QT: LAC Chapter 148: Ninth World (13)

Chapter 148: Ninth World (13)
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Edited by Sulo

According to the so-called ‘a married daughter is water spilled out’, even the Royal Princess was no exception. As long as the princess’s husband didn’t make any huge mistakes, then the princess would also need to abide by the rules of ‘a female after getting married follows the husband’. So as long as there is a husband to take with her, it was not as difficult for the princess to leave the capital than when compared to a prince.

After getting the approval of Imperial Counsellor Bai about going out for a trip, Bai Duan and Cao YuYing stayed in the capital for more than a month, feeding dog food to the people in the capital, so that everyone knew that they had a good relationship. Later, Bai Duan wrote to the Emperor, as his son-in-law, expressing his wish to travel and increase his knowledge with the princess.

The Emperor soon gave permission to the two men to leave the capital, and even encouraged them to do so. The contents of his encouragement was not much different from Imperial Counsellor Bai’s encouragement.

With the Emperor’s permission, Bai Duan and Cao YuYing moved quickly. Because Cao YuYing was a princess and was therefore precious, it was impossible for them to have only two people on the trip, with light clothes and simple equipment. They had to bring guards, servants and maids. Even if they tried their best to simplify the staff, they still formed a team of more than ten people.

The travel expenses of this trip were basically from Cao YuYing’s wedding gifts — Bai Duan mistook Cao YuYing for a female before marriage, so he worked hard and planned for a long time on how to make money and support his family. But now that he knew the identity of Cao YuYing as a man, Bai Duan’s desire to make money suddenly became weaker. When he used his wife’s wedding gifts, he didn’t feel even a bit of embarrassment.

Cao YuYing was also very satisfied with the situation of ‘raising’ his lover. He didn’t want his sweetheart to focus on how to make money—— My lover only needs to think about himself all the time!

After everything was ready, Bai Duan and Cao YuYing went to the palace again to bid farewell to the Emperor. They got on the coach leaving the capital and drove to a wider world outside the capital.

Although Bai Duan still thought about the insects in the Emperor’s mind, Cao YuYing was not worried at all. Anyway, the original’s wish had been completed. He not only left the palace successfully, but also found himself a lover who he could stay with together forever. The task of removing the insect could only be regarded as a side task. Doing it or not would just increase the reward a bit at most.

Therefore, when compared, Bai Duan, who had been educated by Imperial Counsellor Bai as a loyal and patriotic person, was very worried about the Emperor. While Cao YuYing, the ‘daughter’, instead focused most of his attention on his honeymoon trip with his lover.

Every time he went to a town, he would seriously inquire about places of interest, their customs, their upcoming festivals and the special food there. Then he would play with his lover. Bai Duan was a little absent-minded at first and always urged him to hurry up, but later he was also gradually infected by Cao YuYing, enjoying this carefree and unrestrained time.

It has to be said that going on a trip is really an activity that can quickly allow people to understand each other. If their personalities do not match, they would soon be separated because of various conflicts between them. However, when it came to Bai Duan and Cao YuYing, they became more and more intimate and harmonious during the trip. Even the servants who followed them would consciously distance themselves when they were together, so as not to blind their own eyes from all the dog food.

Of course, this kind of practice was great for Bai Duan’s peace of mind. He brought a young servant whom he grew up with and trusted with him. Cao YuYing also brought one of his trusted maids, but the remaining guards and men were given by the Emperor and were not under his control. Bai Duan was very worried that they would find out about the secret of his ‘wife’ and report it back to the Emperor in private, and then to the Enchantress.

For such a nervous and prudent lover, Cao YuYing felt warm in his heart, but he didn’t tell the other party that he had mentally controlled the guards long before he left the capital. It wouldn’t matter even if he was exposed — even after he was far away from the capital, he didn’t take off the women’s clothing he disliked and restore his male status.

This was not because Cao YuYing liked wearing women’s clothes all of a sudden, but because of the discovery of a trick, his little lover’s response to his dress was particularly intense.

Every time he pressed his lover under his body in women’s clothing and held him in his arms, Bai Duan always showed extreme shyness, tension and beauty.

Cao YuYing was very fond of seeing his lover blush and shy away when he was carried into his arms. Normally, Bai Duan was always honest about desire and was very open in bed. Suddenly, he would turn into a nervous, stiff and shy little thing. The contrast made Cao YuYing very interested.

So full of benefits, Cao YuYing forgot about himself, not wanting to stop. This completely overwhelmed his aversion and rejection of women’s clothing.

So, even after knowing that he could change out of women’s clothes, he still dressed as a woman, and regarded his husband as the heavens in front of other people. When not in front of people though, he would hold his husband in his arms and bully him until tears fell out from his eyes — it was really enjoyable.

In this way, it took Bai Duan and Cao YuYing nearly a year to travel from the capital to the Miao tribe villages. In the middle of the journey, they also went to play in the beautiful JiangNan.

During this trip, Bai Duan not only experienced the vast highlands but the people’s lifestyle. Anyway, ‘Princess Highness’ was very rich, she also had strong family backing. As long as there was money, it was more than enough to send people to crash a place. Plus they had the cheating mechanism known as mental strength, so there was no need to worry about being disturbed when they were together.

So, when the honeymoon trip came to an end, ‘Princess Highness’ was especially satisfied. Even when he reached the Miao tribe’s river, and needed to begin to handle the branch task. It only made him slightly frown with regret and he wasn’t completely annoyed.

Although Miao was far away from Zhong Yuan, there were still many towns with Han tribe people ¹ as the main population. There were many Miao, Bai, Shui and other ethnic minorities living amongst them as well, they had been intermarrying with Han people for generations already.

Most of these ethnic minorities who chose to intermarry with other ethnic groups did not have high status in their own ethnic groups. So, they were not familiar with things such as the Gu insects — plus, if you were high up in the tribe, you would surely keep the secret and pretend to be an ordinary person after leaving the family.

Therefore, Cao YuYing was not going to look for needles in a haystack in the Han nationality towns, but planned to go deep into the dense forest to find the Miao tribe village, where pure blood Miao people lived. It was very difficult to find the stockaded village hidden in the dense jungle. After all, the dense forest was dangerous and it was difficult to distinguish directions. In addition to the vast area, one would not only need the strength to protect oneself, but also the favor of luck.

However, these difficulties were not of any trouble for Cao YuYing.

He had the backing of the system — although the system didn’t have any sense of existence most of the time, it was more than useful to be able to scan the region to locate his own position. However, Cao YuYing’s ambition was not only to find a Miao village in the dense forest, but also to further find the Miao village where the Enchantress came from.

If the former was easy, then the latter was very difficult. Cao YuYing’s ambition depended on the first-hand information he got from the Enchantress with his intelligence network.

The Enchantress was not happy in the palace. She missed the Miao village she grew up in, but she was unwilling and had no face to go back, she could only recall the hometown where all her beautiful youthful memories took place in again and again.

After being included into the harem, the Enchantress gradually came into contact with the culture of Zhong Yuan, and worked hard to learn the arts of chess, calligraphy and painting in order to please her lover. Although later, when her love was not returned, she did not give up these skills. The original purpose of learning to flatter her lover turned into self entertainment, to pass the time.

Even though the time of contact with Zhong Yuan culture was late, the Enchantress had talents, especially in painting.

In her spare time, the Enchantress often took a brush to depict the Miao village in her memories, sometimes even her relatives and friends. That painting was full of her yearning, sadness and guilt. At the same time, she was afraid that this memory would fade with time. She hoped that when she could still remember it, she would set it on the rice paper forever.

These paintings were all quietly scanned and stored in the memory by Cao YuYing’s system as the only basis for locating the Miao village. Cao YuYing also controlled the close female official trusted by the Enchantress. He even managed to steal a silver pendant with an exquisite totem from her, one which she brought from the Miao village. This was in case of any emergencies.

Of course, these arrangements were put aside when Cao YuYing married Bai Duan and decided to stay in the capital. After all, without the system’s help, it would be very difficult to achieve this, especially if he could only send some men over to do his bidding.

But Cao YuYing didn’t think the plan he had given up on would turn out okay. Finally, he successfully set foot on the land of the Miao tribe together with his little lover. They found the jungle where the Emperor once fought and was in danger, also the place where he first met with the Enchantress.

After settling the servants in the Han town of Miao, Bai Duan and Cao YuYing found an excuse to leave together and prepare for going deep into the forest. Cao YuYing finally reluctantly changed out of the cumbersome women’s dresses and put on the more convenient men’s clothes.

“If we leave like this, the bodyguards won’t worry? Will they send the news of our disappearance to the Emperor?” Bai Duan also changed into more convenient clothings. He was not used to pulling the neckline up and tying his cuffs tightly to prevent mosquitoes from crawling in. He was worried.

“Don’t worry, I’ve made arrangements to keep them from talking,” Cao YuYing naturally did not dare to reveal the secret that he had controlled the bodyguards. He could only guarantee it seriously.

Bai Duan nodded a little and asked no more. Along the way, he was used to relying on Cao YuYing and believed everything he said — except in bed, of course.

To prepare, Cao YuYing used the system to scan the dense forest area and located the general location of the Miao villages. Next, Cao YuYing needed to bring the system closer to these Miao villages, then conduct a more detailed and in-depth scanning, and finally determine the target village.

Following Cao YuYing, Bai Duan was surprised to see him walking through the jungle with clear goals. “You seem to know this place very well?”

Cao YuYing nodded his head without any hesitation. As he moved forward, he confirmed through the system map, “Of course, I have been preparing for this for a long time already.”

Bai Duan did not doubt him, but he also secretly congratulated himself for proposing to leave the capital, so that all of Cao YuYing’s efforts did not go to waste.

In this way, Bai Duan and Cao YuYing spent more than a week secretly visiting several Miao villages. In the jungle, with the deterrence of Cao YuYing’s mental power, no wild animals, such as tigers, leopards, monkeys, snakes and so on, caused them any troubles. They did not encounter any difficulties along the way either. The only problem was that it was a bit inconvenient to clean themselves. Despite Cao YuYing’s great efforts, they were still in a bit of a dilemma.

Cao YuYing was very distressed when he saw his lover sniffing his own body odor in disgust, “If the next Miao village is still not the target we are looking for, we should leave for a while and come back after resting.”

Bai Duan hesitated for a moment and wanted to say that he could hold on, but he was worried about Cao YuYing, who was also dirty. After all, Cao YuYing has been taking care of him for a long time. He should be more tired than him.

“Fine,” Bai Duan gently nodded his head and held Cao YuYing’s fingers. “Let’s have a good rest.”

“Um,” Cao YuYing felt the love of his lover, his eyes were full of laughter, and even he wanted to return right away now. He had not had intimate times with his lover for a long time since they went deep into the forest, and he really missed it.

Maybe it was this decision that set up a big flag. When Bai Duan and Cao YuYing had planned to turn around for renovation, they got ‘good news’ after approaching the next Miao village.

From the feedback information from the system, the Miao village had more than sixty percent similarity with the characters depicted in the Enchantress’ paintings. If it was taken into account the blurring of time and memory, this similarity would be further upgraded. And more importantly, the system also found a totem that was exactly the same as the one on the silver ornament of the Enchantress in the village.

Bai Duan, who was very happy to have achieved their goals said, “People with heart will surely succeed!”

Although the goal had been achieved, Cao YuYing didn’t know why but he was not so happy, “Yeah.” →_→

——It seems that he will have to wait for a long time before he can hold his lover tightly again… this is a little annoying.

After finding the correct Miao village, Cao YuYing didn’t go in straight away, but took Bai Duan to lurk around the village. Cao YuYing scanned and observed the situation in the whole Miao village with the system’s help.

Bai Duan didn’t know what Cao YuYing was doing, but one of his strengths was that he never really ‘meddles in things he shouldn’t’.