Chapter 232: She Cares About Me

It was still the same teasing, even closer than last time.

This woman was tall, only half a head shorter than Lu Xingzhou. Tilting her chin up like that, her pretty face slightly raised, it felt as if she could kiss him at any moment.

Her lips were slightly thick, without rouge yet vividly red, looking incredibly sexy and utterly enchanting.

But Lu Xingzhou felt not the slightest hint of romantic sentiment in his heart; that heart-pounding fear of imminent death washed over him again.

Getting the answer wrong this time would truly mean death; finding you somewhat attractive wouldn't help at all.

At this moment, Lu Xingzhou's mind was clearer than ever before; his thoughts flashed like lightning, running through many things: "I think... your judgment might be wrong."

Long Qinghuang never expected his answer to be this; she was quite surprised: "How do you know?"

"I agree it is highly likely a trap targeting you, but not necessarily only you," Lu Xingzhou said. "Your Majesty also knows that one of the Five Ghost Emperors of the Yan Luo Hall has arrived."

"So what?"

"If the Ghost Emperor confirms the dragon bone is real, will he notify the Yan Lord?" Lu Xingzhou said. "And if the Yan Luo Hall's intelligence network can know about something so distant, what about the Tian Yao Holy Land, whose coverage is even stronger? Do they know?"

Long Qinghuang said, "Your meaning is that this place will form a chaotic situation involving multiple factions? Why do you not think this scheme was set by the Tian Yao Holy Land?"

"Because the Tian Yao Holy Land and the Yan Luo Hall belong to opposing factions... at the end of last year, the Tian Yao Holy Land surrounded the Yan Lord and even injured several of her people."

Long Qinghuang pondered: "Continue."

"Assuming the Tian Yao Holy Land set the trap, they should not have lured two opponents, the Demon Emperor and the Yan Lord, together; it is too hard to control, and the possibility of everything collapsing is too great. If I were planning, I would send people to cut off channels for transmitting information to other factions, pull in allies, and focus solely on targeting Your Majesty; the success rate would be much higher. Why spread the news all over the world and lure in the Yan Luo Hall and various other messy factions?"

Long Qinghuang's expression grew severe: "What you say makes sense; it does not sound like something led by the Tian Yao Holy Land. But is it possible it was done just to appear more real?"

"The gain does not justify the loss; it won't happen," Lu Xingzhou said. "Now it is hard for me to judge what the opponent wants to do, but can Your Majesty be a bit more patient and investigate one more thing? Perhaps then we can verify it."

"Speak."

"Investigate whether a First-Rank faction from the Tian Shuang Kingdom has appeared in the glacier," Lu Xingzhou said decisively. "If even the closest Tian Shuang Kingdom has no powerful figures appearing, then I am seven or eight tenths certain that the Tian Shuang Kingdom is setting a trap to lure Your Majesty and the Tian Yao Holy Master to fight again, while simultaneously weakening the forces of the Great Qian and the Demon Domain."

Long Qinghuang pressed her red lips together, having to admit his analysis made sense.

Only in this situation could it explain why luring Great Qian factions like the Yan Luo Hall didn't matter, as long as the Tian Shuang Kingdom factions didn't come. Either they would preserve their strength and not appear at all, or they would lie in ambush secretly, waiting for the Great Qian and the Demon Emperor to fight until everything was a mess, then see if there were more opportunities to pick the fruit.

Verifying this judgment only requires verifying whether Tian Shuang Kingdom factions have appeared.

But this is not easy to verify... Long Qinghuang could cover with her divine sense and investigate at will, but cultivators are not dead objects; if they prepare in advance, they have plenty of methods to block distant divine sense investigations.

Lu Xingzhou said cautiously, "Actually, I have the most direct method; does Your Majesty want to try it..."

"Hmm?"

"Just return directly to the Demon Domain."

As long as one is lazy enough, no one can use you.

Long Qinghuang shook her head with a smile: "If it is truly an ancient dragon bone, it is something I am determined to obtain; I cannot simply pretend it doesn't exist."

Lu Xingzhou fell silent, his expression somewhat regretful.

Long Qinghuang said, "As for you, why would you propose this? Are you not afraid I will really take you back directly?"

Lu Xingzhou was silent.

He knew Long Qinghuang would not give up; this proposal was actually for the Tian Yao Holy Land and Lady Ye.

The Tian Yao Holy Land is, after all, Bai Mao's home; getting them out of this situation would be best. And Lady Ye has probably heard the news about the dragon bone and is currently investigating deep in the core. She is only First-Rank; rashly getting involved in such a Super-Rank battle would lead to disaster.

If the Demon Emperor, the core of this storm, leaves, then naturally nothing will happen.

Compared to this happy ending for everyone, what does it matter if I am captured and sent to the Demon Domain to scrub steel wool? Anyway, I can't break her defense.

Unfortunately, Long Qinghuang clearly will not give up easily... then I need to find a way to notify the Tian Yao Holy Land.

But Lu Xingzhou's silence obviously made Long Qinghuang misunderstand; she smiled and said, "Rest assured, I am not that easy to deal with. With your analysis, I am much more certain; at that time, who will be the oriole waiting to catch the cicada is yet to be seen."

The question asked of him before, "If humans want to kill me, what would you, Chen Yu, do," had also received an answer.

He was worrying about his own safety. Lu Xingzhou wore an actor-level expression of melancholy and said in a low voice, "If Your Majesty insists on going... if a Super-Rank battle truly breaks out, my meager cultivation simply cannot withstand it, and I would only burden Your Majesty to split your attention to care for me. It would be better to leave me outside; if the dragon bone is truly obtained, come back and find me then."

Actually, Long Qinghuang did not plan to turn back and find Lu Xingzhou; teasing the little beauty was enough; did she really intend to study how to break his defense with him? He couldn't break it anyway.

But seeing the little man's melancholy look, as if he was reluctant to part with her, matched perfectly with what A Tuan said, "He actually admires you in his heart." Long Qinghuang actually felt a bit of the idea of coming back to find him later; she smiled and lightly patted his handsome face: "Then you wait here and do not run around."

After speaking, she disappeared directly.

Lu Xingzhou let out a long sigh and actually felt cold sweat pouring down his body.

He actually escaped the hostage situation just like that...

Do not look at how the atmosphere was occasionally romantic and ambiguous, and the topics discussed were all about love and admiration nonsense; in reality, every single moment was dancing on the tip of a blade. The Demon Emperor is, after all, the Demon Emperor; if for a moment she felt you were against her, she would turn on you as quickly as turning a page; no matter how beautiful she looks, it would be useless.

Previously, trying to take him to the center of the glacier meant she did not care about his life or death at all. Regardless of whether there was a trap, in such a high-end chaotic situation, Lu Xingzhou, a mere Fourth-Rank, getting involved would mean death or at least losing a layer of skin. Only now did she exchange goodwill for goodwill, willing to leave him here, which counted as starting to care about his safety.

Although Lu Xingzhou's goodwill was more directed at the Tian Yao Holy Land and Lady Ye, it did indeed help Long Qinghuang quite a bit... Lu Xingzhou now didn't even know if he counted as a human traitor.

Anyway, as long as she wasn't following him closely and her energy was used to investigate whether Tian Shuang Kingdom powerful figures were present, Lu Xingzhou had many more operations he could perform.

Lu Xingzhou quickly pulled a firework from his ring and ignited it; with a "whoosh," a stream of black smoke shot straight into the clouds.

Not long after, a figure flashed by.

Ji Wenchuan's familiar voice rang out: "Holy crap, it really is you! How dare you come to a place like this, do you not want your life? Huh... A Nuo, give uncle a hug~ Strange, haven't seen you in two years and you're still such a little runt?"

A Nuo stepped back disdainfully: "No way, you smell bad."

"Hey, you little thing, so everyone except your master smells bad, right?"

"That's not true; sisters smell good, but men smell bad."

Ji Wenchuan: "..."

Lu Xingzhou strode forward and hugged Ji Wenchuan, saying in a low voice: "There is no time for idle chatter; did you tell the Yan Lord about the situation here?"

"No; the situation here is strange, and I feel the Yan Lord getting involved would bring nothing but bad things. Things like dragon bones, even if they have activity, would make the Yin Corpse Sect ecstatic; they don't fit us well, and we are not that determined to obtain them."

This was pure instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm. Lu Xingzhou felt a bit more relaxed: "It's good she didn't come; if she really gets involved in this matter, it will become a complete mess."

"Don't you want to see her?"

"No. Why would I want to see her? Are there no women left in the world?"

"You... forget it," Ji Wenchuan said. "Anyway, since you are here, I know I don't need to use my brain; speak, what is the situation?"

"I just want to confirm one thing... you've been investigating here for a day, haven't you? Did you encounter any powerful figures from the Tian Shuang Kingdom?"

"No. It's such a vast place; it's hard to run into anyone."

"No, the location where the dragon bone fragments were unearthed is clear. Anyone who goes there to investigate has a high probability of encountering others; in fact, multiple conflicts should have erupted even before you arrived. So, did you see any traces of combat or conflict over there?"

Ji Wenchuan paused for a moment: "There are excavation marks, but indeed no traces of battle. Now that you mention it, it does seem a bit off."

"Something is fishy here. The dragon bones very likely don't exist at all, though I don't know how those fragments came to be." Lu Xingzhou spoke urgently: "I cannot enter the center of the glacier, but you have no problem. Help me sneak in and take a look. If you find anyone from the Tian Yao Holy Land, deliver a message for me."

"Hey, if the Tian Yao Holy Land has truly set an ambush inside, are you sending me to my death?"

"It's just delivering a message; even warring armies don't kill envoys." Lu Xingzhou quickly wrote a letter and stuffed it into Ji Wenchuan's collar: "Besides, this is my letter. My mentor is probably mixing with the Tian Yao Holy Land right now. Tell her that if she continues to ponder the dragon bones, I will publicly auction off her veil."

"... Are you sure the target of this kind of threat is your mentor, rather than your lover?"

"Why so many words? This is an urgent matter of ten thousand fires."

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ps: That stupid Writers' Association is truly wasting my time.

(End of this chapter)