The Unlucky Fool of No. 014

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Chapter 14

[Junior Sister doesn't mind, but the crown prince minds her status. Oh, he minds it for a different reason. He knows the Eldest Princess will make an issue of Junior Sister's birth. That woman has never treated Junior Sister well all these years. When she decides to strike, she'll be ruthless.]

Ming Xi: Hm?

[So His Highness the Crown Prince just wants to give Junior Sister the very best, including a status to match. A descendant of the General of Sacred Martial! How grand is that? It'll be a slap right across the Eldest Princess's face.]

Ming Xi truly wasn't interested in her origins, but after hearing Wen Que put it that way, she felt it might actually be rather nice.

"So next, we'll need to ask Father to step in."

If His Highness the Crown Prince investigated any further, the scope and nature of the inquiry would go beyond what a crown prince ought to do. He could do it, of course, but if anyone found out, they might use it to drive a wedge between father and son. Besides, now that the investigation had reached this crucial point, it was time for the emperor to act.

The emperor nodded slightly. At a flick of his finger, a dark figure appeared in Xuanyang Hall like a ghost.

Wen Que: [Whoa!]

Truth be told, Wen Que hated to admit that she might have been startled.

Her dignity as a cultivator absolutely forbade her from admitting it.

The newcomer was presumably one of the emperor's secret guards. His skills were likely top-tier among mortals. He might be no match for someone at Ming Xi's level, but against a slacker like Wen Que, who barely even qualified as half-trained, he could take her out with a single stroke.

The secret guard had been nearby all along, so he knew why the emperor had summoned him. After accepting his orders, he vanished once more like a shadow.

Wen Que: [Wow!]

Ming Xi badly wanted to laugh, but this hardly seemed the time.

The emperor was considering other matters, such as Ming Xi's title, Quiet Grace Commandery Princess. The Eldest Princess had requested that title for Ming Xi, yet from the look of her now, she wanted to tear away everything Ming Xi had. That title could go too. He had always thought it unsuited to Ming Xi, but the Eldest Princess had insisted.

When Ming Xi returned this time, he had already considered giving her a new title. Now it seemed the Ming Family offered the perfect way to do it.

If Ming Xi truly was a descendant of the Ming Family, there would be no problem granting her the title of princess.

"This time, why don't you choose your own title?" The emperor's gaze brimmed with affection and anticipation. "If nothing comes to mind, I have a few suggestions. See whether you like any of them."

With that, the emperor took a document from a nearby pile and spread it before Ming Xi. It was filled with titles he had long since thought up.

It was more than enough to show that the emperor had come prepared.

[That's love right there!]

Ming Xi thought that if someone set up a stage for Wen Que, she might burst into song on the spot.

The Eldest Princess moved quickly. She was clearly in a hurry. Ming Xi and the others were still chatting about family matters in Xuanyang Hall and had just reached the point of saying it was nearly time to eat when the Eldest Princess arrived with her entourage.

It was Ming Xi's first time seeing He Xueyi.

Dressed all in white, the girl looked like a snow-lotus spirit who had stepped out of a vast, snow-covered mountain range. She raised her eyes toward Ming Xi, who stood some distance away in the hall, radiant and lovely as a blooming sunflower, and smiled faintly.

Ming Xi suddenly felt an illusory stab of toothache shoot straight through the top of her head.

"This junior, He Xueyi, greets Your Majesty." He Xueyi greeted the emperor with reserved courtesy. Though she called herself his junior, her salute was unmistakably that of a cultivator.

In an instant, she made her standing perfectly clear.

The Eldest Princess frowned at He Xueyi's words and looked ready to speak, but He Xueyi gave her no chance.

"Fellow Daoist Luo, greetings." He Xueyi turned her gaze to Ming Xi. "The Heavenly Martial Sect and the Heavenly Sun Sect are as close as branches of the same tree. My master, Venerable Qingheng, is acquainted with Venerable Falling Maple. When I descended the mountain to seek my family, my master told me to visit the Heavenly Sun Sect. I hadn't expected to meet you here first, Fellow Daoist Luo."

Ming Xi continued peeling the tangerine she had just picked up, entirely at ease. She placed a segment on the jade plate before Wen Que.

Wen Que: [Huh?]

Ming Xi lifted her eyes slightly to the snow-clad girl below the steps, her beauty putting frost and snow to shame, and smiled. "No need for formalities, Fellow Daoist He. My surname is Ming, not Luo."

He Xueyi froze, apparently not expecting Ming Xi to say that. But considering what the Eldest Princess had done, Ming Xi's response was understandable.

He Xueyi had descended the mountain because her cultivation had reached a bottleneck. A chance insight had prompted her to seek out her blood relatives. When she met the Eldest Princess, she had felt that wondrous pull of blood kinship, and the bottleneck in her cultivation had begun to loosen.

What she hadn't expected was for the Eldest Princess to be such a contradictory mix of obsession and cowardice. After learning Ming Xi was not her biological daughter, the woman's first thought had been to trample Ming Xi into the mud.

He Xueyi could not understand it. The small hope she had held for family ties and a mother's love went cold at once.

The Amber Dynasty was indeed a behemoth, but to cultivators, it amounted to no more than the fleeting lives of ants in the mortal world. For those seeking the path to eternal life, such things were external trappings. Unfortunately, they had become the Eldest Princess's obsession, and nothing could sway her.

He Xueyi had accompanied the Eldest Princess only to settle the matter and bring this bond of cause and effect to a close.

Ming Xi, up on the dais, was the youngest disciple of Venerable Falling Maple of the Heavenly Sun Sect's Endless Peak. In terms of standing, they were much the same.

Nor did He Xueyi believe that being the Amber Dynasty's Eldest Princess's biological daughter made her any nobler than Ming Xi, who had once held that place. The emperor's attitude could not have been clearer: in his eyes, Ming Xi mattered more than the Eldest Princess's actual daughter.

He Xueyi had also asked about Ming Xi's life, both in the Heavenly Sun Sect and in the Amber Dynasty. Though the accounts carried plenty of personal bias, they had made one thing clear: Ming Xi owed all the favor she enjoyed to the imperial father and son. It had begun with the crown prince's first glance, when he thought Ming Xi looked more like the General of Sacred Martial from years past—

[Wait! I remember now!]

Wen Que, who had been quietly eating the tangerine her junior sister had lovingly peeled for her, suddenly shrieked.

[He Xueyi! That name! Isn't she the beloved junior sister of Second Senior Sister's bastard fiancé?]

Ming Xi: ??? Wen Jiujiu, what did you say?!

[Ahhh, how did I only remember now?!]

[Ahhh, this is He Xueyi! Years after Second Senior Sister's scumbag fiancé successfully proved his Dao through Slay-Wife Dao-Proving, he realized his true love was his junior sister and destroyed his own Dao heart!]

Ming Xi: What the hell.

Perhaps she ought to be grateful Second Senior Sister wasn't here. Hearing news like that could summon her inner demon on the spot.

“Imperial Brother!” The Eldest Princess's piercing call broke everyone's train of thought.

"Imperial Brother, now is the time to set the record straight and put everything back where it belongs!"