Chapter 172: Kami Hao Hun?
Chapter 172: Kami Hao Hun?
I offered a silent prayer of gratitude to the future gods of Myst that only a select few knew the truth. If anyone besides the Emperor, Su Youming, Xia Bing, and myself found out that I was the biological father of Xue Wuxia’s unborn child, my life with Xia Sha and Gu Xia would have devolved from awkwardly tense to outright lethal.
"Master... you... You are really pregnant?!"
Lin Xue’s voice sliced through the ambient noise of the grand hall. Her tone was a mix of sheer disbelief and bewilderment, proving that neither Xia Bing nor Xue Wuxia had seen fit to enlighten her about my true background.
Nearby, Gu Xia—having successfully extracted whatever assurances she wanted from me—slipped away from my side. She slid back into her designated seat, her eyes gleaming with the predatory focus of a woman settling in for a premium piece of gossip.
Before I could focus on her, a breath as soft as falling snow brushed against my right ear. It was Xia Sha, leaning in so close her lips almost grazed my skin.
"Husband," she murmured, her voice a gentle, teasing whisper. "It seems I wasn’t the only Sect Master to receive your unique brand of 'healing and blessings,' was I?"
I turned my head. Looking back at me were a pair of striking greenish-grey eyes, swirling with a complex cocktail of exasperation, jealousy, and deep-seated happiness.
I immediately went on the defensive. "Wife, I swear to you on my honor... I was suffering under the absolute worst effects of Dragon's Poison Aphrodisiacs. You have to believe me."
Naturally, I omitted the minor details. I conveniently chose not to mention that I was the one who had popped those exact pills into our mouths, or that I had been an incredibly willing participant in the entire affair.
To my utter surprise, Xia Sha simply gave a soft nod. "I believe you. But... about my own pregnancy... Did... Did you already know?"
For a fleeting second, the formidable Youkai vanished. In her place was a woman vulnerable and exposed, fighting back a sudden wave of shame for daring to ask a question that defied the natural laws of cultivation.
I reached out, gently squeezing her hand in a reassuring grip. "Sha, I was hoping for it as early as this morning. Tell me, did you hold that same hope in your heart?"
I couldn't exactly come right out and tell her the metaphysical truth: that I had felt a distinct surge of my own ascending divinity fracture from my core and embed itself within her womb, solely because she had offered a genuine prayer to a man on the precipice of becoming a Demi-God.
As a long-lived Youkai, Xia Sha was well-acquainted with the bizarre, miraculous anomalies that governed the world of Myst. My evasive, non-committal answer was all the confirmation her sharp mind needed to piece the puzzle together.
"Xia Wuxia, Ye Lin, Gu Xia... and now me," Sha murmured, a look of profound awe washing over her features. "That is terrifying, Husband. I won’t pry into your secrets, but know this: I will always trust you."
She leaned in, pressing a tender kiss against my cheek before closing her eyes to compose herself.
The moment her eyelids fluttered shut, a strange resonance echoed in the depths of my consciousness. It was a prayer, distinct and directed squarely at my soul.
[Kami Hao Hun, I pray that my twins will grow well under your protection.]
A thrill ran down my spine. The Snow Woman had just offered a formal prayer to me, recognizing me not just as her husband, but as a Divine Spirit.
And in a very literal sense, she wasn't wrong. My past incarnation as the Archfey Oberon was functionally identical to a Kami in this realm. The arduous path of godhood I was currently carving out for myself walked that exact same cosmic line.
As I stared down at Sha with a swirling vortex of complicated emotions, her eyes snapped open. She caught me looking and offered a dazzling, genuine smile—the look of a woman who had just solved the greatest riddle of her life but knew that uttering the answer aloud would invite Heavenly Lightning to strike her dead on the spot.
Man, smart women really are terrifying...
She had clearly figured out my divine nature. But as a Snow Woman, she understood better than anyone that certain cosmic truths carried a heavy price if spoken into existence—a lesson she had learned intimately from her own bloodline curse.
Our quiet moment of peace was abruptly shattered by a melodic, serene voice that drifted across the table.
"Holy Son Hao Hun, my Sect Master formally requests your presence at dinner tonight," Su Youming announced, stepping forward. "I shall personally come to fetch you later from your new Holy Son Peak. Additionally... congratulations on the auspicious news of your impending children. I wish you many blessings."
If one weren't paying close attention, her tone was the epitome of righteous decorum. But to my trained ears, I could hear a deeply buried, fiercely subtle note of annoyance underlying her congratulations. It was the classic dichotomy of a woman currently under the covert influence of a Love Gu—forced to maintain the pristine facade of a righteous sect maiden while her shadow-self craved something entirely different.
"Please convey my gratitude to the Emperor," I replied, offering her a perfectly executed cupped-fist salute. "Tell him Hao Hun is eager to arrive tonight. Holy Maiden Su, please walk slowly on your way out."
There was no point in attempting to actively woo her. The Love Gu was already doing the heavy lifting, essentially forcing her to woo herself in the quiet recesses of her own mind. Though her full-length veil completely obscured her facial expressions, I didn't miss the sharp pink hue that suddenly flushed across the tips of her ears as she spun on her heel to leave.
As she walked away, Lin Feng—the tall, white-eyed Swift Body Cultivator following closely in her wake—leaned in and delivered a venomous whisper."Su Youming is kind to everyone, evil cultivator, so don't go harboring any pathetic fantasies about her. She and I are destined to marry. She is not meant for a mere genius from the evil path."
As his arrogant back retreated toward the exit, I let my chaotic mouth run entirely unchecked. I leaned back and spat out a quiet, razor-sharp retort.
"Evil path? If that's your metric, you might want to keep your mouth shut about Queen Su Mei being the true leader of the Bloodshed Sect... you absolute idiot."
Lin Feng's foot caught on the smooth stone floor. He stumbled hard, nearly face-planting as a wave of sheer panic hit him. The realization that his own esteemed mentor, the Emperor, kept a literal Queen of the evil path as a prized imperial concubine sent his mind into an immediate tailspin.
While I was busy dismantling the egos of the Heavenly Palace disciples, the three grand Sect Masters had gathered in a brief, hushed huddle. They were finalizing the last-minute logistics and document signings required to formalize their monumental three-way alliance before parting ways.
Taking advantage of the lull, I quietly closed my eyes to rest, while my Summons Divinity, expanded my consciousness to eavesdrop on the Emperor's true, unvarnished spoken words.
[It was gone! Gone! After Hao Hun cured her, her Ice Phoenix bloodline vanished! If Hao Hun wasn't so important to my plans for world unity, I would kill him myself for cuckolding me! Damn it! Wait, he and Su Youming are in love... I can use this to control Hao Hun, and in turn gain all three Sect's support under my control. Hao Hun, after world hegemony is made, you will die alongside Loki Sky!]
I suppressed a cold smirk, picking up my teacup just as a sweet, delicate fragrance drifted into my nose. I turned to find Lin Xue standing right beside me.
"Hao Hun," she began, her brow furrowed in genuine confusion. "I was stunned when you paid my bride price. It was set at an astronomical gold cost specifically so no man could ever afford it... I was never supposed to be set free from the Thousand Flowers House. How on earth did you acquire a mountain of wealth like that?"
I tilted my head, realizing with a jolt of amusement that the marriage contract she held wasn't some elaborate fabrication—it was completely legitimate, an open buyout clause that had been waiting for the right bidder.
Deciding that the truth was far more entertaining than any lie, I gave her a roguish grin. "Well, if you want the honest story, I got incredibly high on Mermaid Tears, went on a reckless gambling spree in the Royal Casino, robbed a prominent nobleman's entire treasury after gambling him to death, and then stole his wife for good measure. Or... I might just be teasing you, and the boring reality is that I simply dipped into my Underworld Dragon's treasure hoard to buy your freedom."
Before Lin Xue could process the wild response, Xia Bing walked up from behind and patted the stunned girl's shoulder. A look of deep, sisterly sympathy crossed Xia Bing's face—mostly because she knew for a fact that the wild gambling story was entirely, fundamentally true. She still remembered the absolute chaos of Owen losing his absolute shirt to my absurd luck that night.
"Hao Hun," Xia Bing intervened, offering a soft chuckle before turning her attention to me. "I have officially been instated as the Fifth Elder of our Ice Palace sect. If you have any specific requests regarding the layout or staffing of your new Holy Son Abode, you should tell me now."
I stood up, adjusting my robes as I gave Xia Bing a slow, highly appreciative look from head to toe. "Elder Bing, would you be willing to personally oversee the day-to-day operations of my new cultivation palace? To be frank, I don't know which disciples in this sect are actually trustworthy yet, and your extensive experience as the former Holy Maiden makes you overqualified. I know you are royalty—the Balder Queen—and while others might hold that against you, I certainly won't. Besides, Palace Master Xue Wuxia trusts you implicitly."
In reality, I didn't even need to wait for her verbal answer. Through our private Summoner Link, Xia Bing was practically screaming in my mind.
[Openly pick me to come and oversee your home! Give me an excuse to be at your side!]
"Very well, Holy Son Hao Hun," Xia Bing replied aloud, schooling her expression into one of professional elegance. "As soon as Gu Xia vacates the palace premises, I shall personally move in and organize the staff as part of my Elder duties. Once your formal wedding concludes, the Sect Master and I will present you with your official robes, sect token, and the jade slips required for your initiation. Have a pleasant evening. Come along, Lin Xue, the Holy Son wishes to retire."
With an almost comical level of assertiveness, Xia Bing grabbed a fiercely curious Lin Xue by the arm and dragged her out of the hall. It was obvious Lin Xue’s budding curiosity about my identity was beginning to bloom, considering she knew next to nothing about the man who had just bought out her contract.
I shook my head, turning around to locate Xia Sha and Gu Xia so we could finally leave this exhausting political arena. Before I could take a step, however, two figures intercepted me.
The mother-and-daughter powerhouse pair of the Bloodshed Sect had blocked my path.
I still hadn't caught a glimpse of Su Ruyan’s full face due to the tightly secured lower veil she wore. She exuded a distinctly tomboyish, utilitarian aura—standing at an average five-foot-four inches with shoulder-length auburn hair and placid, unreadable green eyes. She was a lethal specimen, certainly, but she didn't stir my pulse or ignite the raw, primal lust that her mother did so effortlessly.
Su Mei walked a half-step ahead of her daughter. Sporting the exact same breathtaking, voluptuous dimensions as Xia Sha, she approached me with a razor-sharp, cunning smile. Rested in her palms were two distinct items: the high-grade Space Ring and the heavy black jade Sect Token I had stripped from the corpse of the late Ye Chen—the items that officially symbolized the rank of Holy Son within her Sect of killers.
"Hao Hun, I do hope you aren't terribly upset with me for outing the little secret about your pregnant lovers to the hall," Su Mei purred, her voice dipping with playful malice. "To be completely fair, I was merely guessing, haha. In any case, you earned these fair and square after putting an end to Ye Chen. Don't worry about his family in the Imperial Capital; I will handle the Ye clan personally. I'll simply inform them that their golden boy perished in a highly honorable duel for the succession."
Her captivating, crimson eyes tracked my movements as she extended her hands to transfer the items. She purposefully took a fraction of a second longer than necessary, letting her smooth, warm fingers trail suggestively across my palms during the exchange.
But her flawless smile nearly shattered a moment later.
As our hands brushed, she felt the unmistakable weight of an entirely different Space Ring being slipped into her palm. Her fingers instinctively clamped down on it, and when my fingers playfully rubbed against the center of her hand in a parting caress, a jolt of pure shock ran through her.
"Sect Master Su, you are far too kind," I said aloud, my tone shifting into a perfectly executed humble, gloomy cadence to keep up appearances for the lingering onlookers. "There is no need for me to keep his Space Ring. Retaining his Heavy Sabre and the official Sect Token is more than enough for me."
Under the table, Su Mei subtly channeled a thread of her specialized Gravity Mana into the foreign ring to inspect its contents. The moment she saw what was inside, a deep, crimson blush rushed up her neck. The ring was packed to the brim with the highly sensitive, intensely private personal items I had previously plundered from her body. But far more important than her missing garments was the item resting dead center: her crowning artifact, The Succubus Locket.
Her heart hammered against her ribs, experiencing a sudden, overwhelming surge of raw emotion. She had fully expected me to hold her prized possession hostage; she never could have anticipated that I would casually hand back the exact treasure that had currently driven the Emperor to the brink of a mental breakdown.
Masterfully schooling her expression back into a mask of cold authority, Su Mei cleared her throat. "Very well. I shall dispatch Ruyan to your quarters at a later date to deliver our Sect's most guarded Assassination Arts for your perusal. The Bloodshed Sect offers a wide array of secret skills entirely absent from the rest of Myst—ranging from advanced Hidden Weapons and exotic Poisons to the Espionage skills required to walk the Asura Path... particularly the paths optimized for a Heavy Sabre."
Anxious not to expose the illicit, highly volatile nature of our true relationship to the room, Su Mei turned away. She leveled a stern, freezing glare at her daughter. "Come, Holy Maiden Ruyan. Let us retire to our quarters ahead of schedule."
Su Ruyan, a pristine Katana strapped firmly across her back, offered me a short, disciplined bow before spinning on her heel to follow her mother out of the grand hall.
Through the mystical connection of the Golden Silkworm Gu currently nestled deep within Su Mei's core, I could guess her thoughts.
She was practically vibrating with a desperate, primal urge to corner me in private and extract a fresh supply of my essence, if only to keep the volatile Gu from acting up once she departed the palace grounds. For better or worse, Su Mei and I were now locked in a dangerous, adulterous partnership—and neither of us lost a single wink of sleep over the fact that we were systematically dismantling the Emperor's life.
Just as the doors clicked shut behind them, Xue Wuxia and Xia Sha flanked me on either side.
"Once our formal wedding concludes, and before we make our final departure for our own sect, you will have a mandatory private briefing with Palace Master Xue," Xia Sha informed me smoothly, her eyes scanning the room. "You need to be briefed on the innermost secrets of the Ice Palace and properly initiated as their reigning Holy Son. But for now, let us finally retreat to our own Holy Son Peak."
The moment the words left Xia Sha's mouth, the private Summoner Link tied to Xue Wuxia crackled to life in my brain.
[The main wife seems to know who the father of my child is, haha. I will be waiting for you, Hao Hun. I will be wearing that hip-length silk kimono top you seem to love... Goodbye, my lover.]
I bit my tongue, nearly choking on a lungful of thin air. Her incredibly provocative mental teasing was a wild contrast to the cool, unbothered expression of the woman currently watching me with one striking blue eye and one brilliant gold eye, her lips twitching with hidden amusement.
Before I could expose myself, Xia Sha stepped in closer, possessively pulling my left arm flush against the generous, suffocating warmth of her E-cup breasts.
I cleared my throat, offering a formal nod to the Sect Master. "Then I shall look forward to our meeting in two days, Sect Master Wuxia."
As we turned to make our grand exit from the hall, Gu Xia fell into step right behind her mother and me. For the first time in memory, she wasn't glaring a hole through the back of my skull. Instead, her eyes were glazed over, utterly lost in a private world of pure, unadulterated mischief as she happily imagined the sheer chaos that would unfold the day the child of herself and Loki Sky was finally brought into the world.