Chapter 78
Chapter 78
The three years the empress dowager had spent cultivating her Daoist heart had clearly not made it strong enough. She shot to her feet in shock. “Is what you say true?”
The emperor was her own son. Of course she knew his temperament.
He would never believe some random person merely because they claimed to be an ancestor reincarnated.
If he dared tell her this, it proved that he believed Radiant Consort Yu’s identity.
The empress dowager had devoted the past few years to cultivation in pursuit of immortality and ascension. She said urgently, “Tell me everything about Radiant Consort Yu in meticulous detail. You are not to omit a single word!”
When she learned that Radiant Consort Yu had revealed secrets of the inner palace unknown to outsiders, the empress dowager could still remain calm.
But when she heard that purple lightning had descended from the heavens to warn the guards and attendants who disrespected her upon their first meeting, the empress dowager could no longer sit still.
“I must go see Radiant Consort Yu… No, I must go see Empress Wu.”
The emperor hurriedly stopped her. “Her present identity is only that of a Radiant Consort. You are the empress dowager. If you personally visit an imperial consort, what will people think when word gets out?”
It would accomplish nothing except bringing trouble upon Great-Grandmother.
That was precisely why he had been unwilling to tell the empress dowager before.
“Besides, Great-Grandmother said she toiled all her previous life and wishes only to rest quietly and live an ordinary life in this one. Her identity cannot be revealed.”
The empress dowager was reluctantly persuaded to stay put.
But only reluctantly. The very next day, she issued a decree summoning Radiant Consort Yu to Bixiao Palace to keep her company.
The palace consorts who had hoped the empress dowager might suppress Radiant Consort Yu’s momentum were devastated to discover that this demoness had won over not only His Majesty and the empress, but even the empress dowager, who wanted nothing except to leave the world behind and cultivate the Dao!
His Majesty might not see the empress dowager once in three days, yet she summoned Radiant Consort Yu to attend her every single day.
Not even her three imperial grandchildren received such treatment!
“Damn her!” In her fury, Dignified Consort Jiang smashed a tea set she had once adored. Resentment mingled with incomprehension as she demanded, “Could she be some confection of honey and jewels that gained human form? Why does everyone like her?”
At the same time, the Black-Robed Guards who had been watching Attendant Su finally made a discovery.
Su Yiwan was reasonably cautious. Whenever she took something out of her spirit-spring realm, she made sure no one was watching.
But the people she thought she had avoided were merely her own attendants. She had no idea that unseen Black-Robed Guards were watching her in shifts around the clock!
More than one Black-Robed Guard saw objects appear from thin air in Attendant Su’s hands–and vanish just as suddenly!
They repeatedly confirmed that she could not possibly have been carrying those objects upon her person.
When the emperor received the report, he was dining with the empress at Qingzheng Hall.
The empress had been firmly ordered to relinquish palace affairs. Every day, she ate the medicinal meals carefully prepared by the imperial physicians. Under the attendants’ watchful eyes, she spent the prescribed amount of time walking in the imperial garden. Occasionally, she visited the empress dowager at Bixiao Palace and listened to Daoist scriptures. She worried about nothing.
The regimen was clearly effective. The empress’s complexion had grown much rosier, and she was no longer as thin as before.
Once the emperor learned that something was indeed amiss with Attendant Su, the female lead, Su Yiwan, was silently removed from her palace that very night while she slept.
Someone woke her. Her gaze had only just fallen on her unfamiliar surroundings, and before she could scream, a thick, cloying fragrance enveloped her.
The world spun inside her head, and the young woman’s gaze gradually grew vacant.
The emperor appeared, surrounded by attendants.
As he looked at the young woman sitting blankly in the chair, not the slightest hint of pity stirred within him.
He asked, “Who are you?”
Su Yiwan answered dully, “I am Su Yiwan.”
“Why did you give the beauty pills to Radiant Consort Yu first?”
“Radiant Consort Yu is favored. I wanted her to help me win the emperor’s favor.”
“Where did the beauty pills come from?”
“There was a formula inside the spirit-spring realm. I made them myself according to the instructions.”
“A spirit-spring realm?” The emperor’s interest sharpened. “What is that?”
From that point onward, each answer Su Yiwan gave was more dizzying than the last.
A mysterious realm containing an immortal spring.
A second life after rebirth.
Knowledge of many people’s future fates…
After ordering his people to return Su Yiwan, the emperor remained awake all night.
The revelations of the night had simply been too shocking.
Su Yiwan had not been possessed by someone else as he had suspected. Instead, she had died and returned to live her life again?
He did receive an answer to the question that concerned him most. The beauty pills did indeed contain a miraculous ingredient: water from the spirit spring within that realm. According to Attendant Su, drinking its water strengthened the body and cured every illness. There was hope that the empress might recover completely.
He immediately ordered Attendant Su to produce some spirit-spring water. Unexpectedly, while under the drug’s influence, she could not do so. Instead, she began showing signs of waking.
He had no choice but to abandon the attempt for the moment and order the Black-Robed Guards to return her.
The emperor was young and had weighty matters on his mind, so a sleepless night left him feeling no fatigue. After morning court, he hurried to Qingzheng Hall.
He told the empress what had happened the night before.
After listening, the empress was also somewhat dazed. “First Empress Wu, and now Attendant Su. Your Majesty, could gods and buddhas truly exist in this world?”
Empress Wu had rendered great service to the realm. It was at least understandable that heaven might favor her and grant her another lifetime.
But what great service had Attendant Su performed for the country and its people to be allowed to begin life anew with her memories intact, and even receive an immortal treasure like the spirit-spring realm?
The emperor clearly shared her thoughts. He said flatly, “Unfortunately, the incense’s effects were limited, and We could learn no more. In that case, we shall question her carefully while she is awake.”
After monitoring Attendant Su for several days, the Black-Robed Guards confirmed that she could freely store objects in and remove them from the realm, but could not enter it in the flesh.
That made matters much easier.
The empress summoned Attendant Su to Qingzheng Hall.
Su Yiwan had woken that morning feeling slightly dizzy. She suspected nothing and merely thought she had slept poorly.
When she received the empress’s decree, her first reaction was excitement.
She believed Radiant Consort Yu had finally acted. Now that she had caught the empress’s eye, could catching His Majesty’s be far behind?
Su Yiwan carefully dressed herself and entered Qingzheng Hall brimming with joy.
To her even greater delight, His Majesty was there with the empress!
Could the empress be planning to introduce her to His Majesty today?
Wild thoughts filled her mind, and a blush unconsciously spread across her face.
The imperial couple did not know what she was thinking, but every reaction she had shown since entering the hall had fallen under their eyes.
The empress was a little disappointed. Was that all? She had thought a woman who had encountered an extraordinary opportunity like Empress Wu’s might be different somehow.
But now that she saw Su Yiwan, the girl was merely ordinary, with most of her thoughts plain at a glance.
“Attendant Su,” the emperor called from the seat above.
Su Yiwan’s heart surged with excitement, and she answered in a soft, delicate voice.
But the emperor’s next words plunged her into an abyss of ice. “We know about your spirit-spring realm.”