“Ah Zu!” Zheng Dan and Sang Qien exclaimed, feeling shocked and happy. The two had been trying to contact Zu An with the defensive treasures he'd given them before, but they hadn't been able to use their ki, preventing them from doing so. They hadn’t expected their lover to come on his own first.

“I’ve startled you,” a voice said. A shining projection that looked identical to Zu An appeared in the room.

“Big brother Zu, hurry and help big sister Ning. She was injured pretty badly,” Sang Qien said anxiously.

The image of Zu An nodded and moved closer to Liu Ning’s side. He lifted her up, and then tapped the middle of her back with his finger, sending ki into her body.

“Her foundation is quite good. Even though her injuries are serious, it won’t be too much trouble. She’ll be fine after some rest once I treat her.” Zu An waved his hand as he spoke. An invisible force lifted Zheng Dan and Sang Qien to their feet.

The two women felt strength gradually return to them, and ki began to move through their bodies again. They felt happy and surprised.

“Ah Zu, you really are amazing. Even the poison from the monster world was eliminated so easily," Zheng Dan remarked. She knew that even though Zu An had other detoxifying abilities, he needed to resort to that shameful method. Previously, when they were together, that was precisely the method he'd used to eliminate the Eighteen Spring Winds poison.

Zu An smiled and said, “That’s only because we're in this world. I can communicate with this world’s will, so these things are quite easy to solve. If we were in a different world, it wouldn’t be so easy for me at all.”

Liu Ning gradually adjusted the ki within her body before asking, “Ah Zu, how did you know that Eunuch Lu was here?”

“My divine sense can now cover the entire Imperial Palace. I can immediately sense it when something strange like this has happened,” Zu An replied.

In reality, with his current cultivation, it wouldn’t be too hard to cover the entire capital with his divine sense. But he didn’t have a fondness for spying on others. If he made it cover that wide a range, the different voices would be extremely annoying. Unless it was absolutely needed, he didn’t want to spread it that far.

After all the things that had happened today, he'd been worried that there could still be monsters hiding in the Imperial Palace. As such, he'd covered the entire Imperial Palace with his divine sense to monitor for abnormalities. He hadn’t expected to really detect Eunuch Lu’s shenanigans.

Liu Ning was already used to this kind of ability. Zhao Han had been capable of something similar. She looked at the projection and asked, “Is this your primordial spirit?”

“Strictly speaking, it isn’t. Still, you can think of it as something similar,” Zu An said. His cultivation method was special, and he couldn't divide his soul into the primordial spirit, yang spirit, and yin spirit like other cultivators. However, with his current cultivation and the world’s authority, accomplishing something similar wasn’t too hard.

“Why didn’t you come here yourself?” Liu Ning suddenly asked. If it was faster for the soul to come at first, that was one thing, but so much time had already passed. He should’ve already hurried over here!

Zu An’s expression stiffened. “Um… I’m currently at a critical point in my cultivation, so I won’t be coming.”

“Cultivation?” Liu Ning had a weird expression. Her eyes moved quickly. “I brought Qienqien and Dandan into the palace and put them in danger because of that. You won’t blame me, right?”

Sang Qien and Zheng Dan both immediately responded, “Who could’ve known that something like this would happen? Why would we ever blame you?”

Still, what had just happened really still left them a bit shaken up.

Hm? Wait, why is big sister Ning gesturing at us like that?

Zu An chuckled and said, “There’s not much to blame you for at all.”

“It’s already late and the palace gates are closed. How about we just let them stay in the palace?” Liu Ning suggested.

“Why not?”

“Then should they stay with me, or do you want me to send them to your side?”

Zheng Dan and Sang Qien were both really embarrassed. Even though they were really close to Zu An, that was in private. Now that they were being exposed like this, they immediately became really embarrassed.

“They can stay with you for now. I’ll arrange a palace for them another day, so they can come and go as they please,” Zu An replied.

Zheng Dan and Sang Qien’s hearts were pounding. They were going to have their own place here? Wasn’t that the same as publicly announcing their relationship?

“That’s good too. Then which palace do you think is suitable?” Liu Ning continued.

Just then, Zheng Dan and Sang Qien seemed to have realized something too. Big sister Ning seemed to be deliberately holding Ah Zu up in conversation.

“About that… Sss…” Zu An suddenly felt something and sucked in air through his teeth.

Liu Ning had an ambiguous smile as she asked, “What’s wrong, Ah Zu?”

Inside the Heart Nurturing Palace, Bi Linglong also asked, “What’s wrong, Ah Zu?”

“It’s nothing.” Zu An felt as if his head was going to explode. He responded to Liu Ning in the Palace of Peace while continuing to wrap himself around Bi Linglong. He naturally knew that Liu Ning was deliberately preventing him from leaving, and that she had likely even already guessed something.

Meanwhile, Bi Linglong was sitting in his arms like a beautiful Persian cat. Her delicate face turned a bit red as she said, “I thought you didn’t like that just now.”

“No, I like it a lot.” Zu An placed his hand on her lower back. He had to admit that just like her name, her waist was truly exquisite[1]. That A4 waist trend that was popular online in his previous world didn’t hold a candle to this at all.

Bi Linglong bit down gently, then moved her beautiful hair behind her shoulder a bit. She placed her hand on his shoulder, then looked at her lover with her beautiful eyes just like that, allowing him to do whatever he wished. She asked, “Did you already take care of the thing that happened just now?”

“Yeah, almost.” Even though this wasn’t the first time they had been together, Zu An was still taken by just how amazing Bi Linglong was.

The beautiful shades of the mountains that vary in depth, the mountains that are far and close;

The emerald mist that can be thick and faint, the trees that are tall and short;

Truly range upon range of mountains, the winding curves leading into the most secluded and serene place.

He responded to the three women in the Palace of Compassion while answering the lover in his arms. Fortunately, his mind was now strong enough that he could multitask like this. Otherwise, he really would answer inappropriately.

Bi Linglong kissed him while asking curiously, “Everyone has probably witnessed your power today. Who would dare to cause trouble now?”

Zu An felt as if he was being kissed by several little fish. He took a deep breath and answered, “It was Eunuch Lu, who used to work in the empress dowager’s palace. He refused to give up on his evil intentions and actually dared to return.”

“That Eunuch Lu was always way too gloomy. Whenever I saw him, I always felt that he was a bit of a freak. I don’t like him,” Bi Linglong muttered.

“He was indeed a freak. But he's dead as dead can be, and even his bones have been burned to ashes.” Zu An’s voice became a bit cold.

“By the way, what kind of relationship do you and the empress dowager have?” Bi Linglong suddenly looked up at him with shining eyes.

Zu An was about to reply when Bi Linglong placed her finger on his lips, saying, “You can’t lie to me, or else I might make some mistakes in my judgment in the future. If I had known your relationship was so good, why would that coup have ever happened?”

“Since you already know, why are you still asking about it?” Zu An replied with a bitter smile.

“Hmph, I was right after all.” Bi Linglong bit down on him and didn’t let go.

Zu An didn’t pay much attention to the pain coming from his shoulder. Instead, he gently caressed her beautiful hair so she could properly vent. After all, Bi Linglong and Liu Ning had already fought for so many years, and she had even warned him before that he could look for anyone else, but he absolutely couldn’t get involved with Liu Ning. But by then, things had already happened between them.

“Do you feel really proud of yourself right now? Both the empress and the empress dowager have been completely won over by you.” Bi Linglong suddenly looked up at him. Her smooth and flexible waist stopped their lively twisting motion.

“No, I know that I’ve let you down by doing this,” Zu An said apologetically.

Bi Linglong quietly looked into his eyes. She sensed the sincerity in his eyes, and eventually, she sighed. “Sigh, I wonder just what kind of an ill star I was born under to end up meeting a womanizer like you.

“Still... With your current cultivation and status, you could just force us to accept all of this, and yet you still feel apologetic. I'm really happy that I didn’t pick the wrong person.”

“You can have the empress dowager come over now. We should start trusting each other fully now, and use this chance to end our grievances with each other,” Bi Linglong suddenly said.

“Really?” Zu An was happy to hear that.

“You had those kinds of thoughts after all!” Bi Linglong’s expression suddenly changed, and she began to hit him with her fists.

Zu An was speechless.

As expected, the prettier the woman, the better they are at lying!

1. Linglong = exquisite ?