Chapter 53 So Deeply in Love

In the imperial back garden of the Holy Moon Imperial Court!

Li Xuan and Gong Jinglin sat facing each other inside a small pavilion with a picturesque view. Old Liu instructed the palace maids to serve some delicate pastries before respectfully standing guard nearby.

Gong Jinglin had already changed into a flowing white gauze dress, her smooth, shapely, and full legs half-exposed to the air. Combined with her noble and elegant temperament, she presented a sight that left Li Xuan utterly dazzled.

However, despite his wandering eyes, Li Xuan cast sidelong glances toward the palace maids standing across from them, who remained as motionless as puppets.

Gong Jinglin parted her cherry lips slightly, her upper and lower teeth lightly clicking together: "What is it? With a great beauty like me right by your side, are you already setting your sights on those palace maids?"

Li Xuan hurriedly explained, "No, no. Eldest Princess, I just feel a bit out of place. We're sitting here tasting pastries while they're standing stiffly over there. It just doesn't feel right to me."

Gong Jinglin covered her mouth and chuckled softly. Li Xuan immediately called out, "Sisters and eunuchs standing over there, come on over and have some treats with us!"

However, no one dared to move. Even Old Liu remained rooted to the spot like a wooden pillar.

Gong Jinglin smiled and said, "Old Liu, take some pastries and share them with the others. All of you move far away from us and do not disturb our Imperial Minister's meal."

Old Liu bowed deeply and replied, "Thank you, Your Majesty! Thank you, Imperial Minister!"

Watching Old Liu's retreating figure, Li Xuan remarked, "Eldest Princess, they are all pitiful people. Now that you hold supreme power, you should try to treat them as well as possible."

Gong Jinglin rested her chin on her hand and smiled gently. "You're quite the philanthropist, Li Xuan. But have you ever considered my position? What if one day I am ten months pregnant and you are not by my side? Tell me, what should I do?"

Since ancient times, the palace rules of the imperial court had been exceptionally strict. Even under the rule of a benevolent monarch, servants received no sympathy, as they were born solely to serve the royal family. Even men had to be castrated before they could enter the palace service.

And it was not just the imperial court; prominent noble families maintained the exact same practices to ensure the purity of their bloodlines, as well as to safeguard their own security.

Li Xuan pondered for a long moment before answering, "I truly hadn't thought of that."

Gong Jinglin tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and said, "Being a man, naturally you have no such worries. Even if I ascend the throne, I am still a woman at the end of the day, and I must continue the Dragon Emperor's bloodline for the Gong family. Only now do I truly understand my late father's earnest warnings: to sit upon the throne is to sit upon a mountain of knives and a sea of fire."

Li Xuan remained silent. Everyone wished to climb to the pinnacle of power, and everyone knew it was a throne stained with the blood of countless souls, yet everyone still yearned to possess it.

Gong Jinglin continued, "You saw what happened during the court assembly in the Study of Literary Governance today. If not for your appearance, the person sitting here sipping tea right now might well have been my Imperial Uncle!"

Li Xuan asked in astonishment, "What about the former Emperor? He merely abdicated, he didn't pass away!"

Only the former Emperor possessed the prestige to keep the situation under control; after all, ginger grew more pungent the older it got.

Gong Jinglin shook her head slightly. "After my father clashed with the patriarch of the Tang family, his vital energy surged uncontrollably. He took the ancient scroll and entered the ancestral vein, and his current fate—whether alive or dead—remains unknown. It is precisely because of this that my Imperial Uncle has become so brazen."

Matters having reached this point, anything Li Xuan said was useless. No wonder Old Liu constantly reminded him to spend more time keeping Gong Jinglin company; as it turned out, fighting her lonely battle alone had left her desperately isolated.

Prince Regent Gong Ao had controlled the Imperial Guard for many years and had long since cultivated numerous loyal confidants, placing Gong Jinglin's every move under his constant surveillance.

Gong Jinglin urgently hoped for fresh blood to be injected into the imperial court to dilute the Regent's power, thereby stabilizing the entire political landscape.

"If my mother were still alive, things wouldn't have become so passive. Once Mo'er grows up, I will be able to retire with my mission accomplished."

Gong Jinglin possessed a resilient spirit; even surrounded by crouching tigers and hidden dragons, she still yearned for a bright future.

Suddenly, Li Xuan asked, "Why did the former Emperor choose me as your husband instead of someone from your mother's side of the family?"

A shadow crossed Gong Jinglin's brow, and it was a long while before she replied, "Because the Jiang family has never once taken the imperial court seriously. I remember when I was ten years old, the humiliation my father suffered when he begged the Jiang family patriarch to prolong Mo'er's life, and my mother kowtowed until she bled, pleading for help—yet the Jiang family never offered the slightest assistance. In the end, it was an enigmatic expert who temporarily stabilized Mo'er's condition."

Recalling the events of more than a decade ago, Gong Jinglin's phoenix eyes brimmed with tears—wrathful for her father, and deeply aggrieved for her mother.

Li Xuan gently grasped Gong Jinglin's delicate, jade-like hand and said, "The past is in the past. Be strong. Regardless of whether your feelings for me are genuine or not, since the Second Sister has accepted the Gong family's betrothal gifts, I will not let you or Mo'er come to harm. As a man, I will do everything in my power to protect you. However, I also ask that you do no harm to my Li family."

If the head of the Li family and his wife were personally presiding over things, the situation might have been much better.

Li Xuan gently wiped the tear stains from the corner of Gong Jinglin's eyes and continued, "I obtained a damaged treasure that might just be able to cure the Soul-Devouring Curse within Mo'er's body."

Gong Jinglin's eyes lit up. She gripped Li Xuan's hand tightly and asked, "Is that true? Heaven truly blesses the Gong family!"

Seeing Gong Jinglin's expression of joy through her tears, Li Xuan finally understood the responsibility of a man: to risk everything to protect the one he loved, and the ones she loved.

"Oh, that's right! The Sun-Devouring God-Destroying Crossbow hasn't undergone blood-binding yet. I'll pass a source rune on to you so you can master it quickly. With its help, I believe Gong Ao and his faction won't dare to act rashly."

Li Xuan raised his eyes to survey the surroundings of the imperial palace before adding, "Furthermore, with the source rune array guarding the imperial court, they will definitely hesitate out of fear."

Leaning in close, Li Xuan lowered his voice. "Watch out for traitors within the inner palace. Prevent them from collaborating from within to dismantle the protective source rune array."

As Gong Jinglin whispered a soft "Mn," she suddenly turned her head sharply. Her rose-red lips, soft as water chestnut flowers, accidentally brushed directly against Li Xuan's lips. With their eyes wide open and their hearts racing, they snapped apart instantly, their faces flushing crimson.

Gong Jinglin was already breathtakingly beautiful, and at this moment, displaying a woman's shy modesty, she looked peerlessly exquisite.

This was not Li Xuan's first brush with forbidden romance; when he had forcibly kissed Tang Ruoxian before, he hadn't felt this heart-pounding sensation. Yet Gong Jinglin struck him like a bolt of lightning, filling him with a warm, flowing vitality and even sparking an urge to do it all over again.

"Well, about this..."

With a blazing red face, Li Xuan stammered for a long while without managing to string a coherent sentence together.

Gong Jinglin forcibly suppressed the turbulent ripples in her heart and asked, "Li Xuan, what were you going to say?"

Li Xuan twiddled his fingers together. For someone usually so silver-tongued, he suddenly found himself tongue-tied and clumsy with words.

Having grown up in the deep palace, Gong Jinglin was far from unacquainted with romantic affection and human ethics. The mere thought of that tender, enchanting scene caused a blush to spread across her face.

With a dry throat, Li Xuan made a clumsy, panicked movement that knocked over his teacup, spilling the liquid across Gong Jinglin's long, fair legs.

Li Xuan hurriedly fumbled about to clean up the mess while Gong Jinglin repeatedly murmured, "It's fine," though not a single palace maid came forward to assist.

Far from showing any signs of anger, Gong Jinglin's cheeks flushed with a drunken red, her skin glowing and delicate enough to break at the touch.

"Old Liu, should we go over there?" a palace maid whispered anxiously.

Having watched Gong Jinglin grow up, Old Liu naturally understood his mistress's temperament. He scolded, "Don't go over there and make trouble! Watch your skin!"

Looking into the distance, Old Liu kept a watchful eye on the situation inside the pavilion while feeling genuinely happy in his heart.

Suddenly, as if recalling something, Gong Jinglin said, "Li Xuan, you must be careful with the source rune array and avoid using it too frequently. As far as I know, overusing source rune arrays will invite misfortune, and terrible events may happen in the future."

Li Xuan nodded and asked, "Did the former Emperor tell you that?"

With a solemn expression, Gong Jinglin gave a slight nod. "Indeed. The imperial palace's ancient records also mention this. Several thousand years ago, a Gong family patriarch found a Source Heaven Master to select the site for the imperial inner palace and simultaneously lay down the protective source rune array."

Though it was merely a record in the imperial palace's archives, recounting it now still made Gong Jinglin shudder with lingering fear: "Not long after the inner palace was completed, rumors spread that a ghostly red shadow haunted the grounds—bloodthirsty and cruel. The incident caused a massive uproar, almost forcing the imperial court to relocate the capital. Later, for reasons unknown, the entity vanished without a trace, ultimately becoming a millennium-old unsolved mystery of the inner palace."

Li Xuan scratched his head and pondered for a long moment before saying, "It's fine, I understand. Unless it's an absolute last resort, I won't use the source rune array."

Li Xuan had already known about this matter beforehand, but hearing Gong Jinglin speak of it personally made her actions appear all the more sincere and open. At the very least, it showed they cared for one another and wouldn't stab each other in the back.

Recalling the cultivation technique the Goddess of Green Leaves had passed to him right before her departure—ostensibly a technique handed down to the Green Leaves tribe's people to suppress inner demons, which she had specifically instructed him to pass on—Li Xuan suspected it might have some close connection to the source rune array.

If so, the reason for passing it on through him suddenly made complete sense.

Li Xuan raised his hand, intending to stroke Gong Jinglin's hair, but paused mid-air, gazing at her with an awkward look in his eyes.

Gong Jinglin smiled warmly. "It's fine, there are no outsiders here. We don't need to be so restrained!"

Understanding the subtext of Gong Jinglin's words, Li Xuan gently caressed her hair. Instantly, a faint, natural fragrance wafted outward, stimulating Li Xuan's most primal impulses and filling him with a deep desire to hold this warm, delicate jade-like figure tightly in his arms.

Her heart pounding and her entire body burning, Gong Jinglin tightly closed her curtain-like eyelashes, eagerly awaiting Li Xuan's next move.

At that moment, a childish voice rang out: "Don't bully my sister! Bad guy!"

Gong Mo had run over from somewhere unknown, shouting reproaches at Li Xuan and startling the two of them out of their wits.

Old Liu quickly rushed over, but Gong Jinglin stopped him with a gesture, forcing the old man to retreat.

Gong Jinglin tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and scolded playfully, "Stop talking nonsense! Hurry up and apologize to Brother Li Xuan!"

Pouting his little lips and putting his hands on his hips in a protective stance, Gong Mo declared defiantly, "No way! He's a bad guy trying to do the same bad things to sister that daddy did to mommy. I won't forgive him!"

Upon hearing this, Gong Jinglin and Li Xuan felt their heads buzz, wishing nothing more than to find a crack in the ground and crawl straight into it.

Smiling awkwardly, Li Xuan stammered, "Kids say the darndest things! Kids say the darndest things!" inwardly cursing: *You little brat know nothing, your elder sister is more than willing!*

At that moment, the palace maids brought over fresh tea and conveniently led Gong Mo away from the spot, which provoked a fierce struggle from the boy. Suddenly unable to catch his breath, a swirl of black mist emerged and rapidly engulfed him.