stretched out her long, scarlet-painted nails and viciously clawed at Wu Tie's eyes, trying to gouge out his eyeballs.

Wu Tie wouldn't indulge her; as Wa Qingluan lunged, he slapped her back with a resounding slap.

With a crisp crack, Wa Qingluan was struck so hard blood sprayed from her mouth; she stumbled backward dozens of steps and collapsed on the ground, twitching.

"Wu Tie… I won't let you off!" Wa Qingluan, dazed from the slap, eventually regained her senses and then frantically slapped the ground with both hands, screaming and yelling at Wu Tie.

"Heh, heh." Wu Tie gave a cold chuckle, shook his head, and said nothing.

Wa Qingluan looked at Wu Tie's demeanor, then glanced around the surroundings.

Pitch dark, with no stars or moon in the sky; Sui Du lay far away, and under the night veil the faint glow of the seals on the city walls only made the wilderness seem even blacker.

A strange smile flickered across Wa Qingluan's face as she lifted her head, looking at Wu Tie and chuckling: "In the dead of night, why have you brought me here, Your Majesty?"

She swayed her waist slightly, rose to her feet, and gave Wu Tie a seductive smile.

"Could it be that you have some other design on me?"

Wu Tie shivered violently, gave a heavy cough, and spoke frankly: "Empress Dowager, you are older than my great-grandmother by who knows how many years… My birth mother hasn't even reached a hundred, yet you've lived tens of thousands of years."

He gave a dry "heh" laugh, and his words turned extremely biting: "Even if I were starving, I wouldn't take interest in an antique. Why would I ignore fresh, spicy roasted chicken just out of the pot to gnaw on a dug-up mummy?"

Wa Qingluan stared for a long while before finally grasping what Wu Tie meant.

"Mummy…" That term, Wa Qingluan had seen in the secret archives of the Sui dynasty; it was a most special method of preserving corpses.

Was Wu Tie comparing her to a freshly unearthed mummy?

Wa Qingluan, who boasted of peerless beauty and held herself in high esteem, flushed with rage, let out a fierce "ah," and charged at Wu Tie again.

Though her magical power was completely sealed and she could unleash no divine abilities, Wa Qingluan had just lunged at Wu Tie when he kicked her back.

With a wail, Wa Qingluan fell to the ground, clutching her belly and howling incessantly; Wu Tie said calmly, "Settle down, someone will take you away later… Tsk, I truly can't fathom why, for the throne, you'd collude with outsiders and scheme against your husband."

"Is power really that important?" Wu Tie tilted his head, puzzled, and asked Wa Qingluan: "I know nothing of the previous Sui dynasty's God Emperor; I don't know what kind of person he was… But even if he were terrible, he's been your husband sharing bed and board for many years—how could you treat him as a sacrificial offering?"

Wa Qingluan slowly rose, her disheveled hair spilling over her face; the night wind tossed it wildly, matching her tattered clothes and swollen visage—a sight so grotesque it resembled a freshly resurrected female ghost.

"What do you know? You're just a greenhorn."

"What I care about is not the throne."

"That position—I could never sit there; what glory, what power, has anything to do with me?"

"I simply cannot tolerate another woman's son occupying that seat."

"Heh, comparing looks, talent, means, lineage—everything—what woman in the world could surpass me?"

"Wa Qinghuang, that foolish woman? Heh, it's not that I look down on her; from childhood on, I could play her however I liked, and she suffered losses without even knowing who was scheming against her."

"She lacks my beauty, my wit, my ability, and is of a cadet branch—a clueless wooden lump of a woman; how could her son possess such fine qualities?"

"What gives her son the right to have so many back him as the next God Emperor?"

"If her son becomes God Emperor, she will be the legitimate Empress Dowager."

"As for me, I'd then have to rely on her son to get by in this imperial city, and whenever I faced her I'd have to watch my words and steps, never daring to slip."

"What face would I have left?"

Wu Tie felt a chill run down his spine: "So you schemed against Feng Zhen, got your son made God Emperor, and then sacrificed Feng Zhen?"

Wa Qingluan gave a faint smile: "What can be done? Those who helped me had agreed beforehand that if they could scheme against Feng Zhen and secure Feng Rong's succession, Feng Zhen would be one of the conditions; they fulfilled it, so I naturally must keep my word."

Wu Tie was left speechless.

Wa Qingluan lifted her gaze to the pitch‑black sky and chuckled softly: "Little brat, you really feel nothing for me? Standing before you is the current Empress Dowager of the Sui dynasty."

"Just a rotting‑hearted mummy." Wu Tie dealt Wa Qingluan another heavy blow: "Then, concerning my Wuguo…"

Wa Qingluan's face turned green with anger at Wu Tie's words.

Upon hearing Wu Tie's question, Wa Qingluan giggled: "Your Wuguo? That vast barbarian land teeming with people? Indeed, I leaked its news."

With a hint of malice in the corner of her eye, Wa Qingluan murmured: "I found the approximate coordinates of that barbarian land and had Bai Su Xin's foolish disciple send out explorers… Who would have thought the Bai Lian Palace was like a sieve—once their disciples moved, the Red Lotus Temple and Azure Lotus Observatory also sprang into action."

She sighed: "What else? Across such a vast distance, such an endless sea, if they strayed even a fraction of a degree while sailing, who knows how far off course they'd drift."

"Without the coordinates I gave them, they'd never find that tiny barbarian land in a lifetime… Without me, just relying on them?"

Wa Qingluan gave a cold snort.

Wu Tie raised his brows and said in a low voice: "Did you give them the exact coordinates of the Wuguo continent? How did you come by them?"

Wa Qingluan gave Wu Tie a sidelong glance, sweeping over him with the look one reserves for an idiot.

"I gave Bai Su Xin eighteen sets of coordinates, but to this day only your Wuguo has been pinned down by that bunch of incompetents." Wa Qingluan sighed softly: "Originally, I wanted Feng Rong to achieve unparalleled merit, expand the territory, and completely overwhelm Feng Shang."

"But my good-for-nothing son is truly a waste; even a minor Wuguo costs him troops and losses."

"I had no choice but to resort to that last‑ditch measure."

"Qing Wu was right—since there's a more direct way, why waste effort on all these roundabouts? While Feng Shang is away campaigning, with his faction leaderless, we could simply put Feng Rong on the throne, turn raw rice into cooked rice, and who could complain?"

Wa Qingluan sighed: "I never imagined, never imagined, that the petty king of that barbarian land… would actually… ruin everything."

Wu Tie said solemnly: "It was Qing Wu who gave you the plan."

Wa Qingluan smiled enchantingly: "Qing Wu is my confidant… If I die, be sure to send him down to continue serving me."

Wu Tie gave a light smile and ignored Wa Qingluan.

Qing Wu now obediently crouches in the Sui Du dungeon; such a well‑behaved 'demon specimen' is not something Wu Tie can bring himself to kill outright.

He produced a crystal that flickered with a faint five‑colored glow, examined its hazy light, and muttered softly: "Isn't it about time? Why hasn't that person arrived yet?"

Wa Qingluan stared blankly at the crystal in Wu Tie's hand; its lively five‑colored radiance twisted her expression into something grotesquely distorted.

She hissed: "This crystal… where did you get it? You, you, you, you—what are you planning to do?"

Before her words faded, two specks of gloomy light ignited within the five‑colored crystal, swirling and entwining inside it, then with a soft 'ding' they merged into a single point.

Wu Tie beside, amid the "chi chi" sound, a straight five-colored light beam fell from several zhang high in the air, after touching the ground, the light split left and right, revealing a five-colored light gate spewing thick spiritual mist.

An old woman with white hair, a childlike complexion, excellent health, and bright sparkling eyes leaned on a cane, stepping swiftly out of the light gate.

Behind this old woman closely followed more than ten youths wearing animal skins, their aura savage and rugged.

Wu Tie glanced at these youths, his pupils instantly constricting.

These youths, they cultivate, surprisingly the Primordial Scripture; this aura, Wu Tie is most familiar with, absolutely cannot be mistaken.

However, these youths are not as "insane" as Wu Tie; they cultivate the Primordial Scripture, each person's Dao markings on their body are roughly six to seven hundred, eight to nine hundred, and none can break the "one thousand" bottleneck.

Even so, these youths' strength is truly terrifying.

In the Su Dynasty, Feng Shang entered the Dao with three hundred sixty Dao gates, and was praised as a peerless monster rare since the founding of the state…… Feng Shang's son Feng Xiao, moreover entered the Dao with six hundred sixty Dao gates; Feng Shang kept him hidden, fearing his talent would be exposed, for outstanding talent invites disaster.

Placed in the Su Dynasty, these youths behind the old woman are heavenly talents unseen since the creation of heaven and earth, enough to shake the court and populace.

Just looking at this, these youths are all attendants, descendants of the old woman's generation……

This is somewhat frightening.

The foundation of the Wa clan, or rather that part of power hidden by humanity, is somewhat frightening.

"You……" Wa Qinglan let out a hysterical shriek, she looked at the old woman in terror and despair, screaming shrilly: "Who are you? What do you want to do? You……"

"Wrongdoing deserves punishment." The old woman's ruddy face tightened as if covered in ice: "Wa Qinglan, you stole information from the Ancestral Spirit Space for personal gain, stirring up a cataclysmic blood feud…… You are unforgivable."

Wa Qinglan's face twisted, she bellowed hoarsely: "I am the Empress Dowager of the Su Dynasty; who dares to judge my guilt? You, you lot, old monsters…… you…… you…… have no right!"

The old woman shook her head.

Two youths strode over, effortlessly, as if grabbing a chick, seized Wa Qinglan in one grab, then swiftly brought her back into the light gate.

The old woman sighed, shook her head, feeling a bit headache, and pressed hard on her temples a few times.

Turning around, the old woman looked over Wu Tie, examining him up and down for a while: "The Number One Hunting Ground of the Jia Class under the Heavenly Stem is the hunting ground most severely damaged…… You actually also received the inheritance of the Primordial Scripture; it seems the ancients indeed had great wisdom, the humanity's firewood transmission is unceasing, truly delightful."

Wu Tie smiled, bowed to the old woman in salute.

"Great Matriarch, I merely got lucky to obtain this bit of fortune…… Compared to these brothers, tsk……" Wu Tie glanced at the youths behind the old woman.

"Hmm, I, the old one, also won't ask how many Dao laws you have comprehended…… In short, humanity's fate is tumultuous; you youths should all strive."

"No matter when, no matter what, remember one thing—you are first a person, then you become rulers and nobles, then talented scholars and beauties."

"No matter what you do, no matter what decision you make, you must never forget that you are first and foremost a member of humanity."

The old woman let out a light sigh, speaking softly: "Strive well, you actually have done very well…… Turning the Number One Hunting Ground of the Jia Class under the Heavenly Stem into what it is now, you have truly done well…… Why not, come with us?"

Wu Tie laughed: "The Great Matriarch's words contradict what she just said…… Wu Tie can follow you, but what about my relatives and friends? The officials at the center? Those loyal to Wu Tie, willing to die for him?"

"So, Wu Tie will stay. No matter what happens, just do your best to make the people's lives a little better, and that is enough." Wu Tie laughed brightly: "Wu Tie knows those fellows want to harvest the leeks, want to madly harvest a wave of leeks……"

Wu Tie seriously looked at the old woman: "I will let them know that among the leeks, occasionally there will be a few uncooperative ones that will nick their sickles…… Even if by accident, they themselves will meet their end."

The old woman smiled, very relieved.

She examined Wu Tie up and down, then suddenly jumped up, lightly patting his cheek: "Good lad, truly good lad……"

Chuckling, the old woman produced a scarlet scroll surging with countless flames of fire, handing it to Wu Tie.

"Here, take this to show the foolish lot of the present Su Dynasty, especially those foolish ones of the Feng royal clan…… This is the edict jointly signed by the thirty-six divine emperors from Feng Zhen upward in the Su Dynasty, granting you the authority to act at your discretion within the Su Dynasty's borders."

"Incidentally, it ennobles you as the One-and-Only Peerless King Martial King of the Su Dynasty. This title stands equal to the Su Dynasty's divine emperor, on equal footing. Incidentally, it also grants you one-third of the Su Dynasty's western territory and its populace."

"Take it, show it to those fools."

"Oh, by the way, this edict also grants you the right to oversee the state."

"Whether the Su Dynasty's divine emperor, its nobles and ministers, or the three divine sects guarding the state, whoever dares to act recklessly, you can discipline them, punish them, even slay them."

"To be so deeply corrupted by extraterrestrial demons as to cause the capital to be overturned in a single night…… If the Su Dynasty, from top to bottom, does not reflect, repent, and rise up, little one, you might as well simply replace it."

The old woman smiled gently, her eyes filled with soft light: "Wu Tie, you bear great fortune; we old folks all look forward to your future…… Be a good person, earnestly be a person, never misstep."

Wu Tie received the edict, kneeling solemnly before the old woman in salute.

Not for this edict.

But for this old woman, she is truly the elder of humanity.