Edited by Noks
Those who had been on a battlefield were fine. They had seen actual killing and thus didn’t react much to bloodshed. However, the local officials were shocked upon witnessing Xu Yao’s fighting style. Their previous few meetings with him had made them think that Xu Yao was a very gentle person, but today, they realized that under the mask of gentleness, he was still very much a fierce man.
Of course, they could still pose questions to him in this conference. After all, Xu Yao always gave people the impression of him having a strong sense of integrity.
At this moment, everyone seated was handed a light brain. Present on these light brains were documents discussing the undead army and some extended problems. These were the issues that would be the focus of today's meeting.
“It is mentioned in the document that the undead army of the Flying Wolf Division cannot travel to Tarot, but it is feasible to summon the local dead.” A rather young civic official asked, “I can’t figure out one thing. I hope General Xu can answer it. Where are the undead when they are not being summoned?”
“They are underground, where they have a unique ‘living’ space. This is the current situation for the undead in Huaxia. As for the situation on Tarot, if it is convenient for Madam He, I think I’d better ask her to answer it. It should be more specific.” Xu Yao looked at the Empress’s mother.
“Alright, let me explain it,” said Madam He. “People of Tarot will be sent to Fu Ta Yuan after death. Each Fu Ta Yuan has a Fuling Lake, which is of a special nature and can dissolve the dead body naturally. When I first died, I had thought the same way as most of the people present here would, believing that there was nothing left after death, but that's not true. I woke up in Fu Ta Yuan as a spirit, in exactly the same state as I am now. There are a lot of undead like me there. We can’t leave Fu Ta Yuan completely, but we can wander around at night, as long as we return before dawn.”
“Return where?” asked the Empress.
“Return to the underground.”
“So that means that all those who have died are now living in the form of spirits in the Fu Ta Yuan?” asked an officer.
“That is not so. Every day, new ghosts will appear and the old ones will disappear. There is a Fuling Tree in Fu Ta Yuan, which emits a dazzling white once, at any random time of the day. It pulls some of the undead into it every day. At first, we didn’t know what it was basing its selection of those particular undead on. Later, we discovered that its selection was based on the color of the spirit. After death, each spirit body has a different colour, and there will be changes to it every day. This tree of blessings will absorb the spirit bodies which have the same color as it.”
“It sounds like the tree is choosing the undead who can be reincarnated,” inferred Le Yao.
“General Xu Yao, where did this undead come from?” asked Grand Marshal He Ming. Obviously, he was asking about Jiang Xinduo’s ex-husband, because there was only one other dead person present here excluding Madam He.
“It should be from Fu Ta Yuan too,” replied Xu Yao.
“Emperor, should we go to Fu Ta Yuan to take a look?” The Empress continued, “Our sights are still open because of the talisman, so we could see what it looks like.”
Emperor Kunta thought for a moment and then ordered, “Mi He, go and prepare. Everyone, come to the nearest Fu Ta Yuan with me.”
As an Emperor, there were still situations that existed in his territory which he didn’t know about at all, and that too such a big and surprising situation. So, about ten minutes later, Emperor Kunta, along with the Empress, asked Xu Yao and Le Yao to get in a hover car together to go to Fu Ta Yuan, which was north of Xingdu. The others, of course, also accompanied them on a hover car arranged by Advisor Mi He.
This Fu Ta Yuan was located at the bottom of a cliff. When someone looked at the cliff at night, they would see countless small light balls slowly float up from the bottom of the cliff until reaching a certain height, just like a slowly flying firefly. Of course, only those who had opened their sight with the talisman could see it. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to find this at all.
“Madam He, can you float above this cliff?” Le Yao didn’t see any undead above the cliff. He had never been here before and was curious. It seemed to follow a totally different precedent when compared to the Underworld in Huaxia.
“We can’t, we can only float to half of its height at most. Once we reach a particular height, it’s like there’s an invisible barrier, and we will be blocked. We can't float higher than that. So I was shocked when I heard the summons today and saw a passage open in thin air,” said Madam He. “Look there.” She pointed to the mass of pure white light under the cliff and continued, “That’s the Fuling Tree.”
“It's so big!” Le Yao looked at the huge white tree below and was astonished. The tree measured at least six or seven hundred meters in height, and the maximum diameter of the trunk was at least twenty six meters. Moreover, the tree actually grew on top of Fuling Lake. Its roots were just below the lake surface, which also emitted a dazzling white light that shone all around brightly.
“Why has everyone gathered around the tree?” asked the Empress.
“As it’s said that the Fuling tree can cleanse the spirit's body, leading the undead into having the same color as it does, thereby signalling a start to their next life journey.”
“Emperor, would you like to go down and take a look?” asked someone through the communicator.
“No, don’t disturb their peace.” The Emperor paused for a moment before he continued, “Now that their existence has been confirmed, let’s go back first and continue discussing this matter.”
The undead present here seemed to have a comfortable life. There was no need to break their peace. In fact, Emperor Kunta felt that he had been a bit hasty in bringing a group of officials directly to Fu Ta Yuan. Although most of the officials present should not be ambivalent, who could guarantee the thoughts of those few who were? Would they also want to have an undead army? Will they begin from here if they wanted to?
No one knew that compared to Aldrich saying that he would wash away Le Yao's mark, what had made Emperor Kunta truly angry was that Aldrich had dared to say 'it’s a pity Le Yao's ability was used in the 12th Army Corps.' What about the 12th and 17th armies? It was all for the Emperor’s family and for the Tarot Empire. Le Yao's ability was profitable in whichever army anyway. Why was that called 'a pity'?
Mi He had been following Emperor Kunta for 20 years. As soon as the Emperor frowned, he could guess the direction of his thoughts. He commanded his AI, “Qiaoyu, let’s go back to the Moon Palace.”
“Yes, Advisor.”
Several hover cars then flew from the cliff to return to the palace.
At the Hall of the Great Moon, all the officials were once again seated in their original positions and continued to talk about the matter of the undead. “For the past four years, the undead army of the Flying Wolf Division has been guarding the battlefield and has never left. At present, I can't get them out of their current state, but there should be no problem in giving them the military treatment and respect they deserve,” said Xu Yao.
“It’s certainly not a problem to give them the respect they deserve,” said the Finance Minister. “But General Xu has also mentioned in the document that they had not been found for four years, which means they should not need extra expenses. For example, food, clothing, and even accommodation, are those really necessary?”
“It’s about the dignity of the soldiers, of course it’s necessary,” said Xu Yao. “We can live without the military uniform. We can also live with one dish instead of six. But we don’t just want to live, do we?”
Grand Marshal Koncz frowned, “Even so, life is different from death. How can we compare the dead with the living?”
Xu Yao asked, “Why not? Can you guarantee that you will not die in the future? Please think about it as if you're in their position.”
Grand Marshal Koncz’s face turned black.
The atmosphere became a little stiff when the Empress suddenly stood up and said, “Emperor, it’s too late already. Xiao Le Yao is in a special situation. I’d better find him a place to rest first. It’s not good for his children or for him to keep sitting for such a long time.”
Emperor Kunta had also discovered that Le Yao had started to yawn not long after they had come back from Fu Ta Yuan. He couldn't count the number of times Le Yao had yawned. However, it was pitiful that he couldn't sleep due to the special occasion. So he nodded, “Go.”
Xu Yao leaned over and said, “Thank you very much, Emperor and Empress.”
Then he took off his coat and put it on Le Yao, patting him peacefully on his shoulder.
Le Yao had become energized when the Empress spoke. Now, as he was the center of attention, he felt his scalp turn numb and his cheeks start to heat. He hurriedly followed after the Empress with careful steps.
He felt much more comfortable once he was out of the Hall of the Great Moon. Le Yao breathed a long sigh of relief and patted himself on the forehead.
Seeing this, the Empress smiled and said, “Did you find it embarrassing?”
Le Yao smiled awkwardly, “Ah, in fact, there isn't any……” With a slight cough, he quickly changed the topic, “By the way, Madam He, will you stay here tonight? If you do, I can build a palace hall for you.”
Madam He hadn’t chatted enough with her son, so she had also come out with the two of them. Hearing this, she was slightly surprised and asked, “Palace hall?”
“Yes,” replied Le Yao. “Empress, do you have a 3D printer here for me to use?”
It was natural to have something like this in the palace. Although the frequency of utilization of the 3D printer was not high, it was still occasionally used. The Empress said, “Yes, come with me.”
Emperor Kunta and Empress He Yi loved each other very much. The Emperor had only one wife and no concubines. They resided in Xinghua Hall on normal days. So the Empress took Le Yao to a small printing room in Xinghua Hall and pointed to the 3D printer. “That's it.”
Le Yao hadn’t used this model in Huaxia, but as the machines here were very intelligent, it didn’t take him long to figure out the way to use it. He found a template of the palace, then created a design with Madam He and the Empress. The Empress’s intelligent assistant also helped in finishing the design. They finally came up with a printed small palace hall similar to the one that Madam He had lived in when she was alive.
He burned it to the coordinates designated by the Empress. After a while, Madam He got to sit in the imperial chair that she used to like very much.
When Madam He discovered that her spirit body could actually sit down on the chair instead of just pass through it, she felt that she had encountered magic. “Xiao Le Yao, you are so powerful, is this alright for you?”
Le Yao said with a smile, “It's fine.” Then he took out an incense cone and lit it. “You can inhale this fragrance. If you don’t like it, I’ll change it for you.”
What he had taken out was an incense cone with a fruity fragrance, which he personally liked to use more often.
Madam He smelt it at once, feeling that it was both familiar and a little strange. Familiar because she used to like the taste of this fruit, and strange because she had not been able to smell anything for a long time!
Madam He took several deep breaths before stopping to say, “God, I can smell it!” She looked at her son excitedly. “I couldn’t smell it before, but now I can.”
The Empress asked, “Xiao Le Yao, this is incense, right? I have read the report that General Xu Yao sent to the Emperor.”
Le Yao replied, “Yes, Empress. This is incense. I’ll write down the recipe for it later. Its taste can be adjusted according to what Madam He likes. In addition, you can get other food for Madam He to consume, but you will need to do an incense offering first.”
The Empress asked, “How can I do an incense offering? Is this something everyone can do?”
“Yes. It's not difficult to do the offering,” said Le Yao. He took the incense, lit it, and held it high above his head, then put it aside after this demonstration. “If you want to give Madam He any food in the future, just use the method I just used. You can do it both during the day and night. However, regular food will become tasteless after you offer it to the other party to enjoy.”
The Empress felt that that would be too bizarre, but he tasted the food he had just offered to his mother, and it really was like water. There was no taste in it!
Seeing her son’s expression, Madam He asked, “Is it really tasteless?”
The Empress nodded fiercely. The happiness brought by the new things had made him a little excited. “Really, Mom.” Then he smiled at Le Yao, “Xiao Le Yao, you are too amazing. No wonder General Xu loves you so much.”
Le Yao scratched his head as he complained, “That’s only when you don’t see him bullying me. His ability to annoy isn't ordinary.”
“Pfft, is he bullying you even when he’s so big?” Madam He laughed along as well.
“Bullying. One time, in the beginning of our relationship, I was going to stew a fish. He told me that the fish cost more than 600 thousand yuan. I became afraid to cook that fish after that. Only later did I realize that it was only worth a few hundred yuan.”
“I wouldn't have imagined that General Xu would do something like this,” said the Empress. “But he's also not the only case. All of them are like this. They seem serious and awe inspiring to others, but in fact, they are so naughty in private.”
Le Yao was shocked, “Is it the same with the Emperor?”
The Empress laughed but said nothing.
Le Yao suddenly thought of the scene where the Empress and the Emperor had whispered to each other in the Hall of The Great Moon. These two have been married for almost two decades and could still do things like this. It was really good to have such a relationship. But then again, if the Emperor was an unreliable person, in the face with Xu Yao’s temperament, he was afraid that… the sky would brighten early.
Xu Yao really respected Emperor Kunta, so when he discovered the undead army, he didn’t hide the news and reported it as soon as possible. And Emperor Kunta also wasn't senseless, he knew who was loyal to him and who wasn't.
After the meeting got over, Emperor Kunta held Xu Yao back to speak with him in private for a while, so it was midnight when Le Yao saw him again.
Just after they had boarded the hover car, Xu Yao asked Le Yao, “Nothing special happened when you were with the Empress?”
“No. The Empress and his mother are very good. It was just that you were not there. I’m a bit sleepy, but I couldn't sleep.”
“You can sleep now,” said Xu Yao and hugged his wife in his arms.
“No hurry. I wanted to ask, what’s the matter with the undead in the hospital gown? Did you summon him?” Le Yao had wanted to ask this before, but he couldn’t find the right time. He thought now was a fine time to ask.
“Well, I did call him, just like you usually do.” Xu Yao added, “He is Jiang Xinduo’s ex-husband. With him, even if we don’t find Le Tianyu in the end, Le Feishan and the Jiang Family won’t be in a good condition.”
“…” You are so poisonous!
But Le Yao did look at him admiringly for a while. “By the way, where is he now?”
“Of course, he’s going to the Le Family house. He’ll be there till before dawn. I’ve arranged a good job for him,” Xu Yao smiled as he said this.
Le Yao became even more curious now, but he knew that this was the moment when Le Feishan would fall into deep water.
Originally, Jiang Xinduo’s ex-husband had disappeared when he went to Fu Ta Yuan and he didn’t follow him back to the Hall of The Great Moon. But just after Le Feishan left the hall once the meeting got over, this man, oh no! It’s the undead! He's back! Not only did he reappear, he also acted like a bodyguard and followed him around!
Old Davis and Grand Marshal Koncz currently hated Le Feishan because of Aldrich's previous incident. Then they saw the 'bodyguard' who followed Le Feishan around and stared at both of them fiercely. It was the one who had strangled Aldrich! Wouldn't they get angrier?! On the route from the hall to the parking ground, they didn’t give Le Feishan any pleasant looks.
Then, after much difficulty, when Le Feishan finally got into his hover car, he thought he was freed. However, as soon as he got home, Jiang Xinduo’s ex-husband had appeared once again!
…