Crossing the Palace Fighting Fox Harem

Chapter 176: Black Hair Recalling the Soul

The Queen Mother's Palace.

The Queen Mother is receiving a distinguished guest.

This distinguished guest is the Taoist priest of Taijue Temple who predicted a few months ago that there would be a fox demon in the palace. His Taoist name is "Yuan Rong". He entered Taijue Temple to practice Taoism when he was ten years old. Now, thirty years have passed, and his attainments are amazing. He is well-known and is the most prestigious Taoist priest today.

His meeting with the Queen Mother today was extremely secret, and no one else knew about it except for a few of her trusted maids.

The two of them talked in secret behind closed doors, their voices extremely low.

The Queen Mother took out a small bunch of hair tied with a ribbon from her sleeve, handed it to Taoist Yuan Rong and said, "Master, can this bunch of hair bring back her soul?"

Yuan Rong took the hair, looked at it, then closed his eyes and gently stroked the ends of the hair with his fingers, as if he was trying to feel the spiritual energy that the deceased had left on this strand of hair.

"Master, how is it?" the Queen Mother urged anxiously.

Yuan Rong took a breath, as if he was taking back his true energy, then slowly opened his eyes and said, "Don't worry, Queen Mother, I can summon the soul."

Then he took a small round incense burner from his belt. The incense burner was so small that it could only hold two broad beans, but it was very delicately made, with two Taoist symbols carved on the wall - the pine tree and the white crane.

This small incense burner is called "Songhelu". Although it looks inconspicuous, it has a great effect. Not only can it amplify the original spiritual energy of things by dozens of times, but it can also attract the same spiritual energy to gather together, and finally materialize into a spiritual image that can be seen by the human eye.

Yuan Rong opened the lid of the furnace, put his hair into the furnace, and finally moved his lips slightly and recited a spell.

The Queen Mother saw purple smoke coming out of the incense burner and asked nervously, "Master, she won't hurt me, right?"

Yuan Rong handed the pine crane furnace to the Queen Mother and comforted her, "Don't worry, Queen Mother. The other party is just a spirit, just like smoke. It can't touch you at all, let alone hurt you."

The Queen Mother carefully took the incense burner and looked at the purple smoke slowly rising from the top of the burner, looking a little panicked.

Seeing this, Yuan Rong asked, "Queen Mother... Please forgive me for being so nosy, but this tuft of hair should have been cut from Concubine Baogui's head, right? If you are so afraid of her, why do you still want to see her?"

The Queen Mother said, "I don't want to see her... but... there are some things... that I must tell her."

"Then I will take my leave first." Yuan Rong bowed and quietly left the room.

The Queen Mother watched Yuan Rong disappear at the door before turning her gaze back to the Songhe stove.

At this time, the purple smoke coming out of the incense burner became thicker and thicker, and the shape of the smoke gradually changed into a human figure.

The Queen Mother hurriedly put the incense burner on the ground and took a few steps back.

As soon as I stood up, a pair of black eyes opened in the smoke.

Then, the mouth, face, body, and finally the limbs gradually appeared around the pupils.

In less than half a quarter of an hour, the smoke had transformed into the appearance of Concubine Baogui.

What’s even more incredible is that the phantom’s height, weight and figure are exactly the same as Baoguifei’s before her death.

If the phantom wasn't translucent, it would be as if the real Baogui Fei was standing right in front of him.

"Bo'er, Bo'er...is it really you?"

The Queen Mother's eyes widened and she was so nervous that she even forgot to breathe.

Concubine Baogui did not answer, but just looked at the Queen Mother expressionlessly.

After a while, his eyes changed from the initial dullness to surprise, as if he didn't understand why he appeared in the Queen Mother's bedroom. Shouldn't he be on his way back to the underworld by the ghost messenger?

The Queen Mother said, "Bao'er, I asked Taoist Yuan Rong to call back your soul."

"spiritualism?"

Baogui Fei was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked down at her body, and found that she was just a wisp of purple smoke coming out of the incense burner. She immediately understood something, laughed coldly, and said painfully: "Why are you calling back my soul? Queen Mother, I'm already dead... Why don't you let me go after I die?... What do I owe you?... You called me back to make me a ghost who understands? Are you going to tell me... why do you want to kill me?"

"Baoer!"

The Queen Mother interrupted Baogui Fei in a harsh voice and explained, "I didn't kill you at all. The murderer was someone else. If you don't believe me, you can ask the ghost messenger directly. They won't lie to you."

"If that's the case, why did you call back my soul? Is there anything else you want to say to me?" Guigui Fei asked coldly.

Now that she was dead and had given up the mortal world, she no longer wanted to have anything to do with it. Why did the Queen Mother refuse to let her go and tried every possible means to bring her back from the underworld?

"Bao'er... I once said that I hated you because you were the one who destroyed my happiness. This time, I asked the Taoist priest to call you back, just to tell you... why I hate you. Otherwise, I'm afraid that when you go to the underworld, you will gossip that I was cruel and killed you for no reason. Bao'er, the innocent person is not you, but me!"

Amid the Empress Dowager's excited roar, Concubine Baogui's expression gradually changed from indifference to surprise.

She didn't expect that after her death, she would still be hated by the Queen Mother. She didn't know when she owed the Queen Mother wrong and why the Queen Mother always hated her, entangled her and tortured her.

Then, the Queen Mother told Concubine Baogui a story, a story that happened a long time ago.

The story takes place thirteen years ago. At that time, the Queen Mother had not yet entered the palace and was just a young lady of the An family.

She fell in love with the Minister of War, who was ten years older than her.

The Shangshu's original wife had passed away long ago, but she left him a ten-year-old daughter.

This youngest daughter later became Concubine Baogui.

The two kept their love affair a secret from the little girl. Later, their feelings grew deeper and deeper. Miss An wanted to marry into the family, but the Shangshu hesitated. He asked the little girl if she was willing to have another mother, but the little girl cried and said that she only recognized one mother.

In desperation, the Shangshu chose his daughter and gave up Miss An.

In less than a month, Miss An entered the palace as a concubine.

Not long after, news came from the palace that Miss An was pregnant with a dragon.

At this time, the editor-in-chief began to become alert and wondered whether the child in Miss An's belly was his own.

Because I was pregnant, I was anxious to get home.

But why did she keep silent about the child, and go straight into the palace as a concubine after being rejected by me?

Whose child is she carrying? The emperor's or her own?

The Minister privately asked Miss An several times, but to no avail.

Who is the father of the child? I’m afraid only Miss An herself knows.

At this point in the story, the Queen Mother smiled bitterly and asked Concubine Baogui, "Bao'er, do you want to know?"

Baogui Concubine has lost the ability to speak. She never thought that her words thirteen years ago would completely change the life of the Queen Mother. As the speaker, she has no memory of it. If the Queen Mother hadn't mentioned it today, I'm afraid Baogui Concubine would never understand in her life how she owed the Queen Mother.

However, what is even more unexpected is that the person the Queen Mother loved most was actually her own biological father.

No wonder my father has always obeyed the Queen Mother's orders all these years. It turns out... there is such a story between him and the Queen Mother.

At this point in the story, it seems that there is no need to guess the answer anymore, everything is so obvious.

Concubine Baogui recalled the last words she said to Yun Zhen in the dungeon before her death.

"Yun Zhen, if one day you want to be an enemy of the Queen Mother, you must hold on to a trump card...

"This trump card is Princess Tianning...

"Princess Tianning's background is questionable. She may be hiding a secret...

"If you know this secret, maybe... you can defeat the Queen Mother."

At first I just had a vague guess, but I didn't expect that everything I said would come true.

The Queen Mother gently revealed the secret of Tianning's life experience, and slowly said: "The child is mine and your father's, which means that Tianning is actually your half-sister... If you had accepted me thirteen years ago, you and Tianning would be real sisters, but your persistence and your tears made your father give up me and choose you. I was forced to enter the palace as a concubine. The An family has been officials for generations and has a prominent family background. I was directly canonized as a noble concubine without a physical examination. I did all this just to find a father for the child in my belly, and a father who is no worse than your father. I want your father to kneel humbly in front of us mother and daughter when he sees me and my child again - this is why I entered the palace."

"No...no..." Baogui Fei didn't want to listen anymore and subconsciously covered her ears.

But she was just a wisp of purple smoke and had no substance at all. Even if he covered his ears tightly, the Queen Mother's voice still came through.

The Queen Mother laughed at herself and then asked, "Bao'er, now you should know why I personally recommended you to the late emperor to enter the palace, right?"

Concubine Baogui nodded. She had already guessed what the Queen Mother was thinking without her having to say it.

Ten years ago, when Concubine Baogui was thirteen years old, she could have married into Shuntian Prefecture and become Yun Zhen’s wife.

However, a sudden imperial decree from the palace destroyed her dream of getting married.

This is Miss An's revenge on her.

Because of her words, Miss An's dream of getting married was ruined. So now, Miss An wanted her to taste the same pain. Until three months ago, when the previous emperor passed away and the new emperor ascended the throne, Miss An, who had become the empress dowager, still did not let her go. She did not allow her to enter the palace, nor did she allow her to shave her head and become a nun. She forced her to stay in the harem and continue to be the new emperor's concubine.

Miss An wanted her to be trapped in the harem like herself, never able to get out.

"Empress Dowager, you have such a cruel heart..." Concubine Baogui said sadly.

In fact, Concubine Baogui could feel that the Queen Mother still loved her father deeply until now. The more the Queen Mother hated her, the deeper her love for her father was. When the late emperor passed away three months ago, the Queen Mother still hated her, which proved that until then, the Queen Mother still could not forget the hurt she suffered thirteen years ago.

"Ever since your father rejected me, my heart is no longer used to love people - it is only used to hate people! So of course I will become cruel. Baoer, you have no right to scold me. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here today. I always want Tianning to compete with you, just because I don't want to see Tianning being inferior to you. But after all, there is a ten-year age difference between you and Tianning, and Tianning is no match for you at all. Maybe Tianning hates you so much because he has lost to you too many times."

"Thirteen years ago, I was just a ten-year-old child. I didn't understand anything. I had no idea about the relationship between you and my father..."

"But you ruined my life!"

The Queen Mother shouted at Concubine Baogui's argument and growled, "Whether you did it intentionally or unintentionally, you have indeed ruined my life!"

"No... If you told my father that you were pregnant, he would..."

"hehe."

The Queen Mother sneered and shook her head, "Of course I know... If I tell him the truth, he will definitely marry me. But... I don't want to use the child as a bargaining chip. If he loves me, if he really loves me... Even if there is no child, he will still marry me... But, but..."

But in the end he chose the daughter left by his ex-wife and gave up his new relationship.

One wrong move and you lose everything. There is no medicine for regret.

There was no winner in this game of chess, and both sides lost a large number of rooks and pawns.

Although the Queen Mother captured the most important rook on the Shangshu's chessboard and locked his most precious daughter into the deep palace, her stubbornness made her lose her life's happiness, as well as Tianning's real home and relatives, and exposed Tianning, a child with a huge secret background, to the surrounding parties with their own ulterior motives.