A woman claiming the throne faced obstacles at every turn-all the more so when her identity was that of a surviving orphan of the former dynasty. Lu Yuandi exhausted every scheme she could devise, only to discover that this could never be accomplished without bloodshed.
Since that was the case, she did not mind breaking her precepts one more time.
She would kill the emperor.
The current young emperor was nominally a member of the Lu family, but in truth he was nothing more than a puppet propped up by Li Li. Now that Li Li had fallen, multiple factions had their eyes on the throne he’d occupied-and Lu Yuandi was merely one of them.
Lu Yuandi was shrewd and far-sighted. To ensure success in a single stroke, she had mapped out nearly every possibility.
But mortal calculations seldom outpace the will of heaven.
That night, Peach Blossom Mountain lay under a bright moon and scattered stars, clear and windless. Tao Mian had left his window open against the heat, dozing lightly on his couch.
His sleep was restless. He dreamed.
In the dream, he saw Lu Yuandi-her white dress half-soaked in blood, standing in a formless void, smiling as she said something to him.
Tao Mian could not hear her voice. He walked forward in a panic, but no matter how he reached, he could not touch her.
He jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat. Without a moment’s hesitation, he got out of bed and packed his things.
He was, after all, an immortal who had lived for over a thousand years. He did not dream without cause. This dream had to be an omen of something dire.
Tao Mian left Peach Blossom Mountain that very night.
Just as the dream had foretold, Lu Yuandi was in danger. By the time Tao Mian reached the imperial palace, it was already a sea of fire.
He could not tell how many factions were locked in chaotic battle. Unable to find his disciple, he could only weave through flashing blades and clashing swords, calling Lu Yuandi’s name.
Flames. Screams. Blood.
The immortal, long accustomed to quiet and peaceful days, found himself tangled and hemmed in by it all, the carnage nearly blocking his path. Tao Mian was seized by boundless dread. He had already lost Gu Yuan-was he going to lose Lu Yuandi too?
“Xiao Tao…”
A faint voice reached him, and Tao Mian caught it at once.
“Yuandi!”
He found her behind a pillar, badly wounded. She pressed one hand against the gash in her abdomen, blood still seeping through without end.
“Xiao Tao.” Lu Yuandi forced a thin smile, her breathing ragged. “Ah… I’m not dreaming, am I? How can I be seeing you? Unless I’ve already died…”
“Don’t talk nonsense.” Tao Mian pulled out a vial of styptic medicine and fed it to his disciple by hand. “Your master is here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Moisture glistened in Lu Yuandi’s eyes, but she did not cry.
She turned her head toward the towering flames and the sounds of slaughter beyond.
“Is this what I wanted… Is this truly what I desired…”
For a moment she was lost, adrift. Perhaps the pain had stolen her reason, pulling her briefly into confusion.
Tao Mian finished a rough treatment of her wound. His clean hands were now stained with blood, but he took hold of his disciple’s hands and steadied her, calming her.
“Disciple.” Tao Mian spoke to her, each word clear and deliberate. “No matter what you want-whether it is beautiful or ugly-your master will obtain it for you.”
“But you must tell me plainly. What do you want?”
Lu Yuandi’s gaze shifted from haze to clarity.
“Master. I want the throne. I want the world.”
To never be trampled by anyone again. To make all of them kneel.
“Good.”
Tao Mian gave her a single word. It was his promise, heavy as mountains and seas.
The Peach Blossom Immortal descended from his mountain once more, for the sake of his disciple. That fleeting, ethereal figure swept through the palace like a phantom dream, ensnaring all who beheld it-and within the dream, they died.
Those fortunate enough to survive recalled that night with a chill that never quite left their bones.
Such a graceful figure, yet it brought nothing but unceasing death.
Someone remembered his name.
Decades ago, the master of Gu Yuan, Sect Leader of the Blue Mist Sect-that once-unknown young Daoist-had done the very same thing: a peach branch in hand, delivering nightmares to Gu Yuan’s enemies.
No one had imagined he would appear again. No one had imagined Lu Yuandi was his disciple.
Tao Mian did not need to act more than once. This single display was enough to shatter all resistance. Lu Yuandi raised the banner of “cleansing the court of traitors,” swept aside every last opponent, and strode into the imperial palace without haste.
“Your Majesty, your subject has arrived late.”
An hour later, the eunuch who attended the young emperor emerged bearing an imperial edict.
He could not stop trembling, for the blood-dripping peach branch was pressed against the back of his neck.
“Read it.”
Tao Mian said.
Lu Yuandi stood at the foot of the steps, the dagger in her hand still wet with the emperor’s blood, her expression cold and remote.
The eunuch announced two things.
First: His Majesty had passed away.
Second: the former dynasty’s eldest princess, Lu Yuandi, was to be established as the new emperor.
No one objected.
Heaven sent down a cold rain. At the moment of imperial succession, not a single soul rejoiced or celebrated. The silence was as deep and chill as a tomb.
The eunuch’s thin, reedy voice hung over their heads. Lu Yuandi’s people knelt across the ground. The bodies of her enemies lay strewn around them, and blood mingled with rain into trickling streams. Follow the newest chapters on NovelPing.
Through the curtain of rain, Lu Yuandi gazed up at Tao Mian on the steps above.
She caught a fleeting flash of pain across his face-but in an instant he masked it, and smiled back at her.
Lu Yuandi’s hands, hanging at her sides, clenched into fists.
She had still dragged Tao Mian into this.
…
With the new emperor’s ascension, a mountain of affairs crashed down upon Lu Yuandi, leaving her buried and frantic.
But for the time being, no force capable of threatening her position remained.
Tao Mian watched for three days, left behind a single letter, and slipped away in silence.
Lu Yuandi did not try to keep him. She only sent him off with many gifts.
She always felt she could never repay him enough.
Tao Mian did not hurry back to Peach Blossom Mountain. He wandered as the road took him, stopping where he pleased. He looked carefree enough, but the truth was that he could not sleep through a single night.
The blood and the screaming always crept into his dreams.
He woke again and again, soaked in cold sweat.
That was why he had no choice but to keep traveling-anything to ease his mind.
The journey was not entirely without reward. Along the way, he picked up two children free of charge.
The pair had been little beggars. They tried to steal money off Tao Mian, and when he caught them, he did not scold them-he even treated them to a meal.
After that, they latched on and refused to let go.
Tao Mian jolted awake from a nightmare and felt an unbearable weight pressing down on him.
He opened his eyes. Two small faces hovered inches from his own.
“Meal Ticket, you’re awake?”
“You’re awake? Meal Ticket.”
“…Can you two stop treating freeloading like it’s the most natural thing in the world?”
Tao Mian grabbed them both by the backs of their collars, one in each hand, and tossed them off the bed.
The two children-an older girl and a younger boy-shared no blood relation, but they depended on each other to survive.
Tao Mian’s head throbbed just looking at them.
He’d assumed they might turn out to be two new disciples, but the system had stubbornly refused to send any notification.
For now, he’d simply become a one-sided sucker.
Troublesome.