Chapter 140: Vendor Selling Chickens Painting (1)

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Not far away, in the Longevity Palace…

Not long after the sun rose, the empress dowager, who always slept late and woke up late, was awake at this time because she had slept with Liren yesterday and had been sent back before dawn.

But there was nothing to do in the deep palace. The empress dowager still stayed on the phoenix bed, sitting cross-legged, practicing her useless Fire Bathing Picture.

The bedchamber was neat, elegant, and solemn but also gloomy. Fortunately, the ‘Vendor Selling Chickens Painting’ on the wall added a little humor to the overall composition.

Just as the empress dowager was quietly cultivating immortality, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the hall. Hongyu hurried in and knocked on the door. “Your Majesty… Your Majesty…”

The empress dowager’s eyelashes fluttered as she opened her eyes. “What is it?”

“Young Master Ye seems to have entered the palace. 1 went to the Eternal Joy Palace to get the cold melons tributed from Sha Province just now and saw the Prince of Jing and Young Master Ye going to the Peaceful Hall…”

?

The empress dowager blinked and looked at the ‘beautiful man’ painting on the wall. Then, she sat up, took a stool from the dressing table, placed it beside the wall, and took off the painting…

In the waterside pavilion in the middle of the lake…

Ye Jingtang held the Jun Mountain Heavy Saber that weighed 54 kilograms and slowly practiced the moves of the Dragon Slaying Decree.

With his physique, it wasn’t a problem for him to carry something weighing 54 kilograms with one hand. However, picking it up and wielding it like it was his arm were two different things.

The Hornless Dragon Saber weighed only about two kilograms, and its explosive power depended on one’s physique. If one held a 54-kilogram saber and used the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade to explode instantly, it was very likely that the person would go out, but the saber and arm would still be in place.

On the other hand, the Dragon Slaying Decree’s ‘Bowing Saber Spring’ relied on a unique qi circulation method to gather all one’s strength to instantly increase the speed of the heavy saber.

Then the heavy saber would rely on inertia. As long as the saber’s momentum increased, the speed would become faster and faster, and the force would become stronger and stronger, achieving the effect of ‘three strikes first can slay a dragon’.

Although the Dragon Slaying Decree was a heavy saber, due to its special starting stance, its speed was second only to the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade among saber techniques.

With this saber technique, only when encountering the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade would one need to take a step back and exchange space for time to attack with the saber.

Against other saber techniques that weren’t fast enough, it was ‘One-Step Forward, Bowing Saber Spring’. It combined strength and speed to the extreme. The only drawback was that it relied on inertia to follow.

However, one could see it but was unable to grasp it. A huge saber weighing more than fifty kilograms was flying toward them. If they were hit, they would die. It really took a lot of courage to rush forward and take advantage of the loophole.

Ye Jingtang believed that his attainments in the saber were not low. But after thinking about it for a long time with the heavy saber, he found that the best solution was to stab the opponent to death with a nine-foot-long spear. There was no need to fuss about it.

The spear was publicly acknowledged as the king of weapons. It could deal with all kinds of bells and whistles in a one-on-one battle. It was completely unreasonable when fighting against short-range weapons. The Spear Chief ranked seventh in the world and fourth among the Eight Chiefs because the six above were deities who were proficient in all kinds of weapons, and they also knew how to use large spears. Furthermore, they practiced both internal and external martial arts. Just being good at the spear wouldn’t do.

As for Xuanyuan Chao, he could only rank eighth in the world. It wasn’t that his talent was inferior to the Spear Chief’s but that he specialized in the saber, so he was destined to be suppressed by the spear. The same was true for Zhou Chiyang.

However, if he used the spear to defeat Xuanyuan Chao, it would only be a vendetta in Jianghu, and he wouldn’t be able to obtain the title of Saber Chief. His foster father had lost in the saber. Clearly, he couldn’t take revenge like this. If he wanted to fulfill his foster father’s last wish, he had to polish the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade.

Ye Jingtang was completely focused on studying saber techniques, almost forgetting himself.

Dongfang Liren didn’t mind being neglected. She stood outside the waterside pavilion with her hands behind her back and sized him up carefully.

The bird was a little bored. It spread its wings and swayed around Dongfang Liren’s feet. It kicked Sister Fat-Headed Snake’s shoes with its claws. It was probably practicing the ‘Eagle Claw Technique’.

Just as the two of them and the bird were seriously contemplating martial arts, footsteps suddenly came from the lakeside.

Tap, tap, tap…

Two faint whispers sounded.

“Your Majesty, I’m afraid it’s not a good idea for you to go in. What if Her Highness is doing something with Young Master Ye…”

“What nonsense are you talking about in broad daylight? I’m just going in to take a look…”

Ye Jingtang’s blade paused. He turned around and saw two women walking out of the corridor at the side of the Peaceful Hall.

In the back was a beautiful palace maid holding a painting scroll in her hand. In front was a woman in a gorgeous palace dress with a colorful phoenix cloud collar and gold and jade jewelry. Her hair was tied into an extremely noble double-knife bun© with wind-patterned gold hairpins. She walked slowly and lightly, without any sway in her footsteps, and her bearing was extremely elegant.

The woman’s cheeks were round and soft. Her cherry-like mouth and her pair of gem-like big eyes made her look noble and superior, but it was not to the extent that people didn’t dare to look at her directly. She gave off a sense of peace and tranquility. She was the kind of daughter-in-law that wealthy families liked very much. No matter how beautiful and charming a beauty was, she could suppress her. It would be obvious at a glance who was the eldest wife of the family.

Seeing this, Dongfang Liren walked out of the waterside pavilion and bowed politely. “Empress Dowager, why are you here?”

Ye Jingtang had met the empress dowager once, but last time, she was wearing a casual dress and looked like a noble lady. He really didn’t realize that the empress dowager looked so good in formal attire. She completely embodied the grandeur and loftiness of an empress. Ye Jingtang walked out of the waterside pavilion and cupped his hands. “Commoner Ye Jingtang pays his respects to Your Majesty Empress Dowager.”

“No need for formalities.” The empress dowager walked gracefully to the lakeside. “1 was bored in the palace and wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with Her Majesty. But 1 found that Her Majesty wasn’t around, so 1 came here to take a look.”

As she spoke, she wanted to jump onto a lotus leaf stone.

The stone was level with the lake’s surface and relatively long. It would be dangerous for ordinary women to walk on it.

Seeing this, Dongfang Liren flew up, leaped across the lake like a dragonfly skimming the water, and arrived in front of the empress dowager.

The empress dowager was very well-behaved. She consciously raised her hand and let Dongfang Liren hug her waist. Then she was carried into the air toward the waterside pavilion.