Su Muchan's expression remained completely unchanged, calm and composed. Clearly, she was capable of breaking this restriction at any moment.
Seeing this, Jing Mingxuan's sense of security skyrocketed.
He looked at the heroine with absolute indifference, as if the person before him was not a beauty of equal stature to Su Muchan.
The heroine grew even more curious inside.
Why was this little fellow entirely unmoved by her charms?
"Speak! Who is that fellow and what is his background? Of course, you can also choose not to speak; my Master can deduce it all the same." Jing Mingxuan looked at the heroine sideways, the corners of his lips curving upward in immense self-satisfaction.
The heroine's mouth twitched slightly. She suddenly felt that she was no longer curious about Jing Mingxuan at all!
"The other party is the Master of the Abyss Forbidden Zone. When I sensed that he had died, I went straight to the Abyss Forbidden Zone and acquired some cultivation resources."
Jing Mingxuan smiled faintly. "Empress, I advise you to tell the truth. After all, I still plan to have my Master make a deduction. If things don't match up too well with your confession, I won't be able to placate my furious Master."
"Are you threatening this Empress?" The heroine glared fiercely, looking as though she wanted to swallow Jing Mingxuan whole.
Had the Female Devil Emperor not been present here, she surely would have unleashed boundless imperial might to frighten Jing Mingxuan to death on the spot.
Yet Jing Mingxuan's handsome face showed not a trace of fear. "I am merely stating facts. If you feel this is a threat, it only proves you have a guilty conscience and dare not speak the truth."
No matter how naive Su Muchan might be, she realized by now that the Empress was in the wrong.
Her gaze turned fierce and stern as she stared at the heroine, while her small jade hand gripped Jing Mingxuan's large hand.
"I am ready. You had better tell the truth, or I will not spare you, nor will I let you lay a hand on my disciple."
"Master is mighty!" Jing Mingxuan shouted with considerable excitement.
He truly had not expected Su Muchan to pull off this display of deterrence.
His original plan had been to engage in a war of words with the heroine all by himself.
It wasn't that he didn't want his Master's help, but his Master was so pure and simple-minded that even if given a hint, she might not know how to handle it.
In fact, she was quite likely to disrupt his offensive rhythm.
The heroine's face turned ashen.
Earlier, she had been able to take out Su Muchan's strategist because Su Muchan simply hadn't cared to protect him.
Now it was different. Su Muchan not only wanted to protect Jing Mingxuan, but she was also paying close attention at every moment.
Therefore, even if she succeeded in a forced assassination of Jing Mingxuan, she would most likely have to pay with her life.
She was the reigning Empress of the present day; trading lives one-on-one with a Transcendent Realm cultivator was completely not worth it!
Left with no alternative, the heroine had no choice but to tell the whole story.
"Empress, I trust that you haven't lied this time." As Jing Mingxuan's words fell, the rock hanging in the heroine's heart finally dropped.
Just as she thought the matter had come to a close, she heard Jing Mingxuan's somewhat provoking voice by her ear: "If my Master hadn't instantly killed the Lord of the Abyss, you wouldn't have been able to successfully rob the Abyss Forbidden Zone so easily. So I want thirty percent of the cultivation resources you looted—that's not too much to ask, is it?"
Seeing Jing Mingxuan's wretched little smile, the heroine gnashed her teeth in intense fury.
The cultivation resources she had managed to loot with such difficulty were now going to have thirty percent carved away by the other party just like that. Was this reasonable?
This was completely unreasonable!
"Empress! You can also choose to refuse, but as for the consequences, I imagine you wouldn't be able to bear them." Jing Mingxuan maintained a faint smile, his gaze seeming to pierce through everything.
The heroine furrowed her delicate brows, her eyes fixed straight ahead.
At last, she slowly parted her rosy lips. "Fine! I'll give you thirty percent."
Since they were looted anyway, it was essentially free gain, so she suffered virtually no actual loss.
With decisive swiftness, she then handed thirty percent of the cultivation resources plundered from the Abyss Forbidden Zone over to Su Muchan.
"Not bad! You're a smart person," Jing Mingxuan praised with a beaming smile.
The heroine's face twitched. What was that supposed to mean?
Did that mean in this fellow's eyes, she had been a fool all along?
Detestable fellow! No one had ever made her suffer such a huge loss before; she would definitely make Jing Mingxuan pay a heavy price.
Suddenly, she thought of You Feng.
Through her divine power, she retrieved You Feng's specific situation from the depths of her memory.
First Layer of Qi Ocean Realm cultivation, Supreme potential.
A scheme took shape in her mind, and the heroine chuckled inwardly to herself.
Heh heh!
Jing Mingxuan, this old lady will definitely make you take a fall this time.
"Regarding You Feng, he is my disciple after all, so it is impossible for me not to shield him. How about we each take a step back?"
Jing Mingxuan did not nod, but the heroine's remarks did not catch him off guard.
In front of outsiders, the original heroine was quite protective of her own.
"What kind of step back?"
She took the bait!
The heroine rejoiced inwardly while maintaining a frost-covered expression on the outside. "Seven days from now, I will take my disciples and leave. Therefore, at the fourth quarter of the Hour of Wei seven days from now, you and You Feng shall have a duel."
"If you win, you may dispose of You Feng as you please. Conversely, if you lose, your grievances with You Feng are settled once and for all, and he will not be allowed to kill you. How about it?"
Jing Mingxuan gently shook his head. "Empress! My prize for winning is simply killing You Feng? Isn't that a right I should already have?"
"Then what do you want?" The heroine put on a look of feigned annoyance.
Jing Mingxuan said coldly, "Aside from that, another twenty percent of the cultivation resources you looted from the Abyss Forbidden Zone."
The heroine remained silent, her eyes filled with rage.
In the end, she could only bite her silvery teeth and let out a gloomy utterance: "Fine!"
The next instant, the restriction vanished, and the heroine disappeared as well.
Jing Mingxuan flashed a triumphant smile and said, "Master, place a restriction around this place to prevent anyone from eavesdropping or peeping."
Su Muchan nodded obediently. With a single thought, the courtyard was blanketed in a restriction.
"Master, You Feng possesses First Layer of Qi Ocean Realm cultivation, and it's certain that his cultivation foundation is built even more solidly than mine. Do you know of any method to rapidly increase one's cultivation or strength?" Jing Mingxuan asked with a beaming smile.
From his perspective, since Su Muchan was so powerful, she surely possessed shortcuts she could share.
Yet Su Muchan gently shook her head and replied quite simply, "No!"
She even countered with a question of her own: "Isn't the path of cultivation supposed to be walked by oneself?"
"......"
At that moment, Jing Mingxuan finally understood why Su Muchan was so powerful in the original book.
It turned out she didn't rely on external forces at all, depending entirely on her own true strength.
A genius!
A true cultivation genius.
If SuMuchan had mastered shortcut techniques, wouldn't she have beaten the Female Devil Emperor to a pulp and swept across the entire cultivation world?
Jing Mingxuan didn't let his imagination run wild any further, because he desperately needed a shortcut method right now.
Otherwise, let alone eliminating You Feng—who had instigated Jing Song—whether he could escape the duel seven days from now with his skin intact was a major question.
After pondering for a moment, an inspiration suddenly flashed through Jing Mingxuan's mind.
I've got it!
How could I have forgotten about that divine book, the most heaven-defying one in the original book?
Chapter 9: The Divine Book
The Divine Book!
The golden finger of the thirteenth male protagonist in the original book.
Why did he give it the evaluation of being the most heaven-defying?
First, the thirteenth male protagonist started out as a pure mortal without even the most garbage-tier Mortal Shedding Realm aptitude, yet by the novel's finale, he possessed a battle prowess second only to the Female Devil Emperor.
First Layer of Qi Ocean Realm... Wait, no.
Second, even by the novel's conclusion, the author never explained the specific origins of the Divine Book.
Third, the contents within this Divine Book covered everything, forging the thirteenth male protagonist into an all-around cultivation genius.
There were many more heaven-defying aspects, but they were all extensions of these three points.
If he really kept thinking about it, Jing Mingxuan felt he could go on for a day and a night.
Right now, however, the most important thing for him was not to waste time.
In the original book, the thirteenth male protagonist acquired the Divine Book beneath a dead tree in the Li family's courtyard in Tianyan City.
The time of acquisition was...
The second day after becoming the Empress's disciple.
From this perspective, he could completely go and intercept the opportunity right now.
No!
What interception? This was clearly acquiring a fortuitous encounter.
"Master, let's go!"
Jing Mingxuan's voice was full of spirit as he strode toward the courtyard exit.
Su Muchan walked quietly by Jing Mingxuan's side, possessing the beauty of tranquility.
The Divine Book!
Under normal circumstances, it should be acquired alone.
Yet thinking of how the heroine might be observing him at any moment, coupled with the possibility that she might immorally intercept the Divine Book, bringing his Master along for the ride was quite necessary.
Besides, he trusted his Master ten thousand percent.
Others might covet the Divine Book, but his pure, simple, and fiercely loyal Master definitely would not.
"Master! Can you make the Empress unable to observe our actions?"
Su Muchan stopped in her tracks, her willow brows slightly furrowed.
A moment later, her brows unfurled, and she broke into a pure, innocent smile like a child. "Done!"
"Master, you're amazing!" Jing Mingxuan lavished praise without holding back.
A flush of crimson spread across Su Muchan's small face, and her smile grew even brighter.
At that moment, the heroine found that she could no longer sense the presence of Jing Mingxuan and Su Muchan at all.
She immediately glanced toward Jing Mingxuan's courtyard, only to find that neither of their figures was there, and a sudden wave of panic washed over her!
It must have been that Jing Mingxuan's idea.
Although she didn't know what would happen next, it certainly wasn't anything good for her.
The heroine hesitated no longer, mobilizing the vast divine power within her body to try and crack the Female Devil Emperor's concealment technique.
The length of a cup of tea later.
Jing Mingxuan and Su Muchan arrived beneath the lifeless, dreary dead tree in the Li family's courtyard.
"Master, next, please carefully sense the area around this dead tree."
Su Muchan nodded slightly, closing those watery, beautiful eyes to begin a most meticulous sensing process.
Jing Mingxuan fell into deep thought.
After all, this was the thirteenth male protagonist's golden finger, so there were many uncertainties.
For instance, the Divine Book might not be right beneath the dead tree at this moment.
Or perhaps the Divine Book only reacted to the thirteenth male protagonist.
In any case, having his Master sense it first was definitely better than him digging holes aimlessly to search.
A moment later, Su Muchan abruptly opened her eyes, her bewitching red pupils seeming to radiate a crimson glow.
Jing Mingxuan saw determination within them, which meant his Master had definitely sensed something.
Let it be the Divine Book!
Su Muchan waved her arm, and the soil instantly seemed to turn to water. A dust-free book rapidly flew out, then floated swiftly before Jing Mingxuan.
"Disciple! Is this the book you were looking for?"
Jing Mingxuan did not reply immediately. He looked closely and found only two characters written upon it, which happened to be "Divine Book."
Thus, he nodded and said, "Yes!"
"This book truly gives me an extraordinary feeling. So how did you know it was hidden here?"
With that, Su Muchan looked at Jing Mingxuan with seven parts curiosity and three parts doubt in her eyes.
Jing Mingxuan smiled faintly. "A dream!"
"A dream?" Su Muchan murmured.
Jing Mingxuan nodded very solemnly. "Yes! Last night, I had a very, very long dream. I dreamed of the future, and among it was the scene of you taking me as your disciple today."
Su Muchan's expression startled slightly. After remaining silent for quite a while, she parted her rosy, cherry lips and asked with timid caution.
"Then in your dream, did I successfully take a disciple?"
Jing Mingxuan shook his head slightly. "No! Furthermore, I directly lost the competition of taking disciples with the Empress."
Su Muchan's gaze dimmed considerably. She had actually already guessed this outcome beforehand.
That was why... that was why she had agreed to Jing Mingxuan's request.
"Master! Do you mind that I became your disciple because of a dream?"
Su Muchan raised her head, looking at Jing Mingxuan's eyes filled with concern, and suddenly realized that this wasn't Jing Mingxuan's dream.
She had taken Jing Mingxuan as her disciple, and her disciple-taking competition with the Empress was only just beginning.
"I don't mind! It was just a dream, not real."
Su Muchan offered an awkward smile, stunningly captivating.
Jing Mingxuan could see the reluctance within it, so he continued, "Actually! Me becoming your disciple isn't just because of the revelation from that dream; I genuinely wanted to become your disciple."
In an instant, Su Muchan's autumn-water-clear pupils lit up!
Her previously reluctant smile turned into a heartfelt, radiant laugh.
Jing Mingxuan pretended not to notice and spoke on his own.
"Master! If you still mind very much, I will accompany you to act it out until the disciple-taking competition with the Empress ends. At that time, you and I will have no further ties."
A figure flashed across Jing Mingxuan's vision.
When he looked again, Su Muchan's proud figure—slightly shorter than his own—had already thrown itself into his arms.
"I don't mind. This time, I mean it from the bottom of my heart."
Inhaling the faint, orchid-like fragrance emanating from his Master, he slowly raised his arms and wrapped them around his Master's willow-slender waist.
The dead tree stood alongside them, a gentle breeze blew by, clothes fluttered and snapped in the wind, and a rustling sound echoed in their ears.
A handsome man and a gorgeous woman leaned against one another; this scene was exceedingly picturesque and heart-stirring.
After a long while, the two finally ended their embrace.
Jing Mingxuan and Su Muchan locked gazes, their eyes shining brightly, holding only each other.
"Master, please assist me in binding this book."
Su Muchan let out a soft "Mn."
A moment after, the Divine Book was successfully bound by Jing Mingxuan.
From then on, the fate of the thirteenth male protagonist in the original book was completely rewritten, and he would no longer achieve the glorious accomplishments found in the novel.
Inside Jing Mingxuan's courtyard.
Having returned, Jing Mingxuan couldn't wait to flip open the first page of the Divine Book.
"Divine Cultivation Method. Characteristics: fast cultivation speed, solid cultivation foundation, formidable cultivation strength. Summary... Invincible..."
"That really is concise to a fault!"
Jing Mingxuan's mouth twitched, not knowing what to say.
He immediately tried to flip to the second page, but it wouldn't budge at all. At the same time, a line of golden characters appeared on the first page.
"The second page can only be opened after the cultivation breaks through to the Qi Ocean Realm."
Jing Mingxuan felt a wave of speechlessness.
He then looked at Su Muchan beside him and asked casually, "Master, do you want to practice this Divine Cultivation Method?"
"Yes!"
Su Muchan was very curious just how strong the Divine Book—which had been so formidable in her disciple's dream—truly was in reality.
Having learned the cultivation formula from the Divine Book, the two began to sit cross-legged in meditation.
In the blink of an eye, centered around the two of them, the spiritual energy of the entire world began to rush in like a surging tide.
Even more frighteningly, the outside world remained completely oblivious, including the original heroine.
The spiritual energy repeatedly condensed around them, eventually transforming into a multicolored glowing gas that entered their bodies.
Upon inhaling it, Su Muchan was inwardly shocked.
This was the purest multicolored spiritual energy, and its effect was comparable to the Immortal Qi within the Immortal Domain.
She had read about it in books, but had never encountered it even once in reality.
The Divine Book in her disciple's dream was truly fiercely strong!
Fortunately, it hadn't been acquired by the person her disciple mentioned; otherwise, it would indeed be just as her disciple said, and he would sooner or later surpass her in the future.
Time flew by in a flash.
The sun sank in the west, colorful evening glow arrived, and the night grew increasingly intense.
Su Muchan abruptly opened her eyes, spotting Jing Mingxuan beside her, still tirelessly—or rather, greedily—cultivating.
"Disciple! If you keep cultivating like this, your body won't be able to take it."
Jing Mingxuan was startled into immediately halting his cultivation; he didn't want to drop dead before he even got strong.
Slowly exhaling a breath of murky air, he looked at Su Muchan with a puzzled expression. "Master! Can I only cultivate for two hours a day?"
"Yes, but to be precise, even I can only cultivate for two hours. Any more than that, and the bodies of cultivators in our Human Dao Realm simply cannot support it," Su Muchan explained in detail.
Human Dao Realm...
In the original book, this specifically referred to cultivators whose cultivation ranged from the Mortal Shedding Realm to the Great Emperor Realm.
At that moment, Jing Mingxuan couldn't help wondering how the thirteenth male protagonist hadn't dropped dead.
The bonus of protagonist halo?
Just as he was wondering, strings of characters emitting a golden glow popped up in his mind.
"The master's limit is two hours and a quarter-hour, and I will issue a reminder one minute in advance."
Jing Mingxuan's face stiffened.
This Divine Book was too damn good!
"Then what is my Master's limit?"
As soon as those words fell, four similarly golden-glowing characters appeared ahead.
"Two hours!"
Su Muchan's face stiffened.
So it turned out she could only cultivate for two hours!
She had thought everyone was the same.
Instantly seized by panic, she looked at Jing Mingxuan with worried eyes and asked, "Disciple, how much time do you get?"
"A quarter-hour more than Master. I just don't understand why it's like this; logically speaking, I'm much weaker than Master," Jing Mingxuan said, full of incomprehension.
The golden-glowing characters began to change.
"The master has bound me, so an extra hour of cultivation has been added."
In a flash, Jing Mingxuan and Su Muchan understood everything!
Jing Mingxuan then checked his own cultivation, and directly froze on the spot as a result.
"Third Layer of Transcendent Realm? A single session of cultivation raised my cultivation by an entire layer? This cultivation speed is ridiculously fast!"
"At this rate, won't my cultivation break through to the First Layer of Qi Ocean Realm seven days from now?"
"Tsk tsk! By then, it'll definitely scare You Feng and the Empress to death."
Beaming with joy, Jing Mingxuan looked at Su Muchan and said, "Master, how is your improvement?"
"Rich harvests! It's much faster than cultivating before!" Su Muchan's pretty face was plastered with smiles.
Eager to boost his cultivation even faster, Jing Mingxuan began his normal cultivation.
That night.
"Disciple, it's already deep in the night. It's time to rest!" Su Muchan voiced a reminder.
Jing Mingxuan instantly ended his cultivation. The normal cultivation session for these two hours after dinner was actually just psychological comfort; the actual effect it produced was negligible.
Looking at Su Muchan beside him, he remembered that he hadn't arranged a bedroom for her yet, so he said, "Master! Follow me, I'll take you to the room where you'll be resting today."
"No! I want to sleep with you." Su Muchan immediately objected, her pretty face filled with reluctance.
Chapter 10: The Female Devil Emperor's Terrible Sleeping Posture
"Ah?"
Jing Mingxuan was stunned at first, followed by a surge of secret joy: there was such a good thing?
In the end, he put on the upright demeanor of a sage.
"Master, you and I are master and disciple, and moreover of the opposite sex, so please give me a reasonable explanation."
Seeing Jing Mingxuan look so serious, Su Muchan realized the gravity of the situation as well.
Instantly, her watery, big eyes welled up with tears as she let out a sob.
"Disciple! Of course I can go rest in the room you arranged, but I'm afraid that when I wake up, you won't be here anymore, or that all of this was just a dream."
Jing Mingxuan's gaze grew slightly dazed, his heart overflowing with joy.