Fang Cunxin wanted nothing more than to cover Liu Chen's mouth. "Have you gone mad? How dare you use the Imperial Family to practice your Poison Cultivation Technique? How many lives do you think you have?"
Liu Chen thought nothing of it. "What's the big deal? Didn't we often discuss this in private back at the Five Immortals Cult?"
"You know perfectly well that was at the Five Immortals Cult," Fang Cunxin reminded him quietly. "Now we're in the Nine Heavens. We need to watch our words and actions and hold the Imperial Family in awe." Liu Chen scoffed. "That's you. I don't need to hold the Imperial Family in awe."
Fang Cunxin did not understand. "Why don't you?"
"Because I'm in the Nine Heavens now. The Nine Heavens only revere the emperor, not the Imperial Family." Liu Chen spoke as though it were only natural. "Why else do you think I worked so hard to climb the ranks? Because I'm noble and virtuous? If I still can't use the Imperial Family to practice my Poison Cultivation Technique after joining the Nine Heavens, wouldn't joining have been a waste?"
Fang Cunxin had to remind Liu Chen, "You still can't go courting death. Even the Nine Heavens are only a blade in His Majesty's hand."
"So you do know we're a blade in His Majesty's hand."
Liu Chen patted Fang Cunxin's fragrant shoulder reassuringly. "Cunxin, you're not one of the Nine Heavens, so you don't understand. Before joining them, I could bow and scrape. Now that I'm one of them, I have to be arrogant and overbearing."
"Why?"
"If I don't even dare offend an ordinary Imperial Clan member, then at future gatherings of the Nine Heavens' Vein Masters, I'll only be fit to sit at your table."
Liu Chen had