In the evening, the afterglow of the setting sun spilled into the room, shining on sweat-drenched skin.

Zhou Youyou lay sprawled across Lu Chen’s broad chest, muttering in a low voice, "Fine, I’ll help you, okay? Why are you being so fierce?"

Seeing Zhou Youyou agree, a slight smile appeared on Lu Chen’s face. His large hand gently caressed her jade-like back as he whispered in her ear, "Youyou, you’re so good."

Zhou Youyou gave a soft snort. "I’m not helping you, I’m helping them. Since you’re dead set on courting death, don’t blame me. Not everyone is like me. If you dare bring them into the Zhen Nan Prince Manor, once they sense the surging vitality in your body, they’ll definitely suck you dry. If you suffer backlash from spiritual evil, that’s your own fault."

Lu Chen said, "It’s fine. As long as I don’t leave the Capital city, they can’t do anything to me."

Hearing this, Zhou Youyou thought it over. It was indeed so. With Dragon Qi protecting his body, plus so many Earth Realm Strong Persons in the Zhen Nan Prince Manor, Yun Yudie and the others really couldn’t do anything to Lu Chen.

However, what she worried about wasn’t that Yun Yudie and the others would directly take Lu Chen’s life, but that if Lu Chen mingled with those Mysterious beings every day, whether his physique would one day be unable to handle so much Deceitful Evil, thereby harming his body.

Lu Chen being fine now didn’t mean he would always be fine.

One should not fear ten thousand possibilities, only that single "what if." If one day the Deceitful Evil suddenly corroded Lu Chen’s body, it would be too late for regret.

At this moment, Zhou Youyou said, "Even if I want to help you, they might not come to the Zhen Nan Prince Manor."

Even though she had agreed to help Lu Chen, how to help him was also a problem.

She hadn’t contacted those Mysterious spies outside for a long time. Yun Yudie had definitely noticed something. If she suddenly summoned them to the Capital city at this time, Yun Yudie would surely suspect that she’d been imprisoned by humans and, under human coercion, passed on false intel to them.

Lu Chen then said, "Just tell them you’ve found a way to help them improve their Realm."

Zhou Youyou said, "They probably won’t believe it. If I pass back that kind of intel, the Sect Hierarch will definitely think I only sent it because I was threatened by the Zhen Nan Prince Manor."

Lu Chen thought for a moment, then said, "You can have your Sect Hierarch send a middleman, for example your elder sister, or the Saintess of your sect, to the Capital city to verify it in person."

Hearing Lu Chen’s words, Zhou Youyou snorted again before saying, "Why do you sound so impatient? Are you tired of playing with me and want to switch to another female Mysterious being?"

Although she’d just been bullied to the point of whimpering by Lu Chen, Zhou Youyou had basically recovered by now, and a fresh wave of small emotions arose in her heart.

She kept feeling Lu Chen was a bit too eager, as if he just wanted to hurry up and swap in another Mysterious being to torment.

Lu Chen gently wrapped his arms around Zhou Youyou’s petite body, his own body shifting upward slightly. Then he whispered in her ear, "How could that be? Youyou is so adorable—how could I ever get tired of you?"

Zhou Youyou curled her lips and continued the earlier topic, "Actually, even if you don’t say anything, our Sect Hierarch should already be sending an Elder of the Heavenly Fate Sect to the Capital city. I haven’t sent out any intel for a long time. The Sect Hierarch will definitely think something’s happened to me and will send someone to confirm it—either the Saintess of the Heavenly Fate Sect or my elder sister. But it’s more likely they’ll send my sister. The Saintess usually doesn’t leave the Heavenly Fate Sect."

Lu Chen said, "How about you go back to the Hundred Flowers Tower for the next few days and see if anyone shows up?"

Zhou Youyou asked, "Aren’t you afraid that once you let me out, I’ll just run away from the Capital city and never come back?"

Lu Chen said, "I don’t believe you can endure days without me."

Zhou Youyou huffed in a fit of pique, "That’s not necessarily true. I’ll leave the Zhen Nan Prince Manor tomorrow. If you don’t stop me, I’ll walk straight out of the Capital city. You can forget about seeing me again in this lifetime."

Hearing this, Lu Chen merely smiled without saying anything, his large hand still gently stroking Zhou Youyou’s smooth jade-like back.

The two fell into a long silence again. After who knew how long, Zhou Youyou climbed up from Lu Chen’s chest, looking down at his handsome face from above, then asked, "What do you really think of the Mysterious? You want to trick our Sect Hierarch into coming to the Zhen Nan Prince Manor—are you really just after her body, or do you want to suppress and seal her again?"

To be honest, even now Zhou Youyou still didn’t dare fully trust Lu Chen’s words. After all, Lu Chen was human, and they were Mysterious.

There was a vague unease in her heart, worried that Lu Chen was only doing this with her in order to use her, then lure their Sect Hierarch into the Capital city—that everything was a conspiracy of the Zhen Nan Prince Manor.

Seeing Zhou Youyou suddenly become so serious, Lu Chen also spoke with equal seriousness, "In my eyes, you Mysterious are no different from humans. As long as Mysterious don’t treat humans as blood food, then Mysterious and humans can coexist. And I really do want to marry every Mysterious woman on that list."

Hearing this, Zhou Youyou fell silent.

She knew humans and Mysterious couldn’t possibly coexist. In her view, the reason she’d developed romantic feelings for Lu Chen was entirely because of the vigorous vitality in his body, plus whatever Incantation Skill Lu Chen had used on her.

If it were any other Mysterious being, they could never develop that kind of fondness for a human.

Forget the Mysterious—even humans couldn’t be friends with pigs, cows, and sheep, those livestock. Coexistence was certainly possible, but in the eyes of the Mysterious, humans would always be blood food. They could never exist as equals, just as humans saw pigs, cows, and sheep as food.

Although she didn’t think much of the future between humans and Mysterious, Zhou Youyou still planned to help Lu Chen.

Whether Mysterious and humans could coexist, she didn’t know.

But for them, these female Mysterious beings, they could at least coexist with Lu Chen. The vitality in Lu Chen’s body was so abundant that if they raised him properly, they could continuously draw vitality from him.

...

Early the next morning, Zhou Youyou returned to the residence the Heavenly Fate Sect had purchased in the Capital city.

Front foot she had just left the Zhen Nan Prince Manor; back foot the Heavenly Fate Sect’s spies reported her departure from the Zhen Nan Prince Manor to the sect.

Outer courtyard of the Zhen Nan Prince Manor.

In the middle of the courtyard stood a green-stone fish tank, a few red carp slowly swaying their tails in the clear water.

Several willow trees in the courtyard swayed their branches gently in the breeze. Flower beds along the veranda were planted with blossoms of all colors. When the wind blew, their fragrance filled the entire yard.

Lu Chen sat at the stone table in the pavilion, leafing through ancient historical records he’d had people collect about this world. He very much wanted to know how the Mysterious had come to this world and why Yun Yudie and the others had once again lost their memories, forgetting their identity as the Ancestor of the Strange.

Just then, Zeng Shuo came in from the courtyard gate, excited. "Princely Heir, we’ve got a lead on what you asked us to investigate."

With several booklets in his arms, Zeng Shuo quickly entered the pavilion and placed them on the stone table.

Lu Chen didn’t open the booklets, but instead asked, "Those people killed by the Wolf Demon—what faction did they belong to?"

Zeng Shuo replied, "According to our investigation, all those killed by the Wolf Demon had close dealings with officials from the Imperial Faction."