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Should I trust that guy?

Ao Zhen looked around, half an hour ago, there was no sound from that guy. Perhaps he was observing in secret, or perhaps he truly didn’t want to pay attention to her and went outside to deal with something.

Should I make a move now?

In a life-and-death situation, just like the others, it was tough to make a choice.

Physical strength is limited... For a being of her level, recovery is actually the most troublesome, so once her strength is exhausted, she’ll be at the mercy of others.

This space is very strange; those liquids around her, she could clearly feel were transformed by ghostly beings.

Although they dared not touch her, they tightly surrounded her and absorbed every bit of vital energy from her breaths.

Once life reaches the transcendent level, every pore would absorb the spiritual energy around it for stamina.

But here, the atmosphere is filled with an aura from the Ghost Domain.

If absorbed, it not only fails to restore stamina but also corrodes one’s vitality.

The only way is to tightly close the pores to reduce consumption.

But this is not a long-term solution. She had already tried to break free three times, all of them successful, but that Serpent Mother would interfere as the main force at the crucial moment, and she didn’t dare to exert all her strength easily.

She had a feeling that once she used up all her strength, without any energy left, she would immediately become food for those liquids around her, turning into energy for this space...

The opponent was very likely just waiting for her to make a move, but if she didn’t, it would also be a slow march towards death.

Actually, just now, during her last conversation with the Serpent Mother, she originally wanted to take a risk based on her intuition, but at the critical moment, Chen Qing contacted her...

Chen Qing... could he find her?

She felt that if she didn’t make a move soon, in at most one more day, she would completely lose the chance to do so. Yet, if she did it now, the risk was extremely high.

Should she rely on making a move herself, or trust in that guy who was trying to recruit her?

If it were before, Ao Zhen would definitely trust in herself.

But now it was somewhat different.

In the West Sea, she had seen that man truly stop the Dragon King Array; in Jiangnan, she had witnessed a system that changed the world.

Such a person might be worth trusting once...

"........."

"Are you not planning to make a move?"

In the darkness, the Serpent Queen watched Ao Zhen, who had originally tensed her muscles, suddenly close her pores again and relax her breathing, which immediately made her frown.

As Ao Zhen predicted, she had indeed set a trap, just waiting for her to make the last struggle...

Such good material like Ao Zhen was rare, especially in this version.

Once she was refined into a Ghost General, there was a chance to create a force at the Ghost Dragon King level.

With ancient beings descending, other powers would soon begin to emerge.

Possessing a Dragon King level force in the early stages would give her a significant advantage in the struggle with other powers.

This woman... why has she suddenly stopped moving?

The Serpent Queen rubbed her fingers together, feeling puzzled for a moment.

Based on her understanding of Ao Zhen, this young woman was definitely not one to just sit and wait for death. This could be seen from the year she dared to defy the wishes of the Western Sea Dragon King and escape; she was definitely someone willing to risk her life.

She shouldn’t be this composed at this time because once tonight passed... her physical strength would fall to thirty percent, and then she truly wouldn’t have another opportunity.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour and seeing the other party still not making a move, not only that, but instead sitting on the ground and controlling her breathing, she even entered a meditative state.

For a moment, she was taken aback...

What was this person thinking?

Was she trying to lure me into taking the initiative?

Hehe...

If that was the case, it would be a bit too naive...

The Serpent Mother shook her head and directly left that dark space.

In a real life-and-death struggle, it was not certain who would win between herself and Ao Zhen.

After many rounds of calculating and reinforcing, her own body was nearly at the Dragon King level.

If she used all her methods, it wasn’t certain Ao Zhen could win.

But why should she? If she took the initiative, she would be entering her own trap, and she was ninety percent sure of capturing the opponent. Even if the opponent guessed her location, she could at least retreat fully intact, so why take the risk and venture out?

Once entangled by the opponent and unable to retreat to the position of the array, the loss would indeed outweigh the gain.

Although the likelihood that the opponent could kill her from that distance was small, it was still a possibility, right?

Why risk it? This body of hers was a key character in moving the plot of this version forward. Intelligence was hard to come by, and her physical form even more so. It could not be lost so easily...

After thinking it over, she directly exited the space and headed towards the posthouse of the Honglu Temple.

If the opponent wanted to make a move, she could instantly return with her speed to control the situation.

Since the opponent didn’t want to make a move, then while in this world, it was time to meet an old friend.

That poor fox might not even know... who her child’s father is, right?

Hehe... it really is an interesting plot...

------------------------------------------

"Is this the place?"

Wang Ye looked at the increasingly eerie location in front of him, momentarily puzzled because that spot was actually beneath the Empress’s bedchamber!

"Mmm... according to the map, it’s roughly here..." Chen Qing, holding the map, said, "Is this map reliable?"

Wang Ye was silent for a while before finally saying, "The map comes from a member of the Chen Family. In fact, the Chen Family was the magician family that invested the most in the Siao Family back in the day and had the closest relationship with the Empress Dowager. They even had a member of the Chen Family marry into the Siao Family, who was the first husband of the Empress Dowager. The Chen Family’s move to the Capital City was partly due to my master’s various persuasions over the years, but a big reason was also their close relationship with the Empress Dowager, which is why they focused their family investment in the Capital City. "

"In the twentieth year of Great Jin, the Chen Family became the number one Sorcerer Family, proving that the investment back then was not mistaken. On the surface, the Chen Family supports the Emperor, but in fact, the Chen Family... has always had its most trusted alliance with the former Empress Dowager. This map was drawn when the Chen Family participated in the construction of the capital’s magical arrays; it should be reliable! "

Upon hearing this, Chen Qing nodded. "Then there’s no problem.

The Imperial Palace is arranged as a Four Spirit Formation Map, and its central position is where the fortunes of the Capital City are most vibrant.

Strangely enough, this place is not where the Emperor resides in the Qianqing Palace, but where the Empress resides in the Kunning Palace.

There’s something very wrong about that.

You also know about Feng Shui; among the generations of Emperors, has there ever been one who has allocated the land of greatest fortune for building the Empress’s palace? "

Wang Ye was startled and looked at Chen Qing...

"Are you saying that from the beginning, the real ancestral tomb of the Siao Family was buried right beneath the Empress’s bedroom? The location you mentioned as the Ghost King Temple? From the very beginning... he has been planning this?"

"Yes!" Chen Qing nodded. "Looking at this arrangement, from the start, he was planning it this way."

"This..." Wang Ye didn’t know what to say for a moment.

Everyone knew that the Emperor respected the Empress, even if she was an ordinary person without royal blood, and still gave her the utmost respect and deepest love. This set an example for people from powerful families worldwide, a model for respecting commoner wives.

He witnessed it with his own eyes—the Emperor’s anguished howling when the Empress died...

He had always thought that it was after the death of the Empress that the Emperor decided to take an evil path, allying with the forces of the Path of Yin and Yang.

After all, everything... began with the death of the Empress.

"It all started... not three years ago?"

"What are you thinking?" Chen Qing said with a laugh. "Three years ago? To develop to the current state? Do you really think our ’Your Majesty’ started turning to darkness because of the death of the Empress?"

Wang Ye: "......"

"Now that I think about it, the death of the Empress was a bit too easy..." Chen Qing sighed.

When she first entered the Imperial Palace, Ali managed to kill the mistress of the six palaces under Mr. Origami’s cover and almost bewitched the King.

At that time, it seemed quite logical, but later, after learning some facts, she noticed something was amiss...

That Emperor had once encountered Ali and was not entirely uninformed. How could he be completely unguarded?

The ease with which the Empress was killed... in her opinion, might have been a laissez-faire approach.

Because according to this layout... from the start, the Empress was destined to be a sacrifice!

She was initially meant to be the vessel for the Serpent Mother!!

This fact... would not have changed whether Ali had invaded the Imperial Palace three years ago or not... it’s just that Ali’s arrival provided a logical rationale...

Upon this realization, Chen Qing suddenly felt an untimely wave of verbosity.

Humans... can sometimes be shockingly ruthless.

"Let’s get started, Old Wang..." Chen Qing patted Wang Ye on the shoulder, "We don’t have much time, and there’s only one chance!"