"Brother Feng, there's something I've been hiding from you."
Qing Yanjing, nestled in her lover's arms, gently pushed him away.
Mu Feng scratched his head. "What is it?"
"The truth is, I'm very powerful."
"Ah, that?"
Mu Feng, who had been a little nervous, let out a breath of relief.
Ever since they'd fallen in love in the Spirit Beast Forest, the two had been together. Before long, they'd decided to return to Mu Feng's hometown, the Northern Spiritual Realm, where they founded the Mu Domain, built a life for themselves, and settled down.
Over the course of more than a decade, Qing Yanjing had only stepped in a handful of times.
But whenever she did, she struck right at the heart of the matter and turned the tide of a crisis. She'd saved a tottering building from collapse and stemmed a raging flood just before it burst its banks, leaving a deep impression on Mu Feng.
His wife was an expert—a peerless master.
That impression had long since taken root and grown deep in Mu Feng's heart.
So Qing Yanjing's words didn't surprise him much.
"A-Jing, I've known that for ages."
Mu Feng wrapped an arm around his wife's fragrant shoulder in a comforting gesture and laughed with a show of bravado. "Let me guess. You've reached the Three Days Realm, haven't you?"
"World Melding, Heaven Transformation, or Heavenly Passage?"
"You can't possibly be a Sovereign, one of those elusive figures who rarely show themselves, can you?"
Well, forgive the Domain Lord of the Mu Domain for his limited imagination.
The Mu Family was just an ordinary little clan that had lived in the Northern Spiritual Realm for generations. None of their ancestors had ever set foot beyond the Hundred Spirit Continent. Calling them a clan was already giving them too much credit.
For someone of Mu Feng's generation to reach the Divine Soul Realm was already a leap up the social ladder.
Of the Nine Domains of the Northern Spiritual Realm, the strongest was Liu Jingshan, Domain Lord of the Liu Territory. Yet even he was only at the late Divine Soul Realm, and he ruled the entire Northern Spiritual Realm with an iron grip, utterly invincible.
Word had it that he planned to pass the position of Domain Lord to his son, Liu Qingtian, soon, then enter seclusion to break through to the Three Days Realm and become the true strongest person in the Northern Spiritual Realm.
Seeing his wife suddenly fall silent, Mu Feng's heart gave a lurch. A moment later, excitement surged through him, and his voice rose without his noticing. "You can't really be a Sovereign, can you?"
Mu Feng had roamed the world in his youth and had seen his share of things.
But back then, he'd only been at the Spirit Movement or Spirit Wheel stages. He hadn't had access to the Sovereigns people imagined as all-powerful, capable of summoning wind and rain. The strongest person he'd encountered had been a Heavenly Passage Realm martial artist.
Besides, in the northwestern reaches of the Great Thousand World, the Hundred Spirit Continent was merely one ordinary advanced continent. It couldn't even be called a supercontinent.
And the famous Ten Domains were under the jurisdiction of the Northern Profound Sect, a superpower.
The continent's former strongest person had only been an Eighth Grade Sovereign, sent by the Northern Profound Sect to keep watch.
Faced with Mu Feng's questions, Qing Yanjing wore a strange expression and still said nothing.
"First or second grade? Third or fourth?"
Mu Feng licked his dry lips, almost talking to himself.
At that moment, his heart was pounding and his blood was boiling. He couldn't stop thinking how lucky he was—his wife might actually be a great master of the Supreme Realm.
Qing Yanjing lowered her head and twisted her delicate fingers together. Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "A little higher."
"Ancestors above, a high-grade Sovereign?"
Mu Feng clenched both fists, his blood surging.
"A little higher still."
As she carefully studied her husband's expression, Qing Yanjing shyly raised a slender jade finger and cautiously made a small gesture.
"Gasp. Could you be a legendary Earth Sovereign?"
Mu Feng had already begun to suspect as much. His voice came out a little hoarse, and he sucked in a sharp breath on the spot, making a distinguished contribution to global warming in the Great Thousand World.
Earlier this month, the Sect Master of the Northern Profound Sect, overlord of the northwestern Great Thousand, had sent his son to the Hundred Spirit Continent to take up his fief. He was titled the King of Hundred Spirits, enthroned in Hundred Spirit Heaven, where he would bring order to the land.
A year from now, he was expected to summon the continent's heroes to Hundred Spirit City for the King's Tribute Festival, where they would pay homage to the new monarch, the lord of the Hundred Spirits—the King of Hundred Spirits.
The Northern Spiritual Realm was a small realm within Hundred Spirit Heaven, and no one there had received an invitation yet.
This newly enthroned King of Hundred Spirits was, unmistakably, an Earth Sovereign.
Good heavens, was his beloved wife a peerless powerhouse on par with the lord of the Hundred Spirits?
That was already beyond the limits of Mu Feng's imagination!
"Dummy, couldn't you be a little bolder?"
Qing Yanjing's pretty face flushed red. She stamped her jade foot in frustration, and her slim waist swayed like willow branches in the wind. Her sudden shyness and charm left her husband almost dumbstruck.
Giving up on easing him into it, she blurted it all out in one go. "I cultivate both spiritual energy and Spirit Arrays. I'm a Spirit Grade Heavenly Sovereign, and on top of that, I'm an intermediate Grandmaster of Spirit Arrays."
Mu Feng might have inhaled too much cold air earlier and gone numb. Now, by contrast, he seemed much calmer—calm enough to be frightening.
He stared fixedly at Qing Yanjing and asked in a hoarse voice, "I know what a Heavenly Sovereign is. But what's a Grandmaster of Spirit Arrays?"
"You can think of it as a Heavenly Sovereign in the field of Spirit Arrays."
"An intermediate Grandmaster of Spirit Arrays is equivalent to an Immortal Grade Heavenly Sovereign."
Qing Yanjing felt a little embarrassed under her husband's gaze. She lowered her head and gave an awkward laugh.
"I see~~"
Mu Feng nodded calmly, then fainted just as calmly.
Everything seemed so calm, so unruffled and composed.
"Oh no! The Domain Lord has fainted! Someone, come quickly!"
The next moment, a sharp, panicked cry rang through the back courtyard.
The Domain Lord's manor descended into chaos. Chickens flew, dogs leaped, and the whole place was thrown into disarray.
Don't panic, the Domain Lord's condition isn't serious.
A little heart palpitations; two days of bed rest should do the trick.
It's just that his behavior has grown a little strange over the past few days, worrying everyone in the manor. And the most worried of all was naturally the Domain Lord's wife.
The same back courtyard.
Mu Feng lay on a chaise lounge, face up, sunning himself. His body was relaxed, his gaze vacant.
As he recalled the conversation with his wife a few days earlier, a whole string of bizarre titles popped into his head.
My Lover Is Powerful, Yet Far Too Cautious
My Beloved Wife Is Just Too Steady
The Demon King Doesn't Need to Be
Those city folk called that "cautious heroism," didn't they?
I remember running beneath the sunset that day. That was the youth I had lost—
"Mu Feng, do you still want to spend your life with me?"
Suddenly, a reproachful, angry voice sounded beside him.
Before the Domain Lord could finish reminiscing about his youth, he was cut off.
"A-Jing, what are you doing here?"
Mu Feng scrambled up from the chaise lounge and forced a smile, glancing timidly at Qing Yanjing, who'd gone from a gentle, sweet wife to a fierce little tigress.
Seeing this, Qing Yanjing felt guilty.
She knew this was all her fault.
Mu Feng had simply been overwhelmed by how powerful she was—so powerful it was despairing, impossible to catch up to. The gap between them was too vast, and that had made him give in to a little despondency.
The Divine Soul Realm and a Heavenly Sovereign—like comparing a mere mortal to an ancient god.
Qing Yanjing had spent more than a decade hiding the truth because she was worried about exactly this.
No. She couldn't let Brother Feng keep sinking like this. She had to find him a new goal and rekindle his fighting spirit.
"Brother Feng, haven't you always wanted to know where I come from and about my past?"
With that thought, Qing Yanjing's voice softened. "If you agree to one thing, I'll tell you everything."
P.S. I only managed to write one chapter yesterday. I spent most of the day putting up Spring Festival couplets and cleaning with my parents, so I didn't have much time to write. Sigh, I'm exhausted.
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