第38章 我杖也未尝不利[为盟主燚龘amblowe加更三!]

Soul-searching could only reveal significant memories and emotional points. Moreover, the merfolk's souls were underdeveloped, so Mu Rong saw very little.

"Yun Lanzi, the Beast Taming Sect's prodigy, has a marriage engagement with Princess Ping'an."

The Empress Dowager withdrew her hand and spoke slowly.

Jiang Chen was curious.

"The princess and the emperor aren't on the same side?"

The Empress Dowager nodded.

"Princess Ping'an is far more gifted than the Crown Prince, so naturally she covets the throne as well. She is simply not as easy to control as the Crown Prince and may not obey my imperial son."

"I see."

Jiang Chen had no interest whatsoever in Fireburn Kingdom's grand palace intrigues. As for the Dragon Bone, while it was a priceless treasure, he did not truly need it.

With the Empress Dowager—or rather, the countless women possessed by the Thousand-Faced Fox—and once he latched onto Tian Mingye's great tree in the future, he would have both demonic and devilish qi. All he needed was enough spirit stones to soar.

As for a woman like Li Lingzhou... she was completely untrustworthy.

The Empress Dowager turned her head and stared at the bent-over Jiang Chen.

"What are you doing?"

Jiang Chen had brought over the two rabbits from Liu Ruyan's cave dwelling. It counted as returning half of them to their rightful owner.

"I brought two rabbits over from the Azure Mist Sect."

The Empress Dowager had no habit of keeping pets.

"I don't like rabbits."

Jiang Chen smiled.

"They aren't for you. They're to make the two mermaid girls cry."

"Make them cry?"

"That's right. First, we give the rabbits to the mermaid girls as pets. Once they grow attached to them, we braise the rabbits in soy sauce. Wouldn't they cry themselves to death?"

"You dare!"

"I'm joking. I love rabbits too."

As he spoke, Jiang Chen rubbed the snow-white rabbit.

The Empress Dowager slapped his hand away and asked:

"What do you plan to do next?"

What do I plan to do...

Can I even decide that?

Jiang Chen thought that the Thousand-Faced Fox really did regard him as someone important—or perhaps a reincarnated dragonkin.

First of all, he needed demonic qi at any time, so he could not stay too far from the Empress Dowager.

Logically, he should not reveal that he was the Empress Dowager's man, lest he draw trouble by standing out too much. But upon further thought, even the old emperor did not dare touch the Empress Dowager, while Chen, a Golden Core Realm cultivator, had shown fear the moment he heard her name.

That meant that, at least in Fireburn Kingdom or Xiyang City, the Empress Dowager's name still carried some weight.

Besides, living in the palace would place him closer to the main storyline. Once he entered story mode, it would be like having three lives, making him even safer instead.

Still, being known as the Empress Dowager's man was far too conspicuous.

With that thought, Jiang Chen said:

"Starting today, I'll live in Peaceful Palace. My identity will be the Empress Dowager's bodyguard, commonly known as an armed imperial guard."

Mu Rong cast Jiang Chen a faintly resentful glance.

"Oh? You can protect me?"

In her gentle, shimmering eyes, which also carried a trace of grievance, Jiang Chen seemed to see her questioning why he had failed to protect Senior Sister Liu...

At the same time, she seemed to want him to reveal his true identity and strength.

Naturally, Jiang Chen did not fall for it. Rather than insist on becoming the Empress Dowager's bodyguard, he suggested:

"Then how about becoming the Empress Dowager's personal imperial physician?"

The Empress Dowager smiled with her hands behind her back, lifting her ample chest. She appeared dignified and healthy.

"You could manage as a physician, but being an imperial physician requires reading many medical texts, lest you make a fool of yourself. You seem busy cultivating. Do you have the time?"

Jiang Chen spread his hands and smiled.

"Wouldn't it be enough to study gynecology?"

The Empress Dowager's beautiful face remained composed and dignified.

"If you had no real ability, I would have already had you, this lecher, beaten to death with a staff."

My staff was no less deadly!

Glancing at the hourglass, Jiang Chen saw that it was midnight. He had no time left to trade quips.

He suddenly remembered something and asked the Empress Dowager:

"Do you know Li Lingzhou, the Prison Suppression Envoy of Xihe Prefecture?"

The Empress Dowager glanced sideways at Jiang Chen. She always felt that Jiang Chen encountered beautiful women everywhere, but... Li Lingzhou was different.

"Who in Xihe Prefecture doesn't know Envoy Li? Do you want to meet her?"

Considering Li Lingzhou's preferences, Jiang Chen did not hide it.

"I've met her, but I don't know her very well. I'm afraid she'll take advantage of me."

The Empress Dowager froze.

"Did she ask you to lend her money?"

"No."

"She will."

Jiang Chen still did not understand.

"Even if she likes women and chases beauties everywhere, she wouldn't need that much money, would she? Why is she always borrowing money from people?"

The Empress Dowager asked Jiang Chen in return:

"You could deduce things about me, so why can't you deduce things about her?"

Jiang Chen wrapped an arm around the Empress Dowager's waist. It was not especially slender, but exceptionally soft and warm.

"What is our relationship? Besides, judging by Envoy Li's eccentric conduct, I doubt even she can deduce herself."

The Empress Dowager pinched Jiang Chen hard at the waist before saying:

"Envoy Li loves gambling, but her luck is poor.

"If you have an appointment with her but cannot find her, she must be at a gambling house.

"She only goes looking for women when she runs out of money. Sometimes, she even borrows money from women."

Jiang Chen was dumbfounded. There was actually a woman like that? Wasn't she just a stereotypical crude old man?

It sounded as though, among Thousand-Faced Fox's many possessed women, there might be some whom Li Lingzhou had borrowed money from.

"So she's currently at a gambling house in the city?"

The Empress Dowager sighed.

"That depends on how much money she has.

"With one thousand spirit stones, she'll be at a gambling house in Xiyang City.

"With ten thousand spirit stones, she'll go to a gambling house in Xihe City.

"With one hundred thousand spirit stones, she'll be at a gambling house in Chaos City.

"If she has a million spirit stones, she'll definitely be at a gambling house in Dragon Martial City."

Xihe City was the prefectural capital of Xihe Prefecture.

Chaos City was where Gray Castle's main headquarters stood, the geographical center of Ascending Dragon Continent, a place where demons, devils, ghosts, monsters, and all sorts of people lived together.

Dragon Martial City was the capital of the Daqian Dynasty.

Jiang Chen calculated it.

Li Lingzhou had at least four thousand five hundred spirit stones in hand, placing her between Xiyang City's standard and Xihe City's standard.

People climbed upward while water flowed downward. By that reasoning, she had most likely gone to a gambling house in Xihe City. Otherwise, she would not have failed to notice that the trial had ended.

"What did she ask you to do?"

The Empress Dowager suddenly asked.

A test from the principal wife... Jiang Chen was not intimidated and answered without concealing anything:

"She invited me to become a Prison Suppression Envoy in Xihe Prefecture."

The Empress Dowager's eyes shifted slightly as she smiled gently.

"That is quite a good position. The Prison Suppression Bureau has all kinds of strange techniques and resources that could help you restore your strength quickly."

Jiang Chen heard none of that. He only felt that her smile concealed a blade.

"Being a Prison Suppression Envoy is too tiring. I still prefer being an imperial physician. I only need to move my fingers."

With that, the simulated scenario ended.

Jiang Chen's divine sense returned to Flame Mountain.

This journey had been nearly perfect.

The slave-trading merchant and the imperial army general who had seized the slaves... he had caught them all in one net, and he had even rescued the two mermaid girls.

His cultivation had risen to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.

He had gained an Empress Dowager baby.

Before the third simulation even began, Jiang Chen had already decided to choose the second ending.

What else could the third ending accomplish?

He had already let himself go in both the first and second simulations.

Jiang Chen sat cross-legged atop the sandy mountain, staring at the thin, ethereal sword qi before him. He decided to broaden his horizons.

[The third simulation begins. Please choose a deployment location!]

Jiang Chen continued down the path from the second simulation, killing the old general and the black-clad man at the Early Foundation Establishment stage in succession.

This time, he did not hide underground to cultivate.

Instead, he cultivated on the spot.

This time, he did not intend to waste precious spirit stones. Instead, he fixed his gaze on Li Lingzhou's ethereal sword qi.

He first absorbed all the devilish qi within the Demon Shrine and the demonic qi from the Merfolk Pearl, causing them to twist around each other like braided strands.

He then rose and walked to the edge of the sword domain, opening his mouth wide and forcibly absorbing Li Lingzhou's sword qi.

Suddenly!

Jiang Chen's eyes filled with horror.