In short, after observing things over the past few days, the person Bai Qiuran found most suspicious was Tang Ruowei. He had personally measured the development of Her Highness the Princess's secondary sex characteristics, but whenever he happened to observe her going out, she always had a pair of proud, high breasts. He had even once used his Spiritual Sense to see the girl sneaking around in front of a bronze mirror in her bedroom. Behind the mirror, there was even a secret chamber.
"A ruler's word is his bond. Of course I mean it," the Shangxuan Emperor replied coolly. "Our Shangxuan Kingdom has suffered one natural disaster and demonic attack after another, and our national fortune has faltered. We need to make sacrifices this way to change our fortunes."
As the saying went, everything in the world happened by chance... Yeah, right! It seemed everything had been prepared long in advance. Before returning, the Shangxuan Emperor had already arranged everything for Tang Ruowei. The less these people let slip, the more suspicious Bai Qiuran became of them.
"Ruowei!"
The Grand Elder of the Heavenly Demon Sect had once mocked Demonic Cultivator disciples by using him as a negative example, saying that orthodox Cultivators progressed too slowly and had no future. Bai Qiuran had gone to his door and beaten him up over it. And the former Sect Master of the Blood God Sect had died at Bai Qiuran's hands.
Could it really have been a misunderstanding? Had the Shangxuan Kingdom merely fallen on hard times because of its poor national fortune? Was the Imperial Advisor truly connected to a disciple of the Azure Nether Sword Sect? Was Tang Ruowei's hostility toward Cultivators merely based on her own impressions? And had all those missing materials in the Cultivation market simply been bought by some Demonic Cultivator who happened to pass through the Shangxuan Kingdom?
"Minister Sima, are you willing to take Ruowei as your wife?" The Shangxuan Emperor smiled, and, just as expected, his next words sold off his own daughter.
The Shangxuan Emperor replied irritably, "Mind your tone. I don't want to discuss this with you right now."
"Fine."
Thinking of this, Bai Qiuran stretched out a hand and formed an intricate Magic Incantation. He had disguised himself as a child and spent three days in the Venerable Mansion. During that time, he had used his Spiritual Sense to monitor the movements of Sima Yingbo, the Shangxuan Emperor, the Crown Prince, and Fu Qianqiu, the Imperial Advisor—all key figures. Yet he had found nothing out of the ordinary.
Tang Ruowei's face darkened with anger. "If you achieve your dream through your children, can it even be called your dream? Besides, after all these generations, I still haven't inherited Mother's excellent genes!"
"Sit down first. If you carry on like this, how can I ever feel at ease about your future?" Sima Yingbo lowered his head and said.
"Ruowei, you're already grown up. Why are you still so reckless?" The Shangxuan Emperor sat down beside his daughter, who continued pressing him for an answer.
The Shangxuan Emperor lowered his voice as well. "Minister Sima is handsome and charming, exceptionally talented, and a pillar of the kingdom. And, well... I looked into his family lineage. His mother has a very ample figure."
"Don't talk about the future. You're always telling me the ancestral laws must not be changed lightly. So why have you changed the sacrificial rites of our Shangxuan Kingdom so rashly?"
"I summoned you today to discuss something. You're still unmarried, and Ruowei is of age. Why don't I arrange a marriage between you two and make you the Prince Consort of the Shangxuan Kingdom? What do you think?" If Sima Yingbo knew what Tang Ruowei really looked like, he probably wouldn't be smiling so happily.
As a disciple of the Imperial Advisor and a First-Rank Venerable, Sima Yingbo held a special status in the Shangxuan Kingdom. So, unlike the others, he did not observe all the formalities before Tang Ruowei and the Shangxuan Emperor. He simply bowed and clasped his hands; he did not kneel.
"What kind of ridiculous reason is that!" If Bai Qiuran had believed in chance, coincidence, or fate, he would have exhausted his lifespan and entered the cycle of reincarnation three thousand years ago.
The Shangxuan Emperor continued to attend court and handle memorials as usual. In the evenings, he still followed the usual practice of drawing a tablet at random and favoring one of his consorts or the Empress. He wasn't an outstanding emperor, but at least he was steady and respectable.
The Shangxuan Emperor clapped his hands and laughed, his smile full of triumph.
"Another time with the Imperial Advisor?"
He glanced at the physical clone he had left behind. The clone, still in a child's form, dutifully returned to the little bed in the room and sat down. Meanwhile, Bai Qiuran's true body grew taller and taller, returning to his normal appearance. Then he took one step and vanished from the room.
Tang Ruowei's face was flushed with anger. She fell silent, and only after a long while did she manage to squeeze out a single word...
Tang Ruowei called out, but the Shangxuan Emperor raised a hand to stop her.
The Shangxuan Emperor set down his teacup with a sigh and pointed to the seat beside him.
"Yes." The Shangxuan Emperor was in such a hurry to marry her off for one reason: he was afraid she would keep running wild. The other, naturally, was that he knew about the secret Tang Ruowei was hiding. Her breasts were padded, and the Shangxuan Kingdom happened to consider a full figure beautiful. It would probably be difficult for Tang Ruowei to find a suitable husband in the kingdom, but the Shangxuan Emperor didn't want to marry his daughter off to a foreign country.
"Father Emperor."
The Shangxuan Emperor roared with laughter, looking delighted. Sima Yingbo laughed along, just as delighted, while Tang Ruowei's face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.
Meanwhile, in the imperial palace's back garden, Tang Ruowei, dressed in a magnificent palace gown and holding up her skirt, found her father enjoying tea and admiring the flowers.
"Father Emperor, why are you pushing me onto Sima Yingbo?"
The Shangxuan Emperor asked again, "Ruowei, will you marry him?"
"Your Majesty, Your Highness, may you both be blessed."
The Shangxuan Emperor didn't pay her any mind. Instead, he looked at Sima Yingbo, who stood to one side, and called out, "Attendants! Bring Minister Sima here!"
The Emperor of the Shangxuan Kingdom saw that his daughter had quieted down a little and continued, "Since I'm at it, I'll arrange something for you today, so you won't go running wild again later."
"Father Emperor!" Tang Ruowei hurried to her father's side and asked in a low voice, "I don't like him at all!"
The Shangxuan Emperor laughed heartily. "You ran out of the palace again a while ago. I haven't even settled the score with you yet."
"Rather than blame everything on our national fortune, why don't you try governing diligently and making the kingdom better through your own efforts?" Tang Ruowei urged him earnestly.
"I, Bai Qiuran, am made of iron. Today, I'm going to get to the bottom of this no matter what. If this road doesn't work, I'll take another!"
At his words, Tang Ruowei suddenly felt a terrible premonition rise in her heart.
Bai Qiuran withdrew his Spiritual Sense, puzzled.
They were Demonic Cultivators. Bai Qiuran could identify their cultivation methods at a glance, and that made it all the easier to see through cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage or the eighth or ninth level of the Qi Refining Stage.
Tang Ruowei's face had gone pale. Yet she had already prepared herself for this outcome. Once the Heaven Worship Ceremony was over, she planned to sneak out of the palace, leave the Shangxuan Kingdom, and disappear into the distance.
Sima Yingbo glanced at Tang Ruowei. His gaze slipped discreetly over her "high" chest, then he lowered his head and replied, "I am willing."
"Father Emperor!"
Tang Ruowei didn't believe that everything behind this was merely coincidence. And since the person who had arranged this marriage was her father, the Emperor of the Shangxuan Kingdom, she didn't dare openly refuse.
"However, since we've settled it, you can't go back on your word later. Even if you're the Imperial Advisor's disciple, if you wrong Ruowei, I'll hold you accountable together with the Imperial Advisor."
"What do you mean, another time with the Imperial Advisor?"
"For the past three days, Sima Yingbo and Fu Qianqiu have behaved exactly like a proper Imperial Advisor and Venerable should. Bai Qiuran had watched them practice. Sima Yingbo used a basic fire technique commonly found in the Cultivation World, while Fu Qianqiu's method did indeed bear traces of the Azure Nether Sword Sect's breathing technique."
With Bai Qiuran's discerning eye, he could be fairly certain neither of them had ever practiced Demonic Cultivator techniques. After all, he had at least some acquaintance with the experts of the major Demonic Cultivator sects.
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