“Where are you going?” Yan Xuehen asked, quickly opening the door. Even though they had already been apart for some time, she still felt her cheeks heat up.
What in the world am I thinking?!
When he saw Yan Xuehen’s embarrassed behavior, Zu An felt a bit of appreciation. The feeling of making a frozen goddess fall down into the world of mortals really was enchanting. He said, “I’m making a trip to the Ocean races' territory to see if there's any information on the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine there...” He then explained what the immortal medicine was.
Yan Xuehen clicked her tongue in wonder, asking, “There's actually a medicine that miraculous in this world? Then wouldn’t that mean there's a chance to save Chuyan?”
Zu An’s face darkened as he said, “Chuyan’s situation is a bit special. I might need to find something called a Nature Jade Plate in order to help her.”
“Nature Jade Plate?” Yan Xuehen repeated, stunned. She'd thought that she was someone with a lot of knowledge and experience, but whether it was the immortal medicine or the Nature Jade Plate, they were both things she had never heard of before.
Zu An was worried that he would end up attracting the attention of some mysterious beings, so he didn’t dare to talk about it in too much detail. He roughly explained that the Nature Jade Plate was an incredible treasure that would allow one to travel through spacetime.
Yan Xuehen’s expression became serious. She said, “I won’t tell anyone else about this, and you need to be more careful as well. If news about this kind of treasure leaked out, it would easily cause a murderous calamity throughout the world. It could even be a threat to you.”
Zu An held her hands, saying, “You’re different from other people. What do I need to hide from you?”
At first, Yan Xuehen reflexively wanted to pull her hands back, but when she heard his gentle words, she immediately felt warm inside. She was full of gratitude and couldn't bear to pull back. Instead, she said, “Then you need to be careful. The Ocean races' territory has always been a mysterious place, and there are legends of many powerful creatures coming from that place. My injuries still need some time to heal, but once I fully recover, I'll wander the world to help you in the search for the Nature Jade Plate.”
When she found out that Zu An was going to save Qiu Honglei first, she didn’t have a strong negative reaction. After all, Chuyan’s condition was too unique, and the Nature Jade Plate seemed nearly impossible to find. It was something that would completely depend onluck. Zu An could very well just happen to find out more information about the Nature Jade Plate from the Ocean races.
Zu An nodded and said, “I’m leaving.”
When she saw the reluctance in his expression, Yan Xuehen felt really bad. The two had just reunited after so long and hadn’t even spent a whole day together before they had to separate again. Filled with all kinds of emotions, she took the initiative to jump into his arms and hug him tightly.
Zu An was a bit surprised. Yan Xuehen had always had a cold personality. Aside from when they were in bed, where she would passionately hold onto his waist, she rarely initiated anything.
The two hugged each other tightly. All words seemed lackluster in comparison to the emotions they were feeling. The two of them enjoyed this final bit of shared time before the unavoidable, overwhelming sadness of parting.
In the end, Zu An still left. As she watched his figure disappear into the night sky, Yan Xuehen’s eyes unwittingly became a bit wet. She touched the tears on her cheeks and was a bit absent-minded. She was now feeling such strong emotions, but why didn’t she experience cultivation deviation again?
...
Zu An flew into the night sky. His natural flight speed was now a bit faster than when he used the Wind Fire Wheels. But as he flew east toward the great sea, he still rode on the Wind Fire Wheels for the sake of preserving his stamina. This world was far larger than his previous one, and the ocean was also larger. There were many areas that the human race still hadn’t explored. Meanwhile, the eastern ocean was where the Ocean races were located.
Along the way, he took out the Recording Mirror and tried to call Shang Liuyu. She was the mermaid princess, someone with great status in the Ocean races. With her serving as an intermediary, many things would become much easier to deal with. Unfortunately, the screen’s ripples scattered and didn’t show her face. It only continued to swirl in circles.
Zu An was now good at artifact refinement and immediately realized that it wasn’t because he couldn't contact her, but rather because the signal between the recording mirrors had a problem.
It seemed that, due to the continuous invasion of the alien monsters, as well as the attempts to destroy this world’s natural barrier, and then the summoning of that powerful being from Dance Offering to the Universe, it had ended up affecting some of this world’s natural laws. That was why some issues occurred between the recording mirror transmissions. It was like his previous world’s solar windstorms, earthquakes, and tsunamis that affected the earth’s magnetic fields, which could also affect communication across the world. Similar things probably happened in this world. The question was how long it would take before things completely recovered. It could take a week to a month at minimum, or even dozens of years in the worst case.
Zu An helplessly put the recording mirror away, then took out the communication jade strip he made himself. Sure enough, it didn’t work either. However, after thinking for a bit, he still selected Yun Jianyue’s portrait. Once he did so, he saw a large mass of information arrive.
It turned out that because so many things had happened, he hdan’t even gotten a chance to check his messages. Of course, that was also related to the jade strip being a bit unreliable. Many messages didn’t arrive promptly, so their arrival time was always unpredictable.
“Ah Zu, I’ve already used every method the Holy Sect has to gather intelligence, but I still didn’t find any trace of Qiu Honglei.”
“Do you think that she might have been unable to get over what happened and already... It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have done that with you behind her back!”
Zu An could sense her sorrow and grief even through the jade strip. The following message was clearly sent a few days later.
“No, Honglei was someone I personally raised; I know what kind of personality she has. There's no way she would do something so weak-willed.”
“Haha, I just received an update from the northwest! It seems someone saw an individual resembling Honglei pass by their territory. I was just about to say! There's no way Honglei would be so weak.”
“Hmph, I was wrong in my word choice last time. It wasn’t just my fault last time; you have even more responsibility! It’s all your fault for seducing me!”
“Tell me honestly, are you actually a male fox spirit from the Fiend races?”
“I’m not at the Lake of Hatred anymore. I went to... Forget it, I won’t tell you. We might just end up meeting each other.”
“Playboy, I sent you so many messages but you never responded to me! Are you fooling around with some other woman right now?!”
Zu An couldn't help but smile when he read these messages. Yun Jianyue was definitely really happy after receiving news about Honglei. Even her tone had become much more relaxed. But shortly after, his expression darkened. He wondered just how broken-hearted Yun Jianyue would become once she found out what kind of condition Qiu Honglei was currently in.
After some hesitation, he recorded some messages into the jade strip, telling her that he had already met Honglei, so she didn’t need to look for her anymore. As for the exact details, he would tell her in person. He was worried that Yun Jianyue would do something stupid if she found out the truth, so he decided to wait to tell her in person. Still, he wondered if these messages would even reach her.
Once he exited Yun Jianyue’s chatbox, he suddenly discovered that his other sweethearts had also left a large number of notifications. There were many more unread messages.
Bi Linglong had sent him a lot of messages. At first, she had only shared some official matters and various news from the capital. Zu An could imagine how serious and careful she was when she wrote all of that. It seemed she had been worried that someone else would see what she wrote and find out their relationship, so everything was written in an overly cautious way. But by the time he read up to the middle of the messages, he could tell that she was starting to loosen up.
“Did you see my messages or not? Why haven’t you replied to me all this time?”
Looking at the date the messages were received, she hadn’t sent any more messages for many days. She was clearly angry. The next message came only five days later.
“Sorry, I was wrong for blaming you. I visited Mount Yuquan and heard Shen Xuzi say that the messages from the jade strips aren’t reliable. You might not have seen the messages yet.”
Zu An couldn't help but smile.
She really is a little witch. She was worried that I tricked her, and she even went all the way to the academy’s rear mountain to seek confirmation.
But after that brief episode of hers, her tone was no longer as estranged as before. Instead, she began to show more of her true emotions.
“The peach blossoms in the palace have all blossomed; when are you coming back? We should go and admire them together.”
“This stupid jade strip! Why have I still not received your messages?”
“It’s so boring being in the palace all alone... Not only do I have to fight all day against that old granny empress dowager, the people back home aren’t helping either. They seem to have secretly... Forget it. I’ll tell you about it when you’re back.”
“You probably reunited with Madam Yu in the Fiend races' territory, right? Did you forget about home while enjoying her tender hospitality? Hmph, but I guess big sister Yu is pretty. If I were a man, perhaps i would just fall in love with her too.”
“I heard that the Second Empress was really beautiful. How pretty is she compared to me?”
“Hmph, the Second Empress is known for being flirtatious. You'd better not fall for her beauty traps.”
“I’m feeling really uneasy after not receiving any messages from you, you know? A few days ago, I even spent a lot of ki stones to activate the recording mirror, but I still couldn't contact you. I don’t even know if you're in danger. You have to take care of yourself. Forget 'everything under the heavens' or 'the changes of time', none of it is as important to me as you.”
“Your cultivation is so high and you’re such a naughty person, I’m sure you’ll be able to return safely.”