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Chapter 1138 The Enchantress's... Empress
Zhou You was determined not to fall for it, and refused to engage with the other party no matter how eloquently they tried to convince him.

Regardless of whether you are a empress or not, I only consider you an enemy, and everything I do is a scheme and plot.

To outsiders, the Half-Saint Yin Blade was extremely important to him, but Zhou You himself knew that the blade was not quite enough to serve as bait.

He resolutely rejected the signals from the royal family and devoted himself wholeheartedly to developing his power and eliminating dissidents.

He gradually developed Qingchu Prefecture into a well-connected and prosperous place. The Zhou family, together with the Lian family, eliminated four or five powerful families that supported the royal family and annexed their wealth and population.

In the Zuo family territory, Lian Feihong has gained an absolute advantage. Not to mention the other candidates, even the royal family is gradually falling behind.

If the royal family doesn't take action now, it faces only a slow death.

Finally, this day came...

Zhou You was handling affairs at home when suddenly a mist rose in front of him, and the jade cauldron command arrow that was placed beside him rang out without wind.

The buzzing of the jade cauldron arrow carried an unusual aura.

Zhou You took a few steps back and saw the Jade Cauldron Arrow float into the air, drawing a beam of light.

The portal opened before him, revealing a completely different world.

This technique is too profound; the use of space is definitely at the level of a top-tier celestial sect.

"Please come over for a chat."

A gentle female voice came from behind the light gate, "I extended a warm invitation, but Prince Zhou did not appreciate it, so I had to take the initiative to invite you over."

Zhou You was startled by the tone; it was… after.

This mysterious 'First Lady' was a noblewoman whom the feudal lord married after his wife's death, and she was of extremely high status.

She gives the impression of being low-key and mysterious. She rarely appears in public except for grand ceremonies, and very few people have ever seen her.

As a result, Zhou You had no way of finding out what his posthumous honor was like.

I thought she was just a figurehead promoted by the royal family, but the other party used the Jade Cauldron Token as a pretext to break through the air and arrive, revealing the terrifying strength of the Supreme Heavenly Sect.

Dangerous!
Zhou You made a decision in just a few breaths: she had to go in. Such a terrifying enemy was unpredictable; if she didn't go, the enemy would break into the Zhou family mansion.

Sure enough, his opponent found his Achilles' heel and delivered a fatal blow to his throat.

After stepping through the light gate to the other side, although it was an unfamiliar environment, the style was very familiar.

"The Imperial Palace for Offering Sacrifices to Heaven".

Although Zhou You had never been here before, the brick and stone road under his feet and the style of the surrounding buildings clearly indicated that it was part of the Imperial Residence... the Palace for Sacrificing to Heaven.

A woman across from him smiled and nodded, "You're here."

This sentence is calm and casual, as if it were a casual chat, and it is clearly a greeting from an old friend who has been separated for a long time.

Zhou You took two steps back, unable to believe his eyes. The woman in front of him had the exact same face as Liu Jinguo, and even her smile was exactly the same.

But Liu Jinguo was clearly dead, and when she entered the palace, she hadn't even been born yet!

What is going on here?

The woman presented a wooden box to Zhou You, saying, "Please accept this as a return to its rightful owner!"

Zhou You didn't need to open the wooden box; he could sense an incredibly familiar aura from afar. Inside was the weapon, the Half-Saint Yin Blade.

After the royal family snatched it from him, they went to great lengths to hide and preserve it, even resorting to the tactic of using nine fakes and one genuine item to confuse the public and make it impossible for Zhou You to find it.

As it turned out, the knife was simply placed in front of him, free for him to take. Zhou You blinked, his eyes scanning the panel in a fleeting moment; the afterimage of Liu Jinguo was still there.

Therefore, the possibility that 'Liu Jinguo' was resurrected by someone with great supernatural powers and appeared before us can be ruled out.

The Empress is the original Empress. She is not Liu Jingguo. Is it just a coincidence that the two look alike?

A chill ran through Zhou You's heart. He suddenly remembered a terrifying possibility: rumors had been circulating in the capital that the Enchantress was hiding there, to the point that it was no longer a secret.

Many people speculate that the Queen of Enchantress is hiding in the sacrificial palace, concealed in the shadow of the feudal lord.

Zhou You once suspected that Consort Mei was the reincarnation of the Enchantress, but Consort Mei died along with the Emperor.

If it wasn't Consort Mei, then...

If there were a woman whose title closely overlapped with that of the Enchantress, and who could remotely manipulate the Jade Cauldron Arrow to open a spatial portal, she could have moved Zhou You from the Zhou family mansion to the depths of the Sacrificial Palace, leaving him no chance to resist.

No one would believe that 'she' wasn't the Queen of Enchantress.

However, the Queen of Enchantress was reborn in another body, clearly wearing the body of a great gentleman, so how could she appear before us as a 'Queen'?
Too many questions flooded his mind, leaving Zhou You feeling incredibly dizzy and disoriented.

"Cough cough!"

An old cough sounded, and Chongyang Gong emerged from behind the moon gate like a ghost.

Duke Chongyang walked to Zhou You's side, smiling and nodding, "Young Master Zhou, you and I have a past relationship, why not turn enemies into friends?"

"If you are willing, I can pass on all my skills to you!"

Zhou You flatly refused, "No need. I only ask you, where is Senior Fan Zu?"

Fan Zu, who came from Chenjian River and returned to Chenjian River, has now returned to peace and is now ferryed by boat at the foot of Duanmei Mountain.

As one of the Eight Henchmen of the Emperor and a confidant of Chongyang Gong, how could he have made such a choice if he had not been disheartened?

“Everyone has their own ambitions, and you can’t force them. Prince Zhou, you are still young, and you have more choices and more hope than us old folks.”

Duke Chongyang paused for a moment, then said casually, "I will return the Yin Blade to you. Please use this blade to kill Lian Feihong as a sign of our complete break."

This made Zhou You laugh out loud. "You're really daring. You've fooled the whole royal family."

"Old man, the saying 'old but not dead is a thief' perfectly describes you. At your age, instead of enjoying your retirement, you're racking your brains to do bad things. What are you after? Are you afraid no one will dig up your grave after you die?

Duke Chongyang was not annoyed and said, "Young Master Zhou's sharp tongue is as venomous as your master's sword!"

"Very well, we simply couldn't reach an agreement. I'll take my leave now. Please, go ahead!"

He bowed slightly to the back, turned and slipped into the moon gate, disappearing without a trace as if he had never been there.

"..."

Only Zhou You and "Hou" remained at the scene. After a long while, "Hou" parted her lips slightly, about to speak...

The next moment, a sudden change occurred. A cold light flashed, shattering the wooden box into pieces. A blade of light flew out and was swung by Zhou You, cleaving vertically towards the back of his face.

In an instant, the murderous aura filled the entire environment, condensing into fog, which then turned into water, and a light rain began to fall.

The power of a single strike stirred the celestial phenomena, even deep within the heavily suppressed Sacrifice Heaven Palace.

This sign is quite telling. Since Zhou You advanced to the Earth Sect, the power of his Half-Saint Yin Blade has changed dramatically, and he has already touched the threshold of the Heaven Sect.

This knife strike carries a tragic and resolute tone, a move that Zhou You has refined over time by studying assassin techniques and absorbing their essence... a move that destroys both jade and stone.

(End of this chapter)