淫欲的代价

The next morning, Xian Taiwen was fully recovered. He Yuan didn\'t care at all as he\'d already carried out his mission successfully.

As for what he did to Xian Taiwen? Simple. He\'d rendered the son of heaven infertile. For the common people and court ministers expecting an imperial descendant, he was sorry, no dragon kin coming from those loins. Ha Ha.

The imperial bloodline wasn\'t going to end anyways. There was still the completely healthy third prince. The rumours he\'d spread days ago, on the other hand, had blown up to atrocious proportions.

He Yuan was beyond dumbfounded when he heard what the rumours had evolved into. Words going around were;

The empress wasn\'t possessed but was an evil spirit herself. The eldest miss of the Wei family had died at that attack and had struck a deal with the king of ghouls in order to give her a chance to return and seek vengeance.

Once she carried out her vengeance on the Wei family, she didn\'t want to return as she had tasted power and had struck another deal with the ghoul king to throw the nation into chaos in order to remain in the land of the living.

Another one said;

The empress was possessed by a fox spirit whose plan was to charm the son of heaven and take control of his mind and hence, the nation. That was why the emperor doted on the empress so much even to the extent of accepting no other in his harem.

This was also the reason why a lot of men in the nation where infatuated with this lady that was already married.

Yet another one went as thus;

The empress wasn\'t possessed by an evil spirit or a fox spirit but was a high ranked demon that had sneakily killed off the original eldest miss of the Wei family and taken her place.

Everyone that was healed by her skills had in fact indirectly sold their souls to Yama and would be obliterated with no chance for reincarnation once they died.

She\'d also offered up the souls of her unborn children and that was why she couldn\'t give birth.

He Yuan had to hand it to these people. The gears in their brains were turning at the speed of light! The worst part was that they told their stories with such righteousness that even him, the originator of the rumour, was compelled to believe their words instead.

Days later, the rumours finally reached Wei Yun\'er\'s ears and she was furious. What was wrong with these living fossils? How dare they accuse her of such atrocious deeds?!

She was taking a walk in the imperial garden when she heard two maids talking rubbish about her in hushed tones. In a fit of anger, she took a whip and flogged both of them to death as a warning to others.

This did nothing to solve the problem but instead sparked a new wave of rumours the next day;

The empress was indeed an evil spirit and because she was distressed from her secret getting out, she hastily put two servants to death in broad daylight!

The emperor soon found out about the rumours and forbade anyone from spreading baseless words with the punishment being death by flogging.

This brought peace to the imperial palace for a period of time but not for long. Rumours were like a large balloon filled with air. The more you tried to suppress it by squeezing it in your hands, the more strained it became until it finally bursts.

And so, this balloon of rumour soon reached the ears of the court ministers and burst. They were a bit intrigued but never really completely believed the rumours. They only saw this as an opportunity to pressure the emperor into producing a descendant.

The imperial censor presented the matter in a way that made it seem like he was indignant on behalf of the empress. [ How dare these shortsighted people spread such rumours against the mother of the nation?! ]

Then he displayed a look of great sorrow and internal struggle. [If only the empress had given birth to a child, all these rumours wouldn\'t have surfaced but alas...]

And then he displayed a look of realization. [ This could be easily solved! The empress just has to bear a child and if she couldn\'t, the emperor could always accept more women in the harem to produce heirs.]

The other ministers supported the imperial censor\'s one man show with looks of agreement and firm nods. In they end, they were still turned down by the emperor but they noticed his resistance was not as fierce as it once was. This was good, there was hope!

Wei Yun\'er noticed that these days, Xian Taiwen had lost a lot of weight and was getting paler and paler due to stress. She knew those old geezers were pressuring him each day in court for a child.

What was their problem?! This was another person\'s family issue, why were they so concerned? Even more concerned than the people involved. Didn\'t they know what privacy was?

Every time Xian Taiwen came to her looking drained but refusing to make demands from her, a piece of her heart broke. She finally decided to carry a child. She gave it a lot of thought. They could give birth to a child and after raising him for a few years, Xian Taiwen could hand over the throne to the child and then the both of them could enjoy a nice retirement life touring the world!

Xian Taiwen was elated by the news so the both of them embarked on a journey to create life. Neither knew that it was already too late.

They tried for a few months but with no results. Wei Yun\'er was beginning to become skeptical, she had checked the state of this body and knew she was very fertile so what was wrong? She inadvertently checked XianTaiwen\'s pulse. He also seemed okay... Or could it be another natural illness?

They tried for a few more months and Xian Taiwen was beginning to look at Wei Yun\'er weirdly. This was after all the ancient times and any problem with childbirth was generally thought to be the woman\'s fault. Could it be that his Yun\'er was infertile? He needed to present a descendant or else those old men might revolt, what should he do?

He Yuan witnessed all of these from the sidelines and he was very satisfied. Xian Taiwen claimed to love Wei Yun\'er very much but when faced with the possibility that he might lose his throne, what would he choose?

It was time to push them a little over the edge. Whether they remained precariously balanced on their very thin rope of love or fall down into the abyss would depend solely on their own choices.