The Glory After Rebirth [重生之尊荣]

Chapter 514- 516

Chapter 514: You Want an Amicable Divorce?

Ling Zhang had not perceived that Yuwen Tong had become suspicious, but Xie Shi found his legs trembling.

In order not to raise doubts in Yuwen Tong's mind, Ling Zhang, after finishing his congee, went to sleep as he had said he would a short while ago. The moment he left, Xie Shi slumped to his knees before Yuwen Tong, too scared to even lift his head.

Yuwen Tong remained silent. Xie Shi, unable to nerve himself to speak, furtively looked up at him.

At the sight of Yuwen Tong looking at him with icy dissatisfied eyes, Xie Shi gave an involuntary shudder. A brief moment ago he had wanted to take his chances, thinking that maybe Yuwen Tong had not noticed anything out of the ordinary, but now he didn't dare hold on to that fond hope and hurriedly confessed that the Child Worm was in Ling Zhang's body.

Yuwen Tong crushed the armrests on his chair as he listened. A Child Worm was in Ling Zhang!

"Why didn't you stop him?" railed Yuwen Tong, flying into a temper, radiating a palpable sense of power so potent Xie Shi found himself unable to straighten his back, beads of cold sweat welling up profusely on his forehead.

"It didn't occur to me there were two Gu worms. When I realized what His Highness intended to do, I tried to stop him but he hit my acupoints and immobilized me ... " said Xie Shi in a guilty voice. "I failed in my duty. Please punish me, Sire!"

"Why did you keep it back from me?" demanded Yuwen Tong, furious, his heart aching for Ling Zhang, feeling a throbbing in his chest which should have disappeared for good with the extraction of the Gu worms.

"His Highness doesn't want you to be distracted by anything before the upcoming battle outside Jifang City. He also said the Child Worm is not as vicious as the Mother Worm, that his internal energy has an intrinsically deterrent effect on that kind of creatures, that the Child Worm wouldn't be able to do him any harm inside his body, and in a couple of days Mr. Mu would arrive and get it out." Xie Shi repeated Ling Zhang's words to Yuwen Tong, but he showed no inclination to defend himself, for he knew that it had been remiss of him to help Ling Zhang conceal the truth, no matter for what reason he had undertaken to do that. "I failed to keep His Highness safe, and I lied to you. I deserve the severest punishment for such actions. I request permission to return to the Shadow Battalion to receive my punishment."

Yuwen Tong's eyes were still glacial. He opened his mouth and was just about to speak when footsteps came from outside the tent and he looked up in the direction of the doorway.

"Xie Shi is not the one to blame for this. I made him promise not to tell you. I'm the empress, and they have orders from you to follow my commands as they follow yours. He would be disobeying you had he disobeyed me," said Ling Zhang after entering the tent.

He had decided to come back to the tent to tell Yuwen Tong that a couple of days ago Yang Liuzi and some others had discovered in the city the body of someone who presumably had been a henchman of Chen Jing's. That person had entered the city through the city gates facing in the direction of Jifang City, unluckily got caught in the battle and later died in the street before he could rendezvous with Chen Jing, a secret letter in his bosom. At that time Wang Dashan and the others had been unsure as to whether or not there was any truth in the message in the letter, so they had requested him to check it out, but unexpectedly, shortly after that he had been informed of Yuwen Tong falling victim to Gu worms and had not been in the mood for dealing with that matter ever since. Two days later he had forgotten about the whole thing, and it was not until he had caught sight of Wang Dashan standing guard outside that he had recalled it and returned to the main tent with the intention to talk to Yuwen Tong and ask him his opinion about it. He had not bargained on overhearing a conversation between Yuwen Tong and Xie Shi.