Changes
Beiyue indeed, wore an odd fashion, considering she was way behind times due to her isolation. And she cared more for being covered than looking stylish. Even her maid Dongling dressed the same. Granted, she HAS her own closet, but miss wanted to mess with people thus they wore this unusual style in public.
(A:N: think how girls in Basilisk anime wear their kimonos, but in white)
However!
Clean she may be, but it doesn't change the fact that her clothes are blood-stained! And her long hair worn loose.
Her appearance made her look like a ghost who came back to haunt. Lily-white skin, red lips and long, loose black hair...
And she's clearly enjoying how the maids in the palace squirmed at her looks.
'Yue'er, didn't you change out of your clothes?' the Emperor choked out as she came the way she was, minus the handprint on her cheek and blood on her hands Though her wrist upwards are still bloodstained because her sleeves were wet with blood.
'Well I thought I'll scare that bastard a little by looking like a ghost.' Beiyue smiled sweetly with a cutesy girl pose. 'I look the part, don't I?' she asked playfully and childishly before smiling with dark glee that promised pain that made her uncle positively squirm. 'Besides, for all he's done, a haunting is pretty cheap compared to what I'll do later~'
'...'
The Emperor's sons got traumatized and Yingye was squeaking like a mouse. He made his children go to their rooms to recover from...what they just saw.
He hoped they get Beiyue's newfound habits dealt with, this is worrying!
When the Black Cavalry came with the captured Marquis, Beiyue lied in wait at the rafters.
There in the Emperor's throne room, Marquis Jing'an was interrogated harshly by the Emperor and when not answering, the soldiers brutalize the guy.
The maids have something to gossip about again.
The man arranged for Princess Royal's death through poisoning after blackmailing the Grandqueen using Nanyi's vulnerable situation as their Imperial Army is too small against Jing'an's forces! It's kill Princess Royal or Linhua City will burn!
They were all so close to death, yet the War Heroine's murder was what kept the whole city safe from him, all because he despised the fact that she had way too much power!
That was a shocking revelation.
However, his motives didn't make any sense as she's ROYALTY. Of course she has more power for crying out loud!
Beiyue got so angry bloodlust was palpable in the air where she hid.
She knew it's time to show up, and attacked with a large needle containing a lot of ki she gathered just for this event and shot it at a specific point in the body where she can maximize all pain receptors...for maximum torture. That, and she coated the needle with poison to double the effect.
'Aiya~ so you killed my mother because you're a sexist~?' and without warning, she zoomed from above to deliver a heavy kick on the man's back, just avoiding his spine so she wouldn't kill him so quickly and the man howled! 'Oh my oh my, you're a Sword Sage, you shouldn't scream like a lady, you're so pathetic~' she spoke mockingly with a sweet smile on her face.
'Er, princess? What'd you do before you kicked his back?' a soldier piped up.
'Oh, I pressed an acupuncture point that activates and maximizes a person's sense of pain...since he's a Sword Sage, he wouldn't scream from usual methods, so I spiced things up a little, because I want him to scream louder, see?' Beiyue giggled. 'Its no fun to torture a criminal who wouldn't scream, because he really won't talk. Try again now my dear~maybe he'll finally talk about why he killed mother after we make him suffer some more.' she advised.
'Y-you bitch...' Marquis Jing'an gasped but his words earned him a cut on his arm that made him yelp from a sword she summoned. 'Aaargh!'
'Hey hey, you're just a mere Marquis and I'm a Royal, know your place, little mouse...yes, you're a mouse, because you're a criminal now so you're nothing~less than nothing.' she smiled malevolently. This raised Jing'an's hackles at the insult. 'Did you honestly seriously think your crime is buried forever? What a silly mouse~' she giggled girlishly. '...now my dears, have fun with making him sing...sing for the court as to why he had Princess Royal killed other than to soothe his tiny ego that a woman is more superior than he. He clearly implied it after all~ that he's willing to burn and pillage just to get it done!'
They did just that and made the man suffer that he finally talked...
The Emperor was livid and furious.
He ordered a decree that all of Jing'an's forces be killed for treason and punished unto the third generation for taking part in two years ago's treachery that Princess Royal died to protect Linhua City, forced to die by poison, and arranging for Beiyue's slow death by poison through Xiao's Concubine, Concubine Xue!
The former Marquis was to be publicly executed and to make sure he doesn't get away, Beiyue cut his tendons and she asked that he be chained to the walls to make his last night rough. And for the Mu Clan who clearly benefited off this crime, their status plunged to Baron status as a warning and even then, they have no fief to draw annual income from unlike most nobles. Pull treacherous stunts again or else...he even deposed Mu Shi, his Empress because his own marriage was by Blackmail as well through exploiting war of all things and had the man lived longer, he would have exploited his own grandchildren for further political power thus the Emperor protected Zhanye and Yingye from future machinations by killing the problem.
The Black Cavalry thus gained a tough job, marching to Jing'an County to kill treacherous soldiers and their families loyal to him, instead of their damn country, Nanyi as a whole and didn't serve to protect and instead, is their own homeland's enemy to stroke a man's ego! As for Jing'an Country, he had it granted to Lord Geng Zhong to keep an eye on it for further treasonous acts and wipe them out.
That, and he wanted the truth be known, and ordered the royal scribe to post at the Public Bulletin.
xxx
Word spread at next morning as by nighttime after dinner, its mostly drunkards and mercenaries who are out.
It was them who saw the new post first and they got shocked.
Thus for now, it's peaceful. For now.
At Princess Royal's Residence...
After cleaning up the mess, Beiyue and Dongling took a much-deserved Rose Petal warm bath after washing up.
'It's all over...right?' Dongling wondered as the two girls soaked in the warm tub together, kept warm by the Fire Crystal in the water.
'That remains to be seen.' said Beiyue as only their faces are on the surface. The rest of themselves underwater to gain full benefits of rose baths. 'But remain vigilant.' she warned. 'Never let your guard down. For now, I'll take care of our grocery shopping, until I'm sure you have considerable sword skills to have enough power against revenge attacks.' she told Dongling. 'We need to be a lot better than this.'
'Yes...'
xxx
'...a lot happened in just a short time it seems.'
In a place called Hostage Mansion, a young man reported to a young boy. 'How shocking. But then again, crimes never stay buried forever...one way or another, it will come out...and it took two years for two princesses to finally have justice. All this, could have been avoided...if the Grandqueen remembered she's royalty and he's just a mere Marquis, thus he has no power over her none of this would have happened. But she was weak. And by her weakness, she made her children miserable. Two loveless marriages, and one forced to die a martyr, leaving her daughter behind in a cruel household.'
'He might find the latest developments interesting.'
Indeed, things changed drastically.
The Mu Clan fell from grace for the actions of one man. They became the lowest of the low Barons as they don't even have a fief to draw annual income from that they scrambled to build businesses as they relied on their fief for ages. What money they have left, definitely cannot go to cultivation now, as they have to have a business to get income from. Not only that, Mu Shi was a deposed Empress. They no longer have power in court.
They all rode on Marquis and his daughter, and now found themselves with very limited resources that their usual lavish lifestyle can no longer be afforded, and their reputation fell to nothing, as they were known as the clan who benefited off treachery! Nobody dared to associate with them when Mu Mixin's crimes came out and it was so treasonous it was no wonder punishment was very harsh and friends feared their future betrayal of them, if they can betray a country. And when people found out the truth of two years ago, the citizens were furious that the gates of the new Mu Mansion were thrown with rotten fruit and garbage causing a huge mess that the simple act of buying goods is now impossible, as their servants left them to fend for themselves. Jing'an Mansion is now empty as the Mu Clan was forced to move out to make room for the new Marquis Jing'an, whoever that'll be. So now there's a secret war in court in hopes for promotion.
Other than that, the army Xiao Yuancheng was part of decided to fire him from his post. Reason being, 'You'll die shortly anyway, we need a new captain to fill your post.'
The final problem was Beiyue herself.
She was said to have 'gone mad' from her treatment in the Xiao Estate that she was fine with walking around in bloodied clothes...bloodied by a man's blood whom she tortured for information because assassins were sent to kill her to silence her to preserve the Mu Clan's secrets from getting exposed...and it was through a soldier that the whole palace knew how she did it and later, the whole city. Sure she can't cultivate, but she was still capable of killing an assassin, and pin him to a wall, and dissect him alive and brutally emasculate him to make him talk while splattered with his blood while smiling!
Emperor hopes to rehabilitate her before it's too late, and she was 'put under supportive therapy' that Beiyue was forced to leave Dongling training homework after lunch, because Emperor decided to monopolize her afternoon time in a bid to dote on her alongside his...very-traumatized children who couldn't look her in the eye, shocked by her deeds.
Reality ensued for the former Slayer who at least, knew Emperor means well and tried his best to 'make her a normal girl' and she played along. She knows how to be normal, thanks.
Yingye was terrified of her but tried her best to get along with her cousin, but she can never forget 'that night', and Zhanye had to deal with her night terrors, now that their mother was kicked out of the palace. They had never known the truth behind their parents' marriage as to why the other concubines look at her in contempt and their royal father downright cold and harsh.
Before she was kicked out, she gathered her children for a talk, and told them her side of the story in hopes to change their futures that Yingye nor Zhanye will never end up like her.
Mu Mixin thirsted for power. All his actions and decisions always benefited him alone, who cares who pays the price and how he gets it. His wife was married to him by intensive pressure on her family by using the weight of his status. At his time, she was the most beautiful woman and his ego demanded only the best for himself and he was also a control freak. She and her mother suffered his desires for power and dominance. And he knew how to exploit war for power and his chance came when Emperor fell in battle, and Empress Dowager Jun Wende was a known softie which he exploited horribly, and how.
She was blackmailed into making their father marry her against his will and he poured his anger on her in their loveless marriage when he loves someone else and that's his own half-sister Princess Royal. She suffered everything and can only bear suffering in silence. She has no one to turn to in all twenty years of her marriage and endured the Concubines too. The only reason they were born was because one, a Crown Prince was needed and two, she asked him for the only selfish wish she had, a daughter. Thus she had her children...while fearing for their futures due to her father's ambitions.
She was glad that her suffering ended, and she cares nothing for the Mu Clan. Since she and her mother still has money as she has her own annual income as Empress, she intends to leave and find a new future with her mother, far away from the clan that only caused them grief for the power and status they lusted for, and wished her children the best as her mother's maternal family will never take them in.
Mu Shi was only thirty-two years old. With pills she used to maintain her youth and beauty, it should be easy for her to remarry into a hopefully, kinder family who would finally give her happiness and her mother a better home. She will change her and her mother's name that hopefully, they can never be found and forced against their will ever again.
Once far away on her mother's summon, they eventually found a certain village in Floating Light Forest...
xxx
Two years later...
Beiyue had to face reality.
Sure she has her seasoned veteran skills. The problem is her body which she MUST retrain, to gain the power it once had when she was eighteen years old as Kochou Shinobu. Otherwise she can't use her skills to full Potential. So what if she took doses of stolen Elixirs to strengthen her body? It's the same as dosing herself with drugs. Sure effects are permanent with no side-effects, but the problem remains that her stamina and endurance is shit, and her muscles must still be conditioned to peak level to use her techniques. The elixirs were just to keep healing her body so she can immediately train the next day after a few hours of sleep!
Her schtick was speed and gaining force and momentum through speed to compensate for her small stature and weak body that she cannot even decapitate demon heads. She trained her butt off that she has the strongest thrust and fastest thrust and stab attacks out of everyone else, and too fast that moving alone can destroy an entire wooden bridge. It had been her pride.
But with her new body as Huang Beiyue, she has no such fears. Her body in the future will be powerful. Well, as powerful as a woman can get in Breathing Training...like Kanae and Kanao, maybe. She's no Kanroji-san who was born with a miraculously-unique body she was once jealous of.
But for now, retraining herself is a must.
A ten years old girl can barely do much, nevermind a twelve year old. Her weakness now, is a premature, adolescent body as she still cannot cultivate. And trying to move like she used to in an untrained body hurt like hell. But she never showed she was in pain. After all, she had years of self-discipline!
Same weakness for Dongling though she can cultivate, but none of the discipline she had. She now has a fully-formed Spirit Foundation that her element was determined when she turned twelve. Her element was Earth, meaning, she has a future as a Pharmacist! However, when they tried that avenue...
Dongling was...a closet hothead that came out during training that going up the ranks was impossible...and considering how VICIOUS public opinion can be and she's sensitive, as well as years of enduring bullying yet unable to do a thing that all her anger pent up...they decided that she is secretly a Pharmacist and she was better off as a Warrior or Summoner. She could have had the patience and endurance as she had done within their oppression, but when training began, all her bottled-up anger came out like a torrent, that left no room for Pharmacy for now.
Training was effectively...percussive therapy.
It was for the best. Beiyue was the better Pharmacist between them as she actually HAS the patience and self-control. Just that, process for her was tougher as she has to gather ki in the air before flowing into a furnace to refine pills. Difficulty rate went up by 50% for her, unlike normal Pharmacists. But for Dongling to have hope and a future in Pharmacy, Beiyue must teach the girl self-control, emotional control and patience as she had done to herself, after Kanae died because she had then become the Pillar of Kochou Mansion, and caring for the younger girls who look up to her for leadership and guidance now.
And she struggled, but had the support she needed thanks to their master and mistress who cared for all slayers under their employ. She was able to be strong for the younger girls.
Dongling now looks up to her as well.
Their bodies are mainly focused...on the basics and building a very strong foundation of basics. For without basics, how can they hope to perform?
Bodies forged with training, nutrition, and countless...stolen...elixirs. Though she was forced to buy cultivational pills just to put up a show to keep suspicions off their backs.
Damn.
And to her suppressed annoyance as she finds Tomioka-san irksome, she has to teach Dongling Water Breathing. Easy to learn. Anyone would think so...if not for her small and weak body in her old life.
However, body still must be forged.
Skill is useless without body to back it up, and make it effective upon execution. But the future sure is looking bright!