Chapter 393: Did I Just Slander Myself?
As the Empress's Mortal Alter Ego, Miss Kirin had already known that the Demon Sect Holy Saint—who had been missing for an entire day—had returned.
To be honest, she was rather curious about what this young man had been doing.
Right now, most of the Immortal Nation's intel regarding the Netherkin Uprising came from him. And at such a critical moment, this person had suddenly vanished for a full day—leaving the capital yesterday and concealing his whereabouts until reappearing today...
'Acting so mysteriously at a time like this… could it be that he went to make preparations for the upcoming Nether Uprising? Perhaps it's related to the Netherqueen?'
From her perspective, this was a reasonable assumption.
After all, those who knew the truth about the Netherkin Uprising were already feeling overwhelmed, fearing that the chaos erupting in the capital would be far worse than expected—Naturally, this Netherkin Uprising had become the top priority for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, she couldn't have known that this Demon Sect Holy Saint wasn't all that concerned about the so-called Netherkin Uprising to begin with. Whenever he did think about it, it was mostly about how to "die" in a more impressive fashion during it.
At this moment, Luo Wusheng, still trying to catch his breath from the shock, cast a mildly resentful glance at the girl standing before him.
"...Miss Kirin, if possible, could you not just teleport right in front of me like that next time?"
Was Her Majesty planning to switch classes and become an assassin?
That teleportation had no warning whatsoever—not even a hint of disturbance in the ambient spiritual energy… Had Miss Kirin's teleportation technique always been this refined?
"I'll be more mindful next time."
Miss Kirin averted her gaze a little awkwardly, though her voice remained composed.
Even though teleporting in and out freely was a common thing for a Golden-Ranked member of the Six Gate Bureau when alone, as the Mortal Alter Ego, she wasn't supposed to display this level of teleportation skill. It was beyond the "capability range" she had defined for herself.
But the issue was—she had already sensed the presence of this Demon Sect Holy Saint lingering outside the Six Gate Bureau earlier.
She had been very much concerned about what he had done during his disappearance, but due to both her status and the awkwardness from that incident the other day, she had resisted going to confront him directly.
Eventually, after wrestling with her thoughts and emotions and finally calming herself, she had chosen to step out and ask directly.
And in the end, her emotions still got the better of her, and she reflexively teleported right in front of him.
Luo Wusheng sighed.
"Whatever. I did come here with something to discuss."
He studied the girl before him, recalling that their last encounter had ended on... not the best terms.
Well, depending on how one looked at it, maybe it was a pleasant parting in its own way.
The real unpleasantness probably came from the Daoist Alter Ego who appeared at the end of that meeting.
He had no idea how the Empress managed to maintain the mental balance of her three Alter Egos.
With that small grumble in mind, a flicker of thought passed through his eyes.
'If no external intervention occurs, this Alter Ego will vanish during the upcoming Nether Uprising—which, by my estimation, should've been a guaranteed safe arc...'
Of course, due to the unique nature of the Trinity of Pristine States, it wouldn't be a true death in the conventional sense. Still, the idea of it left a bitter taste—especially for someone like him, who had also been assigned a predestined death in the original story.
He wasn't sure what crossed his mind just then, but Luo Wusheng gave a small shake of his head.
"But this isn't the best place to talk. Let's go somewhere else."
.........
At first, Kirin thought the "somewhere else" he mentioned referred to a meeting room within the Six Gate Bureau.
After all, there were dedicated spaces inside the compound specifically prepared for private conversations.
But the young man across from her rejected that suggestion—and chose another location entirely.
. . . . . . .
Eastern District.
Passing through the now-thinning barrier of the formation, two figures stepped into its confines.
"Hmm… With the new dueling arena outside, if I were to reopen this Wandering Immortal Inn now, I bet it'd be full within an hour."
Luo Wusheng spoke casually and lightheartedly to the woman beside him.
Kirin swept her gaze over the scene within the formation. "You still care about the inn's business?"
"Why wouldn't I? I paid quite a price to acquire this place… And ever since that incident, my inn hasn't been open for days. The staff are still counting on this business to make a living."
Saying this in a deliberately relaxed tone to ease the tension between them, Luo Wusheng once again opened the inn he had "bought at great cost."
The barrier outside the Wandering Immortal Inn, which belonged to the Six Gate Bureau, had already lost its power supply. Even if he didn't actively remove it, the light screen would vanish on its own in a few days.
But the formations inside the building were a different matter…
Those were professionally applied anti-surveillance formations set by a certain Heavenly Divination Tower Master. The moment one stepped into the inn, their spiritual presence would be muddled—so much so that even a Tribulation Crossing realm cultivator wouldn't be able to detect anything going on inside.
Say what you will, but in that regard, the twenty pieces of the [One and Only in This World] Star-Moon Jade had been worth the price.
Setting aside that white-haired loli's terrible personality, Luo Wusheng genuinely enjoyed doing business like this.
"But come to think of it," he continued, "while I'd heard there was a dueling arena built here in the eastern district, I didn't expect it to be this close. The contrast between the lively scene outside and how quiet it is here is quite stark..."
He recalled what he had seen just moments ago.
As a means of drawing attention, the dueling arena outside had certainly been built with care—fully equipped, grandly decorated, and with a large area reserved for spectators.
The vendors and shopkeepers along the street were all beaming with joy…
With such a great opportunity for raking in profits, this month had been one windfall after another—and with the official Human Immortal List still to come, even more money was on the horizon.
This wave of prosperity was enough to earn them an entire year's worth of income in advance.
Unfortunately, compared to the bustling crowd, the actual matches onstage were rather dull.
Though they were Foundation Establishment realm duels meant as a warm-up for the Human Immortal List, the restrictions were numerous…
Flight was forbidden, artifacts banned, and not a single Human Immortal List contestant had stepped onto the stage.
Most participants were cultivators whose abilities wouldn't stand out in the Human Immortal List, or who didn't meet the eligibility requirements to compete. They simply saw this as a rare opportunity to gain some fame.
Luo Wusheng had even seen a Foundation Establishment elder—whose bone age was probably around eighty—step onto the stage to fight a younger opponent, only to be swiftly knocked out by a ruthless junior who didn't hold back at all.
'No wonder Little Yuli and Bai Xiaoyao, both top contenders for the championship, couldn't bring themselves to care...'
Still, as a gimmick to capture attention, it worked well enough. Even Luo Wusheng—with his discerning eye—felt it wasn't all that different from the time he watched Qi Refining cultivators compete on the Trial Martial Art Arena… aside from having more special effects.
Stepping into the Wandering Immortal Inn, Luo Wusheng didn't hear a response from the girl beside him.
But he didn't mind.
He knew that Miss Kirin needed to maintain her aloof persona in public, but he couldn't help being a little curious about what she was actually thinking deep down.
As he led her up the stairs, his chatter didn't stop.
"So, about that guy… Xuan Ming—ahem, I don't really know him that well, but ever since I first saw him, he's always seemed busy. This time, he's also the one mainly in charge of overseeing that dueling arena…"
Luo Wusheng continued casually, "I heard the arena was built by a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Immortal Nation. Is it probably him again? Tsk tsk, even for a Nascent Soul expert, building something like that out of Heavenly Plate Stone must have taken serious effort. Especially considering how mentally taxing the whole process is. Judging by his appearance, he may seem cold and detached, but it looks like he's actually pretty diligent and—"
"I built it."
"Huh?"
The cold voice cut him off mid-sentence. Luo Wusheng nearly missed a step on the stairs, the words 'honest hard worker' dying on his lips.
"I said, I built the dueling arena," Miss Kirin calmly repeated.
This time, Luo Wusheng was sure he hadn't misheard. He turned his head, eyes filled with disbelief, to look at the girl beside him.
As a connoisseur of rare stones, the Demon Sect Holy Saint naturally had some Heavenly Plate Stone of his own. It was a type of famous spirit stone known for its durability, often used as an auxiliary material in high-grade artifact crafting. When he made [Phantomless], however, he hadn't used any of it since the artifact that he made wanted to blur the concept of form itself, and Heavenly Plate Stone was too solid and distinct.
But he knew full well how torturous the process of shaping Heavenly Plate Stone was.
And yet she'd made an entire dueling platform out of it?
Your Majesty… are you a masochist?
To make things worse, Miss Kirin herself seemed to realize something off about her words and added:
"It was a task given to me by Her Majesty."
"…"
Somehow, that only made it worse.
Forget it. As long as Your Majesty is happy.
On the other side, Kirin also sensed the sudden weirdness in the air after her answer, though she couldn't quite figure out why at first.
She thought what she'd said made perfect sense—
'Wait a minute. In his eyes, I'm the Empress's biological younger sister…'
Didn't that mean what she just said basically implied that her tyrannical older sister ordered her little sister to suffer physical labor?
Did she just accidentally defame herself?
Kirin felt like she had finally figured out why the mood had shifted—but unfortunately, words already spoken couldn't be taken back.
Still, thinking about it, the reason she'd willingly gone through such self-torment in the first place… had a lot to do with the young man beside her.
Ever since she got to watch the Demon Sect Holy Saint 'consummate' their marriage with her in that waterpool, none of her usual distraction methods had quite worked. Over the past two days, every time she closed her eyes, the images she'd seen in the pool would resurface.
And the moment she recalled the passionate scenes between herself and that certain someone, the minds of all three Mortal Alter Egos descended into chaos.
So she'd had no choice but to find something to occupy her attention—to drain her energy until she could finally push those thoughts out of her head.
The Imperial Alter Ego had, for once, thrown herself completely into paperwork, tackling the Nether Formation issues with ferocious focus.
The Daoist Alter Ego had shut herself away for deep introspection and accidentally touched upon the very essence of Great Forgetfulness of Emotion.
As for her, well… she took things even further. And her method proved even more effective. Even with that certain someone right beside her now, she could still maintain her aloof persona and not let her mind wander, though it's just barely.
Her state of mind had improved once again.
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Note: Link to the character Illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lkIcPnCxeyuyZA4Kkb621dPC05UvWjhD[1]
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Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 532: What On Earth Is Master Talking About?[2]
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[1] https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lkIcPnCxeyuyZA4Kkb621dPC05UvWjhD
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-532-what-156146549
[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-532-what-156146549