Chapter 629 – Mother and Son (III) (1/2)
Chapter 629 – Mother and Son (III)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
”Zhou Tong is just a dog, a lackey.”
The Tianhai Divine Empress gazed at Chen Changsheng with an indifferent expression. ”While you are my son. Even if you're about to die, even if your death will be by my own hands, even if you can only live for one more day, as long as you are still alive, you will be more important than him by one thousand times, ten thousand times. If you do not even understand this, what right do you have to be my son?”
Chen Changsheng recalled that Prince Chen Liu had said almost identical words in the carriage. He was not deeply moved by these words, only feeling them somewhat strange, out of line with his understanding of the world. Since you plan to heartlessly kill me in cold blood, why do you still care about whether or not I have the right to be your son?
He didn't know what to say, so he once more fell silent.
The Tianhai Divine Empress extended a hand to caress his face.
This sort of scene had often occurred in the last two years, and he had found it very unpleasant and difficult to grow accustomed to. Now, he found it somewhat repulsive. Just who is that gaze of tender affection and pampering for? Just where did this intimate caress come from? Is it all a sham, or are you comforting yourself? Or is it that you want to use this to soothe your Dao heart so that after you kill your own son, your mind will not be affected?
Chen Changsheng felt like a venomous snake was slowly slithering across his face. This extremely loathsome sensation caused his entire body to incessantly tremble.
He found it impossible to continue enduring this and wanted to avoid it, yet he could not move his body. He wanted to take out from his bosom the letter Su Li had left him, yet he couldn't even budge a finger.
”You want to kill me?” the Tianhai Divine Empress looked into his eyes and asked.
For some reason, even though she had perceived Chen Changsheng's intentions, she was not angry. Instead, the hint of a smile seemed to appear in her star-like eyes.
This was a smile of praise. It seemed that she greatly approved of the fact that Chen Changsheng had thought of committing such a monstrous crime against his own mother.
Chen Changsheng only wanted to leave, and thought of nothing else. Looking into her eyes, he knew that she had misunderstood something, but he didn't understand why she would have this sort of reaction after misunderstanding.
”The cycle of the Heavenly Dao, heavenly principles, and proper human relationships—all of it is fake. Mother against son, father against son—these things have taken place in this world countless times. I also want to kill you, so if you want to kill me, I won't feel there to be anything wrong about that. On the contrary, if you can disregard those false and dull morals and virtues, laws and principles, and produce the desire to kill me, only then can you truly have the right to be my son.”
The Tianhai Divine Empress said to him.
Chen Changsheng gazed at her and seriously asked, ”My lady…truly plans to kill me?”
The Tianhai Divine Empress replied, ”I said before, all of those things are fake. This being the case, why shouldn't I kill you?”
After a pause, Chen Changsheng asked, ”Then just what is truly real?”
The Tianhai Divine Empress gazed at the Imperial Palace, not speaking for a very long time.
At this time, she was in the Hundred Herb Garden.
She had lived countless years within the Imperial Palace and the Hundred Herb Garden.
Many years ago, she saw in the Imperial Palace an unruly dragonhorse. Emperor Taizong asked everyone, how would they make this dragonhorse obey?
She had voluntarily stepped forward, and then…she was exiled to the Hundred Herb Garden.
For the rest of her life, she would not forget the look of utter contempt and loathing in Emperor Taizong's eyes.
In the Hundred Herb Garden, she suffered through unimaginably difficult times, and the people of her clan suffered even worse. Just when she believed that she would just sink into oblivion, Emperor Xian, who had not forgotten her, secretly came to her. Then, she understood something. Emperor Taizong viewed her with such contempt and loathing…this meant that there was something on her person that assuredly made him feel uneasy. Just what was it? Was it strength, a potential for formidable power, the rarely seen blood of the true Phoenix, or an indistinct omen sent by the Heavenly Dao?
If speaking of understanding of the Heavenly Dao, there was no person in the world with a deeper understanding than her. But even she would sometimes feel tired. Yes, not frustrated, not bewildered, but tired, because reaching the other shore and entering the world of true freedom required far too many long and endless years.
She turned to Chen Changsheng and prepared to say something when she realized that Chen Changsheng's face had grown pale. Simultaneously, an unusual smear of blood-red appeared at the corner of his eyes—at this time, his injuries had finally broken out. His blood containing his soul, or Sacred Light, or the energy of life, burst through his ruptured and shattered meridians, permeating and flowing through his internal organs. The Sacred Light on his body's surface was already incapable of concealing that smell. The dark forest of early autumn suddenly resounded with the chirps of countless insects.
The Tianhai Divine Empress calmly gazed at him, seeming especially unfeeling.
”Such a rich Qi of life. The smell is truly not bad, I truly was not mistaken.”
This was speaking of the conclusion she had made after picking out a strand of Qi from Chen Changsheng's body.
”It seems that those descendants of the deceased truly did go to the Sacred Light Continent. No wonder that even Emperor Taizong, with all his capability, still could not find them after two hundred years.”
At this time, Chen Changsheng was in great pain, like tens of thousands of small knives were scraping away at his bones. However, this comment still managed to attract some of his attention.
He knew who the targets of her words were.
The so-called 'descendants of the deceased' referred to the part of the Chen Imperial clan that had escaped the capital after the coup in the Hundred Herb Garden. This part of the Chen Imperial clan might have consisted of the Crown Prince's family, or the members of the Imperial clan close to the Crown Prince. Naturally, they also included the family of Chen Xuanba. According to the records in the Daoist Canon, this part of the Chen Imperial clan consisted of no less than a thousand people, all extremely competent and talented.
The Elder of Heavenly Secrets had said that his body contained an innumerable quantity of Sacred Light, which was assuredly related to the Sacred Light Continent. His senior brother had said that he had been picked out of a stream. That stream flowed from out of the Cloud Grave. Xu Yourong had once said that within the Cloud Grave was a solitary mountain that might be a path to the Sacred Light Continent…