Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"Don't worry, Master Yun has sent his trusted disciple to escort Yongzhen. If Princess Yongzhen gets into trouble, then we can only ask Master Yun for compensation."

Chu Mingkong remained silent, then glanced at Yun Nongyu's buttocks and nodded firmly: "Master will most likely not want to see me suffer this loss, so he will definitely agree. I'll nod for her first."

"..." Yun Nongyu felt like she had boarded a pirate ship.

Chu Mingkong wasn't too worried about Yongzhen's situation, because Yongzhen had responded to him immediately when he reported that he was safe. After settling in, he could even take out the doll Yongzhen and chat with her.

It's a pity that two dolls were lost. Jin Yu's doll and Empress Pei's doll were sacrificed before they could even be used. This is a loss, though not insignificant.

Looking at the Taomo store interface, it seems that you can still buy their dolls again in the future, but they're grayed out now. I wonder what conditions are required to buy them again.

Chu Mingkong tried to strike up a conversation with Empress Pei to avoid seeming to have neglected her, but Empress Pei was concerned about her reputation and knew how immoral her actions were. Even with all the difficulties, the nature of what had been done remained unchanged.

With two outsiders present, she felt embarrassed to chat with Chu Mingkong, which was a sign of her guilty conscience. Chu Mingkong decided not to press her for the time being.

He suddenly slapped his forehead and muttered, "Look at my memory," before taking out the rubbings of the "Su Nu Jing" and "Xuan Nu Jing" that he had obtained from the Xianzhen Pavilion and returning them to Yun Nongyu.

"Master Yun, I'm returning these two original scriptures to you. I found them at the Immortal Treasure Pavilion and have been wanting to return them to you for a long time. However, I haven't seen you return to the capital, and I don't know anyone there. So, things have been delayed. I didn't expect it to take so long to meet you again."

Yun Nongyu was overjoyed and relieved to have found these two lost original scriptures in such a place. There was no need to refuse such a thing; she gladly accepted them and sincerely thanked them.

"Thank you, Your Highness. It is truly thanks to Your Highness's blessing that these two rubbings of scriptures were recovered. Those traitors in the sect actually sold such treasures to the Immortal Treasure Pavilion. If they had been bought by someone else, I'm afraid there would have been no chance to find them again."

"How many spirit stones did Your Highness spend?"

Chu Mingkong recalled how much money he had spent, and it seemed... he hadn't spent any money?

It seems he only goes to Xianzhen Pavilion to exchange jade dildos for money, treating Qingse's place like a garbage dump.

As he was pondering this, Feng Ying spoke up for him:

"Talking about money would be vulgar and ruin our friendship. If Mingkong ever needs Master Yun's help in the future, I hope you will spare some of your time for him."

When someone helps another find their lost martial arts manual, how can you just give them a little money and call it a day? That would leave you indebted to them. When Feng Ying saw Yun Nongyu directly say she wanted to repay the money, she took it as her way of giving a perfunctory reply.

Yun Nongyu knew that this charming yet dangerous woman from the Western Regions had misunderstood her meaning, and gently shook her head, saying:

"Of course I owe a favor, but it would have been fine if Your Highness had bought it back for me. However, it is inappropriate to keep it for so long while only remembering the kindness of finding it and ignoring the kindness of keeping it."

Chu Mingkong didn't dwell on those spirit stones:

"Master Yun, you're too kind. It's just a matter of tossing it into my storage ring. How can that be considered safekeeping? Consider the spirit stone fee as me buying talismans from you."

With the long-standing issue of returning the cultivation technique finally resolved, Chu Mingkong felt a great sense of relief. Although he wanted to discuss the difficulties of cultivating bedroom arts with Yun Nongyu, he decided to leave it for later in private.

He briefly inquired about the external situation from Feng Ying, who, after giving a brief account, recalled what he had seen that day and sighed:

"Seeing you turn into that bloody mess, I thought you'd be affected by the power of extreme yin and would fight to the death to kill that abyssal beast and the emperor before you left."

The emperor is indeed a potential threat. It's uncertain what kind of trouble he might cause while he's still able to survive. Perhaps we should return to the Xiaoxiang Qin Academy to discuss this further.

Chapter 143 The Changing Situation (10.2/18)

Back at Xiaoxiang Qin Academy, Jin Yu, who had been anxiously waiting for a long time, finally saw the person stepping off the flying sword. Her worries disappeared, and her long-pouting lips finally broke into a smile.

"Mother!"

"Jinyu..."

Jin Yu rushed over, and Empress Pei opened her arms, but Jin Yu ended up throwing herself into Chu Mingkong's arms.

Empress Pei: "..."

After a while, Jinyu hugged Chu Mingkong enough before rushing into Empress Pei's arms. Madam Zhen, who was standing to the side, was happy for the mother and daughter's safe reunion, but also felt a pang of sadness.

Seeing this, Chu Mingkong went over and took Madam Zhen's fair wrist, calmly (because there were too many people) reassuring her:

"Madam Zhen, there's no need to worry. Yongzhen is doing well, but she won't be able to be by your side for a while. Judging by the time it takes, she should be almost at the Crescent Kingdom by now."

Later, I need to find some time to take Yongzhen's doll out for a walk, to put Madam Zhen at ease.

Chu Mingkong brought Empress Pei to find Shangguan Rong, intending to discuss with them whether their plans were feasible.

"Greetings to Her Majesty the Empress."

Upon seeing Empress Pei, Shangguan Rong, unsure how to greet her, adopted the formalities she had used when serving as Grand Tutor to greet members of the royal family. Empress Pei, now somewhat apprehensive, quickly helped Shangguan Rong to her feet.

"Rong'er, I don't know what to do with you. The title of Empress was gone the moment Chu Mingkong took me away. How can you still call me that now?"

"You were Jinyu's teacher before, are you perhaps trying to remind me to treat you with the respect due to a daughter's teacher?"

As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher, and Empress Pei was immediately persuaded by Shangguan Rong. She said with difficulty:

"I didn't mean that, I just didn't know how to address you right now... Madam Pei."

Chu Mingkong understood Shangguan Rong's dilemma. Using the royal address seemed inappropriate, but if he didn't use the honorific from that time, he would appear to be overly snobbish, as if he were watching her lose her noble status, and immediately changed the address to remind her.

"Alright, let's not get hung up on these trivial details. It's just a matter of how people address each other. As long as they can be addressed properly, it doesn't matter how accurate the address is. Everyone can just use their own name."

Otherwise, Empress Pei would have to call Jinyu "elder sister"...

Shangguan Rong was a bit rigid in her thinking on this matter and couldn't quite accept such "casualness," but since she couldn't come up with a better solution herself, she had no choice but to accept his words.

Chu Mingkong got to the point: "Rong'er, Empress Pei, I brought you together to ask if my follow-up plan is feasible, because we still need to consider the Emperor's remaining days of life, and the Empress's help in understanding the inside story is indispensable."

Those who were able to smuggle themselves out have already left the capital successfully. Apart from a few, most of the girls around Chu Mingkong are now in Xiaoxiang Qin Academy. They certainly cannot stay in Xiaoxiang Qin Academy for too long, lest they cause trouble for the others.

Chu Mingkong's plan was to send them back to Xiling, assuming everything went smoothly. If something else happened along the way, they would first go to his master's wife, Shen Xuejun, as a transit point before returning to Xiling. This route was a bit longer, but it would indeed be much safer.

However, none of these are the key issues. The key issue is whether the royal family, which he has now hollowed out, will launch a desperate counterattack and join forces to attack Xiling at all costs, thus dragging Xiling down with them.

Empress Pei knew where the information Chu Mingkong wanted to know was, and after thinking it over, she said:

"Throughout the history of the Tianji Empire, emperors have generally lived long lives, and there has rarely been a shortage of empresses, except for the last two emperors and one emperor, Kaihuang."

Chu Mingkong knew that this referred to the founding emperor, but for some reason, upon hearing the name Kaihuang, he immediately thought of something like "55 Kai".

"What's the situation with this founding emperor?"

Chu Mingkong didn't understand, and neither did Shangguan Rong. They cast questioning glances at the beautiful and elegant woman. However, Chu Mingkong's confusion stemmed from his lack of knowledge about the history of this place, while Shangguan Rong's confusion arose from her ignorance of what problems the Kaihuang Emperor had.

"Rong'er, how much do you know about the Kaihuang affair?" Empress Pei asked in return.

"After a lifetime of military campaigns and the establishment of the nation, he suffered from illnesses caused by the wars in his early years. He died of illness just over six months after becoming emperor."

"It was around this time that the late emperor, also known as Empress Zhen, was deposed from his position as empress. The late emperor passed away about half a year later. While the current emperor certainly played a role in pushing things forward in order to ascend the throne as soon as possible, the time frame was still about half a year."

I guess this is how long the emperor can hold onto the throne after losing his Golden Crow Phoenix Body.

More than half a year...

Shangguan Rong felt a profound sense of shock, as if she were about to witness the collapse of an empire. If the current emperor died in just over six months, which of his sons would be capable of taking the throne?

No, the two princes who showed strong desire to become emperor were both killed by Chu Mingkong early on. Although several princes who were traveling and enjoying themselves were spared, the emperor was practically extinct, not only in terms of descendants but also in terms of empress.

Knowing the importance of the Empress's Golden Crow Phoenix Body to the Emperor, Shangguan Rong felt that it would be difficult to have a new emperor in the future. Even if someone dared to sit on that throne, without the Golden Crow Phoenix Body, it would only be a matter of changing emperors every six months.

Chu Mingkong let out a heavy snort through his nose:

"Now, in the next six months or so, how might the emperor deal with Xiling?"

Empress Pei dared not say that she understood the emperor well, but the emperor's current situation... the situation of "a dying man seeking revenge" had changed from Chu Mingkong to the emperor, and now it was Chu Mingkong's turn to guard against someone else's desperate attack.

"I think this six months can be divided into the first half and the second half. In the first half, he will gather all his forces but hold back for the time being, focusing his efforts on finding the Golden Crow Phoenix Body. However, he may send people to cause trouble in Xiling. In the second half, he probably won't have much of a chance to turn the tide. The forces he gathered earlier will be used to retaliate against Xiling."

"So certain?" Shangguan Rong was surprised. This was no longer a guess; it was so detailed that it seemed to be conjecturing about the other party's plan.

Empress Pei simply smiled at Shangguan Rong's questioning and explained:

"The timing might be a bit off, but the emperor will definitely hold back for a while and see if there's any chance to find the Golden Crow Phoenix Body. He's an exceptionally self-controlled person."

Chu Mingkong wholeheartedly agreed. Afraid he couldn't resist, he hadn't touched Empress Pei for all these years. When he kept her by his side to monitor her, he'd rush to sleep on the floor. And to avoid constantly seeing her, he even had a small room in his palace where he locked her up. His way of releasing his pent-up desires was to have other concubines dress up as the Empress and impersonate her...

They are indeed frighteningly steady and self-disciplined.

Chapter 144 Thoughts on Variables (10.4/18)

Judging from the current situation, the future of the Tianji Empire is a complete blank, and it is difficult to predict its future direction.

However, for Chu Mingkong, what he needed to do was also clear: regardless of whether the emperor could successfully extend his life, his decision to gather forces and take action against Xiling would not change.

If the life-extending attempt succeeds, then we'll recover and attack Xiling. If the life-extending attempt fails, then we'll attack you with the determination to take a bite out of you, even if it means dying.

"I had been planning this day for quite some time. I intended to take over the Crescent Moon Kingdom by taking advantage of Yongzhen's marriage alliance and find a way to make a living for the people of Xiling."

"The emperor's affair ultimately began with me. I can easily take you all and flee far away, but the people left behind in Xiling will be held responsible."

Chu Mingkong revealed his plan to use Yongzhen's marriage to the emperor. Empress Pei looked at him with a different eye, even using the emperor's plan to search for a new empress in the Crescent Moon Kingdom as an advantage.

However, Chu Mingkong's description was very general, only pointing in one direction. Empress Pei, after giving him a few more glances of admiration, calmed herself down and pressed for an answer:

"The Crescent Kingdom now exists in name only, but since the fall of the Moonlit Empire, it has never enjoyed true stability, and the forces there are complex and intertwined."

Although Mingkong, you've considered using Yongzhen's marriage alliance to legitimize the Yueqi name, do you have a concrete plan? How do you deal with the various tribes, the hidden forces, and the emperor's extended influence there?

Chu Mingkong's expression gradually turned serious, and he cleared his throat:

"It's impossible to think that far ahead. The power dynamics in the Crescent Kingdom change too quickly. The people we need to deal with today may be gone tomorrow. Thinking about it too early will only be a waste of effort."

Silence fell over the room. Shangguan Rong and Empress Pei both took a sip of tea and then looked at him with strange expressions.

"What?" Chu Mingkong was confused. Had he said something wrong?

Seeing that Shangguan Rong remained silent, Empress Pei, playing the heartless one, exposed his true colors:

"Actually, you haven't thought about any specific implementation plan. You just set a general direction and left it for Rong'er to worry about, right?"

"...I think I call this responding to each move as it comes and adapting to the situation."

Chu Mingkong tried to defend himself, but unfortunately, the disdain in Shangguan Rong and Empress Pei's eyes remained undiminished.

In the end, Shangguan Rong sighed and said something fair to save face for him:

"However, Mingkong's words make sense. Not long ago, we were preoccupied with how to safely send Princess Jinyu, Princess Yongzhen, and the Empress out of the capital. We had no time to think about such far-reaching matters. Moreover, the premise of setting up a plan is to have a clear understanding of the situation. Everything in the Crescent Moon Kingdom is unknown to us, so there is no need to talk about a plan."

Even theoretical discussions are more practical than this.

Chu Mingkong nodded, and said shamelessly, "That's exactly what I meant!"

Empress Pei rolled her eyes at him; though it was a sign of disdain, the way a beautiful woman rolls her eyes in a haughty glance can still make one's heart flutter. She concluded: