Chapter 2028: Sisters Who Share a Father, but Different Mothers
“I can’t just hide under your wing forever, right?” Chu Youzhao retorted, her face completely red. “Besides, brother-in-law is over there! He can protect me.”
“There are so many people who need protecting on the battlefield. How could he tend to you? What if there’s an oversight and…” Qin Wanru trailed off, alarmed just from the thought alone. She frowned and said, “We can discuss anything else, just not this.”
Chu Youzhao wanted to say something else, but Murong Qinghe said from off to the side, “Big brother Chu, what the madam says is reasonable. The north is bitterly cold and far, and it's too dangerous. You've never experienced life in the army, so it’ll be even more dangerous for you than other people.”
Chu Youzhao said resentfully, “So you were also looking down on me, little sister Qinghe.”
Off to the side, Chu Huanzhao couldn't help but roll her eyes. “Do you really have no awareness of your own cultivation rank? You’ll only be putting more trouble on brother-in-law’s plate by going.”
Chu Youzhao was furious, retorting, “My cultivation is at least higher than yours!”
Chu Huanzhao said disdainfully, “That’s only because in the past, I didn’t spend that much time on cultivation. You've seen my cultivation speed recently. Have I not been beating you up until you started hollering for mom and dad?”
“What?!” Chu Youzhao exclaimed, gritting her teeth in anger. “Do you have no sense of shame? It was clearly brother-in-law who helped you increase your cultivation aptitude!”
“It’s not as if he didn’t help you raise your aptitude too, but my cultivation speed is clearly faster than yours,” Chu Huanzhao said worriedly.
Murong Qinghe watched the two of them fight with a smile.
Siblings like them are so great. It’s not like the Murong clan where the brothers and sisters are more courteous and distant from each other.
In the end, after all of their persuasion, Chu Youzhao could only give up on thoughts of signing up. She still warned Murong Qinghe, “Little sister Qinghe, you have to be careful. Once you get to the front lines, you have to get in touch with my brother-in-law. He'll definitely take care of you!”
“O… Okay.” Murong Qinghe said, avoiding eye contact a bit.
How could I still look for him after the embarrassing message I sent him last time?
Big brother Zu seems to have a thing for me… but I can’t let down big brother Chu.
…
Compared to the capital’s liveliness, the Devil Sect’s Lake of Hatred was much less enthusiastic. After going through Lu Sanyuan’s battle against the monsters, the Holy Sect was already greatly weakened. Furthermore, after the subsequent departures of Qiu Honglei and Zu An, Yun Jianyue wasn’t in a great mood. The other sect masters could tell as well, so the overall mood was a bit gloomy.
Yun Jianyue muttered to herself, “Brightmoon City is the place Honglei stayed in the longest, and that was where she met him too. Could it be that she ran all the way back there?” She shook her head and said, “No way, she's probably really hurt this time. Why would she go to that kind of place to feel even more annoyed?”
She thought of many possible locations, but they were rejected one after another. In the end, she got more and more annoyed and was also at a loss. She had no idea where to find Qiu Honglei.
Suddenly, a subordinate reported, “Sect master, there is someone who wishes to meet with your respected self.”
“Who?” Yun Jianyue asked with a frown.
“He said he was from the Yun clan of the north,” the subordinate replied.
Yun Jianyue’s expression changed as she said, “Let him in.”
Soon after, a middle-aged man was brought to the entrance. He had decent features, clearly having been a handsome man in his youth. Yun Jianyue waved her hand, gesturing for her subordinates to withdraw.
“The north’s Yun Shou greets the sect master!” the middle-aged man said with a bow.
“How were you able to find this place?” Yun Jianyue asked, looking at him coldly. The Lake of Hatred was a place of utmost secrecy. In all these years, not even the Embroidered Envoy had been able to find it.
The middle-aged man said with a smile, “We were able to bring the sect master here in the past, so sending one person here is of no difficulty.”
Yun Jianyue’s expression changed and she said, “I already have no connection to that place.”
That middle-aged man named Yun Shou shook his head and replied, “How can a bloodline relationship be so easily broken?”
Yun Jianyue said with a sneer, “In the past, I was nothing more than a bastard child of a lowly woman. How could I possibly have the right to mingle with the noble aristocrats of the Yun clan?”
Yun Shou’s expression remained gentle as he said, “The sect master speaks too harshly. The Yun clan valued you greatly in the past, and they tried to find a way to bring you to the late Devil Sect master. Do you really think you would have been able to become her disciple so easily without us working behind the scenes?”
“Hah,” Yun Jianyue said with a cold expression. “You’re bringing up things from decades ago that may or may not have happened, and you want me to feel grateful to you? Aren’t you underestimating me too much here? Do you think I’m that easy to fool?”
Yun Shou sighed and said, “Whether or not it really did happen, that is something Sect Master Yun understands fully well. In the past, the Devil Sect’s trials were all exceedingly dangerous. You were still young back then and didn’t have high enough cultivation. On several occasions, you almost died. If not for the secret help you received, how could you have been able to safely grow up and eventually sit in your position of sect master?”
Yun Jianyue became quiet. Several memories of her youth surfaced. She had always been curious as to how she was able to pass, and later, she had only thought of it as her luck being good. Now, it seemed to have been because of the help of the Yun clan. These were things that no one else in the Devil Sect knew about, and she had never talked about it either. There was no way one would know without being involved.
“So what if it happened or not? Don’t tell me you would naively think that this was enough to threaten me to repay you?” Yun Jianyue eventually retorted with a sneer. As the leader of the Devil Sect for all these years, she was already used to dancing on the brink of life and death. She wasn’t a naive little girl who could be easily manipulated.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Yun Shou said with a bow. “This humble one only wished to come to discuss some old things. We wouldn’t dare to threaten you." He then continued, “Does the sect master know of our northern Yun clan’s background?”
Yun Jianyue frowned, saying, “Not interested.”
Yun Shou ignored what she said and continued, “The rest of the world only knows us as a clan that thrived in the north for centuries, but few people know that we are actually a branch of the Demon race.”
Yun Jianyue’s expression finally changed. If the Yun clan was part of the Demon race, didn’t that mean she too had been part of them from the very start?
Yun Shou was very satisfied with her reaction. He said, “Among the Fiend races, forget about the Golden Crow Imperial Clan; let alone the Ocean races that reside in the vast sea, whose contact with the Fiend races is actually very sparse. The remaining Demon, Golden Peng, Peacock, and Elf races were deemed the four great king races. Their statuses in the Fiend races are extraordinary.
“On top of that, the Demon race is also divided into four great clans: The Yun, Suolun, Rong, and Wu clan, with our Yun clan taking the lead. For more than two-thirds of the existence of the Demon race, it has been led by the Yun clan.
“In the past, the Fiend races fought a huge battle with the humans. The Fiend races were unfortunately defeated, but we still yearned for the day when we could return to our homeland and seize back the world from the humans. That was why we sent some of our people into the human territory to start inhabiting it and multiplying. Meanwhile, the northern Yun clan is precisely what the Demon race prepared on this side.”
As he spoke of the clan’s history, his face was full of pride.
Yun Jianyue smiled ambiguously and replied, "So? Do you want me to welcome the Demon race back to their former homeland?”
She was starting to recover from her initial shock now. Even if she had Demon race blood, so what? Just how many years had already passed? It was no doubt quite faint now. If these naive bastards really wanted to vainly use that to threaten her, they'd die without even knowing how.
Yun Shou shook his head slightly and said, “It is still not time. There is no need for the sect master to take such a huge risk.”
Yun Jianyue frowned, asking, “Then why did you come to see me?”
Yun Shou sized her up, seemingly considering what to say. He then replied, “We hope that the sect master can go and help out your little sister.”
“Little sister?” Yun Jianyue repeated, raising her brows as if she had heard an incredible joke. “I was an only daughter, so when did I ever have a little sister?”
Yun Shou sighed, saying, “Sect Master Yun’s resentment is an understandable part of human nature. In the past, your father ended up loving a human and siring you. The clan felt that your bloodline wasn’t pure enough, so they didn’t treat you well from the start. That was why you were sent to such a dangerous Devil Sect. However, they never expected you to have been able to grow to this extent. Recently, you were actually even able to influence the selection of the new Fiend Emperor in the Fiend King Court.”
Yun Jianyue knew that he was talking about the time she and Yan Xuehen had helped Zu An single-handedly raise up the weaker Second Empress, allowing her son to become the new Fiend Emperor. Now that they were on the topic, she had fought alongside the Demon race’s people in the past too. She seemed to recall a pretty young lady named Princess Suolun, who probably didn’t know about her relationship with the Demon race either.
“As for your little sister’s mother, she was a distinguished member of the Demon race. After all, a child born between the two of them would more readily awaken the bloodline power of the Yun clan. As such, the clan treated her better at first, and then through certain means, helped her achieve the title of Madam Wu,” Yun Shou said.
“Isn’t Madam Wu doing fine? She’s definitely living a far better life than someone like me, a rebel in the court’s eyes,” Yun Jianyue said with a calm expression.
Yun Shou was a bit surprised, remarking, “You don’t seem to be surprised that she is your little sister.”
Yun Jianyue said with a sneer, “It’s not as if I never investigated this myself. Of course that heartless and fickle father of mine married another woman and had another daughter. It’s just that I never expected to have such a degree of connection to the Demon race.”
Yun Shou sighed, saying, “Then you should now understand the relationship between us and the Demon race. You should understand your father’s troubles in the past, right?”
Yun Jianyue swept out her sleeves and said, “I don’t care about any of his troubles; I only know that he is heartless and fickle. He left my mother and allowed her to pass away. Thank goodness he died early too, or else I would even consider going out to get revenge for my mother.”
Yun Shou said, “In the past, your father passed away so early precisely because he was always brooding over your mother's situation.”
When she heard that, there was no emotional reaction on Yun Jianyue’s face at all.
Yun Shou then said, “Even though you and Yun Yuqing are not from the same mother, you share a father. If the two of you could watch over each other, that would be wonderful.”
“Just what happened to her?” Yun Jianyue asked. She wasn’t that interested, but after thinking about it, using this as a pretext to get some information was fine as well.
Yun Shou was delighted to hear her response, saying, “She isn’t actually in any danger. Rather, the empress and empress dowager are fighting fiercely and trying to rope in powers…”
Yun Jianyue sneered and said, “Those two can fight all they want, but in the end, isn’t it all Ah… the regent who has the last say?”
“Be that as it may, the regent Zu An comes from a humble background and doesn’t actually have many people at his side. The implementation of many government decrees still has to go through either the empress or empress dowager’s people to implement. As such, for the sake of their respective interests, of course they have to fight,” Yun Shou explained. “Also, according to the intelligence we received, the regent seems to only have interest in women and cultivation. He doesn’t care much for authority in the court at all.”
Yun Jianyue was speechless.
That bastard Ah Zu's perversion has already become a globally known fact.
Yun Shou continued, “Under such a premise, neither of the two ladies wishes to lose to the other. They both want to become the woman with the greatest authority in the court. Not only is that their own desire, it also represents the clans behind them, as well as the collective vision of the ministers who have followed them all this time.
“As of late, both sides have been trying to rope in the kings that rule over various fiefdoms. King Wu is one of these important individuals. He has been invited to the capital. He always had wild ambitions to begin with. As Zhao Han’s son, he naturally wishes to seize it all. He has realized that this is a great opportunity and plans to see if he can take advantage of the crisis for personal gain.”
Yun Jianyue thought about what had happened during the past few days. There seemed to be many princes fighting over the throne, and Ah Zu had even killed one. It seemed that brat King Wu really didn't want to live anymore.
Yun Shou said, “Even though King Wu’s forces aren’t bad, they still aren't enough to subdue the masses. However, if he can receive the help of you and the Devil Sect, his chances of success will become a bit higher.
“Furthermore, because your relationship with the regent seems to be especially good, we hope that you can speak favorably about King Wu. Otherwise, if King Wu accidentally makes a mistake and angers him, there won't be a chance to carry out the plan in time.”
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