Chapter 23: Twenty-Three Slashes "What Kind of Behavior is this, Consort Gao and Consort Mei?"...
The Empress Consort has arrived?!
"Pfft—"
Upon hearing the name "Ya Fei," Luo Mingshu couldn't help but run to the side and lean against a pillar, laughing. Consort Neng did the same. Although their names weren't particularly pleasant, they felt a great sense of superiority when facing Ya Fei.
Lu Yaoyao walked ahead, with Shui Qingnian following behind her with a cold expression—when had she ever been subordinate to anyone? But now, Consort Ya's status was higher than hers, and she seemed to be very good at using her position.
Luo Mingshu turned her head and saw the last person she wanted to see: Lu Yao!
She stopped laughing, stood aside without saying a word, and pretended not to know her.
Lu Yaoyao was about to rush over and call out "Senior Sister" when Luo Mingshu glared at her and pulled her back.
Luo Mingshu felt somewhat fortunate. Although she didn't know how Lu Yaoyao had entered the Misty Star Sea, she was just glad that she wasn't the one being tormented right now.
Luo Mingshu then turned her gaze to the cool imperial physician behind Lu Yaoyao, thinking to herself, "Good heavens, this one is even more important. This cool imperial physician looks seven-tenths like Shui Qingsi. It is said that there are two princesses in the Demon Realm. Could this cool imperial physician be the eldest princess?"
Why would the eldest princess of the Demon Realm also come? This is something worth pondering. Luo Mingshu remembered Shui Qingnian's identity.
Overall, however, Luo Mingshu concluded that the names of these two people's spiritual networks didn't sound very good.
Luo Mingshu remained calm and observed carefully. She noticed that when Consort Ya and the cruel imperial physician saw the Empress, their eyes changed slightly, showing a mixture of fear and longing.
She knew that what terrified them was that the Misty Star Sea had seen through their hearts again, and what they naturally longed for was the image that the Queen had conjured.
Of course, she was different. What she longed for and loved most was herself, the beautiful and lovely Luo Mingshu.
At this moment, Lu Yaoyao also had another psychological burden, because when she approached the Empress, she seemed to have entered the signal range of the jade bracelet—yes, this system actually required entering its signal range to hear its guidance.
"Host, please take me back." The system's voice now carried a hint of fear, unlike its usual calm and ruthless demeanor.
Lu Yaoyao frowned, because the jade bracelet was now being worn by the Empress, so she could only hear the system's voice and could not speak to it.
She lowered her head, looking melancholy and vulnerable, as she tried to connect to the system.
The system panicked even more when it saw that she didn't respond. Its fear had reached its peak when Luo Mingshu approached to touch it.
"Host, please respond immediately. Have you forgotten the mission I issued to protect the system?" the system kept calling out, genuinely afraid of being taken back by Luo Mingshu.
Luo Mingshu is not as easy to control as Lu Yaoyao.
Lu Yaoyao panicked, her body trembling. But at that moment, Luo Mingshu's curiosity was piqued, and she came over to talk to her, bringing up the very thing she didn't want to talk about.
"Consort A, what is your maid's name?" Luo Mingshu recalled her maid's code name, Maid Hair, and Consort Gao's maid's name was also strange, called 183, so she began to wonder what the original novel's female protagonist's maid would have.
With tears in her eyes and biting her lip, Lu Yaoyao shook her head, too afraid to speak.
But the cool doctor standing behind her seemed to have found an opportunity to betray his teammate, and of course he would seize it immediately.
The cool imperial physician spoke clearly: "Consort Ya's maid is called the Palace Maid."
The palace maids... isn't that related to this system? Upon hearing this, the system on the Empress's wrist finally couldn't hold back anymore. As a system, it was well-versed in all kinds of substitute literature. No wonder Lu Yaoyao ignored it; it turned out she had found a substitute.
"Palace maid, good, very good. Lu Yaoyao, you ungrateful host..." The system trembled slightly on the Empress's wrist in anger.
Fortunately, Shui Qingnian, being a member of the demon race, didn't have a proper history class when she was young, otherwise she would definitely have been able to recognize the ancient lotus pattern on the jade bracelet.
Lu Yaoyao didn't hear the system speak to her again. Her vision went black, and she thought it was all over. Her legs went weak, and she almost fell to the ground.
She couldn't bear to live anymore. How could she be so unlucky? The jade bracelet she was wearing on her wrist had turned into a reward from the Misty Star Sea. This system was clearly... clearly her personal cheat code.
Lu Yaoyao seemed to have lost her backbone, and was heartbroken. Her body swayed precariously.
Shui Qingnian took a half step back, afraid that Lu Yaoyao would fall on her.
Luo Mingshu, who triggered this chaotic situation between the system and her substitute, walked by nonchalantly—she didn't even know what had happened.
Every day, Consort Gao would go to the White Jade Fish Pond to feed the fish. She was going to meet up with her teammates. When Consort Neng saw her leaving, she also announced her farewell.
Just as she left the Empress's Forbidden City, Consort Neng, who happened to be going the same way as Luo Mingshu, saw her mount, "Turtle." Its dazzling body shape, avant-garde modifications, and unique paint job made Consort Neng, who was obsessed with such travel gadgets, stare in disbelief.
He would subscribe to magazines that introduced different car models to study these two-wheeled travel gadgets, and he could also have lively discussions with other fellow cultivators on the Spirit Network. However, despite all their talk, they didn't have the money to buy these expensive two-wheeled gadgets.
"What are you looking at? Haven't you seen it in a magazine?" Luo Mingshu half-lifted her skirt, straddled the tortoise, and gave Neng Fei a smile that said money can buy anything. She patted the tortoise's handlebars. "Now announce your withdrawal, and I'll lend you my ride for half an hour."
Consort Neng was so captivated by the sight of the tortoise that he almost agreed to the proposal, but a bright female voice came from the palace wall in front of him: "No, he's my teammate."
The guard was actually a woman. She was dressed in a neat head guard uniform and nimbly jumped down from the palace wall. She had delicate features and her slanted eyebrows gave her a somewhat heroic air.
“If we win this trial scenario, we’ll have money to buy as many as we want,” Guard Bao whispered to Consort Neng.
Consort Neng was easily swayed; she simply nodded, no longer blinded by Luo Mingshu's turtle.
Luo Mingshu looked at Guard Bao and thought to herself that things were going to get bad. It seemed that this team was the most united among them. There was no doubt that the two of them could overcome the gap in strength by working together.
However, she didn't know that what Bao Shiwei was thinking was that this kind of bastard teammate was impossible to carry.
Luo Mingshu immediately felt a sense of crisis and steered the tortoise forward at breakneck speed. She was heading to the Imperial Garden to meet the anonymous cultivator.
Ever since that afternoon when she saw the anonymous cultivator overturn his fishpond with one hand, but the fishpond was restored shortly afterward, Luo Mingshu had no intention of taking the proper route, since the buildings along the way could be restored anyway.
Adhering to the principle that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, she dashed left and right, crashing into the Imperial Garden.
Although Xie Changming looked down on his identity as the "Sea King of Yingtian Palace," he actually came to feed the fish every day. At this moment, he stood under the covered bridge, slowly crushing the fish food in the box and throwing it into the pond.
The pale purple fish in the pond crowded together and moved closer to him, but none of them were the kind of fish he wanted to keep—the ones he wanted weren't this well-behaved.
Xie Changming has found some clues about the emperor's murder today. After Shui Qingnian was led astray by Lu Yaoyao, his only competitor is Guard Bao, but Guard Bao's progress is far behind his.
At this moment, the tranquil afternoon atmosphere was broken as Luo Mingshu's tortoise roared. Xie Changming looked up and saw Luo Mingshu driving at high speed.
His eyes were indifferent and calm as his gaze swept over Luo Mingshu.
Luo Mingshu excitedly jumped off the tortoise and walked towards them, but when she saw Xie Changming's exquisitely handsome face, which perfectly matched her aesthetic standards, the words "anonymous cultivator" flashed through her mind again.
Her smile vanished instantly. Xie Changming finished feeding the last fish, and with a light tap of his fingertip, clear water gushed from the void, washing his hands clean.
Luo Mingshu felt she needed to find a way to kick her teammate out of the game, so many scenes from palace intrigue novels began to flash through her mind.
This palace intrigue novel contains many scenes of pushing other concubines into the water. She read the book and forgot everything, only remembering the violent and exciting parts of pushing people into the water, forgetting that there was a prerequisite: the unfortunate woman pushed into the water was pregnant.
So Luo Mingshu planned to push Xie Changming into her fishpond, and then find a way to fabricate some content to ruin Gao Fei's reputation so that she could kick him out and do it all by herself.
Luo Mingshu moved closer, and Xie Changming moved slightly away as she got closer.
This anonymous cultivator actually adheres to male virtues and knows how to protect himself. How cunning and shrewd he is, Luo Mingshu thought to himself.
So she pretended to strike up a conversation to lower Xie Changming's guard: "The Empress is not a real person; she can transform herself into whatever she desires in her heart."
Xie Changming: "Oh."
"Did you find anything?" Luo Mingshu moved closer.
Xie Changming stepped back without showing any emotion: "I have read the records in the Imperial Medical Academy and the palace. The emperor was once poisoned by a poison called Snow Lotus Powder. This poison is not fatal, but if he takes another tonic, Bright Blaze Pill, it will trigger the toxicity of Snow Lotus Powder, causing it to fight against the poison in his meridians and destroy them."
"Where is the Bright Blaze Pill?" Even Luo Mingshu was drawn to his discovery.
"It's somewhere within Yingtian Palace, not in the Imperial Medical Academy," Xie Changming said.
"Okay, I understand." Luo Mingshu revealed a villainous smile. "That's enough information for me. Leave the rest to me. Now get out of here."
She moved with lightning speed, her palms imbued with energy, and pushed directly towards Xie Changming's lower back.
However, Xie Changming was incredibly powerful. As soon as she took a step, he sensed her intention. He didn't know Luo Mingshu well and had no intention of showing her any mercy. So he planned to just beat her up and kick her out of the game. It would be better for him to solo this Misty Star Sea.
However, he and Luo Mingshu overlooked one thing—that teammates cannot attack each other in the exploration scenario.
Therefore, their attacks, whether strong or weak, were blocked by an invisible barrier. They wrestled together in an extremely bizarre posture, but could not touch each other's bodies. Because this posture was too bizarre, Luo Mingshu lost her balance and fell backwards into the white jade fishpond.
Before they fell, Luo Mingshu reacted quickly, grabbing Xie Changming's clothes so they both fell down.
After falling into the water, a familiar coolness enveloped Luo Mingshu's entire body, and the presence of small purple fish swimming around her gave her a sense of familiarity.
However, she never expected that Xie Changming was a terrible swimmer; once he entered the water, he even forgot to use his water-repelling spell.
Xie Changming pressed down on her, and his powerful aura made Luo Mingshu feel a sense of crisis. When facing a powerful enemy, she would subconsciously adopt her original posture. Moreover, the pressure that Xie Changming brought her was not comparable to that of ordinary cultivators.
When Luo Mingshu met Xie Changming's dark eyes, she was momentarily lost in thought because his hand was holding her wrist—he was afraid of sinking; he truly hated water.
As he approached, Luo Mingshu thrashed about in terror, and under the subconscious thrashing and immense pressure, her legs revealed their true form—a long, slender fishtail with a dreamlike, shimmering purple hue.
Fortunately, the fishpond was full of small fish of the same color, so her fish tail wasn't too conspicuous amidst the chaos.
She was thrashing about, and Xie Changming was also struggling. He wanted to swim back to shore and get away from this annoying water.
In the chaos where the two were already very close, Xie Changming accidentally touched Luo Mingshu's fish tail, which was wet and had neatly outlined scales.
Xie Changming: "!!!"
Luo Mingshu: "!!!"
Her tail thrashed wildly in the water, splashing even more water as she tried to slip away from Xie Changming's grasp.
Xie Changming was no longer afraid of water at this moment, and even wanted to touch it again to confirm.
In the end, Luo Mingshu dragged Xie Changming ashore. Before they reached the shore, she had already turned her tail back to normal.
Xie Changming stared at her feet, which were adorned with exquisite embroidered shoes, and asked, "Where did that fishtail come from?"
Luo Mingshu looked at the damp stray hairs at his temples and said, "They were already there in the fishpond."
“There aren’t fish that big in the pond,” Xie Changming said calmly.
“You were too nervous, so you touched the wrong thing.” Luo Mingshu was unusually quick-witted at this moment.
Xie Changming stared at her without saying a word.
Luo Mingshu's gaze traveled from his handsome face all the way to his toes. Beneath the hem of his black robe that draped to the ground, the tip of a tail was visible—this tail tip should have been furry, but it was wet from the fall into the water.
“You have a tail.” Luo Mingshu pointed to the tip of his tail.
Xie Changming looked down and realized that as Luo Mingshu approached, he had somehow...
"You're seeing things, that's why you're mistaken." Xie Changming retracted his tail—it's not surprising that he has a tail, since demons have their own beast-like forms.
Luo Mingshu took the initiative, looking at him suspiciously. In the end, the two left in an awkward silence, neither willing to have their secret exposed.
Of course, shortly after returning to the palace, it was time for the daily palace network check. Luo Mingshu remembered that she had to play a trick on the anonymous cultivator, so she fabricated a message: [Consort Gao accidentally fell into the water while feeding the fish. The title of "Sea Queen" is undeserved. Even feeding fish can lead to accidents. Consort Gao is unworthy of her position and should be expelled from Yingtian Palace immediately.]
Although she also fell into the water, as long as the anonymous cultivator also fell into the water, that was enough for her to fabricate stories.
Just as she was about to betray her teammate, a new message caught her completely off guard.
[Guard Bao: Passionately frolicking in the Jade Fish Pond of the Imperial Garden?! This is Yingtian Palace! The evidence of Consort Gao and Consort Mei's illicit affair is irrefutable. Their sweet rendezvous in the Imperial Garden is utterly disgraceful! Please immediately expel the immoral Consort Gao and Consort Mei from Yingtian Palace, never to return!]
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