Chapter 1109: He is a true emperor (2/2)

How much he hoped the princess could return and stand before him and His Highness! But that was just a vain hope. Long Feiye walked in front of him. Despite Gu Beiyue’s creased brows and imploring expression, he didn’t stop and dragged his sword past.

Gu Beiyue shut his eyes in despair.

But then!

Long Feiye stopped behind him and spoke. His tone was very faint and calm, as if discussing the weather.

He said, “Gu Beiyue, I’ll leave Tianan to you. Hang all of the Li Clan’s heads atop the city gates for the public. Don’t forget Mu Liuyue, she joins them too! Tell the world’s people that anyone who tries to use the civilians to pressure this crown prince won’t be spared, even if they’re women!”

So speaking, he strode away with large steps. Gu Beiyue and Gu Qishao both gave a start. They never expected Long Feiye to keep himself under control! He hadn’t lost it or gone mad, much less fall to Bai Yanqing’s scheming. He didn’t disappoint all the hard work he and Han Yunxi had strove for in the past few years, or the love and expectations from the world’s people! He had ruthlessly butchered the Li Clan, but with an inviolable excuse to awe and frighten the world.

So what about his bitterness, sorrow, hatred, and panic?

How deeply must he have hidden them to bear the thought of Han Yunxi’s kidnapping, the possibility of their dual cultivation failing, the potential of them meeting on opposite sides one day?

Gu Beiyue knew.

“Qishao, he’s a real royal and a true emperor!” Gu Beiyue muttered to himself. But in the midst of his gratitud, he felt pained. A truly mature man didn’t have to shoulder heavy responsibilities on his shoulders, but in his heart. They could hide massive pains and keep their grief to themselves!

As Long Feiye’s back faded into the distance, Gu Beiyue went down on both knees to give him a deep, respectful kowtow. “Your Highness, this subordinate definitely won’t let you down!”

Gu Qishao looked at Gu Beiyue, then the figure in the distance, before chasing after the latter. But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find Long Feiye. He ended up by the city gates and asked a shadow guard, who said Long Feiye had ridden alone out of the city.

“Where’s he going?” Gu Qishao asked.

“This subordinate doesn’t know,” the shadow guard replied.

Gu Qishao gave the city walls a vicious kick before he hollered, “Bai Yanqing, this old man refuses to believe that you won’t show yourself! Even if we flip this world upside down, I’ll definitely drag you out! Ahhhh!”

Gu Qishao also left the imperial city. He couldn’t take Poison lass along to roam the ends of the Earth, but he’d search the ends of the Earth for her whereabouts.

It was unclear whether Mu Liuyue knew of Long Feiye’s instructions before she died, but her eyes remained open even in death. Gu Beiyue had the Li Clan’s 30 or so remaining members’ heads hung over Tianan’s city gates for the people to see, then spread Long Feiye’s words across the land. The Tianan civilians immediately revered Long Feiye as their protector god. Although the man wasn’t emperor get, everyone citizen of Cloud Realm Continent knew he would be Cloud Realm’s sage sovereign in the future.

Long Feiye was the first man in his twenties in Cloud Realm history to win the world’s heart with a single warning to them all!

Gu Beiyue assumed personal command of Tianan City and used military troops to quell the last stubborn rebellion forces. With coordination from civilian forces on the inside helping them out, everything went very smoothly. Meanwhile, Tianan’s Emperor Long Tianmo was kept in constant house arrest. Technically speaking, he and Gu Beiyue were enemies, but the latter only ordered the attendants not to cause him any trouble and give him good food, drink, and service. However, he never paid the man a single visit.

Three months later, Gu Beiyue took all of Tianan Country without taking a single step from its imperial city or diverting any of the original troops.

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Meanwhile, Gu Qishao searched everywhere he could, but reality proved that all his efforts were futile. He didn’t find any news of Bai Yanqing, as if the man had evaporated from the Earth. Neither did Long Feiye. He stayed in the battlefields, conquering every city he passed through. All of the fighting in the central regions and Tianning stopped, its rebels either slaughtered or surrendering to acknowledge their allegiance to him.

Western Zhou’s Chu Clan troop traitors fled for their lives, while other Western Zhou armies had long withdraw from Tianning’s borders. Emperor Kangcheng stationed all the soldiers at his borders while passing his days in fear of Long Feiye leading a personal expedition over. However, news spread from the army that Long Feiye never personally led any battle. Instead, every time he arrived at an army camp, he would take a single horse to fight at the front lines, defeating a hundred to a thousand men single handedly!

No one heard him speak a single word in the past three months. Tang Li came down the mountain to find him, but always missed him whenever he reached a new army camp. It seemed like Long Feiye was avoiding everyone on purpose as he refused to meet anyone.

On the other hand, Ning Cheng and Manager Jin finally broke through the impasse presented by the Northern Li emperor and Northern Li’s southern regions. Jin Zi might have his tiger regiment and the surrendered Black Clan cohorts, but his military skills were limited. To conquer the southern regions of Northern Li before wintertime was nothing short of a miracle. More importantly, Ning Cheng hadn’t suffered any losing battles!

Of course, how could Ning Cheng be so focused on his war? Every ten days, he would write a letter to Gu Beiyue asking after the princess’s whereabouts and Long Feiye’s plans for rescue. Sadly, Gu Beiyue’s replies did nothing but disappoint him.

All this time, Han Yunxi had been locked up in a small, dark room away from any other hostages. Bai Yanqing was extremely on guard against her and personally brought her her three daily meals. He didn’t exchange any words with her and allowed her to mock him as she wished without a single response.

Lil Thing didn’t end up being the key to her breakthrough; moreover, she was only missing its blood to complete the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion mixture that demanded poison of the five elements, Beauty’s Blood, corpse blood, Poison Gu human blood, and poison beast blood. However, Han Yunxi was less worried about herself than Long Feiye! She couldn’t even bother fretting over their dual cultivation timeframe, because she couldn’t begin to imagine how Long Feiye was surviving these days.