"Sorry," Nine Clouds whispered guiltily on the road as she saw Jiang Ping'an out of the imperial palace.
Jiang Ping'an smiled and gently shook his head, his voice soft. "Silly girl, marrying you was something I ought to do in the first place."
"But that will drag you into..." Nine Clouds said.
Jiang Ping'an comforted her. "Don't worry. My strength now is different from a year ago. If I don't want to be dragged in, no one should be able to force me."
"Don't overthink it. Just wait at ease for me to marry you in with full glory and splendor, and make everyone envy you."
Nine Clouds answered happily.
When they reached the palace gate, Jiang Ping'an bid Nine Clouds farewell, then flew away.
He did not linger in Human Emperor City to buy anything else. What he had on hand were materials that could be refined into Dao Artifacts.
Those materials were not things he had deliberately collected. Rather, after eating many King-Blood Divine Beasts and Emperor Blood Divine Beasts, there were always parts of those divine beasts that were unsuitable as food, such as Qilin horns, Candle Dragon eyes... and so on.
Under ordinary circumstances, these materials could not be refined into Dao Artifacts, but the Art of Crafting in Her Ladyship's Record of Artifacts could turn them into Dao Artifacts.
Yuanyan Lake was only a little over a million li from Human Emperor Cave, so Jiang Ping'an soon returned to Yuanyan Lake.
"Young Master," Feng Qing'er came forward to greet him and asked curiously, "why did you come back so quickly?"
Jiang Ping'an smiled. "I bought what I needed to buy, so naturally I came back."
"Where's Black Emperor?" he then asked.
Feng Qing'er answered, "He's in seclusion breaking through."
Jiang Ping'an gave a nod.
The