God Emperor - Chapter 905
Chapter 905: The Affectionate Saint Lady
Saint Lady saw the indifference of Zhang Ruochen and felt unspoken pain. She bit her lip hard.
And she tried to suppress her upset and walked to Zhang Ruochen. She said lightly, “I don’t mean anything. I just wanted to see you in person. After all, we used to be good friends, didn’t we?”
“In the past…maybe we were!” said Zhang Ruochen.
Saint Lady saw the guard Zhang Ruochen had put up against her, and felt even more pained. So she added, “Not long ago, Saint Elder of the Sacred Central Crypt, Kong Youlan, went to the Central Emperor City and tried to kill the Empress. I was at the side of the Empress. Both Saint Elder of the Sacred Central Crypt and the Empress mentioned the name ‘Zhang Ruochen.'”
“You don’t have to try me. Their Zhang Ruochen surely didn’t mean me.” Zhang Ruochen closed his eyes and tried to remain calm.
Saint Lady was clever enough to detect even the slightest weakness of Zhang Ruochen.
She walked to the back of Zhang Ruochen and frowned. “I have served the Empress for many years and knew her enough. She is a generous saint, and her achievements have surpassed all Emperors in the history. She would never kill you out of jealousy.”
“On the contrary, after the Empress came to the throne, she supported the young geniuses, and spared no efforts to supply them with limitless resources to help them progress.”
“Zhang Ruochen, go back to Central Emperor City with me. Perhaps the Empress doesn’t really want to kill you, she just wants to see you. You should trust me that I will never hurt you.”
In fact, wouldn’t Zhang Ruochen want to meet Chi Yao in person and ask why she had killed him 800 years ago?
But every time Zhang Ruochen recalled the scene of Chi Yao stabbing him, he felt too pained to face the brutal truth.
And Chi Yao today was no longer the teenage girl, but the Empress and Master of Kunlun’s Field.
Zhang Ruochen to her now was nothing more than an ant. What’s the meaning for him to know the truth?
Can the ant kill the Empress?
Before he gained enough strength, seeing Chi Yao in person would only be a suicide and a shame for him.
Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes, which were bloodshot, and said coldly with fury, “I will not go to Central Emperor City, not now. If my lady wants to capture me, please do it. Don’t pity me.”
Saint Lady had never seen Zhang Ruochen with such an angry look. She half worried that his state would affect his exercise, and half wondered what had happened between the Empress and him in the past.
Saint Lady was going to persuade him in a much gentler way, “Zhang Ruochen, you should know that if men from the Ministry of War are going to hunt you down, you would never arrive in Central Emperor City. Only I could protect you. And, don’t you want to see Huang Yanchen?”
Zhang Ruochen was relieved from anger. He turned around and looked at the Saint Lady. He asked softly, “Is she alright?”
Saint Lady nodded. “The Empress knew that she was your fiance, but she didn’t make it difficult for her and grant her the same treatment of other Kunlun Heirs. But she is currently practicing with the other eight Kunlun Heirs in a secret place, and could not go out until some time.”
“The Empress could tolerate Huang Yanchen, surely she could tolerate you.”
“I’ve heard that you brought back the stone rune left by the Thousand-bone Empress and re-concealed the entrance from the netherworld. It is a great contribution, and as long as the Empress knows that you did this, she would surely pardon your faults.”
Zhang Ruochen smirked to himself. “Pardon me? I’ve never done anything bad to her, anything against my conscience. Why should I pray for her pardon?”
“Then what are you worrying about?” Saint Lady asked him instead.
Zhang Ruochen stared into her eyes, and became cold and sharp again. “There are things that you wouldn’t understand. If my lady doesn’t have other orders, I should leave now!”
“Wait.”
Saint Lady looked at Zhang Ruochen with unhappy eyes. She knew that she couldn’t convince Zhang Ruochen, so she saved her words.
She said, “There’s another important thing that I have to discuss with you.”
“I see.”
Zhang Ruochen nodded, then took Bloodprint Saint Decree, which was given to him by Saint Lady, out of the Spatial Ring. He passed it to her, and said, “Here you are.”
Saint Lady felt extremely bitter. She just gave a glance to the saint decree and didn’t take it.
She shook her head. “I was talking about the Immortal Vampires, not the Bloodprint Saint Decree. You take this scroll of Bloodprint Saint Decree. In the future, if you encountered with danger, you could use it to escape.”
Zhang Ruochen looked at her with wonder. “You’ve done everything you can to help me as a friend. But you must take this Bloodprint Saint Decree back. If the Ministry of War found that I have your Bloodprint Saint Decree, it would be hard for you.”
“But I’m more worried about you being stabbed by powerful figures of the Ministry of War.”
The words just came off from Saint Lady’s lips.
Even Zhang Ruochen was shocked by them.
Saint Lady realized that it was improper and instantly suppressed her emotion, which showed up unexpectedly.
The bamboo forest was tranquil again.
But this time, there was something strange in this silence.
After a while, Saint Lady said, “Zhang Ruochen, you should know the goal that has brought the Immortal Vampires to Yuan Mansion. Now the Ancient Race of Prison Guardians and the Ministry of War are working together to vanquish the Immortal Vampires. The first thing to do is to find all Immortal Vampires hidden in the Ancient Race of Prison Guardians and the Ministry of War. My coming to you was also to ask for your help. You don’t like Immortal Vampires, do you?””
Zhang Ruochen said, “I’m the Keeper of the Taotian Sword and have a duty to protect the Pluto Sword Tomb. If there’s anything I could help with, just go ahead and ask. But there were countless powerful figures in the Ancient Race of Prison Guardians and the Ministry of War, I couldn’t really help with my low cultivation.”
“No.” Saint Lady said, “The book of Vampire Secrets must be used to find the spies of the Immortal Vampires. You are the only person in this world who has read it. So we’ll need your help to find the spies.”
“Only I have read Vampire Secrets?” Zhang Ruochen asked, puzzled.
Saint Lady said, “You are the first to have mentioned Vampire Secrets, and told of its contents. The majority don’t even know of its existence.”
Zhang Ruochen frowned and said to himself, “How’s that possible?”
He remembered clearly that it was Crown Prince Tutor Shangguan Que and other saints who had edited Vampire Secrets together. Such an important book should have circulated the world already. Why should nobody know of it? Unless it was never allowed to circulate after it had been completed.
Saint Lady stood aside, stared at Zhang Ruochen with her clear eyes, and waited for his answer.
But Zhang Ruochen shook his head, and said, “I’m sorry. I never read Vampire Secrets and can’t help you.”
“But you introduced two ways to tell an Immortal Vampire from the rest in Yin and Yang Sect. How could you never have read it?” asked Saint Lady.
If Saint Lady didn’t know him well, she might have doubted that he hadn’t turned to an Immortal Vampire.
Zhang Ruochen said, “I’ve just read two pages of it, not the whole book.”
After a pause, he said, “If my lady really wants to find Vampire Secrets, perhaps you should try at the house of Shangguan. It was Shangguan Que, the head of Shangguan Family, who took charge of editing Vampire Secrets. If Vampire Secrets didn’t circulate, it should still be in Shangguan Que’s hands.”
Saint Lady chose to believe Zhang Ruochen, and then shook her head. “Shangguan Que used to be the teacher of Emperors and the Empress herself. He has a supreme state that few people could approach.”
“And after the Empress came to the throne, he retired and was rarely seen by people. For the past several hundreds years, no words about him were heard. Maybe he has already passed away, thinking of his age.”
The picture of him, Chi Yao, Kong Lanyou, Murong Yefeng…all royal descendents going to school together 800 years ago occurred to Zhang Ruochen.
Their teacher at that time was Shangguan Que.
Some of the things felt like they had happened just yesterday and his memory was still fresh. But 800 years had passed by, and everything had changed.
At last, Saint Lady had to leave Pluto Sword Tomb, and prepare to visit the Shangguan Family herself. She had to go there even if she couldn’t be permitted to meet Shangguan Que.
Now that signs of unrest had appeared in Kunlun’s Field. Immortal Vampires must be suppressed first to cope with the coming catastrophe.
Therefore finding Vampire Secrets would mean a lot.
“What happened before to prevent teachers from circulating Vampire Secrets?” Zhang Ruochen fell into deep thought.
Were things not so delicate with the Ancient Race of Prison Guardians here, Zhang Ruochen would have liked to join Saint Lady in going to see the Shangguan Family.
But as a sword keeper, Zhang Ruochen would only display his biggest influence here in Pluto Sword Tomb, so he didn’t leave for the moment.
Zhang Ruochen stared at Saint Lady’s receding figure, and his eyelids skipped a little [a bad sign in Chinese tradition].
Out of nowhere, a feeling of inauspiciousness occurred in his mind.
It was a super weird and strange feeling, as if his spiritual power had gone through the time to see the future event.
But the feeling was rather blurry and flashed like a hallucination.
“She is a Saint of Spiritual Power with tremendous saint treasures. How could she get into trouble? And if she did, who else could save her?”
Zhang Ruochen shook his head with a smile and put his concern aside for the moment.
Then Zhang Ruochen left Bamboo Mountain and walked to the Sword Tomb.
The next three days would mean a great deal for him. He had to clear out all his thoughts and concentrate on exercising.
