Chapter 452: Truth

The night was already deep.

Imperial Consort Yuan helped Wei Yuan up and chuckled lightly, "How many days has Lord Wei gone without eating? Why are you so frail?"

Wei Yuan was furious and wanted to struggle to his feet, but failed.

Wei Yuan felt that this was truly not a defeat of his own making, and it could be explained.

Imperial Consort Yuan beckoned to a maid and said, "Why haven't you brought the restorative medicine yet? Can't you see Lord Wei has been overworking himself to the point of fainting?"

The maid immediately presented a jade bowl containing a soup that had been prepared long ago; its ingredients were unknown. Imperial Consort Yuan let Wei Yuan lean against her bosom, said, "Little Yuan, drink your medicine," and then fed it to him.

After the medicine entered his belly, Dao power surged continuously from within, dispelling the fatigue that had been growing heavier and heavier in Wei Yuan's body.

Wei Yuan was finally able to stand up, and Imperial Consort Yuan led him by the hand toward the rear hall. Wei Yuan had already been to Chunhua Hall twice, but he had never reached the rear hall.

Passing through a courtyard with exquisite scenery, they entered the rear hall. Wei Yuan saw a small bed placed beside Imperial Consort Yuan's own bed, with a swaddled infant inside. However, Wei Yuan only felt his vision blur for a moment, as if he had seen something different.

He rubbed his eyes hard, quietly added a bit of immortal spiritual Qi, and then the scenery before his eyes suddenly changed completely.

The bedroom was filled with blood-red color everywhere, the light was dim like twilight, and only an array that had emerged in the corner of the room emitted a faint light, illuminating the chamber.

What was in the crib was not a swaddled infant, but a doll made of cloth and straw! It sat up, opened its large eyes, and was actually looking at Wei Yuan and smiling, with dried blood still at the corners of its mouth.

The light of the array flickered on and off, and the objects in the room cast long shadows that swayed violently, giving one a sense of dizziness.

Throughout the entire room, Wei Yuan smelled an extremely rich scent of medicine, blood, and a bizarre, putrid stench; even with his constitution, he felt uncomfortable. But the bowl of medicine he had just consumed took effect, and a spicy aura dispelled the putrid stench. Only then did Wei Yuan discover that the putrid stench had unknowingly penetrated deep into his body, nearly reaching his internal organs.

Wei Yuan was secretly shocked. He did not know where this putrid stench came from, but it had managed to evade his perception. Even his physical body could not withstand it; it was simply a peerless poison of the world, or otherwise an extremely formidable curse, on the same level as the Shaman tribe's blood curse.

"There are eleven types of strange poisons and three types of curses in this room. The doll in the crib is a ten-thousand-year-old resentful spirit. If it bites you once, one of your three souls and seven spirits will dissipate," Imperial Consort Yuan said.

Wei Yuan was shocked. This was no boudoir for a favored consort; it was clearly a desperate, poisonous den! If an ordinary Dharma Form stayed in this rear hall for a moment longer, they would die without even knowing how.

Wei Yuan associated this with his previous encounters and suddenly understood: the array set up in the main hall and the permeating fragrance complemented each other. Whether the fragrance was inhaled or not, it would seep into the body, and then be triggered by the array, greatly enhancing the array's suppression capability while simultaneously dissolving the power of the physical body.

After Wei Yuan entered the hall and performed a salute, in the time it took for Imperial Consort Yuan to ask him a few questions, his entire strength had been suppressed to one-tenth or two-tenths of its original level.

With this level of strength, he was naturally no match for Imperial Consort Yuan, and he was miserably beaten, his bones picked and marrow sucked, before being squeezed into dregs.

Imperial Consort Yuan led him to the array and brushed her hand lightly; an infant appeared in the center of the array. He was sleeping soundly, looking adorable, but his fair, tender body was covered in runes written in blood!

Suddenly, a hoarse laugh was heard: "So it was hidden here!"

A distorted figure suddenly emerged and pounced toward the infant on the ground!

A murderous intent flashed in Wei Yuan's eyes, and he reached out to block in front of the infant. The figure exuded a violent aura and shouted, "The brat is courting death!"

Then the shadow wrapped itself entirely around Wei Yuan's hand, instantly corroding all the skin below Wei Yuan's elbow!

However, an indescribable, terrifying Dao power surged out from Wei Yuan's hand, scouring the shadow like a raging tide, consuming its magic power in the most primitive and savage way!

In the snap of a finger, the shadow assassin's entire magic power was almost exhausted by Wei Yuan, and subsequently, from his physical body to his sea of consciousness, he was beaten into a thousand holes by Wei Yuan's Dao power!

The assassin revealed his form; he was a gaunt old man with disbelief and terror on his face, holding a curved, lightless dagger in his hand. He could not believe that, both being Dharma Forms, he could not even last a snap of a finger!

Imperial Consort Yuan appeared quietly behind him, and a white rope in her hand instantly wrapped twice around his neck before beginning to tighten!

The assassin's reaction was also extremely fast; at the critical moment, he used his dagger to block his throat, attempting to cut the thin white line. However, Imperial Consort Yuan exerted force with both hands, the loop tightened instantly, and the assassin's head and half the dagger flew into the sky!

The assassin was dead. His head and body, having lost the protection of magic power, immediately emitted white smoke. The doll in the crib grabbed the edge of the bed and poked its head out, continuously inhaling toward the assassin's corpse, drawing the white smoke and several faint souls into its belly.

In the blink of an eye, the assassin disappeared completely, while the doll lay back on the bed, its little belly bulging high.

Wei Yuan looked toward the crib with normal vision and saw only a swaddled infant inside, sleeping soundly.

At this moment, Imperial Consort Yuan shook the white line in her hand to let it spread out. Only then did Wei Yuan discover that this white line, which could cut through a magic treasure dagger, was actually the white stocking from her left leg!

Wei Yuan was a bit puzzled. Is this stocking so sturdy? He hadn't felt it at all just now!

Wei Yuan looked toward Imperial Consort Yuan's leg and saw that the white stocking on her left leg was indeed gone, leaving only a smooth, jade-like, round, fleshy leg, with skin still glistening with water.

And on her right leg, she was still wearing a black stocking, but it was covered in holes of all sizes, all torn open by force. Seeing these holes, Wei Yuan's old face flushed red.

Imperial Consort Yuan chuckled lightly, "This pair of stockings can cut through ordinary magic treasures with ease, yet they were torn to shreds by Lord Wei's bare hands. This physical body of yours, I truly love it!"

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Wei Yuan would never have believed that this pair of stockings could cut through a magic treasure dagger, and incidentally slay a Dharma Form assassin.

Wei Yuan came before the array and stared at the sleeping infant, gradually frowning, feeling more and more that those blood-colored runes were an eyesore. In his eyes, every rune was twisting and jumping, like a ferocious evil ghost. These runes absolutely had nothing to do with orthodox Daoism. Wei Yuan couldn't even tell if these runes were protecting the infant or imprisoning him.

Imperial Consort Yuan said, "These are runes written by a High Master with my blood when I gave birth to him. As long as these runes do not fade, he can preserve his life..." At this moment, a sinister voice sounded again: "That is not necessarily so!"

A gaunt, large hand reached out from the void and grabbed toward the infant in the array!

Imperial Consort Yuan's expression changed drastically. She reached out with both hands and locked onto that large hand, but an expression of extreme pain appeared on her face instantly, followed by a silent scream; her ten fingers were actually all shattered!

But while screaming silently, she used her blood-stained palms to desperately clamp onto that large hand, and even blocked in front of the large hand with her body!

But with her magic power, how could she block a single strike from Yu Jing? The fingertips of that large hand instantly pierced into her chest; in just an instant, it could pass through her body and grab the infant in the array to death!

Wei Yuan gritted his teeth fiercely, the Maiden Yin-Yang appeared, holding the Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, and backhanded a sword into the void!

A faint scream came from beyond the heavens!

The large hand disappeared, and the Maiden Yin-Yang also withdrew the Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, with an eyeball pierced on the blade, still carrying a string of blood beads. A full moon seemed to appear in the room, and then slowly disappeared.

The Maiden Yin-Yang plucked the eyeball from the sword tip and then disappeared. Only the blood beads brought down by the sword tip fell to the ground, turning into red gemstones the size of dragon eyes.

Wei Yuan hurriedly supported Imperial Consort Yuan, looking at the wound on her chest, feeling extremely anxious for a moment. He had no wound medicine on him at all; in the past, no matter how heavy the injury, he relied on his physical body to recover naturally, but now he was at his wit's end.

Imperial Consort Yuan's face was pale, but she had not yet fainted. She whispered, "The medicine bottle at the head of the bed, feed me three pills, only three."

Wei Yuan flashed, found the medicine bottle at the head of the bed, poured out three pearl-sized elixirs, and fed them to Imperial Consort Yuan. A moment later, the medicinal power took effect, Imperial Consort Yuan's complexion improved a little, and the wound at the root of her palm stopped bleeding.

Wei Yuan glanced at her wound, and his body trembled slightly.

The nature of the magic power left by the assassin in the wound was special, containing a bit of Buddhist power, which could make the injured person's sensation doubly acute. In other words, the pain of Imperial Consort Yuan's shattered fingers just now had been doubled; he truly didn't know how she had endured it without letting go.

Imperial Consort Yuan's face was pale, and she finally exhaled, saying weakly, "I'm a little tired, let me sleep for three breaths."

!.

Wei Yuan nodded. When he counted silently to three, Imperial Consort Yuan opened her eyes again.

She looked up at Wei Yuan, stroked Wei Yuan's face with her fingerless palms, suddenly kissed him on the lips, and said sincerely for the first time, "Thank you."

"Who are these people?"

Imperial Consort Yuan said, "They are still those people we saw in the mystical realm."

Wei Yuan looked around again and discovered that the warm walls around the hall were actually part of a large array. Only then did he understand that the strange fragrance and powerful array in the hall were not aimed at him, but were for suppressing the assassin.

Imperial Consort Yuan sighed lightly, pulled up her collar to cover the wound on her chest, and then said, "During this period, Little Cause has been assassinated eleven times and poisoned four times. One of the maids I brought from the Zhao Palace was bought off; that time I risked my life to save him. This time, they actually disregarded the oath made before the Buddha's Pure Land and sent out Yu Jing. If it weren't for you having a final trump card, both I and the child would have died here tonight."

Wei Yuan didn't know what to say. Just now, if he had been even a little slower in activating the Maiden Yin-Yang, or if the shadow in the moon hadn't borrowed the luck from beyond the heavens, Imperial Consort Yuan would have died before his eyes.

Wei Yuan sighed, "If the child is gone, you can have another. Why suffer like this?"

Imperial Consort Yuan shook her head gently and said, "You don't understand. This child is too bitter; he was already suffering before he was born. Since he has come to this human world, I will not let anyone hurt him. If you want to kill him, you must step over my corpse!"

Wei Yuan truly didn't know what to say.

Imperial Consort Yuan suddenly smiled, took Wei Yuan's hand and placed it on her heart, and said, "Touch my conscience and tell me the truth: if one day you encounter an unstoppable enemy, would you be willing to sacrifice your own life to protect us mother and son?"

Wei Yuan was just about to think, when Imperial Consort Yuan suddenly said, "Those who lie cannot realize their dreams!"

Wei Yuan was startled, then smiled bitterly and said, "You really want to hear the truth?"

"Of course!"

"... I will do my best to avenge you."

Imperial Consort Yuan was stunned, completely not expecting this answer. She gritted her teeth, grabbed Wei Yuan's handle fiercely, and pinched with deadly force, but after her heavy injury, she couldn't pinch it off at all.

Imperial Consort Yuan struggled to get up, kicked Wei Yuan, gritted her teeth and said, "Get out!"

Wei Yuan was about to explain, when Imperial Consort Yuan pointed to the brightening sky outside and said, "You must face the Emperor at the morning court today! Why haven't you gone yet!"

Wei Yuan left Chunhua Hall in a daze, and Liu Chaoen was already waiting outside the hall. He gently held Wei Yuan's wrist, and in an instant, the two were already in a carriage near the palace city, where a set of new court robes had already been prepared.

The carriage started, Wei Yuan changed his clothes, and then arrived at the palace gate before the final deadline. The palace guards guarding the gate verified Wei Yuan's identity, then cleared the way, letting Wei Yuan step into the Jin Prince's Palace.

The road from the palace gate to the main hall looked very far, very far, so far that many people could not finish it in their entire lives.

But Wei Yuan did not look at the main hall, but looked toward the sky.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 453 =====