The woman dropped to her knees, trying to cling to Liu Bing's leg. But Liu Bing easily dodged her. Covering his nose, he fanned the air and said, "Clean yourself up first. You look pretty awful."
Only then did the woman remember how bedraggled she'd been. She gave an awkward laugh, then sent spiritual energy surging through her body, instantly shaking off all the dirt on her skin.
But she'd only just gained her powers, and the surge of spiritual energy was a little too violent. The entire dungeon shook as if a magnitude-seven earthquake had struck.
Liu Bing covered his face in exasperation. With a light tap of his foot, he steadied everything, then looked at the woman.
What he saw was a little pink lamb. Liu Bing sighed and muttered, for no particular reason, something Empress Nuwa often said: "You still haven't trained enough. If you're bad at something, practice more."
Liu Bing casually took out a piece of clothing and tossed it to the woman. "All right, rein in your power."
Only then did the woman reluctantly, yet with astonishment, withdraw her power. The sensation of the energy surging at her command had been utterly intoxicating. So this was what power felt like? She felt like she could even shout, "I don't eat beef!"
"Don't go thinking about not eating beef. Put on your clothes. We're leaving," Liu Bing urged. The commotion here must have caught the guards' attention, and they'd probably be here soon.
Only then did the woman realize she'd shaken her original clothes to pieces. Now she was as bare as a peeled egg. Her cheeks flushed pink as she hurriedly put on the clothes.
Then her vision blurred, the scene before her shifted, and they appeared in a small county town.
The townspeople showed no surprise at their sudden appearance, as if they'd always belonged there.
The people were dark-skinned, dressed in rags, and painfully gaunt. They didn't look like ordinary townsfolk so much as refugees.
Looking at them, Liu Bing suddenly asked, "How long have you been here?"
"Um, about a year," the woman replied after thinking it over. She checked the calendar on her system before answering. As she looked at the townspeople, the excitement she'd felt at being freed gradually faded.
She, too, had come from the future, from an era of peace and stability. She'd never seen people like this—or rather, she'd only ever seen people living in such misery on television.
They were always in extremely impoverished African nations, where the people lived in conditions like these.
When she'd arrived in this world, she and her best friend had appeared inside the Forbidden City, so she'd never witnessed the suffering of ordinary people.
And after she'd helped her best friend get into Qianlong's bed, her friend had framed her. The people she'd brought along had broken the woman's arms and legs, slashed her face, and thrown her into the dungeon.
She still remembered her friend looking at her with venom and saying, "Why did you have to be so beautiful? Don't blame me. You're the one to blame for being so beautiful that you caught His Majesty's eye."
At the time, she'd been completely baffled. Her system's mission wasn't about Qianlong; it was to help her best friend. She'd told her friend that clearly. Yet just because Qianlong had taken an interest in her, her own best friend had broken her limbs, ruined her face, and thrown her into the dungeon.
Thinking about it now, it was almost absurd. She'd only ever had one mission: to help her best friend fulfill her wish.
And yet, after helping her friend achieve her wish, the points she'd earned had become her lifeline.
Without those points, the system would have left long ago. And once she used them all up, it would still leave.
At least Liu Bing had arrived in time. Otherwise, all that would have been left was her corpse.
"Seeing these people, what do you think?" Liu Bing asked as he walked down the street.
"I..." The woman was at a loss for words. She didn't know what to say. She had power now, but saving the common people wasn't as simple as having power.
"Do you want to change this world? Change this country? Do you want to prevent the catastrophe that will strike more than two hundred years from now?"
Hearing this, the woman looked at the townspeople, their faces sallow and their bodies painfully thin. She thought of the catastrophe more than two hundred years in the future, the one that would nearly wipe out their nation and people.
Her eyes began to well up. Then she remembered a popular saying online: "If you travel back to the Qing and don't rebel, you might as well stick a power drill up your ass."
What had she even been doing? She'd come to the past only to help her best friend fall in love—and even helped her get into Qianlong's bed.
"I deserve to die!" The woman slapped herself.
Seeing the woman's remorse, Liu Bing smiled, then suddenly said, "My name is Liu Bing. What's yours?"
"My name is Zhou Ru," Zhou Ru replied. Then she continued looking at the people in the street. From time to time, she saw people in rags lying by the roadside or sitting on the bare ground like beggars. Her conscience tormented her.
After all, she'd received nine years of compulsory education. As long as someone wasn't a complete little devil, they'd usually have plenty of compassion.
"Is changing this world what you want me to do?" Zhou Ru suddenly asked.
"Yeah," Liu Bing said, openly admitting it.
After all, she'd received nine years of compulsory education and came from a society where everyone was equal. She was far more suited to carrying the banner of China than the locals.
The natives of this world had never undergone that kind of ideological awakening. Their thinking was still rather conservative and limited. Liu Bing didn't want to put someone in power only for that person to be blinded by desire and become a dragon after setting out to slay one.
And most importantly, Zhou Ru had a good disposition.
An ordinary person treated like that would probably have turned evil long ago. Yet somehow, she'd managed to find moments of joy even in such dire circumstances. Not everyone could do that.
"But I'm afraid I can't do it," Zhou Ru said, suddenly unsure of herself.
"Don't be afraid. You're invincible in this world. All you have to do is stabilize it and help the Han People rise again. In the future, you can find the great figures from history and have them help establish New Huaxia."
As Liu Bing said this, he gave her a half-amused look. "You could even suppress the whole world by yourself and force the Red Will on everyone. With your power, you could absolutely create a red world."
"Uh... Boss, wouldn't that make me the dragon?" Zhou Ru understood perfectly well that if she did that, the Red Will would be twisted into something else.
The Red Will belonged to the people. It wasn't the will of one individual.
Liu Bing nodded in satisfaction. Zhou Ru had a pretty good grasp of things.
"All right, do your best. If you succeed, I'll put you on the list." As he spoke, Liu Bing took out the Investiture of the Gods. "The Investiture of the Gods. Get it?"
"Hiss! Boss, you even have this thing!" Zhou Ru stared at the Investiture of the Gods in Liu Bing's hands. In many novels, being put on the list was a shackle.
But to Zhou Ru, the Investiture of the Gods was a guaranteed job—a position in the immortal bureaucracy. Who could turn that down? And besides, she was from Shandong!
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