Another Cheat Ability [Please Subscribe, Please Vote!]

Jiang Chen felt that he was still too young.

This was already the third time, yet he still found himself unable to pull free from the Empress Dowager's soft, warm belly.

In theory, Pure Yang Sword Aura combined with the power of resonance could easily clear away the stagnant accumulation in the Empress Dowager's dantian and palace.

But he also worried that Pure Yang Sword Aura might burn away the fox demon possessing her.

Furthermore, doing so might alter the storyline. To be safe, he obediently did what a young man ought to do.

This time, because he had arrived a little late and had less time, the story happened to pick up where the second simulation had left off when night fell.

"Where in the world is there a lecher as bold as you, doing this sort of thing in broad daylight!"

"Having missed Senior Sister Liu, I don't want to miss the Empress Dowager too. Even if this is only a dream, I want to make the dream come true."

"..."

After a round of sweet talk, the two went to the underground cultivation chamber. They found a few clues about beast tamers from the two Merfolk Women, and the story ultimately ended with a discussion about Li Lingzhou.

Strictly speaking, this storyline with the Empress Dowager was no different from the second simulation.

In an instant, Jiang Chen's divine sense returned to Flame Mountain.

Midnight.

The stars above the desert shone brilliantly, while the cold wind cut to the bone.

Beneath the desert, two merchants trafficking Merfolk Women rode an Artificial Sandworm at full speed...

As though nothing had happened.

After so much had happened, he had returned to the starting point. Jiang Chen found it rather wondrous.

When the mountains and rivers seemed to offer no path, there was another village amid the shade of willows and bright flowers. Thanks to Jiang Chen treating every simulation seriously and never giving up, the three simulations of this round had all ended in victory, each one more perfect than the last!

The Demi-Immortal's Book, Myriad Phenomena Resonance, Pure Yang Sword Aura...

Jiang Chen felt that he had gained another cheat ability.

He immediately chose the third ending.

[The third ending is about to overwrite the real path. You will be placed under control for twelve hours, until the ending!]

Jiang Chen's vision went black.

When he opened his eyes again, the Empress Dowager's gaze flickered slightly as she smiled gently.

"That would be quite a good post. The Prison Suppression Bureau has all sorts of strange techniques and resources that could help you recover your strength quickly."

Jiang Chen heard none of it. He only felt that a blade was hidden within the Empress Dowager's gentle, dignified smile.

"Being a prison suppressor is too exhausting. I still prefer being an imperial physician. I only need to move my fingers."

The Empress Dowager stared at Jiang Chen, seeming to notice something unusual. Her expression grew slightly dazed.

"What's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean, what's wrong?"

Jiang Chen played dumb.

Mu Rong stared into his eyes and vaguely caught the scent of a lie.

"You just now... seemed to have lost focus."

Jiang Chen froze. As expected of a soul-art master—even such a trace had not escaped her notice.

It was not that Thousand-Faced Fox had discovered traces of the system. Rather, after his soul had moved from Flame Mountain to Peaceful Palace, its continuity had been weak. He really did look like someone who had just returned from being absent-minded.

He smiled, wrapped his arms around the Empress Dowager, and explained.

"Don't mind it. My method of deduction differs from yours, and it consumes a fair amount of mental energy."

This time, Mu Rong did not smell any lies.

Could Jiang Chen deduce things automatically...?

In the latter half of the night.

Because the two were both covered in each other's sweat, they did not return to the bedchamber to rest.

Instead, they stayed in the hot spring pool within the underground cultivation chamber, bathing and cultivating.

This time, they merely cultivated in quiet meditation.

Jiang Chen had long passed the age for quiet cultivation. He was terribly bored in the pool, so he had no choice but to admire the Empress Dowager's figure.

Plump and fair as jade, she resembled a silkworm larva.

Yet she constantly maintained an air of authority, her expression stern and solemn, her bearing dignified and graceful, like a hanging moon that could not be violated.

She was worlds apart from Thousand-Faced Fox's seductive charm. Only occasionally did a trace of pride and clarity flash through her tranquil eyes.

Looking closely, the Empress Dowager's cultivation talent was not as high as he had imagined. She relied on aggressively consuming vast quantities of herbs to cultivate, and used illusion arts to disguise herself as possessing Golden Core cultivation.

In truth, she had never successfully formed a core.

Like Liu Ruyan, Mu Rong possessed considerable cultivation talent, but she was not among the very best.

Jiang Chen thought that, if Thousand-Faced Fox could choose freely, she could have possessed people with greater talent. There was no need to choose such an unexceptional woman.

That meant Thousand-Faced Fox had most likely possessed these women when they were on the verge of death.

At that moment, Mu Rong sat cross-legged, floating at the center of the pool. She suddenly opened her eyes.

"What are you looking at?"

Jiang Chen deliberately courted death as he said:

"I'm looking at the two Merfolk Women... It really is nice to be young!"

Mu Rong seemed somewhat unwilling to admit she was old and said seriously:

"Merfolk only reach adulthood at a hundred years old. I have been in the palace for less than a hundred years, so I am not much older than them."

"I'm only in my twenties. Who isn't still a baby?"

Jiang Chen leaned against the edge of the pool.

The Empress Dowager, meanwhile, sat cross-legged in the water, floating above it.

So he stretched out his toes and stirred the Empress Dowager's legs beneath the water, finding it endlessly amusing...

Mu Rong frowned but said nothing.

Jiang Chen, however, kept his eyes fixed on the two Merfolk Women.

Only then did he realize that the Empress Dowager had long since sealed their five senses, leaving them immersed in dreams the entire time.

"Come to think of it, are the merfolk a hybrid race born from merfolk and humans, or are they Spirit Merfolk whose transformation failed, stopping halfway through their evolution?"

He asked the question that had always puzzled him.

The Empress Dowager answered with her eyes closed.

"Of course they were created through transformation... Humans and demons cannot reproduce. Even if a rare few produced freakish offspring, those offspring could not produce a second generation. How could an entire race proliferate that way?"

That was rather scientific...

It seemed that demonic transformation was merely a kind of reversible cosmetic surgery. Their genes had not changed.

What a pity humans and demons could not have children.

Jiang Chen reassured the Empress Dowager while deliberately provoking Thousand-Faced Fox.

"Don't worry, you aren't a demon. We can do it whenever we want, and as many times as we want."

Mu Rong's eyes turned faintly cold, but her lips curled into a mild smile that sent chills down his spine, leaving Jiang Chen unable to tell who was who.

"Then what about humans and demons? Their original bodies are both human, so they should be able to reproduce freely, right?"

The Empress Dowager suddenly explained in earnest:

"Setting aside whether humans can endure Demonic Aura, demons can refrain from eating humans during cultivation and merely exchange spiritual power. The demon race, however, finds it difficult to restrain its desire to devour humans.

"Even if you cultivate the Demi-Immortal's Book and can absorb demonic qi, you cannot guarantee that a demoness will not devour your flesh.

"Of course, with your physique, a demoness would be reluctant to eat you. She would most likely refine you into a cultivation cauldron and use you for a long time.

"If you like, I can refine you into a cultivation cauldron as well."

Jiang Chen gave a cold snort.

Mu Rong shot Jiang Chen a cold glance, then took out a mysterious red pill.

Jiang Chen accepted the pill and lowered his head for a look, vaguely sensing a strange demonic aura within it.

"How bitter..."

The Empress Dowager covered her mouth and laughed.

"Fool, this is a Lotus Worm Pill. It makes young people pure-hearted and restrained, so they no longer think about that sort of thing all day long."

Jiang Chen's expression stiffened. With a perfectly clear conscience, he said:

"The only thing I think about all day long is cultivation!"

The Empress Dowager looked amused as she said seriously:

"Then cultivate. This palace has not disturbed you."

Jiang Chen sneered and summoned the five spirits.

"Have you considered something? As long as I am not affected by your illusion arts, I am stronger than you now."

Mu Rong's heart fluttered from Jiang Chen's suddenly surging aura, yet she cast him a faint glance.

"Is that so? This palace does not believe it."

"I'll show you what it means to uphold a husband's authority!"

That night, neither yielded to the other.

Qi Refining Ninth Layer, Foundation Establishment Peak... Jiang Chen and the Empress Dowager's cultivation levels differed by a full major realm.

His power of resonance broke the Empress Dowager's illusion arts, while Pure Yang Sword Aura devoured the medicinal potency of the Lotus Worm Pill.

As for the disparity in spiritual pressure, he could make every effort to compensate for it with the power of resonance and Three-Aspect Five-Element Spirit Control.

After one night.

News that the Empress Dowager had hired a young male cultivator as her personal imperial physician spread throughout the palace like wildfire.

By noon.

Princess Ping'an, usually spoiled and unreasonable, stormed into Peaceful Palace, claiming that she had pain in her lower abdomen and wanted to meet this imperial physician who specialized in abdominal ailments.

This chapter was once censored, and some parts were deleted or replaced with homophones.