The war this time, had affected all the countries in the Lower Realm and not a single country was spared. The Poison Men army had been like an unstoppable surging tide, seeking to obliterate the entire Lower Realm.
In the armies of many countries who were resisting tenaciously, Jun Wu Xie had seen the Fire Country’s, the Qi Kingdom’s, and the Buckwheat Kingdom’s armies where they had taken on the role as reinforcements in many of those places, to assist countries who had been locked in bitter struggles. They had all tried their best to use their might to fight the Poison Men army.
The moon was bright and the stars scarce when Jun Wu Xie and the companions finally arrived at the Fire Country’s Imperial Capital where it was seen to be different from the prosperous and harmonious city they remembered. The Fire Country’s Imperial Capital was missing that usual celebratory peace that was filled with song and dance and there was instead a kind of sombreness where the high hanging bright lanterns were nowhere to be seen, the melodious voice of songstress nowhere to be heard.
With the entire lands in turmoil, even the Fire Country had suffered attacks from the Poison Men. But as the Fire Country’s military was strong and having reigned as the most powerful nation for many years, regardless of whether it was in terms of defence or speed, they proved themselves to be highly capable. After having suffered numerous attacks from the Poison Men, they still held their borders firm. Along the way as Jun Wu Xie and the others travelled to the Imperial Capital, they had even seen refugees from other countries being helped to settle within various cities within the Fire Country.
With the entire lands in such chaos, the Fire Country opened their doors to refugees from the various countries, to receive the poor asylum seekers who had had their fill of terror and tribulations, into this place of relative safety.
It could be said, that all that they saw along the way had rather surprised Jun Wu Xie. She had not thought that the Fire Country would handle everything so appropriately and not chose to remain uninvolved to protect only themselves.
All the places of entertainment were shuttered and closed, the money invested into the war.
Volume 15
Chapter 1403: “Iron Empress (1)”
When the horse carriages of Jun Wu Xie and her companions, the soldiers guarding the city’s gates asked their routine questions. But when they saw that the person sitting inside the carriage was Jun Wu Xie with her looks altered, they were immediately stunned. When they recovered their senses, they quickly fell to their knees in obeisance to pay their respects and even when the carriages had passed to enter the city, the shock to their hearts still did not fade away.
[Their His Majesty has returned!]
[His Majesty had returned!]
Jun Wu Xie’s return, immediately caused a stir to rise in a wave throughout the entire Fire Country’s Imperial Capital. All of them could not believe that their ruler had finally returned!
Although Jun Wu Xie had not stayed in the Fire Country for long, but every mission she embarked on had completely shocked the citizens of the Fire Country right to their souls. All of them in the entire country knew that they had a powerful and young ruler.
Inside the Fire Country’s Imperial Palace, the candles in the Imperial Study flickered and the brows of the girl studying the dossiers furrowed up. Piled up upon the table before her, were countless scrolls that requested for military reinforcements that struck fear and trepidation into one’s heart.
The girl had a sweet and dainty countenance although she couldn’t really be termed a outstanding ravishing beauty, Under the soft and warm glow from the firelight, the girl’s side profile of her face was seen to lack a certain gentleness in her beauty, and tinged with a certain level of sharpness.
“The Yang Country has already sent us twelve letters in succession asking for help. Your Lady Majesty, look….. should we…..” The palace maid standing on the side said with a worried expression as she picked up the scroll that had dropped.
The girl sitting at the table lifted her head slightly, her eyes steady and calm.
“The Yang Country possesses advantageous terrain, which is easy to defend and hard to invade into. From the very first moment they were attacked by the Poison Men, they had already sent us a letter requesting for help. With the might of the Yang Country, it isn’t that they do not possess the power to fight against the Poison Men army, but they just want to reduce their own losses and we do not need to bother with them.” Qu Ling Yue replied with a frown.
“Then what about the Ling Country?” The little palace maid asked as she looked at Qu Ling Yue who had become the Fire Country’s Empress, her eyes filled with reverence.
“I have already sent out troops to go there.” Qu Ling Yue muttered and buried her head to look at the scroll unfurled upon the table.
Every one of them asked for urgency, the contents seemingly almost the same.
Seeking for help!
Seeking for help!
However strong the Fire Country’s military was, it was not enough to split them to all the countries. Hence, Qu Ling Yue had needed to select from all those letters seeking for help, picking out those that really needed help.
The little palace maid stood silently on one side, not daring to open her mouth carelessly anymore.
The Fire Country’s Empress, throughout the lands under the Heavens, was a girl highly filled with controversy.
She was originally the Young Chief of the Thousand Beast City, but had unfortunately suffered the most unbearable nightmare a girl could possibly go through her entire life. And just as everyone thought that she would be despised and abandoned by the world, the young Emperor of the Fire Country had married her and made her the Empress!
In the beginning when Qu Ling Yue had just become the Empress, how much of those curses of disdain had she then carried upon her back? Not just the people of the world had despised her claiming she was unclean, but even the citizens of the Fire Country had been ashamed of having her as an Empress. If not for the firm and resolute decision by Jun Wu Xie at that time, and the Grand Adviser, Wen Yu’s patient guidance and support, after Qu Ling Yue was conferred the Empress, she might very well have drowned from all the spittle from the citizens of the Fire Country.
Just as everyone under the Heavens had thought that such a shameful Empress would shut herself inside the palace and not the a step out from inside, Qu Ling Yue had instead walked straight into the Imperial Court after Jun Wu Xie left, to become an Imperial Empress who stood in place of Jun Wu Xie to deal with the stately affairs of the Fire Country’s Imperial Court.
The memory was still fresh within the palace maid’s mind. At that time, how badly Qu Ling Yue had been mercilessly berated and admonished, those venomous curses that had been so grating on the ears. Even as a bystander, the palace maid had not been able to bear it as tears flowed down her face, what’s more for Qu Ling Yue herself?
But Qu Ling Yue had not wept, not even once.
Volume 15
Chapter 1404: “Iron Empress (2)”
No one would have thought that the Empress who once had a thousand fingers pointed at her saying she was unclean would now turn out to become the Iron Empress who acted highly decisively whose orders were adhered to in a flash.
After the Poison Men invaded, she had been the fastest to decide to strengthen the defense of the borders, limit the country’s spending and divert their military strength and money into the war. And she established a joint battle plan with the Qi and Buckwheat Kingdom, to control the situation.
Those people who had once cursed at Qu Ling Yue, had now all clamped their mouths up in silence.
Within the entire Fire Country now, no one dared to say a word of disparagement against Qu Ling Yue any longer.
A series of knocks upon the door interrupted the palace maid’s train of thoughts and she went forward to open the door of the Imperial Study. A guard knelt outside with a highly excited expression on his face.
“Your Lady Majes
ty! His Majesty….. has returned to the palace!”
A crash sounded. Qu Ling Yue had dropped the ink slab upon the table with a trembling hand. She lifted her head in sudden confusion and in that pair of highly attractive eyes, they revealed a rare moment of the old nervousness and shock from her more naive and younger self.
“What did you say…..” Qu Ling Yue said, noticing that her voice was beginning to tremble.
“His Majesty is back in the palace and he is now waiting for you in the great hall.” The guard replied.
Qu Ling Yue stood up with a swoosh. That countenance that had grown to have always been calm and collected was at that moment showing a trace of nervousness and bashfulness that most young girls possessed.
“I…..”
Qu Ling Yue saw that she did not have time to change out of her clothes, and her dress was stained with black ink. She suddenly realized that after having pulled a few successive all nighters, her face was haggard looking and her hairdo was in quite a mess.
[She’s back, but….. with herself in such a state, how is she going to see her like this?]
“Your Lady Majesty…..” The palace maid could not help herself but utter out. She had only come to serve at Qu Ling Yue’s side about half a year ago and she had never once seen Qu Ling Yue show such a girlish demeanor. At present, the entire world knew that their Fire Country had an Iron Empress, but who would have thought that this Iron Empress would upon hearing that her husband had returned, show such girlish unease and adorable silliness?
The palace maid’s address startled Qu Ling Yue and she looked at the phoenix robe on her before she took a deep breath.
“Send men out with the news that His Majesty has returned to the palace to the Grand Adviser and Lei Chen and have them rush themselves to the palace immediately. I….. will go welcome His Majesty first!” Qu Ling Yue ordered as she lifted her head slightly, trying her hardest to suppress the excitement rising in her heart before she stepped out of the Imperial Study.
Within the Fire Country’s grand hall, Jun Wu Xie was seated upon the Imperial Throne as she flipped through the battle reports about the situation at the frontlines of Fire Country over this period when a voice rang out in announcement. She lifted her head and a dignified and imposing figure fell into her eyes.
Upon the face that was once filled with the bashfulness of a young girl, it had now lost some of her bubbly liveliness, but had gained a certain sense of dignified steadiness, like a bird turned into a butterfly, her mannerisms and demeanor completely different from before.
Having parted for more than a year, if not for her looks that had remained unchanged, Jun Wu Xie really would not have been able to recognize the girl before her as the same one whose ears and face would turn red after speaking barely two words with her.
Qu Ling Yue approached demurely, gracefully kneeling within the great hall.
“Your Lady welcomes Your Majesty’s return to the Imperial Palace, a thousand upon a thousand years to my Imperial Majesty.” A sincere and devoted bow of obeisance, that was truly the wishes she felt in her heart.
Jun Wu Xie turned her attention back and said: “Stand up.”
“I thank Your Majesty.” Qu Ling Yue struggled to maintain her composure but was unable to stop the hands hidden within her sleeves from trembling as she looked at Jun Wu Xie seated upon the Imperial Throne. Having not seen her for more than a year, Jun Wu Xie had grown taller and her figure had become slender. Although she knew in her heart that Jun Wu Xie was female, but in Qu Ling Yue’s heart had at the moment upon seeing Jun Wu Xie, immediately thumped wildly uncontrollably.
Volume 15
Chapter 1405: “Iron Empress (3)”
Besides Jun Wu Xie inside the great hall, Jun Wu Yao, Qiao Chu and the rest of the gang were standing on the side. Qu Ling Yue’s gaze slowly swung over the few of them and nodded slightly, in a show of greeting.
Qiao Chu looked at Qu Ling Yue who had undergone a complete transformation over the past year and his mind suddenly could not seem to process it quickly enough as he turned his head around to whisper softly beside Hua Yao’s ear: “This is that same little lass from the Thousand Beast City? Why do I feel she has become a completely different person?”
The change that had come over Qu Ling Yue was just too great and Qiao Chu should not be blamed for his shocked reaction as even Hua Yao and the others could clearly detect the tremendous change that had come over Qu Ling Yue.
“Little Xie’s judgement of her had been right.” Hua Yao said softly.
Qiao Chu quickly nodded vehemently in agreement.
Qu Ling Yue only managed to suppress her highly excited heart after much effort. She wanted so much to ask how Jun Wu Xie had been the past one year and whether she was fine, but she was unable to put it into words. She was silent for a while before she said: “Your Majesty’s purpose in returning to the palace, is regarding the matter with the monsters?”
Jun Wu Xie nodded slightly. “That’s right.”
Qu Ling Yue immediately understood and did not say anything else but just clapped her hands together. The palace attendants who had been waiting outside then brought in all the scrolls she had prepared before coming here.
“All these records the movements of the monsters in the past one year and I implore for Your Majesty take a look at them.” Without the slightest bit of conventional greetings and a single tedious question, Qu Ling Yue efficiently presented the information Jun Wu Xie needed the most without a fuss.
Those scrolls were delivered into Jun Wu Xie’s hands and with Jun Wu Xie’s photographic memory which remembered all she saw, scanning through all of them did not take much out of her.
Every single scroll was clearly categorized and it recorded in detail the place the Poison Men first appeared and all the places every time the Poison Men army launched a battle. The records included the number of Poison Men and the losses of both sides for those battles, every single one of those graceful characters in those small and intricate lines, all penned by Qu Ling Yue herself. The Fire Country’s information network spans all over the place and Qu Ling Yue had gathered all the the information pertaining to the Poison Men together to arrange and mark them out systematically, that allowed Jun Wu Xie to understand them all with just one glance through them.
“The countries that the Poison Men first appeared in, are all countries that the Condor Country had invited back then. Your Lady has heard that the Condor Country’s Imperial Capital had possessed something evil that was able to alter the constitution of a human. But according to the investigations Your Lady has carried out, these Poison Men had not been created from the remnant forces of the Condor Country. But even they were not, it would most certainly still be linked to the Condor Country in some way.” Qu Ling Yue said in a clear voice.
Jun Wu Xie saw upon the scrolls, the row upon row of numbers specifying the number of deaths, and she quickly discovered that any place that had the Buckwheat Kingdom, the Fire Country or the Qi Kingdom as reinforcements, the death toll of the side friendly to them were controlled within an acceptable range, much better than she had previously thought.
“In all the places that the Fire Country, the Qi Kingdom and the Buckwheat Kingdom had soldiers in, the number of battles carried out there are significantly reduced. Have all of you discovered a way to deal with those Poison Men?” Jun Wu Xie asked as she looked at Qu Ling Yue. She believed in the prowess of the armies in the Fire Country and the Qi Kingdom, but if even the places where reinforcements from the Buckwheat Kingdom were showed the same phenomenon, it then became somewhat inconceivable.
Afterall, the Buckwheat Kingdom did not have a firm foundation and did not possess a ferocious attack force like the Rui Lin Army, hence, the prowess they were showing was rather surprising.
Qu Ling Yue stared slightly surprised at Jun Wu Xie and after a moment of stunned bafflement, she suddenly gave a light laugh. Her face flushed faintly pink and she looked at Jun Wu Xie to say.
“H
as Your Majesty forgotten?”
“What?” Jun Wu Xie asked in puzzlement.
“That thing that Your Majesty left behind before.” Qu Ling Yue said with a smile.
Volume 15
Chapter 1406: “Negotiation (1)”
“The last time when Your Majesty left the palace, you went to the Qi Kingdom and handed a very important item to Duke Lin of the Qi Kingdom. And it was exactly because of the existence of this item that it made the might of our Fire Country and that of the other two countries to be increased by a tremendous degree, but its seems that Your Majesty has forgotten all about it.” Qu Ling Yue said and she suddenly released her spirit power out in a flare. She was rather gifted innately but when compared to a demon like Jun Wu Xie, it was not even worth mentioning. At the instant she released her spirit power, the spirit power swirling around her body suddenly turned purple!
That purple coloured spirit glow was not as intense and pure as the spirit power of Jun Wu Xie and her companions and it only lasted for a few seconds before it disappeared.
But it cannot be denied that that was a Purple Spirit!
“Temporarily raising the spirit power’s level?” Jun Wu Xie asked with a arch of her eyebrow, immediately understanding what Qu Ling Yue was talking about.
Back when she had left the Qi Kingdom, in order to be prepared for any eventualities, she had specially handed the method to temporarily elevate one’s spirit power level to Jun Xian, asking him to impart the skill to the people in the three allied countries, for them to possess stronger power to defend themselves.
And it was Jun Wu Xie’s highly prudent action that had given the armies of the three countries the best weapon against the Poison Men.
For a red spirit, the amount of time one would be able maintain the Purple Spirit was very very short. But at moments when live and death was at stake, a mere minute’s explosive power would be able to turn the situation around!
Genius Doctor: Black Belly Miss Volume 15 Page 2