Fang Mu's words confirmed what Jiang suspected concerning the identity of the person on the throne. Although he was still shocked because he never expected the great ruler revered by everyone in Tang Qin Shang to be so young, about his age.
“If you say so then we will just have to believe in you.” After saying that, the Emperor only gave a nonchalant sigh. For some reason, Jiang felt relieved because when Fang Mu was questioned by the Emperor the atmosphere in the Grand Hall became very tense. Additionally, Jiang had been getting a bad vibe from the Emperor.
Jiang realised that Fang Mu hadn't recognised him, and it must have been because he had changed the colour of Ice Jewel. Besides, he wasn't dressed like a boy anymore. Jiang believed not being recognised was for the best, it was obvious that this Young Master was the Emperor’s person. But it had to be said that he owed Young Master Fang Mu a favour. Now that he was here, maybe he could find an opportunity to pay back his debt.
Another person Jiang couldn’t help but noticed was the lady standing on the same step as Fang Mu, but on the left side. She appeared to be around twenty six years or so, and for some reason only known to her, she was glaring at Jiang. This lady had so much killing intent oozing out of every pore on her body that even the occasionally dimwitted Jiang could sense it was all directed towards him. Jiang was nonplussed and thought it was what it would feel like if he had owed her money, or maybe stole her husband. Hence the glare that could kill. If that was ever possible then he would have been killed a million times over. For Jiang, it was akin to the lady boring holes in his skull and plucking out his eyes before feeding him to ferocious magical beasts in order to complete an artwork of deadly murder.
"I don't owe her money or anything so, why is she like that?" Jiang thought and envisioned himself pouting childishly as he glared back at the lady. However, he only dared do that in his mind! He had just entered the Palace and clearly his situation wasn’t too good. Jiang started to speculate that the lady was possibly in love with the Emperor and wanted to snatch Young Mistress Lei Yue’s title of Empress elect and the Empress position that was expected to be bestowed upon Lei Yue after her marriage to the Emperor. It should be mentioned here that Jiang loved reading books and had often heard stories with love triangles between the main protagonists from storytellers in the towns he used to visit. Moreover, he had a dramatic bent of mind and he came to this conclusion simply based on his own imaginings, which in this instance was actually pretty close to the truth.
Jiang was willing to give up the title to that lady if it was possible, but not at this moment. He still needed the title to survive for awhile. No matter the hardships he would be facing within the Palace's walls, Jiang believed it couldn’t be worse than what was waiting for him outside, which was a certain death. When he became powerful enough to protect himself, he was determined to escape from the Palace as well as from those who wanted to take his life. Though he believed that he or rather his sister was supposed to marry the Emperor, Jiang didn’t intend to go through with the marriage. The present situation might be a little confusing for Jiang but he decided a long time before now that he must find a way to stall the marriage proceedings as long as he could. But right now, his mind was bereft of ideas and he couldn't think of any means to accomplish his purpose.
On seeing that lady continuously glaring at him, Jiang started to feel annoyed. He couldn't help but feel that such a rude person wasn't qualified to be the Empress. He started to think that she was more like a pig wanting to be a Swan. Moreover, when compared to the Emperor's youthful appearance, the twenty six years old lady looked like an old hag. As far as Jiang was concerned, the lady wasn't beautiful at all and no better than ordinary people. He thought she didn't even deserve to be the bug underneath the Emperor’s shoes. Since she didn't like him, why should he be kind to her?
If that lady could have listened in on Jiang’s thoughts, she would probably cough up a mouthful of blood, as well as, made a move to take Jiang’s life without regarding her reputation or status. Actually, in Tang Qin Shang empire that lady was rated as a top notch beauty. However, it had to be acknowledged that she looked nothing special when standing next to the Emperor. With the Emperor's own astonishingly good looks, she appeared extremely unremarkable.
For Jiang who had just taken a quick peek at the Emperor’s face, his appearance was etched in his mind. The Emperor's blazing red hair did justice to his whole features, it perfectly matched his fiery irises. He was the very definition of handsome, with his fair skin that seemed to glow, well sculpted jawline, thick and long eyes lashes, and that deep gaze, not to mention the slightly parted luscious red lips that would fluster anyone who saw it. The Emperor looked deliciously captivating but at the same time gave off a dangerous and mysterious aura, making a person want to draw close despite knowing they could get burnt if they came too close to him, like a moth drawn to a flame. He was like an immortal, a divine entity untainted by worldly things.
When Jiang caught the direction of his thoughts and started to berate himself for being seduced by the Emperor’s enchanting looks. Jiang wondered what was wrong with his brain recently. It was true that the Emperor’s appearance was really pleasing to the eyes, but why should he acknowledge it when it was obvious that they were going to be or were already enemies? It was obvious that the Emperor didn’t like him or rather that he didn’t like the Young Mistress Lei Yue. Everything about the Emperor should be unpleasing to him!
Jiang silently ‘harrumph’. Whether the Emperor hated him or not wasn’t important to him even if the idea was a little frightening. Instead for some inexplicable reason, he disliked the lady glaring at him more than he disliked the Emperor.
Although the Emperor still had the appearance of youth and looked to be no more than sixteen years old, no one was foolish enough to disregard him. His entire demeanour was majestic and dignified, everything about him screamed mighty ruler and commanded respect and reverence. He had the aura of a God of war, a killing machine. His powers although it was constrained was overwhelming. He also appeared to be taller and more mature than any of his peers. The Emperor was too dangerous, overbearing, and scary, and yet he was like a magnet that pulled in a person, his constraint powers already gave off the feeling that a person would likely die without ever knowing how it happened.
'If I am beautifully handsome to the extent that I could cause the fall of nations then the Emperor will be handsome enough to cause the same havoc. If my looks could cause the heavens to bow for me then the same can be said of the Emperor.' although Jiang would have very much love to elevate his appearance to a higher stand than the emperor's, however, he knew that would be a complete lie and they were no denying that fact. The emperor was special in every sense of the word, even when hearing his voice, it sounded so mysteriously captivating like it could conquer even a person's soul thereby making them his eternal slave, Jiang had to consciously control himself from drooling and looking stupid when he had caught a brief glance of the Emperor previously. He would have loved to take a longer look if not for the fact that looking made his eyes felt like they were on the verge of burning. More to the point, he didn’t think the Emperor would be happy being drooled at like a tempting dessert, more so by someone he disliked from the get go.
Jiang had been standing some distance away from the platform where the emperor was, nevertheless, his body was directly facing the dragon designed throne with his head bowed down the whole time. But he finally decided to brave the storm and break the uneasy silence in the Grand Hall by greeting the Emperor without being prompted, "This lowly servant greets Your Majesty. May Your Majesty live for many decades and centuries to come!"
After utterly those words, Jiang waited for a response but nothing came immediately, making him begin to feel like he was a prisoner on death roll awaiting his execution date.
"You are that Lei Yue, the Young Mistress of the Lei Manor?" Those cold eyes said so much. If Jiang raised his head and looked at the Emperor's face, he would have seen the disgust and unadulterated hatred for the Young Mistress Lei Yue on that picture-perfect face that was the emperor's.
"Yes, Your Majesty. This lowly servant is indeed Young Mistress Lei Yue." Jiang replied still not daring to look up.
He hoped he didn't make a mistake when imitating the speech of a noble lady. It had taken him a lot of hard work to remember all that had been taught to him when he was staying at his father's Manor to learn the code of conduct and manners of a noble lady. He took all of his etiquette lessons seriously and diligently learned as much as he could, even though he was ashamed of himself for learning the lessons meant only for ladies. He was pretty certain now that his father must have considered him a fool seeing as how all those teachings were just for show. He remembered that one time when his father and wife came to observe the results of his training. He had given his best performance to let them know that he could carry out the task assigned to him. However, they simply watched for a while, talked in muffled tones, and chuckled without even acknowledging his efforts. They were simply having a good laugh at his expense, a man who lived in the forest completely ignorant about noble etiquettes trying to learn how to act like an elegant, and well brought up Young Mistress. They must have thought his efforts pathetic and ridiculous.
"You have been given the privilege to be our Empress elect."
Jiang didn’t feel privileged at all! As a matter of fact, he was beginning to feel the beginning of a headache. 'Not those words again!' Jiang lamented silently. He believed his head might explode with all the mentions of ‘Empress elect’ ever since he entered the Palace. He knew absolutely nothing about what that title entailed. But there was just this ominous feeling hearing that from the Emperor and he felt shivers run down his spine when addressed by him as such.
The Emperor didn't know what Jiang was thinking and continued, “...which means in the coming months you will have to defend the title we have so graciously bestowed upon you.” There were obvious sarcasm and disdain with every word he uttered.
And this time even without looking Jiang could sense it, and in response to such attitude towards him, he only took in a deep breath.
“However, the way we see it, you might not even survive your first round. You are way too weak.” The Emperor slowly said the last few words in a condescending tone. This time Jiang braved the odds and quickly lifted his head up slightly before bowing down again just as quickly. What Jiang could see in that instance was the evil, yet strangely very sexy smirk on the Emperor’s lips. Jiang could only conclude the Emperor was enjoying his misfortune.
Jiang thought, 'It seems father or the entire family must have really angered the Emperor.' He pitied his unfortunate self since once again he couldn't escape the fate of being a scapegoat. He wondered if he was actually given this second life just so that he could die in yet another miserable way, the heavens couldn't be that unkind to him, right?
Jiang finally gathered the courage to voice out his complaint and confusion, "Forgive this lowly servant for interrupting Your Majesty. But this lowly one lacks understanding. This lowly servant has to confess that lowly one really does not grasp the essence of being Your Majesty's Empress elect, or what Your Majesty meant by saying this lowly servant will have to defend the title?"
Once those words were said Jiang could feel that almost everyone in the grand hall had tensed up, he couldn't comprehend what had happened, or what he said that will result to this, he became even more confused, meanwhile, the emperor had leaned forward, his red irises seem to change and take on the appearance of a small burning fire.
"How can it be that a lady born of noble blood would not know what even commoners or a child knows, are you trying to ridicule us," The emperor said with a wave of unrestraint anger "It seems to us that your parents have taught you nothing about the history and common knowledge of the Tang Qin Shang Empire, are they looking down on the royal family? Do they know that their actions could be regarded as treason"
Jiang's had long since begun to sweat on his forehead when he heard the emperor accuse him of trying to 'ridicule' him, however, when he heard the other accusation of committing 'treason' Jiang was already somewhat drenched in his sweat.
Before Jiang could respond? A loud 'bang' was heard and the table before the Emperor turned into powder.
Jiang was taken by surprise as he didn’t expect such a big reaction from the Emperor. His legs grew weak due to the shock. However, he quickly regained his composure as he thought to himself, ‘It really isn’t easy to understand the minds of rulers. Any mistake, whether big or small could cost me my life. I better pacify him quickly, I can't let myself die so easily in this life, I have promised myself this’
Jiang immediately fell on his knees and began kowtowing towards the emperor as he then tried to defend his family, but more importantly, save his neck, "Please forgive this lowly servant for angering Your Majesty. However, my parents are loyal to the empire, and both father and mother would not dare look down on Your Majesty. It is this lowly one who is too foolish and didn’t listen properly to my parent's instructions. This lowly … " He wasn’t even given the chance to finish speaking before he felt an indescribably intense hot pressure fill the whole room. It was extremely terrifying. Some of the servants had directly passed out, while some were bleeding from their orifices and the weaker ones suffered internal combustion and died instantly.
Blood dyed the beautifully designed grounds and walls of the grand hall, some of the servants that combusted were unlucky enough to be turned to dust with no body part left in other to perform a proper burial, while they were others that died as well, but had their bodies charred and cut into parts due to the force of the pressure released.
Jiang took a quick peek at the man that had just cause such a bloody carnage and he saw no emotion in his eyes.
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