[TL Note: The pronouns âheâ (âhimâ) and âsheâ (âherâ) sound exactly the same in Chinese. So, while some people refer to Zi Youâs Shifu as âhe,â Zi You is using the âsheâ pronoun.]
The Emperor indeed stared at Zi You when he saw her. He smiled meaningfully and said, âYatou, Muhou, the Empress, and the consorts are here specifically to see you. Theyâre all curious why you werenât afraid of those poisonous creatures when youâre a delicate girl. So tell us why you werenât afraid?â
Zi You stood up and bowed. She replied calmly, âReplying to Emperor, Chennu knew that there are a lot of poisonous creatures in Nanjiang. To overcome the fear, Chennu took the female medical team into the mountains for military training. Otherwise, how can we go to Nanjiang to pacify the rebellion? To treat the soldiers, Chennu and the female medical team had to overcome the fear.â
The Empress Dowager beckoned her and smiled amiably. âGood child. Come over to Aijia.â
Zi You calmly walked over and bowed to the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager looked her up and down and asked in concern, âDid your injuries leave any prevailing conditions behind? Aiyo! Aijia heard that it took you a long time to revoer from your serious injuries.â
âThank you for your concern, Empress Dowager.â Zi You bowed and smiled. âOther than Chennuâs martial arts not yet completely restored, the body is a lot better. To be exact, Chennu was not severely injured, but died. All of Chennuâs meridians were broken. If Shifu wasnât there, Chennu would have died.â
âDied?â Wu Jieyu pretended to cover her small cherry mouth in shock. âBack to life? Is your Shifu really an immortal?â
âYes, Chennuâs Shifu really is an immortal,â Zi You replied calmly.
Wu Jieyu immediately asked, âThen how old is he? Are there any other disciples?â
Zi You immediately looked awkward and explained. âOf course...... But Iâm not with them......â
Wu Jieyu became more excited when she saw Zi You like this. She didnât let her off and asked, âThen why did your Shifu not come to see the Emperor? It wonât be going overboard if the Emperor made such a talent the national teacher. Do you think that your consort is right, Emperor?â Wu Jieyu pursed her lips and acted coquettish.
The Emperor was a little embarrassed as he smiled at Zi You. âYouâer, get your Shifu to come out of the mountains. Zhen will certainly treat him well.â
âShifu is an aloof person.â Zi You shook her head in embarrassment. âShe doesnât interfere with the mundane world. Chennu asked her to come to the capital, but she refused.â
âEmperor......â At this moment, a woman suddenly shouted out excitedly. âThis officialâs wife has something to tell you, Emperor.â
The voice was jarring and everyone turned to look at the woman.
Zi You also turned. As expected, it was Duke Yongnanâs wife, Nee Chen.
Duke Yongnan had fallen ill recently, so he did not come to the banquet. Only Zhao HongXiang and Nee Chen came tonight.
Zhao HongXiang was feeling very conflicted right now. In the afternoon, Yu Lanxuan had come to find him and told him, âI already told Mu Zi You about us. She will definitely suggest dissolving the engagement tonight. If you donât want to be humiliated, you should propose to dissolve the engagement first.â
At that time, he was very unhappy. She was just a little Shu daughter and one whom he had played with already. So, on what basis could she tell him what to do?
She was on the Empressâ side, but he was Taiziâs valued confidant.
Moreover, Zi You was even more beautiful now than she was two years ago. Old General Mu had also returned victorious. And Zhao HongXiang didnât know what the Emperor was going to do.
If the Emperor wasnât going to take away Old General Muâs military power, then wouldnât he suffer a big loss if he dissolved his and Zi Youâs engagement right now?
Thinking to here, Zhao HongXiang had been very unhappy and dissatisfied with Yu Lanxuan. âWhy did you do that? You didnât even discuss it with me and you spoke nonsense to Youâer?
He hadnât expected that Yu Lanxuan would immediately cry. âHow can Shizi say that I was speaking nonsense? Is our love all fake? Are the vows that Shizi made to me all fake? I donât believe it. I treasure all the love letters that Shizi wrote to me.â
Zhao HongXiang had thought about all the nauseating love letters that he had written. There were a lot of them. They described his and Yu Lanxuanâs loving and affectionate times together in bed.
So, he could only coax her. âOkay, okay. I was wrong. Iâll listen to you from now on, okay?â
But once he saw Zi You, Zhao HongXiang regretted what he said. No matter how he looked and compared Yu Lanxuan and Zi You, he felt that one was the moon in the sky and one was a stone on the ground. One was a lotus in the Milky Way and one was a dogtail flower in the grass.
So, when his mother constantly urged him to dissolve the engagement, he absolutely disagreed and didnât stand up.
As a result, his mother was anxious and jumped out herself. Zhao HongXiang wanted to stop her, but it was too late.
Although Nee Chen was nervous at this moment, she was 70% certain that the Emperor would not punish her. That was because Wang Yiping had told her, âThe Empress wants you to quickly dissolve the engagement with the Generalâs Manor, lest your Duke Yongnan fu struck by disaster. The Empress said, âThe Emperor probably wants to keep that cheap little wench for himself! So, itâs good if she doesnât come back. If she comes back, you have to do everything to destroy her. She cannot enter the Palace.â
âWould you let your son marry the person whom the Empress wants to destroy and let her bring disaster to your son?â
Nee Chen had told Wang Yipingâs words to the Duke and told him to dissolve the engagement. But the Duke had said, âOld General Mu is worried about his granddaughter right now. We canât add fuel to the fire. Weâll be scolded.
âWe took advantage of them last time about the engagement. If we take avantage of them again to dissolve the engagement, we will be scolded to death. You can be shameless, but I cannot. Letâs wait. I have to carefully think about what the Emperor is thinking.â
As a result, this matter was dragged out like this. It couldnât be dragged any longer. Yu Lanxuan was right. âIf that cheap wench Mu Zi You proposes to dissolve the engagement first, Shiziâs reputation will suffer.â
Therefore, Mu Zi You could not suggest dissolving the engagement first. Duke Yongnan fu had to suggest dissolving the engagement first.
Nee Chen thought of this and her uneasy mood slightly calmed down a bit. She gritted her teeth and said, âEmperor, originally, this...... this officialâs wife shouldnât bring it up at this time. But our fu is small. We cannot tolerate Mu Xiaojie!
âWe havenât seen her in more than two years. Her Shifu is a man and she has so many martial brothers. Who knows what happened? We ordinary people canât afford to marry an immortalâs disciple!â
As soon as Nee Chen finished speaking, Nee Liu wanted to jump up in anger, but she was stopped by Mu YingYi.
Wang Yiping immediately stood up and pretended to reproach her. âNee Chen, youâre wrong. Our Youâer has been injured, so she was being treated. You canât have any crooked thoughts.â
Nee Chen shook her head and looked scornful. âItâs even more objectionable because her injuries were being treated. Your daughter just said it. Her meridians were all broken. Let me ask you. If her meridians were all broken, then didnât her Shifu need to mend them?
âOur Duke Yongnan fu doesnât want someone whose body was touched all over by a man. Ah.......â
She hadnât finished speaking, when Nee Chen covered her mouth. No one saw what happened when Old General Muâs body slightly shook in his wheelchair. âI, Mu Junyuan, never hit women, but I made an exception today. Thatâs because this woman deserves to be hit! When your sonâs leg was injured, you looked everywhere for a doctor. When he was about to die, Duke Yongnan came to beg me.
âMy granddaughter became engaged to him to cure him regardless of your sonâs disability so she didnât have to commit suicide to maintain her reputation. She was injured from the flash flood because she was trying to save injured soldiers. She was saved by her Shifu, but youâre now insulting my granddaughter.
âYou b*stard! Let me ask you. Are those soldiers not human? They shouldnât be saved? Or was my granddaughter supposed to die from her injuries?â
At this time, Wu Jieyu smiled coldly. âEmperor, your consort thinks that Duke Yongnan furen makes sense. After all, men and women are different. Mu Xiaojie knew that she couldnât treat a man or have any skin contact with him, which was why she became engaged to Duke Yongnan Shizi. In the same token, for her to maintain her innocence, she should have died to prove her innocence and not accept her Shifuâs treatment.â
Wu Jieyu! Very good. You asked for it. If I donât make you die miserably today, then I would have studied for two years in Blackwater Pool in vain.
Zi You secretly gave Shuiling orders and then looked contemptuously at Wu Jieyu. She sneered and said, âJieyu, who told you that my Shifu is a man?â
Old General Mu (Shangguan LingRan) and Mu YingYi sneered contemptuously. They even wanted to use the expert as a man to make trouble for Zi You and destroy her reputation. Then letâs deal them a heavy blow!
Everyone was stunned. Even Xuanwu Emperor asked, âWhat? Your Shifu is a woman?â
Zi You looked mockingly at Nee Chen and Wu Jieyu. She calmly replied, âReplying to Emperor, Chennuâs Shifu is a woman. She is......â
The palace hall was silent. Everyone stared at Zi You and wanted to know who her Shifu was.
Zi You calmly and clearly said, âMy maternal great-grandmother â Indian Goddess Mari. Goddess Mari is the goddess of rain and flowers in India. She accepts the peopleâs worship. She is a true goddess. Chennu has lived in the Indian God Realm for the past two years. All the goddesses, guardians, and disciples there are female.â
The palace hall was completely silent. An embroidery needle landing on the ground could be heard. A clamor immediately sounded when Zi You finished speaking. âHeavens! Really? There are really gods in this world?!â
âI knew it. How else could she have saved so many soldiers from the swamps? A god is omnipotent of course.â
âIt seems that itâs the truth when Mu Xiaojie said that she died, but she was saved.â
â......â
âDonât be noisy!â Xuanwu Emperor obviously didnât expect that Zi You was a goddessâ descendant. He couldnât wait to ask, âThen your mother is the daughter of a goddess? How did she die then? Why didnât your great-grandmother save her?â
Zi You bowed and calmly answered, âThatâs correct. My mother is also a goddess. She didnât die. Her soul is immortal. My maternal grandmother, Goddess Mari, wanted her to go back to the Indian God Realm. So, my mother had to fake her death to deceive my grandfather, father, and uncle.
âMy grandfather followed motherâs request and sent her mortal body to Nanjiang. My mother soon came back to life, but my grandfather, father, and uncle didnât know. They didnât know that the expert who saved me on the mountains that day was my maternal grandmother. They thought that she was Bodhisattva Guanyin travelling on a cloud. Thus, they handed me to her with ease.
âIf you donât believe it, you can ask officials from the Astronomy Department whether there was a blue light that covered the whole Mount Yunmeng on the day of the flash flood.â
âWhere are the officials from the Astronomy Department?â Xuanwu Emperor shouted loudly. He didnât care about how Zi You referred to herself anymore. She didnât use âChennu,â but âIâ instead.
Two officials from the Astromony Department came out in a fluster. They kowtowed and said, âReplying to Emperor, Mu Xiaojie is right. Chen was on duty that night and observed the night sky. There was indeed a blue light that flashed for about a quarter of an hour.â
Xuanwu Emperor and all the officials looked shocked and dumfounded at Zi You.
Some people were happy, scared, worried, regretful, resentful, and jealous. It was like many bottles were knocked over. They had all sorts of feelings.
For example: Mu YingRui.
For example: Zhao HongXiang.
Who didnât want to obtain a goddess? But they were truly the biggest fools in the world. They had actually obtained a goddess, but they threw her away.
Zhao HongXiang quickly stood up and knelt in front of the Emperor. He kowtowed remorsefully again and again. âEmperor, Chen doesnât want to dissolve the engagement. Chenâs mother didnât get Chenâs consent before she asked to dissolve the engagement. Chen doesnât agree!â
âMarriage......â Xuanwu Emperor said this word before he was shocked by the following scene and couldnât speak anymore.
Mu YingRui ran over to Zi You and grabbed a hold of her. He asked incredulously, âYouâer, you said your mother...... Sheâs still alive? Sheâs really...... really a goddess?â
Zi You looked coldly at her slag father and nodded. âFather, you shouldnât doubt this. Didnât mother come to see you?â
Mu YingRuiâs face instantly turned pale! So, he was really slapped and shaved by Dier. Then it wasnât difficult to explain what had happened.
How hateful! So she really was a goddess. If he had treated her well back then, could he be enjoying life in the God Realm right now?
Mu YingRui stood there stunned, which made Zi You secretly refreshed. You regret it now, right? This is just the beginning. From now on, I will return the bloody debts to you one by one!
Taiziâs face also changed! His remorse was like a poisonous snake. It didnât drill out, but it bit his internal organs. He was suffering unbearable pain, but he couldnât say it out loud.
But Zi Youâs following words made him want to bang his head.
âMy mother met the Great Yan army that was pacifiying the rebellion back then. If she didnât serve as a guide for them, the Great Yan army might not have succeeded in the counterinsurgency. That was because Darong Kaâs father was also a famous shaman in Nanjiang like Darong Ka was. The two spirit snakes that he raised were killed by my mother. Darong Kaâs father couldnât withstand the blow of failure and died from illness.
âSo, Darong Ka came to the capital and obtained Emperor and Taiziâs trust. His purpose was to seek revenge. He knew that I am Dierâs daughter and a descendant of an Indian goddess. He wanted to kill me, but I have spiritual power protecting me, so he could not harm me.
âAs a result, he wanted to kill my grandfather and uncle, but he didnât expect that my great-grandmother knew everything that he did. She sent me and my mother to Nanjiang and saved my grandfather, uncle, and Great Yanâs soldiers. That scoundrel actually gave a gu to my grandfather and uncle. My mother got rid of the gus, but Darong Ka was bitten by his own gu.
âWhen we occupied Dali and before we entered the mountains for a counterattack, Darong Ka had died. But itâs a good thing that heâs dead. If heâs not dead, I will make him wish that heâs dead!â Zi You scolded viciously. That not only attracted the officialsâ discussion, but the Emperor, the Empress, and Taizi were terrified!
They were scared because they didnât know Zi Youâs ability. If she was as powerful as that whatever Goddess Mari, then wouldnât she know all about their conspiracy? The Empress wanted to refute, but she was so scared that she didnât dare to speak. She hid behind Wu Jieyu and nudged her.
Wu Jieyu wasnât afraid of death and foolishly asked Zi You, âThen isnât Mu Xiaojie omnipotent?â
Zi You still calmly shook her head and replied, âDoes Jieyu think that itâs so easy to become a god? One has to go through thousands of hardships and practice in dangerous situations. My current spiritual power canât even compare to my grandmother and mother, much less my great-grandmother.â
âThen what can you do?â The Emperor was the most concerned about this question, so he shouted.
Zi You slightly smiled. A brilliant smile appeared on her beautiful face, like flowers floating in the snow and underneath the moon. For a moment, the whole palace hall seemed to burst with a snow plum blossom scent.
She clearly stood below the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and the Empress, but everyone was looking at her right now. She really was like a goddess standing on top of a mountain looking disdainfully at the mortal beings.
At this moment, she was extremely beautiful. It was an extreme and unlimited disdain and self-confidence that emerged from the heart. The beauty eclipsed everyone there, including the most noble people in the world.
They could hear a clear and cold voice ringing in the palace hall. âOf course I can treat and heal someone. But I can also see through a personâs body and see the true essence. I can also summon the wind and rain. Even Darong Ka can do this. If he didnât summon the heavy rain, the flash floods wouldnât have happened that day. Of course, the most powerful skill is killing someone! Do you want me to show you...... Emperor?â
The Emperor looked at her smile that was not a smile. She was aloof and elegant. She didnât have the slightest bit of charm no matter what. She was just chillingly cold.
Xuanwu Emperor swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He nodded with difficulty and asked, âYou can see through bodies and see the true essence?â