The More He Explained, the Worse It Got

"A man?"

Crossing the formation, the empress stepped into the brewery.

She pushed open the door and saw a young man sitting beside the brewing vat, staring blankly at the Golden Crow feathers burning beneath it.

Only when a gust of wind swept across the Flowing Wind Jade Pendant worn by the empress, drawing a melodious birdsong from it, did the young man raise his head.

"A woman?"

Zhang Xuezhou was equally astonished.

"Buddhist Child, did the illusion formation turn you into a woman?"

Zhang Xuezhou steeled himself and asked.

He looked at the imposing woman before him. Dressed with great dignity in silk robes, she was extraordinarily beautiful-the most graceful and beautiful middle-aged woman Zhang Xuezhou had ever seen-but he sensed extreme danger from her.

A faint trace of killing intent flickered around her. Though she concealed it extremely well, to Zhang Xuezhou, it felt like being stared down by a tiger, and goosebumps involuntarily rose on his skin.

He had not seen the master of the secret land for several days, and he did not know why a woman had suddenly appeared today, especially one who had come with such intense hostility.

He steeled himself and ventured a question.

Even if she only said a couple more words, that might give him a better chance of staying alive.

"What Buddhist Child?"

The empress glared at Zhang Xuezhou with her phoenix eyes, feeling that she had run into an even more unfortunate possibility.

"Haotian, you actually fancy men, and you even sneaked around disguised as someone else to meet him!"

Clutching the Ruyi Vermilion Hairpin, the empress felt her mind go slightly blank.

She had never imagined that the beauty the emperor had hidden away in his golden house would be a man, or that the emperor would even