Chapter 172 - 172: Beautiful Scenery Needs No Heaven’s Inquiry
“What do we need cups for?”
Cheng Lingzhu opened the lid of the wine jar, “It’s not like we’re remarrying, drinking a wedding cup again…”
Lu Xuan wanted to say that technically, they could have another one in this lifetime.
Cheng Lingzhu pulled out her hairpin, letting her silky black hair cascade down. She lifted the wine jar and took a drink.
Her face turned even redder.
Cheng Lingzhu took a deep breath, feeling her heart pounding.
If it were her former self, she probably wouldn’t be this nervous, she thought.
But not being nervous was one thing, not taking initiative was another.
So, she held the jar and took another drink.
Lu Xuan sighed, watching Cheng Lingzhu, “Alright, I’ll do it.”
In matters like this, it had always been him taking care of her.
Just like before, in matters of the heart, Lu Xuan had always been the proactive one.
“…No.”
Cheng Lingzhu bit her lip and firmly refused.
She had promised herself that in this lifetime, she would pursue him.
Cheng Lingzhu put the jar aside.
She stepped forward, kicked off her shoes, and sat on Lu Xuan’s lap.
They faced each other.
Cheng Lingzhu looked into his eyes.
“I like you.”
Her words came out softly, her breath sweet with the scent of wine.
Lu Xuan was stunned.
He saw a serious expression on Cheng Lingzhu’s face.
“I should have said this in our previous life, but I just couldn’t find the words.” “So this time, I want to say everything that I’ve kept in my heart.”
“Our days ahead are long, and I plan to stick to you a lot… You’re not allowed to find me annoying.”
“After all, I’ve liked you for two lifetimes, and I have so much to say to you.”
Cheng Lingzhu’s eyes shone as she looked at Lu Xuan.
“My husband, please guide me through the rest of our lives.”
She cupped his face and kissed him.
The curtains of the fragrant canopy fell.
The lights in the palace dimmed.
The rustling of clothes followed.
Two figures gradually merged into one…
The next day.
Lu Xuan woke up.
He shifted his head, and the person in his arms was still sleeping soundly.
Cheng Lingzhu was nestled in his arm, one long leg draped over his waist, clinging to him like an octopus.
Lu Xuan shifted to make her more comfortable.
Watching Cheng Lingzhu in his arms, he smiled, a hint of amusement on his face.
After all, he wasn’t the great cultivator he used to be, and last night was, in a sense, a “first experience” for him, leaving him somewhat exhausted.
As for dual cultivation…
Such a beautiful experience as a wedding night shouldn’t be reduced to mere cultivation.
Moreover, although the Demon Emperor’s Palace was self-sealing, it couldn’t confine Lu Xuan.
With his strength, leaving with Cheng Lingzhu wouldn’t be an issue.
But things felt quite different from before…
Lu Xuan whimsically thought.
In their previous life, Cheng Hongtan was… Well, quite definitive.
And that wasn’t a typo.
Now…
Lu Xuan could barely keep up.
As a cultivator, he didn’t need tools to measure anything.
He was quite accurate in his estimates.
As their relationship grew closer, Lu Xuan began to plan some important things—
Like starting today, he would sleep naked.
This was a habit he had maintained for thousands of years.
Due to incomplete adaptation training, he had worn pajamas while with Cheng Lingzhu before.
Lu Xuan considered himself a decent person, not overly lustful.
Being with someone he liked, even just holding and sleeping, was very comfortable.
With Cheng Lingzhu’s peaceful and beautiful sleeping face in his arms, Lu Xuan reached for his storage artifact at the head of the bed.
He took out the jade hairpin left by Demon Emperor Mie and examined it closely.
The hairpin was translucent, emitting a faint glow.
In the cultivation world, glowing spiritual jade wasn’t unusual, but the material of this hairpin was something Lu Xuan had never seen. Demon Emperor Mie had left a message in the hairpin…
It was related to the Great Dream Sovereign.
Looking at the hairpin, Lu Xuan pondered silently.
After a while, he activated a technique.
A little figure of divine soul emerged from Lu Xuan’s forehead, glowing.
Lu Xuan immersed his consciousness in it, taking the hairpin into the Dream
Ruins.
Cheng Lingzhu was still asleep, so there wasn’t much else to do.
Lu Xuan decided to use the spare time to complete this side quest.
In the Dream Ruins.
In a corner of a certain area.
A wooden figure sat up from the ground.
It held a hairpin in its hand, using it like a cane to support itself on the ground.
Lu Xuan channeled his power into the jade hairpin.
The hairpin vibrated, as if drawn by some force, turning into a streak of light and shooting off into the distance.
Lu Xuan, controlling the wooden figure, followed it.
In reality, Lu Xuan didn’t need a wooden figure to move freely in the Dream
Ruins.
But Lu Xuan had his own reasons.
Controlling the wooden figure to fly gave him a feeling… akin to piloting a
Gundam.
If outsiders knew, they’d probably look at him with a mix of legality and lunacy.
The hairpin flew swiftly.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, it reached its destination.
Lu Xuan looked down.
He saw a deep chasm stretching for hundreds of miles, as if a giant had torn open the earth, creating this landscape.
The hairpin hovered above the chasm.
With a crisp sound, the hairpin trembled and shattered, turning into specks of starlight that fell into the chasm.
Almost simultaneously, an inexplicable Dao Tune pervaded between heaven and earth.
The ground shook, and a golden light burst from the chasm, landing in Lu
Xuan’s hand.
It was a golden lotus seed.
Information flowed from the lotus seed, which Lu Xuan absorbed.
Moshou City?”
Lu Xuan’s head was filled with question marks.
How did this relate to that place? “Let me think this through.”
Lu Xuan fell into contemplation.
“I obtained an item from the Demon Emperor’s Palace, a key to unlocking the secret of the Dream Ruins.
Using it, I got this lotus seed, which is related to Moshou City…”
This involved three great powers.
Demon Emperor Mie, Dream Heavenly Lord, and the Sage of the Ink Sect.
But the problem was…
“These three weren’t from the same era, right?”
Lu Xuan pondered this.
In chronological order.
Demon Emperor Mie was the oldest, followed by the Dream Heavenly Lord, and the most recent was the Sage of the Ink Sect. The years separating them were measured in eras.
How were they connected?
“And this is too coincidental, isn’t it?”
Lu Xuan was skeptical.
Moshou City, the legendary place left after the Battle of a Hundred Factions.
The token to open the city was found by Lu Xuan and Ji Lingchen; now, the token was with Lu Xuan.
The Dream Ruins, a legacy site left by one of the strongest Sovereigns, which continued to operate even after the collapse of the Dream Realm.
Lu Xuan entered this realm, slew the Netherworld Sovereign, and formed a cause and effect with the Grand Dream Sovereign.
The Demon Emperor’s Palace, a legacy site of a powerful existence, left by the ancient Demon Emperor Mie, who slaughtered all gods and started a new era. Any of these sites alone would consume a cultivator’s lifetime of fortune.
Yet, all three were interconnected and encountered by Lu Xuan.
If it was all by chance, Lu Xuan didn’t believe it.
He recalled what the Heavenly Emperor, Xu once said to him.
“Being entrusted with a task by the predecessors isn’t a bad thing…” The wooden figure touched its wooden head.
“It feels like a village boy, born with a certain responsibility, destined to accomplish something great under the arrangement of fate.
But where in the world is there a nine-thousand-year-old child of fortune… I’m already at retirement age, isn’t this destiny coming a bit too late?” He looked up at the sky of the Dream Ruins.
The sky in the Dream Ruins was grey and hazy, offering no answer..