"Pah! You despicable, shameless villain! I wish I could eat your flesh and drink your blood."
"You've taken my innocence. I have no face left to go on living in this world. Let me go, and I'll kill myself, so you can't go on humiliating me!"
Though Xu Xiao was pinching her cheeks, A Zhu could not stop herself from cursing him through her cherry lips.
The same fierce resolve that had driven A Zhu to stand up for her father in the drama would not allow her to endure such humiliation.
Moreover, the man who had humiliated her was so utterly repulsive, a world apart from the image of the great hero she had always imagined as her ideal husband.
How could A Zhu not struggle in despair? If she had not known she was no match for him, she would have dragged Xu Xiao down to the Yellow Springs with her.
"Heh, I'm a villain? So what if I am? Are men like Northern Qiao Feng and Southern Murong the only ones worthy of having you? As far as I'm concerned, they're nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs."
A Zhu's curses displeased Xu Xiao.
Yes, he admitted that he had forced her and that his methods had been somewhat despicable.
But so what?
Since ancient times, the strong had taken all. He possessed great power and had taken a fancy to A Zhu, so it was her good fortune.
Besides, A Zhu becoming his woman was far better than her dying at Qiao Feng's hands as she had in the original drama.
Youth passed, and beauties faded all too easily. A woman like her should be his beloved companion, not meet an untimely death in the jianghu.
But A Zhu did not think so. When she heard the man before her mention her young master, she was all the more scornful:
"You? You think you're worthy of being compared to a great hero like my young master?"
"My young master is a descendant of the Murong imperial family of the Kingdom of Yan, and he is single-mindedly determined to restore Great Yan. He's a great hero with ambition and ability. How could a villain like you, who uses despicable means to force himself on women, compare to him?"
"Heh! Just as I thought, a woman's narrow view!"
"Since you like great heroes and mighty champions, let me tell you what those great heroes and mighty champions have been doing behind your back."
Xu Xiao was not angry at A Zhu's mockery. On the contrary, if she was willing to reason with him, he could argue it out with her.
He would make her understand just how many dirty deeds the so-called great heroes in her heart had committed.
"First, let me ask you: who are you? Are you Han or Xianbei?"
"Why do you ask? What does who I am have to do with you?"
A Zhu's stubborn temper flared. She showed Xu Xiao no kindness and had no wish to answer him.
"Forget it. Even if you don't tell me, I already know. I know more about you than you do, including exactly who your birth parents are."
"You!" A Zhu's almond-shaped eyes widened, and she stared fixedly at Xu Xiao.
"Since you're already my woman, I'll answer you free of charge. First, your parentage."
"Your father is Duan Zhengchun, Dali's Prince of Zhennan, and your mother is Ruan Xingzhu, who lives in seclusion at Little Mirror Lake."
"The Duan character tattooed on your body and the little gold lock you've worn since childhood are proof."
Xu Xiao was not one to beat around the bush. In just a couple of sentences, he revealed the information about her birth parents that A Zhu had searched everywhere for in vain.
But he was not finished. Next, he began to pass judgment on those so-called heroes and champions.
"I asked whether you were Han or Xianbei because I wanted to tell you: Murong Fu is merely a descendant of the Xianbei imperial family. What do his ambitions have to do with a Han woman like you?"
"Besides, who knows how many Han commoners were killed by the Kingdom of Yan that the Xianbei founded back then? These generations of his family have flown the banner of Xianbei royalty, but in truth, all they've done is earn a little fame in the jianghu. They dream of restoring their kingdom? They can take that bullshit dream and shove it."
"He doesn't even understand the principle of building high walls and stockpiling grain. He spends every day in the jianghu, gathering a rabble under the banner of enriching the state. Is someone like that fit to talk about restoring a kingdom?"
"Or do you also think that fool Murong Fu can take on Great Song's hundreds of thousands of armored soldiers with nothing but those so-called heroes and champions of the jianghu?"
"A mayfly trying to shake a tree!"
A Zhu's beautiful eyes shifted. For a moment, she could not take in so much information, but Xu Xiao paid him no heed and poured it all out at once:
"Besides, what you don't know is that, in order to restore their kingdom, the Murong Family has been secretly stirring up feuds and entanglements in the Central Plains martial world. Who knows how many people have lost their homes and families because of them?"
"And that's your so-called great hero and mighty champion?"
"As I see it, he's nothing but a wolf-hearted schemer living off his ancestors' legacy and indulging in daydreams."
"As for Qiao Feng, I have nothing to say against his character. But he himself is a Khitan. Who ever told you that?"
"The only reason you claim to hate me is that I forced myself on you, and because my face is ugly right now."
"But that's only temporary. If you really like these so-called great heroes and mighty champions, then I'll go and accomplish some earth-shaking feat, and show you what a real man is."
When Xu Xiao finished, he looked at A Zhu with a burning gaze.
Everything he had said came from the bottom of his heart. It was by no means something he had come up with on a whim in a moment of anger.
After experiencing the benefits of Internal Energy, he no longer regarded the trip to the world of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils as a one-way ticket for a single visit. He had decided to turn this place into his own back garden.
Since he could cross over as long as he paid the energy cost, this place was worth developing.
There were heavenly treasures in the mountains and forests, and talented people emerging one after another in the jianghu. Failing all else, he could raise meat pigs that practiced internal arts to provide him with an endless supply of Internal Energy cultivation.
Did you think the benefits of crossing the myriad worlds were limited to the protagonists' fortuitous encounters?
Wrong! Completely wrong.
The real benefit was this entire world.
Having a world all to himself, even if it was only a feudal world resembling ancient times.
Tsk, tsk... the benefits were too numerous to count.
Xu Xiao thought far ahead. Since he could cross into a martial world, he would one day enter worlds of immortals and gods, and even stranger worlds.
With more worlds to develop, he would have more choices in the future.
"You! You!" Hearing these secrets of the jianghu and the news of her birth parents from Xu Xiao, A Zhu was shaken to the core and could not answer for the moment.
"Don't try to kill yourself, A Zhu. Since I've taken a fancy to you, I naturally won't let you die so easily. Just be my woman without worrying."
"Afterward, I'll take you traveling across the land, so you can see the truth of this martial world and witness the rise of a new power with your own eyes."
"When that time comes, as my women, you will belong to the most exalted lineage under heaven. Isn't that better than suffering as someone else's maid?"
"Besides, you still haven't met your birth parents, and there are many things you've never thought of or seen before. Wouldn't it be a loss to kill yourself just like that?"
Xu Xiao did not know how to comfort people, so he could only lay out the pros and cons like this.
If A Zhu had not also been the first woman he had been with, he would have lost patience long ago.
He was a man who believed in the law of the jungle. Whatever the matter, force was always the first solution he considered.