novellhall Chapter 18 The Unexplained Feelings in Her Heart
Chapter 18 The Unexplained Feelings in Her Heart
Springtime in the 438th year of the Great Chu calendar.
After five years of recuperation, the Great Chu war machine was finally ready.
Supplies were plentiful, and the troops were well-equipped.
Military merits were linked to titles, which greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers.
Over the past five years, many people have watched their lives gradually improve, going from near starvation to having enough food at home.
Now is the time to make a name for ourselves and achieve great things.
Soldiers and provisions were continuously dispatched to the border.
The other six states also sensed the tension, but they all assumed that the Great Chu only wanted to attack the Great Zhou to avenge the grudge from five years ago.
No one expected that the true goal of the Great Chu was to wipe out the other six kingdoms and completely end this chaotic world.
Faster, faster!
This is Chu Ning's only thought right now.
She was terrified that if she slowed down even a little, her teacher wouldn't be able to hold on until the day she unified the world.
Moreover, her teacher had already set a course for her on how to annihilate the other six countries; all she had to do was follow her teacher's instructions.
Chu Ning had already made preparations for leading the expedition in person.
But just as the great war was about to begin, the court of the Great Chu was in turmoil again.
It's not about war, nor is it about sowing discord.
Everyone had only one focus.
Crown Prince.
"Your Majesty! This campaign is a war that threatens the entire nation, fraught with countless difficulties and dangers! As the saying goes, a country cannot be without a ruler for a day, much less without a crown prince! Your Majesty is now in the prime of your life; you should select talented individuals from across the land to fill the harem, ensuring the continuation of the royal bloodline. With a crown prince, the foundation of Great Chu will be as solid as a rock, and our soldiers will be able to fight with greater peace of mind on the front lines!"
A white-haired minister was kneeling before the hall, holding a heavy scroll of names high in his hand, followed by several ministers in charge of rites and sacrifices.
These people were all very earnest, wanting their emperor to have a child before his departure.
Over the past five years, although the internal affairs of the Great Chu have been thoroughly purged, as she has grown older, proposals to "establish a royal consort and open a harem" have continued to appear on her desk.
She pretended not to see it and ignored it.
Chu Ning's harem was empty, with only a few palace servants still doing cleaning work every day.
Now that the State of Chu is about to unify the world with the strength of the whole country, these people have stepped forward again, and they have even more supporters, making it impossible for her to ignore them.
Several eunuchs nervously unfurled more than a dozen exquisite paintings in front of the hall.
The people in the painting are all direct descendants carefully selected by various aristocratic families, including gentle and refined scholars and valiant and extraordinary military scions.
There were even stunningly handsome princes from neighboring countries who offered marriage alliances to curry favor with the Great Chu.
Chu Ning sat high on the throne, her chin resting on one hand, her brows furrowed, looking at the scrolls with great impatience.
"A talented young man?"
Chu Ning let out a cold laugh in his heart.
In the eyes of others, these people may be the cream of the crop.
But in her eyes, of all the young people in the world, only her teacher deserved to be called a "talented young man".
The others are nothing but mud in a ditch.
The gentle and refined young man couldn't match the teacher's refined demeanor; the valiant and extraordinary general couldn't even withstand a single, casually swung, murderous aura from her.
Let them enter the palace?
Let them touch me?
Just the thought of these ordinary people looking at her with those saccharine eyes, or even trying to stand beside her on the high platform, made Chu Ning feel nauseous.
An impulse surged within her, and she wished she could draw her sword and smash the scroll along with everyone below it to pieces.
However, Chu Ning ultimately suppressed his murderous intent.
My teacher once said that one should not be controlled by emotions, but should be a qualified monarch who can tolerate his subjects' clamor for "state affairs".
Promoting offspring and consolidating the foundation of the nation are indeed the right paths.
This battle is of unknown duration and is exceptionally dangerous, so it is understandable that the ministers hope to establish an heir now.
Chu Ning was clearly very angry, but after calming down, she realized that she didn't even have a reason to be angry.
"With the army about to set out on a campaign, I have no interest in matters of the heart. Let this matter rest. Burn all these scrolls and all of you, withdraw from here."
Chu Ning took a deep breath, and although his tone was cold, he surprisingly did not punish her.
The old ministers wanted to persuade him further, but when they met Chu Ning's eyes, which were faintly glowing red, they trembled with fear and could only kowtow and take their leave in embarrassment.
......
In the stillness of the night, Chu Ning's palace was filled with steam.
In the huge white jade bath, scarlet medicinal herbs floated on the warm water.
Chu Ning removed her heavy clothes and immersed herself naked in the water.
Since embarking on the path of cultivation, she has been regulating the evil energy in her body by taking medicinal baths every day.
Although it was painful, she gradually got used to it.
Normally, she would have already held her breath and entered a meditative state, but tonight, she couldn't calm her mind no matter what.
The words of the officials in the imperial court constantly stirred her nerves.
There were things she wanted to avoid, but they kept popping into her mind, constantly stimulating her nerves.
"To fill the harem...and the love between men and women..."
Chu Ning murmured these words.
She slowly raised her fair, jade-like arm.
Water droplets slid down her near-perfect body curves, exuding a breathtaking allure in the flickering candlelight.
Now Chu Ning is nineteen years old. She has perfectly inherited the beauty of the Great Chu royal family and has grown into an exceptionally beautiful woman.
If she were just an ordinary princess, she would have been married long ago at this age.
They might even have kids by now.
But the thought of these things made her feel inexplicably nauseous.
She suddenly realized that she wasn't simply rejecting those young masters from aristocratic families.
Rather, it was a physiological aversion she felt towards all men in the world.
But is she really resistant to all men in the world?
Chu Ning closed her eyes.
Suddenly, that night from several years ago uncontrollably surfaced in my mind.
She was also soaking in this bathtub, in excruciating pain.
And that person, dressed in spotless white, looked down at her from above.
His icy fingers touched her brow, and the extremely cold true energy pierced into her body, bringing a feeling that made her soul tremble.
She was completely naked at the time, but there was not a trace of lust in his eyes.
In the silent palace, Chu Ning could clearly hear the sound of her heart pounding.
This feeling was so unfamiliar, so unfamiliar that she had never experienced it before.
It was as if something was growing wildly in her bones and blood, something that was both mad and fiery.
Chu Ning suddenly opened her eyes, panting heavily, her fair cheeks flushed crimson.
She looked down at her reflection in the water, and her usually decisive and ruthless eyes were now veiled in mist, revealing a strange emotion that even she herself found frightening.
"teacher......"
She murmured the name unconsciously, her voice even carrying a hint of a soft moan.
The heat in my body intensified.
Her hands even...
No one taught her; she learned it all on her own.
It seemed that only in this way could the restlessness in my heart be relieved.
Chu Ning always believed that her feelings for her teacher were absolute faith. She thought that as long as she could kneel at her teacher's feet for the rest of her life, be the fastest knife in his hand, and kill everyone in the world for him, that would be enough.
But now, with the words "love between men and women" being explicitly stated, the shell called "faith" has finally cracked open.
She discovered that she wanted more than just her teacher's attention.