The pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth, turning into a rush of fluid brimming with energy that spread throughout his body.
Di Xin once again felt an intensely pleasurable sensation sweep through him. His bones cracked, and a powerful force took root inside him.
"Congratulations, Host. You have broken through the early stage of the Human Flower Realm and entered the middle stage."
That fast?
The power within him continued to grow rapidly, and his constitution was undergoing a strange transformation. Just then, a line of text appeared before his eyes.
Three days—just three days—and he had successfully broken through a minor realm.
Di Xin was filled with unexpected delight.
After all, breaking through as a Qi Cultivator was incredibly difficult. Some people, for all their lives, remained stuck in the early stage of the Human Flower Realm.
Even when a breakthrough did come, it took a long time. Someone who managed it in three days, as he had, was probably one of a kind!
A little while later, the pill's medicinal effects finally faded, but no more text appeared.
Even so, Di Xin was very satisfied.
The next moment, he focused his thoughts and took out a fragment of meteorite.
He pinched it between his fingers again. This time, there was no sound, but his heart suddenly raced, and his face lit up with delight.
The same finger technique, the same amount of force.
Before, he could only crush the stone into a dozen or so pieces. But this time, the pressure from his fingertips ground it into powder as easily as dry soil.
He gently rubbed his fingers together, and stone dust sifted down in a drifting shower.
Was this the strength of the middle stage of the Human Flower Realm?
Di Xin stood there, stunned for a moment, then decisively left Branch Palace Tower.
System tasks, system tasks!
System tasks were his trump card for getting stronger. If there was a task, he had to take it on. If there wasn't one, he had to make one.
Di Xin had summed it up: the system only triggered tasks when he faced important choices that could affect the course of his future.
For trivial little matters, the system might as well have been dead.
"Great King, what a coincidence. You're here too."
At the entrance to Branch Palace Tower, Di Xin unexpectedly saw Gun Juan.
Her face turned red as she came forward to greet him, as if their meeting were entirely accidental.
"Ah, Gun Juan. Consort Su can't hold her liquor. Why aren't you serving her at Shouxian Palace? What brings you here?" King Zhou asked with a smile, pretending not to know.
"It's like this: Consort Su hasn't sobered up yet. This servant thought she'd ask the imperial physician if there's a good remedy for a hangover, so Her Ladyship wouldn't have to suffer so much."
Gun Juan gave a graceful bow and answered smoothly.
If he hadn't known for sure that this woman had come to spy on him, Di Xin might have believed her nonsense.
He waved a hand indifferently. "Then go ahead. Oh, right—after the lamps are lit, come to my bedchamber."
With that, Di Xin left without another word.
Gun Juan stood rooted to the spot. Then her face broke into joy, and she bowed toward Di Xin's departing figure. "This servant will obey the Great King's command!"
For any palace maid, winning the Great King's favor meant rising to the top in a single step and becoming someone important.
Gun Juan was no exception.
Di Xin walked around the palace. He passed the Western Palace without going in, and when he reached Xinqing Palace, he didn't enter there either.
As he went along, he focused on whether he could trigger a system task and reviewed everything that had happened over the past few days.
He paid particular attention to Yun Zhongzi's early arrival in Zhaoge to deliver the sword, as well as the meteorite that had fallen from the sky.
Have I been keeping a low profile well enough these past few days?
Could I keep an even lower profile?
Have I given myself away anywhere?
How should I keep a low profile from now on?
Di Xin pondered each question in turn and came away with quite a few insights.
At the very least, he still hadn't found anything he'd done carelessly.
After all, the system had marked every choice he made as completely correct.
In the eyes of the court officials, he was still that foolish, debauched Great King.
As far as Daji was concerned, he hadn't consummated their marriage simply because he couldn't perform.
Perfect!
There was more than one bedchamber in Shouxian Palace. At dusk, King Zhou returned to the palace and went to check on Daji. He saw that she was pretending to sleep, so he headed straight to another bedchamber.
He knew Daji was pretending because when Di Xin tried to touch her bottom, she gave a slight shudder.
A sleeping person wouldn't react like that.
Not even a fox.
Di Xin's visit to Daji was just a routine formality, something he did because it was the proper thing to do.
Since she was pretending to sleep, he was only too happy to leave her be. There was no need for the two of them to waste time acting together.
As the sky gradually darkened, the palace attendants lit the lamps.
A soft female voice suddenly came from beyond the bedchamber's beaded curtain. "Great King, Gun Juan has come at your command!"
King Zhou answered and called her inside. It was obvious that she had taken great care with her appearance before coming.
She had even dabbed on some perfume. It smelled quite nice.
"Gun Juan, close the door, put out the lamp, and come up," Di Xin ordered softly from the bed.
"This servant obeys!" Gun Juan was overjoyed once more. She gently shut the door and climbed onto Di Xin's bed.
"How old are you?" Di Xin asked gently in the darkness.
"This servant is seventeen!" Gun Juan's face felt hot, and it seemed as if her heart were about to leap out of her chest.
Was it finally happening?
Was it finally happening?
Since entering the palace, she had gone to great lengths to get close to someone powerful, but she had never had the opportunity. Now, she had not only managed to attach herself to Consort Su, but the Great King had also taken an interest in her.
It seemed her chance to rise to prominence had finally come. If she was even luckier, she might become a consort herself and stand on equal footing with Su Daji.
It would make all the risk she'd taken sneaking over here worthwhile.
"Would you like to hear a story from me?"
Di Xin asked again.
"Of course, Your Majesty. It would be an honor." Gun Juan snuggled closer to Di Xin, her voice growing tender.
"Good. This is an interesting story. Once upon a time, there was a mountain. On the mountain was a temple. In the temple, an old monk told a young monk a story. It went like this: once upon a time, there was a mountain. On the mountain was a temple. In the temple, an old monk told a young monk a story..."
Di Xin told it with a perfectly straight face.
Gun Juan listened just as earnestly. When the Great King repeated those same few lines over and over, she couldn't help feeling puzzled.
At the time, the Western Teachings had only just begun to rise. There was no such thing as Buddhism yet, let alone the term "monk." Di Xin told the story in a muddled way, and Gun Juan listened to nothing at all.
She wanted to ask Di Xin what he meant, but she didn't dare.
A long time later, the Great King began to snore, and she was still trying to figure out what his story meant.
She thought it over and over, but couldn't make heads or tails of it.
She wanted to seduce the Great King, but didn't dare.
She wanted to leave, but didn't dare do that either.
At first, Di Xin had pretended to sleep, wanting to see what Gun Juan would do.
As a man, he was just as tempted, but he didn't want any entanglements with this woman. He had his limits and wouldn't resort to just anyone.
If she ended up pregnant, how could he bear to have his child bound to this woman?
Eventually, he really did drift off to sleep.
Before you continue