Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

...Master's wife, what's going on?

Could it be that they really want to scam me, then keep me in the sect to be used as a medicinal root?

His entire demeanor crumbled, and he felt surrounded by enemies.

"Take another look. There seems to be a long paragraph of smaller text next to it. Did you miss some information...?"

"Let me see... The general idea is that these places are weak points in terms of feng shui and geomantic energy. If traps are not set to fill them, they are easily invaded." Feng Ying shook his head regretfully: "Unfortunately, I can't understand what kind of traps are being used. The characters are too rare."

"It doesn't matter." Chu Mingkong breathed a sigh of relief. So his master's wife had misunderstood!

Remembering something, Chu Mingkong took out a note and first sent a flattering note to his master's wife:

Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise; a blessing may be a harbinger of misfortune. Master's wife, this is the principle you want me to understand, isn't it? Places that appear dangerous are actually safe.

Shen Xuejun replied: [This is the second sentence of Chapter 58 of the *Tao Te Ching*. How many times have you, as my teacher's wife, read it? What happened during that time?]

It's nothing, I just miss the days when my master's wife chanted scriptures for me.

After hastily ending his contact with his master's wife, Chu Mingkong sent a message to Yongzhen, asking her to move Jinyu's doll. He then released the Jinyu doll he always carried with him.

Feng Ying was stunned. What was this? There was no sign of life... Wait, how come there was again?

The doll Jin Yu opened her eyes, looked around in astonishment, and stared wide-eyed at Chu Mingkong. If dolls could speak, she would definitely ask Chu Mingkong how he managed to sneak into the palace!

"I'll explain when we get back!" Chu Mingkong said, immediately putting away the brocade doll.

He was just testing whether Yongzhen could control the puppets normally in the palace, and it turned out that he could!

In that case, Chu Mingkong could then have Yongzhen control the puppet Empress Pei's actions. The only big problem would be explaining the existence of the puppet Empress to Yongzhen...

Forget it, I can't explain it. At worst, Yongzhen will just step on it. Is that going to kill you?

Chu Mingkong had just sighed in disappointment when he heard Feng Ying put her finger to his mouth, signaling him not to make a sound, and pointed to the people being led into the palace by several eunuchs.

There were two people who came, both women, dressed very revealingly, with sinister-looking buttocks, sharp-tongued and mean-spirited, not like good people.

They were led by the eunuchs to the emperor's bedroom, and their figures disappeared. Only then did Chu Mingkong ask:

"Fengying, judging from your expression, you seem to know me?"

"I don't know them personally, but I do know their reputation. Both of them are notorious figures in the top ten of the Red Skull List!"

Chapter 122 The Assistance the Emperor Sought (4.2/18)

Chu Mingkong was already a mature man. He didn't care about saving face for those indifferent people, but when the object was his own woman, Chu Mingkong still had to show some respect.

The emperor's palace was no longer a place where Feng Ying could hide using his colorless shadow. The night mist drifting through the palace carried a faint aura of extreme yin, which Feng Ying sensed quite clearly, but Chu Mingkong noticed it perfectly, especially at the intersections near the emperor's palace, where extreme yin power lurked in the misty fog.

The two women who had just entered the palace, as well as the young eunuch, had already been unknowingly possessed by the power of extreme yin.

Chu Ming used his master's wife's primordial spiritual energy to control his mind and directly unleashed the Domain of Annihilation. The pitch-black space enveloped the surroundings, and the drifting of the yin mist ceased.

Even the prepared Fengying was unable to immediately withdraw from the control range of the Annihilation Domain. Her movements froze at the moment she tried to dodge backward. Only the white tiger phantom surrounding her protected her. As soon as she was attacked by the slightest disturbance, it could immediately break free of its restraints and give Fengying a chance to counterattack.

Chu Mingkong patted her body, dispelling the effects of the Annihilation Domain on her.

She remained silent for a long while. Chu Mingkong, with an indifferent and aloof expression, nodded in satisfaction.

"It's a pity. Normally, I would be enjoying your surprise, but right now I have no thoughts about those extra emotions."

Feng Ying looked at Chu Mingkong speechlessly, feeling that his state seemed to indicate some serious illness, but unexpectedly, he was quite cute. It turned out that he had just been showing off when he suddenly pulled that move on her.

Speechless as she was, Fengying's surprise was genuine, because she had just tried his Annihilation Domain "attack" not long ago. At that time, the domain was set up quite slowly, and even if she reacted late, she could still rely on her body's instincts to pull herself out of the range in time.

But this time it really didn't work. She had prepared herself mentally and taken into account Chu Mingkong's proficiency in using this domain. But she didn't expect it to be so fast. It was all done in the blink of an eye. The domain was formed, and this pitch-black, desolate domain had a very strong control. She had no memory of what happened after she was restrained.

Fortunately, this Realm of Annihilation, despite its immense power thanks to Shen Xuejun's blessing, still cannot escape the restriction of "forbidding killing," making it both domineering and benevolent.

However, it is also a pity that this extremely restrictive domain belongs to Chu Mingkong. If Chu Mingkong had mastered it, Feng Ying would have been very happy to see that this domain did not have so many regrettable limitations.

The shape of the Annihilation Domain was controlled by Chu Mingkong. The pitch-black space surrounded the emperor's room, but it did not affect the interior, which was equivalent to releasing the Annihilation Domain from its control within the room.

Feng Ying and Chu Mingkong were already leaning against the wall, eavesdropping on what was happening inside. Feng Ying didn't know much about this Annihilation Domain, so he kept his voice down and only mouthed:

"Should we lower our voices?"

Chu Mingkong deliberately cleared his throat, his voice deep and powerful, a notch higher than usual:

"No need. Sound can't penetrate here. Our voices in this area will be trapped here, and people from the outside won't be able to see anything looking in our direction."

Upon hearing this, Fengying also felt a strong urge to enter this field:

"Then this Nirvana Domain that you and your master were supposed to use was probably mostly used for causing trouble."

“I have no worldly desires,” Chu Mingkong said calmly, without blushing or skipping a beat, his expression serene, confident that he was telling the truth.

Upon hearing this, Feng Ying silently raised one of her pert buttocks at Chu Mingkong, lifted her skirt to almost reveal her fair and tender bottom, and even teasingly patted it lightly, causing her buttocks to ripple slightly.

Chu Mingkong's eyes followed his heart, staring intently at that pert buttocks.

Feng Ying chuckled, shrugged, and asked innocently, "No worldly desires?"

Chu Mingkong remained unmoved: "Beauty is transcendent, not worldly; that's the rule."

Feng Ying simply shook her head. She had no idea what was going on with Chu Mingkong's state of mind. Was it because Shen Xuejun's cultivation level was compromised when she transmitted the information, or was Chu Mingkong simply too obsessed with women's buttocks?

She could clearly sense that Chu Mingkong's aura was the same as Shen Xuejun's at this moment, both of them were indifferent and cold, with little emotion in their eyes and minds, but Chu Mingkong's enthusiasm for Guan'er remained unchanged... Hmm, it seems that Shen Xuejun also has a problem, the master and disciple are particularly fond of Chu Mingkong's childlike appearance.

After a few lighthearted banter, Feng Ying, though eager to joke about Chu Mingkong's current state, couldn't afford to delay. His cautious nature prevented him from discerning the room, so he kept his voice low as he only glanced at it from the corner of his eye.

She introduced the two women in the room to Chu Mingkong: "Mingkong, do you see the woman on the left with black lips?"

Chu Mingkong's gaze was fixed on the woman's buttocks. They were indeed quite ordinary. They looked perky, but in reality, she was deliberately bending over and sticking them out to flaunt her sexiness. Her two long, white legs could be described as slender, but judging from her appearance, there were not many curves from her buttocks to her legs.

Aside from her jet-black lips, the woman's most distinctive feature was the faint black tattoos that were visible in some hidden parts of her body.

"I saw it."

"Fan Le, this woman was previously ranked eighth on the Red Skull List. She possesses a technique for absorbing male essence through sexual intercourse. Her favorite thing to do is to disguise herself and trick cultivators into practicing, and then drain their essence. For a long time, she specifically targeted male cultivators of the Joyful Union Sect, causing the Demonic Sect to be dominated by yin and weakened by yang for ten years."

His own combat skills are only above average, but he is proficient in using various illusions and fog spells in battle, making him extremely difficult to deal with.

Good heavens, the industry of sexual exploitation is so cutthroat, huh... It's one thing for evil sects to harm righteous cultivators, but how come they're even harming demonic sects as well?

The news that caused the Hehuan Sect to suffer from a decade of yin excess and yang deficiency was of great concern to Chu Mingkong. It should be noted that the Hehuan Sect's method of cultivating and replenishing the body through fusion was extremely fast for cultivators in the early stages of their training, and the entry threshold was low. In addition, this cultivation mode was easy to attract some people with impure intentions.

Therefore, the Hehuan Sect recruits a large number of new disciples every year. Not to mention how many of them will eventually stand out, there are a lot of male disciples joining the sect.

Chu Mingkong really couldn't imagine how she could single-handedly cause the male members of the Hehuan Sect to fall to a state of female dominance and male decline... How black must her chicken-loving little mouth be now (referring to how dark her lipstick was applied)?

"And the other one?" Chu Mingkong's gaze shifted to the other woman beside him.

Judging from her attire alone, this woman was clearly from the Crescent Moon Empire. She wore a purple dancer's dress, revealing a flat stomach with clearly defined abs, adorned with a black crystal. Her wrists and thighs were decorated with rings, the marks of which were visible on her skin, making her incredibly sexy. However, upon closer inspection, it became clear that these rings were actually live venomous snakes, flicking their tongues intermittently, and the ring on her finger that appeared to be a scorpion was, in fact, a genuine scorpion.

“Shaman, who once reached sixth place on the Red Skull List, you can probably tell what she was good at just by looking at her. She was also the chief of a fairly large tribe in the Crescent Kingdom. Later, she devoted herself to the affairs of her tribe and her reputation on the Red Skull List gradually faded away, overshadowed by the infamous reputations of others.”

After Fengying finished his introduction, he asked with a puzzled look:

"I remember these two were wanted by the Tianji Empire before. They did indeed do things that harmed the Tianji people. How could they have been invited here, using other people as intermediaries, to be invited by the emperor to be his accomplices?"

"Then it's probably because of the benefits they're after. Is this Shaman also someone who enjoys scheming and taking advantage of younger women?"

"I don't know what she does in private, at least not in her reputation. However, her wolf-scorpion tribe seems to prefer having sex with men with abundant vital energy. They probably have a similar technique of 'draining the man dry,' but there are no rumors about it."

"This butt is alright, it shows a bit of a sense of responsibility. It looks like there's a dagger or something hidden in the back of the butt, making the shape of the butt a bit abnormal."

After Chu Mingkong finished speaking, besides listening attentively to the conversation between the emperor and them, he also looked elsewhere—searching for Empress Pei.

Generally speaking, guests are received in the study, and it is extremely rare for them to be received directly in the bedroom, as such a location would inevitably raise suspicions of sexual transactions.

They were talking directly in their bedroom, but Chu Mingkong couldn't find Empress Pei anywhere; he looked around and couldn't find her.

That's strange. Last night he kept the Empress by his side, but now he's letting her go back to her own palace?

Chu Mingkong quickly realized that he had been overthinking things. Compared to the previous night, a small new room had been opened in the emperor's bedroom, roughly within a circle around the emperor. It was probably where the empress was placed.

--------

"Unexpectedly, the Tianji royal family, who once offered a hefty bounty for our heads, is now sending someone to invite us to cooperate~?" Fan Le looked at the Tianji Emperor with seductive eyes, occasionally licking her lips with a provocative and charming gesture, her eyes frequently glancing at the dragon bed, a clear hint.

However, the emperor remained unmoved. Unless he was actually a person with a child fetish, he could tolerate even a stunning beauty like Empress Pei over the years, so he wouldn't be tempted by this woman who had extracted countless essences from him.

"The warrants for your arrest were issued during the reign of the late emperor. Since I ascended the throne, I have never dealt with the affairs of the Crescent Empire. Now that the eldest princess is being sent to the Crescent Kingdom for a marriage alliance, this is the first time."

Shaman stated her purpose directly: her poisonous insects were showing signs of panic in the area, and she wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible and leave.

"I came here because of the sincerity of His Majesty the Emperor's gift. Let's get straight to the point: what do you need us to do, and what kind of reward can you offer in return?"

The Emperor nodded: "I had the same idea. We have not met before, but now that we are gathered here for mutual benefit, let's just talk about business. You are seeking wealth, or rather, resources, and you know this very well. I hope that you two can do something for me in the Crescent Kingdom."

Chapter 123 Feng Ying is doubting himself (4.5/18)

The emperor summoned these two women to further cultivate relations with the New Moon Kingdom, in addition to the marriage alliance. The marriage alliance was out in the open, while the two women on the Red Skull List operated in the shadows.

Currently, regarding the matter of the inheritance of physical constitution, the subordinates report good and optimistic progress. However, until the results are in, the emperor does not want to place all his hopes on one thing, in case some "what if" situation arises.

This requires a multi-pronged approach within the Crescent Moon Kingdom, connecting various factions and employing both overt and covert forces to quickly stabilize the situation there and see if it can stimulate the emergence of a new Golden Crow Phoenix Body.

Even if the emperor's own subordinates completely implement the inheritance of the Golden Crow Phoenix Body by then, would his arrangements in the Crescent Moon Kingdom be in vain?

Absolutely not. The ancient books of the Celestial Empire are full of praise for the exotic beauties there. It would be good to take the Crescent Kingdom as a vassal state in the future and have them regularly send beauties as concubines.

These two rosy-cheeked skeleton women before us are infamous for their ferocity, but their sculpted features and exotic charm are quite remarkable. If these exotic women were to be further enhanced by the Golden Crow Phoenix Body, their beauty would be unimaginable.

Realizing his thoughts were straying and his anger was rising, the emperor quickly drank some cool water to calm himself down and try to quell his emotions through willpower.

"Hoo—that is what I wish you two to do: keep a close eye on the movements of the marriage procession. There may be someone trying to sabotage things. The situation in the Crescent Kingdom is complicated, and we will need your help. Secondly, we need to maintain close contact in the future, as there are many areas of cooperation that will require your assistance."

As for the cultivation partner Miss Fanle needs, I can provide one myself. The soldiers in Jin who are fighting the ferocious beasts of the Abyss should be able to meet your needs. As for Miss Shaman, I have inquired about her. The living environment of the Wolf Spider tribe is not good, and they do not practice abstaining from grains, requiring food. Although this can satisfy their needs for cultivating poisonous insects, they have been unable to expand their tribe due to food shortages.”

Shaman nodded, her expression remaining unchanged for the time being: "What kind of bargaining chips can His Majesty the Emperor of Tianji offer?"

Her expectations were not very optimistic, because most of these cooperation negotiations only promised a few years' worth of food, but the livelihood of the tribe was a long-term endeavor. Such promises were at most ten years or so. Ten years or so was a very short time for a tribe that practiced cultivation, not even enough to feed a generation. What would happen if the food suddenly decreased?

The emperor smiled confidently: "Give the Tarantula tribe a new home. After the matter is settled, the Tarantula tribe can move to the Celestial Empire. Their original home in the Crescent Kingdom can remain as a place to raise poisonous insects."

"Miss Shaman probably doesn't quite believe this sincerity. As long as the marriage procession safely reaches the Moonlit Royal Family's territory, the Tarantula tribe can begin the relocation process without having to delay so long."

Should we just give them a new environment to reproduce and thrive?!