Chapter 30 You don't want to stand shoulder to shoulder with me at the bottom of the lake, do you?
Mu Jianjian was half-submerged in the pool. In a panic, she instinctively reached out and covered her stomach.
It was not pierced by the red line.
Wait, wasn't her right hand crippled...? Why can she still move it?
Wearing a pink dress, her body was free of scratches, and her fair skin reflected the light in the water.
"What's wrong with you?" Nuanya looked at the still-shaken woman in front of her, a smug look of watching a show flashing in the depths of her eyes. She put down the hand that was shaking her and was about to speak again when a male voice came.
"Nuan Ya, step back." The long, flowing crimson-gold robe, embroidered with gold trim, came to rest at the palace gate.
His voice was filled with displeasure and irritation.
Nuanya lowered her head and stepped aside, hiding the white purse in her hand behind her back, her hair concealing the deep calculation in her eyes.
I told you not to show your face before His Highness!
Now, even if he has a valid reason for sleeping in His Highness's most cherished Lingzhen Pool, he will still be kicked out.
Mu Jianjian was still in a daze, her heart still pounding from the previous life-or-death battle. She turned her head at the sound, and the damp mist surrounding the burning candles created a hazy atmosphere.
A boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old, dressed in a golden robe, walked to the edge of the pond.
The boy's black hair was casually draped over his shoulders, his eyes looked down with disdain and dissatisfaction, his features were handsome and distinct, and the gold beads hanging by his hair added to his charm.
A handsome young stranger.
Where is she? Shouldn't she have escaped into the palace and then fallen seriously injured in the pool?
"What's wrong?" Mu Jianjian asked tentatively, then frowned.
This is not her voice.
"Yaoling," the young man smiled instead of getting angry as he looked at the woman who was still cautiously asking questions in the Spirit Treasure Pool. He squatted down and leaned close to her, casually tossing his hair beads. "You came to the Spirit Treasure Pool of the Central Palace without my permission, and you ask why?"
"What did you call me?" Mu Jianjian frowned.
Yaoling? Was that what the woman named Nuanya called her too?
A hallucination? A time travel?
With no response from her brain system, Mu Jianjian felt an endless sense of confusion and loneliness.
"Soaking in a pool made you sick?" The boy lifted the woman's chin with two fingers, his thin, long nails almost digging into her flesh. "Playing dumb?"
Mu Jianjian slapped the other person's hand away, and after regaining her composure, she looked around. She felt that this place was somewhat familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
"Wait, what did you just say was where we are?" A sudden thought flashed through her mind, and she excitedly moved closer to the boy, completely ignoring the current situation. "Did you say this is the Central Palace?"
No wonder this place felt familiar!
Isn't this the pool in the central palace of the Fanjin Palace where she fell in?
Mu Jianjian was patting her chest and sighing. On the pool, the boy saw his right hand, which had been knocked off and was slightly red, and his eyes darkened, showing signs of anger.
Nuanya glanced jealously at Mu Jianjian's reddened chin, walked up to the boy, bowed her head, and handed him a handkerchief. "Your Highness, Yaoling's brain was damaged after she fell ill a few days ago. She didn't do it on purpose. Please forgive her for breaking the rules."
A sweet, delicate voice echoed beside the Lingzhen Pool in the central palace.
The boy took the handkerchief and slowly wiped the spot where he had just touched Mu Jianjian. "Lock her in the black cage at the bottom of the lake. Mother's taste in people is getting worse and worse."
The conversation between the two finally brought Mu Jianjian to her senses. Although she still didn't understand the situation, the "black cage at the bottom of the lake" sounded like a bad place!
"No, no, Your Highness..." The voice, clearly not her own, sounded strange. Mu Jianjian quickly climbed out of the pool, trying to appear weak and pitiful. "I know a lot of things, I'm very capable, I can also..."
"What can I do?" The boy's lips curled into a smile.
Looking back on her short twenty years, Mu Jianjian realized that she didn't seem to have any special talents.
"I can eat, sleep, and sing little tunes."
juvenile:……
“Nuanya, take her away,” the boy’s patience finally ran out, and he waved his sleeve. “Afterwards, have someone clean the entire palace inside and out, especially the Lingzhen Pond.”
Mu Jianjian: ...
Did you really have to make the disdain in your eyes so obvious?
Mu Jianjian obediently followed Nuanya out of the central palace. She looked back at the palace gate that was getting farther and farther away, and remembered the bloodstains that had been spilled on it when she used her body to break through the gate to avoid the male cultivator from the Golden Crow Temple.
But now it was clean and bright, and the true energy there was even more abundant than anywhere she had ever seen, like... the same place in a different time and space.
Mu Jianjian looked down at her hands. She could still use the system space, but this body had not cultivated and had no true qi in it, which meant that she could only use some low-level talismans.
“Weren’t you smug in front of me just a few days ago? Let’s see what you do after you go down to the black cage at the bottom of the lake,” Nuanya said, looking up at Mu Jianjian’s chin and gritting her teeth as she walked. “Don’t worry, I’ll collect your body after you die in there.”
"You drugged me and brought me to the inner palace, didn't you? You even timed it perfectly so he could see me coming in." Mu Jianjian casually glanced at the rooms around her.
"How did you know?" Nuanya raised her voice, her expression turned bluish-purple, and her shifty eyes showed guilt.
Mu Jianjian: The way she looks at the mentally challenged.
"Is it hard to guess? The sachet in your pocket contains sleeping pills."
"You!" Nuan Ya's voice suddenly turned cold. "Even if I did it, so what? You'll still die in—"
Mu Jianjian was getting impatient. She needed to figure out the situation quickly, so she went through the process on her own.
"Yes, yes, even if I'm locked in a black cage at the bottom of the lake later, I haven't gone far yet. I'll shout so His Highness can hear me and report you, then we can stand side by side at the bottom of the lake, understand? If you don't want things to be exposed now, I'll ask you a question, and you answer it, understand?"
She finished speaking almost without taking a breath, and Nuanya nodded subconsciously.
"Who am I? What is my identity?"
Who is she? Has Yaoling really lost her mind?
Nuanya shuddered. She remembered that the drug she had given wouldn't have this effect, would it?
"Your name is Yaoling, but I don't really know anything about your background..."
Her stammering voice was interrupted as Mu Jianjian suddenly pressed close to her face, saying each word clearly, "You don't want to stand shoulder to shoulder with me at the bottom of the lake, do you?"
"I...you and I were both chosen by the Emperor and Empress to serve His Highness. As for before that, I really don't know..." When did Yaoling develop such a terrifying look in her eyes?
His eyes, though gentle, carried a hint of coldness and bloodlust.
As Nuanya spoke, a chill ran down her spine.
"Where are we now?" Mu Jianjian asked.
"The Palace of Prosperity, we are in the Palace of Prosperity now. This is the birthday gift that His Highness received from the Emperor during His Highness's full moon celebration."
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