Chapter 459 - Hidden Within the Palace, the Second Fusion of Withered Flame - Part 2

Inside the chamber, only the Emperor and Empress remained.

Xie Wei rushed to Li Yuan’s side, eyes shining with joy. The turn of events had been nothing short of miraculous.

Li Yuan chuckled. “I simply spoke to General Gao ahead of time. I told him that if such a moment ever came, he should do exactly what he did... I didn’t expect we’d actually need it.”

Xie Wei lowered her gaze, cheeks flushed. Her voice softened with affection. “You’ve done me a great favor, truly... Grand General Gao always called me

Mistress

, but I never thought he could stand across from me like that.

“Now, with him on your side, he becomes the strength of the Emperor, a counterweight to the Xie Clan. The governors of the other eight provinces no longer have reason to fear my clan’s dominance. Why...why didn’t I think of this myself?”

Li Yuan smiled. “You’ve got too many responsibilities on your shoulders. It’s easy to miss a thread or two. Unlike me, I’m just a man of leisure.”

Xie Wei looked at him tenderly, voice trembling slightly as she whispered, “Your Majesty...”

Li Yuan said, “From now on, I’ll remain deep in the palace. Arrange for only the most trusted to attend me, no one else is to enter. As for the affairs of court, they’ll fall to you. You’ll need to handle them with Hu’er’s help.”

“Hu’er is only two years old,” Xie Wei murmured. “He doesn’t understand anything yet.”

“Xie Feng leads the troops, but he can’t support you politically. Your father, though...he may help you in court. But remember, the struggle for power isn’t just waged in the imperial court. It’s fought across the lands, in the strength of each province. Your Xie Clan will always be the Xie Clan. The other eight provincial governors will always be their own forces.

“Sitting on the dragon throne may grant you the protection of the Nine Loyal Souls. But if I’m honest, even they seem to face an unknown enemy now. Empress...walk carefully, as if on the edge of a cliff, as if treading thin ice. Do not allow yourself to grow arrogant.” Li Yuan’s tone was earnest, filled with gravity.

Xie Wei nodded slowly, then a flicker of worry crossed her face.

“What is it?” Li Yuan asked.

She hesitated, then said, “Yu’er is still in Bright Moon Prefecture. She’s waiting for her husband...and refuses to come to the palace.”

As she spoke, she suddenly gripped Li Yuan’s hand tightly. Her body tensed, her voice grew softer, breathier.

“Your Majesty... I... I’ve missed you.”

Outside, the sky dimmed into twilight.

The Empress quietly gathered up her phoenix robes, kicked off her embroidered slippers, and slipped under the covers in a whirl of silk and abandon.

Only much later did she settle down again, sighing softly into the evening stillness.

“I wonder...when will my brother-in-law finally go and see my poor little sister?”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A few days later.

Li Yuan relocated to Clear Mind Hall, deep within the rear palace, to recuperate.

The surroundings were elegant and peaceful, with dense groves and quiet courtyards. The hall was built near the edges of what was once a fourth rank meat field, now upgraded to third rank, making it an ideal place for cultivation.

As a result, the area had no shortage of training grounds and hidden chambers.

Inside one such secret chamber, Li Yuan began circulating his power.

He could feel the ancestral seal seeds drawing in Yang energy, their tremors sharp and violent. He could also sense the explosive nature of his Yang flame and piercing vision granted by concentrated Yin...

And yet, these three powers refused to blend. They blocked one another, cutting off his path forward.

He turned his attention to Sheng’er, relying on her daily descriptions to keep track of her crow’s condition.

Time passed. Day by day. Then a month later.

Seated in silent meditation, Li Yuan murmured to himself, “Yin draws in Yang. Yang draws in substance... Until a new body is formed. That’s the process Sheng’er crow is going through now.

“But the ancestral seal in my body isn’t compatible with the Yang flame,” Li Yuan murmured. “So even though both the Yin and Yang energy within me are strong...they can’t attract each other. That’s why I can’t cultivate the Heaven Soul, and why I’m still stuck, unable to break through fourth rank in shadow blood cultivation.”

Now, Li Yuan finally understood. His Yin and Yang energies were both abundant, but they were mismatched, dragging each other down rather than working in harmony.

As a result, even the shadow blood system that once allowed him to freely assign stat points...had gone dormant.

Looking back at the path he’d taken, he realized that even if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t have had a better option.

The entire Great Zhou was focused on cultivating techniques that topped out at fourth rank. What else could he have done?

“There is one way,” he thought. “When I wield White Serpent and channel the heavenly thunder sealed within it, I can still temporarily break into fourth rank. That might open a path forward... but I’ll have to test it myself.

“For now, I should first focus on strengthening Yin and Yang individually. As for Yin, my ancestral seal can absorb plenty from the Bladeseekers. And for Yang, I can use the Yang flame.

“Since the bonfires in the frozen tundra have grown stronger, maybe it’s time I go and devour another wave.”

As Li Yuan was thinking this through, he suddenly sensed something and looked up to see a phoenix carriage gliding slowly toward Clear Mind Hall.

He ended his meditation and stepped outside to greet it.

A moment later, Xie Wei dismissed her attendants and sat across from him, visibly exhausted.

With a flick of her sleeve, she conjured a wine jug as if performing sleight of hand, pouring them each a cup.

Li Yuan took her hand with a smile. “Rough day?”

Xie Wei downed her drink in one go, then let out a deep sigh. “Today...I sat on the dragon throne for the first time, with Hu’er in my arms.”

She didn’t say anything more. Just continued to drink, cup after cup.

Li Yuan didn’t pry. He could guess what it meant. The words

Demon Empress

might as well have been stamped across her forehead. How many of those treacherous old officials would accept her leading the imperial court?

“To be honest,” Xie Wei said quietly, “I do want power. But I also care about the Great Zhou. I want this land to heal, to return to peace, to let the people live without fear.

“I want to rebuild the six ministries. So I’ve been seeking out hidden talent, people who’ve long been overlooked, toiling away in low positions. They’re skilled in construction, civil affairs, finance, culture, war, and justice... As the Empress, I’ve spoken with many of them personally. I’ve even lowered myself to respectfully calling some of them

sir

.

“But those high officials objected, of course. They claim I’m placing my own people in power, and in response, they all began recommending their own.”

Li Yuan didn’t have much experience with court politics. He quietly refilled her cup, and they drank together, one cup at a time.

Perhaps she was too tired... Because for once, after the wine, she didn’t try to seduce him. She simply rose, quietly, and left.

Li Yuan turned and walked into the woods behind Clear Mind Hall, his mind once again returning to cultivation.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The days passed.

For several days after that, the Empress didn’t appear again.

Curious, Li Yuan secretly sent birds to check in on her. He discovered that Xie Wei, completely drained, had begun falling asleep in random places throughout the palace, most often in the imperial study.

She had too many burdens, and too few trusted aides. And she had only just taken the throne.

Still, this was Xie Wei’s own path to walk; Li Yuan had no intention of interfering.

The bamboo forest swayed gently in the wind. The palace was filled with clamor and urgency, but amid it all, Li Yuan found himself craving a bit of leisure in the chaos.

So, he disguised himself as an ordinary man, dressed in plain clothes, and quietly slipped out of the palace into the slowly reviving streets of the Jade Capital.

The night was clear, the breeze cool, perfect weather for a bout of aimless drinking.

It was early March. The peach blossoms were in full bloom.

Swaying like a drunkard along the mossy stone roads, Li Yuan staggered forward until a sudden fragrance caught his nose. It was sweet, vivid, and intoxicating.

He paused, raised his wine jug, and smiled, then kept walking. As he drew closer, he looked up and saw an old, abandoned Daoist temple nestled among the blossoming trees. The plaque above the gate hung askew, but the faded characters were still legible,

Temple of the Heavenly Master

.

The interior was deserted, not a trace of any Daoists. Likely abandoned during the chaos wrought by the Lotus Sect’s uprising.

Yet the temple’s silence only made the blooming peach trees around it more beautiful.

“Wonderful,” Li Yuan muttered, raising his jug in a toast.

To his surprise, a voice echoed from within the temple.

“Wonderful!”

He turned his head and saw a disheveled young man within the sea of peach blossoms, raising a cup to him in return.

Startled at first, Li Yuan quickly realized this was just another soul drawn in by the spring scenery.

The two men regarded each other across the trees, said nothing more, and simply lifted their cups in unison, letting out a hearty laugh, then turned away, each going their own way.