Lu Xingzhou had never expected this case to be solved so quickly. He had previously considered that the full face Ah Nuo saw might not be real, and he would have to find ways to confirm it from various angles.

However, a pig’s reaction basically solidified the matter.

Fortunately, the pig couldn’t speak, so at least Jiang Yuan could still cover up the situation: “This pig, *cough*, this pig is so cute. What is it doing?”

The little pig: “?”

Do you think my two masters are pigs? Do you really think you can fool us?

But Lu Xingzhou actually said, “Hmm, maybe it’s a bit shy around strangers.”

The little pig became anxious, kicking its hooves wildly in Jiang Yuan’s direction, looking as if it wanted revenge, indicating that it was not shy around strangers.

Ah Nuo scooped it up and ran off in a flash.

The little pig: “…”

Lu Xingzhou watched Ah Nuo run far away, then turned to look at Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan instinctively took half a step back.

Now it was truly a lone man and woman.

She quickly reconsidered, though. Lu Xingzhou’s personal strength couldn’t beat her, and even with the little girl and the pig, they couldn’t stop her. What was there to be afraid of?

Lu Xingzhou smiled slightly, then sat down at the table and gestured with his hand, “Miss Jiang, please sit.”

Jiang Yuan’s face was as calm as water as she sat down.

Lu Xingzhou got her a set of cutlery and poured a glass of wine. “What is the meaning of this marriage alliance? To gain support from Daqian? To become a true local identity in this world? To prevent Tianyao Sacred Land from acting rashly?”

Jiang Yuan replied sternly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The Huo family wields immense power in Daqian; what’s so strange about a marriage alliance?”

“Then you have peculiar tastes.”

“You…” Jiang Yuan took a deep breath. “It’s none of your business.”

“Why did you try to assassinate me? That certainly concerns me.”

“I…” Jiang Yuan uttered one word, then immediately realized, “When did I try to assassinate you? Today is the first day I’ve met you.”

“If today is the first day you’ve met me, why did you come as soon as Huo Zhang invited you? Aren’t you worried about appearances?”

“Huo Zhang will soon be my son; what appearances do I need to avoid? Everyone knows that my grandfather and I went to see you this morning. Since you want to continue talking, I naturally came to hear what you have to say.”

As Jiang Yuan spoke, she looked Lu Xingzhou up and down, her eyes practically screaming, “You might be my son too.”

Lu Xingzhou sighed. “Dragging things out like this is pointless, Miss Jiang… Since you’re willing to come, your primary intention is to see if I’ve recognized you and, if so, how to resolve it, not to quibble over irrelevant things. Why not just lay it all out?”

Jiang Yuan remained silent.

Lu Xingzhou added, “You also wouldn’t want your grandfather to know about your unauthorized assassination attempt on me at the Sacred Mountain Secret Realm, would you?”

“You!” Jiang Yuan was about to say something when a red cloth appeared in Lu Xingzhou’s hand, and Jiang Yuan’s words abruptly stopped.

“I have evidence; I’m sure your grandfather recognizes this cloth,” Lu Xingzhou said, shaking the red cloth.

Jiang Yuan suddenly reached out to snatch it, but Lu Xingzhou, having anticipated this, had already tucked it back into his ring.

Jiang Yuan, committing fully, changed tactics and formed her hand into a blade, striking towards Lu Xingzhou’s side neck, clearly intending to knock him out and snatch the item.

Lu Xingzhou grabbed with his left hand, almost catching her wrist. Jiang Yuan was startled, quickly withdrew her hand, and her eyes widened in disbelief.

During their previous battle, Lu Xingzhou, though strong, was clearly only a Third-Rank cultivator, and still quite a distance from the peak of Third-Rank.

How had he suddenly reached Second-Rank now?!

You couldn’t take drugs that fast!

Theoretically, moving from Third-Rank to Second-Rank was merely the difference between the early and middle stages of ancient *Tengyun* cultivation, seemingly a small difference but in fact not that simple.

*Tengyun* cultivation itself required far more energy than previous stages, taking much longer to accumulate; secondly, since cultivation was based on the Nine-Rank grading system, the cultivation methods naturally underwent some changes. A threshold that wasn’t prominent in ancient methods became an additional barrier under the Nine-Rank system. Otherwise, not so many Third-Rank cultivators would get stuck before reaching Second-Rank, and First-Rank would not be so rare.

Even Yuan Muyu, who reached Third-Rank so early, struggled repeatedly to reach Second-Rank and First-Rank, almost becoming a fallen genius of Tianyao Sacred Land. The differences between ancient and modern methods were evident.

Even Jiang Yuan herself, though not facing the latter problem, would be constrained by energy issues. She had gone through countless hardships to cultivate to her current Sixth-Layer *Tengyun*. Cultivation was never that simple.

Lu Xingzhou also didn’t have the latter problem; he cultivated ancient methods, just like Jiang Yuan. As for the immense energy required… that was the Dragon Emperor’s primordial Yin.

Now, Second-Rank versus Second-Rank, Jiang Yuan knew it was impossible to win quickly and silently. She withdrew her hand, gritting her teeth and asking, “What do you want?”

She secretly vowed that if he proposed certain conditions, she would expose herself and cut down this scoundrel first.

“As I said, I hope to be frank and open with you, Miss, and understand the full story of what happened,” Lu Xingzhou said calmly, pouring himself wine and taking a sip. “First, I don’t know how I offended you. Why did you try to assassinate me? Is it because you’re allied with Zhao En and his group, and you’re here to retaliate for them?”

Jiang Yuan was silent for a moment, then finally said, “No. I infiltrated to steal ancient exotic beast bones. I hadn’t succeeded yet when you arrived…”

“Then why try to kill me?”

“I didn’t intend to kill you, just to knock you out to make things easier,” Jiang Yuan sighed. “You two clearly looked like you intended to cultivate there for a long time. I had been away from home for a long time and couldn’t just wait there indefinitely…”

She paused here, then added with a hint of sarcasm, “Besides, you and Sheng Yaoyao looked like you were about to ‘get busy.’ Was I supposed to stand there and listen to your live spring palace?”

Lu Xingzhou retorted, annoyed, “Why were she and I about to ‘get busy’? Wasn’t it because you secretly instigated the demonic energy and wildness hidden within those skeletal remains?”

“That’s also because you both originally wanted to do ‘that’ for it to have an effect… Oh, wait.” Jiang Yuan paused, puzzled. “So you noticed an outsider lurking because of this… Strange, that kind of wildness is subtle. Sheng Yaoyao couldn’t perceive it, so how could you know?”

“Am I asking you or are you asking me?” Lu Xingzhou laughed. “You’re quite curious, aren’t you?”

Jiang Yuan pouted for a moment, turning her head huffily, looking rather cute.

After a while, she said, “That place isn’t yours. Why can’t I go in and search for things?”

“That place is occupied by the Dragon Emperor; it belongs to the Dragon Emperor.”

“So what does the Dragon Emperor’s property have to do with you?!” Jiang Yuan retorted angrily. “What’s wrong with us humans stealing a bit of something from the demon domain? You’re a human traitor, and you say I don’t want people to know this and that. I’d like to see if you dare let people know you’re guarding the Dragon Emperor’s home.”

“I am her man,” Lu Xingzhou tapped the table. “Stealing my wife’s dowry, and you’re still so self-righteous?”

Jiang Yuan froze there.

“Furthermore, what kind of human traitor? The Dragon Emperor and I are both from this world. Whatever happens behind closed doors is an internal matter of this world. Letting things go to your ancient realm, *that* would be a realm traitor.”

The butler, from the distant courtyard, only heard “traitor, traitor” repeatedly, feeling speechless.

These young people nowadays.

The butler sighed, but Jiang Yuan was startled, “Wh-what ancient… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I said, be frank and open, yet you’re still being evasive,” Lu Xingzhou sneered. “You cooperated with Gu Zhanting, listened to him to attack Sacred Mountain, but were ambushed by Si Han. You were cautious and dared not move again, so you temporarily withdrew. But you didn’t pack up and return to Daqian directly; you remained nearby, observing the situation, and then you saw the chaos at Sacred Mountain, didn’t you?”

Jiang Yuan was truly shocked this time. “You… why do you know so clearly?”

“Si Han was summoned by me. See how much fate we share.”

Jiang Yuan flew into a rage. “So, our affairs have been ruined by you from start to finish, you dog, na…”

Before she finished speaking, Lu Xingzhou picked up the red cloth again and twirled it. “Compared to whether those messy affairs succeed, I believe your grandfather is more afraid of exposing your ancient realm identity, isn’t he? Look what you’ve done?”

Jiang Yuan gritted her teeth. “What evidence do you have that we are from the ancient realm, just this tattered cloth?”

Indeed, this couldn’t prove it. Lu Xingzhou had wanted to identify whether this tattered cloth was of this world’s craftsmanship at the time, but he ultimately found it to be ordinary craftsmanship, common in any realm. In fact, even if it could be proven to be ancient realm craftsmanship, it couldn’t prove to outsiders that this cloth belonged to Jiang Yuan… it would only be useful for discussing the matter with Jiang Duxu.

But it was clear that Jiang Yuan did not want Jiang Duxu to know about this.

Lu Xingzhou looked at Jiang Yuan’s annoyed expression and said calmly, “Miss Jiang, I hope you understand one thing… I wish to have a serious conversation with a guest from the ancient realm, not just with someone who once tried to assassinate me. If you don’t cooperate, my conversation partner will be Jiang Duxu. I believe he won’t be as stubborn and foolish as you.”

Jiang Yuan gave him a strange look.

Had she misunderstood something…?

She always felt he wanted to control her, but now it seemed not?

But the experience of him seeing her naked from behind was too difficult to bear… plus his reputation, what else could one think?

Jiang Yuan fell silent, then after a long while, sighed softly, “I don’t want the marriage alliance.”

With those five short words, Lu Xingzhou could connect many causes and effects.

There was even a hint of nostalgic smile in his eyes.

Once, there was also a young demoness who wanted to escape her awkward situation within her sect, wanting to achieve something on her own, so she went to capture the Tianyao Saintess, and then encountered her own “Burning Red Cliffs.”

This woman’s tearing of the red clothes, from the cause to the encounter, was quite similar to Pei Chuyun’s.

She must have believed that not entering the marriage alliance could also solve many problems, but she had no say in the matter. So she wanted to achieve something and took advantage of the chaos at Sacred Mountain to stir things up.

Perhaps the ancient realm had secret methods that could do things with those ancient corpses beyond what he could imagine, which might lead to a great achievement.

“But Miss…” Lu Xingzhou said slowly, “Your great achievement is meaningless. Your family needs stability and a secure position, not some earth-shattering功績. Old Mr. Jiang is already considering a future maritime trade route. What use are those things of yours…?”

Jiang Yuan retorted, “Why is what he considers right?”

“Because the top figures in this realm all desire your methods, be it Tianyao Sacred Land or Longya, be it the Daqian imperial family or the Tian Shuang nation’s ruler. Once your identity is exposed, you will be a target for all, yet you will be powerless and have no place to hide.”

Jiang Yuan fell silent again.

Lu Xingzhou said, “I still don’t understand. If you can scheme with Gu Zhanting, why not seek out the Tianyao Sacred Land, whose character is more reliable? Is it because there’s a grudge?”

“Zhao En himself is connected with the Daqian Emperor, so naturally we only have this one avenue,” Jiang Yuan said somewhat helplessly. “We don’t dare trust the so-called character of Tianyao Sacred Land either. What if Ye Tinglan decided we were part of Zhao En’s faction, refused to even listen to cooperation intentions, and immediately called for war? What could we do? On the demon court’s side, Gu Zhanting also fears we might switch sides, so didn’t he ask us to attack Sacred Mountain as a pledge of loyalty…?”

Lu Xingzhou said, “So… you came to this realm to gather dust, causing yourselves so much trouble. What is your purpose?”