The Journey To Find The New Golden Emperor

Matthew was unable to get away from the two women for at least an hour. But he did have a plan, and that plan was to go somewhere far from not only the palace, but his own estate and leave them there. At least then, it would take them a while before they could come back!

So, he went into a carriage, not missing these things on wheels all this time away and took the attachments to a place that even had a manmade hot spring.

The two things, that he still didn’t know the names of, clung to him until they walked into the entrance, and soon, Matthew found himself able to disappear when they went to go into the hot spring.

Telling the people there to try and keep them here with food or other types of pampering activities, Matthew gave them a large amount of Sum and left, jumping over rooftops and gliding.

 

Never did he think that getting married to two other wives was such a pain! If only he had known they were going to marry into his estate, and that Sahara was indeed fine back then, he should have stopped this from happening!

But…Then he remembered that if he had not stopped the Right Minister from telling others that Sahara had died…Ah, the predicament!

His mind had been completely filled with Sahara, and he had just ignored these two others. He wondered if he thought they might disappear or just do things themselves, but really…He had not really thought of them at all! To a certain decree, he knew how bad he was of a husband for even thinking these thoughts, but he simply didn’t care about them…He had not approved of this, he had not liked this idea at all, and this will most likely never change!

Being pressured into taking the two things away, and really not wanting too, Matthew felt bad that he could not have returned earlier!

Wanting to have saved every little bit of time he could, Matthew had rushed everything till now and hoped he’d get back before anything was to happen to Sahara.

 

 

By the time Matthew returned back to the Empress’s chambers rooftop, Sahara was still healing her, and he saw that the Empress Dowager was silently sitting there.

He wondered how his beloved had pacified his Imperial Grandmother, as she looked a little different now. But, knowing how she was in Purple Haven, Matthew nodded silently to himself…He was sure that Sahara seemed to have worked something out.

It had been just over two hours, but it seemed that Sahara wasn’t quite finished yet, nor was the Empress awakening.

Getting comfortable upon the rooftop, near where he can see what was happening below, Matthew just waited there.

If he was to appear, not only will that stop Sahara completing something, perhaps in turn making her stay there longer, but Matthew had a sneaking suspicion that the Empress Dowager was hiding something, and he wanted to know what it was.

As for Band Two, who was following his master, he stayed silent as well, just like the newly acquired Band Three. As the previous Band Three was still being detained by Band Nine, and trying to bring back his lost rank in cultivation base as a punishment…

 

 

Sahara had thought of a few things halfway through healing the Empress.

Upon seeing that her spiritual essence was still relatively half full, after healing half of the Empress’s body, Sahara, and with her unhappiness with how she was being treated, came up with another idea, as well as many questions…

Sneakily, she sent a piece of hair out to a piece of parchment and got a brush and ink.

Having already warned the Empress Dowager about taking her to Purple Haven, Sahara felt sadistic at this moment and prepared two notes. One was full of anger towards how she was treated and was originally for the emperor…So, it most certainly had to be discarded…Especially since she had called people a few names that probably wouldn't make any sense to them...But, it would be obvious that it was not a good letter...

The next letter, having calmed down a certain degree, Sahara instead wrote the next one to Steven, stating to watch this old woman, as she was the Empress Dowager, but that she was at Purple Haven for reasons…Steven would probably get confused too, as Sahara had stated to treat her like everyone else...Putting into the same sentence the words 'Empress Dowager' and 'scavengers', it would no doubt be terrible if anyone else read it and saw such disrespect!

Ah! I suppose it was probably better if I don't follow through with my threat anyway...I mean, it would basically be kidnapping...Kidnapping an Empress Dowager...Pfft, yeah, I don't really wanna put up with the problems that could happen because of doing that! But...I suppose it would give me enough reason to never come back! Haha!

Thinking that the note was too much and may not get used anyway, Sahara threw that away too, both of them now in an area of rubbish within her 'storage'…

Strangely, afterwards, she felt a bit better, and Sahara felt more inclined to go back to healing the Empress again…Thinking that perhaps she had made them wait long enough…

 

With the few questions that was going through her mind, the biggest one was...Should she heal all of the Empress?

The other questions were among the lines of if she were to not heal her, how long should she make her last? If she only let the Empress live a few months, would they see that she had not healed her enough?

Then another question was, will the Empress make things hard for her once again?

It was once again a sighing matter to Sahara…As it was pretty clear that the Empress didn’t seem to like her very much and wanted to make things difficult for her…

Knowing that looks often say a difference, Sahara had fixed the Empress’s damaged scalp, so that now she could grow her hair. She got rid of the poisons that were just hanging around, having already done their deed. Fixed up some of her wrinkles and her eyesight, Sahara had then decided that she was nearly finished.

There were still two poisons left, but she didn’t want to remove them and completely cure her, as it was, she will have a few years now to live…So, Sahara already thought that she was lucky…

Removing the long-term poison, that would ‘finish her off' first, Sahara left the other poison there, that didn’t look very strong at all. Remembering the Empress’s personal eunuch, Eunuch Han, Sahara wondered if the poison was relatively new back then…If that is right, then it may take up to ten more years to start changing and taking the Empress’s life…

Confused, Sahara wondered who would have given the Empress this type of poison…

I mean, if it’s going to take ten years to kill someone, why bother?

 

Sahara thought that the people who come up with long term poisons must be really sadistic people…Which was something Sahara didn’t like. Even though she had killed people before, it wasn’t like she liked it, and would always make it quick, so that they didn’t suffer. Because suffering was something she knew of personally and it wasn’t nice...

Remembering the Prince that she had made suffer, Sahara had to admit that she did have mixed fillings…But, sometimes it took too long for people to start being grateful for what they already have! That the extent of what one may have to lose to finally open their eyes and perhaps live a bit better, might actually be something more than a few others. But then again, Sahara suddenly wondered if she had any right to do that kind of thing in the first place?

 

It wasn't like she was making bad people go good, she would prefer thinking of it as giving the person back their conscious and making it clearer. So that, if they do something nasty to someone else, instead of feeling nothing like they used too, perhaps change to feel something in return and think twice before continuing.

There were too many ways things could be done and to a certain degree she admitted that someone losing something specifically precious to them, might make them change into a better person…It was also something different to each individual, as everyone was not the same...

Just thinking about weaknesses and how to get at someone in the most tragic way, was rarely something that Sahara did, as she didn't like it done to her in return...But, for some reason, she felt like she could see that poison was both the Empress strength and weakness at the same time...So...Teaching the Empress a lesson with poison would be a ridiculous thing to do!

 

So…There was the Empress…And with all the drama’s on TV that Sahara had seen, it made sense that she had poison, because the Empress was the female head boss in the palace.

Power and greed...It would be strange if something wasn't tried to obtain this position, or this position be used against others...Yet, if there was no Empress at all, would it be better or worse? Would this person have poison now if the opposite?

But…Sahara could only shrug, not knowing any of the story behind it…And…She would have been put into complete disbelief into knowing that the Empress had taken that poison herself, to claim another had done it to be rid of that someone.

 

There were, of course, other consorts in the harem that want to rise up with the world…Because of that of the Crowned Prince position changing and that of a new addition to the royal family…

The poison was used to bring out the information of a consort planning to change her unborn child to a male, if she were to bare a female…It was going to be an indirect method to show that this plan was in motion, and even if the plan was not found out, then the consort would still lose trust from the Emperor and perhaps be found out in the future easily or the plan would not even attempted in the first place.

It did place the Empress in danger of being exposed but seeing a new symptom of a poison in the Empress, the mother of the country, was something that they didn't want to think of the Empress doing herself. It was normal for one to want to live, then to do the opposite of sacrificing oneself, especially when some poisons would work straight away. Perhaps if her family hadn't secretly inserted their own physicians into the royal palace, this type of plan may not have succeeded...So, just like they knew of poison, they also knew of how to heal as well. But it was common knowledge in the populace, that the Empress was indeed connected to the last 'Divine Healer' that had been around, which was most likely the biggest reason that the emperor had let her become the Empress in the first place.

It was also this, that easily made the physicians go onto the last Crowned Prince's side and hadn't healed the General six months ago when he had been cursed...As they were mostly the Empress's people and her son had been the Crowned Prince at the time.

 

There was even a poison in stock for the Empress to use for the future. The other person in the harem that the Empress had been watching closely, until she was being detained in bed, was the current favored consort of the emperor.

The emperor’s favored consort, Consort Light, had entered the harem quite some time ago but she had never wanted to enter and now she is almost lifeless. In her younger years, she had thought her future had been bright and full. But…Circumstances led her to not be with the person that she had connected too, as he had chosen power over her…

Her short brief romance had only gone as far as looking at each other and a few short conversations but that had been enough for her…Just when she was to become that person’s consort, living a life with the person she loves, she had been left behind, making her not care when the emperor took a fancy to her instead.

Since this person didn’t pose a threat to the Empress all this time, because she did as she was told and stayed out of trouble, the Empress had done nothing to her…But the Empress always kept something with her just in case.

Even though this consort was favored, she did not change to become one that wanted more power and perhaps that was why the emperor dotes on her the most throughout all these years. There was even a time when the Empress had helped her from another jealous consort, as it had been more beneficial for her to do so.

Consort Light had already had two little Princesses, who were now ten and seven, but news of her new pregnancy seemed to incline that of her holding a male, and the extra attention still did not change her personality…

If Sahara knew of this story, she wouldn’t know what was more sad, that the ‘ex Crowned Prince Liam’ had given up his true love for power, or that this woman did not seem to have a wish to fulfill and was truly unhappy. Luckily, since it had been years, the emperor and her daughters have wormed their way slightly into her broken, frozen heart and she is able to smile sometimes to their happy gestures…

 

***