My Cultivation Starting from Archery

"Sister, she has been in the mansion for so long, and you..." Chen Sansi asked tentatively. Rong Yanqiu replied irritably, "I can't beat her, but fortunately, she hasn't hurt anyone besides making a sour face. Otherwise, we would have had to call up a large army and ask the Martial Saint to encircle and suppress her." "Thank you, Sister. I'll go back and check now, Qian Xun!" Chen Sansi handed over Xi Xi to Sun Li, then mounted his horse and sped into the city. Upon arriving outside Chen Mansion, everything seemed as usual. "Ah, the master has returned!" Si Qinmohua came out to greet him. Chen Sansi gave her a look. Si Qin caught on and whispered, "She's in the bedroom." "Hmm." Chen Sansi dismounted and entered the courtyard. Before he pushed open the door of the bedroom, he saw the aura of two people inside. One of them possessed dense spiritual energy, not much weaker than the old Emperor—indeed, an unexpected visitor. "Creak." He pushed open the door. Inside the room filled with the scent of flowers, Gu Xinlan was sewing, and on the bed, another woman in black was seated cross-legged. This woman, with eyebrows like green feathers and skin like creamy jade, had the delicate beauty of peach blossoms with gold threads twirling around her temples. Her attire, dark as ink, flowed elegantly, and the high-set jewels sparkled. She seemed like an immortal descended from heaven, yet maintaining a dignified and modest profile, her celestial allure both indescribable and imposing. Upon closer inspection, her features bore some resemblance to Gu Xinlan, yet she radiated an aura that kept others at a distance. Noticing someone entering, she slowly opened her eyes, her deep black pupils exuding a dominance that looked down upon those below her. "Ah, has Brother Shi returned?" Gu Xinlan put down her needlework and came to greet him. After exchanging simple pleasantries, Chen Sansi got straight to the point, "Sister Lan, who is this lady?" "Mr. Chen, it's easy to forget such things when one is important" The woman in the black robe, with embroidered gold edges, slightly parted her rose lips, her voice falling from the high heavens like celestial music, "Mr. Chen just swaggered through the three states, causing me to lose troops and territory. Have you forgotten?" I? Chen Sansi scrutinized her anew. The woman continued indifferently, "I am Shen, named Gui Ti." "So, you are the Empress of Qing Country." Chen Sansi nodded and inquired, "But I wonder, what brings you to the home of a Sheng official?" As he held her in his arms, the Empress paused before saying, "She real name is Shen Yuzhi, who is..." "My full sister, sharing both father and mother." "You..." Chen Sansi looked from the Empress to Sister Lan in his arms, absorbing the information and coming to a scarcely believable conclusion: "The Empress of Qing Country is my aunt by marriage?" "Aunt by marriage?" The Empress frowned, clearly not understanding the term: "What do you mean by that?" "Brother Shi, I didn't mean to keep it from you." Gu Xinlan explained, "I was young at that time, and if it had been known, it could have brought deadly trouble to our family." "I understand." Chen Sansi, of course, grasped the situation. "A rural hunter who couldn't even earn a scholar's degree," The Empress's tone was tinged with disdain and anger: "actually spent seven pieces of silver to buy the Princess of Daqing to be his child bride, serving him like a maid." "Gui Ti!" Gu Xinlan was displeased. She retorted, "Look, Brother Shi is now an Earl, and you know very well how formidable he has been in battle over these years. What else is there to pick on? If it weren't for father pitying me and gathering silver to buy me, I might be dead in some brothel by now." "As for serving... "Chen Family was not wealthy back then, where is the sense in women not helping out?" "Look, isn't everything better now?" At that, the Empress's eyebrows twitched, and she shot a look at her sister, seemingly reminding her of something. "You girl, I even agreed not to go to the city gate to meet people, but still haven't given enough face to this 'Empress'?" Gu Xinlan said, "Aren't you going to quickly call him brother-in-law?" "Sister, you..." The Empress was somewhat helpless. Even as a monarch of a nation, she couldn't lose her temper in front of this woman. In the end, she could only sigh deeply: "He is after all, a mere mortal." "Gui Ti, you're putting on quite the airs." Gu Xinlan said unhappily, "If you keep this up, I'll really get angry." "Enough, what's done is done. I have nothing more to say." The Daqing Empress stood up, leaving the bedroom. "Sister Lan." Chen Sansi then asked, "At this point, there surely can't be anything left to hide, right?" "Yes, Brother Shi, please have a seat first." Gu Xinlan helped her husband to sit down and brewed a cup of tea: "Brother Shi, you must know about 'hostages,' right?" Chen Sansi nodded. "Back then, my father was sent as a hostage from Qing Country. Qing and Sheng exchanged hostages to secure a good relationship and joint markets to resist the barbarians." Gu Xinlan spoke softly: "Unlike Sheng, in Qing, princes willing to be hostages were seen as earning their stripes. My father had practically been confirmed as the Crown Prince and was prepared to stay in the Sheng state for a few years before returning to take up his duties as Supervisor." "But then..." "Suddenly, Grandpa passed away, and my uncle took the throne." "After that, my uncle framed my father, implicating him in the Crown Prince's disputes in Sheng, slapped him with a charge of treason, seeking to have our entire family executed." "The big case at that time resulted in many ministers in Sheng being killed and countless others exiled." "Back then, only one person could be saved—I let my sister go, and I was fortunate enough to save my life using the false identity of a minister named Gu, though I was exiled instead of executed." "After that, Brother Shi..." "You probably know the rest." Political purges are always there; a major cleansing every decade or so is quite normal.