506: The Empress, who was constantly being bullied

Seeing her agitation, Meng Jiang knew that this person must have gone off on the wrong track again.

[Who knows what she's cooking up in her mind about me.]

"Alright, I was just teasing Her Majesty the Empress for fun!"

Shang Wan Ning: "?"

[Hmph, fun???]

She lifted her face, her eyes filled with dissatisfaction at being teased, yet the corners of her mouth honestly curled upward.

She reached out and tugged, pulling Meng Jiang into her arms, and the two of them tumbled into the middle of the soft couch.

The soft couch was wide enough, and the cushions were thick; Meng Jiang was encircled in her arms, the hem of her qipao lifted slightly, revealing a slender ankle.

Instead of struggling, she adjusted to a comfortable position, turned on her side, and twirled a loose strand of Shang Wan Ning's hair with her index finger.

"Are you really angry?" Meng Jiang softened her tone, her peach-blossom eyes rippling with a smile, "During these days of seclusion, This servant has been thinking of Her Majesty the Empress every day."

Shang Wan Ning huffed, her fingers honestly stroking the side of her waist: "Thinking of Me? Is this how you think of Me, by scaring Me the moment you come out of seclusion?"

"Where was I scaring you?" Meng Jiang blinked, "I was merely speaking a few truths. Those little girls certainly danced... quite creatively."

As she said this, she poked Shang Wan Ning in the chest: "Her Majesty the Empress was staring so hard your eyes went straight, weren't you?"

"Nonsense." Shang Wan Ning grabbed her hand and brought it to her lips to kiss, "I was appreciating art."

"Does art need to be appreciated from that close?"

"That was a stage effect."

"Does the effect require sitting on Her Majesty the Empress's lap?"

"...That was an accident."

Meng Jiang laughed out loud, her shoulders shaking as she went limp in her arms.

Watching her laugh, Shang Wan Ning's guilt at being exposed dissipated, and she began to laugh too, tightening her arms and pulling her in even closer.

The incense in the warm chamber was still burning; the scent of 'Spring Message in the Snow' mingled with their faint natural fragrances, brewing a kind of lazy warmth.

After laughing enough, Meng Jiang lifted her face, her fingertips tracing Shang Wan Ning's brows and eyes: "On a serious note, during this period of seclusion, has there been any fresh news in the Underworld?"

"Sister Meng certainly knows how to pick her timing."

"I am currently enjoying my vacation and do not wish to talk about work."

"Hasn't Her Majesty the Empress enjoyed enough just now?" Meng Jiang raised an eyebrow, "You've watched the song and dance, drank the fine wine, and even had your nails done. Now it should be time to..."

"Accompany This servant, your 'old lover' who has just come out of seclusion, right?"

Shang Wan Ning's ears burned at Sister Meng's words, but she refused to concede: "Who is old? Sister Meng is in the prime of her life, at her very best."

"Then Her Majesty the Empress should tell me, what good deeds have you done all these years?" Meng Jiang's hand slid to the other's lapel, slowly unfastening the frog buttons, "One by one, confess slowly~"

This posture, this tone.

It was clearly an interrogation with a full Older Sister Type vibe, yet the small actions were seductively ambiguous.

Shang Wan Ning grabbed the troublesome right hand and sighed: "Fine, fine, I'll confess."

She lifted her up a bit, letting Meng Jiang lean against her shoulder, and began to sort through what had happened during this time.

Starting from the private message from Zhulong that triggered the formation, she talked about how Star disguised herself as the Abyss High Priest, how she dealt with Zhulong, and how she established contact step by step.

She spoke of the video connection a few days ago, Zhulong's attitude, and the Underworld's subsequent plans.

Meng Jiang listened quietly, her fingers inadvertently twirling a lock of Shang Wan Ning's hair.

Upon hearing about Star's flesh reconstruction, her brows furrowed: "Did Wang Gang endure it?"

"He endured it." Shang Wan Ning said: "Gang Zi looks flighty, but he is tough in his bones. After it was over, he collapsed for half a day, then turned around and demanded work injury compensation from Me."

Meng Jiang chuckled: "He should be compensated. Dealing with a Tier 9 existence is no easy task."

"I rewarded him with triple his annual salary." Shang Wan Ning continued, "If things go smoothly later, the reward will increase."

She went on to talk about Ox-Head and Horse-Face coming out of seclusion, mentioning that the two had broken through to Tier 7, obtained the Earth Vein Heart and the Underworld Soul-Snatching Spear, and had already gone to the Ghost Realm to take over the operation of the nine nether annihilation pagoda.

Hearing this, Meng Jiang's eyes flickered: "The nine nether annihilation pagoda... is it really going to be activated?"

"Yes." Shang Wan Ning nodded, "The Research Institute is about ready, the first generation of nuclear weapons has been perfected. Ox-Head and Horse-Face are now Tier 7, just right to take over. I can only rest easy if this thing is in the hands of my own people."

"Her Majesty the Empress is thoughtful." Meng Jiang's fingers stroked her cheek, "Those two have finally made it after all these years of seclusion."

"Indeed."

Shang Wan Ning thought of Niu Mengmeng's king kong barbie face, the corners of her mouth curving, "The first thing she did after coming out of seclusion was to drag her girlfriend to the flower of the other shore hotel to book a room for three days."

Meng Jiang: "..."

She was silent for two seconds, then laughed: "That is indeed like Mengmeng's style."

"More than just like it, it was a true-to-life performance." Shang Wan Ning shook her head, "Xiao Si even peeked at the chat logs and was so excited that its data almost got corrupted."

Speaking of Xiao Si, Meng Jiang suddenly remembered something: "By the way, when This servant came out of seclusion, I concealed my aura; did Xiao Si not issue a warning?"

"No." Shang Wan Ning also felt it was strange, "I didn't notice it at all, even the system was quiet. What realm is Sister Meng's cultivation... at now?"

"Mid-Tier 8."

"What? Mid-Tier 8! How is that possible?"

Shang Wan Ning grabbed Meng Jiang's wrist, and her divine power probed directly inside. "Could it be that the xuan yuan soul nurturing lotus over-replenished? Logically, early-Tier 8 should be the normal range."

She was a little worried that Sister Meng had overdrawn her potential for the sake of cultivation. But Meng Jiang's character would not allow her to do such a thing.

The divine power circulated through Meng Jiang's body for one cycle; her meridians were wide and tough, her spiritual power flowed smoothly and abundantly, her divine soul was as solid as gold and jade, and her foundation was unimaginably stable. It was indeed solid mid-Tier 8, and the realm was extremely solid, with no signs of being flimsy at all.

After checking, Shang Wan Ning's brows relaxed, and the worry in her eyes turned to astonishment: "It really is mid-Tier 8... and very stable. Sister Meng, how did you cultivate this? Did you sit on ice?"

Meng Jiang let her finish checking before slowly pulling her hand back, her fingertips lightly scratching Shang Wan Ning's palm. "Ice-sitting? What kind of object is that."

"It's just that during seclusion... I had some special realizations."

"As for why Xiao Si didn't warn you." Meng Jiang propped herself up from Shang Wan Ning's arms; the top two frog buttons of her moon-white qipao had come undone at some point, revealing a section of her exquisite collarbone.

She reached out and tapped the center of Shang Wan Ning's brow.

A faint, yet profoundly mysterious fluctuation slowly transmitted over.

"This is a little trick I came up with during my seclusion. By using my own divine power to simulate the 'natural frequency' of the surrounding environment, it's like a chameleon blending into the jungle. As long as you don't spread out your divine sense to search every inch of the ground, even with Xiao Si's monitoring, it will subconsciously 'ignore' This servant."

"Just now, when I came over, This servant was anxious to see Her Majesty the Empress, so I used this method." Her fingertips slid down, tracing Shang Wan Ning's nose bridge, and stopped at her lips, "Did I scare Her Majesty the Empress?"