[Detected that the host has a third biological child. Issuing the 'Conception' reward: Directed Spirit Evolution Device · Beast Type ×1] [Directed Spirit Evolution Device · Beast Type ×1: Allows Beast Martial Soul Soul Masters to undergo Martial Soul Evolution unconditionally. Its first use is guaranteed to succeed and will certainly raise Soul Power Level. Subsequent uses may fail, with the chance of failure increasing in proportion to the number of uses.] [This is a Conception reward. If the child cannot be born for any reason, the reward will be reclaimed. If the child is born, a 'Birth' reward will be issued again. Please take note!]
The mechanical voice in his mind was like a cup of ice water splashed in his face, jolting Chen Fan fully awake.
He opened his eyes and stared at the canopy overhead. It took him a full two and a half seconds to react.
A third biological child... Zhu Qingque?
Well, well!
What a coincidence!
So this trip to Star Luo City hadn't been too bad after all?
"But unfortunately, this Evolution Device... doesn't seem to come with any instructions?"
As he thought this, Chen Fan reached out. The space beside him was already empty, though a faint, lingering fragrance remained among the covers.
He got up, and then noticed a soft rustling coming from the dressing table nearby. Looking closer, he saw Zhu Qingque seated before a bronze mirror, holding a wooden comb and slowly brushing her waterfall of black hair.
She had changed into a clean, plain-colored long dress, and had redone her hair, securing it with the phoenix hairpin she'd brought from the palace.
She sat with her back to him, her posture straight as a pine. There was no trace of the disheveled woman who had knelt before the armchair last night.
Chen Fan rolled over, propped himself up on the edge of the bed, yawned, and then drawled, "Up so early?"
Zhu Qingque's hand paused. She turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were calm—calm as a pool of dead water—but a closer look revealed a hint of complexity in her faintly trembling lashes.
She parted her lips and answered hoarsely, "Mm."
"How do you feel?"
Chen Fan stretched, his bones cracking. "The Cold Sky Stone Ginseng worked pretty well, I take it?"
Zhu Qingque was silent for a moment, then said softly, "I broke through... to level eighty-six."
Without a change in expression, she hid her still-red knees beneath her skirt. "And my Soul Power is much more condensed than before."
"That's good."
Chen Fan climbed out of bed barefoot and walked over to her. "I didn't expect Dai Li to send you here."
Zhu Qingque visibly stiffened. She was silent for two and a half seconds, then resumed combing her hair as though she hadn't heard him.
Chen Fan didn't pay it much mind.
He flipped his hand, and an object appeared out of thin air.
It looked like a rectangular box, its entire surface a deep, dusky purple.
The box was small enough to fit in one hand, yet surprisingly heavy. Holding it gave him the strange sensation that he had a living creature in his grasp.
It was the Directed Spirit Evolution Device · Beast Type!
The moment the box appeared, Zhu Qingque, who had been combing her hair, jolted!
Then—
She abruptly turned around and stared at the box. Her pupils shrank, and her breathing suddenly quickened.
At that moment—
She could feel her Martial Soul trembling, as though it were excited and yearning. Her fingers curled involuntarily, her nails nearly digging into her palm.
"W-what is that?"
Chen Fan didn't answer at once. He merely gave her a smile full of meaning.
Zhu Qingque's breath caught.
She remembered watching the withered, skeletal ancestor of the Xu Family swallow a golden pill in Taihe Hall a few days ago, then step into the ranks of the Titled Douluo!
And—
Chen Fan had also given Xu Wensu a blood-red crystal, granting him a hundred-thousand-year ninth Soul Ring!
She hadn't thought of it earlier, because the pressure from Chen Jianjun had left no room for other thoughts. But now, seeing the meaningful look in Chen Fan's eyes, she immediately remembered!
'This must be... the Seven Kill Sect young sect master's doing!'
'What kind of power is this?'
'I've never heard of anything that could make my Martial Soul yearn so intensely. What... is this?'
Zhu Qingque's thoughts whirled. Then she suddenly felt something heavy in her hand and saw that Chen Fan had slipped the object into her palm at some point. "This thing can make Beast Martial Souls evolve unconditionally. The first use is guaranteed to succeed, and it can raise your Soul Power Level, too."
Zhu Qingque stared blankly for two and a half seconds, then lowered her head woodenly to look at the heavy, dusky-purple box in her palm. Her mind had gone blank.
At such close range, she could feel her Martial Soul's yearning even more clearly.
It was like a beast that had gone hungry its whole life finally catching the scent of meat. The longing was so intense that even her fingertips trembled.
"Y-you're sure... you want to give this to me?"
Zhu Qingque's voice was especially hoarse, almost like the sound of someone who'd been eating too much spicy food. She stared at Chen Fan, disbelief filling her beautiful phoenix eyes. "Something like this... you want to give it to me?"
"The wise know when to bow to circumstances. You were sensible last night, so this is your reward for that."
He paused, his tone nonchalant. "I hope you'll be just as sensible the next time you come."
He said it casually, but Zhu Qingque understood!
She looked at the box in her hand, then thought of Dai Li in the palace yesterday—his face twisted with anguish, so strange and unfamiliar to her...
They had been husband and wife for twenty-five years, sharing both hardship and joy. And in the end, he had pushed her into another man's bed without the slightest hesitation, as if she were just an item to be traded for profit.
Sure enough!
What her elder sister had said before she died had been right!
The Dai Family had never treated her as a person. They had treated her as a resource!
At the thought, Zhu Qingque clenched the box in her hand. She closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and set it down on the dressing table.
"Hm?"
Chen Fan was taken aback. He thought Zhu Qingque had refused. He was about to say something when she stood up to face him and tore open the sash she had just tied.
In an instant—
Her plain-colored dress slipped from her shoulders!
Her sudden, bold move left even Chen Fan stunned!
In the Star Luo Imperial Palace, inside the emperor's bedchamber—
Dai Li, lying on the dragon bed, suddenly bolted upright. His body was drenched in sweat, his chest heaving, his pupils blown wide as he gasped for breath. "Hah... hah..."
Sweat covered his forehead. He looked as though he'd just been hauled out of the water. The inner layer of his clothes was soaked through with cold sweat, clinging to his skin, clammy and cold. "So... it was only a dream..."
He had just had a dream.
In it, someone had pinned him to the ground, leaving him unable to move. All he could do was crane his neck and look at the scene before him...
His empress, Zhu Qingque, was sitting on top of a man whose face was indistinct, moving up and down. The shrill sounds stabbed at his eardrums.
He had tried to shout, but no sound came out.
He had tried to struggle, but his arms and legs were pinned to the ground as if shackled in iron. All he could do was watch helplessly... His empress seemed to notice him, then planted a foot right on his face.
And just like that, Dai Li woke up.
The dream had jolted him awake.
"Qingque..."
It took a full two and a half minutes for Dai Li to catch his breath. He hurriedly scrambled out of bed, stumbling as he went, and rushed outside without even bothering to put on his shoes.
"Th-that... that must have all been a dream!"
"It was all a dream!"
He knew the palace corridors so well he could walk them with his eyes closed, but now they seemed so long that they made his heart race.
Dai Li stumbled as he pushed open the door to the empress's bedchamber. Before he could speak, he saw Zhu Qingque sitting inside, combing her hair through the wide-open doorway.
She sat before the dressing table, wearing a plain-colored long dress as she brushed her hair.
The morning light fell across her profile, outlining her features with striking clarity.
But Dai Li's steps abruptly halted.
Because—
Through the window, he could see purple bruises on Zhu Qingque's exposed arm, creeping from the edge of her sleeve like marks left by a savage beating.
Dai Li's pupils contracted. He took a few more steps forward, and from the side, he seemed to spot something else. His footsteps stopped abruptly!
At that moment—
Zhu Qingque was sitting in the chair with her legs naturally apart, causing her skirt to fall slightly open and reveal her reddened knees...
"This..."
His instincts told him something was wrong. Very, very wrong!
But...
Dai Li's throat bobbed. It felt as though something had clamped down on it.
He wanted to speak, but couldn't force out a single word. His mind was in chaos, as though thousands upon thousands of bees were buzzing inside it.
"You..."
At last, he managed to get one word out. His voice sounded nothing like his own.
Only then did Zhu Qingque seem to notice Dai Li's arrival.
She slowly turned her head and looked at him.
Her expression was flat, but exhaustion showed on her face. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, as though she'd been awake all night.
The sight made Dai Li's heart ache again...
Damn Chen Fan!
His beloved empress had been ridden so hard she'd been kept up all night!?
At the thought, fury burned in Dai Li's heart. He wanted nothing more than to lead the Dai Family's Soul Master Legion and raze the Seven Kill Sect to the ground that very moment!
"Your Majesty."
Just then, Zhu Qingque spoke. "I've completed what you asked me to do."
Her first words were like a basin of ice water poured over his head. Dai Li froze in place.
He wanted to say, "That's not what I meant," or, "I didn't ask you to actually go through with it."
But...
The words stuck in his throat.
Judging by the scene before him, what was done was done. What point was there in saying any of that now?
Dai Li gritted his teeth and drew a deep breath, but his breath caught. The air seemed to carry... the strange fragrance of some kind of flower or herb?
"If Your Majesty has no other instructions..."
Seeing Dai Li rooted to the spot, Zhu Qingque spoke calmly, her expression blank. "Then please go back."
"I'm a little tired. I need to rest."
"Please don't disturb me!"