Chapter 1668: Two Hours

“You…!” Yan Xuehen trailed off, staring at Zu An. Her chest rose and fell intensely, showing just how shaken up she was. After some time, she took a deep breath and said, “I already said that I’ve already forgotten what happened at that time.”

“Did you really forget?” Zu An replied. He gave the Rage system a look, but he didn’t see any Rage points. He couldn't help but grin.

“Of course!” Yan Xuehen replied, her expression turning cold. She immediately turned around to leave.

Zu An sighed and said, “If you really forgot, you would already have fought me to the death the moment you were kissed just now.”

With Yan Xuehen’s normal personality, forget about kissing her, just being touched by a man would result in that very hand being chopped off.

Yan Xuehen almost fainted on the spot. She turned around and stared at him with an unkind expression, exclaiming, “Are you an idiot? You won't be satisfied unless I kill you or something?”

You have successfully trolled Yan Xuehen for +99 +99 +99…

Zu An roared with laughter, saying, “Of course I’m satisfied. I’m actually really happy. This just means I’m actually still important to you!”

Yan Xuehen took a deep breath to calm herself down, saying, “Don’t be too much of a narcissist. The only reason I haven’t killed you is because you’re Chuyan’s husband. It’s just that I don’t want her to feel brokenhearted.”

“Fine, fine, fine. I believe you,” Zu An said, looking at her with a big smile. This woman is quite interesting when she’s upset.

Yan Xuehen almost stamped off in fury when she heard his clearly insincere words. She snapped, “What is your real intention?” She made up her mind that if he dared to say any more of those foolish words, she would immediately draw her sword and cut his tongue off.

You have successfully trolled Yan Xuehen for +222 +222 +222…

Zu An put away his smile and said with a serious expression, “I know that there are many, many problems standing in our way, and I don’t know how to deal with them. I don’t want to make you unhappy either… In that case, why don’t you just become my two-hour girlfriend? Then, we’ll part ways and I won’t get involved with you anymore.”

“Two-hour girlfriend? What do you mean?” Yan Xuehen asked with a frown. She clearly should have felt relieved when he said that he wouldn’t get involved with her anymore, but why didn’t she feel happy at all?

“It’ll take about two hours to return to Violet Mountain from here. Let’s just be lovers during the trip back. Once we return to Violet Mountain, we’ll just become strangers. I’ll forget everything and not bother you anymore,” Zu An explained.

Yan Xuehen was stirred up inside. If she could get him to stop being involved with her anymore in exchange for that, it wasn’t all that bad of a deal…

Her reason finally won out in the end. There had to be a resolution between the two of them eventually. Spending two hours together as lovers, then sealing up those memories, could serve as a way to fully calm herself down. She wouldn’t have to worry about her own personal gains and losses anymore.

She took a deep breath and said, “Fine, but you’re not allowed to do anything strange!”

“If we’re going to be lovers, then of course we have to do what lovers do,” Zu An said. However, when he saw her expression change abruptly, he quickly explained, “But we definitely won’t do what you’re thinking. After all, we have to fly back.”

He suddenly recalled what had happened in Bluefield Country. Doing it all the way up there wasn’t completely impossible, and that fox queen was soft and amazing…

“I just can’t help but feel as if that smile of yours holds bad intentions,” Yan Xuehen said, frowning slightly. However, when she thought about how they were going to be flying, she thought that he wouldn’t really have any opportunity to do anything over-the-top. As such, she agreed and said, “Fine. I hope you abide by your word.”

Zu An happily ran over and grabbed her hand. It was cold to the touch, as if he were holding jade.

Yan Xuehen trembled all over. She reflexively wanted to pull her hand back, crying out, “What are you doing?!”

“Isn’t this normal between lovers?” Zu An asked, looking at her in confusion.

Yan Xuehen’s breath caught in her throat. She then thought about how this was only going to last two hours. After some hesitation, in the end, she didn’t resist.

The two of them walked together under the evening sky just like that. The chirping of the bugs around them from time to time only made the place seem even more peaceful.

When she felt the heat coming from his hands, Yan Xuehen felt uncomfortable all over. In order to ease the awkwardness, she asked, “What exactly happened over at the governor manor?”

Zu An gave her a rough description of what had just happened. As he breathed the faint fragrance wafting through the air, he really felt happy.

“The emperor is really strong, so I didn’t even dare to get too close earlier for fear of being discovered,” Yan Xuehen said. She still felt some lingering fear.

“Was that an earth immortal’s yin or yang soul?” Zu An asked. She was a grandmaster who had already been famous for a long time, so she probably knew more about that than him.

“Judging from what you were saying, that was definitely his yang soul. But even though he’s made an appearance several times, I’ve never heard of him revealing his yang soul. Looks like he really does treat you differently,” Yan Xuehen said, feeling moved.

“What do you mean, he treats me differently? Isn’t it just because he was worried that something strange was happening here on Violet Mountain?” Zu An replied disdainfully.

“What do you mean?” Yan Xuehen asked, stunned. She clearly picked up the implications behind what he said.

Zu An didn’t hide the truth and told her that Zhao Han had sent him to repair Violet Mountain’s palaces, but his real mission was to check for hidden dangers there.

Yan Xuehen grinned and said, “So you were suspicious that the people of the daoist sects were actually here because they wanted to act against the emperor. In that case, why did you tell me about this? I’m also from the daoist sects.”

Zu An stared calmly into her perfect, flawless face and said, “Because we’re lovers. Lovers are the closest and most intimate people to each other in the entire world. Why would I hide this from you?”

Yan Xuehen was deeply touched. Was that the weight of the term ‘lovers’?

However, she still couldn't handle his scorching gaze and shifted her gaze slightly, saying, “Don’t worry. The emperor is so formidable. Not even the nine sects added up together would be his match. Why would we overestimate ourselves and do something like that?”

“That’s hard to say for certain…” Zu An trailed off. His expression suddenly changed and he said, “Oh no. If I can summon the emperor at any time with the golden token, can he monitor everything I’m doing through the golden token if he wants?”

He was a huge criminal. There were too many opportunities for the emperor to find out his secrets.

Yan Xuehen couldn't help but smile when she saw how nervous he was. She said, “Don’t worry. He only left a trace of aura on your golden token. It’s just enough for him to sense and come to you when needed. There’s no way he could constantly monitor you unless he actually stored a portion of his yang soul in that token. But that would be too dangerous for an earth immortal, because if you encountered some really powerful foe and that portion of soul got destroyed, that would deal a serious blow to the emperor’s strength.”

She looked at Zu An before continuing,” Even though you have a lot of secrets, in the emperor’s eyes, there’s no way you would be worth taking that big of a risk. Furthermore, you usually store your golden token in the storage subspace too. Even if he did do something to the token, he still cannot monitor your actions.”

Zu An couldn't help but sigh before becoming much more relaxed. He said, “It seems you were always watching over me. You even know that I kept the golden token in my storage space.”

Yan Xuehen’s expression became a bit unnatural. She harrumphed. “I’m not blind, you know.” Then, she continued, “Right, judging from what you were saying just now, it sounds as if you believe King Yan when he says he wasn’t the one who killed Golden Token Seven?”

“Yeah. That old fox wouldn’t tell me the truth even after ending up in his current situation, still telling me to investigate the Hub of Freedom,” Zu An sneered. “In that case, he deserves everything that’s coming to him.”

“It sounds as if you don’t really want to investigate the Hub of Freedom,” Yan Xuehen said, blinking. She carefully observed his reaction.

After some hesitation, Zu An still nodded and said, “I won’t hide it from you. I have a friend in the Hub of Freedom who treats me quite well. Why should I investigate them just because of what King Yan said? Either way, King Yan had the motive and ability. The proof is already enough.”

“Your friend from the Hub of Freedom is a woman, right? And definitely a really pretty woman,” Yan Xuehen sneered. However, she still felt warm inside, because he had shared such a deep secret.

Zu An’s expression stiffened. He replied, “What does this have to do with being pretty or not? The main thing is that she’s my friend.”

“But of course. They can’t be your friends if they’re ugly, though,” Yan Xuehen said, rolling her eyes. She seemed to have seen straight through him.

Zu An was speechless. This woman looked like a cold and silent beauty, and yet she had such a sharp tongue to her too?

Yan Xuehen suddenly said, “You should keep some distance from the Hub of Freedom in the future. There are no benefits to being too close to them.”

Zu An was stunned. He picked up some implications from her words and asked, “Why?”

After some hesitation, Yan Xuehen slowly said, “Don’t tell anyone else what I’m about to tell you, and especially not to those from the court.”

Zu An shivered and replied, “Alright!”

“Because of the White Jade Sect’s history, I learned that the Hub of Freedom might have some connection to the Meng Dynasty’s royal family,” Yan Xuehen slowly said.

“Meng Dynasty? The previous dynasty?” Zu An asked, shocked.

Yan Xuehen nodded and explained, “The reason for the Zhou Dynasty’s power is that it was built on the Meng Dynasty’s foundation. In the past, the Meng Dynasty was also a glorious age. The daoist sects received a lot of benefits back then… But there was a dispute between brothers over the throne, so once the emperor ascended, he was always on guard against his brothers and other imperial clan members. The succeeding emperors never let go of those policies, not allowing the other clan members to gain any authority.

“That behavior alone wasn’t that surprising, but it just so happened that the emperors who succeeded the throne all had rather short lifespans. Because of that, some important ministers became elders. Because the emperors were young, as the wars with the Fiend races continued, authority was gradually seized by those elders instead.”

Zu An sighed and said, “The ancestor of this dynasty was none other than the subject with the greatest authority back then.”

After arriving in this world, he had frantically tried to gather historical knowledge. Even though this part of history had been modified, after becoming an Embroidered Envoy, he had still been able to access some information ordinary people didn’t have.

Yan Xuehen nodded slightly and said, “That’s right. The founding ancestor of this dynasty had established tremendous prestige in the wars against the Fiend races. In time, taking over the Meng Dynasty was only to be expected. The other elders who were protecting the Meng Dynasty had already been beaten down for many years, so they no longer had the strength to stop him.

“Of course, it was still a glorious dynasty in the end. The Meng Dynasty was dissatisfied with the Zhou Dynasty’s ancestor taking the throne. They gathered their forces and launched several large scale rebellions. But in the end, they were all defeated. The court’s officials also carried out a cruel suppression of the Meng Dynasty’s faction. From then on, news of the Meng Dynasty rarely appeared again.”

She paused for a moment, then added, “And the Hub of Freedom rose up in that time.

“There are fewer than three people total in all of the White Jade Sect who know of this. So, I hope you won’t make things difficult for me.”

Zu An was beyond shocked. He hadn’t expected the Hub of Freedom to be related to the previous dynasty! The Embroidered Envoy didn’t necessarily know about that. The only reason why Yan Xuehen had such information was probably because the White Jade Sect and Meng Dynasty had had quite a considerable relationship back then.

He couldn't help but hold Yan Xuehen’s hands and say in a moved tone, “You even told me such a great secret of the White Jade Sect?”

Yan Xuehen blushed. She pursed her small lips and said, “Aren’t we lovers? You said that lovers don’t have to keep anything from each other.”

Under the moonlight, her features glistened like sparkling jade. There was a layer of hazy light covering her entire body that made her look absolutely enchanting. Zu An was really moved. He couldn't hold himself back and pulled her into his firm embrace.

Yan Xuehen’s body stiffened. She instinctively wanted to push him away, but after raising her hand several times, in the end, she gently hugged his shoulder. Either way, it was just going to be for a short time…

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