The metal walls of the Wu Palace never calmed Wu Yun's nerves. Dark, metallic, lifeless. Haunted by the corpses that pretended to be people. All dancing to the tune of madness his father dictated – all feared the Butcher of Blue-Sky Province.
Now here he was, dragged about like a doll. His father's guards locked their arms around his, another pointed a spear in his back as they trotted him down these heaven-forsaken hallways.
The cheek of it all! One moment he'd been pants down with the prettiest girl he'd had the honour of ploughing – the next chaos: an imperial eunuch barking at him, the attaché she'd come with descending into lunacy, screaming, weapons drawn. The way they were waving their steel, Wu Yun had to do something about it – he wasn't about to become a eunuch.
Pulling up his pants, he got to work. Tiger's Thunder Paw to the throat of the dickless— that sent him whirling like a kite with its strings cut. How was Wu Yun to know the man wasn't a cultivator – all the imperials were cultivated up to their empty skulls, were they not? It's not like Wu Yun used Thunder Claws for heaven's sake – that'd have slashed the poor man's throat open. Besides, the bed had enough blood already.
Next was the attaché, you'd have thought the empress herself was in bed with the ferocity with which they struck. Cultivators every last one of them – three at Qi Condensing, another at Spiritual Sea. It'd been a terrible fright. He tried so hard not to hurt them… and yet. Well, he was his father's son, and the Wu Kongzi was known as the Butcher of Blue Sky for a reason.
He'd finished another round with the girl before father's guard burst in. Smacked him over the head with the butt of their spears, and again a few times over. Fifth brother had been with them, happy to see their clobbering – Fifth brother always had been a conniving little cunt. Honour this, honour that. The man practiced the Five Virtues technique, as if he were a devout Daoist. Ever since he came back from the Sacred Heart Sect he'd been lecturing Wu Yun about his ways: "Look into your heart, see who you've become. You're not the boy you once were," blah, blah.
Now Wu Yun had a splitting headache, and terrible tension up his back and shoulders. It was known a man needed at least three rounds with a pretty girl after killing – especially if it was imperials. A smile crept across, and then a figure in a fiery robe, embroidered with blazing phoenixes slapped that smile to hell.
"Ow!" Wu Yun lurched, trying to cup his cheek, but was instead greeted by a slap upon the other. Looking up he didn't have to recognise the girl before she started screeching like the bird on her dress, "Wu Yun – you little lecher. Pig-blooded, foolhardy idiot. As if your bastard blood wasn't a curse enough…"
Wu Feifeng's words went on and on, like they always did. The heiress to the Holy Phoenix Temple. His father's favourite daughter… his father's only daughter since First Sister disappeared. She was worse than Fifth brother, at least golden balls had the temerity to put a sock in it, but no, the flaming flamenco loved the righteousness of the moral high-ground.
Cupping his reddened cheek, Wu Yun looked up, "Feng-feng, I get your moral superiority sets your padlocked panties on fire, but give it a rest." His violet eyes looking at her blooming orange irises.
"You little shit!" She cursed, slapping him again – this time with her ring finger. Wu Yun winced, tasting blood.
"Technically aren't you a bastard as well, big bird?" Wu Yun spat a mouthful of blood on the floor, torchlight dancing in the crimson.
"Don't call me, big bird!" Wu Feifeng's cheeks went bright red, her teeth gritting, "I'm not big!" she screeched, like a chicken.
"Not anymore. I still remember when First Brother dressed you as a pig for your mother's recognition as head concubine." He missed Wu Zhou – he'd always been a laugh. He went missing with First Sister years ago.
The sound Wu Feifeng made in response sounded like a dying animal, and not a noble death at that – a mix between a boar and a cat's wailing, "You fork tongued, jack-rabbit. You're not getting off the hook for this one. No. It's the imperial household you screwed over this time."
Wu Yun shrugged, even with his father's guard gripping him by the arms, "The emperor loves father, he conquered the biggest province in the empire for him and doubled the imperial treasury. Don't worry about me, big bird," he said, exuding confidence.
With that Wu Feifeng smiled, and Wu Yun's heart shuddered. That smirk, an avatar of vengeance, he'd learned early that was a dangerous thing on women and the cockless alike.
"Good luck brother," she waved her hand, and father's guard marched him further down the halls, Wu Yun screaming back, "What do you know?!"
Nine hells, he felt a fool. Whether tricked by that witch or not, he felt something was afoot! Sweat dripped down his forehead – sweat! He hadn't sweated since he'd bedded big bird's mother, dressed as his father. Sweet heavens— was that it?! No…
Thinking about big bird's mother, he felt a warmth travel down his body. He'd have to visit Yao Yao again soon. He could see why she was father's favourite. Soon enough, Wu Yun's pulse steadied, and the guards at the end of the hallway opened a grand door, inscribed with the Wu symbol and adorned by two sabres – father's signature weapon.
Light flooded the dark halls, as he was dragged into the gleaming sanctum of steel. The room arched like a cathedral, adorned with trophies – swords, shields, axes, and maces, bows, lances, sabres, and daggers. Wu Kongzi made a point to loot the fallen, filling his mighty throne room with their possessions.
Sentimentality, Wu Yun called it.
A man so in love with bloodstained battlefields he wants to bring them home.
Wu Yun chuckled at the thought, but that soon came to a crashing halt.
The guards pushed through the crowd, and like a host of sparrows they parted, fleeing to either side of the room. The crowded metal floor soon became a steel causeway straight to his father.
Sitting there atop his throne, block-jawed and raggedy bearded.
Wu Kongzi wasn't one for pomp – it'd taken the collective efforts of his wife and concubines to wear the eyepatch over his left eye.
To his left stood Qian Fang, First Minister of Blue Sky. A wily man, who looked more like a fox than a human – rumour said he loved dining on garbage as much as the fox. To father's right stood a man Wu Yun had never seen before.
He was taller than average and neatly shaven. His cloak embroidered with a five-clawed dragon, and 'Tianlong' – the imperial clan. The man gave off a regal air, like he shat gold and his farts smelt of roses, a stark contrast to the warlord that sat to his side.
The Imperial looked to father, and so he waved a hand.
Qian Fang brushed himself down, taking out a scroll. He gave a pronounced cough and read true and clearly, "Wu Yun, bastard son of the Wu Kongzi the First, Butcher and Duke of Blue Sky, Conqueror of Red Marsh, the Zong, and Three Nation Confederacy, you are hereby charged with treason, molestation, and the attempted murder of Crown Prince Tianlong Kubai. How do you plead?"
Wu Yun's heart sank, his teeth numb, ears hissing. What had this man said – molestation?! Every woman fell before him, there was no molestation!
Ready to belt a curse, Wu Yun paused…
Attempted murder of the crown prince? No. What foolishness was this – had dickless been crown prince? No way the emperor would be that weak.
"Not guilty. I demand evidence!" Wu Yun shook off his father's guards, standing straight to meet Qian Fang's dog eyes.
"Evidence is not needed," hissed the viper to father's right.
"That girl had been a gift cultivated for my elder brother for twenty years, by the Holy Phoenix Temple, a gift of pure yin energy to cure him of his excess yang vitality – he'll die a painful death now. As should you!" The apparent princeling said, though he couldn't hide the glee in the corner of his lips.
"Do you understand what you've done, Wu Yun?" A rumbling voice came tumbling from the throne. The fox and viper side of him scurried backwards, as Wu Kongzi rose from his throne.
His figure broad, towering. The man had been cultivating body arts for half a century, and it showed. His shoulders casting a shroud, as he stood over Wu Yun.
"Father-" Wu Yun tried to protest, but the words caught in his mouth as Wu Kongzi raised his hand.
"When the Crown Prince reaches the age of twenty-five, the Yang Energy in his Bright-Sun Veins will combust, unleashing a power ten times greater than a Golden Core cultivator detonating their Core. The Empire will be a blood bath between the lesser Princes. The wicked Xuan will strike, and half the manpower will be exhausted through internal and external strife," Wu Kongzi said, calmer than a spring breeze.
Wu Yun hated the man, but for a barbarian his mind was like a Tiger amongst a field of pigs.
"And the charge of molestation?" Wu Yun looked up to his father – the man was devoid of love, the only desire he had was conquest – rivers of blood. For he walked the path of an Asura. Any other man in this nation would face charges of demonic cultivation – not the butcher of Blue Sky. No, when he spat upon the heavens the monks beg for more.
Wu Kongzi though, gossip gave him shield and armour. Rumours have swirled for decades that he reached peak Golden Core. Now that fame made him untouchable – if he ascended, the empire might dominate the entire continent of Seven Moons.
"The charge of molestation." His father's words rang like steel, "Not against the girl of course – against imperial property. She was not yours to take."
There was a sudden relaxation in Wu Yun's shoulders – they might call for a death sentence, but at least castration was unlikely. His breath sighed, "My head then?" He said, looking up to his father.
The least the old man could do was swing the sabre himself – poetic in a way, Wu Kongzi's first act of paternal love – infanticide… is it infanticide if your son is fifteen?
"'Sonacide' just doesn't have the same ring to it." Wu Yun said, chuckling to himself.
With that whispers around the court started to circle, "The Mad Prince, muttering nonsense before the headsman."
"He never did show any respect." Another sounded.
"Such a braggart." That one sounded like Big Bird.
Wu Kongzi let out a chuckle, drawing his sabre. The steel drawn in a flash, loose from his scabbard before the metal hiss echoed throughout the room.
Wu Yun took in a deep breath, falling to his knees, he swept his hair aside, leaving his neck bare.
A man had to die well. He'd always believed that – a man can only live as good as he could die. Any soldier would die by that… how he wished to be a soldier right now.
"Wait my majesty!" The fox called out.
Wu Yun opened one eye, peeking up. Didn't the man know he was trying to have an honourable death here?
"Grand Duke, please, I implore you, let the young prince invoke the Blood Pact!" said Qian Fang.
Blood pact? Blood pact?! The silver-haired fox was a genius!
"I invoke my ancient right to the blood pact, to serve and die in the great armed forces of the Sky Dragon Empire!" Wu Yun jumped to his feet, followed by a collective groan of disbelief from the court.
Within a blink of the eye, Wu Kongzi's sabre sheathed itself. His eyebrow raised with conviction, "Very well."
Wu Yun frowned, his eyes watching his father's brow.
Bastard! Wu Yun grimaced. Had the old man been planning this the entire time? Why else would Big Bird introduce him to the holy virgin?!
…Well not so virgin anymore.
His father always had been a conniving cunt, just like Fifth Brother! And Third Brother! And come to think of it, most of them.
"Outrageous!" The imperial prince set forth, his lips quivering. His loose end, not tied up with a bow.
"It is law the founding Emperor laid out at the contract with his subjects, is it not, Prince Su? To separate the Sky Dragon Empire from the chaff of other nations." Qian Fang scored again.
The man had a way with words; Wu Yun had to admit.
Prince Su looked like he was about to explode, his cultivation base rumbled, but he knew better. In front of the butcher of Blue Sky, it's best not to flaunt.
"His cultivation base, that. The Imperial Throne demands it. And the Xuan front, not the Hadrim – they are pathetic." Prince Su demanded, his spit flying like a waterfall.
Wu Yun looked towards his father. The man was too vain to cripple his own blood – a palm smacked into his Spiritual Sea, boiling it like a lake in the pits of hell! Blood seeped from his mouth, as his body flew back, like a gnat swatted away.
The world went dark, as he felt his spine break upon the metal sanctum of the throne room's great hall.