Qi Tong: [He seems to regard you as a goddess. There's always a portrait of you in his mansion, and no matter who asks, he'll say it's a picture of a goddess. And he's even more perverted; you know he can turn people into puppets, right?]

Mu Tiantian nodded, but suddenly had a bad feeling.

Qi Tong: [He turned all the servants who displeased him into Gu puppets, and those Gu puppets even had their faces replaced. Do you know what the replaced faces look like?]

Mu Tiantian swallowed nervously: [You don't mean to say...that shameless look...was...me, right?]

Seven Commanders: [You guessed right, every puppet's human skin mask is a replica of you.]

Mu Tiantian was stunned: [This is too perverted.]

Just by imagining it for a moment, she felt as if thousands of worms were crawling all over her body.

Qi Tong: [Who says otherwise? That's why you need to quickly find a way to get Ulana to deal with Xinliangmu.]

Mu Tiantian: [You're right.]

Qi Tong breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that her attention had completely shifted.

It glanced at the sparkling diamond necklace in the space and recalled Mu Tiantian in Xin Liangmu's painting. Her clothes and hair were exactly like her original appearance, and she was wearing earrings that were exactly the same as the snowflake diamonds on the necklace.

It sensed something was wrong, so it checked whether the material of Mu Tiantian's earring was the same as the necklace Feng Lin had given her, and found out that they were made of the same material.

But how could that be?

There's definitely something wrong here.

...

Inside the prison.

Shia lay on the ground, her face contorted in pain, muttering curses and complaining softly, "Long Xinghuang, you're so heartless! You really hit me! You haven't come to see me all these days, it hurts so much, and you still won't let me out, you damned Long Xing..."

Suddenly, she heard footsteps outside the cell and quickly shut her mouth, peeking out with her head turned to the side.

Upon seeing that it was Xin Liangmu, he breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, it's you! You scared me to death."

"Could it be that the Emperor... sent you to release me?" Xia subconsciously dared not call Long Xinghuang by his name anymore, and only dared to secretly complain in private.

Seeing her looking at him expectantly, Xin Liangmu sighed regretfully, "The Emperor is busy with his wedding in half a month and has no time to care about you. Moreover, if I hadn't bribed the people who would carry out the caning, you probably wouldn't have survived."

"A grand wedding? He's taking a concubine? Whose daughter is she?" Xia stood up anxiously, but she could only slowly walk over, supporting herself against the wall.

"You've met her before, she's that Miss Mu Tiantian."

Remembering Mu Tiantian's appearance, Xia asked in confusion, "Is she the woman who saved the Regent? But I heard she was engaged to the Regent, wasn't she?"

These days, the jailers would drink and chat, and she naturally heard about it.

Xin Liangmu said, "They only exchanged tokens of love, but didn't set a wedding date, so the Emperor can certainly take her as a concubine. The Emperor also said that he is willing to set you free and will arrange a residence for you outside the palace. You can go wherever you want, except for the palace."

Xia felt a pang of sorrow upon hearing this. Long Xinghuang had promised her that he would take her as a concubine and give her a title, but she hadn't cared about it at the time and had always refused him.

She always went against him, saying she didn't want to stay in the palace and wanted freedom.

Now that he has truly given her freedom, she suddenly can't be happy anymore.

I feel an indescribable sadness in my heart.

She glanced at Xin Liangmu and asked sullenly, "What are you doing here?"

"I just came to thank you. The medicine you gave me is very effective. I was also very worried about how you were doing in prison." Xin Liangmu was full of concern.

“We’re all from the same place, so I’ll definitely take good care of you. I know you don’t like Miao territory or the Central Plains. Actually, the Emperor cares about you quite a bit. As long as you’re loyal to him, you’re doing very well in the Central Plains. There’s no need to go back to Miao territory for revenge. The Miao King did what he did for the sake of the people.” Xia earnestly advised him.

During the great war between the Central Plains and Miao territory, the Miao king ordered him to lead a group of people to launch a sneak attack using Gu worms, while another group was used as bait to draw Long Fantian's firepower.

In the end, he turned out to be the bait.

If he hadn't used a poison on himself to endure the pain, he would have died on the battlefield long ago.

Later, the Miao king surrendered and even offered the holy maiden to the emperor of the Central Plains.

He then followed suit to seek a different way of life and eventually became the current Imperial Advisor.

However, the position of Grand Preceptor was not as secure as Xia had imagined.

Therefore, he not only wanted to return to Miao territory to seek revenge, but also wanted to seize the Central Plains.

Only when he becomes the emperor who unifies the world and receives the help of the goddess can he truly be at peace.

As for Shia, in his eyes she was just a fool.

If it weren't for the fact that she possessed what he desired, he wouldn't have nominated her as a saint and had to act to make her pity him and believe in herself.

Now, listening to Xia's earnest advice, he found it utterly ridiculous; the Central Plains could not possibly tolerate the Miao people.

She can barely take care of herself, yet she wants to persuade others to let go of their hatred.

They're still so foolish after all these years.

“What the Holy Maiden says is true. I’ve been thinking a lot lately and am ready to settle down. However, Ulana, who came from Miao territory, still won’t let me go.” Xin Liangmu sighed. “I don’t know what to do. She tried to assassinate me at the hunting grounds last time and almost hurt the Emperor. I think she will try to assassinate me again.”

“I guess I deserve this, after all, I accidentally killed her family back then. But even though I gave up on getting my ancestral collection of books back then, she still wouldn’t let me go.” Xin Liangmu’s tone was full of guilt as he spoke.

"But it's not your fault. Her family took your things first. She was blinded by hatred and didn't distinguish right from wrong. Although it was understandable that she chased after you at the time, so much time has passed. She should have let it go. It's really wrong of her to still chase after you." Xia said indignantly.

Xin Liangmu's eyes flickered slightly, and he coughed weakly twice before continuing, "I think it might be because I still have the second volume of the collection, and she wants to take it too. Maybe if I give it to her, she will be willing to let me go."

"That won't do. It was originally yours. But after hearing what you said, I think she might be after this second volume of the collection. Otherwise, why would she keep chasing you and killing you? If it was just for revenge, she already knows you killed to protect yourself, which is understandable. She wouldn't be so persistent."

The more Xia thought about it, the more suspicious she became. She said with certainty, "So, she must be after the collection. It seems she's just like her family—a selfish, thieving bandit. Do you need my help?"

Seeing how weak Xinliangmu was, she felt that Ulana was truly heartless.

Upon hearing this, Xin Liangmu's lips curved slightly, but the smile vanished in an instant.

That's really stupid.

This time, his plan will definitely succeed.