Lu Xingzhou, in a fit of tragic determination, practiced his cultivation methods all night.

When he was out shopping with Long Qinghuang in Tianshuang, she had said, “You can’t break my defense.”

Back then, he was only at the fourth rank; failing to break a super-grade Tyrannosaurus’s defense didn’t seem too strange. Besides, who the hell wanted to break her defense at that time? He didn’t take it to heart at all.

Now, when he genuinely wanted to break her defense, he found he truly couldn’t.

Forget breaking her defense; even a casual hug when she was feeling affectionate was too much for him. He wondered about the area of his psychological shadow.

The various postures he had cultivated over the past few days almost collapsed with that one hug. Fortunately, his mindset was strong, or he wouldn’t know how to face anyone.

Early the next morning, Anu darted into the Ni Luan Palace with a plate of pastries.

Lu Xingzhou opened his eyes: “Did she go to court?”

“Mhm,” Anu smiled, “Would you rather she continue to be ‘addicted to male beauty’ and have the entire court of officials scold you?”

Lu Xingzhou: “…”

“But she really wanted to come over; she paced back and forth, hesitating for a long time, before choosing to go to court,” Anu giggled. “Because she needs to discuss the matters you brought up yesterday with her ministers. The issues are quite important, so she reluctantly had to give up on her ‘little beauty.'”

“Oh, you little chatterbox, teasing your master now,” Lu Xingzhou casually grabbed a pastry and popped it into his mouth, asking indistinctly, “How is your learning coming along?”

Anu rested her chin on her hand: “Is Master concerned about how well I’m learning, or about whether I can teach you?”

Lu Xingzhou almost choked on his pastry, exasperated: “Of course, Master is concerned about your cultivation. How could I possibly need to learn from you? That would be an inversion of everything!”

Anu continued to rest her chin on her hand, looking at him with wide, innocent eyes.

How could Lu Xingzhou tolerate that look from this black-hearted Glutinous Rice Ball? It was even harder to bear than a look of disdain: “Don’t use the way you act in front of them on me! Do you think I don’t know what kind of person you are?”

“Yes, I wanted to say that too. Thank you, Master, for saying it for me.”

Lu Xingzhou: “…”

He had taught this black Glutinous Rice Ball himself; he had to endure.

Anu giggled, “Do you really not want me to teach you? Long Jiejie never said it couldn’t be passed on, you know.”

Lu Xingzhou tilted his head: “No.”

“Then… Master, please be kind and help me correct it?”

Lu Xingzhou nodded slightly: “Then, as your master, I will reluctantly help you take a look… Bring the cultivation method.”

The master and disciple exchanged glances. Lu Xingzhou was righteous and stern. Anu’s cheek twitched as she pulled out a small booklet and handed it over.

She felt that, at the very least, she still needed to learn more from her master in terms of thick skin; this master was beyond compare.

Lu Xingzhou opened the booklet and pondered for a long while, a slight frown appearing on his brow.

This was a body-forging method, many, many tiers higher than the “Kai Shan Gong” Anu had practiced before; it was clearly extremely high-end.

But there seemed to be a problem; it didn’t feel very suitable for humans.

If one forced themselves to practice it, he wondered if they would end up with the same demonic fur that Xu Bingkun had back then… Hmm, logically, they shouldn’t. Long Qinghuang should have carefully selected it, and its tier was incomparable to what Xu Bingkun practiced, so it wasn’t that detrimental. But Lu Xingzhou felt that it was still very likely to cultivate a strong demonic aura.

At that point, it would be difficult to live in human society.

Was Long Qinghuang doing this on purpose… using this method to force him not to return?

Lu Xingzhou thought about it and still chose to believe in Long Qinghuang’s pride and magnanimity, that she wouldn’t deliberately play tricks on this, risking being looked down upon by him.

Then it was likely naturally so. Changing the racial characteristics of a cultivation method was not something Long Qinghuang could achieve with her Wuxiang strength. The more high-end a method, the less it could be altered. If you wanted to learn it, you had to bear this; it wasn’t Long Qinghuang’s deliberate choice.

So, his “official business” as an envoy, this particular item, seemed quite flimsy… Even such a high-end demonic cultivation body-forging method had this drawback. Slightly lower-end ones would be even more likely to become chaotic like Xu Bingkun’s, which meant it was practically meaningless for supplementing human body-forging methods. Gu Zhanting’s insight should have known this, yet he still sent an envoy to exchange…

In other words, the demon race didn’t really need alchemists either, which was why Gu Zhanting was so generous.

A bilateral exchange with no practical purpose… Only the common people would rejoice because of the cessation of hostilities and peace.

And, he, this envoy, was, from beginning to end, merely sent as male beauty; the official business of bilateral exchange was just for show.

Lu Xingzhou couldn’t help but smile wryly at this thought. No wonder Long Qinghuang hadn’t inquired about his alchemy matters these past two days. He just didn’t know who Chen Yu, imprisoned as an alchemy slave, was refining elixirs for. Since there were humans in the demon domain, it was probably for the humans in the demon domain.

So, should he learn this thing or not…?

Of course, he should learn it. Hesitating for a second would be disrespectful to his “second brother.”

As long as there were no actual negative effects, whether or not he could live in human society with a demonic aura was utterly unimportant. There were always treasures to conceal it, and great Confucian scholars to debate it.

He tried to circulate his internal energy according to the method, and through introspection, he could almost see the process of muscle restructuring. His arm swelled, and his skin became as hard as iron.

This seemed different from the Yi Jin Duan Gu (Muscle and Bone Transformation) of human martial cultivators, focusing more on the physical body, muscles, and blood, meaning it was more primal.

Anu watched her master eagerly, continuously hoping that he would encounter something he didn’t understand and consult her. Yet, Lu Xingzhou didn’t say a word from beginning to end, and his muscles were already beginning to swell.

Anu dejectedly hung her head. Sure enough, Master was still too much of a genius. This high-end cultivation method, if given to an ordinary person, would cause their Dao heart to shatter because they wouldn’t understand it. Master, however, didn’t have any difficulties, as if it were an introductory cultivation method for him.

Of course, what he could try to practice in this short time was only the introductory stage of this body-forging method. Continuing deeper without someone explaining it would be practically impossible to learn on his own.

But they had Long Qinghuang.

This favor was accepted with righteous confidence because Lu Xingzhou exchanged it by pointing out the reproduction problem of the Dragon Clan. But it had to be admitted that this was still a favor, as Long Qinghuang could have easily given him a trash method, but she didn’t.

It seemed both sides were showing their best to each other.

“This…” Lu Xingzhou finished his experiment, paused his cultivation, closed the booklet, and looked at the cover. It had no name: “What is the name of this method?”

Anu put her hands on her hips: “Long Jiejie said that my previous ‘Kai Shan Gong’ was too petty, so this one is called ‘Kai Tian Jue.'”

Lu Xingzhou: “…”

Why did it feel like she was coaxing a child?

“Establish the Honglu Temple?” Long Qinghuang listened to Long Yan’s suggestion and generally knew what the old prime minister was thinking. She smiled faintly, “Then who will be the temple chief?”

Long Yan said, “We can find humans, or the Fox Clan; they are good at dealing with outsiders.”

Long Qinghuang leisurely said, “How about I propose a candidate?”

Long Yan was stunned: “Does Your Majesty already have someone in mind?”

“Of course. With the envoy delegation here, it’s illogical that we don’t even have a diplomatic department. I had considered this on my way back. Since the Prime Minister also brought it up, how about we let Lu Xingzhou be the Honglu Temple Chief?”

Long Yan and the other dragons were speechless: “Lu Xingzhou? Isn’t this palace interference… Uh…”

It didn’t seem to be.

So far, Lu Xingzhou was not an empress or concubine; he was an envoy from Daqian.

On the contrary, everyone had once said that giving Lu Xingzhou high office and generous rewards would be more acceptable.

But the position of Honglu Temple Chief seemed… Lu Xingzhou’s current identity was still a Daqian envoy, and then he would come here to be the Honglu Temple Chief to liaise with envoys? “I liaise with myself?”

The expressions of all the civil and military officials became very strange.

How would the imperial historian write it? “Honglu Temple Chief Lu Xingzhou and Daqian Envoy Lu Xingzhou exchanged views on various issues of bilateral relations and reached a consensus?”

You’re going to make Yang Huan hang himself.

“That…” Long Yan wiped cold sweat, still saying, “If Your Majesty must use him, then let’s change the position. This is too…”

Long Qinghuang said, “Several of you have told me that high office and noble titles can be granted to Lu Xingzhou to let him know that a good minister chooses his lord. Which official position is suitable can be discussed slowly. I want to first grant Lu Xingzhou the title of Viscount. You all discuss a good-sounding title first.”

Viscount, not Baron. Long Qinghuang was not willing to be like Gu Zhanting; if she was going to do it, it had to be a higher title than what Gu Zhanting bestowed—that was poaching.

As a result, the officials of the Demon Court were overjoyed to hear this. It wasn’t a Prince, but merely a Viscount! What more was there to say? Give it quickly, don’t delay and let His Majesty change her mind.

As for the title, the system in the Demon Domain was different from Daqian. Daqian titles were usually based on place names. In the Demon Domain, as long as it sounded auspicious, it was fine. So, a group of powerful figures argued endlessly over what “zi” (Viscount) sounded good.

Long Qinghuang leaned her forehead on her hand, smiling as she watched them argue, her thoughts drifting elsewhere.

It was quite difficult to make a Viscount title sound good. This suffix, among literati, could easily become a sage’s title, and among Daoists, no matter how it was called, it sounded like a Daoist name. Therefore, in Daqian, they would generally say “so-and-so county Viscount” to differentiate. The powerful figures argued for a long time without finding anything good. Long Qinghuang was growing somewhat impatient when she heard someone say, “Isn’t Lu Xingzhou from Danxia Mountain? According to their Daqian custom, wouldn’t calling him ‘Danxia Zi’ be fine?”

Long Qinghuang thought that this was actually acceptable, but then she heard someone refute, “Wouldn’t that sound like a Daoist name?”

“Then add a ‘county’ character.”

“But that county isn’t called Danxia.”

The person who proposed it became annoyed: “This doesn’t work, that doesn’t work. Are you only happy if he’s called ‘Sheng Long Zi’?”

Silence.

Long Qinghuang’s smile stretched to her ears: “Acceptable.”

All the demons: “?”

Before the demons could react, Long Qinghuang smoothly changed the subject: “Speaking of ‘Sheng Long Zi,’ it reminded me of something… which I’d like to discuss with the Dragon Clan. The rest of the ministers from other clans may adjourn. The Dragon Clan will come to my imperial study for a discussion.”

The demons’ objections to “Sheng Long Zi” were caught in their throats, and they reluctantly adjourned.

Long Yan and the other members of the Dragon Clan watched Long Qinghuang leisurely leave the hall, exchanged glances, and suddenly realized what Long Qinghuang wanted to discuss.

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