Clouds Drunk, Moon Slightly Sleeping - Chapter 132
"The imperial tomb and its keeper have been found."
There were only nine characters, but I knew these nine characters were not simple, and very simple indeed. The reason was quite simple: a message delivered by a little black dove would not be an ordinary message.
But the imperial tombs and tomb keepers mentioned here certainly don't refer to the imperial tombs of the Dragon Yao Kingdom, or even the imperial tombs of the other five kingdoms, right? If it were the imperial tomb of any of the six kingdoms, like the Fox Family Cemetery, it would be so ostentatiously built there, why would there be any need to look for it? Just as he was pondering this, the Fox had already returned from court.
"Any news about Second Brother today?" I quickly tossed the note aside, then got up and jogged towards Fox, linking arms with him and repeating my daily question word for word.
"He's doing well, and the war is progressing smoothly. Lanzhou will be captured soon." He smiled and pulled me close, clearly pleased with my daily, enthusiastic greetings after court. Ah, this cunning and treacherous fox! He's keeping me cooped up in the palace, making me feel suffocated. And of all the people in the palace, only he can disregard my status as Empress while simultaneously determining my freedom and satisfaction within the palace. How could I not be proactive, friendly, and constantly offer him sweet words and flatter him?
"Oh, right, a little black dove came to deliver a message." I pulled him to sit down at the desk, feeling no remorse whatsoever for having opened his "letter" without permission.
The fox reached out and picked up the small note, glanced at it casually, his smile growing increasingly lazy and nonchalant. Then he just stared at me without saying a word.
"What imperial tomb?" Okay, okay, I admit I'm useless. I knew that fox had anticipated my question by remaining silent, but he wouldn't answer proactively, insisting I ask. He's so irresponsible. But why can't I help myself? 555
"What does Qianqian say?" His almond-shaped eyes slanted upwards at me—because he was sitting while I was standing, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, his charm making me want to reach out and knead his fox-like face like dough into a ball. I admit, I was jealous. I was jealous that the fox was more handsome than me no matter where he looked—standing, sitting, lying down, facing east, south, west, or north.
"It's definitely not the imperial tomb of any of the six kingdoms." I pursed my lips; besides guessing this, I really couldn't think of anything deeper. Sigh, spending my time in the palace eating and swindling, besides outsmarting the fox, my brain cells were completely useless. So, knowing my IQ had declined considerably, I could only desperately hope to win the fox's rare moment of conscience with my pitiful and expectant eyes. "Big brother, please tell me quickly!"
When you need to ask someone for a favor, you have to call them "Big Brother"; when you're cursing someone, you have to call them "Fox"; and when you're blushing and doing something, you have to call them by their name, hehe.
I guess it's been quite a few days since I called him "Big Brother," and the fox seemed rather moved. He stretched out his paw and pulled me into his arms, letting me sit against his back. Then, as usual, he rested his chin on my shoulder and whispered seductively in my ear, "The Imperial Tomb of the Wind God Kingdom."
"Huh?" I reached out and pushed the fox's head away, then turned to the side and wrapped my arms around its neck, saying in a strange voice, "The Imperial Tomb of the Wind God Kingdom? Doesn't anyone know where the Imperial Tomb of the Wind God Kingdom is?"
"Qianqian." Obviously, my question seemed a bit idiotic, or too incongruous with my identity as a descendant of the royal family of the Wind God Kingdom, so the fox's voice contained naked helplessness and sigh.
"I don't know, it happened hundreds of years ago, and nobody talks about it anymore." I was perfectly justified in this. After all, I'm just a descendant, you know? I wasn't involved!
"It is said that the imperial mausoleum of the Fengshen Kingdom is the location of the Fengshen Kingdom's imperial lineage. Not only are all the emperors of the Fengshen Kingdom buried there, but the mausoleum also contains the divine strategy of the founding emperor of the Fengshen Kingdom to unify the world. In order to protect the imperial lineage of the Fengshen Kingdom from being destroyed and to ensure that the Fengshen Kingdom will remain strong forever, the imperial mausoleum of the Fengshen Kingdom was built in a Feng Shui treasure land with mountains and rivers, secret and full of mysteries, and is guarded by tomb keepers."
"And then?" Please, the important part is yet to come, stop keeping me in suspense.
"And then?" The fox looked at me as if I were a mentally challenged child, with deep sympathy and a sense of hopelessness. It reached out and patted my head, then took the black jade phoenix hairpin from my hair bun, messing up my carefully tied long hair again. Only then did it say with satisfaction, "Since the Wind God Kingdom was divided into six, for hundreds of years, many people from each country have been searching for the location of the Wind God Emperor's Mausoleum."
"Where is it?" My heart skipped a beat, and I vaguely sensed that something was about to emerge.
"The Kingdom of Cold Stars," the fox replied casually, toying with a small tuft of my hair.
"This is... a secret belonging to the Hanxing Kingdom's royal palace?" Don't ask me how I analyzed it; I just asked it instinctively. To be honest, I'd forgotten about the secrets of the six kingdoms' royal palaces after what happened with my uncle, the Crown Prince, but now, stimulated by the matter of the royal tombs, they've suddenly come back to me.
The stinky fox smiled but said nothing, his eyes full of admiration. He reached out and patted my head, as if I had become his child rather than his wife.
"Tell me, how many secrets of the palace do you know? What exactly are these secrets about?" I was furious and my anger flared up. I immediately grabbed the fox by the neck, pretending to strangle it, and threatened it in a rough voice.
“Qianqian…” Someone’s face darkened.
"Go ahead and tell me, tell me everything you know. Trust and honesty are the most important things between husband and wife." I then wrapped my arms around his neck, and for once in a lifetime, I smiled and acted coquettishly.
"That's not enough." The black lines on the stinky fox's face immediately turned into red flowers, and he smiled languidly, his peach blossom eyes brimming with spring-like affection.
"I'll embroider a sachet for you." I remembered the large sachet that the fox had given me, which he had embroidered himself.
"How about we try a different approach?" The red flower turned into a yellow one, and the fox's lips twitched slightly, his smile faltering.
"Make a warm, handmade dragon robe?" A few days ago, I sewed a heart-shaped pajama for Fox, but he didn't appreciate it and hasn't worn it even once. It's just a little red, a little thin, and a little too feminine in style. I just had this sudden inspiration from Dongfang Bubai.
"Try another one." The yellow flower was starting to turn back into a black line; it was no longer a question, but a statement.
"Will you cook for me that day?" As a wife, it's only right that I be presentable in public and capable in the kitchen. My cooking skills may be a bit lacking, but my attitude is absolutely sincere, hahaha.
"Actually, as long as you have the heart, that's enough. Big Brother doesn't really care about these outward expressions." After the fox's face darkened, he stared at me for a full ten seconds, as if he had finally accepted reality and calmed down. He was clearly afraid that my cooking would burn down the imperial kitchen and give him diarrhea, but he made it sound like he was discussing the philosophy of life, with a gentle husband's face on his face.
"Yes, yes, that's right, go ahead and say it." I was too lazy to argue, so I nodded my head like a chicken pecking at rice.
"Qianqian should know the secret of the Azure Palace, right?" When she mentioned the secret of the palace, the fox's peach blossom eyes became deep again, and as she spoke, she stretched out her fox paw and moved it back and forth on the soul-protecting spot of my left little finger.
I nodded. It's just a matter of leaping into the Heavenly Sacred Pool, then having one's soul and body separated, being identified as a descendant of the Wind God Kingdom's royal family, adding the secret of the Moon Gazing Kingdom's Sacred Golden Lock, and then unifying the world... well, you know. By the way, the secret of the Sacred Golden Lock seems to be related to Xiu Ruo's Sacred Spirit Beast: "It seems that the royal palaces of the six kingdoms all have secrets, and they are all interconnected."
"Does Qianqian know why Wangyue wanted to attack Longyao in the first place?"
Looking at the fox's bewitching face, I recalled a similar speculation I had made before, and suddenly exclaimed, "Could the secret of the Moon Gazing Palace be related to Long Yao? Brother, what is our secret?"
If the secrets of Wangyue Palace involve Longyao, then my initial belief that Wangyue's uprising was unprovoked and a shameless act of bullying the weak seems to be invalid, or at least not the main reason.
"A map of the imperial tomb was hidden in the will."
Without the slightest hesitation, the fox uttered a single sentence that addressed all the previous questions about the will and the war. If the will contained a hidden map of the imperial tomb, then Xiaobai should have known about it long ago, right? That's why when the fox returned the will to him, he didn't even bother to open it before determining its authenticity.
"Does the secret of the Dragon Palace involve Xiu Ruo?" I should have been panicked, afraid of knowing the truth, and holding my breath to wait for the outcome. But the truth is, I asked this question very naturally, and with a calm mind. I think in today's situation, I no longer care whether the fox had used my intentions in the previous process.
"It wasn't until I saw Yaoyao that I was certain of what I was thinking." He said this quite frankly, as if he wasn't worried at all that I would be angry, upset, or throw a tantrum afterward.
Ah, so even foxes rely on guessing. It seems the old emperor really did pass on the secrets of the Dragon Palace to Little White.
"Xiu Ruo's Holy Spirit Beast, Wang Yue's Holy Golden Lock, the Heavenly Holy Pool and Soul Protector, Long Yao's Map, Han Xing's Imperial Tomb. The Heavenly Holy Pool and Soul Protector seem to be for identifying the descendants of the royal family of some Wind God Kingdom. The Holy Golden Lock can control the Holy Spirit Beast, and the map can find the location of the imperial tomb. So what is the key to the secret of Ye Cang's Imperial Palace?" My thoughts gradually became clearer. If that rumor was true and credible, if my identity was indeed an important part of it, and the Holy Golden Lock was also on my person, and the imperial tomb had been found by the fox, oh my god, could the so-called secret of the Six Kingdoms' Imperial Palace be that I wear the Holy Golden Lock, ride Yao Yao, and travel through mountains and rivers to that damned Wind God Kingdom's Imperial Tomb, and with someone or something from Ye Cang, I can unlock the secret of these hundreds of years?
With a loud "boom," the imperial tomb opened, revealing its secrets. Was it a mountain of gold, silver, and diamonds? A martial arts manual? A brilliant plan to unify the world? Or an elixir of immortality? Oh dear, none of those are right. It should be that legendary divine strategy—ninety-nine percent of the time, it's just a bamboo slip inscribed with "Winning people over with virtue."
I jumped off the fox's leg with a "whoosh," dodging five meters away like lightning. Pointing at the stinky fox, I asked incredulously, "You want me to go to Cold Star?"
"Qianqian!" The fox's mouth twisted, and I don't know how it moved, but then my vision blurred, and I was carried back to the desk by him.
"Hey, it's a deal! I won't do it! I won't do something so stupid! All that so-called treasure and secrets are just a bunch of bullshit, a complete scam! Believing in some ancient, divinely ordained strategy to unify the world is no substitute for believing in yourself. Times have changed!" I struggled, speaking with righteous indignation and heartbreak. Ugh, that sly fox is being so nice to me, is he planning to fatten me up and make me work for him?!
"Qianqian, no one asked you to do this." Someone's tone was quietly helpless.
"That sounds nice! All the problems have fallen on me, except for Ye Cang. Once we destroy Ye Cang this time, you'll uncover the secrets of Ye Cang's imperial city, and the whole secret will be connected smoothly. Don't you have any curiosity or ambition?" I'm so moved! The more I think about it, the more unsafe I feel. I need to sneak out of the palace and escape for my life!