An Awkward Teacher and Student

Outside the winery stood a pavilion called the Myriad Longevity Pavilion.

When the Emperor and Empress descended, the formations throughout the Kunlun Ruins' secret land withdrew.

All the illusory obstacles faded away, and Zhang Xuezhou saw this splendid place filled with rare flowers and exotic plants.

Like a natural ecological park, the secret land had a few man-made structures, but far more plants, arranged in neat, orderly patterns.

Zhang Xuezhou even spotted the Drunken Peach Tree several hundred meters away.

"Teacher!"

When he reached the Myriad Longevity Pavilion, Zhang Xuezhou met the Emperor's gaze.

This was where the two had first met.

At first, he had found it difficult to determine the identity of the old man in the pavilion and had taken him for the Buddha's Son, while the Emperor had half-resisted, half-acquiesced and let him believe it.

Zhang Xuezhou had realized the truth only later, and though he knew perfectly well, he had played dumb, hoping to bluff his way through.

Clearly, the Emperor had likewise maintained the arrangement because he needed something.

The bond between them was the Nine Treasures Wine, but the Empress's intrusion had brought unpredictable changes. The Emperor had been forced to give Zhang Xuezhou an additional identity, and Zhang Xuezhou had been forced to accept it.

Now that the Empress had left, the Emperor was a little embarrassed, and Zhang Xuezhou felt ill at ease too.

Never before had a teacher-student relationship been forged in such a way. Seeing the Emperor before him, Zhang Xuezhou thought of Zou Bugui, who had taken him as an adopted son because circumstances had left him no choice.

But the Emperor was not Zou Bugui. He could forcibly pull Zhang Xuezhou's consciousness back, and Zhang Xuezhou found it difficult to guess the strength of such an important