In her words, she unconsciously leaned forward slightly, as if trying to close the physical distance between her and Lu Yan, with a subtle hint of female friendliness in her posture.

However, Lu Yan merely looked at her calmly, with not a hint of fluctuation in his gaze.

He could clearly sense the change in Elizabeth's mindset and understand why she was acting this way.

Elizabeth's ambition had already been ignited, and before achieving her goal, she would stop at nothing to ascend the throne.

Right now, her greatest reliance was Lu Yan; she needed to advance further, to forge a deeper connection with Lu Yan to solidify her future position.

Unfortunately, Lu Yan did not reciprocate this closeness.

He leaned back slightly, creating distance that had been invisibly shortened, and spoke with a flat tone:

"Having taken over union affairs, you should make your own decisions.

Show your skills and achievements, which are more meaningful than any words. If there's nothing else of importance, you may withdraw."

The Kingdom's princess indeed was stunningly beautiful, but until she demonstrated her proper value, Lu Yan did not wish to give her unnecessary expectations.

Elizabeth's smile momentarily stiffened, a hint of imperceptible astonishment flashed in her eyes, but she quickly adjusted, returning to her previous respectful and capable stance, bowing once more:

"Yes, Your Grace!"

Having spoken, she did not say more, turning to leave the office.

Lu Yan did not linger in the office after watching Elizabeth depart.

He stood up, his figure blending into the shadows, silently departing from the union building, a symbol of emerging power.

He did not take a carriage; instead, like a ghost, he wandered through the streets of Oranck City, interwoven with magnificence and ruin.

His destination was the slums at the city's outskirts, enveloped in coal smoke, poverty, and despair.

The air here reeked of the acrid smell of incompletely burned low-quality coal, mingled with damp mold and the sour stench of rotting garbage.

The narrow, muddy alleys were lined with cramped, dilapidated houses, as if they could collapse at any moment.

Eventually, Lu Yan stopped in front of a simple, wooden shack that appeared more dilapidated than any surrounding house.

He did not knock; he just stood there quietly, an invisible intent already piercing through the thin wooden walls.

With a creak, the wooden door opened from the inside.

The room was so narrowly suffocating, almost devoid of decent furniture, the only sizable item being a shabby bedboard.

At present, three figures were curled up on the bed, closely snuggled together, immersed in sleep.

In the center was a haggard, sallow mid-aged woman, her hair dry and disheveled, her face etched with deep wrinkles left by life's passage.

Her arms tightly embraced two small children, one about five or six, the other even smaller, closely snuggling in their mother's lap.

Even in sleep, this mother's brow was tightly furrowed, seemingly ensnared by endless worries and confusion, her body unconsciously tense, filled with unease.

At the moment Lu Yan's intent arrived, it was as if invisible, fine bits of stardust quietly sprinkled through the air.

A soft, warm white light, like the silvery glow of the moon, gently enveloped the sleeping mother and children.

A wondrous event occurred; the mid-aged woman's tightly knotted brows began to ease very slowly in the bathing light, the corners of her lips even lifted slightly, as if slipping into a long-lost peaceful dream.

Her tense body followed suit, relaxing, her breathing became smooth and deep, finally sinking entirely into a worry-free sleep.

Beside the shabby bed, a phantom silhouette floated quietly in the air.

At this moment, Anna was unrecognizable from the little girl who had just stepped into the extraordinary when she first met Lu Yan.

Her entire soul body radiated a lustrous, pearl-like gentle white glow, illuminating the cramped, dark shack so it no longer seemed so despairing.

Her soul body, compared to when she first ascended to the ninth sequence of wandering souls, had solidified multiple times over.

The outline was clear, the features more definite, although still bearing the ethereal feel of something beyond human, no longer a silhouette dispersed by the wind.

Her gaze, especially, held a faint, elusive glimmer flowing in its depth, enveloping her in a mysterious aura that clashed with the surrounding impoverished environment, both distant and imbued with a peculiar sanctity.

Through trial and practice in recent times, Anna had become increasingly adept in employing the core ability of wandering souls, entering dreams.

She no longer merely slipped into dreams creating mere blurred scenes or simple nightmares, but could skillfully weave dreams filled with warmth and hope like a masterful Dream Weaver, precisely instilling them deep within the consciousness of targeted individuals to soothe their weary and injured souls.

At this moment, she was carefully maintaining the beautiful dream infused into the mid-aged woman's mind, ensuring the brief peace wouldn't be disturbed.

Having completed this meticulous task, Anna slowly turned around; upon seeing Lu Yan standing quietly in the doorway shadow, her solidified soul body visibly quivered, those eyes filled with glimmer instantly brightened, full of excitement and an affectionate sense of longing.

"Your... Your Grace." Her voice carried a trace of the ethereal quality unique to the soul and an irrepressible excitement.

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