With all of his followers gone, Duan Li grumbled for a moment before deciding to tour around his residence court. He found out that the mutated chickens which acted as the security guards for this home of his was very well hidden. In addition, he was also surprised when he peered into their cultivation realm;
Late stage of the Qi Condensation realm!
Holy-Moly!
To think that poultry animals could evolve so much.. this was far too inconceivable!
'Was my blood really that formidable?' Duan Li could not help but to think of this.
Furthermore, he noticed that the feathers of these chickens were starting to develop some peculiar patterns. However, when he cast a glance at Cucko beside him, whom was puffing out its chest proudly in front of its henchmen, Duan Li could not help but to shake his head in pity.
"Haii! All of your minions are starting to show symptoms of great changes, while you.. you don't really look that much different when compared to the other normal chicken.." he sighed out.
If there was something that this small chicken could be proud of to spare its dignity, it's that its cultivation realm was higher than them by a few notches.
After a while, he left Cucko with them when he noticed that they started to converse with each other in their own chicken language. While he could understand them fully thanks to the translation ability of the Tetra Soul Sense, he felt really weird listening to a bunch of chickens 'cucko-ing' rapidly with each other.
Bulu and the little Fenrir, Daelius though, decided to stay with them and joined in on the conversation as they found it to their liking.
Soon after, Di Rou had also bid her farewell as she needed to make a full report to the Emperor regarding her own observation inside the Eternal Maze. After all, she was still part of the Elite Intelligence team of the Jiu Empire. In addition, with the inevitable event that would come 8 years later, such information was crucial so that the Empire could try to send in its young cultivators for them temper themselves both physically and mentally.
Finally, coming to a stop at the gazebo in the middle of the lake, Duan Li's eye hinted a trace of loneliness as he watched the mutated fish doing a battle royale with the chicken drumstick that he just threw in. This was somehow given to him by Xiahou Yu before she left, and he honestly does not know what to do with it.
Hais!
This isn't the kind of return that I was expecting..
What was with all of them? Why did everyone wanted to leave so hastily?
"Husband, let this wife of yours embrace you in her warm touch, so that your loneliness would be whisked away like the melting ice from the first sun of Spring." a sweet voice spoke out gently from behind him.
Puu!
It was Queen Levy.
"When did you get out?" Duan Li almost choked out in surprise and nearly fell into the lake.
Afraid that she would cause trouble if left on her own devices, Duan Li had kept her inside the spatial ring all these while after his previous story-telling session with his followers. He never recalled that he ever let her out after that.
Seemingly being able to read his thoughts, Queen Levy chuckled for a moment.
"A mere spatial ring, no matter how powerful, would not be able to contain the life essences of entities of those that has transcended mortality for long. Furthermore, even though I have yet to enter the Omnipresence realm state, the laws of space within a spatial ring is far simpler when you considered the fact that I, have remained trapped inside a Compounded Space for millenniums, trying to escape it." she said with a nonchalant expression.
Hearing this, Duan Li nodded in realization.
With the amount of time that she had served in her sentence, one would naturally try to break out of it in some form or another, where studying and observing the law of space was inevitable.
"Is that so..."
Duan Li then thought for a while.
Even though her original nature was evil, according to the Grand Immortal, she had already served her due time in that space for long enough. Therefore, her sins against humanity could be said to have been repaid in full and her slate was now clean. If he were to continue keeping her inside the spatial ring despite this, that would be an inhumane act as it was no different from throwing the other party into another prison.
With this in mind, Duan Li decided to be more lenient to her.
"As long as you don't make trouble, you don't need to stay in the spatial ring anymore and can use any of the empty room in my residence court. However, call me Lord instead of husband from now on. I do not want to be misunderstood by others, especially if it were to be heard by my mother."
The Killerworm Queen was of course elated to hear that she finally got her freedom back, thus she nodded her head like a woodpecker and swiftly replied, "Don't worry, I won't trouble you from now on husb- I mean, my dear Lord!"
"..." Duan Li.
Dear Lord?
Duan Li sighed.
Well, at least it's a start..
"Follow me!" Duan Li gestured as they left his residence court.
Soon after, it didn't take long for them to arrive at the big gate. Upon seeing their arrival, the gatekeeper immediately opened up the gate as if they were super VIPs, whom could enter and leave the academy on their whims.
Although feeling weirded out by this, seeing that it takes away the hassle of trying to explain and convince the gatekeeper for him to pass through, Duan Li could only give the other party a single Medium Quality spirit stone for the trouble.
...
Taking a casual walk inside the capital, Duan Li could not help but to still be amazed by the beauty and charm of the city, even though this was no longer his first time. However, Queen Levy was even more excited.
Being trapped in an isolation space for too long, the outside world was no longer as crude as she remembered. The current world was very much to her liking and her amazement with this new environment was like a child being led around by their parents inside a new playground.
There were even several occasions where the other party abruptly disappeared from his view, only to find out later that a patrolman was approaching him with the Queen on tow. Next, he was reprimanded by the patrolman for leaving the Queen unattended. Duan Li had to apologize several times for the trouble that was caused as he cursed in his mind;
What the hell is this? I am not her parents! She is not my child!
Continuing their journey around the city, Duan Li could not count on how many times that he had to face-palm his own face to the point that his forehead was now swelling like the Dugu fish.
This Queen Levy was even more of a country bumpkin than him!
When there were signs of 'Do not fly' in one area, she would instead fly away just to see of what will happen!
Of course, the resulting event was that another patrolman came forward as if waiting in ambush and gave him a hefty fine.
Damn it all!
"This current era is wonderful! I never thought that humanity would advance and achieve so much in their society building game! Back in those days, I still remembered on how normal humans would never dare to even cross face with a cultivator for fear of being massacred down to their last family line. But here, even powerful cultivator had to apologize and give face to a patrolman whom was not even a cultivator! Amazing!"
Queen Levy was full of praise for the Jiu Empire and from the looks of it, she has now grown really attached to the capital.
Meanwhile, other than getting constant headaches of having to babysit this new girl in town, Duan Li had also made observations on his own.
The streets were far more crowded than he remembered, and from the conversation that he listened to along the way, he could detect that there were a lot of people whom was not from the Jiu Empire based on the accent that they were using in their speeches.
"These people were probably from the other Empires, invited over for my coronation two days later.." Duan Li could not help but to become slightly nervous.
The atmosphere was far more serious than he had imagined.
"You over there." a compelling voice suddenly called out to them from behind.
Turning around, Duan Li saw that it was an unfamiliar man with a set of robe that seemed expensive, possibly belonging to another Empire based on the insignia on the emblem attached on the right side of the chest. However, the facial appearance of this man made him recall a certain person that he was very familiar with - Liu Sheng Juan!
"Yes? How can I help you?" Duan Li politely replied.
"Why can't I see through you?" the man suddenly asked with a serious expression.
Eh?
...
Hello guys! Here is the second release for the week! ;) Just to let everyone know, on Patre0n, the latest chapter is 273 (which will be published later on). So if you want to support this novel while reading advance chapters at the same time, sign up to become a patron! Just search my name there! ;) Enjoy and thanks for reading!