QT: LAC Chapter 140: Ninth World (5)

Chapter 140: Ninth World (5)
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Edited by Sulo

After listening to the report of the attendant, Cao YuYing nodded and waved ‘her’ hand, sending her out, and ‘she’ smiled happily. But very soon, ‘she’ caught her reflection on the mirror, ‘she’ saw the makeup on ‘herself’, and the smile on ‘her’ face twisted for a moment.

‘She’ stood up and walked to the water basin. Cao YuYing picked up a towel and wiped off the makeup on ‘her’ face. When ‘her’ whole face felt fresh again, what was reflected on the mirror was no longer a princess but a young man with strong features. He was then satisfied and put the towel back on the shelf.

He took out the paddings which gave him a slightly raised chest, then he took off the intricate robes on him and threw them aside. Cao YuYing finally felt relieved, as if he had just come back to life, he stretched his slender body and lay down on the bed.

Although he had been living in the palace as a woman for several weeks, Cao YuYing still couldn’t get used to dressing up as a woman. Every time he put on a woman’s dress, he couldn’t help but feel depressed.

——In addition, he even met with his lover in such a way, and his lover fell in love at first sight and even wanted to marry him. Ha ha, it’s really sour and hard to describe.

Cao YuYing had to wonder if he was really unlucky, or if someone had secretly cursed him. He had gone through so many worlds smoothly before, so why was he met with so many weird transmigrating subjects right now?

Yes, this time, Cao YuYing was deceived again. Before attaching himself to this person, he didn’t know that his task involved always dressing up as a woman. If he knew, he would definitely have refused it.

Originally, Cao YuYing thought that he was just a poor little prince who was struggling in the palace and was not favored. His mother died early, and his father fell in love with an Incubus concubine, making the palace harem shrouded in darkness.

Generally speaking, Cao YuYing didn’t want to take over the body of the Emperor’s son. After all, this identity was easily involved in power struggles. Now, he just wanted to have a good relationship with his lover, and he didn’t care too much about complicated problems. However, the original ‘Cao YuYīng’ — yes, Cao YuYing always thought that the original’s name was ‘YuYīng’, ¹ because the original himself didn’t recognize the name ‘YuYing’ ² since it was so very feminine — the original was quite self-conscious. He knew that he could not gain the throne. He just wanted to stay away from the palace and be free. He hoped that he could find a partner and stay together for life.

Cao YuYing was very satisfied with the wish of the original. Even though his identity was a little more troublesome, he took over the body. However, after attaching himself… He just… ha ha.

——No wonder he was so self-conscious that he didn’t want to fight for the throne at all. Because he was not a prince but a princess in the eyes of everyone, including his father, the Emperor!

Goddamn princess! Cao YuYing couldn’t understand why no one in the palace was aware of his real gender, especially when there were eyes and ears everywhere in the palace! It’s not scientific at all! Cao YuYing’s whole life collapsed when he first saw the image of himself, he refused to admit that this was himself. He hid in his room for three days, and finally reluctantly accepted this setting.

After accepting reality, Cao YuYing quickly acted. The prince was forced to disguise himself as a woman to survive. Obviously, the situation in the palace was not optimistic. Although the original’s wish was to leave the palace, Cao YuYing was definitely not a passive man. Even though his real gender was not exposed yet, he should take precautions to solve the threats from the source and ensure his life to be smooth and carefree.

Because his lover was waiting for him somewhere, Cao YuYing had no interest in playing court with these people at all, so his means of building an intelligence network was particularly simple and crude. Just like in the last world when he hinted at his love rival, Bai Ting, he directly imprinted himself in the minds of the people in the palace with spiritual power, so that they would be loyal to him.

Cao YuYing has a strong spiritual power, and other people were not on guard for the unknown and invisible princess. Soon, Cao YuYing had many eyes and ears, scattered in every corner of the Palace — even the most intimate eunuch trusted by the Emperor was now under Cao YuYing’s control.

The old eunuch was no joke. Even when faced with the original’s body which looked harmless and timid, he showed caution. Cao YuYing had to spend more mental energy to control him. Of course, such troubles were also fruitful, Cao YuYing learned about the Emperor’s every move, and even learned some things that the Emperor himself didn’t know.

Because of these eyes and ears, Cao YuYing knew a secret that no one except the party concerned knew, and understood the real cause of the chaos in the palace.

Just when he came to this world, Cao YuYing, with his rich experience and keen intuition, realized that something weird was happening with the Emperor who was completely obedient to the Incubus concubine.

To be fair, the original’s father was not a mediocre E\mperor. He could even be said to have made great efforts in managing the country and had great talents. He was born in a long and legitimate royal family. He was naturally brought up as a prince. He was educated as a monarch when he was a child. When he grew up, he also succeeded as a monarch naturally.

When in court, he was close to the wise officials, and distant from the bad ones. In military affairs, he was the commander of the army itself, leading them to win in the East and the West, he pacified many countries. After being on the throne for more than 20 years, he firmly controlled the whole country in his own hands by virtue of his strong and excellent political skills, none of those were exaggerated. Even though his favorite concubine created storms in the palace harem and threatened the beloved daughters of many distinguished ministers in the Imperial Court, there had not been too many problems in the court. Even if they were not happy, they were all awed and loyal to His Majesty, the Emperor.

Why would such a wise and powerful Emperor fall so deeply for a woman who does evil only out of spite? Even if he had no feelings for his other concubines and didn’t care to fix the palace harem, he must at least care about his offsprings, right?

However, after the Incubus concubine entered the palace for a period of time, the Eldest Prince died of poisoning; the Second Prince was seriously ill, feverish and then turned retarded; the Third Prince was attacked when he went out and broke his arm and had scars on his face. Besides himself, the ‘fake Princess’ and the two princes given birth to by the concubine, the Emperor had no sons.

It was clear with just one glance who killed these princes. It’s no wonder that the birth mother of the original, who had no power, tried her best to disguise him as a princess. This was all to ensure he grew up smoothly — after all, the concubine seemed to only pay attention to the living princes and usually let the princesses go.

It was obviously abnormal for the Emperor to turn a blind eye to such blatant crimes. If this was love, Cao YuYing obviously couldn’t understand it. He thought he was loving Bai Duan to the extreme, no matter what the other side wanted to do, he would not refuse him. However, when he tried putting himself in the shoes of the Emperor and the concubine, he found that he could not accept Bai Duan murdering young and innocent children — he could not even imagine Bai Duan doing such a thing. If Bai Duan was someone like that, he would not have had feelings for him from the beginning.

Cao YuYing was not a person who would easily be blinded by love. In his mind, all feelings have reasons and are conditional.

He fell in love with Bai Duan because of his appearance, his nature and his way of doing things. After further understanding and encounters, his feelings became deeper and deeper, to the point that he could eliminate all the outer factors and only focused on his soul. It was true that Bai Duan’s personality had changed after several years of training, but no matter how it changed, it did not affect the feelings Cao YuYing had for him. Even now, he was deeply in love and couldn’t pull himself away from Bai Duan .

However if Bai Duan, at this time, did something that Cao YuYing couldn’t accept, he couldn’t guarantee that his feelings towards Bai Duan would not gradually dissipate. Maybe love would turn into hate and they might hurt each other.

Therefore, he couldn’t understand why a wise and powerful Emperor would go against moral values and all the education he had been receiving, all for the sake of ‘love’. It’s… it’s unbelievable.

Unable to understand it, Cao YuYing paid special attention to the love story between the Emperor and the Incubus concubine, and gradually retrieved a shocking fact through the little details of the conflict.

The Incubus concubine was not from ZhongYuan, but a woman from the Miao tribe. Her acquaintance with the Emperor could be described as a dog blood story of the beauty saving the war hero.

At that time, the Emperor was leading a large army to pacify the rebellion in the southwest. Although he was brave and good at fighting, he was young and vigorous, and his enemies were not weak.

People say that it’s easy to meet ghosts if you always walk on the streets at night. So, if you fight too many battles, sooner or later, you’d run into trouble as well. So that time, the Emperor got caught in the enemy’s trap, he was almost defeated and captured.

The Emperor who barely escaped was seriously injured and saved by the Miao girl who was out to collect medicinal herbs. The Emperor was handsome and strong, which attracted the young lady’s heart. The young lady was charming and loving, innocent and lively. Plus, the Emperor was saved by her, so she also won the Emperor’s love.

At the end of the war, the Emperor brought the Miao lady into the palace and she became one of the many concubines he had. If the story ended there, there won’t be any troubles.

However, the Miao woman was deeply in love with the Emperor. The Miao tribe people also did not have the ‘custom’ of having concubines like how the ZhongYuan people did. All of them were monogamous and ended things with one marriage. The cultural conflicts lead to cognitive differences. After entering the palace, the Miao woman knew that her lover had a wife and many concubines, and he also had so many children. His love for her was no different from that for the other concubines in the palace. Rather than being lovers who shared their hearts with each other and stayed together, she was more like a pet to use and for relaxing when the emperor had spare time.

Such a huge gap was unacceptable to the Miao woman. In addition, she had no family backing and power in the court. She was constantly threatened by a number of stronger concubines in the palace and suffered from a lot of injuries and difficulties. As for her lover, he didn’t care about any of it, he put all his energy into managing the country. The more she complained, the more annoyed her lover got.

It didn’t take long for love to turn into hate.

She couldn’t stand the infidelity of her lover, nor the coldness he showed towards her. She couldn’t stand the threats from everyone in the harem anymore—so, in the end, she lost it.

She wasn’t just any Miao tribe woman, she was also an Enchantress. The Miao people were famous for using insects for enchanting spells, which was a known fact in this world. However, very few people had actually seen it, and even most of the Miao people had only heard about it.

There were not many Miao people who could actually use the insects. Those who could use it had a very high position in the Miao tribe. Fortunately or rather unfortunately, this Miao woman was one of them.

In the intolerable situation, the Miao woman used the Gu insect³ on the Emperor. Under the Gu insect’s affect, the Emperor became her emotional puppet. Except for the affairs of the Miao woman, the Emperor was still the wise and powerful Emperor. However, in front of the Miao woman, he would be controlled by a fanatical and illogical feeling and was completely obedient to the Miao woman.

No one realized this problem. After all, the Emperor’s political skills were still there, and he had always been very fond of the Miao woman — he just loved her even more now.

The Miao woman thought that with such a ‘loyal’ lover, she would be satisfied, but when she knew that the feelings were false, she felt incomparable emptiness. She was not willing to let go of the people who hurt her, nor was she willing to give herself a break. She would rather be in hell and pull the people who hurt her down along with her.

After despairing from love, the Miao woman’s behavior became more and more outrageous. She gave up love and began to seek revenge and power instead.

She retaliated against the concubines who hurt and oppressed her. She killed the only legitimate wife of the Emperor whom she had always been envious of. In order for her children to ascend the throne, she repeatedly murdered and hurt the other princes.

The once innocent Miao woman had now become an Evil Enchantress, full of resentment and hands soaked in blood. If not for all the ministers joining together and protesting, which slightly intimidated her, she would have already been controlling the court already.

The original’s mother had no strong family backing, and she could only survive in the palace due to her usual carefulness and cautious personality.

After seeing tragedies befall several princes one after another, she noticed the danger and took a decisive action. If not, the original would have probably followed the footsteps of his elder brothers, and he would most likely be long dead.

Of course, the successful genderbend had to do with the Miao woman’s straightforwardness and her strangeness to power struggles in court.

At the time of his birth, the Evil Enchantress’s attention was mostly focused on her love rivals and the Emperor’s sons. She didn’t notice the nobody-mother who was secretly pregnant. When she noticed that there was a new child in the palace, she didn’t probe into it in detail. The palace people reported that it was a princess, so she believed that it was a princess, and ‘mercifully’ let him go, since a princess wouldn’t threaten her sons from obtaining the throne.

Later on, after she eliminated all the threats one by one, she dealt with a few unborn or children with an unidentified gender. On the other hand, with the help of the insects, the Emperor could no longer get close to any other women, which led to the lack of newborns from the whole harem except those from her.

After knowing that, Cao YuYing had been speechless for a long time without knowing where to begin. However, the information made his plan to deal with the Enchantress easier.

As long as the insect in the Emperor was removed, then everything would be solved. The proud and powerful Emperor would not accept that he was controlled by a woman for such a long time. He would probably be angry at her children as well. Cao YuYing could just watch the Emperor deal with all of his problems.

So, the next question was — how to remove the insect?

Cao YuYing had experienced so many worlds, but he had never learned magic tricks. He couldn’t understand how those insects could have such powerful effects.

Because he didn’t know about it, Cao YuYing didn’t dare to start immediately. He could only stay still for a while, be alerted of the Enchantress’s every move through his eyes and ears in the palace, hoping to get something useful.

If this didn’t work, he could try getting rid of the insect by directly confronting the Enchantress with his mental powers. Of course, that would obviously be the last resort.

——So far, Cao YuYing had more important things to deal with, which was to dress himself beautifully, and then get married with his little lover under a beautiful scenery.

——It’s so exciting and worrying.