Zu An frowned. 

This woman seems to bear a great deal of ill will towards men. It seems Qin Shihuang truly broke her heart, and now, she hates all the men in the world.

“Who’s flirting with him?” exclaimed Qiao Xueying. “Where’s the Heaven Seal? Let’s proceed to the third stage!”

Mi Li’s voice echoed around the cavern once more. “How unexpected. I never believed that the two of you would be able to break the Human Seal and the Earth Seal. While it seems to have been quite the struggle for the two of you, it doesn’t seem like you’ve exhausted yourselves too much. This is truly a miracle. I’m aware of the resources Ying Zheng had at his disposal; it shouldn’t have been possible for the two of you to clear the two trials at all.”

Zu An knew that she was speaking the truth. If not for Qiao Xueying’s extendable hair tripping over the copper giants and the razor-sharp Poisonous Prick, it was unlikely that he would have been able to defeat those astonishingly resilient, self-healing copper giants in the Human Seal.

It had been much more of a close shave in the Earth Seal. If not for the Magical Flashlight suppressing the terracotta army and the skillful maneuvers of Sunflower Phantasm, he would have died many times over. He was confident that even an expert of Chu Zhongtian’s caliber wouldn’t have fared better than he did if placed in the same situation.

Even so, he’d only survived due to Qiao Xueying sacrificing her Half Life’s Fate for him.

“Since you never expected us to succeed, why did you still make us take the risk?” asked Zu An.

A peal of melodious yet chilling laughter rang out. “I have nothing to lose anyway. Even if you fail, all I have to do is to wait a while longer for the next batch of people to enter the underground palace. Time is one thing that I don’t lack.”

Both Zu An and Qiao Xueying were momentarily too stunned to speak.

“So we were just your guinea pigs?” Zu An gritted his teeth when he thought of the various times he’d nearly lost his life in the trials.

“You had the choice not to challenge the seals. I didn’t force you into this,” replied Mi Li coldly.

Zu An felt like leaving there and then, but he knew that Chu Chuyan was still waiting for him. He had no choice but to swallow his anger and say, “Fine, let’s go!”

He walked up to the Heaven Seal together with Qiao Xueying, and the two of them stepped on top of the formation together.

There was a burst of white light. When the feeling of weightlessness finally disappeared, the two of them were left in a daze. They assumed that the realm within the Heaven Seal would be fraught with dangers, but their surroundings hardly looked threatening at all.

They were in a peaceful countryside. A stream flowed gently nearby, with a small bridge above it. The light breeze carried the songs of the birds far and wide. In the far distance, men could be seen plowing the field and women weaving cloth close to their homes. Chickens were roaming the fields in search of food, and dogs were lying lazily under the sun. 

“This is the Heaven Seal?” muttered Qiao Xueying uncertainly.

All she could see was a peaceful countryside village; she couldn’t imagine this place holding any sort of danger.

However, Zu An remarked in a low voice, “Don’t be fooled by appearances. This village might just be filled with powerful experts.”

“Powerful experts?” Qiao Xueying looked at the people around and replied, “That doesn’t seem to be the case. While few of them do emanate some ki, their cultivation doesn’t even seem to be at your level. They can’t possibly be experts.”

“What do you mean ‘not even at my level’?” demanded Zu An angrily.

It was then that they realized that their hands were linked once again, and they quickly pulled their hands away from each other.

“It’s just in case we get teleported to different places!” Qiao Xueying explained quickly, her eyes looking everywhere else but at Zu An.

“That’s what I was thinking too.” Zu An was also a little astonished by how he kept instinctively grabbing that foul-mouthed woman’s hand.

In order to alleviate the awkwardness, Qiao Xueying quickly added, “Ah, I think we shouldn’t trust that woman’s words too. The fact that she’s sealed here means that she’s an extremely dangerous person. If we release her without making any preparations against her, there’s a chance that she might renege on her promise to save Chu Chuyan. In fact, it’s completely possible for her to turn against us too.”

Zu An knew that she was referring to Mi Li, and he replied, “I know that as well, but there’s no other option at the moment, unless we’re willing to watch helplessly as Chuyan is offered up as tribute.”

Qiao Xueying fell silent. It was possible for the two of them to escape by themselves, but Chu Chuyan would be left to die. She could never live with such a mark on her conscience.

Zu An gazed at the faraway village and said, “Let’s focus our efforts on dealing with the Heaven Seal first. Judging from the dangers we faced from the earlier two seals, the Heaven Seal is likely to have hidden dangers too.”

Qiao Xueying nodded in response as she scanned her surroundings warily. It was fortunate that Zu An’s medicine had restored most of her strength. She wasn’t back to her peak yet, but she was at least able to protect herself now.

They walked over to the entrance of the village, intending to approach one of the villagers to ask about the situation. Unexpectedly, a dog that was basking in the sun suddenly started barking at the two of them.

Zu An initially thought that it was some sort of ferocious beast, but the more he stared at it, the more it seemed just like a native Chinese dog to him. In a world of cultivation, it looked as harmless as a sheep.

However, its barks quickly piqued the attention of the villagers. Quite a few of them surrounded the new arrivals, wielding hoes and carrying poles. A brawny man stepped forward. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” he demanded in a menacing tone.

Zu An clasped his fist and said, “Hello, we were passing by, and have lost our way. May I know where we are at the moment?”

The brawny man frowned. “You must be a fugitive, given that suspicious, ratlike face of yours. Leave our village right now, before we call the constables over!”

Zu An was too stunned to speak.

What the hell? It’s one thing for you to say that I’m a fugitive, but to say that I have a suspicious, ratlike face? How can this dashing face of mine be ratlike?!

You should really get your eyes checked!

Zu An was infuriated and about to lash out like a shrew, but Qiao Xueying pulled him aside and stepped forward with a smile, saying, “Hello, fellow brothers. My brother and I encountered some bandits a few days ago, and had to flee desperately for our lives. It wasn’t easy for us to shake them off, and we just happened to stumble by your village. It’s not our wish to disturb your peace, but we’ve lost our possessions along the way, and we’re now thirsty and hungry. Could I trouble you to spare some water for us?”

When he saw Qiao Xueying’s beautiful appearance, the brawny man immediately became much more amicable. It was also only then that he noticed that the back of her dress was stained in fresh blood, causing his heart to melt with pity. He quickly said, “Those bandits sure are hateful for daring to harm a young miss like you! Come in and have a rest, we’ll prepare some food and water for you. We’ll get a physician to prescribe some medicine for you as well.”

Qiao Xueying was quickly escorted into the village by a huge group of people. Before she left, she even fluttered her lashes at him smugly.

Excuse me?

What’s wrong with these villagers? I approached them amicably, but they tried to chase me away as though I were a thief. Qiao Xueying’s body was caked in blood, and she clearly doesn’t look like an upstanding citizen at all, but they ended up getting so cozy with her.

Bloody hell! Is this world all about appearances? But I don’t lose out to her at all in that regard… 

In the end, Zu An could only attribute this unfairness to the fact that Qiao Xueying was a girl.

Hmph, despite their honest looks, these villagers are all old perverts!

He trailed behind the group with a nasty look on his face, watching on sullenly as the villagers put a cup of water into her hands, and even invited an old physician over to prescribe some medicine for her.

“Isn’t Snow letting her guard down a little too much? Isn’t she worried at all that the water might be spiked?” Zu An retorted in his heart.

It was fortunate that the preferential treatment being shown to her did nothing to dull Qiao Xueying’s senses. She thanked the villagers before making use of this opportunity to gather some information. “Big brother Chen, may I know where I am?”

It had only been moments since she’d entered the village, but she already knew the brawny man’s surname. It appeared that women really had an advantage when it came to this sort of stuff. 

“This is Chen Village, within the Dong Commandery,” replied the brawny man.

“Dong Commandery?” 

Qiao Xueying was taken aback. She didn’t recall there being an ‘Dong Commandery’ in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Meanwhile, Zu An frowned upon hearing those words. He was aware that Qin Shihuang was from the Qin Dynasty, and he vaguely remembered there being a Dong Commandery within the boundaries of Qin Country. It was located somewhere in the Henan, Hebei, and Shandong provinces.

What’s happening in the Heaven Seal?

He had been carefully examining his surroundings all this while, and took note that most of the villagers were ordinary civilians. Even the few cultivators among them were not considerably strong. It was hard to believe that this was the final trial of the Soul Suppression Seal.

“Miss Qiao, once you’ve rested, you should leave quickly. We don’t know who you are, and we dare not keep you here in the village with us. If anything happens, our entire village might be collectively punished,” said the brawny man, Chen Wei.

“Collective punishment…” mumbled Zu An.

The Qin Dynasty was known for its draconian laws that employed collective punishments. In this era, farmers were bound to their land and forbidden from leaving their ‘allocated areas’. People who roamed into other territories, like Zu An and Qiao Xueying, were either nobles or fugitives. It would have been okay if they were nobles, but if the local magistrate found their village guilty of harboring fugitives, all those who lived in it could be executed for the crime of failing to report the matter to the authorities. Given all this, there was no way they would dare to accept strangers.

“Thank you, big brother Chen, and all of the uncles and aunties here too.” 

Qiao Xueying didn’t want to put them in a tight spot, so after a brief chat, they left the Chen Village. As they waved goodbye to the villagers, Qiao Xueying asked Zu An softly, “What do you think is going on in this Heaven Seal? I don’t get what’s happening at all.”

“I’m also having trouble making sense of this,” replied Zu An with a shake of his head.

Qiao Xueying pondered for a moment before suggesting, “Should we try searching the area to see where the other roads lead to?”

“There’s no point doing that,” replied Zu An. “Have you forgotten what it was like in the Human Seal? We tried to enter the city, but we couldn’t get in, no matter what we tried. Since we were teleported to this village, the core of the formation is likely here.”

Qiao Xueying bit her lips. She also knew that it was likely to be the case, but this didn’t bode well for them, since there was nothing for them to work with. “What should we do now? We can’t even enter the village.”

Zu An rolled his eyes. “Are you dumb? We can just sneak in at night to take a look!”

Qiao Xueying sighed deeply and remarked, “These people treated me rather well. I really hope that they won’t be our enemies.”

“The Chu clan treated you rather well too, but you didn’t have any trouble turning your back on them,” scoffed Zu An.

Qiao Xueying immediately blew up. “Are you done? Your words have been carrying thorns in them for quite a while now!!”

“Really? I’m just speaking the truth,” replied Zu An with a shrug before awkwardly averting his gaze.

Qiao Xueying suddenly burst into laughter. “I get it now. You must be jealous because you saw them treating me well after having ignored you.”

“Rubbish! Why would I care about all that?” exclaimed Zu An as he walked away. “Let’s take a look around the perimeter of the village to familiarize ourselves with the terrain first. It’s going to be sunset soon.”

He wasn’t too worried about time here because he realized that the flow of time in the trial was different from that of the outside world. As long as he didn’t stall for too long, he should still be able to make it back in time.

Just as I thought! Heh, what a narrow-minded man he is! Qiao Xueying followed him, an amused smile on her lips. She was feeling much better than before.