That night, Ning Chen held the woman emperor's soft body in his arms.

His hand roamed over her smooth shoulder as he spoke. "Back to business. I've been in the Wu Kingdom a good while now. Tomorrow I'm heading back to the Great Xuan.

Spring's here, and it's the perfect time to move troops. I need to take back the Great Xuan's eastern frontier as soon as I can.

Zhang Tianlun and Zong Sibo have been hopping around long enough."

The woman emperor gave a light nod. She hated to let him go, but she knew how much rested on his shoulders.

Ning Chen said, "You be careful too. On the surface, it was only Kang Xiao who had Song Xiaoshuang plant the gu in me, but I don't think the people around you are clean either. You still need to look into it carefully."

The woman emperor gave a cold laugh. "Men die chasing money and birds die chasing food. What country doesn't have a few curs who eat at its own table and work for outsiders?

You sit high on the dragon throne and look down on all your officials... but a man's heart is behind his belly. Who knows whether the ones standing below are men or ghosts?

There's no such thing as guarding against thieves day in and day out. This emperor will get to the bottom of this and drag every one of those ox-headed demons and snake spirits out into the light.

This realm she means to leave to our son. Nobody had better dream of laying a hand on her realm."

Ning Chen laughed. Anyone who wanted to lay a hand on the woman emperor's realm would find it no easy thing.

The woman emperor was no frail woman hiding deep in the palace, sitting safe on the dragon throne.

This woman loved a fight. She often took the field in person, and her standing in the army was very high.

The whole Wu Kingdom army was in the woman emperor's hands.

So rebelling against the woman emperor with a mutiny or anything…