The Empress Only Wants to Slay Her Husband for Enlightenment - Chapter 3

Back to the leg massage.

The figure I had been sitting on struggled upright and gave me an aggrieved look.

“Sister, am I something you have to hide?”

“It’s not that.”

“If this gets out of hand, the marriage really will be off.”

The phoenix crown prince froze. His expression suddenly turned ugly.

“Xiwei, can’t you look at me for once?

“After everything he’s done, you still want to marry him?”

I snorted and shot him a sideways look.

“Not calling me Sister anymore?

“Where did you pick up that ridiculous habit, anyway? A phoenix over ten thousand years old, calling me his older sister. Have you no shame?”

“I’m only nine thousand!”

“What are you jealous for? This was your idea, wasn’t it?

“Kill my husband to attain enlightenment.

“How could I ever bear to cut you down?”

I kissed the corner of his mouth. That finally soothed the bird’s ruffled feathers.

Afterward, I nestled in his arms.

My mind, however, was perfectly clear.

I was running out of time to ascend.

Because of what had happened to Ancestress Daji, the nine-tailed foxes had been struck from the immortal registers.

If ten thousand years passed without a fox ascending, our status as demons would become irreversible.

Whether killing my husband would actually bring enlightenment was another question.

I had seen plenty of cases of men killing their wives to attain it—

But first, I felt nothing for that fucking dragon. I wasn’t sure whether that met the requirements for “killing one’s husband to attain enlightenment.”

Second, I did not follow the Path of Detachment.

Detachment did not simply mean renouncing romantic love.

It was a practice of remaining unmoved by everything in the world, regarding oneself as an outsider.

Giving not so much as a hair, taking not so much as a thread.

But my nine tails had not come easily. How many kindnesses had I accepted along the way?

Even the tree spirit who had sheltered me when I was a little demon had long since reincarnated.

I still intended to repay that debt.

How could I be detached?

Third, if I really killed the idiot, could the phoenix crown prince protect me when the dragons came looking for trouble?

Most likely, his ancestors would drag him home and make him face a wall in penance.

He was only an accomplice, after all. It would be easy enough to get him out of it. I would be the only one left to suffer.

No one could guarantee how long a man’s love would last.

Even if phoenixes were faithful by nature, I wasn’t counting on it.

I was an empress.

If I used a man to climb my way to immortality, how would I be any different from that mortal Susu?

“Xiwei…”

Noticing my distraction, the phoenix crown prince rubbed his forehead gently against my cheek.

His voice was positively coaxing.

“Sister, how about we try dual cultivation?”

To be perfectly honest, the phoenix crown prince and I were very intimate.

We had tried all sorts of unusual positions. But we had never taken that final step.

Once, as we were nuzzling together and I was thoroughly lost in the moment, he suddenly whispered in my ear, “Phoenixes have no way back.

“We choose one person, for life.”

Who was he trying to scare?

Phoenixes outlived even the Black Tortoises!

Provided they didn’t get themselves killed and their souls remained intact, they could keep being reborn through nirvana.

Stronger each time!

Fuck.

He’d agreed to be my concubine. Now he wanted me to take responsibility!

I cooled off immediately and decided to look for a male fox next door instead.

He objected.

Lust turned to fury.

We had a blazing row.

Then a new rumor spread: I had been so unfaithful that I had driven the phoenix crown prince, Xicheng, back to the Divine Realm.

Let him go.

What I needed to do would be inconvenient with him around anyway.

I had tens of millions of demon soldiers. Each visit to the training grounds alone took hours.

That third prince was unreliable. My strength was the only backing I could trust.

Most importantly, after spending some time on it, I had rooted out a spy in the Demon Realm.

A pretty little bird demon.

Pinned to the ground by the bamboo spirit, she still held her head high, her eyes red as she challenged me.

“If I don’t secure a future for myself, I’ll only end up some powerful demon’s concubine.

“What have I done wrong?”

She wasn’t wrong.

Her mistake was being far too weak and far too ambitious, wanting things beyond her power.

A demon should know contentment.

That meant cherishing what one already had.

A demon should strive to improve.

That meant doing one’s utmost to reach what was within reach.

A demon should know herself.

That meant understanding which things she could never hold on to.

I walked over and stroked her crest feathers.

“Que’er, even I, the demon empress, am worth less than that Susu in his eyes.

“Would being a divine lord’s concubine necessarily be better than being a demon’s?

“If even demons look down on other demons, why would immortals or gods respect us?

“Take her away.

“Strip her of five hundred years of magic and send her to the Azure Dragon Clan.

“Tell them she’s my wedding gift to the third prince.”

After she was gone, I closed my eyes.

I had not always been a demon.

When I was first born, I had not been a demon.

Que’er.

Be cleverer when you get to the Azure Dragons.