Faithful Heart (Flesh of my Flesh...Blood of my Blood 2)

Chapter 36

Ji Heng, was Meng Hao's bastard daughter, product of her mother having seduced her father to gained revenge. Meng Hao had been a menace on the battlefield, and he had led numerous victorious campaigns for His Lordship, Donghua Dijun. The Demons hated him, and a plan had been hatched to bring him down hundred of thousands of years before Miao Lou challenge Dijun in the decisive battle that led to her being seal away. Ji Heng could not remember her mother, but she did remember her father who had loved her despite her having been born to chain him down to a nefarious fate. She could still remember the last time she saw her dear father; it had been late one evening as they dine together with Dijun. It had been a rather somber affair as she had been told that from now on, she would stay under His Lordship's tutelage as Meng Hao traveled on a mission to the Demon Realm. Her father had been gone the next day and she had not seeing him again for the past fifty thousand years.

Ji Heng had learned much from the tutors that Dijun had picked for her, she had practice martial arts and swordsmanship, understood poisons, and had learned to disguised herself to sneak inside any castle. Dijun had presumed Meng Hao dead and had offered her to find her a suitable match to marry but Ji Heng had refused. She was wasted in a marriage when going back to the Demon Realm to collect information and search for her father was much more important seeing as foreign spies had a notoriously hard time penetrating the echelons of power enough to gain information. She had blood sworn herself to Dijun and arrangements had been made for her to return to the Demon Realm as First Princess as was her birthright. Min Su had been assigned to her as a traveling companion, a woman masquerading as a man, and Ji Heng had fallen in love with Min Su. But their relationship, as well as their mission objective, were a heavily guarded secret.

This had made for awkwardness when Ji Heng had been forced to serve Nye Chuyin in bed. But it was the only way to get closer to him and gained valuable information. Her sacrifice had yielded surprising success and Ji Heng had found out that Nye Chuyin's bloodline had served Miao Lou for generations. He was also the head of the terrorist group that torch villages, stole military good from celestial soldiers at the border and ran a human trafficking operation. Her one mistake was that just as she had gotten close, he also kept her under surveillance, and this had made it difficult to send reports to Dijun.

Ji Heng was jolted from her thoughts when Min Su suddenly opened the door and entered her chambers. The moment she laid eyes on Min Su she was alarmed, standing up from her seat, she hurriedly made her way to Min Su's side to take a closer look at the bruises on her lover's face.

"What has happened?" Ji Heng asked with tears in her eyes.

"It was difficult, but I managed. I found your father." Min Su said shocking Ji Heng.

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Feng Jiu felt bad for Yan, he had been kicked out of Tai Chen Palace and had slept outside in the heavenly street. When the palace had opened in the morning, he had forced his way inside and had squatted by some bushes waiting for Donghua. She witnessed all of this in her fox skin as she craved ox tail stew and thought about adding leeks to the stock. Running back to her kitchen and jumping inside through a window, Feng Jiu mesomorph back into her human skin and walked to her cold box. Fishing out the ingredients for her stew, she set out to cook as a gentle breeze swept through the kitchens and birds chirped.

The longer that the stew simmer for, the better to extract the nutrients. Feng Jiu jumped in and out of her kitchen as she kept an eye on Yan who was struggling with the green moss collecting in the many enchanted ponds in the palace. Once Donghua made up his mind that someone was stupid there was little that could be done to change his opinion and Feng Jiu could tell he thought Yan was stupid. Donghua had left the palace for Court and Feng Jiu had followed Yan around as he climbed a tree to eat some fruit. He was hungry and Feng Jiu was moved to compassion, feeding people was her devotional calling.