Chapter 74#

The Cross-dressing Wife (End)#

Lin Xiaodong had taken off the bamboo hat of his own accord.

And when the crowd of onlookers clearly saw the youth’s immortal-like beautiful phoenix eyes and that fair, flawless face, they collectively let out a gasp as if seeing a celestial being descend from the heavens.

Amidst the cries of wonder and praise, Gu Xingzhai stared at him blankly, his heart filled with urgency and anger, a mixture of five flavors, unsure of what he felt.

He was urgent because he had clearly ordered Second Brother to take Lin Xiaodong out of the city, yet the youth remained in this dangerous place; he was angry because the youth had stood up for him but hadn’t considered that these soldiers were all eyeing him greedily—or rather, he knew exactly what he would face next, yet he stood up without looking back.

“Are you crazy?” He grabbed Lin Xiaodong’s wrist and said with a trembling voice, “At a time like this, why do you care about us? Where is Second Brother?”

“I knocked him out; he should still be sleeping at the inn now,” the youth said flatly.

“You!”

Lin Xiaodong naturally had his own plans. Anyway, he would leave this world sooner or later, so a bit earlier or later didn’t make much difference. But he was always protective, and that Mu Kongxuan—Lin Xiaodong truly found him very unpleasant. Gu Xingzhai was the person he had set his sights on; what right did this bastard have to make the man kneel to him?

As the head of the household (self-proclaimed), at the critical moment, Lin Xiaodong took up this responsibility without hesitation.

“Good, very good!” Mu Kongxuan looked at the demon he had long yearned for, now appearing before him of his own accord, his hands trembling with excitement. “Truly, I knew it was you!”

“You know squat,” Lin Xiaodong sneered at him unceremoniously. “To put it bluntly, you were out of moves and tried to ’touch porcelain’ (scam), and as a result, a blind cat hit a dead mouse. And you call yourself a State Preceptor? With such poor skills and fishing in troubled waters, you have the face to call yourself a State Preceptor?”

“And you,” he turned to the blue-clad man nearby, his gaze contemptuous, “at your age, you’re almost a cycle older than Gu Xingzhai, right? Yet you were beaten like this in one encounter. And you’re called the ’top brave general’? Where’s your face? Oh, I forgot, you guys took hostages and wanted to gang up on him; you never planned on having any face anyway.”

Mu Kongxuan probably didn’t expect Lin Xiaodong to be so sharp-tongued even at this time, and his blood surged with rage; while the blue-clad man, already seriously injured, spit out a mouthful of blood and fainted on the spot after being so ruthlessly ridiculed, making many commoners laugh. There was even a foreigner who excitedly raised the camera in his hand and captured this brilliant moment with a “click” and a puff of blue smoke.

“Shut up!” Mu Kongxuan hurriedly called for people to carry his subordinate away for treatment, staring at Lin Xiaodong with sinister eyes. “Your death is near, yet you still dare to speak such grand words. Do you not know how the word ‘death’ is written?”

“You dare kill me? The old Emperor would be the first to slice you up,” Lin Xiaodong retorted. “Everyone says we demons are universally hated, but looking at the current situation, how is it that you, a wolf-hearted and dog-lunged traitor to the profound sects, are the true rat crossing the street?”

The stream of insults was spoken with great satisfaction, and the Third Brother, who had broken free from his ropes nearby, was the first to cheer. Fourth and Fifth Brothers were helping each other break their bonds, while only the lonely Xiao Liu, whom no one was attending to, was trying hard to send distress signals with his eyes to his brothers while cheering for Lin Xiaodong with “mmm mmm mmm” sounds.

Gu Xingzhai sighed and, ignoring Mu Kongxuan’s ashen face, released Lin Xiaodong’s hand and shielded the youth behind him.

“Things have come to this; there’s nothing more to say,” he said. “Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Xiao Liu, protect him well. I’ll cover the rear!”

“Yes, Senior Brother!”

The several junior brothers were so excited their faces turned red. The frustration from before was swept away as various punches, kicks, and spells were deployed, knocking down most of the soldiers Mu Kongxuan had brought in a matter of minutes. Mu Kongxuan was busy dealing with Gu Xingzhai and could only watch as they moved further and further away…

“All of you, stop!”

A sharp, cold shout pierced the sky. All the commoners watching the spectacle immediately dispersed, not daring to stay for even a second.

Mu Kongxuan caught sight of the newcomer from the corner of his eye and was instantly overjoyed: “Chief Manager Xie, you’ve finally come!”

Chief Manager Xie, with a cold face, commanded his subordinates to surround the entire street. He had brought only a dozen or so people, more than twice as many as Mu Kongxuan had.

But the most fatal part was that every one of these soldiers was holding a rifle.

Looking at the black muzzles all around, a drop of cold sweat broke out on Third Brother’s forehead—though they had spells to protect them, they were not invulnerable. They certainly didn’t fear ordinary cold weapons, but unless they reached the level of their Eldest Senior Brother, it would be impossible to dodge instantaneous firearms.

And Fourth Brother, who had promised to protect Lin Xiaodong with his life, was now the first to stand in front of the youth.

“Don’t worry,” the boy quickly glanced at Lin Xiaodong, his expression resolute. “Even if I die, I’ll die in front of you.”

Third Brother slapped him on the forehead with a grim face: “It’s not your turn yet! Step back, I’ll deal with them!”

Mu Kongxuan laughed wildly: “Gu Xingzhai, oh Gu Xingzhai, did you think you could escape? I tell you, not one of you can escape today!”

Hearing this, however, the man’s face didn’t show any of the terror or panic as he had hoped. Instead, Gu Xingzhai smiled at him faintly: “You’d better worry about yourself first.”

As he finished speaking, a palm struck from the void, catching Mu Kongxuan off guard and landing loudly on his face!

Mu Kongxuan was struck so hard his vision went dark, and he stumbled and knelt before the man on the spot.

Gu Xingzhai looked down, staring at him coldly, his body still tense and on guard.

He didn’t hold back at all this time. In fact, the moment Lin Xiaodong stood up, he knew they probably wouldn’t all be able to leave today.

But regardless, the man thought calmly, he had to at least get Xiaodong and Xiao Liu out.

Second Brother was still outside; with him there, Master’s legacy wouldn’t be broken. Xiao Liu was the youngest, but his talent was second only to his own, the best among the brothers, and he had been given great expectations by Master. As for Xiaodong…

Gu Xingzhai wouldn’t forget the oath he had made before the Gu family mansion was burned down that night in front of the people of Qingxie Town.

Chief Manager Xie watched Mu Kongxuan’s pathetic state with a cold eye, a sneer curling his lip. Although they both served as officials in the court, they were not of one mind; it was normal for them to trip each other up, wishing for the other’s early death. Now that he had brought people over, it wasn’t to rescue Mu Kongxuan, but only because he feared failing the orders from above, and also to see the State Preceptor’s “good show” along the way.

“Come with me,” he said to Lin Xiaodong in a pleasant voice. Chief Manager Xie, after all, was a chief eunuch who had risen from nothing, and his speech and actions were much softer than Mu Kongxuan’s—it’s just that hidden beneath the soft surface was still a venomous snake waiting for its chance. “I saw everything that happened just now. Though you are a demon, you are a person of sentiment and righteousness. You wouldn’t want these young people to die in vain under the guns, would you?”

“Don’t listen to him!” Third Brother roared. “This man has a heart of scorpions. Master was talked into it by him and eventually died in the forbidden area!”

Chief Manager Xie’s face turned slightly cold: “What kind of talk is that? Dying for the country is only right and proper. Moreover, your Master exhausted his heart and soul for you, even thinking of sending you abroad to study. Now you’re mixing with a demon—what kind of decorum is that?”

“None of your business, you dead eunuch!”

“Bang!”

A bullet pierced straight through Third Brother’s left shoulder. The boy cried out in pain and knelt on the spot.

“Third Brother!” “Brother San!”

Several of the boys’ eyes nearly split with rage. Chief Manager Xie expressionlessly signaled the surrounding soldiers to raise their rifles and aim at those in the center, but he absolutely wouldn’t allow Lin Xiaodong’s life to be harmed.

Seeing this, Fourth and Fifth Brothers exchanged a look; their thoughts overlapped with Gu Xingzhai’s at this moment—they decided to risk everything to get Lin Xiaodong and Xiao Liu away first.

At this critical moment, the youth who had been protected in the center by them took a step forward of his own accord, looking calmly and directly at Chief Manager Xie: “I’ll go with you.”

“What!?” “No!”

Gu Xingzhai in the rear snapped his head around, only to be forced back to his original position by several bullets. Chief Manager Xie smiled with satisfaction and reached out to Lin Xiaodong: “A wise choice.”

“Making an agreement with us demons carries a price,” Lin Xiaodong’s voice was somber as he began to talk nonsense. “Anyone who breaks an oath will, at best, have their intestines and stomach rot; at worst, they will fall into the eighteen levels of hell, never to be reincarnated for eternity.”

People of this era were still quite superstitious. Hearing these words, Chief Manager Xie’s expression couldn’t help but turn solemn.

His face twitched, his inner thoughts hit home, because he truly hadn’t planned on keeping the agreement from the start—but Lin Xiaodong’s words made him start to feel afraid. He thought that as long as he captured the demon alive, it would be a great achievement anyway, so he said: “Alright, I promise you. As long as you come over, I will immediately let them out of the capital and never cause them any trouble again from now on.”

“It’s a deal,” Lin Xiaodong said.

“Xiaodong!” Gu Xingzhai’s voice carried a hint of shrillness. “Don’t go with them!”

Lin Xiaodong sighed.

The system had just told him that both Chief Manager Xie and Mu Kongxuan were key plot figures, and asked him to quickly pick one to get a Good Person Card, or try to conquer both—but of course, that was impossible. Mu Kongxuan had been beaten unconscious by Gu Xingzhai, the slap marks on his face swollen high. So, finally, only Chief Manager Xie was left for him to barely try to conquer.

In truth, he didn’t want to use such an extreme method, but who told this man surnamed Xie to be a eunuch? He lived deep in the palace serving the Emperor; Lin Xiaodong couldn’t exactly castrate himself and enter the palace to find him.

“Gu Xingzhai,” he looked back at the man, the panic-stricken expression on the other’s face making Lin Xiaodong unconsciously avoid his gaze. He only curled his lip very slightly. “Sorry, I might have to break our promise first.”

After saying that, he withdrew his gaze and walked step by step toward Chief Manager Xie.

Fourth Brother tried to stop him but was shot in the knee and knelt on the spot. Lin Xiaodong’s footsteps paused, and Chief Manager Xie immediately kicked out at the soldier, cursing: “You blind thing, why fire! What if you missed?”

This was the key to prolonging the dragon vein, a walking elixir of immortality!

The soldier was subservient and didn’t dare speak as he picked up his gun from the ground.

Chief Manager Xie looked at Lin Xiaodong with expectation, but the youth was no longer willing to easily trust him. He pulled the dagger from his waist and aimed it at his own chest, saying coldly: “Send them out of the city first.”

Chief Manager Xie was so scared his heart almost stopped beating: “Yes, yes, yes! I’ll send them away now!”

But neither Gu Xingzhai nor the injured Third Brother and the others were willing to leave.

“I said, leave,” Lin Xiaodong sighed. “Or do you really want to see what my legendary heart, which can make one an immortal with a single bite, looks like?”

Having been threatened by him, the group finally dragged their heavy bodies and with great difficulty sat in the carriage Chief Manager Xie had prepared.

“And Second Brother at the inn, don’t forget him too,” Lin Xiaodong, relying on his own value, unceremoniously instructed the group of soldiers. “Remember to help them pack their luggage, and while you’re at it, find a doctor to bandage their wounds. If anything goes wrong, you’ll have to answer for it yourselves.”

Chief Manager Xie almost ground his silver teeth to bits, but looking at the youth’s open and aboveboard “well, my life is valuable, what can you do to me?” attitude, he still pinched his nose and ordered his subordinates: “Go to the inn and send the person out safely!”

Once the system told him that everyone was safely out of the city and the soldiers had retreated far away, only then did Lin Xiaodong put down the dagger and surrender.

As he was being pinned to the ground, he still said smilingly to the system: “This method of yours is quite effective.”

System: “I only told you to ‘appropriately’ threaten them…”

In the end, you took a chicken feather as a command arrow and almost stepped on their faces!

That night, in the Heavenly Prison.

“Look at you—a demon, yet you insisted on playing the hero like a human,” Chief Manager Xie sat outside the prison at a grand feast, looking at the youth inside the cell with his hands hung up, and couldn’t help but sigh in wonder. “Now you know what ‘powerful’ means, don’t you? Look at your delicate skin; you couldn’t even take two lashes.”

Because he was afraid of hurting Lin Xiaodong, he used the teaching cane used by old eunuchs to discipline young eunuchs; other than some pain, it wouldn’t even leave a scar.

But after being a eunuch for a long time, psychological problems were inevitable. Looking at the crisscrossing marks on the youth’s fair skin, Chief Manager Xie also couldn’t help but feel a bit stirred. Even though he clearly knew the being before him was not of his kind, he still ordered the cell opened and walked in holding a wine cup.

“Truly a beauty.” He pinched Lin Xiaodong’s chin, and after being dodged, his eyes turned cold. He unceremoniously splashed the wine from the cup onto the youth’s bare upper body. The skin exposed to the air reacted to the cold, stimulating liquid, and the youth instinctively shrank back, his body covered in red marks trembling slightly, looking both miserable and pitiful.

Chief Manager Xie was very satisfied with his reaction. His fingertip slid from the youth’s tense forearm all the way to his earlobe, rubbing it gently with a slightly flirtatious technique: “In court today, His Majesty has already issued an imperial decree to select an auspicious day to open the Altar of Heaven and sacrifice to the dragon vein. At that time, do you know who the sacrifice will be?”

Lin Xiaodong lowered his head, still not giving him any reaction.

“Humph,” Chief Manager Xie gave a contemptuous smile, his gaze carrying a hint of greed. “Still holding out? When you, this demon, are cut open and gutted, I’ll see if you can still smile! His Majesty has said that at that time, he will give me a piece of your heart so we can be immortal together…”

“You’re truly ridiculous.”

“What?” Chief Manager Xie thought he had misheard. “You say I’m ridiculous?”

“Yes,” Lin Xiaodong raised his head, looking directly into his eyes. “As the ruler of a country, to actually share the technique of immortality with a eunuch—do you believe that yourself?”

Chief Manager Xie angrily clamped his chin: “Shut up! I have served His Majesty for many years; how can I allow you to talk nonsense here!”

“Whether I’m talking nonsense or not, you know it yourself,” Lin Xiaodong smiled at him with difficulty. “To be honest, rather than letting that dog Emperor eat my heart, I’d rather you cut open my chest right now and take it to fly far away.”

Chief Manager Xie frowned tightly, unconsciously relaxing the force of his hand: “…Why?”

He had thought Lin Xiaodong would hate him very much.

“Because you are just a eunuch,” despite Chief Manager Xie’s angry gaze, Lin Xiaodong said without fear, “and he is the Emperor, and a muddle-headed, incompetent Emperor who only knows how to surrender, enjoy himself, cede territory, and sue for peace—he can be called a sinner of the ages.”

Chief Manager Xie let go, his face shifting between light and dark for a long time.

“Just based on these words,” after a long while, he said softly, “you could be taken outside the Meridian Gate and executed by slow slicing, do you know that?”

Lin Xiaodong gave a weak smile: “I’m not a person afraid of death. Moreover, what I said is all true. Chief Manager Xie, are you truly not going to take a bite? I know you are actually an ambitious person; otherwise, you wouldn’t be busy traveling across the world as a eunuch, trading and negotiating with foreigners. You could perfectly well enjoy your fortune in the Imperial Palace… Master Huang also praised you back then, saying that your contribution to the court and the country is no less than that of a second-rank official.”

Everyone loves flattery, and since Lin Xiaodong’s death was near, Chief Manager Xie didn’t think he had any need to flatter him, so he naturally believed the other was speaking from the heart. He couldn’t help but ask: “He… truly said so?”

“Truly.”

Chief Manager Xie let out a long sigh. A moment later, under Lin Xiaodong’s “expectant” gaze, he shook his head with a complex expression.

“You, this demon, actually concern yourself with the great affairs of the world,” he said. “Unfortunately, whether His Majesty is willing to keep his promise or not, I don’t have the courage to kill you. Immortality is indeed tempting, but one must first have a life to live.”

Though he said this, the look in his eyes when he looked at Lin Xiaodong had undergone an earth-shaking change.

Before leaving the Heavenly Prison, Chief Manager Xie stuffed a pill into his mouth. After forcing Lin Xiaodong to swallow it, he said slowly: “Don’t think about escaping prison. Only I have the antidote to this poison; once it takes effect, you will feel extreme pain throughout your whole body. If you go to the underworld, in your next life, remember to have King Yama give you a human birth.”

“Ding, Good Person Card +1.”

As a eunuch, even with power over everyone except one, his heart was always filled with inferiority due to his physical defect. Moreover, since ancient times, the officials in court would never recognize the contributions of eunuchs, even if they were indeed pillars of the state—Lin Xiaodong had precisely grasped this weakness of Chief Manager Xie’s, concentrated his fire, and finally successfully secured this Good Person Card.

However, even if a person like Chief Manager Xie felt Lin Xiaodong was a good person, it wouldn’t stop him from dealing a lethal blow to a good person.

System: “But how did you know he would come to the Heavenly Prison to find you alone?”

“Nonsense,” Lin Xiaodong chuckled. “Otherwise, why do you think I made so many rude requests before? And repeatedly jumped back and forth across his bottom line?”

The system was very puzzled: “Isn’t that just your daily ‘seeking death’ operation?”

Lin Xiaodong: “…………”

Goodbye, the love is gone.

But he also asked the system what exactly Chief Manager Xie had just given him. The answer was a chronic poison that was completely incurable. It would take effect in five or six days at the earliest, or half a month to a month at the latest; anyway, after a person took it, they would definitely die from the poison.

Lin Xiaodong: “…Damn, even after this, he still claims loyalty to the Emperor?”

This is a ruthless person; this is clearly a plan to take out both him and the dog Emperor in one go!

He immediately had the system block his pain perception and wondered when on earth Gu Xingzhai would come to break him out of prison. He hoped that last Good Person Card wouldn’t truly be out of reach. After staying in this world for so long, would it all go down the drain?

Fortunately, late at night three days later, just as Lin Xiaodong was hanging from the wall by chains like a salted fish in a daze, he suddenly heard a dull thud at the door, seemingly the sound of a jailer falling.

His spirits immediately lifted. Next, he saw the man’s familiar figure appear outside the cell.

Gu Xingzhai quickly opened the lock with a key, cut the chains with his dagger, and pulled him into his arms.

“Xiaodong,” he stared at the youth’s pale, thin body and the red marks from being whipped, his voice trembling. “I’m late.”

Chief Manager Xie hadn’t made things difficult for him since that day and even provided good food and drink, but this was the Heavenly Prison after all, and Lin Xiaodong had blocked his pain and other unnecessary senses days ago, so he didn’t realize how weak his body truly was now.

He tried to stand up several times but failed, so he could only obediently be carried on Gu Xingzhai’s back, hugging the man’s neck as he watched him fight his way out of the Heavenly Prison.

Mu Kongxuan, who received the news in the middle of the night, was so angry his wounds burst open; this time even a great immortal couldn’t save him, and he could only lie there obediently waiting for death. Meanwhile, Chief Manager Xie, who arrived outside the prison in a hurry with a musketeer squad, was given strict orders by the Emperor not to harm the sacrifice, so his hands were tied. He couldn’t stop Gu Xingzhai, whose murderous intent had risen; instead, with many dead and wounded, they vanished in the blink of an eye.

“Lord, what do we do?” the subordinate asked anxiously.

“No rush,” Chief Manager Xie smiled with certainty, saying confidently, “Tell the men below there’s no need to chase. The sacrifice will come back on his own.”

He believed no one could endure the pain when that medicine took effect.

Chief Manager Xie had once relied on this one small pill to make even the previously iron-willed, arrogant Chancellor of the court kneel and beg for mercy. Even knowing that returning would only mean death, Lin Xiaodong, having taken the pill, would only die by his side.

But one day passed, then two, three, four… a month passed.

Lin Xiaodong never returned to find him.

The youth was as if he had evaporated from this world. He did not appear at the foot of the Imperial City one day as Chief Manager Xie had predicted, crying and pleading for an antidote, or grabbing his ankle and pleading for mercy incoherently, seeking only death.

In the Emperor’s thunderous rage, Chief Manager Xie, who had lost the elixir of immortality, was stripped of his official robes and taken straight out of the Meridian Gate. Just as he had once told Lin Xiaodong, he suffered the punishment of a thousand cuts.

But he died without closing his eyes.

Even after slicing the incompetent Chief Manager Xie, the Emperor was still not appeased and ordered his body hung on the city wall of the Imperial City as a warning to those who came after. From that day on, anyone who passed by did so in a great hurry, their expressions fearful, not daring to stay for even a second.

However, half a year later, there was a man wearing an ink-black long gown, with graying hair at his temples, standing silently under the city wall, looking at the mangled remains of Chief Manager Xie for an entire afternoon.

Even when someone reminded him, he only stared intently upward, his dark eyes cold and indifferent.

In the evening, the setting sun was like residual blood.

Before the patrolling Imperial Guard arrived, he slipped alone into the forbidden area on the back mountain of the Imperial City.

That night, dragons soared and tigers roared; the mountains and rivers wept in sorrow.

The dragon vein that had lasted for hundreds of years and was now gasping for breath was finally severed by a single sword strike.

The Emperor, who had been hurriedly awakened by the palace servants, stood dazed outside the main hall, watching the falling Imperial Star in the sky. He felt his vision go dark and spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot. Beside him, the shrill voice of a eunuch pierced the night sky, signaling the end of an era:

“Guards, save the Emperor—!!!”