Chapter 145: They Are Holding Hands

Xuanyuan Tunhan put away the Fire-Consuming Stone and searched the imperial palace thoroughly, but found no trace of Ning Xianyuan's aura.

At that moment, he sensed a faint trace of the celestial dew she had used coming from somewhere very close, just outside the palace.

That dew was something she had acquired from the Jade Immortal Sect, brimming with spiritual energy. In the mortal realm, where such energy was murky and dense, it stood out remarkably.

Following the spiritual energy, Xuanyuan Tunhan tracked it down and ended up seeing a man.

A man who looked rather pretentious and seemed thoroughly adept at deceit.

In Ning Xianyuan's words, this was a handsome older uncle, exactly her type.

And the spiritual energy of the celestial dew was emanating precisely from this man.

With a brief probe, he could tell that the man had used the celestial dew not long ago.

Ning! Xian! Yuan!

Very well, marvelous!

Claiming she wanted to build a harem and keep men, she had actually gone and done it not long after saying so.

He had already made inquiries: this was a female-dominated nation where everyone was exceptionally attractive, especially the men, each and every one of them as pretty as a flower.

Thinking of Ning Xianyuan's shocking and unconventional remarks, this place was practically paradise to her.

No wonder she had appeared here.

It seemed he had misjudged the situation; this woman had not been captured—she was in cahoots with Xiahou Fang.

Earlier in the Lishu Space, the two of them had conversed quite happily and pleasantly.

As expected, birds of a feather flock together.

Xuanyuan Tunhan felt a surge of fire rise within his spiritual core, and in his rage, he flicked his sleeve violently.

The Grand Tutor was chatting with someone in the courtyard when he heard a tremendous crash. Turning around, he was startled out of his wits.

"The... the house collapsed?"

The Grand Tutor's side courtyard had been built with a pavilion, an excavated lake, piled rockeries, and planted with numerous rare flowers and grasses.

Yet now, nothing was left.

Forget about the flowers and grasses; even the lake had been flattened.

That area had turned into a completely level plain, as if it had been flat from the very beginning.

The Grand Tutor rubbed his eyes, thinking he must be seeing things.

"A-Zhong, did you all see that? Is the courtyard gone?"

The servants had seen it too, and they were terrified.

"Master, is there a... a ghost haunting our place?"

A monster was making trouble!

First the Emperor suddenly fell unconscious, and now the Grand Tutor's courtyard had abruptly vanished.

Wasn't this all too bizarre?

However, the Grand Tutor felt something was amiss. His backside had clearly been healed by an immortal, so why would monsters be wreaking havoc now?

Could it be that because evil spirits had appeared, the immortals had descended to subjugate them?

The Grand Tutor thought this possibility was quite high. Not knowing what the immortal was doing right now, he could only instruct everyone in the estate to be extra careful recently.

Meanwhile, Xuanyuan Tunhan the immortal had long since changed locations to search for Ning Xianyuan.

The area around the imperial palace was only so large, and with just a little attention, the anomalies surrounding Peace Lake were soon apparent.

Coming to the surface of the lake and taking a look, he instantly recognized the problem here.

"I never expected to find a fragment of the Heaven-Mending Stone here."

Xuanyuan Tunhan's brows chilled slightly, his gaze fixed intently on the lake below. He couldn't shake the feeling that coming here was no coincidence.

Had he not been searching for Ning Xianyuan, he probably would never have imagined, even after countless years, that one of the fragments of the Heaven-Mending Stone would lie within mortal territory.

Perhaps Ning Xianyuan was a far more crucial key than Yitian Ling.

At that moment, Ning Xianyuan had already dismissed everyone else, leaving only herself, Xiahou Fang, and the eldest miss in the room.

This person before her was currently her nominal daughter. In truth, the eldest miss looked older than Ning Xianyuan's actual age, giving her zero sense of immersion in the role of a mother.

"My dear daughter, look at me. You are actually the Empress of the Yulai Kingdom, aren't you?"

The eldest miss's gaze froze for a split second, but then she said with total apathy, "This daughter does not understand what Mother is talking about."

Ning Xianyuan said, "If I'm right, blink once. If I'm wrong, blink twice. How about that?"

The eldest miss stared at her in astonishment, her eyes unblinking.

Yet her expression seemed to flicker with hesitation and deep thought. After a moment, she suddenly blinked once.

Just once, with no second blink.

It seemed she agreed.

Ning Xianyuan thought to herself that whoever created this illusion could control their words and actions, but not with absolute specificity.

Furthermore, they could control mortals, but not cultivators.

That made things much easier; the opponent's cultivation was inferior to theirs, so there was nothing to fear.

Xiahou Fang had been watching all this from the side and suddenly asked, "Since coming here, have you ever seen the master of this place?"

The eldest miss pondered for a moment and blinked twice.

It appeared she had never seen them.

Ning Xianyuan asked again, "Have you ever gone outside?"

The eldest miss blinked twice.

She hadn't stepped outside since arriving.

Ning Xianyuan asked, "Can't you go out?"

The eldest miss blinked once.

It seemed she couldn't leave, rather than not wanting to leave.

Ning Xianyuan asked once more, "Are the people here all just like you?"

The eldest miss blinked, but this time she fluttered her eyelids several times.

Ning Xianyuan pondered, "You... don't know?"

This time the eldest miss blinked only once.

She had been here for too short a time and hadn't figured out many things yet.

So Ning Xianyuan said, "When we leave, we'll take you with us."

The eldest miss blinked frantically, tears even welling up in her eyes.

Suddenly recalling something, Ning Xianyuan asked, "Is the Grand Tutor your father?"

The eldest miss blinked in puzzlement—twice, the negative answer.

Ning Xianyuan asked again, "Then do you feel affection or aversion toward him?"

This time the eldest miss didn't blink at all, holding still for a long while without moving.

Perhaps she didn't know the answer to that.

Seeing her struggling so painfully, Ning Xianyuan hurriedly told her to stop thinking about it and dropped the question.

Anyway, she had only asked out of gossip; she didn't care what the actual answer was.

Ning Xianyuan told the eldest miss to go back and rest first, while she herself needed to figure out what was inside this place and how to leave.

She refused to believe someone would drag people in here for no reason and put on such a theatrical performance.

What was the point of this act? Just to toy with people for fun?

Xiahou Fang was equally baffled and decided to try walking out to take a look.

Not trusting himself to go alone, he insisted on dragging Ning Xianyuan along with him.

Moreover, he liked holding hands, grabbing her by the arm as they stepped out.

Ning Xianyuan sighed helplessly, "Senior, is holding hands really necessary?"

Xiahou Fang smiled and tucked her arm under his own, "We are an old married couple now; naturally we should hold hands."

Ning Xianyuan thought to herself that old married couples definitely didn't hold hands—only unmarried people did that.

Her parents never held hands; her dad always walked in front while her mom lagged behind.

The two of them walked outward like this, and before going very far, they genuinely crossed out of the courtyard.

However, right outside the courtyard lay a thick fog—a vast expanse of pure white where nothing could be seen clearly.

No matter how much they walked around, they ended up right back inside that large estate.

This was simply a maze of ghost-walls trapping them in circles.

Unreconciled, Xiahou Fang pulled her along to keep walking.

After repeating this process three times, a change finally occurred this time.

A man was walking toward them out of the fog.

He was a middle-aged man with a refined demeanor and an unfamiliar face.

Yet for some reason, the moment Ning Xianyuan saw him, a sense of familiarity washed over her.

It felt as though she had seen him somewhere before.

As for the man walking toward them, it was none other than Xuanyuan Tunhan, whose eyes instantly locked onto the sight of Ning Xianyuan holding hands with another man.

Holding hands!