LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 62: Stuck between a rock and a hard place
Yun Jhin looked through the papers and memorized the information, from what the papers said it seemed that the Emperor was quite a mysterious fellow, he just dropped out of nowhere, showed his cultivation base and pure bloodline, beat everyone else who was in line for the throne and became Emperor. Yun Jhin realized that something seemed fishy about him but he couldn't put his finger on what.
As for the Empress, she was born of a noble family in the capital, she was the daughter of duke Bramble Sun, her talent was viewed as high since her birth as there was a special sign appearing in the sky when she was born, then the sign dropped from the sky and entered her body and she gained a black dot on her forehead.
As for their personalities, it seemed that the Emperor was laid back but he hated being betrayed quite a lot, The Empress was strange in more points than one, for starters if you offended her she would act in two ways, one, she would let you go and two she would take your head.
It didn't matter who you were or where you were from, she was seemingly doing whatever she wanted regardless of the thoughts of others, she even liked to disguise herself and search for strong men on the upper continents, she had countless affairs and she even tried to have a child with the neighboring nation leaders.
It wasn't that she was slutty but very few men gave her children and not all of them were talented, she wanted a child that could surpass her, Yun Jhin didn't know what the Empress went through but he found her 'dream' to be a waste of time, with the time she put on flirting and having children she could try to cultivate herself, from what he knew as long as you could reach the God Realm there was a chance to reach the peak of the realm, as for going above the realm that was for her to find.
Yun Jhin gave the papers back to Kong Luo, but he simply burned them directly and then he said:
"Who do you want to join Yun Jhin? Technically speaking you would betray the Emperor if you went to the Empress side and if you joined the Empress there is still the chance of her becoming mad and sending assassins for your head, it would all depend on her mood if she lets you go or not."
Yun Jhin knew that if he went to the Emperor there was a chance for the Empress to attack him indirectly, but if he went to the Empress he would surely offend the Emperor and the man might even directly attack him regardless that he was considered a 'junior' in front of him, after all, the Empress might want him for his body, it was ok for rumors to fly about as long as the Emperor didn't meet those who cucked him face to face.
But if that was to happen, even their bones wouldn't be found anymore.
The Emperor respected the Empress and he also had his concubines, after all, it wasn't his fault both of their bloodlines were so pure there was a 1% chance of a baby being born.
Back in their youths, they went at it for 200 years continuously but nothing came out of it! This was one of the hot extra tidbits that Yun Jhin found in the papers.
Yun Jhin closed his eyes for a few seconds before he said:
"Kong Luo, we can't betray his imperial majesty, I can only hope the Empress will not be offended, a 50% chance of survival is better than offending his majesty, atleast I have a chance to live."
Kong Luo smiled at Yun Jhin's words and he said:
"You are a smart young man Yun Jhin, I knew you would make a good decision, I would have backed you because you know, your choice will affect my life as well.."
Kong Luo looked quite pitiful as he said that, he didn't like the feeling of having his life in another's hands but there was nothing he could do, he was the one who invited Yun Jhin in the capital and took him as his 'pupil'.
Kong Luo sighed as he watched Yun Jhin leave the room, he followed him towards Black Blood's accommodations, Yun Jhin walked closer to the door and knocked on it.
Before the second knock could be heard Black Blood appeared at the door as if he seemingly teleported there, Black Blood was smiling widely as he said:
"Let's take you to his majesty young Yun Jhin."
Black Blood wanted to grab Kong Luo and Yun Jhin and teleport to the imperial palace but Fairy Song appeared and she stopped him before she warned Yun Jhin:
"You haven't made the right choice Yun Jhin, I will have to report to the Empress that I have failed and she won't be happy."
She teleported away with her entourage disappearing from the place just as if she and her people were a mirage.
Yun Jhin didn't say anything as Black Blood put his hands over Yun Jhin's and Kong Luo's shoulders and they disappeared just like Fairy Song and her entourage.
Fairy Song appeared in a beautiful garden with uncountable flowers, those flowers were in different colours as they created rainbows and a beautiful pattern if you looked at them from the air, in a gazebo the Empress sat down on a chair as she drank tea, near her stood her youngest daughter as she went through a set of sword katas.
As the Empress was supervising her youngest daughter training in sword techniques, she finally looked up at Fairy Song who appeared alone, she stood in the field of flowers and didn't say anything as she waited for the Empress's approval to walk to her.
The Empress's eyes were slits of yellow color, her figure couldn't be concealed even trough her big robes, her face always had a cute expression on no matter from what angle you would look at her, her pink lips were like two ripe peaches that you would like to bite into. She wore no makeup as her innate beauty needed no enhancement, her long purple hair cascaded to her shoulders and covered her endowment.
Her eyebrows rose as she looked at Fairy Song and she asked in an impatient tone:
"Where is that youth Yun Jhin? Why don't I see him with you?"
Fairy Song felt awkward at her question, but the Empress herself said that she couldn't use force to coerce him so she could only leave empty-handed, also Black Blood would have surely interfered and that old man was quite scary when he went all out...
The Empress read her expression like an open book then she shook her head and she said:
"Quite a pity, maybe I should have offered myself to the youth?"
Fairy Song started to sweat, even though the Empress liked to tease her and her other companions she never went to the last phase, but it seemed from her tone that she really would have given Yun Jhin 'whatever he wanted' if he decided to join her faction. Fairy Song wondered why both of the Empress and Emperor looked up to him so much.
The Empress responded to her confusion:
"You wonder why both I and my husband look up to him so much don't you?"
Fairy Song nodded but before she could say anything else the Empress responded:
"Being able to attract starlight during the breakthrough at a King Realm can be done only by one way, it's a particular technique that only those that have God Realm patriarchs can get their hands on."
"One of the ways for him to have that technique would be that he is backed by a God Realm patriarch, but it's very unlikely from what Kong Luo reported he said that he came from the lower regions, there is no way he is backed by a God Realm powerhouse."
"The second way would be.. if he was a reincarnated fellow, these type of people tend to have good fortune surrounding them and sometimes if they were lucky enough some of the memories from their previous lives would slip into their current ones, this is the most likely situation as he rose to the King Realm from being a small being in the lower continents."
However, The Empress's brows started to furrow as she said with a strange look on her face:
"But Kong Luo also reported that his bloodline is similar to mine, I only remember a dragon stone escaping to the lower regions a very long time ago... how could he have used the dragon stone to the point his bloodline reached the peak of what his body could withstand? He is even above Lulu in bloodline concentration from what the report said..."
Lulu was the youngest daughter of the Empress and the one who was still doing her katas while she ignored everything the Empress talked about, she was really concentrated on training as if she was in a trance.
The Empress's eyes moved towards the Emperor's palace that stood almost 5000 kilometers away from her garden, she got up from her chair and muttered slowly:
"I should give a visit to my husband, after all, I haven't been a good wife for him in quite a long time."
She disappeared as if she was never there and Fairy Song just stood there, she didn't have the courage to follow the Empress to the Emperor's palace, the imperial family already had quite a lot of internal troubles and she didn't want to be a part of them.
She shook her head as she looked at Lulu for a little before she left, Lulu still trained her katas seemingly as if she didn't realize her mother left.
Black Blood, Yun Jhin, and Kong Luo stood at the entrance of the throne room, suddenly a mild voice was heard coming from inside the room that said:
"Black Blood you can invite our guests in right now."
The trio entered the room and the first thing Yun Jhin did was to look at the Emperor.
He was a man of average stature his height being around 1,75 meters, he wore a red imperial robe with dragon imprints on it's front and on it's back as well, his looks were quite average and he didn't have much muscle, there was even some fat here and there, he looked just like the average uncle that lead a decently good life in the mortal families. On his head stood a Yellow crown with a jade dragon on top of it as an ornament.
He had kind eyes with nothing hid in them, he had a small beard as facial hair and his hair color was a dull blue color.
He stood there on the throne, in front of him was a rather small table that could house around 4 people, just enough for the current people in the throne room.
The Emperor got down from the throne and sat at the table then invited the others with a wave of his hand while saying:
"Black Blood, invite the two here, don't be rude."
Yun Jhin walked towards his seat but the Emperor patted the seat beside him and said:
"Come sit with me Yun Jhin, I have something to ask you."
Yun Jhin couldn't refuse the Emperor as he would deny him face so he directly went and sat near the man, the emperor started to drum his fingers on the table for a little bit as they waited for the food to be served, he started with a question:
"Yun Jhin, I might be a little bit presumptuous to ask of you, but could you tell me where did you learn your technique?"
Yun Jhin knew what technique he talked about, so he didn't beat around the bush and responded directly:
"You see your imperial majesty when I got near the peak of the 9th stage of the ki cultivating realm, the technique appeared in my mind naturally, I'm not sure myself why, might you enlighten me?"
A big smile appeared on the Emperor's face as he answered:
"This is a celebration worthy thing dear Yun Jhin, if my guess is right you should be a reincarnated God Realm cultivator, I would be the first one to congratulate you on the first road to regather your memories."
Yun Jhin sneered inside, he could access all of the memories he needed, but unfortunately, he was lacking in cultivation resources, or else the emperor would have been the first thing that would be served at this table.
Suddenly the Emperor's eyes narrowed as he looked towards the entrance of the throne room, the Empress appeared directly there as she said:
"You are having a party and didn't invite me, dear husband?"
The Emperor smiled at her as he said:
"Well I didn't think you would be interested in such things, after all, you left my imperial palace quite a long time ago, but I'm happy you decided to visit."
Yun Jhin wasn't sure how things would end up now that the Empress was here, the Empress walked towards the table and Kong Luo left his seat but his seat was opposite of Yun Jhin so she didn't take it, she went towards Black Blood and smiled at him.
Black Blood coughed as he said:
"It seems this small eunuch doesn't have the time to dine with the Emperor and the Empress, I should go and dust some jade slips, I will come back later."
Black Blood got up from the table and left, leaving Yun Jhin to stay between the Emperor and the Empress.
He was really in the same situation as that idiom 'between a rock and a hard place'.
He decided to play it out by ear as he waited for the Emperor or the Empress to say something.
Kong Luo just stood there and didn't say anything as it wasn't his place to talk here, he was there just because he was Yun Jhin's 'guardian' in this situation.
The Emperor opened his mouth to say something but the Empress talked at the same time as they asked the same question:
"So, could you tell me if you have any more memories of your previous life?"
The duo then smiled at each other and then returned their gazes to Yun Jhin waiting for him to talk.
Yun Jhin opened his mouth to respond...