"It seems you won’t listen."
Her eyes showed a trace of disappointnt but still held a hint of gentleness.
The person leisurely replied, "I only listen to my wife."
An Hou’s exceedingly beautiful face stiffened, and as the words reached her ears, her thoughts involuntarily wandered.
The warmth that once brushed by her lips and the faint pain in her chest brought a sense of betrayal that surged up her spine.
She quickly suppressed it without showing a sign.
Once she regained her composure, she said slowly:
"It seems that you regard the Sword Armor as your wife."
Chen Yi did not deny it.
Not to ntion this ti, even during her last discreet visit to his residence, from his interactions with Zhou Yitang, she could guess a thing or two.
Combining the hints and this very invitation that brought Zhou Yitang to a private banquet...
She could completely determine the nature of their relationship.
In the Buddha hall filled with swirling incense, Chen Yi glanced around again and, unwilling to waste more words, said:
"Do you want to speak of the important matter, Your Highness, or shall I not?"
"Why are you so set on leaving the capital?" An Hou asked.
"The sea is vast, and fish leap freely; the sky is high, and birds fly. I’m not just leaving the capital, but also escaping the court’s constraints." Having spoken up to this point, Chen Yi had nothing to hide.
"Leaving the court’s constraints? A marquis position, the epito of beauty, a lifeti of wealth and glory, can’t keep you here?"
"Your Highness wishes to keep here, rely seeing as a blade. There are so many people nad Chen in this world, and even more willing to be a blade..."
Before he finished speaking, the phoenix-robed woman suddenly interrupted:
"I don’t just see you as a blade,
giving you the surna An, treating you as my own."
Chen Yi looked at her coldly as she turned around, picked up a piece of paper from the writing desk, and slowly approached.
"An Yi, does that na sound nice? An Yi, An Yi."
An Hou ca to his side, gently touching his temples with one hand,
"Marry Ruo Shu as your first wife, go to the Western Jin after leaving the capital, avenge the An family, and eliminate the powerful enemy in the northwest for Great Yu. What I promise you is not false; moreover, destroy the Chen Family of Western Jin, and you will be granted the rit, even conferred as a duke, ensuring the eternal legacy of Great Yu."
Chen Yi remained silent.
An Hou questioned further: "What are you still worried about? Do you think I won’t let you leave the capital? Do you believe I wish to keep you with rewards because I desperately need you as a blade?"
"Isn’t that so?" Chen Yi asked.
An Hou gently caressed his temples with compassion,
"I just don’t want you to be without care after leaving the capital, to be bullied."
These familiar words struck Chen Yi, surprising him for a mont.
In his pupils, the phoenix-robed woman showed a smile once more.
"Does it resemble?" she smiled.
"You ultimately are not."
Chen Yi shook off An Hou’s hand. She turned away and walked again to the enormous painting.
The phoenix-robed woman indifferently said: "You are not truly my son, but what of it? As the Buddhist Law says: ’Beyond the heart, there is no law.’ As long as I regard you as Yi’er in my heart, then you are Yi’er. Similarly, you can see as the Tushan Clan."
Before turning, she placed the paper she took from the desk into Chen Yi’s hand.
Faced with An Hou’s words, Chen Yi responded:
"True is true, and false is false."
An Hou said:
"Look at that paper first, then speak of true or false."
Chen Yi lowered his head and glanced at the writing on the paper.
And as his eyes fell on the first line of words, his gaze narrowed.
"You should know the forr emperor’s so-called thod of cutting off the three corpses is inextricably linked to the Tushan Underground Palace.
Recently, I ordered soone to review the emperor’s chronicles and searched the archives, unexpectedly discovering that... the Tushan Underground Palace drifts along the earth’s veins, revealing itself across the land of Shenzhou; otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many legends about it.
The interval of its appearance has no exact pattern, but one thing can locate the palace."
An Hou recited the content on the paper, and from within her bosom, she retrieved a brocade box, opening it before Chen Yi, inside it was covered in bronze corrosion, resembling the hilt of a sword,
"This is... Xia Qi Sword."
Without An Hou speaking, Chen Yi knew what it was.
In the "chaos of the martial world," with legacies erging everywhere and ancient ruins rising, which included the Xia Hou inheritance of ancient Xia people.
And the Xia Qi Sword scattered across the land was one of them.
"Don’t you... wish to see the Tushan Clan again?" An Hou asked, "Moreover, for soone as compassionate as you, don’t you wish for her to escape the seal?"
Chen Yi said: "I naturally wish to see her."
"Then... take the Xia Qi Sword and thereafter follow the guidance of the mother," An Hou said softly.
Chen Yi looked up, questioning:
"What if I refuse to listen?"
An Hou laughed: "You may try to seize it."
As the words fell, a faint Buddha Light erged, enveloping An Hou’s form, its aura expanding like ripples.
Chen Yi’s pupils slightly contracted.
An Hou closed the brocade box, her hands resting before her belly, thumb and middle finger pinched together, forming the Dharma Seal,
"I wish to beco the Dharma King."
Using her as the center, the "卍" characters on the paintings swirled, the incense in the Buddha hall condensed into a series of Buddha pagodas.
In this mont, many clues intertwined in Chen Yi’s mind.
He questioned whether An Hou wished to be like Wu Zhao, and she did not deny it but said she would emulate...
Records in history clearly state that Wu Zhao declared herself the Dharma King...
An Hou sent Master Zhihui, an incarnation of Yao Shang Bodhisattva, to temples across the world to chant...
Ignoring the severed dragon vein, promoting the change of dynasties...
Chen Yi realized sothing at that mont,
she had already acquired the Buddhist Sect’s heritage of the Dharma King!
To rule a kingdom as a woman.
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