Shenlong

As the New Year approached, a heavy snowfall transformed the divine capital into a mortal paradise. In the evening, as the city gates were about to close, a horse-drawn carriage approached. The guards at the gate stopped the carriage and, just as they were about to identify the occupants, a token emerged from the vehicle.

"Please come in, sir." After looking at the token, the gate guard respectfully returned it to the person in the carriage and let the carriage into the city.

The carriage slowly approached a house in Anyefang. The door opened and Xiao Wan'er stepped out. She pushed the door open and walked into the house.

"Master, I'm back."

Liuyun came over with Pei Yingguan and Liu Mingyin. After beating her up and down for a while, he commented unhappily, "I haven't seen you for a few years. You've lost a lot of weight."

"Being on the road is naturally not as comfortable as being at home, so it's normal to lose weight."

"Then why did you insist on writing a letter to the Empress?" Pei Yingguan scolded her from behind. "You have to endure hardship without any effort."

"Yingguan, your junior sister has finally returned, so don't mention anything unpleasant," Liuyun interrupted him, "Have you had dinner yet?"

Hearing the hungry rumbling of Xiao Wan'er's stomach, he smiled and led her back to the main room. "We are having dinner. Please sit down and wait. I will serve you a portion."

Xiao Wan'er's dinner was very filling, and she lived up to Liuyun's expectations by eating it all up, obviously she was very hungry.

"How long do you plan to stay this time?" Liuyun asked Xiao Wan'er after dinner.

"Let's go after the New Year."

Xiao Wan'er yawned after she finished speaking, and Liuyun let her go back to the house to rest. The next evening, Shangguan Wan'er came to visit.

"How have you been doing during your patrols outside over the past year?" After not seeing each other for more than a year and staying in the palace for a long time, Shangguan Wan'er, who should have been living in luxury, had actually lost a lot of weight.

"Not really," Xiao Wan'er drank the wine in her glass clean. "If it weren't for the self-defense items my master sent me, the grass on my grave would have been several feet high."

While this was admittedly an exaggeration, Xiao Wan'er had indeed lived a thrilling year since leaving the Divine Capital. It was only later that she learned that the evil cultivator's formation she had broken was actually equivalent to the Return to Truth Realm. After the formation was broken, righteous cultivators sought to spar with her, and evil cultivators were eager to eliminate her. If Liuyun hadn't sent a subordinate a stack of self-defense talismans and formations he had painstakingly crafted, she might have truly perished in the wave after wave of sneak attacks from the evil cultivators.

"How are you doing, sister?"

Shangguan Wan'er smiled bitterly and shook her head, "Not much. Your Majesty is old."

Xiao Wan'er's rank was clear; since she had returned to the Divine Capital at the end of the year, she had to attend the New Year's Eve banquet. On New Year's Eve, she and Liuyun entered the Taichu Palace together.

This time, Xiao Wan'er was seated in a corner, her turn always last when the palace servants served her dishes. The dishes were already cold by the time they reached her table. Xiao Wan'er took two bites and put down her chopsticks with a lack of interest. She looked up at the main seat, but the Empress, who was supposed to arrive long ago, hadn't arrived yet. Only her trusted female servant was laboriously presiding over the banquet alone.

The Queen finally arrived after the dishes were served. She brought with her two handsome men, who very consciously sat to the left and right of the main seat.

The Empress had indeed aged. This was Xiao Wan'er's first thought upon seeing her again. Her once-black hair was now streaked with silver, and her face had wrinkles. More importantly, her demeanor no longer resembled that of a powerful ruler who had forged a prosperous era, but more like that of a beast king entering his twilight years.

When the Crown Prince, Prince Xiang and Princess Taiping saw the Queen, they couldn't help but feel fear in their eyes. Together with other ministers, they saluted with utmost respect, like adult beasts that could not defeat the King of Beasts, cautiously trying to please the old king who still had some power.

"Please sit down." The empress was in a bad mood, and her expression towards the officials was also not very good. She glanced at her children impatiently, and then asked the palace servants to continue serving food.

The palace servants placed the dishes on the table, and the two handsome men naturally picked up the bowls and plates and fed the empress directly. This move undoubtedly pleased the empress, and she ate the food with the spoons in their hands, with a smile on her face.

During the banquet, some ministers' faces turned pale, then blue, then blue, then purple. In the end, they still dared not say anything and could only lower their heads to eat. In the end, most people ate uneasily during the New Year's Eve banquet. It was not until the empress left early with her two male favorites that everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Master, are the two men His Majesty just brought the Zhang brothers?" After walking out of Taichu Palace, Xiao Wan'er asked Liuyun in a low voice.

"Yes, they are both very popular recently. You should not confront them again."

Xiao Wan'er turned to look inside the palace gates. Tall bronze pillars still stood in the square before the Mingtang, praising the Empress's personal achievements. But now, favored ministers controlled the government. To win the Empress's favor, the various regions prioritized Buddhism and built numerous temples. Not only were the people forbidden from eating meat, they were even required to perform corvée labor to build the temples.

This is no longer the Great Zhou Dynasty when the Nine Cauldrons were first established.

"Master," Xiao Wan'er suddenly said, "I think living too long isn't necessarily a good thing."

Liuyun hit her forehead hard.

"Little evildoer, what do you mean?"

Xiao Wan'er covered her forehead and complained in a delicate voice, "Master, I'm not talking about you, why are you hitting me?"

Liu Yun, also an old monster, was silent for a long while before he jokingly said, "If I tell you not to speak clearly, does that mean I, your master, won't live long?"

"Of course Master is different. Master is an immortal, and immortals never grow old!"

Liuyun put his hand on Xiao Wan'er's head, rubbed it gently, and sighed deeply.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have brought you into the court."

"Then what should I do, Junior Brother?" Xiao Wan'er disagreed.

Liuyun also fell silent.

The two returned home and cooked some food. After eating and staying up all night, they had to attend the grand court meeting on New Year's Day with Pei Yingguan and Liu Mingyin.

"Being outside has its advantages," Xiao Wan'er complained, "At least I wasn't this tired during last year's New Year."

After missing the New Year’s Eve banquet and the grand court meeting for a year, I’m actually a little uncomfortable with it.

At this grand court meeting, the brothers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong unexpectedly took seats before Prince Xiang and Princess Taiping, second only to the Crown Prince. The ministers behind them looked at each other with grim expressions, but dared not say anything.

At the grand court meeting, the empress announced the change of the reign title to Shenlong.

After the Lantern Festival, Xiao Wan'er went to the palace to report on her inspection. She entered the Mingtang and was greeted by the empress, accompanied by the Zhang brothers.

"Your Majesty," Xiao Wan'er bowed as usual. One of the Zhang brothers picked up a cherry and placed it near the Empress's lips, who ate it with a smile. Not to be outdone, the other brother took a piece of glutinous rice cake and fed it to the Empress.

It was only at this time that they acted as if they had just seen Xiao Wan'er.

"Xiao Qing, please stand up."

Xiao Wan'er stood up and reported what she saw during the inspection to the Queen as quickly as possible.

"The fact that so many places are vying to build Buddhist temples shows that the people and officials of the Great Zhou all revere Your Majesty. This is a great thing," the man sitting to the empress's left said with a smile. "I heard that Captain Xiao encountered ambushes many times while on the move?"

"Thanks to your majesty's blessing, we were lucky enough to defeat the bandits." Xiao Wan'er answered respectfully.

Seeing Xiao Wan'er's respectful attitude, the Queen was very satisfied. "My dear Xiao, you have been away from the Divine Capital for a long time. Now that you have returned, why not stay a little longer?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Xiao Wan'er bowed her head in gratitude.

After the report was completed, the Queen let Xiao Wan'er leave the palace. Xiao Wan'er did not stay for a moment and went home immediately.

"Master, I have completed all the things I needed to do when I returned to the Divine Capital this time. If you don't have anything else for me to do, I plan to leave the Divine Capital as soon as possible." After staying there for more than half a month, she felt that it would be better to ambush and kill the evil cultivators outside the Divine Capital.

"Master does have something I need you to do," Liuyun said, but he kept her. "You should stay in the Divine Capital for a while."