Chapter 851: 结发受长生

As Mieli’s voice faded, whimpering sounds suddenly emerged from the surroundings, as if something was crying out.

Zu'an's expression shifted slightly. He quickly went to the window to check, only to see dense, person-high weeds outside swaying continuously in the wind. Some loose wooden planks by the broken window rattled in the breeze.

"Ah Zu, I'm a bit cold," Bi Linglong said, her face pale, as she instinctively grabbed his hand.

Feeling her hand was exceptionally cold, Zu'an comforted her, "Don't worry, it's probably just the wind. Plus, this temple's structure is peculiar; there are various openings everywhere, and the wind blowing through them creates these wailing sounds."

Bi Linglong hummed in agreement, then leaned against him, saying no more.

Zu'an then turned to Mieli, "Empress Master, this doesn't seem right. Logically, King Qin should have built this, right? Given his self-important nature, how could he erect a statue for Xu Fu and include such inscriptions? Could it be that Xu Fu built this temple?"

Mieli's brows furrowed. "Ying Zheng certainly wouldn't build this kind of statue for others. As for Xu Fu... this is the ancestral land of successive Qin kings. How could he possibly have had the opportunity to build it?"

"That's true," Zu'an nodded. "But then the question arises: if it couldn't have been built by King Qin, nor by Xu Fu, then who built it?"

After these words, both fell into deep thought.

Just then, Bi Linglong suddenly gasped from beside them, crying, "No!"

Zu'an was startled. "What's wrong?"

He then realized she had fallen asleep in his arms, likely due to the excessive exhaustion of her primeval energy earlier, combined with the high level of mental tension she had been under recently.

Zu'an didn't wake her. To ensure her comfort, he held her, sat on a nearby stone stool, and gently patted her to soothe her.

He felt her body tremble occasionally, wondering what kind of nightmare she was having.

Just as he was about to continue his discussion with Mieli, Bi Linglong's voice rang out again, "It hurts~"

Her voice at this moment lacked her usual crispness and arrogance, replaced instead by a tone of softness and helplessness.

Zu'an called her name a few more times, but she showed no sign of waking. He gently placed his palm on her back, continuously channeling warm primeval energy into her body to nourish her and hoping this warmth would help dispel her nightmare.

Not long after, Bi Linglong suddenly spoke with a whimpering tone, "It hurts, gently, Ah Zu..."

Zu'an was speechless.

Mieli turned her head upon hearing this, saying with a faint, unreadable smile, "It seems in this woman's dream, you're doing something to her."

Before Zu'an could answer, Bi Linglong slowly opened her eyes. She first looked at Zu'an with a dazed expression, then her beautiful eyes seemed to brim with tears.

She incessantly twisted her body in Zu'an's arms, her delicate, fair hand gently caressing his face, then slowly moving downwards, tracing a path over his neck, his chest...

"Is this woman in heat?" Mieli snorted, then directly turned away, feigning deep concentration on examining the temple's oddities, as if she couldn't be bothered with their messy affairs.

Feeling the astonishingly supple body in his arms, Zu'an felt a sudden dryness in his mouth and throat. He quickly diverted his attention and asked, "You're awake?"

Bi Linglong hummed softly, her voice exceptionally soft and seductive, "You did that to me in my dream just now, and you still have the nerve to ask me?"

Zu'an was speechless.

What does what happened in a dream have to do with me?

Yet, it must be said, women are naturally enchanting. Someone like Bi Linglong, who is usually so prim and proper, proved to be utterly natural when she started to seduce.

Her moist, large eyes, warm and supple body, and incredibly soft and seductive voice all seemed to whisper a silent invitation.

Zu'an had just refined his body three times using the Primordial Chaos Scripture, and his internal yang energy had already reached its peak. With her seduction, his whole body immediately stiffened.

Feeling the suffocating pressure, Bi Linglong's face grew even redder. She softly said, "Ah Zu, I've thought it through. The Emperor wants to hunt us down. We might escape for a while, but we can't escape forever. Instead of constantly living in fear and hiding, let's make the most of every day and live happily."

Zu'an swallowed with difficulty. "What do you mean?"

Bi Linglong cast him a sidelong glance with her moist, beautiful eyes; her demeanor in that instant was captivating. "It's not like I don't know what you're thinking, you scoundrel. You deliberately used me to anger him before. Clearly, those words were your true feelings, weren't they?"

Being exposed so directly, Zu'an felt a bit embarrassed.

Bi Linglong's moist red lips drew closer. "Although we can't defeat him, we can get revenge, can't we?"

Meanwhile, in the desert on the other side, Zhao Ruizhi sneezed. He then looked up and couldn't help but ask, "He Li, is there a green light on the ceiling?"

It turned out their group had been fighting vengeful spirits and black scorpions in the desert while moving further inward, eventually falling inadvertently into a quicksand vortex.

With Zhao Ruizhi's cultivation, he naturally couldn't be trapped by mere quicksand. However, as the warriors from Prince Qi's mansion struggled, they inadvertently exposed some city walls within the quicksand. It was then that he realized an ancient city ruin was buried beneath.

This vast, endless desert finally offered something different. He had a premonition that what he needed was inside.

So he led everyone into this underground ancient city ruin.

However, they suffered significant losses right after entering the main gate. As soon as the scouts opened the city gate, a sea of fire suddenly appeared inside. Although Zhao Ruizhi quickly extinguished the flames, the two scouts had already been burned to cinders.

With this turn of events, everyone became extremely vigilant.

They then encountered various mechanisms and traps within the ruins, but these people were already well-trained experts, and with Zhao Ruizhi supporting them from the rear, they soon passed through safely, though with some fright.

Finally, the group arrived in this spacious hall. They did discover some things, but these were completely useless to Zhao Ruizhi.

Having found no clues related to immortality, Zhao Ruizhi was already irritable. Then, seeing the green cloud above his head, an unprovoked surge of anger rose within him.

Although He Li said he didn't see anything green, Zhao Ruizhi's thoughts remained unsettled.

So he directly raised his head and struck with a palm. The stone slab above, which he perceived as green, shattered, and then a large amount of quicksand poured down.

Everyone in the hall quickly dodged. Just then, someone suddenly shouted, "Look, there's a stone tablet!"

Zhao Ruizhi also noticed it. The huge stone tablet had fallen with the quicksand. He flickered and appeared next to the tablet, while the quicksand pouring down from above was blocked by an invisible surge of energy.

He glanced at He Li. "Go plug up that hole."

If left unattended, this grand hall could easily be filled with quicksand.

He Li's face was filled with frustration, thinking, *You made the hole, and I have to plug it. How unlucky am I?*

However, he dared not voice any complaint. He quickly flew to the ceiling, pressing his back against the hole, his limbs tightly adhered to the ceiling, using his body to block the quicksand.

Endless quicksand poured down, and the immense pressure was almost unbearable even for him, with his Ninth-grade peak cultivation. He could only pray that the Emperor would quickly finish so everyone could withdraw from here.

At this moment, Zhao Ruizhi was looking at the stone tablet before him. The tablet's material was unknown; it was entirely green, and many of the inscriptions on both sides were already blurred and illegible, with only a few sentences remaining.

The characters were extremely peculiar. However, Zhao Ruizhi was a scholar of profound knowledge and had seen similar characters in some ancient texts.

He slowly read aloud: "...Myriad, I ride the dark clouds, broadly opening the heavenly gate; the sun and moon return to the golden palace, the southern star revolves around the Jade Armillary; the canopy attains purple, elegant sounds enter Zheng; who can decipher it, and by doing so, achieve immortality..."

"Immortality!" Seeing those last two words, his breathing suddenly quickened.