The Empress's No.1 Lackey

Mists shrouded the air, swirling with the essence of immortality.

Zhao Douan "opened" his eyes and found himself out of the Imperial Palace, appearing in the middle of a desert.

Beside him was no longer the fairy-like Emperor of Great Yu but her ancestor—the Great Yu Grand Ancestor wrapped in felt, draped in a dirty white robe, sitting cross-legged atop a sand dune.

On his burly frame was a rough, weather-beaten face; at this moment, the desert's morning light was faint, and the sky slowly brightened.

The Martial Artist dressed Great Yu Grand Ancestor opened his eyes and glanced at him,

"Keep up."

Zhao Douan let out a wail, got up, and grumbled,

"I get it, let's go. It's all about walking with you; who could ever outwalk you."

From being crowned by a beauty to being dragged by a rugged man for outdoor training took only an instant.

It was still the same desert.

These days, the Great Yu Grand Ancestor would occasionally pop up a few words, but still could not communicate.

However, Zhao Douan, bored with the journey, often murmured and complained, and today was no exception,

"Hey, Old Xu, do you know what I was just doing outside? You'll never guess."

He gave a hint with a mischievous wink,

"Your great-great-great-great granddaughter personally crowned me.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's strange, you know. Your granddaughter is so pretty, but looking at you, you're just average. Or is it that over six hundred years, the Royal Family's genes have improved so much?"

After probing for so long, coupled with hints from Eunuch Hai, Zhao Douan had confirmed:

Different Tributors visualize the Grand Ancestor with no interaction amongst them.

So, he became much bolder in his speech.

"Old Xu" ignored his incessant babbling and continued forward with a resolute face.

The desert morning was desolate and lonely.

The temperature rose from the cold to extreme heat.

However, Zhao Douan also discovered that after so long, they were gradually leaving the desert.

For instance, right now, the ground beneath his feet had changed from the "sea of sand" filled with yellow sands to a gravel desert, and he could see sparse vegetation.

The wild camel he was leading would occasionally stretch its neck stubbornly to nibble on the tough yellow grass, which seemed to drift on the gravel desert surface but whose roots dug deep into the sandy soil.

Yes!

Zhao Douan had stumbled upon a wild camel!

Probably during one of the nights setting up camp, he tried to light the dry branches he had gathered and attracted it.

With the camel, the two Martial Artists occasionally followed it to find an oasis in the desert to rest their feet.

Zhao Douan found that this world's desert was unlike his previous life; it could grow some bizarre plants.

For example, a kind of "bamboo" that grew in the desert. After removing the thorns and cutting it down, it could make bamboo tubes for holding water.

On the back of the camel, which he had named "Little Ye," in addition to carrying the two people's knapsacks, hung a series of bamboo tubes.

As the camel walked, the clinking of the bamboo tubes against each other sounded almost musical.

Zhao Douan, preoccupied with thoughts of the real world where the Emperor of Great Yu crowned him, seemed distracted in today's cultivation.

Without realizing it, night had fallen again in the desert.

Zhao Douan began setting up camp with practiced ease.

He took out the pancakes from his backpack that would reappear from nowhere after finishing them each time.

He made fire for cooking.

After dinner,

The sky above was again dazzling, spanned by the Milky Way from east to west.

But this time, the Grand Ancestor Emperor said,

"We are about to walk out of the desert."

Zhao Douan and the camel named "Little Ye," lying on the ground, looked up together, staring at him with dumbfounded faces.

Shocked by his ability to utter such a long sentence in one go.

"Old Xu, what did you say?" Zhao Douan was no longer sleepy.

The camel beside him snorted loudly.

The Grand Ancestor Emperor, sitting cross-legged on the gravel, looked up at the Milky Way and asked,

"What have you learned during this time?"

Zhao Douan contemplated,

"To be honest, I feel like I've learned nothing but how to suffer."

The Grand Ancestor Emperor ignored him and said,

"Good, it seems you have a decent comprehension. Yes, your spirit has been tempered. The way of the Martial Artist is often mistakenly thought to be in mere physical strength, in physique, in Martial Skill... but they are all wrong."

Not... are you actually conversing with me, or just talking to yourself... Zhao Douan couldn't quite grasp this point.

The Grand Ancestor Emperor said,

"The ultimate goal of a Martial Artist is not in the physique but in a strong spirit. The so-called Body Refinement is followed by Refining Spirit. 'The Book of Changes' purifies the marrow, transforms the mortal physique, and can bring your body to perfection. However, if you wish to reach the Martial Artists' pinnacle, the tempering of the spirit is of utmost importance."

Zhao Douan was stunned, not by the "spirit" speech but because...

Just today, he had mentioned Xu Zhenguan performing "The Book of Changes" marrow-cleansing on him.

And now, the Grand Ancestor Emperor was bringing up the same subject.

Coincidence?

Or could the other party really understand his words?

"So, Old Xu, you mean to say that dragging me through the desert these days was to temper my spirit?" Zhao Douan said.

"You mentioned we're about to leave the desert, does that mean the tempering of the spirit is complete? But I haven't felt any change."

The Grand Ancestor Emperor said, "Progress is made in inches, unbeknownst to the practitioner."

Zhao Douan realized,

"So you mean, Old Xu, that I've been improving a little bit every day, but because it's minor and gradual, I haven't been keenly aware of it, but in fact, my spirit has become much stronger than at the beginning?"

The Grand Ancestor Emperor still paid him no heed and suddenly stood up, saying,

"Watch carefully, I will demonstrate this only once."

At that moment, Old Xu stood under the starry sky, his presence seeming to merge with the heavens and the earth:

"This palm strike is called 'Inverted Milky Way.'"

As those words fell, Old Xu struck out with a palm from nowhere.

In an instant, the stars trembled, turning into a meteor shower, plummeting toward the earth.

The night receded like a rolling tide.

Zhao Douan gaped in astonishment, and the camel lying beside him opened its mouth wide, baring its large back molars.

Dawn broke.

On the gravel plains, sparse snowflakes suddenly began to fall.

Zhao Douan gazed into the distance and noticed that at the end of the Gobi Desert, where the earth met the sky on the horizon,

a snowfield appeared.

"Let's go," Old Xu hoisted his backpack, suddenly lifted his hand, and forcefully slapped the camel's rump.

Little Ye neighed once, turned its head reluctantly, and ran far away toward the desert behind the two men.

"The road ahead is not one it can travel."

Old Xu seemed to explain, as he stepped toward the snowfield:

"The path to becoming a Martial God is lonely and rugged, young man, don't you fall behind now."

Zhao Douan stared blankly at the westward-running Little Ye.

Turning his head, he looked toward the Great Yu Grand Ancestor, who was heading northeast.

His mind was full of the move "Starry Sky Inversion."

A palm strike sent forth, and even the night would retreat eighty thousand li.

For some reason, he suddenly felt that whether the Great Yu Grand Ancestor possessed "Divine Wisdom" was not important.

What was important was that there was a master accompanying him on this thousand-mile journey.

"Old Xu, wait for me!"

Zhao Douan shouted, chasing after him.

Suddenly, the scene before him blurred, then clarified.

He opened his eyes and realized he had returned to "reality."

...

Zhao Douan was still sitting in the Tangquan Palace, but unbeknownst to him, daylight had already arrived.

The entire pool was nearly devoid of medicinal power, and the surface was littered with filth expelled from his pores.

He turned his head back and saw that Xu Zhenguan was no longer behind him.

Only his scattered clothes lay nearby.

He had meditated the entire night, and after completing the empowerment, the Emperor of Great Yu had quietly left.

"One night has passed, huh..."

Zhao Douan, still dazed, tried to stand, feeling an unprecedented ease in all his muscles and bones.

His Qi flowed much smoother than before.

His realm had not improved, but his true combat strength had increased significantly.

He lifted his hand to clear away the grime, and in the clear spring water, he saw his transformed self.

"My looks have even climbed another level..."

Zhao Douan thought, and suddenly spread his right hand, pushing forward.

"Woo woo—"

A wind suddenly rose in the garden, rippling the surface of the thirty-six spring pools, and the plants rustled loudly.

"Starry Sky Inversion..."

Zhao Douan murmured, realizing he had mastered a new Martial Skill.

And it was a dual-natured skill that could attack both the physical body and the Divine Soul.

"Right..."

Zhao Douan's memory jolted, and he reached to his lower back, drawing out a silver needle.

At once, Little Zhao, which had languished the entire night, perked up more robustly than before.

"Hisss, this is quite an awesome transformation."

...

Briefly, when Zhao Douan dressed and left Tangquan Palace.

A group of Palace Attendants who had waited outside all night finally entered to clean the contaminated hot spring.

A gaggle of young Palace Attendants whispered among themselves:

"Ah, there are splashes of water everywhere on the shore."

"How did this pool get so dirty, so much blood, it's frightening."

"It must have been a fierce ordeal, didn't you hear? Last night Mr. Zhao shouted for a long time..."

"That's right, after Your Majesty left, he was still calling out 'Old Xu' in his dreams... What a strange name."

At the entrance of the courtyard.

Mo Zhaorong, dressed in the attire of a female official and wearing a wingless black cap, appeared out of nowhere, her face not looking good, scolding:

"What are you all muttering about? Clean the entire yard at once, will you?"

The Palace Attendants fell silent like chilled cicadas, not daring to make a sound.

Mo Chou turned to leave without expression, her brows furrowed deeply:

"Old Xu?"

She did not understand.

...

...

When Zhao Douan walked out of the Imperial Palace, the day was already bright.

No one was there to meet him outside the palace, so he had no choice but to stride toward his home.

He didn't rush to the government office, having missed two proper meals in a row, and was slightly panicked with hunger, wanting only to eat his fill at home and then sleep well—

Meditation could not replace sleep, at least not in the Mortal Realm.

Following the familiar route, Zhao Douan soon arrived at a street lined with shops and vendors.

Then, the scent of lamb soup and pancakes wafting through the air aroused his appetite.

"I might as well eat outside."

Zhao Douan stepped forward, entering the pancake shop, and called out:

"Bring me a large bowl of lamb soup and five pancakes."

As he spoke, he shuffled his seat and settled directly onto the bench under the shop's awning.

Then, he suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu.

It seemed... on a certain night some days ago, he was here too...

Suddenly, a hearty, elderly laugh sounded.

Zhao Douan turned his head woodenly and saw a tall, bearded, and long-browed elder sitting across from him.

Zhang Yan Yi was smiling and looking at him.

Zhao Douan stared at him as if he had seen a ghost:

"You... You..."

The Old Heavenly Master laughed, "Young friend, we meet again."

...

Thank you to Dr. Traitor for the support of ten thousand points!

There's a bit of a block, tomorrow's update might be a little late.