Free Web NovelChapter 2426: Chapter 2424: The Main God’s Woman
In the Cold Palace where the Heavenly Empress resided, Princess Taihua stood at the door with people, afraid to enter.
Empress Wu had just died, and her body had not yet been attended to.
The palace maids knelt at the door, not daring to breathe heavily.
After Long Fei brought Lin Yingying over, Princess Taihua glanced at them, then opened the door and entered with them.
In the main hall of the Cold Palace stood a Buddha statue, sculpted in the likeness of Empress Wu.
She sat alone in front of the statue, hands clasped, head bowed, finishing her final moments here.
A generation’s empress, who fought against the heavens for her fate, lived a life of ultimate glory, yet ended up vanishing like smoke.
Princess Taihua felt dizzy and was supported by Long Fei as she walked in.
She knelt in front of the Heavenly Empress, crying until her tears were like blossoms in rain, continuously apologizing, "Your daughter is unfilial, arrived a step too late, unable to serve you in your final days. Your daughter should not have gone to Shu State, should not have left you!"
Long Fei and Lin Yingying exchanged a glance and silently exited the room.
Lin Yingying, holding Little Fatty, sighed, "Being born into the Royal Family is not necessarily a good thing. Fighting for fame and profit all day—what’s the point?"
Long Fei, having long been disillusioned with worldly matters, said indifferently, "Fates arise and fall; everything is but passing smoke. Only by cultivating the true self can one transcend the mortal world and attain the primordial union."
"Can you speak human language?"
Lin Yingying giggled and rolled her eyes; now just hearing Long Fei speak gave her a headache.
"Figure it out yourself!"
With an air of inscrutable wisdom, he smiled and shook his head, pulling her along for a leisurely stroll around the Imperial Palace.
Before Empress Wu died, she had already made preparations and entrusted Princess Taihua with the aftermath.
She instructed Princess Taihua to bury her alongside the late Emperor, with the tombstone left blank, without recording her deeds, and without any inscriptions.
She told Princess Taihua that heaven and earth, Yin and Yang, are cyclical; when Yang Qi flourishes, it wanes, and the next era’s Yin Qi grows—this is the time for women to seize the destiny of heaven.
In her letter, she revealed to Princess Taihua the whereabouts of the Imperial Jade Seal.
She had long been prepared and ultimately chose Princess Taihua.
This Jade Seal was indeed hidden in Princess Taihua’s residence.
Princess Taihua, having received the will, stabilized her emotions and, after leaving the room, instructed the palace maids outside to enshroud the corpse, planning to wait until the wars at the two passes of the Western Regions were stabilized before giving her mother a grand state funeral.
In the court, a group of civil and military officials had already come to stand in place.
After Princess Taihua arrived, they all clasped their fists in salute, with officials from the Ministry of Rites kneeling, earnestly pleading for Princess Taihua to ascend the throne and stabilize the governance.
Other officials simultaneously clasped their fists and knelt, pleading for Princess Taihua to ascend the throne.
This time, Princess Taihua did not refuse.
The major situation settled, Long Fei and Lin Yingying quietly departed, heading towards Mount Olympus in the Western Direction.
Here was the legendary domain of the Divine Clan in the West, where the catastrophe was also initiated.
To Easterners, they are the Demon Race.
However, to themselves, considering themselves the lofty Divine Clan, they viewed the world’s mortals as ants.
Once past the Kunlun Mountains, the Western Territory presented a cultural atmosphere completely different from the East.
The city-states here were similarly of ancient style, reminiscent of the medieval world of Long Fei’s realm.
The city-states were scattered and varied in size, utterly incomparable to the populous cities of the Great Tang.
In these city-states, there were frequent military movements.
Their assembled populace continuously gathered, preparing to receive decrees from the chief deity for a collective eastward expedition against the Great Tang.
They would undergo rituals of the Divine Envoy, each transforming their body.
Long Fei and Lin Yingying took a look at the holy water used for this ritual, which was actually refined demonic blood.
It would not endanger ordinary bodies; it would transform them, making them stronger in a short time.
The Demon Race of Mount Olympus differed from the Demon Race Long Fei had encountered before.
Their blood seemed to fuse more easily with the Human Race, unlike other demon races’ bloodlines which carried such a strong Killing Aura.
The two of them, seated atop a Chaos Beast, crossed an ocean, finally descending on a peninsula by the sea.
This city-state was slightly larger, with Ancient Greek-style architecture gleaming white against the blue sky.
Unlike the filthy roads in other city-states, this city’s roads were paved with bricks, possessing an independent drainage system, lending it a clean appearance.
The people here, clad in white robes, with blond hair and blue eyes, muscular physiques, faintly resembled the citizens from beneath the Divine Mountain.
To avoid attracting attention, Long Fei and Lin Yingying specifically transformed into their appearances.
They made their noses higher, attempting to westernize their appearances as much as possible.
Donning local attire, they blended into the street crowds, and indeed no one noticed them.
Everyone seemed to be heading in one direction, so Long Fei and Lin Yingying followed suit.
Lin Yingying laughed, "If Anna and Nightingale, Sophia, Soria, and Emily were here, it would be perfect; their appearances wouldn’t need alteration at all."
"That’s true!"
Long Fei listened attentively to the chatter around them.
It turned out everyone was heading to the city center’s square for a significant event today.
The King was going to sacrifice his daughter to Zeus, the chief deity of Olympus.
This daughter was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the West, possessing a beauty that would even captivate the chief deity.
She was named Helis, the dream goddess of all the men in the city-state.
In the white marble-built square, fountains surged, floral arrangements tensed, and people crowded everywhere.
Everyone shouted, craned their necks, all eyes on the direction of the palace, waiting for this western supreme beauty to appear.
Soon, people in the distance began yelling in disorder.
A contingent of soldiers in cuirasses, armed with spears and shields, emerged to part the crowd.
Voices shouted, and over a thousand slave-garbed individuals were pulling a towering hundred-meter wooden cart slowly from the distance.
The slaves, in coarse clothes, half-bared, shouted under the glaring sun as they trudged forward.
The stark contrast was the woman seated atop the giant wooden cart.
She wore a Western-style sleeveless white dress, donned a garland, and sat poised and grand.
With flowing golden locks, fair skin, and a willowy figure, her eyes like entrancing seawater, she enthralled the crowd as soon as she appeared in the square.
Long Fei’s lips curled as he stood with an Easterner’s perspective, appreciating her fine features.
This was beauty entirely different from Eastern aesthetics, carrying a certain wildness and athletic charm, filled with Exotic Lands allure.
Lin Yingying waved a hand in front of Long Fei’s eyes, squinting with a smile, "What’s wrong? Are you dazzled? Why not play the hero and save the beauty here?"
Long Fei chuckled, "No need for my rescue; I see quite a few planning just that on the scene."
Lin Yingying frowned, "Who dares to rival their chief deity for a woman?"
"Even gods have enemies."
Long Fei focused on a young man, who was persistently making his way toward the chariot through the crowd.
Though separated by thousands of meters, the gaze between him and the woman on the chariot remained locked.
