Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 929: The Crown Prince and the Concubine

A full day passed in the ruined ancestral courtyard of the Gongsun Clan. The skies above were clear of the invading armadas but a heavy and suffocating tension clung to the stone walls. The remaining elders had spent the entire night and morning mobilizing whatever trackers and communication arrays they still possessed.As the afternoon sun reached its peak, a small group of senior elders approached Zhan Tian. Their faces were pale and drawn with terror. They dropped to their knees before the Worldkeeper.

"Worldkeeper," the lead elder whispered while pressing his forehead against the cracked stone. "Yue is gone. We cannot find her anywhere. Her life token is still active but she has severed all ties to our communication networks. We have scoured the remaining territories but there is no trace of her."

Zhan Tian narrowed his eyes. The ambient gravity in the courtyard spiked, cracking the stone beneath the elders' knees. It was clear he was visibly upset by the news.

The family members standing around the perimeter of the courtyard immediately broke into hushed and venomous whispers. They began cursing her name with a hatred born of ruin. She and her father, along with the ambitious elders who had supported their foolish desire to break away had truly become the eternal sinners of the family.

"She caused this fire and she does not even have the courage to burn in it!" One of the younger cousins spat on the ground.

"Patriarch Yi must have told her to escape knowing the end was near." Another elder grumbled bitterly. "They doomed us all and tried to save themselves."

They cursed Yue for not even accepting responsibility for the devastation she had brought to their doorstep. Just as Zhan Tian was preparing to deploy his own means to hunt the girl down, a spatial distortion ripped through the sky above the capital.

The spiritual fluctuations were immense. The void tore open and a fleet of golden spiritual ships descended through the clouds. They flew the radiant golden banners of the Aurelian Spear Kingdom.

The Aurelian Spear Kingdom was a powerful force renowned for their devastating spear arts. They were not on the same level as the Zhan Clan but they were formidable enough that they did not need to easily bow their heads to the Zhan Clan either.

It would seem that Gongsun Yue had been very busy.

She had managed to secure their help in the final hours by trading her life and her body over to their Crown Prince. Seeing as it should be an easy task since most forces would retreat knowing that they were advancing, it was a low effort task to secure a talented concubine. The kingdom had sent a force to help the Gongsun Clan fight off the other scavengers but they had received reports on the way there that Zhan Tian had already appeared and ended the siege.

It was a bitter and devastating irony. Yue had broken the ancient oath because she refused to be a servant to Li Yu, demanding her freedom. Now, her fate was exactly the same. Bound as a concubine to someone else but her clan had completely fallen in the process.

Of course, the elders who had supported her did so because they were ambitious and truly thought they could fly on their own. If they had known the true consequences, they would have never allowed her to sever the lifeline.

The massive golden flagship of the Spear Kingdom descended slowly with its hull shimmering with complex defensive arrays.

Crown Prince Shen stood on the main deck. He wore immaculate golden robes and possessed the arrogant but refined air of true royalty. Standing right beside him was Gongsun Yue. She was dressed in fine silks, a stark contrast to the blood and ash covering her home. She was flanked by only two surviving retainers: Scholar Mo and Auntie Lan. The rest of her personal guard, including the arrogant Hao and the Grandma Gui, had already perished in the brutal border wars.

When the ship lowered, Yue looked down at the ruined ancestral grounds and her eyes scanned the surviving elders kneeling in the dirt. Then, she saw the severed head of her father resting near the stone steps. No one had dared to move it and Zhan Tian forgotten about it all together.

Yue let out a piercing scream of agony. Her knees buckled and she collapsed onto the polished wooden deck. She sobbed violently, the sound echoing out over the quiet courtyard. She reached out and grabbed Shen's golden robes, looking up at him with tear filled and desperate eyes.

"Kill him!" Yue begged the Crown Prince hysterically. She pointed a trembling finger down at the white armored giant standing in the courtyard. "He killed my father! You promised to protect my family! Kill Zhan Tian!"

Shen looked down at her as the initial lust and political ambition he felt when he accepted her as a concubine vanished, replaced by a mixture of pity and disgust.

"Have you gone completely stupid?!" Shen asked harshly with his voice ringing with disbelief. Yue froze. Her sobs hitched in her throat as she stared up at the Crown Prince, stunned by his cold reaction.

"Do you not understand who Zhan Tian is?!" Shen demanded, yanking his robes from her desperate grip. "One of our most respected ancestors just returned from the dark zone crusade. He was a general who served directly under Zhan Tian's command! Do you have any idea the level of reverence my kingdom holds for that ancestor and in turn for Zhan Tian?"

Shen leaned down with his eyes narrowing into cold slits.

"If you try anything or do anything to offend him while standing on my ship, I will gladly hand you over to him myself," Shen warned her ruthlessly. "I am not going to offend an expert of his caliber on your behalf. You are a talented and beautiful woman, Yue, but you are absolutely not worth the wrath of the Worldkeeper."

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Yue slumped backward on the deck as the color drained entirely from her face. A deep and crushing depression settled over her as her thoughts were in chaos. She had traded her freedom, her pride and her body for protection, only to find that her new master was terrified of the very man who had ended up killing her father. She had truly lost everything now.

Shen ignored her broken state and let out a sigh. He felt he was truly unlucky with this decision now. Shen gestured to his generals and together they flew down from the ship, landing respectfully at the edge of the courtyard. They walked forward and greeted Zhan Tian with deep and formal bows.

"Worldkeeper," Shen spoke politely with his tone measured and respectful.

"Crown Prince." Zhan Tian replied calmly. He did not flare his aura or act overbearing. He treated the young royal with standard respect, mainly due to their ancestor who served with him. "What brings the golden spears to this ruined mud?"

Shen straightened up and explained the situation. He detailed the pact his kingdom had made regarding his new concubine and the forces he had brought to assist the Gongsun Clan in their border wars.

"I have reclaimed these lands," Zhan Tian told them simply, resting his heavy glaive against his shoulder. "The clan is under a new head now. They belong to my territory once again. You should head back. Unfortunately this trip was a waste of time for your kingdom."

Shen hesitated. He was a Crown Prince, driven by ambition and the desire to expand his kingdom's influence as well as his own. To leave completely empty handed bruised his pride and also made it so he would not commit to his side of the bargain.

"Perhaps." Shen tried to negotiate but his voice was careful. "We can allow Yue to rule over the clan instead? She has the direct bloodline. These lands could be split evenly. Fifty percent governed under the Zhan Clan and fifty percent governed under the Aurelian Spear Kingdom. A mutually beneficial border."

Zhan Tian’s expression did not change.

"That will not be possible this time," Zhan Tian refused politely. "Perhaps if you had arrived here before me and fought off the vultures yourselves, we could discuss terms. But I have already put a new clan head in place and had all the top elders swear a soul oath to my clan. The matter is settled."

Shen frowned slightly. It was a firm rejection but the Crown Prince was not a fool. He could see the reverence and the underlying fear his own generals held as they looked at Zhan Tian. He was smart enough to know when to back down. Zhan Tian had been more than reasonable by even entertaining the conversation.

"Understood," Shen bowed again while swallowing his pride. "We will depart immediately. We wish you well in securing your borders, Worldkeeper."

Just as the peaceful resolution was reached, a shrill, hysterical voice echoed from the deck of the hovering flagship.

"You butcher!" Yue screamed down at the courtyard. She had scrambled to the railing and her face had twisted in absolute madness. She hurled insults and curses at Zhan Tian, insulting his lineage, his honor and the supposed 'mercy' of the Zhan Clan.

The generals and Shen turned pale upon hearing the words. They were completely stunned by her suicidal arrogance and even more terrified they would be brought down by her.

Li Yu stepped forward from behind his grandfather and he looked up at the screaming woman on the deck. He recognized her instantly, along with the Scholar and the Auntie standing nervously behind her.

'So that was what she meant by breaking her chains,' Li Yu thought to himself. He finally understood the full context of that bizarre kidnapping and encounter back then. She had been desperately trying to erase the oath so she could sell herself to a higher bidder.

Zhan Tian looked at Shen and his eyes were cold and furious. Out of consideration again for one of his generals, Zhan Tian did not act out.

"Take her back home." Zhan Tian told the Crown Prince with his voice devoid of any warmth. "I was going to take her head today as well to finish purging the rot. But out of respect for your ancestor who fought bravely under my command in the dark zone, I will let her go with you. I will spare her life as a favor to your spear."

Shen breathed a sigh of immense relief but sweat was still beading on his forehead. "Thank you, Worldkeeper. Your mercy is vast, I will silence her immediately."

Shen turned to fly back to the ship and was desperate to drag his foolish concubine away before she ruined everything. But Yue was completely unhinged by grief and the realization of her total failure. As Shen flew up, she slung another vicious string of insults directly at Zhan Tian, specifically cursing the bloodline of his daughter, Tielan.

That was the last straw.

Zhan Tian did not respond back to her and he did not warn her. He simply swung his heavy glaive upward from the ground in a casual and one handed motion.

A terrifying arc of kinetic force and blinding white Qi shot into the sky. It bypassed Shen completely and the blade of energy slammed into the hovering flagship.

It sliced cleanly through Yue's left arm, severing it perfectly at the shoulder in an explosion of blood. But the attack did not stop there. The force continued upward and completely sheared off the entire right third of the golden flagship.

The protective arrays shattered like brittle ice. Metal shrieked and massive explosions rocked the sky as a huge chunk of the pristine ship broke away. Zhan Tian had already sent another wave of Qi to obliterate the falling chunk so it would not damage the structures below.

Shen landed on the ruined and tilting deck of his ship. He stared at the smoking wreckage of his prized flagship, this flagship was an extension of his image and authority. His heart completely broke when he saw the sight. He did not even look at his bleeding concubine rolling on the floor in agony. He was infinitely more concerned about the devastating loss of his symbol of power.

He was furious.

"Capture her and shut her mouth right now!" Shen roared at his royal guards on the deck, pointing a trembling finger at the screaming Yue.

The guards immediately tackled Yue, binding her tightly and sealed her voice away. They dragged her away from the railing and threw her unceremoniously into the lower hold. Shen turned back to Zhan Tian while ignoring the smoke billowing around him. He fell to one knee on the deck and bowed his head deeply over the railing.

"I apologize again for her disrespect, Worldkeeper!" Shen shouted sincerely with his voice trembling. Even though he was heartbroken over his ship, he knew he was incredibly lucky to still have his own head attached to his shoulders.

"Leave." Zhan Tian commanded coldly.

Shen gathered his terrified generals and flew back up to the smoking ruins of his flagship. The damaged, lopsided vessel was still able to fly but it was limping awkwardly. It then tore a hasty rift back to the Aurelian Spear Kingdom.

They took the broken and defeated Yue away with them, leaving the Gongsun Clan to finally begin their long and painful penance under the shadow of the Zhan Clan.