chocolily

I heard many countries went back to lockdown >.<  My country is in half lockdown state.... the cases soar so high! Everyone, take care of yourself!

XH 299 - Stop taking my wife away!

Xiao Liu finally tied the carriage to his two horses and started setting off back to the Guilin Kingdom. San Sheng seated beside Xiao Liu at the rider's seat and his years of training did not embarrass himself when the horse flew at their fastest speed under the order of their master.

Despite the speed faster was than a bullet train, the inside of the carriage was as calm as if they were in a different space. Xiao Hua gave up looking out of the window with the purpose to enjoy the scenery when she could only see blur images that made her head dizzy just to squint at them.

"After I died and went back against time..." Long Zhu's words successfully grabbed Xiao Hua's attention, which made his job in easing Xiao Hua's swollen eye bags easier. Continuing to lightly rub his red jade thumb ring with special constitution against the swollen area, he continues on, "I plan to unite the Four Kingdoms together and have one of us four to be the ruler."

His plan was not known to anyone but himself, but he suspected his inner maids have some inkling on it, which he did not clarify or stop their wild guesses. His inner maids were not so foolish to exposed their guesses to others.

"There were times where my desire for power would lead me to aim to conquer the Four Kingdoms and be the ruler. But most of the time, another side of me that wishes for a peaceful life just wanted to run away from everything and hide in a simple village to live out the rest of my life. Two contradicting sides and desire, yet I could not deny them of their right to desire so."

"... Do you still want to unite the Four Kingdoms?" Xiao Hua asked.

"Four Kingdoms with Four Emperors is still a better choice." When he finally discovered the truth of why the Four Kingdoms could not become one nation, he could only laugh at his own idiocy and praised himself for not revealing his ideals to his fellow time traveller, saving his own face.

"Qiang Laohu, Lord Mingzhu, Feng Jiu, and Heise are all competent rulers. None of them are better than the others."

Xiao Hua smiled. "Four Kingdoms being friendly with each other is also good. To have four brains instead of one is always better too."

Even if Le XiaoTing never liked having her university assignments as group work. There was always one or two that were rotten eggs that never do their part! When she graduated and enter workforce, she was disappointed to discovered that group work was mostly the same even if she was in different place.

Long Zhu laughed lightly and rubbed her cheeks that were still as fleshy as two years ago, just that her chin looked sharper and longer, revealing her maturing beauty. Like always, Xiao Hua always seeks which side he leaned on first before voicing out her support that was coincidentally on his side, as if she had always been thinking so.

His gently swaying flower that follows the wind's direction.

The Four Kingdom will record today's event in their history book, except for the location of the Gate. Everyone was in the agreement that the location should be kept secret in case there was another lunatic like Shen Ruyi that wanted to open the Gate and release chaos into the world. Only the Emperors and the next in line to the throne will be allowed to know about the secret record that includes the location of the Gate, in case anything happens in the future.

When they finally returned home, Xiao Hua and Long Zhu tacitly agreed that they would head straight to bed and sleep off their exhaustion as long as they wanted to. The servants were all ordered to refuse all guests that came to their doors.

They deserve this break!

The Empress Dowager sighed and let her son and daughter-in-law to rest, knowing that if things were bad, they would not even dare to rest, much less taking a nap. Taking the Third Prince and his Princess Consort's action as an answer, everyone sighed in relief that the calamity was successfully prevented.

Long Zhu was sleeping deeply for the first time in days. Mentally and physically tired were the reason, but it was also because he was sleeping in a place where he felt safe. But something tugged in his conscience mind, disturbing his well-earned sleep. Because he was fully relaxed, it took him a long time to discover there was something wrong with Xiao Hua in his embrace.

His bleary eyes quickly sharpen when his mind finally decodes the image sent from his retina, one of Xiao Hua sweating with flushed face as if she was in a boiling hot room with her face frowning without a peaceful sleep.

Due to Xiao Hua's scary encounter of her soul returning back to her original body, Long Zhu was even more afraid that she would leave him for good, especially when she looked distressed and uncomfortable.

"Xiao Hua! Wake up! Xiao Hua!"

But no matter how much he called her name to wake her up, she acted as if she could not hear him, occasionally letting out a pained grumble under her breath. Her body feels cold under his touch despite her sweating enough to fill a bucket.

"Summon the Imperial doctor quickly!" Long Zhu roared and San Sheng, who was standing guard outside the door, immediately went into the palace to invite the doctor.

By now, everyone in the manor knew their Madam was in trouble, but could only helplessly watch on. None of them were greater in medical knowledge than their master.

Long Zhu did his best to adjust her body temperature with special herbs and acupuncture techniques but they failed.

A newbie shadow guard exclaimed in fright and awe. "M-Master... Madam's cultivation-!" He was not allowed to join his master to the war and was happy to be able to guard his master this close for the first time while his seniors were still in the battlefield. But he became panicked when his master summoned a doctor for the suddenly ill Madam on his first day of duty.

It was only thanks to his shadow guard that Long Zhu noticed for the first time that his wife's cultivation realm became strange.

"Is... Is she breaking through?" The newbie questioned under his breath, voicing out his thoughts as a way to gather courage and to be helpful to his master. If he was useless, his seniors will punish him when they return and throw him back into further training for a long time!

In his eyes, his seniors were ten times more terrifying than his good looking master. He believes such a good looking master with a gentle smile has a good temper!

Long Zhu's panic slowly shrinks, thinking that everyone's breakthrough symptoms were usually similar, but there were also some people who showed different symptoms. But even so, it would be better to have an experienced doctor to diagnose her pulse to check if there was something wrong with her body in case it was not because of the breakthrough.

"Master... Madam is truly a genius," The newbie shadow guard murmured in awe.

Long Zhu would have agreed with his words if not for how ridiculous the breakthrough speed was!

Xiao Hua was a second rank cultivator, and Doctor Bai had even confirmed that was the highest she could reach with her body's innate talent. Everyone's body was different, including their innate talent and potential.

But currently, she broke Doctor Bai's words that always proven as true facts and defied Heaven's law for suddenly soaring up into the fifth rank without any hard effort. The scariest thing was, she was still breaking through.

Long Zhu frowned, fearing that this bizarre breakthrough might not stop and would straight up ascend his wife into immortality. It was a piece of good news if that was the case, since there were no written records of someone that managed to do that before. But Long Zhu found that idea to be unpleasant.

Stop taking my wife away! (＃'Д')

Fortunately, the breakthrough finally stopped when Xiao Hua's cultivation realm hit the sixth rank, which was the same rank as Long Zhu. An idea suddenly rose in his mind, which might or might not explain this peculiar breakthrough.

Just as the advancement stopped, Xiao Hua's tense expression rapidly calmed down and her temperature slowly went back to normal, putting Long Zhu finally at ease.

When the doctor finally arrives, he could only diagnose the Third Princess Consort to be healthy and well, without any illness to be found.

After the time to drink a cup of tea, Xiao Hua woke up and found herself to be the strongest female cultivator in the Guilin Kingdom.