Poison Genius Consort

“Your Highness, if you slaughter them all, the world will fall to chaos! Then Bai Yanqing will prevail!”

“Your Highness, the princess doesn’t want to see your hands stained with blood!”

“Your Highness, if you massacre on behalf of the princess, she’ll be cursed by the world’s people too!”

“Your Highness, the rescue operation is most important. Bai Yanqing could still be nearby, so we should keep searching and thinking of ideas! Perhaps the princess would have left us some clues!”

--

Long Feiye allowed Gu Beiyue to coax him without paying him any attention. His long sword dragged against the ground as he headed step by step into the cell next door. Although he was furious, his calm and the scraping of his blade gave off a lonely, desolate air.

Was this the sound of Long Feiye’s heart?

When Long Feiye didn’t react, Gu Beiyue stopped, but Gu Qishao followed tightly behind him without stopping. He was waiting for Long Feiye to start killing so all these people could die. Although they couldn’t save Poison lass at the moment, they had to vent somehow! At least for Poison lass’s sake! And their own!

Gu Beiyue looked at Long Feiye’s tall, solitary back, dignified and stately. Coaxing him in this state was absolutely useless!

What to do?

Long Feiye had already started his killing spree. After killing Mu Yuanbo and the rest of the Li Clan, what next?

What would he try after that?

Gu Beiyue began to fret. He didn’t know what to do as his mind turned blank. This was the first time in his life he’d been so at a loss with no ideas. His heart felt even more flustered than the time he lost his internal energy and the use of both legs. Without a choice, he could only chase after the man. By the time he caught up, Long Feiye was preparing to move against the Li Clan’s four elders.

Gu Beiyue pressed his sword down and exclaimed, “Your Highness, this kingdom belongs to you and the princess. You don’t have the right to ruin it!”

Long Feiye didn’t speak or look at Gu Beiyue. Gu Qishao only observed with chilly eyes and remained mute. Long Feiye then raised his hand and knocked Gu Beiyue backwards with pure power! He crashed against a wall and quickly crawled to his feet, ignoring the pain to try and stop him again. Unfortunately, by the time he made it back to the cell, its floor was already a mass of flesh and blood and four human heads. All of them had eyes wide open.

This was a speed that no man could stop!

Gu Qishao was gaping before he muttered, “Refreshing!”

Even though he had no chances to get physical himself, it was thrilling to see Long Feiye do it all the same!

Mute to the point of frightening, Long Feiye made people fear that he would never speak again. He dragged his bloodstained sword after him and kept heading to the next cell on the left. This was a larger prison that housed 20 or so Li Clan members. They were still clueless about the killing spree going on, but all of them felt dread upon seeing Long Feiye’s icy expression.

“Let this old man do it this time!” Gu Qishao said icily.

But Long Feiye actually spoke and said, “Get lost!”

Before Gu Qishao could react, Long Feiye had entered the jail cell. All of the members inside knew surrendering was useless, so they spread out to surround Long Feiye in hopes of surviving. Abruptly, one shouted, “Everyone together, kill him!”

But he’d hardly spoken when Long Feiye lopped off his head. The surrounding members saw this and wanted to flee, but Gu Qishao went ahead and kicked the door shut. After that ensued a horrific massacre of butchering, slice by slice. Gu Beiyue turned away, not because he pitied the Li Clan’s dead, but because he couldn’t begin to imagine who else Long Feiye would kill after all this? Besides the Li Clan, most of the others were innocent people!

By the time the cell doors opened, Gu Beiyue turned to see Long Feiye covered from head to body in blood. Even the Profound Frost Sword had been stained scarlet. He walked out step by step like a demon emerging from hell, each foot leaving bloody tracks in his wake. The blood behind him was flowing like a river.

Had Long Feiye already turned into a demon? Even his eyes were bloodshot red!

Seeing him approach, Gu Beiyue felt helpless. He muttered to himself, “Where are you, princess? Do you know His Highness’s hands are already stained with blood? Do you know he’ll dye Cloud Realm Continent in red?”

How much he hoped the princess could return and stand before him and His Highness! But that was just a vain hope. Long Feiye walked in front of him. Despite Gu Beiyue’s creased brows and imploring expression, he didn’t stop and dragged his sword past.

Gu Beiyue shut his eyes in despair.

But then!

Long Feiye stopped behind him and spoke. His tone was very faint and calm, as if discussing the weather.

He said, “Gu Beiyue, I’ll leave Tianan to you. Hang all of the Li Clan’s heads atop the city gates for the public. Don’t forget Mu Liuyue, she joins them too! Tell the world’s people that anyone who tries to use the civilians to pressure this crown prince won’t be spared, even if they’re women!”

So speaking, he strode away with large steps. Gu Beiyue and Gu Qishao both gave a start. They never expected Long Feiye to keep himself under control! He hadn’t lost it or gone mad, much less fall to Bai Yanqing’s scheming. He didn’t disappoint all the hard work he and Han Yunxi had strove for in the past few years, or the love and expectations from the world’s people! He had ruthlessly butchered the Li Clan, but with an inviolable excuse to awe and frighten the world.

So what about his bitterness, sorrow, hatred, and panic?

How deeply must he have hidden them to bear the thought of Han Yunxi’s kidnapping, the possibility of their dual cultivation failing, the potential of them meeting on opposite sides one day?

Gu Beiyue knew.

“Qishao, he’s a real royal and a true emperor!” Gu Beiyue muttered to himself. But in the midst of his gratitud, he felt pained. A truly mature man didn’t have to shoulder heavy responsibilities on his shoulders, but in his heart. They could hide massive pains and keep their grief to themselves!

As Long Feiye’s back faded into the distance, Gu Beiyue went down on both knees to give him a deep, respectful kowtow. “Your Highness, this subordinate definitely won’t let you down!”

Gu Qishao looked at Gu Beiyue, then the figure in the distance, before chasing after the latter. But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find Long Feiye. He ended up by the city gates and asked a shadow guard, who said Long Feiye had ridden alone out of the city.

“Where’s he going?” Gu Qishao asked.

“This subordinate doesn’t know,” the shadow guard replied.

Gu Qishao gave the city walls a vicious kick before he hollered, “Bai Yanqing, this old man refuses to believe that you won’t show yourself! Even if we flip this world upside down, I’ll definitely drag you out! Ahhhh!”

Gu Qishao also left the imperial city. He couldn’t take Poison lass along to roam the ends of the Earth, but he’d search the ends of the Earth for her whereabouts.

It was unclear whether Mu Liuyue knew of Long Feiye’s instructions before she died, but her eyes remained open even in death. Gu Beiyue had the Li Clan’s 30 or so remaining members’ heads hung over Tianan’s city gates for the people to see, then spread Long Feiye’s words across the land. The Tianan civilians immediately revered Long Feiye as their protector god. Although the man wasn’t emperor get, everyone citizen of Cloud Realm Continent knew he would be Cloud Realm’s sage sovereign in the future.

Long Feiye was the first man in his twenties in Cloud Realm history to win the world’s heart with a single warning to them all!

Gu Beiyue assumed personal command of Tianan City and used military troops to quell the last stubborn rebellion forces. With coordination from civilian forces on the inside helping them out, everything went very smoothly. Meanwhile, Tianan’s Emperor Long Tianmo was kept in constant house arrest. Technically speaking, he and Gu Beiyue were enemies, but the latter only ordered the attendants not to cause him any trouble and give him good food, drink, and service. However, he never paid the man a single visit.

Three months later, Gu Beiyue took all of Tianan Country without taking a single step from its imperial city or diverting any of the original troops.

--

Meanwhile, Gu Qishao searched everywhere he could, but reality proved that all his efforts were futile. He didn’t find any news of Bai Yanqing, as if the man had evaporated from the Earth. Neither did Long Feiye. He stayed in the battlefields, conquering every city he passed through. All of the fighting in the central regions and Tianning stopped, its rebels either slaughtered or surrendering to acknowledge their allegiance to him.

Western Zhou’s Chu Clan troop traitors fled for their lives, while other Western Zhou armies had long withdraw from Tianning’s borders. Emperor Kangcheng stationed all the soldiers at his borders while passing his days in fear of Long Feiye leading a personal expedition over. However, news spread from the army that Long Feiye never personally led any battle. Instead, every time he arrived at an army camp, he would take a single horse to fight at the front lines, defeating a hundred to a thousand men single handedly!

No one heard him speak a single word in the past three months. Tang Li came down the mountain to find him, but always missed him whenever he reached a new army camp. It seemed like Long Feiye was avoiding everyone on purpose as he refused to meet anyone.

On the other hand, Ning Cheng and Manager Jin finally broke through the impasse presented by the Northern Li emperor and Northern Li’s southern regions. Jin Zi might have his tiger regiment and the surrendered Black Clan cohorts, but his military skills were limited. To conquer the southern regions of Northern Li before wintertime was nothing short of a miracle. More importantly, Ning Cheng hadn’t suffered any losing battles!

Of course, how could Ning Cheng be so focused on his war? Every ten days, he would write a letter to Gu Beiyue asking after the princess’s whereabouts and Long Feiye’s plans for rescue. Sadly, Gu Beiyue’s replies did nothing but disappoint him.

All this time, Han Yunxi had been locked up in a small, dark room away from any other hostages. Bai Yanqing was extremely on guard against her and personally brought her her three daily meals. He didn’t exchange any words with her and allowed her to mock him as she wished without a single response.

Lil Thing didn’t end up being the key to her breakthrough; moreover, she was only missing its blood to complete the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion mixture that demanded poison of the five elements, Beauty’s Blood, corpse blood, Poison Gu human blood, and poison beast blood. However, Han Yunxi was less worried about herself than Long Feiye! She couldn’t even bother fretting over their dual cultivation timeframe, because she couldn’t begin to imagine how Long Feiye was surviving these days.