“You two haven’t seen each other in a long time, and by rights you should have more time to yourselves. But time won’t allow it now. Next time there’s an opportunity I’ll make it up to little sister Wuxia.” Empress Vivienne was all smiles. She looked at Xue Wuxia and called her little sister this and little sister that, as warmly as anyone could want, and even brought out several treasures whose seals had come off now that she was back at her peak, and gave them to Xue Wuxia and Duoduo and the others.

Only, where nobody could see it, a jade finger gave Yue Yang a hard twist in the ribs.

Enjoyed that kiss, did you…

Empress Vivienne had actually deployed the Husband-Taming Orchid Finger, a technique to make ghosts weep and gods howl, and Yue Yang, for his part, wanted to die.

Honestly, nobody had ever used a move like Empress Vivienne’s on him before. Never mind the Sick Beauty, gentle as water, or Yi Nan, sweet and guileless — even Princess Qianqian, who threatened to beat him or kill him at the smallest provocation, that tiger girl who kept Yue Yang permanently on his best behavior, had never once deployed a super-move this devastating. Only now did the transmigrator finally discover a fact: the serpent-demon empress who had once announced she would conquer the Heavenly Realm was not merely terrifying in combat power. Her jealousy outweighed all the other girls’ put together.

If twisting Yue Yang that hard had not hurt her own fingers a little, a certain wolf would presumably have had a large purple bruise on his ribs.

Duoduo, and Xiao Nu with her own consciousness back, were busy admiring the treasures Her Majesty had given them and had not noticed at all that Her Majesty’s husband-taming arts were in operation. The giant big loli was purer still, like a small white flower, and had no idea what jealousy even meant.

Only a certain snow girl — finally awake from that long sleep, and back from cultivating in the “Dream Wonderland” with her divine power fully manifest — was sharp enough to sense Her Majesty’s secret Husband-Taming Orchid Finger.

Jealousy and so forth. Perfectly normal.

Xue Wuxia reflected that if she had watched this boy hold somebody else and kiss that person without stopping while ignoring her completely, she would have been extremely unhappy about it too.

But the one he had been holding and kissing like a madman was her, so that was another matter entirely. From where she stood, this bad boy had not only done nothing wrong — he had done exactly the right thing.

“Wuxia thanks her elder sister.” Xue Wuxia’s smile was radiant too. She accepted the treasures and thanked Her Majesty Empress Vivienne politely, and made a point of touching a kiss to Yue Yang’s cheek, light as a dragonfly on water, by way of a reward. “Wuxia would have liked to talk with elder sister a while longer, but since time won’t allow it, we’ll make it up another time. As for this bad fellow, it won’t do for him to keep me company all the time. Leave him here to help elder sister. I’m not in any hurry at all.”

The weight of the snow girl’s remark fell on not in any hurry at all, and hearing it left Her Majesty feeling as sour inside as if she had knocked back three large bowls of vinegar.

As an empress, and as the elder sister, she could hardly be seen to be small-minded about it.

The serpent-demon empress gave the snow girl a smile to bring the world to its knees.

And the snow girl returned one in kind.

And so, without either of them arranging it, the two of them brought their first exchange to a close. In that exchange the elder sister had not won, and the clever little sister had not lost.

Before she left, Xue Wuxia leaned in and murmured to Yue Yang with an air of great mystery, not loudly, but quite loudly enough for the elder sister opposite to hear. “Remember to come home early. I’ll be waiting at home, and I’ll have a surprise for you.”

Under Her Majesty’s regard, which was flashing cold light like blades crossing, Yue Yang nodded mechanically.

He came very close to shouting would you stop making trouble for me.

That first counterstrike alone had been enough to leave him without a grave to be buried in, and now she was adding a super-finisher on top of it. Were you afraid Her Majesty wasn’t going to work me over thoroughly enough? Only now did he realize that a harem going to war is in fact more frightening than any Solar King or Ji Wuri or mysterious man or Weiguang. At least you could see Weiguang and that crowd coming. As for why Her Majesty showed no sign of jealousy about Duoduo, Xiao Nu and Xiao Xiao’en — it presumably was not the deep kiss just now so much as the contest for the position of elder sister.

The serpent-demon empress was absolutely never going to call anyone else elder sister.

But the position was not easily taken, since the snow girl was the kind of presence who could hold down rivals as formidable as Princess Qianqian and even Fengxian the Beauty. Her Majesty had seized the elder sister’s standing by force, but she could not seize the favor along with it — which was presumably why she had drunk several bowls’ worth of vinegar.

Yue Yang, for his part, had thought it through this far.

By then the snow girl and the rest had all been sent back to the Grimoire World by Her Majesty Empress Vivienne.

She looked at Yue Yang with a face full of smiles, her jade hand stroking lightly at the ribs she had twisted a moment ago. “Still savoring the wonderful taste of that kiss?”

Yue Yang knew that if he dared say yes, he would immediately be reacquainted with the taste of wanting to die, so he hurried out a laugh. “Actually I was thinking about Mountain Beyond the Mountain and Heaven Beyond the Heaven. If they connect through to Tower Beyond the Tower, then obviously they’re an outside branch point of Human Valley, and not a branch point of Earth Valley and Heaven Valley at all. Could it be that the eighth gate, Earth Valley, and the ninth gate, Heaven Valley, are both fakes? And if they’re both fakes, then where are the real eighth and ninth gates?”

“Don’t change the subject. Any fool knows Earth Valley and Heaven Valley are fakes — the laws of heaven and earth there aren’t the same at all. And I’ve walked all through Earth Valley and Heaven Valley and there isn’t a single clue in either. Or did you think I had nothing better to do than charge up to the ninth gate at Heaven Valley and then withdraw?” The serpent-demon empress rewarded him with a look of the most bewitching contempt.

“So you kept me behind? Because you want to find the real Earth Valley and Heaven Valley?” Yue Yang, for his part, played dumb.

“There is only one person in this world who can pass Earth Valley and Heaven Valley, and that is the master of the Trial Grounds — which is to say the master of the Divine Codex.” Empress Vivienne put a fingertip between Yue Yang’s brows. “Little idiot, do you need me to hint any harder than that? That person is you. Only you got the qualification, and got it under the guidance of those three sisters, Creation, Destruction and Eternity. I never had that chance, and neither did any trial-taker before me… perhaps they felt that only you had truly understood the real meaning of creation, destruction and eternity. What we comprehended was creation, destruction and eternity on the surface, but it was one-sided by comparison. You were different from the rest of us. You comprehended a far deeper realm, and that was the enlightenment your later ascension brought me. It was only after that time that I understood creation, destruction and eternity have a much higher and more profound realm, and only then that my power came out in full. Otherwise, could I have comprehended the laws of the world so easily? Otherwise, could I have beaten Weiguang so easily and sealed him inside a small world?”

“Surely not? I remember at the time they said I was an idiot…” Yue Yang, for his part, was getting dizzy.

“Not quite an idiot. Just a little foolish.” The serpent-demon empress covered her mouth and laughed.

“So what do we do now? Go straight back into the endless world and call those three little lolis to account? Spank their little backsides and take the Divine Codex off them by force?” Where disciplining little lolis was concerned, Yue Yang, for his part, had always voted in favor. Good lolis are made by discipline — he had forgotten who said that, but the transmigrator agreed with it a hundred percent.

“That really is a good idea.” Her Majesty indicated that she could support Yue Yang in spirit.

“Forget it. On reflection, luring them away is the better plan.” Yue Yang was not stupid. If those three fate lolis could be spanked, the tragic Demon Dragon would not have had to sit trapped in the endless world for a full million years.

There was no knowing what tier of existence those three lolis were, but they were absolutely not people to provoke.

Their little backsides were not easily spanked.

The serpent-demon empress first called out Xiao Wenli, gave the small creature a goodnight kiss, and packed her precious daughter off to bed, so that she would not suddenly pop up and stand there blinking those big eyes at them and spoil the mood for the husband-taming to come. With Her Majesty’s preparations all made, Yue Yang, for his part, suddenly felt a little frightened. That was it, then — did Her Majesty like playing with whips and candles? If so, his future sex life was thoroughly finished.

Yue Yang was sweating all over. If he had not known perfectly well that there was no escaping Her Majesty’s palm, he would have greased the soles of his feet and gotten out of there.

Never mind.

Isn’t there a saying — if life is going to have its way with you and you can’t fight back, you might as well shut your eyes and enjoy it? Letting Her Majesty do the pushing would presumably not feel too bad either, and he was hardly a delicate flower who needed her to go easy on him.

Having thought it through that far, Yue Yang’s spirits shot up a hundredfold, and he produced all the tremendous nerve of Sister Pomegranate herself. Come on then. Push me down all you like.

“What are you smirking like that for?” The serpent-demon empress had nothing to say to him.

“Huh?” The transmigrator froze. Wasn’t there going to be any pushing down, then?

“What exactly is going through your head? Before you have conquered the Central Divine Hall and planted this queen’s banner on the summit of Great Radiance Mountain, don’t you dare try anything. The bride-price this queen is asking for is the conquest of the Central Divine Hall.” Fortunately Her Majesty had said conquering the Central Divine Hall. If she had said conquering the Heavenly Realm, Yue Yang, for his part, would certainly have burst into tears, because conquering the Heavenly Realm is far too hard — the Heavenly Realm has a Heaven Above with countless old ghosts living in it, and who has the patience to go and start a war up there? Push a girl down early, that’s the thing. Waiting until the Central Divine Hall has been conquered and the banner planted on the summit of Great Radiance Mountain is much too late for anybody.

“The wedding can be postponed… how about we bring the important part, the wedding night, a little earlier? Don’t be angry. There’s nothing we can’t talk about. We can discuss it properly.” Yue Yang, for his part, had no idea what year of the monkey the Central Divine Hall would be conquered in and thought waiting for that moment was unreliable. Besides, this is a new age with new thinking and new fashions, and the fashion now is the wedding night first and the wedding after. If nothing else, one ought not to fall behind the trend and lose touch with the masses.

“Kiss me first. If you kiss me as long and as thoroughly as you kissed little sister Wuxia just now, this queen might reluctantly give it some thought.” The serpent-demon empress knew that where tempting this wolf was concerned, too many favors would not do — that would spoil him — and giving him nothing sweet at all would not do either, or he would have no motivation.

Naturally, part of what went into it was that she wanted to try that sweet taste herself.

Other things he might not be good at.

But this?

A certain wolf could be called an expert. No — an absolute grandmaster.

As for Her Majesty setting so strict a requirement, Yue Yang, for his part, being a grandmaster, naturally produced every skill he had and carried it out with everything in him. As for whether, during the execution, a wolf’s paw took advantage of Her Majesty being lost in it to conduct an exploration inside her bodice, that is harder to say.

Going by a certain transmigrator’s character, and by the precedents in previous cases, this sort of thing happens all the time and is not the least bit surprising.

(End of Chapter 1233)