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The eagle struck across the vast sky, its cry piercing the heavens. Spreading its wings to soar, it stirred gusts of astral wind. Standing atop the pavilion, Xu Yuan saw countless gazes looking up at him. The sweeping waves of air and overwhelming pressure drew the eyes of nearly the entire prefectural city, and countless people instinctively set aside whatever they were doing. Some bowed their heads in salute; some looked directly up; some were grateful to have survived; and others harbored hatred over the loss of their kin. Xu Yuan impassively watched all the gazes below. Only when he saw the soldiers of the Zhenxi Army's Second Division cupping their hands in salute toward him did he suddenly let out a soft chuckle. "Among the twenty thousand of you, not a single one shall die at the hands of a Saint before this princess!" Li Junwu's pre-battle promise to these common soldiers echoed in his ears. Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes, turned, and walked back onto the deck. It seemed that fellow was quite skilled at treating people according to who they were. She had broken faith with him, yet she had kept her word to these soldiers, honoring the promise with her life. The black eagle flapped its wings, traversing hundreds of zhang in an instant. In the silence, Xu Yuan stopped before the eaves of the entrance, suddenly looking back toward that colossal fortress-city that had belonged to her. The black eagle's aerial palace had already flown beyond the skies of Zhenxi Prefectural City. The thousands of upturned gazes were gone, leaving only that solitary city shrinking smaller and smaller in his vision. The high-altitude airstream rushed past, and his untied long hair fluttered in the wind, blurring his eyes. In a daze, Xu Yuan seemed to see a woman in military attire atop the towering city wall, bathed in the dawn, her white hair glistening in the morning light. She waved vigorously in farewell toward him as he drifted further away, then turned with a smile and walked toward a place he could not see. "Honestly..." Taking a trembling, deep breath, Xu Yuan murmured with a smile: "Goodbye... Junwu." With those words, he turned around. Xu Yuan gripped the massive door of the Chancellor's traveling palace. As he pushed it open and stepped inside, he murmured coldly: "Sects... just you wait." Xu Yuan had departed. Yet everything within Zhenxi Prefectural City continued as before. Inside the commandery princess's bedchamber, an old man clad in armor sat by the bed, gently stroking the pale cheek of the woman who appeared merely asleep. His eyes were hollow as he watched the distant, receding form of the colossal black eagle: "Junwu... that boy is gone." Then, looking back at his daughter, he whispered softly: "Everything is prepared. Just wait twenty more days. Once this absurd mortal world is settled, Father will come take you home..." Amidst the ruins, Xu Mengxi knelt before a wounded soldier, doing her utmost to treat those gravely injured in the battle. Her gaze toward the direction in which that person had departed was laced with complexity. Her senior brother had left her a letter. In it, he had told her a great deal—about his wife, about their master, about the junior sister who still worried him, and about his reasons for siding with the Prime Minister's Manor. [Senior Brother does not know whether Lord Chancellor's vision to transform the world is right, but I do know that preserving the status quo is definitely wrong...] Inside the prefectural government compound, Jiayi, who was under house arrest, reclined against the headboard in her wing room. A gentle breeze stirred her dark hair. Through the open window lattice, she looked up at the azure sky, the voice transmission Li Junwu had sent before dying echoing endlessly in her mind. [I deceived you for so long, so I doubt you'll forgive me, but this lady doesn't actually like women. So forget me, and live on well...] [Of course, if you're really upset, go cause trouble for that guy. The tricks I used to fool you were all secretly learned from him, and he used those very tricks to fool me too...] [I'm sorry... Jiayi.] In the Black Scale Secret Courtyard, sensing Xu Yuan's departure, Si Zijing set down his brush and documents. He walked out of the quarters into the courtyard and gazed toward the northeastern sky. Just as he was about to bow toward the direction of the black eagle— Thump. Behind him, Zhou Chen dropped directly to his knees beside him, then with a loud thud, kowtowed once toward the departing Third Young Master. "..." Si Zijing. After a moment of silence, Si Zijing still chose to bow. His loyalty had already been offered to the Chancellor; his kowtows would be directed only toward that lord. Once the bow was completed, Si Zijing glanced down at Zhou Chen, who was still kneeling on the ground, and said deliberately: "Loyalty is not forged by kneeling. Go down and prepare. Do not waste the situation that the young master and the commandery princess worked so hard to create." The giant eagle carrying the Chancellor's traveling palace was a high-tier demonic beast. In terms of Source Qi reserves alone, it had reached the peak of the Origin Realm. Its flight speed was exceedingly swift, taking merely four days to fly from Di'an City to Zhenxi Prefectural City. Thus, merely two days after departing the Western Desert, Xu Yuan and his party arrived in Daying Province, where the Celestial Master Manor was located. The giant eagle skimmed over endless fertile fields, causing the peasant men working below to instinctively look up. Yet by the time their gaze reached the sky, they could only glimpse a fleeting black dot vanishing into the horizon. The traveling palace was quiet, save for a rustling conversation echoing from the resplendent corridor. "Muxi, when the young master called you down back in Zhenxi Prefectural City, what did he say to you?" "Why do you ask?" "Just curious." "Sister Jinxuan might as well ask the young master yourself. Without his permission, I wouldn't dare speak recklessly." "..." Su Jinxuan curled her lips slightly, her captivating peach-blossom eyes looking a bit downcast: "The young master hasn't seemed to be in a good mood lately. I don't dare approach him." Bai Muxi glanced sideways at the busty woman, her bright eyes curling into a smile: "The young master has never been one to vent his anger on others. Sister Jinxuan, why don't you go check on him in his room?" Su Jinxuan countered in an alluring tone: "If that's the case, why doesn't an innocent little flower like you dare go?" "..." Bai Muxi. Meeting him again, the young master had changed a lot. Though he still seemed the same on the surface, he now gave off a chilling aura that made them hesitant to interact with him the way they used to. After a brief silence, Bai Muxi tilted her head in thought, then changed the subject: "Hasn't that block of ice been staying in his room the entire time? It doesn't look like he..." "You're comparing yourself to her?" "..." The air suddenly fell silent. In storybooks, silly and naive women were always the most endearing, and reality seemed no different. Su Jinxuan twirled the long strand of hair falling over her chest and sighed softly: "If I'd known I would be exposed so easily, I might as well have stayed by his side from the beginning... Had that been the case, I'd certainly dare go see him now." Bai Muxi eyed Su Jinxuan with a trace of wariness. This woman's physique was exceedingly dangerous; even other women would unwittingly develop affection for her if they let their guard down. If the young master had spent years day and night with this vixen, she shuddered to imagine what might have happened. Blinking her bright eyes, Bai Muxi suddenly leaned close to Su Jinxuan's ear and whispered a few words. Su Jinxuan's face flushed slightly, an alluring charm radiating from her as she whispered back: "That's hardly appropriate... What if... what if the young master and Ran Qingmo are doing... doing that..." "The young master won't take the initiative to bed Ran Qingmo and copulate." Bai Muxi gave the vixen a strange look. She possessed such a seductive constitution, yet her temperament was so innocent? She couldn't even bring herself to say ordinary words like bedding and copulation. The peach-blossom flush on Su Jinxuan's cheeks spread all the way to the tips of her ears as she whispered: "How can you be so sure?" "Duty." Bai Muxi lifted her fair chin, remarking in an unhurried manner, "Before resolving the matter of the Sword Sect, the young master will not take the initiative to bed that block of ice." Su Jinxuan fluttered her alluring, watery eyes. She felt somewhat tempted. An incense stick's time later, two furtive, graceful silhouettes crept stealthily one after the other toward the door of the room deepest within the traveling palace. Bai Muxi signaled the other with her eyes. Su Jinxuan instinctively tried to push Bai Muxi forward instead, but Bai Muxi gave her a shove first. Pursing her lips, Su Jinxuan had no choice but to step forward slowly. Quietly circulating her cultivation technique, she pressed her ear against the door in front of her, intending to listen for any commotion inside. Then— Creak— The door suddenly opened. Xu Yuan's slightly odd voice drifted out from inside the room: "What are you two loitering at my door for?"