Was he hungry?
Lonely?
Or suffering from a midlife crisis?
Di Xin had petted cats before, but he'd never owned a dog, so he didn't know much about the different things that could be wrong with one.
He couldn't help feeling uneasy for no particular reason. It was just that the dog had come from a dubious source!
He was afraid something might happen and drag him down with it.
The White Puppy went berserk for a while, then white light suddenly flashed across its body a few times. Its form gradually grew larger, swelling rapidly like a balloon.
The White Puppy had originally been only the size of a palm. It had looked so cute and adorable, but once it reached the size of a large dog, it began to look fierce. Its jaws snapped, revealing rows of interlocking fangs.
Yet even then, Sky-Howling Dog continued to swell until it was about a zhang long, only stopping at last.
Its growth had stopped, but Sky-Howling Dog was still violent, darting around wildly as if trying to break through the confines of the system space.
Fortunately, the system space was large enough that Sky-Howling Dog didn't keep crashing into the walls.
In the end, before transmigrating, Di Xin had been nothing more than a loser. Even after becoming the last emperor of Yin Shang in this world, and with a system at his side, he was still carefully adapting to it.
After all, there were simply too many unknowns in this world, and danger lurked everywhere.
So he'd kept his head down, maintaining his predecessor's persona: absurd, lustful, and neglectful of state affairs... That way, no one would notice his changes or provoke a backlash from more powerful figures.
Everything he'd done had been to buy himself time and build up Yin Shang's fortune.
But now, the arrival of Sky-Howling Dog and the Monster Summoning Banner seemed to have introduced a variable, and Di Xin had no choice but to respond with even greater caution.
As he watched Sky-Howling Dog, two system options suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Option One: Stay in the Royal Palace. Completion reward: Immortal Beast Azure Ox.]
[Option Two: Leave the Royal Palace temporarily and head north. Completion reward: High-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure Golden Flood Dragon Scissors.]
Di Xin's eyes lit up. More than anything, he'd been hoping for the system to issue a quest. Though it might bring uncertain risks, it usually rewarded him with spirit medicines and increased his cultivation.
He didn't even have time to carefully analyze why the system had given him those options before immediately choosing the second and hurrying north.
There was no need to ask. Staying in the Royal Palace might expose him to some unknown danger.
The Royal Palace's main gate faced south. The northern gate was a back entrance, much smaller than the southern one, but its defenses were no less formidable.
By the time Di Xin reached the north gate, a crowd of Imperial Guards had already hurried after him.
An emperor leaving the palace was no small matter. He couldn't simply order the gates opened and walk out. It usually required extensive preparations: notifying the ministers, planning the route, arranging guards, carriages, and ceremonial attendants. All of it was tedious.
It was almost unheard of for Di Xin to suddenly decide to leave the palace on a whim like he had today. The Imperial Guards stationed at the rear gate of the Forbidden Palace were supposed to escort him, but King Zhou silenced them with a shout.
He rushed alone through the northern gate and headed straight north.
"Great King! Great King! I've finally been able to wait for you! Please see justice done for me!"
After he'd walked a few dozen paces, someone suddenly ran out of a nearby alley, fell to her knees before Di Xin, and clung to his leg.
Di Xin felt a weight pull at his foot. When he looked back, he saw Gun Juan, the palace maid Daji had driven out of the palace.
"Run..."
Di Xin had no time to waste talking with Gun Juan. He grabbed her and bolted north.
The many Imperial Guards at the north gate looked at one another, their faces dawning with understanding.
No wonder the Great King had been in such a hurry to leave the palace. He'd arranged to go out and rendezvous with a young palace maid!
Although the Gun Juan incident had happened only recently, after the court's ministers had gathered in Longde Hall to petition, nearly everyone in the Royal Palace had learned about Di Xin and Gun Juan.
Thanks to that misunderstanding, the Imperial Guards really did abandon the idea of following the Great King.
"Great King, did you know I was waiting here?"
Gun Juan, struggling to keep up with Di Xin, asked breathlessly.
After Daji had driven her out of the Royal Palace, she'd been deeply unwilling to accept it. How could she let herself be thrown out so inexplicably?
All that wealth and glory—was it really going to vanish like a fleeting dream?
She couldn't accept it, so she'd gone around the main gate and hidden near the north gate, hoping to see someone she knew leave the palace and pass a message to the Great King. It was the only thread she could cling to.
After all, though the story the Great King had told her last night had been strange, the two of them had still shared a bed. Yes, they'd gotten into bed to sleep.
She hadn't expected to see the Great King leaving the palace. From what she knew of the court, he rarely set foot outside the palace gates. Even when he did leave, he was always surrounded by attendants and went out openly through the main gate. He would never normally do what he was doing now.
That was why she'd asked.
"Uh..."
Di Xin gave a distracted reply. His attention was entirely on the system. The notification that he'd completed the quest hadn't appeared yet, which meant the danger hadn't passed.
He couldn't afford to be careless.
He would have been able to move faster if he'd left Gun Juan behind, but he hadn't done so.
His sudden departure from the palace was bound to invite speculation, and he wouldn't have been able to explain it. Gun Juan's appearance had conveniently given him an excuse.
He couldn't possibly abandon her now.
Besides, Option Two hadn't said anything like "leave immediately" or "leave at once." The situation probably wasn't that urgent.
"Great King... where are you taking me?"
Gun Juan thought Di Xin had acknowledged her. Gathering up her skirt, she ran as hard as she could and asked again.
"You'll find out when we get there!"
Di Xin gave another offhand reply, without slowing down.
"Great King... that's the Great King..."
"Look, it's our Great King... with a palace maid..."
Hearing the two of them talking, some townspeople on the street cried out. Quite a few came running over to watch.
South of the Royal Palace.
A handsome young scholar hurried along a spacious street.
It was Yang Jian, in disguise.
After entering Chaoge, he'd used a secret art to sense the location of Sky-Howling Dog. But the Divine Sense he sent out had vanished like a stone sinking into the sea, yielding not the slightest clue.
What he didn't know was that as soon as his Divine Sense had gone out, Sky-Howling Dog had sensed it inside the system space and grown violent and frenzied.
Unfortunately, the system's barrier blocked him, so he couldn't detect anything about Sky-Howling Dog.
Ahead stood towering palaces that stretched on and on. Many imperial guards stood watch before the gates. He had reached the Royal Palace of Yin Shang.
This was practically the center of Chaoge.
After a brief hesitation, Yang Jian produced a jade bottle of a vivid green hue.
He sent a pulse of Magic Power into its mouth, and a drop of bright red liquid leapt out.
The next instant, he made another gesture. A wisp of Samadhi True Fire appeared at his fingertip. The flame leapt as if alive, darted toward the drop of liquid, and wrapped around it.
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