Chapter 207: She is concerned for me

It was the same teasing as before, and she was even closer than last time.

This woman is tall, only half a head shorter than Lu Xingzhou. With her chin tilted up like this and her pretty face slightly raised, it always feels like she could kiss him at any moment.

Her lips are slightly full, and though she wears no rouge, they are vividly red, looking incredibly sexy and peerlessly alluring.

But Lu Xingzhou feels not a shred of romantic sentiment in his heart; that heart-pounding fear that he might die at any moment washes over him once again.

If he gives the wrong answer this time, he will truly die; it won't matter how much he thinks she has a certain charm.

At this moment, Lu Xingzhou's mind is clearer than ever before. His thoughts race, considering many things: "I think... your judgment might be flawed."

Long Qinghuang never expected his answer to be this, and she is quite surprised: "How so?"

"I agree that it is highly likely a trap aimed at you, but it may not be aimed only at you," Lu Xingzhou says. "Your Majesty also knows that one of the Five Ghost Emperors of the Yama Palace has come as well."

"And so what?"

"If the Ghost Emperor confirms the dragon bone is real, will he notify the Yama King?" Lu Xingzhou asks. "And if the Yama Palace's intelligence network can know of such a distant matter, then what about the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land, which has even greater coverage than the Yama Palace? Do they know?"

Long Qinghuang says: "You mean to say this place will form a chaotic situation involving multiple parties? Why don't you think this setup is the work of the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land?"

"Because the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land and the Yama Palace are opposing forces... At the end of the year before last, the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land surrounded the Yama King, and she even injured several of their people."

Long Qinghuang is thoughtful: "Continue."

"Assuming it is a setup by the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land, they shouldn't have brought both the Demon Emperor and the Yama King, their opponents, here together. It's too hard to control, and the possibility of it all collapsing is too high. If I were planning it, I would send people to cut off the channels for passing information to other forces, pull in allies, and focus solely on Your Majesty; the success rate would be much higher. Why broadcast the news to the whole world and bring in the Yama Palace and all sorts of other messy forces?"

Long Qinghuang's expression turns stern: "What you say makes sense; it doesn't look like something led by the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land. But is it possible it was done just to make it seem more real?"

"The gains wouldn't outweigh the losses; it wouldn't be," Lu Xingzhou says. "It is hard for me to judge what the other party wants to do right now, but could Your Majesty be a little more patient and investigate one more thing? Perhaps that would verify it."

"Speak."

"Check if any First-Grade forces from the Tianshuang Kingdom are appearing on the glacier," Lu Xingzhou says decisively. "If the Tianshuang Kingdom, which is the closest, has no experts appearing, then I would be seventy or eighty percent certain that it is the Tianshuang Kingdom setting a trap to lure Your Majesty and the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land into another battle, while simultaneously weakening the Great Qian and Demon Domain forces."

Long Qinghuang purses her red lips, forced to admit that his analysis makes sense.

Only in this situation can it be explained why it doesn't matter if Great Qian forces like the Yama Palace are lured in, as long as Tianshuang Kingdom forces don't come. Either they preserve their strength and don't appear at all, or they lie in wait in the shadows, waiting for the Great Qian and the Demon Emperor to fight until they are a mess, to see if there are more opportunities to pick the peaches.

To verify this judgment, one only needs to verify whether Tianshuang Kingdom forces are appearing.

But this is not easy to verify... Long Qinghuang's spiritual sense can cover the area and probe at will, but cultivators are not dead objects; if they are prepared in advance, there are plenty of ways to block distant spiritual sense probes.

Lu Xingzhou says cautiously: "Actually, I have the most direct method. Would Your Majesty like to try..."

"Hmm?"

"Just go straight back to the Demon Domain."

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

Long Qinghuang smiles and shakes her head: "If it truly is an ancient dragon bone, it is something I am determined to obtain; it is impossible to act as if it doesn't exist."

Lu Xingzhou stops speaking, his expression somewhat regretful.

Long Qinghuang says: "What about you? Why would you make such a proposal? Aren't you afraid I might really take you back directly?"

Lu Xingzhou is silent.

He knows Long Qinghuang will not give up; this proposal was actually for the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land and Lady Ye.

The Heavenly Jade Sacred Land is, after all, the maiden home of the little white-haired girl; it would be best if they could stay out of this trap. And Lady Ye has likely heard the news about the dragon bone and is currently investigating deep in the core. She is only First-Grade after all; rashly involving herself in such a battle of super-grade experts will lead to trouble.

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

Compared to this happy ending, what does it matter if he is caught and taken to the Demon Domain to scrub steel wool? Anyway, he can't break her defense.

It's a pity Long Qinghuang clearly won't give up easily... then he must find a way to notify the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land.

As it turns out, Lu Xingzhou's silence clearly makes Long Qinghuang misunderstand, and she smiles: "Don't worry, I'm not that easy to deal with. Thanks to your analysis, I have a much better idea of things; it's hard to say who will be the oriole in the end."

The question she asked him earlier, "Humans want to kill me, what will you, Chen Yu, do," has already been answered.

He is worried about her safety. Lu Xingzhou wears an actor-level melancholy on his face and says in a low voice: "If Your Majesty is determined to go... if a super-grade battle really breaks out, my cultivation simply cannot withstand it, and I would only burden Your Majesty by distracting you. It would be better to leave me outside. If you really obtain the dragon bone, you can come back to find me."

Actually, Long Qinghuang didn't think much about coming back to find Lu Xingzhou; the little beauty is just for teasing, is she really going to study how to break her defense with him? He can't break it anyway.

But looking at the little man's melancholy appearance, as if he is very reluctant to part, it fits perfectly with what A'Tuan said about "he is actually in love." Long Qinghuang instead develops a real thought of coming back to find him later, and she smiles and gently pats his handsome face: "Then you wait here, and don't run around."

After saying this, she disappears directly.

Lu Xingzhou lets out a long sigh, feeling cold sweat dripping down his body.

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

Don't look at how the atmosphere is occasionally romantic and ambiguous, and the topics are all about love; in reality, every moment is dancing on the edge of a knife. The Demon Emperor is the Demon Emperor after all; if she feels for even an instant that you are detrimental to her, she will turn on you as easily as flipping a book, and it won't matter how good-looking you are.

Her previous attempt to take him to the center of the glacier was simply not caring about his life or death at all. Regardless of whether there is a trap or not, in such a high-end chaotic situation, Lu Xingzhou, a mere Fourth-Grade, would be lucky to escape with his skin intact if he got involved. Only now can it be considered that he traded goodwill for goodwill, and she is willing to leave him here, which counts as starting to care about his safety.

Although Lu Xingzhou's goodwill was more directed at the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land and Lady Ye, it did indeed help Long Qinghuang quite a bit... Lu Xingzhou doesn't even know if he counts as a traitor to humanity now.

Regardless, as long as she isn't following him around and is using her energy to investigate whether there are Tianshuang Kingdom experts, then there are many operations Lu Xingzhou can perform.

Lu Xingzhou quickly takes a firework out of his ring and lights it; with a "whoosh," a stream of black smoke shoots straight into the clouds.

Before long, a figure flashes by.

Ji Wenchuan's familiar voice rings out: "Holy crap, it really is you! How dare you come to a place like this? Do you not want your life? Eh... A'Nuo, let uncle hold you~ Strange, how come you're still such a little shrimp after two years?"

A'Nuo steps back in disgust: "No way, you stink."

"Hey, you little thing, except for your master, everyone else stinks, right?"

"That's not true, if it's a big sister, she smells very good, if it's a man, he stinks."

Ji Wenchuan: "..."

Lu Xingzhou strides forward and hugs Ji Wenchuan, saying in a low voice: "This isn't the time for idle chatter. You didn't tell the Yama King about the situation here, did you?"

"No, the situation here is strange, and I don't think it's a good thing for the Yama King to get involved. Something like a dragon bone, even if it has activity, is something the Yin Corpse Sect would be ecstatic about; it doesn't really suit us, and we aren't that determined to get it."

This is pure intuitive avoidance of harm. Lu Xingzhou feels three parts more relaxed: "It's good she didn't come. If she really gets involved in this, it will become a complete mess."

"Don't you want to see her?"

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

"You... forget it." Ji Wenchuan says: "Anyway, since you are here, I know I don't need to use my brain. Tell me, what's the situation?"

"I just want to confirm one thing... You've been investigating here for a day, have you encountered any Tianshuang Kingdom experts?"

"No. In such a large place, it's hard to encounter anyone."

"No, the location where the dragon bone fragments were unearthed is clear. As long as anyone goes there to investigate, there is a high probability of encountering them; there might even have been multiple conflicts before you arrived. So, have you seen any traces of combat conflicts over there?"

Ji Wenchuan is stunned: "There are excavation traces, but there are indeed no traces of combat. Now that you mention it, something really is wrong."

"There is something fishy about this. It is highly likely that the dragon bone doesn't exist at all, although I don't know where those fragments came from either," Lu Xingzhou says urgently. "I can't enter the center of the glacier, but you have no problem. Help me sneak in and take a look. If you find people from the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land, help me pass a message."

"Hey, if there's really an ambush by the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land inside, are you asking me to go to my death?"

"It's just passing a message, even in war, one doesn't kill the messenger." Lu Xingzhou quickly writes a letter and stuffs it into Ji Wenchuan's collar: "Besides, this is my letter. My mentor is likely hanging out with the Heavenly Jade Sacred Land right now. You tell her that if she keeps pondering the dragon bone, I will publicly auction off her veil."

"... re you sure the target of this threat is your mentor, and not your mistress?"

"Why so much talk? It's a matter of extreme urgency."

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ps: The idiots in the Writers Association are really wasting my time.