The spirit boat reached the Imperial City of the Central Province within an hour, following its programmed route. However, at this moment, Ji Qingxuan’s back was pressed against the wall by Jiang Huai, who was fiercely grabbing her buttocks and bullying her. Her hands tightly gripped Jiang Huai’s neck, sweat beading on both of them. Ji Qingxuan’s skin felt as smooth as if coated in oil.
“It seems we’ve arrived.”
“Just stop here…don’t stop, you’re not going to…no, right?”
Facing her provocation, Jiang Huai’s choice was to fulfill her desire completely.
…
It was clearly supposed to be just once.
But Ji Qingxuan’s constant provocations in his ear were too annoying. Normally, Jiang Huai wouldn’t fall for it, but while doing something bad, hearing her incessantly mock him only made Jiang Huai increasingly resentful and rough. By the time she finally wanted to beg for mercy, Jiang Huai had tightly covered her lips, silencing her and not allowing her to beg.
“Rub, my, belly!”
With her last bit of strength, Ji Qingxuan’s white and tender little feet angrily stomped on Jiang Huai’s chest. Moments later, they feebly slid down. Jiang Huai shrugged, leaned in, and gently carried her to the bathhouse behind them. While applying fragrant bubbles, he rubbed her lower abdomen. However, the resentment in Ji Qingxuan’s eyes did not diminish in the slightest. Jiang Huai indeed no longer bullied her with his fingertips this time, but used something even hotter and more outrageous!
After bathing and dressing, Jiang Huai saw Ji Qingxuan put on an orange dress again. Beneath the skirt, she wore lustrous, ultra-thin sheer stockings and silver-white high heels. She sat before the mirror, combing her hair, putting on flower hairpins and earrings, perfectly resuming the image of the stunning and cold Grand Princess.
“Shall we head down too? Grand Princess.”
Jiang Huai stood behind her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Ji Qingxuan, however, froze slightly.
She had always extremely disliked being touched, not even by her maids. Yet, at this moment, Jiang Huai’s hand rested naturally on her, and she felt no resistance. She recalled how Jiang Huai had forcefully spread her legs to their limit earlier, and a surge of shy anger welled up in her heart. But looking at Jiang Huai in the mirror, his face was filled with warmth, politeness, and modesty, utterly devoid of his previous evil and domineering demeanor.
“Ji Qingxuan.”
Even though she knew Jiang Huai was deliberately teasing her with the title of Grand Princess, Ji Qingxuan couldn’t help but correct him. However, her tone was gentle, unlike her usual cold aloofness, which triggered Jiang Huai’s “good woman” radar. He lowered his head slightly, leaned closer, looked at her profile, his eyes smiling, and softly uttered, “Ji, Qing, Xuan.”
“Why are you repeating it?”
“Your name is very nice,” Jiang Huai said softly, but the hot breath from his lips was almost falling on her cheek. Ji Qingxuan looked at Jiang Huai in the mirror, knowing he was still deliberately teasing her. Almost instinctively, her competitive spirit made her suddenly turn her head. Her delicate pink lips brushed perfectly against Jiang Huai’s lips. To her surprise, her cheeks flushed first with shyness. She then unhappily pushed him away with a finger from her chest, “Get away from me…”
Even though he knew the Ji Qingxuan before him was most likely feigning shyness, Jiang Huai was still momentarily stunned.
Indeed, women are natural actors, and the more beautiful they are, the more so.
Ji Qingxuan stood up from the mirror and said, “After leaving the spirit boat, we are not allowed to engage in dual cultivation lightly anymore. You must remember to mind your boundaries.”
Her eyes still held a hint of playfulness, but Jiang Huai smiled even more unrestrainedly than her, nodding like an obedient child, “That is natural, I know what I’m doing.”
“That’s good.” Ji Qingxuan tilted her head slightly, recalled the spirit boat, and landed in the Imperial City of the Central Province together with Jiang Huai.
…
Speaking of which, this was Jiang Huai’s first time in the Imperial City of the Central Province.
The cultivation powers of the Central Province were imperial. There was only one Central Province Royal Family, which governed everything about all cultivators in the Central Province. The Imperial City was mostly populated by cultivators. The city was grand and luxurious, but the crowds were not that boisterous, and the streets were clean. The two of them landed directly above the Imperial City. Ji Qingxuan recalled the spirit boat, and they rode their swords, landing directly at the entrance of the Main Hall of the Imperial City.
Jiang Huai followed Ji Qingxuan. Within the entire palace, naturally, no one did not recognize Ji Qingxuan. They passed through unhindered, without any obstruction. Ji Qingxuan led Jiang Huai all the way to the Golden Palace. The palaces in the Imperial City were huge, and Jiang Huai saw many incredible sights along the way. Jiang Huai suddenly asked curiously, “Why don’t I see any male guards?”
Ji Qingxuan replied calmly, “The backyard of the Imperial City is my Father Emperor’s private garden. The Imperial City is full of cultivators. The deep palace is lonely and cold, and men are somewhat inconvenient.”
“Oh…”
Ji Qingxuan led Jiang Huai to the front of the Golden Hall and asked the maidservant standing outside the door to announce their arrival. As soon as she finished speaking, a deep male voice came from within, “Qingxuan, just come in.”
Upon hearing this, Ji Qingxuan entered the Main Hall of the Golden Palace with Jiang Huai. As Jiang Huai stepped inside, he saw the middle-aged man sitting in the center of the Golden Hall. He was indeed extraordinary, handsome, and devilishly charming. However, when Jiang Huai saw the several disheveled consorts beside him, who were still holding grapes and had flushed faces, his pupils couldn’t help but twitch.
“This is my Father Emperor.”
Jiang Huai did not have a habit of kneeling to everyone he met, but he still respectfully called out, “Senior Ji.”
The Emperor of the Central Province on the stage looked at Jiang Huai and Ji Qingxuan with some confusion. He shifted his gaze to Ji Qingxuan and, with a wave of his hand, the consorts beside him all retreated. Ji Qingxuan, as if accustomed to this, simply stood straight and revealed everything that had happened within the Ancestral Secret Realm.
On the way, Jiang Huai was actually a bit apprehensive. He had some understanding of so-called imperial power. Logically, it was reasonable for many children to fight for the throne. However, Ji Qinghai had died just like that. He wondered what the Emperor of the Central Province would think. But seeing Ji Qingxuan’s composed expression, it seemed there were no major repercussions.
The Emperor of the Central Province listened quietly to the entire account and let out a bitter chuckle, “This child Qinghai… I’ve truly taught him in vain all these years.”
Ji Qingxuan looked up and softly asked, “Qingxuan acted ruthlessly and is willing to accept Father’s punishment.”
The Emperor of the Central Province on the stage was instantly amused and exasperated. He waved his hand, “Forget it, forget it. If he’s gone, then let him be gone… I have long established the rule that you children should help each other and support one another. In the future, the throne will naturally go to the capable one. Even a tiger does not eat its cubs, yet he even wanted to harm his own sister’s life… Forget it, this was also a tribulation he was fated to face, and it’s not your fault.”
Jiang Huai breathed a sigh of relief and then saw the Emperor of the Central Province sigh, “Those two princes from the Northern Region, were they killed by your own hands?”
“They were.”
Jiang Huai had quietly listened to Ji Qingxuan’s entire account earlier, but Ji Qingxuan had omitted one thing. She had said that those two princes were killed by her and Jiang Huai working together, portraying Jiang Huai as a friend who aided her in the secret realm and only played a supporting role in that battle, rather than revealing the truth that Jiang Huai had beaten the two princes to the brink of death.
Jiang Huai understood moments later that Ji Qingxuan was protecting him.
Ji Qingxuan could fearlessly kill those two demon princes, likely because she knew that as long as she was in the right, her Father Emperor would protect her. She was fearless because of this. However, he was an outsider, with only Chu Xianning, who was at the Eighth Realm First Level and still injured, as his background. Hence, she had changed the wording.
The Emperor of the Central Province listened to everything in silence, then pondered. After a while, he looked at Jiang Huai, tapping the edge of his chair with his fingertip, seemingly hesitant. But when he looked at Ji Qingxuan again, he also saw the stubbornness in her eyes. Before he could speak, a thunderclap suddenly echoed in his ears.
The three of them looked up. The sky, which had been clear and vast earlier, was now covered by dark clouds, exuding an oppressive gloom.
The Emperor of the Central Province sighed, “She has arrived at precisely the right time.”
Only then did Jiang Huai perceive that at the center of the dark clouds was spiritual qi that almost blotted out the sky. The person who could evoke such a phenomenon between heaven and earth was likely none other than the Demon Empress of the Northern Region, who overlooked the entire Northern Region.
The Emperor of the Central Province stood up from his chair and sighed, “You two wait here. I will go and entangle with her.”
With that, he let out a cold snort, and his body instantly vanished from his spot. The dark clouds in the sky also dispersed by more than half in an instant, leaving the sky half bright and half dark. Spiritual qi and Daoist magic poured out at the same time.
Ji Qingxuan’s eyebrows furrowed. She was now at the Eighth Realm cultivation level and could sense some of the battles between the Ninth Realm. It seemed the Demon Empress of the Northern Region’s cultivation had progressed further, but her Father Emperor was by no means an ordinary person. She was not too worried about her own safety, but she couldn’t help but feel somewhat concerned for Jiang Huai when she looked at him.
…
“Ji Nianchen!”
A voice filled with venomous hatred resounded from the sky, followed by a deluge of thousands of ink-black sword lights. Ji Nianchen, the Emperor of the Central Province, unhurriedly raised his hand to draw a circle, and instantly, a defensive formation appeared before him, repelling many of the thousands of ink-black sword lights. However, for the Demon Empress of the Northern Region, who was also at the Ninth Realm Fourth Level, it was a mere trifle.
“Your two sons both met their demise by harboring greed for my only daughter. Now you unreasonably come to pester me. Hmph, it’s been a while since I last made a move, and I do wish to see how much your cultivation has progressed over the years!”
Ji Nianchen was not afraid in the slightest. Instantly, his eyeballs turned fiery orange, and the surrounding orange-red spiritual qi enveloped him, causing his figure to naturally magnify countless times, like a colossal giant that could split the heavens and earth, almost obscuring the sky.
The Demon Empress of the Northern Region opposite him spoke with a progressively colder tone, “I have seen the ramifications of my two imperial sons’ deaths. My sons may have lacked skill, but they did not die at your daughter’s hands. I am not here to cause trouble for you. Get out of the way and hand over that young man from the Eastern Region!”
The conversation between the two echoed throughout the entire Imperial City of the Central Province. Jiang Huai and Ji Qingxuan, who were in the Golden Hall below, naturally heard it clearly. Instantly, Ji Qingxuan suddenly reached out to Jiang Huai, “Give me your hand.”
“What for?” Jiang Huai asked, confused.
“Sign the Samgevity Blood Pact with me. Father Emperor is worried about my safety, so he won’t hand you over, and I can protect you.”
Jiang Huai was slightly startled. He looked at Ji Qingxuan’s eyebrows. Her expression was cold and incredibly calm, with no hint of panic or unease at the moment. It seemed she had planned this move long ago. Jiang Huai then took out a Sound Transmission jade token and asked his Elder Sister Jiang Zhi how much longer she would be.
