The way she addressed herself as "this concubine" stirred Zu An's heart. For an empress to act so girlishly was truly pleasing.

He was a little confused. He was holding her hands, so what was she using to rub her back?

However, he immediately understood, feeling that amazing softness and smoothness, and his whole body relaxed completely.

...

Meanwhile, inside Kunning Palace, several young palace maids were slowly grinding some spices.

They held tools that resembled inverted jade bowls in their hands, gently squeezing the various spices on the table, and each of them had a fine sweat on their temples from the effort.

During their breaks from work, several young palace maids couldn't help but chatter amongst themselves:

"Everyone, please be gentle. These spices are very precious, and Her Majesty had great difficulty obtaining them."

"Okay~"

"Her Majesty seems to be much more concerned about her appearance lately. She never used to put so much effort into dressing up."

"Hmph, Your Majesty is beautiful to begin with, and she is beautiful even without makeup. She is just even more beautiful after dressing up."

"Perhaps she has encountered something happy recently. I see that the Empress is radiant and her complexion is much better than before. Her skin is fair and rosy, even better than ours, the young girls."

Just then, a young palace maid in the corner said timidly, "But what happy things could there be lately? I heard that the Emperor has passed away."

Upon hearing this, an eerie silence fell over the room.

"Shut up!"

After that, no one dared to say anything more.

...

After an unknown amount of time, Liu Ning slowly opened her eyes and was astonished to find herself lying on the phoenix bed.

Recalling everything that had just happened, her whole body turned bright red: "It was so embarrassing, I actually fainted."

She made up her mind not to stay in the bathtub next time. She didn't know if it was because she had been soaking for too long, but she felt dizzy and her tolerance was much lower than usual.

She only remembered being sent flying by Zuan several times, her mind going completely blank, and finally losing consciousness.

She covered her burning face and bit her lip lightly. The whole capital city only realized today how incredibly strong she was, but I had experienced it long ago. Incredibly strong.

As the empress of a nation, and a top politician who once played chess with Zhao Hao at the same table, she initially approached Zu An only with the intention of using him as a tool.

But to her utter surprise, she realized she had failed on her very first try.

No matter how many schemes and tricks are used, they are as fragile as paper in the face of absolute power.

No matter how much defense and preparation she made, the opponent always managed to penetrate her defenses with overwhelming force, reaching straight to her heart.

She still remembered that Eunuch Lü had once lamented that he had never seen her look like that before.

Of course he'd never seen it, because that's what a woman looks like when she's completely conquered.

Although she sometimes felt a little resentful, it didn't seem so bad. Her old injuries from many years ago had finally healed, and her strength was also slowly recovering. Now, she had regained control of the harem, and the Liu family had surpassed the Bi family to become the most powerful maternal relatives...

More importantly, she experienced unprecedented joy.

Thinking about everything that happened yesterday, she no longer felt like she was in a daze.

...

When Zu'an left the palace, it was already getting light. He went directly to the Sang family to visit his daughter and also had a chat with Sang Hong.

After all, once he became regent, he needed someone to help him handle many matters in the court. It wouldn't be good to rely entirely on Liu Ning or Bi Linglong, since these two women were like oil and water.

Having served in the court for many years, Sang Hong knew clearly who had real abilities, who could be won over, and who were actually members of the major aristocratic families...

After several hours of private conversation, it was already broad daylight. Zu'an had to return to the back mountain of the academy. He planned to spend some time in seclusion on Yuquan Mountain to recuperate, so that he could better understand the seven cultivation techniques in the "Baopu Zhenjing".

Zheng Dan approached him directly: "Grandpa, I want to go to the academy with you too. I am nominally Master Yan's disciple, but I haven't studied with him for a single day."

Long ago, Zu'an helped her become a disciple of Yan Xiangu, but because of the Sang family's plan to have a posthumous child, she had to stay at home to "pregnant" and therefore never had the opportunity to learn.

Having witnessed Zu'an's imposing presence yesterday, Zheng Dan felt a mix of joy and excitement, yet also a slight sense of loss.

You have to understand that her cultivation level was higher than Zu'an's back then. The two of them fought side by side in Brightmoon City and went through life and death together in the Red Dragon's Nest...

But now the gap between us is getting bigger and bigger, and we can't even see each other's backs anymore.

If the gap between two people widens too much, and they are no longer on the same path, even the best feelings from the past will eventually fade away. This is not anyone's fault; it's just how things are.

Therefore, she made up her mind to cultivate diligently from now on.

Zuan knew that her talent was among the best of the students in Brightmoon City, but she had indeed fallen behind in the past two years due to various factors, so he naturally agreed.

As the two were chatting, Sang Qian ran into the room and said, "Brother Zu, I also want to go to the academy to cultivate properly!"

She not only consistently offered advice and strategies to the Sang family, but also possessed excellent cultivation aptitude, and her strength was comparable to Zheng Dan's.

She also felt a sense of crisis. She did not agree with Aunt Mu's absurd suggestion, after all, how could one win someone over with one's looks?

Moreover, there were so many beautiful women around Brother Zu that she felt a strong sense of crisis and wanted to keep up with him so that she would be qualified to help him in the future.

Zuan was slightly taken aback, after all, she had just given birth not long ago, but after hesitating for a moment, she quickly agreed.

The only dilemma is deciding whose mentor she should study under and what field she should research.

"By the way, has the protagonist used the Marrow Cleansing Pill on anyone before? I remember the initial setting was that it cost 1 unit of anger, and the requirements for buying more would increase later? But after going through a lot of previous chapters today, I couldn't find any relevant records. I can only ask the all-knowing readers."