After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

Ao Tianxin carefully put away the book "Travels Along the River" and looked up at Lin Chu.

"How do you plan to get her to go to Jiang?"

Lin Chu did not answer immediately; he sat on the rock and pondered for a moment.

"Given her current personality, it's impossible for her to leave with a clear conscience."

"She stews those medicines for me every day, and runs thousands of miles away in the middle of the night to find rare and precious herbs, just so I can live a few more years." Lin Chu raised her head and looked at Ao Tianxin.

"But I know my own body best. I've overworked myself too much over the years. I'm only able to hold on until now because of good fortune."

Lin Chu spoke calmly, as if she were talking about someone else's affairs.

"I don't have much time left. I must watch her leave the dragon before I can leave in peace."

Ao Tianxin looked at him and remained silent for a long time.

"So what do you plan to do?"

Lin Chu smiled.

"She will come looking for you."

Ao Tianxin's brows twitched slightly.

"When she realizes that those rare and precious materials are useless to me, the only person she can turn to is you. When she comes to you, tell her that after completing the journey across the river, the true dragon essence within the Hidden Dragon Body can prolong the life of mortals and transform them."

Ao Tianxin's expression changed slightly.

"You want me to lie to her?"

"It's not a lie." Lin Chu shook her head. "I've investigated over the years. True dragon essence blood does have the effect of transforming one's body. However, whether it works on mortals is unknown. But as long as there is even a one in ten thousand chance, she will try it."

He looked at Ao Tianxin, stood up, straightened his clothes, and bowed deeply.

Please.

Ao Tianxin looked at the white-haired old man bowing to her. Even with her long life and experience of countless things, she felt extremely complicated at this moment.

She knew Lin Chu was telling the truth—even if there was only a sliver of a possibility, Cang Yao would go.

This person knows Cang Yao too well.

Fifty years ago, he calculated that she would not go into seclusion for decades, so he had Xiao Xiao trick her into taking the Breakthrough Pill.

Fifty years later, he calculated correctly again, using another white lie to reassure her about her journey to the dragon.

"Okay." Ao Tianxin's voice was a little hoarse. "I promise you."

Lin Chu straightened up and smiled. "Thank you."

Looking at him, Ao Tianxin suddenly realized that everything Lin Chu had done in his life was ultimately for the same person.

He built roads and controlled floods so that she could walk the path of the dragon. Even in his last few years, he planned how to let her move forward with peace of mind.

This person calculated from age sixteen to sixty-six, a full fifty years.

Perhaps for a demon like her, this amount of time is nothing, but having traveled through the Great Zhou Kingdom, she knows what this time means for mortals.

At the same time, a red light fell at the entrance of the village.

Cang Yao carried a snow ginseng she had just picked from the far north snowfield and walked briskly towards the courtyard.

Pushing open the door, the courtyard was empty.

There was no one reading under the locust tree, nor was there anyone dozing on the rattan chairs under the eaves.

"Husband?" she called out, but no one answered.

She placed the snow ginseng on the stone table and quickly went into the house—no one was there.

Cang Yao's heart jumped, and she turned and ran outside.

Just as I reached the alley entrance, I saw Lin Chu strolling slowly back from the path by the stream, leaning on a bamboo cane.

"Where have you been!" Cang Yao rushed over in three strides, grabbing his sleeve. "You've been missing since early this morning, I've looked for you everywhere—"

Lin Chu chuckled and reached out to ruffle her hair.

"I went for a stroll by the creek."

Cang Yao then noticed that he was only wearing a thin blue robe.

It was already winter, and the wind was chilly, yet he hadn't even put on a thick coat.

She glared at him reproachfully, took his hands off her head, clasped them together, and rubbed them vigorously.

"Why didn't you wear an extra layer?" she muttered as she rubbed her hands. "Do you think you're still the same young man who wasn't afraid of the cold back then?"

"I'm not afraid of the cold anymore."

"Then you should wear it even more now." She took off her coat and draped it over his shoulders, not caring that she was only wearing a thin shirt. She took his arm and walked back. "Let's go back and boil some water and have a bowl of hot soup first."

Lin Chu was being pulled along by her, a smile playing on her lips.

"When did you become so long-winded?"

"I learned it from you."

"When have I ever been long-winded?"

"You used to tell me to wear more clothes every day, have you forgotten?"

The two of them bickered back and forth as they walked back along the alley.

When the villagers who were passing by saw them, they would smile knowingly. Although the two had extremely mismatched appearances, they were surprisingly well-matched.

Everyone in the village now knows that Prime Minister Lin is a saint outside, but at home he is completely subdued by his wife.

Back in the house, Cang Yao helped him sit down in a chair and then went to the kitchen to boil water.

Lin Chu sat there, watching her busy figure, and the smile on her lips slowly faded.

"Cangyao".

"Hmm?" She poked her head out from the kitchen.

"It's nothing," Lin Chu smiled. "Just call me when the water boils."

Cang Yao glanced at him questioningly, then shrank back.

After lunch, Lin Chu leaned back in her wicker chair and flipped through a few pages of a book, her eyelids growing heavier and heavier.

Cang Yao was picking vegetables beside her when she heard the sound of a book slipping from her hands. She looked up and saw that Lin Chu had already fallen asleep.

She picked up the book, closed it, and placed it on the stone table. Then she took a blanket and covered him with it.

He's been sleeping more and more lately.

I'm getting up later in the morning than before, and my afternoon naps are getting longer and longer. Sometimes I even doze off while sitting under the locust tree in the evening.

The rare and precious herbs he found—snow ginseng, lingzhi, and thousand-year-old he shou wu—were all treasures used by the demon race to break through their cultivation levels. If he stewed them and drank them, his spirit would only be better for a day or two before he would slowly return to normal.

"Why is it useless?"

Cang Yao grew increasingly anxious.

There will definitely be a way.

She stood up and tiptoed out of the yard.

When it reached the village entrance, it looked back once, then transformed into a streak of red light and flew towards the Dragon Court.