Chu Linglong watched her lips move as she spoke, smiling as he looked up at her dazzling eyes. “It’s no wonder you have everything today.” He then picked himself slowly before turning to leave.
His lonely figure was bathed in the sunlight as he left. Shi Mo is dead, and I won’t live much longer without his medicine. I can consider the score settled after the earlier fight with Chu Xian.
Su Xi-er turned to Pei Qianhao. “Let’s go back; something went wrong with Chao Mu.”
Pei Qianhao pulled her back. “She should’ve been buried. The ice sent by Shi Mo was tampered with, and Chu Xian won’t be able to preserve her body.”
“It’s disrespectful to the dead if we forcefully preserve their bodies like this.” Du Ling commented before summoning his horse with a whistle.
Having been born and raised in the largely nomadic Western Region, everyone was able to ride a horse, including Du Ling who was an expert horse trainer, and had been able to tame this one from Dongling. Despite his equal skill in horse riding, Pei Qianhao’s skill in training the animals was a far cry from Du Ling’s.
Du Ling hopped onto his horse and quickly spoke before he galloped off. “Wait here. The horse will be coming soon.”
Shortly after, the black horse which Pei Qianhao had ridden earlier came galloping towards them.
Pei Qianhao grabbed Su Xi-er and hopped onto the horse with her. “The King of the Western Region is renowned for his horse riding skills.”
He then cracked his whip and rode off with Su Xi-er tightly in his embrace.
Blown to pieces, Shi Mo had died a tragic death. He had been prepared for such a fate the moment he had decided to use explosives; either he or Pei Qianhao would be blown to bits.
Yet, despite all of his planning, what he did not expect was for the Jiangnan Pei family to be his saviours instead of his enemies.
Two hours later, the atmosphere in the palace was tense. In the Emperor’s courtyard, all the maidservants and guards stood rooted in place, not daring to make a sound as they heard a cry from the inner room.
The body of the empress could no longer be preserved without the ice. Her hair and makeup was falling off and her face became black as her body rapidly rotted.
It was at this point that Chu Xian finally realised she was really dead and there was nothing he could do to make her stay or bring her back.
The occult teachings stated that one could tie the soul to the body by preserving the latter, and that even if the soul was not in the body itself, it would be somewhere nearby. If her body was gone, her soul would leave him. He wanted to leave with her so badly, but he knew that the people of Dongling needed him.
“Can you wait for me, Chao Mu?” His eyes looked empty as he hugged her body and caressed her face.
Chu Xian gave a wry smile when silence answered him. “You didn’t know about my feelings for you when you were alive, so why would you wait? You even told me that you liked handsome boys, and I asked you if I was handsome.”
Instead of answering him, she had squinted and walked up to observe his facial features. Likely not thinking much of it, she hadn’t given a concrete answer, so he didn’t bother pursuing the subject.
Chu Xian hugged her tight for a long time until the unmistakable stench of her rotting corpse reminded him that he wouldn’t be able to keep her for much longer.
The Imperial Army Commander stopped Su Xi-er, Pei Qianhao and Du Ling from entering the sleeping quarters when they arrived.
“It’s not a convenient time for His Majesty now. Something happened to the Empress. I hope you understand.”
Su Xi-er nodded and said, “Please thank your emperor on our behalf for these few days. We’ll be leaving Dongling today. Tell him this too, he’ll be able to meet the Empress in his dreams if they are fated to be.”
She then turned to Pei Qianhao and said, “Let’s go, A-Jing.”
Pei Qianhao watched her as he thought to himself, Those words were from books about the occult; so she has read them before.
