Zhu Zhuqing returned to her bedroom and immediately flung herself onto the bed with a thud.
Her expression was somewhat dazed.
After the pent-up emotions of this period burst forth, her mind felt somewhat empty.
This sensation was actually similar to the post-climactic state of clarity that most people have experienced.
However, Zhu Zhuqing, being still young, was unaware of this concept, which is why she felt so bewildered, even somewhat anxious and uneasy.
She couldn't quite believe her own outburst earlier.
'How could I have said such things to my mother? Or were those my true feelings?'
She hadn't even thought she could speak so much in one go!
She sank into the soft bedding, immersed in the lingering exhilaration of her earlier outburst, unable to extricate herself for a long time.
"Miss, the family head summons you to the main hall."
The voice of the maid, following a knock on the door, interrupted Zhu Zhuqing's reverie.
She abruptly sat up, her expression instantly switching back to calmness.
"Understood."
Zhu Zhuqing knew that the earlier conversation had been purely her own venting.
The matter of the Beast Soul Alliance's mission progress hadn't even been broached yet.
And now was the main event.
'The questions she would ask, the things she would say, would largely fall into a few categories, and Anoma has already helped me prepare responses.'
She wasn't in a hurry, instead leisurely taking a bath to wash away the fatigue of this period, before finally heading to the main hall with these thoughts in mind.
The large doors swung open as Zhu Zhuqing stepped into the main hall, then naturally closed behind her.
Zhu Lanyan sat high on the throne of the main hall.
Humans are always influenced by symbols and identities, things that don't possess real power but are shaped by human culture and subjective psychology, making one feel as if they possess real presence, majesty, and pressure.
We call this authority.
And similar to the throne, by raising the height of the seat and its position, it naturally brings a sense of oppression.
This was precisely why Zhu Lanyan had changed her position and chosen such a venue.
Evidently, the unexpected situation of Zhu Zhuqing's return, which she had never anticipated, meant she hadn't given corresponding instructions to the guards, leading to Zhu Zhuqing suddenly bursting in with a verbal assault, making Zhu Lanyan feel her authority was greatly challenged.
She had to reclaim the situation, regain her original face.
Mother and daughter silently faced each other.
Even though Zhu Zhuqing had anticipated such a situation, humans, seemingly rational creatures who are actually mostly driven by instinct, couldn't achieve perfect self-control.
Just the change in scene made Zhu Zhuqing feel the pressure.
However, she had ultimately received targeted training.
She didn't know how to alleviate this pressure, but she maintained a calm exterior and continued to face Zhu Lanyan.
"After killing your sister, can't you even greet your own mother now?"
After a long stare, seeing that Zhu Zhuqing's gaze hadn't shifted, Zhu Lanyan finally took the initiative, questioning Zhu Zhuqing on the grounds of filial piety.
However, what she didn't know was that for Zhu Zhuqing, who had been instilled with the goal of overturning the cruel kin-competition mechanism of Star Luo, such false filial piety and affection were precisely what she despised the most.
The previously subsided anger was once again ignited.
"A family that has long thrived on mutual slaughter among kin for power, now wants to pay attention to such superficial formalities? If this is what nobility is, what the royal relatives of Star Luo are, then it's truly laughable!"
Zhu Zhuqing's face was full of mockery as she sharply retorted.
Zhu Lanyan's face stiffened, her expression turning extremely ugly. She felt as if her face had been slapped hard by her daughter.
She had never imagined that Zhu Zhuqing could be so sharp-tongued, leaving her speechless.
"Sharp-tongued and shameless!"
Unable to find a rebuttal, Zhu Lanyan angrily shifted to the next topic: "No matter how we compete, it's ultimately an internal matter of the Zhu family! And you, Zhu Zhuqing, if it weren't for the help of external forces, how could you have killed your sister!? You traitor, how dare you question the family traditions in front of me? The decisions of countless family ancestors, even the founding emperor, are not for you, a rebel who uses external forces against your own family, to question!"
"Just because it has always been so, does it mean it's right?"
Zhu Zhuqing, seeing her mother trying to pressure her with the ancestors, completely lost any remaining illusions.
Now, looking at Zhu Lanyan, she felt that compared to the progressive thoughts of the Beast Soul Alliance, this seemingly noble and high-class lady was only superficially glamorous, her inner self already decayed and outdated.
What is there to fear about such a person?
Zhu Lanyan coldly rebuked: "You have no right to discuss right and wrong with me!"
A powerful Soul Power pressure attempted to force Zhu Zhuqing to her knees.
After completely disenchanting Zhu Lanyan, Zhu Zhuqing, at least on a purely mental level, could no longer be overpowered.
Though Zhu Zhuqing was indeed someone who went with the flow, more inclined to rely on the strong rather than forge her own path, she wasn't without merits.
Her greatest merit was... her ability to endure hardship!
She wasn't the type who truly understood perseverance.
If she truly wanted to become stronger, someone with such persistence would constantly strive to find and figure out more efficient ways to become stronger.
Zhu Zhuqing clearly lacked this trait.
Just like in the original timeline at Shrek Academy, she would only seek authoritative advice, never caring whether the method was feasible or not.
But at least... she had execution power.
To put it bluntly, this person was a natural-born Paladins Saint body! A tough nut who silently endured!
She didn't understand what perseverance was, but at least she could hold her ground!
Facing Zhu Lanyan's Soul Power pressure, she stubbornly kept her head high, not allowing her knees to fully bend.
She even continued to mock Zhu Lanyan: "What now? Are you going to kill me? Kill your only daughter? If you find a wild man now, maybe you can still manage to produce a new little queen before the next emperor ascends?"
Although the Zhu family was of royal descent, they were ultimately not the Dai family, and even members of the Dai family, in their mutual competition, often sought help from other sources or had some major forces step down.
Even if Zhu Zhuqing truly used external forces to counter-kill Zhu Zhuyun, unless the interference of these forces was confirmed to exceed their expected controllable range, it was actually within the permissible limits.
Just like Dai Wei's older brother, who now stood with several major nobles.
And the background arranged for Zhu Zhuqing by the Beast Soul Alliance, as a member of the royal relatives, Marquis Cassas, was clearly within this range.
Logically, unless Zhu Lanyan had a mental lapse, she couldn't possibly actually kill Zhu Zhuqing. Considering Dai Wei's age, any child she bore now wouldn't be a princess, so she would have to look for candidates from other branches, which would inevitably lead to a decline in her own power.
Not to mention the Schrodinger's mother-daughter relationship, as long as Zhu Lanyan had any reason left, she wouldn't truly harm Zhu Zhuqing, at most threaten and intimidate her a couple of times.
As long as there was reason...
The problem was, Zhu Lanyan was directly broken by Zhu Zhuqing's sharp tongue and verbal assault.
"Zhu! Zhu! Qing!"
Zhu Lanyan revealed a completely unmotherly, ferocious expression in front of her daughter. In Zhu Zhuqing's somewhat startled gaze, a pitch-black energy claw shot towards her at an extraordinary speed.
Zhu Lanyan, nearing forty, as the head of the Zhu family and the only daughter of the previous Star Luo emperor, had enjoyed the best resources since childhood and was now a powerful Soul Saint.
Though not the strongest in the Zhu family, she was still a top-tier combatant.
No mistake, no repetition, no omission, no content outside of 69shubar!
After completing the ascension of the Soul Saint stage, her Martial Soul naturally reached the top quality, and even without Martial Soul possession, just ordinary use of dark energy to attack was enough to threaten ordinary Soul King-level strongmen.
Zhu Zhuqing hadn't anticipated at all that her mother would attack her, her face filled with astonishment.
Firstly, in her eyes, she hadn't actively sought to kill Zhu Zhuyun, but had acted in self-defense while being pursued. Zhu Lanyan actively trying to kill her was a completely different matter.
Secondly, she felt that after all, she and Zhu Lanyan were mother and daughter, even if the affection was somewhat thin, it certainly wasn't non-existent.
In fact, both of her judgments were very reasonable.
Her biggest misjudgment was that when an individual possesses extraordinary power, their behavior inevitably tends towards doing as they please.
This is especially true in Douluo Continent, where mental cultivation isn't emphasized.
Perhaps Zhu Lanyan would deeply regret killing Zhu Zhuqing.
But at this moment, facing her second daughter, who had just killed her beloved eldest daughter and dared to continuously provoke her, barking wildly in front of her, Zhu Lanyan, with her murderous intent rising and no one around to restrain her, directly chose to act.
With such an attack, Zhu Zhuqing clearly realized that she was doomed.
The script hadn't followed the direction she had envisioned, and while Zhu Zhuqing felt astonished, looking at Zhu Lanyan's deranged face, she also felt a sense of relief...
Just then, a figure suddenly emerged from Zhu Zhuqing's shadow, and in her astonished gaze, with a seemingly leisurely yet impossibly fast stride, stood in front of Zhu Zhuqing.
"Unexpectedly, the unexpected still happened."
You Xing murmured softly, using a single hand to block Zhu Lanyan's Dark Claw attack.
"Young—" Zhu Zhuqing somewhat blankly stared with her black pearl-like eyes, not yet able to utter the title, her voice already interrupted by Zhu Lanyan.
"Who are you!?"
Zhu Lanyan, having come to her senses, also suddenly trembled her arm, clearly regretting her actions, but the immediate concern was this unexpected guest, You Xing.
She was briefly mesmerized by You Xing's handsome and youthful appearance, quickly adjusted her expression, and with a cold gaze, interrogated You Xing: "How did you infiltrate here?"
You Xing, as if a young gentleman directly replicated from the template of a knight's novel, bowed slightly before calmly looking up to meet Zhu Lanyan's gaze, saying: "I am precisely the 'external force' that Lord Zhu mentioned earlier, a guard from the Cassas family, named You Xing. This trip is in response to my young master's command, to escort Miss Zhu Zhuqing back to the Duke's residence and to serve as her protector."
Zhu Zhuqing's pupils slightly dilated, suppressing the urge to exclaim.
Clearly, whether it was You Xing inexplicably becoming a guard of the Cassas family, or You Xing, the young alliance leader, condescending to be her bodyguard, both greatly surprised Zhu Zhuqing.
On the other hand, as You Xing had anticipated, Zhu Lanyan, upon hearing You Xing's self-proclamation, relaxed slightly. At least the force backing Zhu Zhuqing, the Cassas family, wasn't at the level of an external force.
But instead, she put on an air of arrogance: "Not to mention your identity verification, guard of the Cassas family, you haven't answered my second question yet."
It was natural for Zhu Lanyan to be arrogant.
The Marquis Cassas family, although a marquis family, had been in decline for nearly a century, completely marginalized within the empire. While still looked up to by some viscount families, for some flourishing earl families, it no longer held authority, privately referred to as a fallen noble family.
Compared to the flourishing Zhu family, it was even more insignificant.
Even though You Xing had easily blocked her casual attack, showing at least Soul King-level combat power.
With You Xing's youthful appearance, he was undoubtedly an extremely dazzling genius, yet Zhu Lanyan didn't take him seriously.
This was the aristocratic demeanor.
Unless it was an individual power that could ignore the state, no matter how strong the force, they would still assume that power could overwhelm it.
Zhu Zhuqing's heart tightened.
She was acutely aware of You Xing's identity.
Him stepping in to save the situation was one thing, but how could she really treat him as her bodyguard and let Zhu Lanyan interrogate him like a subordinate!?
You Xing didn't look at her, but Zhu Zhuqing felt that You Xing was watching her.
She immediately straightened her face, forgetting the fear of just having walked through the gates of hell, and coldly said to Zhu Lanyan: "Zhu Lanyan, he is my guard, not a member of the Zhu family, and has no reason to answer your questions."
Zhu Lanyan's eyes flickered.
She didn't rebuke her daughter for directly calling her by name, but instead completely calmed down, smiling: "So firmly standing on the side of the Cassas family? It seems you are aware of that matter and have decided to fully invest in the Cassas family?"
Zhu Zhuqing's expression didn't change.
The so-called matter involved the plans of the Beast Soul Alliance, which she naturally knew about before returning to the Zhu family.
Initially, it was indeed shocking and speechless, but after such a long time, although Zhu Zhuqing was still greatly shocked, she could accept it.
As for what exactly it was that could make Zhu Lanyan change her attitude so quickly?
On the same day Zhu Zhuqing agreed to join the Beast Soul Alliance, You Chen sent an avatar to assassinate the current Crown Prince of the Star Luo Empire, Dai Wei.
This naturally caused an immediate uproar in the Star Luo royal family, frantically searching for the assassin.
And besides finding the assassin, another major event followed—the succession of the crown prince's position.
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