“Inside the Forbidden City,” she said, her beautiful features and clear, melodious voice carefully choosing each word, “cultivators cannot use magic. We have many people now and a wide range of skills, so we can join forces to capture them and find out about the dragon vein.”

"Should we also give the Empress a warning?" Li Qianxia asked tentatively.

"If she knew," Yang Qinglan did not deny.

Li Qianxia covered her mouth and laughed.

Yaochi glanced at Yang Qinglan a couple more times and said, "You're quite cute."

Yang Qinglan glanced at her only once: "That's why Changzhou fell in love with me at first sight."

"It's quite annoying too," Yaochi said with a laugh.

Bifei was in the sky, her hands behind her head, idly sucking on a candy.

Like Li Qianxia, ​​she had no worldly thoughts about Li Changzhou.

Yaochi looked at Shui Nu: "Shui Xian, take us into the palace."

The water maiden nodded, her body sinking down, causing the water droplets on the ground to spread.

"Once inside, Qi Die, you're in charge of concealing yourself," Yao Chi instructed as she walked towards Shui Hua.

The voluptuous female player responded.

As Yaochi sank into the water, Li Qianxia, ​​holding Yang Qinglan's arm, curiously pulled her up.

Bi followed, followed closely by her five subordinates (also women, clearly the Tsar was very uneasy about having men around his daughter).

After Yaochi's other four subordinates entered, the pool quickly shrank and disappeared completely in the blink of an eye, leaving not a single drop of water on the ground.

The snow scene in the capital quickly collapsed, spreading flat across the courtyard, making it look like no one lived there anymore.

◇

The Forbidden City, the Imperial Garden.

The garden was full of bare branches covered by heavy snow, and a faint fragrance wafted through the air—the scent of wintersweet.

It was still early, with the first rays of dawn. In the Imperial Garden, more than forty palace maids walked through the snow and among the flowers and trees, using jade hairpins to brush away the morning dew from the leaves and collecting it in cups.

"Where will the dew come from on a snowy day!" a palace maid complained, her hands cracked and her face red from the cold, clearly indicating that this arduous task had been going on for quite some time.

"What if there's no dew? The Emperor needs it every day when he's cultivating immortality."

"Cultivating immortality? Looking at him like that, he'd be more like a ghost. Never mind, I'll go scoop some out of the pool!"

Two palace maids dressed in green, lifting their wet skirts, looked around cautiously as they approached the imperial garden pond.

They gently touched the pool water with the hem of their skirts, dripping the water drop by drop into the bottle.

The daily dew was scarce, sometimes only a small spoonful, so neither of them dared to take too much.

"Sister, look at my hand, it's been pricked again."

"Hmph, my hands are frozen like this too!"

Seeing that they had collected enough water, the two got up and quickly left, continuing to pretend to collect dew.

A group of fairy-like women, surrounded by flowers, stood on the pond, watching the two depart into the distance.

“Jiajing was no good emperor,” Li Qianxia said.

“Even the best emperors were bad in their private lives; that’s because of the times and their positions,” Yaochi said, stepping out of the pool. “Let’s go to Kunning Palace first.”

"She dares to seduce my brother, I'm going to spank her little bottom!" Li Qianxia said enthusiastically.

Yang Qinglan had no objections.

With a gentle lift of her jade-green hand, the group moved silently through the snow toward the Empress's residence.

Although it was winter and all the flowers had withered, it was still the Imperial Garden, so winter flowers such as wintersweet, daffodils, nandina, and forsythia were used to create a spring-like scene.

Walking along the corridor with its painted beams and pillars, a gentle breeze and cold snow fill the garden with fragrance, and red walls and yellow tiles, pavilions and towers are hidden in the snow.

As I was walking, two people came towards me.

"That Master Li is indeed a person with real skills; he really can take us to the Moon Palace!"

"Of course, he is Li Changzhou."

A petite and adorable girl, and a beautiful and alluring young woman, both dressed in the attire of imperial concubines, followed by a group of eunuchs and palace maids.

"Does Consort Duan know Master Li?"

He is—

"What's wrong, Your Highness?"

"...Lady Shang, do you feel any better since you came back from the Moon Palace?"

"Hmm! That's the sky after all!"

Yang Qinglan, Li Qianxia, ​​Yaochi, and others stood on either side, letting these people pass.

Then follow.

"Your Highness Consort Duan, I'll head back now," Consort Shang said, yawning.

"Wait, sister." Consort Cao grabbed Consort Shang's wrist. "You are a newly promoted beauty and do not know the rules of the palace. Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. All the sisters in the palace must go to the Empress's place and go with the Empress to pay their respects to the Empress Dowager."

"I want to go back to take a bath and change my clothes. Just now in the Moon Palace—" Shang Meiren couldn't bring herself to say the shameful thing.

"There's no time to waste, let's just go!"

Before Consort Shang could refuse again, Consort Cao pulled her towards Cining Palace.

Yang Qinglan, Li Qianxia, ​​Yaochi, and the others continued to follow silently behind the two.

There's something wrong with Consort Cao; I clearly noticed them just now.

Those who can sense them within the palace are definitely not cultivators of this era, unless they can use the power of the dragon vein like Shao Yuanjie.