Chapter 858: Seeking Marriage

"Excellent!" How could He Li miss such an opportunity to prove himself? He quickly scurried over, secretly recalling the incantation: "As I ride the dark clouds, the heavenly gate opens wide; the celestial sun returns to the Golden Palace, the Southern Star orbits the Jade Handle; the canopy turns purple, and elegant music enters Zheng..."

The stone pillars indeed had patterns resembling dark clouds, heavenly gates, celestial suns, and golden palaces. He quickly tried to align the corresponding patterns.

Unfortunately, as soon as he aligned two, trying to match other patterns would cause the previously aligned ones to rotate again, losing their match.

He kept experimenting, but each time he fixed one part, another would go awry, until cold sweat dripped down his face.

Zhao Ruizhi watched, then walked over and pushed him aside. "Useless! You can't even manage something so simple."

After saying this, he also began rotating the corresponding pillars and quickly aligned four. Evidently, he had been observing from the side and had deduced some patterns.

However, when he started aligning the subsequent patterns, he found that rotating those would cause the previously aligned pillars to spin out of order again.

His brows furrowed. He adjusted them several more times; when the latter ones aligned, the former ones would become misaligned, leaving him flustered.

He Li, standing nearby, suppressed a smile, thinking, "Look how you cursed me just now. I thought you were so great, but is this all you've got?"

Of course, he dared not voice these thoughts.

Zhao Ruizhi's face also showed some embarrassment. He turned to look at Zu An. "As you just said, you can solve this mechanism?"

"Naturally," Zu An replied proudly.

Zhao Ruizhi snorted. "In that case, you do it. If you can't solve this mechanism, you'll immediately understand what regret feels like."

Zu An shook his head. "If I help you solve the mechanism, won't you just turn around and kill me? I'm not that foolish."

Zhao Ruizhi said in a deep voice, "Don't worry. With so many witnesses, as long as you can solve the mechanism, I promise not to kill you."

"Haha, your words are as good as farts. You just turned hostile and disowned everyone," Zu An sneered repeatedly.

Hearing him say this, a flash of anger crossed Zhao Ruizhi's eyes. It had been a long time since anyone dared to speak to him like that.

Rage points from Zhao Hao +444!

But for the sake of the bigger picture, he suppressed his anger. "If you don't believe me, I can even swear an Oath of the Heavenly Dao."

Zu An shook his head. "The elemental energies in this secret realm are extremely chaotic; an Oath of the Heavenly Dao won't work here at all."

Zhao Ruizhi was startled. Only someone at his cultivation level could detect the anomalies in this world. How did this guy figure it out?

"Neither this nor that works. What exactly do you want?" He was also becoming impatient.

Zu An said, "We don't talk about oaths; we talk about benefits. Throughout this secret realm, there have been various mechanisms, and you've relied on me to solve almost every one. We've only just cleared the first floating island. There are two more floating islands, and that magnificent palace undoubtedly contains all sorts of complex mechanisms. If you harm me now, causing a certain mechanism to be unsolvable later, and you are just one step away from immortality but cannot reach it, wouldn't that be the greatest regret of your life?"

He naturally wouldn't trust the other party like that, but it was necessary to stabilize them for now. He also wanted to go to the uppermost palace, find Qin Shi Huang's secret treasures, and obtain the second half of the *Primordial Chaos Scripture*. With Mi Li's help at that time, it would be like fighting on home turf, using the palace's various arrangements, and he would have a fighting chance against the Emperor.

Zhao Ruizhi smiled. "You truly are a glib talker, young man. Alright, you've successfully persuaded me. As long as you can help me achieve immortality, I won't lay a hand on you."

"I said it's an exchange of benefits. I help you achieve immortality, so what will you give me?" Zu An said.

Zhao Ruizhi's expression darkened. "Didn't I promise to let you live? Are you still trying to push your luck?"

"My life is surely too insignificant compared to immortality," Zu An looked like someone with nothing to lose. "I won't do a losing business like this. At worst, we'll both suffer heavy losses."

Even He Li was somewhat impressed now. "This guy is truly a fierce warrior, repeatedly testing the limits of death!"

He also wanted to negotiate with the Emperor, but his resolve always wavered whenever he saw the Emperor's gaze.

Bi Linglong bit her lip tightly. Although rationality told her that given the Emperor's obsession with immortality, he would likely agree to Zu An's terms, she couldn't help but worry for him, and she was very curious about what conditions Zu An would propose at this moment.

"Fine, I'll be lenient. What do you want?" Zhao Ruizhi pondered, deciding to first stabilize this guy, let him help him achieve immortality, and then slowly settle the score later.

Zu An pointed to the side. "I want her!"

Zhao Ruizhi immediately flew into a rage. "You're courting death!"

A biting aura instantly erupted, but Zu An remained standing ramrod straight, looking at him fearlessly.

He Li, standing by, was utterly prostrate with admiration. "This guy is truly amazing; I even want to kneel before him. Before, he and the Crown Princess had done quite a few things to anger the Emperor, but that was across two floating islands, and the Emperor couldn't cross them quickly. But now, he's doing it right in front of him, directly asking for the Crown Princess?"

He was very curious how the Emperor would react.

Bi Linglong was originally very worried about Zu An's safety, but then he suddenly pulled such a stunt, and her pretty face instantly became flushed with embarrassment.

"This guy is truly..."

She wasn't sure what her mindset was at that moment. She didn't understand why he would make such a request.

Wasn't this touching the Emperor's inverse scale?

But rationality was one thing, and emotion was another; and women were often emotional.

With him taking such a huge risk to "propose," her heart pounded. "Does he truly care about me that much in his heart?"

As for Zu An's safety, she was less concerned, because having grown up in the imperial family, she understood the Emperor's nature.

As long as he could achieve immortality, what was a mere woman? Moreover, it was just a verbal promise; a skilled politician was always ready to go back on their word.

As for the imperial family being shamed as a result, that wasn't a big problem. Afterward, he would simply silence everyone present, and then no one would know that he had agreed to such humiliating terms.

Zu An said calmly, "You want immortality, and I will help you achieve it. After achieving immortality, you will have countless women; why be fixated on just one? If you can't bear to part with her, then kill us now and go pursue that elusive immortality on your own."

Zhao Ruizhi's expression shifted between dark and light, and he finally said coldly, "Fine, on the condition that you can truly help me."

He had already made up his mind: once this guy helped him enter the palace, he would immediately pulverize him into dust, venting his hatred. He couldn't even wait to slowly torture him.

He Li and the others from Prince Qi's mansion were expecting the Emperor to tear Zu An limb from limb, but they never expected this answer.

"The imperial family's integrity is really low! They'd even give up their wife if asked?"

"Wait, is she his wife or his daughter-in-law?"

"The Emperor truly has a grand spirit!" Zu An laughed heartily, then turned and took Bi Linglong's small hand. "From now on, you're mine."

Bi Linglong felt a bit dizzy. This scene before her was too unreal to be true, yet it was undeniably happening.

She opened her mouth, her face flushed, but for a moment, she didn't know what to say.

Respond with joy on her face? A maiden's modesty prevented her from doing so in front of so many people.

But if she said anything else, it would easily hurt his feelings.

So, she simply said nothing.

Zhao Ruizhi's eyelids twitched. "Solve this mechanism first! Otherwise, I'll kill you both immediately."

Rage points from Zhao Hao +766+766+766...

Zu An chuckled. "Don't worry, it'll be effortless."

After speaking, he ran over and rotated each pillar, noting which other pillars would rotate along with it, and precisely how many turns each would make.

After testing each pillar, he wrote many columns of numbers on the ground.

Zhao Ruizhi immediately grew impatient. "What exactly are you doing?"

Zu An retorted directly, "What do you know? This is called linear algebra, the crystallization of human wisdom from another world."