I am Master Maoshan

As the candlelight flickered, the powerful body was looming in the mist - every muscle seemed to have been carefully carved, presenting a perfect streamlined outline, not appearing overly thick, but containing amazing explosive power.

Even more striking were the scars all over his body. The scars of varying depths were like mysterious totems, extending from his broad back to his lean waist and abdomen, emitting a faint silver-white luster under the candlelight.

The latest scar runs diagonally from the left shoulder to the right rib. The wound, which has not yet fully healed, still has pink tender flesh, which contrasts sharply with the bronze skin.

In fact, these scars could be completely eliminated with Liu Jun's body's recovery ability, but he didn't do that because he felt that these scars could clearly tell him why he was injured and help him avoid being injured by the same attack next time.

"What's wrong?" Liu Jun sensed something was wrong and suddenly turned his head, scanning everyone with his sharp eyes.

The purple maid's hands trembled for a moment, and she quickly calmed herself down: "It's okay, Your Majesty."

She lowered her eyes, her thick eyelashes hiding the panic in them. Years of palace training helped her regain her composure quickly, but the tips of her ears flushed uncontrollably.

The steam rising from the hot spring pool swirled in the hall, shrouding Liu Jun's figure in a hazy layer.

The purple maid took a deep breath and forced herself to focus on her duties: "Your Majesty, the water temperature has been adjusted, you can take a bath."

The other maids in the corner of the hall still maintained their salute posture, but they could not help but follow the tall figure walking towards the hot spring from the corner of their eyes. In the steam, the scars and the rise and fall of the muscles seemed to tell thrilling stories.

Liu Jun soaked in the hot spring for a while, the warm water wrapped around his tired body, and the steaming hot air lingered in the stone room. He closed his eyes and rested, feeling this rare moment of relaxation. Several maids in light gauze held fragrant pancreas in their hands and waited respectfully by the side.

"Your Majesty, would you like us to rub your back?" the leading maid asked softly.

Liu Jun opened his eyes and saw the maids' blushing cheeks through the mist. He shook his head and said, "No need. You all can leave now."

After the maids left the hot spring room, Liu Jun soaked for a while alone before getting up. Water drops slid down his chest, glittering in the candlelight. He picked up the silk bathrobe hanging on the sandalwood frame, put it on, tied his belt, walked barefoot through the corridor covered with wool carpets, and returned to the bedroom.

Inside the palace, the dragon couch had been neatly arranged. A maid in pink was kneeling beside the couch, carefully arranging the quilt. When she heard footsteps, she turned around and saluted: "Your Majesty is back."

Liu Jun noticed that the bed had been heated by the heater, and there was soothing incense burning at the bedside. He lifted the quilt and lay down, and immediately smelled a faint fragrance of a girl - not the smell of incense, but the natural body fragrance of the pink-dressed maid.

The fragrance suddenly made Liu Jun feel dazed. He turned his head and looked at the maid, who was usually inconspicuous, in the candlelight. She was about fourteen or fifteen years old, with skin as white as snow, eyebrows and eyes as beautiful as pictures, and the pink dress made her look particularly elegant and refined.

"Um, what's your name?" Liu Jun waved to the purple-clothed maid not far away.

The purple-robed maid immediately stepped forward and knelt on the ground: "Your servant Zi Su."

Liu Jun noticed that her slender fingers were tightly grasping the corner of her clothes, and she was obviously very nervous. He cleared his throat and tried to make his tone sound calm: "Well, let's discuss something."

"Your Majesty, please speak." Zi Su's voice trembled slightly, and her forehead almost touched the carpet.

"Get up." Liu Jun sighed, his voice full of fatigue. "The first rule is, don't kneel down all the time. It makes me tired just watching you."

Zi Su lowered her head even lower when she heard this: "Your Majesty, this is the palace rule."

"Palace rules are dead, but people are alive." Liu Jun interrupted her, "Second rule, things like warming the bed can be eliminated. I am not used to being waited on before going to bed. If you feel like you have nothing to do, just go to the side hall and rest."

Zi Su raised her head abruptly upon hearing this, her almond eyes filled with fear: "But Your Majesty, if the etiquette officer sees us like this..."

The girl in pink who was warming the bed was trembling with fear. She thought Liu Jun disliked the bed she warmed.

Zi Su clearly remembered that last month a maid was distracted and saw that Prime Minister Jin Xuan did not pay his respects in time.

Prime Minister Jin Xuan didn't say anything at the time and didn't mind, but the maid was beaten with a stick fifty times by the etiquette officer and was almost beaten to death. She has not been able to get out of bed until now.

Liu Jun frowned. Of course he knew that the rules in the Palace of the God King were strict, but there were too many of them and they had caused trouble for too many people. There was simply no need for them.

He thought for a moment and suddenly took out something from the storage space.

"Go ahead." A white jade tablet flew through the air, and Zi Su hurriedly caught it. When she saw what was in her hand, she took a breath of cold air - this was actually the Divine King's Order, a supreme token that could convey an order, and there were only ten of them in the entire Divine King's Palace.

"Your Majesty." Zi Su's hands were shaking slightly, and the four seal characters "As if I were here in person" on the jade token were hot in his palm.

Liu Jun stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the darkening night outside the palace: "Take it and say that I ordered you to study a new method of serving tea, and exempted you from those red tapes." He paused, and raised a mischievous smile, "If any official does not believe it, let him come and ask me in person."

Zi Su pressed the jade token tightly against her chest. Suddenly, her knees weakened and she was about to kneel down again, but she stopped abruptly before touching the ground and bowed deeply instead: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace! I will..."

"Alright, alright." Liu Jun waved his hand to interrupt her stuttering thanks, turned around and walked towards the inner hall, "Remember to wake me up tomorrow. There will be a court meeting in the morning. You can leave first. There is no need to stand at the door. Go back and rest directly. This is an order."

After the maids tiptoed out of the hall, Liu Jun looked at their departing backs, his eyes falling on the jade token that Zi Su carefully put into her sleeve.

The reason why he was willing to give this badge to the maid named Zi Su was because the military advisor Chu Liuying had previously given him a list of spies from the Skyfire Divine Realm in the Platinum God King's Palace.

And this maid named Shiso is one of them.

Giving her the token was just to make things easier for his own people. He couldn't stay in the Platinum God Palace forever, so it was necessary to keep a few confidants. At this time, the pink-clothed maid's low voice came from outside the palace: "Sister Zi Su, pinch me quickly, am I dreaming?"

Then came the suppressed laughter of the two, like silver bells colliding in the spring breeze, which gradually disappeared into the depths of the corridor.

"Well, do you want to go back and rest too?" Liu Jun suddenly said to the empty palace, his voice echoing in the empty hall.

There was silence in the palace, with only the soft moonlight falling on the jade floor tiles, reflecting Liu Jun's slender figure. He waited patiently, his fingers unconsciously stroking the lines on his clothes.

A moment later, there was a slight flapping sound from the beams, and a fiery red bird flew down lightly, its feathers shining like metal in the light.

The bird spun in midair, and suddenly a pale golden flame ignited around it. A graceful figure could be vaguely seen in the flame. When the flame dissipated, Yan Li was standing in front of Liu Jun, her red skirt dancing like a flame.

"Why don't you use a maid to sleep with you?" Yan Li asked with his head slightly tilted, his golden eyes flashing with curiosity in the candlelight.

She casually fiddled with a strand of hair that fell in front of her chest, and there were faint sparks dancing among the hair.

Liu Jun chuckled, walked to the window and sat down on the low couch. The moonlight shone through the carved window lattices, casting mottled shadows on his face.

"You know me." Liu Jun patted the seat beside him and motioned Yan Li to sit down. "I am a chaste person and I don't like this kind of etiquette."

Yan Li walked slowly towards him, her skirt brushing the ground without making any sound. She sat down opposite Liu Jun, her fingertips lightly brushing the exquisite tea set on the low table, and the tea set immediately emitted curls of hot steam.

"You are different." Yan Li raised the corner of his mouth slightly. "Other God Kings, except for Master who has Master's Wife to look after him, all of them are surrounded by people and would like to take all the maids in the God King Palace into their rooms."

Liu Jun did not answer immediately, but concentrated on pouring two cups of tea and pushed one of them in front of Yan Li. The fragrance of tea spread between the two of them, with a faint scent of osmanthus.

After a moment of silence, Liu Jun suddenly raised his eyes and looked directly at Yan Li: "That Mo Li who married someone else in the human world, is that you?"

"Puppetry." Yan Li answered briefly, with a complicated look in her beautiful eyes. She picked up the teacup and took a sip, the heat blurring her delicate face.

Liu Jun finally let out a long sigh, and his tense shoulders visibly relaxed. He recalled the pain of his heart being torn apart when he heard the news of Mo Li's marriage.

"When I heard the news that Mo Li was getting married, my heart sank," he shook his head with a wry smile, "After I saw you, I felt that this was not right, and it was very strange."

Yan Li chuckled, her laughter as clear as a silver bell: "How could a dignified God King be distracted by something like this?"

She stood up and walked to the window. The moonlight cast a silver edge on her. "I am just following orders. Master needs a cover."

Liu Jun walked to her side, and the two looked at the sea of ​​clouds outside the window side by side. Now he was sure that Yan Li followed Qing Fengzi to the human world, and Mo Li was just her name in the human world. The night breeze blew by, carrying a faint scent of flowers, and also took away the last trace of doubt in his heart.

"Next time." Liu Jun said hesitantly.

"Hmm?" Yan Li turned her head to look at him, her beautiful hair blown by the wind, brushing against Liu Jun's cheek.

"Next time you use puppetry to marry someone, can you tell me first?" Liu Jun said half-jokingly, but there was seriousness in his eyes.

Yan Li did not answer, but just curled up a mysterious smile at the corner of his mouth, turned around and turned into a red light and disappeared into the night, leaving only a few sparks slowly extinguishing in the air.

Liu Jun looked at Yan Li's disappearing back, feeling mixed emotions. The complicated look in her eyes when she left was like a blunt knife, grinding repeatedly in his heart.

With his head full of random thoughts, Liu Jun lay down on the dragon couch again.

He remembered what Yan Li said before she left, "Your future position is not as simple as you think." His fingertips unconsciously stroked the platinum seal and the skyfire seal on the pillow. These two seals, which symbolized the supreme power of the God Realm, were actually a little hot at the moment.

This sleep was not peaceful, and the dream was full of bizarre scenes. It was not until the next morning that Zi Su's gentle voice penetrated the dream: "Your Majesty, you should wash up and go to the Platinum Temple."

She stood three steps away from the dragon couch holding a gilded bronze basin in her hand. Behind her, twelve maids stood with their heads bowed, holding court robes, jade belts, and crowns.

Liu Jun opened his eyes and saw through the carved window that the sky was just beginning to brighten. He reached out to take the silk handkerchief soaked in rose water, and suddenly seemed to remember something and asked, "What time is it now?"

"Your Majesty, it's just past six quarters past the hour of Mao." Zi Su replied softly.

Liu Jun secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the time of this court meeting was set at the exact time of Chenshi, which was much more reasonable than the ancient emperors in the human world who attended court at Yinshi.

He recalled the historical dramas he had watched before, where the ministers had to line up outside the palace gates in the middle of the night to await court, and he couldn't help but shudder - if that were really the case, he, the God-King, would have a mental breakdown.

When Liu Jun stepped into the Platinum Temple, the temple was already crowded. On the left were officials from the Platinum Divine Realm, headed by Prime Minister Jin Xuan, and on the right were generals from the Skyfire Divine Realm, as well as a few officials. The most eye-catching were the Green Demons standing near the temple gate, their dark green scales glowing coldly in the morning light.

"Greetings to His Majesty the Divine King!"

Amidst the thunderous cheers of worship, Liu Jun slowly walked towards the throne on the nine-step jade platform.

(End of this chapter)