Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

Chu Jinglan's gaze was as intense as fire, causing Jiang Yining's heart to skip a beat.

She instinctively tried to pull her hand back, but he held it even tighter.

"Your Excellency, please have some self-respect." She put on a stern face, trying to use indifference to mask her panic. "We are still on the battlefield."

"Battlefield?" Chu Jinglan chuckled and looked up into the distance.

The six-armed demonic ape, having lost an arm, had lost all will to fight after witnessing Chu Jinglan's strength. It let out a resentful roar and turned to flee into the depths of the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains.

With the Demon King gone, the remaining demon beasts, leaderless, also began to retreat unexpectedly, like a tide.

On the city wall, the survivors erupted in deafening cheers.

"We won! We held on!"

"The Imperial Tutor is mighty! The City Lord is mighty!"

Wang Mazi and the others watched Chu Jinglan and Jiang Yining's retreating figures with eyes filled with fanatical admiration. In their eyes, the two were simply a match made in heaven, a pair of war gods.

Taking advantage of Chu Jinglan's momentary distraction, Jiang Yining abruptly pulled her hand back.

"Now that the beast tide has receded, our transaction should end." She stood up, distancing herself from him, her tone returning to its previous aloofness. "Thank you for your help, Imperial Tutor. The entire city of Jiang is deeply grateful. I will send someone to deliver the best medicine to heal your injuries."

Chu Jinglan wasn't angry at her ungrateful behavior. He supported himself on the ground and slowly stood up. Although his face was still pale, his back was ramrod straight.

"As I said, this is both a betrothal gift and alimony." He brushed off imaginary dust from his body, his gaze sweeping over the civilians cleaning up the battlefield below the city. "This city is too small and too weak. Your so-called 'confidence' is, in my eyes, utterly worthless."

"If I hadn't been here today, you, the child, and this city would all be food for the monsters by now."

Jiang Yining's face darkened.

That's a fact, and she can't refute it.

"So, you still want to take us with you?"

"I'm not taking you away," Chu Jinglan corrected, "I'm inviting you home."

He stepped forward, and the aura he exuded, belonging to a Confucian and Taoist sage, was still oppressive even when he was seriously injured.

"Jiang Yining, you are a smart woman. You should know that following me is the best choice for you and your child." He looked into her eyes, his voice deep and magnetic. "What I promise you is not just the position of a concubine, but half of the empire. When my good-for-nothing nephew abdicates, our son will be the emperor of this world."

"And you will be the most honored woman in the world, the mother of the nation."

It has to be said that the pie in Chu Jinglan's eyes was very tempting.

The power to rule the world, the role of empress—for many women, this might be an irresistible temptation.

Jiang Yining's heart did waver for a moment.

But she quickly regained her senses.

To the capital? To become the empress?

That sounds nice.

Once she went to that cannibalistic place, she would be like a phoenix with its claws and teeth pulled out, locked in a gilded cage. Seemingly glamorous, her every move would be controlled by others. Her child would also become a pawn in the power struggles of various factions.

Jiang Yining, who survived the apocalypse, has never believed in the charity of others.

She only believes in the power she has in her own hands.

"I appreciate your kindness, Imperial Tutor." Jiang Yining lowered her eyelids, a perfect blend of shyness and emotion on her face. "However, this matter is of great importance, and I... need time to consider it."

"Alright." Chu Jinglan seemed quite satisfied with her reaction, assuming she had been persuaded. "I'll give you three days."

"Tonight, a banquet will be held throughout the city to celebrate our victory. Three days later, I will personally lead you back to the capital."

……

Night falls.

The city gate tower of Jiangcheng was filled with a continuous banquet.

The atmosphere of surviving the ordeal overshadowed the earlier bloodshed, and everyone was immersed in celebration.

Chu Jinglan changed into a clean, moon-white robe and sat in the main seat. Although his injuries had not yet healed, his complexion had improved considerably. He looked at the people below who were casting awe-inspiring glances at him, and then at Jiang Yining, who was not far away, holding a child and chatting and laughing with several women. He felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

Empire, beauty, offspring.

This is perhaps the "perfection" he has always been pursuing.

"Your Excellency, Imperial Tutor."

Jiang Yining, carrying a white jade wine pot, moved gracefully to stand before him.

Today, she specially changed into a light purple dress and applied a light layer of makeup. In the glow of the campfire, her eyebrows and eyes were like a painting, and the red mole between her eyebrows made her look even more delicate and beautiful.

"If it weren't for your heroic act of turning the tide today, my Jiangcheng would have ceased to exist long ago." She personally poured him a cup of wine and presented it with both hands. "I have nothing to repay you with but this cup of wine to express my heartfelt gratitude."

Her voice was soft and sweet, carrying a hint of relief at surviving a disaster and admiration for the strong.

Chu Jinglan looked into her shimmering eyes and took the wine glass.

"There's no need for thanks between us." He downed the wine in his glass in one gulp.

The wine is excellent, smooth on the palate, with a unique and refreshing aroma.

However, after drinking the wine, a strange weariness welled up from the depths of my soul.

Chu Jinglan's vision began to blur.

Looking at the woman's smiling face, alarm bells rang in his mind.

"This wine..." He tried to stand up, but found that he had no strength left in his body.

This was no ordinary poison; it seemed to be a drug specifically targeting the soul. Its effects weren't overpowering, but rather, like peeling away layers of an onion, it gradually slumbered his powerful soul.

"Of course there is something."

The smile on Jiang Yining's face gradually lost its warmth.

She took out a small jade bottle from her sleeve and poured the liquid inside into another empty cup in front of Chu Jinglan.

"Your Excellency, do you think I don't know? That clone you left in my Jiang City, besides protection, is mostly for surveillance, isn't it?"

"The drink you're having today is called 'Three Souls Intoxication.' It's made by me using the sap of the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree, combined with more than a dozen kinds of poisonous herbs that specifically paralyze the soul. Its potency is so potent that even those with high cultivation levels would find it difficult to withstand."

"And this cup," she said, swirling the glass of clear liquid in her hand, smiling like a little fox, "is called 'Forget-Me-Not Water.' Drink it, and you'll forget everything about me and the child."

"Chu Jinglan, you go your way, and I'll go mine. Let's call it even."

Chu Jinglan looked at her. He wanted to speak, to use his last bit of strength to restrain this audacious woman, but his eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

In his last moments of delirium, he saw Jiang Yining lift his head and pour the cold "Forget-Dust Water" into his mouth.

……

three days later.

Chu Jinglan woke up with a severe headache.

He found himself lying in the bedroom of the city lord's mansion in Jiangcheng, covered with a brocade quilt.

He sat up and looked around.

The room was empty except for an empty wine glass on the table.

who am I?

Why am I here?

His mind went blank.

He tried hard to recall, but all he remembered was that he seemed to be investigating something important, and then... then what happened?

Just then, a guard's anxious voice came from outside the door.

"Your Highness! Something terrible has happened! That...that City Lord Jiang, she...she took the entire city and fled overnight! They even dismantled the city walls and packed them up to take with them!"

Lord Jiang?

A woman's image vaguely appeared in Chu Jinglan's mind.

He suddenly threw off the covers and rushed to the table.

He saw that there was a note under the empty wine glass.

The note contained only one line of neat yet somewhat messy handwriting.

"It is only natural for a father to leave and a son to stay. Imperial Tutor, it is goodbye forever."

Certain images flashed through my mind.

Those memories suppressed by the "Water of Forgetfulness" began to surface uncontrollably.

He remembered that woman, how she had used him, schemed against him, and how she had smiled sweetly at him before feeding him poisoned wine.

"puff--"

He felt a sweet taste in his throat and spat a mouthful of blood onto the note.

He didn't roar.

He simply picked up the wine glass on the table, the one with a broken corner in his hand.

He smiled.

There was no warmth in that smile, and deep in her eyes, a kind of obsessive emotion was growing.

"Jiang, Yi, Ning".

He pronounced the name slowly and deliberately, his voice as soft as a lover's whisper.

"You did a great job."

"Next time... next time I catch you, I will personally put chains on you, so that you will never be able to leave my side again."