I Got Together with the Goddess [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 69

“You are shameless.”

Wanqi Yanjing touched the wound between her brows. Although she had raised her defenses immediately, that strike—no less powerful than a white rainbow piercing the sun—had still caused her slight injury. She could feel the ancestral power of the Zhai Kingdom residing within that golden needle.

Jiang Yiqing, however, was in a state of panic. She hadn’t expected that something would proactively launch an attack on her behalf. She took a step forward, intending to check Wanqi Yanjing’s injury, but was stopped by a cold command.

“Are you putting on this show of concern now? Who exactly are you performing for?”

Jiang Yiqing felt as though she had been pricked by a thorn. The small spark of guilt she felt vanished instantly. She snapped back, “Do I need to act? Seeing you injured brings me nothing but delight! To think the grand Empress is only capable of this much!”

Jiang Yiqing looked around. At some unknown moment, golden lines on the barrier had begun to draw circles in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions, mimicking the orbits of stars in the night sky. The light grew more intense. Even she knew that the previous commotion had alerted the people of the Zhai Kingdom. She became even more arrogant, saying, “This is the Zhai Imperial Palace! This is the Washing Heart Pool! You are the one being presumptuous! Wanqi Yanjing, just you wait to be dealt with!”

“No one can wound me time and time again.” Wanqi Yanjing’s phoenix-like eyes locked onto Jiang Yiqing with sharp intensity. Her lashes flickered, suppressing a trace of bitterness that went unnoticed. “Not even you. I will make you realize the price of defying me.”

With a flick of her brocade robe, an object flew out from her sleeve. Jiang Yiqing, thinking she was about to play some “if I can’t have you, I’ll destroy you” game, scrambled to climb onto the bank. Suddenly, her waist was bound. Looking down, she saw a red silk ribbon that was both soft and incredibly tough. As the red silk coiled around her, Jiang Yiqing felt like a demon being subdued by the Great Bodhisattva—completely powerless to resist, and even her system tools were unusable.

Just as she was secretly praying while falling into the “devil’s” clutches, countless flying swords of various sizes suddenly streaked through the air, slashing toward the red silk.

“Wanqi Yanjing, you have a lot of nerve! To dare kidnap my sister repeatedly—I, Jiang Yuxiu, will never let you go!” Along with this shout, Jiang Yiqing saw her Imperial Sister arriving on a cloud. When she landed, the small cloud vanished from beneath her feet.

“Imperial Sister, save me!” Jiang Yiqing cried out. she had wanted to add “Imperial Sister is mighty,” but her mouth was immediately gagged by the red silk.

The red silk constantly changed shape in mid-air, weaving through the flying swords as it moved to bring Jiang Yiqing to Wanqi Yanjing’s side.

Jiang Yuxiu placed her right hand over her left, forming a seal with one hand. Her fingertips traced patterns in the air before she quickly raised three fingers. Thousands of flying swords then surged toward Wanqi Yanjing.

Wanqi Yanjing blocked with a wave of her sleeve, sending out a shockwave. The flying swords stagnated in the air for a moment, as if hitting an invisible barrier, before falling one after another into the Washing Heart Pool.

“Jiang Yuxiu, shall I tell you? You are no match for me. If you are wise, leave at once.”

“You!—”

Jiang Yiqing could see it now. While her sister was indeed powerful, Wanqi Yanjing was essentially a “cheat” character. Was she really going to be taken away? If she went now, she felt her future would be grim.

At that moment, Ning Yinxi also walked in.

“Empress of the Qin Kingdom, this is the Zhai Imperial Palace. Do not act so recklessly.”

“And who are you?” Wanqi Yanjing looked at her coldly. “A common girl with meager spiritual power—how dare you lecture me?”

“This humble one is merely the tutor of Princess Anxu. Though I lack the spiritual power of an Empress, I understand the principles of ‘Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and Trust.’ As an uninvited guest who has suddenly intruded upon a sacred ancestral site, which of these virtues have you upheld? Even if you are a noble Empress, you should consider the consequences of your actions. Surely the resulting tension between our two nations is not something you wish to see.”

If Jiang Yiqing hadn’t been unable to speak, she would have cheered loudly. The Scholar was right! Wanqi Yanjing was being far too reckless—did she really think another country’s palace was her own backyard?

“Jiang Yuxiu, and you, the tutor—listen well. Jiang Yiqing has already been offered to the Qin ancestors and entered into the Wanqi clan register. She is my—Consort Qing. Whether she was your sister before or is your student now is irrelevant. Our marriage is witnessed by Heaven and Earth. How could it be offended by your mere five words of ‘Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and Trust’? Tell me, would you speak of such things to your own spouse?”

“Mmph… mmph!” Jiang Yiqing wanted to say, You are shameless. But she failed.

“Furthermore, Jiang Yiqing personally agreed to be my Consort Qing. She has suddenly broken her word, and I haven’t even settled that debt with her yet. Are you Zhai people always this unreasonable?” Having said that, Wanqi Yanjing released the silk from Jiang Yiqing’s mouth and asked, “Consort Qing, tell them. Am I right?”

“…” Jiang Yiqing remained silent. At that life-or-death moment, she had been forced by circumstances. How could she have anticipated that Wanqi Yanjing would take an interest in her, a fellow woman?

“It seems you agree with what I’ve said.”

“Nonsense!” Jiang Yuxiu shouted. “How dare you abduct my sister and treat her as your private property! This enmity is irreconcilable!”

“Jiang Yuxiu, if you respect our union, I would even have to call you ‘Elder Sister’ by seniority. But if you refuse the respect I offer, do not blame me for being unkind.”

“Don’t!” Jiang Yiqing said, fearing the two would start a fight. She said, “Both of you stop arguing.”

Wanqi Yanjing took this to mean she had compromised, and her mood became quite pleasant.

Jiang Yiqing saw bright yellow and vermillion phoenix feathers sprout from Wanqi Yanjing’s back. The feathers flickered and burned like flames. With a gentle flap, they took off from the ground, breaking through the barrier with lightning speed and soaring into the sky.

Jiang Yiqing was held in her arms, ascending rapidly, and she couldn’t stop screaming from fear.

Just when she thought Wanqi Yanjing was going to succeed, she suddenly saw several massive drums standing on the Longevity Platform of the Zhai Palace. The thundering drumbeats caused a sharp pain in her ears. Not only that, but the needles on the sundials reflected streaks of white light, swiftly striking toward their position.

“The Sun-Rising Sundial and the Crouching Tiger Eight-Array Drums,” Wanqi Yanjing said with a frozen expression. “I didn’t expect the Empress of Zhai to bring out such divine artifacts.”

“So, let me go,” Jiang Yiqing said, enduring the pain in her ears. “This won’t end well for anyone.”

Wanqi Yanjing was quite surprised that she could withstand the drumbeats. After all, even an expert of her level felt their mind disturbed and a splitting headache. She fended off the attacks from the sundial while summoning a teleportation array, intending to use it to take Jiang Yiqing back to the Qin Kingdom.

Jiang Yiqing saw the notification “Fragment of Crimson Sunset Silk * 10” and immediately confiscated Wanqi Yanjing’s treasure. Using this, she redeemed the Bone-Refined Luang-Hua Jade and threw it back at Wanqi Yanjing. Then, taking advantage of the moment, she was stunned, Jiang Yiqing pushed her away and plummeted downward.

“I’m giving it back to you! We’re even now!” Jiang Yiqing shouted.

Wanqi Yanjing dove down, trying to catch her, but countless flying swords streaked toward her. They were Jiang Yuxiu’s Divine Flying Swords.

Jiang Yuxiu caught the falling Jiang Yiqing. Seeing her lying in her arms wearing almost nothing, she hated Wanqi Yanjing even more and felt a deep sense of pity for Jiang Yiqing. She took off her outer robe and draped it over her, saying, “Imperial Sister, I have let you suffer.”

Jiang Yiqing shook her head and buried her face in Jiang Yuxiu’s arms. She didn’t dare look at Wanqi Yanjing’s expression.

In this life, no one had ever been so obsessed with her. Wanqi Yanjing had shown her that there was someone who would pay any price to have her—even if that person didn’t know how to be respectful, her heart was still shaken.

However, she was destined not to be a canary in a palace cage, nor did she want to see Wanqi Yanjing hurt by her again. This was all she could do.

While Jiang Yiqing was lost in thought, the Bone-Refined Luang-Hua Jade in Wanqi Yanjing’s hand suddenly emitted a strange light. That sudden, massive glow was like a brilliant falling star exploding in the sky.

The world fell into a brief silence, a pause slower than the speed of light.

Jiang Yiqing looked up and saw the jade piece strike Wanqi Yanjing’s body like a meteorite. A mouthful of blood sprayed from Wanqi Yanjing’s lips. Her wings flapped weakly once, and she plummeted from the sky.

As she passed by Jiang Yiqing, those brilliant phoenix eyes were like dimmed glass, filled with hatred for her and the bitterness of being schemed against.

“Jiang Yiqing, I hate you… to think I would fall for a woman like you again and again!”

Jiang Yiqing saw her lips moving slowly; for some reason, she understood exactly what she meant. Jiang Yiqing felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

“What happened? Why is this happening?” she asked Jiang Yuxiu, and at the same time, she asked the system.

“Unknown. The system performed a quality check on the Bone-Refined Luang-Hua Jade while it was in the mall. The testing process is complex, and there are no results yet.”

Jiang Yuxiu’s eyes were also filled with unconcealed surprise, but she seemed to understand something. She sighed softly and said, “Yiqing, it’s because I didn’t protect you well. I… deserve to die more than she does.”

What on earth happened?!

Jiang Yiqing began to recall everything that happened after she returned to the country. She followed Master Qiyun’s words to the Washing Heart Pool, but there seemed to be an ambush there that attacked Wanqi Yanjing. Furthermore, the Longevity Platform had been prepared with power specifically targeting Wanqi Yanjing, as if they were just waiting for her arrival. And why did the jade piece she got from Wanqi Yanjing attack her?

If there was nothing wrong with the jade… then, was there something wrong with her?

Jiang Yiqing clearly saw Wanqi Yanjing, like a phoenix struck by an arrow, fall onto the Longevity Platform. From the distant mountain forests, there seemed to come the mournful cry of birds. Clearly, she was the one who used the bow, yet one day she would be wounded by a hidden arrow.

When one phoenix falls, ten thousand birds grieve.

Clearly, there were no feelings. Clearly there weren’t. Then why did her heart ache like this? That phoenix that should have soared freely in the nine heavens—why did she have to… fall into a snare because of her?