The Intervening Days

"You're ill, stay in bed", "I'm telling you I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with me", "And I'm telling you to stay in bed"

The emperor Hu Wenxi's bedroom was a large chamber with a gigantic bed easily thrice the size of modern day king sized beds. On it slayed Hu Wenxi no longer wearing his crown now imperial robes. On the side sat Qiang Mei Hua and the other concubines of Hu Wenxi.

"Will daddy be fine" asked a young girl with one of the concubines. "Your father will be okay Lan Yue" reassured the women. This young girl was the 13 year old youngest princess of the empire and latest child of Hu Wenxi. With her was her mother the eldest miss of the Xiang family, Xiang Shi Bo.

Inside the room were all of Hu Wenxi's family memebers. Yi Sun Jin, Xiang Shi Bo, and Nan Cui He. These were the 4 concubines and mothers of the remaining 4 children of Hu Wenxi. These women were all political picks and existed in the unusually small imperial harem. Some aristocratic families had also criticised the emperor because of this.

After last night when the emperor was suddenly brought to his knees the medical professionals immediately hurried him to bed and began deep examinations. Despite Hu Wenxi's protests doctor Chu and doctor Nan who was also the emperor's other brother in law insisted that he stayed in bed.

Eventually Qiang Mei Hua arrived and forced him against getting up. While Hu Wenxi insisted that he was fine even explaining the reason when to the empress and the doctors they were still unsure. Hu Wenxi's second true body was connected to him but otherwise operated independently. Its existence was known to his most trusted family members and retainers. As his personal doctors they naturally knew.

However as it was a new phenomena they were not experienced. In the end they prepared Qi rich herbal medicine for the emperor. Acupuncture was recommended to however this was proven unneeded as Hu Wenxi's Qi flow was at a normal level.

Unfortunately for the emperor the two old doctors and his wife insisted that he rest for the day. His concubines and children merely arrived for moral support and to visit their father. His second son by Nan Cui He was Hu Tong Shan, he was a strong young plain face looking man being taller and broader then his elder brother and possessed a muscular build. His cultivation was much lower however at Xiantian which was quite high for his age. After all Hu Tong Shan was 29 years old.

Beside the third prince was his elder sister by the same mother, the second princess Hu Yin. She was a plain looking woman who heavily resembled the emperor and her mother. Nan Cui He wasn't very beautiful by aristocratic standards but still above average. Her daughter was much the same. She was 34 this year and was also Xiantian.

To the far right side of the emperor sat his second concubine, the weak looking Yi Sun Jin and her son the fourth prince Hu Xin Fu. This boy was only 18 but was far prettier then his elder sister. Unlike Hu Jin Shen who was handsome this boy was more effeminate looking heavily resembling his mother. He was far prettier then Hu Wenxi himself.

The youngest was of course the 13 year old Hu Lan Yue with her mother Xiang Shi Bo. All three women came from rich families of good standing. The Xiang family was also an ally of the Hu family back in the lower realms and follow them into the Thousand Flames upper realm. This was why Hu Diyi was acquainted and even quite friendly with he youngest princess.

While Hu Wenxi was happy to see his children here he could also see Qiang Mei Hua's intent. The doctors knew of the emperor's love for his children and probably brought them along to guilt trip him to keep resting. While they are doctors, doctor Nan was actually a Human Immortal expert who served the emperor. He too was fairly young despite his old appearance.

Doctor Chu was a special case. He was an undead creature Hu Wenxi's other self bested and brought back. Doctor Chu was in fact a ghost or netherworld denizen, an undead being who was unable to reincarnate hence continued to cultivate. Their cultivation path was hellish and difficult, it was riddled with so much pain and suffering that it was said that only madmen would tread the path of a Ghost Immortal.

The upside was that ghosts no matter what cultivation had an endless lifespan. In fact more ghosts die to cultivation reasons then combat or natural reasons. The Ghost Immortal path had potentially lethal steps. Doctor Chu was a powerful ghost at the Karmic Lord realm the equivalent of a Human Immortal. In the past he terrorised an entire upper realm before Hu Wenxi encountered him. After beating him senseless 13 hours in a row the ghost submitted. It possessed vast medical knowledge and served as primary doctor of the imperial family.

With Hu Wenxi stuck in bed for now Hu Jin Shen stopped his practice and took over as temporary sovereign. His mother Qiang Mei Hua accompanied him to advise while Hu Wei also put in his input. The trusted advisers were present too.

The incident of the emperor was kept hush but still led to a further postponement of the final battle. Instead it was decided to delay another week before Yun Xiao Che got to fight Li Changseng. Understandably this pissed off many exited people who were waiting for the fight and even the two participants were annoyed.

Hu Jin Shen quickly tried to diplomatically diffuse the situation however if you looked very closely they you could notice his annoyance and wish to beat the complainers senseless. After hearing news of this from the Blades Hu Wenxi decided it was a good exercise for Jin Shen and remained in bed willingly.

During the intervening days towards the final fight, Yun Xiao Che quietly cultivated. He was annoyed but nevertheless took advantage of this time to visit his master Mu Xuan Ya to 'learn'.

Hu Jin Shen sat in for his father during a meeting to discuss the current affairs of the empire as well as the finals. It was after this meeting that Hu Jin Shen ran into his cousin Hu Diyi. Seeing Hu Jin Shen Hu Diyi did not look happy.

Hu Jin Shen still greeted the man with politeness if a little stiff, "Greetings cousin". Hu Diyi gave a dark face and sneered. "Well well, the famous battle prince enow stuck doing clerk work how sad".

"It is necessary for the runnings of the empire. As the future head of the Brand Hu clan you should know. I'm sure uncle Wang Tian prepared you for the role"

Hu Diyi flushed but sneered once more, "Of course, I don't have all day unlike you. Wasting our clans resources, if I was…" he didn't finish before Hu Jin Shen interrupted him.

"Be careful with that mouth of yours cousin" Hu Jin Shen sneered at Hu Diyi, "If someone like you was in power, we would all be dead". To the crown prince the young master Hu was truely a piece of trash, he was a silk pants young master with mediocre talent. His only saving grace was his father.

"Why you!" Hu Diyi flushed red and raised his fists. "Diyi what are you doing?" Suddenly a familiar voice was heard. Hu Diyi quickly got scared and dropped his fighting stance while Hu Jin Shen calmly looked on. Hu Diyi greeted the approaching figure. It was his father Hu Wang Tian and the empress Qiang Mei Hua.

"Foolish brat. Your highness, your majesty forgive this ignorant child. He is still young and spouted nonsense" Hu Wang Tian quickly tried to salvage the situation. Hu Diyi however could not hold back his tongue. He called back, "Watch what you speak, I am the most powerful member of our generation".

"I am younger then brother Diyi by three decades" Hu Jin Shen scoffed while Qiang Mei Hua covered her face with her sleeve and silently chuckled. Her posture of extremely alluring for the silk pants Hu Diyi.

"Wang Tian, you should learn to discipline your brat better before he says something truely unforgivable" Qiang Mei Hua calmly said to Hu Wang Tian which frightened him even more. She then left with her son after her.

Once they were gone Hu Diyi turned to his father, "Dad, why do you let that woman push you around like this?". Hearing this Hu Wang Tian just sighed, where did he go wrong? Hu Wang Tian gave his son a disappointed look and told him to leave. It was better for him to be away for the moment.

Deep in void space shrapnels of debris of a once titanic ship floated about. A nearby world lay in pieces, its shattered parts drifted further and further apart. In fact the solar system this debris was at was a complete mess, all the worlds are mostly destroyed. Massive corpses with multiple arms, legs, heads, tentacles floated about.

Admits the debris, in one of the large asteroid chunks sat two figures. One was a woman who wore intricately detailed black, red, and gold battle armour with etched in art of dragons slaying phoenixes and Kirins. This women was extremely beautiful on par with Qiang Mei Hua, she had shoulder length silver hair and two dragon horns sprouting from her head. A thin tail came out from her back. Besides her lay a spear which was cracked all over.

This woman was obviously injured yet she still displayed outstanding might. Her cultivation was comparable to a peak Human Immortal. She sat on the rock and merely nursed her wounds while guarding the figure before her.

The figure before her was 100% identical to Hu Wenxi. The only difference was that instead of rich kingly robes, this Hu Wenxi wore a simple taoist robe loosely leaving some of his chest open. The main difference between this Hu Wenxi and the emperor Hu Wenxi was the aura he displayed. It was certainly not Immortal power but rather divine power. What's more it vastly exceeded emperor Hu Wenxi.

"You ascended too early, just stabilise for now" the woman softly said.

"I have caused you trouble" Hu Wenxi bowed his head. He remained in a lotus position and closed his eye continuing to cultivate.

In a distant void a sloppy middle age man appeared. He wore simple shirt and pants and was sweating profusely. His hands were bloodied and there was a trail of blood on his lips. "Damn it those fucks are relentless" he gritted his teeth and took out a green pill before swallowing it.

"I hope he retrieves that experiment soon, I can't descend often with those fucks hunting me" he frowned and once again disappeared.

Back on Thousand Flames upper realm, Hu Diyi was relaxing in a brothel. A bunch of silk pants accompanied him and enjoyed the service they received. "Brother Hu, you should just forget it" and young man bit into his grape, "The royals are dangerous and strong, take it from me. You don't want no trouble".

"Brother Jun is right, just let go. Life's good for you" said another while a beautiful courtesan messaged him. However Hu Diyi remained frowning. "How can I be? Hu Jin Shen is always getting the glory. I'm the young master of the Hu clan. I should be crown prince"

"Too bad, you aren't the son of the emperor". It was true, Hu Diyi was very jealous of his betters. This was why he connected so well with Sam. They had so much in common.

Just then a gold robed middle aged man walked into their room. "Excuse me sir this is VIP" one of the courtesans said before the man flashed her a card. She quickly backed off. Hu Diyi sneered at this man, his mood was already very bad, "What do you want?"

The man took out a card and handed it to Hu Diyi, "We have a proposition to you".

Out side an invisible figure watched the exchange, "Oh dear, the empress and emperor will not be happy."