The Crazier Empress Is Coming

The night breeze, cool as water, carried the heavy stench of blood and the cloyingly sweet scent of cream from within the Weiyang Palace, brushing against Ye Xuan's face.

He slowly stepped out of the palace doors, shutting Wu Lingxiao's despairing, beast-like death throes, along with her utterly shattered dignity, behind those heavy vermilion doors.

Standing on the white jade steps, Ye Xuan tilted his head up and gazed at the cold, solitary moon in the night sky.

In his eyes, usually as cold and ruthless as an abyss, a rare trace of profound exhaustion and lingering fear now surfaced.

He let out a long sigh, reaching up to rub his throbbing temples. His murmuring voice carried an unconcealable sense of helplessness and trepidation:

"Just the Great Xia's Empress, Wu Lingxiao, alone is already obsessively twisted and paranoid to such an outrageous degree..."

As the night wind blew through his thin clothes, Ye Xuan couldn't help but shiver. An uncontrollable image of another magnificent, blood-red silhouette surfaced in his mind.

"If... I run into that madwoman again..."

The mere thought of that insane Empress far away in the Central State made Ye Xuan's body tremble uncontrollably.

"Forget it, I shouldn't think about it. She probably doesn't know I'm here."

Comforting himself, he shook his head, turned around, and hurried away.

The Central State. The Great Jin Immortal Dynasty.

Above the utterly luxurious Nine-Tiered Heavenly Palace floated the symbol of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty's imperial power—the Star-Plucking Pavilion.

Inside the grand hall, mermaid silk curtains hung low, and the spiritual energy was so dense it almost dripped like physical liquid. Behind the layers of dream-like bead curtains, a peerlessly beautiful woman lay lazily on her side upon a couch.

She wore a dark gold dragon robe, yet this majestic imperial attire could not conceal her kingdom-toppling, unparalleled allure.

Her eyebrows were like distant mountains, her eyes like autumn water, and her skin whiter than snow. A natural cinnabar tear mole at the corner of her eye perfectly blended her lofty imperial majesty with a calamitous, enchanting charm.

She was the absolute overlord of the Central State, the First Empress who had founded the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty by treading over mountains of corpses and seas of blood—Chu Jinghong!

A supreme existence so terrifying that even her name alone could make the Central State tremble.

Yet at this moment, within the phoenix eyes of this tyrannical and ruthless First Empress that normally suppressed all living beings, there was an unresolvable emptiness and paranoia.

"Twang!"

Across the bead curtains, kneeling in the lower part of the hall, was a man whose appearance bore a fifty percent resemblance to Ye Xuan. His ten fingers flew across an ancient zither.

His zither skills were truly unmatched in the current era; the music flowed like high mountains and running water, echoing with celestial grace.

However, upon closer inspection, one would notice that this prodigy, who had already reached the Soul Formation realm, was currently shaking violently like a leaf.

Bean-sized beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead and smashed onto the strings, infusing the originally clear and resonant melody with an unconcealable shrillness and terror.

He did not dare to stop; he did not even dare to breathe heavily. Because in this Great Jin Immortal Dynasty, everyone knew that the First Empress, Chu Jinghong, had gone completely mad over the years.

Like an irrational evil spirit, she frantically scoured the lands of the Central State for a man named "Ye Xuan."

Any man who shared a connection with that name, or whose aura bore even the slightest resemblance, would be forcefully dragged into the palace.

The song ended.

A deathly silence filled the grand hall, broken only by the man's heavy, fearful panting.

Chu Jinghong slowly sat up from the couch. Her cold eyes, devoid of any warmth, casually glanced through the bead curtains at the man below.

Just one glance.

The man felt as if he had plunged into an ice cavern.

"It seems..." Chu Jinghong slightly parted her red lips. Her voice was enchantingly charming to the bone, yet it carried a despairing deadliness and disappointment. "This one isn't your reincarnation either, my husband."

The moment her words fell.

"Bang!"

There was no fluctuation of spiritual energy; one couldn't even see how Chu Jinghong had made her move.

The handsome man kneeling on the ground, possessing a Soul Formation cultivation base, exploded on the spot before he could even let out a single scream!

Crimson blood mixed with shredded flesh and white bone instantly turned into a thick mist of gore, dyeing the priceless ancient zither a shocking red.

The maids and eunuchs in the palace were long accustomed to this. They knelt on the ground like walking corpses, not even daring to raise their heads, terrified that they would be the next to turn into a mist of blood.

Chu Jinghong paid no attention to the remains on the floor.

With her bare, jade-like feet, she slowly stepped down from the couch onto the soft fur of a divine beast.

Extending her pale, slender fingers, she gently caught a droplet of blood falling through the air. Her eyes became incredibly dazed and lost, even carrying a trace of fragile sorrow.

"My husband... where on earth are you?"

She suddenly clenched her fist, instantly evaporating the blood droplet in her palm.

"Are you punishing me? Deliberately hiding from me, refusing to see me. Today, the Great Jin is the number one dynasty in the Central State, but without you, what meaning is there in these ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains, or this supreme hegemony?"

At this moment, the tyranny in her eyes faded, leaving only endless emptiness and reminiscence.

Her thoughts, like fallen leaves swept up by a fierce wind, drifted uncontrollably to thirty thousand years ago...

At that time, the Central State had just experienced a protracted and incredibly tragic turmoil.

The old emperor of the previous immortal dynasty had torn through the void and ascended to the upper realm, leaving behind a leaderless mess where warlords vied for territory.

Mountains of corpses and seas of blood; the people were plunged into misery and suffering.

It was Chu Jinghong who led the cultivators of the Chu family and forcefully carved out a bloody path.

And the one who had always fought by her side, blocking countless fatal blows for her, and even burning his life essence several times to the point of near death for her sake, was the founding Regent of Great Jin—Ye Xuan.

Ye Xuan was Chu Jinghong's childhood sweetheart.

He came from humble beginnings, merely an illegitimate son of a minor, unranked family. In this cultivation world that stressed social status, he didn't even have the right to look up to the Eldest Miss of the Chu family.

But with just one fleeting glance when she was eighteen, Chu Jinghong fell in love with him like a moth drawn to a flame.

The Chu Jinghong of that time was not the aloof, decisive Empress she was today.

She was just a girl full of joy, who, under a sky full of stars, had unreservedly given her most precious everything to that youth with resolute eyes.

They were each other's first loves, each other's flesh and blood.

The following millennium was a millennium of corpses and blood.

Back to back, they fought their way from the Qi Condensation realm all the way to the Tribulation Crossing and Mahayana realms. To save her, Ye Xuan nearly had his soul destroyed countless times.

For Ye Xuan's sake, she had also charged alone into desperate situations. Like the most attuned mortal couple, they jointly nurtured the massive empire of Great Jin.

Ultimately, Chu Jinghong ascended the throne and became the unprecedented First Empress of the ages, while Ye Xuan became the Regent whose power rivaled the heavens, as well as her long-decided, sole Imperial Husband.

At that time, Great Jin had just been established and was swaying in the wind and rain, but as long as Ye Xuan was by her side, Chu Jinghong felt like she possessed the entire world.

Until that night.

Within the Changle Palace of the Great Jin Imperial Palace.

Red candles burned bright, and the red gauze curtains exuded an enchanting and warm atmosphere. There were no outsiders here, no ruler and subject—only two people who had just taken off their battle armor.

They lay embraced on the spacious bed, just like the most affectionate mortal couple.

Ye Xuan's sturdy arms wrapped around Chu Jinghong's bare, slender waist. Resting his chin gently against her forehead, he greedily breathed in the faint fragrance of her hair.

Chu Jinghong's fingers lightly traced the crisscrossing scars on Ye Xuan's chest, her eyes so tender they seemed ready to melt into water.

"Husband..." she spoke softly, breaking the tranquility of the palace hall.

"Hmm? What is it?" Ye Xuan kept his eyes closed, a contented smile on his lips as he pulled her a little closer.

"The Ministry of Rites has finalized the arrangements." Chu Jinghong looked up, gazing deeply at the man she had loved for three thousand years, her eyes brimming with an unbreakable affection. "Your Imperial Consort coronation ceremony will be held in a month. When the time comes, I will let the entire Central State know that you are Chu Jinghong's one and only husband, for all lifetimes to come."

Ye Xuan opened his eyes, lowered his head to press a kiss on her smooth forehead, and nodded with a smile. "Alright, you arrange it. I've been fighting wars all these years, it's time I gave you a proper commitment."

However, upon hearing these words, Chu Jinghong's body stiffened imperceptibly.

A trace of complex struggle and pain flashed through her previously gentle eyes. She lowered her gaze slightly, avoiding Ye Xuan's trust-filled eyes.

"Also..." her voice became somewhat dry, even carrying an unnoticeable tremble. "There is one more thing."

Ye Xuan keenly sensed her emotional shift. Furrowing his brows, he propped himself up halfway and looked at her in confusion. "What's wrong? What else is there? Are those remnants of the previous dynasty causing trouble at the border again? I'll go and kill them all..."

"No!" Chu Jinghong hurriedly interrupted him.

She took a deep breath, using all her strength to utter the words she had rehearsed countless times. "The Great Jin has just been established and is not yet stable... In order to appease the sects within our borders and consolidate our power, I must enter a political marriage."

Biting her lower lip tightly, under Ye Xuan's gradually freezing gaze, she forced out the last few words with great difficulty:

"The clan and the cabinet have pressured me... I must take eight sect paragons as my male concubines."

These words were like a terrifying thunderclap, exploding deafeningly within the empty Changle Palace.

The smile on Ye Xuan's face froze.

He stared blankly at the peerlessly beautiful face before him—a face he had known and loved for thousands of years. He only felt a roaring in his brain, his ears filled with a sharp ringing.

"What... did you say?" Ye Xuan's voice turned extremely hoarse. He stared fixedly at Chu Jinghong as if looking at a stranger. "Take concubines? Eight male concubines?"

Chu Jinghong did not dare to meet his eyes. She hastily reached out to grab Ye Xuan's arm, her voice carrying a hint of pleading. "Listen to me! This is just..."

"How is this possible!"

Ye Xuan violently threw off her hand. His furious shout was like the wrathful thunder of the Nine Heavens, shaking the entire Changle Palace violently.

He looked at Chu Jinghong in disbelief, his eyes instantly turning bloodshot.

As a Tribulation-crossing stage almighty expert who had fought his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood alongside Chu Jinghong, Ye Xuan possessed a terrifying bloodlust and pride deep in his bones.

He could risk his life for her, he could endure the pain of a thousand cuts, but he was absolutely not some cuckold who would share his wife with others!

"Listen to me!" Chu Jinghong's eyes grew red with anxiety. She threw herself forward again, tightly hugging Ye Xuan's waist, and cried out loudly, "This is only a political marriage in name! I swear, nothing will ever happen between them and me! I won't even touch them!"

"In name?" Ye Xuan laughed out of extreme anger. His chest heaved violently as he pointed outside the hall toward the lands of the Central State, where the fires of war had only just subsided, and roared, "Chu Jinghong! Do you take me for a three-year-old child?! Men taken into the inner palace, and you tell me it's in name?"

"This is to win over those sects!"

Chu Jinghong was also anxious. She looked up, trying to use reason to persuade this enraged man. "After all, you know that the Central State, as the number one state among the Three Thousand Dao States, simply has too many experts! Our Great Jin has just been established, and a hundred things wait to be rebuilt. The Nine Heavens Holy Land, the Supreme Sword Sect... without the support of these colossal entities, the Great Jin won't even last ten years!"

Seeing her acting so righteous and mindful of the big picture, Ye Xuan only felt a wave of nausea, an uncontrollable fury rushing straight to the top of his head.

"If the Immortal Dynasty is unstable, then kill!!"

Ye Xuan's entire body erupted with terrifying Tribulation-crossing stage coercion. The red gauze curtains were instantly torn to shreds by this berserk spiritual energy.

He grabbed Chu Jinghong by the shoulders, his eyes as fierce as a lone wolf whose territory had been invaded, and roared word by word:

"Those sects refuse to submit? Then we kill until they do! I, Ye Xuan, could accompany you in slaughter for a thousand years, and I can accompany you in slaughter for another thousand years! Kill until no one in this world dares to say the word no to the Great Jin!!"

These words revealed a sky-piercing killing intent and domineering aura; it was the unyielding pride unique to the Regent, Ye Xuan.

However, Chu Jinghong merely shook her head, her eyes filled with pain.

"It's no use..."

She smiled sorrowfully, her eyes revealing the helplessness and exhaustion of being an emperor. "No matter how strong an individual's power is, it cannot rival the grand trend of the world. Those sects have profound foundations. If we truly fight to the death, we can never be their match. Ye Xuan, can you be a little more mature? We are building an Immortal Dynasty now, this isn't the ruthless brawling of rogue cultivators anymore!"

"Me, be a little more mature?"

Ye Xuan acted as if he had heard an extremely absurd joke. He let go of her, staggered back two steps, and examined the woman before him with an extremely unfamiliar and incredulous gaze.

"Even if it is a political marriage..."

Ye Xuan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the intense pain in his heart, and questioned coldly, "You could completely have other branch families of the Chu clan handle the political marriages! You could confer titles upon a dozen princesses and marry them off! Why must you personally enter a political marriage? Why use such a disgusting method as taking male concubines?"

Chu Jinghong sighed, stood up slowly, and casually draped an outer robe over herself.

At this moment, she shed her previous gentleness, and her body gradually began to exude the majesty belonging to the First Emperor.

"There's no other way." With her back to Ye Xuan, her voice, though helpless, revealed an unquestionable resolve. "Those are all Holy Sons and Dao Children of top-tier forces. They would completely look down on ordinary princesses. Only by me, the First Emperor, personally taking them as concubines can we demonstrate how much we value them. Furthermore, those old ministers in the cabinet..."

"To hell with the cabinet!" Ye Xuan interrupted her roughly, veins bulging on his forehead. "In short, I do not agree! Absolutely impossible!"

This resolute and decisive rejection caused Chu Jinghong's expression to darken as well.

As a lofty Empress accustomed to holding the power of life and death, this was the first time anyone had dared to interrupt her words so roughly.

Even if this person was Ye Xuan, the imperial majesty in her heart felt strongly provoked.

"Ye Xuan! Can't you look at the big picture?" Chu Jinghong turned around, her breathtakingly beautiful face flushing with anger as she scolded him sharply. "Do you really have the heart to watch the Great Jin Dynasty we worked so hard to build be destroyed right after its founding? Do you have any idea how much pressure I face sitting on this throne every single day?!"

Ye Xuan looked at her condescending expression. The love he had held onto for a thousand years began to shatter, piece by piece, deep within his heart.

"So..." Ye Xuan gave a miserable smile, his laughter laced with endless bitterness and mockery. "For the sake of your big picture, for the sake of your immortal dynasty, you can just cuckold me?"

The word cuckold struck a nerve in Chu Jinghong. She shouted hysterically, "How could I ever betray you? My relationship with them is in name only! I am merely giving them a title to provide an explanation to the sects behind them!"

She rushed forward and grabbed Ye Xuan's hands again, her eyes full of anxiety and pleading. "Husband, look at me! After all these years, do you still not understand my heart? Taking in these concubines is just a stopgap measure to gain the support of the major sects. You will always be the highest-ranking, my one and only Imperial Husband. They aren't even fit to carry your shoes!"

Ye Xuan quietly looked at the woman before him.

Her face was still as devastatingly beautiful as ever, still exactly as she looked when he caught that fleeting, breathtaking glimpse of her beneath the peach blossom tree in their youth.

But the feeling was entirely different.

The girl who used to cry her heart out over his slightest injury, the Ah Hong who had sworn to be with him and only him for all their lives and lifetimes, was gone.

Standing before him was a politician through and through, an emperor who could righteously sell out her feelings just to consolidate her imperial power.

Ye Xuan suddenly felt very tired. An unprecedented wave of exhaustion washed over him.

Slowly but firmly, he pried Chu Jinghong's hands off his arms.

"So what you mean is..." Ye Xuan's tone became unusually calm, so calm that it was terrifying. "This is just putting on a show. As long as it's in name only, as long as no actual physical relationship occurs, then it's acceptable, right?"

Seeing Ye Xuan calm down, Chu Jinghong's eyes lit up, thinking he had finally compromised.

"Yes!" She nodded hastily, a hopeful light shimmering in her eyes. "You can understand me, right? Husband, I knew you understood me best."

"I can understand." Ye Xuan nodded with a cold sneer, though there was not a trace of warmth in his eyes. "Since you believe that as long as it's for the big picture, a marriage in name only is justified..."

He raised his head and looked directly into Chu Jinghong's eyes, a mocking curve forming at the corners of his lips.

"Very well. Why don't you let me enter a political marriage too."

"What?" Chu Jinghong froze, her brain failing to process his words for a moment.

Ye Xuan straightened his back and enunciated every word clearly, "As the Regent of the Great Jin, second only to one and above all others, I also need to win over factions. Just as you said, I will take eight holy maidens from the top-tier sects as my consorts. Don't worry, this will also be in name only. I won't even lay a finger on them. You will still be my one and only Queen."