Mi Li’s mouth worked silently. Why doesn’t this fellow operate like a normal human being?

You have successfully trolled Mi Li for 250 Rage points!

“You…” Mi Li gritted her teeth angrily, but before she could go on a rampage, Zu An suddenly raised his hand to stop her.

“Hang on a moment.”

“What do you want?” asked Mi Li with a frown, not knowing what he was up to.

Zu An summoned his Keyboard and began drawing his lottery once more.

He had already lost over 30,000 Rage points in the previous lottery. There was no way he was going to let history repeat itself, and so, he decided to use up his Rage points right away!

After the last draw, he was left with 84 Rage points. With Mi Li’s new contribution of 250 points, he now had a total of 334 Rage points, which meant that he could draw the lottery three times.

He couldn’t help but feel like he was getting a good deal.

Just as he had expected, he got nothing from the three draws at all. However, he felt very different from before. Now that he had finally gotten rid of the flag weighing him down, he felt much more at ease.

I really mustn’t make vows casually in the future. Karma is a bitch.

“All right, I’m back. Big sis empress, what were you saying earlier on?” Zu An was in such a good mood that a smile unconsciously graced his lips.

“I was going to mention earlier on…” Mi Li was halfway through her sentence when she suddenly froze up. Huh, what was I going to say earlier? His sudden disruption had thrown her off.

It took a long moment before she finally recalled what she was getting to. “Hmph, don’t you know better than anyone else why I sealed this Life-and-Death Contract with you? Just thinking about it is enough to drive me mad! If you dare bring this matter up to make fun of me in the future, I won’t let you off the hook easily.”

Mi Li paused for a moment, wondering if her threat was far too vague to be taken seriously. She added, “I might be unable to kill you, but I can easily break your limbs. You need to be beaten up in order to raise your cultivation anyway, so I’d actually be doing you a favor. Hmm, now that I think about it, I’m really tempted to give it a try.”

Zu An noticed her gaze moving towards his limbs and recoiled in horror. He quickly replied, “T-there’s no need to try that out! I trust you, I really do! Ah right, I have a question for you. If Ying Zheng knew of a way to deal with you, why didn’t he simply purify you in the first place, instead of creating such a complicated seal?”

“The purification of the Primordial Origin Sutra only works on souls. My physical body protected me from it. Why would I fear his purification technique?” Mi Li said with a snort.

Zu An was perplexed. “But he could have killed you and purified your soul right after, no? Pardon my bluntness, but you’re likely weaker than Ying Zheng. Surely he would have had a means to kill you.”

Mi Li had been vague about this matter thus far. Now that their fates were linked together, though, she chose to elaborate further. “He’s always been headstrong. He wanted me to submit to him, but I could never let him have his way. That being said, I do acknowledge that he probably spared me because of our ties as a couple… It was shortly after our fight that Ying Zheng suddenly dropped dead, and so I ended up being stuck in the seal.”

Zu An noticed something peculiar in Mi Li’s expression when she made those remarks. It seemed as if she was reminiscing about the past. For some reason, he had a feeling that she was intentionally hiding something from him.

He knew that Mi Li would not divulge any more information even if he probed further, so he decided to let the matter rest for now. He would ask about it again after they grew closer to one another. 

“You mentioned that Zhang Han and Xiang Yu used the lingering aura of the Soul Suppression Seal to seal off the two hundred thousand evil spirits. Since Xiang Yu came to this mausoleum, and considering the hatred he bore toward the imperial family, it didn’t make sense for him to spare you,” asked Zu An.

“That’s surprising. You know quite a bit about Xiang Yu.” Mi Li seemed rather taken aback. “Indeed, Xiang Yu harbored a great hatred for the Qin Dynasty. He killed the Qin soldiers who surrendered, burned down the palaces, and plundered Xianyang[1] as he pleased. When he learned about my existence from Zhang Han, he wanted to lay his hands on me too.”

There was a hint of fury in Mi Li’s voice as she continued on. “He had long heard of my beauty, and my status as the empress of the Qin Dynasty also stoked his desire to conquer. He began bearing filthy thoughts about me. He started off by expressing his admiration for me in the underground palace, and eventually, he succumbed to his lust and tried to undo the Soul Suppression Seal.”

Zu An was alarmed. “Given Xiang Yu’s strength, even the Soul Suppression Soul shouldn’t be able to stop him.”

In his previous world, Xiang Yu was known to be a powerful general renowned for his martial prowess. In this world of supernatural abilities, Xiang Yu would have to be a terrifyingly powerful cultivator.

“You’re mistaken about that. Xiang Yu was indeed an extremely powerful individual; the Human Seal and Earth Seal couldn’t stop him at all. He was able to overcome the trials far faster than you did,” replied Mi Li.

Zu An scratched his head sheepishly. I mean, it’s no big deal to lose to a legendary historical figure, right?

“However, he failed at the Heaven Seal. No matter how powerful he was, he was unable to stand against heaven’s will. On top of that, he seemed to run into some trouble outside, and so he ended up never returning to this mausoleum. Because of this, I believed the Heaven Seal to be fraught with dangers. If even someone as powerful as Xiang Yu wasn’t able to breach it, I bore little hope that a third rank cultivator like you could do so. Yet, you actually managed to succeed where he failed. Perhaps it’s heaven’s will at play,” remarked Mi Li wistfully, before chuckling softly.

However, she suddenly remembered how she was now shackled inside yet another cage shortly after being released, and her complexion turned awful once more.

“It looks like I’m the one chosen by heaven,” remarked Zu An gleefully.

His glee only further spurred Mi Li’s displeasure. “Hmph! If the Tai’e Sword hadn’t suffered great damage from Xiang Yu’s attempt to breach the seal back then, it would have surely been far more difficult for you.”

Zu An didn’t think that it was a big deal at all. “The fact that everything worked out despite the odds stacked against me shows that this is all the result of fate at play. Don’t you find it interesting how a third rank cultivator like me was able to accomplish what the powerful Xiang Yu was unable to pull off?”

Mi Li was slightly surprised by his remarks. She murmured under her breath, “Fate, huh…”

It took her a long while to return to the present. When she finally did so, she said, “You’ve been asking me questions for some time now. It’s time for you to answer my questions now.”

“Big sis empress, feel free to ask anything of me. I’ll calm your doubts to the best of my abilities!” replied Zu An with a smile.

For some reason, his response made Mi Li feel that he was going to concoct a bunch of lies. “Where did you obtain the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra?”

“Well, I received it from a mysterious old man…” Since he was bound to Mi Li in a Life-and-Death Contract now, there was no reason for him to hide this from her. She was bound to find out once they returned to the Chu Manor anyway.

Besides, he’d always sensed something sinister about Old Mi. It might be good for him to discuss this matter with Mi Li.

Mi Li frowned. “Was he your father or your grandfather?”

Zu An was momentarily speechless.

Why do I feel like I’m being scolded here?

“Neither.”

“If he’s unrelated to you, why would he present such a powerful secret art to you? It’s as clear as day that he’s up to something,” sneered Mi Li.

Zu An shared the same thoughts as well, but he simply couldn’t figure out exactly what he possessed which Old Mi coveted.

“Could it be my looks? Y’know, I have a strong feeling that I’m the one chosen by heaven, the protagonist of the world. I feel that it’s only normal for powerful experts to want to impart all of their skills to me.”

Mi Li remained silent for a moment.

She eyed Zu An with narrowed eyes for a moment before asking, “By any chance, are you deranged?”

Zu An almost fell over.

You’re the one who is deranged. Your entire family is deranged!

“If there’s something wrong with your head, you ought to tell me right away. I might be a runemaster, but I am fairly knowledgeable when it comes to medicine as well. I might just be able to treat your illness before it gets too severe. It’s common knowledge amongst physicians that those with mental problems tend to be the hardest to treat,” remarked Mi Li.

Zu An ground his teeth in silence.

However, something about what she said struck him, and he asked, “Wait a moment. You’re a physician too?”

“Of course!” replied Mi Li proudly. “In the past, the Qin Dynasty conquered the whole of the Central Plains and gathered all the books from the annexed countries into its imperial palace. I would browse through those books whenever I had time. Eventually, I managed to bring together my knowledge of runes and medicine to forge a new path for myself. You can say that I’m decently proficient in the field of medicine.”

Even though Mi Li said that she was ‘decently proficient’, there was an incredibly proud look on her face that screamed ‘Praise me! worship me!’

“Since you’re a physician, hurry up and treat Snow!” Zu An was overjoyed. Mi Li was turning out to be a far greater treasure than he had expected.

Mi Li’s expression immediately turned cold. “I don’t have any medicinal herbs or pills on me. How do you expect me to save me?”

Zu An clicked his tongue. “Tsk, it looks like you aren’t as formidable as I thought.”

“You need not try to rile me up,” replied Mi Li. “I can treat her if the situation really calls for it, but I’m in a much too weakened state right now. I just about managed to heal a little by absorbing those evil spirits. Why should I expend my energy on a woman I owe nothing to? Besides, she isn’t in mortal danger. All she needs to do is to consume some vitality-restoring herbs or pills, and she’ll easily make a full recovery.”

Zu An also realized that his worry had clouded his judgment, and he had failed to assess the situation properly. However, he wasn’t about to lose this chance to make fun of her. “I still think that your skills as a physician aren’t much to brag about. Otherwise, how could you succumb to the poison so easily?”

This time, Mi Li really lost her temper. “Ignorant brat! What do you know? The Red Tears of Lady Xiang should not exist in the mortal world. This poison can kill even an Earth Immortal! If not for my knowledge of runes and medicine, which allowed me to draw my soul out of my body, I would have died by now!”

You have successfully trolled Mi Li for 512 Rage points!

Zu An was astounded. He hadn’t thought that the poison was that potent. It was a pity that Zhang Han had used up the final droplet. With it, he would have been able to easily eliminate anyone he desired.

Mi Li felt that continuing to speak with Zu An would result in her having a heart attack, so she decided to ignore him altogether. She turned to the terracotta soldiers and said, “Thank you all for your diligence. If you all did not fight so valiantly to buy us the necessary time, we wouldn’t have been able to bring down those evil spirits so easily.”

The terracotta soldiers were touched by her words. They had guarded this underground hall for over a thousand years now, and their efforts were finally being recognized. This was something incredibly honorable to them.

“Now that Zhang Han is dead and the Qin Dynasty has fallen, you’ll serve me from now onward,” said Mi Li as she gazed down at the terracotta soldiers with an air of pride.

Those terracotta soldiers looked at one another hesitantly for a moment before hurriedly falling to their knees and bowing. This was a servile gesture in the Qin Dynasty.

Zu An was delighted to see this. 

Wouldn’t I be able to do as I please as well? I’ll get Mi Li to send those terracotta soldiers against anyone who dares to cross me! Ahhh, it looks like I’m born to be a moochlord!

While he was deep in thought, the unexpected suddenly happened. Murderous intent flashed across Mi Li’s eyes as she raised her hand, and the Tai’e Sword swept through the terracotta soldiers with immense momentum.

In an instant, the hapless terracotta soldiers were sliced into halves.