"Hmm? What do you mean by Xue'er's words?" the Empress Dowager asked.
"Mother, my little sister was just joking. How could there be a future between women?" Qin Muxue's elder brother, Qin Yu, retorted.
"Yes, Mother, how could women possibly have children?" said Qin Wan, Qin Muxue's second sister.
Their tone was purely sarcastic, without a trace of doubt. They simply didn't believe the two women could have a child. And they certainly didn't believe Qin Muxue could have an heir.
Qin Muxue ignored their mockery, because her eldest brother and second sister had never had much affection for her since childhood, and now they were even fighting each other multiple times over the right to inherit the throne. Originally, Qin Muxue had no interest in the throne, but after her father's death, she had repeatedly distinguished herself on the battlefield, achieving remarkable military exploits. She also possessed considerable talent in governing the country; since her mother became the monarch, most of her governing policies and plans had been guided by Qin Muxue behind the scenes.
Before knowing that Qin Muxue was attracted to women, she was always considered the undisputed and best heir to the throne. This was because her elder brother was a dissolute playboy, obsessed with women and utterly ignorant of both scholarship and governance. Her elder sister was equally uneducated, with countless male lovers and an insatiable licentiousness. Only Qin Muxue and her younger brother Qin Yue possessed considerable talent in both scholarship and governance.
Especially her younger brother, Qin Yue, was far superior to Qin Muxue in both governance and scholarship. However, because Qin Muxue was also a cultivator, her martial arts skills were among the best in the entire Western Qin Kingdom. Moreover, Qin Muxue had achieved numerous military exploits and enjoyed high prestige in both the court and the army. Therefore, before Qin Muxue admitted that she liked women, she was always the best heir to the throne.
However, Qin Muxue did not want to inherit the throne. Although she was good at governing the country, she was very tired of it. She preferred to fight on the battlefield and protect her country.
Like Qin Yu and Qin Wan, Qin Muxue and Qin Yue were also on the same side, and Qin Wan and Qin Yu disliked their younger brother. However, Qin Muxue adored her gentle, refined, and considerate brother. Therefore, when Qin Yu and Qin Wan revealed their secret attraction to women, she wasn't flustered at all. Since she didn't want to inherit the throne, her brother Qin Yue would be the one to inherit it. As long as it wasn't her two older siblings who inherited the throne, she didn't care at all about who would inherit it.
However, six months after her secret of being attracted to women was revealed, her beloved younger brother, Qin Yue, fell seriously ill and was bedridden. At this time, her older siblings also began plotting against Qin Muxue in various ways. The most serious incident involved them leaking information about Qin Muxue's movements to the enemy, leading to a surprise attack on her during her campaign against the Southern Barbarian capital. Fortunately, Qin Muxue remained clear-headed and managed to stabilize her troops, thus repelling the enemy and preserving her main force.
Later, Qin Muxue discovered that it was her older brother and sister who did it, but they destroyed the evidence very quickly. Even though Qin Muxue knew that her older brother and sister were responsible for the incident, she could not expose them to the public because she had no evidence, and could only let them get away.
But since that incident, Qin Muxue has also begun to take action in secret. She started to consolidate military power in various places, but to her surprise, more than half of the army in Western Qin had secretly defected to Qin Yu and Qin Wan. Half of the remaining army was under the control of her mother, and the other half was under her command.
This aroused Qin Muxue's suspicion. She began to suspect that Qin Yu and Qin Wan were no longer satisfied with vying for the throne in the court; they had secretly begun organizing an army, preparing to seize the throne through rebellion. Although they knew nothing about governing a country, they had known since childhood the importance of military power, and that only by completely controlling the military could one completely control a country.
However, Qin Muxue was not entirely without backup plans. Almost all of the elite forces of the Western Qin Kingdom were under her control, such as the elite Dragon Cavalry, which was completely under her command.
But Qin Muxue wasn't satisfied with just that. Her older siblings wanted to play with her, so she played along. She began spreading rumors that she actually preferred men. And once, in court, to make the charade seem real, she deliberately asked her mother to arrange for a prince from another country to meet her, thus increasing the credibility of the rumor.
As expected, many troops who had initially sided with Qin Yu and Qin Wan switched allegiance to Qin Muxue. This was because they only wanted to fight for the one truly destined to be king. Previously, due to Qin Yue's illness and Qin Muxue's inability to bear children (due to her preference for women), only Qin Yu and Qin Wan could inherit the throne, leading them to flock to Qin Yu and Qin Wan. However, after rumors spread that Qin Muxue could bear children, the throne would undoubtedly belong to her, so they again flocked to Qin Muxue.
However, Qin Muxue didn't just focus on consolidating military power. She couldn't marry a man, and if the seasoned officials in the court later discovered they still preferred women, all her previous efforts would be in vain, and the heir to the throne would revert to her brother and sister. The soldiers would also return to their side. Therefore, she began searching for a way to enable women to conceive.
Surprisingly, she actually found it. The cultivation technique was called the "Taiyin Nurturing Spirit Technique," a heaven-defying method that allowed women to give birth to offspring. She only needed to cultivate her soul with Gu Baizhi during the most Yin time of day, and after giving birth to a ethereal being, each of them would take a drop of essence snow and drip it into the ethereal being, turning it into a primordial chaotic embryo. This embryo would then be injected into Gu Baizhi's body, and she would nurture it daily with rare and precious herbs, thus transforming it into a descendant with both her and Gu Baizhi's bloodline. This way, Gu Baizhi could become pregnant, and their love could have a happy ending.
As long as one has offspring, no matter how hard her brothers and sisters try to persecute her, the throne will definitely be hers unless she dies.
Qin Muxue told her mother about the "Taiyin Nurturing Spirit Technique," a method that allows women to give birth to children.
The Empress Dowager immediately smiled. As long as Qin Muxue could give birth, she didn't care how. If Qin Muxue could produce an heir, no one would dare object to handing the throne to her. She didn't want to hand the country over to Qin Yu and Qin Wan, two纨绔 (spoiled brats), and she was roughly aware of their underhanded dealings. However, due to the old guard's obsession with the succession, she had already dealt with them according to the law.
"Good! Good! I also want to meet my future daughter's wife. I must bring her back later so your mother can have a good look at her. I want to see what kind of beautiful woman could be so captivating to my daughter, the most beautiful woman in the Western Qin Kingdom!" the Queen Mother said happily.