Invasion Myth: Starting with the Schoolteacher

Chapter 913 The Legendary Minotaur

He first secretly met with Xia Ji, vowing that he would formally marry her.

Then, she meticulously planned and persuaded Xia Ji to request to return to her maternal home, Zheng, from the King of Chu under the pretext of welcoming back the remains of her deceased husband, Xiang Lao.

At that time, the states of Zheng and Jin had a good relationship, and it was common diplomatic practice at the time for Zheng to pass through the state of Jin to demand the remains of a Chu general.

After the King of Chu agreed, Wu Chen took the opportunity to volunteer and, on the way to Qi, "passed through" Zheng.

Upon arriving in Zheng, he actually used the generous state gifts originally intended for Qi as betrothal gifts to Zheng as a way to appease them. Then, without saying a word, he took Xia Ji and eloped to Jin, which was vying for hegemony with Chu!

The two couldn't wait to consummate their marriage in the post station, turning the unplanned union into a fait accompli.

This series of maneuvers was executed flawlessly, deceiving everyone and everything, and completely manipulating the Chu royal court.

This is arguably the most outrageous elopement case in the history of the Spring and Autumn Period; it's truly a case of dogs!
The ruler of Jin was overjoyed to receive the renowned minister from Chu, who was famous throughout the land. He immediately appointed Wu Chen as the Grand Master of Xing, granted him a fief, and entrusted him with important responsibilities.

Of course, being able to slap King Zhuang of Chu in the face was also a key factor.

Because at this time, King Zhuang of Chu was the one later known as one of the "Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period," a man of his time who was at the peak of his career, known for his ability to "remain silent until he makes a name for himself."

When the hegemon saw the letter of resignation brought by the foreign minister of Jin, he finally realized that he had not only been tricked out of the beauty he had long coveted, but had also been severely humiliated and lost face. It was as if he had been NTR'd by his minister in front of his face.

What a shame!
Enraged, King Zhuang of Chu did not hesitate to immediately send Prince Ying to lead troops to confiscate the property of Wu Chen's family in Chu, and to seize all of his relatives' property to vent his hatred.

This is the dramatic, unpredictable, and morally questionable life story of the legendary "Minotaur Warrior" Wu Chen.

It can truly be said that:

The charm of time is hard to suppress, and saying too much is not as profound as not saying anything at all.

The King of Chu listened only to Wu Chen's advice and did not realize that he had already decided to flee to Wu.

When Xia Ji's lifespan came to an end and she passed away, Wu Chen, who had already planned everything, spared no expense to find a secret sorcerer and perform an ancient secret technique.

He carefully placed the body of the woman he loved most in his life at the core of an extremely yin earth vein in Yuzhou, and then surrounded and nourished it with countless precious and rare spiritual objects to forcibly lock in the last trace of her remaining spirit.

His ambitions were far greater than a simple resurrection. He intended to use the earth's yin energy and the power of time to spend a thousand years refining Xia Ji into a peerless corpse demon that perfectly retained all her charm from her lifetime, or even surpassed it.

His own fate was to be buried in this same dark cave after death, sharing a coffin with Xia Ji, to be entangled together for all eternity, never to be separated.

His obsession and possessiveness are evident.

Unfortunately, human calculations are ultimately no match for divine intervention.

Before her death, Xia Ji gave birth to a daughter for Wu Chen at the "advanced age" of over forty.

This daughter perfectly inherited her mother's captivating beauty, which unexpectedly caused a considerable uproar and turmoil in the State of Jin.

Wu Chen was ultimately implicated and did not have a good end. He died in a foreign land, separated from his carefully arranged "love nest of a thousand years" by death.

Time flies, and the story is much simpler now.

The illustrious Jia family somehow learned of the legend of the "Beauty's Tomb" and Xia Ji's corpse demon, so they sent people to Yuzhou and forcibly broke into the tomb that Wu Chen had set up.

They disrupted the Yin energy pattern, dragged the sleeping Xia Ji out, and secretly locked her in a secluded courtyard in Xuzhou.

However, what she was imprisoned and driven by the Jia family to do was not some earth-shattering conspiracy to overthrow the dynasty and bring chaos to the world.

It was simply to help a woman become more beautiful.

Yes, that woman is the current Empress, Jia Nanfeng.

The less something is, the more it bothers us.

The Jia family was known for its jealousy and few children, and its members were ugly, short, and dark-skinned... These traits were even explicitly recorded in the later official history, the Book of Jin.

For an empress who wielded immense power, her appearance was undoubtedly her greatest source of anxiety.

Thus, the "Eye-Catching Ointment" was the first prescription that Xia Ji was forced to provide. It was mainly made by the snake king with a broken tail that Jia Ning kept. It was said to make a girl's eyes look like autumn water and sparkle when she looked at him.

And this is just the beginning.

More "products" aimed at "whitening," "preserving youth," and "shaping" are still in the inhumane experimental stage.

The primitive and bloody methods from thousands of years ago are being combined with the present era.

The Spring and Autumn Period was undoubtedly a golden age of intellectual ferment and brilliant ideas, but it was also a chaotic era filled with primitive and barbaric elements.

Many behaviors and ideas that seem inconceivable or even horrifying to people today appeared "reasonable" or even commonplace in that era.

One reason why Confucianism became a prominent school of thought in later generations may be that its advocacy of concepts such as "restoring rites" and "self-discipline" attempted to constrain and regulate those in power at the time to a certain extent.

Although such constraints often seem ineffective.

Subsequently, Confucianism itself lived up to expectations, continuously "patching up" its own doctrines and perfecting its system, while also squeezing out the living space of other schools of thought, ultimately establishing its dominant position.

When Xu Xuan's righteous team learned from Xia Ji that she was actually connected to the insane Empress Jia Nanfeng, who was known for her ugliness and jealousy, the team did not show much panic. Instead, they revealed a look of "I knew it."

To be able to so recklessly mobilize thousands of elite troops and a large number of cultivators and devotees, and to stir up such a storm in the three prefectures, shows that they act without any scruples.

Looking at the world today, there are indeed only a handful of people at the very top. "Then why did you run away?" Yu Yingnan, having recovered from this somewhat ridiculous truth, asked a crucial question.

In her view, Xia Ji herself was by no means a good person, and it seemed reasonable for her to cooperate with the Jia family, with one providing the "beauty" secret recipe and the other providing resources and protection.

Why risk fleeing and invite this pursuit?

Upon hearing this, Xia Ji's face, which, despite its disheveled state, still retained a breathtaking charm, revealed an extremely complex expression, a mixture of disdain, helplessness, and even a hint of grievance.

She was silent for a moment before managing to utter a sentence:

"Hmm...she...is really too ugly."

The reason is so simple and blunt that it's astonishing.

Xia Ji clearly overestimated the universality of her "beauty secrets".

The effectiveness of her method is largely due to her innate, exceptional physical attributes, which can be described as "top-tier modeling." Other methods are merely icing on the cake.

The so-called "arts of sexual enhancement" mentioned in historical records were mostly used to maintain one's youthful appearance.

Rather than transforming someone with extremely poor natural features into someone truly beautiful.

Therefore, no matter how hard she tried, Jia Nanfeng's ultimate dream of "becoming beautiful" was fundamentally almost impossible to achieve.

The emperor remained displeased, and the empress remained ugly; this matter... was simply unsolvable.

For Xia Ji, she had to constantly provide ineffective prescriptions and also face Jia Nanfeng's increasingly distorted anger and pressure due to her repeated shattered hopes.

She might even worry that she would eventually be completely destroyed because she was "useless"... Running away seemed to be her only option.

The reason that prompted this action was also due to a fit of anger.

She truly felt the chilling jealousy and resentment that "Little Blackie" harbored, a jealousy that was almost tangible.

On their first meeting, the Queen held a delicate yet cold dagger and cruelly tormented and vented her frustrations on her immortal demonic body.

It wasn't to force him to answer; it was purely out of extreme jealousy and hatred that came from the depths of his soul.

That kind of twisted malice cannot be neutralized by any amount of charm.

Xia Ji knew very well that once her only hope of "becoming beautiful" was completely dashed, the woman whose heart had long been twisted and driven mad would never let her go.

What awaits her will not be simple destruction, but endless, more cruel torture and venting of anger.

Alright, now the cause and effect of the tragic past that has been entangled with Yu Yingnan are clear.

Therefore, it seems there is no need to keep this thousand-year-old corpse demon alive any longer.

Sensing the undisguised, chilling killing intent emanating from Xu Xuan, Xia Ji struggled in terror, frantically muttering her possible value:
"Wait! Keep me alive! I'm useful! Give me time and resources, and I can help you overthrow even the Great Jin Dynasty! I can do it!"

This is not untrue. With her illustrious resume of "killing three husbands, one emperor, and one son, and destroying one country and two ministers," it seems not impossible for her to bring down a dynasty.

pity……

"Why do you think," Xu Xuan tilted his head, a genuinely confused expression on his face, "that I'm an ambitious person who needs to use others to cause trouble?"

"As an ordinary scholar, if I want to destroy something, I will naturally do it myself."

His tone was calm yet carried a chilling certainty: "Moreover, the process is often more important than the result. You bad people who have no ambition and only follow your desires... simply don't understand."

Before the words were even finished, the sword flashed.

With a soft hum, the Shengxie Sword precisely sliced ​​across Xia Ji's neck.

Xia Ji, one of the Four Beauties of the Spring and Autumn Period and the most legendary widow in history, whose beauty and curses wrote half of the history of the Spring and Autumn Period, finally fell silently by an unnamed valley outside Xuyi County.

There was no tombstone, no grave; nothing remained after his death, only the sound of the Huai River flowing on.

The first small instance in the North has now come to a complete end.

Besides seizing a batch of magical artifacts and supplies provided by the Jia family, the biggest gain from this trip was probably successfully launching a continuously refreshable "external resource pack" for Yu Yingnan.

The temporary team was subsequently disbanded.

With the growth and gains they had made through their experiences, Yu Yingnan and Li Yingqi returned to Jiangnan to continue assisting Xiaoqing in conquering the Poyang Lake area.

Xu Xuan and Shi Wang leisurely traveled westward, taking a detour, and continued their journey northward.

As for whether the turmoil caused in the Huai River area will lead to further trouble?
Xu Xuan didn't care at all.

it does not matter.

This is nothing.

At the same time, the sound of chains being moved could be heard from beneath the Huai River.

　I'll be updating again for another day! Thank you all for your support!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)