Pei Liang guessed that Fu Jue’s control over Xianluo Mountain was already fairly substantial.
Quite a few of Fu Xin’s most loyal followers had vanished over the past few days. He had probably dispatched them elsewhere under the pretext of assigning them missions.
At a time like this, as long as Fu Jue’s orders were not too outrageous, they would not arouse much suspicion.
Taking advantage of Fu Xin’s death and the brief interval in which Xianluo Mountain was left leaderless, he was likely devouring its power bit by bit.
Otherwise, he would never have dared to lure someone into temptation in the middle of a funeral hall.
His conduct at the moment was rather reminiscent of the reckless audacity he had shown in the original novel.
There was a bewitching floral fragrance about Fu Jue. It was not strong, but it was distinctive—irresistible once noticed.
He truly embodied the saying, “Skin like flowers, spirit like the moon.” He looked like an otherworldly, ethereal immortal, yet temptation seeped from his very bones, from within to without, down to every strand of hair.
In the past, Pei Liang had thought that “devouring someone whole” was merely a metaphor. At this moment, however, she no longer felt that way.
Fu Jue’s cheeks were flushed, as though the cold, aloof immortal had been stained by desire. The stimulation he offered, both mentally and visually, was considerable.
With Pei Liang’s shameless nature, of course she could not hold herself back. Thus, by the time the kiss ended and Fu Jue came to his senses, most of his clothes had already been removed.
But matters had gone somewhat beyond his expectations. He truly had not been able to control himself.
Before luring Prince Liang in, he had never experienced such intimacy, but he had made no shortage of preparations beforehand.
Remaining composed in front of a seasoned player like Prince Liang was, in itself, a challenge he had to overcome.
Thus, unlike the pure and naïve person Fu Xin had imagined him to be, her younger brother and fiancé was already a theoretical expert.
He naturally understood the human body well enough. He had even imagined what reactions he would have at each stage of being taken, and what he would do.
He had also considered how he would act if Prince Liang proved disappointing—how to put on an act, lure her into lowering her guard, and sink her deeper into it.
Yet all his carefully laid plans collapsed completely at this moment. Fu Jue had never imagined things would turn out like this.
With his naturally cold disposition, he had not even managed to hold out through the opening moments.
Now he was caught between wanting more and being swept toward the whirlpool of desire, while Prince Liang was instead the one in absolute control.
What made it even more humiliating was that Prince Liang was still fully dressed, looking down at him from above. It gave Fu Jue the bizarre feeling that his body no longer belonged to him.
He was, at heart, a forceful person. Seeing the situation, he seized Prince Liang by the lapel, pulled her down, and kissed her squarely on the lips.
Pei Liang found it amusing. With the foundation of the original story, combined with her own understanding of him, Fu Jue had always seemed to her like a man with unfathomably deep thoughts who was calm and unflappable.
Seeing him flustered and at a loss now only made him seem even more adorable.
Still, she went along with it and let him reclaim some measure of control. Fu Jue, somewhat disheveled and impatient, urged, “Take off your clothes. I’m the only one exposed like this. Your Highness, that’s too cunning.”
Pei Liang let out a soft laugh. “I think this is quite nice as it is.”
“After all, it wouldn’t do to be too outrageous in front of my friend Fu Xin. What kind of decorum is there in appearing half-dressed?”
As she spoke, she made Fu Jue’s whole body tense. Before he could say anything, she continued, “Don’t glare at me like that. The Immortal Master is Fu Xin’s surviving spouse. There’s no need for us to avoid one another. I’m merely helping take care of her husband—what’s so improper about taking off his clothes?”
Fu Jue was stunned by the shamelessness of this woman. Even though he had long been aware of her shameless nature, she still managed to broaden his horizons time and again.
Pei Liang was not truly trying to push him too far, however. Seeing that Fu Jue was about to lose his temper for real, she sighed helplessly.
Her gaze passed over him and landed on Fu Xin’s corpse beneath the coffin lid. In an apologetic tone, she said, “Sister Fu Xin, your husband is the one forcing me into this. Liang really has no choice. Please forgive me.”
Perhaps it was merely an illusion, but the eyes that had originally been stitched shut because Fu Xin had died with them open seemed to loosen slightly at the corners.
As though she had been angered into opening them even wider.
Fu Jue tugged at Pei Liang’s clothes, and she allowed a large expanse of skin to show.
The funeral-hall spectacle continued. When things reached their most heated point, Fu Jue suddenly began to cry.
Pei Liang thought she had hurt him and hurried to comfort him. “Are you uncomfortable?”
“I told you that a first time would be uncomfortable. Don’t rush and make a mess of things. You refused to listen. Leave it to me.”
Fu Jue shook his head. “It isn’t discomfort. It’s just that once this is over, you and I will be separated by a thousand miles. I don’t know when we’ll meet again. The thought of it twists my heart with pain.”
“Fu Jue can’t bear to part with Your Highness.”
Pei Liang kissed the corner of his eye. “Now that you and I understand one another, what does it matter if we are together every day?”
The words were so scumbag that they could hardly have been more so, yet after hearing them, Fu Jue’s face revealed a faint, comforted smile.
He nodded. “That’s true. You and I will share a child in the future. But Your Highness must promise me that one day, the three of us will acknowledge one another as a family.”
Pei Liang readily agreed. “Naturally. How could my own bloodline remain lost beyond the palace forever?”
That was a certainty. If the imperial family did not acknowledge the child in private, how could they continue controlling Xianluo Mountain? Since Fu Jue had handed her such a perfect opportunity, Prince Liang would certainly follow through.
Fu Jue was plunged into another wave of pleasure he had never experienced before. Only with great effort, drawing upon his formidable willpower, did he manage to pull himself back into reason.
He then asked, “What about Your Highness? What do you plan to do in the future?”
“What?” Pei Liang appeared wholly focused on the Holy Son’s body, answering the question absentmindedly.
Fu Jue said, “The world is at peace, and the mountains and rivers are safe. The Emperor’s lifelong achievements already qualify him as an emperor for the ages.”
“But with Your Highness’s abilities, you are clearly not the sort to merely sit back and enjoy the prosperity inherited from your ancestors. You have even managed to bring Xianluo Mountain into submission. From now on, you will have ample room to maneuver. With everything so perfectly prepared, where do you intend to take Great Liang, the entire world—and us?”
Once peace and stability had ensured that everyone had enough food and clothing, the natural next step was to pursue development.
Given the circumstances Pei Liang now commanded, one could say she had been handed the most invincible opening in history.
The Empress’s lifelong achievements were so substantial that even if a fool occupied the throne next, the dynasty would have enough reserves to last another two or three generations.
But Prince Liang was clearly not an ordinary ruler content merely to preserve what had been inherited. The talent she had displayed was even greater than the Empress’s.
With such a person and such a beginning, anyone with foresight would naturally look forward to the future.
Pei Liang smiled. “That is difficult to say. No one knows where fate will take Great Liang.”
“But Your Highness must already have a blueprint in mind,” Fu Jue said between breaths. “Fu Jue would like to glimpse it in advance.”
“If I explained it in detail, by the time I finished, my friend Fu Xin’s corpse would have begun to stink, and she still might not make it back to Xianluo Mountain. Why don’t you tell me what you wish for instead? I’ll see whether it can be realized.”
Fu Jue let out a sigh. “I was oppressed by my elder sister from childhood, and my parents never treated me fairly. All I ever wanted was to obtain what should have been mine. Now that my dream has come true, I find myself at a loss.”
“If you ask what I desire now… at this moment, Fu Jue wishes only that distance would no longer stand between us. Whenever I wished it, I would be able to hear Your Highness’s voice, see your face, and touch the tips of your fingers.”
Upon hearing this, Pei Liang’s expression grew visibly moved, and her eyes became extraordinarily gentle.
She smiled. “One day, your wish will come true.”
“Though that day may not come anytime soon—perhaps by then, the two of us will already have hair as white as snow.”
“But it will come. Even if you and I are separated by thousands of miles, all it will take is a thought, and moments later you’ll be able to hear my voice. And if we wish to meet, doing so within a single day will be nothing difficult.”
Fu Jue’s eyes seemed to shine. He looked at Pei Liang with trust and longing. “Is this the future Your Highness wishes to create?”
“How wonderful. It’s almost like immortal magic.”
Pei Liang brushed her slightly damp hair back and said gently, “What we consider immortal magic today will be something ordinary people take for granted several decades from now.”
The admiration in Fu Jue’s eyes deepened, and he became even more dependent as he asked, “Your Highness, will you name our child?”
Pei Liang was tending to the cabbages. At that, she looked over at him and said, “Our child will probably have to exist for a long time under the name of my late friend Fu Xin’s child.”
“Oh no. Technically, the child is already my friend’s offspring. I’m merely taking pity on her and helping preserve her family line after her death. Besides, Xianluo Mountain’s current position is rather delicate. It would probably be inappropriate to give the child a name belonging to the Pei family.”
A dark glint flashed through Fu Jue’s eyes, though the expression on his face grew gentler still.
“It doesn’t have to be her formal name. I can simply use it as a private nickname. That way, years from now—before she learns the truth of her birth—she’ll have some preparation.”
“Your Highness’s first child. Setting aside the rules of imperial succession, why not personally bestow upon her a name connected to her birth mother?”
Pei Liang seemed somewhat moved by this. After thinking for a moment, she uttered a name. “Chu—Chu Yebai. If we have a child, then in private, we’ll call her Yebai.”
At this moment, Chu Yebai was probably thriving in the Reincarnation Game. He had already been an unrivaled powerhouse during the apocalypse, giving him an extremely high starting point. Even without taking that into account, his combat experience alone was enough to look down on all living things.
Pei Liang was not very good at coming up with names, so she had casually borrowed the name of a former pretty boy.
In any case, Fu Jue had never truly intended to use it.
Sure enough, upon hearing this, Fu Jue finally revealed a genuinely sincere smile—one that even seemed faintly bewitching.
Looking at Pei Liang, he asked, “Chu—does that surname hold some special meaning for Your Highness?”
Pei Liang nodded and admitted without hesitation, “Yes. It’s a surname I will never forget in this lifetime.”
After all, pretty boys as shamelessly flirtatious as Chu Yebai and Gong Ran were rare. They had also been the first companions Pei Liang had encountered in a world beyond the bounds of common sense.
Now they existed as players in different games, and if they climbed high enough in the future, there might even be a chance for them to meet again.
How could she possibly forget them?
Yet Fu Jue, having received Pei Liang’s confirmation, revealed a satisfied smile, as though everything had been verified.
Immediately afterward, Pei Liang felt a sharp pain in her back and hissed.
She could clearly feel blood flowing from the skin that had been scratched open. Still, the wound did not feel serious—probably no more than a superficial cut, no different from being scratched by someone carried away during ordinary lovemaking.
Fu Jue hurriedly put on an apologetic expression. “I was too overwhelmed with excitement. Did I hurt Your Highness?”
Pei Liang smiled. “How could you? I rather like this untamed, unruly side of you, Immortal Master.”
Fu Jue naturally refused to let the matter rest and took the initiative to meet her. “Your Highness, now that the name has been chosen, give me our child.”
Pei Liang laughed heartily, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
But just as she was about to take the final step, she stopped and looked at Fu Jue’s face.
Fu Jue seemed to sense the change in the atmosphere as well, and opened his eyes.
Then he heard Prince Liang ask, “Are you really certain, Immortal Master? You truly want to bear my child?”
Fu Jue was becoming impatient. “The arrow is already nocked. Why are you asking this now?”
Pei Liang smiled. Instead, she rose and pulled her disheveled clothes back into place, leaving Fu Jue alone, naked, leaning against the lid of Fu Xin’s coffin.
Most people became heartless after the deed was done. Prince Liang had stopped before the deed was even complete.
For a moment, Fu Jue even wondered whether she was incapable.
But when he recalled the faintly suggestive, amorous look Consort Yan sometimes cast toward Prince Liang, it was clear that she was satisfied. That possibility was therefore out of the question.
But this made no sense. She had actually been able to stop herself at a time like this?
Fu Jue’s heart filled with foreboding. He genuinely wanted to leave Prince Liang with a child.
For one thing, introducing imperial blood into Xianluo Mountain would give him leverage over the imperial family, preventing the Pei clan from taking a hard line against the sect.
For another, Prince Liang was indeed an exceptionally capable and rare individual. Any child born of the two of them, regardless of which parent it took after, would have a low chance of turning out as foolish as Fu Xin.
As for Prince Liang herself, he was quite satisfied with her.
But there was something wrong with her words now. Fu Jue’s innate sensitivity made him wary.
Sure enough, Prince Liang met his gaze for several breaths before letting out a soft laugh.
“So the third condition is related to revealing the technological level or ideology of the world you once lived in, as well as the surname you originally bore?”
Fu Jue’s pupils contracted. In an instant, he felt as though he had fallen into an icy abyss.
He had thought himself a clever fox, believing that he had laid one trap after another and lured his prey into them. Yet he had never expected that the one who had fallen into the trap through a battle of wits would be him.
There had been no need for any explanation. When Fu Xin had sent people to assassinate Prince Liang and draw her blood, her eagerness to act had already allowed Prince Liang to infer the second condition Xianluo Mountain used to eliminate people like them.
The two prerequisites had originally been baffling and deliberately misleading. But because of Fu Xin’s foolish insistence on acting alone, Prince Liang had combined it with the historical records and seized upon the key point.
Yet even after Fu Xin’s death, she had not let down her guard in the slightest. Nor had she ever looked down on men simply because of his obedience and allowed herself to become complacent.
Fu Jue looked at Pei Liang as though he were staring at a ghost. Slowly, he pulled his clothes back on.
After studying Pei Liang with a deep gaze for a long while, he let out a derisive laugh. “So what? I already possess everything necessary to satisfy the conditions. Your Highness may have peerless martial arts and be capable of ending my life in an instant.”
“But I wonder—if I activate the conditions, who will be faster?”
Pei Liang shook her head. “Why are you still clinging to such a slim hope, Immortal Master? Now that I know what you intend to do, do you really think what I revealed just now was genuine?”
Fu Jue’s expression changed, but he recovered his composure in an instant. “Your Highness, stop bluffing. Do you really think that, after Xianluo Mountain has encountered so many people like you, I cannot distinguish truth from falsehood?”
“People like you—the transmigrators. Your ancestors gave you that name. Though the worlds you belong to differ somewhat, they are generally similar. At the very least, their levels of technological development are comparable.”
“What Your Highness said just now, no matter how guarded you were, would inevitably have caused your instincts to sketch out the appearance of your own world. It is not very different from what the other transmigrators described before you. Of course, the flaws in their stories were far more obvious. I did not even need to question them deliberately.”
That was only natural. Although this world of female supremacy was still an ancient agrarian society, its actual level of social development was already approaching that of the late Ming dynasty. Moreover, this rapid progress had taken place only over the several centuries since the founding of Great Liang.
Before Great Liang, the entire society had been far more backward. Compared with real-world history, it was as though they had achieved nearly two thousand years of progress in merely three or four centuries.
Naturally, the countless transmigrators had played a major role in this. They had brought modern technology with them.
For example, among the documents Pei Liang had gone through, most of those eliminated by Xianluo Mountain had once run novel businesses such as glassware or soap.
When these people created industries and products that could not have arisen naturally in that era, they automatically fulfilled the final condition.
Eliminating them was even easier. Pei Liang had only recently crossed over, and as long as productivity did not advance, there was a limit to what new things she could create. Moreover, she was busy changing her own circumstances and posed too great a threat to Xianluo Mountain.
They therefore had to eliminate her as soon as possible. Otherwise, Xianluo Mountain could simply wait for her to develop and reap the benefits.
Pei Liang smiled and replied to Fu Jue’s words, “The Immortal Master is not wrong. What I had in mind does indeed correspond to reality.”
“However, my circumstances are somewhat special.”
After all, she was a combination of several realities. If they located the world she had once belonged to based on the fluctuations of her soul’s reactions, they would probably have to identify several worlds.
Unfortunately, none of those worlds had the game’s authorization. How could she possibly have entered them?
She lowered her head and leaned toward Fu Jue, studying the expression on his face as she asked, “But the Immortal Master is exceptionally cautious. At the same time, you used the name acknowledged by my soul as an anchor, just to make absolutely certain.”
Fu Jue’s heart sank completely.
For Prince Liang to say that meant the name was false as well.
He had lured this woman into naming his heir, flattering her and satisfying her vanity as much as possible.
She had chosen the name without the slightest hesitation. She was not the real Prince Liang. She had once possessed her own identity and name, but in this world she walked under the identity of Prince Liang, and her original surname could not be revealed.
Given a woman’s natural flaws, if she had the chance to give her child her true surname, she would never willingly pass it up.
Yet Prince Liang had remained clearheaded and lied without the slightest hesitation.
Fu Jue was furious inside, but his smile turned cold. “Chu Yebai? No wonder it sounded like a man’s name. With your arrogance, and with my hint that the child would be your heir, you should instinctively have named a daughter.”
He then asked Pei Liang, “Whose lover is this name? It was hidden so well that even Xianluo Mountain’s intelligence network detected nothing. You even remembered the name without a second thought, before that of your Consort.”
Pei Liang patted his cheek with a smile. “Now that things have come this far, Immortal Master, you can stop pretending.”
“You have always despised and looked down on women. That much was understandable earlier, but why continue putting on this jealous act now?”
“I thought I had already made it clear how highly I regard you. I have never looked down on you because you are a man, nor have I ever imagined that obtaining your body would make you lead Xianluo Mountain into submission. That would be absurd.”
“Could you please take a proper look at me, Immortal Master? In your eyes, am I truly some ridiculous fool who is inexplicably arrogant simply because of my sex?”
Fu Jue knew that she was not.
That was precisely why her words felt so heavy.
Prince Liang behaved with lustful abandon. She had an affair with her father-consort, violated the chastity of the Chancellor’s grandson before forcibly marrying him, seized her younger sister’s husband, and spent her days wandering through brothels.
What kind of good person could she be?
Objectively speaking, however, she was strikingly handsome, wielded tremendous power, possessed formidable abilities, and was skilled at coaxing men.
There was a reason those men eventually cast aside propriety and morals and succumbed to her seduction. Compared with the other members of the aristocracy, Prince Liang was hardly the worst of them. If anything, she could be considered someone who dared to act on her desires.
She was also consistently generous toward men. Though she was a womanizer, she was not exactly heartless. Any man who followed her would receive plenty of benefits, whether openly or in secret.
For an ordinary man, that would have been enough.
But Fu Jue understood that, in essence, Prince Liang was merely a master who threw more food to her dogs. The arrogance engraved in women’s bones, their desire to control men as possessions, and their accustomed, condescending gaze had not changed in the slightest.
Fu Jue had long understood women’s nature. Just like Fu Xin, Prince Liang could be driven into vomiting blood with a few easy remarks. It was nothing more than the humiliation of seeing one’s possession defiled.
Someone like Prince Liang, who supposedly “loved taking other women’s husbands,” was fundamentally no different from Fu Xin and his ilk.
But at this moment, Fu Jue realized that he might have been wrong.
He stared into Pei Liang’s eyes, as though trying to find a flower blooming within them.
The few scenes they had shared flashed through his mind one after another. Fu Jue suddenly understood that the person who had always been ruled by arrogance was, in fact, him.
Rumors aside, whenever Prince Liang faced him—even when she had used vulgar words to provoke Fu Xin—there had never been any lewdness or desire to toy with him in her gaze.
And just now, when she faced General Liu, her admiration and favorable impression had been genuine. So had her awkwardness and uncertainty. She had not shown the slightest intention of violating General Liu.
Earlier, Fu Jue had assumed that General Liu held a special position in Prince Liang’s heart.
Of course, a man who commanded such powerful troops could not be treated like an ordinary person. Yet it was obvious that General Liu was also in love with Prince Liang.
If Prince Liang were truly like Fu Xin, she would never still be able to interact with General Liu in this manner.
Fu Jue closed his eyes for a moment and painfully admitted that he had made a mistake.
He let out a mocking laugh. Far from being alarmed, he instead became calm and composed after understanding everything, looking at Prince Liang as though he were seeing her for the first time.
“So I went to all that trouble for nothing? If this whole scene had never happened, perhaps I might still have succeeded.”
Pei Liang shook her head. “Not exactly. Compared with Fu Xin, you were the one I guarded against from the beginning.”
“That useless fool has no inheritance. Even if she fulfilled the conditions, wouldn’t it still be you who ultimately came to remove me?”
Pei Liang glanced at Fu Xin. At this point, she had barely even remembered what Fu Xin looked like. He was simply too insignificant to matter.
She turned back to Fu Jue. “How could I trust a man who murdered his own sister for the sake of power, when he claims that his ultimate goal is to become a woman’s man?”
She reached out and wiped the tearstain from the corner of Fu Jue’s eye—the trace left behind by his earlier performance.
Pei Liang rubbed her fingertips together and smiled. “That pitiful, obedient look truly doesn’t suit you. The ambition in your eyes is so dazzling that only a blind person could fail to see it.”
“Since the Immortal Master is so certain that you are no less capable than a woman, you must want to accomplish the great undertaking that every female sect leader before you failed to complete.”
“Such as reducing the imperial family to puppets.”
Fu Jue’s pupils contracted.
If Pei Liang had not been a member of the imperial family herself, he might even have been tempted at that moment.
He had never shared his ambitions with anyone. Yet when someone saw through this desire he had been forced to conceal, he felt an exhilaration like that of finally meeting an equal opponent across the chessboard.
Fu Jue laughed. “It was my mistake. From this day forward, Fu Jue will treat Your Highness with the respect you deserve—as an opponent.”
Pei Liang neither agreed nor disagreed. She suddenly asked, “Then, as compensation for your earlier discourtesy, could you tell me something?”
“What system did you inherit?”
