Holding the Emperor Hostage : Chapter 90 Extra 2

Shentu Yang’s pupils dilated repeatedly as he stared blankly at Yin Shuhuai, forgetting even how to speak.

Yin Shuhuai smiled carelessly, took Shentu Yang’s hand, and with a shift of his thoughts, they arrived at the imperial palace’s kitchen.

The night watch eunuchs and Imperial Guards heard the commotion and immediately walked in to check. When they saw the Emperor and Prince Yan standing alone inside the kitchen, they thought their eyes were playing tricks on them. They stared wide-eyed over and over again, and once they confirmed it was true, a jolt went through them, and they hurriedly knelt to plead for mercy: “Please forgive us, Your Majesty, please forgive us, Prince Yan. This humble servant did not know Your Majesty was here, and has offended the imperial countenance…”

“This is not your fault,” Yin Shuhuai waved his hand, in a very good mood. “You are all loyal to your duties, very good.”

Yin Shuhuai thought for a moment, and with a sweeping gesture of his hand, right in full view of everyone, a pile of fist-sized plant roots resembling taro, along with rows of yellow long stalks the size of a child’s arm, suddenly appeared before their eyes. Everyone opened their mouths in astonishment, and some even raised their hands to rub their eyes hard, mistakenly thinking they had fallen asleep while on duty and were therefore having such a bizarre and illogical dream.

Yin Shuhuai smiled warmly: “These are sweet potatoes and corn. They are nothing valuable, so you can take them and roast them to eat as tonight’s midnight snack.”

The guards and eunuchs froze for a moment before bowing in acknowledgment, picking up the sweet potatoes and corn, and retreating from the kitchen step by step.

Until they were more than thirty feet away from the kitchen, the bewildered guard commander slapped himself heavily. A piercing pain traveled straight from his face to his mind, and the guard commander suddenly snapped back to reality, muttering to himself: “With pain like this, it’s definitely not a dream.”

Before his voice faded, someone immediately chimed in: “So the commander also thought we were dreaming?”

“Is this really not a dream?”

A flurry of slapping sounds suddenly echoed. After quite a while, everyone finally said with lingering fear: “Turns out it really isn’t a dream!”

Looking at the twinkling stars above, the guard commander gasped, lowered his voice with a mixture of shock and suspicion, and asked the palace head eunuch: “This is truly bizarre. Why did Your Majesty and Prince Yan suddenly come to the detached palace?”

No one had been notified in advance, and there was no grand procession following them. They had simply bypassed the heavy guards protecting the detached palace and suddenly appeared in the kitchen. If the night watch eunuch hadn’t heard the commotion and sounded the alarm, they might not have even known the people had left. How on earth was all of this accomplished?

“Is that the main point? Isn’t the main point that Your Majesty suddenly conjured these wonderful things out of thin air right in front of everyone… This is legendary Taoist sorcery like sleeves containing the universe and taking objects from empty space! Do you people understand at all? With such divine skills, can His Majesty be a mortal? He must be an immortal from the heavens.”

“Heaven bless our great Yin, to actually have an immortal serve as our emperor. This is the greatest blessing for the millions of subjects of our great Yin.” The palace head eunuch stared straight at the silent kitchen and knelt down with a pious expression, shouting: “Long live our Emperor!”

Inspired by the palace head eunuch, the others also knelt piously in the direction of the kitchen, shouting long live in unison.

The young eunuch holding the corn and sweet potatoes said with a mixture of terror and fanaticism: “I have never seen such food before. Have you seen it?”

Everyone shook their heads in unison.

The young eunuch’s eyes were terrifyingly bright, and his tone carried an abnormal excitement: “Our Emperor is an immortal. This food that we have never seen before must undoubtedly be what immortals eat. For His Majesty to actually reward us with food fit only for immortals, his benevolence and generosity are such that ten thousand deaths would not be enough for us to repay His Majesty.”

“Food eaten by immortals?”

Everyone was startled, and then they all turned to look at the corn and sweet potatoes held in the young eunuch’s arms, their gazes suddenly turning heated: “Will eating this food make us live to a hundred and completely cure all ailments?”

No one knew, but everyone couldn’t help letting their imaginations run wild.

Inside the kitchen, Yin Shuhuai had no idea that a casual gesture of his could plunge all the guards and eunuchs of the detached palace into fanatical fantasies. He turned to look at Shentu Yang and said with a smile: “Sweet potatoes and corn can not only be roasted, but also boiled. Which kind would you like to eat?”

Shentu Yang was still trapped in the shock of the Emperor’s ability to shrink distances and take objects from thin air without recovering, and upon hearing this, he instinctively replied: “I want to eat both.”

Yin Shuhuai couldn’t help laughing, not surprised at all by Shentu Yang’s answer. Brought back to his senses by Yin Shuhuai’s light chuckle, Shentu Yang looked at the smiling Emperor before him and suddenly felt invigorated: “Your Majesty is truly an immortal reincarnate!”

Before Yin Shuhuai could speak, Shentu Yang suddenly patted his own face: “I am actually in a mutual affection with a reincarnated immortal. I am truly amazing.”

Yin Shuhuai: “???”

Thinking of Yin Shuhuai’s words, Shentu Yang rolled up his sleeves and asked curiously while working: “Your Majesty, are these sweet potatoes and corn the food you eat in the heavens?” Do immortals eat these too? He had thought that when immortals were thirsty they only drank jade nectar and dew, and when hungry they only ate immortal pills. Even if they really ate, it would be legendary rare beasts capable of bringing the dead back to life, or perhaps Mother Queen of the West’s flat peaches. The sweet potatoes and corn before him looked rather… overly ordinary and rustic.

Especially that sweet potato, Shentu Yang was too embarrassed to say it, but it looked just about the same as a taro, and didn’t even look as good as one!

Yin Shuhuai chuckled dryly, and shook his head: “These are food crops I found on a small foreign island across the sea. Because of their high yield and decent taste, I kept some. I didn’t expect to use them now.”

Yin Shuhuai patted the sweet potatoes and corn that Shentu Yang had washed with a touch of nostalgia, while his mind conjured images of his ordinary life in his previous world.

As a homebody, his biggest hobbies in everyday life used to be playing video games and ordering takeout. He never expected that after crossing over through time, he would actually become an emperor.

Thinking of takeout, Yin Shuhuai couldn’t help feeling a bit whimsical: “…Actually, corn and sweet potatoes can not only be roasted and boiled, but there are many other ways to cook them.” For instance, pulled-sugar sweet potatoes, corn kernels with pine nuts, and so on. It was just that Yin Shuhuai was too lazy to make them, and Shentu Yang didn’t know how either. The monarch and minister put their heads together and simply summoned the cooks left behind at the detached palace, having them prepare several midnight snacks according to the recipes Yin Shuhuai provided.

Yin Shuhuai flipped through his inventory space and discovered that tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes, Kirin watermelons, and other vegetables and fruits he had harvested back when he played games were still stored inside, so he picked and chose a few of each to take out.

The detached palace cooks witnessed with their own eyes the Heavenly Emperor conjuring various vegetables and fruits out of thin air before them—all of which were new varieties they had never heard of or seen before—leaving them gaping in speechlessness. There were even those with poor psychological endurance who rolled their eyes and passed out completely, and were carried away by the guards stationed outside the door using all hands and feet.

After showing off some divine presence among mortals, Yin Shuhuai once again took Shentu Yang’s hand in full view of everyone and flashed back to the Ganquan Palace.

The guards and eunuchs at the detached palace were already numb to it, and the palace maids stationed inside Ganquan Palace had also caught wind of the news, frantically serving the Emperor and Prince Yan as they changed clothes and bathed. Yin Shuhuai waved his hand, signaling everyone to withdraw.

“I want Prince Yan to personally undress me.” Yin Shuhuai stood before Shentu Yang, spreading his arms. The swaying twelve-string imperial crown made the Emperor’s dragon countenance look all the more dazzling, resembling a divine being.

Shentu Yang felt completely dazzled. He walked step by steady step right up to the Emperor, stretched out his hands, and slowly hooked them around the Emperor’s belt: “This humble servant is deeply honored.”

His slender fingers were flexible and strong, gently unfastening the Emperor’s belt and peeling the gorgeous, heavy imperial robes off the Emperor bit by bit, revealing the snow-white inner garments.

Prince Yan asked with feigned playfulness: “Your Majesty is an immortal, and I’ve heard immortals are devoid of mortal passions and desires, yet this humble servant insists on seeing an immortal moved by passion. I wonder if the immortal might…”

As Prince Yan spoke, his large hands had already begun to move restlessly. He bit down on the Emperor’s earlobe, his palms wandering everywhere, and said vaguely: “Look, Your Majesty, immortals can be moved by passion too.”

Yin Shuhuai grabbed Shentu Yang’s wandering hands and scolded with a hoarse voice: “Cut the nonsense. I’m an immortal, not a dead man.” What kind of decent person has no reaction when their weak spot is grabbed?

Shentu Yang chuckled muffledly, scooped up his immortal emperor, and leaped straight into the pool. Warm spring water splashed in all directions, dampening the immortal’s snow-white inner garments. The soft, smooth silk clung to his body, instantly turning translucent.

—

Amidst the fine scenery, fine wine, and delicious food, the monarch and minister ate midnight snacks and soaked in the hot springs at the hot spring palace, whispering sweet nothings in a romantic setting, little knowing that the Ji County Imperial Palace was already in an uproar. The entire palace was in chaos because the Emperor and Prince Yan had suddenly vanished.

Upon receiving the news, Yao Wenruo and Huo Quan made a prompt and decisive decision to lock down the palace gates, and almost dispatched troops to surround the guesthouses where vassal princes, feudal lords, and leaders of various foreign tribes were staying. Fortunately, at the critical moment, Fan Juan received a confidential report sent via carrier pigeon from the dark guards of the Night Owls at the detached palace.

Learning that the Emperor and Prince Yan had suddenly appeared at the hot spring palace after the palace banquet, and had conjured up a great deal of unprecedented “ingredients” out of thin air right in front of numerous Imperial Guards, eunuchs, and cooks… Although he didn’t know how on earth the Emperor managed it, Fan Juan still promptly notified Zhuang Wuwei, Huo Quan, and the others, averting a palace coup caused by the emperor’s disappearance.

However, the secret gossip about the Emperor and Prince Yan suddenly vanishing from the palace still spread at an incredible speed among the noble clans, meritorious officials, vassal princes, and feudal lords. Before anyone could figure out what was going on, Yin Shuhuai, having finished eating corn, sweet potatoes, Kirin watermelons, and eighteen other dishes prepared from them, had already brought Shentu Yang back to the Ji County Imperial Palace.

At that time, Zhuang Wuwei, Huo Quan, and others had all gathered in the Chongde Hall to review the confidential report sent by the Night Owl dark guards. Although the report stated in black and white that the Emperor had mastered immortal divine arts, suddenly appeared at the hot spring palace, and conjured up various foods out of thin air, everyone remained half-doubting, feeling it was completely detached from reality. But regardless of whether they believed it or not, the most pressing task was to immediately go to the hot spring palace and welcome the Emperor back.

Just as they were speaking, the figures of the Emperor and Prince Yan suddenly appeared inside Chongde Hall.

The candlelight in the Changxin palace lamps flickered and waned, and everyone’s pupils shook from being frightened by the two suddenly appearing figures. Looking closely, they realized the newcomers were none other than the Emperor and Prince Yan who had mysteriously vanished two hours prior.

“Your Majesty…” Zhuang Wuwei slowly exhaled a breath, being the first to recover his wits: “It is well that Your Majesty is safe.”

“So Your Majesty really does possess immortal divine arts.” Having witnessed such a miraculous scene with his own eyes, Huo Quan suddenly grew excited, and immediately knelt and kowtowed: “Long live Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty, long live, long live!”

Old tears streamed down Huo Quan’s face, to the point where he couldn’t even speak properly. He could only shout long live to vent the excitement and shock in his heart.

Yao Wenruo, who had always been deeply scheming, also couldn’t help his mind going completely blank. Only at this moment did he belatedly realize that what the Night Owl dark agents reported was true.

So His Majesty really was an immortal!